Buttermilk Fried Chicken

After over a decade as a regular guest chef on The Marilyn Denis Show, I was constantly challenged to come up with fun and inventive cheesy desserts. After tapping deep into my repertoire, I created this refreshing twist that quickly became a personal favorite. This dessert salad celebrates one of Ontario’s most vibrant and underrated ingredients — the mighty rhubarb.

TYPE DESSERT
SERVES 2
DIFFICULTY EASY
PREP TIME 5 MINUTES
COOK TIME 15 MINUTES

 

Ingredients

  • 2 long stalks of Rhubarb cut up into 1/2 inch thick slices
  • 80gr creamy goat cheese
  • A handful of finely chopped mint
  • 10ml vanilla extract
  • 1 zest from an orange and juice from 1 orange
  • 20ml of water
  • A couple of pinches of flaked salt
  • A couple pinches of black pepper
  • 40gr salted butter
  • A few mint leaves for garnish
  • 2 pieces of good quality shortbread cookies crumbled 

 

 

Directions

  1. In your All-Clad Mixing Bowl, add chopped Rhubarb, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract, salt and pepper and stir together almost like you are marinating the Rhubarb in the other ingredients.
  2. In your All Clad D3 Stainless Pan, add butter and melt on lower heat.(Always best to melt butter slower on lower heat so it doesn't burn. You want the butter to be almost foam like consistency).
  3. Once butter is melted and foamy, add Rhubarb and scrap every bit of the marinade into the pan.
  4. Toss in butter and cook for 3 minutes or until the Rhubarb softens.
  5. Then add water to the pan which you want to reduce down for 1-2 minutes.
  6. You are looking for the water and the marinade to create a syrup like consistency.
  7. Once you have cooked, syrupy Rhubarb, put the pan to the side and don't remove Rhubarb yet.
  8. In a mixing bowl, add chopped mint in goat cheese and whip and incorporate with a spoon.
  9. On a large dinner plate, add dollops of your goat cheese.
  10. Add Rhubarb onto the mint infused goat cheese and again, scrap the pan gently and drizzle it all over the goat cheese.
  11. Lastly, garnish with crumbled shortbread cookie 

Pro Tip

  • Doing this part a couple hours prior is always best for ultimate flavour...but can also be made on the spot.

 

RECIPE BY

Chef Afrim Pristine

A celebrated Cheese Master, Afrim Pristine is revered as Canada’s foremost cheese expert. With a career spanning over 25 years, Afrim has dedicated his life to mastering the art and science of cheese, a passion deeply rooted in his family’s culinary legacy. As co-owner of Toronto’s iconic Cheese Boutique alongside his brother Agim, Afrim continues to uphold and expand the traditions of the family business, which has been a cornerstone of the city’s food scene for over five decades.