eG Foodblog: Malawry - Expecting a future culinary student

[helenjp]

FOr mashing, steam is best, boil 2nd best. Steam whole; for boiling soak in water for a while (couple hours) first - the color when cooked will be much brighter.

[Dana]

I roast mine in the oven for mashing. I think I get a much more intense flavor that way. I roast potatoes to make potato salad, too. Much more potato-y.

[petite tête de chou]

I'll second the roasting method. The sweet potatoes already have enough liquid in them without adding more by boiling or steaming. That said, I've boiled them and dried them a bit in a hot pan before adding the butter and cream and they tasted just fine.

[Malawry]

So I took some pictures of the kitchen where I teach Thursdays last night. In Jefferson County, there is currently only one high school, and it's bursting at the seams. A couple of years ago, the county built a new complex on the campus of the high school just to handle the ninth graders...and they dubbed it the "Ninth Grade Complex." It's the newest building in the school system (I think), and it has a pretty nice Family and Consumer Sciences classroom in the back. I only shot the half of the classroom with kitchens. Behind the demo station, there's a half-wall separating the room; the other side is occupied with sewing machines.

This is the view from the door of the classroom. You can see the demo island in the center. There are four kitchenettes along the left side there in addition to the demo island. For some reason they built the demo island very narrow and small, so it's hard for me to do everything I need to do there. I've found myself setting up MEP and sticking it on the border half-wall between the two kitchenettes directly in front of the island. That's ok, because in this class almost everybody spends most of the time crowded around the demo island, and so I can just ask somebody to hand me whatever I need. The students here are very active and inquisitive, and they're a ball to teach!

The view from the other side of the demo island. As you can see, I got my stock working again as soon as I walked in before I took any photos. The kitchenette at the far end of this photo is actually designed to be handicap-accessible, which I think is very cool even if none of my students have mobility impairments. The ADA has caused all sorts of interesting changes to how classrooms are designed, including Family and Consumer Sciences classrooms.

All the cabinets in the kitchenettes are stocked with equipment (and I'm allowed to use it, unlike in Frederick), but I do find myself schlepping more professional-type equipment back and forth because the selection is often paltry. There are no china caps, chinoises, scales, spiders, stockpots. So I bring those things from home.

Ack! The Journal-News is here to photograph my mashers story. More later...

[divalasvegas]

So I'm back from tonight's class, and a little wrung-out. I went ahead and unloaded my car and unpacked everything (usually I leave the nonperishables in my car until the next morning) because I just wanted to be done with it. Besides, it's unseasonably warm and I knew it would be cooler tomorrow, ergo less pleasant to be messing about with junk in my vehicle.

Class went well, though those who wanted to sample the soup and the tart had to stay a little late in order to do so. There was one major mishap: the mixers in the kitchen either don't work or else do a piss-poor job. I'm annoyed that this means schlepping my Kitchen-Aid in and out of that space for future classes involving pastry work (which is pretty much all of them). Everybody seemed to get a lot out of the stockmaking demo and discussion, which was what I was hoping would happen. I semi-joked that to me, the difference between somebody who dabbles and a serious cook is whether or not the person makes their own stock, and that seemed to drive home for them the importance of stockmaking in a single sentence. (After all, everybody wants ME to take them seriously! )

More detail, and some photos of the kitchens both at home and where I teach Thursdays, to follow tomorrow (unless I can't sleep again, in which case you might get them at 4am...sigh...).

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Hi Rochelle. Kudos on this great blog. Were there any comments by the students on the difference in taste between homemade stock and the dreck that's in commercial canned soups? The canned stuff usually tastes of very little chicken and mostly salt. I love your definition of a serious cook as opposed to a dabbler.

Also back to your chocolate demo, I was wondering if there are cases where one may not like the taste of a chocolate on its own but it turns out to be delicious when used in a recipe? Can you predict how the chocolate will affect a recipe by whether or not you like/dislike it by sampling it beforehand?

BTW, could you please bottle up some of that tremendous energy you have and share it with me?

[judiu]

Ok, what's the difference between a china cap, a chinoise and a tamis? I know they're all fine sieves, but that's all.

[Malawry]

Hi Rochelle.  Kudos on this great blog.  Were there any comments by the students on the difference in taste between homemade stock and the dreck that's in commercial canned soups?  The canned stuff usually tastes of very little chicken and mostly salt.  I love your definition of a serious cook as opposed to a dabbler.

Also back to your chocolate demo, I was wondering if there are cases where one may not like the taste of a chocolate on its own but it turns out to be delicious when used in a recipe?  Can you predict how the chocolate will affect a recipe by whether or not you like/dislike it by sampling it beforehand?

BTW, could you please bottle up some of that tremendous energy you have and share it with me?

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We didn't do a vertical tasting of canned, aseptically packaged and powdered stock substitutes or anything. I did discuss those items and explain how they are attempting to imitate the Real Deal. And we did taste chicken that had been poached for an hour against chicken that had been pooped to death in the stock for 4+ hours. If I did a vertical tasting of stocks, I'd have to figure out what to do with the leftovers! (I hate throwing away food with a passion.)

Your chocolate question is a good one, and I don't have a response for it beyond "I wouldn't cook with a chocolate I thought tasted bad." Just as I wouldn't cook with a wine I thought was yucky.

Tremendous energy? Whazzat? I feel like I'm running on fumes much of the time these days.

[Malawry]

Ok, what's the difference between a china cap, a chinoise and a tamis? I know they're all fine sieves, but that's all.

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A china cap and a chinois are both conically-shaped strainers. A china cap is coarser, with larger holes, and will take out most distinguishable solids from a liquid. A chinois is much finer, with a tightly woven screen or tiny pinholes as openings, and strains out much of the fine "muck" that's missed by a china cap or other strainer. With both, you suspend the strainer over a bowl or pot or whatever (there's usually a hook so you can hook it to the rim) and pour the liquid in.

You can use a ladle or a spatula to help force the mixture through by plunging it up and down, touching the bottom with each stroke, or you can use something like a knife steel to tap the rim repeatedly to help push things through (but don't you DARE do that when I am around or the sound will drive me stir crazy and I WILL KILL YOU to make it stop. Ahem! ) If your name is Thomas Keller, you regard these techniques as blasphemy and insist on letting liquids spend all day straining through a chinois if that's what it takes, and then you repeat the process, washing the chinois and straining again until nothing catches in the screen. If your name is Anthony Bourdain, you tell people to use a ladle to mash lobster bodies against the strainer so you get every last smidgen of liquid out of the stuff and then yell at your newbie employee to get on with her life and start on the next job already.

A tamis is a drum-shaped sieve used mostly for moist but not liquid mixtures. It looks like a cake pan with a screen instead of a solid circle on the bottom. You can buy different tamis with different finenesses, depending on your needs. To use a tamis, you turn it screen-up over a bowl or plate and put your moist mixture on the screen. Use a plastic bowl scraper or rubber spatula type device to push the mixture through the screen. When you're done pushing everything through the screen, turn the tamis over and scrape anything clinging to the underside of the screen into your bowl. I do not own a tamis, though I've thought about buying one. If you ever need to push a meat through the tamis, get as much of the sinew out of the meat as humanly possible before you start shoving it through the screen. Unless you, like, enjoy living in a world of hurt, that is.

[Malawry]

So, I took a photo of the finished, unstrained chicken stock right before class started last night:

Can't you almost smell it? I think stock makes a house smell like a home. I'm just waiting for stock-scented air fresheners to come on the market.

I didn't take any pictures during my class...too busy actually teaching to stop and snap anything. We did manage to get everything done last night, including a good 45 minutes of talking about what stock is and how you can use it. I might bring in some of my demi-glace next week because I explained what it was and what it takes to make it, and some of my students were amazed that anybody would spend that much time on any ingredient that they didn't eat straight-up. (Well, I might occasionally eat a little spoonful of demi when nobody's looking, but don't tell!)

I did, however, have a little time before class to muck about with the camera and the demo kitchen mirror so you can see how cute I look in chef apparel these days. You can sorta see my belly in these images, sorta not...the side view makes it a little easier...

There are only two people selling maternity chef jackets that I could find online...one sells only custom-made, gorgeous jackets with embroidery around the neckline and cuffs that cost about $160, and the other sells rather ordinary-looking versions for about $60. I just couldn't see spending even $60 on a jacket I'd only need for several months, so I ended up buying a $30 jacket in November that's several sizes too large with the hopes it'd fit over my belly. It does, but it's huge in every other regard. And a small part of me wishes I showed more while wearing the jacket.

[Malawry]

So, for my monthly column, the newspaper usually sends a photographer to my house to take step-by-step photos of whatever I'm making. I try to set things up in advance so that the photographer doesn't have to wait for everything to cook from the beginning while he's here. I also always arrange for us to sit down and eat whatever I've made after we're done cooking and snapping photos, which is always a good time. There are three staff photographers at the Journal-News, and I've had each of them at my house before. Today, Martin showed up.

I always arrange my MEP before the photog arrives so it's ready to be shot.

I had some potatoes working before Martin made it to my house, so we could start mashing some pretty much immediately. I also had a yam in the oven roasting in advance, thanks to the suggestions here, and had roasted some garlic cloves earlier in the morning.

I always dry out boiled potatoes before I mash them using my ricer. The more water you get out of the potatoes, the more butter and cream you can cram in there to replace it!

As you can see, I add a lot of cream to my potatoes...I like them kinda loose and rich.

The garlic probably could have used a little more time in the oven to mellow out. As it is, I have very garlicy breath right now.

As you can see, we made 4 types of mashers: plain, roasted garlic, horseradish, and some sweet potato mash with a touch of maple syrup. This now means I've spent two days in a row eating potatoes for lunch!

Martin seemed a little confused as to why I'd want to take a picture of him taking pictures of my food, but he went along with it. It was a very meta-experience.

Now I just have to write the column! Heh heh.

[Pan]

Rochelle, did you tell all your students about this blog?

[Malawry]

Rochelle, did you tell all your students about this blog?

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I mentioned it to some people, but nobody expressed interest in checking it out so I didn't give the URL to anybody.

Well, except Martin from the Journal-News, to whom I am about to send a link.

[snowangel]

Rochelle, are any of your students giving you any indication of whether they are using any of the new techniques and skills you are teaching? What's up for your class next week?

[emilyr]

Question about those "yams" (which I think are really sweet potatoes)...

Is it better to boil or bake them if the goal is to mash them up and mix them with other yummy things?

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I steam all potatoes for mashes. They don't get too soggy and cook faster for boiling. Although baking might make a nice carmelized flavor for mashed sweet potatoes.

[helenjp]

I think you're doing your students a big favor actually demo'ing stock-making in class. Especially when I think about how much that stockpot must weigh!

Sorry about the sweet potato advice, I totally forgot that you have different sweet potatoes. You'd need some considerable muscle to mash a roasted sweet potato here! I second the steaming advice though.

[Malawry]

Rochelle, are any of your students giving you any indication of whether they are using any of the new techniques and skills you are teaching?  What's up for your class next week?

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Yes, some of them are using the techniques I've shown them--or at least fantasizing about using the techniques, anyway. Last night several people were talking about making biscuits for shortcakes sometime soon since they'd loved them so much two weeks ago.

Next week in Frederick is my tapas class. I'm still working out the menu but it will definitely include romesco sauce, breadsticks with serrano, something with manchego, and a potato tortilla. Suggestions welcome...I just got a copy of Jose Andres Tapas book and plan to spend some time paging through it over the next few days.

Next week in Jefferson County, I'm teaching some basics of fish and poultry. I was thinking some kind of Asian-spiced seared salmon and perhaps braised chicken thighs.

[Malawry]

I steam all potatoes for mashes. They don't get too soggy and cook faster for boiling. Although baking might make a nice carmelized flavor for mashed sweet potatoes.

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Sorry about the sweet potato advice, I totally forgot that you have different sweet potatoes. You'd need some considerable muscle to mash a roasted sweet potato here! I second the steaming advice though.

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I ended up baking the sweet potato that I mashed. It came out just fine. Thanks for all the advice, though!

I always boil regular potatoes for mashing.

[Malawry]

This afternoon, I did a little MEP for dinner, and I reduced all 8 quarts of chicken stock so it doesn't take up so much room in my freezer. I also managed to get in a little 30min nap, which greatly improved my mood and energy levels. Mom arrived around 4:30ish.

This is what 8 quarts of stock look like:

This is what 8 cups of stock look like:

Here's what I made for the three of us for dinner:

Salad with five-spice pecans and shallot-sherry vinaigrette

Tomato soup

Seared duck breast with pears and poire william-demi sauce, mashers, asparagus with butter and balsamic

My husband had strawberries and whipped cream. Mom and I are digging into the cheesecake in a little while.

The pecans are simple...saute in butter with a little salt, sugar and Chinese five-spice powder. The vinaigrette is leftover from a vinaigrette demonstration in my Jefferson County class 2 weeks ago...shallots, mustard, sherry vinegar, s, p, EVOO. I brunoised some onions to put in the sauce for the duck.

The sauce included this poire william eau-de-vie that I bought in France last year and never took the opportunity to crack open. It smells amazing and I look forward to drinking some in a few months after the baby is born. The sauce contains butter, onion, poire william and demi.

I sauteed some peeled, sliced pears to serve atop the duck. The sauce is on the back burner.

I whipped the cream early this afternoon. Half of it got Splenda, the other half powdered sugar, so everybody can have whip to their tastes.

The salads included some red onion and red bell pepper for color.

Tomato soup made it onto the menu 'cause it was leftover from last night.

The plated entree. My spouse didn't get mashed potatoes, and we gave him two duck breasts. Mom wanted more mashers than I did (she didn't already have them for lunch today) so she got a bigger pile. I was very into the pears and gave myself plenty of them.

Everybody was satisfied with dinner. I was too full for dessert, as was Mom, but I think we'll find some room shortly. My husband had to run to the university for a concert, and Mom and I are planning a quiet evening with a few games of Rummikub alone here.

BTW, Mom brought me some books my grandfather was hanging onto from his place. He took a serious turn for the worse healthwise in recent months (he just turned 90) and she and Dad have been working on moving him out of his Florida condo and into a nursing home where they live in Greensboro where he can get the care he needs. Zayde still had some of my Bubbe's old cookbooks in his place...he gave me her 1950s Settlement Cookbook when I last visited because I was so interested in paging through it. Well, tonight's haul includes Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and a bunch of old Jewish cookbooks I hadn't heard of before. I am very happy about all this! Plus it meant I finally released Mom's copy of MtAoFC back to her--I'd been holding it hostage for years.

[hathor]

Rochelle, are any of your students giving you any indication of whether they are using any of the new techniques and skills you are teaching?  What's up for your class next week?

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Yes, some of them are using the techniques I've shown them--or at least fantasizing about using the techniques, anyway. Last night several people were talking about making biscuits for shortcakes sometime soon since they'd loved them so much two weeks ago.

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Lovely blog!! I enjoyed the sorority one...and this is a whole new tone. Excellent.

Here's my question: students make the effort to come, but only fantasize about cooking? Why? I'm asking sincerely in the interest of trying to understand this mindset. Sometimes my passion overwhelms any sense of diplomacy....

[snowangel]

Next week in Frederick is my tapas class. I'm still working out the menu but it will definitely include romesco sauce, breadsticks with serrano, something with manchego, and a potato tortilla. Suggestions welcome...I just got a copy of Jose Andres Tapas book and plan to spend some time paging through it over the next few days.

Next week in Jefferson County, I'm teaching some basics of fish and poultry. I was thinking some kind of Asian-spiced seared salmon and perhaps braised chicken thighs.

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Rochelle, can you give me some Romesco pointers? I have three jars of piquillo peppers, which I understand are either essential or traditional. I see lots of recipes, but I'm not sure which way I should go!

If you want to do a braised chicken thigh thing, check out a copy of Molly Steven's All Abour Braising and think about the Soy Braised Chicken with Orange and Star Anise. This dish met with the approval of a moody teen and 10-year old boy!

[eJulia]

Rochelle:

Just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying this blog, and how much I am impressed by your stamina! I say, let your hubby and mom work more to let you work less!

I loved your self portraits, and would love more kitty pics.... or hubby pics or... classroom pics.

Pics of anything you want!

eJulia

[Malawry]

Here's my question: students make the effort to come, but only fantasize about cooking? Why? I'm asking sincerely in the interest of trying to understand this mindset.  Sometimes my passion overwhelms any sense of diplomacy....

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I don't really know either. I'm sure people are busy and end up making the same pasta or stir-fry for dinner most of the time and don't take the extra time to make something new. Making a new dish can seem overwhelming. I mean, take those biscuits...ya gotta haul out the scale, pull out all your flour and stuff, weigh things...and hopefully you remembered the buttermilk while you were at the store. They aren't hard and they don't seem to me to require a major expenditure of effort, but if I was less confident with them they might be more overwheming compared to cracking open a can of refrigerated biscuits or stirring water into Bisquick. At least now they've seen HOW to do it, and maybe they'll try it on the weekend when they have more leisure time.

[Malawry]

Rochelle, can you give me some Romesco pointers?  I have three jars of piquillo peppers, which I understand are either essential or traditional.  I see lots of recipes, but I'm not sure which way I should go!

If you want to do a braised chicken thigh thing, check out a copy of Molly Steven's All Abour Braising and think about the Soy Braised Chicken with Orange and Star Anise.  This dish met with the approval of a moody teen and  10-year old boy!

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I use the recipe in How to Cook Vegetarian by Deborah Madison for my Romesco sauce. It calls for a roasted red pepper, but I'm sure piquillos are tastier and more authentic. I think the keys to a good romesco are: nice bread fried in plenty of really good EVOO, and making sure the rest of the EVOO is well and emulsified into the sauce. I have a Cuisinart and make my romesco in it...there's a little hole in the white "pusher" piece that is perfect for slowly slowly adding that oil to the sauce while the machine runs, and it results in a spot-on emulsion every time. The sauce is creamy and rich and packed with flavor and I could mainline it, I love it so much. Especially as a topping for roasted asparagus. I can't wait to make it Tuesday!

I might be able to make it to a library before Tuesday, but I doubt it. I'll have to have those recipes ready by Wednesday morning so they can be copied while I go back to Wal*Mart to supply up for Thursday's class. Can you summarize that recipe? I was talking about pho broth and Asian stocks for things like egg-drop soup when going over chicken stock the other night and mentioned star anise as one of the spices that gives stock that "Asian flavor," and a number of my students had never heard of it, so using it in a recipe might not be a bad idea next week. I even have plenty leftover from the Asian noodle soups cookoff, so I wouldn't have to spend a ton of money on it at a mainstream store (if they even carry it at Wal*Mart...).

[Malawry]

I say, let your hubby and mom work more to let you work less! 

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I ask for help as I need it. Mom helped me a lot with the dishes last night, as she usually does when she's here. When my parents visit I do try to treat them extra-special well. As for my husband...he's much busier than I am right now, so I only ask him for help with things I really can't handle alone. We have an equitable division of labor in our household, but he gave me a bye whenever I needed it once I got knocked up. I've hardly asked him for anything though...I just haven't needed it. He knows that I'll be slowing down more as I get really huge next month and keeps reminding me that he doesn't mind taking over more of my household tasks...but a part of me is proud that I've been able to keep up with everything that needs to be done so far with rare exception.

My parents are coming for a while when the baby is born...Mom plans to stay a couple weeks at least...so they can get to know the baby and support me as I take care of him. I've explained that it's not gonna be like it usually is when they're here, with me making all kinds of nice food for us and thinking up little daytrips for us to take together. (On their last visit I arranged for us to go to a big craft fair, and when I lived closer to DC sometimes we'd hit a Smithsonian museum or go out for a special dinner together.) Mom just rolled her eyes and said of course that wouldn't be the case...after all she's had two kids herself, she knows they're here to do for me like I normally do for them. The baby is due in the last month of the semester at Shepherd, and between his arrival and the end of school my husband has a ridiculous number of concerts to conduct and other musical commitments, so the timing is a little unfortunate. We're hoping Mom will help fill in the gaps until he's done with his classes and can be a full-time dad for the summer.

[Malawry]

So, since I am yet again awake and unable to sleep, I just did a little work on my handout for the tapas class. I haven't looked through the Andres book yet or done other researach on new ideas, but I taught a private tapas class in January so I already had a decent amount of groundwork completed. I just looked through the handout I made for the January class and picked out the items I regarded as most popular, simple and essential from it. Here's what I have for a menu so far:

Tomato Bread with Anchovies

Breadsticks with Serrano Ham

Asparagus with Romesco Sauce

Spinach with Pine Nuts and Currants

Tortilla Espanola (Potato Omelet)

Gambas al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp)

I am tempted to add bechamel fritters, but they are a lot of work for a 2.5 hour class and I'm not sure they're reasonable as a result. Also, I still need something to do with the manchego I picked up at Trader Joe's last Sunday. I might be able to find or make some sort of condiment for it with what's available at Weis, who knows.

I already have the Serrano ham, but everything else needs to be source-able from Weis which is a very mainstream supermarket. This is why I don't have the chorizo and braised white beans dish we made for the private class in January--I seriously doubt Weis sells chorizo. I would love some other kind of hot meat dish though. One of my students specifically asked if we'd cover albondigas, but meatballs just don't excite me much.