Archive for the 'technique' Category

How-to: Roast Vegetables

Published by Hal on March 13, 2008 in technique. 2 Comments

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Roasting vegetables isn’t nearly so scary, and it’s a great technique for coming up with a quick side dish or using up something that might otherwise go bad. The trick is to use a vegetable that’s not going to dry out, and has enough natural sugar to aid in the caramelization process. Following these steps will yield you some delicious meals and/or sides that you can whip up in a snap:

  1. Find yourself some vegetables that have natural sugar and enough moisture that they can stand prolonged high, dry heat (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, squash, onions, parsnips, carrots, turnips, brussel sprouts, etc…)
  2. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
  3. Get a bowl and cut your vegetables into even, like sized pieces (into the bowl, of course).
  4. Get some of your favorite spices and some olive oil or melted butter. Drizzle the oil over the vegetables, and add a little bit of your spices (Some good combinations: potatoes and rosemary, squash or sweet potatoes and cinnamon, garlic and/or garlic powder on just about anything. Experiment and see what works for your tastes).
  5. Place the coated veggies in a shallow baking dish and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until they are nice and soft and just caramelized.

See, that wasn’t so hard! There’s nothing to this technique at all; however, I will give you a word of caution: leafy veggies might work, but they need a lot more attention. Don’t let them hang out for 45 minutes, or you’ll be eating charcoal. Zucchini and summer squash work well, too, when cut into quarters (like a pickle spear). Have fun, and happy roasting!

burn, baby, burn

Published by stacie on March 3, 2008 in technique. 0 Comments

I set a bulb of garlic on fire tonight.

Because Hal has been working a little later during this busy season, I have been making dinner some nights.

Cooking is bad for me. Oftentimes Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals take me more than an hour. When I cook, I usually feel as though I am running a marathon — and I cannot cook without a recipe!

Tonight we realized that we had an eggplant that needed to be cooked, so I set about making a roasted eggplant pasta dish. This dish included, among other things, an entire bulb of roasted garlic. This is just the kind of dish we like!

Now, I have a terracotta garlic roaster. We got this awhile ago. I have a long-time love for roasted garlic, one that first began at Andriolla’s restaurant — a now-closed FABULOUS Italian place in Erlanger. The restaurant had a antipasta that came with many cloves of roasted garlic to spread on bread (or just eat whole, which I often did).

So I dug our garlic roaster out of the cabinet (thankfully, it wasn’t in the closet like most of our kitchen stuff). Unfortunately, I have no idea where all of our directions are. We have them somewhere, but I didn’t feel like looking for it.

I prepared the garlic like I was supposed to and put the thing in the microwave. Now, you CAN put these things in the microwave. I remembered that to cook them in the over, it took about an hour, but in the microwave, like everything in the microwave, takes a lot less time.

I set it for 10 minutes. Then I checked it at 3 minutes. It wasn’t finished. So I left it in the microwave and sat in the dining room.

At the 7 minute mark, I smelled a bad smell and noticed smoke. I opened the back door quickly (we have a very sensitive smoke alarm) and approached the microwave.

Burning garlic stinks. I didn’t see flames, exactly, but the garlic bulb was very burnt and stinky. The whole roasting pan was giving off dark colored smoke.

Thank goodness I caught it or I would have had to use the fire extinguisher!

Perfectly Prepared Eggs

Published by Hal on February 28, 2008 in The Cook's Kitchen and technique. 0 Comments

Eggs by ZyadaSometimes the best trick in the kitchen is perhaps the simplest. An egg is perhaps a wonder food, fat and protein all bundled into a neat package, that’s just the right size for a balanced part of a meal or a meal in its own right. But people get really frightened of cooking them.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: just like the tortoise beat the hare, slow and steady is the key to preparing the perfect egg. Be patient and don’t use too much heat and you’ll be enjoying delicious eggs in no time. Here are my hints for preparing two classic preparations:
Scrambled

Set a couple of eggs out on the counter for about 10 minutes to bring them up in temperature. Pre-heat a skillet over medium-low heat; add a little butter or a spritz of oil to the pan, if you wish.

In a bowl, crack the eggs, add a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper and splash of milk. Whisk them together, then pour into the pre-heated skillet. Then, walk away.

No, I’m serious. Go wash your hands, walk up the stairs and back, just get away for a few minutes to let the pan start to work. You don’t want to be gone too long, but you need to resist the temptation to touch the eggs right after you put in on the heat.

Once you start to see the eggs firming up, use a rubber spatula to fold everything toward the center. Do this a few more times until the eggs are set, but still a little glistening. Don’t go too long, or you’ll end up with dry, rubbery yellow something that isn’t good eggs. If you head my advice, you’ll have delicious yellow pillows to compliment some delicious biscuits and some breakfast meat.

Big Salad ArtsyHard Boiled

In a small sauce pan (1 1/2 quarts), place no more than four raw eggs. Cover with cold water, just enough to keep the eggs submerged. Bring the water just to a boil (even a vigorous simmer would be better, but it’s a fine line), then cover and removed from the heat.

This time, I want you to walk around the block. Come back 10-12 minutes later, and transfer the eggs to cold water. When you can handle them comfortably, use a spoon to break the shell and remove eggs.

You can serve these as a compliment to a salad, or scoop out the yolks for deviled eggs. Either way, follow my tips and you’ll have perfect hard-boiled eggs, done just right and without an icky green ring around the yolk.

I’ve just barely scratched the surface, but the cooking methods are endless: there’s poaching, frying, souffle-ing… Any number of uses and preparations for this versatile, and, honestly, not so scary common ingredient.

Eggs provided courtesy of Zyada.

Recipes: Roasted Red Pepper Mashed Potatoes

Published by Hal on January 5, 2008 in recipe reviews, recipes and technique. 4 Comments

I got a potato ricer for Christmas, so my in-laws wanted to see it in action. I decided to make some roasted red pepper mashed potatoes, and they turned out pretty good. Basically, you take your standard mashed potato recipe and add some roasted red pepper puree and there you have it. The most challenging thing for me was roasting the red peppers.

This recipe was inspired by this post at Culinary Therapy, which only fed two people. I expanded it to make six generous servings, and thought it to be very easy. There are a million and one ways to make mashed potatoes, and I thought this one did a decent job cutting back on the “bad” ingredients. At the end of the day, each serving only gets less than 3 tablespoons of sour cream and butter combined. I also up’d the proportion of red pepper puree to potatoes, because I didn’t think the flavor could come through enough.

Ingredients:

  • 6 medium russet potatoes
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 cup of sour cream
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
  • 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth
  • 3 roasted red peppers, pureed

Directions:

  1. Roast the red peppers in the oven, under the broiler, until the skin is black and blistered.
  2. Once the peppers are roasted, place them in a plastic zip-top bag for 15 minutes to steam.
  3. Meanwhile, skin the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
  4. Place the potatoes and garlic in a large pot and cover them with cold water.
  5. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil.
  6. While the water is coming up to a boil, run the red peppers under cold water to help peel the skin.
  7. Remove the seeds and the ribs from the peppers and puree.
  8. Boil the pototoes until they are fork tender, then drain.
  9. Mash the potatoes (or run them through a ricer).
  10. Add the sour cream, butter, and pepper puree to the potatoes.
  11. Stir to combine, adding the chicken broth until you have reach the desired consistency.
  12. Salt and pepper to taste.

These potatoes are really tasty, and relatively easy. If you make them ahead and you aren’t ready to serve them, you can put them in a double boiler to keep them warm.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Time Savers That Speed Up Dinner

Published by Hal on January 4, 2008 in technique. 0 Comments

Check out this post over at Lifehacker! I love reading stuff written by other people that validates things I’ve been doing or that I’ve been teaching. Here are some of my favorites:

Work clean

dishes_scaled.jpgWatch “Ratatouille,” read “Kitchen Confidential” or listen to any serious chef discuss their craft, and the best advice you’ll get is the simplest—messy counters, messy mind. The more stuff that piles up around you, the harder it is to concentrate on what happens next, and the harder it is to find anything you need, costing you more time and mental frustration than it would take to stay clean. Buy a cheap pack of small cloth towels and use them to wipe down surfaces and clean up spills. Take Rachael Ray’s advice and designate a “garbage bowl” to toss your larger food refuse in. Put dishes away quickly and clean as you go, and you’ll enjoy a GTD-type moment of clarity at the end of you meal. Photo by aaron13251.

And…

Get ahead with prep containers

mise_scaled.jpgMany recipes call for adding a number of liquids, solids or both at once, or in a few phases. If you’ve planned out a few dinners for the week, or if you have a little time before the cooking starts, pre-assembling these mixes—having what the French call mise en place can be a huge time saver. You don’t have to buy small dishes that end up getting washed—one Cook’s Illustrated reader uses leftover cough-syrup cups (after washing, of course), while others suggest a muffin tin tray, used yogurt cups, coffee filters and other containers. Photo by Crystl.

I’ve written about this at least once before, and I think it is so important. Mise en place and keeping your cooking space clean and uncluttered makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable. Think about it: do you want to cook when you can’t find the chopped basil, or when you need to wash the dutch oven from last Monday’s chicken cattiatore? If you have trouble finding your ingredients or having a place to stash them, you’ll hate to cook, and if you hate it, you won’t do it.

Do you have any tips for making cooking happen quicker and easier?

Recipes: The Perfect Grilled Cheese

Published by Hal on December 27, 2007 in recipes and technique. 5 Comments

Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to focus a little more on what this site is about–cooking that everyone can do and won’t break the bank. With all the rich food we’ve had over the last several days, we had a pretty simple lunch the other day that consisted of simply grilled cheese and hot soup. What better to warm you up on a cold day?

Grilled cheese is an ultimate frugal food, second only to Ramen in its frugality and simplicity. Still, most people don’t know how to make a satisfactory grilled cheese sandwich.

Here are your basic ingredients:

  • Butter or vegetable oil spread (i.e. Shedd’s Spread Country Crock)
  • White bread
  • Melty cheese (American is good; for more gourmet, you could also use thinly sliced gouda, butterkaese, or similar high-moisture cheese).

Once you have the basic ingredients, it’s more about technique than recipe. A common mistake is the overheat the pan. I’ve said before, most people turn the heat up way too high. For most things you’ll cook on the stove, you’ll really only want medium heat or less. the same is true of grilled cheese–use medium-low to medium heat.

Let the pan get hot. Meanwhile, butter one side of each of slice of bread. Once the bread has been buttered, place one slice butter side down in the pan. Top that slice with one and a half slices of American cheese (or the equivalent in other cheese). Top that with the other slice of bread, butter side up.

Cook on each side for about 2-3 minutes, until the side is golden brown. Try to turn the sandwich only once during cooking. When you’re done, you’ll have a perfectly cooked grilled cheese sandwich!

Enjoy!

4 Sites To Help You Make Holiday Drinks Like a Pro

Published by Hal on December 22, 2007 in mixed drinks, recipes and technique. 0 Comments

You have to admit, this is a stressful time of year. Sometimes, there’s only one way to unwind or take the edge off when dealing with dynamic personalities and unruly relatives. Personally, just give me a beer or a good quality bourbon on the rocks, and I’m happy. But, if you want to check out a few other ways to get hammered take the edge off, here are sites that tell you how to do that, with a Holiday twist:

There is a lot of information here, so hopefully you’ll be able to find something that everyone will be able to enjoy! Just in case, I’ll make it easy for you…

Hot Buttered Rum

Ingredients

  • 6 cloves (whole)
  • 1 1/2 oz. dark rum
  • 1 generous tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • Boiling water
  • butter
  • Grated nutmeg
  • Lemon peel

Directions

  1. Rinse a large mug with boiling water and add brown sugar, cinnamon stick, and a lemon peel studded with cloves.
  2. Pour in a little boiling water and stir until sugar is dissolved.
  3. Add rum and fill with boiling water.
  4. Stir, then place pat of butter on top of drink, and sprinkle with grated nutmeg.

Peppermint Patty

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces vodka
  • 1 ounces peppermint schnapps
  • 1/2 ounces white creme de cacao

Directions:

  1. Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice.
  2. Stir gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
  3. Makes one drink.

Do you have a favorite holiday cocktail? What’s your recipe?

How-to: Chop Basil

Published by Hal on December 9, 2007 in technique. 3 Comments

Have you ever read a recipe that called for “one chopped basil leaf?” Usually, the recipes call for several tablespoons, added after cooking has occurred. Problem is, it can be really hard to get an even slice and to slice the basil quickly. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult, and is actually quite easy.

  1. Tear off the basil leaves from the bunch
  2. Stack them on top of each other
  3. Roll them into a log (if I wanted to show my face, I would have made like it was a stogie!)
  4. Run your knife through the log in even strips

Congratulations, you’ve just chopped basil. Technically, this is called a chiffonade and this technique can be used on any leafy ingredient. Try it out with spinach or other leafy herb or vegetables!

A Well Stocked Pantry

Published by Hal on December 8, 2007 in technique and tools. 1 Comment

I wrote yesterday that my wife made me a delicious dinner, but it wasn’t cheap because she had to run out to the store to pick up some ingredients because we didn’t have a well stocked pantry.

Run a Google search, and you’ll get all kinds of hits telling you what to get (the first one on this list has an unreal amount of items for the pantry). I actually was really surprised. Let’s take a look at that first hit. These are all great great items, but do you honestly have enough room in your freezer for all of these things? What about produce? I expect pantry staples to be shelf-stable for a long while, and I would be surprised if you could use this assortment of fresh produce in less than the time before it expires.

I must concede that a well stocked pantry means something different to different people. But, it doesn’t have to be a mini-grocery store in itself to be well stocked. This is what I have to say about pantry staples–have on hand very basic items that are shelf stable, and supplement those items with fresh items from the grocery each week. Plan your meals so you can do this, and you’ll be fine.

Our “well-stocked” pantry includes:

  • cans of chicken, beef, and vegetable stock
  • cans of whole and diced tomatoes, in juice
  • cans of tomato sauce and paste
  • cans of cream of (whatever) soup
  • Skyline Chili
  • boxes of macaroni and cheese
  • boxes of soup mix (chicken noodle, onion)
  • boxes of ranch dip mix
  • tuna in a can
  • cans of green chilies
  • various pasta (currently, about 4 boxes of angel hair and one of penne)
  • boxes of instant potatoes
  • pasta sauce
  • pizza sauce
  • corn bread mix
  • pizza dough mix
  • baking mix (a la Bisquick)
  • oatmeal (I have pin-oats right now)
  • white and light brown sugar
  • flour, baking soda, baking powder
  • cornmeal
  • cornstarch
  • rice
  • a bunch of spices (I always have cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, oregano, seasoned salt, garlic powder and vanilla extract on hand)
  • tea
  • butter
  • milk (since we don’t actually drink it, I use it in the powdered form)
  • frozen vegatables (corn, green beans, broccoli, peas, spinach)
  • frozen chicken patties, tenders
  • frozen meatballs
  • yellow mustard
  • ketchup
  • mayonnaise
  • dijon mustard
  • worcestershire sauce
  • soy sauce
  • rice wine
  • rice vinegar
  • red wine vinegar
  • apple cider vinegar
  • balsamic vinegar
  • olive oil
  • canola oil
  • honey
  • shortening
  • potatoes
  • onions
  • garlic
  • peanut butter
  • cocoa powder

We usually buy meat when its on sale, and produce as we need it. If we had a garden, we’d probably grow fresh tomatoes and herbs. There are some shelf stable produce items you can get (like root vegetables) and don’t have to worry about them going bad quickly, but I get really nervous about most fruits and vegetables after they’ve been in my fridge for about a week. I’m probably just weird about that, though; to me, it just tastes better if it’s fresh. We find we can usually make some good things from these items, and most of them are called for over and over again in recipes.

What items are in your pantry?

Sometimes, cooking just doesn’t work out the way you want it to.

Published by Hal on December 8, 2007 in technique. 2 Comments

I’ve had an experience like this a few times: The meal that never was. « The Gastronomist. Actually, a few weeks ago, when I made a roux, I had some issues. No matter what, the best laid plans will sometimes fall out.

Fortunately (knock on wood), I’ve not had any experiences quite this scary. But, I know it’s coming–our dog is young, and we don’t have kids yet but we will.

There is a happy ending: Everything tastes better….FRIED « The Gastronomist. It’s not fish, but it looks equally as tasty.

I’m sharing this story with you because the world of cooking we’re shown in the media makes it seem like it’s all peaches and roses. That’s not the case. One of the big hurdles for people and cooking is the fear of failure; but, if you make a mistake (or fate conspires against you, as in the Gastronomist’s case), learn from it and try again. You don’t get to be a good cook by giving up with things don’t work out as planned.

Everyone can cook. Even those who insist they can’t.

Do you have an instance where cooking didn’t go as planned? Did you try again?

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