Chef Tony's Pesto Pasta and Blackened Chicken

...Ask my wife beauty queen blogger Joyce Ann Burton-Titular... I'm not too into following step by step recipes... you see, i'm a concept kinda guy... "if you understand the 'concept' behind things, things come easier"... that goes for technical equipment, mathematical formulas, marketing campaigns, relationships and, yes, cooking!!! Least, that's how it works for me.

So when Chef Tony Elepano (of Chef Tony's Popcorn and Cajun Red Rock Restaurant fame) came over to our live netcast program on The Edge Manila to show us how to make pesto pasta and blackened chicken, I focused on not just the ingredients (the whats) and steps (the hows), but especially on the whys... while Joyce and our friend Mano Abello focused on... well...the food!

So i missed out on some extra bites while they stuffed face! But, hey, i did take the lessons home to give it a shot on my own the very next night!

Important lessons, cooking techniques and a pesto secret i learned from this session with Chef Tony:

1. Add something to the olive oil, garlic and chopped basil to give your pesto a zing... Chef Tony's Secret...a bullion cube when you blend it up
   
2. Don't over cook!!! If the olive oil smokes before you put the food in the pan it's already too late! The smoke means the oil is burning, Sherlock... there goes all the good stuff!
3. Don't over cook!!! Turn off the power of the electric or induction stove top, kill the fire, lift the pan up and away from the heat to keep things from getting too hot! You can always bring the heat back. Again, don't let the flavor and good stuff get burned away!
4. Don't over cook!!! (get the point yet?) When the pesto hits the pan don't fry it! Add the cooked pasta to it and let it get warmed through and mixed well into the pesto and... don't fry it! Parboil the chicken (do this earlier on) before dunking it in a bath of melted butter and cajun spice mix for blackening so when you finish cooking it in olive oil you keep the flavors of the virgin oil, the butter and the spices and don't have to worry about undercooking either. Ok, this isn't necessarily traditional blackening... where you use a grill or heavy skillet with no oil, much less olive oil! but the basic principal is there and boy, does it taste great!
   
5. Have fun!!!

(look at the smiles!.... ah, must be the joy of cooking!)

... bon appetit!!! whoa......hit the brakes!

... so where's the recipe??? The list of ingredients!?? The rest of the steps!!!??? Told you i wasn't too keen on that stuff. It's pretty much all up there anyway... But luckily for you we taped the show ;) and look, it's embedded right here! Isn't technology wonderful??!! ....er... you might wanna get a pen and some paper...