lambfries

Had a few days off between jobs this past week so I did some cooking at home which I rarley do. Kurobuta porkchops in a quick brine with some nice locally grown organic veggies of roasted sweet potato fingerlings, swiss chard cooked in a cast iron pan with pork drippings, apple-onion compote, and stone ground mustard sauce: Made some rabbit the next day. I braised the legs and frenched the racks then pan roasted them with the saddle, homemade gnocchi, baby carrots and some sauteed greens from a local farm:

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Someone is getting impatient for me to crack into mine. ?

You really hit a nerve with this one. I have utter contempt for people order a steak "Pittsburgh" with a temperature i.e. mid rare, medium. I think they just want to sound cool.

I've heard the term "french canadian" thrown about.

For those of you who missed it, here is the 60 Minutes segment with Thomas Keller. If you plan on viewing it more than once, please be kind and right click and save to your computer. I can't be too generous with my bandwith. Enjoy. LINK

SCORE !!!

I aslo fogot an important detail when photographing food. Have a fairly decent light source and don't use a flash. It will look more natural and you can always brighten it up in photoshop.

This is really cool! I do have a question on the brush aspect. When you erase with the brush, are you just erasing it in white? It seems the default in photoshop cs when using a brush is to do it in black. The problem I had when following your directions is when I blur the background, and erase the edges of the foreground layer, it seems that even though I am viewing both layers, it is blurred. I tried switching the order, ie put background first in the layer list but that didn't do anything. Do I need to change the opacity of the background layer? Thanks --john ← Are you sure the foreground layer isn't hidden? Make sure you can see the little eyeball icon on both layers.

Photoshop. What I typically do is manually adjust the brightness and contrast (color usually never needs adjusting), then I duplicate the layer. To copy the layer you first have to unlock it by double clicking on the little padlock icon in your background layer. When the new layer promp appears just click ok. Then duplicate the layer. Then I apply blur to the bottom layer by clicking on it once to select it, go to the filter drop down menu an select gaussian blur and set it between 7 or 8. Click to select the top layer and start erasing around the perimeter of the subject with a large "soft" brush to give it that dreamy out of focus glow. Then just crop to enhance the focal point of your photo and thats it. Whew, that seems a bit long winded, but once you go through it once it makes sense and is actually fairly easy. Here's the results:

A tournant (tour-nont) is the person in the kitchen who must know how to set up and work each station on the line including pastry. You're there to work on a station on that persons off day. THE ARSENAL: I use my 10" Kershaw chefs knife most at work. My preference is for japanese knives. But for at home we have a nice set of german knives. All I really use at home is a 8" chefs knife, boning knife, and paring knife. As for the cleaver I use it at work for butchering rabbit and chicken. I've grown quite comfortable with it, and use it to completely break down rabbits into all their components hind legs, front legs, loins, and I even "french" the racks with it. It's heavy, keeps a nice edge, and I only paid $12 for it at the asian market. Oh yeah, and it looks cool! Edit: spelling error

Personally I prefer the chicken thumbs. You know, the little nubs on the wing tips.

I would post a picture, but I'm afraid someone might identify the head.

I've never had the need using this method.

Oh yeah, please don't score the fish. edit to add photo

O.K., you want crisp skin? Try this. First of all instead of oil use clarified butter. Second, as everyone else suggested squeegy the skin with the back of your knife and pat the skin dry then salt the skin. Now let it set for about 15 min. The salt will actually draw out more moisture so repeat the process one more time (squeegy, pat dry and season). Now, get a non-stick pan nice and hot and add enough clarified butter to coat the bottom of the pan and allow the butter to get nice and hot. Place the fish in the pan skin side down and take a crepe pan or any flat bottom pan and spray the bottom with pam and place it over the fish and apply light pressure to keep the fish flat (have this ready before you put the fish in because it will want to curl as soon as it hits that pan). You only need to hold it there about a minute for the fish to "set". Then remove the crepe pan season with a little salt and cook about 2 more minutes. If it is a thinner fillet 1/2"-3/4" thick, lower the heat to med-low and put a knob of whole butter in the pan (carefully!!) and baste it with a spoon for about 2-3 more min. till cooked. If it's thicker, after cooking it 2 min., drain off the clarified butter in the pan and add more (this will cool it down and prevent the skin from burning) and place it under a broiler for about 2-3 min. Now go get some red snapper or striped bass and give it a try!

Flour on hot wings?

I've always preferred german knives until I held one of these babies in my hand. Perfect balance, not too heavy (less fatigue), comfortable grip, and it looks really cool too. I fell in love with immediately. I've used my Kershaw 10" chefs knife everyday at work since I bought it 6 months ago, and other than a few passes with a steel I still haven't had to sharpen it. I think they're incredible knives. You should still shop around and try different knives before you decide. Remember you don't choose the knife the knife chooses you.

So yesterday foodtutor said "look we have wonton wraps". To which I replied "and we have turkey!". To which she replied "That's what I was thinking." A little shredded turkey, left over cornbread stuffing, wonton wraps, homemade cranberry sauce, and a deep fryer. Just mix stuffing with turkey and stick it in a wonton. Pretty tasty!

O.K. So I went to the Bourdain book signing/cooking demo at the Cooks Warehouse in Atlanta. Pretty cool. He made steak tartare, singned my copy of his cookbook, and he took a picture of the tatoo on my right forearm. mise en place

All I had time for today, other than the usual grazing during service.

Grilled chicken breastesses with a madeira mushroom sauce, broccoli rabe with nueske's lardons and cipollini onions in a cider gastrique. Hmm... pretty cool thread. I may actually post pictures of staff meal.

How would you prepare the jerusalem artichokes? Boil them until fork tender then rice them? ← I just roast 'em til tender. They tend to be a little sweeter that way.

Not fun. I have the scars to prove it.