In taking a look back, I haven't given salads much love on this blog so far. Yeah, I mention turning the beef into a salad back in the kabob entry, but I feel like I didn't quite do salads justice. To be honest, salads often get written off. They're what you make or order when "you're on a diet", "not too hungry", "need to cut things back", and so on. This line of thought makes it sound like salads are some kind of penance or self-deprivation, and that, had we our druthers, we'd all be chomping on steaks and potatoes for every meal. Well, I'm saying it now- this is bull. A good salad is a thing of beauty! In fact, for all you beginner cooks out there... Scratch that, for ALL cooks, salads are probably one of the best exercises in flavor creation and pairing out there- You have direct control over how much of each ingredient, and ergo its flavor and texture, goes into each plate of salad. You have the fewest variables- no heat to burn or mush your ingredients, no complex knifework, and can easily change the one thing that can elevate or undo your dish- Dressing. As an added bonus, salads are a dish that tastes equally awesome vegetarian or carnivore, and can help give you a better understanding of using quality ingredients- there's no way to hide inferior materials in a salad. What you put in is directly what you get out.
Also, this is when a lot of my favorite greens come around in the year.
So, first as a refresher, let's take another look at the spectrum of flavors, and how we can include all this to make a tasty salad-
Sweet. Salty, Sour, Bitter, Umami.
So let's start with our greens. A lot of the time, greens fulfill a little sweet and mostly texture contrast. Some nice crunch mixed with a fresh, if sometimes neutral, taste. For this salad, I want my greens livelier than that and really contributing to our selection of flavors. Our choice? Baby Arugula. This little green has a nice bitterness and peppery taste to it that helps to... set the stage for our flavors, if you will. their flavor makes a nice backdrop to help all the brighter sharper flavors really stand out. That said, we don't want the bitterness to overwhelm the palate, so our second ingredient needs to provide a more earthy flavored base. Beans of some sort will do nicely for this task. Even better, they contribute a nice bit of umami to the mix. Now that we have a good strong base, let's begin to build up. Sweet can be found lots of places- tomatoes, carrots, fresh red pepper... What about roasted red pepper? It has the nice sweetness we want, with the added benefit of a touch of smokiness to help tie the umami and sweet together. Now our salty and sour will come from our dressing primarily, so no need to put too much of those in here, or they may overwhelm the palate when paired with the dressing. Now that we have all our flavor bases covered, we need one more thing. Our dish doesn't really have much texture. the arugula has a little crispness to it, but our beans and peppers are both soft. We need some crunch. It's a job for cucumber! Cucumber allows for a nice bit of crunchiness without modifying the flavor of your salad too much, and in this case adds to our flavor with it's nice bit of freshness. So after slicing and tossing all our ingredients together, let's make a vinaigrette.
I know I've covered vinaigrettes before, but for convenience's sake-
Now a lot of people love the balsamic vinaigrette, and it's a great thing, but I'm a big fan of sherry vinegar- not quite as sweet, but tons of character and complexity, and goes on just about anything. We'll add a little coriander, a little salt, pepper, dijon mustard, and some diced shallot. Lastly, our oil- When making a vinaigrette you want to aim for a 3:1 oil to acid ratio. In the end, though, just eyeball and taste your way to a good result. Whisk your mixture while lowly adding the oil (or put all but the oil in your blender, switch it to low, and then slowly add the oil as the blender runs) until well emulsified.
Now, while this salad is perfectly ready to go as a course for dinner, we want some animal protein if we're having it solo. With our selection of salad components, chicken would be the best choice, both for price and flavor. Add any chicken you have handy, in almost any way (except fried. Fried chicken is really more of a standalone thing). Enjoy!
Variations for salad ingredients- So let's say everything for our salad isn't available to you. A couple alternatives we can choose are-
Red peppers- cherry tomatoes
cucumber- celery
Cannelini beans- northern or navy beans
meat- lamb or beef
Arugula- Dandelion Greens, mescalin
side note: prepping a cucumber- One thing that's always bugged me is just how popular the english cucumber is. I mean, don't get me wrong, its a tasty veggie, but so many people buy it strictly for convenience, paying over twice the cost for it when there are perfectly good american or kirby cucumbers sitting right next to them, often organic and STILL cheaper than the english cukes. A lot of people say that, aside from the hassle of peeling a cucumber (which I counter by saying how it's not much easier to get that darn shrink wrap off the english cucumber), there's too much seed goop in the american cucumber, making it a squishy veggie to eat, and can water down the vinaigrette and the rest of the salad. Well, here's how you take care of that- After peeling your cucumber, slice it in half lengthways. Take a spoon, and scoop down the line of seed goop, discard. This may take two passes to completely remove the seeds, but there you go!
Until next time... I'm not making a tossed salad joke. come on, now.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Pantry essentials 2- The Oily Truth.
Good evening, Foodies!
In going with our back-and-forth plan, today we step back into our pantry and cupboards for another look at what we should have, what we should avoid, and how we can use it. Today is something you might be familiar with... Scratch that, if you cook, this is something you are unavoidably familiar with- Oil. Be it dressing, sauteing, frying, or just about anything else, chances are if you've cooked, you've used an oil. They are integral for a vinaigrette or adding body to dressings, they're essential for high heat cooking, and, some of you may be surprised to know, there is no one supreme oil for everything, and just about every oil has a purpose. First, though, let's go over what makes oil so fantastic for cooking-
--At room temp, oils are a smooth, if slightly viscous, liquid. This makes it much easier to work with in non-heated applications than animal fats or butters, especially in larger amounts. This state also means that for emulsifying room temp ingredients, the emulsification will hold much longer than a fat that would solidify at or slightly below room temp.
COOKING VOCAB- Emulsify- the process of blending a fat and liquid together to form a uniform and smooth result. This is achieved on a molecular level by the fat molecules surrounding and binding water molecules, preventing the water from sinking below the fat. A smooth vinaigrette, for example (one that doesn't have oil floating on top of everything else) is an emulsification or emulsified sauce. To make an emulsification, You need an emulsifying agent to stabilize the oil and water, such as mustard, egg, or soy. More on this later.
--Many oils have a very high smoke point. What this means is that they can get very, VERY hot before they start to break down and start to burn (burning your cooking fat is never a good thing, and I have yet to see a burnt fat being used to improve a dish rather than detract or all-out ruin it). What this means for us is that if we want to cook something over a high heat and not have a burned or rancid taste added to it, we use oil instead of, say, butter. While other fats do have cooking applications, high heat is pretty much oil's game alone. (SIDE NOTE- if you are cooking with oil and it begins to smoke, that does not mean it's burned and thus ruined. It just means the oil's as hot as it's going to get, so add whatever you're going to cook in the oil now, or else the oil will really start to break down and get ruined. Some recipes will call for you to heat the oil until it starts to smoke, as insurance that you're adding it to the hottest possible pan.)
--While they're not unique in this regard, oils can have flavors infused into them. Citrus, herbs, spices, you name it,oil can take on some of it's flavors. Just let whatever you want to infuse sit submerged in the oil, and voila!
--Lastly, many oils just have delicious full flavors thanks to what they're made from. 'nuff said.
Okay, so now that we know why oil is great, what oil should we buy?
In viewing our standard grocery store (and a bigger list when we get to specialty food stores), we know that we have several cheap oils (canola, vegetable, peanut, sunflower) and more expensive oils (olive, walnut, infused olive oils, avocado, coconut, etc). Now I'm not going to list every oil on the market here because there's just too many to count at this point, and frankly some oils are either too specialty use-based or have too short a shelf life for the purposes of this blog (If you ever want to know specifics of some oddball oil, just let me know). We're going to give a couple solid examples of what there is, and why we use it (or not).
Standard cooking oils- These are the oils you're probably most familiar with, or at least see the most often at the grocery store. Plastic bottle, pale yellow oil- canola, vegetable, peanut, and sunflower (recently, Grapeseed oil also started popping up on grocery shelves, also a good decision). These oils don't really contribute much to flavor or nutrition, and with the exception of grapeseed (which has a very neutral clean character) really shouldn't be in any raw application for food. What they DO have going for them in spades, however, is a really high smoke point, and they practically never go rancid (when oil basically breaks down and goes bad. Rancid oil has a musty, mealy kind of taste. no fun). These are preferred for heated applications, because their lack of flavor means that you'll taste what you're cooking in the oil instead of the oil itself. I personally use a bit of canola or grapeseed oil for my heated prep. Yeah, that's right, olive oilers. I said it. Unless you want to taste olive oil in your dish (and hey, sometimes that's what you want), you should stick to neutral oils for cooking. Your palate and wallet will thank you. Speaking of Olive oil...
Olive oil- I could write a whole blog just on olive oil. No other oil has received the attention or has the history that olive oil does. Just as there are wineries with distinct characteristics based on region and variety of grape, there are olive oil farms with just as storied a history and just as much variety of product the world over. However, for simplicity's sake, here's the rule of thumb with olive oil- In California, olive oil has the most fruit and butter notes, very light and mild. The further east we go, into Italy, France, and Spain, we get (with exceptions, of course) a very different product, the flavor more peppery and dark. I urge you to try them all, Every one is absolutely delicious, and goes better with different things. Always go with extra virgin, cold-pressed. End of story. Virgin or blended oil has a marked drop in quality, and really belongs in the cooking oil category (or just not in your pantry at all). I like to keep a bottle of decent quality oil on hand for the occasional cooked application (again, when I want that flavor in my finished product), and a higher quality bottle or two on hand for dressings or cold applications. For your "nice" bottles, your bottle should say what region of what country your oil came from, if not what type of olive. If it doesn't, move on. Olive oil keeps for quite a while before going rancid, keep oil out of the light and out of temperature extremes to make it last longer (that advice goes across the board).
Walnut and Avocado oils- Actually, let's just say this is for most all specialty oils (except coconut oil. High smoke point, very mild character, light coconut taste. I like toasting bread crumbs with it). These are oils that are generally more volatile (more likely to break down and go rancid) than our other oils. So that means no hot uses. These are exclusively for dressing cold stuff, or giving a drizzle over hot stuff once it's come off the heat. it also means that you need to take special care in storing them. Many volatile oils are sold in opaque bottles or can-bottles to keep light out, and should also be kept in the fridge. The nice thing about these are they're an easy way to get the flavor of whatever they're made from into a dish without necessarily adding the ingredient (if you don't like the texture of walnuts, but want that nice nutty flavor). They're also usually quite potent, so a little goes a long way (you'll notice these oils are sold in smaller bottles than olive or neutral oil).
Okay, so now we have a general understanding of our oils and our vinegars, so we're gonna make a vinaigrette. This calls back to the term "emulsify" we talked about earlier, using mustard as a binding agent to emulsify the vinegar into the oil for a nice dressing. For starters, here's a nice easy and accessible balsamic vinaigrette-
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
3/4 C olive oil
3 tsp dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
whisk everything but the oil in a bowl, mixing well. whisking fairly quickly with one hand, slowly pour the oil in a small steady stream into the bowl with the other. Make sure you're whisking the entire time the oil is pouring, and then for about 30 seconds after. (this steady whisking while adding our oil is the emulsifying process).
There you go! Done and done. Now I'm sure most of you know a vinaigrette's application as a salad dressing, and that's all well and good. However, a vinaigrette can also be good when added to cooking meat or veggies, or in some cases even as a marinade in and of itself. A vinaigrette is actually one of the easiest ways to bring a bright wonderful flavor into your dishes, just by adding a spoonful or so at the right time. Seriously, next time you cook chicken thighs or breasts, splash a little balsamic vinaigrette on them while they're in the pan or oven (for the pan, wait until they're about 2/3 of the way cooked).
One last thing- the general rule of vinaigrette is 1 part acid to 3 parts oil, and have some agent in there to emulsify the two (usually mustard). However, if you don't mind stirring or shaking your dressing before using, you don't need the mustard, and if you want a brighter flavor and less fat, by all means change up the proportions! (For cooked applications, I like an even 1-1 ratio for oil and vinegar). There's no oil or vinegar that can't be used, so play around with it and see what you come up with!
Until next time, be a well-oiled cooking machine.
In going with our back-and-forth plan, today we step back into our pantry and cupboards for another look at what we should have, what we should avoid, and how we can use it. Today is something you might be familiar with... Scratch that, if you cook, this is something you are unavoidably familiar with- Oil. Be it dressing, sauteing, frying, or just about anything else, chances are if you've cooked, you've used an oil. They are integral for a vinaigrette or adding body to dressings, they're essential for high heat cooking, and, some of you may be surprised to know, there is no one supreme oil for everything, and just about every oil has a purpose. First, though, let's go over what makes oil so fantastic for cooking-
--At room temp, oils are a smooth, if slightly viscous, liquid. This makes it much easier to work with in non-heated applications than animal fats or butters, especially in larger amounts. This state also means that for emulsifying room temp ingredients, the emulsification will hold much longer than a fat that would solidify at or slightly below room temp.
COOKING VOCAB- Emulsify- the process of blending a fat and liquid together to form a uniform and smooth result. This is achieved on a molecular level by the fat molecules surrounding and binding water molecules, preventing the water from sinking below the fat. A smooth vinaigrette, for example (one that doesn't have oil floating on top of everything else) is an emulsification or emulsified sauce. To make an emulsification, You need an emulsifying agent to stabilize the oil and water, such as mustard, egg, or soy. More on this later.
--Many oils have a very high smoke point. What this means is that they can get very, VERY hot before they start to break down and start to burn (burning your cooking fat is never a good thing, and I have yet to see a burnt fat being used to improve a dish rather than detract or all-out ruin it). What this means for us is that if we want to cook something over a high heat and not have a burned or rancid taste added to it, we use oil instead of, say, butter. While other fats do have cooking applications, high heat is pretty much oil's game alone. (SIDE NOTE- if you are cooking with oil and it begins to smoke, that does not mean it's burned and thus ruined. It just means the oil's as hot as it's going to get, so add whatever you're going to cook in the oil now, or else the oil will really start to break down and get ruined. Some recipes will call for you to heat the oil until it starts to smoke, as insurance that you're adding it to the hottest possible pan.)
--While they're not unique in this regard, oils can have flavors infused into them. Citrus, herbs, spices, you name it,oil can take on some of it's flavors. Just let whatever you want to infuse sit submerged in the oil, and voila!
--Lastly, many oils just have delicious full flavors thanks to what they're made from. 'nuff said.
Okay, so now that we know why oil is great, what oil should we buy?
In viewing our standard grocery store (and a bigger list when we get to specialty food stores), we know that we have several cheap oils (canola, vegetable, peanut, sunflower) and more expensive oils (olive, walnut, infused olive oils, avocado, coconut, etc). Now I'm not going to list every oil on the market here because there's just too many to count at this point, and frankly some oils are either too specialty use-based or have too short a shelf life for the purposes of this blog (If you ever want to know specifics of some oddball oil, just let me know). We're going to give a couple solid examples of what there is, and why we use it (or not).
Standard cooking oils- These are the oils you're probably most familiar with, or at least see the most often at the grocery store. Plastic bottle, pale yellow oil- canola, vegetable, peanut, and sunflower (recently, Grapeseed oil also started popping up on grocery shelves, also a good decision). These oils don't really contribute much to flavor or nutrition, and with the exception of grapeseed (which has a very neutral clean character) really shouldn't be in any raw application for food. What they DO have going for them in spades, however, is a really high smoke point, and they practically never go rancid (when oil basically breaks down and goes bad. Rancid oil has a musty, mealy kind of taste. no fun). These are preferred for heated applications, because their lack of flavor means that you'll taste what you're cooking in the oil instead of the oil itself. I personally use a bit of canola or grapeseed oil for my heated prep. Yeah, that's right, olive oilers. I said it. Unless you want to taste olive oil in your dish (and hey, sometimes that's what you want), you should stick to neutral oils for cooking. Your palate and wallet will thank you. Speaking of Olive oil...
Olive oil- I could write a whole blog just on olive oil. No other oil has received the attention or has the history that olive oil does. Just as there are wineries with distinct characteristics based on region and variety of grape, there are olive oil farms with just as storied a history and just as much variety of product the world over. However, for simplicity's sake, here's the rule of thumb with olive oil- In California, olive oil has the most fruit and butter notes, very light and mild. The further east we go, into Italy, France, and Spain, we get (with exceptions, of course) a very different product, the flavor more peppery and dark. I urge you to try them all, Every one is absolutely delicious, and goes better with different things. Always go with extra virgin, cold-pressed. End of story. Virgin or blended oil has a marked drop in quality, and really belongs in the cooking oil category (or just not in your pantry at all). I like to keep a bottle of decent quality oil on hand for the occasional cooked application (again, when I want that flavor in my finished product), and a higher quality bottle or two on hand for dressings or cold applications. For your "nice" bottles, your bottle should say what region of what country your oil came from, if not what type of olive. If it doesn't, move on. Olive oil keeps for quite a while before going rancid, keep oil out of the light and out of temperature extremes to make it last longer (that advice goes across the board).
Walnut and Avocado oils- Actually, let's just say this is for most all specialty oils (except coconut oil. High smoke point, very mild character, light coconut taste. I like toasting bread crumbs with it). These are oils that are generally more volatile (more likely to break down and go rancid) than our other oils. So that means no hot uses. These are exclusively for dressing cold stuff, or giving a drizzle over hot stuff once it's come off the heat. it also means that you need to take special care in storing them. Many volatile oils are sold in opaque bottles or can-bottles to keep light out, and should also be kept in the fridge. The nice thing about these are they're an easy way to get the flavor of whatever they're made from into a dish without necessarily adding the ingredient (if you don't like the texture of walnuts, but want that nice nutty flavor). They're also usually quite potent, so a little goes a long way (you'll notice these oils are sold in smaller bottles than olive or neutral oil).
Okay, so now we have a general understanding of our oils and our vinegars, so we're gonna make a vinaigrette. This calls back to the term "emulsify" we talked about earlier, using mustard as a binding agent to emulsify the vinegar into the oil for a nice dressing. For starters, here's a nice easy and accessible balsamic vinaigrette-
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
3/4 C olive oil
3 tsp dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
whisk everything but the oil in a bowl, mixing well. whisking fairly quickly with one hand, slowly pour the oil in a small steady stream into the bowl with the other. Make sure you're whisking the entire time the oil is pouring, and then for about 30 seconds after. (this steady whisking while adding our oil is the emulsifying process).
There you go! Done and done. Now I'm sure most of you know a vinaigrette's application as a salad dressing, and that's all well and good. However, a vinaigrette can also be good when added to cooking meat or veggies, or in some cases even as a marinade in and of itself. A vinaigrette is actually one of the easiest ways to bring a bright wonderful flavor into your dishes, just by adding a spoonful or so at the right time. Seriously, next time you cook chicken thighs or breasts, splash a little balsamic vinaigrette on them while they're in the pan or oven (for the pan, wait until they're about 2/3 of the way cooked).
One last thing- the general rule of vinaigrette is 1 part acid to 3 parts oil, and have some agent in there to emulsify the two (usually mustard). However, if you don't mind stirring or shaking your dressing before using, you don't need the mustard, and if you want a brighter flavor and less fat, by all means change up the proportions! (For cooked applications, I like an even 1-1 ratio for oil and vinegar). There's no oil or vinegar that can't be used, so play around with it and see what you come up with!
Until next time, be a well-oiled cooking machine.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Market Adventures 1- CRUNCH TIME!
Hello, foodies!
Okay, so this first blog entry was planned to talk about greens, since we'd been having exceptional weather for lettuces and such- sunny and mild, not too hot or cold, with consistent rain. Well, no sooner had I gotten two paragraphs into the entry when the mercury started rising into the triple digits, and the consistent rain turned into one of the most devastating storms B-more has ever seen! Well, shit. Apologies for the belated-ness.
So, as one of the lucky few houses not wracked with downed trees and power loss, I've decided to make this entry about some of the hardier summer veggies, refreshing and wonderful on a summer's hot-as-balls day, and some ways to use them!
1- Carrots
Okay, this is probably the best known crunchy veggie out there, seen on every veggie platter, every menu, and every healthy dip option known to man. And for good reason. However, it seems like for every tasty, sweet, juicy store-bought carrot you get, you get five bland, dry, not-so-great ones. So at the market, let's explore our options for selection-
First, greenery! Look for carrots that still have their tops, and that those tops look good. For starters, this is a guarantee that your carrots are fresh (old ones would have dead brown wilted or goopy tops.) Secondly, this has (and let me state this is completely my opinion and I have no scientific evidence to back this up) always been an indicator of a tastier carrot for me. No idea why, but so it goes.
Secondly- color and feel! If they won't let you touch the carrots, don't buy them. In fact, any farmers market vendor that won't let you touch their wares (respectfully, of course) is one you probably should avoid. Most vendors will allow for free touching, examining, or even sampling of some of their wares- these people are proud of what they've produced, and know that quality is their best selling point. Those that don't are probably afraid that you'll realize upon handling that their product falls a little short. Anyways, back onto the veggie at hand, carrots should be a vivid color, of whatever color they are supposed to be- white carrots should be a nice creamy white, orange should pop out at you, and purple should carry deep hues (though admittedly, the skin on purple carrots can make it a little tricky to discern). As for touch, carrots should feel firm, slightly pliable, and not have any give when squeezed. Wrinkly or floppy carrots need not apply. It should be noted, though- size of a carrot has no bearing on it's flavor (I'm going to skip the "size doesn't matter" joke, thanks). I'll repeat- a carrot's flavor is not dependent on its size. You are just as likely to get a sweet carrot for a large, or small, thick or thin carrot.
2- Radish
Another common contender for the crudite, radishes can get a bad rap for their spicy profile. Not all radishes are this way! More on that in a second. First, how do we select a good radish?
Basically the same way as a carrot! Though here are a couple notable differences-
-Radish greens are more tender and edible than carrot greens, but as a trade-off are also a little more delicate. A few snapped stems here and there are acceptable in choosing a bunch of radishes.
-Not all radishes are created equal! Smaller radishes are normally a bit milder (the larger the radish, the more peppery the flavor), and some small radishes, a variety called french breakfast radishes, are so mild you might not even recognize them as radishes in the first place! So, if that spicy flavor is what you're looking for (kimchi enthusiasts, look no further), buy large. If not, buy small (though sometimes you'll need to request this from your farmers, otherwise they'll always wait until they're bigger. However, If you have a stand that sells "french breakfast radishes" at some insane markup, move on. They should be worth a little more, but not $20 a pound (market goers of the JFX market in Baltimore, you know exactly what stand I'm talking about).
side note- for smaller radishes, my personal favorite way to enjoy them (along with plenty of other cooks) is to simply cut them in half, and serve them on a plate with some soft butter and sea salt. If you've never tried it before, do it now. You'll never be the same.
Other side note- Frequenters of Asian markets and certain farmer's markets may see HUGE white radishes on display. These are Japanese daikon radishes, which are all crunch and no spice. Commonly used in East Asian cuisine, these big lovelies are nice if you want something fresh and crunchy, but not obtrusive in the flavor dept. I use them often for hors devoures bottoms, layering ingredients on top of them, as little edible plates. They also make one hell of a pickle.
3- Kohlrabi
Kohl what now? This one might be a bit of an oddball for some, but believe me- this is a veggie you want in your life. It may look like some kind of alien egg, but it is, without a doubt, one of my favorite veggies. Actually a member of the cabbage family, kohlrabi, instead of the cabbage's dense head of leaves with an almost inedible core, has a tough outer layer, that, once peeled, gives way to a crunchy, juicy center, with a texture that's a cross between apple, cucumber, and raw broccoli, and a light vegetal taste. Look for firm kohlrabi (leaves not required) without any deep cracks or splits in them. The green and purple varieties both taste the same, and both look the same once peeled. The leaves can be eaten, but are a little on the tough side, and require blanching (a quick dunk in boiling water, followed by another dunk into ice water to halt the cooking process) to be tasty. As for eating, kohlrabi can be eaten raw (I cut mine into sticks, then lightly toss with a hit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice), braised, roasted, and even takes well to grilling. Just... don't boil them. I mean, you can, but you'll lose both the flavor and the texture, and most of the nutrition as well. So do yourself a favor and eat it just about any other way.
So- while it may be obvious, one of the things that makes these veggies so wonderful is their prominent crunchy texture. We don't really want to push this to the side or make it go away via heat (and frankly, who wants to be next to a stove or oven in this heat?), so today we're going to do a bit of raw prep and make an Asian-themed slaw. Why Asian? Well, to be honest, I had a LOT of soy sauce and wasabi left over from a dinner party I crafted for a client, I figured I'd make the best of it, and it turned out pretty darn well. (NO WASTE!)
First comes the hardest part- chop prep. Every veggie you have has to be thinly sliced, then julienned. Those of you fortunate enough to have a food processor with a shredding blade, or a mandoline- These will certainly make the job easier. Those of you who have no idea what a mandoline is- check back next week. Everyone else- Get chopping, the thinner the better. Consider this as valuable time to work on your knife skills.
SOME TIME LATER...
Okay! So all our stuff is chopped, now what? Now we get out a handy dandy colander, place a good handful of our shreds in it, spread them out in an even layer (you don't need to be too obsessive about this, just don't have a mountain in the center), and sprinkle a little bit of salt over it (not too much, I'd say less than 2 tsp). Then, layer another handful of shred, then more salt, and so on and so on. What this salt does is leech out some of the moisture of our slaw, so we don't end up with a big puddle of veggie water in our serving bowl, and a watered down dressing. Giving this a good 10-15 minutes for the salt to work its magic, we then lightly rinse off the shreds, squeezing out the extra water (give it a good squeeze, these veggies can handle it) and place back in our big bowl.
OUR DRESSING-
1/3 C mayo
1/2 C soy sauce
3 tbsp wasabi (or to taste)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp nuac mam (vietnamese fish sauce. If you don't have this, don't sweat it, but my advice is get some for your pantry. It's AWESOME)
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp powdered ginger
mix everything in a bowl, and take a taste. Need more spicy heat? More sweetness from honey? more tang from the vinegar? Add it. Be brave! Anyways, once you have the proportions you like, pour a healthy amount (you may not need all of it, but this is a tasty dressing for just about anything, so don't sweat it if you have leftover) into your slaw bowl, and toss with a spoon (or two) to coat. let sit for a minute or two to absorb, then eat! Enjoy! Try it on burgers, in wraps, with pork, chicken or fish. This slaw has a bit more crunch and body than regular cole slaw, so use that to your advantage! These also give corned beef a nice kick in the ass.
I'll really be trying to update more often, this has been a crazy summer thus far. I'll also be adding pictures later today once my camera is finished recharging.
Until next time, It's crunch time.
Okay, so this first blog entry was planned to talk about greens, since we'd been having exceptional weather for lettuces and such- sunny and mild, not too hot or cold, with consistent rain. Well, no sooner had I gotten two paragraphs into the entry when the mercury started rising into the triple digits, and the consistent rain turned into one of the most devastating storms B-more has ever seen! Well, shit. Apologies for the belated-ness.
So, as one of the lucky few houses not wracked with downed trees and power loss, I've decided to make this entry about some of the hardier summer veggies, refreshing and wonderful on a summer's hot-as-balls day, and some ways to use them!
1- Carrots
Okay, this is probably the best known crunchy veggie out there, seen on every veggie platter, every menu, and every healthy dip option known to man. And for good reason. However, it seems like for every tasty, sweet, juicy store-bought carrot you get, you get five bland, dry, not-so-great ones. So at the market, let's explore our options for selection-
First, greenery! Look for carrots that still have their tops, and that those tops look good. For starters, this is a guarantee that your carrots are fresh (old ones would have dead brown wilted or goopy tops.) Secondly, this has (and let me state this is completely my opinion and I have no scientific evidence to back this up) always been an indicator of a tastier carrot for me. No idea why, but so it goes.
Secondly- color and feel! If they won't let you touch the carrots, don't buy them. In fact, any farmers market vendor that won't let you touch their wares (respectfully, of course) is one you probably should avoid. Most vendors will allow for free touching, examining, or even sampling of some of their wares- these people are proud of what they've produced, and know that quality is their best selling point. Those that don't are probably afraid that you'll realize upon handling that their product falls a little short. Anyways, back onto the veggie at hand, carrots should be a vivid color, of whatever color they are supposed to be- white carrots should be a nice creamy white, orange should pop out at you, and purple should carry deep hues (though admittedly, the skin on purple carrots can make it a little tricky to discern). As for touch, carrots should feel firm, slightly pliable, and not have any give when squeezed. Wrinkly or floppy carrots need not apply. It should be noted, though- size of a carrot has no bearing on it's flavor (I'm going to skip the "size doesn't matter" joke, thanks). I'll repeat- a carrot's flavor is not dependent on its size. You are just as likely to get a sweet carrot for a large, or small, thick or thin carrot.
2- Radish
Another common contender for the crudite, radishes can get a bad rap for their spicy profile. Not all radishes are this way! More on that in a second. First, how do we select a good radish?
Basically the same way as a carrot! Though here are a couple notable differences-
-Radish greens are more tender and edible than carrot greens, but as a trade-off are also a little more delicate. A few snapped stems here and there are acceptable in choosing a bunch of radishes.
-Not all radishes are created equal! Smaller radishes are normally a bit milder (the larger the radish, the more peppery the flavor), and some small radishes, a variety called french breakfast radishes, are so mild you might not even recognize them as radishes in the first place! So, if that spicy flavor is what you're looking for (kimchi enthusiasts, look no further), buy large. If not, buy small (though sometimes you'll need to request this from your farmers, otherwise they'll always wait until they're bigger. However, If you have a stand that sells "french breakfast radishes" at some insane markup, move on. They should be worth a little more, but not $20 a pound (market goers of the JFX market in Baltimore, you know exactly what stand I'm talking about).
side note- for smaller radishes, my personal favorite way to enjoy them (along with plenty of other cooks) is to simply cut them in half, and serve them on a plate with some soft butter and sea salt. If you've never tried it before, do it now. You'll never be the same.
Other side note- Frequenters of Asian markets and certain farmer's markets may see HUGE white radishes on display. These are Japanese daikon radishes, which are all crunch and no spice. Commonly used in East Asian cuisine, these big lovelies are nice if you want something fresh and crunchy, but not obtrusive in the flavor dept. I use them often for hors devoures bottoms, layering ingredients on top of them, as little edible plates. They also make one hell of a pickle.
3- Kohlrabi
Kohl what now? This one might be a bit of an oddball for some, but believe me- this is a veggie you want in your life. It may look like some kind of alien egg, but it is, without a doubt, one of my favorite veggies. Actually a member of the cabbage family, kohlrabi, instead of the cabbage's dense head of leaves with an almost inedible core, has a tough outer layer, that, once peeled, gives way to a crunchy, juicy center, with a texture that's a cross between apple, cucumber, and raw broccoli, and a light vegetal taste. Look for firm kohlrabi (leaves not required) without any deep cracks or splits in them. The green and purple varieties both taste the same, and both look the same once peeled. The leaves can be eaten, but are a little on the tough side, and require blanching (a quick dunk in boiling water, followed by another dunk into ice water to halt the cooking process) to be tasty. As for eating, kohlrabi can be eaten raw (I cut mine into sticks, then lightly toss with a hit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice), braised, roasted, and even takes well to grilling. Just... don't boil them. I mean, you can, but you'll lose both the flavor and the texture, and most of the nutrition as well. So do yourself a favor and eat it just about any other way.
So- while it may be obvious, one of the things that makes these veggies so wonderful is their prominent crunchy texture. We don't really want to push this to the side or make it go away via heat (and frankly, who wants to be next to a stove or oven in this heat?), so today we're going to do a bit of raw prep and make an Asian-themed slaw. Why Asian? Well, to be honest, I had a LOT of soy sauce and wasabi left over from a dinner party I crafted for a client, I figured I'd make the best of it, and it turned out pretty darn well. (NO WASTE!)
First comes the hardest part- chop prep. Every veggie you have has to be thinly sliced, then julienned. Those of you fortunate enough to have a food processor with a shredding blade, or a mandoline- These will certainly make the job easier. Those of you who have no idea what a mandoline is- check back next week. Everyone else- Get chopping, the thinner the better. Consider this as valuable time to work on your knife skills.
SOME TIME LATER...
Okay! So all our stuff is chopped, now what? Now we get out a handy dandy colander, place a good handful of our shreds in it, spread them out in an even layer (you don't need to be too obsessive about this, just don't have a mountain in the center), and sprinkle a little bit of salt over it (not too much, I'd say less than 2 tsp). Then, layer another handful of shred, then more salt, and so on and so on. What this salt does is leech out some of the moisture of our slaw, so we don't end up with a big puddle of veggie water in our serving bowl, and a watered down dressing. Giving this a good 10-15 minutes for the salt to work its magic, we then lightly rinse off the shreds, squeezing out the extra water (give it a good squeeze, these veggies can handle it) and place back in our big bowl.
OUR DRESSING-
1/3 C mayo
1/2 C soy sauce
3 tbsp wasabi (or to taste)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp nuac mam (vietnamese fish sauce. If you don't have this, don't sweat it, but my advice is get some for your pantry. It's AWESOME)
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp powdered ginger
mix everything in a bowl, and take a taste. Need more spicy heat? More sweetness from honey? more tang from the vinegar? Add it. Be brave! Anyways, once you have the proportions you like, pour a healthy amount (you may not need all of it, but this is a tasty dressing for just about anything, so don't sweat it if you have leftover) into your slaw bowl, and toss with a spoon (or two) to coat. let sit for a minute or two to absorb, then eat! Enjoy! Try it on burgers, in wraps, with pork, chicken or fish. This slaw has a bit more crunch and body than regular cole slaw, so use that to your advantage! These also give corned beef a nice kick in the ass.
I'll really be trying to update more often, this has been a crazy summer thus far. I'll also be adding pictures later today once my camera is finished recharging.
Until next time, It's crunch time.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Many Happy Returns!- New Kitchen Essentials 1
Hello foodies!
Apologies again for my long absence, and thank you for being so patient with me. With June almost upon us, I'll be changing the format just a bit, but in return will be able to update much more regularly. We will be going back and forth with two main topics for now. Topic 1 will be what I like to call "New Kitchen Essentials". This will cover things, both tools and ingredients, that are integral parts of my cooking life, and why I think they should be part of yours. Of course, this will include uses and techniques as well as the overall explanations. Part 2 will be "Adventures in the Farmer's Market". This will be what's good and worth looking into at your farmer's market, how to use it, and how to select good examples of said awesome stuff. For any out of state readers, while this will be a MD farmer's market, a lot of what I cover here will translate to your local market as well, and I welcome any food or produce selection/procurement queries.
On that note, let's begin our first section of New Kitchen Essentials- Vinegars.
So whenever I've cooked over a friend's house, I've found, in perusing their cupboards, that while many of us have accepted the need for good oils (either for taste or health benefits), fresh spices (as opposed to the "steak blends", for example), and good produce (though for the love of all that is holy, STOP PUTTING YOUR TOMATOES IN THE FRIDGE! The cold destroys their texture. Keep them on your counter, and eat them when they're fresh. Trust me.), we still often buy incredibly shitty vinegars in cheap plastic bottles. In our collective defense, though, I've found that vinegar can, for the supermarket shopper, be incredibly hard to selectively buy. Even if we decide to grab something above the plastic bottle that looks good, it still tends to suck, even the "Italian reserve" balsamic vinegars or "12 year aged" blah blah blah...
Frankly, it's confusing as hell, and unless we see it in a recipe, we barely ever touch the bottle, right?
Well, I'm out to change that.
First off, I'm going to tell you what's good in vinegars, and where to buy them. After we get all that established, I'll tell you what to do with these different kinds of vinegars specifically. Just a note that I won't be covering all the vinegars on earth, just the most versatile/often seen kinds.
Why vinegars, you ask?
Well, recalling prior topics, we have 5 flavors to include on a successful dish- salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The hardest and most often overlooked flavor to include is, in my opinion, sour. We salt, we char, we glaze with honey and sugar, but sour often gets left by the wayside... Which is the big reason a lot of dishes fall flat. It's not that they suck, they're just... missing something. I mean, imagine rockfish cooked without that spritz of lemon, or a nice salad that's just coated with just oil and salt. There's no bright zing to offset the deeper, fattier flavors, no... pop to really wake up your taste buds. Acids, and vinegars in particular, are one of the quickest and easiest ways to inject good flavor into your dishes and help a nice piece of meat or veggie (or fruit, as the case may be) be extraordinary.
So... what to use, where to get it, and how to use it?
1) Balsamic Vinegar- the undisputed number one vinegar for adding sweet and sour in near equal measure. Loved by salad eaters everywhere, and rightly so- good balsamic, properly bottled and/or aged, can be revelatory, on anything from a salad to roasted veggies to marinating a steak to drizzling on a nice piece of cheese (parmigiano-reggiano in particular). In addition to standard balsamic, we also have aged balsamic. This is vinegar that has been aged and slowly concentrated over the years as the liquid slowly evaporates. It can be awesome. Unfortunately, due to its popularity (in both regular and aged), we have seen an outright deluge of "barrel aged", "special reserve", and my personal favorite gross evasion-"True Italian Blend" (complete with laughing elderly Italian man or woman on the label) most of which, quite frankly, suck. Those that don't suck are horribly inconsistent. Going to a specialty food or kitchen store with nice brands can, by contrast, cost you an arm and a leg (I'm looking at you, Williams-Sonoma).
Purchasing and uses- FEAR NOT, DEAR READERS. There is hope. While I do advocate shelling out for a nice aged balsamic at the expensive specialty food store (more on that in a second), there is a very affordable, consistently good, and easily attainable standard balsamic. Whole food's 365 brand balsamic vinegar, retailing for $6.99. My vote, hands down. this is what you'd use for dressing salads (you can create a dressing known as a "balsamic vinaigrette"), marinating steak, or anything of that nature. For aged balsamic- the kind you'd use by the drop, not the spoonful- things can get a little hairier. For the most part, you get what you pay for, and the price can be pretty hefty. However, if you want a pretty darn good product for an incredible value, check out Olivier's 25 year aged balsamic. While $29.99 for 16 oz. sounds like a hefty price, consider the alternative for the "traditional good stuff" that goes for upwards of $125.00 for 2-3 ounces. This is what you use to pair with a bit of nice cheese or some ripe fruit. A little bit makes all the difference.
2) Rice wine vinegar- Okay, this one is a lot easier to find decent stock of. No vintages, no barrel aging, just different brands, and two main varieties- seasoned (infused with different aromatics to pair specifically with certain types of food) or unseasoned. Go with unseasoned (some brands load their seasoned versions with plenty o' salt and MSG).
Purchasing and uses- Whatever brand suits your wallet. I love using this for light cooking or raw applications where I want a light savory sour hit without worrying about an overly strong, acrid taste. Light, not sweet, and a good all-around vinegar.
3) Red Wine and White Wine Vinegar- I list these two together because I use them for pretty much the same use. Often times, they can be a little too strong to use as a standalone, and their very, VERY acrid taste is what gives vinegar a bad name for many people. That said, they still have some very good use, and good character. They just require... a little more forethought.
Purchasing and uses- While there are nicer brands and not so nice brands, the change in quality is so minute for our applications that I'll say aim straight in the middle (price-wise). For both vinegars, when making a marinade or a vinaigrette (or for you canners out there, when pickling), go for very up front flavors to act as a foil for what these vinegars can do.
4) Cider Vinegar- One of my very favorite vinegars, for two reasons. 1- It's one of my chief barbeque ingredients for my favorite thing to barbeque- pork. 2- There is no widely commercially available top shelf stuff, the normal stuff is dirt cheap, and if you do find very good cider vinegar, chances are it was homemade by someone who could give it plenty of TLC.
Purchasing and uses- as said, there's really no wide gamut of cider vinegars to find at the grocery store, and my usual barbeque ingredient is the Heinz plastic bottle cider vinegar. that said, I've also made some right tasty dressings out of Whole Foods' cider vin, and also from farm brewed stuff. In my mind, though, cider vinegar is most at home in marinades and mop sauces (stuff to baste dishes, particularly barbeque, with as they cook). So there.
5) Sherry Vinegar- The dark horse. The unknown. The vinegar you honestly had to really search to find, up until about a year or so ago. Without a doubt, the vinegar I use more than any other. This is the only other vinegar you will deal with ages and smaller bottles for more money. In layman's terms, think of this for when you want to pair fresh flavors, particularly fresh vegetable flavors, and a very bright, fruity-but-not-sweet palate. In other words, this is your go-to vinegar when you want to dress something raw, but don't want it to be sweet. Rice wine vin can sub for it in a pinch, but sherry vinegar is something absolutely unique. Once you start using it, you'll wonder how you lived without it.
Purchasing and uses- So as said, this is the hardest vinegar to find of this list, hands down. While the better vineyards and bottlers do have a fantastic product, for the standard everyday use, the Columela brand found at Giant isn't bad at all. A good product without half the hassle of procuring it otherwise... I'll take it. If you do want to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes with this, Amazon.com, or better yet Zingerman's, is your ticket. Bring your wallet, they can get a little pricey. As said, this is best when looking to pair fresh flavored ingredients (looking back, I use this in both the ginger scallion sauce and the red pepper coulis for this very reason), and at being incredibly unobtrusive while still giving a nice new dimension to your cooking.
So there we go. 5 fantastic vinegars, and hopefully a little direction on how to use them. I'll be posting recipes for some of these down the road to help illuminate some of the things they specialize in.
Until next time, "It's balsamic vinaigrette. Pass it on."
Apologies again for my long absence, and thank you for being so patient with me. With June almost upon us, I'll be changing the format just a bit, but in return will be able to update much more regularly. We will be going back and forth with two main topics for now. Topic 1 will be what I like to call "New Kitchen Essentials". This will cover things, both tools and ingredients, that are integral parts of my cooking life, and why I think they should be part of yours. Of course, this will include uses and techniques as well as the overall explanations. Part 2 will be "Adventures in the Farmer's Market". This will be what's good and worth looking into at your farmer's market, how to use it, and how to select good examples of said awesome stuff. For any out of state readers, while this will be a MD farmer's market, a lot of what I cover here will translate to your local market as well, and I welcome any food or produce selection/procurement queries.
On that note, let's begin our first section of New Kitchen Essentials- Vinegars.
So whenever I've cooked over a friend's house, I've found, in perusing their cupboards, that while many of us have accepted the need for good oils (either for taste or health benefits), fresh spices (as opposed to the "steak blends", for example), and good produce (though for the love of all that is holy, STOP PUTTING YOUR TOMATOES IN THE FRIDGE! The cold destroys their texture. Keep them on your counter, and eat them when they're fresh. Trust me.), we still often buy incredibly shitty vinegars in cheap plastic bottles. In our collective defense, though, I've found that vinegar can, for the supermarket shopper, be incredibly hard to selectively buy. Even if we decide to grab something above the plastic bottle that looks good, it still tends to suck, even the "Italian reserve" balsamic vinegars or "12 year aged" blah blah blah...
Frankly, it's confusing as hell, and unless we see it in a recipe, we barely ever touch the bottle, right?
Well, I'm out to change that.
First off, I'm going to tell you what's good in vinegars, and where to buy them. After we get all that established, I'll tell you what to do with these different kinds of vinegars specifically. Just a note that I won't be covering all the vinegars on earth, just the most versatile/often seen kinds.
Why vinegars, you ask?
Well, recalling prior topics, we have 5 flavors to include on a successful dish- salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The hardest and most often overlooked flavor to include is, in my opinion, sour. We salt, we char, we glaze with honey and sugar, but sour often gets left by the wayside... Which is the big reason a lot of dishes fall flat. It's not that they suck, they're just... missing something. I mean, imagine rockfish cooked without that spritz of lemon, or a nice salad that's just coated with just oil and salt. There's no bright zing to offset the deeper, fattier flavors, no... pop to really wake up your taste buds. Acids, and vinegars in particular, are one of the quickest and easiest ways to inject good flavor into your dishes and help a nice piece of meat or veggie (or fruit, as the case may be) be extraordinary.
So... what to use, where to get it, and how to use it?
1) Balsamic Vinegar- the undisputed number one vinegar for adding sweet and sour in near equal measure. Loved by salad eaters everywhere, and rightly so- good balsamic, properly bottled and/or aged, can be revelatory, on anything from a salad to roasted veggies to marinating a steak to drizzling on a nice piece of cheese (parmigiano-reggiano in particular). In addition to standard balsamic, we also have aged balsamic. This is vinegar that has been aged and slowly concentrated over the years as the liquid slowly evaporates. It can be awesome. Unfortunately, due to its popularity (in both regular and aged), we have seen an outright deluge of "barrel aged", "special reserve", and my personal favorite gross evasion-"True Italian Blend" (complete with laughing elderly Italian man or woman on the label) most of which, quite frankly, suck. Those that don't suck are horribly inconsistent. Going to a specialty food or kitchen store with nice brands can, by contrast, cost you an arm and a leg (I'm looking at you, Williams-Sonoma).
Purchasing and uses- FEAR NOT, DEAR READERS. There is hope. While I do advocate shelling out for a nice aged balsamic at the expensive specialty food store (more on that in a second), there is a very affordable, consistently good, and easily attainable standard balsamic. Whole food's 365 brand balsamic vinegar, retailing for $6.99. My vote, hands down. this is what you'd use for dressing salads (you can create a dressing known as a "balsamic vinaigrette"), marinating steak, or anything of that nature. For aged balsamic- the kind you'd use by the drop, not the spoonful- things can get a little hairier. For the most part, you get what you pay for, and the price can be pretty hefty. However, if you want a pretty darn good product for an incredible value, check out Olivier's 25 year aged balsamic. While $29.99 for 16 oz. sounds like a hefty price, consider the alternative for the "traditional good stuff" that goes for upwards of $125.00 for 2-3 ounces. This is what you use to pair with a bit of nice cheese or some ripe fruit. A little bit makes all the difference.
2) Rice wine vinegar- Okay, this one is a lot easier to find decent stock of. No vintages, no barrel aging, just different brands, and two main varieties- seasoned (infused with different aromatics to pair specifically with certain types of food) or unseasoned. Go with unseasoned (some brands load their seasoned versions with plenty o' salt and MSG).
Purchasing and uses- Whatever brand suits your wallet. I love using this for light cooking or raw applications where I want a light savory sour hit without worrying about an overly strong, acrid taste. Light, not sweet, and a good all-around vinegar.
3) Red Wine and White Wine Vinegar- I list these two together because I use them for pretty much the same use. Often times, they can be a little too strong to use as a standalone, and their very, VERY acrid taste is what gives vinegar a bad name for many people. That said, they still have some very good use, and good character. They just require... a little more forethought.
Purchasing and uses- While there are nicer brands and not so nice brands, the change in quality is so minute for our applications that I'll say aim straight in the middle (price-wise). For both vinegars, when making a marinade or a vinaigrette (or for you canners out there, when pickling), go for very up front flavors to act as a foil for what these vinegars can do.
4) Cider Vinegar- One of my very favorite vinegars, for two reasons. 1- It's one of my chief barbeque ingredients for my favorite thing to barbeque- pork. 2- There is no widely commercially available top shelf stuff, the normal stuff is dirt cheap, and if you do find very good cider vinegar, chances are it was homemade by someone who could give it plenty of TLC.
Purchasing and uses- as said, there's really no wide gamut of cider vinegars to find at the grocery store, and my usual barbeque ingredient is the Heinz plastic bottle cider vinegar. that said, I've also made some right tasty dressings out of Whole Foods' cider vin, and also from farm brewed stuff. In my mind, though, cider vinegar is most at home in marinades and mop sauces (stuff to baste dishes, particularly barbeque, with as they cook). So there.
5) Sherry Vinegar- The dark horse. The unknown. The vinegar you honestly had to really search to find, up until about a year or so ago. Without a doubt, the vinegar I use more than any other. This is the only other vinegar you will deal with ages and smaller bottles for more money. In layman's terms, think of this for when you want to pair fresh flavors, particularly fresh vegetable flavors, and a very bright, fruity-but-not-sweet palate. In other words, this is your go-to vinegar when you want to dress something raw, but don't want it to be sweet. Rice wine vin can sub for it in a pinch, but sherry vinegar is something absolutely unique. Once you start using it, you'll wonder how you lived without it.
Purchasing and uses- So as said, this is the hardest vinegar to find of this list, hands down. While the better vineyards and bottlers do have a fantastic product, for the standard everyday use, the Columela brand found at Giant isn't bad at all. A good product without half the hassle of procuring it otherwise... I'll take it. If you do want to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes with this, Amazon.com, or better yet Zingerman's, is your ticket. Bring your wallet, they can get a little pricey. As said, this is best when looking to pair fresh flavored ingredients (looking back, I use this in both the ginger scallion sauce and the red pepper coulis for this very reason), and at being incredibly unobtrusive while still giving a nice new dimension to your cooking.
So there we go. 5 fantastic vinegars, and hopefully a little direction on how to use them. I'll be posting recipes for some of these down the road to help illuminate some of the things they specialize in.
Until next time, "It's balsamic vinaigrette. Pass it on."
Friday, April 13, 2012
Updates
Hello fellow cooks and foodies-
I am incredibly sorry for the blog silence these past two weeks. However, the reason I've been quiet is because I'm now prepping to host my first cooking class and forum! The date isn't yet set in stone, but I'll post more details (as well as returning to normal blog traffic) on Monday. This coming week we'll be covering some essential kitchen staples, and what to add to your kitchen/pantry to bring your cooking to the next level! Thanks everyone for your patience, and stay tuned!
I am incredibly sorry for the blog silence these past two weeks. However, the reason I've been quiet is because I'm now prepping to host my first cooking class and forum! The date isn't yet set in stone, but I'll post more details (as well as returning to normal blog traffic) on Monday. This coming week we'll be covering some essential kitchen staples, and what to add to your kitchen/pantry to bring your cooking to the next level! Thanks everyone for your patience, and stay tuned!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The War on Waste.
Hello all!
This past week has been an experiment for me. I decided I would, with the groceries I had and the few I bought, waste absolutely nothing within a 7 day span. While I dumbassedly forgot to document this time with photos, I will take this week's entry to cover some of the more important concepts I implemented, learned, or tried.
First- is it rotten?
For starters, I love scallions. If my entry on ginger scallion sauce wasn't enough to convey this fact, just know I always have some on hand. Unfortunately, this sometimes means I have a little too many scallions on hand, and some get pushed to the bottom of the veggie drawer or the back of the fridge. When I go to look for them 3-4 days later, I find them wilted and covered in a layer of slimy evil. This week was no exception. However, there's a funny thing with onions and their relatives- they're made in layers. After cutting/peeling away the outer layer or two of the scallion and a quick rinse, we have perfectly useable and tasty scallions again! In addition, for those of you lucky enough to have a window box or garden, here's a handy tip. Take the white root end of your scallions (the bottom inch or so) and plant them. In a couple weeks, you'll have fresh new homegrown scallions!
Okay, enough about my scallion love affair. This peel and wash method works with all members of the onion and leek family.
What about meat?
We all know how it goes- you pull something out of the freezer, set it in the fridge, and then we forget about it or just don't have time to get around to cooking it. The bad news is once meat is gone to the dark side, there's no saving it. the good news is you have an excellent litmus for detecting when something's actually gone funky. Whenever you're in doubt, stick your nose close to the meat in question and take a good whiff. If it smells sour or, well, rotten then you know your course. Now technically with some meats you can cut off the outer parts and still have good meat in the center... However, unless you're really willing to deal with the consequences, I say avoid it. You're playing with fire. Methods like dry-aging or controlled fermentation have just that- control. Your fridge, while it stays generally cold, has a much greater variable than the facilities used to handle meat in that way.
What about fruit and non-onion veggies?
This section is easy to explain. Wrinkles, light wilting, or a little bit of brown spots or edges does NOT mean your veggie/fruit is rotten. Again, use your nose. If you honestly can't stomach eating a peach with a brown spot (cut out the brown spot, but the rest of the peach is perfectly good) or a lightly wrinkled tomato, then use your friend the blender to turn them into a puree or liquid for a sauce, smoothie, or even as an ingredient for some baked goods. A soft orange, for example, does not mean the juice is bad. Mold, on the other hand, is a better indication of rot, but even then the moldy sections can be cut off and tossed, leaving a perfectly good half or so of your ingredient. Too many people just throw away the whole thing because they aren't willing to do a little knifework.
That covers what we waste by rot. How about what we waste by prep?
This is something we're all guilty of. How often do we throw away bones from chickens, pork shoulders, or the like? how many times have we cut off the ends of onions, the tops of tomatoes, or the leaves of celery and thrown them straight in the trash? Next time you have a veggie scrap or a bit of meat, don't think about it as something you'd just open up and chomp into, but think about if there's any bit of goodness you can coax out of this little nub or peel or what have you. Most veggie bits can be added to stock, bones and meat scraps as well. The only thing I don't add to my stock are chicken giblets, since some of the parts can give off a weird taste when stewed. They are fine roasted for a gravy, or as part of a salad! For containment, keep two bags in your freezer- one for veggie scraps, one for meat scraps. Whenever you have scraps, load them in. On stock day, empty your bags into the pot and go to town!
The list goes on. Stale bread? make croutons. Little bit of leftover pork loin or beef? Pair with some instant ramen, chicken stock and chopped scallions or greens for a quick Asian-styled lunch. Bacon fat left over from cooking your breakfast? reserve it and cook just about anything in it to add a nice smoky flavor to your ingredient.
Some things do get away from us, and have to be tossed. That is a tragedy, but with just a little use of a knife, plastic bag, window box, or oven, we can save money and waste less food. Good for you, good for the environment, and good for cooking.
Until next time, the nose knows.
This past week has been an experiment for me. I decided I would, with the groceries I had and the few I bought, waste absolutely nothing within a 7 day span. While I dumbassedly forgot to document this time with photos, I will take this week's entry to cover some of the more important concepts I implemented, learned, or tried.
First- is it rotten?
For starters, I love scallions. If my entry on ginger scallion sauce wasn't enough to convey this fact, just know I always have some on hand. Unfortunately, this sometimes means I have a little too many scallions on hand, and some get pushed to the bottom of the veggie drawer or the back of the fridge. When I go to look for them 3-4 days later, I find them wilted and covered in a layer of slimy evil. This week was no exception. However, there's a funny thing with onions and their relatives- they're made in layers. After cutting/peeling away the outer layer or two of the scallion and a quick rinse, we have perfectly useable and tasty scallions again! In addition, for those of you lucky enough to have a window box or garden, here's a handy tip. Take the white root end of your scallions (the bottom inch or so) and plant them. In a couple weeks, you'll have fresh new homegrown scallions!
Okay, enough about my scallion love affair. This peel and wash method works with all members of the onion and leek family.
What about meat?
We all know how it goes- you pull something out of the freezer, set it in the fridge, and then we forget about it or just don't have time to get around to cooking it. The bad news is once meat is gone to the dark side, there's no saving it. the good news is you have an excellent litmus for detecting when something's actually gone funky. Whenever you're in doubt, stick your nose close to the meat in question and take a good whiff. If it smells sour or, well, rotten then you know your course. Now technically with some meats you can cut off the outer parts and still have good meat in the center... However, unless you're really willing to deal with the consequences, I say avoid it. You're playing with fire. Methods like dry-aging or controlled fermentation have just that- control. Your fridge, while it stays generally cold, has a much greater variable than the facilities used to handle meat in that way.
What about fruit and non-onion veggies?
This section is easy to explain. Wrinkles, light wilting, or a little bit of brown spots or edges does NOT mean your veggie/fruit is rotten. Again, use your nose. If you honestly can't stomach eating a peach with a brown spot (cut out the brown spot, but the rest of the peach is perfectly good) or a lightly wrinkled tomato, then use your friend the blender to turn them into a puree or liquid for a sauce, smoothie, or even as an ingredient for some baked goods. A soft orange, for example, does not mean the juice is bad. Mold, on the other hand, is a better indication of rot, but even then the moldy sections can be cut off and tossed, leaving a perfectly good half or so of your ingredient. Too many people just throw away the whole thing because they aren't willing to do a little knifework.
That covers what we waste by rot. How about what we waste by prep?
This is something we're all guilty of. How often do we throw away bones from chickens, pork shoulders, or the like? how many times have we cut off the ends of onions, the tops of tomatoes, or the leaves of celery and thrown them straight in the trash? Next time you have a veggie scrap or a bit of meat, don't think about it as something you'd just open up and chomp into, but think about if there's any bit of goodness you can coax out of this little nub or peel or what have you. Most veggie bits can be added to stock, bones and meat scraps as well. The only thing I don't add to my stock are chicken giblets, since some of the parts can give off a weird taste when stewed. They are fine roasted for a gravy, or as part of a salad! For containment, keep two bags in your freezer- one for veggie scraps, one for meat scraps. Whenever you have scraps, load them in. On stock day, empty your bags into the pot and go to town!
The list goes on. Stale bread? make croutons. Little bit of leftover pork loin or beef? Pair with some instant ramen, chicken stock and chopped scallions or greens for a quick Asian-styled lunch. Bacon fat left over from cooking your breakfast? reserve it and cook just about anything in it to add a nice smoky flavor to your ingredient.
Some things do get away from us, and have to be tossed. That is a tragedy, but with just a little use of a knife, plastic bag, window box, or oven, we can save money and waste less food. Good for you, good for the environment, and good for cooking.
Until next time, the nose knows.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The kabob caper.
With warmer weather arriving here in B-more, I decided to whip out the grill. Why? Because it isn't spring until I grill something. Looking through my fridge and freezer for grillables, however, I dug to the bottom and found an econo-pack of London Broil that I'd completely forgotten, or pretended to forget, about. I may have been avoiding using this cut- London Broil gets a bad rap which isn't entirely undeserved. It usually cooks tough, doesn't have great beefy flavor, has almost no tasty fat, and what it does have is the one kind of connective tissue that doesn't break down with slow cooking.
Well, shit.
Today, though, I decided to take up the challenge, following the logic that a hot sear on the grill may be just what the meat needs to stay tender- cooking only to rare or medium rare. What to do about the lack of flavor... If only there was some way to infuse flavor into the meat, while keeping it moist and tasty. Maybe a liquid...
IT'S MARINADE TIME.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a marinade is some mixture of liquid and aromatic ingredients (herbs, garlic, ginger, peppers, etc) which you soak your meat or veggies in to infuse their flavors. This is also a good option if you need to tenderize the meat (by adding an acid) or add fat (by adding oil). Techniques vary here- some say the meat needs to be "tenderized" (read- hit with a hammer), others that the meat needs to be punctured, and so on and so on. We're not going to worry about that, and outside of very specific recipes, I wouldn't do any hammering or puncturing as standard practice.
What we will do is cut the meat into cubes for kabobs. This allows for more surface area in contact with our marinade, thus more of our marinade gets into the meat. Make sense? good. Another nice thing about marinades, is they make for incredibly easy recipes. combine stuff, let it sit, then cook it. Amazing.
So, in our marinade, we want vinegar to try and tenderize the meat a bit, and olive oil to make it a little richer. Mediterranean cuisine integrates these two ingredients rather nicely, so let's stick with that. Some pepper flakes, fresh herbs, a touch of garlic... yeah, good times.
However, it turns out this was to be a learning experience for me too.
After building a nice hot fire on my grill, searing the meat after a full night of marinating, I bit into one of my kabobs (though the technical term for these particular morsels is Spiedies) and... still couldn't chew through the tough fibrous meat. for a moment, I was at a loss. I couldn't figure out what happened, or why. More importantly, I had 4 lbs of cooked London Broil that, as is, I physically couldn't eat. I'd solved the flavor conundrum, but not the toughness. Time to put my nose back to the grindstone- there was no way in hell I ccould let that much effort and food go to waste. Thankfully, this leads to point number two of the day- slicing on the bias.
Now slicing meat has one cardinal rule- Cut across the grain. This means that the "lines" of muscle that make up your meat generally run one way, and your knife should cut across them, not with them. However, one tip that can make your slicing results even better for flat cuts of meat (not long round pieces, like tenderloins or rib roasts) is called cutting on the bias. It's a little hard to accurately convey this in text, so take a look here-
(4:40 is the demo of cutting on the bias. I strongly recommend you check out the whole video, though. Don't get too caught up on how many knives he has, a chef's knife cuts on the bias perfectly well.)
What isn't explicitly said here is slicing across the grain on the bias helps to make tough pieces of meat easier to chew. So, what began as kabobs (which would still work plenty well with pork, lamb, or plenty other cuts of beef) we now convert into thin slices for a salad.
Here's the marinade and grill recipe. All that changes is how you cut the meat. If you want to make a London Broil for salad, don't bother cubing the meat beforehand. Just cut the whole steak after it's cooked.
Spiedies-1 1/2 lb trimmed pork loin or lamb
3/4 C olive oil
1/4 C White wine vinegar
3 tbsp mint, chopped
3 tbsp oregano, chopped
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp chili flakes
2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
After chopping your aromatics and cubing your meat, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Cover, refrigerate and allow to sit 3 hours to overnight.
In the meantime, if you are using wooden/bamboo skewers, SOAK THEM IN WATER.
Remove your meat from the marinade, and skewer. 4-5 pieces per skewer is usually enough to ensure even cooking.
Prepare a fire on your grill.
Grill for 5-6 minutes, then flip and cook for another 4-5 minutes, depending on the size of your cubes.
Enjoy as is, or on some nice crusty bread!
Until next time, stick it to 'em.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
BURGER TIME FUN TIME!
Howdy all! Sorry for the late update, this has been quite the hectic time.
I am on a quest. I seek to right a wrong unleashed upon humanity,
one that is rife with injustice. I quest... to show people that turkey
burgers can, in fact, be tasty and exciting! Too long has this noble
creation been subject to bland preparation and trite toppings. It has
been packed with bread crumbs, doused in hot sauce, and had more and
more stuff thrown on and in it with no thought to what this meat
actually is.
NO MORE, I SAY!
So, with ground turkey finding its way into my fridge this week, I decided to build a better burger.
Now
I won't lie- lean ground turkey is not exactly bursting with flavor in
its own right. With the right touches of stuff, though, that flavor gets
brightened, lifted, and allowed to shine. We need- some fat, some heat,
and some zing.
Fat- comes in one of two forms here- bacon fat, or (for those who can't or won't eat bacon) a touch of olive oil.
Heat-
for those of you unfamiliar with the sriracha family (sriracha,
sriracha chili garlic sauce, and sriracha sambal), I strongly suggest
you pick up a bottle or three. You'll wonder how you ever lived without
it. In this case, I used sriracha sambal, but any of the three will do
just fine.
Zing- Garlic and Worcestershire sauce. 'Nuff said.
(note- if you're using the chili garlic sauce (comes in a jar, not a
squeeze bottle), go light on the garlic here. Unless lots of garlic is
your thing. Which is perfectly cool.)
Okay, so now we've got some tasty patties, but
that's only half the battle. What do we put on these little pillows of
meaty heaven?
Step back for a second.
Let's think about flavor. What makes something tasty? It's
not any one thing, but a combo of things. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and
umami. (umami is a flavor that kinda defies a single word description.
Think... hearty. The satisfying flavor you get from a piece of meat, or a
sauteed mushroom, for example. Fulfilling. Something that has body.)
Other things help too (e.g. smoky flavor can add a sense of umami, spicy
things can make the taste buds more receptive to flavors) and of
course, think about how what you're adding meshes with the big picture
(aka- just because you can put pears and sea bass together, doesn't mean
you should).
So we have some good umami from our meat and fat. We
have a portion of our salty as well, and we'll get a touch of bitter
from the sear the meat will develop as it cooks.
So first, let's just add some bacon to the tops of our sliders. It'll up
that smokiness and umami from the burger, and if you're adding bacon
fat to your burgers, you probably fried some bacon for that end
anyway. Apple goes with bacon quite well, so we'll saute some apple to
bring out its sweetness. Sour... nothing like a good smear of dijon
mustard. Last but absolutely not least, a slice of cheddar style cheese
(in this case, Beecher's flagship cheese) helps to tie everything
together. (turkey, apple, bacon, and mustard all go well with cheddar
cheese, so adding it will help to tie all these flavors together).
My one hiccup? No burger buns. Luckily, I had some
baguette on hand. cut that into little round slices, and now our burgers
will be sliders!
With that, it's burger time.
Turkey Burger Sliders-
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 1/2 tsp sriracha
2 medium sized cloves garlic, Finely diced.
2 strips bacon (or 2 tbsp olive oil)
1 apple (anything but red delicious), chopped
1 tsp worchestershire
dijon mustard
8 round slices baguette
8 small slices cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350.
In a pan (anything but nonstick), fry your bacon
over medium heat, flipping when brown. When bacon is done, take pan off
heat. Remove bacon from pan and reserve. let fat in pan cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, combine turkey, sriracha, garlic, 1
tbsp bacon fat or oil, and Worcestershire. Mix together thoroughly. form
8 small patties (or do like I did, form 2 large patties and then
quarter them). Season generously with salt and pepper.
place pan with remaining fat (or remaining 1 tbsp
oil) on medium heat. When hot, place burgers in pan. (if they don't
sizzle, the pan isn't hot enough. remove the burgers and wait until it
is). Do not move or twist the burgers for 3-4 minutes. Then flip burgers
(you'll know you did it right if the burgers lift off the pan easily.
if they come apart, they weren't done searing on that side). Let sear
for another 2-3 minutes, place cheese on burgers then transfer to oven.
Burgers are done when juice runs clear and center is no longer pink. Set
aside to let rest for 5 minutes.
Place pan back on medium low heat, add apples,
stirring frequently until soft and lightly browned. Don't bother
cleaning the pan beforehand, you want the apples to pick up some of the
burnt crusty bits left over from your burgers
Cut bacon to size, and assemble your burgers! Smear a little mustard on the bottom, and enjoy!
Until next time, you got nothin' on me, turkeys.
PS- Here's a technique to make life a lot easier. Peeling garlic is a pain. Instead, take your cloves, place them under the flat of a knife, or a pan (or in this case, a bench scraper), and then give your flat surface a good downward whack!
Don't aim to crush the clove, but no need to be gentle.
Voila! the cloves separate nicely from the skin. They may crack or crush a little, but not enough to be a problem. Chop away!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Reducing the chicken.
After a fantastic birthday weekend (Thanks, everyone!) I opened my
fridge, in the mood to cook a little something for a late night snack.
Upon viewing my possibilities, I realized my only protein in the fridge
at the time was boneless skinless chicken breast. Hmmmmmm...
I'm
pretty sure I've heard more questions about this one item than any
other. However, all of these boil down to two basic questions- How do I
keep them moist? How do I make them tasty?
Well, that's a multi-faceted answer. The easy answer
is... well, don't buy boneless skinless chicken breasts. As a rule of
thumb with most any meat, keeping the bone(s) on and in makes for a more
moist and flavorful morsel, and skin (especially for poultry) makes for
tasty times. Tonight, however, I had no such luck- no bones, no skin.
Luckily, one thing chicken breast does quite well is
absorb other flavors. By cooking the breast in a tasty sauce, we get a
tasty bird. Scrounging through pantry and fridge, I decide to riff on
orange chicken. Orange juice, soy sauce, honey, and chili peppers can
make one hell of a flavor combo. Any of you readers whose mouths are
watering right now are probably thinking of your local chinese
restaurant, or the Panda Express staple. While this version doesn't have
the crispy crunchiness of those versions (I didn't exactly have the oil
on hand to deep fry) it does have that sweet sticky sauce created by
way of a reduction.
What's a reduction?
A
reduction, quite simply, is a liquid or sauce that is made thicker
and/or more intensely flavored by way of cooking the sauce down,
evaporating a portion of the water and thus concentrating what remains.
In this recipe, we cook the chicken in a bit of liquid, remove the
cooked chicken, and then heat the liquid until it reduces into a tasty
unctuous sauce. Once you get the basic technique down, this is a skill
you can apply all over the place. (note- this is not the ONLY way to
make a sauce. More on that in weeks to come.)
Anyways, here it is in all it's glory.
Oh, for those of you who avoid orange chicken normally for fat loss reasons, fear not. This is a much healthier alternative.
Orange chicken breast.
1 c orange juice
3 tbsp honey
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sesame oil
2-3 chicken breasts
in
a pan, combine your juice, soy sauce, honey, garlic, chili, and
coriander. whisk to combine everything (make sure you get all the honey
mixed in, it likes to stick to the bottom and burn otherwise). taste the
sauce, adding more honey if the sauce is not sweet enough for your
tastes, and soy if it isn't salty enough. Bring onto a medium heat,
stirring occasionally, until the sauce begins to bubble and steam.
While this is heating up, prep and cut your chicken.
You want as little white as possible (this will be tough chewing after it's cooked) so trim your breasts with a knife or kitchen scissors (shears), then cut them into cubes about 1" in size. (notice how I'm placing all my tough bits to the side? I'll be using those for stock later.)
So our sauce is a-bubbling, and our chicken is cut.
place your chicken into the pan, spreading it out so pieces aren't
sitting on top of one another (if you have a lot of chicken, feel free
to do this in two batches). Turn the pieces occasionally. The easiest
way to test the chicken's doneness is to take a piece and break or cut
it in half. If the center is red, cook for longer. If not, take the
chicken out, and place into a bowl for the time being.
Back to our pan, turn the heat up to a medium-high
heat. your sauce will start boiling quite a bit. Stir or whisk it
frequently to make sure nothing is burning or sticking, and let the
sauce reduce by 1/2 (meaning you should have 1/2 as much liquid left in
the pan as when you started). let sauce cool slightly (if you're eager
to test it, dip a spoon in, and see if the sauce coats the back of the
spoon.) and then pour over your chicken. Deploy and enjoy.
This can go on rice, noodles, veggies, or the like. I
put mine on broccoli. Sorry I have no pictures of that, I was already
halfway into eating by the time I thought to take a picture of that.
Until next time- Reduce away.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Feelin' Coulis.
So, in case it wasn't obvious,
I eat a lot. I mean a LOT. And I love rich flavors- dark asian soy and
sesame, french butter and wine reductions, Italian Carbonara... But
today... I need something different. Something lighter. I’m not really
in the mood for a vinaigrette, though, and something a little more
complex than the standard S&P.
Enter the coulis.
A
coulis (pronounced Kool-ee. Think Coolio minus the “o”) is a raw or lightly cooked sauce made
from some kind of fresh or roasted veggie paired with a touch of oil,
some kind of acidic, and aromatics (savory), or from fruit and a touch of sugar, spices, and/or citrus (sweet). In the end, I love using coulis simply because it keeps and expresses the flavor of the principal fruit or veggie so darn well.
One
my personal favorites is the Roasted Red Pepper Coulis- it’s versatile,
easy to make, and goes on LOTS of stuff. I eat it on scrambled eggs or
omelets, roasted or grilled chicken, veggies of almost any kind, and any kind of lighter fish (say, halibut, tilapia, or opah, to
name a few).
Roasted red pepper coulis (makes enough for roughly 4 servings)
3 roasted red peppers
2 tsp sherry vinegar (use rice wine vinegar in a pinch)
1 small shallot (diced)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Place
all ingredients in a blender or food processor, blend until smooth.
adjust seasoning to suit your tastes. serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Note- try out fresh red pepper for a brighter flavor.
--------
So
you’ve had your awesome dinner, and now you’re in your kitchen,
thinking “boy, I wish I could have a coulis with dessert, too...” well,
WISH GRANTED. here’s a fruit coulis that can be made raw or cooked, and
goes on plenty of desserts.
Strawberry coulis (roughly 4 servings)
2 cups hulled strawberries
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
roughly 1/4 cup water
1 pinch salt
Combine
in food processor or blender, blend until smooth. Press through a
fine-mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Serve immediately, or
refrigerate until chilled. Serve on cake, ice cream, pastry, etc.
If you want your coulis a little thicker, place in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens.
Note-
the water measurement is very much variable. start small and add
gradually until you get the consistency and flavor you like. and
remember, you can always add more, but can’t take it out.
Tip- always add a liiiiittle touch of salt to your sweet dishes. Salt helps to bring out the flavor of sweet ingredients, or most any ingredients.
Until next time, feel saucy.
PS- I know there's no pretty pictures this week. Since these two recipes are pretty much place in a blender and serve (or blend, strain, and serve) I didn't think it would be terribly fruitful to take pictures. If any of this is unclear, just comment, and I'll pop in some photos next time around.
Rants, raves, and knives.
Alright, so let's talk knives again. Last time we discussed this, I gave
some basic pointers, tips, and references. This time, I'm going to
explain just what makes a good knife, and what doesn't.
Now, before we begin this properly, know that I am incredibly biased, but it is a bias based on performance and experience.
Second,
before I began cooking I was the go-to knife guy at Williams-Sonoma
(Towson) for a good 3 years. While this doesn't exactly make me an
expert, it does give me some solid basics in what this is all about. Add
5 solid years of restaurant and personal cooking to that, and I have a
sizable amount of hands-on experience with various incarnations of the
knife and it's kitchen applications.
With all that said, here we go-
In
case I haven't stressed this enough, good knives are vital to a good
kitchen experience. If you can't cut things to size because your knife
is dull or the wrong knife for the job, your cooking just won't be up to
par. A mushed tomato isn't the only disaster a dull knife can cause.
Try to slice an onion with a dull knife, and you'll most likely end up
with a nice gash in your knuckles.
"But dull knives should be safer around your hands," you might say, "a sharp knife would be more likely to cut you." Well, think of it this way- whether sharp or dull, something with the shape, profile, and pointy end of a knife will, when applied to your hand with force, cut it. A sharp knife, while it may cut a little deeper, will make a CLEAN cut, which will, after proper dressing and healing, leave little to no evidence of a cut ever happening. A dull knife, meanwhile, will do more of a ripping cut, making it a lot harder to clean, dress, and, if need be, stitch the wound. It's a nasty mental image, I know, but it sure helps to drive the point home that a sharp knife is much safer to have than a dull one. Lastly, a sharp knife will allow the most control of what you're trying to do (cut the food) in the first place, making you much less likely to cut yourself from the get-go.
"But dull knives should be safer around your hands," you might say, "a sharp knife would be more likely to cut you." Well, think of it this way- whether sharp or dull, something with the shape, profile, and pointy end of a knife will, when applied to your hand with force, cut it. A sharp knife, while it may cut a little deeper, will make a CLEAN cut, which will, after proper dressing and healing, leave little to no evidence of a cut ever happening. A dull knife, meanwhile, will do more of a ripping cut, making it a lot harder to clean, dress, and, if need be, stitch the wound. It's a nasty mental image, I know, but it sure helps to drive the point home that a sharp knife is much safer to have than a dull one. Lastly, a sharp knife will allow the most control of what you're trying to do (cut the food) in the first place, making you much less likely to cut yourself from the get-go.
Okay, that's out of the way. Now, you
may remember that we have 3 knives we really NEED in the kitchen- an 8"
chef's knife (also called a cook's knife), a 3 1/2" paring knife, and a
serrated knife (often called a bread knife) which usually is in the
9-10" range. Assuming you don't luck out and manage to find a 3 piece
set with these 3 knives for a set price, you will spend anywhere from
$180 upwards for these 3 knives. That's a ballpark estimate, by the
way.
So... why?
1) Why spend so much?
2) Why not buy the Cutco or Sharpselect knives that the friendly TV or Sam's Club people are telling us to buy that can cut cinderblocks and still fillet a tomato?
3) Assuming we decide to buy, which brand should we choose?
1) Why spend so much?
2) Why not buy the Cutco or Sharpselect knives that the friendly TV or Sam's Club people are telling us to buy that can cut cinderblocks and still fillet a tomato?
3) Assuming we decide to buy, which brand should we choose?
First point- cost. Our local superstore has a set of
Cuisinart or Kitchenaid knives for $20. They're trusted kitchen names.
Why should we buy a higher echelon brand? Isn't a knife a knife?
No. No, it isn't the same.
First
off, just because something is a trusted kitchen brand does not mean
it's a trusted brand FOR WHAT YOU'RE BUYING. Cuisinart makes awesome
appliances, and Kitchenaid makes the best stand mixer on earth. That
doesn't mean they make everything that awesome. In my experience, their
knives simply don't compare.
The short answer is put them side by side and test
them, and you'll see that better brands are sharper (make smoother
cuts), stay that way longer, and feel... better. More secure,
comfortable, and well put together (if the knife rattles, don't buy it).
This comparison method, however, takes both time and money. I do,
however, recommend that when you purchase a knife, ask to try it out.
When I worked at W-S, they kept a bag of potatoes in the back for the
customer to compare knives on. I don't know if that is still how it's
done, but ask.
For a longer answer, it's all a matter of what the
knives are made of. Cheap steel makes a bad knife. Good steel, or a
blend of good steels make a good knife. The better grade a steel is, the
finer an edge it can hold and the longer it can hold it. The other
major factor is how the metal is crafted. Is it stamped out of a sheet
of metal? Is it hardened somehow? Is it forged? (This means the metal is
heated, folded and hammered repeatedly, creating several layers of
metal on top of one another.)
So these good brands have good metal crafted in a
good way. Good metal and the labor to craft it (or the R&D to see
what other metals support that steel the best) costs money. End of
story. Buy a good knife, however, and you won't need to buy another for a
very long time. Think of knives as a lifetime or near-lifetime
investment. Buy it, take care of it, and it should last you for more
years than some cars do.
Second point- the Cutco/Sharpselect issue. If these
knives are so great, why would you pay more for something else,
something allegedly inferior?
Well, let it be
said, for the record, that the CS knives (I'm getting tired of writing
out the names) are not knives at all. They are saws. saws with really
REALLY tiny teeth, but saws nonetheless. Ever had to sharpen a saw? For
those of us outside the lumbering world, sharpening a saw blade of
normal (chopping wood) size is a pain in the ass. Each tooth of the saw
must be individually whetted over and over again. So smaller blades are
usually made to be disposable- it's less effort to just replace the
blade than try to sharpen those tiny tiny teeth, hence the cutco
lifetime guarantee. This truth, when applied to food, really sucks.
Why? Because when saw teeth get weak and dull, they eventually break
off. Into your food. and then into your mouth, stomach, etc. This
happens all the faster with putting the knife in the dishwasher (an
advertised benefit), as the abrasives in the soap weaken the metal. You
can't resharpen the knife (because there's no "edge" to speak of) So you
end up taking advantage of that lifetime guarantee more than once in
your lifetime. This replacement process takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks,
provided they don't find a reason to void your warranty. So that, by
itself, makes this more trouble than it is worth.
Secondly, Have you ever tried doing complicated
knifework with a saw? It's one thing to just cut something in half, but
doing most of the more complex stuff (see ginger scallion entry)
requires a straight edge. Now before the cutco supporters start yelling
bloody murder about how there is a "rock n' chop" knife, and a "fillet"
knife and just about every knife under the sun, I concede that these
tools do exist. They just have their saw teeth positioned differently,
making them an ideal saw for their job. Now, not taking into account the
fact that this means you need to pull out anywhere from 3-7 or more
knives for a single recipe, they also lack the control of a straight
edged knife.The CS demonstrators do a very specific set of motions with
their knives. Ask them to do another motion, and you're asking for
trouble. Slicing your hand trouble. Not fun at all. I mean no disrespect
to the hardworking people who sell these knives, but I would not
recommend these to any cooks, experienced or not. If you have CS knives,
love them to death, and think I'm full of crap... Deal with it. I've
been using, comparing, selling, and working with knives for quite a
while now, and my opinion is pretty much set. No test I've ever done has
yielded a winning result for CS knives in any area, and I'll stick with
that over fanatical testimony.
Third point- What should I buy and why?
Now that my ranting is over (and thank you all for bearing with me through that), it's time to decide which knife is right for you. Here are the top contenders in my book, listed based on price v. quality, availability (you can get them more places), and reliable construction (knives are consistently made to the same standard). Then rated on a mix of sharpness, construction, comfort, and price. I have no doubt there are better knives in the world, but these knives are rated based on our price range. These are NOT listed in any order of better/worse, and if you have another brand that you swear by (that ISN'T one of the aforementioned brands) please comment and let me know! I'd love to test and put more knives into this list!
Number 1- Wüsthof. This is one of the single most identifiable kitchen knives in the home and restaurant culinary world, and I can't really say it's unjustified. These knives are good solid German style blades. Steel is of good quality, and while it is stamped, it's also ice-hardened. Another thing of major note is all knives carry a full tang (a tang is the single piece of metal that the knife is made of. A full tang means that this single piece of metal runs from the front tip of the knife to the very back of the handle, ensuring a sturdier construction). With regular honing, one of these knives will stay sharp for anywhere from 3-4 months before requiring a sharpening. Their handles, which range in styles and colors, are all (with rare exception) made of polypropelene, a dense plastic that resists fading, chipping, or most other abuses, and for the ones I tested (Classic, Grand Prix II and Ikon) are all comfy and secure in the hand. Avoid the Silverpoint and Gourmet collections, they're of a lower craftsmanship and it shows.
Price- medium for Classic (shown) and GPII ($120 for chef's knife), higher for Ikon ($150 for chef's).
Rating- 4 out of 5.
Final verdict- While some brands out there are a little sharper or feel a little comfier, Wusthof makes a wonderful knife that works well and won't let you down.
Number 2- Global. Our first Japanese brand. Global knives are, and have always been, a bit of an acquired taste. They look like they belong in an IKEA, and their entirely being made of metal has certainly turned off some potential buyers. Look a little deeper, though, and you'll see why Global might be worth a second chance. First, it's made of a single Japanese steel hardened with a powder coat of various metals (though that does not mean metal powder will come off while you're using it). This composition means it can hold a sharper edge than any German knife, and can hold it longer. (For those wondering what would happen if a German knife is sharpened to a Japanese edge- The blade would chip, or in some cases totally snap.) The knife is made out of one solid piece of metal (full tang), but the interior of the handle is filled with a very specific amount of sand to even the weight distribution between the blade and the handle. This balance means a greater control of the blade, and less arm and wrist fatigue with long uses. All this with a very respectable price point. The blade will keep for 5-6 months between full sharpening. The biggest downside with these knives is getting them sharp again once they've gone dull. Electric sharpeners burn out before making a sizable difference, and steels and stones all require an incredible amount of elbow grease to get this blade back on track. That said, if you're willing to invest the time and work when sharpening is needed, you can get a good knife for a very good price.
Price- $96 (Chef's)
Rating- 3 out of 5
Final Verdict- While I wasn't bothered with the handle design, it rubs quite a few people the wrong way. I liked the keen edge for the lower price, but the work required for a sharpening made me want to avoid using this knife for my everyday tasks because I dreaded the next time I needed to sharpen. A respectable knife, but not for everyone.
Number 3- Henkels. I'm honestly hesitant to put Henkels on this list. Once a knife on par with Wusthof, Henkels took a major dive in the early 2000's, which led to several lines of really, REALLY shitty knives. Their Pro-S, Twin Cuisine, and 5 star collections were all subject to bad quality control. They have recovered somewhat, but I still say this with a great deal of trepidation. As a rule of thumb, only buy Henkels knives made in 2010 or later, and (just as importantly) look for the twin insignia on the knives, as opposed to just one man with a polearm (the twin is a superior collection, the single man is a lesser collection). For my money, I would just get a Wusthof. The collections worth getting are generally too expensive for this list (e.g. the Bob Kramer Collection), and the ones that aren't... aren't. The new professional "S" collection is very similar to the Wusthof classic knife series, though, albeit noticeably heavier.
Price- varies, but the Professional S- $120 (chef's)
Rating- 2 out of 5
Final verdict- Part of my rating is based on my fear that the quality control issues haven't been totally resolved, but outside of that I find it needlessly heavy, and the handle designs for most of the collections very wonky to use.
Number 4- Shun. Alright, I'll say it- this is my bias, right here. I love Shun knives and I'm not afraid to show it. I have my reasons, though. Shun knives hold the sharper Japanese edge, hold it for longer than any other knife on this list, are comfy, look stylish, and are incredibly well constructed. The knives are forged, and use 2 superior grades of steel to do it, along with other trace metals to optimize sharpness and durability. They do take a bit of time to sharpen when their time comes (not nearly as hard as the Global, though), but it can be upwards of over a year before that is needed. The handle is made of Pakkawood (hardwood that is treated, then rapidly vibrated to close the pores in the wood), resisting fading, chipping, and abuse very well. The tang is a little different- while technically 2 separate pieces, the metal running through the handle is a screwbolt that is tightened into the blade end. It is so securely tightened, though, that the last attempt to unscrew it required two machines, and ended up shattering the handle (no easy feat) instead of budging the bolt. Suffice to say, it's a secure tang. We do have 2 hiccups- Make sure you buy the Shun honing steel, as it is built with a guide so you hone to the correct angle of the blade. Also, Shun knives (Classic Series) are typically made with a designated right-handed grip. Fret not, southpaw readers, Shun does make left-handed knives as well. These are available on Amazon or by ordering through Williams-Sonoma, among others. I cannot recommend these knives enough. One other thing of note- Shun has lots of collections- some new, some old, some discontinued. All are nice, but the Classic series is the best. Some of their more expensive brands have more expensive metals, but these are more reserved for people who, say, will sharpen their knife edge down to 17 degrees instead of 18 and notice a difference.
Price- $140 (Classic chef's)
Rating- 5 out of 5
Final Verdict- My choice any day of the week. The price is a little higher, but it's totally worth it. Also, Shun has a packaged 3 piece set with an 8" chef, 3 1/2" paring, and a 5" serrated.
So those are my thoughts on knives and why. I ask two things of you, dear readers- 1) don't take my word for gospel truth and buy a knife strictly on my advice. Hold a knife, ask if there's something you can test it on, and don't be afraid to return it if it doesn't suit you. This is a big investment, so there's no reason to accept anything less than a perfect fit. 2) Please take care of your knives. None of any of this stuff matters if you don't hone your knives, keep them in a safe place (read- not loose in a drawer or the like), Use a wood, bamboo, or plastic cutting board (no glass, no stone, no marble, etc) and for god's sake don't EVER EVER put them in the dishwasher. It takes all of 1 minute to hand wash knives, take the time to do it.
Until next time, cut your food, not yourself.
Now that my ranting is over (and thank you all for bearing with me through that), it's time to decide which knife is right for you. Here are the top contenders in my book, listed based on price v. quality, availability (you can get them more places), and reliable construction (knives are consistently made to the same standard). Then rated on a mix of sharpness, construction, comfort, and price. I have no doubt there are better knives in the world, but these knives are rated based on our price range. These are NOT listed in any order of better/worse, and if you have another brand that you swear by (that ISN'T one of the aforementioned brands) please comment and let me know! I'd love to test and put more knives into this list!
Number 1- Wüsthof. This is one of the single most identifiable kitchen knives in the home and restaurant culinary world, and I can't really say it's unjustified. These knives are good solid German style blades. Steel is of good quality, and while it is stamped, it's also ice-hardened. Another thing of major note is all knives carry a full tang (a tang is the single piece of metal that the knife is made of. A full tang means that this single piece of metal runs from the front tip of the knife to the very back of the handle, ensuring a sturdier construction). With regular honing, one of these knives will stay sharp for anywhere from 3-4 months before requiring a sharpening. Their handles, which range in styles and colors, are all (with rare exception) made of polypropelene, a dense plastic that resists fading, chipping, or most other abuses, and for the ones I tested (Classic, Grand Prix II and Ikon) are all comfy and secure in the hand. Avoid the Silverpoint and Gourmet collections, they're of a lower craftsmanship and it shows.
Price- medium for Classic (shown) and GPII ($120 for chef's knife), higher for Ikon ($150 for chef's).Rating- 4 out of 5.
Final verdict- While some brands out there are a little sharper or feel a little comfier, Wusthof makes a wonderful knife that works well and won't let you down.
Number 2- Global. Our first Japanese brand. Global knives are, and have always been, a bit of an acquired taste. They look like they belong in an IKEA, and their entirely being made of metal has certainly turned off some potential buyers. Look a little deeper, though, and you'll see why Global might be worth a second chance. First, it's made of a single Japanese steel hardened with a powder coat of various metals (though that does not mean metal powder will come off while you're using it). This composition means it can hold a sharper edge than any German knife, and can hold it longer. (For those wondering what would happen if a German knife is sharpened to a Japanese edge- The blade would chip, or in some cases totally snap.) The knife is made out of one solid piece of metal (full tang), but the interior of the handle is filled with a very specific amount of sand to even the weight distribution between the blade and the handle. This balance means a greater control of the blade, and less arm and wrist fatigue with long uses. All this with a very respectable price point. The blade will keep for 5-6 months between full sharpening. The biggest downside with these knives is getting them sharp again once they've gone dull. Electric sharpeners burn out before making a sizable difference, and steels and stones all require an incredible amount of elbow grease to get this blade back on track. That said, if you're willing to invest the time and work when sharpening is needed, you can get a good knife for a very good price.
Price- $96 (Chef's)
Rating- 3 out of 5
Final Verdict- While I wasn't bothered with the handle design, it rubs quite a few people the wrong way. I liked the keen edge for the lower price, but the work required for a sharpening made me want to avoid using this knife for my everyday tasks because I dreaded the next time I needed to sharpen. A respectable knife, but not for everyone.
Number 3- Henkels. I'm honestly hesitant to put Henkels on this list. Once a knife on par with Wusthof, Henkels took a major dive in the early 2000's, which led to several lines of really, REALLY shitty knives. Their Pro-S, Twin Cuisine, and 5 star collections were all subject to bad quality control. They have recovered somewhat, but I still say this with a great deal of trepidation. As a rule of thumb, only buy Henkels knives made in 2010 or later, and (just as importantly) look for the twin insignia on the knives, as opposed to just one man with a polearm (the twin is a superior collection, the single man is a lesser collection). For my money, I would just get a Wusthof. The collections worth getting are generally too expensive for this list (e.g. the Bob Kramer Collection), and the ones that aren't... aren't. The new professional "S" collection is very similar to the Wusthof classic knife series, though, albeit noticeably heavier.
 |
| The bad. |
 |
| The good. |
Price- varies, but the Professional S- $120 (chef's)
Rating- 2 out of 5
Final verdict- Part of my rating is based on my fear that the quality control issues haven't been totally resolved, but outside of that I find it needlessly heavy, and the handle designs for most of the collections very wonky to use.
Number 4- Shun. Alright, I'll say it- this is my bias, right here. I love Shun knives and I'm not afraid to show it. I have my reasons, though. Shun knives hold the sharper Japanese edge, hold it for longer than any other knife on this list, are comfy, look stylish, and are incredibly well constructed. The knives are forged, and use 2 superior grades of steel to do it, along with other trace metals to optimize sharpness and durability. They do take a bit of time to sharpen when their time comes (not nearly as hard as the Global, though), but it can be upwards of over a year before that is needed. The handle is made of Pakkawood (hardwood that is treated, then rapidly vibrated to close the pores in the wood), resisting fading, chipping, and abuse very well. The tang is a little different- while technically 2 separate pieces, the metal running through the handle is a screwbolt that is tightened into the blade end. It is so securely tightened, though, that the last attempt to unscrew it required two machines, and ended up shattering the handle (no easy feat) instead of budging the bolt. Suffice to say, it's a secure tang. We do have 2 hiccups- Make sure you buy the Shun honing steel, as it is built with a guide so you hone to the correct angle of the blade. Also, Shun knives (Classic Series) are typically made with a designated right-handed grip. Fret not, southpaw readers, Shun does make left-handed knives as well. These are available on Amazon or by ordering through Williams-Sonoma, among others. I cannot recommend these knives enough. One other thing of note- Shun has lots of collections- some new, some old, some discontinued. All are nice, but the Classic series is the best. Some of their more expensive brands have more expensive metals, but these are more reserved for people who, say, will sharpen their knife edge down to 17 degrees instead of 18 and notice a difference.
Price- $140 (Classic chef's)
Rating- 5 out of 5
Final Verdict- My choice any day of the week. The price is a little higher, but it's totally worth it. Also, Shun has a packaged 3 piece set with an 8" chef, 3 1/2" paring, and a 5" serrated.
So those are my thoughts on knives and why. I ask two things of you, dear readers- 1) don't take my word for gospel truth and buy a knife strictly on my advice. Hold a knife, ask if there's something you can test it on, and don't be afraid to return it if it doesn't suit you. This is a big investment, so there's no reason to accept anything less than a perfect fit. 2) Please take care of your knives. None of any of this stuff matters if you don't hone your knives, keep them in a safe place (read- not loose in a drawer or the like), Use a wood, bamboo, or plastic cutting board (no glass, no stone, no marble, etc) and for god's sake don't EVER EVER put them in the dishwasher. It takes all of 1 minute to hand wash knives, take the time to do it.
Until next time, cut your food, not yourself.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sometimes, it is just that easy.
Hey there, food fans! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. For the record, I'll be updating every Sunday from now on, hopefully more. It's been a busy time since last we met.
When life gets busy, I tend to eat out of the fridge a lot. I usually devote a night early in the week to cooking a whole mess of food, or at least preparing a set of ingredients (beans, meat, some kind of cooked veggie, sour patch kids, etc.) and combining/quick cooking them as the week goes on. This week was no exception. When I looked into the fridge last night, though, I was... unsatisfied. I was casual of my chicken. Bored of my beans. Silent about my sour patch kids. And while I'm always happy with an over easy egg, nothing I'd prepared really seemed to pique my craving. It was too late to defrost something, and too cold (and I was too lazy) to go up to the store. No, I didn't need different meats or veggies, but a different flavor. A quick fix, but a good fix. Something that improved EVERYTHING... except the sour patch kids.
It was a job for ginger scallion sauce.
A sauce so tasty, it could bring taste buds back from the dead (not really). So delicious, it could stop disasters (please don't believe that). A GIFT FROM THE VAULTS OF XERXES (well, I suppose it's possible... no).
In all seriousness, ginger scallion sauce is a simple concoction that, depending on your knife skill, takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few plus a few minutes to make, requires no heat or "cooking", and uses ingredients that you already have around (or should have around). The most exotic ingredient it uses is sherry vinegar (rice wine vinegar works in a pinch, but the sherry vin makes a big difference), and I found that at my local Giant. So yeah, not hard and quick to make.
Oh, and by no means did I make up this recipe. I first found it in the cookbook Momofuku from Chef David Chang, and he makes no secret that he *ahem* adapted the recipe from a Chinatown noodle shop, which they might have gotten from another, and so on and so on.
With all that said, know that GS sauce really does improve most anything savory you put it on- chicken, beef, pork, light fish, fatty fish, any other meats, tofu, noodles, rice, eggs, veggies-cooked or raw... The possibilities are endless. Keep this around, and you'll always have some tasty at the ready. Hey, and it's a fantastic way to work on your knife skills.
Here's what you need for our HEALTHY and TECHNIQUE-based recipe:
2 bunches scallions
1/2 c ginger (I always just use a good sized knob of ginger. refer to the pictures for what to look for, and use that as your minimum amount. Don't stress if it's a little over or under, its easy to modify this recipe).
1/4 c neutral oil (grapeseed is best here, but canola works fine too. Don't use olive oil here, it's flavor will mess with the sauce's overall flavor and feel).
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
3/4 tsp sherry vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar OR 1 smallish spoonful of hoisin sauce
Start out by slicing your scallions. the thinner the better. Remember- knife skills. Take your time, and please keep your digits out of the way of the blade. After they're all sliced, put them in a bowl
Next, peel your ginger. Now I know you could do this with a knife, or a vegetable peeler. I want you to peel it with a spoon. Why? Because you're a badass, that's why. Badasses like you don't need knives to peel ginger, they just need a spoon. Just scrape the edge of the spoon along the side of the ginger, and the skin will scrape right off. There you go. Easy work, and less waste than if you used a peeler or knife. You badass, you.
Now, taking your ginger, first cut off any errant bumps or branches it may have. You want something close to a cylinder to work with (depending on how branch-y your ginger is, you may have lots of little cylinders to work with). once you have your mutant cylinder, slice it lengthwise once. Then you set that cut side down on the cutting board. See how now it doesn't wobble and put your knuckles into harm's way? Good. Slice it lengthwise into nice thin slices. When you get to about the last 1/4 of the ginger, flip your new cut side down onto the board and slice it into matchstick-width pieces (or maybe a little wider. If they're REALLY wide, add them to the next step).
Now layer your wide thin slices on top of one another (say 5-6 pieces layered) and slice them lengthwise again. You'll have these nice little matchsticks. Repeat with your remaining thin wide pieces until all are roughly the same matchstick size. This, for future reference, is called a julienne, meaning thin long pieces. You've probably seen julienne carrots in some salads, and julienne potatoes, aka shoestring potatoes. (PS- using a large grater to create strips of something is not making a julienne. It's just grated whatever). In any case, whenever cutting something is described as matchstick, it's a julienne.
Now take your matchsticks, line them up, and cut them into tiny pieces. If you make them really fine, they are a brunoise. So now you know two really fancy sounding terms to impress your friends. Anyways, take your cut brunoise and put it into the bowl with your scallions.
Guess what? You're practically done.
Add your soy sauce, oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar/hoisin. mix. Let sit for 1 minute or so. put on most anything. eat. Smile. Laugh at your friends again for not knowing what a julienne means. Enjoy. Yes, it looks more like a salsa than a smooth sauce. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Don't let the length of this recipe fool you. Most of this is just talking about techniques for cutting stuff. Once you get that down, making this will take no time at all. This keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, covered.
Until next time, Keep your friends close and your sauces closer.
PS- I tried to include as many pictures as I could to illustrate some of the cutting processes. Note that my thumb may get close to my fingers, but it never crosses over into the danger zone. I'm also trying to keep my knife in place using just my left hand while taking pictures with my right, and still trying to show proper form. For safety's sake, keep your thumb farther away from the blade than I show in the pictures. In the meantime, I'll invest in a tripod.
When life gets busy, I tend to eat out of the fridge a lot. I usually devote a night early in the week to cooking a whole mess of food, or at least preparing a set of ingredients (beans, meat, some kind of cooked veggie, sour patch kids, etc.) and combining/quick cooking them as the week goes on. This week was no exception. When I looked into the fridge last night, though, I was... unsatisfied. I was casual of my chicken. Bored of my beans. Silent about my sour patch kids. And while I'm always happy with an over easy egg, nothing I'd prepared really seemed to pique my craving. It was too late to defrost something, and too cold (and I was too lazy) to go up to the store. No, I didn't need different meats or veggies, but a different flavor. A quick fix, but a good fix. Something that improved EVERYTHING... except the sour patch kids.
It was a job for ginger scallion sauce.
A sauce so tasty, it could bring taste buds back from the dead (not really). So delicious, it could stop disasters (please don't believe that). A GIFT FROM THE VAULTS OF XERXES (well, I suppose it's possible... no).
In all seriousness, ginger scallion sauce is a simple concoction that, depending on your knife skill, takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few plus a few minutes to make, requires no heat or "cooking", and uses ingredients that you already have around (or should have around). The most exotic ingredient it uses is sherry vinegar (rice wine vinegar works in a pinch, but the sherry vin makes a big difference), and I found that at my local Giant. So yeah, not hard and quick to make.
Oh, and by no means did I make up this recipe. I first found it in the cookbook Momofuku from Chef David Chang, and he makes no secret that he *ahem* adapted the recipe from a Chinatown noodle shop, which they might have gotten from another, and so on and so on.
With all that said, know that GS sauce really does improve most anything savory you put it on- chicken, beef, pork, light fish, fatty fish, any other meats, tofu, noodles, rice, eggs, veggies-cooked or raw... The possibilities are endless. Keep this around, and you'll always have some tasty at the ready. Hey, and it's a fantastic way to work on your knife skills.Here's what you need for our HEALTHY and TECHNIQUE-based recipe:
2 bunches scallions
1/2 c ginger (I always just use a good sized knob of ginger. refer to the pictures for what to look for, and use that as your minimum amount. Don't stress if it's a little over or under, its easy to modify this recipe).
1/4 c neutral oil (grapeseed is best here, but canola works fine too. Don't use olive oil here, it's flavor will mess with the sauce's overall flavor and feel).
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
3/4 tsp sherry vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar OR 1 smallish spoonful of hoisin sauce
Start out by slicing your scallions. the thinner the better. Remember- knife skills. Take your time, and please keep your digits out of the way of the blade. After they're all sliced, put them in a bowl
Now, taking your ginger, first cut off any errant bumps or branches it may have. You want something close to a cylinder to work with (depending on how branch-y your ginger is, you may have lots of little cylinders to work with). once you have your mutant cylinder, slice it lengthwise once. Then you set that cut side down on the cutting board. See how now it doesn't wobble and put your knuckles into harm's way? Good. Slice it lengthwise into nice thin slices. When you get to about the last 1/4 of the ginger, flip your new cut side down onto the board and slice it into matchstick-width pieces (or maybe a little wider. If they're REALLY wide, add them to the next step).
Now take your matchsticks, line them up, and cut them into tiny pieces. If you make them really fine, they are a brunoise. So now you know two really fancy sounding terms to impress your friends. Anyways, take your cut brunoise and put it into the bowl with your scallions.Guess what? You're practically done.
Add your soy sauce, oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar/hoisin. mix. Let sit for 1 minute or so. put on most anything. eat. Smile. Laugh at your friends again for not knowing what a julienne means. Enjoy. Yes, it looks more like a salsa than a smooth sauce. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Until next time, Keep your friends close and your sauces closer.
PS- I tried to include as many pictures as I could to illustrate some of the cutting processes. Note that my thumb may get close to my fingers, but it never crosses over into the danger zone. I'm also trying to keep my knife in place using just my left hand while taking pictures with my right, and still trying to show proper form. For safety's sake, keep your thumb farther away from the blade than I show in the pictures. In the meantime, I'll invest in a tripod.
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