]]> http://stuartokeeffe.com/index.php/chef-stuart-tupperware/lovers-of-leftovers-united/feed/ 0 http://stuartokeeffe.com/index.php/recipes/spicy-crab-salad-with-fresh-heirloom-tomato/ http://stuartokeeffe.com/index.php/recipes/spicy-crab-salad-with-fresh-heirloom-tomato/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:31:38 +0000 Stuart O'Keeffe http://stuartokeeffe.com/?p=424 I just love this salad in the summer time especially when the fresh heirlooms are in season, I came across a version of this recipe in Food and Wine magazine years ago and fell in love with it. Give it a try for your next BBQ!

Dressing

2 limes freshly squeezed

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 jalapeno finely chopped

1 bunch cilantro, ½ cup

1 tablespoon honey

2 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper

Crab Salad

1/2 lb fresh crabmeat

2 avocados, diced

1/3 cup minced red onion

Tomato

2 heirloom tomato, cut into four thick slices

2 cups arugula

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, taste and season as necessary. This can be made up to 4 hours before serving and left in the refrigerator

2. Gently mix crab salad ingredients and set aside

3. In the center of a plate place heirloom tomato slice, in the center place a small bunch of arugula leaves, topped with the crab salad and finally drizzle with the dressing, about 1 ½  tablespoons per serving.

4. Lightly season with salt and pepper and garnish with a cilantro leaf.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups (1-inch pieces) fresh asparagus

8 cups arugula

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

Sprinkled goats cheese (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl whisk the lemon juice, oil, honey, and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.

2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Add the asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Remove and drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

3. Put 2 cups of arugula on each serving plate, top with strawberries and asparagus and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Chef Stuart 2010

Ingredients

13 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate drops (Ghirardelli or Valhrona)

3 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 teaspoons instant espresso powder or your favorite extract, optional

12 egg yolks

5 tablespoons sugar

Creme fraiche, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Put the chocolate in large bowl and set aside. Bring the cream and milk, just to a boil, in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Pour the mixture over the chocolate and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the espresso powder or extract, the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until well combined. Remove the plastic wrap, and stir the chocolate and milk mixture with a spatula until well combined. The mixture should not be grainy.

Whisk the egg mixture slowly into the chocolate until incorporated. Arrange 12 ramekins in a large, deep baking dish filled halfway with water. Pour the chocolate mixture evenly into the ramekins. Put the baking dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully take the ramekins from the water bath and let cool. Put a teaspoon of creme fraiche on each portion and serve immediately.

Chef Stuart 2010

Tune in tonight Friday April 9th at 10pm Food Network to check out all the craziness we have to offer in this rollercoaster series !!!

Ingredients

¾ cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup wheat flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (to give it some lift)

½ teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt

2 eggs

1 cup low fat buttermilk

3/4 cup 2% milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon olive oil

¾ cup fresh blueberries (frozen is ok too)

6 tablespoons Grade A Maple Syrup (divided between 4)

1. In a bowl, whisk the first 5 ingredients together.

2. IN a separate bowl, beat the eggs, buttermilk, milk and vanilla extract until well combined.

3. Transfer egg mix to the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.

4. Put olive oil on a paper towel and wipe you NON STICK FRYING PAN, heat pan and pour about 1/3 cup of batter on the hot surface.

5. Sprinkle blueberries about 6 on each pancake, it will sink into the batter.

6. Flip after about 2 minutes and cook for another minute.

7. Transfer to plate, each person should get 3 pancakes.

8. Stack on to of each other and drizzle with syrup.

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Tupperware will produce a publicity event in which Rick Goings, the kitchenware company’s chief executive, will show Reggie Bush, the New Orleans Saints football player, and Peter Facinelli, the actor who stars in the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” and in the “Twilight” films, how to prepare a meal using only food, Tupperware products and a microwave oven.

Before the event, called Kitchen Aphrodisiac, press invitations highlighted a recent Harris Survey, which reported that 63 percent of women find it sexy when their partners cook, compared with only 33 percent who found it sexy when the partner paid for dinner.

It would seem that Tupperware is making a typical marketing pitch to men, promising to help them seduce women.

“Not at all,” said Mr. Goings, in an interview last week at the New York City offices of Tupperware’s public relations firm Maloney & Fox, a part of Waggener Edstrom. “Someone said to me years ago, to catch a moose, you have to first catch moose bait. And if you want to target women, the best way is to also go after men.”

Because some Tupperware products, like the Quick Chef, which chops food with a crank like a salad spinner’s, are not just convenient for people who are comfortable in the kitchen but also for those who are not, Mr. Goings said he hoped the event inspires women to buy the products and get men to pitch in.

“The whole concept we want to get across to men is here’s something you’ve been missing in your arsenal for a long time, and that’s getting some kitchen skills,” Mr. Goings said. “But our focus is really on women to buy the products and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to see my husband do that?’ ”

But the event could elicit another response, one that Mr. Goings would be perfectly happy with, he said: what was all that about?

•Tupperware, it turns out, is more interested in jolting consumers to rethink the company than in getting them to think about it in precisely one way. The 64-year-old brand, still sold primarily at Tupperware parties but also online, wants to be known for more than storage for your grandmother’s macaroni salad.

“The handicap of being a very successful brand over time is that people tend to think you are what you were,” Mr. Goings said. While company research suggests positive associations (“It’s a warm feeling that goes back to when someone took care of me,” Mr. Goings said.), the company is now focused more on food preparation gadgets than food storage, and has embraced more contemporary designs, favoring bright colors.

During Fashion Week in New York last month, a runway show by Irina Shabayeva, a “Project Runway” winner, had the unlikeliest of sponsors: Tupperware. For a collection with a flight theme, company designers made earrings that looked like feathers and incorporated plastic material into a dress so it flared like a hoop skirt.

“The most surprising accent came not from the materials of furs and feathers but from … wait for it … Tupperware!” Mary Hall wrote in a review of the show on the Huffington Post.

•Invented by Earl Silas Tupper while he was employed in a Massachusetts plastics factory in 1946, Tupperware’s food storage containers, whose seal he modeled after paint-can lids, were initially sold in stores. But sales never really took off until the early 1950s, when they were first sold at gatherings.

While they may seem like quaint relics, Tupperware parties embody what modern marketers strive for: party hosts are so-called influencers — more trusted in their communities than faceless brands. Buzz is word of mouth — guests talking up products afterward.

Companies spend “hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, and most people don’t believe it,” said Mr. Goings, of Tupperware, which does not advertise. “But if a woman hosts a Tupperware party, who goes? Friends, neighbors and relatives — people who she knows and trusts.”

The average Tupperware party in the United States lasts about 90 minutes and consists of eight guests who spend a total of $400. Unlike largely passive parties of the past, hosts today collaborate with guests on a task, like using the brand’s stack cooker, which allows cooking separate items simultaneously in one bowl, to prepare a quick meal.

Tupperware now sells 85 percent of its products outside the United States, up from just 30 percent in international sales in 1980. Only about 25 percent the company’s sales is for food storage containers, a business that has been largely “commoditized” by retail brands like Rubbermaid and Glad, Mr. Goings said.

Tupperware containers in which food can be stored often have a secondary function, like a mixing bowl with a lid; single-purpose storage bowls tend to have some design flair, like the Stuffables line whose lids expand, or FlatOut containers, whose telescopic bowls collapse to about an inch.

The newest Tupperware catalog features Stuart O’Keefe, a photogenic chef who will appear in the forthcoming Food Network series “Private Chefs of Beverly Hills.” Mr. O’Keefe, a paid spokesman for Tupperware, demonstrates products like the Quick Chef chopper, a new line of pans, and a hinged press for juicing lemons and limes. The reason he is featured prominently is not, however, to strike a chord with men thumbing through he catalog.

“Women want to see sexy guys,” Mr. Goings said.