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.