Simple Cooking 101

Chicken tonight

2011-07-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hello, I am sorry that I have missed a few weeks but the holidays for a working chef can be hectic. This week we will be working with chicken, but for starters I decided to do a very simple salad. Even though this salad is simple to make it is full of flavor. If you don't like blue cheese you can always substitute the dressing with your favorite. I personally do not like a lot of blue cheese crumbles. So I leave them off my salad.
Our soup for the week is cream of chicken. Again a very easy soup. The entree is a roasted chicken that is made with a compound butter. Compound butters are great way to add flavors to meats. They are easy to make. If you have any left over you can keep it in your freezer for another time. Take the butter and rub it under the skin onto the meat of the chicken. Then take some and rub it on the outside of the chicken. You won't need to add any extra seasoning to the chicken. A nice accompanyment is mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes we are making are a roasted garlic and rosemary mash potatoe. The left over cream makes a nice gravy for the potaotes. All we have to do is thicken the sauce up alittle.
Dessert is a nice cool keylime pie. Enjoy.

Have a great week,

Chef Karen

Italian all the Way

2011-06-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hello, this week we will cover some easy Italian cooking. For starters we are doing a simple shrimp wrapped in bacon. It can't get any easier. People love this appetizer. The amount of horeradish you use is up to you. Some people love it and others don't. You can omit the horseradish all together if you want.

Our soup is a tomato basil classic. I love this soup. I realized that in restaurant soups we use a lot of base, from chicken base to beef base. Base comes in any flavor that a stock would come in. Most restaurants do not make their own stocks anymore. It has become more cost effective and easier to buy pre-made base. Base is nothing more than concentrated stock. It's practically a paste. Once added to water it becomes stock. You can find base in most grocery stores. They sell it where boullion cubes are sold, usually in a jar.
Also I refer to an immersion blender with a lot of our soups. Using a food processor works just as well. We use an immersion so we don't have to remove the soup from the pot. One less step restaurants have to take. Remember restaurants make large batches of soup, so using a food processor takes more time.

Our entree is chicken parmesan. I use the term "dredge" all this means is to coat the item in flour. Dip the chicken in flour and shake off the excess. The egg wash and parmesan will be thick, but thats good it will give the chicken a nice coat. I use an oven proof pan, my handles do not have any rubber on them. Do not use a non-stick pan. When buying pans it should have a sticker or something letting you know what temperature it can be cooked to.

Here is my spaghetti sauce recipe:
Olive oil
One onion
2 garlic cloves (minced)
Fresh basil
Red wine
1 can plum tomatoes
Salt and pepper

Coat the bottom of a soup pot with olive oil. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add to the oil. Cook until translucent. Add enough red wine to cover the onion and garlic. At this point I chop down a small handful of basil and add it to the wine. Let reduce a little. Add in the plum tomates, as always season to taste. Allow to cook slowly. You can alter this recipe to your liking. It is a base recipe. If you like a stronger garlic flavor add more. You are making this to your liking. You can adjust accordingly.

Ok this is a great dessert. White chocolate creme brulee. It just sounds delicious. The trickiest part is the tempering. To temper means mixing a hot liquid to a cold liquid. Usually one consiting of eggs. We temper because if you just pour the hot mixture into the egg mix, your eggs will cook. So by adding the hot mix in a little at a time it slowly brings the eggs up to the right temperature. If you have someone near while doing this have them help you by either doing the ladeling or doing the wisking. Wisking is essential because you want to distribute the heat. When done the brulee should not be loose. It may jiggle but should not be runny. Once cold the custard will firm up even more. My recipe says to use superfine sugar when bruleeing the custard. You can use confectionate sugar, but I prefer the superfine.

Have a fabulous week.

Chef Karen

Welcome Summer

2011-06-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

I just love the warm weather and with this beautiful weather comes light and easy cooking. This week we will cook a delicious cream of roasted red pepper soup, scallops wrapped in bacon and linguini with clam sauce. For dessert we make a cool and easy tirimasu. You will be surprised just how easy cooking can be. So let me teach you a few tricks of the trade that you will use over and over again.

Cream of roasted red pepper soup is one of my favorites. It was actually an idea I had while making red pepper sauce for stuffed shrimp. But we will save the red pepper sauce for another time. It is very simple to make. After roasting the peppers, wrap them in plastic. This will help loosen the skin and make for easier peeling. To thicken the soup we will make a roux, this is nothing more that flour and butter mixed together. It will resemble a very thick dough. When the soup is hot add the roux and whisk. The soup should not be too thick. So be careful with the amount you use you dont want pasty soup.

Scallops wrapped in bacon is an all time favorite. Its an easy starter to any meal. This appetizer can be served in many ways, over pasta, salad, rice or just by itself.

Linguini with clam sauce reminds me of my husband. I think it was one of the first things I cooked for him that made an impression. This recipe you can play with, add more pepper flakes to make it spicy. I actually used an olive oil that had red pepper flake already infused in it. Its a very quick dish to make.

Do not be afraid of desserts. Desserts can be easy. Just follow a recipe to a T, until you are very comfortable with recipes. Baking is a science you can't just add things or remove things without changing cooking times. Tirimasu is a cold dessert so its great for the summer. In the recipe you will see that I tell you to use jello pudding mix. That is right, vanilla jello is a nice additive for the whip cream. It will not be gritty. Making this dessert is a step process, so you may want to make it a day a head of time. Just try to make the final whip cream in a cool place. It can flop if the kitchen is too hot.

In the comment box below please post your thoughts on the recipes, any changes you have made to them and any questions you may have. I look forward to reading your comments. Happy Cooking!