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The brine was a success!
Our 11-lb turkey turned out moist and seasoned. After brining and padding dry, I followed America’s Test Kitchen’s advice (from years ago) to leave the bird in the refrigerator UNCOVERED for a few days. This step further ensures a dry skin that will crisp up during roasting. Without additional salt or pepper, the roasted bird came out nice. I would have to play with different fats for basting next time for the most attractive shade of brown but if judging only on moisture and flavor, this turkey was worthy of its company.
Special thanks to Vinay & Jessica for their beautiful table and non-stop procession of deliciousness.
Number 1 discussion at school all week — turkey brining.
Get everything ready, today is the perfect day to get your brine on.
– Basic recipe –
for every gallon of water (cold), dissolve 1 cup of kosher salt.
A good way to cut down the salt and incorporate sweetness is to instead use 1/4 cup of sugar + 3/4 cup of salt.
All other trimmings are optional and won’t infuse much flavor but fun to play with: bay leaf, peppercorns, spices, white wine, lemon, etc.
An overnight (12-18 hrs) brine is plenty good for a 15 lb turkey. The modified protein structures will retain a lot more moisture through cooking and yield a much more salivating product.
Now there are haters out there who claim to have no desire for merely “adding salty water” to the meat. But as with all things, try it before you decide. More turkey taste? More seasoned taste? Added stress? Conversation starter?
Other key notes on brining:
- keep the bird completely submerged, in COLD brine.
(eg. coolers, trash bags, trash-bag-lined coolers, large refrigerators. And please put out a disclaimer to guests if bathtub was used.) - rinse the hell out of that bird after brining. This is a pretty intensely salty solution, make sure to rinse the outside really well so no residual surface salts will end up dominating taste buds.
I’m a little bit worried about how long my bird was in the brine (a full 24 hours!). Keeping my fingers crossed for the results.
Maybe this whole turkey thing should’ve been in the curriculum…
Happy Gobbles!
After Fish & Shell Fish Week, I was very inspired to put my new skills to use for our pot luck party.
Menu — Lobster Pot Pie
For a 9″ x 13″ casserole dish of pot pie, 4 lobsters gave their lives.
Chillin'
Not so chill
Lobster shells were roasted to become the base of a stock and (shelled) rare lobster meat was folded into the filling at the last possible moment.
Richard made some decorative shapes to go on top of the pie, including a wine bottle, a slice of pizza, and a single empanada.
Unfortunately we were all too busy partying and gobbling that no photos were taken of the final product. Just trust me when I say it was legit.
Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to try Michael Mina‘s master piece one day.
What to bring to a pot luck when your current status as a culinary school student has been widely advertised?
I brought a dish designed with 2 goals in mind: 1) help balance the menu, and 2) practice my knife skills
There was a lot of starch-heavy items on the menu and the hostess promised 3 different desserts (they were delicious!). I decided on a Brazilian-inspired* chicken salad that provided a lean protein that’s easy to eat in summer weather. But really, I picked it so that I could practice my knife cuts. It looked humble and dismissively easy to compose but it ended up taking me 3 hours to make.
What went in:
- small dice potatoes
- freshly shelled English peas
- small dice carrots
- small dice apples
- corn kernels from freshly shucked cob
- chopped (canned) artichokes
- chopped olives (not shown in the picture)
- quartered grapes
- chicken breast poached in a court bouillon that included fresh corn cobs
- freshly made mayonnaise
the court bouillon (poaching liquid) alone contained 8 ingredients and was reduced for >30min prior to use. Unfortunately I have yet to master the heat control on poaching and the chicken wasn’t as succulent and juicy as what I tasted during Foundations I’s demo. Will need to work on that.
Each vegetable was prepped and cooked separately then chilled.
I had a great time putting it all together and was making furious mental notes for my own education.
Response at the pot luck? I don’t know. There were quite a few impressive dishes. I may have just earned myself a little breathing room for the next gathering. I doubt anyone’s going to expect a superstar dish from me after serving a homely chicken salad, hehee.
*Brazilian-inspired: chicken should be shredded, not cubed. potato more likely in shoestring form, not small dice.
We are learning Les Cuissons — the 7 classical French cooking methods (no foam concoctions just yet). The first 2 methods were demonstrated with chicken.
Poulet Roti — roast chicken. I’ve been a little bit obsessed with making the perfect roast chicken. Not quite there yet but my light hand with butter is definitely a limiting factor. 4 tablespoons of butter under the breast skin? That will be the only way next time. Thomas Keller says his dream last meal would be the roast chicken from Bouchon. And as the crazed worshiper that I am of Thomas Keller, I’ve dutifully tasted his Bouchon roast chicken at Yountville, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. If I can just make a roast chicken to that level of divine simplicity, I would not need any other dish in my repertoire.
Poulet Roti with Supreme Sauce
Poulet Poele — “covered roast” chicken. This particular method has no English equivalent. It is a method that first pan sears the protein, then finishes cooking in a hot oven, fully covered. Cooking happens both with the heat of the oven and steam from the meat’s natural juices that would not escape from the covered vessel. A classic finishing touch is to glaze the chicken with demi-glace and bake the shiny sauce onto the skin in the oven 3 times.
Poulet Poele with Demi-Glace Coating
This method is ideal for a piece of meat that is “too tender to braise, but not tender enough to roast.” A perfect example for such a meat is drumsticks.
Needless to say, I had to try this at home.
Not quite at the level of cranking out homemade veal bone stocks so I skipped the demi-glace and made up a wine reduction sauce instead. Fried sage & thyme was crunchy-salty goodness. The skin has the flavors of a nice crispy crust formation but was deceiving moist and tender. This was fabulously easy for how tasty it was. Thank you for your sacrifice, chickens!
The perfect lunch with a hunk of crusty bread.
We’ve been eating a lot of kale this past winter and I kept wondering about how this soup tastes.
The chorizo of course sounds awesome but in a soup? with potatoes?
Turns out, the combination of new potatoes, chorizo, and kale in a dark amber broth is wonderful.
When you get that magical bite of everything together, you experience at least 4 textures, 120 flavors, and a butter-less cozy embrace. Yum.
Recipe
This is the recipe shared by Emeril Lagasse in Becoming a Chef.
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups chorizo, sliced in ½-inch rounds
[I used a vacuum pack of 4 ( 3-inch) chorizos]
1 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
3 cups diced peeled potatoes (about 2 large), cut in ¼-inch dice
[I used 5 new potatoes of different colors, unpeeled]
4 quarts chicken stock
[I didn't measure this, just made sure there was enough liquid to cover throughout and mixed with water when the chicken stock ran out.]
6 cups kale, rinsed, stemmed, and leaves torn into pieces
[one bunch of curly kale used]
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
[only had fresh ones on hand, used 2 sprigs]
1½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
[I'm sure I added more than just ¼ teaspoon here]
5 turns fresh ground black pepper
½ cup chopped fresh mint, optional
[hmmm......should try this next time]
I heated and sautéd all diced & chopped items in a dutch oven till the smell of the chorizo permeates the room and the onions translucent.
garlic and parsley was added for a short minute before the liquid was poured in, with kale, and brought up to a boil.
all seasonings came next and the pot was left to simmer. 30 minutes ought to do it but I like my soup bites soft so let the simmer carried on for a good hour.
The fat can be skimmed of the top if desired.
<<cheat sheet: sauté, boil, season, simmer>>
What kind of respectable self-proclaimed egg-loving, aspiring cook never made a soufflé?
I know, it’s a crime.
To garner some self-respect and prepared with Harold McGee‘s chapter on eggs* and Julia Child’s recipe (plus 1972 episode of The French Chef), I was eager to produce a cheese soufflé.
*McGee worship will be a separate string of posts.
Mise en place
Base mixture go first
milk + roux
= Béchamel
seasoned base with 4 egg yolks (no cheese yet)
1 tablespoon of melted butter overlaying the base mixture can hold it until ready, no drying out.
Onto the egg whites
Copper bowls are a must for old school French chefs.
The science is in the chemical reaction between sulfur (in egg whites) and copper can stabilize foam by preventing egg white proteins from sticking to itself too much, which messes with forming of the desired air bubble volume.
Acidic element also stabilizes the bubble-forming stage. Cream of tartar is called for in Julia Child’s recipe but I didn’t have it in the pantry so squeezed a few drops of fresh lemon juice instead.
5 egg whites before beating
stiff peaks
The all important light-handed touch when mixing the base with beaten whites.
shredded cheese was added to base mixture before mixing with white.
The whole mix can sit for up to 1 hour before baking.
folding whites into base
buttered & cheesed dish
ready to make magic
Julia Child says it’s okay open the oven door before it’s done baking.
McGee says if you get some air bubbles into the mix, it has to rise. No fear.
More cheese was sprinkled on the top before finishing the last 5-10 minutes.
getting there
Voilà!
read my lips---(eat me)
The baking dish can really accommodate a larger volume. I think next time I’ll increase the servings by 30% so the rise will be more dramatic.
It was delicious. Fluffy, cheesy, and deceivingly light. Why did I ever bother making strata when all this time I could’ve been souffleing the heck out of brunch??
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