Cooking Advice: Never Abandon Ship

I love to cook.  I used to cook professionally, but that was years ago.  These days I enjoy preparing excellent food for my family and friends, which is better than cooking professionally because now I get to eat my cooking.  Seriously…I used to work in a restaurant all night and after feeding hundreds of people delicious dishes like chicken cordon bleu, seafood fettuccini, sole Oscar, ribs, and beer-battered fish, I had to clean the kitchen and it would be way past midnight by the time I got off work.  My meal options would be along the lines of Rally’s, Taco Bell, or White Castle.

Cooking isn’t that hard, though these days many people fear the kitchen almost as much as public speaking (NOTE: On the grand list of stuff people fear, public speaking outranks death.  Just an FYI.)  But cooking shouldn’t be that frightening.  There is some work involved, mostly in post-meal cleaning, but cooking is very rewarding, and it’s quite easy to prepare a meal that is way better than your typical restaurant fare.

There is one common mistake that many aspiring home cooks make, though, and it is easily avoided: leaving the kitchen.  Sure, there are times when you have hours of free time when cooking.  If you are making bread, dough takes a couple hours to rise; feel free to run some errands.  A good pot roast takes 3-4 hours.  Read a book, do some chores.  But for the most part, the leading culprit for burnt food is abandoning the kitchen to multi-task (NOTE: They aren’t burnt, mom, your cookies always look like this!).  Resist the temptation.

Sure, you have stuff that needs to get done.  A floor will not clean itself, nor will clothes, pets, or children.  But even if you have a timer set, you run a risk of burnt food if you leave the kitchen to multi-task.  Here’s what happens: the timer goes off but you don’t hear it over the vacuum (NOTE: I never have this problem, not because I don’t leave the kitchen, but because I don’t vacuum.  See how easy this is?); or you are in the middle of transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer when you hear the timer and you want to finish what you are doing…Then you decide that the empty washing machine cannot remain in that state with the massive pile of yet-to-be-washed laundry next to you, so you start a new load.  Then you smell something coming from the kitchen, or you hear the emergency back-up timer (i.e., the smoke alarm), at which point it’s too late.  

So how do you force yourself to stay at your post?  Simple: find a way to make it enjoyable.  I like to listen to music and have a drink.  Cooking and wine go hand-in-hand.  Or bottle-in-hand, really.   (NOTE: This is not applicable to breakfast, except on Christmas morning, in which case Mamosas are required).  Make use of down time while something is in the oven or sizzling on the stove to set the table, wipe down the counters, or empty / load the dishwasher, or browse a recipe book for new meal ideas.  Just keep your focus in the kitchen.

Stay tuned, future cooking advice posts will include:

Kitchen Safety

The Hardest Part of Cooking: Prep Work

Planning a Meal

Planning a Weekly Menu

My Favorite Recipes

Grilled Pizza

Something you may not know about me: I love to cook.

I worked in restaurants for nearly a decade, and while I never attended culinary school, I can whip up many a gourmet dish.  While it has been more than a dozen years since I worked in a kitchen, I am not shy to make the most of this latent talent.  The first time I met my mother-in-law, I cooked Chicken Cordon Bleu for her, and I am pretty sure she has loved me every day since.

On Easter I made grilled pizzas, one of my favorites for the grilling season.  I made the dough from scratch (one day I might post my standard dough recipe), and topped it with olive oil, garlic, fresh chopped basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese.  (I saute the garlic in the olive oil to get the best flavor, then brush the mixture on top of the pizza.)

Grilling a pizza is a great way to cook it.  After your dough rises, you shape it into a ball and let it proof for about a half hour.  Proofing is a second rising.  You can find additional insight on second risings in the Book of Revelations.  Then you flatten the ball out using your hands and/or a rolling pin.  I prefer to hand-toss the pizza.

Once your dough is shaped, set it on a pan and dock it by poking little holes all over the surface (I use a fork to do this).  Docking the pizza will keep it flat when it cooks.  If you don't dock it, it will puff up all over.  Once it's shaped and docked, let it sit for another 10-15 minutes before cooking it.

Pre-heat the grill to medium-high, about 300 degrees.  Transfer the pizza from the pan directly to the grill and cook it for about 3 minutes.  When the bottom is golden-brown, flip it over and add your toppings.  It cooks quickly, so if you have a lot of cheese, turn the heat down and close the lid so the dough doesn't burn before the cheese melts.

Once the cheese is melted, slide the pizza onto a pan, slice it, and serve.  We serve grilled pizza as a flatbread appetizer...

Home is where the Hectic is!

I got back from Chicago around midnight Thursday. Angie was still up and had a glass of red wine waiting for me. There are many things that fuel my love for her, and such an accurate anticipation of my needs is one of them.

We have friends over for the weekend, they arrived Friday evening after an hour long drive from Dayton. I'm in a solo mode, because it's my wife's friend (her husband is away on an extended business trip), and her two kids. Her children are about the same age as our children,. and they have all known each other since infancy, so they get along quite well (i.e. loud).

Last night I tried a new recipe: baked salmon with a cranberry-thyme crust. It was really good. Here's the recipe:

3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped green onion (1 stalk)
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp grated lemon peel (you can buy this in a jar at the spice rack of your grocery store)
3 tbsp butter (melted)

Preheat over to 375. Mix all of the above ingredients in a bowl. Put 3-4 salmon fillets in a greased glass baking dish, skin side down. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper, then coat the top with the panko mix, pressing down so it sticks.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork and is slightly opaque in the center.

It was really good, a nice sweet flavor from the cranberries, but a savory edge from the thyme and green onion, and the panko has a unique crispiness.

Now Angie is starting to cook some bacon, and I'm going to make eggs a la Papa for the children, something my friend Brian O'Donnell's dad used to make for us when I was a kid. You butter both sides of a piece of bread, and using a small juice glass, press down in the center of the piece to cut out a small circle. Then in a skillet over medium heat, put in the bread and crack an egg into the middle of it. Fry the inner circle on the edges of the skillet, flip the bread to fry both sides.

Tonight's Iron Chef challenge: sushi!

.

This warning label is nuts

To quote Dave Barry, "I swear I am not making this up."

My wife bought some pine nuts from Costco, she is going to make pesto. It's a big bag of pine nuts, just under five cups. Most of the bag is clear, so when you look at it, the main visual impact is - pine nuts.

I looked at the back of the bag to see if there were instructions for toasting them. No dice. There was a recipe for pesto, though. And right under it there was a warning with the following...

Allergy Information:
Contains pine nuts

That reminds me of a time recently when my four year old, Vic, asked his six year old brother Max what he was allergic to.

"Me?" Max questioned.

"You're allergic to yourself?" Vic shot back.

The obvious is not for everyone, but those that need it cling to it with all they've got, don't they?