Epicurean-Chef | Copy Cat Recipes

Many people think it takes too long to cook at home, they are too busy or just do not have the time. It makes me so frustrated to hear people say this. I find time to make meals every day in my kitchen despite having a hectic life. Normally I cook the same dishes that you find at your favorite restaurants.  Restaurants need to be able to serve large numbers of people quickly. Their dishes need to be simple to make and fast to cook.  Having a dependable compendium of restaurant copy cat recipes has made it so much easier for me to cook at home.

I had always thought restaurants were a time saver, I soon realised that they were a crutch. I always loved cooking but never had the time, or so I thought. I found out about copy cat recipes totally by chance one day while searching the internet for a new way to make pizza. I happened to see a copy cat recipe for Olive Garden Pizza Bianco. I’m listing it below so you can see how simple it is to make.

Copy cat recipe: Pizza Bianco

Ingredients:
2  6″  Ready-to-serve thick pizza crusts

Cheese filling:
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded fontina cheese
1/2  of a medium onion minced
1 1/2 tablespoon  2% milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

Toppings:
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/3 cup diced black olives
1/3 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil

Directions:
Combine all ingredients for the filling in a large bowl and mix well.
Split up the filling in half and spread on each crust.
Disperse olives, tomatoes and green onions over crusts.
Then the Mozzarella gets sprinkled on top.
Finally Scatter the top with oregano and basil.
Bake in a 375F oven for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese has melted.
Cut into 6 wedges.

In less then half an hour I was eating that copy cat recipe. You can easily take that long driving to the restaurant and waiting to get a table, let alone have food in front of you. Don’t forget about the bill after the meal, and the tip. Not to mention the gas to drive there and back. It not only takes up more time to eat out but it ends up costing more in the long run.

With a full cookbook of copy cat recipes you can eat restaurant food at home, and it is both quicker and less costly. With practice you can find you can cook various copy cat recipes at once with ease. I regularly make an entire meal for my wife and I including appetizers, main course and a desert in less than 1 hour. Restaurant copy cat recipes have saved me time and money by giving me a way to enjoy all my favorites easily at home.

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Everyone who owns a restaurant or home will at sometime or another need a new oven or range for their kitchen. Perhaps the most importat decision to be made is ’should I go with gas or electric?’. The technology of both gas ranges and electric ranges has progressed to the point where what had been seen as grave limitations for gas ranges and gas ovens in the past are now either gone or immensely decreased. I recently bought a a gas oven and gas range after doing much research on the benefits and drawbacks of each. However what was the right decision for my particular needs and wants may not be the same as yours.

To me the biggest benefit of gas ranges is the instant heat control. The fact by itself greatly influenced my decision to get a gas range for myself. Cooking on a gas range is a truly different experiance. New gas ranges generally have sealed burners which make clean up a snap and reduce the chance of clogging. Clean up on older gas ranges could be tough as food would occasionaly clog the burners when food was spilled.

In the past Gas ovens were known to have pathetic broiling perfomance and spotty heat. The inadequate broiling performance was usually due to the broiler being a separate shelf below the main oven. This has all changed now, modern gas ovens have even heat and dedicated broilers set up on the top of the main oven cabinet.
Yet another advantage of gas ovens are the by-products of gas combustion, carbon dioxide and water vapor. In most gas convection ovens, the by-products of combustion stream through the oven before going out the flue. This gives gas baking a moist heat that makes baked goods especially turn out more moist and with a better crust. Electric heat bombards the food products with a direct, dry heat that tends to produce a much drier product and therefore a product with a significantly decreased shelf life. Baked goods produced in a gas oven will typically hold for up to 50% longer versus the same product from an electric oven. This means less food waste for your restaurant and less labor cost as you don’t need cook new batches as often when using a gas oven.

For me the choice was clear, gas was the way to go. More instant heat control on the gas range and more uniform, higher caliber of product from the gas oven makes them a pleasure to use. Although gas ovens and gas ranges are often more to buy initially, cost to run them over time is often lower than an electric oven. On top of it all, lower labor costs and less food waste, makes a gas range and gas oven the clear choice in my mind.

Click the following link to find out more about Gas ovens and gas ranges

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