Developing Intuition in the Kitchen
Developing intuition in the kitchen is the theme here. Why will your cooking skills become intuitive?
This is your first paragraph. Sponsored Links- You will not be constantly "reinventing the wheel" every night as you try out a new recipe.
- "Gourmet Segues" focus on techniques instead of recipes. Techniques generalize across many different dinner entrees. Eventually, we will cover them all.
- mirapoix
- the trinity
- roux
- preparing stocks
- the incredible value of demi-glace
- ways to tenderize potentially tough cuts and how to know which ones might be tough in advance.
- "shocking a vegetable" and why you might want to.
- how to roast bell peppers
- cutting meats
- resting meats so they will "re-uptake" their juices
- thawing meats slowly so cell walls don't break under a "forced thaw"
- "smoking" foods
- "brining" foods
- deglazing
- making a gravy
Examples:
- in the oven, high heat on bake until the outside is charred, remove and put directly into a paper bag, let them sweat a while, the charred skin slides off easily and they are tender and tasty
Use Wondra flour (shaker side, not the wide mouth.) It will stop clumping.
The workbook grows with you as a part of your cooking journey. Starting with 8,000 possibilities and a Mini Cooking Course, you will narrow your workbook down to only the ones that you and your family will actually enjoy. Some of the combinations (I'm the first to admit it) may not win on your table. You be the judge. If you hated Chasseur Sauce, cross out all 400 of them while your thinking about it. Never go down that road wasting your time, money. and energy again.
The focus at Formula Easy Recipes is upon the "learning process" not just one recipe to follow blindly. This cookbook emphasizes generalities and not specifics.
TQM: "Total Quality Management." The process by which a novice cook can built upon last night's experience and bring those new skills to tonight's meal. The approach is methodical without requiring a nightly repetition of the same prep method or sauce type.
An EMPHASIS upon using FRESH ingredients
- Use 1 T of fresh herbs to every teaspoon of dried (one tablespoon equals three teaspoons). Fresh parsley, for example, is ten times better than dried. Grow a mixed kitchen herb garden every spring and USE it. Spices like look like berries should be GROUND- the oils in them evaporate. It makes a huge difference. They include but are not limited to: peppercorns cloves nutmeg coriander allspice
Nine times out of ten, you want to toast any nuts before you use them.
- Tip: stand there and watch them with the oven light on. Practically everybody burns the first batch. Rachel Ray mentioned this a while back, I believe.
Lemons or limes, as juice or zest (skin peelings finely grated) or both, go in just about anything.
Food Appearance and Appeal
- Caramelizing: Prep methods that have any form of sugar in them will make meats visually appealing. eg. Garnishing and how we "eat with our eyes." Any fresh herb you have that is actually in the recipe is a good candidate. Cilantro makes a great garnish.
- If there's a citrus fruit, slices of that will make a good garnish.
- Caveat: make certain it's edible. One time, in a fit of creativity, I used some beautiful dark green waxy leaves from a bush in my yard for a garnish at a party. Incredibly, one guest tried to eat it.
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