Here is the best salsa recipe that I have ever come up. This is our “famous” salsa fresca…

2 Cans S&W Tomatoes Petite-Cut – Diced in Rich Juice (S&W brand tomatoes are the best that I have found to use in salsa)
1 Cup of 1/4″ diced White Onion
6 Garlic Cloves – Crushed
2 tsp Kosher Salt
4 Medium Jalapeno Minced – Seeds and membranes removed
3 Serrano Peppers Minced
1 Habanero Pepper Minced – Seeds and membranes removed
1 Anaheim Chile
1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1. Drain the juice from 1 can of tomatoes. Put the tomatoes from that can and the entire other can (juice and tomatoes) into a large bowl.
2. Add the onion and garlic. Season with the salt and taste for balance.
3. Roast the Anaheim Chile over an open flame – bbq grill will work, or even just a gas stove. Blacken the outside of the chile then place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for about 10 minutes. Remove the chile and wipe off the blackened part. Dice the chile and put into a medium bowl with the jalapenos, habanero and serrano peppers.
4. Add the chile mixture to the tomatoes and onions one tablespoon at a time until desired heat level is reached. The heat will mellow over several days, so make it slightly spicier than you want it to end up.
5. Roast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until aromatic. Grind to a powder in a spice grinder. Add along with the pepper to the salsa.
6. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour to allow the flavors to blend.

What could be better for after a late-summer dinner than a classic peach cobbler? One of my all-time favorite desserts, this one is super easy and delicious with the fresh peaches that are available now. Serve it up with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar (divided)
4 cups of fresh peaches (peeled and sliced into 8 slices each)
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
1 stick (8 tbl) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg.
2. Place peaches, water, and 1 cup of sugar into a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile melt the butter in a 3-quart casserole dish or glass baking pan.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of sugar along with the flour and salt. Slowly add the milk to the bowl, whisking to prevent lumps.
5. Pour the flour-milk mixture over the melted butter in the casserole dish.
6. Carefully place the peaches ON TOP of the flour mixture using a spoon, then gently pour the syrup from the sauce pan over the peaches.
7. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top.
8. Place into the oven and cook for about 35-45 minutes, or until the flour has risen to the top and has begun to brown and the peaches and syrup are bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving.

Here is a picture of what it looks like going into the oven…

This is what it looks like going into the oven...

The finished product!

Another satisfied customer!

These muffins are packed with berries and finished with a sprinkle of sugar for a crunchy, sweet top. Super easy to do and fantastic when you use fresh blueberries!

Makes: 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Fine salt
3/4 cup Granulated sugar, plus 2 teaspoons for sprinkling
8 tbl Butter (1 stick), melted
1/2 cup Heavy cream
2 Eggs
1 tbl Vanilla extract
2 cups Fresh or frozen blueberries

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place cupcake liners in the muffin pan. Set the pan aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

3. Whisk together 3/4 cup of the sugar, the melted butter, cream, eggs, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Add this and the blueberries to the flour mixture and stir until just evenly mixed (a few lumps will remain), about 30 strokes. (Do not overmix; the batter should be thick, but the ingredients should be evenly incorporated.)

4. Fill the muffin wells completely, and then evenly sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons sugar over top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and serve.

Grilling brussel sprouts is a great way to enhance their natural nutty flavor and is also very healthy! Brussel sprouts are just now coming into season, so be sure to pick ones that are nice and green and fairly tight. If you can find them still on the stalk, they will be even better! Pull off any of the outside leaves that may be mushy or yellow, then give them a quick rinse under cold water.

Grilled Brussel Sprouts with Garlic Infused Olive Oil
serves 4-5

2 pounds fresh brussel sprouts
1 tbl olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup Olive Oil
5 cloves of fresh garlic – smashed
1/2 cup French’s fried onions roughly chopped (or better still – make your own!)

1. Preheat your grill on high.

2. Cut the brussel sprouts in half, then brush lightly with regular olive oil. (You just need enough oil on them to keep them from sticking. If you put too much oil on, the oil will drip and burn on the grill and you will end up with black soot all over the sprouts.) Season with salt and pepper.

3. Place brussel sprouts cut side down on the grill and reduce the heat to medium. Do not close the lid on the grill. If you are using a charcoal grill, leave the cover off and watch them carefully.

4. Meanwhile place the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Take your garlic cloves and smash them under the flat side of a knife or with a bench scraper. You want to break the garlic cloves open, but don’t turn them into paste. Put the cloves into the olive oil. If they start to really sizzle, turn the heat down. Simmer the cloves in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and discard the garlic.

5. Allow the brussel sprouts to cook to where they are just getting soft. Do not turn them. They should begin to get brown on the cut side, but if they begin to burn, turn down the heat. Browned food is good – blackened food is not!

6. Remove the sprouts to a platter and drizzle the garlic infused olive oil over the top. Garnish with fried onion pieces.

I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to judge the LBF chili cookoff again, today February 13. Even more fortunate is that my co-judge this year is my wife! Can’t wait to see if we can agree on a winner.

Write up on the event to come.

What a long, but fun day. So here is the complete rundown….

Menu:
Carne Asada and Pollo Asada Tacos
Onion & Cilantro Garnish
Refried Beans
Mexican Rice
Chips and “World Famous” GSC salsa

I drove up to Laurel Pines camp about 15 miles outside of Big Bear on Hwy 38 yesterday (Friday) to start the prep. Got there, met Steve and Pat, and went through all the supplies to check everything. The facility is  cool and the view from the kitchen area is great! The kitchen is actually pretty nice itself and has enough equipment to handle pretty big jobs – two convection ovens, one regular oven, eight burners, griddle, etc…

I got most of the rice and the salsa made on Friday before I had to set off down the hill for a family outing. I stayed out WAY too late on Friday night, got home at about 1 am and still had to print out menus for the event. Finally finished that all up about  2 am and got to bed. The alarm went off at 5:30am, and I managed to get myself into the shower and out the door by 6:00. Made a quick stop to pick up a sugar-free Rockstar, and I was off back up the hill. I made it into Laurel Pines about 7:15 am

BTW, Sysco Foods donated all the food for the event. Thanks Sysco!

I was lucky enough to have two helpers in the morning, so I set them to work on plucking the cilantro (sorry girls!). They had to work through about 3 pounds of cilantro and were pretty burnt out by the end. They never complained though! Thanks very much for your help!!!

Once the event got going, with the help of several people whose names I never even got, we managed to set up a buffet line and start rocking people through. I never got an exact number, but it seemed like the line kept coming and coming. If I had to guess, I’d say we had about 125 or so. Maybe a few more. I know that lots of them came back for seconds and thirds, so it was kind of hard to keep track!

I am so sorry that I can’t thank everyone by name here for all their help today, but I just never was able to keep track of everyone that was volunteering themselves (and a few that were volunteered by others!), but I really want to say thank you to you all. I especially want to thank the Teamster Riders that helped me out on the grill, along with all of them that came to the event! What a great group of guys and gals! I especially want to thank one of the riders, Sam. Sam worked the grill standing out in the sun and heat to the point where he actually dropped from dehydration. After a bit of rest and a quick saline drip from the ambulance crew from Big Bear City that came out, Sam was back up, but it was a really good reminder just how important it is to stay hydrated when working any outdoor event.

I also want to especially thank Lucky and Becky Lepins, who organized the whole event. It was through Becky that I found out about the Ride and I really want to thank her for letting me be a part of it. I hope that next year I will be invited back and we will have twice as many riders. All-in-all, it was a fantastic day, I got to meet a lot of really great people, we served some pretty damn fine food, and we raised a few bucks to help some folks out. Not too bad for a Saturday afternoon.

Gold Standard Catering is proud to partner with Laurel Pines camp for the Wings of Eagles Charity Ride and BBQ to help bring at-risk youth and military youth to camp. There will be a motorcycle ride, barbecue lunch, and fun family activities. Prices are $25/single, $40/couple, or $10/meal only. To ride, meet at 9 a.m. Pomona Valley Harley-Davidson, 8710 Central Ave., Montclair, CA. Call 909.957.6724 for more info.

We will be serving grilled carne asada and pollo asada tacos, rice, beans and our world famous salsa. Hope to see everyone there!

With the excruciating hot weather that last few days, I’ve been trying to keep the oven and stove off as much as possible. That means lots of salads. And thanks to my great friend, (thanks Hoss old buddy!) I just got in a fresh supply of home canned tuna (once you have home canned tuna you can’t go back to the stuff they sell in the markets – bleach!). So what to do with delicious tuna, romaine lettuce and some tomato? Tuna salad of course!

I know, I know. It’s not much of a stretch to come up with tuna salad from this, but the key here is that even something as simple as this can be a really great dish as long as a little care is taken with the preparation and using some really good ingredients. The key is the tuna, of course. If you can’t get your hands on any home canned stuff (I’m not sharing!), the next best thing is some very high quality tuna packed in oil preferably or water is alright too. There are a few brands of Italian tuna that can be had at some specialty stores. Also I know that Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s carry some pretty decent stuff. I prefer albacore for this, but yellowtail would be fine too. Whatever you do, stay away from any of the national brands and anything that isn’t labeled “solid white.” Light tuna is basically cat food. I’ve caught the fish that “light tuna” is made from (skipjack) and you can’t pay me to eat tuna fish made from them.

OK, so now that you’ve got your hands on some good tuna, press the oil out (don’t throw it away!) or drain the water (you can throw out the water). Put it in a bowl and very lightly break it up into small to medium sized chunks. You don’t want to completely decimate the tuna by mashing it up. Leaving it in chunks will let it mix with the salad better and give you good bites of tuna throughout. Mashing it into a paste will just give you tuna flavored lettuce. Season the tuna with a bit of salt and pepper then mix in a little mayo, a small splash of rice wine vinegar and just a pinch of celery seed. Tear your romaine lettuce into nice bite size chunks and get rid of the really big ribs. Toss those into the bowl and mix it up just a bit.

Now for the tomato. I prefer roma tomatoes. I think they have more flavor than most of the store bought globe type tomatoes, but go with what you like. Dice them up to about a 1/2 inch dice. Then season the tomatoes with a bit of salt and pepper. Chuck those into the bowl. Grab some green onion (or red onion) if you have it. Slice a bit of onion up (or dice very fine if you are using red onion).  That goes in the bowl. Finally get a couple ribs of celery. Give that a medium dice and put that in for some crunch and flavor.

If you have some of the tuna oil left over, you can put that in the bowl at this point, or just go with the dressing. I like ranch dressing for this, but not too much. I add a tablespoon at a time, toss it, taste it and then determine if I need to add more. Finally another small shot of cracked black pepper and it’s ready to go.

That’s it. Simple, but great. I sometimes am accused of over complicating meals, but here is one that is just super easy to prepare and comes out awesome.

Gold Standard Catering is committed to offering the highest standards of culinary excellence, exemplary service, and excellent value. We offer full-service catering to the Inland Empire, as well as throughout Southern California.

Gold Standard Catering is a food-focused catering company.

I love to feed people. I am absolutely passionate about it. I love the act of sharing food with people and the stories and experiences that come out of that. My life revolves around food. Feeding myself, or my family, or my friends is the primary focus of my day. I love it. It doesn’t matter how much work it is, or how long it takes, as long as I can make someone happy with what I have made, it’s all worth it to me. I don’t get fired up about very much, but I do about the act of creating and sharing my food. That’s why I am a caterer. I bring that passion and love of food to every meal that I prepare for my clients. I want everyone that I cater for to feel like they are special to me and to know that I am going to bring every bit of my passion to their event. I am not the biggest caterer in the business by any means, but I believe that I might just be the most passionate. I will put my passion for serving fantastic food against anyone out there.

If you are looking for someone who is the cheapest, or the biggest, or the flashiest, I am not it. If you are looking for some absolutely delicious food served with pride and hospitality, let me know and I will happy to do everything that I can to make sure that you will get it.

Take a look at my sample menus. These are some of the things that I have made that people seem to really enjoy. But I am always creating new things, so if you don’t see what you want, let know and I will be happy to see if I can make it happen.

Thanks for checking out the site and I hope to hear from you soon. I can’t wait to cook for you!

Rich Courtright
chef/owner