Friday, August 17, 2012

Veggie Rolls


Welcome to "Cooking With Chef Gary", today we are making veggie rolls.


Chef Gary here, we’re here at 936 Florida Street in Memphis, Tennessee.  We gonna show you how
to make veggie rolls today.  We also do another variation of this roll, where we put shrimp in
it.  Nicole, a long time employee and one of the the kitchen staff will show you how to roll; she is a professional at rolling things.

I’ll go right to it, get your pan good and hot with olive oil.  Add the trinity, red, green and yellow peppers mixed with red onions, then add some cabbage.  You know I am showing y’all all my secrets of DeJavu, if one of you open a restaurant next door  to me I’m gonna be mad.  Add a little Salt And Pepper for taste.   Now you just sweat it down real good, while giving it a few tosses.  Add some shredded carrots, and some fresh Raisins .  That's wonderful and adds a little sweet.  You don't have the add the raisins unless you want to, it's just a variation.  and next we add some curry, then sweat it down about 3 or 4 more minutes.
This is a wonderful dish; if you want to impress your friends.  also what we do is we have the naked veggie roll, where you do not have to wrap it or anything.  You can just serve it over a bed of rice, or just serve it like this.  Just make yourself a full pan of this; its something like a Carribbean dish.  I learned it from my goddaughter, she is Vegan Vegetarian vegan vegetarian, raw foods, so she brought me to this when I got here in Memphis.

I'm gonna toss this over to Nicole.  The initial preparation was less than 3 minutes folks.  Get you some egg roll wraps; and it's important to wet them down. so first you wet the egg roll wrap down, wet the whole wrap down with some water. Add a small portion of the cabbage mix to the egg roll wrap. Roll bottom flap over the filling, then fold each end over, left then right. Next just roll the product to completion, roll it until it is rolled fully.  You may repeat the process by using a second wrap, we do this when there is a tear, crack or whole in the veggie roll.  Its just reinforcement.  Wet your second wrap down, and put the roll on top, then fold the bottom up, then both sides like before, and roll it on up.  Its just like it came from the Oriental store but its from DeJavu.  Roll you one more up, and as far as a side order to go with these, you can have some fried plantains with it, or veggie fried rice.  We also have a fresh spinach, or some red beans and rice.  As you know all our vegetables are vegan friendly.

Chef Gary Williams and Nicole
two fingers for the Vu
There you have a set of veggie rolls.  You can have it as a appetizer or a entree; sometimes we add a little shrimp, and we call it our bayou rolls.  For the finished product you'll just drop it in some frying oil at 350 degrees and cook until it is browned nicely.  You can even use your "Fry Daddy" at home. Now serve these with a little plum sauce or a sweet chili sauce,it's your choice I would like to thank Nicole for helping us out today, with our vegan veggie rolls, eat your vegetables, and come see us at De'Javu Restaurant.

Visit our website at http://dejavurestaurant.org

green, red and yellow peppers with red onions

the set up





Saturday, August 11, 2012

Blackening With a Skillet

New Orleans Famous Blackened Catfish


This week we're going to the roots, so get your cast iron black skillet ready.

Hi Folks, Welcome to Cooking With Chef Gary,  as always we're coming to you from DeJavu Restaurant at 936 Florida Street in Memphis, Tennessee.  


Today we are gonna do Blackened Catfish; its a dish that we cook in New Orleans and its Famous all over the world.  Its was made famous by Chef Paul Prudhomme' in New Orleans.

We gonna take you right thru this, first we start by getting the cast Iron Skillet very hot.  Then we gonna do our own little dry rub, Tarragon herbs, a little Italian seasonings, oregano and basil, and we gonna put a little Cajun seasoning to coat the fish.

We got out cast iron skillet good and hot with a little olive oil.  The youngsters don't know anything about  this kind of stuff.  You got to be past 40 to know about this and almost country.  Just coat the fish a little with the Cajun seasonings; then use a 5 to 7 lb catfish filleted.  Put the herbs on it.  Take a glance and and see your skillet good and hot, that is how you want it, so the fish goes down sizzling.  

Now we ready to go; next we gonna  then we gonna go with some fresh leaf spinach and some fried plantains.  This always make a great meal at DeJavu.  We want you to come down and try this dish, and we also fry Catfish, so it's no problem, you can have what you want.



Now when the skillet nice and hot, your will hear the sizzle, when you place the fish down, then its okay to put another piece down.

So we got Blackened Catfish, that is coated with Tony Catchers Cajun Seasonings, tarragon herbs,a little basil, and a little oregano and dry rub.   You put that together and man its makes for a wonderful dish.  Its a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet and just let it go.  Cook it about 3-4 minutes on each side, and you have a wonderful dish.

3-4 minutes having pass its time to turn it over right quick.  Check out how beautiful it is, it should be a dark coloring not burnt.  A recap you got the blackening seasoning, and you want to cook it maybe 3-5 minutes on the other side and its ready.

We gonna serve this particular dish with fresh leaf spinach, and then some fried plantains.  Oh Yeah...  So after 5 minutes look at it and you got yourself a wonderful dish; the herbs marinated in them, and olive oil soaked up in there, its gonna be nice and moist.  Just top it off with a little green onions and a lemon and we ready to go in with it.

Plate it up, and next you ready to make the fresh leaf spinach. 

Chef James Moore, also a chef in the kitchen at DeJavu prepares the fresh leaf spinach by starting with about a half cup of water and a bunch of spinach leaves.  We have the water hot in the saute pan, add a little butter, salt and pepper to taste, no butter if you prefer vegan.  The spinach don't take long just a few tosses, and a quick toss, and you're looking good.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Chef Gary Williams "LIVE" on Fox13 Good Morning Memphis



Welcome to Cooking with Chef Gary. This week we are live on the set of Good Morning Memphis.  We did a couple quick demonstrations the Sun Dried Tomato Pasta and, one of our house Favorites "Big Keith Bayou Classic", which is a smorgasbord of seafood and veggies incorporated in a white sauce and served over Grilled Talapia.