Beyond Salmon

Tomato Onion Soup from Zuni via Sally Pasley Vargas

2012-01-25T23:45:00.000-05:00

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think French Onion soup? Melted cheese, right? I am the last person to object to melted cheese, but this onion soup is so bright and delicious it would be a shame to obscure it with anything. I got the idea from the Cooking Lessons blog written by a fellow Bostonian, Sally Pasley Vargas. The original recipe was from the Zuni Cafe cookbook, but since Sally's beautiful writing and photography were my inspiration for this dish, I decided to follow instruction from her post. She even provides excellent step by step pictures.

Of course, I had to improvise just a bit. What is a soup without a little improvisation? I used all olive oil (no butter). I added a little dry white wine to tomato onion mixture and simmered it for 5 minutes before adding stock. I substituted rosemary with thyme. I poached eggs in the soup on the stove top for about 4 minutes and poured into bowls over toasts. This was sublime. Sunny side eggs over caramelized onions and tomatoes is one of my favorite breakfasts, but the addition of the broth makes it 10 times more dunkable.

Since my kids have issues with seeing pieces of onions (they do like them, they just don't know it yet), I pureed some of the soup for them. If you are looking for a great creamy tomato soup without any cream or butter, this is it.

Deglazing a Pan and Making a Sauce (Video)

2012-01-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

Remember all those brown bits we had left in the skillet in the end of the meat searing video? Why don't we turn them into a sauce.

YouTube link: Deglazing a Pan and Making a Sauce

Here are some questions I frequently get in class about pan sauces.

Can you recommend a cheap (but good) stainless steel skillet?
Yes, Tramontina.

Is there some way to buy stock that is usable for a pan sauce?

I can finally say YES! This week, I tried veal demi-glace made by Bonewerks Culinarte'. It was great -- good flavor, good body, and a list of ingredients that included veal bones and vegetables instead of yeasts and enzymes. It was a tad heavy on the tomato paste, but not nearly as bad as most store bought demi-glace products. I bought it at John Dewar's in Wellesley, MA. It was a very reasonable price of $8 for a 1 cup container. Keep in mind that demi-glace is a very reduced stock. To turn it back into stock, add 3-4 parts water. So it's really like buying 4 cups of stock. If you don't want to use the whole container at once, set it in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes to loosen it from the box. Invert onto a cutting board and cut into pieces. I cut my container into 4 pieces. 1 piece plus 2/3 cups water worked well to deglaze a 10 inch skillet. You can freeze the rest for future use.

In the video, I say that you have to make your own stock. There are a few reasons for that. I made the video before I had a chance to try Bonewerks' demi-glace and their products don't seem to be widely available to home cooks. You can order from their website, but a minimum order is $80. If you can get to John Dewar's easily, call them first to check if they have the Bonewerks' product.

How do you make brown chicken stock?

I cheat and make it out of store bought rotisserie chicken to save time and dishes. Whole Foods often sells salt free roasted chickens, which are great for the stock. Here is the recipe.

What wine can I use?

Your wine doesn’t need to be anything special or expensive. When you start boiling it, all the interesting aromas will evaporate anyway. For whites, I use sauvignon blank from Trader Joe’s. You can use whatever you want as long as it’s not too oaky. For reds, I like Pinot Noir or syrah blends like Cote-du-Rhone. You can use whatever you want as long as you avoid tannic wines like Cabernet since they give sauces a metallic aftertaste.

Do I need to open a new bottle of wine?

No. You can use leftovers. Keep them in the fridge, and they'll serve you well for about 1 month (maybe even longer, but I haven't tired). This is not my advice for drinking, just cooking.

What happens if my sauce congeals before I serve it?

This happened to me 3 times while I was trying to shoot this little video! Just couldn't get the lighting right for the finished steak. Don't panic. Add 1/4 cup water to the skillet with solidified sauce. Set it over moderate heat and beat the heck out of it with a whisk.

What can I use instead of wine?

You can use apple cider or add a few drops of vinegar in the end. Balsamic and apple cider vinegar are particularly good in pan sauces. Another option is to add a squirt of lemon or lime (works great for deglazing a pan after roast chicken).

Can I enrich with cream instead of butter?

Cream is great, particularly for sauces that use white wine or apple cider. Stir in the cream after your liquids are reduced. Keep the pan over medium-low heat and whisk until the sauce returns to a simmer.

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Zuni Short Ribs Braised in Chimay Ale

2012-01-17T13:45:00.001-05:00

What better way to celebrate the first day of snow in Boston than with a braise? I had a tray of Costco Short Ribs in my fridge and decided that I should branch out from my usual red wine braise or balsamic soy braise and try the beer braise from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.

If you hate beer, don't let this scare you away from this recipe. It won't taste like beer when it's done. The sauce is sweet and mellow. By the way, does anyone love Costco Short Ribs as much as I do? Have you tried them? They are boneless, but I actually prefer them this way. Short ribs have so much flavor and fat that they turn out fine without the bone. It's also a steal at $6/Lb. Most of the butchers in the area sell bone-in short ribs for $9/Lb. Considering the fact that almost half the weight is the bone, you are talking $16/Lb. For a braising cut, that's rather steep.

I made a few trivial modifications to the original recipe. I add more liquid to avoid flipping the meat during cooking and then reduce the sauce in the end to concentrate the flavor. I also cooked the short ribs a lot longer. About 2 hours that the recipe suggested is never enough to turn the braising cuts of beef fork tender in my opinion. I braised for 3 hours at 300F.

As with all braises, make this 1-4 days before serving. The short ribs will only taste better and de-greasing the sauce will be a breeze once the fat solidifies in the fridge.

Short Ribs Braised in Chimay Ale
Adopted from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers

For 6-8 servings

3 Lb boneless short ribs (bone-in is fine, but you'll have fewer servings)
Salt
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Lb yellow onions (about 5 medium), sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 bay leaves
Up to 2 cups beef or brown chicken stock
Up to 2 cups Chimay ale or similar Belgian-style ale or mellow porter or stout
About 1/4 cup Dijon mustard

Season: Trim most of the fat and connective tissue from the short ribs. Season them liberally with salt. Judy Rodgers suggests that you do this 1-2 days in advance, cover loosely and refrigerate. If you are not going to do this step in advance, I suggest that you brown the short ribs first (see the next step) and then season them.
Brown: Preheat the oven to 300F. Dry the meat thoroughly on paper towels. Pour olive oil into a large saute pan (I used a 12 inch pan with straight sides) and warm it up over high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the meat in a single layer without crowding and turn down the heat to medium. Cook until the first side is brown, about 4 minutes. Flip and brown on all the other sides. Note that the first side will take the longest. If using bone-in short ribs, you only need to brown the 3 meaty sides. If the meat wasn't seasoned in advance, sprinkle with salt on all sides.
Braise: If using bone-in short ribs arrange them bone side down. Toss the onions with a little salt and spread on top of the short ribs. Add bay leaves, and equal parts stock and ale until the liquid comes slightly more than half way up the short ribs. Bring to a simmer, cover, and place in the middle of the oven until the short ribs are fork tender (I would even call it spoon tender :), about 3 hours.
Chill overnight: Let the short ribs cool in their braising liquid for 2 hours. Then remove the meat from the sauce, and pour the sauce into a tall container. Cool both to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Next day the fat will solidify on top of the sauce. Lift it off with a spoon and discard.
Rewarm: Pour the sauce into a large saute pan and bring to a boil. Boil down over moderately-high heat until it thickens slightly and becomes intensely flavorful, about 5 minutes. Taste and add salt if needed. Add the short ribs in a single layer and cover the pan. Turn down the heat to very low and cook until heated through flipping once, about 15 minutes total.
Broil: Preheat the broiler. If using bone-in short ribs, place them bone side down. Smear the top with mustard. Set the pan under the broiler (about 5 inches from the top) to brown the mustard, 2-5 minutes depending on the strength of the broiler. Serve with noodles, spaetzle, potatoes, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Roasted Swiss Chard

2012-01-15T22:27:00.000-05:00

Remember how I promised you something fun to do with Swiss Chard in the Washing and Storing video? Here it is:

YouTube link: Roasted Swiss Chard

Here is the recipe for this Swiss Chard dish.

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Oyster Notes

2012-01-12T16:20:00.000-05:00

Nothing works to cheer you up on this deplorably rainy day like having oysters for lunch. To add to the excitement, I decided to shuck them myself for the first time in my life. I can now proudly say that I can shuck oysters. It was a bit tricky at first, but on my third oyster, I finally got a hang of it (at least I thought I did until I switched oyster types). Here are the oysters that I tried:

Duxbury -- sweet and briny, very easy to open
Wellfleet -- very briny, a bit harder to open
Blue Point -- moderately briny, very hard to open

I splurged on an oyster knife from Captain Marden's in Wellesley (where I picked up the oysters). They had some for $9 and some for $15. I asked the fishmonger about the difference. He said that the $15 one is harder and won't bend (he opens 300 oysters a week and he only broke it once). After trying to open a dozen oysters, I am glad I got the better knife. Oysters a freaking hard and stubborn!

To rinse or not to rinse
Oyster purists think it's criminal to rinse an oyster to get rid of grit. I am in no rinse camp for almost everything (chicken, beef, pork, fish, etc), but I really hate grit. As it turns out, the oyster is a bottomless pit of briny liquor, so if you since it and let it sit for 5 minutes, the shell will fill back up with all that yummy brininess. I am not sure if what I did was "correct," but it seemed to work without any negative side effects.

Very little grit -- try wiping it off with your finger.
Moderate amount of grit -- pull the oyster to the side of the shell and pour off the liquor. It will refill itself in 5 minutes.
Lots of grit -- rinse the oyster and shell (it seems easier to do before cutting the oyster off the bottom shell to avoid dropping it into the sink). Put the oyster back in the shell. It will refill itself in 5 minutes.

Here is a video of Rich Vellante from Legal Seafoods showing you how to open an oyster. I must have watched at least 5 and found this one to be the most useful.

Smoky Cauliflower Almond Salad

2012-01-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

Normally, I roast cauliflower in large wedges with as many flat sides as possible. The more contact with the pan, the more browning and flavor. But a tasty little salad at Area Four in Cambridge gave me another idea. Their cauliflower is cut into small florets. It has occasional charred edges, but retains a bit of its raw crunchiness. It would be lacking in flavor if it wasn't for the smoky paprika vinaigrette. It gives this technically vegan dish such husky depth and intensity, that I find it as satisfying as chorizo on a cold winter day.

For the salad:
1 head of cauliflower, broken down into small florets
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions
1/3 cup roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing:
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoky Spanish paprika (Pimentón de la Vera)

Salad procedure:

Preheat the oven to 500F and set the oven rack on the lowest setting.
Spread cauliflower florets in a single layer on a large baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to distribute oil and seasoning evenly and spread in an even layer.
Place the baking dish in the oven and cook until slightly charred, 10-15 minutes. Let cool to warm.
Place cauliflower in a large bowl and add scallions, almonds, and parsley.

Dressing procedure:

In a small bowl combine vinegar and mustard. Whisk with a fork until combined. Gradually add oil whisking constantly. Whisk in paprika.
Pour dressing oven the salad, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt, vinegar, and paprika as necessary. Can be served warm or cold.

Washing Swiss Chard, Kale, and other Leafy Greens

2012-01-08T20:54:00.000-05:00

The New Year resolution to eat more leafy greens is an admirable one. But the path to leafy greens bliss is not without obstacles. How do you get rid of the grit? How do you prevent the leaves from wilting in the fridge? Which part do you eat -- the leaf, the stem, both? Here is a video that can answer those questions.

YouTube link: Washing Swiss Chard, Kale, and Other Leafy Greens

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Beet, Fennel, Kumquat Salad

2012-01-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

When people ask us what to get us for the holidays, Jason and I say in unison -- baby-sitting. But when we were visiting my parents for the holidays in Baltimore, we got much more than that. Not only did they watch the kids while we went out, they gave us a gift certificate to Demi, and even made us a reservation. 20 years ago, when we came to the US, they didn't know what "medium-rare" meant. Now they know the hottest spots to eat out all over the country. I never thought it would come to this, but they are more obsessed with restaurants than we are (or even than we were before kids).

Demi was indeed fabulous. One of the best meals I've had in a long time, and definitely the best meal I've ever had in Baltimore. See -- you should always listen to your mother. The standouts were tuna with vanilla soy broth, braised pork belly with lentils, and a beet salad. The first two will take a little work to recreate at home, but the beet salad is simplicity itself. Mine is a bit different. I replaced orange sections with kumquat slices, and used pickled beets instead of raw as a topping, but the basic idea is the same. It's colorful, layered, and festive -- a nice change from brown winter food.

Beet, Fennel, Kumquat Salad

Serves 4-6 as the first course

For pickled beets:

1/4 Lb beets of any color (I used candy striped)

3/4 cup boiling water

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/2 Tbsp table salt)

2 tsp sugar

For baked beets:

3/4 Lb beets of any color (I used candy striped)

For the salad:

1/4 cup soft goat cheese

1 fennel bulb, sliced thin on a mandoline

5 kumquats, sliced thin

1 Tbsp lime juice

Mint for garnish

Salt and pepper to taste

Pickled beets procedure (at least 24 hours in advance)

In a small non-reactive container, combine boiling water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Mix well to make a brine.
Shave beet on a mandoline and add to the brine. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight or up to a week.

Baked beets procedure (at least 24 hours in advance)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Wrap each beet tightly in foil and place on a baking dish. Bake until tender when pierced with a knife or toothpick, 1.25-2.5 hours depending on the beet size. Note that beet don't get as soft as potatoes, but you shouldn't feel more resistance in the center than you do near the skin.
Cool beets, rub the skin off with your hands and trim top and bottom.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Assembling the salad procedure

Remove pickled beets from the brine, dry off on paper towels and slice into matchsticks. Set aside.
Slice baked beets 1/8 inch thick using a mandoline and arrange on plates. Sprinkle with salt.
Top each beet slice with a small dollop of goat cheese, and a slice of kumquat.
Mix fennel with lime juice and a pinch of salt. Arrange on top of beet slices.
Sprinkle with pickled beet matchsticks and remaining kumquat slices. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with mint.

Testing Fish for Doneness (Video)

2012-01-03T11:21:00.000-05:00

If your fish comes out tough and dry, let me assure you that it's not your fault. It's all those recipes that tell you to cook fish until it flakes and is opaque. First of all, some fish don't flake. Have you ever seen a flaking swordfish? And if the fish is opaque all the way through when you check it, then I have bad news for you, my friends -- it's overcooked. Here is how it's really done.

YouTube link: Testing Fish for Doneness

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Quince Tart Tatin

2011-12-27T12:14:00.000-05:00

Tart Tatin. You've had it with apples. You might have even had it with pears. But have you ever tried it with quince?

On one trip to France, I tried 10 different Apple Tart Tatins in search for the best one. They ranged from just ok to very good, but none quite matched the ideal of caramelized fruit in a perfect pie crust that I had in my head. There is no way around it. As yummy as an apple Tatin is, it never quite rises above the homeliness of comfort food due to apples proclivity for softening a bit too much during cooking. A pear Tatin is a whole different story, particularly when made with ginger. It's juicy, toothsome, exotic. It's my go to Tatin on Thanksgiving that never fails to please. But a quince Tatin can even give the pear one a run for its money. It never fails to stop the conversation when the guests put the first forkful in their mouth. It looks just like an apple Tatin, but what a surprise when you taste it. The fruit is denser, more complex. The cheese lovers often find the taste familiar, yet can't quite place it. What it reminds them of is dulce de membrillo -- the quince paste often served with cheeses, particularly Manchego. You can give them this hint, but it's sometimes fun to watch as they struggle to figure it out.

About quince: quince is a fruit related to apples and pears. It is bright yellow when ripe. You'll need a sharp knife to cut it since it tends to be extremely hard. Don't bother tasting it raw. It's not at all juicy and tastes quite awful -- kind of like eating a raw potato. Don't worry about discoloration after you cut it. There is no need for lemon juice here. After baking with caramel, the quince will take on a gorgeous auburn color.

Caramelized Quince Tart (Tart Tatin)

Note about skillet: I use a 10 inch stainless steel all-clad or tramontina skillet. Non-stick pans also work. Cast iron might be a bit heavy to lift and flip. If you haven't done much weight lifting in the gym lately, this might not be the best pan for this tart.

Burnt quince tip: If the quince burns a little, don't panic. Those dark edges are some of the best parts.

How many quince you'll need: quince vary a lot in size. If the variety you are using looks like an average apple, you'll need about 5. if they are a lot larger, you might only need 3.

3-5 quince (see the note above)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pâte Brisée (pie and tart dough) for one 10-inch tart

Peel, halve, and core quince. Slice them into thick wedges.

In a 9- to 10-inch heavy skillet heat butter over moderate heat until foam subsides. Stir in sugar (sugar will not be dissolved). Arrange a layer of quince wedges to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cut the rest of the wedges coarsely into chunks that are about 2/3 inch big and add to the skillet. Do not move the quince during cooking. Turn down the heat to medium-low, cover the skillet and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until the sugar and butter around the quince turn the color of cinnamon. Don't worry if the top pieces are still hard and look raw. They'll soften during baking. Cool completely in skillet. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 425°F and set a rack in the upper third of the oven.
On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin roll out dough into an 11-inch round (about 1/8 inch thick) and arrange over caramelized quince. Tuck edges into the skillet around quince. Bake tart in the upper third of the oven until pastry is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.

Have ready a rimmed serving plate slightly larger than skillet. As soon as the tart comes out of the oven, invert plate over skillet and, wearing oven mitts and keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together, invert tart onto plate. Do this over the sink in case some juices spill. This is a bit scary, but it works! The trick is to do it in one very fast motion. If some pieces of quince are left in the skillet, place them on top of the tart.

Let cool until warm, 10 - 15 minutes. Serve tart warm with whipped cream or ice cream. Can be made up to 24 hours in advance and served at room temperature or rewarmed.

Rugelach

2011-12-19T13:47:00.020-05:00

"I was up till 1am last night," said one woman in my pilates class. "Rough night with the kids?" I asked. "No, just baking Christmas cookies. I bake 30 trays every year. It's not just the family, you know. Every teacher of every one of my children gets cookies." I was really grateful that the class started at that point and no one asked me how many trays of cookies I baked that week, which was zero.

I hate Christmas cookies. Most of them are much more appropriate to hang as an ornament on a Christmas tree than to put in your mouth. I am definitely not the heroic Mom who gives cookies to every teacher and neighbor, but once in a while I do need to bake something for my children's school or dance recital bake sale. Somehow, pots of pork rillette -- my favorite holiday food gift -- is not something pre-schools appreciate. "If only I could bake a cookie as good as a pie," I thought, and then it hit me -- how about rugelach.

I started with a recipe from Gourmet Magazine (oh, how I miss it) that I found on epicurious. Although this was my first time baking rugelach, I decided to be daring and mess with the recipe a bit. Since it was in the pâte brisée category (one of my fortes), I thought I can get away with it. I added a little sugar to the dough for tenderness. Instead of creaming butter with cream cheese and incorporating the flour to form an even dough, I pulsed the flour with the fats in the food processor into a crumbly mixture that I squeezed briefly by hand to form a dough. The little specs of butter and cream cheese baked into fantastic flaky layers.

Oh, what a cookie! The only problem was that my family ate most of them before I could be a good Mom and give it to the teachers and the neighbors.

Rugelach
Inspired by a recipe by Melissa Roberts-Matar published in May 2004 issue of Gourmet.

Weighing is the only way to guarantee that you'll use the right amount of flour. If you are using cups, make sure to fluff the flour a lot, scoop with a dry measuring cup very gently without packing, and level off. This makes or breaks the dough. You can easily double this recipe, but if your food processor is only 7 cups (mine is), do the dough in 2 batches. This recipe produces 2 logs. If you double it, you can bake all 4 logs on the same baking sheet.

Makes 20 cookies

For the Dough:
5 oz all-purpose flour (1 cup)
1/4 teaspoon table salt (or 1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt)
1 tsp sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, sliced 1/4 inch thick, kept cold
4 oz cream cheese, sliced 1/2 inch thick, kept cold

For the Filling:
2 Tbsp sugar (less if you prefer it less sweet) + 2 tsp for sprinkling finished logs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup apricot preserves or preserves of your choice
zest of 1 orange (or lemon) removed with a vegetable peeler, and minced extremely finely
1/2 cup loosely packed golden raisins, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
Milk for brushing cookies

Special equipment: scale for measuring flour; parchment paper; a small offset spatula

Dough Instructions (at least 1 day before baking):

Put flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor and process for 10 seconds to incorporate evenly.
Add the butter and cream cheese and pulse in 1 second intervals until the mixture looks like couscous (about 15 one second long pulses). Turn the mixture out into a small bowl and squeeze very firmly with your hands until it comes together into one big clump. Shape the clump into a 1.5 inch thick rectangle that is roughly 5 by 3 inches. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight. The dough can be kept in the fridge for 5 days or frozen indefinitely.

Filling and Baking Instructions:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line bottom of a 1- to 1 1/2-inch-deep large shallow baking pan with parchment paper.
Cut dough into 2 pieces that are half the thickness of the original piece (still 5 by 3 inches, but now about 2/3 inch thick). Chill the piece you are not working with, wrapped in plastic wrap, and roll out remaining piece into a 12- by 8-inch rectangle on a well-floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Transfer dough to a sheet of parchment, then transfer to a tray and chill while rolling out remaining dough in same manner, transferring each to another sheet of parchment and stacking on tray.
Whisk 2 Tbsp sugar with cinnamon.
Arrange 1 dough rectangle on work surface with a long side nearest you. Spread 1/4 cup preserves evenly over dough with offset spatula leaving 1.5 inch border on the long side furthest from you and 1/2 inch border on right and left. Sprinkle with half the zest. Sprinkle 1/4 cup raisins and 1/4 cup walnuts over jam, then sprinkle with 1 Tbsp cinnamon sugar.
Roll up dough tightly into a log. Place, seam side down in lined baking pan, then pinch ends closed and tuck underneath. Make another log in same manner and add to the pan. If doubling the recipe to make 4 logs, space them 1 inch apart. Brush logs with milk and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of remaining sugar. Chill for 30 minutes.
With a sharp large knife, make 3/4-inch-deep cuts crosswise in dough (not all the way through) at 1-inch intervals.
Bake until golden, 45 to 50 minutes rotating pan 180 degrees half way through. Cool to warm in pan on a rack, about 30 minutes, then transfer logs to a cutting board and slice cookies all the way through. If some of the filling leaked out during baking, don't panic. It usually ends up around the logs, not underneath. Carefully, scrape it off when transferring logs to cutting board.

Can be cooled completely and stored in an airtight container, but they are outrageously good warm. If you want warm rugelach with minimal hassle, you can freeze unbaked logs and bake them later. Move them to the fridge a day before you want to bake.

Browning Meat (Video)

2011-12-19T00:08:00.010-05:00

How confident are you when you place a piece of meat, fish, or poultry into a skillet? Does that steak sometimes sick? Do the scallops fail to brown? Here is a video with some browning (searing) tips and tricks.

YouTube link: Browning Meat

Here are some questions I frequently get in class about browning in a skillet.

What type of skillet do you use?
My go to skillet for searing is a good stainless steel one. It browns beautifully and leave you brown bits to make a pan sauce. The only exception to this is searing fin fish. Only the firmest fish (tuna, swordfish, shark, and marlin) can be seared in a stainless steel skillet. Other fish will stick. In that case, use a well seasoned cast iron skillet or a teflon one. Scallops, shrimp and seafood will be fine in a stainless steel skillet. Here is my post on pots and pans that includes my favorite brands and sizes.

How do you wash a stainless steel skillet? It always takes me forever to scrub everything off.
Boil water in the skillet for 5 minutes. Pour out the water and wash while the skillet is still pretty hot. If all else fails, try Bar Keeper's Friend. Works like a charm for stainless cookware. Here is a video on how to wash a stainless skillet.

What type of oil do you use?
I use canola because the smoke temperature is a little higher than olive oil. You can use whatever you like (grapeseed, olive, peanut). If you want to produce faster browning on lean proteins, try using 3 parts oil to 1 part butter combo. The milk solids in the butter will brown quickly giving you beautiful color and flavor on things like scallops and halibut.

What salt do you use?
Diamond Crystal Kosher.

What proportion of salt to pepper do you use?
I use about 5 parts salt to 1 part pepper, but you can do whatever you like. Just keep in mind that you want way more salt than pepper.

Can you achieve good browning on electric stove?
Yes, you can achieve good browning on any stove. What's much more important is the quality of your skillet. Just make sure to preheat your skillet long enough so that the meat sizzles at first contact. If you are working on electric stove and need to lower the heat, you might need to move the skillet off the burner temporarily to avoid burning.

What was that about not washing chicken and any other proteins? Isn't it dangerous?
No. It's actually safer. Even USDA recommends you don't wash proteins.

What stunning dish should you make this holiday season to practice this technique?
How about this rack of lamb

or a perfect steak

If meat is not your thing, the seared tuna with pomegranate topping is a fun and festive dish.

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Slicing Fennel (Video)

2011-12-11T14:50:00.000-05:00

Let's get a few things straight about fennel. There are fennel seeds used as a spice, and fennel bulb used as a vegetable. This post is about the vegetable. It is often sold as "anise," but don't let that scare you. Even people like me who hate licorice and can only tolerate star anise (that's a spice) in small amounts can be huge fennel fans.

Fennel is the bluefish of the vegetables. Huh? Let me explain. It's the ingredients my students expect not to like in the beginning of class and end up loving by the end of class. Here is a video on fennel preparation (trimming, coring, slicing thickly for cooking, and shaving on a mandoline for salads or other raw uses).

YouTube link: Slicing Fennel

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

I love adding paper thin fennel to salads and sandwiches and here are some cooking ideas:

Fennel with Almonds and Cherries

Tomato Fennel Tart Tatin

Sea Bream with Fennel and Oranges

Trout with Braised Fennel

Braised Monkfish with Fennel, Tomatoes, and Oranges

Smoked Trout and Fennel Chowder

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Bell Pepper Video -- slicing and dicing

2011-12-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

YouTube link: Slicing and Dicing Bell Peppers

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

The barley salad I mentioned last week is a good opportunity to practice dicing a pepper. This is an ultimate test of your knife skills since it needs a brunoise (1/8 inch dice) of zucchini, minced shallots, and plenty of minced herbs. Luckily, there is not much active work besides chopping and you'll be rewarded with a delicious and healthy meal. Ratatouille is another lovely dish, especially in the summer.

Barley Almond Salad with Zucchini and Red Peppers

Ratatouille

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John Boos Cutting Board (and it's short life in my kitchen)

2011-11-30T12:49:00.000-05:00

Wood or plastic -- the never-ending debate about the least glamorous kitchen tool. You'd think that after hundreds (if not thousands) of years of making cutting boards, people would finally perfect this piece of equipment, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

First of all, let me admit that I am a plastic board person. The bacteria issue is just ridiculous. The entire food industry uses them and NSF (National Sanitation Foundation ) approves them. If you worry about bacteria in plastic boards, you'd better stop eating out. If you have a dishwasher, sanitizing a plastic board is a piece of cake, and if you don't, there is always bleach. My problem with plastic boards was their appearance in cooking videos. Many vegetables are light in color and cutting them on a white board doesn't provide good contrast. Why do you think all the boards on Food TV are wood? Because that's what professionals use in restaurants? Give me a break! There was also the supposed issue of plastic boards dulling the knives faster than wood. It never seemed to be a problem with my regular knives because I steel them daily, but now that I got a Japanese knife and spent hours reading very geeky knife forums, I bent down to peer-pressure and started looking for a wood board.

Cook's Illustrated, whose recommendations on equipment are usually solid, changes its mind on cutting boards almost every year. So, when I started looking at which board I should buy, I was scratching my head for about a month. Finally, I picked John Boos Maple 18 x 12 x 1.75-in. End Grain Cutting Board for $76. My past experience with a wood board was been terrible. In spite of all the TLC, it still ended up warping and splitting in less than a year of use. But that was a cheap board from Crate and Barrel. I was hoping that John Boos would last longer. I followed all the instructions to the letter. Didn't soak in water, dried immediately after hand-washing, oiled couple of times in the first week of use. The results? 4 days later, the board was warped, and it wouldn't stay put on the counter. What about the wet towel trick to prevent the board from sliding? That works great with plastic boards, but means death for a wood board. Contact with moisture means more warping and splitting.

While the board lasted, it was a lovely surface to work on, so I was hoping there was some way to reverse the warp. I contacted John Boos and they instructed me to wrap the board in plastic and put a heavy weight on it for 4 days. I tried that. It didn't work. Luckily, I bought this board from cutleryandmore.com, whose customer service was outstanding. They said they'd take the board back, give me a refund, and even pay for my shipping back charges. So that was the end of the Boos board, and I was back in the market.

I decided to take a look at restaurant supply stores on-line, and found a Winco 12 x 18 x 1.75 edge-grain board for about $32 including shipping. In theory, edge-grain boards are not as gentle on knives as end-grain boards, but they tend to warp and split a bit less since they absorb less moisture. After 1 month of use, my board is still in exactly the same shape as it was new. The working surface was a tad too smooth and slippery when the board was brand new, but now that I broke it in, it feels good. Is it really better on knives than my plastic board? Hard to tell, but the chopping motion does feel a little better. As all thick wood boards of this size, it's heavy, so I can't comfortable lift it up to swipe the vegetables into a pot or bowl. When I am dealing with small amounts, I can scoop them with a knife, but for large amounts, I have to dirty my pastry scraper that doubles as a food scooper. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. Washing this board is a bit of a pain because of its weight. Ideally, the weight would help it stay put on the counter while I am chopping. It sort of does. Sort of. I feel it shifting a bit, so I end up putting a dry terry cloth towel underneath.

In the end, I still reach for my plastic boards when I am making dinner. My favorite one is an 18x12x0.5 Winco plastic (polyethylene) board. Put a damp paper towel underneath, and you are ready to go. It's large enough to fit a lot of veggies, and light enough to lift comfortably to a bowl or pot. Doesn't nick much or grab the knife's edge. 10.5x111 OXO boards are not bad either. They are smaller and lighter than my Winco plastic board, so even easier to clean. The rubber feet wear out quickly and stabilizing them takes a lot more paper towel since it needs to go under the feel, not under the middle of the board. They do get nicked a lot more, and grip the edge a lot stronger. When I move the knife over a bit while rocking it back and forth on the board, I sometimes feel a snap around the edge. It just doesn't feel quite right. But with regular steel use, it's no biggie.

Julienne and Brunoise Video (and tips on madoline use)

2011-11-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

YouTube link: Julienne and Brunoise

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Here are a few dishes to detox after Thanksgiving and practice your julienne and brunoise skills.

Barley Almond Salad with Zucchini and Red Peppers

Parsnip Soup with Smoked Scallops and Radish Julienne

Arctic Char Tartar with Quinoa and Zucchini

13 down / 37 more to go

Ginger Video (and Pear Ginger Tart Tatin)

2011-11-20T15:11:00.000-05:00

YouTube link: Minced Ginger

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Have you decided what pies you are making for Thanksgiving yet? Do you have room for one more? It's a show stopper, is very easy to make, and you can use store bought pie dough if you are short on time. The pie I am talking about is Pear Ginger Tart Tatin. The pears are caramelized in a skillet, then sprinkled with a generous amount of raw minced ginger and covered with pie dough. Once the turkey is out, you stick this tart in the oven for 30 minutes and it's ready by desert time. The flipping it onto a plate is way easier than it seems, but it is always accompanied with a suspense and drama as you lift the skillet to reveal a huge flower of caramelized pears. Don't be alarmed by a large amount of ginger. It caramelizes as the tart bakes and becomes quite mild.

Caramelized Pear Tart with Ginger

Note about skillet: I use a 10 inch stainless steel all-clad or tramontina skillet. Non-stick pans also work. Cast iron might be a bit heavy to lift and flip. If you haven't done much weight lifting in the gym lately, this might not be the best pan for this tart.

In advance tip: You can cook the pears and roll out the dough the morning of Thanksgiving, but start baking the tart no earlier than 1 hour before serving. The pears tend to wrinkle as the tart cools off and don't taste quite as good as when it's just baked.

Burnt pears tip: If the pears burnt a little, don't panic. Take a paring knife and slice a sliver off the top after baking and inverting the tart. I prefer the pears and caramel to be more brown rather than less.

4 large Bosc pears
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tbsp minced ginger (optional)
Pâte Brisée (pie and tart dough) for one 10-inch tart

Peel, halve, and core pears.

In a 9- to 10-inch heavy skillet heat butter over moderate heat until foam subsides. Stir in sugar (sugar will not be dissolved). Arrange pears, cut sides up, in skillet, with the skinny end of pears pointing into the middle of the pan. If you have a half of pear left over, cut a circle out of it and place it in the middle of the skillet domed side down. The pears will make a sort of flower in the skillet. Cook without stirring until sugar mixture forms a deep golden caramel. (This can take as little as 10 minutes or as much as 25, depending on skillet and stove.) Cool pears completely in skillet. Sprinkle with cinnamon and ginger.

Preheat oven to 425°F and set a rack in the upper third of the oven.
On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin roll out dough into an 11-inch round (about 1/8 inch thick) and arrange over caramelized pears. Tuck edges into the skillet around pears. Bake tart in the upper third of the oven until pastry is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes, but not longer.

Have ready a rimmed serving plate slightly larger than skillet. Invert plate over skillet and, wearing oven mitts and keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together, invert tart onto plate. Do this over the sink in case some juices spill. This is a bit scary, but it works! The trick is to do it in one very fast motion.

Let cool until warm, 10-15 minutes. Serve tart warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

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Peeling and Cutting Butternut Squash Video

2011-11-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

Peeled and diced butternut squash in a plastic package is probably not an option at your local farmers' market. And for good reason. Butternut squash lasts very well before it's cut (I once kept mine for 2 months!), and very badly after it's cut. As tempting as the prepped butternut squash looks in the store, it often leaves the cook with regret when she finds half of the pieces to be slimy or dried up.

Believe it or not, butternut squash is not hard to deal with if you arm yourself with a sharp chef's knife (8 inches or larger), a peeler (I like OXO brand), and a few tricks.

YouTube link: Peel, Slice, and Dice Butternut Squash

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

The easiest and yummiest way to serve squash is to roast it in thick slices. I like to combine it with green beans, cranberries, and cashews for a Thanksgiving side dish -- tastes great hot, warm, or even cold.

Butternut Squash, Green Beans, Cranberries, and Cashews

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Celery Root (Celeriac) Peeling and Cutting Video

2011-11-06T21:00:00.002-05:00

When you pick up a celery root (also known as "celeriac") in the store, please remember that beauty is only skin deep, and so is ugliness. Peel the warts, hairs, and dirt off him, and he is no more intimidating than a potato.

YouTube link: Celery Root Peeling and Cutting

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Some ideas for what to do with your celery root:

Braise it with vanilla bean and mash. Here is the description of the braising technique that also works on parsnips, turnips, and sweet potatoes. The vanilla bean addition was inspired by Bea's recipe on Tartine Gourmande. Bea also has a fabulous recipe for potato and celery root gratin. It was so good I've made it at least 5 times. I also often mix thinly sliced celery root with potatoes in the Bluefish with Crispy Potatoes dish.

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Triple Mushroom Pizza

2011-11-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

I never got the concept of putting raw mushrooms on pizza (or in a salad for that matter). As much as I love mushrooms, I can't stand what is usually sold as "mushroom pizza" in the US. But this is not that kind of pizza. I don't even know if it's technically a pizza at all, but whatever it is, it's wicked good. I had some mushroom duxelles (finely minced mushroom mixture) left over, and some pizza dough left over. As usually happens when one leftover meets another leftover, sparks fly, and something yummy is born. Since I am a mushroom addict, I have 3 layers of mushroominess in my duxelles -- portabellas, porcini liquid, and truffle oil. I didn't bother with cheese for this pizza. Instead, I dressed some arugula with a truffle vinaigrette and spread it on top of the pizza before serving. To keep it from falling off, I folded two pieces of pizza together to make the world's most mushroomy sandwich. Oh, mushrooms -- what is it about you that make you taste like a controlled substance?

It almost made me wish I had a cute little cafe, so that I could share this sandwich with all the mushroom lovers. But then I kicked myself and remembered that I would have to do back breaking work for minimum wage with no break for holidays or weekends.

Triple Mushroom Pizza

Serves 1-2

Overall plan:

1-2 days before serving, make the dough and mushroom duxelles. Refrigerate both until ready to use.
When ready to serve, preheat the oven and pizza stone for 30 minutes. Stretch out the pizza dough, spread the mushroom duxelles on top and bake (see instructions in the dough post for how to do all this)
While the pizza is baking, make arugula salad.
When the pizza is ready, cut it, pile the salad on top and serve.

Ingredients:

1 batch Pizza Dough

For Mushroom Duxelles

1/2 oz dry porcini mushrooms (about 1/2 cup)

2 large portabella mushrooms, stems removed

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp dry white wine

2 Tbsp heavy cream

1/2 tsp truffle oil (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

For Arugula Salad

2 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp truffle oil (optional)

2 cups loosely packed arugula

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Mushroom Duxelles

In a small bowl, combine dry porcini mushrooms with 2/3 cup boiling water. Stir and let sit for 30 minutes while preparing portabellas.
Wash and dry the portabellas. Cut into 1/2 inch dice. Set a 10-12 inch skillet with 2 Tbsp olive oil over high heat. The hot, add portabellas and a generous pinch of salt. Stir well and have a cover for the skillet handy. Add the wine and immediately cover the skillet. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until mushrooms release a lot of liquid, 8-10 minutes.
Uncover the skillet, stir the mushrooms, and cook until all the liquid evaporates. Continue to cook stirring occasionally until many surfaces are brown, 8-12 minutes. Don't stir too often or mushrooms won't brown.
Line a sieve or colander with a damp paper towel and strain the porcini liquid into the skillet with portabella. You need the paper towel to catch the grit. Press on the porcini to get as much liquid out of them as possible. Reserve them for another use or discard. They are usually very gritty and cleaning them is a pain so I usually discard them. All they aroma and wonderful flavor will be in the liquid.
Continue to cook portabellas stirring occasionally until the porcini liquid is almost gone (it will become a sort of syrupy glaze).
Cool portabellas slightly, add 2 Tbsp cream and 1/2 tsp truffle oil and puree using a food processor or immersion blender (if using immersion blender, move them to some narrow tall container. don't puree in a skillet).
Taste for salt and pepper and add as necessary.

The mushroom mixture can be used immediately or refrigerated for up to 3 days. It will solidify in the fridge. To make it easier to spread, warm up in the microwave just until warm, but not hot.

Arugula Salad

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil and truffle oil and whisk vigorously right before using.
Put arugula in a bowl with plenty of room to mix. Drizzle with half the dressing (from step 1), sprinkle with salt and pepper and use your hand to toss well. Taste and add more dressing and salt as necessary.

Herbs Video

2011-10-31T10:36:00.002-04:00

Do you spend too much time removing leaves from thyme? How about cutting basil into thin ribbons, or mincing enough parsley to make tabbouleh? Working with herbs doesn't need to be labor intensive if you know a few tricks.

Youtube link: Mincing herbs

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Do you want to know how to wash and store your herbs, how to substitute one herb for another, best time to add herbs to your dish, or what to do with leftovers? Check out my FAQ about Herbs.

It was hard to choose which dishes to post here that would encourage you to mince some herb. Almost all of my dishes use herbs (they are my 4th favorite ingredient after salt, olive oil, and lemon juice :) But here are some ideas:

Striped Bass with Orange Gremolata

Illustrated Guide to Ratatouille

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What fish is this?

2011-10-24T12:44:00.001-04:00

That's a tough question. Since there are no regulations when it comes to fish names, fish markets and restaurants can call it pretty much whatever they please. There is a good article in the Boston Globe about it (I hope Globe won't ask you to register after today). In the article Beth Daley and Jenn Abelson raise the issues of industry fraud, health, and the environment.

I would like to raise another issue -- one of consumer close mindedness. After watching famous food TV personalities consume bull testicles and pig eye balls, we want to think of ourselves as open minded gourmands. After all, we tell our children they should try everything at least once, and we are sure we set a wonderful example for them. We are no longer a nation of meat and potatoes, right? I wish I could say yes, but I can't.

Over the last 8 years of teaching cooking classes, I had a chance to ask more than 2 thousand people questions about what ingredients they cook with and what dishes they order in restaurants. It wasn't a formal survey, but more anecdotal evidence that comes from statements like "I never thought I would have liked bluefish. I've never tasted it before. Isn't it supposed to be strong and fishy." Since restaurant chef's and fishmongers have to deal with this kind of attitude, is it any wonder Ming Tsai calls sable "butterfish" on his menu. I heard that some Mom got her children to eat salmon by telling them it was orange chicken. It worked. That's what many restaurants and fish mongers are trying to do. Get us to eat things we normally wouldn't.

I was at a fish counter at Captain Marden's in Wellesley, MA, when I heard a woman singing praises to Black Cod. "That cod you sold me last week, Tom -- was the best cod I've ever had. So tender, so sweet and buttery. Just melted in the mouth." That cod was actually not cod at all, but sable. Would this woman buy it under its real name?

Seafood industry surely needs more regulation, and fish names should be standardized. The current situation is as ridiculous as if we were selling pork rib chops as veal rib chops, or hanger steak as tenderloin. But let's not forget to take a good look at ourselves as cooks and diners. Imagine that consumers were unwilling to buy anything that is not tenderloin. Would the meat industry be as willing to tell them what the cut really is?

Here are some common fish mislabeling and confusing names. They are not illegal, but that doesn't make them any more understandable.

Sable -- often goes under the names of Black Cod and Butterfish
Striped bass -- often called Striper in New England and Rockfish in Maryland and mid-Atlantic states
Escolar -- often sold as white tuna. It's not a tuna at all. While delicious, it causes many people terrible gastrointestinal distress. I love its taste and never experienced any negative side effects myself, but I strongly believe they should ban it (many countries do).
Grey sole -- a type of flounder
Lemon sole -- another type of flounder
"Dover" sole -- if "Dover" is in quotes and it comes from Pacific water, it's really a flounder. True Dover Sole is from Europe
Ahi tuna -- another name for yellowfin tuna
Scrod -- a New England term that means some white fish (could be cod, haddock, or hake)
Chilean Sea Bass -- not a bass at all, but Patagonian Toothfish

Mashed Garlic Video

2011-10-23T22:49:00.001-04:00

Is mashed garlic the same as minced garlic? Watch the video to find out.

YouTube Link: How to mash garlic into a paste

Here are some garlicky dishes to try that use this technique:

Rack of Lamb with Cilantro Garlic Butter

Honey Garlic Grilled Eggplant

Roasted Pepper Garlic Mayo (that's part of the Bouillabaisse recipe)

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Slicing and Mincing Garlic Video

2011-10-16T10:04:00.003-04:00

One of my readers (Kake) asked for a garlic video that shows how to do a really compact claw grip. How could I say no to that? Garlic is one of my favorite and most frequently used ingredients.

YouTube Link: Slicing and Mincing Garlic

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Here are some dishes to inspire you to practice slicing and mincing garlic

Seared Halibut with Potatoes and Tomatoes

Bouillabaisse

Cannellini and Rosemary Soup

Stay tuned for mashed garlic next week.

7 down / 43 more to go

Dicing and Mincing a Shallot (Video)

2011-10-09T09:27:00.005-04:00

A shallot is cook's best friend (at least French cook's) -- like an onion, but with more finesse. Most of the time shallots are used in diced and minced form, and it doesn't hurt to know how to do that correctly. Keep in mind that if you hack up that shallot into large irregular pieces, the finesse and elegance go out the window.

YouTube Link: Dicing and Mincing a Shallot

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Here are some dishes to inspire you to practice dicing and mincing shallots

Arctic Char Tartar

Beet Orange Risotto

Bluefish with Gin and Lime Butter

Salads that won't wilt

This concludes our series of crying videos. Next week, we'll move onto tasks that don't require goggles or a box of tissues.

6 down / 44 more to go

Knife geekiness

2011-10-04T14:57:00.001-04:00

Say you want to learn Japanese knife sharpening techniques. Where do you go? The only place I know of on this coast is Korin in New York. That is a bit inconvenient for me at the moment so I thought of a better place -- Google. I don't mean the search engine (though that was very helpful too), I mean the Google office in Cambridge, MA. That office probably offers the highest concentration of geekiness in the Metro Boston area and this characteristic seems to be very highly correlated with people's obsession over their knives. Google also happens to be the work place of Scott McKay who has an extensive Japanese Knife Collection. I don't mean the stuff you buy at William and Sonoma. I mean serious stuff. Some of it is so serious, it has never touched a cutting board. You wouldn't want to cook with a museum quality knife, would you? But there are many lovely Japanese knives that Scott does use for cooking and thus needs to maintain.

I've met Scott at the Culinary Historians of Boston many years ago, and decided to contact him with a plea for sharpening help. Scott gladly agreed and told me to come with my knives, tomatoes, and onions. I also brought band-aids. After reading Matthew Amster-Burton's article, I figured there was no way I was getting out of this experience without some blood. Scott brought his knife collection and a few sharpening stones.

I was learning to hone a knife on a stone since that's preferable to a rod (a.k.a. steel) for Japanese knives. First we had to find the right angle. To do that, Scott told me to set the knife flat on the stone, put the fingers right on the edge and gradually lift the back of the knife until there was no gap between the edge and the stone. To maintain the angle, I had to keep my fingers right on the edge as I pushed the knife forward and backwards on the stone. It was actually quite easy, except for not cutting myself. I walked away from this experience unscathed, but I was cheating a little. I put my fingers right on the edge to find it while the knife was stationary, but when I started pushing the knife on the stone, I moved my fingers a little back.

After practicing for 20 minutes I felt pretty good about the process. Did the knife get sharper? Not that I noticed, but I've only used the Mac (Jason's birthday present to me) for 1 week, so it was very sharp to begin with. The good news was that I hadn't made it duller, which could easily happen if I was not using the stone correctly.

After I got home, I was so inspired that I pulled out my cheapy Norton stone and used a similar technique to what Scott showed me with some tips from Chad Ward's wonderful egullet post to give my Forschner a more narrow angle. One thing I did differently this time is I sprayed the stone periodically with water. I realize it's an oil stone, but oil seems too messy and slows down the sharpening process a lot since it reduces friction. The few times I used the stone before, I tried it dry since Cook's Illustrated said it worked fine dry. But that metal slurry the knife forms on the stone when the water is added really seemed to help.

I was aiming for 15 degrees. With a little trig I was able to figure out how high I should lift the back of the knife given its width and the angle that I wanted. I don't think I've used a sine function in over 12 years. It was kind of fun to use high-school math again. The edge came out quite nice.

This is not a minimalist dish from a molecular gastronomy establishment. It's my sharpening test. One grape tomato was sliced with a Forschner and one with a Mac. Can you tell which knife was used for which row? If I can make 1mm slices of tomato, I think my knives are in working order. Onions still feel a bit harder for a Forschner, but I am guessing that's just the geometry of the knife. The Japanese knife is thinner, so cutting takes less effort. Now if only I could have the Mac blade with a Forschner handle, I'd be in heaven.

Now that my Japanese stone has arrived, I was able to give both my Mac and Forschner a much more polished edge. The Japanese stones are much smoother than western. The one I got is 1000 grit for the coarse side and 4000 for the fine. My Norton stone isn't labelled, but I am guessing it's 300 for the coarse and 800 for the fine.

I have also finally learned to use the steel correctly. Yes, everyone goes swishing their knives on it, but does it do anything? After replacing my worn out steel with a new one (sharpening tools wear out too!), reading Chad Ward's post, and watching Patti Small from On the Edge Knife Sharpening do it a few times in person, I finally got it. The angle should be just a little wider than the angle of the edge and the pressure should be very light. Since I have so many Forschner knives, I took one to Patti for a 15 degree edge. She has an EdgePro system that controls the angle perfectly. This is my example knife against which I can compare my free hand sharpening efforts.

Now I feel kind of bad feeding the rest of my knives to that Chef's Choice electric machine or using AccuSharp. The truth is, they work. They give your knives a rather wide angle of 20-22 degrees and chef's choice leaves occasional very small bumps in the edge. But they don't take any practice to master and are a lot faster than stone honing when I have to deal with 15 knives I use for classes. They are also a great option for people who are not that obsessive about knives but want to be able to slice a tomato cleanly.

But for my own knives, I'll try to keep practicing free-hand sharpening and honing. If I keep this up, maybe I'll buy myself a really nice knife. About 15 percent of my students show up with Shun and Global knives these days and have no idea how to maintain them. Most of these companies will resharpen your knives for you if you send them back to them, but that's like deciding to have children and thinking you'll call a baby-sitter when the diapers will need to be changed. If you want to have kids, you'd better learn to change diapers. And if you want really nice knives, you'd better get up close and personal with a stone.

How to slice a shallot (video)

2011-10-03T07:28:00.004-04:00

One of the questions after my claw grip video was how to do it on a small vegetable, like a shallot or garlic clove. Since a picture is worth a thousand words (and a moving picture is worth even more), I decided to make a few shallot videos. Here is one on slicing

Youtube link: Slicing Shallots

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

These fig and blue cheese tarts should be a wonderful opportunity to practice slicing shallots.

Fig and Blue Cheese Tarts

Stay tuned for diced shallot next week.

5 down / 45 more to go

Last few weeks to buy real garlic

2011-09-29T10:58:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I made the last garlic pilgrimage to the Wayland farmers' market for this year. This is the only market the "garlic guy" from Old Sudbury Garlic Farm comes to. As I found out from the farmer's market website, his name is Michael O'Connor. But to me, he'll always be the garlic guy because what he grows is just unbeatable. Comparing his garlic to the stuff you buy in the supermarkets (even Whole Foods) is like comparing Burgundy Premier Cru to a Two Buck Chuck. But I've tried garlic from many local farms and Michael's is the best. Best flavor, no blemishes, perfectly cured, and lasts forever. I just bought myself 2 Lb to last me through the fall and beginning of winter. The prices are very fair too. A pound is only $7.

The only kind he had last month was German White. But right now he is also selling Spanish Roja, Music, Siberian, and Italian (the exact name of Italian escapes me). Michael should be at the market until mid-October, so you still have a few weeks to stock up on garlic. Don't worry, his garlic won't start growing in a week the way supermarket garlic does. I kept my last batch for a month and a half with no ill effects. The best way to store it is in a cool, dark, and dry place.

Michael can be found at

Wayland Farmers' Market at Russell's Garden Center
Wednesdays, 12pm-5pm
June 22- Oct 12, 2011

Dicing an Onion Video

2011-09-25T20:22:00.009-04:00

I am sure you've been practicing slicing onions all of last week. No, you haven't? That's ok, I still love you :) But please make sure to get comfortable with slicing before you get to dicing. Seriously, it will make your life a lot easier.

Youtube link: Dicing Onions

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

Add some diced carrots and celery to your onions and you've got yourself a mirepoix (fancy French word for the flavor base for all your soups and stews). If you can learn to make it efficiently, you should be able to get a job as a prep cook in a restaurant or please your family with many wonderful dishes.

Lentils Braised in Red Wine

Monkfish Osso Buco

Braised Boston Butt (Pork Osso Buco Style)

4 down / 46 more to go

Chanterelle Stew

2011-09-22T12:26:00.001-04:00

Recreating my Grandmother's recipes is a hopeless undertaking. Somehow they never take quite right when I make them. What about recreating other people's Grandmothers' recipes that you haven't even tasted? I realize it's not only hopeless, but completely ridiculous. But ridiculous culinary undertakings are my specialty, so when I saw chanterelles at Russo's yesterday, I couldn't help thinking of Anna's comment on my mushroom post:

I know you are very busy with videos but when you get a momement maybe you can do a recipe for chanterelle zharkoye (stew) or send me a link to one. My grandmother used to make it but she's long gone and I cannot seem to find anything decent on the web. Or more like I do find stuff, but then I am not 100% if it works and I do not want to chance it with $20 per lb mushrooms.

This comment brought back many delicious memories because my Grandmother made a Beef and Chanterelle stew that was divine, and that I've never attempted. Here are some problems with chanterelles. They are at least $20/Lb. Most of the ones I see in stores are somewhat rotten (I guess not many people buy they and they sit around in the store too long). Even when I do buy them, they don't taste quite like the chanterelles do in Europe. Here they are more meaty, not as delicate as the ones I remember from my childhood. But in spite of all these drawbacks, when you can find them in good condition, their sweetness and apricot perfume are hard to resist. Yesterday's batch of chanterelles at Russo's looked particularly good and I got some to attempt to turn them into a stew.

Dear Anna, I know that this is not going to recreate your grandmother's dish, but at least I hope you won't feel that you wasted $20 for nothing.

Chanterelle Stew
How to clean chanterelles: Please ignore the "rule" about not washing the mushrooms. It's absolutely fine to wash them and dry on paper towels. You need to get all the grit out of them. Use a soft toothbrush to help you if necessary.

Note on stocks: I used a home-made brown chicken stock, but a beef stock or porcini liquid might be even better. To make porcini liquid, soak 1oz dry porcini in 3 cups boiling water for at least 30 minutes. Then drain through a fine mesh sieve lined with a damp paper towel.

Serves 4-6 as the first course or side dish

1 Lb chanterelles, cleaned
1 cup finely diced shallots (about 3 medium)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil (sunflower seed oil for a more authentic Russian taste)
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp tomato paste (optional)
3 cups home-made stock (see note above)
1/3 cup heavy cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut medium chanterelles into halves, large ones into quarters, and leave really small ones whole.
Set a 12 inch skillet with 1 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp olive oil over high heat. Add chanterelles and a pinch of salt, and cook about 5 minutes stirring once or twice. Before stirring, check one mushroom to make sure it is brown. Remove mushrooms to a plate and set aside.
Turn down the heat to very low (on electric stove, keep the skillet off the heat until the burner cools off). Add shallots, another tablespoon of butter, and a generous pinch of salt. Cook stirring often until shallots are translucent and tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the flour, turn up the heat to medium-low and cook stirring constantly for 2 minutes.
Add the wine and tomato paste and stir constantly until everything is integrated and the mixture comes to a simmer.
Add the stock and chanterelles. Turn up the heat and bring to a simmer stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 45-60 minutes or until the mushrooms are very tender and the sauce is desired consistency. If the sauce is too thin to your liking by the time mushrooms are done, uncover, turn up the heat, and cook stirring frequently until it thickens.
Stir in cream (if using) and bring to a simmer. Serve.

Serving ideas

Spoon into bowls and top each portion with a poached or sous-vide egg and chives.

Serve as a side dish to roast chicken, scallops, halibut, duck, or steak.

Eat as is with plenty of good bread for dunking into the sauce.

How to slice an onion (video)

2011-09-18T20:28:00.003-04:00

Here is another remake.

Link to YouTube: Slicing an Onion

I owe the trick of nicking the outer layers of the onion with a knife to make peeling easier to one of my youngest students, Connor Goggins. Thanks Connor!

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

If you want to practice slicing onions (2 Lb or more), I suggest you caramelize them. I can't think of a savory dish that would not be better with caramelized onions: tarts, pizzas, meats, pastas, sandwiches. For example, add caramelized onions to a plain grilled cheese and your family will beg you for more. They might even volunteer to do dishes if you promise to feed them this sandwich every week.

Caramelized Onion Apple Walnut Grilled Cheese

Tomato Caramelized Onion Tart

3 down / 47 more to go

Dicing Carrots, Celery, and other Vegetables (Video)

2011-09-13T10:26:00.005-04:00

Youtube link: Dicing Carrots and Celery

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

2 down / 48 more to go

Claw and Pinch Grip Video

2011-09-05T21:43:00.004-04:00

You know how they remade the Star Wars movies a few years ago? Well, I remade my claw grip video. The last video was one of my first and it really sucked. Why should you be excited about this? Because mastering the claw grip is crucial to accurate and bloodless chopping. If you think about it, the remake of the claw grip video might be more life changing for you than the remake of the Star Wars. Don't you chop veggies more often than travelling to other galaxies?

Youtube link: Claw and Pinch Grip -- How to keep blood out of your veggies

Videos you might want to watch before this one:

1 down / 49 more to go

Ricotta Gnocchi

2011-09-01T16:32:00.000-04:00

There are no ricotta gnocchi more heavenly than the ones served at Zuni Cafe in San-Francisco. There is a recipe for them in the Zuni Cafe cookbook by Judy Rodgers. Here is the unfortunate thing -- it is either a recipe for bliss or suicide. The only time I got it right was with ricotta I made myself. Even an experience cook can try to do it just right, yet after spending hours and dirtying half the dishes in her kitchen end up with ricotta explosions instead of ricotta gnocchi.

When I was testing recipes for my upcoming Gnocchi and Spaetzle class, Zuni Cafe gnocchi were out of the question. But I came up with a recipe that is 90% as heavenly with only 10% of work. My recipe was inspired by Cook's Illustrated ricotta gnocchi. It can be served with a savory sauce (the one in the picture is chive cream) or fruit and sugar (the one in the picture is nectarine).

Ricotta Gnocchi

Since ricotta quality and wetness varies tremendously, it’s important that you stick with Calabro Whole Milk Ricotta at least for the first time to get a good feel for this dough. After that, feel free to substitute home-made ricotta, or other high quality brands, draining them as necessary to achieve the right texture.

Serves 4

16 oz container Whole Milk Calabro Ricotta, see note above
1 large egg
1 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1.25 oz all-purpose flour (about ¼ cup scooped and leveled)
3/4 oz panko bread crumbs
1/2 oz parmesan cheese, grated

Optional flavorings:
2 Tbsp finely minced fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp finely minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup cooked leeks (see the Sauces page for recipe)

Find a 10-12 inch cast iron skillet to use as a weight. If none is available, stack a few Calculus books and place into a plastic shopping bag so that you don’t mess them up. Place a triple layer of paper towels on a rimmed baking sheet (12x17 of whatever size will fit a square piece of paper towel). Spread ricotta on paper towels into a shape that is slightly smaller than your cast iron skillet (or books). Cover with a triple layer of paper towels and a piece of plastic wrap. Place the weight on top and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Once the excess liquid is removed you should have about 12 oz of ricotta.
Break an egg into a medium bowl. Add salt and pepper and whisk lightly to combine. Add drained ricotta, flour, bread crumbs, parmesan, and any optional flavorings. Stir well to combine. Refrigerate dough for at least 15 minutes or up to 1 day.
Lightly dust work surface with flour. With floured hands, roll lemon-sized piece of dough into 3/4-inch-thick rope, rolling from center of dough outward. Cut rope into 3/4-inch-long pieces and transfer to parchment paper-lined rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, dusting work surface with flour as needed. Cook immediately or refrigerate for up to 24 hours uncovered.
Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot over high heat. If planning to serve with a savory sauce, salt the water. If planning to serve with fruit, leave water unsalted. Reduce heat so water is simmering, then gently drop half of gnocchi into water. Stir with a slotted spoon to make sure no pieces are stuck to the bottom and cook until all pieces float to surface. Continue to simmer until gnocchi are cooked through, about 2 minutes longer, adjusting heat to maintain gentle simmer. Using slotted spoon, scoop gnocchi from water, allowing excess water to drain from spoon; transfer gnocchi to skillet with sauce and cover to keep warm. Repeat cooking process with remaining gnocchi. Using rubber spatula, gently toss gnocchi with sauce until uniformly coated. Serve immediately.

Fruit and Sugar variation
Warm up sliced fruit or berries in a small saucepan or microwave just until warm. Toss with cooked gnocchi, butter, and sugar to taste.

Swiss Apple Spätzle (Spaetzle)

2011-08-30T16:00:00.001-04:00

I have recently discovered a fabulous blog called FXCuisine written by François-Xavier from the shores of Lake Geneva. It has everything a great blog should: gorgeous photography, captivating stories, clearly written recipes, and pounds (or kilograms in this case) of butter. The only reason I haven't been cooking from it all the time is the inaccessible rustisity phenomenon (IRP). Legs of lamb get roasted over an open hearth and pasta shapes require very particular equipment. It's kind of like molecular gastronomy recipes that require you to build a small nuclear reactor in your kitchen. I call that molecular gastronomy phenomenon (MGP). You read, you fantasize, and leave it at that. But there was an FXCuisine recipe, Swiss Apple Spaetzle that was completely accessible to me and was only waiting for the right kind of apple -- honeycrisp. I saw it in the store today and in about 20 minutes, the spaetzle was ready. It was applicious! The idea of a dessert pasta might sound strange to you, but I grew up on blueberry and cherry vareniki (Ukrainian pierogies), so apple spaetzle felt like a happy childhood memory I made as an adult.

Thanks François-Xavier!

Here is my adaptable of the recipe.

Special equipment: You’ll need a small-hole grater and a spaetzle maker.

Serves 6-8 for dessert

For the batter:

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)

7.5 oz unbleached all-purpose flour (about 1.5 cups scooped and leveled)

2 apples (Honeycrips, Granny Smith, or Cortland)

To finish the dish:

1/3 cup home-made breadcrumbs (or panko)

1/4 cup calvados

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (a good squirt)

2 Tbsp sugar (or to taste)

1/4 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)

Peel and grate the apples on the small-hole grater. Don’t squeeze out the juice – you need it in the batter.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and salt with a whisk. Using a rubber spatula, stir in 8 oz of grated apples (about 1 cup). Stir in flour to form a thick batter. Let it rest 10 minutes.
Heat water to a boil in a saucepan that is narrow enough so that the short ends of the spaetzle machine can rest on its rim.
Combine breadcrumbs in a large skillet (ideally non-stick) with 2 Tbsp butter and cook over medium heat stirring often until golden. Remove from skillet and set aside.
Add calvados to skillet and boil it down to reduce in half. Take off heat.
Salt the boiling water lightly and reduce heat to medium. Set the spaetzle maker over a piece of foil and set the square container in the tracks. Fill the square container with batter. Set the spaetzle maker over boiling water and remove the foil so that the batter can start to pour out. Move the square container quickly back and forth along the tracks until all the batter is in the pot. Stir with a slotted spoon to make sure no pieces are stuck to the bottom.
When spaetzle float, transfer them with a slotted spoon to the skillet with calvados. Add remaining 2 Tbsp butter, cut into 4 pieces, and a quirt of lemon. Stir well. Repeat with remaining batter until all spaetzle is cooked.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and mix to distribute. Top with breadcrumbs and serve immediately.

50 cooking videos project

2011-08-22T15:11:00.013-04:00

12 months
1 flip video camera
1 Sony Vegas Movie Studio
1 crazy culinary instructor
=================
50 videos

During the next 12 months (Sept 2011 - Sept 2012), I will be working on making short videos to demonstrate cooking techniques. My goal is to make 50 videos that will cover topics like how to sharpen a knife, how to cut various vegetables, how to sear meat, etc.

These videos are for you, my dear cooks, so please chime in. I have my list of topics. Most of them are techniques that I teach in my classes that produce the reaction of "Aha! So that's how you do it!" If you want to see how to do something in the kitchen, leave me a comment, and I'll consider adding it to the list.

Wish me luck!

Update: Here are the videos:

Raw Fish Western Style (Arctic Char with Quinoa)

2011-08-16T15:25:00.003-04:00

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a raw fish dish? Sushi, right? As much as I love sushi, I think there is a whole frontier of western style raw fish dishes that is left unexplored by home cooks. Even the restaurant chefs rarely venture into this territory. The inspiration for this post was my recent trip to Seattle. I noticed that raw fish dishes appeared a lot more often on the menus of New American restaurants there than they did in Boston. One of the restaurants, Anchovies and Olives even had a whole section of the menu devoted to raw fish preparations.

I've ordered every single raw fish dish I came across -- all for the sake of research. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. Here are some trends that I noticed and my thoroughly opinionated comments.

Moroccan Lemon is the New Soy Sauce
At least half of the raw fish dishes used Moroccan Lemon for seasoning. Moroccan Lemons (aka Preserved lemons) are salty and briny with a huge kick of umami, and work well with any raw fish. I give this trend two thumbs up. I used to make preserved lemons myself, but now I just buy them at Formaggio's (some Whole Foods markets carry them too). None of these places display them, but if you ask in the cheese department, they'll be able to get you some.

Nuts and Grains
Pine nuts and farro might not be the first ingredients that come to mind, but they make lovely accompaniments to raw fish. The crunch of the nuts provides a nice textural contrast to the flesh of the fish. We like tempura crumbs with raw fish, so why not nuts? And if rice goes so incredibly well with raw fish, why not farro or quinoa?

Fruit
Some fruit worked: grapefruits, oranges, tart apples. Some fruit didn't: rhubarb (too sour) and cherries (too sweet). Rhubarb had potential. If it was cut paper thin, it might have worked. That's true about most of the ingredients in raw fish dishes. Size is crucial since it controls the texture and flavor intensity.

When all else fails, try fennel
Fennel was used a lot and for a good reason. Its subtle minerality complements the flavor of the fish without overpowering it.

Tartars are out, slices are in (unfortunately)
Only one of the raw fish dishes that we could order was a tartar and that was a shame. Slices work well in Japanese preparations because they are served with soy sauce, a liquid seasoning that can be easily and evenly distributed oven a slice to season it. I found the seasoning to be very inconsistent in all the sliced preparations that we ordered. In some cases, the fish was topped with chunky salty ingredients, like moroccan lemons, olives, and capers. You either got a bite of fish that was too bland, or a bite that was overpowered by a big salty chunk. The sprinkling of salt on the slices was very inconsistent. It's hard to distribute salt evenly over such a thin slice, especially since it doesn't have a chance to absorb. That's when tartars would have come in very handy. By cutting the ingredients small and mixing them together, it would be possible to make the seasoning much more even.

Why are slices more prevalent than tartars these days? I am guessing it has to do with presentation. Tartars look good shaped with a cylinder mold and that's the vertical food look that is now passe. These days, chef like to keep things low. Have you noticed how all the vegetable purees are now smeared over wide rectangular plates? Thinly sliced fish helps to keep things flat. I just think it's a shame that the looks come before the taste.

I was so inspired by all the ideas I got in Seattle that our first meal in Boston was an arctic char tartar.

If you decide to make this dish, make sure you first learn how to manage risk when working with raw fish. This dish requires very accurate cutting technique. Here are some videos on keeping knives sharp and using a claw grip.

Arctic Char Tartar with Quinoa

Serves 6 as the first coarse

Fish substitutions: farm-raised salmon frozen for 7 days (or sold as sushi-grade), branzino, hamachi

1 Lb arctic char, skinned, bones removed, cut into 1/2 inch dice
3/4 cup cooked and cooled white quinoa

3/4 cup zucchini, cut into 1/8 inch dice (about 1 small)
1/4 cup minced shallots
1/4 preserved lemon (skin only), very finely minced (it's a quarter of a lemon, not 1/4 cup!)
1/4 cup finely minced fresh herbs (any mix of cilantro, chives, tarragon, dill, mint)
a few shakes of cinnamon, cardamom, and coriander (optional)
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed
3 Tbsp olive oil, plus more as needed
Black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, and stir very well. Taste and add more salt, lemon juice, or olive oil as needed. Serve immediately. Quinoa and all the vegetables can be prepped in advance, and fish can be diced. But don't add lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper until ready to serve.

How to keep your knives sharp (video)

2011-08-10T11:32:00.001-04:00

If you buy a high quality knife (like a $100 Wüsthof), it will stay sharp for a long time. Right? Wrong. All European style knives need daily maintenance. There are many ways to maintain your knives. Here is one that doesn't take any practice to master.

The tool I am using in this video to sharpen is Accusharp.

Here are some FAQ from my Knife Skills class.

Q: Is it ok to cut on my counter?

A: Only if it’s a butcher block. You should only use your knife on wood and plastic. No glass cutting boards, please! Here are some common surfaces people abuse their knives on: granite countertops (or any other hard countertops), pyrex dishes, skillets, and plates.

Q: How should you store knives?

A: Butcher blocks, magnetic strips, or knife trays that go into your drawers.

Q: Taking my knife to a professional sharpener is a pain. He asks me to drop the knife off and then pick it back up. Is there any other way?

A: Yes! I got this wonderful tip from Matthew Amster-Burton in Seattle.

Buy yourself a Victorinox Forschner Fibrox chef’s knife once a year. That's the knife I am using in all my videos. Use Accusharp or steel on it daily. In the end of the year, buy a new one (Amazon sells them for about $28) and give your old one to a friend or sell it on Craig’s List.

Q: What do you think about electric sharpeners by Chef’s Choice?

A: They are great, but expensive. But if you get on one, you won’t have to see a professional sharpener ever again. If you are going this route, I’d splurge on the model that has adjustable angle in case you ever get Japanese hybrid knives. It sells for about $170.

Q: What should I do to maintain my serrated bread knife?

A: Nothing. It doesn’t require daily maintenance. Every couple of years, take it to a professional for a new edge.

Q: Can I put my knives in a dishwasher?

A: I suggest that you don’t since it’s hard to secure them and make sure they don’t bump into anything. I also suggest you don’t put knives into the sink under a pile of dishes or in dish rack (unless it’s empty and the knife won’t touch anything).

Kitchen Knives and Their Tasks

2011-07-19T11:26:00.003-04:00

You might have seen your Grandmother slicing potatoes with a steak knife, or your Mom dicing onions with a paring knife. Today is the day to find out if there is a better way. Do you know which knife to use for mincing garlic? How about for removing silver skin from meat?

7/26/11 update: The above is a new and improved video with better editing. The original had volume problems.

Does resting meat help reabsorb the juice?

2011-06-29T15:43:00.000-04:00

There is no shortage of best practices when it comes to meat juiciness. Sear the meat to seal in the juices was one advice considered to be sound for over 100 years. 19th century cooks including August Escoffier believed it to be true. Most professional chefs and food writers now laugh at this myth. There are plenty of wonderful reasons to sear meat. It tastes much more complex and crisp when browned, but as far as juices go, searing doesn't help. How about the second best practice to optimize juiciness -- let meat rest after cooking to minimize the amount of liquid the meat loses during carving? You can read about it on page 165 of "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee. Kenji Alt set up an experiment in 2009 to test this idea, which lead him to agree with McGee. I realize that arguing with Harold McGee in the 21th century is like arguing with Escoffier in the 19th. But I couldn't help wanting to test this juice theory for myself and decided to set up an experiment that was similar to Kenji's.

I cooked 4 steaks. All 4 were 1 inch thick and cut from the sirloin. No salt was used.

All steaks were cooked in a hot skillet. This is not how I normally cook steak, but that's how Kenji cooked them for his experiment. I flipped the steaks 3 times to help them cook more evenly. I cooked until the internal temperature registered 120F. I weighed the steaks as they came out of the skillet and assigned them to trail 1 or 2 based on their shape. Since steaks A and B had similar weight and shape, I assigned them to the first trial and steak C and D to the second trial.

Steak A: 90g, rectangular in shape

Steak B: 100g, rectangular in shape

Steak C: 81g, triangular in shape (tapered end of sirloin)

Steak D: 73g, triangular in shape (tapered end of sirloin)

I cut one steak in each trial (A and C) immediately in half and let them rest 12 minutes. I let steaks B and D rest for 12 minutes and then cut them in half. All steaks were sitting on plates so that I could collect their juice.

I poured the juice off each plate and weighed it. Here is a chart with the weight of the juice recorded as percentage of the weight of steak as it came out of the skillet.

Whether the steak was cut and then sat for 12 minutes or sat for 12 minutes and then was cut didn't seem to make a difference in the amount of juice it released.

Why did trial 2 steaks release more juice than trial 1? My guess is that steaks C and D had a higher average temperature -- they looked more done. The more the temperature of the meat exceeds 120F, the more juice muscle fibers release. Although I was aiming for the same doneness in all steaks, and removed them off the skillet when the minimum internal temperature was about 120F, the tapered shape of the steaks C and D (trial 2) probably caused their average temperature to be higher than the average temperature of the steaks A and B (trial 1).

Does this mean you don't need to rest your meat? It depends on how you are cooking it. With all traditional methods, you still need to rest it so that the temperature can come to equilibrium. All proteins have their ideal doneness temperature (the point at which they are most tender and juicy). When you remove your protein from the heat source, the temperature in the outer layers is higher than ideal and the temperature in the center is lower than ideal. As the protein rests, the outer layer raises the temperature in the center to the ideal temperature (assuming you did everything correctly), and then the whole thing starts to cool off. This is known as carry-over cooking or residual heat. How much residual heat you'll get depends on many factors that I covered in this post (scroll to the end of it).

What if you cook your meat using the sous-vide method? Should you still let your meat rest? In theory, your center is already at a perfect temperature. I found that searing might bring it up a few degrees depending on the shape of your steak, but this is small potatoes compared to carry-over cooking that happens using traditional methods. So if you are really hungry, dig right in.

Since the experiment I was trying to reproduce was Kenji's, it's worth to compare our findings. According to Kenji, cutting a steak after 12 minutes of rest can keep 7%* more juice inside the steak than cutting it right away. My results were very different. I found that how long you waited before you cut the steak didn't matter. Of course, our experimental set ups might have been different. And neither one of us did enough trials to give our results any statistical significance. If someone wants to sponsor a serious steak juiciness study, I'd be more than happy to undertake this project.

I also must disagree with Kenji's graph of internal temperature after cooking (see the end of this post). According to his graph, the internal temperature holds at 125 and then goes down. I've never been able to reproduce this. Every time I cook meat via a high-heat method, I always observe an increase in internal temperature during resting. For more details see the end of my Roast Chicken Legs post.

* Since Kenji used raw steak weight as 100% and I used cooked steak weight as 100%, his 7% juice release difference would be more like 6% juice release difference assuming steak loses 13% of its weight during cooking.

Sous-vide experiment: temperature vs. duration

2011-06-14T15:09:00.274-04:00

You didn't think my last post was the end of my sous-vide experiments, did you? Sure, I sounded a tad too pessimistic about the world's latest and greatest cooking method. But my testing is only starting. I have since cooked 4 more steaks and have some findings about the temperature and duration variables.

My goal is to analyse the factors that impact the juiciness of the meat cooked using the sous-vide method. I repeated last weeks experiment of measuring the steaks' weight during all stages of cooking and measuring how much juice a steak releases during serving. Here are the details of my experimental set up:

Steak cut and thickness: Rib-eye 1 - 1.5 inches thick. I used only the "eye" muscle to eliminate variability due to the difference in the fat content (the flap of the rib-eye tends to be fattier and juicier and it was impossible to give each steak exactly the same amount of flap). I tied the steaks with butcher twine to keep their shape uniform (within each steak). This worked great for vacuum sealing preventing the usual tapered edges.

Salting: I skipped the salt completely for this experiment to simplify things.

Searing: all steaks were seared for exactly 50 sec per side.

Measuring juiciness: Since collecting quantitative data on juiciness by means of chewing a steak is not very practical, I decided to slice the done steaks 1/4 inch thick, pour off the juice that they released into a cup and weigh it. I have a tea scale that can weigh very small amounts accurately.

To rest or not to rest: I didn't rest any steaks after searing since that's the best practice of sous-vide cooking. I actually have some doubts about this practice and am planning to set up an experiment to test the effects resting has on meat cooked using the sous-vide method.

Doneness: Since I cooked the steaks at different temperatures (121F, 126F, and 131F), final doneness varied.

Cooking duration: I cooked 3 steaks for a relatively short time (50 - 100 minutes) and 1 steak for a long time (5 hours)

Steak A: 121F water bath for 50 minutes

Thickness: 1 inch

Weight before cooking: 114g = 100%
Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 108g = 94%

Temp after water bath = 119F*
Weight after sear: 102g = 89%
Internal temperature after sear = 119F
Weight of juice after slicing: 4.12g = 3.61%

Steak B: 126F water bath for 50 minutes

Thickness: 1.25 inch

Weight before cooking: 124g = 100%
Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 117g = 94%

Temp after water bath = 123F*
Weight after sear: 107g = 86%
Internal temperature after sear = 130F
Weight of juice after slicing: 9.3g = 7.5%

Steak C: 131F water bath for 100 minutes

Thickness: 1.5 inch

Weight before cooking: 156g = 100%
Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 141g = 90%

Temp after water bath = 130F
Weight after sear: 132g = 85%
Internal temperature after sear = 132F
Weight of juice after slicing: 9.44g = 6.1%

Steak D: 131F water bath for 5 hours

Thickness: 1.5 inch

Weight before cooking: 150g = 100%
Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 124g = 84%

Temp after water bath = 130F
Weight after sear: 114g = 76%
Internal temperature after sear = 135F
Weight of juice after slicing: 2.4g = 1.6%

* Steaks A and B were a little short of the desired internal temperature, but 1 and 2 degrees respectively.

Results

The findings from steak A, B, and C is not a surprise. It can be explained by the fact that the juices start to release from the meat fibers around 120F. But all steaks cooked relatively quickly by sous-vide standards (50-100 minutes) were juicy. What made the biggest difference is not varying the temperature, but varying the cooking duration. Steaks C and D were technically the same doneness, but the steak that was left in the water bath for 5 hours released 1.6% of juice instead of 6.1%. This explains the lack of juiciness of sous-vide steaks in my last experiment. They were cooked in the water bath for 3.5 hours.

What most sous-vide books and websites tell you is that you can't overcook using the sous-vide method. It all depends on how you define "overcook." The steak will not go above the desired temperature no matter how long you hold it in the water bath (well, dah!), but the longer you hold it, the more juice you lose.

How long is too long?

It depends on the thickness of meat of course, but here is some data for 1.25-1.5 inch steaks:

131F for 100 minutes -- 6.1% juice release during serving

131F for 3.5 hours -- 1.93% juice release during serving

131F for 5 hours -- 1.6% juice release during serving

I am sure half an hour doesn't make much difference, but 3 hours do. If you are using the ghetto sous-vide set up, you'll probably never run into this problem. Who wants to monitor the water temperature for an extra few hours? But if you are using an immersion circulator, you might be tempted to put meat in the water bath whenever it's convenient (in the morning before going to work, during kids' nap, etc) and then have it ready for dinner. It will surely be very tender, but you'd better have a lot of demi-glace handy because it will be dry.

So where does this leave us? Do I still think sous-vide sucks? The good news is that I was able to get a steak that is as juicy as Kenji's oven method. The bad news is that it takes about 3 times longer with the sous-vide method. It is not active time, of course, but I need to be home to put the steaks in the water bath 1.5 hours instead of 30 minutes before the meal.

Here is a summary of sous-vide vs. oven method pros and cons

Sous-vide pros:

Oven is free to cook other dishes.
Meat can be held at desired temperature for close to an hour with no ill side effects. It can even be held longer (juiciness will be reduced, but tenderness won't be compromised -- if anything it will get more tender).
No last minute monitoring with a thermometer, freeing you to work on other things.

Sous-vide cons:

Requires either a lot of baby-sitting or a lot of expensive equipment.
Takes way longer than the oven method (about 3 times as long).
Takes a lot of counter space.
All servings will have the same doneness. I don't think it's a biggie. Most people in my family now know to trust me on doneness :)

Oven pros:

A lot faster than the sous-vide method
No expensive equipment
If different donenesses are desired, some pieces can be started in the oven earlier.

Oven cons:

Need to keep the oven at a low temperature, so most vegetable side dishes would have to be done in advance.
When the meat reaches 95F (or some other desired temperature), it has to be seared and served. Can't be held at a steady temperature.
A little last minute monitoring.

What next

I am tempted to test the theory that sous-vide cooked meats don't need resting. It's true that the temperature doesn't need to come to equilibrium like it does for traditional methods (it already is at equilibrium). But I am wondering if the steak would hold its juice better if it rested.

Roasted tomatoes (in any season)

2011-06-14T13:45:00.106-04:00

These roasted tomatoes are inspired by Judy Rodgers' recipe from the Zuni Cafe cookbook. I cooked them for the Cool Beans and Grains class last week to top our Mujaddara (lentils with bulgur and caramelized onions). This was an improv topping that was not part of the handouts. But the students made me promise that I'll post a recipe as soon as possible.

This is a similar dish to Tomatoes Confit -- the ultimate dish to make when you are bombarded with ripe and juicy tomatoes from your garden or CSA. The rest of the year, the technique described in this post of roasting high quality canned tomatoes is a good alternative and way less work than peeling and seeding fresh tomatoes.

My favorite canned tomatoes are Muir Glen (available in Whole Foods and organic section of most supermarkets)

28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 whole garlic cloves, peeled and halved (optional)
1/4 tsp sugar
Salt

Preheat the oven to 500F.
Cover the bottom of an oven proof 10 inch skillet with 1 tsp olive oil (or use some other oven and broiler safe dish of equivalent size)
Remove tomatoes from juice and cut in half lengthwise. Arrange them in a skillet cut side down in a tight single layer. Tuck the garlic pieces under a tomatoes. Sprinkle top with sugar and a pinch of salt. Drizzle with remaining oil (1-2 Tbsp). Place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.
Tilt the pan and use a spoon to baste tomatoes with the oil from the pan. Place the pan under the broiler until tomatoes get slightly charred, 4-8 minutes.

Variations:

Before placing tomatoes in the skillet, you can spread a layer of caramelized onions or braised fennel underneath them.

Uses for roasted tomatoes:

side dish for fish and meats
topping for pizza, flat breads, and crostini
coarsely chopped and mixed with pasta, risotto, or any other grain

Why sous-vide sucks

2011-06-06T09:05:00.448-04:00

As much as I enjoyed the charms of the ghetto sous-vide method, I finally gave in to peer pressure and bought the Sous-Vide Supreme. This was supposed to be the post where I tell you how sous-vide cooking has revolutionized my life, how it turns every piece of protein into gold, and how you should buy one too. But it's not that post. This is a post about the juiciness analysis of sous-vide meats. After cooking a number of proteins using this method (chicken, duck, beef, and lamb), I've noticed that while the meat comes out very tender, it is not nearly as juicy as I am used to. It tastes a little -- dare I say it -- dry.

How come I haven't noticed this dryness in restaurants? Now that I think about it, the kind of restaurants that cook their meat sous-vide are the kind of restaurants that place their meat in a lovely red wine reduction, demi-glace or some other super meaty sauce. In that case, the lack of juiciness is generously compensated for. If you make demi-glace on regular basis, more power to you, but my saucing work horse is a humble pan sauce made by deglazing the pan after searing. Unfortunately, these pan sauces are not possible for sous-vide cooked meat since searing after a water bath doesn't produce enough brown bits.

Tenderness vs. Juiciness
When I encountered the dryness problem, I tried to google to see what other cooks report. Everyone was describing the meat as "most tender and juicy." In traditional cooking methods, those two often go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing. Tenderness is the amount of work your teeth have to do to break down the meat. Juiciness is how much juice is released during the breakdown.

Before trying to solve the dryness problem, I wanted to verify that it's not a figment of my imagination and I set up the following experiment. I decided to compare a steak cooked using sous-vide method with the steak cooked using Kenji Alt's slow roasting method (bring to 95F internal temp on a rack in 275F oven, then sear).

Here are the details of my experiment.

Steak cut and thickness: Sirloin cut 1.25 inches thick (the thickness varied slightly in parts)
Salting: Since I wasn't sure how salt would effect juicinesses, I salted some steaks 24 hours before cooking and left some steaks completely unsalted.
Searing: all steaks were seared for exactly 1 minute per side
Measuring juiciness: Since collecting quantitative data on juiciness by means of chewing a steak is not very practical, I decided to slice the done steaks 1/4 inch thick, pour off the juice that they released into a cup and weigh it. I have a tea scale that can weight very small amounts accurately.
To rest or not to rest: I followed the best practices for each cooking method -- slice immediately for sous-vide, rest 5 minutes for slow roasting to let the temperature even out.
Doneness: unfortunately, there was no way to get the same exact doneness on all these steaks, but I was close for 2 of them. Steaks A and C (the salted ones) came out at 130F and 133F. Steaks B and D (the unsalted ones) came out at 124F and 137F. This difference is too large to make a good comparison, so I'll base my conclusions on steaks A and C.

Steak A: salted 24 hours in advance, cooked sous-vide at 131F for 3.5 hours, then seared
Weight before cooking (24 hours after salting): 190g = 100%
Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 175g = 92%
Weight after sear: 166g = 87%
Internal temperature after sear = 130F
Weight of juice after slicing: 3.9g = 2.05%

Steak B: no salt added, cooked sous-vide at 131F for 3.5 hours, then seared

Weight before cooking: 169g = 100%

Weight after water bath and thorough drying: 147g = 87%

Weight after sear: 138g = 82%

Internal temperature after sear = 137F

Weight of juice after slicing: 3.27g = 1.93%

Steak C: salted 24 hours in advance, cooked in 275F oven, then seared

Weight before cooking (24 hours after salting): 187g = 100%

Weight after after oven: 178g = 95%

Weight after sear: 169g = 90%

Internal temperature after sear = 133F

Weight of juice after slicing: 7.38g = 3.95%

Steak D: no salt added, cooked in 275F oven, then seared

Weight before cooking: 183g = 100%

Weight after after oven: 175g = 96%

Weight after sear: 164g = 90%

Internal temperature after sear = 124F

Weight of juice after slicing: at least 6 g = at least 3.3%*

* I am not sure exactly how much juice I got from Steak D because a piece of steak fell into the cup into which I was pouring the juice and knocked it down. I remember the number got to at least 6g before the spill. I am guessing the juice percentage was roughly the same as Steak C.

The results

The sous-vide steaks were more tender, but the oven steaks yielded twice as much juice as the steaks cooked using the sous-vide method at the time the measurement was taken (2-6 minutes after sear). As they continued to sit on a plate, the oven cooked steaks continued to release the juice and sous-vide steaks did not. Where was the juice from sous-vide steaks? In the bags. After the sous-vide steaks were removed from the water bath and dried off on paper towels, they were 92% and 87% of their original weight. After the oven steaks were removed from the oven, they were 95% and 96% of their original weight.

Salting didn't seem to effect the juiciness much, but I noticed that the sous-vide steak tasted saltier than the oven steak. It was the same piece of meat, seasoned evenly and rested 24 hours before being cut in half, so I doubt the salt amount was indeed different, but somehow it is more noticeable with the sous-vide method.

What now

So, does sous-vide method really suck when it comes to meat? No. I just wanted to stir up the sous-vide pot a bit. I believe it might be possible to produce a juicy steak using the sous-vide method that does not rely on the sauce. Unfortunately, sous-vide best practices described in all the books and websites don't tell you how to do that.

I want to try cooking steak for a shorter period of time and at a lower temperature to see what happens. I am guessing the reason the official sous-vide cooking resources don't like to talk about it is safety. Holding indefinitely at 131 is safe, but at 120 possibly not. I don't want to hold it indefinitely. Only an hour or so.

Stay tuned for more experiments.

Sunny-side up

2011-06-02T10:56:00.087-04:00

There are 3 secrets to perfect sunny-side up eggs: very low heat, cover, and padding. The first two I have figured out a long time ago. The lower the heat, the more tender the egg. The cover helps the top and bottom cook more evenly. But what about that padding? By padding I mean the stuff you put under the eggs to make them into a more substantial and interesting meal: vegetables, grains, meats, etc. I used to think those were nice additions, but didn't realize how much they impacted the texture of the eggs until I tried skipping them. Without all that padding, the white inevitably got tough and the bottom of the yolk got set. Those tomatoes, asparagus, and lentils do much more than compliment your eggs, they insulate them from direct heat of the skillet, making the white tender and yolk runny.

The wonderful thing about this dish is that in only 4 minutes, you can turn your leftovers into a breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Set a skillet over moderate heat and spread your leftovers evenly to form a layer 1/4-1/2 inch. Cover and heat for a couple of minutes until warm. Reduce the heat to low (if using electric stove, take the skillet off heat to let the burner cool off while you are adding the eggs). Break the eggs on top of your leftovers, cover the skillet, and cook on low heat until the whites are almost opaque, 3-4 minutes (check at 3 minutes). It is safer to remove the skillet off the heat when the whites are slightly translucent. Leave it covered for 30-60 seconds, and they'll be done. If you missed that moment and the whites got completely opaque, remove the eggs onto the plate immediately. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

The eggs in the pictures are cooked over lentils braised in red wine.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts (without the oven)

2011-05-24T11:25:00.277-04:00

I lost track of how many times the question of cooking without appropriate equipment comes up in my classes. Can I make pie dough without a food processor? Can I bake pizza without a pizza stone? Can I braise without a dutch oven? The answer is yes, of course. No skill is more valuable in the kitchen than resourcefulness. So I wasn't at all surprised when the students in my Vegetables class asked me how to roast vegetables without the oven. "Who doesn't have an oven these days?" might you ask. Yes, but would you like to turn it on in the middle of a hot and humid summer day if you don't have an air conditioner?

The vegetable I decided to tackle was Brussels Sprouts. I tossed them with salt, pepper, and olive oil in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet (though you can use any other type of skillet) and turned them cut side down just like I would for oven roasting. But instead of putting them in the oven, I put them over medium-low heat on the stove top and covered the pan. My hope was to brown the bottom slowly enough to give them a chance to get tender. The concepts of covering the skillet and browning seem incompatible at first. Won't covering the skillet trap the steam? Yes. Isn't steam the enemy of browning? Yes. But it all depends on whether you want to be browning something quickly or slowly.

Say you want to brown a steak while keeping it medium-rare inside. You'd better do it as quickly as possible because once the inside of your meat reaches 130F, it's all downhill from there in terms of texture and juiciness (it quickly turns tough and dry). This is also the case with some green vegetables, like asparagus. If cooked a minute too long it turns stringy and mushy, so covering the skillet in those cases can be detrimental. But Brussels Sprouts and most other vegetables that oven roast well (potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, celery root, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, etc) don't have that problem. If anything, their texture improves with prolonged cooking. Since stove top browns a lot faster than the oven, covering the skillet can help slow down browning and speed up the cooking of the inside.

After 10 minutes, I flipped my little cabbages, scattered loose leaves around them and cooked until everything was nicely browned. What a revelation these Brussels sprouts were! Unlike the oven method, every little piece and leaf was perfectly brown and tender but not at all mushy. By the time Brussels Sprouts browned in the oven, they often got a tad too soft inside. It was also hard to make the pieces brown evenly because the outside of the baking sheet cooks a lot faster than the inside. A large skillet had a similar but reverse problem where the inside of the skillet cooked faster than the outside, but it was a lot easier to baby-sit a skillet on the stove top and rearrange my pieces when necessary than to get a baking sheet out of the oven every time I wanted to move a few pieces.

To tell you the truth, I am not sure if I'll ever oven roast Brussels Sprouts again (even in winter when turning on the oven doesn't pose a problem). These were just too good.

Pan roasted Brussels Sprouts

Serves 2-3

2 cups Brussels sprouts

3 Tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Trim the stems of the Brussels spouts. Cut each one in half (or into quarters if they are particularly large) and place in a 12 inch skillet (only add as many pieces as a skillet can hold in one layer). Leave the loose leaves on the cutting board. You'll add them towards the end of cooking time.
Drizzle sprouts with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with your hands to distribute oil and seasoning evenly. Arrange pieces cut side down in a single layer.
Cover the skillet and set over medium-low heat. Do not shake the skillet or in any other way disturb the sprouts. After a few minutes, you should hear gentle sizzling noises. If you don't, raise the heat slightly. Regulate the heat so that the first side takes about 10 minutes to brown. If the skillet seems dry, add more oil.
Flip the sprouts, toss the loose leaves with a little salt, pepper, and oil and spread around the sides of the skillet. Cover the skillet and cook another 5 minutes. Uncover the skillet and cook until all the pieces are nicely browned. If some pieces aren't browning well, move them towards the center of the skillet.
Taste and adjust for salt. Serve immediately.

Whole Farro, Spelt, and Wheat Berries

2011-05-16T12:49:00.002-04:00

Whole farro on the left / farro perlato on the right

You remember my adventures and misadventures with farro, right? The moral of that story was to only buy farro perlato and stay away from farro and spelt with the husk (or whole farro). But morals are rarely written in stone unless you want to start a new religion. So, is there anything worthwhile you can do with whole farro, spelt, and wheat berries? Yes! After a little experimentation, I found a good method for cooking them.

Soak in cold water for 8-24 hours
Drain.
Cover with cold water by 3 inches (no need to measure, but for every cup reconstituted grain, you want about 3 cups water)
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to very low. Season to taste with salt, cover, and cook for about an hour +/- 10 minutes. Grains will still be slightly chewy when done.
Drain and use in hot or cold dishes.

Here are some good uses for these hearty, chewy grains:

tossed with cold vegetables and vinaigrette for a salad
tossed with softer grains or beans and some cooked onions and served hot
added to soups

Grilled Mahi with Pomegranate Molasses and Zaatar

2011-05-09T08:52:00.271-04:00

When you'll read the recipe for this fish, you'll think that the usual writer of this blog was abducted by aliens and replaced by a completely different creature. Marinades, rubs, and spices are not my thing. The only 2 ingredients that touch my proteins before cooking are salt and pepper (at least in 95% of cases). But as much as I hate to admit it, sometimes a rather complex marinade can actually improve things.

It all started in the olive oil isle of Whole Foods. They were giving out a taste of some olive oil and had a dish of zaatar spice sitting next to it. I was familiar with this blend of wild thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds from Ana Sortun's restaurants. It's surprisingly tangy and I find it very pleasant and even addictive although I don't normally like working with dry herbs. After tasting a piece of bread dunked in oil and zaatar, I bought a box on a whim. I knew I was taking a risk of letting it languish in my spice drawer, but luckily such was not its fate. I put it on roast chicken, lamb, grilled fish, flat breads, and it never felt out of place even to a minimalist like me.

Yesterday, I was grilling mahi and since it tends to be a relatively dense lean fish, I prefer to soak it in a simple marinade of a little lemon juice, a lot of olive oil, salt and pepper (just like I do with swordfish). Since I was already marinading, I thought I'll throw in some garlic and dijon mustard too. It was looking like a basic mustard garlic vinaigrette until I threw in a spoonful of zaatar spice. All of a sudden I got transported to the Middle East and heard a bottle of pomegranate molasses calling my name. I realized that I could most likely skip lemon juice next time -- there should be plenty of acidity from pomegranate molasses and zaatar. I seasoned the mix generously with salt and pepper and let mahi soak for a couple of hours.

Then I grilled it using my usual fish grilling procedure with the only exception of not drying off the marinade. Often marinades can cause more harm than good, so I used to stay completely away from them. Of course it depends on what the fish is covered with. Water (or any other moisture, like lemon juice) and large amount of sugar are your enemies -- they glue the fish to the grill. I suggest not washing your fish (or any other proteins) and drying them thoroughly on paper towels before cooking. You also have to go be careful with sweet ingredients like pomegranate molasses. A little bit is great and helps the fish brown, but a lot of it results in sticking and burning.

Although wet and sweet ingredients can be dangerous on the grill, they are used in very small amounts here. Most of this marinade is oil. Isn't that a good thing? I find that oiling the fish doesn't help nearly as much with sticking as oiling the grill several times before grilling (just like seasoning a cast iron skillet). Of course, oil on the fish won't cause more sticking, but it can cause flare ups and give the fish a sooty taste. To avoid this problem, it's best to shake most of the marinade off the fish before grilling it. If the fish is fatty (like salmon), I would dry the marinade off even more thoroughly, but mahi is lean so I decided to leave it lightly coated.

The fish was now happily grilled and smelling mighty good, and I was salivating looking at all this yummy marinade left over in the bowl. Using leftover marinade is a temptation I am usually good at avoiding, but this time I couldn't resist and basted the fish with just a little more of this mixture after flipping. I figured it will stay on top of the fish and won't touch the grill. Since the fish still needed at least 3 minutes of cooking, the marinade would easily heat up to 160F making it safe to eat.

Oh, what a yummy fish it was!

I served it on top of arugula salad with oranges, red onions, black beans, wheat berries, and dill. It was a perfect dinner after a morning trip to Clear Flour where we got a little carried away with croissants.

Grilled Mahi with Pomegranate Molasses and Zaatar

Fish substitutions: swordfish, striped bass (with skin), grouper, halibut

Pomegranate molasses and zaatar are available at Middle Eastern grocery stores and at Whole Foods. You can also google for them and buy them on-line.

Serves 4

4 skinless mahi fillets (6-8oz each)
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp zaatar
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp Japanese style soy sauce (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the fish -- at least 1 hour before cooking or up to 24

Mash the garlic to a smooth paste by either grating it on a microplane zester or mincing, lightly salting, and then rubbing with the flat side of the chef's knife. Alternate mincing and rubbing until it is a paste.
In a medium bowl, Combine mashed garlic with olive oil, pomegranate molasses, zaatar, mustard, and soy sauce. Season generously with salt and pepper, mix, taste, and adjust salt.
Dry the fish fillet on paper towel, add to the bowl with marinade, and turn to coat. Refrigerate until ready to use (at least 1 hour and up to 24).

Grill the fish

Scrape the grill clean. Place a disposable aluminum pan upside down on the area where you'll be placing the fish (or use a piece of foil). Cover the grill and preheat on high heat for 10 minutes. Do not remove the upside down pan or foil until you are ready to place the fish on the grill.
Remove the upside down pan from the grill. Dunk a wad of paper towel in canola oil. Hold it with tongs and wipe the grill with oil 4 times where the pan used to be.
Remove the fish from the marinade with tongs shaking off excess marinade and place the fish on the grill (skin-side up if substituting a fillet with skin), diagonal to the grill grates. Cover the grill and cook for 3 minutes per inch of thickness or until the fish gets grill marks.
Slip the tins of a fork between the grill grates and gently push up on the fish. Do it in a couple of places until the grill lets go of the fish. Flip the fish with a spatula, top each piece with 1 tsp marinade, and grill on the other side until cooked through, about 3 minutes per inch of thickness.
Check for doneness by separating the flakes with a fork in the thickest part of the fish. Take the fish off the grill when the center (about 25% of the fillet) is still translucent and resists flaking (if testing a very dense fish like swordfish, cut into it with a knife). To remove the fish from the grill, dislodge it with a fork like you did when turning it. Then lift one side of fillet, slip a spatula underneath, and lift the fish off the grill. Let rest 5 minutes and serve.

How to slice fish for sushi

2011-05-02T16:17:00.066-04:00

You watch a chef at the sushi bar slicing fish and you are thinking, "I could do that at home." But when you give it a shot, you realize it's not as easy as it looks at the sushi bar. Your fillet looks nothing like perfectly even strips the chefs pull out of the display case and your knives look nothing like their knives either. Don't despair. Here is a video of how how to slice the fish so that you can make lovely sashimi, nigiri, and maki rolls at home.

Other helpful resources

Here are my favorite chef's knife and boning knife. Both are very affordable. Here is how to keep them sharp. You might also want to check cutleryandmore.com (sometimes they are cheaper than Amazon).

How to buy fish for serving raw -- safety, bacteria and parasite risks, fish species appropriate for raw consumption

In the Boston area, I prefer to buy fish for serving raw at the New Deal Fish Market in Cambridge and at Captain Marden's in Wellesley.

How to make potato gnocchi

2011-04-25T22:37:00.002-04:00

Wrong season. I know. If I was a cooking magazine, I would wait to publish this until fall. But I am sure you'll forgive me, particularly if I give you a good recipe for potato (and sweet potato) gnocchi.

Why did I decide to make sweet potato gnocchi in April? I needed a picture for a Gnocchi class that I have in the works and sweet potato gnocchi are probably the most photogenic of them all.

If you have been traumatized by a bad gnocchi making experiences, I just want to assure you that it's not you -- it's the recipe. I don't know why there are so many recipes in existence that result in either slimy potato blobs disintegrating as you try to cook them or dense rubber balls?

Here is what you need to make feather light little pillows:

Scale
Without a scale, the odds of you getting the correct ratio of potatoes to flour are very slim. My medium potato and your medium potato can be very different, and my cup of flour and your cup of flour can be very different too. Can't you adjust based on how the dough feels? No. Adjusting means more kneading, which means more gluten development, which means more chew. If you want rubber balls, go ahead and adjust. If you want feather light pillows, get a scale.

Potato ricer or a food mill
Both of these tools will do the job of pureeing and fluffing up the potatoes, but they might not be found in every kitchen. Don't use a food processor since it will compress the potatoes. If you don't have either ricer or food mill, I would suggest getting a ricer -- it's easier to store and cheaper.

Use Boiling not Baking Potatoes
You need boiling potatoes (the ones that keep their shape after cooking). If you use russets (baking potatoes), you'll end up with slimy disintegrating potato blobs. Yukon gold produce the best possible gnocchi both in flavor and texture when I get them from the farmer's market in the fall. Yukon gold potatoes from a regular store can be somewhat unpredictable and can result in gnocchi that don't hold their shape. Red bliss potatoes produce the most reliable (if not absolutely heavenly) results and that's my choice of potato year round.

For the sweet potato version, I combine boiling potatoes (red bliss or yukon gold) with sweet potatoes in the ratio of 55% cooked and riced boiling potatoes to 45% cooked and riced sweet potatoes. Buying sweet potatoes can be very confusing since many of them are sold as "yams." For this recipe, I prefer Beauregard sweet potatoes (usually sold as "sweet potato") or Jewel yams. Red Garnet will work in a pinch, but they are less sweet and more watery.

Potato gnocchi

Serves 6 as the first course

For the dough:
1.5 Lb (680g) red bliss or yukon gold potatoes
unbleached all-purpose flour (see the recipe for instructions on measurement)
Salt (see the recipe for instructions on measurement)

For shaping:
Semolina
Unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough

Fill a pot that can later hold a steamer insert with 3 inches of water. Set over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Put potatoes into the steamer insert, set over pot and cover. Reduce heat to medium and steam until potatoes are tender when pierced with a toothpick, 35-50 minutes.
Cool potatoes for 5 minutes, peel them while still hot. Inspect potatoes and discard any parts that are black, gray or suspicious looking. Put potatoes through a potato ricer or food mill and place in a large bowl. Weigh them to see how much you got (make sure you tare the bowl before adding potatoes). Cool potatoes to room temperature, 30-45 minutes (you can speed things up by placing them in the fridge and stirring every 10-15 minutes).
Divide the potato weight (the final weight after cooking and ricing) by 2.8. That's your flour weight. For example, if you had 600g of riced potatoes, you'd need 214g flour (600/2.8).
Divide the potato weight by 100 to get the salt weight. For example, if you had 600g of riced potatoes, you'd need 6g of salt. Salt is much easier to measure in grams than in fractions of ounces.
Add the salt and the flour to potatoes. Toss with your hand to distribute flour evenly. Gently knead the dough with your hand just until it comes together (don't over mix or the gnocchi will be tough). It should feel a little dry at first, but should come together into a rough and soft ball. Flatten it into a thick disc. Shape immediately.

Shaping

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil, and sprinkle generously with semolina.
Dust the dough with all-purpose flour on both sides and place on a work surface.
Cut the dough into 2/3 inch thick slices (like slices of bread). Cut each slice in half lengthwise to give you strips. Roll each strip with the floured palms of your hands on a floured work surface into a 2/3 inch ropes (use all-purpose flour for this). Cut the ropes crosswise into 2/3 inch pillows using a pastry scraper (you can also use a knife on a cutting board). Sprinkle the pillows with all-purpose flour and gently toss. Place them on the cookie sheet. Don't let the gnocchi touch each other or they'll stick together. After shaping, you can keep the gnocchi at room temperature for several hours. Don't cover the gnocchi, or they'll get soggy.

Cooking

Bring a large pot of very generously salted water to a boil.
Warm up a large serving bowl in the oven at 200F.
Bring the cookie sheet with gnocchi close to the pot, lift the parchment paper and dump the gnocchi into the water. It's ok for semolina to get into the water. It will settle on the bottom of the pot and won't be present in the final dish. If the gnocchi got stuck to the parchment paper, dunk the whole parchment paper into the pot and gently shake them off into the water with a wooden spoon.
As soon as the gnocchi are in the water, reach in under them with a slotted spoon to release them from the bottom of the pot.
In 1-2 minutes, gnocchi should float. Wait 30 seconds, and taste one. If the center is too floury, cook another minute and taste again. Spoon them out with a slotted spoon into the warm bowl. Dress with the sauce of your choice and serve immediately.

Sweet potato variation

Start with roughly equal weights of raw boiling and sweet potatoes. For 6 first course portions, you'll need roughly 3/4 Lb boiling and 3/4 Lb sweet. Steam them both until tender. Weigh the boiling potatoes after cooking, peeling and ricing. Divide that number by 1.2 and only use this amount of riced sweet potatoes (use the rest for another application). When ricing sweet potatoes, make sure all the fibers stay in the ricer and don't end up in the final dish.

For example, if you have 330g riced boiling potatoes, you'll need 275g sweet potatoes. That's 605g total. Let's round it to 600g to make math a little easier. Divide that by 2.8 to get your flour weight (214g) and divide by 100 to get your salt weight (6g).

You can add a few gratings of nutmeg and a few pinches of cinnamon to the sweet potato dough.

Why should eggs cost less than coffee?

2011-04-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

The best eggs in Boston are not something money can buy. They come from people who raise their own chickens. By some stroke of luck, I've had a few chances to try the fruits of their labor, but due to department of health regulations I can't buy them legally.

It all started when I lived in Belmont. Who knew that 5 miles from the Prudential Center there were fresh eggs being laid with orange yolks that taste like liquid gold. I've met these chicken ladies through my blog and my classes and they have generously shared their glorious eggs with me. When we moved to Natick, I met another such kind soul who gifted me with a dozen of eggs from her back yard a few weeks ago. I would gladly pay as much as necessary to buy them. Unfortunately, it's not legal for these recreational chicken farmers to sell them to me and I can only accept so many freebies.

A few weeks ago, I noticed two very expensive egg brands at Whole Foods. Pete & Gerry's and Azuluna. The light blue color of their shells caught my eye and I decided to try them in spite of their high price tag. Both companies raise Ameraucana hens that are known for the blue-green tint of their egg shells and are supposed to be superior in flavor. Azuluna are a bit more expensive because they claim to be "free range" rather than just "cage free." It's hard to get straight dope on those terms, but from what I've read "free range" birds are the ones that actually get to roam outdoor while "cage free" birds don't. So how do they taste? Both are great! Not quite my back yard chicken friends' level of great, but still noticeably better than all the other supermarket eggs (including organic and local ones).

I have tried Pete & Gerry's side by side with Chip-in Farm and the difference was striking.

Pete & Gerry's on the left / Chip-in Farm on the right
Both are from Grade A Large Eggs

I'll have to try Pete & Gerry's side by side with Azuluna next time.

Here are the rough prices (from memory, so don't quote me on this).

Azuluna at Whole Foods -- about $3.50 for half dozen

Pete & Gerry's at Whole Foods -- about $3 for half dozen

Pete & Gerry's at Russo's -- about $2.50 for half dozen

When you really think about it, that's what you pay for coffee with foamy milk. Aren't 6 truly wonderful eggs worth one cup of joe?

Poulet en Cocotte and Moroccan Braised Chicken, Version 2

2011-04-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

It's hard to remember now why exactly I decided to try Cook's Illustrated recipe for Poulet en Cocotte. French name aside, it's sweated chicked, that's what it is, and the idea didn't do much for me. But I tired it anyway and learned that this unappetizing concept has enormous potential.

What is so good about Cook's recipe:

Browning the chicken before covering and sweating. No, the browning won't give you crispy skin in this case, but it will give you much more flavor.
No additional liquid and limited amount of thoroughly browned vegetables. This results in a very concentrated, wonderfully delicious sauce that naturally forms in the pot during cooking.
Very low oven temperature helps keep the chicken tender and juicy.

My own improvements:

Salt the chicken at least 24 hours in advance -- it's Judy Rodger's technique and she is never wrong
Rub the chicken with mashed garlic (whole cloves grated on a microplane zester) all over and under the skin.
Stuff the chicken (my favorite stuffing is prunes -- due to a happy childhood memory). Not only is the stuffing yummy, but it helps the breast meat cook slower.
When the chicken is done, carve into serving pieces, dry off on paper towels and sear skin side down in butter (use a well seasoned cast iron or non-stick pan for this).

While the legs were really lovely, I still found the breasts overcooked to my liking. So I removed them for another preparation, discarded the breast bone and ribs, and used the rest of the chicken in parts (legs, back, and wings) for poulet and cocotte. I browned the chicken parts and removed to a plate, then browned the veggies, returned chicken to the pot and proceeded just like the Cook's recipe. Another option is to use 4 legs instead of 1 whole chicken. Since the concept is similar to braising, I decided to try it with the Moroccan Chicken Braise ingredients. There was less work than a traditional braise and results were even better.

Here is what makes this technique better than my previous chicken braise recipe

The skin is thinner and has better texture
No need to make a stock (the chicken releases just the right amount of liquid during cooking)
Cooking time is a lot shorter

Moroccan Inspired Chicken Braise, Version 2

If you don't have a Dutch oven, you can get good results in an oven-proof skillet with a tight fitting lid. You can also buy a very inexpensive Dutch oven from Walmart made by Tramontina. That's the one I use.

Serves 4

4 chicken legs (about 10 oz each)

1 garlic clove, grated on a microplane zester
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onions, sliced pole to pole

6 garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely minced
1/2 preserved lemon (a.k.a Moroccan lemon), pulp removed, skin rinsed, and sliced paper thin
1 cup dried fruit (prunes, apricots, raisins, cherries, cranberries)

1 Tbsp butter

Salt

Salting the chicken (if possible, do this 1-3 days in advance)
Press the chicken pieces between paper towels to dry and sprinkle with salt on all sides including under the skin.

Browning the chicken and vegetables

Preheat oven to 250F.
Press the chicken pieces between paper towels to dry. Rub with microplane grated garlic on the flesh side and under the skin. Mix pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cardamom and sprinkle all over chicken (you might have some spice mixture left over).
Set a 6-8 quart Dutch oven over medium high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add chicken pieces skin-side down without overlapping (if your pot is not large enough, do this in batches). Do not disturb the chicken for at least 5 minutes. Regulate heat so that the chicken is making sizzling noises, but is not burning. When the first side is brown, flip the chicken to brown briefly on the other side, about 1 minute. Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.
Add the onions and whole garlic cloves to the pot. Cook stirring occasionally until brown, 8-10 minutes.
Add ginger, preserved lemon, and dried fruit.
Return chicken to the pot. Cover with foil and then a tight fitting lid and place in the oven until the thighs register 175F, about 30 minutes.
Remove chicken pieces and dry on paper towels.
Tilt the pan, and skim off excess fat.
Set a large well-seasoned cast iron skillet (or non-stick) oven high heat. Add 1 Tbsp butter. When the butter foam subsides add the chicken skin side down and brown until crisp, about 2 minutes. Serve with sauce over rice or couscous.

Spinach with Kumquats

2011-04-11T12:57:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a special occasion emergency -- I mean when you need to serve a special meal with no planning or shopping? Just such a thing happened to me on friday. Google's purchase of ITA Software, where Jason works, finally became official. Everyone at ITA was waiting for the Department of Justice approval of this deal for 9 month! Yes, as long as a full term pregnancy. So it was a cause for great celebration for us.

Mergers and acquisitions are not special occasions normally covered by cookbooks and magazines, so I was on my own trying to figure out how pull a Bay Area meal out of my New England refrigerator. We were having miso marinated sable for the third time that week, but there is no such thing as too much sable, trust me. The side dish needed some help though. It was going to be spinach with pine nuts and raisins. Not that it wasn't a good dish, but we had it 3 times in a row that week. That's what happens when you buy a bag of spinach at Costco, which I highly recommend by the way since you don't need to wash or stem it. I was digging through my vegetables drawer for ideas and came across kumquats. They are very aromatic little oranges the size of an olive that you can eat skin and all. These ones were particularly tart and juicy and made a perfect addition to the spinach. The dish turned out so well, I'll try to buy spinach and kumquats together on purpose next time.

Normally, we'd have a Riesling with this dish, but this was an occasion that required something bubbly. Since neither one of us particularly likes Champagne (I know -- we are weird), Jason got us a Sparkling Rose from Bugey. It was so good we finished the bottle in no time.

Spinach with Kumquats

Note: if kumquats are not an option, substitute them with a generous squirt of fresh lemon juice

Serves 4

1 Lb spinach
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red chili flakes or to taste (optional)
8-12 kumquats, sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup golden raisins, plumped in hot water for 5 minutes
2 Tbsp pine nuts
1 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

If using mature spinach, remove the stems.
Set a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add oil. When oil is hot, add garlic and chili flakes and cook stirring constantly until just a hint of color develops, 30-60 seconds.
Add spinach, cover the skillet, and cook stirring occasionally until spinach is mostly wilted, about 5 minutes.
Add kumquats, drained raisins and pine nuts. Cook stirring to warm them through, 1-2 minutes. Take off heat, stir in butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Miso marinated sable

2011-04-08T08:00:00.008-04:00

It's sable season again! You might see it sold as "black cod" or "butterfish." This dish was inspired by Ming Tsai's miso-sake marinated Chilean sea bass. I believe he actually uses sable for it in his restaurant now. There is only one problem with this fish -- after you taste it, nothing else that swims will ever measure up to it.

Miso marinated Sable

Fish substitutions: salmon, chilean sea bass, halibut, steelhead trout, or pretty much any relatively thick fillets that are not too dense.

Serves 4

4 sable fillets without skin (6oz each)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup white miso (a.k.a. shiro miso)

At least 2 hours before cooking or up to 24

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, mirin, canola, and miso. Whisk thoroughly to combine. Add sable and coat with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 2 - 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 300F. Wrap a broiler pan with foil. Wipe all the marinade off the fish using paper towels and place it on the boiler pan.
Turn on the broiler. Broil sable 4 inches away from the flame just until browned, 3-5 minutes. You might need to adjust the distance from the flame and timing to suit your broiler. Keep a close eye on the fish. If you see no color after 2 minutes, move it a little closer to the heating element. If you see too much color, move it further down. If the first side browned, but you still have more than half your estimated cooking time* left, flip the fish and brown the second side.
To test for doneness, separate the flakes in the thickest part and look inside. Sable is done when a trace of translucency remains in the center or when an instant read thermometer inserted in the center reads 115F (thermometer only works well on pieces thicker than 1 inch). If the fish is not cooked through after the broiling step, reduce the heat to 300F and finish cooking fish in the middle of the oven.

*Estimated cooking time and flipping: Plan on 6-8 minutes total cooking time (broiling, plus finishing in the oven if necessary) per inch of thickness. If you are working with fillets thicker than 1.5 inches or have a particularly powerful broiler, you'll be able to flip the fish and brown it on both sides. But if the first side takes more than half your estimated cooking time to brown, don't flip the fish. Just turn off the broiler and finish it in the oven.

The tricky business of buying farro

2011-04-06T12:57:00.002-04:00

My heart sank as I peeled the $8.99 price sticker off the package of farro I got at Whole Foods. It looked just like the package I bought a few years ago. What made me suspicious was that after 20 minutes of cooking this farro was still no where near chewable. Ah-ah! Under the price sticker was hiding that terrible word "Whole." Could they choose a better place to put that sticker? What's people's obsession with everything whole anyway? We do peel eggs and bananas, don't we? And we normally remove bones from fish even though they are full of calcium. Why not sell farro in edible form? If this was my first attempt at cooking it, I would vouch to never go near this grain again, but luckily I've cooked farro many times before and had a feeling I knew what trap I have fallen into.

Let me back up for a minute and explain what farro is. It's the grains of an ancient wheat variety known as emmer. I don't know if you noticed, but in the recent years farro has become the darling grain of restaurant chefs. It has an earthy flavor without the feel of cardboard. It gets tender quickly, but doesn't turn mushy easily. It can be used in soups, in salads, in side dishes, and in risotto preparations instead of rice. Cooking it is idiot proof (assuming you bought the correct product). If you can boil boxed pasta, you can cook farro.

Buying farro is where things get hairy. The problem is that restaurants and recipe writers just call it "farro." What they really want to say is "farro perlato" or "pearled farro." "Pearled" grains are polished to remove most of the outer bran making them more tender. When I first started cooking farro, about 5 years ago, I was lucky to only come across the pearled variety at my local Whole Foods. I didn't know what the word "perlato" meant back then and didn't pay attention to it on the package. I just bought it, cooked it, ate it, and was happy.

Since Whole Foods farro was a bit pricey ($9/Lb), I thought I found a bargain when I saw it at Christina's spices in Cambridge. It was 4 years ago, so I don't remember the price. They labeled it "spelt / farro." Many on-line sources convince me that spelt and farro were the same thing, so I decided to try it. I remember swearing when after 3 hours of cooking that stupid grain refused to become tender enough to eat. That's when I thought I had farro buying all figured out. I now had empirical evidence that spelt and farro were not the same thing and if I wanted farro, I needed to buy farro (ideally, imported from Italy since that's the type I had wonderful results with).

Little did I know that there was plenty more "wrong" farro I could buy. As I found out on my recent trip to Whole Foods, not everything labeled "farro" and imported from Italy tastes like that heavenly grain I got in restaurants. My local Whole Foods carries two types of farro. One is labeled "whole farro" and the other is labeled just plain "farro." Both of them look and taste just like spelt and in my opinion have no good culinary applications except for being added to salads in small quantities. Now that I have tried whole farro, I wouldn't be surprised if the emmer wheat that farro comes from and spelt (another type of wheat) are indeed very similar. The main difference is in how they are processed. There is no reason why they couldn't polish spelt to rub off the bran like they do for farro perlato. I have just never seen it sold that way.

Whole Farro on the left / Farro Perlato on the right

I asked the Whole Foods grains guy about farro perlato, and he said they don't carry it (at least not in that store). I guess they are thinking that "whole" grains sell better to the health conscious Whole Foods shoppers. The funny thing is that the nutritional labels for whole farro and farro perlato don't look any different. They both have about the same amount of fiber and protein, so there are no great advantages to inflecting pain and suffering on your jaws.

"Now I am in trouble," I thought. "Where will I get farro for my beans and grains class?" I started googling for "farro boston" when a much easier solution dawned on me. I buy all my cooking tools on-line. Why not farro? I was concerned that the shipping costs were going to be nasty. But eventually, I found one company who sold it through Amazon at a very reasonable price of $12/Lb including shipping.

That's barely more than what Formaggio's in Cambridge charges for farro and definitely more convenient. It breaks down to $6.50 for farro and $5.50 for shipping. I ordered one pack to try. It was perfect. Now that I took a closer look, the shipping costs per package go down if you order more than one. So buying 2 packs of this farro on-line is no more expensive than buying it at Whole Foods.

April 13, 2011 update: Thanks to my wonderful reader, Chris, I was able to locate very inexpensive farro perlato in the Boston area. I just called Formaggio's Kitchen in Cambridge and they indeed have farro perlato. 2.2 Lb bag sells for $9. That's half the price of Whole Foods. Whoever thought to seek a bargain at Formaggio's!

Once you are the proud owner of farro perlato, the rest is easy. Bring lots of salted water to a boil like you would for pasta. Stir in farro and cook until tender but toothsome, about 20 minutes. Drain and serve hot, or rinse in cold water and serve in a salad. You can also cook it using a risotto method just like you would Arborio (or any other type of risotto rice).

For the dish in the picture, I combined cooked, rinsed, and cooled farro with fennel and radishes (both were sliced on a mandoline), thinly sliced scallions, dill, and sectioned oranges. I dressed this salad with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The sexy looking fish on top is broiled sable.

How was it caught?

2011-04-03T15:55:00.000-04:00

I sneaked out of many classes in my life, but "Fish sustainability" was the first class I ever sneaked into. A strange wave of virtue and studiousness washed over me as I sat in the Whole Foods cafe. I turned off my Kindle, got out my pen, and moved closer to the table where an inspiring talk on the catching methods was given to all the staff of the Framingham, MA store that might stand between you, the consumer, and that piece of tuna or mahi-mahi. The "in-store educator" (that's what his business card said) even gave me a useful handout and was nice enough to answer all my questions after the talk.

As I found out from this class, you can now ask your Whole Foods fishmonger how the fish was caught. He should know the answer or be willing to ask someone who does. In theory, this should help you make an informed decision if you are trying to use the Monterey Bay Aquarium guide for choosing environmentally friendly fish.

Here are the fishing methods the class covered:

Long line -- uses a long line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called "snoods." You can catch many fish at once without effecting the ocean floor.

Gill nets (aka "fixed nets") -- walls of netting which may be set at any depth.

Hook and line -- this traditional method uses one hook and one line. least environmental impact, but very expensive. Only 1% of commercial fish is caught this way in the US.

Bottom Trawls (aka "draggers") -- slow moving boats with large nets that drag along the sea floor. The cheapest way to catch bottom dwellers, but is most harmful to the ocean floor.

Harpooning -- highly-selective method that targets larger species (sword and tuna). No by-catch, no impact on the ocean floor, but expensive.

Purse seines -- netting encircles schooling fish that are targeted by sonar. About 25% of US fish is caught this way.

High Seas Drift Nets -- nets are allowed to drift with the currents, and fishermen return later to retrieve what is caught. This technique results in very large amount of by-catch and it was outlawed in EU since 2002.

I came home full of enthusiasm to see how this information helps me. When I looked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Northeast guide in the past, I got hopelessly confused because some species appeared in all three columns. For example, here is what the guide says about the bigeye tuna:

Best choice: Tuna, Bigeye (U.S. Atlantic Troll, Pole-and-line)
Good alternative: Tuna, Bigeye (Troll, Pole-and-line)
Avoid: Tuna, Bigeye (Worldwide, Except U.S. Atlantic Longline)

Unfortunately, neither Troll nor Pole-and-line methods were covered in the Whole Foods class. Is troll the same as trawl? No. Trolling is a method where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water. I couldn't get as much info on Pole-and-line, but from what I've read, it's roughly the same thing as trolling, and hook and line. So, if Whole Foods tells you that their tuna is harpoon caught, good luck figuring what Monterey Bay Aquarium thinks about that.

No, you are not the only person getting a headache when trying to make a responsible choice at the fish counter. It is indeed very complicated. But I am very encouraged by Whole Foods' new red/yellow/green labeling system. Unfortunately, there is no effective way for you and the staff member helping you at the fish counter to make an informed decision about which fish makes a more sustainable choice. You simply don't have enough information. But there are people at Whole Foods who do have that information. They can do the research necessary to find out how healthy is the population of this particular species, what fishing method was used to catch it, how this method effects the habitat of this and other species, and how much by-catch results from it. They can put all these factors on the scale and give the fish its sustainability grade.

Pocono Buckwheat from Whole Foods

2011-03-29T18:09:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Dania (from The Vegetarian Cookery) and Louise I now found a buckwheat at Whole Foods that doesn't cook into a dusty mush. Pocono Kasha was indeed excellent -- evenly roasted with pleasant nutty aroma and good texture. I just found that it requires a little less water than the Russian buckwheat to produce the same level of tenderness. For 1 cup of Russian buckwheat I use 1 2/3 cups water and for 1 cup of Pocono buckwheat I only needed 1 1/2 cups water.

If it wasn't for you, my dear readers, I'd still be stuck testing buckwheat brands. But now I can move on to farro.

Braised Parsnip Purée

2011-03-25T16:37:00.001-04:00

Spring is not my favorite season, at least not when it comes to cooking. Maybe if I lived in California, I'd be more excited about spring. But here in New England, local spring vegetables in March is a beautiful romantic dream that exists only in the imagination.

In spite of my spring apathy, there is one local spring vegetable that I look forward to all year. It's a parsnip. It's not green, like you'd imagine things in the spring to be. If you've never seen a parsnip, it looks like a carrot, only white. These parsnips are called "spring dug" or "wintered over." They stay in the ground all winter turning incredibly sweet and are harvested in the spring.

The only ingredients in this dish are parsnips, olive oil, and salt. But the taste is so complex, you'd hardly believe the humble ingredient list. There are notes of orange, vanilla, maple syrup, and freshly churned butter. How do you get all that from just parsnips, oil, and salt? Some of it is the spectacular spring dug parsnips and some of it is the technique. I use high heat at first to develop color and then low heat to cook the parsnips through. I've seen this kind of vegetable technique referred to as "braising", but what's peculiar about it is that you don't add any liquid and keep the pot covered the entire time. In a true braise, the food is usually cooked on high heat in an open pan to help steam escape and promote browning, and liquid is added during the low and slow part. The reason I keep the pot covered the entire time and don't add any liquid is to concentrate the flavor. This way, the parsnip juices stay in the pot, eliminating the need for the addition of any foreign liquid.

This is a fabulous technique to use with parsnips, celery root, sweet potatoes, carrots, and turnips if you are planning to purée them (or coarsely mash). Normally, I use butter instead of oil, and add heavy cream during the low heat part of the cooking. But I was making these parsnips for my 6 month old son and we haven't introduced cream and butter yet. The fact that I ate half of them while trying to get them into baby food jars speaks for itself.

The topping in the picture is a lingonberry jam thinned with a little Creme de Cassis (black currant liquor). If you are serving these parsnips with duck, pork, chicken, or game, that sweet berry accompaniment is very harmonious. A rhubarb jam would be lovely too.

Braised Parsnip Purée

Note: You can substitute parsnips with celery root, sweet potatoes, carrots, or turnips. If using celery root increase the quantity slightly, since you'll discard a lot of it while peeling (it's a very bumpy vegetable). The vanilla bean is optional, but do not substitute it with vanilla extract. I tried, it doesn't work.

2 Lb parsnips, peeled, and cut into 2/3 inch cubes
3 Tbsp olive oil or butter
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
1/2 vanilla bean split lengthwise (optional)
Salt to taste

Set a large heavy pot over high heat. Add the oil or butter. When oil is hot, add the parsnips and cover the pot. Cook covered, stirring occasionally until good number of cubes are browned. It will take 5-8 minutes. Try to stir after the first 2 minutes. If no color developed yet, try stirring less frequently. If the cubes on the bottom got too dark, stir more frequently. The browning won't be even. Some cubes will have 2 brown sides and some none at all.
Add the cream and vanilla bean (if using). Sprinkle with salt and mix well. Cover, turn the heat down to very low and cook until the vegetables are completely tender and can be easily cut with a wooden spoon, 20-35 minutes. Err on the side of overcooking.
Remove vanilla bean, scrape out the seed and add back to the pot. Discard the bean.
Purée parsnips in a food processor until completely smooth. For a coarser texture, mash with a potato masher or a wooden spoon.

This dish can be made in advance and rewarmed in a covered pot over medium low heat stirring frequently (microwave works well too for small quantities).

Confessions of a buckwheat snob

2011-03-22T14:13:00.001-04:00

March 29, 2011 update: thanks to the helpful comments from my wonderful readers, I found a good buckwheat option at Whole Foods: Pocono Kasha, so there is no need to go searching for a Russian grocery store as I wrote in this post.
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Cooking advice focused on the origin of ingredients makes me skeptical. Do you have to use tomatoes from Italy for your pizza sauce or French butter for your tart dough? Absolutely not! Of course, I am not Italian or French, so it's easy for me to adopt such a casual attitude toward their ingredients (though I do think that American prosciutto sucks). But would I be able to be as open minded when it comes to buckwheat -- a quintessentially Russian grain that I started eating before I got all my teeth?

I had a bad experience with American buckwheat a few years ago and since then I stuck to the buckwheat from the Russian stores. But preparing for the Beans and Grains class made me think twice about buying Russian buckwheat. Did I really want to tell my students that they have to go to a specialty store to buy something as basic as a grain? Surely there was a way to make buckwheat from the bulk isle of Whole Foods taste good.

I decided to try the obvious first -- cook it just like I would Russian buckwheat. The result was a mush covered in something that resembled wet dust. No wonder most Americans have such a lowly opinion of this grain.

I noticed that the groats were not as even in color in the Whole Foods buckwheat as they were in the one I was used to cooking. Some were brown, some beige, and some slightly green.

Whole Food Buckwheat

Russian Buckwheat

I was guessing that the Whole Foods groats weren't roasted evenly (even the darkest ones were not roasted enough). I put the buckwheat in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roasted it in 375F oven for 15 minutes. It turned darker and the green color was gone.

Now I decided to tackle the wet dust problem. I noticed that Whole Foods buckwheat groats were covered in a fine brown powder. I was guessing it was the result of some of the groats getting crushed and was hoping that washing and draining the groats would help.

Unfortunately, all my efforts didn't amount to much. Roasting produced a slightly more flavorful buckwheat, but it did not improve the texture. While some groats were toothsome, many turned to mush. Washing barely made a dent on the wet dust problem. I tried reducing the amount of water. I tried both stove top and oven preparations. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the groats to cook evenly and keep their shape.

Cooked Whole Foods Buckwheat

Cooked Russian Buckwheat

Finally, I gave up. If you want to cook buckwheat, buy it from a Russian store. In the Boston area, many Armenian stores carry Russian buckwheat as well. I always try to find groats that are as dark as possible. But not black! If they are black, it means they are still in their shell and that doesn't taste good. I've never seen Russian buckwheat sold this way, but I have seen it in an American specialty store recently, so now I know to warn you that you want your groats to be whole but without the shell.

Does this make me a buckwheat snob?

Basic Buckwheat Recipe

1.5 Tbsp butter (plus additional for serving)

1 cup whole buckwheat groats (if possible produced in Russia)

1 2/3 cups boiling water (subtract 2 Tbsp from that if you want a more toothsome buckwheat)

1.5 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (3/4 tsp table salt)

Note: buckwheat tastes best cooked in the oven, but if your pot can't go in the oven, you can cook it on the stove top.

Preheat oven to 350F.
Set an oven-proof sauce pan over medium heat. Add 1.5 Tbsp butter and wait for it to melt. Cook the butter until it just starts to turn brown, swirling the pan frequently. It will take a couple of minutes.
Add the buckwheat and cook stirring until it's completely coated in butter and gives of a nutty aroma, 2-3 minutes.
Take off heat and add water and salt. Be carefully as the water will spatter.
Cover the pot. Put in the oven for 18 minutes (or cook on the stove top at low heat). Buckwheat is done when all the water is absorbed.
Leave covered to rest for 15 minutes. Serve with additional butter. Buckwheat goes extremely well with cooked onions, mushrooms, and duck.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheated.

How to cook quinoa

2011-03-15T20:03:00.001-04:00

The "how to ruin your meal" instructions written on every package of beef are understandable. Say you give a medium-rare burger to your immunocompromised 90 year old grandfather and he dies. If you ask me, a medium-rare burger with aged cheddar and caramelized onions is as good as it gets for the last meal, but the meat industry doesn't want to be sued over it. So they instruct you to cook ground beef to 160F. But I've never heard of anyone being harmed by undercooked quinoa (or any other grain for that matter), so I am puzzled as to why every package of quinoa that I've ever come across gives you "how to end up with complete mush" instructions.

I am currently testing recipes for my Beans and Grains class. In the last week, I've cooked more quinoa than I had cooked in my entire life. The problem was that I was starting with a perfect recipe. I heard about it from one of my students (Liza, in case you are reading this -- a huge thank you!). She told me about a method of steaming quinoa that makes it fluffy. After a little googling, I found it on epicurious and gave it a try. The results were indeed lovely. The grains held their shape, separated nicely, were perfectly tender, but not at all mushy. The texture reminded me of good couscous -- not the instant stuff, but the real couscous you get in good Moroccan restaurants. I believe it's also steamed.

There was one little problem. This recipe required very particular equipment and a good bit of hassle. First you boil quinoa in a lot of water (like pasta). Then you drain it into a fine sieve and rinse. Then you bring 1 inch of water back to a boil in the pot, set the sieve with quinoa over it, cover with a towel and a lid and steam. Luckily my 4 quart pot did fit my fine mesh sieve nicely and was deep enough to hold 1 inch of water without having the sieve touch it. If your pots are shorter and wider, this might not work. Another problem was that my fine mesh sieve can only hold 1 cup of uncooked quinoa (it swells up to 3 cups when cooked). This means that I can't easily double or triple this recipe.

My goal was to produce quinoa that was just as good (or close) without this much hassle. After trying every grain method I could think of (pasta, absorption, and risotto), the absorption method produced the best results (that's just like cooking rice). The quinoa wasn't quite as fluffy, but still had a very pleasant texture. First trick was to reduce the amount of water. The most common ration recommended for quinoa is 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. I found that 1:1 is a much better ratio. The second trick was to let quinoa rest after cooking covered with a towel (paper towel is fine) to absorb excess moisture. This makes it fluffier. I prefer to cook my rice and quinoa in the 375F oven as a replacement for the rice cooker that I don't own. The indirect heat cooks the grains evenly and prevents the bottom from burning. The stove top also works if you can maintain very low heat.

Here are some other interesting things I've learned while cooking 7 batches of quinoa.

Difference between red quinoa and white quinoa

The red quinoa is chewier and cooks 7-10 minutes longer than white. I prefer white for hot dishes and red for salads, but they are interchangeable.

To rinse or not to rinse

There seems to be no consensus on whether or not to rinse quinoa. Some sources indicate that quinoa is naturally coated with a bitter-tasting substance called saponin and it needs to be rinsed off. Others say that it depends on which brand of quinoa you buy. Some of it is already pre-rinsed and can be cooked as is.

I am in the rinse camp and not just because of saponin. In fact, I think saponin is the least of your problems. I've never encountered a really bitter batch of quinoa, but I have definitely encountered a really gritty batch. In fact, I think you should rinse all your beans and grains because you never know how dusty or even gritty they are. The problem is that beans and grains sink, so getting the grit out of them is tricky business. Here is a method that works well.

How to rinse quinoa and other grains
Place quinoa in a fine mesh sieve and place the sieve in a bowl of water. Quinoa should be completely submerged in water. Stir it around with your hand and wait 30 seconds for it to settle. Lift the sieve and pour out the water. Repeat until the water you pour out is completely clean. Drain well, shaking the sieve to remove access moisture. Set the sieve over an empty bowl and let sit for a couple of minutes to make sure all the water is drained.

If your quinoa is pre-rinsed, rinsing doesn't cause any harm. If you work with the same brand of quinoa many times and find that it's particularly clean, you can try cooking it without rinsing as an experiment (that bitter taste everyone talks about might not be there after all). Keep in mind that if you don't rinse you'll need to increase the amount of water. After rinsing and draining (thoroughly), quinoa absorbs about 50g (slightly less than 1/4 cup) water.

What to pair with quinoa

Quinoa is all about texture. It doesn't have much flavor of it's own, which makes it a blank canvas for anything you want to put on it. The key to success is a generous amount of salt, acidity, and fat. My favorite combinations are lemon juice and butter for hot quinoa; soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and olive oil for either hot or cold quinoa.

Basic quinoa recipe

Makes 3 cups

1 cup white or red quinoa, rinsed and drained according to the above instructions

1 cup water

1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp table salt)

Oven method (most even cooking without sticking on the bottom)

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F.
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil.
Place rinsed and drained quinoa in a baking dish (8x8x2 for 1-2 cups of quinoa, 13x9x2 for 3-4 cups). Have 2 sheets of foil ready.
Sprinkle quinoa with salt, cover with boiling water, and immediately cover tightly with 2 layers of foil.
Place in the oven for 20 minutes for white quinoa, 30 minutes for red, or until all the water is absorbed. Remove foil.
Place a dish or paper towel over the quinoa and replace 1 layer of foil. Let rest 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve with desired accompaniments.

Stove top method

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
Add quinoa and salt. Cover tightly with foil and a tight fitting lid.
Cook over very low heat for 20 minutes for white quinoa, 30 minutes for red, or until all the water is absorbed. Remove lid.
Place a dish or paper towel over the quinoa and replace the lid. Let rest 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve with desired accompaniments.

Cooling note

Quinoa can be made in advance, chilled, and served cold in a salad or reheated. To cool quinoa without drying, cover it with a layer of damp paper towels and cool to room temperature. Then move to an airtight container and refrigerate.

Quinoa Pilaf with Lemon and Pistachio Butter

This dish works best with white quinoa

1 Tbsp olive oil or butter

1/4 cup finely minced shallot, white part of scallion, or yellow onion

1/3 cup golden raisins or chopped dried apricots

3 cups cooked quinoa (from 1 cup dry)

1/3 cup finely ground pistachios (use a food processor for this)

3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 Tbsp honey or maple syrup

2 Tbsp butter, cut into 4 pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil or butter, minced shallot, and a pinch of salt. Cook until translucent, tender, and golden, 5-10 minutes.
Cover raisins or apricots with boiling water to plump them up. Let sit for 5 minutes and drain.
Add cooked quinoa and 1 Tbsp water to the skillet with shallot. Cover, and cook stirring occasionally until heated through, about 5 minutes. Uncover as soon as quinoa is hot so that it doesn't turn mushy.
Add the raisins, pistachios, lemon juice, honey, and the remaining 2 Tbsp butter. Stir well, taste, and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Balsamic Soy Quinoa

2 Tbsp Tamari (Japanese style soy sauce)

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup

3 cups cooked quinoa (from 1 cup dry)

1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions, green parts only

2 Tbsp olive oil for cold quinoa or 2 Tbsp butter for hot quinoa

Cold Version

Mix all ingredients together and taste. Add more soy sauce, vinegar, honey, and oil as desired.

Hot Version

Set a large skillet over medium heat. Add the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and honey. Bring to a simmer. Add cooked quinoa and scallions. Cover, and cook stirring occasionally until heated through, about 5 minutes. Uncover as soon as quinoa is hot so that it doesn't turn mushy. Stir in the butter and serve.

The egg -- as you like it

2011-03-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

What are your thoughts on 142F eggs? Sometimes they are listed on restaurant menus as 61.1C eggs making them look even more scientific thanks to that decimal point. Sometimes they are referred to as sous-vide eggs and sometimes as just slow poached. Whatever they are called, they have a very characteristic texture: liquid yolk and opaque, but quivering white that barely holds its shape (no that's not it in the picture, in case you are wondering). Most people I've met either love them or hate them. The yolk is the easy part -- what's not to love in that rich golden liquid. It's the white that is controversial. One possible reaction is "Wow, this white is so tender, I feel like I am eating a cloud." The other reaction is "I feel like I am eating barely congealed snot."

Since I was in the "barely congealed snot" camp for a few years, it never occurred to me to cook eggs at a precise temperature water bath at home (I like my yolk at 142F and my white at 150F). But lately, I've been coming around on them. Maybe you just need to go through a dozen eggs to gradually change the metaphor from snot to a cloud. I have recently tried making 142F eggs at home using Kenji's method. I kept them at 142F for 45 minutes using a beer cooler (a.k.a. ghetto sous-vide set up). Tapped the dull end with a spoon, carefully peeled to make an opening slightly more than an inch in diameter, and poured out the egg into a bowl. It was liquid enough to pour out, but solid enough to hold its shape.

While I was trying to decide whether the white bothered me or not, an idea occurred to me -- why don't I poach it? I brought some water to a simmer and dropped in this quivering snot/cloud egg. There was no need for vinegar, vortex, or any other trick to keep the white together. It stayed together in a perfect little oval, and 2 minutes later, I removed a perfect poached egg.

Here are some advantages over traditional poached eggs:

Consistent perfection of shape
Liquid yolk and solid, but tender white
No need for vinegar (I don't like the flavor vinegar gives poached eggs)
No need for ice bath or rinsing
The 142F water bath can be done days in advance, minimizing the hassle the day of serving

Another idea of finishing these eggs is to turn them into eggs en cocotte (baked eggs in ramekins).

Tips

Learn how to create a precise temperature water bath.
Monitor the water to make sure you keep it at 142F for the whole 45 minutes.
Carefully place the eggs in the water bath using tongs or a basket so that they don't break.
If you are doing the water bath in advance, drain and cool the eggs, refrigerate until ready to use, then poach for 4 minutes (you need this longer poaching time since the eggs are cold).
Keep the egg carton -- it's handy for holding the eggs while cracking.
When cracking the eggs, pour them out into a shallow bowl before dropping them into the simmering water. It's fine to put multiple eggs in one bowl. This way you can remove any loose pieces of white and get them all into the simmering water at the same time.

How to cook beans

2011-02-25T21:17:00.002-05:00

I have a dirty little secret to tell you -- I often use canned beans. Most chefs and cooking instructors would find this to be an unforgivable sin, considering that fact that my job is to teach people how to cook. Surely, I am supposed to tell you to stop buying beans in cans and to start cooking your own -- not only is it cheaper, but a lot tastier too. At least that's the theory. Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to give you a lecture on the virtues of cooking your own beans even though I hope to solve your bean cooking problems by the end of this post. Beans are one of the most temperamental ingredients I've ever dealt with. They often turn out either too chalky, or too mushy, or their skins burst making their insides taste all watery. The worst part is that all three problems can happen in one batch making them very difficult to solve.

You didn't expect such an encouraging introduction, did you? Well, here is the good news. It is possible to cook perfect beans at home, but it takes lots of patience and precision. First, let's talk about when you should bother to cook beans yourself and when you can use canned beans with very good results.

Salads
When I need 1-2 cups of beans for a salad -- they are great tossed with tomatoes, or blanched asparagus or green beans -- I usually open a can. I always keep 3-4 cans of cannellini beans (my favorite type) on hand for just this purpose. The brand of a can makes a big difference. Whole Foods generic brand "365" is great. Just avoid any "No Salt Added" cans. Beans need salt not only for the purpose of seasoning, but also for even cooking. Rinse the beans thoroughly in a colander, drain, and serve. Yes, you'll probably spend $1 on a cup of cooked beans instead of 25 cents if you were to buy them dry. But when you take your time into account, canned beans will beat home-cooked by a huge margin.

Soups and Stews
When cooking a bean soup or stew, I usually cook my own beans because I want their lovely cooking liquid. The liquid surrounding canned beans is starchy and unpalatable. But when you cook the beans yourself, you end up with a very flavorful broth that can be used in soups, stews, and sauces.

Spreads
When using beans for a pureed spread (hummus, cannellini rosemary spread, or bean walnut pâté), I often cook my own to have the cooking liquid on hand to adjust the consistency. Of course, you can also use canned beans and simply add a little water or olive oil. Pureed bean spreads are also a good "recovery" dish for those cases when your beans refuse to behave. Just make sure they aren't chalking and crunchy, but don't worry if they burst or end up mushy. Once you puree them, no one will notice the difference.

If you are going through the trouble of cooking beans, cook a big batch and use them in different dishes. They'll last happily in the fridge for 1 week when stored in their cooking liquid.

Now that you know when to bother cooking your own beans, let's talk about how.

Bean types
You can use this method for all kinds of white beans (cannellini, navy, great northern), pinto beans, black beans, cranberry beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans (chick peas), and kidney beans. This method does not apply to lentils. Although they are also of the legume family, they don't need soaking, and taste best when cooked al dente, while the beans taste best when cooked till completely soft.

Buying beans
Try to buy your beans in stores with a good turn around. Old beans will not cook evenly and sometimes will refuse to get tender. Whole Foods usually has a better turn around for beans and grains than most supermarkets.

Soak in salted water
If you want evenly cooked beans, you need a long soak (8-24 hours). You also need to salt the soaking water. Yes, I am well aware of the old wives' tale that you shouldn't salt beans until they are almost done. Even many professional chefs still believe that. But if you do your own experiments, you'll quickly realize that salt actually helps rather than hurts your beans. Or you can let Cook's Illustrated do the experiments for you as long as you listen to their results. If you want a scientific explanation, here is what Cook's has to say about soaking beans in salt water:

In recent testing, we’ve found that soaking dried beans in mineral-rich; hard tap water can toughen their skins. Some recipes recommend using distilled water to avoid this issue, but we’ve discovered a simpler solution: adding salt to the tap water, which prevents the magnesium and calcium in the water from binding to the cell walls, and it will also displace some of the minerals that occur naturally in the skins.

To soak 2 cups of beans I use 2 quarts of water and 3 Tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1 Tbsp and 2 tsp of table salt).

If you can't cook the beans after soaking for 24 hours, drain, put in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Cooking

2 cups dried beans, soaked as described above, drained and rinsed
3 quarts water
1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1.5 tsp table salt)
Optional aromatics:
Large chunks or onions, carrots, celery
Bay leaf
A few sprigs or rosemary, sage or thyme

Put beans, water, salt, and any optional aromatics in a large, heavy pot. Bring the beans to a simmer over high heat. As soon as the bubbles break the surface of the water, turn down the heat to very low (if using an electric stove, temporarily move the pan off the burner to let it cool off). Skim off the foam that rises to the top. From here on, you want to keep the liquid 200 - 207F (that's just under a simmer). No, it's not too anal to use a thermometer every so often to make sure you are in that zone.
I wish I could give you some nice chart with cooking times for different bean types. Unfortunately, I'd be just setting you up for failure. Each batch of beans has a mind of it's own, so you have to taste, taste, and taste some more. I start tasting 45 minutes after the beans come to a simmer. Usually, they are done 1-2 hours after they they come to a simmer. Remember that even though you bring the beans to a simmer originally, you cook them just under a simmer (simmer would be 212F).

Many people have good results with cooking beans in a slow-cooker or in the oven. I haven't tried a slow-cooker because I don't have one, and I prefer stove top over the oven because I can test the temperature of the liquid and taste the beans easier. As long as you realize that the beans have to be cooked extremely gently, feel free to experiment with whatever cooking method works for you.

Tasting
Don't be alarmed if the bean skins blister and break when you remove them from the cooking liquid to taste. That's not an indication that they are overcooked. Once the beans have cooled, the skins will become much more stable. Test the beans whose skin looks intact. The ones that broke down a bit are definitely done. If the bean you tasted is completely tender, taste at least 5 more beans to make sure they are all cooked. When working with cannellini and a few other white bean varieties, don't get alarmed if about 10-20% of the beans break slightly. That's usually what happens by the time all of them are tender. Just let them sit in the fridge overnight and their texture will become much more pleasant.

Cooling
Never drain and use the beans immediately after cooking. Their skins often blister and burst unless you give them a chance to cool first. Cool and store the beans in their cooking liquid. Once they come to room temperature, refrigerate for up to 1 week. They always taste better the day after they were cooked.

Lentils braised in red wine

2011-02-14T16:02:00.001-05:00

Judy Rodgers describes using a risotto method for lentils in her Zuni Cafe cookbook. I found the idea intriguing and have been playing with it for over a month now with great success (hey, what recipe from the Zuni cookbook is not a great success?!) The recipe asks you to add liquid a little at a time, like you would for a risotto. This stingy with liquid method results in lentils that are nutty and toothsome, coated in a syrupy red wine sauce. With a bit of practice, I found that I can minimize stirring by adding just the right amount of liquid and even use my oven risotto method eliminating stirring all together.

The recipe starts with cooked mirepoix (mixture of carrots, celery, and onions), but this step is optional. If I am planning to combine the lentils with caramelized onions later, I skip the mirepoix.

What I love the most about this method is how forgiving it is. Cooking lentils in a lot of liquid can yield nice toothsome results as well, but you have to watch your lentils like a hawk. Overcook them by 2 minutes and they turn to mush. With the risotto method, the lentils hold their shape and texture a lot longer after they are done.

Type of lentils

The type of lentils is very important. You need du Puy (a.k.a. French Green or just French) lentils for this dish. Black beluga lentils will also work, but avoid brown, yellow, and red lentils since they won't hold their shape as well.

Serves 4 as a side dish

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced small

1 medium carrot, diced small

1 celery stick, diced small

1 1/4 c du Puy lentils, rinsed and drained

1 cup medium body, low tannin red wine (I like to use Cote-du-Rhone or Pinot Noir)

1 1/2 cup water, plus more as needed

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1-2 Tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking aromatic vegetables (this step is optional)

Set a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat.

Add the oil, onions, carrots, and celery. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt and cook stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, but not brown, 10-15 minutes.

Cooking lentils -- stove top method

Add the lentils, wine, water, thyme, bay leaf and salt (1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or 1/4 tsp table). Bring to a simmer and cook stirring occasionally at a gentle simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed. You don't need to stir much when the liquid is plentiful. As it gets low, start stirring more often. Taste the lentils. If they are not tender enough, add more water 1/2 cup at a time and continue to cook stirring and tasting. The total cooking time will be around 30 minutes.

Cooking lentils -- oven method

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Add the lentils, wine, water, thyme, bay leaf and salt (1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or 1/4 tsp table). Bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Taste the lentils. If they are not tender enough, add more water 1/2 cup at a time and continue to cook on the stove top stirring and tasting.

Seasoning and enriching (both the stove top and oven methods)

When the lentils have the desired texture. Take them off the heat. Add more salt as needed and 1-2 Tbsp butter.

More about thermometers -- specifically when and how to use them

2011-02-09T16:44:00.001-05:00

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments about meat thermometers. I wanted to reply to all of you, but didn't want to bury the interesting bits in the comments, so I am writing another post.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my laziness in the last post. It was really silly of me to start discussing pros and cons of different thermometers without talking about the tasks people do with them. Considering the fact that my last career was in the field of usability engineering, that's an unforgivable sin. The only thing I have to say in my defense is that I've been a little distracted the last 2 weeks with a certain fantasy book series. If I was 14 years old, I wouldn't be embarrassed to tell you the title. But since those days are long gone, there is really no excuse for my juvenile behavior. So, I will try to be good now and concentrate.

The task some of you have mentioned when praising probe thermometers was cooking a large prime-rib roast. I can see how the probe can seem very attractive. You don't need to constantly open the oven and check your meat. The thermometer will tell you the exact moment when it's done. Right? Not exactly. Here are some ideas to think about.

Opening the oven is not all that bad
Nothing terrible will happen to your meat if you open the oven and check up on it. Even if you do it frequently. You don't want to stick a thermometer in and wait 25 seconds to get a good reading while the oven is opened. Quickly get the meat out and close the oven door. Test the meat and then return it to the oven. If anything, this slight cooling off period will result in a more evenly cooked meat.

You still need to have a rough idea of how long the roast will take
If you don't have any idea when the meat is getting close, how would you know when to put it in the oven to have it ready by the time your guests arrive? Also, how would you know when to start the end game with your side dishes? In real life, you are not just sitting there waiting for the beep from your thermometer. You should probably know roughly when the meat will be ready and use the thermometer often in the last stages of roasting to get perfect doneness. That's very hard to do for large pieces of meat, which brings me to the last point.

You don't need to cook a huge roast even when feeding lots of people
I never cook a prime rib roast bigger than 3 ribs. If I am feeding a crowd, I cook several such roasts. It's much easier to estimate when a little roast will be ready and it's much easier to stick it in a skillet in the end for a good crust. Here is my general approach to cooking all meat. Ideally, you should also do a dry-run before the big event to get a rough idea of timing. If you underestimated how long it will take, your guests might have to wait another 10-15 minutes, not another hour. There is no reason why regular digital thermometers wouldn't do a good job with a prime rib task even though they might require a bit more work on your part.

But let's talk about tasks that happen much more frequently, at least in my kitchen:

testing steaks
testing duck breasts
testing pork chops
testing racks of lamb
testing chicken breasts and thighs

The common theme here is pieces of meat that are 1 inch in thickness or more. Let's use a thick steak as an example. It's very rare that I cook only one steak, and it's very rare that the other ones are exactly the same thickness, and it's very rare that I managed to stick a thermometer smack into the center of the steak on the first try. What does all this mean? It means that I need to be able to remove the thermometer easily and stick it into another piece of meat or into another spot on the same piece of meat. That's where a remote probe thermometer can turn out to be a hindrance. It gets hot in the oven and becomes very awkward to pull out and stick back in since you need to use oven mitts. The wire attaching the probe to the thermometer causes some difficulties too since it often makes the thermometer fall down as the probe is yanked out of the meat. Maybe I am just a very un-coordinated person, but I find regular thermometers to be a lots easier to deal with for this task.

Another task you guys mentioned was monitoring the temperature of water for cooking beans in the oven. You got me there. I've never tried it, so I can't say for sure how a probe thermometer would stack up against a regular one. But I wonder how much good does it do to know the exact temperature of the liquid if you can't easily control it. Ovens cycle on and off, so they can't give you such perfect control. What I might do is bring a pot of beans to 185-195F on the stove top while monitoring it with a regular thermometer. Then set it in 200F oven and hope for the best.

I was getting concerned about my bias against probe thermometers. I thought maybe I just had a few bad experiences with them, so I decided to check what Cook's Illustrated had to say:

We tested 11 models-several by the same manufacturers-and not one was flawless. The ones that accurately measured temperature sported function buttons that were too slow or too hard to figure out. Others that were user-friendly were also unreliable.

The best of the bunch (ThermoWorks Original Cooking Thermometer/Timer) was great when it worked but has probes that even its manufacturer admits are sometimes defective. Until a better meat probe comes on the market, we recommend this one with reservations. Check the probe's accuracy by boiling water and taking a reading before trying it with a roast. If the probe doesn't read very close to 212 degrees, ask for a replacement.

It seems to me that the probe thermometers give people a false sense of security. If you love the results you are getting with them, that's great. But if not, it might be worth looking at a regular thermometer rather than another probe type.

Meat thermometers: should you spend $10 or $100?

2011-02-03T15:37:00.001-05:00

How much should you spend on a meat thermometer?

I bought my first meat thermometer 9 years ago. It was a fancy one with remote probe and cost about $40 (they sell for $20-30 now). The idea was that you could stick the probe into the meat, clip the thermometer on the door of the oven, and program it to beep when the meat reached a certain temperature. At least that's how it worked in principle. Here is what happened in practice. The probe didn't stay in the center unless it was a really big hunk of meat. The wire made the probe awkward to work with and wash. The probe broke after less than a year of use since it was always jammed by oven door and grill cover

I tried a few more thermometers of this type, but had the same problems, and an added one of the user interface getting more and more complex.

Finally, I gave up and switched to a basic Taylor digital thermometer that you can't put in the oven. It cost around $15 (now it sells for $10). I loved it. It was easy to stick into the meat, easy to read, and easy to wash. This thermometers has lasted me close to 5 years now, but you never know when you might drop it into water, so I bought 2 back ups -- Maverick (recommended by Cook's Illustrated) and Tru Temp (available at Target).

A few weeks ago, I noticed some discrepancy in my thermometers while testing a roast chicken recipe. Maverick and Taylor where within 1 degree, but Tru Temp (made by Taylor by the way) was 15 degrees off! 15 degrees is a lot. It was particularly disconcerting since I started using these thermometer for sous-vide preparations and needed accurate readings. I threw Tru Temp away, but now I was starting to doubt my other thermometers. After all Tru Temp and Taylor were made by the same company.

That's when I finally decided to splurge on Thermapen. $100 did sound a little freaky. I don't believe in expensive kitchen equipment and rarely spend more than $50 on any kitchen toy. But with Jason's encouragement, I finally gave in and bought it. The guy has a thing for lab equipment, so he couldn't help himself. What can I say -- it's good and it's fast. I can get a close enough reading in 3 seconds rather than 20 I am used to waiting. It also allowed me to test my Maverick and Taylor thermometers for accuracy and speed of coming to temperature. I was testing them all on 130 degree water. All three thermometers were within 1 degree of each other. The main difference was in how long it took to get a stable reading. Thermapen (the Ferrari of all thermometers) was of course the fastest. Taylor was a lot slower and Maverick was a snail.

Thermapen -- within 2 degrees after 3 seconds, stabilized after 7.
Taylor -- within 2 degrees after 17 seconds, stabilized after 20.
Maverick -- within 2 degrees after 22 seconds, stabilized after 30.

But wait! Don't spend $100 on your thermometer just yet. Here is a little practical matter I haven't considered until my last meat class. A thermometer is only as good as your ability to insert it into the very center of the meat. Just stick it 1/4 of an inch too high or too low and it will throw your reading off. It's not like the other thermometers don't have the same problem. They do. But is it worth paying $100 for perfect accuracy and speed when there is such a huge margin for human error?

It depends on what you are using your thermometer for. For testing meat and poultry, I'd stick with the $10 thermometers. I would just suggest buying 2 different brands and staying away from Tru Temp, so that you can check them against each other once or twice a year. The most important thing to remember when testing meat is to insert the thermometer sideways. If you reached the desired temperature, insert the thermometer into 2 more spots trying to aim for the center of the meat to make sure that what you got was indeed the minimum temperature. The same principle applies no matter how accurate your thermometer is.

But if you are using your thermometer for sous-vide, thermapen might be worth it.

Here is a continuation of this discussion.

Hazelnut Buckwheat Yogurt cake

2011-02-01T13:40:00.000-05:00

What do you do with your 3 year old when it's too cold to play outside? You bake, of course. There must be thousands of blog posts devoted to this topic. I will spare you yet another cute story of a 3 year old learning to break eggs and mix batter. Instead, I'll talk about the recipe. Here were my requirements when finding the master recipe for our Friday baking sessions with Sammy

1) all ingredients need to be normally found in my pantry and fridge
2) no ingredients at room temperature -- with a toddler and a baby, I never know if and when baking can happen, so I need a recipe that is very forgiving
3) only 2 bowls -- one for wet and one for dry
4) no separating eggs
5) can be baked as either cake or muffins
6) lends itself nicely to variations

The yogurt cake from Chocolate & Zucchini seemed to fit all the requirements, so Sammy and I gave it a shot. The first time we made it almost as is, replacing about 10% of AP flour with buckwheat and adding apples and blueberries. It was great and leftovers were excellent for breakfast.

The second time, we were a little more adventurous and replaced 20% of AP flour with buckwheat and 20% with hazelnut meal. This time we baked it as muffins stuffing some with pears and some with Nutella. Both were yummy, but I have a soft spot for buckwheat chocolate combination and it looks like Sammy inherited this preference. The only thing I would do differently next time is add Nutella after the cake or muffins are baked. It doesn't melt particularly well when added as a small lump before baking. I am guessing, we could put it in a zip lock bag, cut the corner, and pipe like icing on top. Bet Sammy would enjoy that.

Wet
2 large eggs
227g (1 cup) whole milk plain yogurt (we used Stonyfield)
200g (1 cup) sugar
70g (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp rum or brandy

Dry

260g (2 cups spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour (or 60g buckwheat, 60g hazelnut, and 140g all-purpose)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

a good pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line the bottom of a round 9 or 10 inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides. Or grease 12 muffin cups (about 1/2 cup each).
In a medium bowl (I use a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup), mix the wet ingredients.
Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold gently just until no flour streaks remain. Do not over-mix (a few little lumps are ok).
Pour the batter into prepared baking pan. If you want, push some fruit into it (apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, etc). Optionally, sprinkle with some rolled oats and/or demerara sugar.
Put in the oven until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Here are some rough baking times. 40-45 minutes for a 9 inch pan, 30-35 minutes for a 10 inch pan, 20-25 minutes for muffins.
Let stand 10 minutes. Run a knife around the outside to dislodge and transfer to a cooling rack.

Orange Tabouleh (Tabouli)

2011-01-27T11:49:00.002-05:00

I got a strange request from my husband last week. He asked if we could eat a little healthier. I wonder if Paul Child ever asked Julia that and what did she reply? "Sorry about so much meat last week," I said. I had all the good intentions of putting us on a post- holiday detox "diet" of fish, veggies, and grains, but my teaching schedule got in the way. I was teaching a Meat class and a Sauce class, which took me to all the wrong stores for a detox diet and resulted in large amounts of all the wrong leftovers. But now we are finally back on track. Cooking healthy food for Jason is a pleasure. By healthy, he doesn't meal low calorie, low carb, or low fat. The guy needs to eat 2 lunches to avoid getting too thin. He also eats absolutely everything (except for scrambled eggs). So I started pulling out all the boxes of grains I had stashed away in my cupboards and putting them to good use.

Last night I found a box of bulgur wheat and some leftover sectioned oranges from the Knife Skills class. I tried putting the two together into a cold salad similar to tabouleh, replacing the more traditional cucumber with oranges. It worked exceptionally well. One thing that's great about bulgur is that it's already pre-cooked, so all you need to do is add boiling water and let it reconstitute for 30 minutes.

1 cup Bulgur Wheat (I used Arrowhead Mills)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large tomatoes, diced (or lots of small ones diced)
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
2 oranges, sectioned, each section coarsely chopped*
a very large handful or parsley (or parsley/dill combo), stemmed and minced
4 scallions (white and green parts), sliced very thin
Salt and pepper to taste

1) In a large bowl, pour boiling water over bulgur wheat and 1 tsp salt. cover and let sit for 30 minutes. Uncover and cool to room temperature. This can be done hours in advance and kept in the fridge after the initial 30 minutes.

2) Add all the other ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir well and taste. Keep tasting and adding salt, pepper, lemon juice, and oil until it feels right.

* tangerines from a can work well too.

Roast chicken legs, version 2

2011-01-12T13:54:00.002-05:00

Cutting up a whole chicken is like going to the gym. Everyone agrees it's a good thing to do, but not that many people do it on regular basis. This is one of the many lessons I've learned in the Things with Wings class.

A few months before I taught my first Things with Wings class, I exhaled a deep sigh of relief. I have finally roasted a perfect chicken. Not a whole chicken of course. That would be impossible. A perfect bird has a breast cooked to 150F and legs cooked to 180F. On a whole bird, that's impossible to achieve even if you butterfly it. So I went the divide and conquer route and voila -- perfect chicken. But my euphoria was short lived.

The Chicken
When doing my research for the class, I've tasted every chicken available for sale in the Metro Boston area and found the tastiest one -- Misty Knoll from Vermont. If there was a chicken pageant, Misty Knoll would surely win the title of Miss Chicken. It's juicier, more flavorful, and more tender than any other chicken sold in the Boston area. Giannone chickens run a close second, leaving all the other contestants far behind. What I didn't count on was that these two chickens were only sold at Savenor's. Add to that a hefty price tag and they turned out to be a somewhat unpractical choice for most of my students.

Cutting it up yourself
To teach my students to cut up a chicken, I gave them a demo, then gave them all birds so that they could practice. Unfortunately, squeamishness put a damper on this relatively easy task. As I found out, most people were put off by cracking joints, bones, and even a trace of blood.

The goal
My ideal roasted chicken tastes like chicken -- not like herbs, spices, and other distracting ingredients. It provides an explosion of "roasty" flavor that only the Maillard reaction can produce (in other words -- browning). It boasts juicy meat, and browned skin that is thin and easy to bite. I don't like it when the skin is stiff and pulls off in one piece when you take a bite. Just to clarify -- brown skin is not the same as crisp skin. It's not that I don't like crispness, but it's not a requirement for me. Once the chicken rests and releases it's juice, the skin often starts to soften anyway.

Does this work on a "normal" chicken?
When I started teaching the class, I quickly learned that almost no one was willing to go the extra mile of buying a Misty Knoll Chicken or cutting it up, so I decided to find out how well my recipe would hold up to a generic brand Whole Foods chickens that were cut up by Whole Foods. The breast recipe translated amazingly well with almost no modifications. Whole Foods sells bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. The two breasts are still attached together. If you ask, the butcher will removed all the bones for you. You might need to do a little clean up at home, but it's minimal. These little roasts don't have the wings attached, but the recipe works perfectly well without them and the chicken comes out juicy with complex "roasty" flavor.

The legs turned out to be much more of a challenge -- they were either coming out dry inside or completely pale on the outside with no depth of flavor. I had several things working against me here. Whole Foods legs were a lot smaller than Misty Knoll ones, and once I gave up cutting up the chicken myself, I couldn't rely on the back bone to give me at least a little extra bulk. Whole Foods legs were also less forgiving of over-cooking. While Misty Knoll legs were still tender and relatively juicy at 200F, Whole Foods legs were completely dry.

After doing extensive research of how other people solve this problem, I've tried the following:

Dropping the heat

I used Kenji Alt's slow roasting method that works so well on meats. I pre-roasted chicken legs at 250F on a rack and then seared them in a hot skillet. This resulted in the juiciest meat, but I felt I was missing out on the roasted flavor. The shape of chicken legs didn't lend well to browning in the skillet. Even when I tried to use thighs only (without drum sticks), they would only brown in parts because of irregular contact with the skillet. It was a good dish, but no one would mistake this for "rotisserie" chicken.

Brining vs. Salting

I tried brining the chicken to see if it would stay juicier than just salting 24 hours in advance. I only used salt in the brine (no sugar) so that I could compare apples to apples. Both methods work equally well. Brining offered a novice cook an advantage of easy control over the amount and even distribution of salt. The disadvantage was that the large container with brine and chicken was a bit cumbersome to store in the fridge.

Air Drying

Since dry proteins brown a lot better than wet proteins, I thought I'd try to make my chicken as dry as possible. I tried roasting chicken legs at 400F that were dried with paper towels and left uncovered to dry in the fridge for 6 hours. For control I roasted legs that were just dried with paper towels but didn't spend any time uncovered in the fridge. To my surprise, they came out the same. Air chilling in the fridge might have helped the crispness by a hair, but it didn't do anything in the browning department.

Basting

There is a great disagreement among cooks on whether to baste the roasted chicken. Jacques Pepin says baste. Thomas Keller says don't baste. In this case, I am with Jacques. I tried roasting chicken legs at 400F basting half of them. The ones I basted browned faster and had way better flavor. Why would Keller tell you not to baste? He claims it prevents crispness. But I would gladly trade a little crispness for better browning.

Temperature

No one agrees on the best temperature to roast a chicken. After trying high heat, low heat, and everything in between, I realized that the culprit was not the intense heat, but the size and shape of the legs. No matter what temperature I used, by the time the skin browned nicely and tasted "roasted," the meat was dry. What I needed was to make the legs more bulky, so that they didn't cook as quickly. And that's when it hit me -- why didn't I just tie them together. That almost doubled the volume to surface ratio giving me much more time to brown the skin. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. That's exactly what I do with the breasts. Sometimes the best solutions are the easiest ones. A wonderful side effect of doubling up the legs was that they took almost exactly the same time as the breasts and could be done in the same skillet with the same turning and basting schedule (roast for 35-40 minutes flipping and basting every 10 minutes).

How is this different from butterflying the chicken

Butterflying the chicken (cutting out the backbone and flattening the chicken out) is a trick most cooks have up their sleeve to help with the problem of dry breasts or gummy and bloody legs. It's definitely a step in the right direction, but it's not perfect. I find the butterflied bird always a tad short on browning, which means less "roasty" flavor. By tying 2 breasts together and 2 legs together I increase the volume per surface area allowing more time for browning. It also produces very neat little roasts which can easily be roasted in a skillet and given head start with browning on the stove top. The results are similar to the Italian "Chicken under a brick" with way less hassle. Pairing legs with legs and breasts with breasts also gives me much more flexibility with doneness. If the breasts are done 5 minutes before the legs or vice versa, I can easily remove them from the oven.

A note on residual heat

One of the most difficult aspects of roasting is knowing when to stop. If you've been cooking for a while, you know that the internal temperature will always continue to go up once you remove the food from the heat source. The trick is knowing by how much. When Kenji read my previous post on residual heat in the chicken breast roast, he thought my findings a little suspicious. I reported that my 1.5 Lb roast went up about 20 degrees during 15 minutes of rest. Kenji suspected that this temperature hike was due to me leaving the thermometer in the chicken while it was resting. He suggested that the thermometer might be conducting heat from the outside layers to the inside and reporting a much bigger temperature rise than is really happening. He said that in all his testing of roasted chickens at Cook's he only noticed a 1-2 degree rise. Since Kenji is never wrong when it comes to data, I decided to do more testing. I tested by breast roast by removing the thermometer after the initial test and reinserting it 15 minutes later. Still 20 degree rise. But when I tried testing how much the temperature went up in a butterflied chicken, I got almost the same results as Kenji -- the legs went up by only 1-2 degrees and the breasts by 7-10 degrees. What's going on here?

There are 3 factors responsible for such different results: the bulkiness of the roast, different roasting temperature, and different internal temperature at the time of removal from the heat source. My chicken breast roasts might only weigh 1.5 Lbs, but their volume to surface area ratio is large (in other words, they are very bulky). A butterflied chicken has about half the volume per surface area. Another difference is the roasting temperature. My chicken breast roast was cooked at 450F, while the butterflied chicken was cooked at 400F. The higher the roasting temperature, the more the internal temperature goes up during rest. The final factor is not something I've heard discussed before, but it seems to make a difference too. It's the internal temperature at the time the roast is taken off the heat. The higher the temperature, the less the roast goes up during rest. For example, in a butterflied chicken, the legs barely go up because they are already at 180F, but the breasts go up more because they are only at 150F. One way to think about it is that the whole system needs to come to equilibrium (in other words, all the meat and the air surrounding it will eventually come to the same temperature). As soon as the roast is out of the oven, the temperature of its outside layers drops very quickly, so they'll continue to warm up 130F inside much more than 180F inside.

A roasted piece of meat is a very complex thermodynamic system. Until you do the testing, it's hard to predict how much residual heat you'll have. I have now roasted more than 20 chicken legs at different temperatures taking careful notes and here are my findings. My tied up roast made of two 9oz legs (they are the small Whole Foods legs), roasted at 450F to 175F*, goes up to 185F after resting 10 minutes and then start to cool off. By contrast, the chicken thighs that were not tied up together that I slow roasted at 250F and seared in the skillet only went up 1 degree. So, the moral of the story is that residual heat depends on many more factors than whether you are cooking chicken or beef and how much it weighs.

Thanks Kenji for such a thought provoking observation!

Roasted Chicken Legs, Version 2

Salting (1-4 days in advance)

You'll need:
Chicken legs
Salt (Diamond Crystal Kosher if possible)

I prefer to salt my chicken at least a day before cooking to enhance its flavor. Dry your chicken thoroughly with paper towels (no, there is no need to rinse it before or after you cut it up). Season with salt on both sides and inside the skin (pull it off the thighs and tops of drumsticks, salt the meat, and cover back up with the skin). I use 2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or slightly over 1 tsp table) for 4 small legs (9oz each). Refrigerate for 24 hours or up to 3 days. I do it in a large zip lock bag.

Drying
Press chicken between paper towels to dry very thoroughly.

Trussing
You'll need:
1 garlic clove (optional)
black pepper
kitchen twine

If using garlic, grate it on a microplane zester or mash to a smooth paste using your favorite technique. Rub it all over chicken legs including under the skin on the thigh part of the legs. Sprinkle chicken with pepper on all sides. Put 2 legs together so that the flesh side of the thighs comes together and the skin side is on the outside. Tie them together using kitchen twine.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

If you got two right or two left legs, it will look like this picture.

If you got a right and a left leg, it will look like this.

Roasting

For 2 chicken legs, you'll need:
an appropriate skillet (see below)
2 tsp canola oil
2 tsp butter, melted
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch thick planks
instant read thermometer

Preheat the oven to 450F with the rack in the middle. Now you need to find a good skillet to roast this chicken in. Ideally, you need a heavy bottomed skillet with stainless steel interior (All-Clad or equivalent). This type of skillet will ensure crispy skin, prevent the chicken from sticking, and will produce a lovely sauce. Well-seasoned cast iron will perform the first two tasks beautifully, but will get damaged during sauce making process (deglazing and the acidic ingredients used in the sauce will ruin both the pan and the sauce). Enamel coated cast iron (like Le Creuset) will work well too. Non-stick might not be safe to use at such high temperature, and it will not give you a sauce since there'll be no lovely brown bits stuck to the bottom that you can deglaze.

Set your skillet on the stove-top over high heat. Add 2 tsp canola oil and wait for it to get very hot (oil will ripple and just barely start to smoke). Place the tied legs in the skillet. Cook for 1 minute, then place the skillet in the oven. Roast for 10 minutes. While the chicken is roasting, slice 2 large carrots into wide thick planks. We'll place these carrots on the exposed parts of the skillet to prevent them from burning and ruining the fond (brown bits in English) and setting off fire alarms. If they burn by the end, just discard them.

Have a burner ready on high heat if using electric (or just turn it on for gas). After 10 minutes, flip the chicken onto the other leg and place the carrots around it (as many as necessary to cover the exposed parts of the skillet in one layer). Cook for 1 minute on the stove top, baste with melted butter, then place the skillet in the oven. Roast for 10 minutes. Flip the chicken again. Flip the carrots since they are probably starting to burn now. Baste with remaining butter and pan juices when you run out of butter. Put in the oven for another 10 minutes. Flip the chicken the last time. Baste with the pan juices. Put in the oven for another 5 minutes. Start testing for doneness.

Testing for Doneness
Insert a thermometer sideways between 2 thighs. If it reads 170F*, you are done. Test at least 3 spots to make sure you got the center. If all the readings are 170F or above, chicken is done. If not, continue to roast, checking the temperature every 3-5 minutes.

Resting

If you want both legs to retain crispy skin, set them vertically on a ring mold over a plate (or find some other system for keeping them vertical and letting the air circulate freely around the legs). If you don't care that one of the legs will have a softer skin (I personally don't mind it), just place the chicken on a warm plate. Let rest 20 minutes. The temperature will go up to about 180F degrees during the first 10 minutes of rest, and will get down to pleasant eating temperature during the next 10 minutes. You can make a pan sauce while you wait (see the chicken breast recipe for directions). Remove the strings, separate the thighs and serve.

* When I originally wrote this post, I roasted legs to 175F. With more testing, I found that 170F results in more tender and juicy chicken.

Broiled Haddock with Breadcrumbs

2010-12-21T22:39:00.003-05:00

I remember standing in the cafeteria line at Wildfire (one of the start ups I worked for in my software days). My colleague Paul and I were looking at a large pan of dehydrated fish topped with bread crumbs. To help me look at the bright side of this dreary lunch option, Paul decided to tell me a joke.

A businessman arriving in Boston for a convention found that his first evening was free, and he decided to go find a good seafood restaurant that served scrod, a Massachusetts specialty. Getting into a taxi, he asked the cab driver, "Do you know where I can get scrod around here?" "People ask me that all the time," said the cab driver. "but it's the first time I hear this question in pluperfect indicative."*

What can I say, the cafeteria scrod has scarred me for life. In case you are wondering what scrod is, it's a New England name for any lean white fish like cod, haddock, or hake. Even though I've lived in New England for the past 12 years, I've never cooked it until a few days ago. Not sure what inspired me. Could be a recipe exchange at the new Mom's group that I joined. Could be my students mentioning it in the fish class. Could be delirium from lack of sleep. But I saw a beautiful looking haddock at Costco and decided to give it a shot. This haddock was farmed in Iceland, and to my taste it has a better texture than the wild New England haddock -- more supple and a little closer to halibut rather than cod.

I always looked down on the New England practice to slather all fish with mayo. They even do it to bluefish which has more than enough of its own fat. I felt a little uneasy spreading mayo on haddock, but I wanted to do the right thing and make this dish the traditional way. To my delight, mayo turned out to be a great addition. It gave haddock a little bit of fat that it lacks and added some pleasant acidity too. For the bread crumbs, I used Japanese panko. They are fluffier and crunchier than the regular bread crumbs and make a really lovely topping. For accompaniments, I made some baby potatoes and leeks in a cream sauce. What can I say? It was really yummy. The fish was moist and juicy. The topping was crunchy and the sauce that formed naturally out of wine, cream, leek, and fish juices was so good we licked out plates.

Was it just a fun cultural experiment or good enough to do again? Definitely do again! I already made this the second time substituting potato leek mixture with thinly sliced tomatoes.

I finally feel like a true Bostonian.

Broiled Haddock with Breadcrumbs, Leeks, and Potatoes

Serves 2-3

Fish substitutions:
cod, hake, pollock, sole, flounder, halibut, barramundi, or any other mild flaky fish

For the leeks:
1 large leek, white and pale green parts only
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup heavy cream

For the potatoes:
1 Lb boiling potatoes (such as yukon gold or red bliss)
1 cup water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1.5 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 3/4 table salt)

For the fish:
1 Lb haddock fillets without skin
3 Tbsp mayo
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the leeks

Cut the leek in half lengthwise. Then slice it cross-wise 1/3 inch thick. Wash in a bowl of water as described here.
Set a 10 inch oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add butter. When butter melts, add the leeks and a generous pinch of salt. Stir, cover, and cook until leeks are soft, about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Don't wash the skillet yet.

Cook the potatoes

Slice potatoes 1/3 inch thick (if working with big potatoes, cut them in half first).
Put the water, wine, and salt into the skillet where you cooked the leeks. Stir to combine. Add potatoes and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. If all the water evaporates before potatoes are tender, add a little more. In the end, you should have a very thin layer of liquid still left on the bottom (2-3 Tbsp).
Sprinkle potatoes with a little black pepper. Add the leeks on top and drizzle with cream. Taste for salt and add as needed. The dish can be prepared up to this point a day in advance and chilled. Bring to a simmer on the stove top before proceeding.

Cook the fish

Preheat the oven to 300F (this is not a typo, it's low on purpose).
In a small bowl, mix breadcrumbs with melted butter and set aside.
Cut fish fillets as necessary so that they fill the whole skillet in an even layer. You might want to overlap the thin parts and fold over the tails to create a more even layer and avoid overcooking the thinner parts of the fish.
Dry fillets thoroughly with paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Arrange them on top of the leeks, top evenly with mayo, and sprinkle with bread crumbs. If some leeks are exposed, cover them with small pieces of foil to prevent them from burning under the broiler.
Place under the broiler until the crumbs brown, about 2 minutes. How close to the broiler element to set the skillet depends on the intensity of your broiler (it could be anywhere from 2 to 6 inches away).
Turn the oven back down to 300F, and bake the dish in the middle of the oven until the fish almost flakes, but is still a little translucent at the center, about 5 minutes. It will continue to cook after it's off the heat, so make sure to leave room for this carry-over cooking. Haddock is usually 1/2-3/4 inch thick. If substituting a different fish, the total cooking time (broiling plus baking) should be 10-12 minutes per inch of thickness. Test for doneness early and often.
Let rest 5 minutes and serve.

* actually, "scrod" is just an incorrect past participle of screw, but isn't the joke better with "pluperfect indicative?"

How to cook a rack of lamb and all the other meat

2010-12-06T13:05:00.002-05:00

When Cook's Illustrated published Kenji Alt's recipe for cooking thick cut steaks in 2007, it revolutionized how people cook steak. Ouch, I sound like a dot-com marketing person. "Revolutionize" is a strong word, but I do mean every bit of it. His method ensures the steak is medium-rare (or whatever doneness you like) throughout, instead of rare in the center and well done on the outside. To achieve this, he par-cooks the steaks in the oven at 275F, and finishes with a quick sear. Yes, it's that simple. How is this better than searing first and then finishing in the low oven? Two reasons:

1) The outside of the steak is already at 275F before it hits the hot skillet. This allows you to put a nice sear on it in about a minute per side vs. 2-3 minutes that a raw steak would take. The less time the steak spends in a hot skillet, the less gray (tough and dry) meat you are going to have inside it.

2) By roasting the steak at a very low oven first, you get an evenly cooked inside without sacrificing the outside crust. If the steak is seared first and immediately placed in the oven, its outside is way too hot to give you even doneness inside. Placing it in the oven in the skillet where it was seared adds insult to injury since the skillet is hot. If you let the steak rest after a sear and then finish it in the oven, it releases a lot of juice ruining the beautiful crust you put on it during the sear step.

I wrote about this technique before. I've used it hundreds of times in the past 3 years and still think it's the best way to cook a steak (even after discovering sous-vide). The reason I am writing about it again is that it has a way bigger scope than just steak. The past 3 years have convinced me that it is the best technique to cook any meat thicker than 1 inch medium-rare. Any meat? Yes. A huge rib-roast? A rack of lamb? A leg of lamb? A pork chop? A burger? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes! If it's a thick tender cut from a land roaming mammal (or ground up tough cut) and you want to eat it medium-rare, this is a fantastic way to cook it. Thickness is important. If you are working with a thin cut of meat, like a skirt steak or individual lamb chops, this method does not apply. You don't need the oven for thin cuts. Get your pan, grill, or broiler as hot as possible, sear till brown and you are done. But if your meat is 1 inch or thicker, Kenji's method rocks.

Here are some tips on how to adopt it to the meat of your choice:

The thicker the meat, the closer you need to bring it to doneness in the oven.

Obviously, thicker pieces of meat will spend more time in the oven than thinner ones. What's not completely obvious is that you want to remove them from the oven when the center reaches a higher temperature than thinner ones. Say you are cooking a 1.5 inch thick steak. To serve it at 120-130F (medium-rare), you need to bring it up to 95F in the oven and then sear. Why 95F? Because internal temperature of the steak keeps going up during the searing and resting steps. But if you are cooking a 3 inch thick tenderloin roast, you might want to remove it from the oven at 100F since it has move volume per surface area and won't go up as much during the sear and rest. For a 5 inch thick rib-roast, you might aim for 110F before searing since it's so bulky. To tell you the truth, I never cook a huge rib-roast. I like to cut it into 2 rib sections. This way, they cook faster, fit into the skillet for a sear, and have more surfaces to brown. Once sliced, they taste just like a rib roast, only better.

Use the broiler to brown hard to reach areas

Take a rack of lamb, for example. It's impossible to brown the part under the bones using a skillet. To achieve even doneness inside and a good sear on the outside, I first brown whatever surfaces I can in the skillet and then pop it under the broiler for 1-2 minutes to brown the bone side. I prefer to put the meat back on a rack that I used for the oven roasting step before putting it under the broiler. This avoids having it sit in a hot skillet longer than necessary.

Ground meat needs a slightly higher internal temperature

Believe it or not, this technique produces the best burgers. I find that to avoid them tasting mushy in the center, I need to bring them to slightly higher temperature in the oven than I would a steak of the same thickness. 105F is perfect for 1 inch thick burgers (I mean 1 inch thick in the raw state -- they do shrink a good bit during cooking). What do you do with them after the oven? Sear in a very hot cast iron skillet.

When to salt

Some proteins, like a fatty rib-eye, are very forgiving. They'll taste juicy even if you salt them immediately before cooking. But say you are cooking a pork chop. Regular supermarket pork chops barely have any marbling, so they need some help in the juiciness department. If you salt them 24-48 hours before cooking, not only will they be seasoned throughout, the salt will help them retain their juices. Another benefit to salting in advance is that you can dry the meat very thoroughly after it had a chance to absorb all the salt. This way it comes out of the oven a little drier on the outside and takes on the sear even better. If at all possible, I like to salt all meats in advance. The only exception to that are burgers. Ground meat becomes more firm (sausage like vs. crumbly) when salted in advance, so I season burgers with salt after they finish pre-roasting in the oven.

Hope I didn't make it more confusing than it needs to be. If you just want to make a rack of lamb in the picture and find the above details too technical, here is a detailed recipe.

Special Equipment

A meat thermometer
A flat roasting rack (also sold as a cooling rack)

Rack of Lamb with Cilantro Garlic Butter

Serves 2

1 rack of lamb (about 1.5 lb)

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 garlic clove, mashed into paste or grated on microplane

1 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp minced cilantro or mint (fresh)

Remove the fat cap and trim all visible silver skin from the lamb. Cut the rack in half.
Preheat the oven to 250F and adjust oven rack to the middle position. Wrap the roasting pan with foil (to make clean up easy). Place a flat rack in the roasting pan.
When you are ready to cook the lamb, dry it well with paper towels and season very generously with salt and pepper on all sides (or salt 24 hours in advance and then dry before cooking). Immediately, set the roasts on the rack and place in the oven until instant read thermometer inserted into the center registers 95 for rare, 100 for medium-rare, 110 for medium, and 115 for medium-well. How long it takes to get to this temperature depends on the thickness of the lamb. A thermometer is key! Start checking after the first 20 minutes. It will take 20 – 35 minutes.
Turn on the broiler.
Set a 10 inch heavy skillet over high heat until very hot. Add the oil and wait until it's a little smoky. Add the lamb presentation side down and brown for 1 minute. Turn and brown the other side, then briefly brown the ends (20 seconds or so). Return the lamb to the pan with the rack bone side up (the part that’s impossible to brown in the skillet). Place under the broiler for 90 seconds. Remove to a warm plate. Rub all over with garlic. Then rub with butter and sprinkle with cilantro or mint. Let rest 7 minutes. Slice, sprinkle the cut sides with a little salt, and serve.