Culinary Foundations 1 is finished-now here are a few easy tips for you at home!

I learned alot in my first 6 weeks of school and while most of it relates to cooking in a restaurant environment, quite a bit of it serves as practical tips for the home cook.  Here are a few of those tips....

1.   When boiling pasta or green beans or potatoes but sure to salt your water well.   This may shock you but it should taste "salty like the sea".  I know that sounds a bit extreme but I have tried it and it works so much better!  Most of it gets poured away when you drain the items and if you try to salt it after you cook it, it isn't absorbed, it just sits on top.  The purpose of salt is to enhance the flavor of what you are cooking. In the end you don't want your green beans to taste like salted beans. You just want green beans that taste really good.  If you are cooking rice, couscous or other boiled grain that will absorb all the water, do the same thing but maybe not as salty as it will all be absorbed.  But with these its the same idea, you don't want the salt to sit on top and be tasted as salt on rice.  You just want flavorful rice. 
2. Have a hard time remembering how many pints in a quart and quarts in a gallon?  Get out a large piece of paper and do this exercise.  This visual aid will help you remember it anytime you need.
1. Take an 8x10 piece of scratch paper and draw a big letter "G" on it.  Make it take up the size of the paper. This represents a gallon. 
2.   Then inside the "G" draw 4 large letter "Q"s.  Two in the upper part side by side and 2 in the lower part side by side. Basically one in each corner of the inside of the G. The Q represents quarts. There are 4 quarts in a gallon.
3. Now, inside each of the Q's draw two large letter "P"s.  That is for pints. There are 2 pints in each quart.  If you do this in each Q,  many pints in a gallon?  If you got 8, you are correct.
4. Then inside of each P, you should now draw 2 large letter "C"s. The C stands for cup.  There are 2 cups in each pint.  2 pints in each quart.  4 quarts in each gallon.  This has really been handy for me. 
3. Do not feel bad for using canned tomatoes in recipes that call for them. There is a good reason for that, even in professional kitchens.  They provide consistent color, flavor and texture and it's cost effective. Go for it. 
4.  Ever try to make your own sweet potato fries or regular fries from scratch in the oven but you just get a mushy baked potato texture with no crisp?  If you blanch your potato pieces first in hot water until almost done, then drain, let them dry, cool and then bake them,  in most cases will give a crisp to your fries without having to actually "fry".  It does work if you choose to fry in oil also. You may need to experiment but this is why the Ore-ida's from the freezer are crispy in the oven. They are pre-boiled just waiting for a nice oven to crisp them up!
5.  When you make couscous, just before serving be sure to serve it by scraping the it from the top.  If you stir it from the bottom it can make it lumpy, not fluffy.  So take a fork or spoon, and start from the top and gently scrap away the layers.  Also couscous is a pasta, not a grain. I did not know this. 
6.  Sweat the onions (or celery or whatever).  How many times have you heard that on a cooking show but think to yourself, "What the heck does that mean?"  To sweat simply means to cook slowly with low heat, in a little oil, without giving color until slightly translucent and softened. 
7.  If you are making any dishes with dried beans like a split pea or navy bean soup, salt your dish at the end only.  If you add salt at the beginning there is a reaction with the outter shell of the bean that makes it a little harder and the water won't penetrate as easy when cooking the dried beans and it will extend your cooking time.  
8. Get a food thermometer.  I bought a digital one at a commercial cooking store for 10 bucks.  I find that since I started to cook proteins with this, it has never come out overcooked.  It really helps to know when your meat is done especially for large items like roasted chicken.  I can never gauge when a whole chicken is really done all the way through unless I check the temp.  And as an added bonus you can also follow the minimum internal cooking temperatures required to reduce pathogens in your meats.  Not a bad idea to be aware of. Poultry is 165 degrees. Ground meats 155 degrees. Seafood, steaks and chops 145 degrees.
9. Use acid.  That is either lemon, a vinegar, some wine, etc. at the end of your cooking time.  Its amazing how simple it is to just add a splash of balsamic or lemon juice at the end of the cooking, just before serving. It enhances the flavor like salt does so if you are watching your sodium, this will still work with the flavors in a similar way.  Wine needs to be cooked a little at the end, vinegar not as long and lemon can be added to the dish just as its placed on the serving dish or to the plate.
10.  Remember, recipes are just a guideline.  You always need to taste, analyse, adjust and taste again, even if it's a recipe from Food and Wine magazine or a well known cookbook.  Everyone's palate is different so the recipes are not expected to work for everyone exactly as they are published. Have fun, be creative and don't be afraid to substitute if you think it will work. This is how you learn.

And here is a bonus tip.  Add flavor whenever you can.  Avoid loosing flavor whenever possible.  If it calls for water, would broth, stock or wine work in its place?  Instead of leaving all the delicious bits in the bottom of the pan after cooking something could you add a little wine or broth to deglaze it and cook those bits into the liquid and add that to the dish?  That is flavor there!  Keep it or add it where you can.

So I hope you found something here you can try. If you did, let me know how it worked out for you. And feel free to leave comments about any helpful tips you might have.

Broadway Farmer's Market, also known as mecca. My trip and the resulting week's menu

For many people going to the local Farmer's Market is a pretty common occurrance, maybe even passe' for some.  But for me I always seem to have a work schedule that is exactly opposite any of my local market's schedules.  It is very rare that I find one that I can attend.  But I took today, Sunday, off work and was smart enough to remember that I had not been to one in ages and I should definately find one to go to today.  And go I did!  With chico bags and a backpack I decided to hit the Broadway Market on Capitol Hill.  Let me just say that it has been a very long time since I have enjoyed a day as much as I have enjoyed today. I found so many great things and talked to some wonderful vendors and have designed a menu for the week inspired entirely from my purchases today.

Here is my haul from the day...

Purslane-a succulent, small-leaf plant with a citrus flavor. Often found in gardens and considered a weed.
Zucchini- you know what these are. I got green ones.
Princess eggplant-miniature versions of regular eggplants, about 2-3" long
Thai eggplant-squat, round and small variety of eggplant.
White eggplant- a medium size, beige colored eggplant. Looks like the teenage version of the baby eggplant but white.

Cranberry beans-a shelling bean that has a white and deep pink-spotted shell. The beans inside are white with pale pink specs. A local chef I met says the pink does not stay through cooking. Bummer.
Fortex green beans-very long and thin and extremely tender.


I was immediately inspired by the demo by Chef Olaiya Land of Loaiya Land Catering. She created a simple but flavorful tomato and green been salad with homemade pesto.  Blanched fortex green beans, fresh pesto made on the spot, tossed together with cherry tomatoes, cut in half.  I knew I was going to make this so I ran to get my fortex beans.

But as I continued to cruise the market, on my 6th lap around I believe, I noticed I kept seeing something called purslane. I asked about it, tasted the citrus leaves and immediately thought this would be an excellent alternative for the basil in the pesto and the extra citrus flavor would probably enhance the green beans even more.  I was going to do a 50/50 mix of basil and purslane but after finding a Greek purslane pesto recipe online, I decided to go all the way with it. Afterall, I had a big bunch to work with and if it's good, I will freeze the rest like you would do with pesto.  I will serve the pesto two ways: once with the green beans as described and once on linguini. It will also be used as a finishing garnish instead of parsley.

The zucchini will be used in some zucchini fritters, inspiration compliments of a client I was talking to on the phone at work. She said she was cooking so I had to ask, "Whatcha makin?"  She gave me her recipe for the zucchini fritters, a family recipe.  How generous of her to share that with a total stranger like me!!

The cranberry beans will become part hummus experiment and part side dish.  After I've sheledl the beans and boiled them until tender in salted water  I will saute them in olive oil, butter and maybe some shallots. Perhaps the purslane will add a nice final touch, minced and sprinked on top.  For the hummus, I will blend them with some tahini, lemon, parsley, etc and see how that goes. To bad the color fades with cooking, pink hummus would have competely rocked!

The eggplants will just be cut and sauteed in olive oil because I want to taste the 3 varieties and see what the differences are.  I think they will all look pretty in one dish.

So here is the final menu for the week, not necessarily in this order:

Grilled Chicken Sausage with purslane pesto linguini

Grilled tri-tip with the purslane pesto green bean/tomato salad dish from the demo

Pork chops marinated in my classmate's own BBQ sauce served with zucchini fritters. Thanks Lamonte' for the sauce

Roasted chicken with mushroom ragu and sauteed cranberry beans

Lamb chop with baby eggplant medley and cranberry bean hummus.

I have got A LOT of cooking to do this week. On top of  a 40 hours work week and 17 hours of school.  But this is what its all about for me. For some people this sounds like a nightmare but for me, it's totally heaven on earth. All this cooking is my form of relaxation and entertainment. It feeds me in so many more ways that just the one.  Thanks for reading and if you have any interesting uses or ideas for any of these ingredients, please let me know!

1 month down, 8 more to go! Why does it have to go so fast??

The 2 weeks since my last post have been incredible, I can't believe how fast it is all going and I wish I would slow down because I am having an awesome experience.

We have explored everything about sauces over the last 10 days. You know when people say "that's gravy" when something is really easy? Mmmmmyeah. Sauce is NOT gravy.  Once you know what you are doing sauce is not that difficult, but it can be time consuming, at least in the early stage of production.  There are 5 leading or "mother sauces" from which every other sauce, called small sauces, are made from by adding additional flavorings.  For example, Hollandaise sauce is a mother sauce emulsion of eggs yolk and clarified butter. But add a vinegar/shallot reduction and some tarragon and you get Bernaise sauce. 

Take milk, thicken with a roux (fat and flour) and a few other flavorings and you get Bechamel sauce.  But throw in some shredded cheddar cheese, dry mustard and Worcestershire and you get an awesome homemade mac and cheese sauce!

Sauces are time consuming because some of them start with a stock made after several hours of simmering bones with mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot) and some herbs.  The collagen in the bones of veal or chicken creates a gelatinous, mild flavored base called stock (not to be confused with broth).  Take the stock, thicken it with a roux and you get another mother sauce-Veloute sauce.  Then with the addition of other flavorings that can become Allemande, Mornay, Curry, Normandy, Bercy, Mushroom, Lyonnaise or Madeira sauce, just to name a few!!  I tell ya, I have not looked at a chicken carcass or vegetable trimming in quite the same way!  In fact, right now I have a small pot of chicken bones and mirepoix on a slow simmer so that I can have chicken stock on hand for practice over the next few weeks.  It freezes great so its easy to keep around. 

For those who want to know, the five mother sauces are Bechamel (milk), Veloute (stock), Espagnole or brown sauce (stock), Tomato and Hollandaise (egg).

Gravy is a beautiful thing too and has its place. Gravy is called an integral sauce because it is made from the juices released during the cooking of the meat.  For example, turkey gravy is made from the juice given from the turkey while roasting and it is served together.  The basic technique for this starts with the caramelized liquid in the pan that was given off from roasted meat and any vegetables cooked with it. I add mirepoix in the bottom of my roasting pan when I roast chicken so that my liquid will have additional flavor from the onion and carrot. I make sure that gets good and brown with some caramelization.   You deglaze this with a flavorful liquid like wine or broth to get it to release from the pan and lift up the yummy bits that add flavor.  You can then thicken with a slurry of water and cornstarch or a roux and sometimes cream or milk. Serve as-is or strain to get out any lumps.  And you got gravy!

I also learned how to make mayonnaise by hand.  It's great at a BBQs when you can put out a dish of homemade mayo, which is also what aoli is. This base can be flavored in many ways to compliment many sandwiches or burgers.

In addition to all of this we also learned how to truss and roast a chicken, learned about various families of vegetables, talked about herbs and had demos and tastings for Chicken Princessa and Chicken Fricassee-part of roasting and poaching demos.

If you have any questions about stocks or sauces, feel free to ask.  I am certainly no expert but have some good basics to share. My over all grade is an A right now, I am doing well on my tests and other assignments and my hands-on production has been going OK but it takes time to learn what something is supposed to taste like so you can duplicate it.  It my case, my sauces looks 100% correct but tastes about 80% correct, so that will be my mission for the next month. Taste, analyze, adjust and taste until I it tastes as accurate at it looks.