It is a given that there are a few days in the restaurant industry that are going to be "special," for lack of a better term.
One of the key things that the kitchen does is look at the reservations to see how many guests we are expecting. The reservation book is one of the most useful tools that a chef has. It shows us how many people are coming, how many came last year, and when we can expect people.
What the reservation book doesn't show us is how many people have made reservations all over town. We plan for a give or take number, expecting some people not to show up, but when close to one fourth of your reservations don't show up it is down right frustrating.
So, on behalf of restaurants everywhere... if you make a reservation and change your mind, can't make it, don't feel like going out... please call us, go online and tell us, do something so we know. Also, most of the online reservation systems have ways of tracking people who no-show.
Cheers!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
French Onion Soup
Since the "chilly" weather has returned I am back to craving soup. Looking around the kitchen I realized that I had everything I needed for French Onion Soup! I adore French Onion soup but haven't ever made it at home before. I made it in culinary school, I've made it at work, I know my mother has made it... but I don't have a "go to" recipe for it. I consulted a few different cookbooks and pulled parts of two different recipes to create my own.
The first thing that you need to go is gather all the ingredients, as you can see this is basically a pile of onions and some beef broth (or chicken broth if you prefer it.)
A quick word about the butter... Normally I would just use "normal" butter, but I was out. Thankfully I had a slab of Plugra in the fridge. I tend to reserve this product for baking, finishing sauces, and buttering croissants... applications where you can really get the benefit of the full flavor and richness that it brings to food.
It has been said many times that French onion soup is all about the onions! This is a rather true statement. I've covered one base by using a variety of different kinds because they all lend different elements to the dish. In this collection we have red, yellow and sweet onions. I also used shallots and a head of garlic (it is hiding behind the cheese.) The other thing that matters with the onions is how you cut them!
All the onions start out in a variety of sized and shapes. For the soup you want them to all go into the pot in about the same size and shape so that they will cook at the same rate. There are a two ways to accomplish this. First, if you have a mandoline this would be a great task to use it for. Second, pull out the trusty chef's knife and get to work. I opted for the knife since I love the one I got for Christmas and am still at the point where I think up random reasons to use it.
Either way you will end up with a pot of onions that looks something like this.
You want your slices to be thin, but not so thin that they will totally break down to nothing in the cooking process. And speaking of the cooking process... once the pot is on the stove over a low/ medium-low heat basically ignore it for the next 30-50 minutes. I checked on the pot a few times to stir things around and see how the color was coming.
You want the onions to go from the above photo to something like this. At this point the onions have spent lots of time in the pot with just a little butter and a splash of olive oil.
Hiding under the mess of onions is a layer of deep brown bits of onion that have secured themselves to the bottom of the pot. These bits are full of flavor and need to be removed from the bottom and worked in before the been broth is added.
The best thing for deglazing a pot is liquid... especially alcohol! In one of the books it mentioned using balsamic vinegar and port. I have the vinegar, but I was missing port. Looking at my alcohol collection I noticed a bottle of Courvoisier, I've never known it to screw up a recipe so I used it.
Once the courvoisier and balsamic have been added, the bottom of the pot has been scraped, and every thing has been mixed together it is time to add all the broth. I like to add warm broth, so way back when I started the onions I also put a large pot on the back burner and filled it with the broth and put it on a very low heat so that it would be ready when I was.
So... add the warm broth to the onions, stir to mix it all together, crank the heat up to a boil and once it boils reduce the head to a simmer and leave it alone for another 30 minutes or so.
When it is all done you will end up with something resembling this pot.
Shortly before the soup is ready you want to slice some bread (mmm baguette) and grate some cheese (gruyere.) I was feeling rather decadent so I took the bread, melted a little more butter, buttered the bread and popped it into the toaster for a few minutes to create giant buttery croutons.
To really have the whole "french onion soup experience" it is necessary to ladle some soup into an oven safe bowl, add the croutons or sliced bread, top with the cheese, and as a last step slide the whole thing under a wicked hot broiler to melt the cheese! You end up with delicious melty cheese & soup soaked croutons covering a delicious rich soup.
Cheers!
The first thing that you need to go is gather all the ingredients, as you can see this is basically a pile of onions and some beef broth (or chicken broth if you prefer it.)
A quick word about the butter... Normally I would just use "normal" butter, but I was out. Thankfully I had a slab of Plugra in the fridge. I tend to reserve this product for baking, finishing sauces, and buttering croissants... applications where you can really get the benefit of the full flavor and richness that it brings to food.
It has been said many times that French onion soup is all about the onions! This is a rather true statement. I've covered one base by using a variety of different kinds because they all lend different elements to the dish. In this collection we have red, yellow and sweet onions. I also used shallots and a head of garlic (it is hiding behind the cheese.) The other thing that matters with the onions is how you cut them!
All the onions start out in a variety of sized and shapes. For the soup you want them to all go into the pot in about the same size and shape so that they will cook at the same rate. There are a two ways to accomplish this. First, if you have a mandoline this would be a great task to use it for. Second, pull out the trusty chef's knife and get to work. I opted for the knife since I love the one I got for Christmas and am still at the point where I think up random reasons to use it.
Either way you will end up with a pot of onions that looks something like this.
You want your slices to be thin, but not so thin that they will totally break down to nothing in the cooking process. And speaking of the cooking process... once the pot is on the stove over a low/ medium-low heat basically ignore it for the next 30-50 minutes. I checked on the pot a few times to stir things around and see how the color was coming.
You want the onions to go from the above photo to something like this. At this point the onions have spent lots of time in the pot with just a little butter and a splash of olive oil.
Hiding under the mess of onions is a layer of deep brown bits of onion that have secured themselves to the bottom of the pot. These bits are full of flavor and need to be removed from the bottom and worked in before the been broth is added.
The best thing for deglazing a pot is liquid... especially alcohol! In one of the books it mentioned using balsamic vinegar and port. I have the vinegar, but I was missing port. Looking at my alcohol collection I noticed a bottle of Courvoisier, I've never known it to screw up a recipe so I used it.
Once the courvoisier and balsamic have been added, the bottom of the pot has been scraped, and every thing has been mixed together it is time to add all the broth. I like to add warm broth, so way back when I started the onions I also put a large pot on the back burner and filled it with the broth and put it on a very low heat so that it would be ready when I was.
So... add the warm broth to the onions, stir to mix it all together, crank the heat up to a boil and once it boils reduce the head to a simmer and leave it alone for another 30 minutes or so.
When it is all done you will end up with something resembling this pot.
Shortly before the soup is ready you want to slice some bread (mmm baguette) and grate some cheese (gruyere.) I was feeling rather decadent so I took the bread, melted a little more butter, buttered the bread and popped it into the toaster for a few minutes to create giant buttery croutons.
To really have the whole "french onion soup experience" it is necessary to ladle some soup into an oven safe bowl, add the croutons or sliced bread, top with the cheese, and as a last step slide the whole thing under a wicked hot broiler to melt the cheese! You end up with delicious melty cheese & soup soaked croutons covering a delicious rich soup.
Cheers!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Cookbooks
For the longest time my cookbooks lived on the counter, in a basket on the floor, on the dining room table and stacked on a bar stool. They took up valuable counter space in my not too brilliantly designed kitchen, they were in the way on the floor, they got lost in the shuffle on the table and got knocked off the bar stools.
Recently I embarked on a "re-do the livingroom" kick, which still isn't done. To start with I got rid of the tall towers by my tv, one now lives on the other corner of the room but that one doesn't matter. The one that matters is the one that moved to the nook by my kitchen and now holds cookbooks!
I'm just happy to have all the books in one space! Ones I use most often are all lined up on one shelf. They are in no particular order, but the one in the middle (the Les Halles cookbook) is one of my favorites. It isn't written like any other cookbook, but then again it is a Tony Bourdain book! Reading a recipe from that book is like having the man in your kitchen telling you what to do and the pitfalls to watch out for.
I'm also very fond of the Jamie Oliver books, they are seasonal and really focus on the quality of ingredients used. On the far left are a trio of cookbooks that I grew up with. Mom had the Silver Palate books and I had to have them too. The New Basics cookbook has been with me since college and there are chunks of it that are falling out. Martha, in orange, is a requirement for any kitchen. Not that book, but one of her book... The Martin Yan books both came from his visit to Johnson & Wales and one is signed. He was such a fantastic man to watch and listen to.
The shelf below that one holds books that while I don't use as often I find really useful in the moment. The Pioneer Woman cookbook is well worth the money for the food photography alone!
Stacked beneath that are 2 fascinating books by Nigella Lawson and a really fun looking book on baking that I picked up not too long ago. I'd like to round out my baking skills, I make killer cookies and pretty darn good cupcakes but I'd like to get into breads and interesting cakes and things like that.
Stacked on the top of the tower are the big heavy books that are more reference text than anything else. The huge blue one is the text book from culinary school. It isn't all recipes, there is a ton of general information in it too.
The book above it, with the shiny cover that didn't photograph well at all, is the Larousse Gastronomique. It was first published in 1937, since then it has been updated and translated from French to English. It is more of an encyclopedia than a cookbook. The information in it is tried and true. The green book above it takes the place of a large stash of Gourmet Magazines. The James Beard book is another cookbook/encyclopedia selection. It highlights more American leaning food.
The Joy of Cooking is one of those cookbooks that has been around for ages. Every so often it gets updated and a new cover but when you can compare a version from 1943 and 1997 side by side...
The "guts" of the book remains true. The recipes are still set out in a page saving format, the illustrations are simple and the needed information is all there. In the 1943 version there is far more lard used than in the 1997 one. But 1997 has ingredients that weren't in the 1943 version.
In the last two photos there has been a portion of a small grey box. This box is the key to my recipe collection, it is filled with handwritten index cards of recipes that are in cookbooks I'm not allowed to "borrow" from my mother. There are old family recipes, ones from newspapers and magazines, and things I've played around with.
Almost all of the recipes I use in cookbooks have notes in the margin, I have no problem writing in a cookbook. My theory is that anything I think enough to make a note of will only help me the next time I give the recipe a shot.
That final lower portion of the tower has more cookbooks in it too... but not nearly as well organized!
Cheers!
Recently I embarked on a "re-do the livingroom" kick, which still isn't done. To start with I got rid of the tall towers by my tv, one now lives on the other corner of the room but that one doesn't matter. The one that matters is the one that moved to the nook by my kitchen and now holds cookbooks!
I'm just happy to have all the books in one space! Ones I use most often are all lined up on one shelf. They are in no particular order, but the one in the middle (the Les Halles cookbook) is one of my favorites. It isn't written like any other cookbook, but then again it is a Tony Bourdain book! Reading a recipe from that book is like having the man in your kitchen telling you what to do and the pitfalls to watch out for.
I'm also very fond of the Jamie Oliver books, they are seasonal and really focus on the quality of ingredients used. On the far left are a trio of cookbooks that I grew up with. Mom had the Silver Palate books and I had to have them too. The New Basics cookbook has been with me since college and there are chunks of it that are falling out. Martha, in orange, is a requirement for any kitchen. Not that book, but one of her book... The Martin Yan books both came from his visit to Johnson & Wales and one is signed. He was such a fantastic man to watch and listen to.
The shelf below that one holds books that while I don't use as often I find really useful in the moment. The Pioneer Woman cookbook is well worth the money for the food photography alone!
Stacked beneath that are 2 fascinating books by Nigella Lawson and a really fun looking book on baking that I picked up not too long ago. I'd like to round out my baking skills, I make killer cookies and pretty darn good cupcakes but I'd like to get into breads and interesting cakes and things like that.Stacked on the top of the tower are the big heavy books that are more reference text than anything else. The huge blue one is the text book from culinary school. It isn't all recipes, there is a ton of general information in it too.
The book above it, with the shiny cover that didn't photograph well at all, is the Larousse Gastronomique. It was first published in 1937, since then it has been updated and translated from French to English. It is more of an encyclopedia than a cookbook. The information in it is tried and true. The green book above it takes the place of a large stash of Gourmet Magazines. The James Beard book is another cookbook/encyclopedia selection. It highlights more American leaning food.
The Joy of Cooking is one of those cookbooks that has been around for ages. Every so often it gets updated and a new cover but when you can compare a version from 1943 and 1997 side by side...
The "guts" of the book remains true. The recipes are still set out in a page saving format, the illustrations are simple and the needed information is all there. In the 1943 version there is far more lard used than in the 1997 one. But 1997 has ingredients that weren't in the 1943 version.In the last two photos there has been a portion of a small grey box. This box is the key to my recipe collection, it is filled with handwritten index cards of recipes that are in cookbooks I'm not allowed to "borrow" from my mother. There are old family recipes, ones from newspapers and magazines, and things I've played around with.
Almost all of the recipes I use in cookbooks have notes in the margin, I have no problem writing in a cookbook. My theory is that anything I think enough to make a note of will only help me the next time I give the recipe a shot.
That final lower portion of the tower has more cookbooks in it too... but not nearly as well organized!
Cheers!
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