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| Re: LECTURE DE CUISINE by Zsenitan 04/10/2009, 7:29pm PDT | ||||
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up with pod people wrote: Man you start by not assuming you are going to be an encyclopedia. I didn't realize until this morning that the flavor in instant "Oriental flavor" ramen that isn't soy or onion is.... pork bones. Even though I already knew that pork bones are the foundation of ramen broth when it is made fresh! And I still think that wine tasting guides are for faggots, and the dominant flavor in all wine is "wine." It is the same principle in cooking as it is in flower arranging: you will break a lot of stems before you learn how to bend them into shape; you will eat a lot of things and burn a lot of dishes before you learn what flavors are and how hard you can heat something. I started out identifying flavors and textures I hate, like hydrogenated vegetable oils, or the texture of corn syrup in ice creams, or fake blueberry flavor. I also ate a lot of things raw and cooked and learned about categories of tastes and textures that I liked, then expanded my knowledge into those regions. I like strong, dry, aromatic herb flavors, like sage - so I tried a lot of strong dry aromatic herbs, then I knew what all of those tasted like. Then the other side of this is to cook what your audience enjoys eating as long as it's something that you enjoy eating. I can't make delicious cream sauces for my friends, or slather cheese on anything, because I don't like cream sauces or cheesy dishes - but I can make them things that they like AND I like, like brown butters or reduction glazes. That's all that matters for the home chef. Zsenitan wrote: Roasts that start out slow and low, then towards the end: turn the heat way up and get a crisp surface. Faux pilafs - an honest pilaf involves many hours of cooking, but you can turn out a cooked and seasoned grain-based side dish in about 40 minutes pretty shamelessly. Pick something that cooks quickly, like cracked wheat or couscous, or something that you can have mostly cooked beforehand, like pearl barley, and prepare with plenty of butter or oil, stock, herbs, onions, etc. The main portion of the cooking - at higher heat - takes 20 minutes; then turn the heat down, stir one last time, and cover the pot. Let it get that brown crackly pot cake layer on the bottom, and people will forgive you for any mistakes you will make for the rest of the meal. Braised vegetables - any vegetable sturdy enough to not turn to mush. If it is too fragile to braise I tend to serve it raw anyway. The success of steamed vegetables depends so much on the freshness and sweetness and quality of the veggies that I don't usually do it outside of summer harvest season. Homemade stock lifts any braised/steamed/soup dish into another level, you just have to get used to making it. The next time you're making something that involves cut-up bits of chicken, get a whole chicken or chicken parts with the bones and skin still on, and butcher it yourself. Use the bones and skin to make stock - throw in all the shit that usually goes into the disposal, like onion skins, or rosemary stems, or the tops of celery, mushroom stems, carrot peels, etc. Simmer everything for an hour or two with plenty of salt, then drain out the solid bits, chill, skim the fat, and pour into ice cube trays. Bag up the stock cubes and use freely. Soup and breakfast are the things that are most difficult to get right at a restaurant, so you are well-served by concentrating your energies therein. Soup mastery requires understanding the different cooking times of your ingredients, and remembering to factor in the time it takes to serve and eat. Too often, people put the fragile vegetables in too early or the tough meat in too late. Also, remember to taste all the time, and add the bulk of the salt towards the end lest you overseason by salting throughout - the apparent salinity will change as ingredients are added and cook down. Breakfast requires a knowledge of egg cookery, which is a great learning too for stovetop cooking in general because eggs are sensitive yet cheap. Learn how to make bacon at any kind of crispness or wobbliness (as I have previously stated, I tend to roast bacon rather than fry it.) Learn to make pancakes from scratch - the way YOU like them - and then learn to adapt your batter to a waffle iron. Biscuits: I am a purist here and make southern-style 5-ingredient buttermilk biscuits with a clinical eye, but I've found to my shock that most people prefer a softer, sweeter, less intense biscuit. If you are really on a roll, you can make your own breakfast sausage pretty easily. Just get a pound of 8-10% fat ground pork and some ground allspice, nutmeg, sage, thyme, black pepper, white pepper, and red pepper (and salt.) Get a bunch of cups, and make a bunch of little sausage batches! Fry and try with some friends. The traditional jimmy dean style sausage is primarily flavored with sage and black pepper with a little nutmeg; nutmeg and white pepper will give you more of a bratwurst flavor. I make a very herbal sausage to go with very grainy and nutty pancakes. |
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