cooking @ home

©2008 Harry Kenney

So how do I follow up a recipe on prime rib? Why, this way. Am I crazy? Like a fox. How can I top prime rib? How does a successful recording artist top a monster selling album? The same way. You don’t. You go different. And that’s the thing here at cooking @ home …. It’s home cooking. And that runs the gamet. Or at least it should. You might see on this page prime rib and stuffed mushrooms, but you might also see french fries and meatloaf and beef stew.

Home cooking doesn’t have to be “plebian” for lack of a better word. It can be (although I have problems with this word too) “gourmet”. On the same note it doesn’t have to be all gourmet either. It’s all of it. Why? Because that’s exactly what cooking at home means. You — and I — are doing this at home, and we might have hot dogs and soup one day and filet mignon with a panna cotta dessert the following. Same person cooking, same kitchen. We can and we should do what we want, and that is from simple everyday meals up to five-star dining. At home. And on that note …

I am a bread eater. One of those who’s always loved bread and butter with a meal. (Mind you, in this circumstance I actually mean spreadable margarine). Just always loved “the sauce” or “the gravy” and I’ve always enjoyed scooping up, sopping or just plain having along side a pasta dish or a stew, bread and butter or roll and butter. Maybe that’s a working man’s blue collar thing? I have no idea.

That said though, there was a very trendy, way ahead of it’s time salad place in Reading Terminal Market in Center City Philadelphia about 15 years ago or more. I was working down there and would often go to “the salad lady” for my lunch. Imagine someone who was making pasta and rice salads before you ever heard of such things. Seriously. What is now more or less “average” fare that can be gotten at a fancy super market deli section, when The Salad Lady’s place was there in the Market, it was relatively unique.

I bring this up because she always gave away slices of different homemade breads (yes buttered, and in her case it meant real butter, btw) with every salad meal (provided you wanted it of course). So, ok, I guess she was the Salad and Bread Lady then. Point is, if she was ahead of her time — and she was — accompanying bread with a salad was in a way “chi-chi” …. And you can’t be chi-chi and blue collar at the same time, can you?

Which brings me back to my quickie garlic bread. Because I get such enjoyment at having bread — and garlic bread especially — and mine especially because it is rarely “just garlic” — my garlic bread is always garlic and cheese bread — I like to have it often. And to me, the oven or the broiler is just too much work. Mostly because if you take your eye off of it for a moment, wham, it’s burnt.

This is ovenless, broiler-less garlic bread, using two of my favorite cooking tools that folks so under use — the toaster and the microwave. Basically, I make mine as though I had a toaster oven (which I don’t). Why do it this way? It’s quick. Is it that much quicker than the oven? Hmm. Probably not in one way. But then the difference to me between four minutes and (when you include pre-heating, twelve minutes … Let’s put it this way, it’s not a lot of time difference but it is still three times faster.

Most importantly I can see what’s happening. There’s a greater amount of control, partly due to the incremental stages I have set up and the fact that things will automatically shut off at those stages. It’s essentially, no-fail. Whereas with the broiler method (and to a slightly lesser extent the oven method), should you misjudge by as little as half-a-minute, you can turn broiler garlic bread into blackened garbage. So you went frantic and you wasted 12 minutes while holding up dinner. Plus, if you still want it, you have to redo from scratch again, while the rest of your meal goes cold. Which means you probably will not bother to redo your smouldering garlic bread afterall.

Since this dish is basically an extra side to my main meal, it means I’m already running around the kitchen doing the last minute cooking and setting up to serve stuff when I’m making this. And at that time it’s very easy to forget something in a broiler. My way, things don’t get out of control. Plus it’s four minutes. Mind you this even works if you’re in a pinch with white bread toasted and put into the microwave, but natch, rolls are ten times better.

So, all of this said, I do it this way pretty much to have it more often. Would I serve this to a bunch of guests? Probably not. Two reasons, one, the oven or broiler is going to be better, by far — but with the caveat that you keep a very close eye to it and really watch it. Second, my toaster meets microwave works because it’s for one or two people. You cannot fit more than two atop the toaster nor in the microwave at a time. With guests, even if its a total of four people, you can fit the bread onto a baking sheet easily. So easily you could make garlic bread for six or even 12 people at one time in the oven (maybe 6 in the broiler). The question then is would I do it this quickie way for guests? No firstly because it’s impossible, but also if were it somehow possible (as though I had a giant toaster oven or five toasters plugged together or whatever sillyness you can think of) I’d still do it in the broiler because if would be better, and they are guests and I want to serve them the very best and it would be worth the effort. In fact for a bunch of folks, it would be simpler making them all at once too. The dynamics in that respect would have changed.

But for everyday, for having it often, for the taste and the three times faster and the no-fail, won’t burn, control of it. Yep I like my quickie garlic and cheese bread just fine. Hope you do too!

Quick Cheese and Garlic Bread
©2008 Harry Kenney

two long rolls, preferrably Italian
margarine
garlic powder
grated parmegan

Cut or open the rolls, place a top the toaster as though it were a grill. First we’ll toast the bottom of it. Now, no matter what setting or numbers are on your slider or knobs, think of them in fifths or percentages. Put your settings at 20% of what it should be. Place down the slots to turn the sides on and toast the bottom. When it pops up, turn the inside of the rolls to face down, put on another 40% (a total of 60%) dark and again push down the two slots. When they pop up, check the roll. If it’s getting toasted move it over an inch, if it’s still fairly white, leave where they are, now push the slider or knob to 100% darkness.

Have a paper tower ready in front of or next to the toaster. When the toaster pops the third time, take off the rolls, crust down, and butter them. Now liberally sprinkle on garlic powder to taste. Do the same if you wish with grated parmegan. You see the paper towel has a few functions, to catch the excess seasonings, to transport the rolls to and from the microwave as well as to serve as a bed that will stop the roll from getting soggy in the microwave. Now, place them in the microwave for about 45-55 seconds on high (based on an 1100 watt microwave, longer if you have a less powerful 600-800 microwave). When done, serve with your meal.

©2008 Harry Kenney

What do you get when you take Wolfgang Puck and Guy Fieri, put them into one person and say give me your best meal? In my opinion, what you get served is prime rib. It’s got the Puck big-time class with the Fieri big-time eats all in one. It’s elegant. Yet there’s no getting around it: It’s also one big ol’ slab of beef, baby. Quality and quantity.

Tyler Florence once likened this to that giant side of Brontosaurus Fred Flintstone has slapped on top of his car and eventually makes it fall over. LMAO! I couldn’t agree more. It really does look like a miniature version of that cartoon hallmark. (And that’s the last time I’ll use the word miniature referring to this dish.)

Now, the name itself, Prime Rib. It’s a misnomer in a way. Because, at least here in America, it suggests that it is a prime grade of meat. And, if you purchase it at the butcher or the supermarket, where just about all of us get our meats, well, they don’t sell “prime”. You’ve no doubt purchased either Choice or Select. So, for all intents and purposes, even though the most famous name of this meat is Prime Rib, it’s actually better labeled as a Standing Rib Roast.

Ok, because of this name game thing, this is an excellent place to look into exactly what is United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grading, what these meat grades are, what beef falls into what category, and where can and can’t they be purchased from.

Here’s the deal. There are eight levels of beef grading. In order from the best on downward, they are: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. Prime is rarely sold anywhere except for restaurants and hotels. Choice and Select are the best of the supermarket grades. Standard and Commercial are usually sold as “store-brand” or non-graded at markets. And the last three are rarely ever seen in retail, and go to industry to make fillers, processed products and we assume pet food.

Concerning ourselves with the three best grades … Prime: This is the ultimate for flavor and tenderness, produced from young, well-fed cattle. Contains the greatest amount of marbled fat and less than three percent of all beef can meet this criteria. Choice: Still very high quality though with less marbling than Prime has. This is the most popular as it has a high degree of tenderness and flavor while a lot less costly than Prime. Just over half of all beef are given the standard of Choice. Select: It is leaner than Choice or Prime and therefore the least amount of marbling and a degree down in terms of taste. It is still tasty though and fairly tender, generally, but it can vary from meat to meat. Roughly a third of all beef falls under this grade.

If you are desiring visual aids, and want to see photos of these — and at the same time play “can you be a meat grader” go here. And if you’re interested in further information on USDA grading, including how it grades other meats and poultry check out the USDA site.

Another thing I need to address here is this “thing” I’ve read on some websites that say your standing rib roast has to have a lot of ribs or forget it. One particular website snootily said (ok, it was actually the owner of the site not the site itself who said it, if you want to get technical) … “Don’t even bother with less than a three-rib roast, any less than that is not a roast but rather a thick steak and would be better treated as such.” Hah! I say. I could not disagree more! Sure a six-rib mass of roast looks impressive to the eye, but, dear sir, I am more concerned with taste than looks.

One of my guests when learned I had two one-ribbers in the oven (to serve four people), said what a great idea. I replied, yes, I think you get better cooking that way and put an outside coating on more steaks this way, making it tastier. She agreed adding that when she’s had it before “everyone wants the end cuts” — that is, let’s say you were serving six people with a three-ribber roast, two would get the end cuts and four people would get the one’s in between. If you instead made three one-ribbers, each steak would be an “end cut”. You see the ends get that exterior cook plus that exterior coating.

So unlike some folks’ thinking, if you have a three-rib roast, I’d do the opposite, and get the butcher to precut them down (or you could do yourself possibly) into three one-ribbers: better cooking, more flavorful with each serving getting a coating and the exterior heat, and six “ends” — the most desired cuts of the roast.

Now this is an impressive meal. And I served it over the holidays for that reason, to impress some folks, and to overall make them a very nice meal, part of my Christmas gift. Funny though, it is and it is not expensive. I ended up with two nearly-three pound roasts which together cost me about $25 at the market. Think about it though, do you really believe if the four of us had gone to a restaurant and ordered this that we could all have been fed for $25? Heck no. Even now knowing what we learned about grading and that the restaurant meal would have been up a grade to “real” Prime rib … we’re talking a $200 meal and that’s not including appetizers, dessert, wine and tip. Easily. (And I won’t even mention parking or gas!) So, expensive meal? In one way, yes; in another way — a steal.

So enjoy this ultimate beef dish and don’t overcook it. This puppy deserves to be served with a lot of pink. It’s just that good and that tender.

Prime Rib of Beef with Peppercorn-Horseradish Coating
©2008 Harry Kenney

Two 2.5 to 3 lb cuts of prime rib roast
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
4 heaping tblspns horseradish sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°F Take the two roasts, stand them so the fat side is up (this will cover two sides). With a sharp paring knife make 8-12 insertions into the fat. Place thin slices of garlic deep into each incision.

Crush the peppercorns and place into small bowl. Add horseradish and enough olive oil so it’s about 2:1 ratio oil. Mix with a fork, then cover all sides (except bone side) of both roasts and rub in. Especially get the fat side and the two “steak” sides.

Place in roaster uncovered for roughly 1-1/2 hours. The rib should be on the bottom, almost like a natural plate or rack, with the fatty section on top so it can drip on down. If they won’t stand by themselves, let them lean on the side of the deep roasting pan if it’s sturdy enough.

Temperature is more important than time though. Continuallly test the inside temperature with a meat thermometer. You need to take a reading in multiple places as depending on where you place them, you may be hitting bone or marblized fat. Go with whatever turns out to be the lowest temperatures as your official “read”, and base off of that.

When you get a reading of 120-130°F at multiple points and at the previous lowest temperature points, take the roast out, cover, and let sit for 20-30 minutes, then cut off the rib from the back, slice exactly down the middle, and serve. Feeds four.

©2007 Harry Kenney

Welcome to the second installment of a continuing series. If you missed the first one, you can find it here: Answers to Your Questions Not Asked. This is where you the surfer asked questions without actually asking me. You — or, I should say, “they” — placed search terms in the various engines and found themselves at my site. And through my server logs I found what they were searching for.

Most found the answers here they were looking for. That’s what search engines supposedly do well. However some of these searches, these questions, were not found on my site, but Google and the others sent them here anyways. It’s to those searches that as a community service, knowing there are folks looking for these answers, that I now direct myself to. And, as before, some searches are truely bizarre, and out there, and for fun, I will at the end of this article have some wise (or is it wise-guy?) answers for those sincerely confused folks.

Food, Wine, Recipes, Chefs

“how to get crispy skin on barbeque oven chicken” – I refer you to my very first recipe on this site: Roasted Orange-BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters where I deal with this, including a photograph on scoring chicken. To answer it simply though. Crispy skin comes from scoring the fat, salting it within a rub, making certain you don’t accidentally (or purposely) baste it in any way while it’s cooking, and high heat, either at the end or at the start.

“iron chef ramsey” – Gordon Ramsey is one of the primo chefs in the world, but he is not an Iron Chef. There is Iron Chef America and a decade ago there was the original Iron Chef in Japan. As there is no Iron Chef UK or Iron Chef Britain television show, Gordon Ramsey is not an iron chef.

“eggplant lasagna without noodles” – I’ve seen this search phrase as least twice. If it has no noodles in it then it can no longer be called a lasagna, it is then called Eggplant Parmagen.

“how to reheat meat and cheese stromboli?” – In an oven or in a microwave. Ovens are always the best to reheat something breaded, pizza included. Use 300 degrees Farenheit and place on a cooking sheet or baking sheet on the top shelf. Usually taks about 10 minutes for a few slices of pizza. Closer to 14-16 for stromboli, but every oven is different so check before these times given to be certain.

If using a microwave, see my article on Keeping Food Fresh – Wrapping with Common Sense espcially the section called “What Microwaving Taught Me”. In short, wrap in a paper towel for microwaving anything breaded. For stromboli, anywhere from 50 t0 90 seconds, depending on size of slice, how packed it is and if it’s a low- or high-powered (wattage) microwave.

“godiva chocolate liquor shelf life?” – This question keeps coming up over and over, oddly. I’ve seen it asked at least once a week! Are there folks are there who have or who plan to just never open this bottle for decades? Don’t get it.

Anyways, I stumbled across something talking about Bailey’s Irish Cream which was mentioning how it should be used up within 24 months as it had no preservatives “unlike Godiva”. So, if something without preservatives can last two years. And Godiva has preservatives, then I’m guessing yes you can bury it along with the Pharoah for his drinking in the after life.

A better answer would be, just drink the stuff already! Or find some good recipes to use it in. Or both. As I’ve said prevously, I like Godiva chocloate licquor in my chocolate chip pancakes. Seriously.

“do you drink red wine with lasagna?” – You can drink red wine with anything you want. Same with white wine. Same with a blush. In all seriousness red wine does go well with lasagna, even vegetable lasagna. You see, besides my mantra of do whatever you want, wine drinkers are starting to realize that besides red with meat, white with fish, that there are other ingredients that are, like meat and fish, heavy and light.

Lasagna with it’s rich zesty tomato sauce and heavy layers (even without meat) seems to ask for a heavier wine to go with it, in this case the general classification of red. So yes, go with it. I’d pick a merlot myself. And yes I think a nice dry, medium white like pino grigio would go well with it too.

And if you want to contrast instead of complliment (you can you know) go with a white zinfandel which despite the name is actually a blush and very sweet; you might find the sweet crispness counterbalances against the tomato acidity well.

This next one should almost go to the strange section. Why? It seems like a normal question. Well, it is for someone who watches too many television commercials or eats at malls primarily. I save it here at the end of the serious questions so I can rant a bit though.

“stuffed chicken florentine recipe with tomatoes” – You are obviously watching waaay too many Olive Garden commericals. Florentine does not have tomatoes in it. And don’t get me or any other cook and most certainly not any chef on the topic of “Olive Garden”, aka the degarlicizing and homogenizing of any robust or true ingredients to fit into some body’s idea of a warped 21st century version of Ozzie and Harriet’s limited and bland pallete for the American masses. The same kind of pallete that eats a nacho and the person thinks they have truely experienced real Mexican food.

I recall watching one of Ming Tsai’s programs, probably it was “Simply Ming”. And he had another chef on and they got discussing their early days and how both of them when they were younger chefs heard about this new chain of restaurants called Olive Garden and how they were both impressed … until they heard about how one of the rules was to use very little or no garlic in any of the Italian dishes. I recall Ming saying to his friend, who agreed, “Whew, we dodged that bullet, didn’t we.” Think that sums it up nicely.

Oh and if you want a real recipe on the subject, sans tomato bits, go here: Chicken Florentine

Strange But True Searches

“do buttermilk and milk have the same volume?” – No, buttermilk tends to like the dulcet sounds of Yanni and John Tesh, where as whole milk is a lot rowdier and listens to Finger Eleven and so it’s much louder.

Why this one came here, no idea … unless it got confused with my series on Cooking Math, still …

“is 2 equal to 1?” – Only on Tuesdays in which case you now have a Royal Fizbin … Or at least that what Kirk tells me. Spock however says this is a non sequitur.

“where do apple turn overs come from?” – Ok, if a Mommy Apple Turnover and a Daddy Apple Turnover really love each other, they put on some Barry White music, and ….

I swear these two below came two months apart. Same person? I hope not.

“london broil deep fried cook time?” – If you’re actually capable of deep-frying London broil could you teach me how to saute some boiled water?

“london broil comes from what part of the turkey?” – The British side of the turkey; usually on it’s mother’s side.

Lava cake, aka molton cake, aka volcano cake (hmm, I sense a theme here) … whatever you want to call it, it’s fun and delicious, rich though lighter than you would expect — a chocloholic’s dream. Women want it and want to run away from it at the same time (because they want it, you see.) Kids love it, so do guys. What’s not to love about a miniature chocolate cake that oozes out even more liquid chocolatey goodness when you cut in to it?

There seems to be two basic ways to make this cake. The way that’s most difficult (patterned on the original “mistake cake”) that can easily fail, and the way that guarantee’s success every time. Being one of these crazy people who actually expects things to behave the way they are supposed to be — you know, purchasing a watch with the expectation it tells time, a refrigerator that stays cold, crazy things like that — my version falls into the latter category.

Ah, but first. A quickie history lesson. Where did this delight come from? In America, at least, many agree it was chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in 1987 when he was head chef at the Lafayette in NYC. Apparently, “he pulled a classic chocolate pain biscuit (sponge cake) from the oven too soon and it had a runny, but very delicious center” says Arthur Schwartz recounting the tale. Other’s such as chef Jacques Torres say the dish already existed in Europe.

That out of the way, I mentioned there’s two ways to make this, by that I mean there are probably hundreds of recipes but that they all fall into one of two groups. The first is similiar to that made by Vongerichten, where you have to time the cake perfectly within a 30 second window and not be several degrees higher or lower or you end up firming the center. To which I politiely laugh my head off at.

The second class is that which mine falls into wherein you need not be a chef skilled in the arts nor a nuclear scientist or have the so-called perfect oven. In short, there is a greater “mess it up” tolerance. Oh, you can still mess this up. I know this because I did it this time even. Fortunately another four minutes back in the oven cured it. (Two things: Do look at the photos at the very bottom to see the proper “doneness” to look for, and secondly, if I can still mess this up — and recover though — imagine how one could mess up the other class of recipes where there is no recovery from!) Not only that, mine is microwave reheatable. You see, this second class or style rests on simple common sense. Rather than partially bake something so the center remains liquid — ensure a liquid center.

Quick tip. Make more than you need. For one thing, you’ll love the “leftovers” the next day, for another, having one or two to “test” and make sure they’re where they should be (in terms of doneness) is a good idea if you’re serving guests. You yourself won’t mind eating up any mess over ones; they’ll taste just as yummy. And this way you can assure they will turn out. Again, with this recipe, you can just put them back in another four minutes or so if you’ve misjudged at all.

And of course, rarely one to leave a good thing alone without taking it up another, um, level … I had to add raspberry sauce. Both on top and on the inside. So it’s not just a chocolate lava flow, but it’s a raspberry chocolate lava flow. Simple to make. Easy to give away as a sorta food gift (though yes, I always want my ramekin back.) I don’t know if it’s possible to use muffin or cupcake pans, because how will you manage to get each out without it falling apart. Try to find individual throw-away muffin tins or minicake things. Really though, it’s worth it to get some ramekins if you can.

That said, this recipe is easy to reheat. And you are going to impress your family and guests immeasurably. Enjoy these outstanding little bites of pure decadence!

   Left: Not quite done. Right: Properly done.   

Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake
©2007 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
2 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
confectioner’s sugar (for dusting)

Raspberry Sauce

8 tbsps raspberry seedless jam
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2 tbsp southern comfort (or same amt. orange juice)

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well mixed. In sauce pan mix together ingredients for raspberry sauce.

With six ramekins, greased with butter, placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place 5 or 6 chocolate chips into the middle of each and sink. Pour teaspoon of raspberry sauce on top of chips, keeping to exact middle as possible. Leave a minute and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes until sides look firm and middle looks soft. (see photos).

When done, let cool about 3-5 minutes. Lightly go down edges with sharp thin knife, then turn over onto plate. Pat bottom gentely and let fall out upside down on to plate. Top each cake with one tablespoon of remaining raspberry sauce. Dust liberally with powdered sugar and serve hot/warm. Makes six servings.

What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

Portobellos or the smaller ones, lately marketed as “Baby ‘Bellos” are perfect for stuffing. As with many other dishes (meatloafs come to mind) there’s probably a hundred different ways to stuff a mushroom, and this is only one of a handful that I like to make. I was originally intending to do this with bacon bits (real ones, naturally), but having recently purchased a container of finely-diced prosciutto and being undecided what to do with it yet, this lent itself perfectly.

So, spinch and cheese, and now Italian ham. What for a stuffing binder? Could do Italian bread crumbs, but I had still had some ricotta left over from my pie the other day, so that was perfect. Add some grated parmegena to it and little bit of onion for some bite, and wham. Although having mixed it up, even with minched garlic, it was lacking and a tad dull. To the rescue I added two tablespoons of marsala wine which rounded it out nicely and added a needed wetness. Still missing something, I opted for a recent favorite of mine, horseradish sauce. Just a tad. Turned out great.

Funny thing, this particular night I made these there were no guests — I was just in the mood for stuffed mushrooms and didn’t want the package I had in the fridge to wait too much longer and possibly go bad. So for dinner I took the remainer of last night’s fennel salad, some shrimp left over from a couple days ago when I had company over and added the stuffed mushrooms. Plus a couple of thick slices of Italian bread and some White Zinfandel, and voila a very very tasty and slightly different dinner.

Prosciutto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portbellos
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup frozen spinach (measured before taking all the water totally out)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup parmegan
2 oz. finely diced prosciutto (or ham or bacon or pancetta)
2 tbsps minced garlic
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps dry marsala
salt
pepper

Take off inner mushroom stems if present. Clean off top and sides of bello caps with a moist paper towel and ready. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with fork.

Spoon mixture into mushroom cap with tablespoon. Now use clean hands to gently press as much as you can into cap. If lots of excess, return to bowl. Some excess, smooth around to form slight mound. Do this to the rest.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place mushrooms on baking sheet face up. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top and add additional pinches of parmagen. Place in oven for about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve hot.

The above is enough stuffing for roughly 8-10 baby portobellos. Mind you, sizes of these have no standard, so it could even be as little as 6 or as many as 12.

Fennel is one of those “strange vegetables” Americans just don’t know much about. Fortunately, as with many vegetables and many foods nowadays, there is a greater embracing of the culinary unknown — in short, where before folks would see something in a supermarket and pass it by, slowly more and more people are now not only avoiding them, but also seeking these items out.

So I was delighted to find in a single week the sudden appearance of fennel bulbs at both my supermarket’s produce section as well as my favorite produce speciality store. Interesting, in each place it showed up as, in turn, first “anise” and then “anise root” because of it’s taste.

To me, it has a consistency most like celery and somewhat like apple or potato, and a taste that is again somewhat like celery mixed with a bit of licorice. We’re talking mildly-flavored, of course. I don’t think something tasting robustly like licorace would be anything other than pungent. This versatile initially Mediterranean grown vegetable — and it’s more famous herb, fennel seed — is used from Spain to Greece, Morocco to the Middle East, to India and China (afterall fennel seed is often one of those mentioned in Five Spice Powder).

Because of it’s licorice like taste you would expect to see this in many a sweet dish and possibly a few savory ones. Turns out to be the absolute opposite about 20 to 1 in favor it being used in something savory, often in a sauce or soup.

I decided in this case to take advantage of both it’s celery-like consistency and it’s fruity (anise, anyhow) taste and make a light salad with it. It was a good choice. Definitely highlighted the taste of the fennel and showed me how it can stand up well against other flavors without overpowering them. No wonder it’s used in soups and sauces so much. Trust me, this salad — which is oh-so amazingly simple — will surprise you. My one “taste tester” who can never take anything too far out there — aka, different from the norm — loved this. So did I. So I’m betting will you.

Fennel Tangerine Salad
©2007 Harry Kenney

One medium fennel bulb, cut off top, take out inner core, slice into chunks
Three tangerines, peel, deseed, make into half slices
Half one-red onion, chunks (or a quarter one yellow onion, minced)
Half bag of assorted spring mix lettuces

salt
pepper
orgeano
basil
garlic powder

Mix together veggies in bowl. Add lettuce, season, place in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes so flavors mix and to add slight chill. (Do this with all salads) Preferrably top with bottled or fresh Italian dressing. Serves four.

French fries. Another item that is so very “all-American”, yet, as with the people who populate the U.S., it came from elsewhere. We just popularized it. How can anyone not like the quintessential “fry”. It goes with everything. Like it’s cousin, the potato chip, you put it on the side of something else and it turns whatever it’s accompanying into a meal.

And name any other food in the world in which all women will say they don’t want, but when your meal comes with fries, they will eat a third of them from your plate! Admit it, ladies. Guys, you know this is true.

Different Names, Condiments, Toppings

In America, sometimes the fry replaces the potato chips (as with a sandwich or hot dog). Sometimes it’s replacing mashed or baked potatoes next to a pork chop or even a steak (as in steak fries or steak potatoes already mentioned). And sometimes we just eat them by themselves. Not to mention the endless possibilities of toppings that turns it into cheese fries, crab fries (Old Bay seasoning, not actual crab meat), chilli fries, pizza fries or Mexican fries to name a few. And there is curly, shoe-string (super thin) and steak (thicker) ones as the cuts of the potato and slightly different.

Of course there’s also the region differences. In the Northeast part of the US where I live, you eat them plain or with ketchup. And when I crossed the Mason-Dixon line a decade ago and took a trip to Baltimore, I was shocked to find my burger and fries came with brown gravy dumped on top. I quickly learned afterward, if you don’t say hold the gravy in Maryland, it comes automatically without asking for it. And if you go further South, well I know that Paula Deen the Georgian television cook likes them with mayonnaise.

And, of course, (sigh) as with any talk of food, if it’s in America, then sure enough the Brits call it and it’s relations by totally different names, totally confusing things and requiring yet another discussion of “two countries, one language” — or so they say. (Yes, I know, and if you’re British then your point of view is the exact opposite, that those Yanks always have to mess with the Queen’s English.)

Where They Came From

In the United States french fries are thin sticks of deep-fried potato. In the UK, Ireland and the various Commonwealth counties, they are called chips. Also the sizes, shapes and thicknesses vary. The US one is usually the “thin style” of roughly 1/4 inch or less widths and fairly even, though sometimes long. The UK chips tend to be thicker and often shorter. As to it’s “cousin”, in the US, thin oval slices of deep-fried potato are called potato chips, while the same in the UK are called crisps.

As to their origin, it is of course a matter of great debate. Though it seems the so-called French fry probably comes from Belgium. Among the questions though are, is it Belgium that was the Spanish Netherlands, the Belgium that was part of France or the Belgium that was, well, Belgium. And depending on which, the French and the Spanish also claim therefore that they made them first. Again, though, it’s America that both consumes the most, and who via various foreign hamburger chains, have made the thin-width, longer, skinner french fries the version the world tends to eat. What gives me a little chuckle is when an English-speaking chef refers to them as pommes frites in the title of a recipe; I always think their egos be a little flattened that day and so they want to call everyone’s attention to their classical “culinary chops”.

All of that history, names, type of cuts, condiment or food add-ons said, it comes down to deep-frying. Sort of. Deep-frying is how they should be done, though there is also oven-baked from frozen when it comes to home cooking. Today I’m talking about the deep-frying, which involves a whole totally different way of cooking. So much so, there’s no way I’m going to cram all of what is involved into one recipe or even a single article.

It’s About Oils and Deep-Frying

So, I advise you to check out my recent article on Everything You Need to Know about Cooking Oils for now. And I’ll be adding in the near future a second one on deep-frying which I suggest you look at when it’s available.

For now, I’ll say use a good cooking oil with a high-smoke point. I personally prefer canola, vegetable oil or peanut. You will need specific equipment for this if you do not have an electric deep-fryer: A big pot that is stainless steel or cast iron or otherwise “non-reactive”, a deep fry or candy thermometer is a must, and either a spider (usually stainless steel or copper and looks a bit like a spider web with lots of thin wire, sometimes called a steel strainer) or a skimmer (wide, round, many holes, see accompanying photo). You should also have a brown bag and tons of paper towels.

As you see in my photos, one of the great things about having a galley-style kitchen as I do is it makes it easy to set up a “station” where you can cut the potatoes, have them ready for the fryer, and then space to set out a ripped brown bag, on top of which are paper towels for padding the oil off, and also for placing on a baking sheet to maintain the first ones staying warm while the rest are being done.

Worth It? Maybe

Two things I have to tell you. First, yes, these were absolutely delicious fries. Among the best I’ve had. The double-fry method used makes all the difference. And it’s difficult to beat fresh and warm and just-made. That said though, (the second thing, the sound of the other shoe dropping in some ways …) I’m uncertain if I’ll make these again. At least in this way. Why? It is a lot of work. And if you don’t already know one of my big items when it comes to cooking is the taste versus time equation. If something is tremendously better the long way than the short, I’ll go that extra mile. However if something is very difficult and time-consuming and the taste difference doesn’t likewise go up a similar number of levels, then I’ll take the easy way.

With this recipe, it was reusing the oil. It took over and hour and a half to pour 8 cups of oil into a small funnel with a coffee filter in it. Even if I had a really big funnel, there was still the size of the coffee filter. I know, maybe cheese cloth will work better, that and a large funnel. Maybe a microfine coned strainer is the answer. Or maybe, tossing the oil. But then ouch, the world’s most expensive french fries! Another thing, to not crowd the pan I did the first fry in six parts (that’s 6-8 minutes per) and the second fry was three batches for about 2-3 minutes. So, prep time, plus 50-60 minutes plus another 15. The mess and paper towels everywhere, and the long long time of filtering for reuse made this not worth it to me.

Anyway you’ve been forewarned. All in all, I’d rather either buy frozen and put them in the oven or I may try figuring out an oven-only method since I did really enjoy the taste of fresh. Now, I am not flip-flopping in the least here; just presenting the pros and the cons both for you to consider. One big reason you might want to do this is it is the best way to start out deep-frying. I mean if you’ve never done it before ever, or you haven’t for a quite some long time, what you rather mess up a bunch of chicken or a few potatoes? So, this is excellent “beginner training” or “refresher course” for someone getting into or back into deep-frying. And yes they will taste yummy. And if you’re willing to not reuse the oil or you have a better filtering system, go for it. Or if you doing it for a party or for four or more people. Or … it might be worth the investment and get an electric deep-fryer which is something else I myself am considering. Anyway, enjoy!

Homemade French Fries (Deep-Fried)
©2007 Harry Kenney

5 large or 7 medium potatoes (russets or Idahos)
6-8 cups of cooking oil (with a high smoke-point)
salt to taste

Place oil in a large stainless steel stock pot. Add and adjust thermometer on the side so it is not touching the bottom, 1/4 inch to 1 inch from the bottom is good. Turn heat on to high. Keep watching and if it gets past 300°F while you are still prepping/cutting, turn heat down to low.

Choose in your mind first the width you want for your fries, 1/4 inch thick or 1/3 inch. I went with the latter. With your (hopefully) starchy, large and ovalish potatoes, slice across the horizontal making several 1/3 layers. Place them down and now cut through this layer at roughly 1/3 inch apart. Let the length fall where it may. See photo. Into an ice water bath place your potato cuts as you make several. This not only preserves the color, but more importantly helps remove the starch making for a crispier potato for deep frying.

Keep an eye on the oil. If it’s under 300, leave burner on simmer, if it’s over 340°F, turn it off. For the first part you are aiming for 325°F. Continue with the next “level” you cut and the rest of your potatoes, each time you have several placing them in the ice bath. When everything is cut. Leave them in the ice another five or ten minutes, giving you time to set everything up for your stations. You need to have a place to put the potatoes and blot them dry with paper towels. Have them ready for putting in the oil. A place to put them when you take them out of the oil to drain off the excess oil, preferably using a combination of a brown bag and paper towels. And a baking sheet to place those in the oven to keep warm as you finish the rest. Turn oven on now to 200°F.

With fries dried well of moisture and oil at 325°F, place a handful or two of fries into the oil carefully. I suggest between 10 and 12 of these is a good number. You don’t want too much in. Your oil will drop with the addition of food into it. Keep an eye out and turn heat up and down to maintain close to the 325°F mark, neither too far down nor too far over. For this, time I found is a better indicator than eye-balling it for color. About 7 minutes take them out and place on bags/towels. Do not put the next batch in until your oil is once again at the target temperature.

When through with this batch, start again. This time you want your temperature to be at 375°F for your target. Be careful this time not to go over 400°F, if you do, remove the pot to a burner that’s cool, and place back in between batches. You can also add fresh oil in 1 cup increments to help cool, but this trick you probably don’t want to do more than twice as the most. For this second dip, eyeball for color more than time. Should take anywhere from 2-3 minutes (if you’re at the right temperature and over 4 minutes you have browned, tough fries). Golden brown you want.

Blot and place into baking sheet.as they come out. After a couple batches of these, place baking sheet on top rack of your 200°F oven to keep warm as the rest come out. Continue this cycle until done. Salt fries on baking sheet as desired. Serve as soon as possible. Though you can leave fries up to 30 minutes max in the warming oven. Makes about four servings.

Quick note: I said I would try to make up for the five or six days down with the virus with daily posting. That’s obviously not happening. Pre-Christmas shopping, wrapping, card mailing, house decoration and all the other miscellaneous holiday-related tasks are just taking way too great a toll on my time that I’m finding it difficult to do many of my normal things, let alone pushing it from an every-other-day posting to making a daily recipe or article post. Thanks for understanding.

Meanwhile some things you can look forward to in the near future. An article on deep-frying plus three deep-fried recipes, a chocolate raspberry lava cake, a review featuring chef Robert Irvine, plus I have in the house right now: mascarpone cheese, polenta, proscuitto, a large fennel bulb, yogurt, gelatin, white asparagus and a spaghetti squash. No idea yet what I’m going to do with each of them but it will be interesting. I’m also going to break-in my new KitchenAid Artisan mixer in style with a bunch of cookie making. Two I definitely know already I’ll be posting will be Italain cookie recipes that worked out fanstasticly in the past: biscotti and anginetti cookies. Til then … Happy Holidays!

As with meat loaf, I have several different ways to make beef stew, depending upon my mood du jour. Actually the ways are not all that different, so maybe variants or “slight variations” would be the more correct phrase. But this one is pretty much what I would consider the “master” verion.

There are so many great things about stews. Number one is they turn any tough meat into delicious meat. Second they bring together so many wonderful things — meat, vegetables, herbs, sometimes wine — into this well amazing orchestra, basically. For what is an orchestra but something which at times you hear (in this case taste) all the individual elements, and yet they also work in harmony with each other Kill me for saying this, but it’s music for your mouth and your stomach

You can use way inexpensive meat, such as ground beef, and turn it into something of a feast. Stew has to be the ultimate way to cook a budget meal for your family. Budget if you’re using beef chunks, and major budget-saver if you’re using burger. Stews are an excellent way to use up some leftovers, definitely leftover vegetables. Together they also form an amazing broth. I know whenever I make stew I use a tablespoon over a fork and I must have plenty of bread or rolls in the house to lap up every drop of that flavorful brew. It’s one of the ultimate comfort foods. And during the frigid winter, it just might become for that season the ultimate comfort food. And if you are into the cook a lot on one big day so you can microwave it multiple times the rest of the week, then stew is indeed your friend.

What more to say? Always sear your meat prior to putting it in the stew. Get it carmelized. If you’re using ground meat, this isn’t as necessary. What is more important for “hamburger stew” is drawing out the fats in the pan and putting the meat and the fat (aka, the flavoring) into the stew itself. But you don’t want it too dry either.

More tips: Chunky is better. You can also cut it into smaller pieces in your bowl with your spoon or fork. (No knifes here except for spreading margarine on your bread!) Sometimes I use tomato sauce as an important base element. Sometimes wine. Often both.

You’ll have noticed that I do not suggest using premade broths in my stew. But, why, Harry? Two reasons, the main one being: hello, it’s stew! — It makes broth, it doesn’t require broth! Second, the entire idea of adding broth to a stew reminds me one of those science fiction time warp anomalies. Adding broth to a stew means someone first had to make a stew to make the broth in order for you to now be making your stew! Yes, it gives me the same headache as when I hear about how if you go back in time to shoot your grandfather then you no longer exist and if you never existed then how could you have gone back in time…. Ouch! See what I mean?

Last tip or tips. Don’t be scared that this uses a lot of water. There is plenty of juices in the veggies and meats and all to flavor it. On the flip side, do not be shy with using your spices. With the exception of bay leaves in which a few can flavor two to three gallons of stew handily, when it comes to putting in your other spices, do it liberally. And yes I mean a lot. There’s a lot of water and a lot of food in there. It needs it to get around. Again, we’re going for eight quarts of stew here. A dash here and there is nice for a little meat chop or a burger, but it will be lost in all of this if that’s all you put in.

Finally, a word about the wine in this dish. Just the other day I did as the story lead up to a recipe where I talked about the statistics for alcohol evaporation in cooking. Compare that to this recipe. There’s about .75 quarts of wine among a total of 8 quarts of water, beef, potatoes, carrots, etc. When you take that with the statistics mentioned and stewing for about an hour and a half, that has now burnt off 80% of the wine. Considering how much wine is in this dish with the rest of the dish and that less than 20% of it remains, no, no one is going to get drunk. Remember, wine with food stops that. Even a little wine with no food it rarely happens. And how can you get more wine with food then wine actually in the food?

So for those of you who think I’m getting you drunk … well, it will either gladen you or sadden you to know, that it won’t happen with this dish. Enjoy, bon appetite and (hehe) salute!

Homemade Beef Stew
©2007 Harry Kenney

2 lbs chuck (or other stewing beef), chunks
(you can substitute ground meat for “hamburger stew”)
6 cups potatoes (about five large potatoes, I prefer the medium-starch potatoes), chunks
3 cups carrots (about five medium-large), cylindrical chunks
2 cups yellow onion (about 2 large onions), triangular chunks
2/3 cup celery (about 3 stalks), small chunks
1 cup frozen peas
1-1/2 cups Italian flat beans (or regular green beans)

8 or more cups water
1 cup dry Marsala wine
2-3 cups dry red wine (suggestion: Merlot)

16 oz diced tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste (or 4-8 oz of spaghetti sauce)
5 cloves garlic, crushed, cut finely

to taste:

salt
pepper
3 bay leaves
basil
oregano
garlic powder
onion powder
Worcestershire
hot sauce (or Tabasco)
cornstarch (if needed)

In your giant stewing pot, dutch oven, or other similar container that is going to be your “final” pot, put in the mirepoix, in other words, your onions, carrots and celery with oil on a low to medium-low flame and sweat them for 10 minutes. Do not brown. Meanwhile in a large pan, start browning your beef with oil and 3/4 of your fresh garlic, salt and pepper.

When your core vegetables are looking nice (and the onions going translucent), time to add 2 cups of water and a ton of seasonings including your bay leaves. Remember, you’re starting to season this not just for what is currently in the pot, but to some degree for what will be the entire pot, so go crazy with it. See photo above.

As your beef is browning and you’ve been turning it to brown on all sides, now add more seasonings and splash with some red wine. After a few minutes, toss in the main pot with the veggies. Add the potatoes. Add the Marsala and red wine and if needed, more water, enough to cover everything. Cover with lid, simmer on medium-heat.

After about three-quarters of an hour, add more water as needed. Mix around and taste. At this point you can usually tell how bland it might be and if it needs some kick to it. Add more seasoning if needed, including Worcestershire and or hot sauce to taste. Add tomatoes, and green vegetables.

Check on it about twenty minutes or so later. Again, add water or make any other seasoning adjustments, including adding tomato paste or sauce at this point. Add cornstarch if it seems too thin. Mind you, you are not aiming for gravy nor sauce, but you do want a very well seasoned not-thin broth with body to it. Continue stewing for another 15-30 minutes. Basically at this point you’re checking every 10 minutes until you are happy with it all. Besides tasting the broth, be sure to open up at least one chunk of beef and taste a bit of it to see if you agree with the consistency and taste of it to your liking. When you are happy with it, that’s when it’s done. Makes 8 quarts, feeds a small army or enough leftovers to last the bulk of a week.

If you’re relatively new to cooking — or not so good at it — you definitely must read this. And even if you’re an experienced pro, you too will no doubt find a few bits of information here that will surprise you. One thing for sure, when it comes to talking about cooking oils there is a surprising amount to say.

Don’t think so? At first glance it seems pretty short and cut and dry. There’s margarine and butter. And then there’s the oil you put in your frying pan, usually called vegetable oil. The end. Right?

Were that only the case. Ok, think about just this one element: What about olive oils? Oh, right, butter, margarine, vegetable oil and for some “Italian” flavoring olive oil. The end. …. No?

What about the oil dressing on your salad? What about flavored oils for, say, Asian food? What kind of oil burns at low temperatures? What oil is good for deep frying, say, french fries? And what about the dozen or so different cooking oils? How do they differ? What do they taste like? Why are there something like four kinds of olive oil and which is best for what? What’s the difference between refined and unrefined oils? Why does the saying “hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick” work? When doesn’t it seem work? What about the health issues regarding saturated fats? Unsaturated fats? What is trans fat? Which oils have which? Is margarine or spreads actually worse than oils? Can some oils or fat lower your chance for heart disease? What do I need to know about oils and “smoke point”? What about flash and fire points? …

Have you said “uncle” yet? Ok, so we agree then; there is a lot to know about oil after all. Think about this too. Without cooking oil, there’s no oil, no butter, nothing but animal fat and raw meat. Everything would stick to everything and we would eating foods, meat, veggies, anything either raw, on a stick over a fire or boiled. There would be no cakes, no pies and only flat bread. After all, what would them together? Ok, you get the idea. Oil is a not an enemy, it’s a necessary thing we use each day and is found in most if not all of our foods each day. That said, let’s jump right in and learn more about cooking oils.

Health, Oils and Cooking Fats

It’s impossible to talk about cooking oils without talking first about fats. That said, the entire “fat thing” is very important to health, and therefore, it could be it’s own article or series of articles right there. Because it’s important, we’ll touch on it. But for in-depth reading on this subject there are other places that have gone into great detail and research. For now, the highlights or the “Cliff Notes” you need to know start with: There are four kinds of fats, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fat.

In short, what we know today is all the stuff they used to tell us about fats … toss that out the window. Most of it was not true or not fully understood. Proof of that an eight-year study where eating a low-fat diet did not prevent heart disease, breast cancer nor colon cancer. It didn’t even do much for weight loss. It turns out some fats increase chance of diseases and some fats actually lower the risk of disease and the key is to substitute good fats for bad fats.

Remember these basics: LDL is often referred to as the “bad” cholesterol. HDL is often called the “good” cholesterol. Saturated fats and trans fats are bad. Trans fat raises LDL. Saturated fats are worse, raising both the LDL and the HDL. Unsaturated fats, both polyunsatureated and monounsaturated are good fats. These lower LDL and raise HDL. The direction(s) you want to go.

Under “good” then comes the following oils: olive, canola, peanut, corn, soybean, and safflower among others. Under bad comes most margarines, vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, and even butter. Also, with one odd exception, cooking oils do not contain trans fat, where as shortening and stick margarine made of 70% soybean oil have the highest trans fat. (For some of you, this probably turns your world upside).

More info you may not have been aware of: butter has the highest saturated fats of anything out there with the exception of coconut oil; and palm oil comes in a close third. Meanwhile cooking oils and various other combination margarine-type spreads all come as having the lowest amounts of saturated fats. (Remember though some of these spreads still do contain trans-fat where as the oils do not.)

Certainly shows cooking oils are overall the best way to go. For this article, we’ve explored fats enough now and will go on to other areas. But if you’re interested in more details and charts they can be found at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Note, obviously, all oil is 100% fat. Despite the various differences in oils, one thing is a constant. All cooking oils contain 120 calories per tablespoon. Also, fatty acids are required for good health in some measure. If we had zero fat in our diet, we would not be able to metabolize fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K in our bodies. In cold climates, greater amounts of dietary fat is required for greater survival.

Refined and Unrefined Oils

In researching parts of this topic I found some places will go into long explanations of the differences between refined and unrefined oils, detailing what types of heat or cold-presses or whatever went into these. Does the average cook need to know three pages on this? No. So, simply, this is all that matters:

Unrefined oils have a low smoke point, below 320°F. Anything that low you can’t use for deep-frying and you also have to be careful you don’t make your frying pan too hot. These are used for light sautes, low-heat baking, salad dressings and sauces primarily. They tend to be made to impart flavor, such as dark sesame oil which is used heavily in Chinese, Indian and other Asian cooking.

The refined cooking oils are the all-around ones we think about most when it comes to cooking: olive oil, canola oil (rapeseed oil), peanut oil, vegetable oil and the rest. Good for low to (depending) deep-frying and which usually impart no, little or slight added tastes to a dish.

Oil Flavors, Cooking Uses, Smoke Points

One thing we’ll leave out of this article — or rather, just touch upon — is the technique of deep-frying for two reasons: It really is a “specialty” in many ways and there are so many things you need to know specifically for that process, that all of that will be dealt with in a separate future article just on deep-frying. So other than “smoke point”, we’ll pretty much stick with basic cooking, pan frying and oven baking when we talk about oils.

I can’t totally avoid talking about deep-frying though or some things wouldn’t make sense. One often deep-frys around 375°F. So a cooking oil at 400°F is not desired for deep-frying because the oil can easily rise that 25° quickly, even with a careful eye on things, and that’s it, burnt oil. So even though a smoke point of 400-410°F might sound good in theory as they are over the level for cooking — they are actually for me and most cooks too close for comfort and should not be used for deep-frying nor for high oven baking.

Unless otherwise mentioned, oils listed below tend to have a smoke point of 450°F.

Olive Oil. Starting out with this one since it’s the one that has all those different sub-types. Extra virgin olive oil has the lightest taste and the lowest smoke point at around 406°F. Virgin is slightly more robust. Extra light has a high smoke point. The lightest work best in salad dressings and good for cooking with a slight taste. The “heavier” ones are often too strong for simply putting on foods that are not cooked or even those that have been cooked; they are best used in the cooking and only if you want a robust carry-over flavor. Myself I use only a single type of olive oil for everything, extra virgin, and that keeps it simple.

Safflower Oil. Clear and nearly flavorless. Often used in salads as it doesn’t solidify when chilled. Good for all cooking. All purpose.

Sunflower Oil. Light flavor. High in polyunsaturated fat. All purpose.

Canola Oil. Similar to safflower. Mild flavor. 400°F smoke point. Often the least expensive and also the lowest saturated fat at 6%.

Peanut Oil. Very subtle flavor and scent, can impart a nutty, roasted flavor. Doesn’t absorb nor transfer flavors. Excellent all around oil. Contains 18% saturated fat, the highest among oils (though low compared to margarines, butter, lard and vegetable shortening.) A cook might need to consider if anyone eating the food has a peanut allergy is a singular drawback to an other-wise excellent oil.

Corn Oil. Nearly tasteless. All purpose. High in polysaturated fat it’s often used for salad oils, mayonnaise and put in margarines.

Soybean Oil. Very mild. All purpose. Almost 80% of anything labeled vegetable oil as an ingredient in a commercially manufactured product contains this oil.

Vegetable Oil. A blend of different refined oils that is designed to have a mild flavor and a high-smoke point. That said, it’s no higher than any of the other oils.

Food Sticking in the Pan — Part One

I’m taking this right off, as I couldn’t explain it better. This comes from the Office of DOE Science Education and Division of Educational Programs (DEP) of Argonne National Laboratory.

“Question – There is an old saying in cooking, “hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick.” It is a true statement, but I can’t come up with a plausible explanation as to why. Why does food tend to stick to a pan if the pan and the oil are brought to the proper temperature together?

“[Answer:] A small amount of oil added to a very hot pan almost instantly becomes very hot oil. The oil quickly sears the outside of the food and causes water to be released from the food. This layer of water vapor (”steam”) lifts the food atop the oil film and keeps it from touching the hot pan surface. If the oil is not hot enough, the steam effect will not occur and the food will fuse to the (too) cool pan surface.”

Food Sticking in the Pan — Part Two

What happens when, for whatever reason, you seem to have done things correctly and the meat is sticking to the pan?

I’ve read this in one place and I’ve since heard this on television a few more times. To quote chef Tom Colicchio from his book “Think Like a Chef” on the section where he explains the proper way to pan roast: “Brown the food on top of the stove, in a pan with a small amount of oil, at about medium heat. [...] Don’t worry about the food sticking to the pan during this step. If you pat it completely dry first, use only medium or medium-high heat, and be patient, the food will release itself from the pan when it’s browned.”

Try it. The chefs are right. I put this to the test a month or so ago when I was making my braciole recipe and since it was going into the oven after a nice sear in the pan I was not using my non-stick pan but one of my anodized aluminum ones that would be able to withstand the oven heat. In other words, a plain old pan. I put it on medium-high, poured in olive oil, took my braciole rolls and put them in. When I thought it was time to lift and turn them, they all stuck. So I remembered this and “left them alone”, meaning I would come back every minute or so and lightly see if I could move them with my tongs. When I got resistance I stopped trying. Finally, they would let go on their own accord. I’d give the steak logs a quarter turn and repeated the process until they were done and ready for the oven. In short, it worked, to my amazement, it actually worked.

So there you go. Except for deep-frying, there you have nearly everything you need to know about cooking oils. Hopefully you’ll find this of value next time you’re in the market and trying to decide what oil to purchase for what purpose, and hopefully that parts about “sticking” will help you become a better cook too — especially those of you new to cooking — and not leave scads of seared meat clinging to the frying pan or wondering why the oven is smoking because you used the wrong oil for your high-degree baking!

You might recall I mentioned before that one of my earliest “dishes” I ever made was simply baking some chicken breasts in the oven and five minutes before they done pouring creamy Italian dressing over them. It was simple and delicious. Well, if that was the first-ever dish I made back in my teens. Then this one here would no doubt be my second one. And likewise is both super simple and delicious. And as you see, one that stood the test of time and that I still make today.

You’ll also see one of the key components in this is liquor. Yes, I do love my liquor — when cooking. Why? It’s an ingredient. It’s very flavorful. Remember extracts, vanilla extract and the rest also come from liquor, and they are likewise very potent tastes, that is,they pack a lot of flavor in a very small, concentrated amount.

So, you’re going to ask me what’s the children’s version of this? Or you might be wondering can you give this to children? In which case you’re probably actually asking one of the most-asked questions when it comes to cooking with alcochol: how much actually stays in the dish and how much is actually burnt off? While prevailing wisdom and tales handed down throughout the years say most of the liquor is cooked off immediately, it turns out that’s somewhere between an old wife’s tale and an urban myth.

Here then, from the USDA, are the actual facts on alcohol or liquor burn off during cooking:

Ok, so back to one of the first questions, can I give this to children? Your call. What does your family do? In Europe, and we Americans often think first of France and Italy, children drink wine and such while quite young and it’s socially-acceptable. Here in “the States” in the past generation such things have been considered a no-no. Although (and I say this with no proof, pun intended) that there’s a more calming down of late as this is not the worse thing in the world, in other words, I think it’s becoming slowy more socially-acceptable. But then in private in the home with family such things always were more accepted. The upshot (no pun this time) is it’s a family thing dependent upon house to house, family to family. So I leave it up to you.

And finally to the last question: Substitutions for liquor in this particular dish? And, as writing compresses time, it’s taken me a while to think up something. For the very reason I said, alcohol like extract packs a ton of flavor in a small amount of volume. I’m thinking you could try nectar. Hit the Spanish section of your supermarket and grab one of the fruit nectars in a can made by Goya. That would probably be the best. Juice? Juice is so watered down. If you have a can of apricots, the syrup would work better than juice (and less than nectar or liquor). All I can say is two things, if you really must, and secondly, taste it for yourself and see if it works. I’m guessing it’s passable as a children’s topping with juice, maybe Maybe a teaspoon of corn syrup and juice. It needs something not only for flavor it needs something to give it body.

Let’s go with nectar first. Juice or syrup combined with a small amount (teaspoon, maybe) of corn syrup is probably second. That said, I’ve never tried it either of those ways and since I’m not America’s Test Kitchen I probably won’t. Let me know, seriously, how either or both of those works out. And if you’ve come up with a different or better substitute.

Hot Apple Topping over Ice Cream
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 apple, peeled, sliced into thin chunks
butter
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Apricot brandy (or peach schnapps or apple schnapps)
   (non-alcoholic substitutes: nectar, syrup or juice plus tsp corn syrup)
ice cream, preferrably vanilla

Into a small sauce pan on medium heat place in butter, let it melt and add apple slices. Turn and cook until softened. Add sugar and cinnamon. Cook a bit longer. Remove pan away from heat, add in liquor, place pan back on heat another minute or so. When apples are softened but not limp, and there’s a thin sauce, it’s done. Spoon atop ice cream and serve immediately before ice cream melts. Makes two servings.

If you’re a regular follower of this blog — first, many thanks!, and second — you’ve probably wondered why no posts this week. I got hit by a virus — two in fact — badly. Long story short. I’m surfing, I go to a seemingly normal web page, wham, my anti-virus goes off. Eventually this trojan (BHO.CVX) locks out Window’s restore capabilities, then later disables my ability to log on the web for two days. Three days later and most of it cleared out and boom, a second “time bomb” virus (Packed.Morphine.d) planted by the first one goes off, and it’s harder to kill then the first was. How did it get in? Through Google’s toolbar. You see, browser toolbars leave coding holes that make it easy for viruses to attack you. That said, Google still touts theirs. I say, do not install any toolbar and if you have any installed: remove them! You’ve been warned.

That said, I make no promises but I will definitely try to make up for this week by posting a recipe or article each day for the next week to catch up. Thanks.