Archive for Culinary Tips
Make Fresh Butter! A Simple Technique Via Chef Daniel Patterson
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Daniel Patterson is the Chef/Owner of San Francisco’s Coi Restaurant, acclaimed by Zagat as one of the “10 Best New Restaurants Of The Decade“.
In this video he shows Epicurious how simple it is to make fresh butter, in less than 15 minutes. This recipe uses only one ingredient: heavy cream. Daniel recommends using the best you can find, “which usually means organic cream from a small producer”. In this recipe he uses whipping cream from California’s Straus Family Creamery, which comes from grass fed cows and is about 36% butterfat.
Here’s his simple technique:
Fresh Butter
1 half gallon of whipping cream (this makes a quite a bit, for home use you could half this and use 2 pints, aka 1 quart, for 2 cups of butter. A basic rule of thumb is that 1 pint of cream will yield 1 cup of butter.)
Add the cream to a mixing bowl, and enclose the area between the top of the bowl and the top of the mixer with plastic wrap to avoid a mess. Using an electric mixer, beat on #6 until mixture thickens a bit, and then increase to #7 setting, for a total of 6 minutes. Place the mixture into a colander or strainer, let the fresh buttermilk drain out. Squeeze with your hands to expel as much liquid as possible. Mix in salt if desired. Add herbs or flavorings if a compound butter is desired, and roll the butter into a log with plastic wrap. Use within 2 weeks.
Regarding flavorings, the possibilities are endless! Chop the ingredients as finely as possible, and keep at room temperature for 2 hours (before rolling) so that the flavors may blend. Some delicious variations for compound butter:
- Chipotle pepper with cilantro and lime butter (for sweet corn) from Chef Brett Bannon
- Fresh berries, cinnamon,or honey and toasted pecans for a pancake or breakfast toast topping
- A garlic and lemon, or chardonnay and shallot butter for sauteeing or baking with fish or shellfish
- Fresh basil and sundried tomatoes to top pasta or warm baguette slices
- Roasted garlic, shallots, or fresh chive butter for potatoes, bread, or vegetables.
If you have a favorite compound butter recipe, please do share with us in the comments below.
Chef Renee: Chocolate, Hot Tips to Dip!
Posted by: | Comments{Savory Tv is pleased to welcome Chef Renee Fontes as a delicious guest poster. Renee is a restaurant chef and caterer, and enthusiastically volunteered to help us out with our recent chocolate obsession! In our featured post today, she tells us how to make the perfect chocolate sauce for dipping, including a fail safe secret for tempering. For more delicious recipes, tips, and photos from Renee, visit her site here.}
Hot Tips For Dipping Chocolate
Temper, temper! There is a trick to getting chocolate to coat and harden on anything you want dipped in its sweet, silky, delight. The trick is called tempering. Follow this easy method and you will be an expert at creating chocolate dipped fruit such as strawberries, raspberries or bananas, nuts, candy or even bacon!
Chocolate becomes stable and glossy when it is properly tempered by a process of melting it to the right temperature and cooling it to the right temperature. Without this process it’s impossible to create candy and chocolate decorations. When you buy chocolate it is already in temper, but melting it knocks it back out. To get it back into the “zone” there is the classic way and a quick temper method I like to use.
The quick method I found in Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst ( love that book!) works and you don’t have to have a marble slab in your kitchen to participate. Melt two thirds of the chocolate to be tempered to 115 degrees add in the one third remaining stir constantly until smooth and 89 degrees. Spring for some great chocolate, chop into small pieces place in a double boiler and melt over simmering water. Keep a eye on the temp if it starts slipping under 89 degrees set it back over the water to maintain 89 temperature and stir occasionally.
Now you are ready to dip! Make sure your items are clean and dry. Really dry. Use tongs or skewers to lower items into chocolate allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl. Put parchment paper down and place dipped goodies on it to set. Make sure items do not touch are they will become one when cool.
After you get good at fruit and candy, you can dip anything! You could even propose with a chocolate covered engagement ring! Chocolate is fun and you may lick the bowl after you are finished.
{Chocolate obsessed like us? Visit more delicious chef chocolate recipes here.}
How to Carve a Turkey With Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg
Posted by: | CommentsScore: Just what the Thanksgiving doctor ordered. Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg shows us how to carve a turkey with ease and confidence, in this featured video from Whole Foods Market.
Instructions via the video:
- After letting your turkey rest for 20 minutes, place on the cutting board and pull out the aromatics.
- Find the loose skin between the breast and the leg, carve downward to pull the leg away. You can use a fork to help pry the leg off, and you may need to twist the leg to assist.
- Next remove the drumstick from the thigh, taking your knife down the middle between the two. Serve the leg whole or slice it if desired. Slice the thigh diagonally, keeping the skin intact.
- Next, take off the wings, you can either twist them by hand or use a knife.
- Next, the breast meat. Find the breastbone in the top center, and cut on both the right and left sides of the bone, letting the bone be your guide. Slowly and carefully cut down across the ribcage.
- Slice the breast meat into slices, and make a gorgeous display by fanning the slices on the platter.
- Garnish your finished platter with fresh herbs. You’re done, prepare for praise!
