mise en place
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Posts posted by mise en place
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The technique I use for duck breasts (magrets) is to score the skin in a fine crosshatch pattern making sure not to cut through to the meat. Season the breast with some salt. Put the breast in a cold pan skin side down and set it on a low-medium flame. It will start sizzling quite soon and immediately start to render the fat. After about 8 minutes from the time it starts to sizzle you should have a brown and crispy skin. Make sure you cook it long enough to get the skin good and crispy. Turn the heat up to high-medium and flip the breast. Cook for about 2 minutes and finish in the oven to the doneness you prefer. Remove to a plate, cover and let rest while you work on the pan sauce.
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The way I learned it is: Bechamel, Veloute, Espagnole, Tomato, Hollandaise, and Mayonnaise since it is the basis of other cold sauces: Mousquetaire, Remoulade, Tartare, Russe, Verte.
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Ever since I can remember I have never been able to eat sweet potatoes or yams. I tried them numerous times cooked every way imaginable and all with the same result--gagging and stifling the reflex to expel them from my stomach. Up until about a few months ago I hadn't had any for several years, having given up trying to like them. But they were on the table at a dinner party and the hostess was raving about them. So, not wanting to offend her, I tried them. To my great surprise they were delicious. I even had another helping and they were just as good. It seems that tastes can change--even into middle age.
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"post-modern," "existential," "deconstructs,"... you forgot "impacted" and "logo-centric."
I've never dined at El Bulli, but I trust Adria's food is better than the writing about his food.
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In The Atlantic Corby Kummer has a nice article on corn-fed vs. grass fed as well as some links to a couple of places for buying grass-fed beef.
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These pans are especially utilized at the fish stations of restaurants.
Interesting. I wonder what happened to mine? I've cooked fish in everything else--even straight aluminum--and never had this happen.
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I used one of these to saute a piece of fish. I won't make that mistake again. It turned the fish a dull shade of gray that was, to put it mildly, very unappetizing. That said, they are great for omelets and crepes, when properly seasoned, and other saute work. Because they are relatively light, they don't hold the heat, so they are only good over a constant flame. And, as someone else pointed out, they don't stay flat for long, so they dont work well on a flat cooking surface.
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I've just finished reading Dining at the Pavillon by Joseph Wechsberg. A very enjoyable read about the heyday of what was, to many, the greatest French restaurant outside of France. Anyway, here is the recipe given for Striped Bass Pavillon:
Place a nine-pound striped bass in a pan with one pound of sliced mushrooms, one cup of sliced shallots, one bottle of dry white wine, half a pound of butter; salt, pepper and thyme. Cook in the oven for forty-five minutes at 345 F. Remove the fish from the pan, reduce the liquid to one third of the original volume, blend in cream sauce and cook for fifteen minutes. Add three fresh, stewed tomatoes and one pound of sliced mushrooms, simmer for ten more minutes, add two soup spoons of butter and six egg yolks, mix well and pour sauce over the fish. Place under the broiler until golden brown.
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I think American style is, if not wierd, quite inelegant, what with swapping the knife and fork back and forth between hands. Afterall, the fork is on the left. Even worse is holding the fork like a baseball bat with the tines pointing down while cutting. I've adopted a semi-European version of holding utensils. I hold the fork in my right and the knife in my left.
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I had some leftover poached chicken breasts, and seeing as it was quite warm today, I decided to do a salad. I did a kind of Cobb salad with a mustard and balsamic vinaigrette. Instead of the usual ingredients, I used cucumbers, red onions, strawberries, chicken, pear with blue cheese on top, apple, blueberries and some croutons. Quite tasty and not as heavy as a normal Cobb salad.
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Let us know what the job is like. I've always wondered how the kitchens in these type of operations work--Chili's, Appleby's, etc.
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Mise--how often do you empty the hopper of beans, take out those screws, remove the plastic hopper and peek in at the burrs? If you find you have to shake the machine, it might be time to do that and remove some of the grit that has accumulated inside. I bet you won't have to shake again for a long while. In two years of use--how many times have you had to do this?
Also, what grind setting do you have it cranked down to?
I've cleaned the burrs twice. Once after about 4 months of steady use, and they were quite clean when I opened them up. They didn't really need a cleaning. I waited another 6 months, and they were still looking quite good. Not dirty enough to keeps beans from sticking.
The setting doesn't seem to matter. I can grind for drip at 4 and they still stick. Oh well. Some day I'm going to get a Mazzer. Actually, if I can sell the Silvia and Rocky I should about have enough for a Mazzer.
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Comparing the Isomac Millenium to the Silvia is kind of unfair given that the Millenium is, I believe, twice as expensive. Did you get yours plumbed in?
The comparison is not fair. But the ease and quality of espresso produced with the Isomac is much better. Of course, the Isomac is about twice the price--and worth it in my book.
The only people I know who have this problem are those who use what I would consider overly-roasted beans to make their espresso.Beans that are excessively oily do indeed stick in the hopper. I usually roast my own beans in a Hearthware. I've been roasting Malabar Gold just to the point where it gets shiny as per the good Dr. John's directions. It still sticks in the hopper even when nearly full. This morning I was grinding some decaf for my wife I bought at a local shop that roasts on-site. This is a light roast made for a drip coffee-maker. It stuck twice.
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Having had a Rocky grinder for about 2 years now, I would not give it a whole-hearted recommendation. First, the dosing mechanism is noisy and drives my wife nuts. The clackety-clack can be heard all over the house. Second, the base is too small and does not extend past the chute. Consdquently, you will always have coffee grounds on the counter. Third, the beans are constantly sticking in the hopper, which requires that the machine be given a hard shake to free them up and proceed with grinding. Given the weight of this thing, this is quite a nuisance. I'm seriously considering a Mazzer and selling the Rocky.
As for espresso machines, I've still got a Sylvia that I haven't got around to selling. It is in very good shape. I replaced it with an Isomac Millenium. The Isomac is much more consistent and has loads of steaming capability. It has a heat exchanger, so you can pull shots and steam simultaneously. I'll be keeping this machine for a long time.
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Lobster and vanilla.
I've heard this is a great combination, but I've never tried it. Has anyone tried this one?
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To clarify, you are saying that we can have raw milk cheese as long as it has been held at 35F for at least 60 days?
If so, then why are we so limited to the cheeses we receive from foreign countries?
Any good domestic stinky cheeses?
Holding at low temp for that long allows sufficient growth of good bacteria that will kill off the bad bacteria that pasteurization would take care of.
I'm not really a cheese expert, but my understanding the most sought after cheeses by US cheese lovers are the young raw milk cheeses. I've never had the pleasure of tasting any myself, so I don't know why they are so desirable.
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A question for tourne-rs: how many times do you actually turn the potato (or whatever) upside-down and back around again when you tourne?
When I first started doing it I flipped the thing around and around. Now I find myself doing it less.
I can do a small red potato one time around. Doing 4 out of a russet takes longer to get around the flat side. It seems that after you've done enough of them you just get a feel for how many cuts to make in order to get 7 sides. But I still get a 6 once in awhile.
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I know you can get raw milk cheese in the U.S., but it is limited to cheeses aged for no longer than 3 months I think.....when I was last in the Italian alps I had some 3 year old cheese that was almost black! Now that's some stinky cheese
It is the other way around:
Current US Law Regarding Pasteurization and Cheesemaking
Milk for cheesemaking must be pasteurized or the cheese held at 35 degrees F. for a minimum of 60 days before it can be sold. This applies to domestic or imported cheeses.
I just finished a cheese seminar today--27 cheeses in 2 1/2 hours. I do relish a good "stinky" cheese, but 27 of them in such a short timespan is a bit much. A couple of people had to stop after about 12. They were looking a bit pekid.
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A vegatable, most often carrots and potatoes, cut into barrel shapes with seven sides. Also an exercise inflicted upon culinary students in order to build up hand strength for holding a knife. Speaking of which, how many of you remember the first time you had to make mayonnaise without the use of a blender? Good for those arm muscles....
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I've had them a couple of times--carrots and small red potatoes. As for doing them myself, I don't find any advantage to using the bird's beak over a regular paring knife. Also, cuting a large Russet into smaller tournes is much harder than cutting small red potatoes into single tournes. I've got an exam Saturday and we have to do 4 tournes out of 1 Russett. Mine are passable, but not perfect by any stretch.
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I don't find the notion of a "sophisticated" palate particularly interesting or useful. It does tend to smack of arrogance and disdain for what is common. But what I find most unhelpful about the term is that it refers only to matters of taste and judgment. That is, a person with a sophisticated palate is usually said only to "like" X where X is not something common. Merely liking something uncommon is not particularly interesting. It takes no particular skill and is completely uninformative.
What I find interesting is captured by terms like "educated" palate or "discriminating" palate. This is someone who has a very broad range of tastes and can describe clearly what something tastes like. And, if X is a prepared dish, can discern all of the ingredients. This is a skill and not merely the having of an opinion. These sorts of skills are what is to be cultivated if you consider yourself a "foodie" (also not a term I particulary like, but the other choices--gourmand, maven, etc., aren't that great either......)
By contrast, it annoys me when I read or hear someone say, "I hate X" where X is some food they despise. You might as well just announce your ignorance and lack of education with regards to matters of the palate. People who make such claims tend to have quite lengthy lists of such foods and are generally unadventurous about trying new foods.
10 Days in Nice
in France: Cooking & Baking
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I've heard that prices for copper cookware are significantly lower in France than in the US. I will be in Nice for 10 days and would like to buy a few pieces. Does anyone know of a good shop?