Things that make me giggle

happy cheesegrater...

as usual, highlighting some of the reasons we laugh all day in the pro kitchen...

Meez

My dinner tonight

NY Sirloin, crusted with cracked black pepper and seared under a brick. with garlicky baby (not teen)spinach and Hannaford fiddleheads.

One root, many names

Yuca, Yucca, Manioca, Cassava, Taro, Aipim

I've had this fascination with the vegetable since I was introduced to it by a Caribbean cook. Really like it fried, but cook it like a potato for a really starchy, well, starch. It has almost an herbal after-flavor.

To fry it, you have to first peel it well, cut into 3 inch pieces, then halve longways. Boil until tender. Cool to the point you can handle, then cut long wedges, taking care to remove the fibrous core. Drop into hot olive oil and fry until light brown. I like to make a paste with garlic, chipotle or other chiles, parsley and kosher salt, then whisk in evoo to make an unemulsified dipping sauce that really goes well with the fried yucca.

Tonight one cook was inspired to make soup with it, diced up and boiled with tomato and corn in a simple broth I think was fortified with chicken stock. Real hearty and nourishing.

In the professional kitchen it is always fun to have cassava around to play with--the big phallic shape always brings out great sexual references and boasting all around.

LaLa No Mo

I have been notified that the music service 'LaLa' will be shut down May 31st. I'm sad about this, since I really liked the way I could embed a song here for free, and you could go to their site and listen to a whole album once for free. And the mp3 prices are much better than iTunes...

I'm sure that those three features themselves contributed much to the early demise of LaLa, though I really don't know the details.

So the face of this blog (and my other blog, 'mountain bike church' )will change slightly without the music players to entertain while you read. Oh well, thats progress...

Not baby, not adult...

ever seen this before?

Italian test kitchens in the heart of Tuscany. I SO wanna go back....

Cornstarch: The Anti-Food

OK maybe that's not entirely the case, but there's one chef I know who uses it so much, you'd think he was a corn farmer. I had NEVER seen anyone use CS to thicken clam chowder until two years ago. Disgusting. AND it loses it's thickening power when you hold product hot. So then you have to add more.....and more.....

I don't feel so good.....

On Making Stocks

OK here's the deal. You make stocks with a purpose. You don't JUST make veal stock or chicken stock. Stock is a flavor base, it's what gives your end product the dynamic flavors that you want. Extreme Example: You want to make Vegetarian Broccoli Soup. You make a veg stock heavy on the broccoli stems, with maybe some rabe and broccolini stems to emphasize, YEAH! this is Broccoli Soup!

Or, you're making a roasted chicken jus. Don't just make frozen chicken-back stock. Roast the backs first. Roast the mirepoix, too. Roast the black pepperporns. If it's a jamaican-jerk style roast, add some pan-roasted allspice twigs or berries.

The point is, think about your end product. Don't make a veal stock and modify it for  Grilled Venison....

More on stocks coming up

Fun with Fire and Heat

One of this Cook's Favorite Snacks--Spicy Red Sauce Rigatoni

Brown Butter with Amaretto and Sage(for Butternut Squash Ravioli)

Old Apples headed for the composter...

DSCN5738
Originally uploaded by 1WheelDrive

Gumbo

It's time to make Gumbo. Shrimp, crab, okra, file, sausage, black roux, onions, bell peppers, garlic, dried cayenne peppers.....(recipe coming soon)

Soup is good food

Lately I've been making and eating alot of soup. A good cup of soup at or around noontime really warms up the soul, the attitude, and I'm all set. Broth soups are best, but a good pureed vegetable like squash or tomato is just as good. All natural or as natural as possible, fresh ingredients. Chicken broth, veg broth, beef....Swanson's I believe makes the best in terms of flavor, value and naturalness... just make sure you don't get the one that includes msg. As I've mentioned before, cooking with salt is important, but don't overdo it with soup.

Some recent soups:

Ribolitta

Beef and Mushroom

Vegetable Minestrone with lentils and cannelini(very similar to my Ribolitta recipe)

Southwest Indian-style Chicken(with the three sisters, among other colorful and flavorful ingredients)'Southwest' meaning the flavors and heat. The Three Sisters is a more widespread planting/culinary practice dating back to at least the Mayans(read the link and google some more it's interesting stuff)

Clam Chowder with Yucca and Yukon

Ham and Lentil

kitchen personalities #1

I've met many people over the years working in the kitchen. Many GOOD people. Not really many scumbags, believe it. And every situation I've been in, I've found someone who has schooled me in some quotable way.... 

A manager at the muffin place I started cooking at, when I customarily greeted him with "How ya doing?", he'd ALWAYS respond, "Excellent!!" As a teenager I just couldnt fathom why he always said that.

The owner's kid at the same place, showing me for the first time how to clean and cut a head of iceberg lettuce, peeled off the outer layers of brown and wilty leaves, referring to them as 'shit lettuce'. I always remembered that, and have used that one ever since, that is, when I get the opportunity to train a new guy who speaks english...

 

Joe Zazz, a manager at TGIF--his motto was "One Stop Shopping", meaning, make a list and go get everything you need in one trip. Never come back without both hands full.

Chef Bundy at NECI always wondered out loud about the trendy menu descriptions of vegetables being cooked "crisp tender". He really amused himself with that.

Chef Patrick at NECI could hear a stock at a rolling boil from across the kitchen and would come stomping over the wooden floor in his wooden clogs,  12" knife in hand, red-faced and screaming,  "THAT STOCK IS BOILING!!!"

Chef Michel, drilled into us that, following our graduation from culinary school, we would NOT be chefs, but would likely have to work like dogs as sous-chefs for many years, before being able to refer to ourselves as chefs. 

Steve H, a fellow sous at St Cloud, would always say, "Chicken is poison!", referring to the potential for sickness with mishandled poultry...he had many more sayings, which I can't remember, but upon his last day in the kitchen, chef Murcko unrolled about 12 feet of butcher paper and wrote, in black marker, every one of his quotes and hung it on the wall next to his station, just to remind him how sadly he'd be missed, I guess....

I guess this would be installment #1, as there are many more, but I'm fading.....