Inspired by a number of things, namely Top Chef, a blog I follow, and the Alinea cookbook, I wanted to try my hand at cooking sous vide. Sous vide is sealing some ingredients in a vacuum bag, then submerging it in a water bath for a given amount of time. I've seen it done quite a bit on TV and I've been reading alot about it (with what seems to be the best and most scientific guide here) and I wanted to get my hands wet (no pun intended) because pretty much all of the recipes in the Alinea book call for meat to be cooked sous-vide before searing/serving.
Things that are awesome about sous vide is the concentrated flavors that you get when you cook with it, and the near-impossibility of overcooking your food (since it obviously can't get above the temperature of the water immersion bath). It also can be relatively low in fat, if you choose (I could've added a tbsp of butter to each bag...but I didn't). The problems are that for consistently good sous vide, the best piece of equipment to have is a thermal immersion circulator, which provides consistent water temperature at all times, as well as a vacuum-sealing system (with options from the moderately pricey to the exceedingly ridiculous).
However, for the home cook on a budget (both money and space), I've taken some shortcuts that should hopefully work...
This recipe was taken from the Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking.
I brined 2 chicken breasts in a 5% salt solution for 30 minutes (that's 50 g salt in 1 Liter of water). After rinsing under cold water, drying and lightly seasoning with salt and pepper, the chicken breasts then went into their own Reynolds Handi-Vac Bag, and sucked out all the air.
Using my awesome cast-enameled Dutch oven (thank you in-laws!) and my handy digital thermometer, I rigged up a water bath at 160 degrees. In went the chicken, where it's been sitting for over an hour. I'm planning on taking it out in 13 minutes, then eating it with some roasted potatoes and shallots w/ olive oil and rosemary, and vegetable du jour (for Steph). I'll report back how it is when I'm done eating and cleaning!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Bonnie's Rule of Cooking #1
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, which means that many of my friends start to throw holiday potluck dinners for all of us to be together and to eat and drink and be merry. I'm also usually in a bind because I'm never given any sort of limits to what I should make, and I frequently get the "make whatever you want, it'll be delicious" (my culinary skills are held in high esteem by my friends). I also find myself wanting to challenge myself and up my skills, but I'm held up by Bonnie's Rule of Cooking #1:
Never make a recipe for company the first time you are preparing it.
More after the jump to explain my dilemma.
The issue is that I don't have the time to test out a lot of the recipes I want to try, so invariably I end up whipping them for the first time. Blargh. Thankfully the rules are flexible enough that I can get through this holiday season without poisoning anyone and/or ruining anyone's taste buds.
Happy eating, everyone!
Never make a recipe for company the first time you are preparing it.
More after the jump to explain my dilemma.
The issue is that I don't have the time to test out a lot of the recipes I want to try, so invariably I end up whipping them for the first time. Blargh. Thankfully the rules are flexible enough that I can get through this holiday season without poisoning anyone and/or ruining anyone's taste buds.
Happy eating, everyone!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Top Chef Digest
I don't want to come out and play favorites, but I will definitely say I have issues with 2 of the cheftestants so far. Swedish Chef is an arrogant douche, but not in a Marcel/Steven lovable sort of way...he's just an ass. I also can't get behind the sort-of-backwards-trucker-hat look from Melissa. Please. Either wear some tasteful headgear or don't wear anything at all.
This episode had 2 of my favorite things - palate tests and group challenges. All in all, a good episode, and I honestly got my initial projection wrong. More after the jump.
First, we're treated to a quick montage of Swedish Chef being creepy and hitting on/stalking Jamie, who is humored and repulsed at the same time. Note to Stefan: making clothes and putting them on stuffed animals will not win over a lady's heart. You'd have better luck running up to her and screaming BORK BORK BORK! in her face.
The Quickfire this week was a variation on the "palate test" that has been done every season thus far, but this time it was a head-to-head taste test tournament, naming ingredients in a Liar's Dice sort of way. One cheftestant would say how many ingredients they could name, and the other would either up the bid or call bullshit, at which point the cheftestant would have to name their ingredients. A novel idea, especially with Swedish Chef bumping up everyone on purpose and being an arrogant prick. Shrimp and Lobsert Bouillabase for Round 1, Green Curry for Round 2 and Mole Sauce for Round 3. In the end, The Prophet had better taste buds than Swedish Chef, and was victorious.
Can we just agree for a minute though that claiming "salt" or "pepper" as one of the ingredients is a bit lame. Let me see, odds are that since humans put salt in almost everything, there's a REALLY good chance there's salt in this dish! Please.
The Elimination Challenge is presented via knife block, dividing the chefs up into groups "Old", "New", "Borrowed", "Blue" - pretty obvious they're doing something involving a wedding. Out comes Gail (who I admit I think is rather cute) and says they're catering her bridal shower lunch, with a dish inspired by one of the four bridal thingys. The only limitations she puts on them is no veal and no black beans. I can understand the veal, from a certain POV (more on that later) but black beans? Must be a personal thing. Also, one of the chefs mentions (something I noticed immediately) is that Gail probably invited a bunch of her coworkers...who all work for Food & Wine Magazine. Tough crowd, this one.
Here I will describe the trials and tribulations of each group, culminating in service:
Something Old (The Prophet, Swedish Chef, Kitchen Ken): Wisely, they get to Whole Foods and realize "Even though this is going to air in December, we are shooting it at the height of tomato season...let's do heirloom tomatoes!". Swedish Chef rubs everyone the wrong way, telling them how to cook their dishes without worrying about his own. They go with heirloom tomatoes in old-school preparations. Prophet makes a gazpacho, BorkBorkBork makes a tomato terrine (which got panned by someone on-screen) and KitchenKen makes tomato carpaccio with a tomato sorbet, which gets rave reviews. (Can I just rant for a second: tomato carpaccio? Come on!) The dish is successful, with no adverse service problems.
Something New (Tryin' Hawaiian, Chops, Crazy Carla): Chops is going on about pickling spices (which does not say "new" to me), Eugene the Tryin' Hawaiian (thanks Meghann!) wants to make some sort of "new sushi" and Crazy Carla is just keeping everything bottled up. They "settle" on a "surf and turf sushi", but Eugene overcooks the rice, and tries to hide it by adding more ingredients (NOTE: Adding more things to food that has already been messed only ensures one thing - more messed up food). Chops then adds mushrooms at the bottom of the wonton cups under Carla's salad...and she doesn't say anything! To compound everything, Eugene "forgets" to explain how to eat the dish to the diners...nothing made me laugh harder than Dana Cowin flapping 2 nori sheets around her head.
Something Borrowed (Jamie the Sparkplug, SprayTan Ariane, Just Because My Name Is Radhika Doesn't Mean I'm Cooking Indian Food): Can anyone take a guess what THIS group is making? They're "borrowing" Indian flavors from Radhika's cultural background!?!?!?! ARGH!!!!!! Let me just repeat again I would have no problem with this if she hadn't said she didn't want to do it in the first episode! Anyway, they cook up a marinated lamb with an Indian-spiced carrot puree and it looked delicious (even though I thought it was rather raw from a far shot, it was actually cooked perfectly). They had issues with timing and plating was going to be tough, but some of the other cheftestants helped them out with plating and all was well. This should be a lesson to everyone else: better to make sure your main protein is cooked right and rush your plating, rather than having improperly cooked meat and failing miserably. SprayTan Ariane gets the win for this challenge, with a boatload of Calphalon kitchen electrics (LUCKY!)
Something Blue (SuperFabioBros, Leah, Melissa the Trucker): There is no such thing as blue food, as our heroes quickly surmise. SuperFabioBros wants to make something from the ocean...it's blue...good idea. They do a blue cornmeal-crusted Chilean sea bass with a corn puree and some greens. I immediately call that it's a mushy fish, combined with mushy greens and a mushy puree...bad idea (turns out I was right). However, the most inane part of it was when Fabio is explaining how their dish is "blue" and he says "in the color spectrum, yellow and green make blue". You're playing in my sandbox now, big boy, and let me tell you that yellow and green certainly DO NOT make blue. You stick to cooking food and saying silly things, leave the science to the scientists. In the end, the dish is destined for failure because it is too safe and too boring (and Tom Ripken gets a good shot in, telling Fabio it's not that hard to cook 40 pieces of fish. PWN3D!)
In the end, Chops still insists they put out an awesome dish, which ultimately leads to his packing his knives. Alas, Chops, we hardly knew you! Sad though, I thought he could've been a contender.
Frontrunners: Sparkplug, KitchenKen, BorkBorkBork
Next week: MARTHA! Sweet.
This episode had 2 of my favorite things - palate tests and group challenges. All in all, a good episode, and I honestly got my initial projection wrong. More after the jump.
First, we're treated to a quick montage of Swedish Chef being creepy and hitting on/stalking Jamie, who is humored and repulsed at the same time. Note to Stefan: making clothes and putting them on stuffed animals will not win over a lady's heart. You'd have better luck running up to her and screaming BORK BORK BORK! in her face.
The Quickfire this week was a variation on the "palate test" that has been done every season thus far, but this time it was a head-to-head taste test tournament, naming ingredients in a Liar's Dice sort of way. One cheftestant would say how many ingredients they could name, and the other would either up the bid or call bullshit, at which point the cheftestant would have to name their ingredients. A novel idea, especially with Swedish Chef bumping up everyone on purpose and being an arrogant prick. Shrimp and Lobsert Bouillabase for Round 1, Green Curry for Round 2 and Mole Sauce for Round 3. In the end, The Prophet had better taste buds than Swedish Chef, and was victorious.
Can we just agree for a minute though that claiming "salt" or "pepper" as one of the ingredients is a bit lame. Let me see, odds are that since humans put salt in almost everything, there's a REALLY good chance there's salt in this dish! Please.
The Elimination Challenge is presented via knife block, dividing the chefs up into groups "Old", "New", "Borrowed", "Blue" - pretty obvious they're doing something involving a wedding. Out comes Gail (who I admit I think is rather cute) and says they're catering her bridal shower lunch, with a dish inspired by one of the four bridal thingys. The only limitations she puts on them is no veal and no black beans. I can understand the veal, from a certain POV (more on that later) but black beans? Must be a personal thing. Also, one of the chefs mentions (something I noticed immediately) is that Gail probably invited a bunch of her coworkers...who all work for Food & Wine Magazine. Tough crowd, this one.
Here I will describe the trials and tribulations of each group, culminating in service:
Something Old (The Prophet, Swedish Chef, Kitchen Ken): Wisely, they get to Whole Foods and realize "Even though this is going to air in December, we are shooting it at the height of tomato season...let's do heirloom tomatoes!". Swedish Chef rubs everyone the wrong way, telling them how to cook their dishes without worrying about his own. They go with heirloom tomatoes in old-school preparations. Prophet makes a gazpacho, BorkBorkBork makes a tomato terrine (which got panned by someone on-screen) and KitchenKen makes tomato carpaccio with a tomato sorbet, which gets rave reviews. (Can I just rant for a second: tomato carpaccio? Come on!) The dish is successful, with no adverse service problems.
Something New (Tryin' Hawaiian, Chops, Crazy Carla): Chops is going on about pickling spices (which does not say "new" to me), Eugene the Tryin' Hawaiian (thanks Meghann!) wants to make some sort of "new sushi" and Crazy Carla is just keeping everything bottled up. They "settle" on a "surf and turf sushi", but Eugene overcooks the rice, and tries to hide it by adding more ingredients (NOTE: Adding more things to food that has already been messed only ensures one thing - more messed up food). Chops then adds mushrooms at the bottom of the wonton cups under Carla's salad...and she doesn't say anything! To compound everything, Eugene "forgets" to explain how to eat the dish to the diners...nothing made me laugh harder than Dana Cowin flapping 2 nori sheets around her head.
Something Borrowed (Jamie the Sparkplug, SprayTan Ariane, Just Because My Name Is Radhika Doesn't Mean I'm Cooking Indian Food): Can anyone take a guess what THIS group is making? They're "borrowing" Indian flavors from Radhika's cultural background!?!?!?! ARGH!!!!!! Let me just repeat again I would have no problem with this if she hadn't said she didn't want to do it in the first episode! Anyway, they cook up a marinated lamb with an Indian-spiced carrot puree and it looked delicious (even though I thought it was rather raw from a far shot, it was actually cooked perfectly). They had issues with timing and plating was going to be tough, but some of the other cheftestants helped them out with plating and all was well. This should be a lesson to everyone else: better to make sure your main protein is cooked right and rush your plating, rather than having improperly cooked meat and failing miserably. SprayTan Ariane gets the win for this challenge, with a boatload of Calphalon kitchen electrics (LUCKY!)
Something Blue (SuperFabioBros, Leah, Melissa the Trucker): There is no such thing as blue food, as our heroes quickly surmise. SuperFabioBros wants to make something from the ocean...it's blue...good idea. They do a blue cornmeal-crusted Chilean sea bass with a corn puree and some greens. I immediately call that it's a mushy fish, combined with mushy greens and a mushy puree...bad idea (turns out I was right). However, the most inane part of it was when Fabio is explaining how their dish is "blue" and he says "in the color spectrum, yellow and green make blue". You're playing in my sandbox now, big boy, and let me tell you that yellow and green certainly DO NOT make blue. You stick to cooking food and saying silly things, leave the science to the scientists. In the end, the dish is destined for failure because it is too safe and too boring (and Tom Ripken gets a good shot in, telling Fabio it's not that hard to cook 40 pieces of fish. PWN3D!)
In the end, Chops still insists they put out an awesome dish, which ultimately leads to his packing his knives. Alas, Chops, we hardly knew you! Sad though, I thought he could've been a contender.
Frontrunners: Sparkplug, KitchenKen, BorkBorkBork
Next week: MARTHA! Sweet.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Guilt-Free Chicken Parm
First, let me just say a few words about Top Chef. I've been a slacker, I admit. All I have to say is this: it should be a HUGE clue to people who watch the show that you can telegraph who is getting the boot simply from seeing whether or not they decide to "show their versatility" by making dessert. Coincidence that the last 2 cheftestants to get the boot have tried their hand at dessert? I think not.
I love chicken parm, there's no getting around it. I eat it so rarely because there's not much worse for you than deep-fried chicken cutlets smothered in salty tomato sauce and gooey cholesterol-laden mozzarella cheese. Comfort food is great, but I always feel so guilty after eating a chicken parm sandwich, I just feel absolutely weighed down with grease and salt and blah. Fortunately, I've got a killer recipe for a lighter chicken parm that has all the taste, without any of the guilt. Stephanie and I housed this tonight, without even breaking a sweat. I also made some Barilla Plus spaghetti and tossed it with some of the leftover sauce. Delicious.
Lighter Chicken Parm
For the sauce:
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
dash red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp minced fresh basil
For the chicken:
1 cup dried breadcrumbs
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (with more for serving)
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 egg whites
2 tsp water
vegetable oil spray
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved into cutlets
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1/2 tbsp minced fresh basil
Preheat to 475.
Puree the diced tomatoes (with juice) in a miniprep until...well...pureed. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil then cook the tomato paste, garlic and red pepper flakes until slightly brown, about 2 minutes. Pour in the pureed tomatoes and stir and cook until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper.
While the sauce is cooking, combine the breadcrumbs and oil in a large skillet and toast over medium, stirring until golden. Spread the breadcrumbs in a dish and cool. Stir in Parmesan. In another dish, combine flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. In another dish, whisk together egg whites and water. Dip the chicken cutlets in flour mixture, then egg mixture and then breadcrumb mixture. Put on a rack over a baking sheet (sprayed with vegetable oil spray) and spray tops of chicken with...well...the spray. Bake for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven, spread some sauce on the top of each piece, and top with shredded cheese. Put back in the oven for 5 minutes until the cheese is all bubbly. Finish with basil and Parmesan and serve with spaghetti. Delicious.
I love chicken parm, there's no getting around it. I eat it so rarely because there's not much worse for you than deep-fried chicken cutlets smothered in salty tomato sauce and gooey cholesterol-laden mozzarella cheese. Comfort food is great, but I always feel so guilty after eating a chicken parm sandwich, I just feel absolutely weighed down with grease and salt and blah. Fortunately, I've got a killer recipe for a lighter chicken parm that has all the taste, without any of the guilt. Stephanie and I housed this tonight, without even breaking a sweat. I also made some Barilla Plus spaghetti and tossed it with some of the leftover sauce. Delicious.
Lighter Chicken Parm
For the sauce:
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
dash red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp minced fresh basil
For the chicken:
1 cup dried breadcrumbs
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (with more for serving)
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 egg whites
2 tsp water
vegetable oil spray
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved into cutlets
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1/2 tbsp minced fresh basil
Preheat to 475.
Puree the diced tomatoes (with juice) in a miniprep until...well...pureed. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil then cook the tomato paste, garlic and red pepper flakes until slightly brown, about 2 minutes. Pour in the pureed tomatoes and stir and cook until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper.
While the sauce is cooking, combine the breadcrumbs and oil in a large skillet and toast over medium, stirring until golden. Spread the breadcrumbs in a dish and cool. Stir in Parmesan. In another dish, combine flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. In another dish, whisk together egg whites and water. Dip the chicken cutlets in flour mixture, then egg mixture and then breadcrumb mixture. Put on a rack over a baking sheet (sprayed with vegetable oil spray) and spray tops of chicken with...well...the spray. Bake for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven, spread some sauce on the top of each piece, and top with shredded cheese. Put back in the oven for 5 minutes until the cheese is all bubbly. Finish with basil and Parmesan and serve with spaghetti. Delicious.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Almond Butter
I love almonds, as I can eat a 1/4 cup (which is a surprisingly large amount) per serving, which is quite a filling snack. They also have that added side bonus of (supposedly) helping to increase my HDL and lower my LDL counts, both of which will make my doctor happy. I used to eat the roasted/salted ones, but I've gotten into the habit of buying the roasted/unsalted, since cutting back on my sodium is also a good thing.
Recently, I got the idea that I should make my own almond butter, from seeing a video of someone making their own peanut butter and from when I worked at Godiva when I was 15, where I used to sneak almond butter domes from the back room every chance I could get. So here it is - one of the easiest recipes ever.
Almond Butter
1 cup roasted unsalted almonds
1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Process the almonds and salt in a mini-prep until finely ground and clumping together. Add the vegetable oil in a slow stream while processing. Add more oil to thin out the texture, if you like. Keep covered tightly in the refrigerator.
That's it!
Recently, I got the idea that I should make my own almond butter, from seeing a video of someone making their own peanut butter and from when I worked at Godiva when I was 15, where I used to sneak almond butter domes from the back room every chance I could get. So here it is - one of the easiest recipes ever.
Almond Butter
1 cup roasted unsalted almonds
1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Process the almonds and salt in a mini-prep until finely ground and clumping together. Add the vegetable oil in a slow stream while processing. Add more oil to thin out the texture, if you like. Keep covered tightly in the refrigerator.
That's it!
Dirty pans
Nothing is sadder than waking up in the morning and seeing a pan that I still need to clean. The saute pan that I dirtied beyond belief when I lost track of searing steaks is mocking me from the sink, even after I let it soak in hot water and soap overnight. It's just sitting there, reminding me how I charred the fond and made a huge mess of things.
Blech.
Blech.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Comfort food
There's something comforting about a chicken cutlet, coated in some seasoned bread crumbs and quickly pan-fried. With a little Israeli couscous and a salad, it's a perfectly delicious dinner. Yum.
In other news, I was the happy recipient of a double e-mail from my great friend Meghann and her man Aaron, inviting themselves over to our house for a day of cooking and eating and drinking. I can't say that I mind - they're two of my favorite people on the planet. I am PUMPED, and I'm already full of ridiculous ideas. I'm also positively sure there will be pictures and blog postings galore come January 3rd.
Woot.
In other news, I was the happy recipient of a double e-mail from my great friend Meghann and her man Aaron, inviting themselves over to our house for a day of cooking and eating and drinking. I can't say that I mind - they're two of my favorite people on the planet. I am PUMPED, and I'm already full of ridiculous ideas. I'm also positively sure there will be pictures and blog postings galore come January 3rd.
Woot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
