First Desserts.

So, after talking about stock and knives, I'm gonna skip full dinner recipes right now and go onto dessert.

Why?

Well, two reasons. First- I want to show how simple some of this stuff can be. I promise I'll show some dinner recipe goodness later. Second- Let's face it, more people are drawn in and impressed by desserts. Want to impress a date? Dinner is impressive, but desserts wow.

That, and this dessert is just really. damn. amazing. and simple.


So, without further ado, let's make some caramelized pears. You can use any kind of pear, but I've found this works best with bartlett and bosc pears.

First, peel and cut about 6 pears in half lengthwise, and core them. Preheat the oven to around 350.

In the picture we have a melon baller to help us core the pears, but a spoon works nicely as well. Anyways, after coring the pears, use a knife to cut out the stem and butt at the top and bottom (in fact, cut a little gouge from the stem to the core. There's a little tough piece of flesh there). cut these pieces in half one more time and your pears are ready for caramelizing.

After that (or during, for those of you who like to multitask) melt 6 tbsp of butter in a pan over medium heat, mixing it with 3/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla paste.

This is the paste I use, Neilson-Massey is an awesome brand for vanilla products. You can find this consistently at Williams-Sonoma. If you're lucky you can even find it at Marshall's or TJ Maxx. Anyways, stir this mixture frequently until it starts to turn amber (this can be difficult as the paste colors your mixture a bit, and depending on the strength of your stove the timing can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes). At this point, add your pears to the pan. let them sit and mix with the caramel for about 2 minutes, then toss them to coat. Let them sit again, then coat again, repeat.


If your pan gets too crowded, do this step in two batches. Switch batches when the pears begin to soften. Oh, and IMPORTANT!-- Please please PLEASE don't touch the caramel sauce right now. I know it looks and smells delicious and I advocate tasting whenever possible, BUT the sugar right now is both incredibly hot, and sticks to your skin. Not only will you burn, but it will hold on and keep burning. There's a reason liquid sugar is referred to as napalm in kitchens.



Anyways, when the pears get on the softer side (you don't need them droopy, but their exterior should have some give to the press of your spatula/knife/spoon/etc) take the pan off the heat and divide the pears and sauce among however many baking dishes you have lined up.

Place in the oven for, say, 15-20 minutes, then retrieve. Let cool slightly, and then serve with fresh cream, ice cream... you get the idea. Enjoy!

So there you have it. One damn simple dessert, and frankly one of my favorites. They also take well to reheating (if you ever have any left over) so just pop them in the microwave for a couple seconds. Eating this dessert cold is a sin. This will keep for well over a week in the fridge, but I've never let it last that long.

Until next time, always enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Knives. Use them.

Now for Our technique talk. Now I'll be posting actual technique fine points as this blog goes on, so don't worry about this being my manifesto on knives and knife skills. This will be brief. I'm just going to hammer a couple points home. 

1) Invest in a good knife- You can't make bricks without clay, can't make cheese without milk, and you can't julienne basil with a piece of crap you bought at the dollar store. 

 

And no- Cutco, sharpsafe, and all other "never gets dull for 3 easy payments blahblahblah" don't count either. (Please don't spam my comments with how they're awesome, I'm pretty set in my ways on this, and have yet to see them truly outperform or come close to a REAL knife). 

 

When I say knife, I mean Wusthof, Global, Shun. They're my holy trinity of reliabitiy, and have yet to hear of them steering anyone wrong, so long as they're cared for.  Henkels... we'll get to that later. 

 

Now, The big caveat here is that these knives are not cheap. You're unlikely to find a good chef's knife for under $100 unless you are incredibly lucky and vigilant of places like woot.com and Williams-Sonoma sales. What's more, you need to buy the set with the block and every knife you'll ever need, right?

Wrong. 

First off, yes, knives are expensive. However, a good knife will last you most of your life. It may even outlive you. So in the big picture, that price tag isn't quite so large. 

Secondly, you only need 3 knives. Really. You need an 8" chef's knife, a 3 1/2" paring knife, and a serrated knife, preferably a larger one (and frankly, you don't even need a great one of those. serrated knives are the sledgehammer of the cooking world, it's not hard to find a good one for cheap). Why have all those other knives? Extra convenience. If you slice meat every day, buy a slicing knife. That's what it's designed for. But Your chef's knife will do just fine for the job. 

2) Care for your knife- Despite the mystique surrounding this skill, its much easier than you'd believe. Simply put, when you buy your knife, ask for a care demonstration. You'll be sold a honing steel (which you need). If the store can't show you how, don't buy from that store. I'll be posting about knife care soon, so hold off worrying for now. In the meantime, here's some good advice for the day to day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUYAgrsoLw

3) Learn the skills- This is the hardest part. Knives are sharp, knives can cut you. Understandably, this scares some people. However, it has been proven that it's better to be cut by a sharp knife than a dull one (trust me on this). As said, I'll be posting videos about knife skills and care later, but for now here's something to keep you tided over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iXtDYOso1o

Oh, and while guys like, say, Gordan Ramsey can dice an onion in 5 seconds, favor control over everything else when you're starting. speed comes with practice.

So here's our first discussion of knives and why you need to invest in something worthwhile.

Until next time, Stay Sharp.

This is your life. Cook, goddammit.

So, here we are. A new year- a new blog. First and foremost, here's how this is gonna go down- Every posting will have a cooking focus (until I decide otherwise), but what kind of cooking or area is totally up in the air. I will try to make it equal parts healthy, decadent, and technical, but I make no promises. I will let you know which is which. I always appreciate feedback, and if you create something extra awesome with the basics you pick up here, please let me know! I'd be happy to post your findings and creations!

Which leads me to this first real posting- Today we're going to talk about one thing- stock. Specifically chicken stock.

Oh, and chicken stock can be used equally to support decadent and healthy applications. So there.

Ahem.

Now I know when I say stock, chicken or otherwise, most of you think of soup. Well, you're not wrong. Soup without stock is... not soup. Stock, however, goes far beyond the application of "put stuff in a pot and heat it". It's the lifeblood of lots of delicious things, and there is no, NO substitute for homemade stock. The stuff in a can or a box at the store is okay as a last resort, but don't compare it to the real deal. No, seriously. Don't even try. 

What boggles my mind, though, is that people CHOOSE the stuff at the store over homemade because they think making stock is hard... Let me clarify something. There are hard things to cook or prepare properly. A proper carpaccio takes finesse (and knife skills. More on that later). Making good demi-glace definitely doesn't come to everyone on the first try. Making a torchon of foie gras is REALLY GODDAMN HARD to pull off at all, let alone well. Stock, however, is easy. Time consuming, but easy. It's so easy, I've had more trouble figuring out how to put on pants. And let me tell you- I can put on a pair of pants with the best of em.

But I digress. Here we're going to make a dark chicken stock. I prefer dark for a deeper flavor, but for those looking for a lighter touch, I'll explain the minor variation required to make a light one as well. As mentioned, this does take some time. Make this on a day you're cleaning the house or just hanging around and have some time to keep an eye on this. Aside from that, you practically already have your pants on. I mean, your stock made. 

It all starts... with bones.

and scraps. of all kinds. Basically, whenever you have bones or skin or bits of chicken you don't find palatable (all the hard or squiggly bits), put it in a large plastic bag, stick the bag in your freezer, and go about your business. Every time you have a bit to add to your bag, add it. Personally, I buy chicken thighs by the dozen, bone them, and save my raw bones in the freezer. You might have raw stuff, you might have cooked stuff. Save it. In the future, we'll talk about how to de-bone chicken to save you a bit of cash at the store and give you everything you need for excellent stock. For now, just save whatever you've got. Bought a rotisserie chicken? Save the bones. Don't like skin on your chicken breasts? take the skin off raw and save it. Get creative. only 1 rule- NO BOULLION. No cubes, no powders, no "tastes like real chicken". If it didn't come from the animal directly, you don't want it. Giblets, skin, bones, and everything else from the bird is fair game. You're looking for somewhere around 5 lbs of stuff, give or take. 

Preheat your oven to 450.

If your stuff is already cooked (like that rotisserie chicken bone collection) skip the following step, and meet back up with us when we talk veggies. For everyone else, spread your bones and such on a sheet pan. you don't want high edges to your pan, but don't do this on a cookie sheet. You'll see why later, just trust me on this for now. 

PUT IT IN THE OVEN. For about 45 minutes. When it's done, it should look something like this. 

AKA it should look dark, maybe a little black in places. As long as there's not LOTS of black, you're good. Follow your nose. Does it smell burnt? No? Good.

PEOPLE WHO SKIPPED LOOK HERE NOW. 

Put all your bones and roasty goodness into a pot. take a little water (maybe 1 cup or so) and swish around your pan, scraping up all the dark bits stuck on the pan with a fork or spatula, and pour it all into your pot. now, get some veggies together. 1 full piece of celery, 1 nicely sized carrot, and 1 large onion (not red or spring onion). Chop them up (with those knife skills we'll be talking about. See what I'm doing here?) and spread them on your pan, tossing them with a bit of olive oil (lets say 2 tbsp). Put them back in your oven, roast for 10 minutes. take it out, add 1 tbsp tomato paste (and mix it in with your veggies), then roast for 5 more minutes. take it out, dump into the pot with your chicken stuff. Fill the pot with water so everything is submerged (with an inch of water above your bones), and put on the stovetop at a medium/medium low heat. Add a bay leaf, some black peppercorns, and a couple sprigs of thyme (like 4 or 5).

Congratulations, you've just done prettymuch everything required to make stock. and all you had to do was put stuff in the oven, take it out, and chop 3 things. Dear god, it's amazing.

Now you let it come to a high simmer. What this means is it steams and the surface bubbles A LITTLE. As long as it doesn't look like a volcano's blowing out of your stock pot you're good. 

Last thing for the road- as this is going you'll notice foam gathering on top. Take a spoon and skim that off. Throw it away, you don't want it. 

Add a bit of salt to taste, but err on the side of caution. You can always add more, but you can't take it out.

once you've got the depth of flavor you want (notice at this point you've got less liquid in the pot. If the flavor is too intense, just add some water), take it off the heat. Strain the liquid (put a colander over another pot, and pour.) and once it's not scalding hot, put it in the fridge. (some people say leaving stock out to cool is unsanitary, and I agree not to let it go all the way to room temp, but don't worry too much about it.)

Okay, now your stock is perfectly cool to use as is, but chances are there's a liiiiittle too much fat floating in there. so once it's cold, take it out of the fridge. Take your spoon and skim the fat (the yellow stuff on top) from the stock andOHMYGODITLOOKSLIKEJELLO.

relax, cooks. This is from the collagen in your chicken bones and scraps breaking down and integrating into the stock. You wanna know what makes those restaurant soups and dishes so tasty? look no further. 

There you go. deploy as needed, and have fun with your cooking epiphany! Replace your water with stock when cooking rice. Add it to veggies for a boost of flavor, or meats, or whatever turns you on. Make soups with it and wonder how you ever used the other stuff. Have fun with it and experiment. Remember that you made this from scraps. Don't be afraid of using it up.

Oh, right, light stock. So instead of all the roasting? just put your chicken, veggies, and herbs (nix the tomato paste) in the pot, cover with water, and proceed as normal. The flavor won't be as deep, but you still get plenty of goodness for practically no effort. You don't even need to cut your veggies that much, just cut them in half and you're good to go.

In both cases, this keeps for about a week in the fridge, or for months in the freezer. I freeze it in ice cube trays for when I just need a little bit of stock for, say, fortifying a saute, and into tupperwares for more soup-esque use. 

Until next time, Eat well and often.