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Improving my cooking skills (2003)

MatthewB

By MatthewB
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hannahcooks

hannahcooks

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I've just started the Baking with Julia book.  Made...er, finished the croissants yesterday (it actually turned into a two-day project (I must read ahead next time)). 

So I'd recommend working your way through that book, if for no other reason than I'm selfish and wouldn't mind having someone to commiserate...er, celebrate with. :rolleyes:

I picked up Baking w/ Julia last week. I've browsed it & it looks great.

I'll be working through it so commiseration & celebration will be on our agenda.

Now I just have to get out of this cooking rut that I fell into this week. :blink:

So, y'all. My Baking With Julia arrived yesterday- any suggestions for where to start, considering that my KitchenAid stand mixer (and hopefully a food processor, as well) won't arrive until Christmas?

Also, Sherri, re: Jacques Pepin's Techniques- don't be intimidated. I use it as a reference- for instance, I was cooking leeks, and even though I was using a different method, I still looked up leeks in his TOC. Which led me to learn how to clean leeks. I always learn something. I also just got Jacques Pepin Celebrates, which covers some of the same territory, but in color. The omelet section in JPC alone is well worth the price.

Hannah Cooks
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MatthewB

MatthewB

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So, y'all. My Baking With Julia arrived yesterday- any suggestions for where to start, considering that my KitchenAid stand mixer (and hopefully a food processor, as well) won't arrive until Christmas?

Refresh my memory as I've only browsed through BWJ once . . .

Don't the recipes include instructions for hand-kneading?

More work but I find it enjoyable at times.

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sherribabee

sherribabee

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So, y'all. My Baking With Julia arrived yesterday- any suggestions for where to start, considering that my KitchenAid stand mixer (and hopefully a food processor, as well) won't arrive until Christmas?

Also, Sherri, re: Jacques Pepin's Techniques-  don't be intimidated. I use it as a reference- for instance, I was cooking leeks, and even though I was using a different method, I still looked up leeks in his TOC.  Which led me to learn how to clean leeks.  I always learn something.  I also just got Jacques Pepin Celebrates, which covers some of the same territory, but in color. The omelet section in JPC alone is well worth the price.

Hmmmm...I went straight for the croissants, just cuz I was hungry for them at the time. Not a smart move on my part, as I started them in the evening after work. You pretty much need a whole day to make them properly. But they sure were good (even if mine were a little flat because I got impatient and didn't let them rise long enough -- I think it was about 2 AM when they finally came out of the oven).

I'm not sure what to tackle next, but whatever you decide to do, I'll follow along and we can compare notes. :smile:

Mmmmmm...omeletes. Mine always come out weird, perhaps I should take a peek at JPC.

EDIT: Too much coffee today -- fingers got awfully excited and typed all on their own. Too bad fingers can't spell.

Edited by sherribabee (log)
Sherri A. Jackson
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mikeycook

mikeycook

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St. Jacques' autohagiography "The Apprentice" is quite nice. But you should get Complete Techniques to receive the benediction and grace that flows from the thousands of photographs of his hands.

Awhile back, I picked up the hardcover of Complete Techniques on a bargain closeout. It's about to come off the shelf. :smile:

After reading the section in Pepin's book where he talks about the chef who, when sick, would request of Pepin complicated dishes in Pellaprat's Modern French Culinary Art, I was inspired to pick it up. Some of the pictures are pretty far out, but it also has inspired a number of presentation ideas. It also has one of the best collections of egg recipes (with many pictured) I have seen (and I had been trying to come up with new brunch ideas).

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."

~ Fernand Point

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MatthewB

MatthewB

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What do you think about the whole wheat sandwich bread? I was going to try that Sunday, since I've been baking sandwich bread every weekend for the past few weeks.

Two loaves are about ready for the oven.

I was planning on the white sandwich bread but--due to poor planning on my part--I only had half the bread flour needed. (I was feeling lazy plus I'd already been to the grocery this AM.)

So, I just continued with the white bread recipe but used whole wheat flour for the other flour half. (I found out that I'm also very low on all-purpose flour.)

Bastard loaves coming up. :wacko:

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hannahcooks

hannahcooks

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Well, I omitted the malt extract, since I couldn't find it anywhere, and warily kneaded it by hand (there were no by hand instructions after all, but the dough seemed okay anyway). And then my fiance inadvertently turned the oven down from 375 to 275 midway through baking. After turning it back up and baking a little longer, the bread came out great, despite it all.

Hannah Cooks
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hannahcooks

hannahcooks

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You can buy malt extract at a home-brew store. For some reason these places often sell indoor gardening supplies, if you're into that type of thing.

Thanks! I'll check there.

I wonder if there's a lot of crossover between the brew your own beer types and the grow your own, er, weed types. Based on the ones I know, I'd say yes, but that's a small sampling.

Hannah Cooks
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MatthewB

MatthewB

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MatthewB, how did your bastard loaves come out? I made the white bread recipe yesterday. The bread has a really crisp crust, but is somehow oddly both salty and tasteless.  It's much better toasted than plain.

The bastard loaves turned out ok but I wished it was a bit sweeter. (I did the white bread recipe but used 1/2 wheat flour. :wacko: )

I was going to do white bread yesterday but ended up working on clearing the back 40 instead.

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SethG

SethG

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This is a great thread. I've been mulling over getting "Complete Techniques" and "New Making of a Cook" for a while. Now I've ordered them. And "CookWise" was one I hadn't heard of--it contains a recipe for bourbon pecan pie, so I had to have that too! If anyone's looking for "The New Cook," there are several used copies available at Amazon.com.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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hannahcooks

hannahcooks

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I tried the wheat bread again this weekend- still couldn't find "malt extract" but both Whole Foods and the natural food store carried this, which I used instead. The bread came out delicious, so I'm not complaining.

I also made my first batch of puff pastry- had some difficulty on the first turn, as the butter pushed right through the dough, but I think/hope it will bake okay. It was a lot hardy than Judy Rogers' "rough puff", that's for sure. I'm using it to make the alsation onion tart tonight.

Hannah Cooks
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MatthewB

MatthewB

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I tried the wheat bread again this weekend- still couldn't find "malt extract" but both Whole Foods and the natural food store carried this, which I used instead. The bread came out delicious, so I'm not complaining.

I also made my first batch of puff pastry- had some difficulty on the first turn, as the butter pushed right through the dough, but I think/hope it will bake okay. It was a lot hardy than Judy Rogers' "rough puff", that's for sure.  I'm using it to make the alsation onion tart tonight.

I picked up the same barley malt at a local health food store. Hadn't used it yet though.

Much of my free time is being devoted to this weekend's Heartland gathering, so it will be at least a week before I'm back to some of this.

However, I did do the original Plum Torte this Sunday. Yum!

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SethG

SethG

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My copy of Pepin's Complete Techniques arrived over the weekend, and having flipped through it, I'm not sure what to do with it. The actual recipes are rather scarce (I know, "it's the techniques, not the recipes!"), and while I'm prepared to waste a certain number of carrots and onions in order to practice knife technique, I really don't want to waste cuts of meat in order to practice larding, for example.

I don't want to stick it on the shelf for reference and just pull it out when some recipe calls upon me to do something unfamiliar, either. I had hoped to work through it in some way, to try to do a lesson every week or two, skipping things I may feel I know or don't need to know, but trying to be fairly rigorous about covering the book. I see now that this would require me to envision a dish that calls for larded meat, for example, before I do that lesson. And I'm not much of a planner. I'm a last-minute-shopping kind of guy.

MatthewB, have you done much more with Pepin than the souffle you mentioned? Have you any thoughts on where you're going to go with Pepin?

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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MatthewB

MatthewB

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MatthewB, have you done much more with Pepin than the souffle you mentioned?  Have you any thoughts on where you're going to go with Pepin?

Nothing other than the souffle & that's in his biography.

I'll pull Complete Techniques this evening & come with some ideas. Would probably be fun to discuss with you. How's that sound?

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SethG

SethG

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That sounds great, MatthewB!

Also, having looked at the book again this afternoon, I believe I was mistaken. After you get through the basics (the first 70 or so techniques), most of the techniques that follow lead to actual dishes you can serve up and eat.

And some of the techniques that don't lead to dishes would be fun to combine into an evening of self-betterment. For instance, technique #52 (carving watermelon) and #70 (iced vodka bottle)-- that sounds like a pretty good time.

Edited by SethG (log)

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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MatthewB

MatthewB

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That sounds great, MatthewB!

Also, having looked at the book again this afternoon, I believe I was mistaken.  After you get through the basics (the first 70 or so techniques), most of the techniques that follow lead to actual dishes you can serve up and eat.

And some of the techniques that don't lead to dishes would be fun to combine into an evening of self-betterment.  For instance, technique #52 (carving watermelon) and #70 (iced vodka bottle)-- that sounds like a pretty good time.

I took a look last night & more or less came to similiar conclusions.

Seth, what would you think of us composing a menu from Complete Techniques--about once a month with three or four courses, perhaps--and the two of us each produce the menu the same evening or some such?

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