The heat is on...

... and I am starting to feel it.
Week one of Culinary Foundations II and we immersed ourselves deeply in the study and preparation of stocks and sauces.
The French word for stock is 'fond' and it's literal English translation is foundation. These days the making of a stock from scratch is not as common anymore in a professional or home kitchen as it used to be 50-60 years ago. The making of, and tending to, a pot of simmering stock involves a lot of time and effort, considering that beef stock, for example, should be simmered for 8-10 hrs and that the liquid needs to be skimmed off on a regular basis to remove impurities (fats & coagulated protein) that collect at the surface. As far as home cooking is concerned, I have yet to hear one of my friends tell me that they "made veal or beef stock over the weekend". Chicken stock, yes, probably, vegetable stock, perhaps. But even preparing fish stock is not really part of the general repertoire of today's home cook. Who keeps fish bones in the freezer, just in case a recipe requires 2 oz of fish stock? It is far easier for all of us to buy a packet of cubed concentrated bases at the supermarket that can than be readily added to any sauce recipe as required.

Sauce Robert

Until now I certainly always have had cubes of vegan vegetable bouillon at home that I use whenever necessary. Having said that, I might change my mind though; a good stock is the best foundation for a fabulously tasting sauce and I certainly experienced that more than once this week. It was a kind of revelation to me to be honest since I am not a 'sauce person'. I usually decline any sauce or gravy served with roast turkey, beef chicken etc. But perhaps that's exactly why; a sauce extraordinaire is hard to find these days.

The first two days of the week were all about veal stock, chicken stock and fish stock, the latter part of the week was dedicated to making the sauces. As I already alluded to in one of my previous posts, there are five leading (mother) sauces from which all finished sauces are derived. Two of those leading sauces are based on the stocks described above, one is a tomato based sauce, one is based on milk and the other is based on butter.

Cauliflower & Cheese

The leading sauce based on milk is Béchamel which is the basis for a cheese sauce as used in a Mac&Cheese dish, for example. As I wanted to get away from the heavy starches this week, I actually substituted the pasta and prepared Cauliflower&Cheese one night. It's something I grew up with in Germany and I'd forgotten how much I used to like it. Very tasty with a good texture if you don't overcook the cauliflower and a lot lighter than Mac&Cheese.

The leading sauce based on butter, clarified butter to be correct, is Hollandaise. And as reported previously, this is quite a tricky sauce to make. I have to say the preparation of it put a damper on my excitement this week; I struggled with it. Again. At class and at home. I can't say that I don't learn every time from it, but it is frustrating, particularly since I have to prepare it as part of my first practical test this coming Tuesday. So, I will keep you updated on this issue. No picture either. Who want's to see a broken Hollandaise? You do? To learn from my mistakes? Well, okay than as a reminder, have a look at the post from Jan 27th. As I remember, I already struggled there with the same sauce. Although with hindsight and looking at the picture I labelled 'broken Hollandaise', I am not sure if the sauce is really broken or just too cold and hence not as viscous. However tricky it's temperature profile is, Hollandaise is a warm sauce and should be served as such. There is a very fine balance to be kept between too cold and too warm. Too cold and it rather looks like mayonnaise, because the clarified butter starts to solidify; too warm and the egg cooks and than the emulsion breaks and the fat and egg separate.
Okay, below is a picture of my mishaps.

Hollandaise, egg & fat have separated

Spanish tomato sauce

As for the tomato based sauce, we prepared it a little differently than I would usually do. We used cubes of salted pork to sweat the vegetables, and it was really good. Now, I appreciate that if you like your tomato sauce to be vegetarian, than this is not an option but if you don't mind pork you might want to try it, perhaps. You won't eat the salt pork because it get's strained out and you can discard the fat before you add the tomato to your sweated vegetables. But it really makes a difference to the flavor profile. Will I use it all the time from now on? No, probably not but as a special treat now and then definitely. The reason why the version we made is called Spanish tomato sauce is not the salt pork (that is typically French), it is the addition of garlic, green bell peppers, mushrooms and hot sauce.

But the highlight of my week at school were the French sauces made from the stocks we've prepared. I rarely eat these classic sauces because the quality can vary greatly and, until this week, I had yet to try a really good one. But here they were and we had produced them ourselves. What a joy! We prepared two sauces which were both based on brown veal stock - sauce Robert and sauce Chasseur. I won't bore you with the details of preparing the stock and the leading sauce to be able to prepare the final sauces, it is just sufficient to say the effort was worthwhile. The complexity of the flavor is amazing, nothing really that one can create with prepared stock cubes. I don't really know how to describe it, I am afraid. All I can say that, should you ever dine at an upscale French Restaurant take notice of the sauces and hopefully they will be as good as the ones I was lucky to prepare and taste this week.

Sauce Chasseur ('the hunter')

Stay safe and check in again next week to read more of my kitchen adventures. ... And hopefully a happy ending to my sauce Hollandaise story.
Happy cooking everyone.

P.S. By the way, guess what we will be having for dinner tonight. Chicken with sauce Chasseur. I can't wait.

Cooking without power

I am sitting her, looking out of my window watching the second severe snow storm within a week and I am wondering whether the power will go out again.
Yes, that's right.  I apologize for not writing and uploading a blog last Sunday; we had no power for 4 days. Blizzard Nemo forced us to get back to the basics of life; burning logs to keep warm (or at least trying too), cooking on the gas stove top only and arranging one's timetable to the natural daylight hours. We had quite an adventurous time; one I wouldn't want to live through again so soon. It's not that we weren't prepared, we just didn't think it would last 4 days. The temperature in parts of the house actually dropped close to freezing. We are lucky none of our water pipes froze.


The fun part for me was to see how I can make the most of the food that was left in the refrigerator and freezer. And so we had big breakfasts, simple freezer dinners and lots of cake, which I had baked before the storm in anticipation of a possible power outage. I am amazed how many carbohydrates we ate and still felt hungry all the time.  Our bodies really needed the fuel to be able to keep us from shivering.

As an acquaintance said "We went out to shovel snow just to stay warm."
We had 20 inches on the driveway, so that kept us plenty warm. As for keeping the food safe, the garage became our refrigerator and the snow drifts on the upstairs balcony our freezer space.

 The only other place to escape the cold was of course my culinary school and I relished the time spent in the warm. We completed our first 6-week module this week and I am proud to say, I finished with straight A's and a 100% attendance record, despite the snow. But unfortunately, it was less actual cooking this week and more revision for the final exams; a written one on Thursday and a second Knife Skill's Test on Friday. I can't believe it's already six weeks since I first got up at 4 am to go to school and I am really looking forward to start Culinary Foundations II on Monday. This is where the cooking starts; less demos by the Chef Instructors and more cooking by us, the students.

So, keep tuned in. I promise that next week I will tell you more kitchen stories.
... If we have power, that is.
Keep save and stay warm wherever you are.

Patience my dear, patience

It's already Monday and I apologize for being late with this week's blog. I hope you haven't been too impatiently waiting for me. I know, I have had my patience tested last week more than once. Let me say though, it's been to the benefit of my cooking.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we have finally started to cook and after my first knife skill practical last Monday (see photo left), this week it's been all about different cooking method's, les cuissons as it is called in French.
I had to learn that some of those techniques really require more time and patience than I have appreciated until now. I've learned that I can listen, smell, observe, and touch (within limits of course) the food and it will tell me exactly when I can add the next ingredient or move on to the next step in the recipe. It's quite simple really but once I understood it ... oh so liberating. I admit, I have never been the best follower of a recipe, I like to make the recipe my own by 'tweaking it'. Depending on what I have in the fridge or how much time I have or even how confident I am on the day, that my version of the recipe will be better than the original. I know so far it's probably been a bit of an arrogant, or perhaps adventurous, assumption that I can improve on a previously tried & tested recipe, but in my defense, on most occasions the food turned out well. I guess the emphasis is on most occasions. Deep in the back of my mind, I always felt that there may have been a portion of luck involved. Now though, that I am learning the basics it will be luck no more, but pure knowledge! And hopefully that will someday turn into valuable experience, and then I'll be able to confidently read recipes, ignore them totally, and still turn out amazing food. Sounds good? Well, it sounds very good to me.
To give you an example, by looking in a pan I have always been able to differentiate between boiling water or simmering water. Big bubbles vs little bubbles, right?? Right. Subconsciously, I probably have been distinguishing the difference between boiling and simmering water by listening to it as well. The nice thing is, the same principle is applicable to every cooking method.
So, based om my culinary textbook, to sear is 'to brown the surface of a food quickly at a high temperature'. That means the fat should be almost smoking before you add the meat; the sizzling in the pan after you've added the meat should be an 'angry' one and you should see the meat concentrating i.e. shrinking a little. If the meat releases water or it's juices and it starts 'bubbling' i.e. cooking in it, the pan isn't hot enough. You won't be able to brown the meat until all the water has evaporated and the meat itself will become tough and dry. Next, don't move the meat until it is ready, that means don't tear it off the bottom of the pan. The meat will, for lack of  a better phrase, 'release itself from the pan' and you will be able to turn it easily without tearing it off the bottom of the pan.
The contrasting cooking method to searing would probably be sweating. For example, to quote the same culinary textbook, to sweat vegetables means 'to cook them slowly in fat without browning, sometimes under a cover'. This means that, before adding vegetables, the fat should not be smoking, but a drop of water should just gently 'dance' on the surface of the fat. After adding the vegetables you should have a slight, almost 'harmonious' sizzle, not an angry one. There should be no browning of the vegetables, but they should turn translucent. And here you should also be able to smell the aroma that the vegetables are releasing during this process. Only when you can smell the aroma of the vegetables should you move on to the next step. Otherwise, whatever flavor profile you are trying to build will not be happening.
And coming back to the title of this week's blog, the release of the seared, browned meat from the pan as well as the sweating of vegetables without browning will take time. Sure, the cooking times will be different but both cooking methods require patience so as not to destroy the texture of the food, and to ensure release of the flavor of the food while cooking it.

I hope these explanations of different cooking methods make sense to you. Unfortunately it is difficult for me to show you those techniques in pictures but I included a picture off my Beef Goulash which I cooked last Saturday, taking all of the above into consideration. It tasted great and I only needed half the usual herbs and spices to create a really good flavor profile. So, perhaps now you'll be sufficiently intrigued to more closely listen, smell, observe and touch the food you cook. I certainly have.

On a slightly different note, I have had a lot of feedback from you regarding posting any comments on this blog. I am sorry to tell you that I think you currently need to have a gmail account to be able to post comments. I am hoping to be able to change that, but have not found a way yet if or how it is possible. Please do not hesitate to contact me on my gmail account: h.ashcroft.13@gmail.com with any comments and feedback regarding this blog. Please be patient with me; here too I am still learning. 
Have a nice week and I will have more stories to tell next week.