Archive for July, 2008
Staying on the Cutting Edge – Chosing the Right Knives
We need to talk. Many of you have one knife you use for everything, you know who you are. There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing favorites with your knives but you should have a few that you can use for different purposes. I am not advocating that you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a knife set at your local cooking shop; only that you get a good chef’s knife for slicing meat, a serrated one for bread and then a small one for cutting veggies . You can pick these up at a TJMax, or discount store for a few dollars each. The main difference between really good knives and less expensive knives is the quality of the blade. This translates into how long the blade will hold its edge. Keep your knife sharp at all times and you probably won’t know that you paid $8 for it. Even the best knives need to be sharpened on a regular basis. So pick up some sort of knife sharpener while you are at it.
A sharp knife should glide through whatever you are cutting. If you are having to increase the pressure you are putting on the knife it probably is time to sharpen it. You don’t have to go crazy buying the top of the line sharpener either. Sharpening a knife is simply the process of dragging the blade at a small angle across an abrasive surface; about 17 degrees. You can buy sharpeners that help you hold the knife at the proper angle or you can do this simply by paying attention to what you are doing. Three to five times on each side of the knife is enough to get a good edge on the blade. Okay, what about that long, round thing you see the chefs use? This is a steel and it is used on a regular, daily, basis to re-align the edge of the blade,; you can buy one of these but you will find that you probably will go right to the knife sharpener and the steel will sit in the drawer.
Did you know that how tender a piece of meat is depends on how it is cut? First of all the butcher cuts the meat so that it will be as tender a possible, witness the new cuts that are appearing on the market: skirt steaks and flatiron steaks. By cutting these in a particular way the butcher adds to the value of the meat by making it more tender. When you slice meat always cut cross-grain; this means when you look at the meat you will see lines going in one direction. You want to cut across these lines to keep the meat tender. Cutting in the same direction as the grain will result in stringy, tough meat.
So, if you are still using a steak knife for all your cutting needs you probably should go out and spring for a few other knives. You will be amazed at how easy it will be to cut things and wonder why it took you so long to realize this.
Add comment July 31, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Crab Boil
(from the Fish Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
before cooking
after cooking
I am not a fish person; I do not eat fish, shell fish, fresh fish, any fish, I don’t even like to fish. So you ask…why the crab boil post? Well it’s summer, people are on vacation and this recipe or party, I should say, represents all things summer. Start off with a bunch of seafood, veggies and some Cajun sausage, get a really big pot with a burner, invite some friends and laisez les bon temps roulez (let the good times roll).
Hosting a crab boil is more like hosting an event, not just a dinner but something special. Plan to eat outside, preferably on a picnic table covered with brown paper. Although we did this in March one year, in our dining room. I thought my wife would die when two of my friends, loosened up a little by alcohol, threw the contents of the pot onto the dining room table, luckily with some shrimp just hanging ten on the very edge of the table. No knives, spoons or forks are allowed; everything is eaten with your fingers adding to the festiveness of the occasion. One time we had the crab boil when our good friend’s parents were in town from South Dakota. Her father, a gruff but lovable farmer, kept asking where his silverware was. He finally got the hang of it and told stories of the crab boil for many years at his morning coffee gathering before heading out to the fields.
This is not an inexpensive meal; but when viewed as a whole night’s entertainment it makes sense. Okay for those of you paying attention… I make some ribs on the grill for myself.
We serve the Picnic Caesar Salad from the Salad Collection at emealsforyou.com
Add comment July 29, 2008
Finding Your Cooking Comfort Zone (CCZ)
Grilled Cheese
Pavlova with Berries
Whether you are a basic beginner cook making a grilled cheese sandwich for your kids or an established chef preparing the pavlova on the bottom for a dinner party; it’s important to develop your Cooking Comfort Zone. (CCZ) This is the mental place you go to when preparing food. Some of us enjoy cooking so we look forward to getting into our kitchens and making that special meal whether for family and friends, or just for ourselves. The others, and I think this is the majority, dread the ORDEAL of having to get the meal on the table.
Establishing your CCZ doesn’t mean you must all of a sudden jump for joy at the thought of putting your apron on. What you need to do is create a mental neutral mindset where you will be open to at least attempting to make a good meal. Even money says that when you are in the waiting room of the doctor’s office or the chair at your hair salon, you are thumbing through a magazine and looking at the food pictures. You may be saying, ” that looks good but probably too hard to make” but at least you are looking. So now take that fleeting moment when you thought positively about that food photo and carry it over to your kitchen. You may be surprised at just how good it comes out.
I write my posts and the recipes on emealsforyou.com hoping to make them useful to all levels of CCZ. We keep the ingredients to those you probably have in your kitchen and are comfortable using. The instructions are easy to follow and the end result is a recipe or meal you can take pride in. Recently I had a question from one of my readers who asked, “my husband can’t eat onions; what do I do if the recipe calls for onions?” Well the best answer is don’t put the onions in the dish. You see, recipes are just guidelines…most can be changed without destroying the dish. If you don’t like something in a recipe; try putting something else in or just eliminate it entirely. Many spices are like this; use the ones you like and don’t use the ones you don’t like. Baking recipes are the exception to this; these are really formulas and adding or omitting ingredients can cause some problems.
A quick note for those of you who are good cooks; as the purpose of my blog and website is to get families to the table enjoying meals together, sometimes I don’t put the “extras” into the recipes. You know the ones where you say, “why didn’t he put fresh ginger into that?” I encourage you to make my recipes your recipes, add, subtract, alter any way you like. For those of you who are just starting out on your quest to become a good cook; try things, have some fun. The main thing is to try and then watch your CCZ begin to expand.
1 comment July 23, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Chicken Salad
(from the Salad Collection at emealsforyou.com)
There are certain dishes or meals that key fond memories from an early time… for me chicken salad is all about Jane Nardoni. In our early twenties, many moons ago, the group would get together at one house or the other and have a party. When it was Bob’s turn we somehow would always wind up at his mom’s house. Mrs Nardoni was a wonderful cook and Bob was a little, shall we say lazy? So there we would be at the Nardoni house with Mrs Nardoni putting out all kinds of wonderful food, mostly Italian, for us. While all the food was great, her chicken salad was legend. No amount of pleading could pry the recipe from Jane. Running into her years later we still laughed about the chicken salad, and still, I might add, try our best to get that recipe.
While this chicken salad is not Jane’s, it is damn good. Give it a try and perhaps your kids’ friends will remember it for a long time.
Chicken Salad
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Salad |
| Meal: | Ladies Luncheon (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 5 | medium | chicken breasts, boneless, skinless |
| 3 | Tb | mayonnaise |
| 2 | Tb | lemon, juice of |
| 1 | small | scallions, sliced |
| 0.25 | cup | cranberries, dried |
| 0.25 | cup | pecans, halved |
| 1 | pinch | dill weed |
| 0.25 | cup | tomatoes, cherry |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Cook chicken breasts in microwave until done. Reserve cooking fluids. Lightly toast pecans. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, add reserved juices and all other ingredients and mix well.
Serve on bed of spinach or lettuce
This recipe and others may be found on our website emealsforyou.com
Add comment July 21, 2008
Before It’s Too Late – A Rant of Historic Significance
This rant is about the food but it really goes much deeper than that, it’s about maintaining our touch on our own family history. How many of you have gone to a family gathering and asked a cousin or sibling, “what do you know about …?” The conversation usually turns to an agreement that you should have asked someone who is no longer alive the question years ago. We constantly allow moments to go by that could and should provide us with family treasures to pass along to the next generation and beyond. I guess it is like everything else, we expect someone will know the answer to our questions, but those “someones” are getting older and more forgetful. So the bottom line is one less tie to those who went before us; one less interesting fact not shared.
What brought this on was a recent discussion I had with a good friend about recipes handed down from generation to generation. She was planning a family reunion and was putting together a family recipe cookbook and fact sheet for all those who were to attend. Each family was requested to submit some facts about themselves and their families along with a favorite recipe, perhaps one passed down from an ancestor. This is a great idea and one that should be part of everyone’s family reunion.
Many of the recipes found here and on my website have come from past generations of family cooks. Some were taught to me, some were shared by those around me and some I absorbed by just being in the kitchen growing up. One that always makes me smile is a recipe for sweet cabbage. You see, back in the dark ages when my wife and I were beginning to date she only ate white bread. No matter how many kinds of breads my family put out on the table she would always ask for Wonerbread, so much so that my father began to call her whitebread. I mean there was chewy rye bread, hard rolls and flaky horns but she would always say, “don’t you have any Wonderbread?” Needless to say the great varieties of bread went along with a wonderful assortment of “old country” dishes. So years later when I was looking for my father’s sweet cabbage recipe, and had tried all avenues with no success, it was whitebread who had somehow written the recipe down.
The moral of the story is to get those stories and recipes before it is too late. BTW – my wife still makes the sweet cabbage and yes hers is better than mine.
Add comment July 16, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Profiteroles
(from the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Profiteroles- huh? Profiteroles- what? Cream Puffs- Oh yeah!
For those of you who suffer from Juliachildaphobia, the fear of French cooking, I offer an easy way of breaking that fear. Yes, I did say easy.
Pâte à choux, or as we normal humans call it, cream puff dough is one of the easiest and I think most fun things to make. There is something rewarding about dumping flour into buttered water, stirring a little and there it is…this wonderful and extremely versatile pastry dough. Shown above with hot fudge sauce, the profiterole is the classic quick dessert. Fill the cream puffs with ice cream, berries, pudding or or even whipped cream and you have a fast, impressive dessert. Leave the sugar out of the recipe and make them spoon-size and you have an excellent appetizer shell to load up with your favorite chicken, ham or shrimp salad. Make a bunch and freeze them, they stay forever in the freezer and you can take out just what you need.
Any way you choose to use them; your friends and family will be impressed and you don’t have to tell them how much fun it was to make them. Who knows… you may even say, “Bon Appetit” when you serve them.
Profiteroles (Cream Puffs)
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Dinner with Old Friends (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 1 | cup | water |
| 0.5 | cup | butter, unsalted |
| 0.25 | Tb | salt, kosher |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white |
| 1 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 4 | large | egg |
Place water, butter, salt and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour, stir until mixed, place back on low heat and stir for 2 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and add to bowl of food processor, add eggs and pulse until just mixed.
(you may use a mixer instead) Place large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, space 2 apart. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown. Turn off oven, remove from oven and quickly poke a few small holes with a toothpick in the sides of the puffs to allow steam to exit. Return cookie sheet to oven, open oven door and let puffs sit for 20 minutes in oven.
Cut off and reserve top, fill with ice cream, place top back on. May be served with caramel or hot fudge sauce.
For cream puffs fill with vanilla cream. For éclairs make cream puffs and drizzle melted chocolate on top.
This recipe and menu recipes may be found on our website emealsforyou.com
Add comment July 14, 2008
Random Cooking Tips from the Trash Can of My Mind
I’ve decided to post some cooking tips to help you save time and sanity. I prefer if my readers would send in specific questions; just send a comment below or email me with your questions. If it is your wish that I not publish your comment but still want the answer simply type the word “Private” in the first line of the comment.
Here we go:
Putting 1 Tb of white vinegar into your rice while it is cooking will make it fluffier.
Always have meat and fish at room temperature prior to cooking so that it will cook evenly.
No matter how hard you try; the area around the bone on chicken legs and thighs remains pink. Try heating it in the microwave for 1 minutes just before serving it.
To get better browning when sautéing put a teaspoon of butter into the pan along with your oil.
The oil in a pan is ready for cooking when it appears to shimmer and slightly smoke.
Leave meats and fish in the pan, don’t keep flipping them as you want them to develop “caramelization”… the browning that gives added flavor.
Start pan-roasted meals on the stove top to develop the flavor then finish them in a 325 degree oven, to ensure even cooking.
Be careful when adding salt and pepper to a sauce before you are done reducing it… reducing will maximize the flavors and you should adjust the final salt and pepper just prior to serving.
And my personal favorite: Always peel your asparagus!
BTW – I still have a few asparagus peelers to give away. (see promo)
Products I like: SACO cultured Buttermilk Blend – in the baking aisle of your grocery, powdered buttermilk that keeps forever in the frig and you just make as much or little as you need.
Next time: Finding your Cooking Comfort Zone!
Add comment July 10, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Asian Chicken Thighs
(from the Chicken Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
I find the easiest way to make friends in the neighborhood is to cook something really fragrant…allow me to explain. We did this in our home in the Chicago suburbs and then again after we moved. A couple of houses ago we installed a microwave- range hood that faced our neighbor’s driveway. I would cook my usual meals, usually with a lot of garlic and Jim would call to ask what I was cooking that smelled so good. Back then Jim didn’t cook except for the occasional grilling, now it is hard to keep him out of the kitchen, but then again Brenda doesn’t really try too hard.
I first had these chicken thighs in San Francisco about 25 years ago. We were walking around the Cannery on the Wharf and could smell these wonderful wisps of very fragrant cooking. Being of the large nose variety I was able to pinpoint the location, a small street vendor cart in the courtyard. They served these on crunchy sourdough bread and we instantly found a new favorite. Years later we would call our youngest son and have him go into the garden and get some fresh thyme, add the other ingredients into a baggie and place it in the frig. Once home I would simply light the gas grill and wait for the neighbors to react. You see they smell as good cooking today as they did all those years ago. Got any crunchy bread?
Asian Chicken Thighs
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.5 | cup | soy sauce |
| 2 | Tb | Worcestershire sauce |
| 2 | medium | scallions, sliced |
| 5 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 1 | tsp | thyme |
| 1 | medium | lemon, juice of |
| 1 | tsp | pepper, fresh cracked |
| 8 | medium | chicken thighs, boneless |
Place all ingredients in a large plastic bag. Squeeze the lemon juice into the bag then put the whole lemon in as well. Seal bag and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, turning several times. Remove chicken thighs and place on a grill or under a broiler, cook until done, about 10-15 minutes. Serve with rice, salad and some crunchy bread.
Add comment July 7, 2008
Quick Tip – Getting Your Questions Answered
Many of you who have cooking questions are using the search function of this blog. If your question happens to hit on a word that is included in one of the post then you will see it. However, if you have a specific question please either email me (at the right top of blog) or post a comment to a specific post and I will get the answer to you. If you would like me to respond to you directly; email me with your question and I will respond via email with your answer.
For the person who wanted to know how many 35 -40 count shrimp are in 5 oz you are looking at between 11 and 13 shrimp… hope this helps.
Add comment July 6, 2008
Beyond Meal Planning – Organizing Your Cooking
Okay, so now you’ve planned your meals, shopped for the ingredients and now you are ready to prepare these meals for your family. This is where it can get a little crazy if you don’t take that planning just a little further. No problem if you act simply and logically….many of us have the simply down pat it is the logically we need some help with.
Let’ s dive in… one of the secrets to actually enjoying meal preparation is to, wait for it, organize your cooking methods. Many are now saying, I just don’t have the energy to put forward the effort needed to do anything but throw the stuff into a pan, turn on the stove and dump the “finished” product onto a plate. WRONG! Look, you don’t put your pants on first and then your underwear, so why are you cooking as if being unorganized qualifies you for a merit badge. I recently made fun of Rachael Ray’s ability to carrying all her ingredients to the cooking area in one trip (see What Do We Get Out of Those TV Cooking Shows – A Rant) but it is that kind of organization that will help you get used to being a better cook and enjoying it more.
You have to learn to make the most of your time. Decide what you need for the meal at hand, pots, pans, ingredients, serving plates all of it. So if you were making a pasta dish; start the water on the stove before you do anything else. If you are going to need the oven, turn it on, pre-heat it to save time later. Set out all the ingredients you will need. Every wonder why recipes list the ingredients in the order they are put into the meal? This is so you will have them out and ready when the recipe calls for them. Set the table while the meal is cooking, please, at a point that doesn’t require you to stir or add something. Even better, get the kids or your significant other to set the table for you. Unless you have a pedometer on and are trying to improve your health by walking;stop all the trips, short as they may be, to the pantry, closet, frig, table wherever, put that energy into the meal.
By simply organizing your meal preparation you will be amazed at the time you save… more importantly you may even enjoy the meal more…just a little!
1 comment July 3, 2008
