Recipe Friday: In the Kitchen with Chef Emily Ellyn

Monday is International Women's Day, and what better way to celebrate than by recognizing the amazing women in the catering industry, such as Chef Emily Ellyn. 

Chef and culinary educator Emily Ellyn is the Home Economics teacher you’ve always wanted! She’s the mother of Retro Rad cooking and encourages everyone to dig through their family recipe box, dust off their pressure cookers, and take the old and make it new. She takes the retro, remixes it, and makes it RAD.

With her quirky persona and trademark cat-eye glasses, this vintage vixen spends most of her time cooking up fun at food events around the world; all while developing her culinary TV career. You’ve seen her on Food Network’s “Food Network Star,” “Cupcake Wars,” “Food Quest”, and “Cutthroat Kitchen” on HGTV’s “House Hunters” as well as the FYI Network, Cooking Channel, and morning news shows across the country. And… was that Emily in a cameo cartoon-appearance on the “Simpsons?”

See Emily Ellyn at Catersource Conference & Tradeshow in Miami Beach July 19-20. Learn More. 

Cooking has been Emily’s passion ever since she grew up harvesting food and raising animals on a farm in rural Ohio. Eager to dive into the culinary field, she started her own catering company while still in high school. Upon leaving Ohio, Emily graduated with a degree in Restaurant Management from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. There, she worked as a teaching assistant until moving to Paris, France to attend graduate school at Academie Internationale de Management (AIM). Emily then went on to earn an additional master’s degree in Hospitality Management from UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality and Management in Orlando, Florida.

Check out two of Chef Emily Ellyn's recipes below. 

18-Carrot Gold Spring Cocktail

Yield: 1

The brunch tipple that will top your bar go-tos this spring! “18-Carrot Gold” Spring Cocktail is a drink that combines the soothing properties of fennel, honey, and ginger with bright notes of citrus and the earthy rehydrating, refreshing properties of carrot juice or carrot kombucha. The gin is introduced to add a subtle herbal undertone to the palate while Goldwasser Danzig Liqueur elevates the herbal notes and adds bling with gold flakes.

Chef Emily Ellyn will give a cocktail demonstration in Miami with her session "Shaking Up an Industry That's Stirred." Learn More

Ingredients

5 fronds fresh fennel tops
1 slice (length of thumb) fresh ginger, peeled
2 oz London Dry Gin
½ oz Goldwasser Danzig Liqueur or substitute 2 dashes of Dashfire Mission Fig & Fennel Bitters
½ ounce lemon juice
2 oz fresh carrot juice, or, for a spicy zing, substitute carrot ginger Kombucha
½ oz blood orange honey syrup, recipe below
Optional garnishes: dehydrated blood orange wheel, resh carrot or fennel fronds, candied ginger

Method

1. Muddle fennel, ginger, and blood orange honey syrup in a cocktail shaker.

2. Add gin, lemon juice, and bitters. 

3. Add ice and shake until the cocktail shaker becomes frosty. 

4. Add the carrot juice or Kombucha and stir until well chilled.

5. Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice and garnish with dehydrated blood orange, fresh carrot or fennel fronds, and/or candied ginger.

Method for Blood Orange Honey Syrup

1. In a small pan set to medium-high, heat a 2:1 ratio of honey to blood orange juice. 

2. Warm on the stove until it comes to a boil, stirring to combine.

The Original Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit

The Original Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit recipe.  This breakfast sandwich recipe will help start your day off right made by taking a perfectly soft-cooked egg baked in a homemade peppery cheesy bacon biscuit.

Chef Emily Ellyn will deliver a session titled "Small Plates, Big Return" during Catersosurce Conference & Tradeshow in Miami. Learn More

Ingredients

½ cup Frigo® Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp plus extra for topping fresh cracked black pepper
3 T bacon crumbles, (or substitute chives and/or fresh chopped herbs), optional
4 T unsalted butter, divided
5 eggs
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup plus extra for topping Frigo® Fresh Mozzarella

Method

1. Preheat oven to 475º F.  Prepare a muffin tin by lining 5 of the wells with cupcake liners and lightly spraying with cooking oil.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl mix Frigo® Whole Milk Ricotta cheese, apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper, and bacon crumbles together and set aside.
4. Cube 2 tablespoons of butter and place in the freezer until needed. Microwave the other 2 tablespoons of butter for 30 seconds and set aside.
5. Carefully add eggs to the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Then turn heat off and allow to set on burner for 1 minute.  Drain hot water and top with cold water while preparing the biscuit dough.
6. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Pulse until just combined (do not over mix).  Then, add the cold butter to the food processor and pulse a few times until mixture sticks together when pinched. Add ½ cup of Frigo® Fresh Mozzarella cheese and pulse until just combined. Transfer into the bowl with Frigo® Whole Milk Ricotta cheese and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined.  Turn out on to a clean work surface and gently knead until it comes together into a ball.  Be careful not to overwork.
7. Peel eggs carefully and start assembling muffins.
8. Pinch off about 2 tablespoons of dough and press into the lined muffin tin.  Repeat until all 5 cupcake liners have a nest of dough.  Then, carefully place peeled egg in dough.  Using roughly 1/4 cup of dough, carefully shape biscuit around egg.  Lightly press dough around egg until to completely covered.  Repeat until all eggs are covered.
9. Brush the stuffed muffins with the melted butter and top with cracked pepper and extra shredded Frigo® Fresh Mozzarella cheese.  Place on middle rack of oven and bake for 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 400º F and bake another 6 minutes, or until golden brown.
10. Allow to cool slightly to the touch and then serve.  Enjoy!