My mistake...

So in my post about the chocolate souffle recipe, I bashed on the suggested cooking time written in the book, saying it was wrong.  Nope... I was wrong.  My assumption was based on the number of containers I used, not the batch size from the recipe.  I made my mixture according to the ingredient list, which yields one batch (they say either one large souffle, or you can divide it into different ramekins).  I opted to divide it in 4.  Then the recipe says to bake it for 15 to 25 minutes per souffle.  This translates into "one batch."  If I doubled the recipe, then I could have cooked it for 50 minutes.  But I didn't.  No wonder they came out drier than those we serve at the restaurant.  Oh well, live and learn.  Just means I'll have to make them again.  I'm thinking peanut butter next time, since Buck doesn't like chocolate, and I feel bad that he didn't get to try one from my last batch.  So the lesson here, pretty much just think things through, and cooking time per *item* is usually according to the serving size in the recipe.  Ok, time for class.

Happiness begins in the kitchen.  Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

Part Deux: Back with a vengeance... Weekend Recipe(s) - 4/12/09 (and 4/13/09)

Ok. Back from work, and writing up my second recipe for the weekend. With this one, I should be back on track with one per weekend. This, like I said in my last posting, is one of my own recipes. I used the quickbread recipe as a base, with a little modification. Then I added a pretty basic glaze, and made it my own. I call it the Lemon-Honey Top Quickbread:

Lemon-Honey Top Quickbread
Makes: 1 large pan-sized flatbread
Time: 5-15 minutes prep, up to 40 minutes baking

This recipe would make a good morning pastry. It's not too sweet, and plenty filling

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
.33 cup neutral oil (vegetable/grapeseed/canola)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Topping:
3 parts lemon juice
2 parts honey
1-2 parts granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Mix dry bread ingredients in a non-reactive mixing bowl. Pour in the oil and mix. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the warm milk. Mix well (adding flour if necessary) to form a non-sticky but still elastic dough. Lightly grease a 9x13 standard baking sheet and press dough into rectangle. Allow shrinkage, flip the dough over and repress. Heat the honey and lemon juice in a microwave safe container until it is no longer viscous. Stir in sugar until it is dissolved. Heat once more in the microwave to return to a non viscous state. Using a basting brush, spread a layer of the topping on the dough. Bake the dough for 40 minutes, rebasting every 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cut into squares and serve. May be served hot, warm, or chilled.

Here is the result I got. It's a very dense biscuit-like pastry that's not at all too sweet (you know how some of those "breakfast" things can be like desserts). When it first comes out of the oven, the crust is still soft in the middle, but the bottom is stiff enough for each square to be able to take some sort of additional spread (maybe some cottage cheese, or a fruit flavored cream cheese, or even just plain cream cheese). Once chilled, the crust becomes more compact and flakey, but still extremely tasty. Here are some of the pictures I took after baking this:

This is trying to show how the glaze pools near the edge where the crust dips a little bit. If you choose to roll out the dough with a pin, then the glaze should spread evenly, but you won't get these tasty little wells of goodness.

Here's a picture that I think really shows the beautiful coloring that this dish takes on. The crust gets a really nice golden brown coloring, and the glaze tints it with yellow. You can see in the piece near the bottom that there can be some discoloration due to the sugar, but I think that was because my oven wasn't heated uniformly.

In all, it's just an awesome dish. The color of it is nice, the taste is great for breakfast (or anytime really), the texture is complementary of the taste, and the ease with which you can make this dish makes it accessible to just about everyone. I think this could also be a gread base recipe to build on.

Anyway, so there are the recipes. It took me three days to get through those two posts. That's what I get for starting them pretty much immediately after getting home from a 7 hour shift running food (at 12am or thereabouts no less). It's interesting though; I have absolutely no idea how large my readership is. I know of a few people (my parents for instance, Hi Mom and Dad!), but even then, I'm not sure how often they check it, and I certainly don't know anyone who has tried one of my recipes. I hope someone has at least been inspired to cook more, because everything is better when it's homemade. Well... unless you absolutely have no idea what you're doing and screw it up (that just reminds me of the first time my brothers and I made an omlet at home; we mistook teaspoon for tablespoon in regards to the salt content, and since we were tripling the recipe, we put in 3 tablespoons of it...). Regardless, you will never learn unless you make mistakes. A lot can happen when you say "Hey, so that doesn't work. What can we do instead?" The possibilities are endless. Some side notes:

1) Flippin hilarious how you can hear the cans of beer being opened during Linecook415's podcasts. I think that's funnier than the toilet flushes myself. Next podcast, I'm going to keep a tally.

2) Work is awesome. Plain and simple, it's exciting and super awesome for someone like me who loves food. I just can't wait to get into the kitchen part of it.

3) In addition to the blog, I'm thinking of starting a website geared towards students who appreciate good food in Los Angeles (and whichever city I end up in after college) as well as aspiring chefs and foodies in general. I'm thinking forums, restaurant reviews (both myself in my free time, and from newspapers and such), recipes, basic technique lessons, and interviews with chefs, servers, managers, and owners if I can swing it.

4) I still lament that USC has no cooking classes. We have at least three types of dance classes, lots of PE classes, and countless other Fine Arts classes. So adding to the "list" (you know, the list of stuff to do before you die), "Start an School of Culinary Arts and Restaurant and Hotel Industry at USC." All it takes is some rich donar to agree to put their name on a building. To see what else is on my list, you'll have to ask me yourself.

5) If you are a reader, please respond with your thoughts. I'm interested in knowing what people think about things. Even if you just say, "I like puppies," I'd be completely down for doing a post on the variety of recipes one can use puppies and other domestic animals in... A joke, people. Maybe in bad taste, but that was a joke...

Anyway, I think I've found my "signing off" phrase. Inspired of course from Linecook's podcast, but not nearly as clever (or vulgar).

Happiness begins in the kitchen. Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

Back with a vengeance... "Weekend" Recipe(s) - 4/11/09 (and 4/12/09)

So I have two recipes for you, which I will compliment with the stories behind each. The first one comes (of course) from what is becoming my Bible, How to Cook Everything. And it is (dramatic music swell with drumroll) Chocolate Souffle!!! Huzzah! ...O_O... But really, here it is:

Vanilla or Chocolate Souffle
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Time: About 1 hour, largely unattended

Undercook this souffle slightly so it remains moist in the middle and needs no sauce, then dust with confectioners' sugar. Or cook it until it's dry and serve it with Vanilla Custard Sauce (page 924), Whipped Cream (page 882), fruit puree (see page 923), or any light sauce.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 teaspoon for the dish
.5 cup sugar, plus more for the dish
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, or 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
Pinch salt

1) Use 1 teaspoon of the butter to grease a 2-quart souffle dish or other straight-sided deep baking dish. (If you want to make individual souffles, use a little more butter and grease four 1.5 to 2-cup ramekins.) Sprinkle the dish with sugar, invert it, and tap to remove excess sugar. Set aside and heat the oven to 350*F.
2) Warm the milk in a small saucepan over low heat with the remaining .33 cup sugar. In a second saucepan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. When the foam begins to subside, stir in the flour. Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring almost constantly, until the flour-butter mixture darkens, about 3 minutes.
3) Stir in the milk, a little bit at a time, using a whisk. It will be quite thick; stir in the chocolate if you're using it and remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes. Beat the egg yolks and stir them in. Add the vanilla if you're using it. (At this point, you may cool the mixture, cover it tightly, and refrigerate for a few hours.)
4) Beat the egg whites with the salt until very stiff but still glossy. Stir a good spoonful of them thoroughly into the sauce to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites, using a rubber spatula or your hand. Transfer to the prepared souffle dish(es) and bake until the center barely jiggles and is set, or nearly so, 30 to 40 minutes (15 to 25 minutes for individual souffles). Serve immediately.

Okay... I had heard enough to know that some cooks hate to bake souffles. They are supposed to be extremely fickle and difficult to cook. I had just about no problems when I cooked them a few days ago. The hardest thing for me was beating the egg whites and making the whipped cream with just a wire whisk (no electric mixer for me). I developed my own technique for it (which worked in the end, so know that it's not impossible to do), and learned tonight at work that there is supposedly a much easier way to do it. I can't wait to try out that technique. But anyway, with all I had heard about souffles, I feel that they really shouldn't be intimidating at all. It's one of those things that makes me feel like "Hey, maybe I really can get good at this." Check it out:

Here's one of the four souffles that I made. The taste was spot on, and the texture was what I expected. I'll learn eventually to time it just right so the surface doesn't dry out enough to crack like that. I'll worry about the aesthetics next time.

Here's the whipped cream. Heavy whipping cream, sugar, and cinnamon. Not too sweet, and the cinnamon really adds a great flavor.

So if I can produce a chocolate souffle in my tiny little galley kitchen with the minimalist equipment that I have, then I really just can't wait to see what I might be able to do with good tools and good ingredients in a professional kitchen. I know it's not the tools that make the chef, but I still intend to try end find out what I could do with those professional tools (or even, you know, just some basic kitchen essentials). But hey, maybe it's good for me to learn the basics with really crappy tools, so I'm pleasantly surprised how easy it is later. Random interjection, I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again: Linecook 415 is an awesome blog. I'm currently listening to their most recent Podcast and it's hilarious. I hope they put out a new one soon. Anyway, a note about the actual souffle recipe. I had four Pyrex dessert bowls placed in the middle of the oven inside a 9x13 Pyrex casserole dish for stability. My oven thermometer was reading ever so slightly above 350*F, and I set the kitchen timer for 50 minutes. Three times I opened the oven because there is no internal light (so some heat naturally escaped). At 50 minutes, the tops were drier than the ones we serve at the restaurant and slightly cracked. The interior was just about perfect though. So what the recipe says about 15 to 25 minutes per souffle (which would have put me at an hour 4o) is wrong. If you have a clear oven door window and an internal light, you'll be able to judge for yourself much better when they're done. And a note to those who might be intimidated by certain recipes: Just go for it. Worst case scenario, you really screw the pooch and burn down your house or something. But really, what are the odds? Anyway, this post is kind of all over the place; I started last night after I got off work at 12:30 this morning, and got more distracted continuing it now with the podcast on in the background. So I'll post the second recipe tomorrow with the pictures from the results. So you know, it's one of my own personal recipes (I'm sure the idea has been done before, but I like the way mine tasted so I wrote it down and called it my own). Perfect for breakfast in my opinion. Last words: Happiness begins in the kitchen. Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

How to Cook Everything was copywrited in 2008 by Doubly B Publishing Inc., and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey. This representation of the text is intended for educational use only.