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!