Dinner for One

So it's Monday and with every new week comes a new commitment that I will eat better than the week before. Honestly though, sometimes when you're only cooking for yourself you end up short changing yourself, or at least that happens to me more often than it probably should. Well remember last week when I told you I made some killer pork chops? Lovely thing about those is that they are just as easily made for 10 as they are for 1. So, as Mario would say, heerrreeee we go!

Dijon mustard, lime juice, cayenne, thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper. Done. I'll be honest, I'm not reinventing the wheel here, but these chops were mighty fine. First of all, I buy my pork chops with the bone in for a few reasons: (1) it's cheaper, (2) it helps keep whatever meat you're cooking moist, and (3) it's everyone's guilty pleasure - after most of the meat is gone, drawing the blinds and going to town on the bones (keep your mind out of the gutter). Anyway, as soon as I got in the door I mixed my little concoction together and brushed them onto the chops. Mix as much as you need - as with a lot of cooking and as I have said in the past - do. your. thing. If you like it hotter put in more cayenne. Or if you don't have cayenne, but you have paprika or turmeric or adobo or whatever else you might have in your pantry, same principles apply. You're the one eating it. I'm just (hopefully) giving you that nudge to indulge (I'm totally trademarking that phrase by the way so back off).

Ok, so if you have the time you can make this into a marinade (thin it out with more oil) and let it sit for a few hours. If you don't have the time (I did not), then just brush on the wet rub (less oil) with a pastry or BBQ brush and throw them on the grill. Side note: for the difference between a marinade and a rub think salad dressing versus wet BBQ ribs. I use the grill to just get those pretty marks on the meat and also impart some of that "grill" flavor. But after I've gotten marks on both sides I finish the chops on a rack in a 450° F oven. I find they end up juicier and cook more evenly that way, especially if you have a thicker cut of meat.

You're done (when the chops reach an internal temp of 155° F)! While they're in the oven, you can make yourself a side salad, some rice (or quinoa!), or some baked french fries. And there you've got yourself a fast, cheap, healthy, and most importantly, tasty meal. Enjoy!

Hey Babe, Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Today we took a walk on the exotic side. The dishes were fairly intricate - not stuff you would necessarily whip up for dinner. Perhaps something your private chef would be ordered to whip up for you? Let's see...

Sautéed Arctic Char with Citrus Vinaigrette, Mediterranean Salad & Fines Herbs Oil

What is arctic char, you ask? It's a fish in the salmon family - oily, pink colored flesh - that can live in both fresh and salt water. We left the skin on and scored it (thin cuts into the skin) to prevent it from curling up. What you want to do with a fish like this that has a lot of oil and fat in it is actually cook it like bacon. Start the heat off on the lower side and let the fat cook out a bit, then crisp it up. I am admittedly not a salmon lover so the arctic char was not my favorite, HOWEVER, the salad for this dish is really great: frisée, treviso, oranges, fennel, red onions, mint, and black olives mixed in with a vinaigrette of orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, blood orange juice, and a touch of dijon mustard. Top it off with an herb oil (parsley, chives, chervil, and tarragon) - it was really nice.

Pan Roasted Quail with Sweetbread Gastrique, Sautéed Foie Gras Crouton, & Cranberry Reduction Sauce

This dish had a lot going on. First of all, quail. What are they? They are these pigeon-esque looking birds in the pheasant family and they're super tiny. We browned them in a pan on both sides and finished them in the oven for 10 minutes. Honestly... tastes like chicken. In all seriousness, it is slightly more gamey and similar to the dark meat of a chicken, but for all intents and purposes it tastes like chicken so don't be scared to eat it!

Next - sweetbread. Ahh, but the name can be deceptive. Sweetbreads are the thymus glands of calves and/or lambs and they're those three little nuggets on the plate surrounding the quail. They are actually huge. Google them. I am not quite sure how they got their name; there are a few different stories floating around on the internet. They are very tender though and can be pretty tasty. Today we combined them with vinegar, wine, and sugar (gastrique), but if you have never had them I would recommend trying them sautéed or fried - it's probably the most benign way to have them. They're good, I promise! And quite expensive...

I'm not really even going to talk about the foie gras. It's the fattened liver of a duck or goose and, to be honest, (1) I'm not a huge fan of the taste and (2) I'm not really sure I agree with the whole force-feeding thing. Simply not my cup of tea.

Seared Venison Loin with Red Wine Reduction Sauce, Caramelized Chestnuts, Butternut Squash Puree, & Roasted Wild Mushrooms

Today, we ate Bambi. Or his mom. Whatever. Anyway, this was my favorite dish! Again, very similar to beef, but much leaner. And for those reasons, also much healthier for you than other cuts of red meat. The caramelized chestnuts were also very yummy: chestnuts, juniper berries (that we later removed), and equal parts red wine vinegar and sugar. Bring all of that to a boil and reduce it until it becomes a glaze. It's sweet, but when mixed with the red wine reduction and a piece of meat it has a really nice flavor. Plus, deer happen to also feed frequently off of juniper trees so it really is a nice pairing especially for venison. The mushrooms we simply cut, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper, and thrown in the oven until they roasted and got crispy. They were very good, considering I almost completely botched them. How could you possibly screw that up, you ask? HA. It's ok - they came out just lovely.

Pretty Plates

And so began Module 3. The first week or so we are focusing on plating and design, which I loooove. Granted these pictures are taken through the lens of my iPhone, but they came out pretty well. Let's take a look...

Tuna Carpaccio with Micro-greens, Capers, 
& Horseradish Mayonnaise 

Carpaccio, a Venetian invention from Harry's Bar in the 1950s, is traditionally made by thinly pounding beef fillets, but in class today we used sushi grade tuna. We fried the capers and used the excess oil to make a fresh mayonnaise (with horseradish), and the micro-greens are simply dressed with a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil.

 Seared Scallops with Parsnip Puree, Red Cabbage, 
& Potato Chips

What I want to point out here, oddly, are the homemade potato chips! We used a mandolin to slice the potatoes paper thin, put them in cold oil, and then turned the heat on to bring the oil up to temp and cook the chips. By using cold oil you're able to better control the moisture in the potato as well as the cooking process. As the oil heats, the potato essentially steams and looses moisture before it browns, making a perfectly crispy potato chip! Apparently we can try this with fries too - let me know if you get to it before I do.

Seared Halibut with a Warm Vinaigrette of Asparagus, Artichokes, Fennel, Tomatoes, & Potatoes

This is exactly what it sounds like. Very simple, clean, and healthy dish made by sautéing the artichoke hearts, fennel, and some shallots and then simmering them in chicken broth and lemon juice. We blanched the potatoes, tomatoes, and asparagus separately and then combined everything right before we plated.

And that is EXACTLY what I made today. Actually I also made some awesome pork chops for dinner, but I'll save that for another post.

Eat by Numbers

Module 2 is officially over! We had our practical this afternoon where we had to individually prepare a sautéed strip steak (medium rare), pommes persillade (fancy name for sautéed potatoes with garlic and parsley - we discussed a variation of this when we talked about butter), and haricots verts (aka string beans). All in all it went extremely well and I cannot believe we begin Module 3 next week, which is comprised of a survey of international cuisines. I have already skimmed through a few things and I am super excited (and you should be too because I'll be talking about them)!

As for this evening though, I am currently sitting here with a tall cool glass of lemon, cucumber, and basil water, enjoying the silence of my apartment, and frankly having no desire to cook. And that's ok! You know, when I began the program I said to myself, this will either drive me to obesity or make me sick of eating. I fear both. We shall see.

 So tonight will be a "betcha didn't know that" post. Well, I hope most of my posts are like that for you, but this I find particularly interesting and we also recently discussed it in class. Most of us shop for produce by simply (1) seeing it and knowing what it is and/or (2) reading the sign that amusingly says, "Radicchio (Italy)" and then on the bottom in smaller print says "Made in Guatemala." We buy the produce, go home, rip off that annoying sticker (or if you're my brother forget about the sticker and mistakenly eat it), and do our thangs. REWIND. That annoying sticker, while granted may continue to be annoying, may also prove helpful. Here's why...

 If you see a 5-digit number beginning with a "9" on the sticker, that is an organic product. If you see a 4-digit number, that product is grown using pesticides. Now if you really want to eat some funky food look for a 5-digit number on the label beginning with the number "8" - those goodies are genetically modified. I found this nifty little website while I was writing this tonight where you can plug in the number and it tells you what you're eating, how it's grown, and what other varieties there are out there. Feel free to give it a go-around here.

As NBC always says, "The More You Know..." Well, they never actually finished that sentence, but you get the idea. I hope that was worth the quick read! I'm off to figure out how I am going to feed myself this evening.


Photos: Fruit (Kent Crockett's Devotionals); Orange with a sticker (The Good Stuff)

Don't Call It a Comeback

Sooo, I've been a tad tied up lately, but I won't even go there since we have a lot of catching up to do! In the last 2 weeks I have braised everything you could ever braise, stewed everything you could ever stew, grilled... I think you get it. Anyway, with the long holiday weekend ahead of us why don't we talk about some new stuff you all can try out?

 Let's talk burgers. America has been going gangbusters for burgers in the last few years with everyone jumping on the burger train. To name a few... DB Bistro (Daniel Boulud), Bobby Flay's Burger Palace, In-and-Out, Shake Shack, Burger Joint, and Five Guys are all carving their niches in the search for the perfect burger. What makes a perfect burger? That's a difficult question, but what we hear most commonly is (1) the meat to fat ratio and (2) the combination of various cuts of meat (both of which chefs like to keep to themselves). According to completely unauthorized and unofficial Google searches I've done, Shake Shack burgers have a 80:20 meat to fat ratio and are comprised of 50% chuck, 25% sirloin, and 25% brisket (if you need to brush up on cuts of meat you can look here).

Now... what do you do if you're not a burger fanatic or need to feed 20 hungry family members on a budget? Stuff the meat with some butter! We spoke many moons ago about the magic of butter, but I'm not even kidding. We did it with our burgers in class - cut up little cubes of butter and just mixed them into the meat cold. They come out so juicy, it really is a great trick. And let's be honest, I know half of you are thinking, "butter is making an already fatty thing unnecessarily more fatty." Perhaps. But let's remember that at the end of the day you're still eating a burger (maybe 2).. and fries.. maybe a hot dog.. some ribs? Get over it.

Now this is how you save yourself from putting the butter in the burger: quinoa. It's everyone's new favorite superfood so you might as well try and at least pretend that you're cool and make it. So what is it? If you've never had it before, essentially everything you can do with rice or couscous, you can do with quinoa. It looks like a grain, but it's actually in the beet and spinach family and it's an edible seed. Most noteworthy though, it's considered to be a complete protein as it's comprised of roughly 15% protein and has a balance of all eight essential amino acids. It's also low in sodium and high in fiber. All in all, it's awesome for you so just eat it. Here's a recipe we used in class that I really liked (yield is about 4 servings):

• 4 oz. of quinoa
• 12 fluid oz. of chicken stock
• 1 red pepper, small dice
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper

The method to cooking it is exactly like rice. Bring the chicken stock to a boil, add the quinoa, reduce it to a simmer, cover it, and let it simmer until all the liquid soaks up. The only difference is that quinoa should be rinsed before you cook it because the seeds often have a bitter shell around them that a quick rinse should wash away. When they're done they should be translucent, but still a little firm. Then you can add the red pepper and the scallion (or whatever else you want to add). You can eat it just like that or make a vinaigrette to toss it in like we did in class. I'll give you an example here, which I thought was really yummy, but feel free to really do anything you want with this. Again - anything you can do with rice, you can do with quinoa.

Vinaigrette:

• 1/2 fluid oz. of lime juice
• 2 fluid oz. extra virgin olive oil
• Ginger (to taste, but we did about 1/4-1/2 tsp.)
• Cilantro (same as ginger)
• Salt and Pepper

So when the quinoa had cooled off a bit, we mixed in the vinaigrette and dug in. Eat it warm, eat it at room temperature, doesn't matter. Simply enjoy!

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm sure I'll be seeing most of you. Oh and, Happy Birthday to my favorite boyfriend, Matt, who turned 24 yesterday! Ciao!

Photos: Burger (Bronx Banter); Quinoa (Online Pastry Chef)

Veggie Tales

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride - vegetables are no longer the red-headed step children of your favorite dishes. We have been braising and roasting and, while we've made some pretty awesome meats, the vegetables are putting up quite the fight.

But before we get into various recipes for roasted and braised vegetables, you may or may not be wondering what it means to braise. Braising is a combination of moist and dry heat, which typically requires searing/browning (dry heat) a piece of protein on the stove, adding a liquid like wine or stock (moist heat) and then simmering it in the oven for a prolonged period of time. Usually tougher cuts of meats are used to braise, like the lamb shanks we braised today or veal shanks we will be braising tomorrow when we make Osso Buco. We also braised chicken thighs and monkfish and, as a result of all of these dishes, ended up with an extremely flavorful sauce that we reduced and finished off with a bit of butter and/or cream. Today was definitely a satisfying day.

So onto some of the recipes we did in class that I think/hope you'll enjoy...

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Sage and Orange Zest

Actually - hold up. Let's talk for a second about the difference between a sweet potato and a yam since there appears to be some general confusion. The orange-fleshed "yam" that we buy in supermarkets is actually a variety of the sweet potato. In the picture to your left, the one on the right is a true yam and the one on the left is a true sweet potato. The two are only distantly related and they're botanically not even potatoes - they're tubers. Mind blow, I know. In all seriousness, the only difference that (I think) you should really know is that sweet potatoes are a nutritionally dense food: they have a ton of vitamin A and anti-inflammatory nutrients, they're low on the glycemic scale (good for diabeetus) and, relative to yams, have twice the amount of protein per serving. Yams tend to be higher in Omega 3s, whereas sweet potatoes are higher in Omega 6s (the differences of which we've talked about), but overall I still think sweet potatoes are the better bet.

Ok, so here is how to make them yummy:

• 2 sweet potatoes, diced
• The zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh sage leaves
• Olive oil
• Salt/Pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 400°F. Toss the sweet potatoes in with light olive oil (you can also use canola or clarified butter) and season. The length of time is going to vary depending on the oven you use and the size you cut your potatoes, but try and toss them every 15-20 minutes or so. You'll know obviously when they're close to being done and they should, ideally, get a little brown around the edges. About 5 minutes before you think they're good to go, toss them with the orange zest and sage, and you're done. If you add the zest and/or herbs too soon they'll burn. This was one of my favorite veggies to make in class so far. 

Braised Leeks

• 4 leeks, trim the greens and the nub off and slice them lengthwise in half down the stem, then again in quarters ALMOST down to the bottom. You want to split them down the middle, but not actually break the connection at the base of them.
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 5 tbs. of whole butter
• 3 tbs. of parsley
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (optional)
• Salt/Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F. In a pan, sweat the onions and garlic in about 2 tbs. of the butter until softened. I usually add some salt here because it helps extract moisture from the onions and develop flavor. Transfer the onions and garlic to a baking dish and add the leeks on top. Pour in the wine and chicken stock until it comes about half-way up the side of the leeks. You don't want them completely submerged, but you also don't want them to dry out and burn - adjust the liquid content if necessary. Dot the top of the leeks with another 2 tbs. of the whole butter, season, cover the pan with a lid or foil, and put in the oven. Again, the time is going to vary, but they should be very tender (almost melting) and it will probably take you around 30 minutes. When they're done in the oven you can eat them like that or, which is what our group did in class, you can reserve the cooking liquid in another pan and reduce it to around 1/2 - 1/3 of what it was, add some cream, adjust the seasoning, finish it off with 1 tbs. of butter, and toss with the leeks. Garnish with the parsley on top and this is honestly one of the best vegetable dishes I have ever had. I even got Matt to have some!

And that's all she wrote. I know some of my classmates got a whiff of the blog on Facebook so I hope I'm doing justice to our kitchen adventures! Happy eating!

UPDATED: For you, Mommy!

Roasted Beets

• 1 lb. of beets, washed and trimmed
• Light olive oil
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

Pre-heat your oven to 400°F. Toss the beets in the light olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and put them in a pan with the rosemary sprig. Cover the pan with foil and poke a few holes in the top to let some steam out. Roast the beets until tender - your knife should be able to go through them easily. When they're done, leave the foil on to let them cool because it will make it easier to peel the skins. When they're cool enough to handle, rub the skins off and dress them with some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.

Photo: Yam vs. Sweet Potato (Gonzo Gastronomy)

A Little Bit of Butter Makes it All a Lot Better

Today we started grilling (as you can see from the picture to your right)! Chicken, rib eye steak, flank steak, and a bunch of veggies. You name it, I can grill it (and make it look pretty too). But I don't really want to talk about grilling today because I spoke about meat temperatures in yesterday's post and chimichurri (which we used to marinate the flank steaks) in an earlier post. What I DO want to talk about is compound butter (not to be confused with clarified butter)! I know you might think I'm getting unnecessarily excited about butter, but see that little dollop of creamy goodness on my steak in the picture? That is some tasty butter.

Compound butter is essentially flavorings (herbs, garlic, shallots, lemon juice, etc.) mixed with butter. I usually have a bunch of fresh herbs in the apartment that I'm not always able to use so, instead of throwing them out, compound butter is a great way to use them. Basically, take butter at room temperature, throw it in the food processor, and add any garnishes you like (you can also do it with a fork as long as you finely mince everything). Take it out, roll it into a log using parchment paper or plastic wrap, and freeze. Once it's solid you can store it in the refrigerator along with your regular butter and it should last you for a good amount of time (although if you love it as much as I do it will fly by). I use it to finish off stuff like steak, chicken, lamb, pork, sautéed potatoes, and sometimes even crostini.

For the proteins, as soon as you take them off the heat, cut yourself a slice of the butter and let it just melt over the top. It creates this creamy little sauce that works especially well with grilled foods that aren't always the most exciting items to eat.

For the potatoes: par boil diced potatoes, drain and dry them, and then sauté them until golden brown. Drain off any excess fat and take the pan off of the heat. Add the butter, swirl it around until it melts, and dump the potatoes out onto a paper towel to absorb any of the residual butter.

For the crostini: toast your bread either on the grill, broiler or toaster and spread the butter on just like you would normally. Think garlic butter!

Ok I'm making myself hungry just talking about all of this so let me give you a simple recipe for compound butter and then I'm going to go eat!

• Butter
• Parsley
• Lemon Juice
• Garlic
• Salt / Pepper

(Note: all of these ingredients are to your taste. Try not to get too hung up on measurements - or even ingredients for that matter. Start out conservative and add as you go. Worst case scenario and you add too much lemon juice for your liking, just add more butter. No worries! Have fun experimenting!)

Cook, Eat, Repeat.

In the last week I have been slowly sautéing, pan-frying, and deep-frying my way to obesity. It has been disgusting and delicious all in the same bite...because as I explained today to one of my classmates, I am like a dog: I will eat until I vomit. I know no boundaries. HOWEVER, all of these foods absolutely have their place and time, and, as always, all things in moderation.

So first of all, we have been discouraged to use our thermometers to check our meat temperatures when cooking. Instead, we use the "feel-and-go method" (which I just made up a name for because I don't know what else to call it). Here's how you do it:

• Touch your thumb to your pointer finger (don't press, just touch) and feel the flesh under and near the bottom of your thumb - that is what rare feels like.
• Now touch your thumb to your middle finger - medium-rare.
• Thumb to ring finger - medium.
• Thumb to pinky - well done.

There you go. Now you're a pro. The trick is it always feels a little firmer on the heat and then once the meat rests and the juices disperse, all of a sudden the meat is much softer than you previously thought. So it takes a little time to get used to, but it's easier to have it a little under than over for the obvious reasons.

Now let's get into some of the stuff we did today in our deep frying lesson. I finally started to take pictures in class!

Southern Fried Chicken

If you're in the mood to really make this dish and make it well, we made a great batch in class. The key to this dish, which we didn't have time for, is to marinate the chicken overnight. So here is a recipe for a marinade for a whole chicken (cut into pieces) that I altered a bit for my liking:

• 2 cups of buttermilk
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 handfuls - 1 of parsley, 1 of tarragon
• 2 tbs. of dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. of paprika
• Salt/Pepper

Throw all of that in a blender, puree, and pour over chicken. Marinate it for as long as you can. When you take it out, dredge the pieces in salted flour. It's important that the flour is salted because this is your last chance to really flavor the chicken. We didn't do it today, but you can even add a little more cayenne to the flour if you want. After that, make sure your oil (preferably peanut or canola) is heated to around 370°F and dump as many pieces of chicken in there as you can. Now you normally hear that overcrowding the pot is bad, but in the case of fried chicken the overcrowding makes them steam first, which gets them cooking from the inside out. 

They're done when the chicken reaches 170°F-175°F (we actually used a thermometer for these - the other method is best for grilling, sautéing, and pan frying). It's a bit of a process, but not nearly as difficult as you might think. The most time consuming part of the whole thing is breaking down the chicken, which is obviously cost effective, but not necessary.

Ok.. NEXT!

 French Fries / Pommes Frites / Yummy in My Tummy

With these guys we did a 2-step process. We heated our oil first to 280°F to blanch/par-cook the potatoes; meaning we threw them in for a few minutes not to get any color on them, but to bring their starches out so that they would cook more evenly and not be as greasy when we went cook them for a second time. You know they're done when you're able to snap them in half easily. 

At this stage in the process you can put them aside for a few hours, freeze them if you're making large batches, or keep going and eat them all right away! We I ate them all in class. So what we did next was raise the oil to 350°F and threw them back in. Cooked them until they were golden brown, salted them, and chowed down. That, for all the french fry snobs out there, is how you make the perfect fry.

Now if you're like me and have a bit of a potato obsession, but you don't want to (1) go through the 2 steps and/or (2) eat fried food all of the time, then this is what I do. Turn your oven up to 450°F. Cut your fries and toss them with extra light olive oil (much healthier than canola or peanut), put them on parchment or non-stick aluminum foil, salt, pepper. Put them in the oven. Done. Toss them a couple of times until they're golden brown, salt them one last time and that's it. 

Do they turn out the exact same way? No. But honestly, they're still crispy on the outside, they're healthier for you, and you can put them in the oven and walk away without worrying about the oil temperature or watching them too closely. 

So that's my food for thought for the day. Let me know if you try any of the recipes! Bon appetit!

Manic Monday

So today we had our Module 1 final practical exam! We each had to make 9 perfect pieces of a medium diced potato, a batch of mayonnaise, and a quart of cream of broccoli soup. It went really really well and I'm so excited to be done with it and onto Module 2 tomorrow. It's been around a month in the program and so far so good!

Needless to say, however, that after running through my own little amateur episode of Chopped I had no desire to cook. So I came home and whipped up this little salad as a side to some grilled chicken (Lord knows I needed something light after a weekend of test batches of mayonnaise, cream soup, and mac and cheese). So, if you're interested, here is what is in it...

• One 15 oz. can of cannellini beans (rinsed)
• Chopped tomatoes (I had Campari tomatoes in the apartment - I used around 8)
• 1/2 of a medium sized red onion (chopped)
• A heaping handful of parsley (chopped)
• In a separate bowl whisk together red wine vinegar (5 tbs.), mustard (1 tsp.), olive oil (7 oz.)
• Salt/Pepper

Mix it all up and you're done! It took me less than 5 minutes to make and was really what I needed to get through a quick dinner. Now I am going to go watch some TV and maybe even indulge in some ice cream. Ciao!

Confessions of a Cheese-aholic

I add cheese to almost everything I eat... which has proved challenging for my poor lactose intolerant boyfriend. But in the name of practicing my mother sauces, he has selflessly sacrificed himself to my mac and cheese experiments. Way to take one for the team, Matt.

Mac and cheese is essentially a derivative of the mother sauce béchamel. The basis for béchamel, and all mother sauces for that matter, is roux. Equal parts fat (butter, oil, whatever you want) and flour, roux is most famously the base for your lumpy Thanksgiving gravy. For your own personal edification, there are 3 types of roux: white, blond, and brown (examples: white for béchamel, blond for gravy, brown for gumbo). But, fear not! Below is a mac and cheese I made tonight. And while I am admittedly not reinventing the wheel here, it is my own recipe!

Now, I'm all for eating healthy, but you know you want to eat this and, I promise, it's fool proof.

Ingredients:

For the sauce: 

• Milk                                               2.5 cups
• Flour                                              2.5 tbs.
• Bacon or Pancetta fat                 2.5 tbs.
• Gruyere                                         2 oz.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano                 1 oz.
• Extra sharp white cheddar         2 oz.
• Thyme                                           1 sprig
• Salt/Pepper                                   To taste     

• Pasta                                             1/2 lb.

Toppings:

• Pancetta/Bacon                          1/4 lb.
• Gruyere                                        1 oz.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano               1 oz.
• Extra sharp white cheddar       1 oz.
• Thyme (chopped)                       Garnish
• Bread crumbs (optional)           A handful

Instructions:

1. Get the pasta going (you all know how to boil pasta) and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a separate pot you can start the béchamel. First, you will need to render the bacon/pancetta fat. How do you do that? LOW heat until you can liquefy as much fat as you can (you can drop in a bit of oil or butter to help get you started). Once you do that you can crisp it up.
3. Take the bits out of the pot, leaving about 2.5 tbs. of fat in and add the flour (if you don't have enough fat just add butter). Now pay attention. Stir, don't whisk, for a few minutes (continuously - you don't want it to burn). The mixture should look a bit like sand.
4. Once you've got that down add cool/not hot milk (this is key and I think where most people go wrong) and whisk whisk whisk! Beware! Do NOT let this boil - a gentle and brief simmer is ok, but you don't want the milk to curdle. So your goal here is to whisk until it becomes thick and take it off the heat.
5. Then you can add your cheeses, thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Stir until the cheese has all melted. 
6. Cook the pasta al dente and combine with the cheese sauce, put in a casserole dish, top it with the extra cheese, bacon/pancetta, thyme, and/or some breadcrumbs, and bake until the cheese on top is bubbly and crunchy (about 15 min).

If you're making this ahead of time you can do everything up to the point of putting it in the oven and refrigerate. Honestly, the hardest part is making the roux and it's really not that hard at all (and it takes no more than 5 minutes). Give it a try!

Oh, and one last confession I have to get off my chest. I killed another lobster on Friday. I don't want to talk about it.

Your Mom - All About the Mother Sauces

Apologies for the 3 of you who actually read this blog and were wondering what happened the last week and a half. We butchered a few more poor unlucky animals, had a day off for absolutely no reason, and had 2 exams and a presentation. In addition to all of that, Relay for Life was this Saturday, which is a walk I do every year for the American Cancer Society. I was able to raise over $1,000 thanks to all of you who donated anywhere from $5 to $200. This year was particularly poignant as my family lost Poppy (to call him Grandpa just doesn't seem to do him justice) only 2 months ago to the disease. So before I get all teary eyed, thank you again for your donations and definitely check it out for yourselves! And to top that all off, on Sunday I ran my first 5k! So, I promise, it was a busy week.

But, back to food, we officially began the third and last course in our first Module: Mother Sauces. Ah, the basis of French cuisine and every sauce you've ever had in your life (not quite): Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel, and Classic Tomato! These sauces take a decently long time to make and aren't "plate ready" so Monday was honestly a bit laborious and not the most exciting, but it's all good because the last two days were much better!

We moved on from the mother sauces to derivative sauces, salsas, and emulsions. Corn and Red Pepper Salsa, Roasted Tomato Sauce, Basil Oil, and Mango Chutney were some of the few things we made. And while we didn't make it today, Chimichurri sort of fits under this category of sauces/oils/garnishes, and a bunch of you have been asking me for a good recipe since I mentioned it in the last post. So here's the one I've used and sort of adapted for myself...

Chimichurri






Ingredients:

• Cilantro                                   1 cup
• Parsley                                    1 cup
• Garlic                                      2 cloves
• Yellow onion                          1/2 of one
• Vinegar*                                 1/4 cup
• Water                                      1/2 cup
• Oil**                                       1/2 cup
• Red pepper flakes                   1/4 tsp.
• Salt & Pepper                         to taste

* I've used distilled, white wine, and red wine. Whichever you prefer - in my opinion it's a matter of personal taste and also what you're serving it on. Try white wine with chicken, red wine with steak, and distilled if you're not a fan of either.
** I use light olive oil, but you can also use canola. Try not to use something too heavy.

Instructions:

1. Take the cilantro and parsley off of their stems and cut up the onion into manageable pieces. Throw EVERYTHING in a blender and flip the switch on.
2. You're done. I usually make it before I make my food because if it can sit for 30 minutes to an hour it's even better.

Like I mentioned - this is great with steak, chicken, fish, and I've even poured some over my potatoes. It's all flavor and no fat! Let me know if you like it and hopefully you can accept this as my apology for not posting for a week and a half. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Chimichurri (Winecouver)

Dub Me Dexter

If you don't currently watch the Showtime series Dexter, then you should (I give Pranita credit for getting me hooked). It's a show about a serial killer who only kills bad guys, but it's much more complex than that. Trust me, just watch it. Anyway, there's a connection here. Dexter, the title character, also happens to perfectly dismember all of his victims before discarding them. So as I'm sitting here after a long week of butchering animals, I had meat cuts on the brain. My (obviously) logical progression led to pointing out, on Matt, all the ways in which I could cut him up and cook him. Which of course prompted him to ask, "Wait... so could you actually butcher me?" Yes, Matt. Yes I can.

Big cows, small cows (veal), ducks, and chickens. That was the focus this week (along with all of the seafood). We learned all about the parts of the different animals, how to break them down, and how to cook them. I am not going to painstakingly go through all various methods of butchering these poor guys (you can come to my apartment and I'll charge you a fee for that), but here are a few tips for the next time you frequent your butcher.

As a general rule, muscles on the animal that get more exercise tend to be darker in color, a bit tougher, and more flavorful pieces of meat. Now how can you tell if a muscle gets more exercise? Get down on all fours and walk around. These muscles are literally designed to work out - they have more connective tissue (i.e. collagen and elastin). Typically, the closer to the ground the muscle is, the more it works out. Take brisket for example, or even the shanks (think osso buco), these meats are cooked for a long period of time (most likely braised). Why? To break down the connective tissue so that they are easier to chew. See the sirloin and the tenderloin on the picture up top? That's where you get your filet mignon and chateu briand. Those can get thrown on the grill and cooked for a smaller period of time. Chuck - tough piece of meat, which is why it's ground and turned into hamburgers. Flank is interesting because it can go both ways (that's what she said). You can grill it and cut it on a very thin bias across the grain, or you can braise/roast it for hours until it breaks down. Flank is on the cheaper side and very flavorful so I really like it; grilling it with a side of a bright green chimmichurri sauce is, personally, one of my favorites.

A few other points of note: we also spoke about Quality and Yield grades. You may or may not know this, but these grades have absolutely nothing to do with the safety factor of your meat, but rather the amount of fat your meat has on it. There are two kinds of fat: fat cap (on the outside) and intermuscular (aka marbling, on the inside). The Quality Grades (Prime, Choice, Select, etc.) go from the most amount of overall fat to the least amount of fat, while the Yield Grades (1-5) have to do with the ratio of fat cap to meat. So a meat graded "Prime 1" is a meat with the least amount of fat cap (the 1) with a lot of marbling (because Prime means it's high in fat). That's pretty much impossible to get - I think top steak houses get Prime 2. Oh, and perhaps you follow trade laws, but if you don't then you should know that the United States currently does not import meat from Japan. Why? Because Japan won't import any of our meat (because it's that bad). Now why do you care? Ever heard of Kobe beef? Well anywhere you see it on a menu, you can be sure it is NOT from Japan and most likely from the mid-west where the cows are treated in "Kobe style." It's still a very tender piece of meat, just slightly less exotic.

Next week we're onto butchering Babe and the Easter Bunny. Stay tuned!

Photo: Cuts of meat on a cow (Wiegand Steaks)

The Day I Killed Sebastian

If you know me well, you know that I am quite possibly the biggest Little Mermaid fan you will ever encounter ... which is why today was quite possibly the worst day since I have started my program. Today I killed a lobster. And I don't mean I looked away, threw it in a pot, and ran kind of killed a lobster. I mean I put one hand on the tail and the other on the head and TWISTED (crunch!) in opposite directions and PULLED it apart kind of killed a lobster! Oh. My. God. The kid next to me put it on his cutting board and it tried to get away. He didn't want to touch it until it calmed down, which is when Chef intervened and said quite frankly, "He's warming up. He is only going to get more excited. Put him out of his misery." That's when I decided I just needed to get it over with and kill the guy. "Do it fast or he'll suffer!" Chef said as I went to grab hold of it. Which of course freaked me out and I decided I needed another second to mentally prepare myself. And then I did it. Lots of crunching and oozing and squirming ensued, but I frickin' did it.

That's all I wanted to say. We made crustacean soup today, which consisted of lobsters, shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, and oysters. By the way, I discovered I am pretty awesome at shucking oysters, which does not creep me out nearly as much even though technically they are still alive. 'Twas an interesting day. Tomorrow we work on poultry - much more within my comfort zone. I'll keep you all updated.

And in case you were wondering about poor Sebastian... he was delicious.

Rules to Cook By

I am happy to report that I continue to love student life. I apologize for not posting last week - we had off Monday and Tuesday for Passover and then again on Friday for Good Friday. The rest of the weekend was spent having a perfect combination of fun in the sun as well as cooking for 25 hungry friends and family for Easter! Greg made out with a trunk full of rice balls, Grandma Marisa went home with the rest of the Easter bread, and Mom treated herself to leftover stuffed artichokes and banana pudding for dinner tonight. All in all, I would say it was a success! As for today, I will keep it to a few rules you may or may not find helpful the next time you're in the kitchen.

Last week we spoke a bit about vinaigrettes. As a general rule when you make salad dressing, the ratio of fat to acid should be 3:1 (i.e. 3/4 cup of olive oil to 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar). When you start your vinaigrette you want to add everything except the fat - usually mustard (to help emulsify), an acid (i.e. vinegar or lemon juice), and some salt. Adding the salt, or at least most of it before you add your oil is pretty important because salt does not dissolve in oil and you can end up with a somewhat gritty texture to your dressing. By the way, the amount of mustard you want to add is pretty much up to your taste - you only need a little so if you're unsure start off conservative and you can always experiment going forward. It will also most likely vary depending on your application. 

Ok so now you have your mixture sans oil. Whisk it all together so it's cohesive and SLOWLY begin to incorporate the oil WHILE you whisk. The first couple of drops are important to emulsify the vinaigrette so you don't end up with this unappealing, oil-slick-looking Newman's Own bottle of salad dressing. Continue to drizzle in the oil in a slow steady stream until it's done (your arm will KILL, but it's a good little workout) aaannnddd you're done! This, by the way, is the same way you make mayonnaise - just add egg yolks. 

I use vinaigrettes often as marinades. The other night I took a survey of my fridge and had half a lemon, some shallots, and some fresh parsley that all looked like they were on their way out. So I took the half lemon, zested it, a heaping teaspoon of mustard, parsley, and 2 shallots - dumped it into a bowl and whisked in my olive oil - and poured that all on top of some chicken breasts. Let that sit in the fridge for a couple of hours and then grilled them off. They were moist, bright, and delicious! Pair those with some greens and maybe a baked potato (or make extra vinaigrette and pour it over a salad) and you've got yourself a cheap and healthy meal - not to mention easy to conform to any size portion you want. 

On the flip side of light and healthy is .. clarified butter. I had a few questions about how to make it over the weekend so here you go: Take your butter at home and throw it in a pot (no more than half way up because it will overflow). Turn up the heat and let it boil...and boil...and boil...until all of the water is evaporated and you're left with the milk solids of the butter on top and the clarified (i.e. clear butter) fat under it. Then run it through cheese cloth. The end product should look like a light beer. The reason for clarifying it is that while the smoke point (the temperature a fat reaches when it starts to literally smoke and break down) of regular butter is around 213°F, clarified butter is 345°F. It's not quite good for deep frying (350°F-375°F), but it's great for sautéing and various other butter sauces. Though it admittedly doesn't have too much flavor, if you let the butter go a little longer before you strain it, it begins to brown (hence the name, brown butter) and develops this wonderful nutty flavor, which could add a very interesting flavor to your dish. I tried them with pancakes and they are amazing!

On a separate note, today we fabricated fish and made fish stock and stew. Here is a basic way to make stock: 

• 8 lbs. of bones (fish, chicken, veal, whatever stock you're trying to make) 
• 1 lb. of mirepoix (equivalent to 8 oz. of onions, and 4 oz. each of celery and carrots) 
• 6 quarts of water

Fish stock is quick: 45 min. to 1.5 hrs (anything after 2 hours and the bones will start to break down). Chicken stock is a bit longer (larger bones so it makes sense): 4-6 hrs. Veal stock is the killer with a cooking time anywhere between 8-36 hrs. HOWEVER, if you really want to try and do this at home we spoke about a pretty easy way to get it done:

1. Turn your oven on to 200°F
2. Cover your bones with cold water in a large pot
3. Bring the pot to a full boil and then turn down to a gentle simmer.
4. Throw in your mirepoix.
5. Put the pot in the oven (make sure your pot fits before you start this whole thing!) and leave in overnight.
6. Strain the next morning.

If you're comfortable leaving the oven on overnight then this sounds like honestly the easiest way to make your own stock. Plus the more gelatin that releases from the bones the better it is for you (good for the joints and arthritis) and the better it will store. For optimal use, you can freeze it in smaller containers for up to 6 months! That's pretty good, pretty cheap, and definitely worth the quality to do it on your own rather than buying it. I'll be trying it this weekend and I will be sure to let you know how it goes!

And that's all she wrote! Hope it was somewhat helpful.

Cooking by Color: Vegetables

You know when you were little and you were taught to never judge a person based on the way they looked? Well that rule still applies. When it comes to vegetables, however, all bets are off.

I am not sure how many of you watch some of these cooking competitions on TV where chefs are given an item or a basket of items out of which they are to compose a meal, and every so often they look at one of those items and go, "I don't know how I'm going to do this. I've never worked with [item x] before." Then seemingly, through some kind of TV magic, they end up turning out a decent meal. Well, after this post, you can consider yourself one step closer to hosting and dominating your own episode of Chopped.

So let's begin:

• Green: What makes a vegetable green? Chlorophyll. What is chlorophyll? A pigment/acid that converts sunlight (heat) into energy for plants. And what happens if plants get too much sunlight without enough water? They turn brown. Therefore, green vegetables are extremely sensitive to heat. So what does this tell us about the best way to cook them? In order to obtain that bright, almost fake, green color you need to blanch them in a large, heavily salted pot of boiling water. The key here is to make sure you have more than enough room and water for the vegetables. Why? As soon as you throw the veggies into the heat they begin to excrete the chlorophyll (which is acidic). The water helps to dilute the acid and prevents it from turning the vegetables brown. So once you've cooked your vegetables to your desired point, you can them shock them in an ice bath to stop them from cooking any further. This process would actually be great for making meals ahead of time because after we did this in class we briefly sautéed them with garlic and oil and then served them. So you could blanch and shock your vegetables earlier in the day, put them aside, and then once you're ready to serve, quickly sauté them. Sautéing them for the entire cook time would turn them brown. Steaming them is also an alternative ideal for similar reasons. 

• Red-orange: These vegetables are fat soluble, meaning they break down when cooked in fat. You can simmer a pot of tomato sauce for hours and it will retain its bright red color, but sautéing red/orange/yellow peppers for tacos will break them down and they will begin to turn brown. There is no best way to cook these vegetables because it really depends on what you are trying to do with them. You may want them to turn brown (i.e. for brown sauces served with many red meat dishes) in which case you now know you'll need high heat and some fat!

• Blue-red: These are more along the lines of raspberries, blueberries, red cabbage, and the like. These guys are sensitive to alkaline and will turn color, break down, and sometimes taste funny if not exposed to acid. Ever have blueberry pancakes and notice green/blue rings around wherever the blueberries are placed? Well think about how pancakes are made ... flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, etc. Baking powder is alkaline (when mixed with the acid in the milk it makes your pancakes rise!) so when it comes into contact with your blueberries, it begins to break them down causing those rings to form (and can sometimes break them down to the point where they have this chewy texture and funny aftertaste). So whenever you are preparing your mixed berry salad or boiling a pot of red cabbage for dinner, add some acid (i.e. lemon juice) to keep them intact and retain their color. (For the pancakes, try adding your blueberries right when you put them on the griddle to avoid prolonged exposure.)

• White: When we think of white vegetables we often think of potatoes, but some produce that are actually deceptively white are artichokes and avocados. These guys are sensitive to oxygen. So acid and water, or just water, will help them from breaking down. That's why after you peel your potatoes you throw them into a pot of cold water. Or 5 seconds after you open your avocado you squeeze lemon or lime juice on them to prevent them from turning brown. As an aside, leaving the avocado pit in your guacamole will not keep it from oxidizing. It's just an old wives' tale.

So those are the general categories for cooking by color. Now go to the market and pick out a fruit or vegetable you've never used before and give it a try!

F the F Train

Firstly, I would like to publicly say, F the F train! What should have been a 10-15 minute train ride yesterday had me stuck between the tracks for almost 45 minutes. Raise my fares and then trap me stories below street level in a crammed car - and I think of my grandfather when I say this - bunch of crooks! Anyway, if you are interested in learning more about my train ride from hell I will refer you to the linked Seinfeld video for an accurate reenactment of what went down.

So yesterday we started chopping! Large dice, medium dice, small dice, batonette, julienne, fine julienne, brunoise - you name it, I made it. All afternoon. Slicing and dicing up "mirepoix" for soup (aka aromatics, aka the trinity) - a 2:1:1 ratio of onions, celery, and carrots, respectively, which is considered the base for many stocks, soups, and sauces.  Not exciting enough to take pictures (they'll come soon enough), but obviously a necessary step in the process.

Today, though, we covered nutrition. And we actually had a few pretty interesting conversations, specifically on different types of fats. Now, many people know what Omega 3 fatty acids are (an essential fatty acid that should be incorporated into your diet to promote better health), but have you heard of Omega 6 and 9? Perhaps you have and I have been completely oblivious, but if you have not then, in short, Omega 6s are bad for you and Omega 9s are good for you. Americans pre-1970s had 1:5 ratio of Omega 3s to Omega 6s in their bodies. 1970s roll around, Nixon is elected, and Earl Butz is appointed his Secretary of Agriculture (you can look him up if you're interested in his background). Now there are a lot of politics in this, but basically this is the time frame when corn and soy based products began being promoted in the country as healthy (i.e. corn and soybean oil) primarily because they were extremely cheap to make. Throughout the 70s-90s America's consumption of corn oil, high fructose corn syrup, and the like (including animals being fed a corn diet), skyrocketed ... and the ratio of Omega 3s to Omega 6s in people's diets changed to a 1:25 ratio. In the last decade, the American ratio has since become 1:250 (enter the numerous brands of Omega 3 pills you can find at any grocery store or pharmacy). So the overall lesson? Read your labels (Splenda's closest chemical cousin is DDT - a pesticide), and eat olive oil (an Omega 9) and grass fed animals (because you are what you eat!). And to satisfy your sweet cravings, Mars actually has some of the better candies on the market. Why do you think islands in Italy and Greece are blue zones?

Lastly, before I sign off I would like to address some feedback I received about adulterated food, specifically from my Grandma Marisa (who was flattered to be featured in my first post). Below is the question she e-mailed:

"I understand that the restaurants don't hold the food more than 3 days, and I cook Monday for the whole week, that means 5 days, That I understand. I don't know why I am not poisoned already. So long."

What I was trying to say is that many restaurants buy their produce already fully ripened so they are able to use it immediately (also making it spoil more quickly). In addition to that, there is arguably a difference between food suitable to serve at a restaurant and in your own home. Using the word "adulterated" was just to make a point. Mushy bananas won't kill you, but they're also not the most appealing items to place atop a sundae.

Just some food for thought.

"I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?"

Did you know that you can milk a reindeer? I don't know why you would necessarily want to, but you can. The first two days of classes at the ICE have been full of interesting factoids on sanitation in the kitchen, dairy, eggs, and (of course) school policy.

First of all, before I get into all of those goodies, can I just say how happy I am to be back on a student's calendar? I get Passover off next week! Growing up in the Catholic school system, getting "vacation" days for Jewish holidays seemed like an urban myth. And at Columbia you just had to take your own "days of observance" as an excused absence. So, in summation, I get off for Passover and I am thrilled!

Back to classes ... 3 mornings a week I have culinary business/management, which has around 20 people in it (mostly people my age actually). Since we're only on day 2, I don't have too much to report on this front. Thursday we have a field trip/project that we will be working on so I will let you know how that goes!

In the afternoons (every day) I have my culinary arts class. Similarly, it has around 15 or so people in it from all over the world (exotic places like Brazil, Poland, Colombia, and even Staten Island). Like I mentioned, it's pretty much been kitchen basics the last two days - complete with the outdated 1980s food sanitation VHS. So some take home points that I think you might be interested in hearing?

Did you know that vanilla ice cream has to have a minimum of 10% milk fat in it, while all other flavors are only 8%? I bet you'll be getting another flavor next time!

Buttermilk, by definition, is the by-product of making butter. You take heavy whipping cream and whip it until your arms fall off - the solid becomes butter and the left-over liquid becomes the base for buttermilk. What this all basically translates to is NO fat. Now go make yourselves some buttermilk pancakes!

Moving on to sanitation. Adulterated food - food unfit for human consumption - is a concept I fear my Grandmother Marisa will never grasp. Did you know most restaurants don't keep produce beyond 3-4 days? (Dios Mio!) I know. Some stuff you just have to let go.

And lastly, but perhaps more importantly, the key to sanitation in the kitchen? Wash your hands. Go figure.

I'm sure I have enlightened you all. Tomorrow we start officially using our knives, and it only gets better from there! I will be updating as often as I can so come back whenever to check in. Hope you enjoy!