Entrée Vous

Yes, we opened November 16th to the public after many delays which I am sure you do not want to hear about. We were the 42nd Entree Vous to open. I don't have pictures of the kitchen (had a break-in during the night several weeks ago and they took my petty cash and my digital camera). Business is slower than we'd like but growing. The challenging part is getting people in for the first time. Unless you come in, you don't get it. It IS a meal assembly kitchen AND fresh Take&Bake (a gourmet dinners to go kind of thing). Once guests realize that they can get really good food for incredibly cheap prices to eat at home, they are hooked because the food wonderful. This is a picture of one of the items on the menu, the Mesa Verde Flank Steak. It is delicious,beautiful and at less than $5 per serving you can't beat it.



We love the guests, we just need more of them.

Sorry I haven't written (or read). I am working a lot of hours to get this off the ground and have no spare time. Only a small window today because I have the flu and doctor's orders to stay away from food and the public.

Hopefully, when business picks up enough for me to hire more people, I'll be back in the blogs. In the meantime, if you know anyone in the Chapel Hill, Durham, Pittsboro area of beautiful NC, send them over to try us. If they say they got sent by a fellow blogger, I'll give them 10% off. I am having fun; this is really a happy job and I know they will love it!

I hope this finds you healthy and happy. I would love to get a quick note about how ya'll are doing until I have time to read more.

Take care until next time!

Miss you all!

Pookah

ps What's in the kitchen, you ask? Chicken Noodle Soup. Didn't you read the part where I have the flu??

Cooking in More Ways Than One

It is not that I haven't been eating (that would be the day!). I have been
very busy and I am sorry it has been so long since I posted.

We are still under severe drought conditions. Yesterday was the first day in a long time that the temperatures were not in the 90's. It is hard to describe what it is like. Landscape plants and some trees in our woods are dead or dying. The garden is awful and we haven't even planted a fall garden because we do not know how to get it enough water. Needless to say, the summer garden wasn't terrific. A few things faired well, but not much. That doesn't mean we are not eating well.

So what have I been doing and what have we been eating? Over the last two weeks I have helped at the opening of two Entrée Vous' in NC, the first in Morrisville and the second in High Point. The North Carolina Entrée Vous' are a great group of people; even though we come from different places and different backgrounds, we all ended up doing the same thing at the same time and we share the journey with what has become a wonderful comradery and a helpful team spirit.

I have also still been catering and gotten into the networking 'thing'. When you live as rural as we do, it is a conscientious effort to get out to market this kitchen. Entrée Vous is a new concept so getting people in to try it is the first step and I have joined several networking groups to that end. It is very different that what I have done before and that makes life interesting. I am meeting new people and it's been great! As far as construction, it is now, finally, well underway. We hope to be open in late October.

As far as food, last night we had Spaghetti and Meatballs (of course the pasta was made from scratch, as were the meatballs and the marinara was from garden grown tomatoes.). We have been eating for several nights from a London Broil, one night marinades and grilled with green beans and potatoes, one morning for breakfast as a hash with over light eggs, then in an Indian dish, Rogan josh, a rich, red beef stew, quite aromatic and spicy served with Lobhia aur khumbi or black-eyed peas with mushroom, in our case pick-eyed purple hulls, one of the few things that did well this year from the garden. Both of the later recipes are from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. Below is the recipe for the beef. The only modification I made was in the cooking, I pressure cooked it to reduce the cooking time from one hour to 25 minutes. It was delicious served over rice.



Rogan Josh from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking

2 1" pieces ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2-2 cups water
10 T vegetable oil
2 lbs stewing beef cut into 1" cubes (can be made with lamb)
10 whole cardamon pods
2 bay leaves
1 1" stick cinnamon
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 t ground coriander seeds
2 t ground cumin seeds
2 t bright red paprika mixed with 1/4-1 t cayenne pepper
1 1/4 t salt
6 T plain yogurt
1/4 t garam masala
freshly ground black pepper

Put ginger, garlic and 4 T water in blender and blend until you have a smooth paste. Heat oil in wide pot over medium high heat. Brown meat in several batches and set aside. Add cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon to hot oil. Stir once and wait until the cloves swell and the bay leaves take on color, just a few seconds. Add onions, stirring for about 5 minutes until they turn a medium brown color. Add ginger/garlic paste and stir for 30seconds. Add coriander, cumin, paprika-cayenne and salt. Stir 30 seconds. Add meat cubes and their juice. Stir 30 seconds. Add 1 T yogurt. Stir 30 seconds or until well blended. Add remaining yogurt, 1 T at a time, in the same way. Stir for another 3-4 minutes.Now add 1 1/3 cups water if you are cooking lamb and 2 cups if you are cooking beef. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 1 hr for lamb or 2 for beef or pressure cook 25 minutes for beef). Sprinkle with garam marsala and black pepper, mixing them in.




What else have we been eating: zucchini and pasta. It is really good.



And eggplant Parmesan my way! It's the best and you can make it too. The recipe is on the website!

Cheers.

Pookah

Entrée Vous Update and Fresh Summer Salads

I've been very busy, not only gardening, working on what I need for Entrée Vous, but I had a luncheon early in the week for 7 and a luncheon for 85 yesterday. What makes it nice this time of the year is the availability of the garden.

The smaller luncheon we had roasted vegetables on fresh ciabatta bread from a local bakery, roasted tomato basil soup, Caprese Salad and cantaloupe, grapes and cucumbers from the garden.

The earlier luncheon was the owners of all of the Entrée Vous in progress in central NC (Morrisville, North Raleigh (2), Durham near Chapel Hill (ME!!), High Point and Greensboro. If you live in the area, watch for their opening in the next month or so.) The bigger luncheon yesterday was our local Orchid Societies Growers Day. I told people about all of the Entrée Vous' moving into the Triangle, so it was some great early advertising. As far as the status of my kitchen, we start construction this week!

The menu yesterday was below:

Curried Chicken Salad with Pecans and Grapes



Tuna Salad with Black Olive Tapenade

Yukon Gold Potato Salad with Prosciutto & Truffle Oil


Pasta Salad with Olives, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Herbs
Broccoli Salad with Dried Berries and Peanuts
Pink Eyed Purple Hull (like black eyed peas) Salad with Peppers and Onions

Caprese Salad
cantaloupe
Grapes
Bread
Brownies
Tea (sweet and unsweetened)



What came from the garden: the grapes in the chicken salad, the cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs in the Pasta Salad, the pink eyed purple hulls, peppers and herbs in that salad, the tomatoes, cantaloupe and grapes. And anyone coming to my Entrée Vous will have the opportunity to get in season fruits and vegetables from my garden!

The Entrée Vous in Durham is 7 weeks from opening!

Everyone loved lunch! How could they not with so many fresh vegetables! The first thing to go was the Chicken Salad but the thing everyone really notices are the grapes: Grapes with Flavor, imagine that!



And a chance to pitch Entrée Vous to 85 people! It was worth the work!

I'll try to post a few of the recipes in a day or so, in the meantime, check the website. Let me know what you think or want to see (or taste!)

Cheers! Hope to see you in the kitchen soon!