You could say I took a hiatus from the last post, perhaps from the disappointment of not being able to stage much much longer, short lived and due to some HR, “don’t want no liability for someone who doesn’t get paid to work there” policy, but I do have few stage lessons up my sleeves, few tricks that I’m still using and constantly thinking about, so – thank you, Chef and know that I’ll be back soon;)
Factoids/cooking tips/fancy terms:
- A perfect sausage ratio is 60/40; that is 60% meat, 40% fat. That also happens to be the flesh to fat ratio on a whole pig. Pretty neat, huh?
- Vegetable blanching: green vegetables are always greener after blanching (as long as it’s not overdone). And I have to correct the chef here, who said, “the oxygen inside the vegetable goes to the surface making it more green”. What actually happens is (according to some research I did, thanks Hank from Cuisinology), the green chlorophyll of the veggie is surrounded by microscopic air pockets (i’m picturing bubble wrap used for shipping things) and when it’s heated, the pockets basically “pop” revealing the…tada! greener broccoli, green beans etc. Of course, too much and you go completely to the other side of nasty looking mushy vegetables.
- Roasting beets – add water. Beets come out super juicy and easy to peel when you fill 1/3 of a roasting pan with water along with rosemary, drizzled olive oil, salt and cover with aluminum foil. Luscious!
There are a lot of fancy words that kitchen use that I had to learn:
1) garde manger - the no-cook cold station chef (and probably the lowest of the totem pole in the kitchen making salads and cold appetizers) has literal French translation of “to guard/watch food” loosely translating to a cool well-ventilated pantry area or refrigerator. Basically, a chef that doesn’t really cook with heat. Almost everyone starts here and pays their dues.
