I Want To Cook

Confession: Much of my high school senior year was spent at the beach. During class hours. Yes, while I should have been absorbing formal education, I and a group of friends were instead absorbing sun, sand and most of all the ocean. We never skipped the whole day – just some selected classes we decided we’d rather not attend, or perhaps we were just dealing with teen angst the best way we knew how.

Our thinking was that nature’s saline solution that we knew as the Pacific could cure all life’s ills. And magically, somehow that saltwater did indeed make us feel better every time we took a dip.

Turns out, at least from a culinary standpoint, we were on to something. Saltwater really is magical stuff. While each component alone has too many uses to mention in the kitchen – water is used for everything from steaming to making stocks, and salt for everything from preserving to insulating – when used in tandem, they work a magic all their own.

Water mixed with salt is known as a brine, and it’s a classic way of making food flavorful even before the cooking process begins. Brining becomes especially popular this time of year because of Thanksgiving, when the process is used for turkeys.

If you’ve ever had a turkey that’s been brined, you probably already know the results: a bird that is moist and exceptionally flavorful, traits that brines help create. All done ever so simply by submerging food for hours in water and salt (you can experiment with other seasonings, too, from brown sugar to peppercorns).

Yet I sense your hesitation. “What if I get this whole brining thing wrong on the big day? Domino’s may not be able to rescue me if somehow I end up with a waterlogged turkey.”

No worries. Here’s what we’re going to do: practice. And not on a turkey, but something smaller and more manageable: a chicken.

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Last week I showed you how to make a roux, which is basically flour cooked in fat, and in doing so we laid the foundation for greater things.

Roux isn’t for eating by itself, of course, but is used to thicken such things as sauces and gravies, which themselves are used in a supporting role to build a main dish.

One easy sauce to build from a roux is béchamel, also known as white sauce. Don’t worry: It tastes better than its rather bland name. In fact, in classical French cooking, this sauce is so important that it’s known as a “mother sauce.” It’s called that because from it even more elaborate sauces can be made.

Béchamel is a thick, milk-based sauce. It gets its thickness from the roux, which also helps give the sauce a nutty, hearty flavor.

Some béchamel recipes call for cooking onions with the roux for added flavor, but you can leave them out if you’re not hot on onions, are short on time, or want a smoother sauce without the need for straining. Other than the roux and the milk, about the only other things this sauce needs are a couple of bay leaves and a dash of nutmeg. And some time, but not a whole lot.

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Learning to cook is kind of like learning to read in that, once you have the foundations down, you can create just about anything.

If you’ll go with this analogy, you can think of roux as a single word. In communications, a word by itself may not do much, but combined with others, it can help make a literary masterpiece.

Roux (say, “roo”) by itself isn’t much, but it lays a foundation for much greater things. Roux is just flour and fat cooked together. The flour is usually white wheat flour such as the all-purpose kind you use for making pancakes and other staples, and the fat can be just about anything: butter, vegetable oil, bacon grease or drippings from other meat.

Roux is not meant to be eaten by itself. Rather, it is used to thicken recipes such as soups, stews and gravies. In culinary school, roux is among the first things you make, and from there you learn to use it in dishes that may require some time to make, but are among some of the most flavorful on the planet, among them the kind of mac ‘n cheese you see above.

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What does roux and a kangaroo have in common? Luckily not much in culinary terms, but in phonetics a lot. The latter part of the fighting marsupial’s name is how you pronounce this classic foundation in so many dishes: Roux is simply pronounced “roo.”

So, what is the stuff?

Roux is just flour and fat cooked together. Two simple ingredients, but together they can do a lot.

The flour is usually white wheat flour such as the popular all-purpose kind, and the fat can be just about anything: butter, vegetable oil, bacon grease or drippings from other meat.

Roux isn’t meant to be eaten by itself, but is used as a thickening agent in soups, stews, gravies and sauces. Unlike, say, a cornstarch and water slurry, roux can lend dishes a nutty flavor and even color, depending on how long you cook it.

In the coming days I’ll show you how to make roux, and from there, how to make a lovely bechamel sauce. But wait, there’s more! From our bechamel, we’ll make a bangin’ cheese sauce.

Stay tuned for those coming attractions. For now, make sure you have some flour and oil in your pantry, and sprinkle in a “roo” here and there in your conversations.

In the pantheon of culinary words, there are a few that seem to carry extra cachet. One of those is “aioli.” You may have seen this oddly spelled and easily mispronounced word (say “I-oh-lee”) on posh restaurant menus or heard it thrown around by your foodie friends.

No need to be overwhelmed. While the stuff is admittedly delicious, it’s also quite simple: Aioli is basically garlic mayonnaise, made with olive oil.

See, that wasn’t so bad.

Even better? You can make it. Easily. In a blender, no less.

Since aioli is basically mayonnaise with a couple extra ingredients, you can consider this recipe a two-fer: With it you can make homemade mayonnaise or aioli, depending on the ingredients you add.

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Back in culinary school, I had a chef-instructor who was known for her love of lemon juice. Adding it to dishes, she would say, is like “Adding bursts of sunshine.”

Very true. A squirt of fresh lemon or lime juice can really brighten a dish with tang. But there’s an often overlooked piece of that lemon, lime or other citrus that can add an equal bite: the skin, aka the “zest.”

If the juice of a fresh lemon packs rays of flavor, then pieces of zest are like culinary meteorites for your mouth.

Adding the zest of a citrus fruit can enliven any number of foods, from salad dressings, pancakes and rice to ice cream and, one of my favorites, cheesecake. And for those counting calories, it’s a bonus to know that the zest, like little bits of herbs, add nearly zero calories.

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This holiday weekend we’ll be celebrating all things freedom here in America. We’ll also be doing a lot of feasting in the process.

Burgers and dogs will assuredly be a staple on many barbecues come July 4, but if you’re looking for some other stars for the day, check out the recipe ideas below. You’ll find a link to my original post here on iWantToCook.com, where you can find step-by-step instructions and photos on how to make it.

Here’s to a happy, delicious Fourth!

• BBQ sauce: If you’re going to have some sort of meat on a barbecue, this is a must. Try my version for a real kick.
• Tapenade: This olive-based spread is amazing on crostini or as a dip for veggies.
• Homemade Salsa: You’ve got the chips, now make this. All you need is a blender, knife and a can opener.
• Corn avocado bacon salad: Need I say more?
• Summer relish: This stuff works magic on burgers and hot dogs.
• Oven-baked potato fries: These make baked potatoes look soooo boring.
• Orzo salad: This pasta salad is great for those wanting a lighter side dish.
• Couscous: Another light, no-brainer dish that’s a great side.
• Homemade vinaigrette: Got a whisk? Then you can make this.
• Hummus: You can make it yourself for a fraction of the price.
• Pasta salad: Two words: Dee-lish.

And remember: If you’re cooking meat, make sure it is actually done before stuffing it in your mouth or serving it to others. How can you know when it’s done? Find out HERE.

(Updated with latest USDA info on pork)

Ask any chef to pick their favorite tool in the kitchen and there’s a good chance he or she will lovingly look toward their biggest knife. But that favorite kitchen tool and the most important one are probably quite different.

That’s because the most important tool in the kitchen, at least when it comes to your health and safety, is one that many folks don’t even have: a cooking thermometer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tens of millions of Americans become ill due to foodborne pathogens every year. And we’re not just talking about an upset stomach here; thousands of people die each year from them, the CDC says.

If you routinely make food for an elderly person, a child or a person with a weakened immune system, it’s even more vital to be sure your foods are as safe as possible for consumption.

Two of the biggest factors contributing to foodborne illnesses are cross-contamination and not cooking meats, poultry and fish to a safe temperature.

The first can be controlled by thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces and tools that have touched raw meat, poultry and fish. The second is where the thermometer comes in.

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Every time I pass the salad dressing aisle in the store these days, I let out a little sigh. It’s becoming such a regular condition that I’m starting to feel like one of Pavlov’s dogs.

Why this reaction over a simple salad staple? Because dressing can be so easily made at home instead of at some factory pumping out high-fructose-laden goop.

The easiest of all dressings to make also happens to be one of the tastiest: vinaigrette. At its simplest, you can make vinaigrette by mixing vinegar and oil in a ratio of one part vinegar to three or four parts oil, depending on your preference. By adding a few more ingredients, you can make it combine better and taste greater.

The process of combining two ingredients such as oil and vinegar that usually don’t like to combine is called emulsification. A vinaigrette is a classic example of a temporary emulsion because, in time, the two immiscible ingredients will separate. That’s why you shake a bottle of dressing before using: to get the ingredients to recombine, at least temporarily.

To make a vinaigrette go from good to great, I like to add a couple of extra ingredients, namely dried herbs such as oregano, and a dollop of mustard. That latter ingredient will not only add a burst of flavor, it will act as an emulsifier to help keep the vinaigrette more stable.

Emulsifiers such as mustard, honey and even the lecithin compound found in egg yolks are like that peacemaking third friend you had in high school who could make the two others who are usually at odds with each other get along.

With or without such extra ingredients, vinaigrettes can be made in countless ways, with everything from basic red wine vinegar and generic vegetable oil to a pomegranate vinegar and high-end extra virgin olive oil.

For this recipe, I use a decent balsamic vinegar and regular olive oil. The result is a delicious, slightly sweet vinaigrette that is outrageous on salads. In addition to a dressing, it will also work wonderfully as a dip and a marinade for meat.

Ready to make your own vinaigrette? Grab a bowl, a whisk, and let’s get to this.

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If you’ve ever poured concrete or made a house of mud, you’ve worked with a slurry. In the culinary world, too, we are at times required to concoct a slurry, and we do it for the same reason as those others: To make something thicker and bind it together.

A slurry is just a mixture of liquid (usually water) and “insoluble” matter, according to the Merriam-Webster. When it comes to cooking, the slurry most often utilized is one consisting of cornstarch and water, such as the one we used recently in making cheese fondue.

In that case, we used the slurry to thicken the mixture of cheese and wine so it became one big, unified, melting pot of joy.

But there is protocol to making a slurry, and just as it takes liquid combined with cement to make concrete, we need both a liquid and a powder (i.e., cornstarch) to make a slurry in the kitchen.

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