Breakfast
How Sunday mornings should start.
Category: Cooking 
Chicken Piccata
Since today was a sort of rainy Sunday, I decided to make something new for dinner. I didn’t go crazy and experiment with something complicated like Chicken Kiev, but I hadn’t made chicken piccata before, so it’s new to me. I love chicken piccata because of the light lemony flavored sauce, which is perfect for summer.
Apartment Grilled Salmon
The best thing about this meal is that it takes about 15 minutes to make.
One downside is that I have to try to time things properly, and when you have to use the same saucepan to make the rice and steam the broccoli, it can be a little touch-and-go there at the end. Another downside is that the George Foreman grill cooks both sides at the same time, and sears them both, so the salmon doesn’t flake off as nicely as it does if you pan sear it or truly grill it. Those are both minor downsides that the ease of cooking relegates to nothing.
Stuffed Chicken Breast
This was a somewhat complicated recipe for me because of the three items that have to be prepped and cooked, the stuffing, the chicken, and the sauce. They really shouldn’t be counted as three separate items since they are all made in the same pan, and the sauce is made from the remnants of the chicken cooking. In fact, you could make the stuffing way ahead of time if you wanted to.
I won’t go into the recipe because it’s copyrighted by Cook’s Illustrated, but I will say that it uses a mushroom based stuffing. It was really well done, relatively easy, and came out great; even in my hands.
I’ll go into why I love Cook’s Illustrated in another post. In the meantime, you can compare their pic with mine below. They have white plates, and great lighting. I don’t. But beyond that, I’d say they are pretty similar.
Seared Sea Scallops
Pan seared in a decent amount of butter. Side of string beans. Words cannot begin to describe how delicious they were.
The thing I love about scallops is how easy they are to make. There is next to no preparation needed, other than removing the small muscle that attaches the scallop to the shell, and whatever side you’re making. Just put them in a pan of butter and let them cook. The only downside to them is their cost.
Garlic Lemon Parsley Shrimp
This is such an easy way to make great tasting shrimp. They were quite good, although they didn’t last long.
Parmesan Encrusted Salmon
After the other day’s fiasco making something simple, I decided that I would hit up an old favorite for dinner to try and redeem myself. Nothing fancy or complicated, just something that I knew I couldn’t possibly mess up. With some salmon and chicken in the fridge, I opted for the salmon, and parmesan encrusted at that, with a side of steamed broccoli.
It’s very easy to make. After removing the skin, I seasoned one side of the salmon with salt, pepper, and a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese. I used a generous amount of 60% vegetable oil and 40% olive oil (roughly 2-3 table spoons combined) in a pan, and heated it up so it was nice and hot, but not hot enough for the oil to smoke. I then gently placed the salmon, parmesan coated side down into the pan and let it cook for two to three minutes, then flipped it over and did the same to the other side.
It came out perfectly. Seasoned with a smidgen* of fresh lemon juice, and the side of perfectly steamed broccoli, it was enjoyed quickly and immensely.
* A highly technical term that can only be learned in a cooking class taught by a classically trained chef.
Egg Nog
Because of the time of year, and the fact that I love egg nog, I figured I would make some from scratch. I knew it wasn’t too difficult, and I now assume that my overconfidence is my weakness*.
After looking around for a recipe, I settled on this Alton Brown recipe because, after watching his show, he tends to use old school tried-and-true recipes rather than some newfangled way of doing them. It’s classified as “easy” which means I should be able to handle it without difficulty. Sometimes I actually surprise myself.
Rachel Ray
Is it me, or is she the second most annoying* person, ever? Evidence: “Delish”, “EVOO”, the Dunkin’ Donuts commercials, and she’s just so darn cheery all the time. I really dislike people who are cheery all the time.
* there is no “first most annoying”...sorta prevents one person from running away with the title...of course, she pretty much could run away with it if allowed to.
The Dichotomy of Josh
I think this photo pretty much shows two of the different sides that I have. Food related books sandwiched between Star Wars bookends...is there anyone else in the world that has something like this?
For the record, the books are The All New Joy of Cooking (link to updated version), The Kitchen Hand: A Miscellany of Kitchen Wisdom, and The Food Lover’s Companion
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, and 
London Broil With Balsamic Vinegar and Shallot Sauce
Truth be told, it was really a rib eye sliced like London Broil, but that really doesn’t matter. You see, the supermarket didn’t have flank stake, and even if it did, I didn’t really have enough time to marinate it tonight, so I went with rib eye instead.
I also decided to try the balsamic vinegar and shallot sauce that Chef Jane taught us about in class. It came out great, even though the first reduction basically spattered all over the place when the vinegar hit the pan.
I had a little bit of trouble timing everything out, as usual, but I was able to shut things down and turn them back on as the steak got close to finishing. Was it perfect? No. Was it acceptable? More than definitely. Was it good? It was delicious!
Update: As I was washing the dishes, I realized something...I cooked everything based on “doneness” rather than just on time. Even though the George Foreman people said to cook the steak six minutes, I poked it after six and “felt” that it needed a little more. When it felt right, I did cut it just to make sure, but I was pretty sure it was right. That’s a huge improvement for me. In addition, the sauce and the broccoli were done without measuring and timers, and just cooked based on visual and a taste test to make sure it was good.
Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 - Class #5
This was the last class and the chef threw us for a little bit of a loop...when it came time to cook, she told us that we wouldn’t be allowed to look at our recipes...she would post a list of ingredients and we would have to mix them based on experience and taste. I’ll go into why that is almost the worst thing Chef could have done to me in another post, but for now, I’ll just say that I went into this class with an open, but cautious, mind.
The lecture portion included how to make a marinade and why certain ingredients are necessary in one depending on what type of food is being prepared (i.e. chicken, lamb, pork, beef, etc.), how to make mayo and when you should versus using store bought, how to properly carve London Broil, and how a restaurant broiler is different than the average home kitchen broiler.
Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 - Class #4
Today was egg day! Everything we learned revolved around eggs in some way.
The lecture portion started off by going over some of the technical ways to cook the items we were going to be cooking later in the class, such as the temperature the water should be to properly poach eggs, how to properly peel hard-cooked eggs, and how to make clarified butter.
Chef then demonstrated how to peel tomatoes, how to add eggs to water to poach them, how to scramble eggs (in a sauce pan, of all things), how to make omelets (both American and French style), and how to separate eggs whites and yokes.
Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 - Class #3
This lesson was all about braising, shellfish, and heavy cream. We got started with the lecture and Chef told us all about the how and why of braising, how to check shellfish to make sure they’re still alive, how to deglaze and reduce, and how to make mousse. She also showed us how to prepare leeks, endives, peppers, carrots, and bliss potatoes for the dishes we’d be making.
Then we started making.
Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 - Class #2
We dove right into the class lecture this week both because there was no general introduction to go through and because we were roasting chicken and making chicken stock so we needed as much cooking time as possible. Lesson two was all about stocks and roasting and the chef described how to truss a chicken, what aromatics to cook it with as well as what aromatics to use when making stock. She also gave us her six or so rules to making good stock, which was quite interesting because all of them made sense after being explained, but I would have broken almost every one of them if you asked me to make stock on my own.
She then showed us a few ways to cut a pear and use a melon baller to remove the core nicely. Then she moved on to how to roast garlic and stuff a tomato. Then she opened up a package of pork belly and to prove that it really was from the actual belly, she showed us the nipple that was still on it. With the pork belly she showed us how to cut it in different ways and how one group would be using “lardons” for their salad. She then showed us exactly how to prep a chicken for roasting by removing the wishbone, tucking the wings, cutting some fat, placing butter between the skin and the flesh, and finally, how to truss it up properly.
Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 - Class #1
Last night was the first class of the five, and to make sure that I wasn’t late, I left work slightly early to make sure I had enough time to get downtown and find the school, and by “slightly early” I mean that I left at the time that I officially work till as directed by the employee handbook and my job description.
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been having amazing luck lately when it comes to the subway. It seems that I either arrive right as a train is pulling in, or about to pull in. During rush hours, I never need to wait more than two minutes for one. And yesterday afternoon was no exception. As I was going down the stairs to the N/R/W tracks, there was an empty train pulling in. Within 15 minutes, I was at 23rd and 5th, getting rained upon.
I’m keeping a promise with myself
For many, many years, I’ve been threatening to take a cooking class to improve my confidence in the kitchen...and if the class prevents me from poisoning myself, well, that would be a bonus.
Well, I’ve stopped threatening and I’m taking action. I’ve enrolled in a recreational fine cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education. For the next five weeks, I’ll be attending the class one night a week from 6pm-11pm and learning about knife skills, sauteing, roasting, braising, grilling, and cooking shellfish.
As I prepare to embark on the first phase of Josh 2.0, I wonder what exactly I’ll take away from this class. After enrolling I started to wonder what it would take for me to think of this class as being successful and worthwhile. Maybe I’ll find some hidden talent that I didn’t know I had, or maybe I’ll fall in love with a food I wouldn’t normally find appetizing (like asparagus—yuck!), or a way of cooking that I didn’t understand. Maybe I’ll walk away with the confidence to not be intimidated by complicated recipes, or maybe I’ll have the ability to find something in a grocery store and be able to understand how to cook it and shop for sides without having to go home look up a recipe and go back to the store to pick everything up.
It wasn’t until today that I think I found a good line in the sand that will define whether the class was useful or not. If, after the class, you ask me what the most important utensil is in my kitchen, and I don’t answer, “the fire extinguisher”, then it will have been a success.
Homebrew Kit
For the holidays, a friend of mine got me a Mr. Beer home brewing kit after we caught some show called Beer Nutz on one of those weird HD channels that you didn’t know you had, but you watch anyway because the picture is so amazing that it doesn’t matter what the content is. I mentioned that I tried to brew beer at home once and that it was a colossal failure, and this person thought it would be fun for me to try again.
This kit is definitely for an amateur, and even suggests storing the brewed beer in plastic soda bottles. This might be perfect for me.
I sense another attempt at home brewing coming soon.
Great salad
This apple pecan salad with goat cheese that I found on Slashfood the other day is easy to make and tastes quite good. I definitely recommend it.
