Recipes Collection: than

Showing posts with label than. Show all posts

Friday, April 4, 2014

Better than Pancakes

The weekends here and you know what that means! Chef John takes a break, and posts fun, food related stuff hes found on the web. OK, I have to stop typing in the third person. I hope you enjoy this very creative clip I found on Youtube. Man they have cool looking toasters over there. Enjoy!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Duck Two Ways The Sum of the Parts are Greater than the Whole

Cooking duck is surprisingly easy if you give up on the idea of cooking it whole. Sure that whole duck a lorange looks nice on the magazine cover (except for that damn curly parsley), and your cookbooks are filled with seemingly simple roast duck recipes, but if you follow the technique shown here, youll be enjoying duck at its absolute best.

In the kitchen, a ducks breast and leg could not be more different. The legs need long, slow cooking to tenderize the succulent meat, while the breasts beg to be quickly pan-seared to a juicy pink. If you roast the duck whole, the best you can hope for is one of the two pieces to be okay, but usually what you get is a too-done breast and under-cooked leg.

By the way, the sauce youll see in the clip is a Black Currant and Balsamic Gastrique, and you can see how to make that recipe here.

I did this video for About.com a long time ago, but it just recently aired. Ill remind you again that Im no longer able to embed my videos from their site here (also no podcast) - so when you click the video player below, youll be taken to another window where the video will begin. Youll also get the ingredients and a complete transcript. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Cooking Isnt Life and Death Its Much More Important Than That

This is my response to Jim and his recent letter. His comment are in bold.

" I feel very nervous when it comes to flavoring food."

Ive got good news for you - the food is already flavored. You are nervous because youre trying to push and pull ingredients, force them to submit to your recently acquired skills and techniques, instead of following them to see where they go.

A bowl of perfectly cooked spaghetti, tossed with good olive oil, garlic, basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and chili flakes, is an "awesome meal," as your friend put it. True, your training is why the water had enough salt in it, the pasta was drained at the right moment, the basil was a beautiful green chiffanade, instead of an ugly black pile - but, the "awesomeness" of the meal, the "flavoring food" part, had little to do with you - it was the inherent goodness in the ingredients.

Dont try to make the food do tricks. Sliced leeks slowly melted with a strip of bacon, topped with grilled salmon is done - why are you trying to make a béarnaise sauce? Because you know how? Dont take credit (or blame) for the foods flavor, only for bringing (not forcing) it out.

Young painters use too many colors, young musicians use too many notes, and young cooks use to many ingredients.

"But the challenge to "make an awesome meal" out of random ingredients (i.e. without a recipe) made me want to throw up."

There is no harder task than trying to cook in a strange kitchen. Even the most experienced chefs lose that precious confidence stumbling around a foreign pantry. The key words in your sentence are "the challenge," because thats exactly what it is - a challenge, as in a fun, exciting, and dangerous dare.

Feeling like you want to throw up before the meal is understandable. Especially if you confuse "challenge" with "necessity " And, if after cooking the recipe, it really is bad, pretend to drop it on the floor and call for pizza.

"Is it just experience? I hope not!"

Its never "just" one thing, but, experience is a big part of it. Your 1,000th hollandaise will probably be better than your 4th. Theres a reason people start as cooks, and then become sous chefs, chefs, and finally executive chefs. Whats your hurry?

Old experienced chefs are expected to put out stunning food; cooks right out of culinary school arent. This is why you should be cooking with relaxed abandon, free to mess things up royally. That whole "learn from your mistakes" thing was invented in a kitchen.

"Maybe I am looking for the holy grail of cooking, but…"

Get in line. Were all looking for it. And, even though you wont find it, never, ever, stop looking.