Recipes: Picnic spread with Chef Kelli of Two Unique Catering

Chef Kelli of Two Unique Catering makes a picnic spread

Chef Kelli of Two Unique Catering shares how to make a picnic you can enjoy at the park, in your backyard, camping, and more.

Menu
Detroit City Fried Chicken & Sauce Trio
Summer corn and avocado slaw V+
Crunchy Pea Salad GF
Focaccia Picnic Sandwiches
Michigan Cherry hand pies V
Lemon curd yard jar V
Rhubarb Strawberry Lemonade V+

Detroit City Fried Chicken
Yield 8 pieces

Ingredients

1 whole all-natural chicken, back removed, cut into 8pc (leg, thigh, breast split w/wing)
2 cups brine
2 cups flour blend
4 whole eggs, beaten
2 quarts peanut oil

Brine
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons dill pickle brine
6 dashes of crystal hot sauce

Flour Blend
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup potato starch
1 tablespoon sea or kosher salt
1teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Directions
1. Brine the chicken overnight, pull from brine, pat dry.
2. Heat peanut oil in a heavy bottom medium to large pot until very hot 350 degrees but not vigorously bubbling.
3. Coat chicken in flour mixture, dip each piece in beaten egg, and then roll/press again in flour mixture.
4. With long metal tongs, submerge chicken carefully into peanut oil and fry coated chicken a couple pieces at a time in 350° peanut oil until an internal temperature of 165°. 3-5 minutes and turn chicken in oil if any part of piece appears to be exposed. If it seems to be a struggle add more peanut oil. Place fried chicken on to a sheet tray lined with paper towel to blot dry. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Detroit Hot Honey V+
Yield ½ cup

½ cup local honey
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5-6 dashes tabasco hot sauce
2 clove crushed garlic
Mix all ingredients.

Hamtramck "Ranch" GF
Yield 1 cup

½ cup buttermilk
½ cup sour cream
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoons minced chives (optional)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Mix all ingredients.

Dearborn Butter Chicken Sauce GF
Yield 1 & ½ cups

1 cup Greek yogurt
½ cup tomato puree
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped or finely grated ginger
1 ½ teaspoons garam marsala
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
Mix all ingredients.

Summer Corn Avocado Slaw V+ GF
Serves 10-12

Ingredients
3 cups cooked corn, fresh or frozen
3 avocados, medium dice
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1 cup diced, English cucumbers
1 8 ounces bag tricolored cole slaw mix or broccoli slaw mix

Vinaigrette
Yield ¾ cup

¼ cup fresh lime juice
2/3 cup blended olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 large bunch of chopped cilantro (heaping ¼ cup)
2 tablespoons honey or agave syrup
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Directions
1. In large bowl combine all the prepared vegetables
2. Place all vinaigrette ingredients in a small blender or food processor and emulsify until blended.
3. Pour ½ cup of vinaigrette over slaw and, refrigerate for an hour or more. Remove slaw from fridge and drain excess liquid that may have leached from vegetables. Taste slaw and adjust seasoning if need as well as another drizzle of vinaigrette.

Crunchy Picnic Pea Salad GF
Serves 10-12

4 cups frozen or fresh blanched green peas
1 & ¾ cups dry roasted salted peanuts
1&3/4 cup diced celery
½ cup, diced red onion
1 small bunch parsley, chopped
12 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped medium
8 hardboiled eggs, diced (optional)

Dressing
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons Braggs apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons onion powder
1& ½ teaspoons sea salt
¾ teaspoon black pepper

Directions
1. Mix all the vegetables, bacon, hard-boiled egg and peanuts in large mixing bowl.
2. Combine dressing ingredients and then fold into salad, adjust seasonings if desired.

Chef Note
So easy to prep ingredients a day or more ahead but do not mix until close to time of service so peanuts are crispy verses soggy sitting for hours in dressing.

Summer Picnic Watermelon Salad GF | V

Yield 10-12 servings.
Watermelon paired with a sprinkle of feta cheese, fresh mint, a splash of virgin olive oil and lime juice is the quintessential summer refresh salad of sweet with a little salt!
Ingredients
8 cups medium diced seedless watermelon (about ½ medium melon)
⅓ cup virgin olive oil
Juice of three fresh limes
1 teaspoon pink sea salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup sheep’s milk feta (crumbled)
2 ounces of agave or honey
½ cup fresh mint leaves chopped

Directions
1. Add watermelon cubes to a large bowl.
2. Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together (or place in a jar and give it a good shake)
olive oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Drizzle over watermelon and gently fold together.
to coat, being careful not to break up the chunks of watermelon.
3. Sprinkle with feta and fold together, again, being careful not to overmix.
4. Place in a serving dish and drizzle with agave or honey and top with fresh mint.

Focaccia Picnic Sandwiches
Besides making or purchasing the BEST focaccia bread, the rules here are the are not any, this is where you get to create sandwich parings that you love, and you believe your guests would like. We have a lot of vegetarians, perhaps we’re heading into roasted vegetable sandwiches or tomato mozzarella. If you love meat and spice maybe you will be making a picnic focaccia with salamis, ham, muffuletta toppings or maybe you are a cheese head, then we could be using a soft goat cheese, Havarti, and gouda with fresh tomatoes, a little cole slaw and tomato jam. Below I have shared some sandwich concepts to help you along your way

The Making of a Focaccia Sandwich
1. Take your entire sheet of focaccia and lay it out on your workspace. If you ae going to make two variations cut your bread sheet into to 2 pieces.
2. Place your hand on top of focaccia sheet and then carefully run a serrated knife dead center of the piece to butterfly it, place your top off to the side.
3. Build your sandwich bottom up and a couple good rule of any sandwich making would be:
• Create a moisture barrier on the bottom of sandwich to keep ingredients from traveling down with gravity and sogging out your sandwich. A moisture barrier could be a leaf of lettuce, smear of butter, soft cheese , or a slice of cheese.
• After moisture barrier normally I would put my heaviest ingredient which most of the time is your main ingredient such as the meat, fresh mozzarella ect. Then start adding toppings onions, salads, slaws, tomato, and such. Then chosen condiment; mayo, mustard, tomato jam, pesto ect, top it off with a slice of cheese if that is part of the plan. By keeping the heavier ingredients on the bottom, it will deliver a well-crafted sandwich where your tomato is not smushed out on the bottom making the bead soggy.
4. After you layer your ingredients on bread, replace the top, give it a firm pat. Take a serrated knife and cut into something close to 2-2&1/2-inch strips wide and 3 inches long, this will be a nice few bites at a picnic where you are serving many other things. Better to measure your bread and do a little math to figure out how to get the most cuts.
5. Take sandwiches and cut parchment or deli paper to cover close to the length of the sandwich with a band but leave the end exposed. Seal with a piece of tape on the bottom and then a little knotted twine around paper. (You cannot tape parchment paper is does not stick, so there you will just use twine, deli paper will work well with the extra security of tape.
6. Pack sandwiches neatly in a box for transport in a cooler or place on serving platter.

Michigan Cherry Hand Pies V
Yield 16-18 pieces

Crust
2&1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons & 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/8th teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons, cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons, cold vegetable shorting
5-7 tablespoons ice water

Directions Crust
1. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in food processer and pulse to mix.
2. Add butter and vegetable shorting in very small cold pieces. (Through butter and shoring pieces in the freezer for a couple minutes if they became warm through processing of sitting out) pulse butter and shoring in small pulses until the mixture love like small little pea size pieces.
3. Add ice water a couple tablespoons at a time and pulse carefully until your dough becomes a ball.
4. Remove from food processor and flatten to a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for an hour or more.

Filling
3 cups pitted tart Michigan cherries.
¼ cup dried Michigan cherries
1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches of sea salt
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Vegetable oil for frying
Powder sugar for dusting

Directions Filling
1. Place pitted and dried cherries in medium saucepan, add sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Cook on medium heat for 5-6 minutes until sugar dissolves and dried cherries have plumped a bit. Take a few large spoonsful from hot pot and place in small bowl and stir in corns starch.
2. Return to low heat on stove and simmer for 4-6 minutes until cherry mixture has thickened. Cool and then refrigerate for an hour or more.

Directions Hand Pies
1. Remove pie dough from fridge 10-15 minutes before rolling.
2. Place pie dough on a very lightly floured work surface and roll dough to about 1/8 inch in thickness. Take 4–5-inch cutter and cut circles and place on parchment lined baking tray. Re-roll dough scrapes and repeat. Then place circles back in the fridge for 10 minutes.
3. Remove dough circles from fridge and one by one fill with two tablespoons pie filling. of cherry, fold pie dough over to make a half-moon shape and with a fork, crimp edges closed.
4. Place prepared hand pies in freezer for 10-20 minutes while oil is heating.
5. In medium heavy bottom pot of pan add 3 cups vegetable oil or shorting and heat to about 350 degrees.
6. Remove hand pies from freezer and carefully place 5-6 down into hot oil, using a small metal basket, slotted spoon, or tongs. Fry for minutes or so, then flip to other side and repeat. Remove from hot oil and place on prepared tray with paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat until all the hand pies are fried. Place on platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Chefs Notes
This a great prep ahead recipe, you could make the hand pies completely and then freeze on a sheet tray, after frozen individually they can be bagged for frying or baking another day. If fried is not your thing, place on parchment lined baking tray and give them a brush of egg wash, bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and dust with powdered sugar or sprinkle course sugar on top before baking.
Best not to fry hand pies before the day you plan to serve them and then just hold them at room temperature until service.
If you want to skip a step, purchase already prepared pie dough from market.
Of course, this concept would be great with most any fruit, if you are in a huge rush pick up a can of pie filling and a box of premade crust, make hand pies and bake them in oven verses frying.

Lemon Curd Yard Jar V
Yield 12 8-ounce mason jars

Lemon Curd Recipe
Yield 3 &1/2 cups

• 12 large egg yolks
• 1 & ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• Zest of three large lemons
• 1 cup of butter in tablespoons slices
• A couple pinches sea salt

1-Pint blackberries for garnish

Directions Lemon Curd
1. Place medium to large pot on stove with 3-4 inches of water to create a double boiler.
2. In large metal bowl, whisk sugar and egg yolks until combined then add zest and lemon juice and place on pot with water. Over medium low heat, string occasionally cook custard 20-30 minutes until thickened and temperature is around 175 degrees.
3. Remove from heat and stain lemon curd over another vessel or bowl, then add butter and whisk in. Stain a second time into another clean bowl or storage vessel. Place small pieces of plastic film on top touching the curd to prevent from forming skin, let cool on counter for 30 minutes and then refrigerate.

Buttermilk Pound Cake Recipe
• 1&1/3 cup butter, softened (high quality such as Pulgra or Kerrygold)
• 2 &1/2 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup full fat butter milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions Buttermilk Pound Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In kitchen aid or with hand mixer whip butter until creamy, scraping down sides as needed.
3. On medium speed add sugar about ½ cup at a time, scraping down bowl as needed until sugar is combined and mixture is soft and pale in color.
4. At slower speed add flour alternating with buttermilk until all ingredients are combined.
5. Grease and flour on a 9x13 inch baking pan and pour pound cake into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden and cooked through in the center. Let the pound cake cool.

Directions Lemon Curd Yard Jar Assembly
1. Lay out 12 8- ounce mason jars (the shorter squatter 8-ounce jars will work best, if you have taller ones that will be fine to, use what you have)
2. Cut buttermilk pound cake into a little over 2-inch strips (like long rails), you will end up with four "rails". Cut into 1 & ½ inch slices.
3. Place a slice of pound cake in the bottom of each jar and then ad ¼ cup of lemon curd, then another slice pound cake and then again lemon curd, garnish top with a blackberry or two.

Chef Notes
You could certainly make these a day in advance and just screw lid on for transport.

Rhubarb Strawberry Lemonade V+
Yield 1 gallon | 10-12 servings.

3 cups chopped rhubarb stalks.
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 cups water
Peel of 1 lemon
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pints strawberries, sliced (reserve ½ cup sliced for garnish)
1 &1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
1. Bring rhubarb, sugar, water, and lemon peel to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for two minutes.
2. Remove from heat and stir in strawberries. Let steep and cool for 20 minutes.
3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve pressing firmly with a wooden spoon, discard solids. Place your rhubarb strawberry simple syrup in large vessels, add water and lemon juice then refrigerate to chill. Just before service add sliced strawberries for garnish and pour over ice.
4. Garnish with a lemon wheel and small strawberry if desired.

Chefs Notes
The most time-consuming part is the rhubarb sugar simple syrup. You could do this step days ahead and then mix with lemon juice and water when you are ready to serve, so you do not take up extra refrigerator space. The simple syrup would also be a great add for a summer craft cocktail with vodka and a spritz of soda water. That would look like

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