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What is the one cooking trick

fresco

By fresco
in Cooking

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jango

jango

Posted
Posted

Is there room for one more chopping onion trick? -

Position the cutting board just to the side of the extractor fans so that the fumes from the onions are drawn away from your face.

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
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IrishCream: Here's a little video I made. Maybe it'll help.

onion.avi (2.59 mb)

Wow, Dave. Bless you.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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fifi

fifi

Posted
Posted

Dave... That video is exceedingly cool. You have just changed my onion chopping technique. I always had a hard time with those horizontal (to the board) cuts. This makes much more sense.

I vote for videos!

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Wendy DeBord

Wendy DeBord

Posted
Posted

How about a baking trick that has changed my baking?

Letting go of baking "rules" and using my own common sense.

Little tip:Making egg sauces or creams- never adding the sugar to the egg. Instead dissolve the sugar in your liquid then temper it into egg.

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
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I don't agree with Dave's technique for my own use. But I can see how it would be easier than the pro cut for small quantities.

I thought of a life-changing technique that, well, changed my life. And it's been said here earlier: roasting vegetables.

It's been about twenty years now since I've realized that you can roast just about any vegetable and wind up with something brilliant.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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col klink

col klink

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Posted
It's been about twenty years now since I've realized that you can roast just about any vegetable and wind up with something brilliant.

Word. Though it's only been about a year for me.

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enthusiast

enthusiast

Posted
Posted

have any of you read John Lanchester: The Debt to Pleasure? It begins with the words: this is an unconventional cookbook. and is in fact a novel - difficult to describe but highly recommended. it is littered throughout with recipes and thoughts on food. In one recipe the narrator tells you to use something (can't rmmeber what - the vegetable water perhaps?) that you're bound to have discarded if you haven't read the whole recipe through first.

this is a long winded way of saying - read the whole recipe through before starting.

small tip: add soem bicarb to green vegetables - helps them keep their colour

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formerly grueldelux

formerly grueldelux

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One important concept for me was the idea of cooking with residual heat, either that contained in the food itself or that in the cooking vessel. It seems so obvious now, but I can remember the days before I had a grasp on the idea, and I was way more baffled and intimidated at the stove. Cuts of meat rising 5 degrees as they rest, dried beans finishing perfectly off heat, eggs cooking covered and off heat etc.

"Tis no man. Tis a remorseless eating machine."

-Captain McAllister of The Frying Dutchmen, on Homer Simpson

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Chef Fowke

Chef Fowke

Posted
Posted
I just had an apprentice, Steven Duyzer, come back from a four month tour at a 2 star Michelin restaurant tonight. He gave me the 'new way of making veal jus'! It sounds great and my apprentice says it is the best thing he has every tasted.

I have just finished my sixth course and fourth bottle of wine. I will post the recipe tomorrow. Fat Guy please call me a call if I forget. This recipe is revolutionary (or at least 21st century), Steven says it is like jello, the colour of molasses and is never bitter!

Sorry it took so long to post this recipe. The cruise ships have shown up in Vancouver and we are back to the 500 - 600 dinners a night....

I was taught be many great chefs how to make a proper veal stock. Over the last 17 years I have never, ever swayed one ounce or one degree from my original recipe. Roast bones, Mirepoix, tomato paste...bring to the boil, skim, simmer for eight hours (skimming) and strain through triple cheesecloth. Cool the stock and repeat the process with new roasted bones. To reduce: reduce by half, strain through cheesecloth, repeat until you reach the desire consistence.

Well, this recipe is wrong. Everything I know about cooking is now in question. I tried this new recipe for veal stock over the last two days and I cannot find anything wrong with it. It is so simple and pure and it makes one of the best base veal stocks I have ever tasted! It is as if my taste buds have just been awoken.

Recipe and Technique:

½ veal bones (knuckles) and ½ chicken bones: do not roast!

Put the bones in a kettle and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, drain and rinse with ice and water.

Refill the kettle to just cover the bones. Add a traditional Mirepoix, un-roasted and with ripe, raw tomatoes instead of tomato paste. Simmer for eight hours while skimming. Strain through cheesecloth and cool.

Reduce the stock (no need to strain) until 1/4 the volume. It is like magic, the stock is a beautiful rich golden brown with lots of texture and body. Absolutely no bitterness and lots of gelatin.

On a daily basis the stock can be refreshed with a small Mirepoix and your choice of carcass (roasted duck, lamb, venison, veal, rabbit, etc). The alcohol and bones used really shine through. The flavour is rich while not being over-powering or of a tacky texture.

I guess I need to go back to Europe for a refresher course. This has truly revolutionized my thoughts on cooking. I hope everyone enjoys the recipe!

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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browniebaker

browniebaker

Posted
Posted

I finally achieved success in pie-crust pre-baking when I used ENOUGH ceramic pie weights -- a whole pie-plateful. The ceramic pie weights are sold in little packages, never enough to fill an entire pie-plate, so that the edges of my crust always slid downward. I finally went to Bed Bath & Beyond and bought four more packages of Mrs. Anderson's pie weights (that's a brand name). No more slippage, and the pie crust is beautiful.

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marie-louise

marie-louise

Posted
Posted
IrishCream: Here's a little video I made. Maybe it'll help.

onion.avi (2.59 mb)

Thanks, Dave. That video was a major-DUH, why didn't I ever think of that! To think that I was so pleased with myself when I learned the trick of cutting onions (or anything else) in half so that I was cutting something w/ a flat surface. :hmmm: Now I might have something better than rustic-looking dice.

What other chopping tricks do you know?

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DaveFaris

DaveFaris

Posted
Posted

Sorry, marie-louise... I just did the video because I couldn't explain the technique verbally. My knife techniques run the gamut from A to B. You might want to pose the question to the eGullet Culinary Institute, though. (Or were you directing your question to everyone?)

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gus_tatory

gus_tatory

Posted
Posted
Recipe and Technique:

½ veal bones (knuckles) and ½ chicken bones: do not roast!

Put the bones in a kettle and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, drain and rinse with ice and water.

Refill the kettle to just cover the bones. Add a traditional Mirepoix, un-roasted and with ripe, raw tomatoes instead of tomato paste. Simmer for eight hours while skimming. Strain through cheesecloth and cool.

Reduce the stock (no need to strain) until 1/4 the volume. It is like magic, the stock is a beautiful rich golden brown with lots of texture and body. Absolutely no bitterness and lots of gelatin.

Chef Fowke--

am going to try your veal stock as it sounds fundamental and good. it's interesting, the recipe reminds me of one for Viet Pho (Soupe Tonkinoise) that i have from www.telequebec.tv/aladistasio

going to go find link because the Pho recipe is amazing... :smile:

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the ocean."

--Isak Dinesen

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  • 2 weeks later...
Chef Fowke

Chef Fowke

Posted
Posted
ok, here's the link to the Pho (soupe Tonkinoise) recipe.

Pho recipe

it's in French: should i be sorry or offer to translate?!  :blink:  :laugh:

gus

Nice soup. Reminds me of a Pot au feu à la Parisienne with fish sauce. The recipe was very easy to make and turned out great. I am going to add it to my master collection. Thank you.

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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