Richard Blais - So Good: 100 Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours

Copyright 2017 by Trail Blais, LLC

Photographs 2017 by Evan Sung

Prop styling by Kira Corbin

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-66331-2 (hardcover);

978-0-544-66309-1 (ebook)

Design by Gary Tooth/Empire Design Studio

v1.0317

FOR MY FAMILY:

Jazmin Blais, Riley Blais, and Embry Blais. Without you, there would be nothing.

Thanks to those who helped make this book: Justin Schwartz, Mary Goodbody, Evan Sung, Kira Corbin, Michael Psaltis, Kate Wagoner, Scarlett Brida, and the numerous cooks who touched and cooked beautiful food for this book.

For those who hold down the forts... er... restaurants: Brad Chance, Anthony Wells, Jon Sloan, Dan Pena, Mike Rosen, and the more than numerous cooks and employees who work so hard and with passion for our restaurants and eating establishments.

And for those who make the magic happen in this boys life: Cameron Molinaro, Lisa Shotland, and Adam Nettler.

Im a restaurant chef, but I love to cook at home. I am totally comfortable in my home kitchen and, more to the point, I have a wife and two young kids who need to eat and who like to eat. Hey, lucky me!

So heres a collection of recipes that work at home and that youll want to prepare time and again. They arent restaurant dishes with complicated cooking instructions and tons of garnishes. They dont require esoteric ingredients that could break the bank. I hope theyre appealing and grab your interest. They have all earned their place in my kitchen arsenal.

Sure, because Im who I ama little cr-a-zy in the kitchena handful might be considered out there. But why not? Some home cooks want a challenge. Maybe not every day, but now and then. And so, as you leaf through these pages, youll see a recipe for pigs feet... and one that calls for a lambs head... and another that requires caul fat... and one for oxtail.... No worries! This is not a test. You are not obligated to try every recipe in the book. But because I always suggest familiar ingredients to replace the more unusual, I hope you wont skip them altogether!

Lets face it. Most of my recipes are pretty mainstream withoutI hope!being trite or boring. How about barbecued shrimp or pot roast? Or spaghetti with pesto, chicken with garlic and rosemary, or the juiciest burger youve ever tasted? (Want that recipe right now ? Turn to for my Juicy Lucy.)

Im a curious cook. When I hear about a new or revived cooking technique, Im first in line to buy any necessary equipment or ingredients. This is why I have the reputation for being a little wild, using liquid nitrogen in the kitchen and championing the sous vide method. I dont mind this rep, and while I know full well some folks arent into these kinds of things, for those of us who are, they can be loads of fun and produce some really amazing results. But again, dont freak out. Whenever I heft the liquid nitrogen canister, I also supply more traditional cooking instructions that result in similar outcomes.

My curiosity extends to traditional cooking techniques and dishes, too. I love to explore the cuisines of various regions and countries. In So Good , Ive developed recipes with deep Southern roots (fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits, fried pickles, and ham hocks with mustard greens), as well as others that owe a sweeping bow to Asia (a Hong Kong bowl, ramen noodles, and pork with pineapple fried rice). Youll find recipes here with their roots in Europe and the Middle East, as well as many others that are as American as apple pie.

Happily, this is how we cook nowadays. We grab an idea here, an ingredient there, a technique elsewhere, and put them all together to come up with truly crave-worthy dishes. Our grandparents wouldnt recognize the American kitchen these days, but I wager theyd love the food!

I love my restaurants, which are in Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, and San Diego. The three in the South are Flip Burger Boutiques; I've always loved burgers! In California I have Juniper and Ivy, a more refined place that I like to say has a left coast edge, and the Crack Shack. Crack Shack is my latest venture and, if I do say so, is pretty cool. We serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner with dishes centered around chicken and eggs. Wear shorts; bring an appetite.

As if these dont keep me busy enough, I also run around the country shooting various TV shows. My most recent gig is with MasterChef and MasterChef Junior on Fox, but readers might also know me from Top Chef , Top Chef All-Stars , Iron Chef America , and Chopped All-Stars . Ive judged episodes of Guys Grocery Games and Cutthroat Kitchen , and host Burger Lab, Cook Your A$$ Off , and Man vs. Master currently.

Writing this down makes me tired. I cant lie. But it also exhilarates me because I love the energy and excitement that so many peoplepros and amateursshare when it comes to food. We all eat, and many of us cook. Its how we show our love, get through bad times, and celebrate holidays and family milestones. And for so many of us, its an outlet for our creativity.

I grew up in suburban Long Island. Geographically I wasnt far from Manhattan, but I might as well have lived in Anywhere, USA. In other words, the tiny hamlet of Uniondale wasnt far from the city, but my childhood was, I suspect, very like that of any kid who lived in a working class suburb. We knew the great urban metropolis was down the road, but my friends and I didnt pay much attention to it.

The food of my childhood was fairly ordinary, too. I loved holidays and the special occasions when we ate in a restaurantI came to adore the old-school shrimp cocktails my parents let me order. My first job was at McDonalds, which is where I realized I actually liked cooking for others. I like to say I was the poissonier there, since I held down the fish filet station.

I am not going to claim my stint under the Golden Arches had anything to do with my decision to go to cooking school, but off I went. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, I looked around for the most stimulating restaurants I could find and went on to train further at the French Laundry and Chez Panisse, both in Northern California; Daniel, in New York; and El Bulli, in Spain.