Mother Sauces: Espagnole (Brown Sauce)

This sauce is so wonderful! It has such a deep, rich flavor thanks to the variety of ingredients that go in it. This is the 3rd installment of the 5 Mother Sauces blog. This sauce compliments beef fantastically and freezes well to use later on.


This recipe yields 1 gallon.


You will need:


Ingredients


Mirepoix, med. dice**             2 lbs. 
Clarified Butter                        8 fl. oz. 
Flour                                         8 oz. 
Brown Stock**                         5 qts. (20 cups.)
Tomato Puree                           8 oz. 
Sachet**
           1 Bay Leaf  
           Dried Thyme                 1/2 tsp. 
  Crushed Peppercorns             1/4 tsp. 
            Parsley Stems                 8


Salt and Pepper                           TT


Directions


1.) In a large stock pot, heat the clarified butter over medium-high heat. Add in the mirepoix and caramelize on all sides. 
2.) Add in the flour and make a brown roux.** Whisk often so flour will not burn. 
3.) Once you've made a brown roux, pour in the brown stock and tomato puree. Whisk again to break up lumps. Bring to a boil uncovered and reduce to a simmer. 
4.) Add in the sachet, and simmer for approx. 1&1/2 hours. This will allow the sauce to thicken. Skim the surface if any impurities form at the top. 
5.) After the allotted time, strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth if you have it. Adjust the seasonings as you like it with salt and pepper and use immediately. Or cool and freeze for later use. 






***Cook's Notes:
1.) Mirepoix: (Meer-uh-pwah) This is a mixture of 50 % onions, 25%  carrots and 25% celery. This recipe called for 2 lbs of it so you would use 1 lb. onions, 1/2 lb. of carrots and 1/2 lb. of celery. This is used as the base to a lot of great soups, sauces including the wonderful bolognese. Typically they are discarded because all of their flavor will have been incorporated into what ever they are used in. 


2.) Brown Stock: Brown stock is made from roasting beef bones, vegetables and tomato puree and then simmered for hours. Save yourself some time by buying low sodium beef broth or brown stock from a health food store. 


3.) Sachet (Saa-shay) This little bundle of joy is what gives many stocks and sauces deep flavor. The spices are wrapped in cheese cloth (using 2 coffee filters works great too) and tied off with butchers twine. I almost always use 1 clove of smashed garlic because I LOVE garlic haha. 


I really hope you enjoy this recipe. Please feel free to scale down this recipe to the size you want. I prefer to blog these recipes in large amounts because they freeze really well. Plus you can thaw it out at a moments notice and people will think you spent all day making it! 

Mother Sauces: Veloute

This blog will be covering the second sauce in the 5 Mother Sauces, known as a Veloute (Veh-loo-tay). This sauce is very similar to the bechamel but instead of using milk, you use chicken/veal/fish stock. Oh and no piquet lol. Veloute's are great in pasta dishes, makes a fabulous sauce for chicken pot pie, and can be added to soup. Here's how to make it:


WARNING:  This recipe yields 1 gallon. Feel free to reduce to your liking. 


Ingredients


Clarified Butter          8 fl. oz. 
Flour                           8 oz. 
Chicken stock             5 qts. (4 cups in quart, so use 20 cups)
Salt                              TT
White Pepper              TT




1.) In a large stock pot, add in the chicken/veal/fish stock. Turn heat on to medium-medium high and get the stock hot. 


2.) In another pot heat the clarified butter over medium-high heat. Once it's hot add in the flour. Whisk constantly. Make a white roux.


3.) Gradually add the hot stock to the roux while whisking constantly preventing any lumps. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Whisk often to reduce the sauce from burning.


4.) At this point, season to your taste. I would suggest you under season it because the sauce will thicken and reduce over time. 


5.) Strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth. Use immediately or chill in a bowl over ice water. Place plastic wrap on the sauces surface to prevent a skin forming. 




I realize that this sauce is a rather large quantity but it's just easier for me. I am reading these recipes from my cooking book I used in school. I will do a blog later on, on how to increase and decrease recipes to the amount you need. 


P.S: Since Veloute is so similar to bechamel, I didn't think a picture was necessary. They are really quite similar in color. 


Thank You!

Mother Sauce: Bechamel

This blog is going to be about "Mother Sauces". Mother sauces bring that touch of elegance to a dish that makes us crave eating away from home. Not only are these sauces great at their most basic form, but they can be transformed into numerous others! They inspire us foodies to be creative with their uses, yet are there to keep the classic meals alive. I won't bore you with their origin or who created them, you can look that up on your own time lol. Although their origins are worth looking up because some recipes came about from a total accident. :D



This blog will come in 5 parts so I can cover every Mother Sauce. If you take the time to make these yourself at home, your dishes will come out fantastic! People will know that you took the time to make your meal from scratch and they will thank you for it. I feel like in today's society nobody takes time to do anything home made any more. I hope this blog inspires you to just..... slow down! Let's begin!


I am going to start with the Bechamel Sauce (Beh-shuh-mehl)





Ingredients


Whole Milk           16 oz. 
Flour                      2 TBSP
Clarified Butter      2 TBSP
Salt                         TT (to taste)
White Pepper         TT  
Nutmeg                  TT
1/2 small Onion Piquet **** (See cooks note at the bottom of the blog)




Directions:


1.) Pour the milk into a large heavy bottomed pot. Gently add in the onion piquet and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.


2.) In another pot add in the clarified butter. Turn on the heat to medium-high and heat butter through. Once the butter is hot, whisk in the flour. Whisk constantly until this mixture becomes pasty in appearance and nutty smelling. Don't cook too long, you want it to stay pale. This mixture is called a "Blond Roux". 


3.) After the milk and piquet have simmered for 10 minutes remove the piquet. Gradually add the hot milk to the roux while whisking constantly. Try to get rid of any lumps. 


4.) Once you have incorporated all of the milk into the blond roux, simmer until thickened, whisk often. 


5.) Add in the salt, white pepper and nutmeg to your taste. Nutmeg is very powerful and you just want a hint of it in there. 


7.) Strain the sauce through a fine mesh seive or cheesecloth if you have it. Use immediately or cool in a large bowl over ice water. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. 




This sauce is fantastic as is. You can add it to the top of a lasagna to give it that silky touch, and is the most common base for mac and cheese sauce! 


I found this image on google, but it comes from  http://healthyrecipes.wikia.com/wiki/B%C3%A9chamel_sauce


****Cook's Note: An onion piquet/pique is a halved onion studded with cloves and a bay leaf. 

I found this image on google but it comes from http://cornellgourmet.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/piquet/


Enjoy this sauce! 

411 on Hors d' Oeuvres

This blog is going to talk about “Hors d’ Oeuvres” (Orr-durves). Some people might think that these little 2 bite concoctions are for the fancy type and are super time consuming to make but that’s not the case at all!! You can make an array of hors d’oeuvres right at home. Hors d’oeuvres are a great way to utilize leftovers or things in your kitchen that are about to go bad. But before we go into that, let’s talk about what makes up an hors d’oeuvre.

Base: This is the most bottom part of an hors d’oeuvre. This can include anything from a slice of cheese, a cracker, bread, a cucumber or even a piece of fruit. This is the first layer to an hors d’oeuvre.

Spread: A spread can include things such as mayonnaise, butter or jam. It’s a flavor agent as well as a protector of the base. The spread is put on the base so the base won’t become soggy from the topping on the hors d’oeuvre. This is the second layer to an hors d'oeuvre. 

Binder: A binder would be used if some kind of food in the hors d’oeuvres needs structure. An example would be gelatin: gelatin can be added to a mousse of some kind so that it can maintain its volume. Not only is this great for presentation, but it is also great for its texture. It’d be a shame to pick up a salmon mousse barquette and you see a tiny pool of pink goo in a soggy piece of crust.

Aerator: Beaten egg whites or heavy whipping cream are perfect examples of an aerator. These items also give volume to mousses or other food items to make for a great presentation and texture. If they are over beaten they can appear grainy. The binder/aerator would make up the middle part of the hors d'oeuvre. 

Optional: Garnish: Sometimes an hors d’oeuvre can have a garnish such as caviar or fresh chopped parsley, but it really just depends on what’s being served. This would be the last part of the hors d'oeuvre. 

So like I was saying earlier, hors d’oeuvres are a great way to incorporate leftovers or things that are about to go bad in your pantry! If you have some bread about to go stale, you can take a cookie cutter cut out a fun shape, toast it lightly, rub on some raw garlic, add a small slice of tomato and some cheese and basil if you have it, and BAM! You have an amazing Italian style crostini hors d’oevre. A small splash of an aged balsamic vinegar would add a nice touch to it too! 

You could also thaw out some frozen shrimp, saute them with a little butter, salt, pepper and garlic and top with creme fraiche and cilantro. Serve on a butter cracker and you have heaven on a cracker!! Seriously, hors d'oeuvres are so simple and quick to make.

They are meant to be small because they are usually served before an appetizer or as an appetizer. You could host a party with just hors d'oeuvres if you wanted, just make sure you have a wide variety.  Here are some examples of what you could make: 

               This one is a spin on like a cooled seafood salad: Cucumber slice as the base, citrus mayo and cocktail style shrimp.  

Prosciutto and Melon on toasted bread

Gravlax, Dill Sour Cream and Hot Pepper flakes on a Cracker

Buckwheat Pancakes (Blini) with Creme Fraiche and Caviar

Toasted Bread Stars, Caramelized Shallots and Parsley Creme Fraiche

Rectangle cut white bread, tuna salad, two types of caviar and parsley garnish. ( I only used caviar in a few of these because I had them at my disposal in culinary school. You could easily use diced red and yellow bell peppers.)

Get creative with a display. We were given cool shaped Mirrors! 

I really hope you enjoyed this and you can become creative in making all kinds of hors d'oeuvres!

 Oh and if you are thinking that you are never going to be able to spell hors d'oeuvres, this is the way I learned. The first half is pretty simple Hors and then a single "d" with an apostrophe. But for the "o" part, just think of that song from the Wizard of Oz. The men who were guarding the witches castle near the gate that sung, "Ohhhhh weee ohhh...we ohhhhh ho." Well put in a letter for the sounds. O-E-U-VR-ES. You can't fail!! LOL! Enjoy and thanks for reading!! 

Pate A Choux aka Eclair Paste

 Pate A Choux    A.K.A Éclair Paste Yield: 3 lb. 2 oz

(Patt-A-Shoo)

Ingredients

Milk**                                      4 fl. oz.

Water                                       4 fl. oz.

Salt                                           1 ½ tsp.

Unsalted butter                         7 oz.

Bread Flour                             10 oz.

Eggs                                        10 ct.

Directions

1.) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2.) Dice the butter into small cubes.

3.) Sift the bread flour to remove any lumps.

4.) Place the milk, water, salt and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and make sure the butter is fully melted.

5.) Remove the mixture immediately and add all of the flour. Vigorously mix the dough by hand with a wooden spoon until all flour is incorporated.

6.) Replace the mixture to the stove over medium heat and continue to mix until the dough comes away from the sides. The dough should look relatively dry and should begin to leave a thin film on the saucepan. (It will look kinda lumpy)

7.) Transfer the dough to a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat for a few seconds on medium speed, then begin to add in the eggs.

8.) Add in the eggs one at a time until the dough mixture is shiny but firm. It may not be necessary to add in all of the eggs. The dough should pull away from the side of the bowl in thick threads; it will not clear the bowl.

9.) Put a workable amount of dough into a pastry bag with a piping tip, or snip a small hole in a plastic bag.

10.) Pipe into the shape you want onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake immediately.

11.) Bake for around 35 minutes, cool completely and fill them as desired. Éclair Paste becomes really hollow when it bakes and can be filled with different things like whipped cream, pastry cream, chocolate mousse what ever you like! You can pipe these out into crème puff shapes and fill them with a flavored cream. You can also fill them with a savory filling such as a gravlax mousse or caviar.

** Cook’s Note: If you would like a crisper dough, replace the milk with an equal amount of water. 

Here are some pictures of what you can do with Éclair Paste

Eclairs filled with pastry cream and plain puffs

Puffs and Eclairs filled with pastry cream and covered with ganache.

                          Piped on melted white chocolate

 Designs made by dragging a bamboo skewer across the white chocolate lines in different directions. 

These are so easy and fun to make. Great for parties, center pieces and as house warming gifts. You can even take the little puffs and fasten them onto a large styrofoam cone with royal icing to make an edible centerpiece!! 

Enjoy this recipe! Thank you!

It's Music to My Ears

I have a somewhat weird way of thinking, and it can really differ from others when it comes to food. I feel that when I see a plate of food, it really speaks to you. Not necessarily in words but in a musical sense. A plate of food can look really sensual and so appetizing, to me I think of a smooth romantic number. Or when you see a plate full of colorful food items, it makes me think of a song you would hear at Cirque de Soleil. A casual dinner of craw fish and dirty rice just screams creole music right?


But when you find that one meal, and I mean the "one", your eyes roll back into your head, goosebumps take over your skin, your mouth begins to salivate and you almost want to make sweet sweet love to your plate. How could something take such a hold on you? It's just a plate of food! But no, it's not.... it's an edible piece of art that is about to grace your palette in a way you have never experienced. When I find a meal like that, this is the song that I think of. "Digging My Potato" - by The Seatbelts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_H3Kw21lJk The song, like your meal, starts out slow. You really savor the beginning of your meal, the steam rises slowly from your food and you take a big whiff that rushes to the back of your skull. You get into a good rhythm of eating your meal, then as the song moves on it gets quicker and quicker and your food is becoming less and less on your plate. Your table gets quiet but all you can hear is the deafening sound of you chewing your meal. Suddenly you are overwhelmed with the sensation of your food sliding down your throat. Take a swig of that wine, cut some more of your steak, shovel that potato, break some more of that bread, the slamming of silverware on your plate, throw down that napkin and then........BAM! You're plate is empty. 


You're heart beat begins to slow down and you are awoken as if you were in a pleasureful food coma, but you remember everything. You remember that you are in a restaurant and not at home and then you take your leave. 

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? 

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?