Musings of Rose

I have internet again!!! WOOHOO!
Anyways, I made another cheesecake a few days ago, and tried something a little out there which I thought I'd mention. Instead of vanilla extract in the cheesecake I instead added about 1/4tsp rose flavouring, which I found at my local East Indian Market, and put it on a brownie crust... cut into squares, top with half a strawberry and drizzle with white chocolate and you've got a bite size treat which is fantastic for entertaining or just for a small snack.
Seriously, sooooo good! It was like romance in a bite, I'll definitely be making it again, except next time I think I might top with a marzipan rose instead, just for added effect.

Lynn Crawford.

For the record Lynn Crawford has, and always will be, one of my greatest idols of the cooking world. Her belief that food is an expression of art, and that Chef's are artists, is an embodiment of everything that I stand for. I believe that beauty should be worked into everything you do, it's in my writing, in my eloquence when I talk, and in the food that I create. But of all these ways of creating beauty, food is by far the most powerful. Food is subtle in ways that words and speeches could never be, each layer is like getting hit with a tiny bullet, you are inexorably effected by each tiny flavour and in this, food is powerful. Lynn and I share this belief, and so it was with no small amount of humility and sheer awe that I met Lynn Crawford, at my school this afternoon. Executive Chef of the Four Seasons in New York, having worked with some of the worlds most talented professionals, Lynn was awe inspiring, to say the least.
Lynn had such energy and such passion, traits that are undeniably linked. She draws energy from her passion, and it's obvious that she cares about food the way few other people can say that they care. "Go to bed with a cookbook" she says, and you can tell that it's that kind of passion which had driven her to the places that she's been.
There are so many things to say about this encounter, so many messages to convey that she had for the students at SAIT. But I won't bore you with all of them, oh no, you should go out there and live them for yourself, go meet her and see what she has to say! If you care about food that much, it won't be hard.

Musings of Baking

I intend to keep this entry short, it's about my experiences in the Baking block of PCK at SAIT.
First of all I'd just like to say how refreshing it was to be doing something that took so much time and patience to do, and while I did find that frustrating at times, in the end it was all worth every last bit of effort that I put into it. I've learned how to make some amazing things in this block, from Puff Pastry to bread, to Sacher Tortes, to Langue du Chat's. No, I'm not a pastry chef, in fact I'm far from it, I lack both the patience and the hand eye co-ordination to be as successful at Baking as I ever could be at cooking, but the fact is that this block has taught me to be a little more patient with the things that I do and to take everything in it's stride.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I enjoy cooking, I realized over the last 3 weeks that I enjoyed the balance that baking gave me and learned a lot from it, which is something I feel that home cooks and budding chefs certainly could use more of. So, in the spirit of the last few weeks, I encourage you all to try a little something different, whether you're a natural baker or an extraordinary cook, shake it up a bit! You never know what you're going to learn...

Musings of Roast Beast

I'm not a baker, I'll admit that to anyone who even looks at me the wrong way. Scientific measuring and calculating is NOT my strong suit, it's frustrating sometimes, trying to weigh out specific ingredients can be infuriating without the proper envrionment and equipment. So why some people even TRY and do this when cooking (not baking) is beyond me. I can understand that in certain circumstances, with certain recipes, one would want to weigh out the ingredients. One such recipe is that of a roast, beef preferably, the perfection of which seems almost unattainable to many a home cook. Of course, being in the professional cooking, I have learned some easy things that can make the process more... pleasurable, shall we say, and WAY easier than the books would have you believe.

First thing's first, a perfect roast time does not control, instead the internal temperature should be used as the ideal judge of doneness. This can be judged using a good food grade thermometer, purchased cheaply and easily at any number of general goods retailers, hell Safeways sells them. To use, simply insert the thermometer into the densest part of the meat (a.k.a. the center) and wait until the needle stops moving. Ideal degree's of doneness vary both on taste and location, one person may like rare and another well done, and while chef's have their own personal idea of rare, the government has a much higher temperature for a rare piece of beef. Personally I suggest you use the government regulations at first, and then if you discover that their idea of rare was a little too cooked for you, ease up on the temperature bit by bit until you find a temperature which you like. A note about preference and roasts however... well done beef kind of people are becoming more and more rare (ironic eh?), so when cooking for more than 2 people I suggest you stick to a good medium-rare which SHOULD satisfy everyone. A bad roast is a bad roast, and more often than not a bad roast is a dry roast, and a dry roast is an overcooked roast, and an overcooked roast is damn near a well done roast.

But of course, half the battle is making it to the oven in the first place, so here are some tips for preparing a good roast. First of all: Mise on Place is your best friend, have everything you could possibly need out and ready when you actually go to do the roast. Chop all your veg, (all veg should be the same size roughly, and I would suggest for veg potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and onions) bring your roast to room temperature (crucial), mix together all your herbs, spices and seasonings (usually rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, chopped evenly, placed in a separate dish) and preheat your oven and preheat a pan (high and fast, or low and slow, I'll go over that in a minute). Once that is all done, you can begin.

1) Rub your roast thouroughly in oil, or if you'd rather, Dijon Mustard (if you use mustard do not pre sear, instead put straight into the oven) and then put on the seasoning of your choice. It takes a while of cooking to get the right amount of salt and pepper right, but go slow, be conservative and adjust as you go, it's a gradual progress.

2) Sear your roast in a hot frying pan until all the sides are golden brown and tast-eh.

3) place your roast on a bed of vegetables and place in a 450 celsius oven (hot and fast), or a 300 celsius oven (low and slow) until the internal temperature reaches roughly 5F lower than your ideal doneness, the last 5 degrees will be attained in the last stage of roasting.

4) This is the all important part of roasting a piece of meat, whether it be beef, pork or chicken. You must rest your meat!!! Once the roast has been removed from the oven, tent lightly with tin foil and let stand for roughly 1/3 the cooking time, this ensures that the proteins relax and that all the juices redistribute evenly, also, the last 5 degrees of doneness will occur in this time frame. It also makes the roast tender and delicious to ingest.

After that serve as you will, though if you want you could always make a pan jus from scratch...

Begin by taking some wine (for the record, cooking wine is NOT suitable for this, if you can drink with it, you can cook with it, that is all) and pouring some (like, 1/4 of a bottle?) into the the pan you roasted your roast in, it is important to reheat this pan over low heat before adding the wine so that all the crispy bits on the bottom come loose. Boil the wine until it thickens slightly and the alcohol has evaporated off, then add about twice as much beef stock as wine and mix together until well combined. Mix 2tbsp cornstarch (always measure starches, even in cooking), with about 1/4 cup of water and then slowly whisk into the wine/stock mixture and bring to a boil. Once the product has reached your desired thickness, season and serve over the roast. Yeah, it's that easy.

I realize this sounds horrifically complicated for some people, and that I've probably seemed arrogant and contrived because of my small amount of training, but I really do believe that if people eased up on the recipe's a bit and just started playing around, that a whole new world of things would open up to them.

Musings of Cheesecake

Cheesecake, one of the primeval elements of mankind second only to that of fried chicken, is onto itself more art than food and most certainly is not a cake as the name implies. Cheesecake is instead more akin to a custard, or in this circumstance, a mousse (not to be confused with a Bavarian apparently...). It is both intensely sweet and intensely satisfying at the same time, and ths recipe is no exception. The only real warning I have about the nature of THIS cheesecake is that even the tiniest slice can become almost overpowering if one fails to take the necessary time to savour every last bite. I realize how arrogant that sounds, but I guarantee you, once you try this cake you'll never be the same again.

Recipe:
5 packages of full fat cream cheese
2.5 cups of sugar
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch
1tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream (FULL FAT)

Crust:
2tbsp butter
1/4 cup cookie crumbs of your choice (preferrably graham)

For a chocolate cheesecake:
Add 3tbsp cocoa powder
substitute sour cream for 8oz bittersweet chocolate

Preperation:
1: BRING ALL INGREDIENTS TO ROOM TEMPERATURE. This step is crucial, failing to do so will result in immediate and violent failure of your product.
2: Prepare your crust in a 16" springform pan by melting your butter and thouroughly mixing with your crumbs, press firmly but gently into the pain and bake in a 450 celsius oven for about 5 minuts.
3: Preheat your oven to 200 celsius.
4: Begin by creaming together your cream cheese and sugar on low speed with a stand or hand mixer until light and fluffy.
5: Beat in your eggs one at a time, ensuring that each egg is completely blended into the mixture.
6: Beat in the cornstarch, sour cream and vanilla until the mixture is thouroughly combined.
7: Pour mixture onto the COOLED crust.
8: Slide into the oven and bake at 200 for 2 hours.
9: When the two hours is up crack the oven door, turn off the oven and let stand for half an hour.
10: Place cheesecake in the fridge and let cool for at least 24 hours, 48 ideally.
11: Decorate or serve as you see fit.

This cheesecake is pretty basic and relatively fool proof, the starch granules in the cornstarch will prevent the cheesecake from cracking, as will the low oven temp and long cooking time. Also, one should notice that unlike most cheesecakes this recipe does NOT call for a waterbath to be implemented. Why? Because quite frankly it doesn't need one. Waterbaths are usually a good idea for most custards, but I've found that this recipe really doesn't require the extra effort. The recipe takes enough time to do as is, it doesn't need the extra time of prepping and cleaning a waterbath. Serioulsy, no matter how tempted you are, don't use it, at least not with this recipe.

Decoration suggestions:
Personally, I just dust this thing with icing sugar and serve, but one could easily ice it with an icing of their choice, or drizzle on a little chocolate it make it look a *little* more presentable. Really, it's open to discussion and experimentation, so really, just try it, you'd be surprised at how much creativity you can use when decorating this kind of thing.

Musings of Fried Chicken

Well, after becoming increasingly disattisfied with my other blog, I decided to return to my one true passion, COOKING! So therefore I decided to begin with my favorite of favorites, FRIED CHICKEN! It's almost worthy of being worshipped!

Recipe:
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1L Buttermilk (Full fat please!)
1/4 cup Louisanna Hot-Sauce
Chicken of your taste (preferrably bone in, skin on, this recipe will make one roasting hen's worth)
3tbsp Salt
1tbsp pepper
1 tsp ea. Smoked Paprika, hot paprika, cumin, corriander
1lb of Shortening

Steps:
1: Begin by soaking your chicken in the buttermilk and hotsauce mixture, if you bought a whole chicken it is necessary to dismantle the bird before soaking, please note that chicken wings are not a fantastic frying item as the density is considerably lower than that of other pieces of meat, e.g. breast and thigh meat. Soak the chicken for at least 12 hours, no more than 24.
2: The next day begin by preparing your cooking station, two baking sheets lined with parchment paper and steel racks. One will be used for the raw chicken, the other for the cooked. Also, place a deep pan on the heat and heat your shortening to 250 degrees celsius.
3: Prepare your seasonings, the spices, sald and pepper and keep aside. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk and place on the first baking sheet. Next, liberally season the chicken with your spice mix and then toss in the all prupose flour.
NOTE: Once the chicken has been dredged (that is to say, coated in flour), it MUST sit for at least ten minutes to ensure adequate crust formation.
4: Place the chicken in the hot oil, a couple of pieces at a time, and cook until golden brown on one side. (note: the temperature of the oil will drop slightly when the chicken is introduced, DO NOT fiddle with the hat). Flip the chicken when ready and cook to doneness.
5: Remove the chicken from the oil and place on baking sheet number 2. Let cool slightly and serve!

Notes about fried chicken:
Proper fried chicken is one of the most amazing things a person can have, those who claim not to like the godly substance are most often corrupted by the Colonel and his Fried Chicken monstrosity. Good fried chicken should be crispy and flavourful, not oily and bland.
Fried chicken is most often attributed to the southern states in America, and as such some common sides are Grits (homony cornmeal porridge), Okra, Bayou style rice, rice and beans, creamed corn or collared greens.

Uses for fried chicken:
Apart from being eaten on it's own, fried chicken is great at room temperature as a picnic food or sliced thickly and used as sandwich fodder. Alternatively it can be used in this Thai Chicken Noodle Salad recipe:

Ingredients:
2 Chicken breasts (fried)
1 package of rice noodles
1 cup pea poods
1 cup of julienne carrots (prepackaged is fine)
1/2 cup julienne green onion
1 tsp seasame oil

Sauce:
1 tbspof freshly grated ginger
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hoisin
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
sald and pepper to taste

Preparation:
This recipe is SUPER easy, cook the rice noodles until tender and then drizzle with the peanut oil to prevent clumping, mix in the pea pods, green onions and carrots, top with sliced chicken and then drizzle with the sauce. Serve hot or cold with a cold Mojito, or other alcoholic drink, and enjoy!