Tuesday's Tip ~ cooking with fresh herbs

Rather than chop fresh mint leaves, it is best to tare tear them with your hands into small pieces, in this way the leaves bruise and release the mint oil.

(see Sicilian Mint Sauce) 

Tuesday's Tip ~ Standard Breading Procedure

This procedure is meant for food that will be baked, pan/shallowfried, or deep-fried. 

First, prepare the “dry” flour mixture (typically, the main ingredient is all-purpose flour, although you may use a wholewheat, rye, or rice flour). I always add cornstarch to this dry mixture. The ratio that I follow is 2:1, meaning 2 parts flour to 1 part cornstarch. This trick lends to the crispy and crunchy texture characteristic of fried food. Season the flour mixture. Use your imagination; in addition to using kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, paprika is fantastic for adding a bit of color, and spices such as curry, cinnamon, and cayenne will add a great depth of flavor. Place the flour mixture into a large, shallow pan. The pan should be large enough to lay the
dredging item flat.
Secondly, prepare the “wet” egg mixture. Always beat the eggs well in a separate bowl, and then add to a large, shallow pan. I always add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, milk, or buttermilk to the egg mixture.
This lends to a creamy texture to the eggs, which act as an adhesive between the dry ingredients.
Lastly, prepare the “dry” breadcrumb mixture. Typically, this is Italian- style breadcrumbs, although I love the Japanese-style “panko” breadcrumbs (found in the international foods’ aisle of most grocery
stores). Panko is characteristically light, and adds a lot of texture to fried foods. You can also season this mixture with kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and minced fresh herbs. Other flavor additives include Parmesan cheese, sesame seeds, and toasted coconut. Avoidadding fresh garlic or onion when deep frying, as this will often burn and add a bitter flavor.
To assemble, place the flour mixture, egg mixture, and breadcrumb mixture side by side, in that order. When dredging in the flour mixture, be sure to completely coat the entire surface area of the food item, and pat it off to remove excess flour that would otherwise burn in the oil. Next, fully submerge the food item into the egg mixture. 

Finally,place it into the breadcrumb mixture until fully coated. Another great trick is to lay fully coated food onto a flat pan, being careful not to overcrowd it, and place the pan uncovered in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before frying. This helps to adhere the breading onto the food item. Chef Nicole 

Tuesday's Tips ~ Mise en place

Mise en place [MEEZ-ahn-plahs] is a French term that literally means “set or put in place.” Mise en place refers to a chef’s setup of essential ingredients and tools that are necessary to begin the actual cooking process. Before beginning any recipe, it is important to:

1. Have all the ingredients and equipment readily accessible.

2. Read the entire recipe and make sure that you understand all of the instructions and steps that you need to follow. It's very important to know the technique, thanks to You Tube, if you are not familiar with a particular technique, you can watch it first. If your mise en place is set out and organized right in front of you, it allows for a steady flow of production. Essentially, organization leads to less error.  For most professional and at-home chefs, a mise en place consists of:

• Kosher salt: Keep readily accessible in a small finger pot.
• Freshly cracked black pepper: Keep in a refillable pepper mill with whole black peppercorns.
• Blended oil (see the Chef's tips tab)
  
• Flour/cornstarch: Not only is flour or cornstarch essential for baking, they oftentimes act as a thickening agent.
• Sugar/honey: Just as a pinch of salt is added to almost all baking recipes to bring out the sweetness and balance the flavor, I add a pinch of sugar or a tablespoon of honey to my savory soups and sauces. I believe that this creates a well-rounded depth of flavor.  Chef Nicole

Tuesday's Tip ~ Nuts and Seeds

Anytime you come across nuts or seeds (such as almonds, hazelnuts,  pumpkin  or sesame seeds), regardless if the recipe is for a savory dish or a sweet dessert, I always recommend toasting them. Nuts and seeds contain an exuberant amount of natural oil, which, when heated, will be extracted and produce a golden color and strong aroma.
This task, however, does require caution, as nuts are one of the most commonly burnt items in professional kitchens.
I would not advise adding additional oil or butter to the pan, as the natural oil that is released when heated is all that will be necessary to gently toast the nuts. Below are two methods for toasting:
• Spread the nuts or seeds in a single layer on a sheet tray, and place in a preheated 375ºF oven for 2 to 10 minutes depending on their size.
• Spread the nuts or seeds in a single layer in a sauté pan. Toast on the stove top while constantly stirring or flipping them (if the nuts stay in one place in the pan over direct heat, they will scorch or burn rather than toasting evenly).
 
Never crush or chop the nuts before you toast them. Only do so after they have toasted and cooled. When chopped ahead of time, the inconsistent shapes and sizes will cause them to toast unevenly, and the smaller fragments will burn while the larger ones do not get enough color. This will make your entire mixture taste bitter.
 
You should also never toast two or more different varieties of nuts or seeds in the same pan at the same time. Each is a different size, and will require different cooking times. As such, always toast different nuts and seeds in separate pans.
 
Nuts and seeds are often quite costly, especially in a professional environment. Because of this, I always instruct my cooks to toast them in separate small batches. This way, if you do, in fact, burn them, you will not lose the entire stock, and the monetary damage will not be as severe. 

The cooking time varies depending upon the size and shape of the nuts and seeds, as well as the heat source and temperature. Because  there are several variables, it is difficult to say exactly how long they will take to toast, but what is an absolute surety is they do not take much time, at all. I frequently check them in 2-minute increments
until well-toasted. You will often smell the scent in the air when they are ready. Halfway through the cooking process, I will often rotate the pan to avoid unevenly cooking due to “hot spots” in your oven. I also use a heat-resistant or flat metal spatula to flip the nuts or seeds often to ensure even color. Chef Nicole Roarke

Tuesday's Tip ~ How to Prepare Avocadoes

Removing the buttery, rich, green flesh of an avocado may seem daunting if you have never done it before, but this method makes it rather easy.
Stand the avocado upright on a cutting board. Using a large chef’s knife, cut downward through the top until your knife reaches the large pit in the center (do not remove your knife and allow the avocado to fall to its side). While holding the knife in place, spin the avocado around so the knife continues to cut the entire way around the pit. Remove your knife.
With one hand on each side, twist the avocado in half. In one half of the avocado, you will see the large center pit. Lay this half skin-side-down on your cutting board with the pit facing upward. 
Carefully whack your knife into the middle of the pit. The blade should remain in the pit while you twist the knife (this should loosen the pit so that when you pull your knife out, the pit should be attached to the blade of the knife). Carefully remove the pit from the blade and discard.
You can take a large, metal spoon and simply scoop the flesh out of each half. Or, you can “score” the flesh with the tip of your knife by making several vertical cuts and then several horizontal cuts through the flesh of the avocado (this will make a cross-hatch cut, like a tic-tac-toe board). To remove the scored flesh, either scoop out with a spoon or, if the avocado is very ripe, you can simply squeeze the skin, and the flesh will come out.
If you are making a guacamole or looking for a smooth consistency of avocado, you can sprinkle with a coarse ground salt (such as kosher salt), and mash with a fork.
Avocados are extremely prone to browning when exposed to air. To avoid this natural oxidation, add a citric acid such as lime or lemon juice to the cut avocado or guacamole.
When storing, press a layer of plastic wrap directly against the cut avocado or guacamole, and then add an additional piece of plastic wrapped tightly around the storage container or bowl (this is an extra prevention measure taken to preserve the bright green flesh and avoid oxidation).
If you would like to see this demonstrated click here.

As seen in our cookbook Country Comfort: Cooking Across America

Tuesday's Tips ~ Making Compound Butter

To see how to make Compound Butter click here
Classic compound butters are made with chopped herbs, minced shallots, roasted garlic, citrus zest, roasted peppers, sliced olives, sundried tomatoes, toasted nuts, cheese (such as gorgonzola or Parmesan), honey, maple syrup, caramelized onions, and/or freshly cracked black peppercorns. It is a simple way to customize the flavor and texture of an otherwise unsalted butter. This can be served with just about anything, including freshly baked bread, roasted vegetables, and pan-seared meat.

To make your own compound butter, remove the whole butter out of the refrigerator and cut it into pieces (if you are making 1 stick, then cut into 8 tablespoons; for a whole pound, cut all 4 sticks into 32 tablespoons). This will spread out the surface area of the butter so it will soften faster. Set aside and allow the butter to come to room temperature (do not melt the butter). While the butter is softening to a spreadable consistency, prepare your other ingredients (any and all combinations of ingredients should always be fully cooked and cooled before combining with the room-temperature butter).

Place the fully softened butter into a standing mixer, and whip the butter with the paddle attachment until a smooth consistency is reached. Then add your ingredients and mix until fully combined. If you do not have a standing mixer, you can place the fully softened butter into a mixing bowl, and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until smooth. Fold in the remaining ingredients until combined.

Compound butter can be served in a small bowl at room temperature. To store the compound butter, tightly roll it into a log with waxed paper and/or plastic wrap, and then twist the ends closed. Store in the freezer. When needed, simply cut a medallion straight from the frozen log, and then remove the waxed paper and/or plastic wrap. Serve immediately; the butter will begin to melt over hot food.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Citrus Zest

To see how to zest ....The “zest” of any citrus fruit (such as lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange) is only the outermost colorful edge of the citrus. It is important to understand exactly where the zest is because just underneath the
surface of the zest is what is known as the pith of the rind, which is extremely bitter. The zest is considered the most flavorful part, and can be used to infuse citrus flavor into a wide range of recipes. Using
the zest as opposed to the juice allows you to extract the flavor without sacrificing the consistency of your recipe, which would otherwise “break” or curdle if the juice were added to the recipe’s other ingredients,
such as cream or milk.
A great “trick” is to run the side of the citrus along a microplane, because the small, sharp teeth will gently scrape off the zest without cutting deeply into the bitter skin. The microplane should remain stationary
(over a bowl or measuring cup), and only the citrus should be scraping up and down the sharp surface of the plane. When scraping the citrus against the microplane, roll or rotate it in your hand so no one area of the citrus is over-zested. If the recipe calls for large strips of zest, use a vegetable peeler to remove the large strips. If the strip of zest contains white, bitter pith, place the strip zest side down on the edge of a cutting board, and hold the knife parallel to the zest. Press the blade against the zest and, with large strokes,
shave off as much of the white as possible.
If you are succeeding at this “trick,” you will notice that the area where the zest was removed will appear to be smooth and have a lighter shade of the citrus’ color. For instance, if you are zesting a lemon
after running and rolling it over the plane, you will remove the bright yellow outer edge, but a lighter tint of yellow should remain. If you are over-zesting, you will see the white pith of the rind exposed.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Making a Reduction

The desired consistency of a reduction should be a little thicker than

syrup and thinner than honey. Not only will the liquid that you are

reducing thicken as it reduces in volume, but its flavor concentrates

will also produce a rather sweet finish. The success of this single-ingredient recipe is

solely based on technique and some helpful “tricks of the trade.” Below is an example

of a balsamic vinegar reduction:

Choose a shallow pan to maximize the surface area of the vinegar,

which enables the volume to reduce faster and more evenly without

having to stir it.

Bring the vinegar to a boil over medium-high heat, and then immediately

lower to a simmer. Allow the vinegar to reduce by half of

its original volume. Check its consistency by dipping a spoon into the

reduction. It should coat the back of the spoon when removed. If the

reduction slides off the spoon, it is still too thin; allow it to continue to

reduce to approximately two-thirds of its original volume.

If it has over-reduced, it will be thick and sticky like molasses and

will taste bitter. As it cools, it will harden like tar. Unfortunately, there

is no way of reversing over-reduction, and the mixture will have to be

discarded. This mistake is quite tough to remove from your pan, but

a great trick is to fill the pan with water and bring to a boil (this will

loosen any over-reduced vinegar from the pan, which can then be

simply poured out, and should be easy to wash out). This trick is also

great for any burnt or caked-on food that is tough to remove.

As seen in the Chef's Tip section of Cooking Across America 

Tuesday's Tip ~ How to cut Asparagus

Springtime makes me think of  serving asparagus ....to prepare them, hold the stalk by each end and bend together until the stalk snaps naturally (the asparagus will always break at the point where the asparagus is no longer tender and becomes extremely fibrous). Only use the end with the tip; discard the opposite end or put aside and save for soup.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Corned Beef

Plan on making corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day ? It’s important to select the optimal cut of meat.  Most stores will advertise “point cut” on sale in the days leading up to the holiday.  However we recommend a “flat cut” to achieve the desired results of both a tender and flavorful meal.