BRANCHING OUT

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Based on that saying, a lot of people are afraid of even borrowing ideas from others and adding their own twists.  I see nothing wrong with borrowing ideas from other cooks and applying my own additions and takeaways.

When I started taking my cooking more seriously in 2014, I solely relied on the recipes of others to try myself.  The more I did this, the more I became accustomed the flavors of the ingredients I was using, especially ingredients that I had never tried before and fell in love with.

My fudge journey began with Skittle Doodle Fudge

As my palette expanded, I would make a dish that I found online or in cookbooks and afterwards ask myself, "What if?"

What if I took Chef Monir Mohammed's Butter Chicken recipe and replaced the chicken with cauliflower and broccoli to make a vegetarian alternative?  So I did, and just like the Butter Chicken, the "Butter Vegetables" turned out great.

After my second attempt at Skittle Doodle Fudge was a success, I thought of using the same basic method, but featuring a different featured ingredient.  That led to Oreo Fudge, Mint Chocolate Fudge with M&M's and Chocolate Peanut Butter fudge with Reese's Pieces.

Using the same basic method from Skittle Doodle Fudge, I changed
a few key ingredients and made Mint Chocolate Fudge with M&M's!

As more time went on and I became more familiar with how certain ingredients and spices taste and cook, I began coming up with my own dishes from scratch.  I will sometimes come up with a possible idea and search the internet to see if it has been done before and will find nothing.  In those cases, you can quit before starting or you can go with your gut.

It might not always turn out like you thought it would (Froot Loops & Grape Juice!), but you never know unless you try.  Even if you are sketchy about an idea, there is always the option of doing a test on a smaller dish and using the same ingredients.  You can easily turn a basic macaroni and cheese into a Greek or Indian version by trading out some spices and swapping one cheese for another.

Ingredients for Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge with Reese's Pieces.  Same
technique as Skittle Doodle, different key ingredients.

A main ingredient is a mannequin.  Don't be afraid to dress it up however you please.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge with Reese's Pieces.

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE FUDGE WITH REESE'S PIECES

INGREDIENTS

-3 cups milk chocolate chips

-14oz Sweetened condensed milk

-1/2 cup peanut butter AND 1-2 Tbsp peanut butter, melted, for drizzling.

-4 51g boxes Reese's Pieces, divided (3 boxes for fudge mixture, 1 box for topping)

***I know there are 5 boxes in the picture but I only used 4***

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Combine chocolate chips and condensed milk in a small saucepan.

2.  Melt over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is completely melted.

3.  Stir in 1/2 cup peanut butter.  Stir constantly until melted and combined.

4.  Stir in 3 boxes Reese's Pieces.

5.  Pour mixture into 8 inch square pan lined with parchment paper, or a pan or container of similar size (mine was a rectangle Tupperware container.  Don't forget that parchment paper!).

6.  Randomly scatter last box of Reese's pieces on top.

7.  Melt 1-2 Tbsp peanut butter in microwave (or stove top, whichever you prefer).  Drizzle on top of fudge.

8.  Refrigerate or freeze until firm.  (I put mine in the freezer overnight.  It is a lot easier to cut into sharp edged pieces the firmer it is.  Cut into squares and eat them because they taste great!

Chef Nairby

SAY CHEESECAKE!

Most of us love cheesecake, but a lot of us will not dare try to make cheesecake.  It's not like you can walk the baking supplies aisle of the supermarket aisle and find a box of cheesecake mix and jar of icing like you can when making a simple cake.  Cheesecake requires work and effort, right?

Well, that is what I always thought.  That is up until, yet again, I stumbled across a recipe for a cheesecake on the internet and all of my assumptions were debunked.

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Skor Cheesecake!  Minus Dr. Lecter.

Sure, more work goes into making a great cheesecake than simply dumping a package of powdered mixture, eggs and milk into a big bowl and mixing., but not that much more work.  And just like I mentioned a time or two in previous Blog posts, the extra effort is worth it.  In the case of this cheesecake recipe, it is barely that much extra effort.

Most people, when they think of cheesecake, one thing that enters their mind is a graham crust.  That is all fine and good, but is also generic.  I guess you could say that I have become spoiled and a bit of a food snob after trying the chocolate chip cookie dough method.

That's right!  I said chocolate chip cookie dough!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bottom!

Cheesecake filling mixture with chocolate ships and Skor bits inside!

Those ready-to-go graham crusts you can buy in those little pans for cheesecake are all fine and good, but they limit you with their littleness.  And cheesecake does not belong in a typical pie-shaped form.  It belongs in a springform pan.  Those cool little pans with the sides that you can detach.  Those are where the mighty cheesecake belong, so sayeth Chef Nairby!  They are inexpensive and can come in packs of 3 or more, like mine did, with different sizes.  And you get many uses out of them.

I bought a 3-pack of springform pans about a month ago and have already used one of them 4 times in 4 weeks.  With this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Skor Cheesecake recipe and its simplicity, I don`t blame myself.

Fresh out of the oven and makes the house smell great!

Simply get a package of your preferred cookie dough, spread it out evenly on the bottom of the springform pan, pour in the cheesecake mixture, bake and done!  It is that easy.

"But what about the mixture, Chef Nairby?  Isn't that where all of the work is?"  Yes.  Cream cheese, sugar, 3 eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract.  Whatever you decide to add to it, chocolate chips and Skor bits in this case, is up to you.  The electric hand mixer does all of the work.  And the baking process makes the house smell great!  Once you try making this cheesecake once, you are likely to want to make it again shortly thereafter with a different combination of ingredients!  Perhaps some butterscotch chips instead of chocolate.  Maybe some crushed Oreos.  It's up to your imagination.

Topped with Skor bits after cooling at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

Melted chocolate drizzled after more cooling and ready to spend the
night in the fridge!

As I like to say in my rebuilding posts, "Don't tell ME that YOU can't do it!"

After a night cooling in the fridge.  Ready to devour!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH SKOR CHEESECAKE

WHAT YOU NEED

Springform pan

Non-stick cooking spray

Electric hand mixer

3 8-oz packages of cream cheese, softened

1 package chocolate chip cookie dough

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup sour cream

1Tbsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

3/4 cup of Skor bits, seperated into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup

3/4 cup of milk chocolate chips, seperated into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.

2.  Spray inside bottom and edges of a springform pan with non-stick cooking spray and spread cookie dough evenly to cover the bottom.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar using an electric hand mixer until combined and fluffy.

4.  Add sour cream and vanilla extract.  Mix until combined and smooth.

5.  Add eggs, ONE AT A TIME, mix until combined and smooth each time.

6.  Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of skor bits.  STIR WITH SPOON.

7.  Pour mixture into the springform pan and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes.  The cheesecake will rise and appear as though it will overflow and spill out of the pan.  Don't worry.  It won't.

8.  Remove from oven and let it cool at room temperature.  Top with 1/4 cup of Skor bits.  Melt 1/4 chocolate chips and drizzle on top (or forgo melting them and simply sprinkle on top if that is your preference).  Refridgerate overnight.  Remove from springform pan the next day and eat until eaten!

Chef Nairby

Cooking Times May Vary

COOKING TIMES MAY VARY

First attempt at Skittle Doodle Fudge did not go as planned.

It happens to us all.

We try a new recipe for the first time.  We follow instructions to a tee.  And the final product does not come out looking like it does in the picture.  What do you do?

In the past, I would give up and give the recipe a HUGE thumbs down.   Curse the world.  Curse the person who provided the recipe.  Slam cupboard doors.  Slam every pot, pan, bowl, measuring cup and utensil I used to make the darn thing during the clean-up.

Ingredients for Skittle Doodle Fudge

If you get discouraged, you could miss out on something truly amazing.  I use my first attempt at Skittle Doodle Fudge as my own example.

I found a recipe for Skittles Rainbow Fudge, which I later renamed Skittle Doodle Fudge.  I was looking for fudge recipes, fudge being one of the things I had not yet made at the time, and Skittle Rainbow (Doodle) Fudge popped up.

The recipe called for only four ingredients and seemed so easy to make, it could be done in your sleep.  Unfortunately, the results were less than spectacular.

Try not to look directly at it!

As you can see, the final product looked like a nightmare.  It tasted great, but a key to great food is also in the visual appeal.  I still posted the picture on my Instagram and even made the excuse that, "I like the way it looks!"  I was lying.  I was ticked off.  But since it TASTED good, I wanted to get it right.

The problem with my first attempt was that I did not leave the fudge in the freezer long enough to harden.  As a result, well, you see the results.  The sharpest knife would not have done any better.  I left it in the freezer for the amount of time that I thought was appropriate, but it wasn't long enough.  And when it came time to cut the brick into squares, it was like trying to cut firm pudding.

But there is always that disclaimer you see on many recipes that goes something like, "Cooking times may vary."

Second attempt.  Perfection!

I had bought enough ingredients to give it another go the next day.  This time, I left the fudge in the freezer until CHEF NAIRBY said it was ready to be cut into squares!  As you can see, perseverance pays off.

Cooking times may vary.  If it doesn't come out looking right the first time, try again!  If it doesn't look like it's done, despite following instructions, give it as long as you think it still needs and go with your senses.  Does it look, smell, feel, taste and even sound ready?  Go with your senses.  Don't get discouraged.  You could be missing out.

Skittle Doodle Fudge

INGREDIENTS

3 cups white chocolate chips

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

¾ cups Skittles

food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Combine white chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a small saucepan.

2.  Melt over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and completely melted.

3.  Stir in Skittles.

4.  Pour into an 8-inch square pan lined with parchment paper.

5.  Squirt one drop of each color food coloring in a different corner of the pan; use a knife to create swirls of color.

6.  Refrigerate or freeze until firm.  (**I put the slab in the freezer for about 3 hours until it was quite hard**)

Chef Nairby

Welcome!

Meeting renowned Indian Chef, Sanjeev Kapoor

Welcome to my Blog page!

My name is Brian, aka Chef Nairby from Toronto, Canada, and I have been a lover of making food since I was a kid and I put grape juice in my Froot Loops because we ran out of milk.  It tasted awful, surprise surprise, but it got the ball rolling as I would fantasize about putting different ingredients together and imagine what would come out. Surely ingredients that taste good on their own should taste good when mixed together, right?  Five words.....Froot Loops and grape juice!

Two years ago, I started taking my health a lot more seriously, and began improving my culinary skills by spending hours in front of my computer, browsing recipe ideas and creating them in my own kitchen.

Chef Nairby's "Feel It!" Pasta

I like to use proper ingredients, as little premade as possible, and I have grown to love even the prep work that goes into cooking something great!

My love of cooking has become such an obsession over the last two years that I own seasons 1-13 of Hell's Kitchen and put them on as I do my workouts in my living room!  Sometimes I wonder if I would secretly thrown reward challenges just so I could stay behind and do prep work!  For real!

Homemade Butter Chicken.  Made the real way.

Over the last two years, I have cooked close to 200 different dishes, some from recipes I followed and some I came up with from my own noggin.  You can check them out and follow me on Instagram @IamNairby, and feel free to offer any tips and suggestions.  If there is a recipe or idea you are curious about, lay it on me and I will give it a go for you.

Thank you for checking out my page.  Stay tuned for more pictures, some recipes, rambling and videos in real world and cartoon form (I animate in my spare time, too.  Boopsy Creations on Facebook and Youtube.).

Chef Nairby