Tag: cooking

Posted in cooking

“Summer of Pasta” at Sur La Table

Posted on by William Douthwaite

(clockwise from top right) Fettuccini carbonara, Garbanelli al pomodoro crudo, Summer panzanella with fresh mozzarella and pesto vinaigrette

Part of my birthday celebration this past July was a meal preparation class at Sur La Table in Jacksonville, Florida. I finally enjoyed the class thanks to a gift card I got for last year’s birthday.

First, be sure you pronounce it correctly: “Sur-La-Tahb.” Like everyone else, I used to say, “Sur La Tay-bul.” I am sophisticated now.

Sur La Table is a retail store that sells kitchen cookware, knives, linens, food, small appliances, and dishes. They also offer cooking classes. Aspiring cooks can choose from beef, fish, chicken, pasta, and desserts.

When we arrived, we took advantage of some free espresso. It was delicious. It ought to be. The machine that brewed it had a sticker price of $4,500. Nothing in the store was inexpensive. I suppose I’d be a better cook with a $450 knife, but I doubt I’ll get the chance to find out.

We were called into the kitchen by Chef Josh who owns a restaurant in our city. When he found out where were were from, he asked, “Have I cooked for you?” I wondered, “How would I know?”

Three kitchen stations were prepped and ready for the ten students in the class. Two teams of four and one couple gathered around the butcher block counters. No one guided us to a handwashing station, just to pegs with aprons as Chef Josh hit us with a flurry of instructions.

We started with the pasta, cracking an egg into a hole in a bowl of flour. Our fingers gently mixed it into a ball of dough which we ran through a pasta maker. We cut out diamonds of pasta, rolled them into tubes and set them aside. Then we ran dough through the cutting part of the pasta maker to slice up long strands of fettuccini. As we worked on that, Chef Josh quickly whipped up the tiramisu while explaining the difference between different kinds of cheese.

If I had never used a pasta machine before, I would have been lost. I helped others get the hang of it since Chef Josh pushed us along a tight schedule. I turned on the stove to boil water and lit the stove to dry out the croutons that another couple chopped up.

We put chopped up parsley, oil, and garlic into a small food processor for the pesto. Chopped up onions, cheese, tomatoes were set aside. When we would point and ask, “What about this?” Chef Josh would simply say, “Yes, chop that up.” So we did.

Suddenly, it was break time. There’s a rule that after an hour, everyone takes a ten minute break. We wandered around the store, then got back to work frying bacon, boiling pasta, grating cheese, and assembling the meal.

Before we knew it, we were done. We plated the food but had to stand around to eat. It was delicious, and the tiramisu was wonderful.

Even though it all happened so quickly, it was a fun night and a delicious way to celebrate my birthday.

Posted in neighbor, neighborhood

Do you smell that smell?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

I exclaimed, “Wow, do you smell that?” As the big dog and I rounded the corner on an pre-dawn Sunday walk, an amazing aroma filled the air.

Someone must have been frying bacon on a cast iron grill. The incredible smell filled the air around us for at least a hundred feet of our walk. I thought, “I need to get to know these neighbors!”

My joy quickly evaporated as we turned another corner and slammed into the obnoxious smell of someone lighting up their first cigarette of the day. That must be a powerful addiction to have to light up before sunrise.

We pass another house where someone likes to start their day with a cigar. I don’t mind that smell so much. It just surprises me when the breeze blows that smoke across a yard that early in the morning.

The other early morning aroma I enjoy comes when someone has been smoking brisket or a pork butt all night. What better than the smell of wood, seasoning, and cooked meat filling the air?

Posted in Food

Is it done yet?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash

When I put my sourdough bread in the oven to bake, I set the timer on the microwave. After I reheated some coffee in the microwave, I realized I turned off the bread timer. Fortunately I was able to guess how much time was left, and neither burnt the bread nor took it out too soon.

Sometimes I have Alexa set a timer on my Amazon Echo. Other times I set a timer in my phone, which is usually in my pocket. I’m toying with the idea of buying a separate magnetic timer I could attach to the oven or microwave.

How did people time their cooking and baking before smart devices and digital clocks. Of course we used to have a timer you twisted to the desired countdown time. But what about before that?

My research uncovered some fascinating techniques used to know when food was fully cooked.

Baking involved watching for browning to occur. It might be when beans or potatoes are soft. Sometimes it’s the smell that tips you off that the food is ready. I’ve learned to press on a steak to determine how done the meat is on the grill.

Older time-keeping methods included measuring the amount a candle melted, the movement of the sun against the wall, sand pouring through an hourglass filled with sand, and a dripping water clock.

With some food, like a pot of soup or stew, it really didn’t matter if you cooked it an extra half-hour or so.

With experience, cooks developed a sense for the passage of time, and knew when time was up. I would love to develop that skill!

Posted in cooking, Life

Where there’s smoke: Pay attention to the cooking oil you use

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Duane Mendes on Unsplash

I was feeling confident about my culinary expertise when something as simple as cooking oil humbled me.

In my defense, it was not my kitchen, so I was using an unfamiliar pan, range, and ingredients. I was at my daughter’s house where my wife and I were staying with a couple of granddaughters while their mom gave birth to number three.

I brought a small ribeye steak with me for supper the first night. At home I would just throw it on the grill. No grill here, so I got ready to pan fry it. At home I would reach for my cast iron frying pan. My daughter had a very nice set of stainless steel cookware. A pan’s a pan, right?

I let it warm up on medium heat while I ground a little salt and pepper onto the meat. Holding my hand over the pan, I could tell it was ready. I grabbed the non-stick spray from the cabinet and gave the pan a quick shot. Even though I quickly took it off the burner, a cloud of smoke filled the kitchen. I turned on the fan only to discover it wasn’t vented to the outside. The smoke alarms started beeping, my wife open the sliding glass door to the backyard and tried to fan the bad smoke out and the good air in. The oldest granddaughter asked, “What are you doing, grandpa?”

It looked like I had no idea what I was doing. I did recover and the steak tasted great. The pan was a pain to clean. I had much to learn about cooking with oil.

I did some quick research online. If I’m are cooking at high temperatures, refined avocado, safflower, and light olive oil work well. At medium temperatures, use corn, coconut, sunflower, and canola oil. Vegetable shortening, extra virgin olive oil, and butter are for lower temperatures. I’ve got a lot to learn, though. Some of those oils taste better certain sauces, marinades, and dressings than others.

For the next two days, the odor of burning oil greeted my nose every time I walked into their house. However, as we packed up to leave today, the smell was just about all gone. Whew.

Posted in cooking, kitchen

Gettin’ zesty with it

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Right after we went and picked ten pounds of blueberries, I made scones with a recipe that called for orange zest. Not knowing any better I shouted, “Hey, do we have any orange zest?”

Of course not. You zest an orange, or a lemon, or a lime, to get the zest, little pieces of the rind, for flavoring in cooking. Okay, so how do I obtain some zest? Duh. With a zester. “Honey, where’s our zester?”

After rummaging around in the kitchen, I found this trusty and rusty old four-sided grater that might work. I don’t even remember using this before. The smallest and the largest sides didn’t seem right, so I tried second largest one. It kind of worked, but quickly got jammed up with rind. What about the next-largest one? Those pieces of rind were a little large, so I had to chop them up finer with a knife.

Time to level up. This looked like a good zester. Amazon choice. Pretty cheap too.

But not cheaply made. Sturdy, curved, stainless, and easy to clean, this ought to do the trick. Before I received it, the seller sent along instructions and tips. Lightly oil the grater. Be sure to wash the fruit. Only zest the colored part of the rind, avoid the white.

Worked like a charm.

I wondered who came up with the idea of using citrus rind in this way? Here’s what I learned:

According to SPICEography, people began incorporating lemon zest in recipes around the 15th century, but the word “zest” didn’t become a part of cooking vocabulary until the 17th century. French culture popularized lemon zest as a key ingredient for sweetening and flavoring pastries. Today, lemon zest is a commonly used, highly versatile ingredient that is used in both sweet and savory dishes. (Read More: https://www.mashed.com/893002/the-untold-truth-of-lemon-zest/)

More and more of my cooking, especially E2M recipes and seasonings, use lemon and lime zest. Now I’m zesting with the best!