Posted by Becka on December 11th, 2009
No Comments

A Basic Emulsified Vinaigrette Dressing

By using various vinegars and oils, you can create your own vinaigrette to fit your menu!

1 shallot, minced
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup vinegar (including champagne, balsamic, red wine and others)
1 1/2 cup salad oil or mixture of salad oil and olive oil
1 tbsp water if needed
salt and pepper

Combine the shallot and mustard in a blender and mix until smooth.

Very slowly add the oil until it starts to thicken, increase to a light, steady stream, if it gets too thick, add some vinegar to thin.

Continue adding oil and vinegar until it has been used up.

Salt and pepper to taste, keep refrigerated

If the emulsion breaks, re-blend it.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on December 9th, 2009
No Comments

Skillet Corn

Here is a recipe for a potentially spicy corn side dish. The proportions and types of peppers are as you desire.

These are approximate:

4 slices bacon
1-1/2 cup onion, small dice
1 cup red bell pepper, small dice
1/4 cup jalapeno peppers, small dice (or other spicy pepper)
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups corn frozen or canned

In large skillet, render bacon and set aside.

Saute onion and garlic 1-2 minutes, add peppers and cook until everything is soft.

Add corn and cook until heated thoroughly, fold in bacon (diced)

Season with salt, pepper and a little cayenne.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on December 5th, 2009
No Comments

How to Blind Bake

Here are two methods to help keep your pie crust from bubbling up and becoming uneven.

Beans:
Cover your pie crust with parchment paper and fill with dried beans. I have also seen a product on Amazon that is small ceramic balls that do the same job.

Tin and Beans:
Place parchment paper on the pie crust, put another pie tin on top, fitting into the first one, then put dried beans on top of that to weight it down.

Note that after you have used beans for this purpose, they can not be eaten. A lot of people keep a jar of “pie beans” for this purpose and use the same ones over and over again.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on December 1st, 2009
No Comments

I brought the bread for Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I escaped having to make THE dinner. We had it at my mom’s house and she cooked it all. My only responsibility was to bring bread, but instead I made some fresh stuff. I used a “soft roll” recipe and made a seasoned butter to go with. I helped supervise everything as it cooked; my mom left it pretty much all the decisions regarding the turkey to me. Since I am in culinary school, mom thinks that I know best how to do things, even if she has been making that particular thing for years. I was almost positive that I would have to make several things for dinner, but I escaped!

The herb butter I made consisted of:

  • ½ cup softened butter
  • ½ tsp olive oil
  • Rosemary, parsley, garlic powder, and salt to taste.

Refrigerate until it is set to your desired firmness.

Soft roll bread:

  • 1lb 5 oz bread flour
  • ½ oz powdered milk
  • ½ oz salt
  • ¾ oz fresh yeast
  • 12 oz water
  • 1 oz butter
  • 1 oz shortening

Yield is 2lb 7oz of dough, enough for about 16 rolls.

I brushed the uncooked dough with the seasoned butter just before putting in the oven and then also served it along side them at dinner.

There are 10 basic steps to making bread.

Scale Ingredients — get everything ready measured,

Mix — mix the yeast and salt into warm (about 90 degrees) water and allow the yeast to start bubbling, and so the salt is more evenly distributed. If you are doing this by hand, make a large well with dried ingredients and slowly add the water. Circle the inside of the well, combining more and more dry ingredients as you add the water. Knead for 10 minutes.

Proof — cover dough and allow to rise to double its size.

Punch — poke and gently, gently work the dough just enough to “deflate” it.

Scale — measure out the amount of  dough you want for the individual pieces and separate.

Round — take each piece and roll around on the counter until it takes a round shape

Bench — let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes on the countertop

Pan/Shape — shape the dough into the shapes you want and place in the pan you are going to be cooking them in.

Proof — again allow the dough to rise to double its size or until it reaches the desired shape

Bake — put into oven at about 425F and bake until browns and sounds hollow when it is thumped.

Cool

Store

For an especially golden and glossy outcome, brush with butter before baking.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on November 29th, 2009
No Comments

“Real” Buttercream Frosting

There are many frostings that claim to be buttercream. If you ever see a cake that claims to have buttercream frosting and is white, you can be positive it is not. Buttercream is made solely from butter, and butter is not white. We made cakes in class and used shortening for part of the base, but only because of temperature issues. Butter needs to stay cool when you work with it, and of course it is always very warm in the school kitchen lab.

Here is the recipe we used for our cakes, but I think I was able to detect the shortening, it has a coating, oily effect. It could just have been our group, no one else said anything.

Ingredients:

  • 5.5 oz butter
  • 2.5 oz shortening
  • 10.5 oz confectioners sugar (or substitute 1.5 oz of cocoa powder and 1 tbsp water to make chocolate frosting)
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/3 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Directions:

Sift sugar and add to fat, and cream in mixer on medium. Keep mixing until texture is completely smooth.

As a tip, once you think you have mixed enough, mix for a few more minutes. If it is not completely incorporated, the frosting will be gritty. Be sure to scrape often while mixing.

Mix until the frosting is fluffy.

Add extract, lemon juice and egg whites, one at a time while continuing to mix.

This recipe can be altered to make Cream Cheese Frosting. Replace the fat with cream cheese, and omit the egg. You can also flavor with grated lemon or orange zest instead of the vanilla.

Yield is about 1lb 3 oz.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on November 25th, 2009
No Comments

Make Your Own Streusel Topping

This can be used for topping a crisp, muffins, coffee cake and many other things

Ingredients:

  • 4 oz butter
  • 2.5 oz granulated sugar
  • 2 oz brown sugar or a mixture of brown and granulated
  • 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon or mace
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 lb flour (mixture of all purpose and bread flour)

You can also substitute 4 oz of oatmeal for 4 oz of the flour.

Directions:

Put all ingredients into the bowl and cut in the butter with a pastry blender or bench knife until mixture is like fine cornmeal. No lumps.

You may need to use your hands and rub the larger pieces together in your fingers until it crumbles.

Yield is 1 lb.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on November 24th, 2009
No Comments

How to cook a steak! Watch out for the strong language, it’s about every other word!

In fact, I won’t post the awl.com post here, I give you the option to read it or not.

How to cook a f*&%$#@ steak

Categories: Uncategorized
Posted by Becka on November 22nd, 2009
No Comments

Homemade Mayonnaise

If you run out of mayonnaise, but have eggs and plenty of vegetable oil, you can make your own. There is a lot of whisking involved, so having a friend to share the work with is great. Otherwise, you can try using the blender.

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 13 oz oil
  • 1/2 tbsp vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • drop of Tabasco sauce
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Mix the egg yolks, dry mustard, and the first amounts of lemon juice and vinegar. Mix until thickens.

Slowly, slowly add the oil at first, drops at a time while whisking. Don’t add too much oil at once or the emulsification will break.

When you have progressed to adding the oil in a stream, it will thicken. When  this happens, use lemon juice and vinegar to thin it out.

Continue alternating whisking the oil and vinegar until everything is combined.

Season with the lemon juice and add the drop or two of Tabasco.

This can also be done in a blender. Put the eggs, vinegar and salt in the blender and add the oil very slowly. When it thickens, add some of the lemon juice and vinegar. Continue adding the oil and other liquids until everything is combined. Use lemon juice and Tabasco to season.

Yield is 1 pint.

Categories: Food
Posted by Becka on November 22nd, 2009
No Comments

Goodbye Sweet Kristen!

Friday was our last day of our “Breakfast” class. It was sad because I was having so much fun but also it would be the last day I would see Kristen. She is my best friend in school. She does not intend to finish the culinary arts program and was just taking these classes to try it out as a possible career and to just plain have fun. She has a bubbly personality and a sweet person all around. I will, and I sure many other classmates miss her.

The next and the final class for the end of the semester is “Menu Planning”. We will be creating menus for different themes.  We will spend 1 day each week in classroom preparing for the other 4 in the kitchen actually making these menus. Sounds exciting! Also, we will continue to be eating very well, we have to do something with the food we make!

Categories: School
Posted by Becka on November 19th, 2009
No Comments

Basic Biscuit Recipe

Here is a basic recipe for biscuits, any type of herbs, cheese, or dried food can be added. When we made this in school, we added cheddar cheese, garlic, rosemary and thyme. Simply mix in the additions with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Ingredients:

  • 1lb 4 oz All Purpose Flour
  • 1/3 oz salt
  • 1 oz sugar
  • 1.25 oz baking powder
  • 7 oz butter
  • 13 oz milk

Directions:

Sift the dry ingredients into bowl and cut in fat until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Combine all the liquid ingredients in a separate bowl and add to dry ingredients all at once while stirring.

Mix just until everything is moistened and forms a soft dough. Move to counter top and knead lightly for about 30 seconds.

Roll out about 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick and cut out shapes or make rounded balls. Bake at 375 until done.

This yields 1lb 10 oz of dough.

Categories: Food
« Previous Page — Next Page »