boar_d_laze

Open knit Kangol caps are comfortable. Washable, too. Baseball caps for the cooks, with a golf cap for the chef d'chefs makes a subtle class distinction. Don't wear a hat from a country-club your customers can't afford. Berets or bogues are too hot. Straw hats -- whether cowboy or stingy brim are comfortable -- but get dirty and can't be washed. Toques are dated, skull caps not here yet. The look screams "professional chef." But if you're any good, why are you screaming? Whom are you kidding? We aren't european. Not one of us is located closer to Paris than Cleveland. Do-rags are piratical. Very Disney. For the gentlemen, one earring only. Not each, but to be shared as the Graia shared their eye. For a gentleman to wear his baseball cap with the bill to the rear or side is a loss of 20 IQ points. If the idea appeals, you've proven you can't afford it. For a woman to have her hair pulled back through the back of a baseball cap is tres fetching. Professional, yet there are those wispy tendrils on the back of her neck. But I digress. Beard nets are ridiculous. Beards are not cats. They do not shed. Neither do they sharpen their claws on the furniture. Brava Chefpeon! Rich

Marlene, Scroll down a bit on http://www.chefdepot.net/peppermills.htm No warranty those are particularly good prices. FWIW, I've got the copper one. These started out as eastern - Med coffee mills and got co-opted for pepper as they moved west a few decades ago. The grind can be adjusted from sort of fine, to ve ry very very coarse -- as in smaller whole peppercorns will fall without any grinding action at all. I'm not sure if it's a recommendation or not, but Jeff Smith, the "Frugal Gourmet" popularized them here in the U. S. of A. The mechanical grinding actions is "burr," which produces little heat. I really don't see any difference between ultra-coarse from my little mill and "cracked" with my meat hammer -- but I'm not the last word either. Anyway, no matter how you're going to do pepper for biftec au poivre an Atlas falls in the cassification: "expensive but worth it because it looks great, works well and lasts forever." "Butter, butter and more butter" Rich

Damas y Caballeros, A slightly different technique... I learned to make tortillas by precooking the filling (usually potatoes, onions and chorizo) in a medium hot pan in a generous amount of olive oil, pouring beaten eggs over, and getting the pan into a medium-hot oven, until the eggs were just set on top. This was the Universidad de Salmanca in 1967. Only a minute of waiting for the egss to set on the bottom. No swirling or lifting. About 6 - 9 extra large egss to a 12" pan. Ish. The tortilla was baked until the eggs were just set on top but not dry. Call it 10 minutes at 350, but your eyes and finger tips are the final arbiters. Better out a minute too soon than a minute too late. A tortilla made this way does not need to be turned during cooking, but do invert for service. The pan-side will be GBD, with "toppings" nicely framed, and the eggs light, tender and moist -- not dried out as is all too frequently the case. Non-stick is non-necessary. Potatoes are part of a tortilla Espanola which is another name for tortilla de papas. But you can make a tortilla without potatoes, and use anything else. Think of a spinach and goat-cheese omelette in Denver. Otro vaso de jerez por favor, Rich

Doc, I have seen them on menus. I have been fed them by caterers. I have been fed them by hosts. Count your blessings. The sliver lining, if such it can be called, is that the black peppercors used for the crusting process were not used sufficiently generously to create an actual crust, and were usually too stale to have much flavor. The sauces weren't terribly peppery either -- the dominant tastes were usually roux and bad cognac. You'd sometimes get a palateful of gray poupon, too. Cracked peppercorns adhere better on steak pressed into a bed of cracked corns, than on peppercorns poured onto steak and "rubbed" into the surface. I used to put peppercorns into a bag and whack away with a flattener to crack them. However, since I got an Atlas mill 15 years, or so, ago, I use that. Tellicherry peppercorns are better than malabar peppercorns even though Tellicherry is on Malabar. Go figure. Rich

Wow. OK. One at a time. Marlene -- Sounds wonderful, and very similar to what I usually do. I'm really looking forward to seeing your presentation. As already said elsewhere, you're a great cook. The only thing I have to add, is the thought of using Mexican "crema" aka "table cream" or "crema agria" (sour cream). These latin products are creme fraiche under other names, at a far more reasonable price, and more widely available (if you live in an area with latino markets). Toni -- Glad to help. It's been a long time since I bought books that emphasize the basics. I'm not sure what is or isn't in print. Most of my generation learned from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vols. I and II. But anything by Henri Pelliprat that you can get -- especially "Modern French Culinary Art," which may be the best instructional cookbook ever written. After 70 years, it's still in print and you can get it on Amazon. In re Pelliprat, who was one of the founders of Cordon Bleu -- styles have changed to much lighter foods and less formal presentations since Pelliprat's heyday but nobody teaches the basics better. Those, the "Gourmet" two book set and "Joy of Cooking" belong in every cook's library. Possibly the best education you can get from books is to try and cook out of Elizabeth David's books. She often omits details like amounts and temperatures, and assumes a knowledge of technique owned by few of her audience of 1950s and '60s Enghlish housewives. The books are wonderfully written and are an education in the sense of "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Pielle -- Your implication about making sure flour is fully cooked, and the difficulty doing so when you add it towards the end of the cooking process is on the money. I tend to use roux when I begin with the idea of using a thickening agent, and beurre manie or slurries when thickening at the end,especially if reparing a sauce that wilfully refused to thicken properly on its own. Roux is a nice segue to "true demi-glace" or what I think might be better termed a "classic demi-glace." Your enriched stock is similar to an espagnole except an espagnole is built around a blond roux. The classic way to make a demi-glace is making an espagnole, mixing it with an equal quantity of beef or veal stock, then reducing the mix, not too quickly, by about one half resulting in a velvet texture. Sounds like you do more or less the same thing, skipping the formal espagnole step. Julia Childs used to refer to something similar to your formula as a "semi-demi-glace." "One never know, do one?" Rich

Here's a really retro Green Goddess Ingredients: 1 C mayonnaise 1 C sour cream 3 tbs white wine vinegar 3 tbs coarsely chopped fresh parsley 3 tbs coarsely chopped fresh tarragon, or 1-1/2 tbs dried 3 tbs coarsely chopped green onion tops 1 coarsely chopped shallot 2 cl garlic, coarse chopped 1 tsp Morton kosher salt 4 fillet of drained anchovies, or 1 tbs anchovy paste Several turns of fresh, coarse ground pepper Technique: Dump everything in a blender, and pulse until coarsely chopped items are processed to "flecks." Allow to stand in the refrigerator at least 1 hour for flavors to marry. Rich

Shrimp/tasso Monte Cristo? How about a Benedict variation -- potato pancakes with a bit of shiso mixed in the potato batter, a small mound of tuna or salmon tartare, topped with a barely poached, or raw quail egg? Rich

Marlene, Good question. I know what Childs, Bocuse, and Pelliprat (to name a few) mean when they throw those terms around, because I have their books. But whether they're actually the same ... ? I think of "biftec au poivre" with the a pepper crust and a pan deglaze reduction -- usually burguignon, and I'm pretty sure we can at least agree on the crust; if not how to put it on and other variations. Do you press the steak into the peppercorns or the peppercorns into the steak? Cracked or coarse-ground? Tenderloin or strip? Tellicherry or Malabar or go all seventies with madagascar green? Red wine or cognac? Demi-glace? And so on. From there it seems less certain. Would "peppercorn steak" be the same or not? Once you get into the "steak with peppercorn sauce," you're really getting elastic in terms of terms. Your guess is as good as mine. I dunno, what do you think? It's true, "One never know, do one?" Rich

Toni, Don't feel bad about not getting exactly what you hoped for. You got a lot of conflicting advice. Your questions go to several basic cooking techniques: If you want to make a stock-based cream/peppercorn sauce the traditional way is (a) use your stock to make a sauce espagnole; (b) use the espagnole plus stock to make a demi-glace; and © to use the demi-glace to make the cream/peppercorn sauce. A properly made demi-glace is already thick and velvety so the reduction to the proper consistency once you've added cream and the other flavorings is more or less routine. However, the process takes hours, not minutes -- unless you've made the demi-glace in advance and keep it hanging around in your freezer (a very good idea!); or buy commercially available demi-glace (less good). As far as I know there aren't good short cuts to this process. If you're as interested in "mastering the art of French cooking" as you are in preparing particular dishes, it's worthwhile mastering espagnole, and the other five mother sauces. That having been said, it would not have been worth it for one smallish dinner party. There are other sauces requiring less time and stress. FYI You can deglaze a hot pan with spirits without fear of fire by removing the pan from the stove before adding the spirit. Or, you can leave the pan on the stove if ALL the burners are off. At any rate, after a minute of sizzling from the residual heat while you mix it with the fond enough alcohol will have evaporated so that the mix can be safely returned to the fire. Personally, I like flambe and never miss the opportunity. Back to the sauce: I'm not sure whether or not you could ever have achieved the texture you wanted by a straight reduction of stock plus cream. Probably -- but it would go something like reducing the stock by about 3/4, adding the cream, and reducing by another 1/2. Obviously, you didn't give your sauce the time necessary for an 8:1 reduction of the stock component. Nor should you. The basic rule for to avoid lumps when using thickeners is "cold into hot." So, if you're thickening hot sauce -- one way to do so is to make a slurry with liquid and a starch thickener, such as flour, corn-starch, or arrowroot, using as little liquid as possible to still get a smooth slurry. This is usually in the neighborhood of a little less liquid by volume than starch. Your choice of flour, corn-starch, or arrowroot depends on what you want the sauce to look like, and how you plan to handle the sauce after you've made the addition of thickener. Arrowroot provides the glossiest and most transparent finish, but is the most fragile. Once arrowroot has been added the sauce should not be subjected to high heat -- and certainly should not be boiled. Arrowroot sacues may fall apart after an hour or so no matter how gently they're handled. Arrowroot is especially suitable for acidic sauces. You already know what flour thickened sauces look like. Flour doesn't really work it's thickening magic below the boil -- so, obviously you can do a lot of cooking once the flour's in. This means you can add a little, give it some time to do its thing, and if it's not enough add a little more, and so on. It also gives you the option of adding more liquid if you've over thickened, or making last minute additions of other ingredients. Flour is the most forgiving and flexible thickener. Corn starch (and potato starch, for that matter) splits the difference. It also thickens at or near the boil, but corn-starch thickened sauces can't be held for too long at heat. They're substantially less fragile than arrowroot thickened sauces, except with acidic sauces (e.g., citrus) which will not hold together at all well. In the particular case of your peppercorn sauce under pressure, it would have been better to thicken with a beurre manie rather than a slurry. Like demi-glace it's worth having beurre manie hanging around your freezer or refrigerator. Make it by kneading 4 oz flour thoroughly into 8 oz butter; use saran wrap to roll the mixture into two logs; wrap in saran and freeze. Add to sauces by cutting off 1 tbs sized pieces and whisking in at the boil. 1 tbs of beurre manie will thicken 1-1/2 C of loose sacue into a nappe. Beurre manie is an incredible culinary band-aid which rescues many a sauce. It's really a good thing to have around. Finally, it's not a good idea to let steaks 1" thick or less rest for more than 10 minutes (7 minutes is best) -- whether held at temp or not. The texture and juiciness change during the rest. Without a rest they express their juices as soon as they're cut and end up dry. With too much rest they reabsorb all their juices and become rubbery -- the same as cold roast beef. Bottom line: You either need to have your sauce ready or be able to bring it together very quickly when they steaks come off the fire. Rich

Thanks for asking. I'm flattered. I'm also not really an expert when it comes to this, but here's a complex sofrito I like. You can simplify it by omitting whatever seems like trouble. More, anon. For a 16" Paella Valenciana (4 - 6 people) Ingredients: 1 large Spanish onion 1 red bell pepper 1 green bell pepper 2 peeled and seeded roma tomatoes, or equivalent -- about 1/4 lb, or 1/2 C canned crushed tomatoes. 1/4 lb pancetta, or 4 rashers of good ol' 'merican bacon -- cut into 1/2" pieces 6 cl garlic 3 fillets of anchovies 3 tbs capers 1 tsp caper juice 1 tsp crushed coriander seed 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes -- or less 1/2 tsp sweet paprika -- or omit paprika and pepper flakes and substitute 1 tsp nora (There should be tilda over that n -- and rots o'ruck finding nora) 3 or 4 bay leafs A few threads of saffron -- call it a 1/4 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive oil (Trader Joe's or other el cheapo is fine) Technique: Chop the the onion and peppers to a medium dice. Chop the garlic and anchovies separately from the onion and peppers. Chop the tomatoes fine, or use a box grater. Heat a saute pan or the paellera to medium heat, and add a couple of tbs olive oil. Oil should be hot enough for fragrance, but nowhere near the smoke point. As you know EVO really objects to overheating. Add the bacon and render it down a bit. If you're using lean bacon, back bacon or ham, you'll need more olive oil. When the bacon starts to brown, add the onions and peppers. When the peppers begin to soften, add the garlic, then after a minute add the remaining ingredients and simmer until mixture marries and is reasonably thick. 5 to 10 minutes ish. Recipe can be multiplied... 1-1/2X for an 18" or 20" pan, 2X for an 22" pan, etc. One thing about this recipe is that the saffron is in the sofrito, so don't put it in the stock!. In the greater scheme of things it doesn't make much difference, and it's not that unusual but it is important to keep track of the saffron. I can't remember ever storing a sofrito, but I don't see why it wouldn't keep in the fridge, the same way you store anything Spanish. I.e., covered, with a few mm of olive oil over the top. It ought to freeze well, too. I mean heck -- it's just aromatic mush, isn't it? Now, about that simple thing: Onion and garlic are all you really need in a sofrito, the rest is embellishment. Finally -- like any recipe you get from me, quantities are very elastic. Any improvisation you feel like trying in timing, amounts, or ingredients is enthusiastically encouraged. This is especially true with things like paella. Once you're comfortable with the technique, and you have some idea of how mushy you like your sofrito and how high above the rice the sofrito + stock should go -- throw out the recipes. Paella isn't Sousa, it's jazz. One never know, do one? Rich PS. Claimer/disclaimer. This is an original recipe. No links necessary or extant. PPS. Cook every other part of an arroz de paella separately, and add them at the last uncovered minute -- with the exception of clams which cook happily amidst steamng rice. Even mussels are easier to time separately. PPPS. Don't forget that a good, long resting time, covered and off the fire, is an integral part of an arroz de paella. NOTE: THE EDIT didn't change amounts or timing -- just a few clarifications, some additional misspelling, and a couple of random thoughts.

Group, I say we all meet at Lu Din Gee and discuss this more thoroughly. Or, maybe dim sum dinner at Ocean Bo -- so much cheaper. Or ... whatever. Tangentially, I tried recommending Lu Din Gee to someone who asked for a recommendation between LAX and Norwalk and she thought I "dissed" Ann Arbor when I described their duck as "Toto, we're not in Michigan anymore." Ultimately she apparently decided to go to a mid-scale Mexican place in Torrance in part, I suspect, because of my inferred rudeness. What's your reaction? Do you think there's anything comparable to the Chinese restaurant cluster of the SGV in Ann Arbor? Dis? Or truth? Rich

Chef, Ever tried CalRose rice? Performs better than arborio for arroces and risottos I think; significantly cheaper, and more easily available -- at least on the left coast. There's also an Australian CalRose. Never tried it, personally. Rich

You won't get enough heat out of a wood fire to damage your pans. As Anna said, the big problem is soot. If you're going to cook over an open fire, you'll need a couple of pot lifters. That solves the "ridiculously undersized handles" problem. It's nice to have welding gloves around the house a pair each in Hers and His sizes. They don't cost much, and you can stick your hands places where they have no business being without those getting unslightly third-degree burns. Also good for teasing the cat. Rich

DEFINITELY, turn heat down to a simmer once the stock is boiling. Keep your eye on the pan -- if one part is cooking hotter than another you have to shift the pan around on the stove. In theory, that's part of "the fun." Fully cook everything but the sofrito and the rice first -- then when the rice is almost done, decorate the rice with the meats, fishies, and veg -- just so they have the chance to warm through. None of that stuff really wants to be cooked on top of the rice. When the top layer of rice is al dente, arrange the good stuff on top of the rice in a star pattern, give it a couple of minutes, cover it with foil, give it another couple of minutes at a bare simmer, so you've got some steam in the foil, then turn off the flame. Let it rest for at least 8 minutes tightly covered with aluminum foil. 15 minutes is better than eight. The rest is a critical part of the cooking process. Don't plate. Put the pan directly in the center of the table so everyone serves themselves with a boarding-house reach. This should clarify the purpose fo the star pattern -- it tells people where their portions begin and end. On the subject of the dimples: More than thirty years ago I worked on a "heart lung machine" building a blood oxygenating unit out of a #8 can. Eventually the machine was picked up by a medical equipment manufacturer who had a prototype professionally built. Their machinist lathed the reservoir out of a solid stainless steel billet, machining grooves into the bottom of the reservoir mimicking the reinforcing rings of the can. When the machine went into production and the cylinders were made from stainless tubing with flat stock welded on to the bottom -- rings still machined into the stock. Everyone was unsure whether those rings did anything (they didn't) but were all to embarassed to ask. Rich

vkrn, The express premise is that by creating a pattern of regular irregularities the heat will spread more evenly than with a flat bottom -- but it may be an artifact from a time when paelleras were hand-hammered. Paelleras with the most tradition are earthenware -- very cool, but totally impractical. Most Spaniards use plain carbon steel or thin steel enamelled paelleras . If you can keep a seasoned pan without cleaning the "cure" off of it, steel is the best choice. Enamelled steel is a close second. If you choose enamel, don't choose anything too substantial. The trade off with thin steel is a very responsive pan that must be moved around during cooking for even cooking -- but that's arroz de paella for you. Copper is nice, but prohibitive. In my opinion, stainless and nonstick lag behind. You just can't get as good a socarrat -- the toasty rice you mentioned -- with stainless or stickless. Spanish kids know who Mama loves best by who gets the most socarrat. If you cook paella more than a couple of times a year it's worth having a dedicated paellera. The kind that comes without a lid. A lid is a sure sign of total misunderstanding. It's a well known fact that El Cid invented aluminum foil for the resting period. If you cook paella once a month it's worth putting up with keeping a cured, crusty, steel paellera. You want a pan wide enough to cook your rice in a very thin layer. With a little googling, carbon steel paelleras are inexpensive. If it doesn't work for you it can be replaced with little loss. That having been said, you can do a good job in any shallow pan wide enough to cook a sufficient amount of rice in a thin layer. In Spain they use a kind of medium-grained rice generically known as bomba. FWIW, you don't need imported Euro-rice with its snooty airs and well-tailored clothes. I've had very good luck with arroces (and risottos) using Cal-Rose. Buena suerte, Rich