Whipped Cream Recipe A.K.A Creme Chantilly

Welcome to my second recipe installment!! I feel that this recipe is so useful in any kitchen and is incredibly easy to make. This is a recipe for sweetened whipped cream also known as “Crème Chantilly”. It’s best to use this whipped cream as soon as possible and doesn’t really keep well in the fridge, but nevertheless, it is fantastic tasting! You will need:

This recipe yields 2-2 & ½ pints of whipped cream

-Standing mixer with whisk attachment/hand mixer & bowl/or whisk & bowl

- 1 pint of Heavy Whipping Cream

- 3 oz. Powdered Sugar (This recipe helps if you have a scale. I have a digital one I bought online for around $25.00 on Amazon.)

- 2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract ( Home made if you have it)

Directions:

·         When making whipped cream all elements must be chilled. So chill the bowl, whisk attachment/ hand mixer attachments etc. in your fridge for 20 minutes.

·         Be sure your heavy cream is also chilled.

·         Measure out the powdered sugar and sift to remove any lumps.

·         Put together your mixer elements and pour the chilled whipping cream into the chilled bowl. Whisk until slightly thickened.

·         Once the cream is slightly thickened, add in the sugar in small increments until it’s all incorporated.

·         Continue to whip until cream looks fluffy and slightly glossy, but don’t over mix! You don’t want butter lol.

·         Measure out your vanilla extract and add to the whipped cream. Be sure to add it when the mixer is off, you wouldn’t want to splash yourself HEHE! ****

·         Do a taste test to see if the sweetness it to your liking.

·         Use immediately! Great on top of cakes/pies, inside Charlottes, and simply splendid as a topper for hot chocolate.

·         Powdered sugar is used here instead of granulated sugar because it’s not grainy. A bonus to using powdered sugar is that the cornstarch in powdered sugar helps stabilize the cream and keeps its volume longer.

****Cook’s note: It is best to measure out the vanilla extract at the last minute because vanilla extract is infamous for evaporating. (Refer to Vanilla Blog for more info) Home made extract has alcohol in it which will begin to evaporate at room temperature. Also, adding it in last minute won’t make it evaporate versus adding it in the beginning.  

I hope you enjoy this simple and tasty recipe! Feel free to ask any questions! Rock on ya'll!  

Cooking Methods

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people mixing up cooking terms. An example would be “This is a deep fried item” when it was really pan fried. So this blog will clear up any confusion so you the reader will know which terms to use at what time. Each cooking method is different and used for different foods and if used incorrectly, it can ruin a meal. So I will list a cooking method and explain it briefly:

-          Broiling: This method uses a heat source that is above the food. In a restaurant you can find a piece of equipment called a “Salamander” that does just that. You can have a flame or an electric heating element and this is used to brown foods, great for melting cheese on soups.

-          Grilling: This one is pretty obvious. A heat source is underneath the food and can be done by gas, charcoal, wood or briquettes (They are like charcoal but made from a special material, you can use these over and over again). The food that is cooked on a grill should have distinct cross hatch marks.

-          Roasting/Baking: These two methods are the same! Baking is more often used when making sweets or sweet items and roasting is for more savory items. They are most often times interchangeable but I feel that baking is used for sweets and roasted for savory. Be careful when roasting because there is “Carry Over Cooking (see Chef’s note at the bottom)” that you need to account for in cooking time. Food can be cooked in an oven with heating elements or use hot air in a form of convection.

-          Sauteing: This method is used for quick cooking items or slightly cooking an item, say to warm it through. A small amount of fat is used to protect the surface of the pan and then it is warmed to the desired temperature. The food is placed in the hot pan and cooked to desired doneness.  

-          Pan Frying: Very similar to sautéing but more fat is used and the cooking time is a bit longer. This technique is often used to brown items such as pork chops and latkes. Drain the excess fat from the food with a few paper towels.

-          Deep Frying: This technique is done in a large amount of fat whether it’s peanut oil or lard (yummy) where a food is completely submerged in fat. This technique can be done in a standing deep fryer, built in deep fryer fry or as restaurants call them friolaters. Great for doing a turkey for thanksgiving!!

-          Poaching: This can be a tricky cooking method because the cooking liquid is not boiling or simmering. It’s a very low bubble, the temperature is between 160-180 degrees F. This is can be done in a few different pans including a stock pot. A stock pot and is great for making poached chicken, fish and eggs. If you want a really luxurious meal, poach something in olive oil.

-          Boiling: This cooking method involves submerging a food in a hot boiling liquid such as water or broth. I really hate boiling vegetables so I only blanch the veggies for a few minutes, shock them in ice cold water and then sauté them to retain their nutrients and color. This cooking method is essential for cooking pasta. If anyone says they can’t cook, just teach them how to boil water and you will see a little light bulb go off over their head lol.

-          Steaming: This is a method where a boiling liquid is placed below some kind of perforated pan with a food inside. Great cooking method for vegetables, and who says the liquid had to be water? Stock is fantastic for steaming vegetables, gives them a deeper flavor.

-          Simmering: Similar to boiling but at a slower rate. Bring the cooking liquid to a boil then reduce to a medium or medium high temperature to maintain it’s slower bubble. Great for less tender cuts of meat and this temperature is ideal for making soups.

-          Braising: Braising is a cooking method that combines pan searing and cooking a food in a liquid. The food is cooked at a lower heat so the meat doesn’t become tough. The food item is covered with liquid 1/3 way up and often times the cooking liquid is served as a sauce.

-          Stewing: This cooking method is used for tougher cuts of meat and also uses pan searing. After pan searing an item it is placed in a cooking liquid. The cooking liquid covers the food item completely and is cooked low and slow. Low temperature for a long time. This cooking method can done on the stove and then put in the oven or done just on the stove.   

I hope this clears up any confusion people might have about different cooking methods. It would be very embarrassing for you to tell someone that a food was cooked one way when it was really done in another way. Feel free to ask me any questions!!

---Chef’s note: Carry over cooking occurs when a food item is pulled from the oven and it continues to cook from residual heat. This occurs most often in thick cuts of meat being roasted, so just when your roast reaches a certain minimal internal temperature, it might be too late for it. Pull the meat just before it reaches that core temperature and let it cook just a bit more on your counter, it will stay a lot juicier that way. 

We Call That Ice Cream....

OK! So I don't know if this is a northern thing or what, but lately I have been hearing a lot of "Hey! Let's go get some frozen yogurt at (Where ever they want to go)." I'm thinking, don't they mean ice cream? Because to me yogurt is something that is served cold but not frozen, eating it frozen tastes funny. (lol if u can name a place that serves yogurt let me know, like Activia or Yoplait LOL)

 Also, yogurt has a bacteria culture in it, which is where it gets its tangy flavor from, and ice cream doesn't. Ice cream is way sweeter and is meant to be frozen. Ice cream has actual milk and heavy cream in it not yogurt. I have eaten actual frozen yogurt, and it just wasn't the same, not nearly as smooth. I think that if I owned an ice cream store and I heard people calling ice cream frozen yogurt enough, I would crack on someone someday and be like, " If you want frozen yogurt, go to your super market and buy some yogurt and freeze it yourself cause I only sell ICE CREAM here!!"

LOL Am I right? 

You Want Me To Eat WHAT??

Something that really ticks me off is when people say that they think something looks gross to eat, and they haven’t even tasted it!! That to me says that they are very ignorant and have no sense of adventure or willingness to try anything new. I just have to ask, well how is it that you came to like things you enjoy now? Oh yeah, you had to EAT THEM! I think the subject matter I would really like to present is, how Americans are afraid of their food when it comes to them in a more… whole state. That by which I mean, a fish with the head and tail still attached, or a whole roasted pig. All over the world, fresh seafood is coveted and the heads, tails, eyeballs are all attached. The cheek meat in fish is a delicacy and so are the eyes of the fish. Don’t diss something until you have tried it.

          I noticed that here in America, is it very rare to find a restaurant that will serve a whole fish. People don’t want to know that a fish fillet came from an actual fish. They don’t want to look into the eyes of their dinner, which to me is just pathetic because wouldn’t you want to know that your fish wasn’t flash frozen, or precooked and reheated? It’s reality people, this shit is real. There are people out there who make a living butchering animals and they can tell you how they would prefer to eat their meats and fishes. Often times, when a restaurant receives a whole fish, or whole pig, the restaurant pays a lot less for those products because they aren’t cut or portioned out. The more broken down an animal is, the more is costs the restaurant to purchase, which in turn, makes the meal more expensive. If a restaurant butchers in house you will pay a little bit to cover the wages of the butcher, but you can rest assure, someone with great skill has cut your meat perfectly for you.

 In Hawaii they roast pigs whole on a spit, or underground and proudly display it for large groups of people to eat. Everyone from tiny kids to the elderly would be in attendance and marvel at the wonderful roast pig! The keep the head and feet on and you wouldn’t believe the flavor those animals take on when you leave them whole! It’s insane what a lot of people are missing out on. I feel like a lot of seafood places here in the U.S are really skimping on their customers because they don’t serve them whole. The little pieces of meat that just don’t make it to the plate are being wasted and could fill up the customer that much more! I dare anyone who is afraid of food like that, to travel to another country and see how fast it takes you to get your ass whooped. People take pride in preparing their food all over the world and take great offense if you refuse food just because it has a head on it. Hell that wonderful place that you call France, serves fish whole. In any fine dining restaurant to a mom and pop place, they serve fish a certain way and I feel that it’s the best way to serve it. You can get your fish cooked, broken down into fillets and served tableside if you want…and let me tell you that it is worth giving it a try. If none of this changes your mind, watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and see if my blog isn’t a little less scary to handle.

Learn How to Brine

Looking to jazz up your next chicken, beef or turkey dinner? This blog will explain a great technique that will do so, and it’s called “Brining”. Brining penetrates the meat and provides a great depth of flavor that an ordinary marinade or plain salt and pepper can’t match! It is so simple but requires some time so plan ahead when making a meal with brined meat. Let’s begin with what goes into a brine.

Brine: A solution of salt, water and seasonings used for flavor and preserve foods.

When making a brine you can make as much or as little as you choose, depending on the meat you are preparing. You want to make enough so that the meat can be submerged in the brine to obtain maximum flavor. If you are a little pressed for time, you can inject the meat with the brine in the meat. I found a recipe but I thought that I would make it more customized so people can add what they wanted. Here is a list of ingredients which go well in a brine:

-Salt, sugar, brown sugar, honey, black peppercorns, bay leaves, garlic, onions, juniper berries, sage, rosemary, citrus peel, thyme, pickling spice and of course water. Use warm water and taste the brine before adding the meat to make sure it is to your liking.  

There are so many more ingredients that can go into a brine but those are just to list a few. You can add as much or as little of any ingredient to make the flavor profile of your choice. If there is one thing I can advise is that you be careful not to add too much salt!! Lol you want a happy medium of salt, sugar and spices so your meat can be happy too! :D  Use warm water when making the brine so the sugar and salt will melt and not settle to the bottom. Cool the brine before placing the meat in.

Depending on how much time you have to brine the meat you can brine for a few hours or overnight. Before cooking the meat, rinse it lightly under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Any excess salt needs to be removed. Proceed with the cooking method of your choice and enjoy a great brined meat. I find that brined meat comes out a lot juicier and more tender than regularly cooked meat. Also, if you have the tools to do so, brine your next Thanksgiving turkey and you will have your guests begging for your recipe. Enjoy! Please feel free to ask me any questions. Rock on ya’ll!!   \m/

Recipe For Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

 This is a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins! I though since spring was here, this would be a great way to start it out. This is even great to enjoy in the summer. The lemon flavor in the muffins are profound and refreshing and the mixture of flours makes them filling. Also, the amount of ingredients might seem like a lot but the taste it worth it. Enjoy!

 Yield: 24 muffins (This recipe originally calls for 48 but I cut it in half. This recipe also requires the use of a scale. I have a digital scale which I use at home, they are pretty cheap online. )

Pastry Flour                                                                                          1 lb.                    

Bread Flour                                                                                         4  oz. 

Baking Soda                                                                                         ½ tsp.

Baking Powder                                                                                  1 ½ tsp.

Poppy Seeds                                                                                     1 ½ oz.

Unsalted Butter (room temp.)                                                                 8 oz.

White Granulated Sugar                                                                       12 oz.

Honey/Glucose                                                                                      2 oz.

Olive Oil                                                                                            2 fl. oz. **

Eggs                                                                                                      6 

Salt                                                                                                        1 tsp.

Vanilla Extract                                                                                1 ½ fl. oz.

Lemon Zest, Grated                                                                          0.25 oz..

Sour Cream                                                                                           8 oz.

Powdered Sugar                                                                          As needed

Directions:

1.)    Preheat your oven to 425° F.

2.)    Sift together the baking powder and baking soda, bread flour and pastry flour. Stir in the poppy seeds and set aside.

3.)    Using a mixer, cream together the butter until lump free and fluffy. Add the sugar, honey/glucose, and olive oil and cream until light.

4.)    Gradually add the eggs one by one incorporating into batter, followed by the salt, vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream. Then with a spatula, fold in the flour mixture.

5.)    Portion out the muffins into 5 oz. each with a scoop and drop into a large greased muffin tin. (You will need muffin tins that are a bit larger and deeper than regular muffin tins.)

6.)    Bake for 15-18 minutes, just until the center of the muffins bounce back when lightly pressed.
 kj  Optional: Dust the muffins with powdered sugar after they have cooled.

**** Cooks note: When measuring small fluid ounce measurements, know that 2 Tablespoons equals 1 fluid ounce. So for this recipe measure out 4 Tablespoons of olive oil or ¼ cup olive oil. 

For Those Who Can't Cook...

 I’m sorry but I had to do this! I have to get it out. There’s not a whole lot in the world that I really dislike, but one of them would have to be when I hear that people say they don’t know how to cook. Oh my GOD! I can’t tell you how frustrated that makes me!! It makes me want to go up to those individuals and slap them across the face. If you know how to boil water or how to make ramen noodles in the microwave, you know how to cook! Although microwaves are not prevalent in many commercial kitchens, a lot of people have them in their homes. Believe it or not, microwaving IS considered a way of cooking.

I saw a woman on the cooking network who said she had been married for 27 years, and never cooked a single meal for the entire time she has been married. WHAT KIND OF WIFE IS THAT? That is so selfish and lazy of her to put all of the cooking on her husband. Like she didn’t even cut vegetables for a salad but she would go grocery shopping for the ingredients. If you were single and didn’t cook for yourself, what’s the point of having a kitchen? “OH but I need the sink to wash stuff.” Wash what? You don’t cook!! You won’t need a counter either because all you do it sit on it. GRRRR!!!

   I think that that is a huge turn off if someone never cooks or doesn’t know how to cook. How do those people expect to make a living at home or support themselves if they are single? Take out food gets expensive and microwave dinners are infamous for having tremendous amounts of salt. I think I have a solution for these people. Step into your kitchen and really get to know your appliances. Seriously try this some time and see if you won’t thank me later. Really look at your stove top, does it have gas burners or electric burners? Do you have numbers to measure heat on your stove or do you have words like warm, low, medium or high? All of these details are things you need to pay attention to when you go to cook.

          If you are watching food network and a chef is making pan seared fish, you are going to want to put your heat on medium-medium high, or if you have numbers put it between 6-7. If you want to cook vegetables, you can’t go wrong with a simple sauté. Warm some olive oil in a pan and add in the veggies. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. You don’t want to render out all of the nutrients so simplicity with vegetables is a must. If any of this is sounding like too much to handle, grow some balls and go and get cooking lessons. A lot of times you can get a great deal on a cooking class. Like $99 specials on a 2-3 day cooking class and you are getting the basic stuff. While you are there, they can teach you what utensils are the best to use for certain cooking processes, what are the best ways to cook certain foods and how to get the most flavor out of your ingredients. Everyone has potential in the kitchen, it’s those who don’t treat it like a chore that have fun with it. You don’t need someone to hold your hand to cook, you just need a little self confidence and some basic know how!

There's Nothing Vanilla About Vanilla

Sometimes I feel like vanilla is a very underappreciated ingredient so this blog I feel will help give vanilla a little moral boost! Next to saffron, vanilla is one of the most expensive flavoring that you can purchase. Why you may ask? Well, the bees that once pollinated the vanilla flowers are now extinct and people now pollinate them by hand. I will give a brief explanation as to how they are harvested just to give you an idea as to why they are so expensive.

 When it comes time to harvest the bean pods, they are pretty difficult to prepare. First you have to kill off the tissue inside the bean pod, this can be done by letting the pods dry out in the sun, freezing them, blanching them in hot water, or scratching the pods. Next the pods must go through a sweating process where they are placed under blankets and placed in the sun in a high humidity environment. This sweating process helps the bean pods become flexible and helps turn their pods that familiar brown color. This process also allows the vanilla flavor in the pod really begin to develop and concentrate. Next the pods are dried because they have to be shipped all over the world so any excess moisture has to come out. Next the beans are conditioned by being placed in boxes for a few months and this is where the bulk of their flavor develops. From there they are sorted by grade, things like bean length, aroma and color determine their grade.

There are only a few countries in the world who’s conditions allow for proper vanilla bean growth. There’s the “Bourbon Vanilla” aka Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla from none other that Madagascar, Mexican Vanilla, Tahitian Vanilla from the Philippines, and West Indian Vanilla that grows in Central and South America. Out of all of these countries Madagascar is the largest producer and most popular.

When it comes to using vanilla you really want to use the real thing. When you buy real vanilla extract you will find 2-3 main ingredients: Vanilla, some kind of alcohol and maybe a preservative. Real vanilla is made by soaking vanilla beans in alcohol like vodka or bourbon. This process is called steeping and home made vanilla extract is fantastic for gift giving. You can read online how to make it and how much of each ingredient you need. Making your own vanilla extract is not only cheaper but it gives you a better sense of what exactly is going into your food. If there is one thing that I can give anyone who wants to use vanilla it’s this!! Measure and use vanilla as close to the time you need it in the recipe because it will evaporate. You don’t want to pre-measure vanilla to far ahead of when you really need it because it will evaporate just sitting out and can ruin a recipe. Another tip I can give is, when you use vanilla in a recipe get the most out of that bean pod. Steep the pod in milk if milk is being used, scrape the vanilla bean seeds out for the best flavor and use home made vanilla extract.

I hope this blog helps out anyone who is a little unfamiliar with this ingredient. It is very expensive to harvest but it totally worth the price. A lot of times you can buy the bean in bulk for a great price and they will keep for a long long time in your kitchen. Oh, did I forget to mention that the people pollinate these pods by HAND? That’s insane right? I hear that the men who harvest them, sleep in the trees with guns to prevent anyone from steeling them because they are so precious. Kinda makes you reevaluate that shriveled brown pod huh?

Intro to My Blog

Wow where do you start when talking about food? Haha. My blogs will go into detail but not bore you about what I think people should know about food. If you are serious about learning how to cook and gain awesome knowledge about food then stick around. I love to blog about foods that people either underestimate or don't bother to try and give those foods a little redemption. As soon as I get another digital camera I can provide pictures in my blogs to better help those understand what I am trying to portray.
My ultimate goal is to reach out to at least 1 person and show them that they shouldn't be afraid in their kitchen. I want them to feel comfortable with what they can create in the kitchen and know their limits. I also want to inform people about the wondrous things foods have to offer. In a lot of ways, giving food as a gift is such a huge gesture. It shows that person that you took time out of your day to make them something beautiful and will fill their tummy!! LOL
 I feel like the kitchen is one of the most under appreciated room in the household. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people put their nasty butts on a counter when there should be a bowl of beautiful seasonal fruits and a glass of flowers on display. Also, people take no time what so ever to clean off their stove or inside of their microwave, gross!! Your kitchen can reflect how a person feels about cooking in an instant. (Mine is a little messy right now but that's only because I hate doing dishes HAHA) Cooking should never feel like a chore but a culinary adventure. To know that you can prep, bake and eat a cupcake within 2 hours is so exciting! Sure you can go buy them at a grocery store, but how many ingredients can you actually identify on the label? Food is your friend and you should treat it as such. There should be a connection with food and you that is unique to that of anything else. Once you understand a few basic principles about food, you will be a great cook in no time! I encourage any and all questions and criticism. Thank you and have a wonderful day!