Hello all!
I’ve been taking a blogging vacation over the holidays. Things have settled down a bit now, I’ve started new projects for the New Year and it’s time to get back to business!
Two Spoonfuls will be starting the year off right – focusing on the basics, with the brilliant mind of Mr. Alton Brown to guide us. I’ll be tackling Alton’s big book of kitchen knowledge: “I’m Just Here For The Food”, while Ginny will be studiously reviewing Alton’s big book of baking: “I’m Just Here For More Food”.
Our goal here is not to do a boring old book review, but instead to broaden our horizons, try new cooking techniques and share the results with you in way that we hope, will spark your own culinary creativity!
Alton’s first book, “I’m Just Here For The Food” introduces us to what the essence of cooking really is:
“cook (v) – to prepare food for eating by means of heat.”
When we learn to manipulate heat and understand how food is prepared with it, our cooking choices become numerous. With Alton’s book as a guide, we are going to learn all about:
Searing
Grilling
Broiling
Roasting (my personal favorite!)
Frying (pan and immersion)
Sauteing
Boiling
Poaching
Simmering
Blanching
Steaming
Braising
Stewing
Pressure Cooking (this will be a new one for me!)
And also…
Brining
Marinating
Rubs & Sauces
Eggs
Microwaving
Phew! That’s 20 topics – enough to keep me out of trouble and my husband pleasantly full tummied for a good, long while!
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* Alton’s Notes *
Alton’s books are a wealth of knowledge about all things cooking. Here are a few of his tips on getting started… along with a couple of my own personal observations as to why his advice is sound.
1. When trying a new recipe, read through the ingredient list, item by item. Note any tools that are needed, techniques called for and times mentioned.
(The time thing used to be… (ok, sometimes still is), a big hurtle for me. For that reason alone, it’s always best to read through a recipe before starting. On more occasions than I’d like to admit, I have started making cookies at 7:00 pm, only to get half way through the recipe and discover that they need to chill in the fridge for 2 hours before baking. I’ve had some late baking nights!)
2. Get together your Mise En Place. This is French for “put in place”: in professional cooking, proper planning of equipment and ingredients for a food preparation and assembly station. Meaning: wash, chop and measure all your ingredients and gather your tools BEFORE you start cooking.
(Want to know why I’ll never forget this step? I once hosted a formal dinner party that had several courses, one of which was a salad. To save myself a little time, I used a package of mixed salad greens and added to it. Now, there’s nothing wrong with balancing labor intensive dishes with time saving ones inorder to save your sanity. But when you don’t take a moment to look over your ingredients before you start putting things together….. well, someone could end up with a plastic coupon for more salad greens on their plate. I will NEVER forget how I felt when one of my guests stopped eating and said “What is this?”)
3. Look at your recipe again for “hidden dangers and booby traps”. An example of this is “preheat oven”. Alton also notes that sometimes a recipe will mention an ingredient in the instructions, but that ingredient isn’t part of the ingredient list. Alton says “Internet recipes are notorious for this kind of thing.”
(I have also found a couple of online recipes like this.)
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I am really looking forward to learning new cooking skills with Alton and my readers.
Join me in two weeks for our first lesson in heat and Searing!
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And stop by again soon to see what new projects I’m working on,
I’ll be blogging more often from now on! : )
Hey, let’s go see what Ginny and Alton are up to!
Jenn : )
