Extreme Holiday Cooking with Chef Terry French

Nov. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- WHAT:This year, skip the traditional recipes and get adventurous with Chef Terry French as he goes beyond the average overcooked turkey for an epic culinary feast with some of his favorite game meats. Why not try pheasant in place of a turkey or wild boar in place of pork roast? The flavor combinations of a Roast Pheasant With Chanterelle Mushroom Duxelles and Roasted Vegetables or Wild Boar Seared with Cognac Cream Pears Toasted Pistachio will resurrect the conventional meal during the holidays.

No one prepares delicious eats under high pressure situations like French,owner of the unconventional cooking company, Culinary Dreams and winner of The Food Network’s “Extreme Chef,” who, when challenged to cook in the most extreme situations such as the jungles of Thailand or a Buddhist Temple with minimal provisions, pleased judges with his delicacies.

Accordingly to French, the wild boar is richly flavored lean meat with plenty of nutrients, and widely available in gourmet food shops across the country.

The perfectly seasoned wild boar chops with the sweetness of Cognac cream pears or a perfectly cooked roast pheasant is sure to impress even the toughest food critics. This holiday season, Chef French will help home cooks take their cooking know-how to a whole new level as they prepare an extreme meal of their own with his unique and delectable holiday recipes!

RECIPE:    Roast Pheasant With Chanterelle Mushroom Duxelles and Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 1/2 cups  chanterelle  mushrooms (make it Extreme and
splurge on fresh truffle and add a few shavings to duxelle
and at the end for garnish...not the oil)
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Freshlyground pepper to taste
2 pheasants, wing tips removed
2 heads roasted garlic
8 medium-size parsnips, peeled, halved crosswise and quartered lengthwise
4 smallYukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 6 pieces
6 smallSpanish onions, peeled and quartered

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for about 15 seconds. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms have given off their liquid and most liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste.

2.Use your fingers to carefully loosen the skin over the breasts on each pheasant. Place some of the mushroom duxelle under the skin of each bird. Place 1 head of roasted garlic into the cavity of each bird. Rub the remaining teaspoon of olive oil over the skin of the pheasants. Season with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together. Place in a large roasting pan and surround with the parsnips, potato's and onions.

3. Roast for 15 minutes, stopping once to run a spatula under the pheasants toprevent them from sticking. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Roast until the juices run slightly pink when pricked with a fork in the thickestpart of the leg, about 30 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the string. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Cut the pheasants in half and serve with the roasted vegetables.

Wild Boar Seared with Cognac cream Pears Toasted Pistachio
Ingredients:
8 wild boar chops
6 pears
3 ounces butter
2 lemons
2tbs fresh ginger
3 clvs fresh garlic minced
3 each scallions
2 tbs smoked paprika
Dash ofcinnamon powder
2 pieces of crushed juniper berries
2 tbs honey
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 tablespoon heavy cream
4 tablespoon cognac
2 tbs toasted chopped pistachios
1 bunchfresh chervil
Salt and pepper
Preparation: 20 min
Coolingtime: 15 min

1. Marinate the chops for one hour with oil, juice from 1 lemon 1/2 of the ginger paprika 2 cloves of minced garlic and half of the scallions and the crushedjuniper berries. Refrigerate for an hour. Peal the pears, cut in half, remove the seeds dice large cubes and poach the pears for 10 min water with honey,juice from the second lemon rest of garlic, ginger, scallions and cinnamon.

2. When the pears are cooked tender, dry them. Remove the chops from the marinade and sear them with butter for 5 minutes on each side.

3. Remove them and keep them warm on the side. In the same pan de-glaze with cognac and scrape the bottom of the pan in order to access the caramelized meat juices add heavy cream. Add salt and pepper to taste and the cooked pears. Simmer sauce for 5 minutes.

4.Serve the chops with the pears on the side and topped with the sauce. Garnish with toasted pistachios and fresh chervil Serve right away.


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About Chef Terry French:
Whether it’s an exotic dish or an exotic location, Terry French goes for it every time. Before gaining his title as winner of the Food Network’s “Extreme Chef,” French was known by another notable nickname: The Rebel Chef. When it comes to French’s catering business, Culinary Dreams, the sky’s the limit. “What I do is different caterings, things people ask for that are out of the ordinary,” says French. Meaning he’ll whip up anything, anytime, anywhere, making him the perfect candidate for the TV Food Network’s, ‘Extreme Chef,’ taking competitors out of the kitchen and into the most extreme locations. After wowing judges with his “perfect bite” in the final episode, French can now enjoy the luxury of being $50,000 richer along with formal entitlement to bragging rights. Along with his recent fortune, French continues to run hiscrafty catering company in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey while working on his memoire cookbook, documenting the tales and recipes from his world travels. For more information visit www.rebelbbq.com
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