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!