After two weeks off (Spring Break, and written mid-term) we were finally back in the kitchen. We continued our exploration of dry cooking methods with deep frying. We have been moving from least to most oil in the frying methods. We used a batter to coat the food for the first time. Also, we made an aioli from scratch, which was fun. I've never done my own mayonnaise before. Now that I know how ridiculously easy it is, I may do that a lot more.
We took boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and cut them into strips. We pounded the strips flat. They were dredged in a mixture of seasoned flour and cornstarch. We coated them in a tempura batter. We learned the swim method of deep frying. In the swim method, the food is held in tongs. It is half submerged in the hot fat, and gently moved back and forth for ten seconds. It is then carefully released. It should float, and not touch and stick to the bottom. Just as with pan frying, it is important to not try to cook too much at once. Adding food drags down the temperature of the oil. If the oil is too cool, the result will not be pleasant. The chicken is then drained on a paper towel lined tray.
It came out crispy and juicy. The batter was light, and not thick.
We did the same thing with onions. We cut the onions into half inch wide rings (about a fourth of an onion. As I have said before, I am a sucker for good onion rings.
Just like the chicken, the onions were first dredged in a mixture of flour and cornstarch. They were then battered and deep fried, using the same swim method.
We used a commercial tempura mix. Tempura batter is generally based on a low gluten wheat flour, and commercial mixes may include rice flour, corn starch, or leaveners like baking powder. We used it plain, with just some salt and pepper, for the onion rings. The batter for the chicken was more interesting. It was flavored with curry powder and cayenne pepper.
It is important for the batter that the water used is ice cold. It should be mixed as little as possible, it's OK to have some lumps left. You do not want to develop the gluten. If you develop the gluten, you will get a tough and chewy coating. Not what you generally want in fried foods.
We made a spicy aioli as a dipping sauce to go with the chicken and onion rings. An aioli is essentially a mayonnaise. It is an emulsion of oil and water (in this case lemon juice and vinegar) stabilized by the lecithin in egg yolk. Soy lecithin can be used to produce a vegan mayonnaise. The secret is to slowly drizzle the oil into the vinegar and egg, while whisking vigorously. We included onion, garlic, and sambal for flavor.
If you are concerned about potential salmonella contamination, you can use pasteurized or irradiated eggs. Alternatively, you can heat the egg yolks in a double boiler to 160 F, while whisking to prevent coagulation.
The aioli went really well with the chicken and the onion rings. The acid from the lemon brightened the flavors, and the heat from the sambal enhanced them.
As always, all recipes courtesy of chef Joe Orate.
Recipes
Chef Joe's Spiced Tempura Batter
2 cups Tempura Mix
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
Ice water as needed
Mix together tempura mix and spices. Add ice water while whisking, until batter resembles thin pancake batter.
Chef Joe's Spiced Aioli Sauce
5 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced onion
juice of 1/2 a lemon
10 oz. by vol. olive oil
1 tsp. sambal chili paste
salt and pepper to taste
In a mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and onion. Slowly drizzle in oil, while whisking vigorously. Whisk in sambal, salt, and pepper.
A friend of ours oldest son wanted a baseball themed birthday party. He much enjoyed the opportunity to be able to articulate his desires, and have adults listen and take notes. I think it's something that doesn't happen enough for most kids.
We sat down with him and his parents. We asked leading questions, but sincerely listened to the answers. He wanted a cake with a baseball diamond and someone hitting a home run. He wanted vanilla cake with creamy cherry filling. He wanted ball park food; hot dogs, cracker jacks, peanuts. Carrots and grapes OK, but no vegetables.
He and the spouse also worked out what kind of games and activities he wanted to do.
The hot dogs were easy. We have a propane powered slow cooker. It worked perfectly to steam the hot dogs in the park.
I made my version of Cracker Jacks. I modified the recipe I used for bacon flavored caramel corn. I used dark corn syrup instead of the bacon flavored syrup. I oven roasted some raw, unsalted Spanish peanuts, then tossed them with the popcorn and caramel. The spouse packaged up the snack with it's own prize, a set of temporary tattoos.
I like caramel in just about any form. Cracker Jack was certainly a favorite as a kid. The prizes have gotten lame, however.
The cake was a collaborative affair. It was a half sheet cake. I baked the cake, scaling it up from the yellow cake recipe I used for the chocolate marble cake at the Princess tea we did recently.
I really like this cake recipe. It finds a nice balance between robust enough to work with, yet with a moist and tender crumb.
The filling was a cooperative effort between the spouse and myself. It consists of whipped topping, cherry pie filling, and a little salt. We whipped together the topping and the pie filling. We used whipped topping instead of whipped cream, because we knew it would be unrefrigerated at the park for some time.
I think cherry was a great choice. The bit of tang of the sour cherry helped counter the sweetness a bit.
The decoration is all the spouse's work. She used a special tip to make the grass, and the base path is covered in graham cracker crumbs.
I think she did a great job on the decorations. She's immensely creative and imaginative. By all accounts, the birthday boy was thrilled with the cake.
Recipes
Homemade Cracker Jacks
1/2 lb. raw, unsalted Spanish peanuts
8 quarts popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp.
salt
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 tsp. baking soda
Spread peanuts on a baking sheet. Bake in a 300 F oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Pre-heat oven
to 200 degrees
Place popcorn and peanuts in a large roasting pan.
In a three quart
sauce pan over medium heat, combine butter, sugar, salt, and syrup. Bring to a
boil, turn down to a simmer. Let boil for five minutes. Remove from heat, add
baking soda. Caramel will foam up. Pour caramel over popcorn. Stir thoroughly.
Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread out on wax paper to cool.
Store in air tight container. If caramel corn softens, re-heat in 200 degree
oven for 20 minutes.
Yellow Cake
2 cupsbutter
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Grease and flour a 1/2 sheet size rectangular cake pan. line bottom with wax paper.
The first step in starting a business, apparently, is registering a fictitious name with the county clerk. The spouse and I went over to the clerk today and registered the names of our companies. They are Royal Tea Party Planners, and Epicuriosities Catering.
We also had to arrange for the names to be published in a local paper, for them to be legal. Is this the only way newspapers will stay alive, because of antiquated laws that only consider newspapers as publication?
Feels good to make that first step. It is a somewhat dark and intimidating road, though. Next is establishing a business account, so we can apply for state and city business licenses.
Had my mid-term exam for my culinary class today. Fifty multiple choice questions. It covered basic sanitation, the techniques we've covered so far, and recipe conversions.
I'm happy to report that I aced it. It pretty much followed the lecture notes. A few questions referred to our labs, but I haven't missed a class, so that was no problem.
Hey, cool news! I was invited to join a food blog network, Cook Eat Share.I've added the link button on the right. I'll be adding recipes from the blog as time permits.
Check them out! Looks like a lot of really good chefs over there.
The spouse and I are seriously contemplating starting a business doing party planning and catering. As kind of a dry run, we did a princess tea party for a friend's daughters' birthdays. The spouse did a great job with all the party stuff. She made custom handmade invitations, extravagant goodie bags, table settings, and came up with interesting, fun games. I focused on the food.
I made a modified afternoon tea. There were tea sandwiches, scones, and cupcakes. There was a mock Devonshire cream to go with the scones.
The tea sandwiches were fairly boring. They were what the girls wanted, however. There was peanut butter with strawberry preserves, American cheese, and turkey. The kids seemed happy, however. I had sandwiches for fourteen, and the eight kids ate all of them. They were cut in cute shapes, so that may have helped.
The kids had asked for three kinds of scones; plain, chocolate chip, and caramel apple pie. I think I have implied that the scone recipe I got from Chef James Foran is a good basis to riff on. So, I want to explicitly state that his cream scone recipe is the best I've ever tried. I will be including the plain recipe here, so that you can play with it yourselves. The chocolate chip scones are the same, with six ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips added just before the wet ingredients. Any dry garnishes, like dried fruit, candy, chips, or nuts can be added without changes. Moist or wet ingredients may require adjusting the liquid to maintain the same texture.
The plain scones were dusted with pink sanding sugar, in keeping with the pink and purple color scheme of the party. For the chocolate chip scones, I garnished the top with mini chocolate chips. I cut them round to evoke a chocolate chip cookie vibe. The caramel apple pie scones are the same ones I served at the Black Hat Tea, with the exception that I used two granny smith apples instead of one gala.
The cupcakes were chocolate marbled. I used different recipes for the yellow and the chocolate
batters. The yellow cake recipe is based on this one. I like this recipe. It is quite moist, and lighter than most yellow cakes. I attribute that to the use of cake flour over all purpose flour.
The chocolate batter was based on this recipe. I essentially used the ingredients, but re-arranged the process to bring it more in line with my understanding of the creaming method. It makes a much more fluid batter than does the yellow cake recipe.
To make the marbled cupcakes, I alternated batters in the cupcake liners for four layers (yellow/chocolate/yellow/chocolate) then used a fork to give one or two big swirls through the batter.
I can't take any credit for the decoration, that was all the spouse. She is much better at that sort of thing than I am.
We also made a couple of little cakes, so each birthday girl had one to blow the candles out on. One was chocolate marbled, the other plain yellow cake. Again, the spouse gets complete credit for the decoration.
I used to think that the whole cake/pastry/all purpose/bread flour thing was a scam. My experience in the pastry class has convinced me otherwise. All purpose does live up to its name. It does an adequate job for either pastries or breads. However, if you want the best pastries, a lower gluten flour will make a lighter, moister product. Conversely, for bread, a higher gluten flour will rise better, and provide for a chewier mouth feel. Cake and bread flour are both more expensive than all purpose. So when baking, you have to decide if the improvement in quality is sufficient to justify the added expense.
Recipes
Basic Scone Recipe
1 lb. 3 oz. all purpose flour 2 Tbsp. +
1 tsp. baking powder 3 1/2 oz. by wt. sugar 3/4 tsp. kosher salt 6 oz. by
wt. chilled butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 16 oz. by vol. cream
Sift together flour, baking powder,
salt and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles course meal.
Add cream. Stir until dough just comes together. Turn out
onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to one inch thick. Cut into desired serving size and shape, and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Brush with
cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 375 F oven for 12 - 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
For chocolate chip scones: Add 6 oz. by wt. semi-sweet chocolate chips just before adding cream. Brush tops with cream, sprinkle with miniature chocolate chips.
Yellow Cake Batter
1 cupbutter
2 cups cake flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup butter 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup milk 1/2 cup hot water2 tsp. instant espresso powder 4 large eggs
Dissolve espresso powder in hot water. Set aside, let cool to room temperature.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding the next. Mix in vanilla.
Combine espresso and milk.
In three or four stages, add dry ingredients, alternating with milk mixture, letting each addition fully incorporate before adding the next. Start and end with dry ingredients.
To Make Marble Cupcakes:
Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Alternate layers of yellow and chocolate batters until liners are 2/3 full. Use a fork to give batters one or two good swirls.
Bake in a 350 F oven for 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Grades for my pastry class were posted. I got an A, which I expected, but am still pleased to see. The next pastry course I expect to take is the chocolate class, which is being offered over the summer. It's a short semester, only six weeks, so that means seven hours a day, twice a week. I am really looking forward to that class. Chocolate is just fussy enough that learning from someone that really knows their stuff is much more attractive than trying to teach myself.
In the fall they are offering the bread course, which should also be a lot of fun. I expect to get my shoulders in shape with that one.
We did the same thing with onions. We cut the onions into half inch wide rings (about a fourth of an onion. As I have said before, I am a sucker for good onion rings.
