Learn How to Sear | Rouxbe Online Cooking School

Learn how to sear in the Rouxbe Online Cooking School.

Searing is what gives many roasts, stews, braised dishes and even certain types of seafood that gorgeous, rich color and sweet flavor.

It is a common mistake to use the terms pan-searing and pan-frying interchangeably. While searing is somewhat similar to pan frying, it is generally done over higher heat and is used to quickly brown the surface of foods without cooking them internally. In this lesson, you will learn how searing works. You will understand when to sear foods and how to sear on the stove top so you can add intense flavor and color to your cooking.

Happy Cooking!

The Rouxbe Cooking School Team.

Tagged as: [ rouxbe sear searing ]

Lesson on Determining the Quality of Chocolate

If you have followed this blog, you will know that I absolutely love chocolate. Today is an exciting day for me at Rouxbe, as we released the first lesson on CHOCOLATE in the Cooking School.

Many people don't even know where chocolate comes from and the amount of careful work it takes to it get from bean to bar. What is really sad, is that a lot of people don't know what quality chocolate even is...they are used to mass-produced chocolate made from low-grade cocoa beans which is also loaded with artificial ingredients. Once you watch the lesson on the Basics of Quality Chocolate, you'll be able to pick up a package and understand what a label really means.  

If you aren't already a Rouxbe member, make sure to sign up for your 30-day free trial.

Happy Chocolate Eating!

Tagged as: [ chocolate rouxbe ]

Grilled South American Beef Tenderloin

When we traveled to South America, we encountered many different and scrumptious cuts of beef. Uruguayans take their beef very seriously. They recently set a Guinness world record, hosting the largest barbeque (a.k.a. parrillada in Spanish).

One of the highlights of our Uruguayan visit was experiencing a full-on parrillada that Marcelo's uncle hosted. I loved how the whole family came together on a moment's notice. It's not very often that you get to have a whole calf served in your honor. Barbeque in Uruguay can be thrown together at any place anytime.

  

The following picture was taken at the Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo. They were just gearing up for the lunch crowd.

We really enjoyed the following cut of beef tenderloin in Uruguay. It's difficult to find this type of cut here, but it's easy to prepare yourself. Rather than cutting steaks against the grain, they are cut along the grain. This maximizes the amount of surface area that comes into contact with the grill. Once the steaks are cooked, the bite-sized pieces are then cut across the grain, ensuring a very tender piece of meat. Fat always adds great flavor and I found that you're able to keep more on each piece, if desired.

Tagged as: [ beef culinary recipes uruguay ]

How to Roast Nuts

Roasting any kind of nut enhances its flavor and gives it a wonderful crunch. It's easy to do. You just need to be careful so you don't over-roast them and turn them bitter. Preheat your oven to 300 170ºF and lay the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. I am using almonds here. Place the nuts in the oven for 10 minutes, shaking the pan periodically. Check the nuts after 10 minutes by cutting one in half to see if the color inside has changed. If you are using smaller nuts, check them before 10 minutes has elapsed to make sure they don't roast too quickly. Taste them to see if you like them. After all, that is most important.

Put the nuts in the oven for another 3 to 5 minutes and check again. You may have to do this a few times until you get the desired color. Once the nuts are roasted enough, remove them from the baking sheet to a cooler surface or they will continue to cook from the residual heat in the baking sheet. Here you can see the roasting progression from a raw almond to a fully roasted one.

Roasted nuts make for a quick and healthy snack, and they give all desserts added flavor.

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Update: Dawn, over at Rouxbe, prompted me (see comments below) to dig a little further on the benefits/harm of roasting nuts. Here is an excellent resource on the web for the World's Healthiest Foods. It appears that nuts should be slow-roasted at lower temperatures. Roasting nuts quickly at high temperatures (over 170ºF) can cause a breakdown of their healthy fats, but roasting at low temperatures will take substantially longer. Thanks, Dawn for the info! It's true - shortcuts in the kitchen don't always produce better results

Tagged as: [ basics howto tips ]

Chocolate Series | Piping Chocolate Decorations

Once you know how to fold a paper cone, piping decorations using chocolate can be a lot of fun. Half fill the paper cone with tempered chocolate and snip the tip off with scissors. Snip less of the tip off to achieve a finer thread/stream of chocolate, or more to obtain a thicker one. It is best to snip off a little at a time until you obtain the result you want.

Secure a large piece of clean parchment to a working surface by weighing the corners down so it doesn't slip around. Begin to pipe, keeping the top part of the paper cone folded at all times so that the chocolate doesn't ooze out of it. Apply even pressure, while bearing in mind that the heat from your hands could throw the chocolate out of the tempered range. This is one of the reasons that it is best to work with small amounts at a time, ensuring you only handle it for short periods.

Fine piping takes lots of practice. Here I am messing around to show that anything can be done. These aren't the fanciest decorations, but once set, these can be stood upon or stacked on any kind of dessert to give an added touch.

Here is a close-up to show that well-tempered chocolate does contract as it sets. The edges of the decoration actually lift off of the paper. If you want to prevent a decoration from curling, you will need to place something of a suitable and even weight on top of it. Don't do this until the chocolate has set though, or you will mush your design. Once set, cover it with a piece of parchment, and apply a light weight on top overnight. Chocolate can take up to 24 hours to fully set/contract, so don't be tempted to take the weight off early. This applies to all things chocolate that you want to keep flat.

Obviously, the finer the piping, the more fragile the decorations will be. Once the paper cone is empty of chocolate, dispose of it. It cannot be re-used.

Related posts:

• Chocolate Series | How To Dip Chocolates by Hand
  
• Chocolate Series | How To Temper Chocolate
• Where to Find Pastry and Chocolate-Making Supplies
• Chocolate Series | The Simplest Way to Finish the Simplest Truffles
• Chocolate Series | How to Make a Simple Ganache
• Cleaning Up Hardened Chocolate The Easy Way

Tagged as: [ basics chocolate decorations howto pastry piping techniques temper tips ]

How to Fold a Paper Cone

Rather than using a large piping bag, paper cones are very handy in the kitchen when you need to pipe small amounts for decoration. Folding a paper cone can be awkward at first, but with practice it will take literally seconds to create one. All you need is a right triangle piece of parchment paper (not wax paper). Many pastry supply shops carry pre-cut triangles but it is easy to cut your own. Just cut a rectangular piece of parchment in half, along the diagonal, and away you go.

I have created a slide show in Flickr to demonstrate how to fold a paper cone. If you click on each individual photo, I have included helpful notes.

Tagged as: [ basics howto pastry techniques tips ]

Chocolate Series | How to Temper Chocolate

I previously posted on how to make chocolate truffles from simple ganache and the easiest way to coat them. The professional way of finishing a truffle is to cover it with a thin layer of couverture chocolate. Aside from it looking prettier, there are many reasons for wanting to do this. To successfully coat items with a thin layer of chocolate, one must know how to temper it. Tempering is the process of heating, cooling, and re-heating chocolate to achieve a desired state, which allow us to be able to work with it properly.

Why do we Temper Couverture Chocolate?

The goal is to take manufacturer’s blocks or chips of quality couverture chocolate and turn them into your own personalized delicacies. By using tempered chocolate, it allows you to coat candies or pastries, make molded and filled chocolates, or create any imaginable shape, showpiece, or decoration. Chocolate’s structure is quite complex, and if you simply melt it and allow it to harden, you will not wind up with a glossy end product. By going through the tempering process, the finished result will be aromatic, aesthetically pleasing, hard, and although it will have a good snap when you break it or bite into it, it will luxuriously melt in your mouth. Proper tempering encourages chocolate to shrink as it sets, so molded chocolates will release easily from their slots. Tempered chocolate also helps to extend the shelf life of products.

Improperly tempered chocolate results in many disasters. Chocolates can become stuck in molds because it cannot contract. It can turn streaky gray, develop fat bloom quickly, be gritty, or melt quickly when you handle it. It is a headache and waste to spend all that time creating a tasty center and not get the finished product out of its mold. For all of these reasons, it is important to know how to temper.

Chocolate's unique structure has six different fat crystals. Two of those are stable and are responsible for producing glossy, hard chocolate. The remaining four crystals are unstable. If chocolate is not tempered properly, those four crystals dominate the entire mass and make it impossible to work with.

I have been avoiding this post for a while because I knew it would difficult and lengthy to explain, which you will understand if you make it to the end of this post. No matter what you read, there is no magic formula that will make it work for you every time. I will try my best to explain the process, but nobody would expect someone to pull off perfectly tempered chocolate on the very first try. It is not solely about having temperature guidelines and away you go. A big part of tempering chocolate has to do with the environment of the kitchen you are in, and since that easily fluctuates, you just have to practice going through the tempering curves to know what to look for during each stage.

There are three steps to tempering chocolate: melting, cooling, and reheating. It seems easy, right? Chocolate, however, is very temperamental and you can either love or hate working with it. Some days, I hate it. It’s funny how I was never really stressed out years ago while working with chocolate…this is because I wasn’t aware of all the reasons one should temper!

When I look back, I can thankfully say that my chocolate eating and my chocolate making skills have evolved. Years ago, when I ran a small chocolate-making business out of my home, I will admit, I didn’t really know what I was doing, in terms of “technical” chocolate making. I picked up books, gathered recipes, tweaked them, and away I went. I didn’t push myself to develop a more advanced line of chocolates, because I was happy with the end results. I’m not tooting my own horn, but I think one of the reasons I didn’t bother to research more technical ways of doing things was because I always got excellent feedback from my customers. My chocolates tasted great, looked pretty, and were beautifully packaged. I think a lot of it had to do with the care I put into it. All the truffles I made were based on simple ganaches, which were rolled in different toppings. They did not have a protective layer of couverture chocolate around them.

When I think back to those chocolate making days, I giggle. I never really understood why my chocolates came out glossy, and at other times they had a matte finish. I didn’t investigate the reason why - all I knew was that they tasted yummy. Knowing what I know now (and there is so much more to learn), I get a kick out of looking back and understanding why things worked and why they didn’t. When I broke up large sheets of nut bark, sometimes they would have a clean, hard, snap, and sometimes they didn’t.

The importance of tempering obviously wasn’t something that I was aware of back then. Even though I took an amateur chocolate course at the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, I was a bit lost in translation. I had a semi-decent translator for the most part, because I was the only English-speaking person there. I remember the Chef demonstrating the temperature curve of the tempering process, but the focus in that course was more on putting the pieces we built together. If I would have caught on a bit more, it might have made my life a little easier when I was back in my own kitchen, twisting and slamming flexible plastic molds to get the morsels of chocolate out of them. I drove my brother crazy during those years with all of the noise of banging molds.

 

Recently, I made a bunch of chocolates to give to our family. I put the task off until crunch time, because I wanted the centers to be as fresh as possible. Unfortunately, the days that I was forced to make them turned out to be the hottest days so far this year in Vancouver. I couldn't get good air circulation through my kitchen to keep things cool, so, in turn, it was a chore to keep my own cool! Frustratingly, I managed to temper the chocolate, although, I had to go through the motions a few times. I had lost the tempering range because my kitchen was so hot. It made me think of the pastry chefs out there who encounter the challenge of dealing with the heat from culinary kitchens, baking ovens, and steam. Quite often pastry chefs have little space in which to work and need to be able to adapt to the environment. When the ideal room temperature for working with chocolate is between 68-72ºF (20-22ºC), and my kitchen was hovering around 84ºF (29ºC), things got tricky.

In the end, I managed to make the chocolates, but it wasn’t the least stressful round ever. To not drive myself completely crazy, I wound up scaling back from 10 flavors to 5. My end products were acceptable, and although I could tell it wasn’t my best work, nobody else noticed because, once again, they tasted delicious. Marcelo actually thought the "bloom" on a few was an intentionally cool design…what they continue to not know won’t hurt them; right? Lesson learned: if you don’t have a cool kitchen or air-conditioning, and especially if you are a novice at tempering, don’t bother trying this on a hot day.

Methods for Tempering Chocolate

Assuming your kitchen is dry and cool, you are calm and relaxed, your biceps are rearing to go, and perhaps you have a nice glass of red wine tucked off to the side, you can begin…

There are many ways to temper chocolate, however, the three most common and basic methods are: 1) using a marble; 2) seeding; or, 3) using a cold-water bath. Each method has their pros and cons. On a marble, extra beneficial conching (agitating the chocolate) is performed, but this method can be messy, as you are required to pour a portion of melted chocolate on to a marble and work it around using tools, such as offset spatulas, to cool it down. If you aren't coordinated, the chocolate could wind up all over the place.

If you are using large amounts of chocolate, the seeding method is useful. Here, bits of chocolate are slowly added to the melted chocolate to bring the temperature down. However, you can wind up with lumps in the chocolate if you don’t know when to stop adding. What is funny is that in those old chocolate-making days, I unintentionally used the seeding method of tempering without knowing it. It worked beautifully!

I think the easiest method for home use is the cold-water bath method. It is the fastest, but it involves working with chocolate's number one enemy - water. The utmost of care must be taken with this procedure, as just one tiny droplet of water or steam will cause your entire bowl of chocolate to seize and render it completely useless. So, be careful, and most of all, be patient. This task can be very trying!

Equipment Required:

• Bain marie
• Medium-sized stainless-steel bowl
• Cold-water bath that your medium-sized bowl fits into
• Two clean, dry towels
• Large spatula

Step 1. Melting the Chocolate

To successfully temper chocolate, you must start off with a healthy amount, a minimum of 2 to 3 pounds. The more chocolate you use, the greater control you will have over fluctuating temperatures. Place the bowl of evenly chopped chocolate (or the manufacturer’s chips) over a bain marie that has barely simmering water. Make sure to adjust the water level so that the bowl does not touch the water underneath, and keep an eye on it to replenish so it doesn’t completely evaporate. Evenly chopped chocolate will melt evenly over a shorter period of time. Stir often. Low temperatures must be used when melting and reheating chocolate, as all types of chocolate scorch easily; milk and white chocolate have a higher milk solid content than dark, and will scorch at lower temperatures. Stir often, as chocolate loves to be stirred.

With practice, you will recognize the chocolate’s appearance to determine what stage it is at. Each of the 6 fat crystals melt at different temperatures, so you need to heat it well enough to ensure everything is broken down. To avoid scorching, do not exceed these temperatures.

Dark chocolate: Melt to 115-120ºF (46-49ºC)

Milk or white chocolate: Melt to 110-115ºF (43-46ºC)

Step 2. Cooling Chocolate and Promoting Crystallization

Be careful when you take the bowl of chocolate off of the bain marie, as there will be water droplets attached to the bottom of the bowl. I always set the bowl on a towel and wipe it dry. Carefully place it into the cold-water bath and continually stir, scraping down the sides and the bottom of the bowl. You will need to keep moving the bowl in and out of the cold-water bath to slowly and evenly bring down the temperature. Again, wipe any water away from the exterior of the bowl. If you don’t scrape the sides of the bowl, hard chunks of chocolate will form and it will be harder to work with and melt out evenly during the next phase. Keep stirring, be patient, and keep your hands dry. You should see the chocolate getting thicker.

Dark chocolate: Cool to 80-82ºF (26-28ºC)

Milk or white chocolate: Cool to 78-80ºF (25-26ºC)

Step 3. Reheating to the Working Range

Moving on and off the bain maire, while constantly stirring and being careful of water droplets, gently increase the heat of the chocolate as follows.

Dark chocolate: 87-90ºF (30-32ºC)

Milk chocolate: 86ºF (30ºC)

White chocolate: 82ºF (28ºC)

At this point, you will need to test the chocolate to see if you have successfully tempered it. There are many ways to do this. You can dip an offset spatula into the chocolate and set it aside. You can use a small piece of parchment, or a metal pastry tip , and dip either in the chocolate and set aside, or you can simply drizzle some onto a granite counter top or marble. The chocolate should firm up and be glossy within a minute or two. If it sets really fast, your chocolate may be a bit too cold. No worries there. Momentarily put it back on the bain marie and stir…but be careful. You don’t want to exceed the temperatures mentioned above and fall out of the temper range. If the chocolate doesn’t set at all, you haven’t been successful in going through the stages, and will have to start all over again – yes, all over again. The chocolate will have to be brought back to the melting temperature, cooled down, and reheated. That is the only way to properly form the crystal structure, and this is where frustration can set in.

These temperatures are guidelines, and your environment plays a huge roll in the success of tempering. It is best to not get accustomed to using a thermometer, as they are not always accurate and different brands of chocolate have different tempering ranges. By continuing to go through the process, you will start to recognize what the chocolate should look like, how it feels when you are stirring it, and the viscosity of how it drapes over what you are covering. It all takes time, practice, and most of all, patience. Did I mention patience?

Dipping Chocolates and Ganache

The viscosity of tempered chocolate is crucial when coating chocolates. If the chocolate is too cold, it will not drape and conform to the shape of whatever you are trying to cover. You will wind up with a thick and goopy mess. As you are dipping items, you will have to shift from dipping to placing your bowl of tempered chocolate on and off the bain marie, to keep it at a consistent working temperature. Once you have reached that tempered stage, you also have to work to keep it there!

Keep in mind, if you are dipping ganache that has a high butter content, or if you are dipping a butter cream center, and your chocolate is too hot, part of the center will melt, ruining both the shape of the candy and the supply of tempered chocolate.

Dipping cold items can also throw tempered chocolate out of whack and the coating can cool too quickly, creating a fat bloom on your chocolate. The drastic change in temperature can alter the finished appearance. When starting out, try to dip items that are at room temperature.

Fat Bloom Versus Sugar Bloom

There are two kinds of bloom: fat and sugar, both of which are unappealing. Fat bloom creates unattractive gray streaks on the surface of chocolate. This can be caused by improperly heating and cooling chocolate during processing, or the chocolate has been stored at too warm a temperature. The emulsion breaks down and the fat begins to melt and separate from the mixture. Think of a chocolate bar that has been left in a hot car. When it solidifies, it most likely will have streaks of gray on it, and the chocolate will not snap because it is out of temper. While fat bloom doesn't affect the taste of chocolate, it doesn’t look as pretty. Here are some truffle shells that have developed fat bloom while in storage. You can still use them because they will eventually be covered with couverture anyway.

 

 

Sugar bloom occurs when the chocolate has been exposed to too much moisture in storage. This is one of the reasons you should not store chocolate in the refrigerator. Sugar bloom can appear like fat bloom but the chocolate can feel gritty. You can still use sugar-bloomed chocolate in recipes, but it is much harder to temper for couverture use.

Some chocolate info:

• If a droplet of water splashes into your bowl do not stir it. You can try to save the bowl of chocolate by scooping out a large area around the water droplet to try and salvage what remains.
• Don't keep the chocolate on the cold-water bath for long periods of time. Put it on and take it off to bring the temperature down slowly.
  
• When stirring chocolate, avoid incorporating excess air into the mass, which makes the chocolate thick and unmanageable.
• When working with all types of chocolate, the ideal room temperature is between 68-72ºF (20-22ºC) with low humidity.
• Never heat over 49ºC (120ºF) since it may cause the cocoa butter to break down and make proper tempering extremely difficult.
• A serrated knife works well to chop chocolate blocks into small, even pieces.
• Every type and variety of chocolate tempers slightly differently. High quality chocolate will display the recommended temperature curve on its packaging.
• High quality chocolate uses quality cocoa beans and quality processing techniques. The longer chocolate is conched (stirred and agitated), the more luxurious and expensive it is.
• What does 60/40 mean? Manufacturers of high quality chocolate will display the grade on the package. 60/40 means that there is 60 percent cocoa solids and 40 percent sugar in the mixture. If the mixture contains less than 60 percent cocoa components, the couverture is considered semisweet. If it is higher, it will be classified as extra bitter (i.e., 70/30). Milk chocolate has approximately 36 percent cocoa solids.
• The total fat content affects the viscosity of the couverture. For chocolate to be classified as couverture, it must have a minimum of 31 percent cocoa butter. The higher the total fat content, the greater the viscosity. Protect the chocolate that you love by supporting the current standard. 
• Dark chocolate contains cocoa butter, cocoa mass, and sugar. Milk chocolate contains cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk solids, and sugar.
• White chocolate is really not “chocolate”. It contains cocoa butter, milk solids, emulsifiers, sugar, and vanilla. There are no cocoa solids in white chocolate.

Want more blog entries?

Here are a few relevant posts on chocolate:

• Where to Find Pastry and Chocolate-Making Supplies
• DontMessWithOurChocolate.com - Maintaining Chocolate Standards
• Chocolate Series | The Simplest Way to Finish the Simplest Truffles
• Chocolate Series | How to Make a Simple Ganache
• Cleaning Up Hardened Chocolate The Easy Way

Enjoy and feel free to comment and share your experiences, add more tips, and info to this list!

Tagged as: [ chocolate howto pastry temper tips ]

How Restaurants Fail - Lessons Learned From Reality TV

A lot of people don’t see the value in reality TV and, I agree, a lot of it is lowbrow entertainment. Of course, there are many who enjoy this guilty pleasure without admitting it – you know who you are. However, there are a few programs out there that we can actually learn from – really.

I enjoy watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on the Food Network. His candid expression and simple observations of why a restaurant is failing teaches food industry workers many lessons. In the midst of trying to teach industry professionals how to improve their business, his program also enlightens the general public of the struggles restaurateurs are faced with.

The one rule he points out, in nearly every case, is that Chefs and Cooks have forgotten the basics. Somehow they get caught up in their egos, forget the fundamentals and the reason that they started cooking in the first place – because they got joy out of cooking and eating good food.

Why are so many restaurants, such as the ones Gordon Ramsay helps out, not preparing things properly and from scratch? Why do they get lazy and take short cuts? Problems appear to be no-brainers and it is strange they can’t see the importance of having a clean kitchen, a clean restaurant, solid communication between the front and back of the house, and a straightforward menu that uses local ingredients and solid cooking techniques.

We have all been to restaurants where their menu consists of too many dishes that don't make sense. I steer away from any establishment where they are preparing multi-cuisines and their menu consists of pages upon pages of choices. On the other hand, I also dislike when a restaurant has a limited menu where the descriptions are so pretentious they make you uncomfortable. Food that simply doesn’t taste great cannot be hidden by fancy presentation, descriptions, or hype.

A common theme in Gordon Ramsay's program is that the Chefs lose sight of what they like to cook and eat. They are catering to what they think people want and try to put their hokey spins on dishes. As a diner, my preference is simple. I like honest, consistent, fresh food, which gives me value for my money, and that is really hard to find. It is probably why I choose to stay home more often than not these days.

When trying to develop menus in school, a lot of us struggled with holding back and not being fancy. What we discovered was less is always more. One of the things I admire about Gordon Ramsay is his straightforward honesty. “Don't ruin good produce and local ingredients with fancy gimmicks. Good food will always sell itself.” It is probably human nature to gravitate towards always wanting to add more, as I find I need to constantly remind myself to keep it simple. I remember the Chefs at school saying people get carried away by trying to produce fine dining dishes before they can fine cook. Before aiming for the big wow factor, keep dishes simple and honest. Restaurants that uphold these practices are far and few between.

On this blog, I'm happily going to focus on the basics and share what I have learned with you. I will pay attention to and record important tips, so if I ever decide to open a business of my own, I can be reminded of the things I was taught in school and the tips from experts such as Gordon Ramsay. And people say there’s no value in reality TV

Tagged as: [ basics ramsay reality restaurants tips tv ]

Cleaning Up Hardened Chocolate The Easy Way

Cleaning up is the worst part about working with chocolate. Hardened bits and smears of chocolate can be everywhere, glued on to every tool, strainer, and bowl. Who would have thought a hair blower has a place in the kitchen? Instead of chipping away or making a muddy mess in water, take a hair blower and heat the chocolate enough to melt it. This will allow you to lift it easily from any surface with a bowl scraper or spatula. For tiny specks, melt them and simply wipe up. Save larger chunks from clean surfaces, bowls, and tools for use in brownies and cakes at a later date. Collect it all and let the mass harden on some parchment. Seal and store for future use. There is no need to waste any, especially when working with expensive, high quality chocolate.

Tagged as: [ basics chocolate cleaning tips ]

How to Properly Grease Pans for Baking

After taking the time to bake a product from scratch, do you ever struggle to extract it out of the tin? Once you do manage to release your product from the tin, are you left with an unattractive and nasty white paste glued onto your product? If you take just a few simple steps to properly prepare your baking tins, you will be guaranteed your products will release easily and look professional.

What you will need: melted clarified butter pastry brush baking tin bread flour

1. Brush a thin layer of melted clarified butter onto your baking tin.
2. Place the tin in the fridge or freezer.
3. Once the fat has solidified, remove the tin and dust with bread flour. Shake the tin to ensure the entire surface is covered. Bang out the excess flour.
4. Immediately fill the tin with your recipe and place it in the oven for baking.

When preparing tins in this fashion you are essentially creating two separate layers. The flour will adhere to your baked good and the clarified butter will remain on the surface of your tin allowing for easy release. By not using clarified butter, the water present in regular butter will mix with the flour and create a gluey paste. The primary reason for dusting with bread flour is to avoid caking. Bread flour doesn't clump and will leave a very thin, even coating atop the solidified butter.


You will reap great rewards by taking these few extra steps.

Tagged as: [ baking basics butter clarified flour greasing howto pans pastry techniques tips ]

Basic Food Safety

On occasion, I run across recipes posted on websites or blogs that do not reflect proper instructions on food safety and handling. This can be a serious issue. While the authors of recipes may know about food safety themselves, a novice following poor instructions could make themselves and their loved ones very sick! During the required Level 1 FoodSafe Course at NWCAV, we learned that improper food handling causes over 95% of all food borne illnesses in the food industry. The most common cause is the improper cooling of foods.

Bacteria multiply rapidly when food is left at temperatures between 4-60º C (40-140º F). To prevent harmful bacterial growth, you must either hold hot food between 60-74º C (140-165º F) where most bacteria die, or bring the temperature of food down as quickly as possible so that it ranges between 0-4º C (32-40º F). Most bacteria stay alive in this temperature range but they do not multiply rapidly.

Keep hazardous foods such as meat, poultry, dairy and egg products, fish and seafood, cooked vegetables and cereals out of the Danger Zone. Separate large amounts of leftovers into small, shallow containers for quicker cooling. They can also be placed over an ice bath and stirred frequently to cool. Refrigerate as soon as possible.

Even during the preparation stages of foods, keep these temperature zones in mind. For example, when you make ice cream, ensure that your mixture is cooled down rapidly after cooking and before churning. Any temperature in the Danger Zone will turn eggs and dairy into a breeding ground for disaster.

Tagged as: [ bacteria basics boiling danger foodsafe freezing temperature zone ]

Culinary Artistry

At times when I go to put a dish together or when I need some clarification or ideas for flavor pairings, I turn to one of my most cherished books. Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page is an extraordinary book that helps to keep any idea simple or turn it into something beyond what you initially considered.

The book categorizes foods into seasons and identifies the basic flavors that represent sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. It lists the flavor pals of spices and provides information from every angle when composing a menu or single dish. For almost any ingredient, it offers a variety of flavor companions and highlights matches that are made in heaven. It also provides a guide on ways to prepare each ingredient.

I look at this book often, especially when tackling projects at school like putting menus together, whether they are savory or sweet. It helps me every time I host dinner parties and often I use it for weeknight meals.

For instance, if I wanted to make a guava tart (I don't know...just opened the book to any page) and wanted to have a sauce accompany it, I would look at that section and see all of the flavors that pair well with guavas. Perhaps I could make a pineapple or papaya sauce. I can look at the list and see what grabs my attention and automatically my mind starts imagining what these flavors would taste like together and the ideas start to flow.

If you wind up making the same old boring halibut dish, you can scan the list and try things that you haven't before...maybe give rosemary or mangoes a try this time. Or, take scallops – depending on what mood you are in, maybe you will make a rich curry dish or keep it light and simple with lemon and olive oil. It takes experience, curiosity, and a good palate to know that a certain spice, fruit, or vegetable goes well with a particular ingredient. Even by using ingredients that may not be your norm, you can easily and comfortably explore with them and often reap great results. It is a fabulous tool that gives you a sturdy foundation to work from to pair flavors.

If you feel a little clueless or want to start exploring with an array of flavor combinations, check this book out. I think it will make a great addition to your library.

Tagged as: [ artistry books culinary dornenburg page pairing tips ]

How to Identify Genetically Modified Foods | GMOs

Further to my post on The Future of Food, you can learn more about genetically modified products in Canada by visiting the Greenpeace Shoppers Guide (for United States information, click here). It is a good place to identify genetically modified foods on the market that you may be buying.

I'm not going to be an automatic fanatic and swear to never buy a product that is listed as a GMO but it's good information. It is sort of like seeing the movie Super Size Me. Will I ever eat at McDonald's again? I haven't since and probably never will but...if it is 3:00a.m. and I get home from an 18-hour flight after traveling for 2 months and my fridge is empty, I might be tempted to visit the all-night drive through. I just think awareness is key.

Another useful shopping tip: all produce in the supermarkets is given a 4-digit PLU code (price look-up code). For example, regular bananas are 4011. Organic products will have a "9" in front of the code (94011) and genetically modified products will have an "8" (84011).

Tagged as: [ genetically gmo modified organic plu tips ]

Critique Your Process First, Before Critiquing Your Food

Perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic but I've had two disasters in the kitchen recently and unfortunately both of them occurred when I was cooking for people that are really close to me. It reminded me of something Chef Tony said last term, which was "critique your process first, before critiquing your food".

The first meal left me shaking my head in a daze and disbelief that I had actually completed the culinary term. The second wasn't as bad, however, I felt that it didn't meet my standards. I know I'm often hard on myself but that first meal was dreadful. The great thing about serving a gawd awful dish to your family is that they don't let you forget it.

When my brother and mom were visiting, late in the day, we decided to bbq some rib eye steaks. I don't know what I was thinking when I purchased some "naturally grass fed rib eye" from the butcher. There was hardly any marbling or fat in them and I just didn't clue in at the time that they wouldn't be as delicious as the previous fatty rib eye we had bought. I also prepared a panzanella salad and some bbq'd corn on the cob. The panzanella was missing its zing and the corn was, well...burnt. I couldn't believe how everything had gone wrong. At least my brother commented that he liked the toasted bread in the salad. Too funny.

That brought me back to when I was about 12 years old and my mom made my brother and me stuffed green peppers for dinner. My brother and I always enjoyed what mom served but we were in shock and awe when those shriveled green things arrived at the table. We politely started to eat and my brother and I quickly glanced at each other and began to snicker. It was the only time that my mom had really done a number and made something that bland and that gross! My family has always respected food but that was the first (and last) time that we actually played with our food, making it even more inedible. To this day, we haven't let mom forget and we all get a chuckle.
 

The other night, my dear friend Wendy, visited. Thinking I would get a head start on the week, I was busy preparing a few dishes that would make life a bit more convenient with our hectic schedules. I think I put too much on my plate. Before I knew it she arrived at 4:30 and I hadn't started dinner. I planned to make a heart-of-palm risotto with some rib eye and a salad to start. Marcelo and I had eaten heart-of-palm risotto in Brazil at a beautiful seaside resort town called Buzios. It was absolutely delicious and I had replicated it once since we have been home, so, I thought I'd do it again. It was ok but my timing was off and that damn rib eye (the good marbled one) was a disaster too. It was tough and just boring. I felt a little sad because I want to be able to show my family and close friends my honed skills.

Anyway, I'm over it now. I know that I'll still hear about that rib eye from my brother 20 years down the road. That night that I made it, I was the first one to bed and apparently he asked my husband and mom if they wanted to order pizza when I was out of the room. They all laughed, kiddingly. Sniff sniff :(

So what did I learn? If I go back to what Chef Tony said, I think that my focus stunk on both occasions. The first meal was thrown together at the last minute – with not a lot of planning – and I'm a planner. On the second meal, I put too much on my plate that day and tried to get too many things accomplished and the snowball effect took over. Cooking and entertaining at the same time doesn't always work. In any event, I couldn't save either of the dishes. My process wasn't very well thought out and my end result suffered dearly. So the next time something doesn't work out for you, examine the steps that you took and you are bound to learn a thing or two.


We all have our bad days in the kitchen.

Tagged as: [ critique culinary food processes tips ]

How to Use Salmon Scraps

We visited a small fishing village called Steveston where we enjoyed some fish and chips on the dock at Pajo's before purchasing some freshly caught B.C. sockeye salmon.
 

After fileting the salmon at home to make Cedar Plank Salmon with Deconstructed Pesto, one of the methods we learned in school to salvage the little bits of salmon that don't get used (and the bits that can be scraped off of the bones) is to make a rillette. A rillette is a preparation of meat, poultry, or fish which is braised in a cooking liquid of wine, aromatics, and fat until tender. The cooking liquid is reduced, strained and cooled, and then pounded into the protein to form a paste. A delicious rillette is well seasoned and served with toasted bread as a cold hors d'oeuvre.

I made an Asian-style rillette by poaching the salmon scraps in a liquid of: wine, shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, peppercorns, red chili, parsley stems, a small bay leaf, lemon zest, celery leaves, a tiny bit of carrot, and water to just cover. I pounded the reduced, strained and cooled cooking liquid into the salmon with some olive oil to form a paste and seasoned it well with sambal oelek, soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. To plate the rillette, I steamed some soy beans and fried some ginger threads. I also toasted some bread which was served on the side.
 

When fileting your own salmon, this is a great way to avoid any waste! Click here for more pics from the day.

Tagged as: [ fish foodcost howto pajos rillette salmon scraps steveston tips ]