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My Braise Was A Bust

Marcia January 23, 2011 Banter, Cookbooks, Cooking, Learning to cook, Recipes 0

These lamb shanks look delicious! Unfortunately, they are not my shanks . . . (photo by Jennifer via Wikimedia Commons)

So, the stressful, senseless holiday season had finally given way to calm, cool, January. OK, maybe calm, cool, overabundant in its snow production January — but a good month nonetheless to tackle a braise. The day of the Pats – Jets play-off game seemed a perfect day to let something sit in the oven for hours — I could have the braise braise while I watched the late-afternoon Sunday game and then enjoy a leisurely if somewhat late dinner since neither Gary nor I had to work the following day (Martin Luther King Jr. Day).

A perfect plan, but what should I braise? Meat? Fish? Chicken? Or did I want to make a stew? Beef, lamb, or pork made the most sense at the time if I wanted to stretch the cooking time to at least three hours — the usual length of a pro football game. Short ribs were an option — the short ribs in cherry sauce we made in our Moist Heat Cooking class were great, especially the sauce. Hm. Pork was out because I made a pork roast just two weeks before and I wanted to attempt something totally different. Continue reading »

Culinary Resolutions for 2011

Marcia December 30, 2010 Baking, Banter, Cooking, Learning to cook 0

Fennel, mussels, restaurant dining room, chocolate torte

Though I thoroughly savored my culinary exploits in the year 2010, I look forward to more learning, cooking, and enjoying in 2011. Here are some of my anticipated achievements:
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Pumpkin Pie and the Perils of Watching Too Many Cooking Shows

Marcia December 26, 2010 Baking, Cooking, Food shows, Recipes 0

Those are pie weights, not mini marshmallows!

This year Gary and I decided to politely turn down any Thanksgiving day invites and just do our own thing. Though I had wanted to have my Thanksgiving feast at a fine but unpretentious local restaurant, I quickly warmed to Gary’s suggestion of cooking up our own festive dinner.

We discussed entrée and side-dish options, and for desserts we concluded we would each make (or at least choose) a favorite or promising dessert, and there was no question that his was going to be of the pomaceous persuasion and mine was going to be pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin. I was eager to make a perfectly pumpkin something — though something other than my usual goof-proof cookies, breads, and muffins — and do it right this time. Continue reading »

Back-to-Basics Class Five: Dry Heat Cooking

Marcia August 28, 2010 Cooking, Learning to cook, Technique 0
Honey Spiced Pork Roast

Honey Spiced Pork Roast

Whereas the moist-heat technique braising offers a slow, comforting, easygoing cooking experience for which you can judge doneness of meats by sight (meat falls off bone) or feel (skewer gets no resistance going in or out), the dry-heat methods require more speed and vigilance.

The dry-heat cooking techniques — sautéing, pan searing, pan roasting, oven roasting, grilling, broiling, and deep frying — demand higher cooking temperatures and shorter cooking times than stewing and braising, so they require more attention to avoid overcooking. Continue reading »

Back-to-Basics Class Four: Moist Heat Cooking

Marcia August 22, 2010 Cooking, Learning to cook, Technique 0
Sea bass over braised fennel

Sea bass over braised fennel

Moist heat cooking is, in a word, braising. Well, stewing, too, but this class focused on braising. (Boiling, blanching, poaching, simmering, and steaming fall under wet heat cooking, not moist heat cooking.)

(Note: Hong was absent today; the ebullient, talkative Ted substituted.)

Why braise?

Braising is a standard cooking technique in which you cook meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables “low and slow” — at a low oven or stove-top temperature for a relatively long period of time. Braising works wonders on lean or tough (read: cheap) cuts of meat because the slow cooking breaks the meat’s collagen into gelatin, which results in the mouth feel of a rich, fatty dish without adding any fat. But even items low in collagen, such as vegetables, can benefit from a braise. Braising tender cuts of meat, though, is not worth the time or effort.

Braising techniques

When braised correctly, the meat, when done, will fall right off the bone. You’re essentially cooking the meat until it falls apart; “it’s very hard to screw up a braise,” said Ted. You don’t even have dirty your instant meat thermometer. But though the cooking part of the braise is often foolproof, setting the stage for your braise takes some solid prep work. Here’s what you need to know: Continue reading »

Back-to-Basics Class Three: Stocks, Soups, and Salads

Marcia August 20, 2010 Cooking, Learning to cook 0
Chicken soup with noodles

Chicken soup with noodles (no more Parmesan croutons!)

“Start with a good stock.”

This instruction was the gist of the lesson on stocks and soups. Soups are relatively easy to make, after all — you toss a bunch of stuff such as protein, produce, and pasta in a big pot and you heat it all up. But you only get out of that pot what you put in it; if you use a good homemade stock with well-chosen quality ingredients, you’re likely to get a very good soup.

So, what is stock, anyway? It’s not broth — it’s much richer and, in the case of veal or beef stock, considerably thicker than broth — the veal stock Hong showed us was the consistency of gelatin, a natural result from the slow cooking of a lot of bones. Also, stock does not come in a packet or a cube. It may come in a can, I suppose, but I’ve never seen a can of real stock, only cans of chicken or beef broth claiming to be stock. (I’m sure “broth” isn’t the right word for what might be found in many of these cans . . .) Continue reading »

Back-to-Basics Class Two: Eggs

Marcia August 10, 2010 Cooking, Learning to cook 0
Eggs

Eggs. Photo: bella_domanie via www.morguefile.com

Though marketing slogans are often crafted of lies and hyperbole, I must admit that eggs are indeed as incredible as they are edible. Through heating, beating, baking, whisking, steaming, boiling, poaching, or interacting with myriad other ingredients, these palm-sized ovate spheroids prove they are among the great shape-shifters of the culinary world. Continue reading »

Back-to-Basics Class One: Knife Skills

Marcia August 1, 2010 Cooking, Learning to cook 0
Chef's Knife

Slicing celery with a Chroma 301 chef's knife. (This is neither me nor my knife.) Photo: M. Brandt at Kochmesser.de

Staying true to my “relearn how to cook” objective from earlier this year, I’ve enrolled in a six-class back-to-basics course at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Gary’s taking the course as well as he, too, would like to be able to cook simple or gourmet dishes without cracking open a cookbook each time.

First up: Knife skills

In this first class of the Back to Basics series, Knife Skills, we learned the parts of a knife (tip, edge, spine, bolster, heel, tang, handle, rivets) and the materials or structure that makes a quality knife a quality knife. I now know how to hold, hone, sharpen, clean, and store my knives, and how several knife-users can safely coexist in a busy kitchen. I organized all the tips and tenets learned into two categories: Respect Your Cutlery and Respect your Safety.

Respect your cutlery

  • Keep knives sharp.
  • Keep knives honed.
  • Keep knives clean; wash immediately after use if possible.
  • Use the right knife for the task.
  • Store knives smartly and securely.
  • Only use knives to cut food.
  • Do not wash knives in the dishwasher.

Respect your safety (knives edition)

  • Always use a cutting board.
  • Secure cutting board to counter (put a wet dishcloth or rubber shelf liner under the board, or use a board with rubber feet).
  • Use the right knife for the task.
  • Find or create a flat surface on the item to be cut. Rest this surface against the board. (Not sure how to follow this advice to create onion rings.)
  • Cut away from yourself.
  • Keep an eye on your blade.
  • Keep the other eye on your fingertips.
  • Clean one knife a time.
  • Don’t leave knife in sink full of water.
  • Hold the supporting hand in a claw position to prevent fingertipectomies. (The hardest tip for me to follow.)
  • “A falling knife has no blade; do not attempt to catch it.”

Continue reading »