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.