Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Corn this!
So, a pal o' mine suggest I help out with corned beef and cabbage. I'm going to give it a go and then report to you. I personally don't trust the corned beef in the stores, so I'll make my own and then show you how to make it. This dish is delightfully simple, if you can put water in a pot you can make it. I'll tell you about it soon!
Stock Part Three: Straining, cooling and storing
Ugh- now here is a tough spot: Straining. I do not have the biggest kitchen in the world, in fact two people in my kitchen makes it crowded. Making straining a pot of stock a little tricky i.e. elbow room! Get another pot (liquids will not cool in plastic as it is an insulator). Plop a colander or strainer into the empty pot(you can use cheesecloth here if you feel you need to, but don't run out and get any if you don't have any) and carefully pour.
Cooling a stock quickly is paramount to prevent contamination. Another reason for cooling it down quickly is that when you stick it in your fridge/freezer it doesn't warm up or melt anything you would like to remain chilly. If your sink is relatively deep, you are in luck. Put the pot in your sink (bathtubs are great for this too, but if you're like me and have a bathtub on your second floor, its not really recommended to carry up a giant pot of hot liquid up the stairs, a large cooler would work nicely!). Make sure you plug your sink! If you have tons of ice lying around, good! Put the ice around the pot and start running the water. Do NOT let the ice bath rise above the level of stock in your pot or it will bounce around your sink. Then let the ice bath do its thang. Check the temperature ideally it's temp should be around 40 degrees F, and stir it every now and then. Yes, you can stir it to your hearts content now!
Once it's cooled, you can store it in plastic containers with tight lids. This stuff freezes really well and will last a few months in the freezer. Date it and label it to save confusion later.
Cooling a stock quickly is paramount to prevent contamination. Another reason for cooling it down quickly is that when you stick it in your fridge/freezer it doesn't warm up or melt anything you would like to remain chilly. If your sink is relatively deep, you are in luck. Put the pot in your sink (bathtubs are great for this too, but if you're like me and have a bathtub on your second floor, its not really recommended to carry up a giant pot of hot liquid up the stairs, a large cooler would work nicely!). Make sure you plug your sink! If you have tons of ice lying around, good! Put the ice around the pot and start running the water. Do NOT let the ice bath rise above the level of stock in your pot or it will bounce around your sink. Then let the ice bath do its thang. Check the temperature ideally it's temp should be around 40 degrees F, and stir it every now and then. Yes, you can stir it to your hearts content now!
Once it's cooled, you can store it in plastic containers with tight lids. This stuff freezes really well and will last a few months in the freezer. Date it and label it to save confusion later.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Stock part two: Oh yeah, vegetables!
Since I said I could go on I will, because I left so much out the last time. I'll even give you a recipe!
This recipe is for a white stock, which basically means you're not roasting the bones or the veggies before you cook it.
For one gallon of stock:
5-6 lbs of bones (chicken or veal)
1 lb mirepoix (8 oz Onion, 4 oz celery, 4 oz carrot, peeled)
5-6 quarts water (which is about enough to cover plus 1 ")
1 Sachet: thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, parsley stems, whole cloves, and garlic cloves(if you want)
The sachet can be any or all of those things depending on what flavors you want. But remember this: NEVER ADD SALT to the stock, it should be flavorful enough. Once you've put your soup together, you can adjust the seasoning then.
Now onto your carrots and celery, I recommend cutting them on the bias, more surface area= more flavor. Please don't fuss over how perfectly they are cut. Just quarter your onion and be done with it! If you feel you must fuss over something, fuss over how clean they are.
Throw it all into a pot, cover and bring to a boil( I know I said no boiling, but if you want to sit around all day while 6 quarts of water comes to a simmer be my guest,and congrats on having all that free time) then SIMMER for 3-4 hours for chicken bones and 6-8 hours for veal/beef bones. I'm not going to lie to you- veal bones are hard to find and if you DO find them they are expensive because restaurants have dibs on them. Maybe you could try oxtail, usually they have beef bones kicking around the supermarket, ask around. There are also ham bones which if you are feeling saucy, save and freeze, or pick some up at the supermarket.
But what about fish stock Angela? Ugh. Why would you want your house smelling like that? Cod bones are good, any bony white fish really just don't use salmon its WAY too fishy(a seasoned chef said it to me, so it must be bad).
NO stirring, boiling, covering or salt. Skim the scum. We'll talk about cooling and storing tomorrow. If you MUST know now, let me know.
This recipe is for a white stock, which basically means you're not roasting the bones or the veggies before you cook it.
For one gallon of stock:
5-6 lbs of bones (chicken or veal)
1 lb mirepoix (8 oz Onion, 4 oz celery, 4 oz carrot, peeled)
5-6 quarts water (which is about enough to cover plus 1 ")
1 Sachet: thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, parsley stems, whole cloves, and garlic cloves(if you want)
The sachet can be any or all of those things depending on what flavors you want. But remember this: NEVER ADD SALT to the stock, it should be flavorful enough. Once you've put your soup together, you can adjust the seasoning then.
Now onto your carrots and celery, I recommend cutting them on the bias, more surface area= more flavor. Please don't fuss over how perfectly they are cut. Just quarter your onion and be done with it! If you feel you must fuss over something, fuss over how clean they are.
Throw it all into a pot, cover and bring to a boil( I know I said no boiling, but if you want to sit around all day while 6 quarts of water comes to a simmer be my guest,and congrats on having all that free time) then SIMMER for 3-4 hours for chicken bones and 6-8 hours for veal/beef bones. I'm not going to lie to you- veal bones are hard to find and if you DO find them they are expensive because restaurants have dibs on them. Maybe you could try oxtail, usually they have beef bones kicking around the supermarket, ask around. There are also ham bones which if you are feeling saucy, save and freeze, or pick some up at the supermarket.
But what about fish stock Angela? Ugh. Why would you want your house smelling like that? Cod bones are good, any bony white fish really just don't use salmon its WAY too fishy(a seasoned chef said it to me, so it must be bad).
NO stirring, boiling, covering or salt. Skim the scum. We'll talk about cooling and storing tomorrow. If you MUST know now, let me know.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Take stock for instance...
Last night when I was driving the best of my best friends home from a night of BBC Comedy watching and Wii playing, my friend Vin, who is Sicilian- actually asked me about making stock. Now, Vincent can cook. Especially for a bachelor. Sometimes I ask his opinions about how to do things in the kitchen. Which matters because, heh, I have a culinary degree...and Vin doesn't.
So imagine my surprise when we discuss how to actually make chicken stock and the difference between stock and broth. So here was my advice:
So imagine my surprise when we discuss how to actually make chicken stock and the difference between stock and broth. So here was my advice:
- Never, ever, ever let the bones you are using boil, you're trying to gently suck out the flavor and collagen from these bones. To put it this way: Massage the flavor out of the bones, don't punch the flavor out.
- I know you want to, really, really, really want to- but do not stir the stock. It just sends impurities throughout your stock as opposed to gently(because we're not boiling it!) floating to the top where they belong(so's you can skim the scum).
- Lastly, don't cover it. You want a really flavorful stock, so you concentrate it as much as possible, leaving a cover on does not help it reduce to the yummy and rich stock you want.
- The difference between a stock and a broth is simply this: you boil a whole chicken, you's making a broth. Stock is made from bones. Broth is made from meat. Bones...meat...*childish giggle*
- You may not know this if you buy chicken stock in can (which I do a lot, I am not ashamed to admit) but a really well made stock, when cooled, is more like Jell-O than like soup. That's because you were a good little monkey and massaged the collagen out of the bones, and guess what Jell-O is made from???
Monday, February 21, 2011
Settle an argument for me...
Is it bad I have more pictures of my food than of my children on my phone?
A friend of mine when discussing my new career (culinary) to people says "Angela takes pictures of her food. Why do you do that? What is with you?!" I mean why not take a picture of a work of art you want to remember? I see my kids every day. When they do cool or cute stuff I take a picture. Why do I have more pictures of food than my kids? Food stays still.
A friend of mine when discussing my new career (culinary) to people says "Angela takes pictures of her food. Why do you do that? What is with you?!" I mean why not take a picture of a work of art you want to remember? I see my kids every day. When they do cool or cute stuff I take a picture. Why do I have more pictures of food than my kids? Food stays still.
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