Consistency (the other kind)

Baked goods are particularly difficult for some people to get right, and one of the baker's problems is consistency--how to achieve that perfect balance between chewiness and cakeyness. (I know there's no such word, but there ought to be.)



It turns out that the difference between chewiness and cakeyness is all down to saturated vs. unsaturated fats and their proportion in each recipe. By varying the proportions (and carefully noting them down), it is possible to achieve the perfect consistency in your baked goods. Please remember that some saturated fats are not good for you: avoid Crisco and the like, and choose instead those saturated fats that are naturally saturated: coconut oil or butter.

If you use boxed cookie or brownie mixes, you know that you have to add oil. The reason for this is that the saturated fat component is already in the box (in the form of "milk solids" or something else). And what should you use for an oil? If you are not allergic to tree nuts, I recommend walnut oil, almond oil, hazelnut oil or another tree nut oil. These are not suitable for frying because of their low smoke points, but are perfect for baking or salad dressings. Nut oils add a subtle enhancement of flavour to your baked goods (called "flavour layering" that is all the rage with the popular chefs nowadays), and in addition, provide health benefits not available from the more popular corn, vegetable, or canola oils. I am all for variety in people's diets, and so I would recommend trying, at least in small quantities, some of these other oils for their varied nutritional benefits and flavours.

Herbs

So many people plant herb gardens, and then never use the fresh herbs they grow. Let's change that, starting today! First off, for those herbs you grow yourself, get rid of all those little bottles of herbs you've been using all these years. Those bottles are a pale imitation of what you will get from the fresh leaves. Instead, before you begin, take your scissors and a container, and go snip off a little of whatever you're growing: basil, mint, thyme, fennel, lovage, parsley, sorrel, winter savory, borage, lemon balm, or whatever you have. Now smell and taste each of those herbs and use your taste imagination: does it smell and taste spicy, sweet, savory? By going back to our techniques already discussed, how could you use these herbs?

Parsley, Sage, Basil, Dill, Fennel, Tarragon, Rosemary, Chives, Thyme Oregano, Bay, Petunia Lynne Brotchie

Here are some ideas if you are stuck:

• Make hot or iced tea with herbs.
• Make a sorbet from your herbs.
• Use fresh herb leaves in a salad.
• Take that hot tea you made from the herb and use it in place of stock or broth.
• Use herbs in your poaching water.
• Add fresh herbs to your dry rub or wet rub.
• Make a layer of herbs on your grill, and put your grilled items on top of them.

Fond

No, I'm not talking about affection! I'm talking about those bits of food left over in the pan, and why they are so important.



One of the important steps in cooking food is caramelization. Basically, this consists of cooking the sugars in the food, and it is this which gives you the crusty brown stuff that is so flavourful--one of the primary reasons for grilling, among other things. Caramelization accounts for the searing on steak, the browning of meats and vegetables, and much more. The more caramelization you have on the surface of your food, the more flavourful it will be, and that accounts for the popularity of "blackened" food.

Steaks Cooking on Grill Dennis Lane

The trick is not to let all that delicious caramelization go to waste. If you have "bits" left over in the pan after cooking, that is a huge source of flavour. This is where "deglazing the pan" comes in. Use any liquid whatsoever--whatever will go with your meal--and pour a few teaspoons into the hot pan. Stir well and scrape up all those crusty bits into the liquid. Then reduce the liquid, and you will have yourself a tasty sauce or gravy to add to your dish. Your family or guests will love it!

What Can You Do with a Roux? Part III

Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast John Burcham

A roux, as I described some few weeks ago, is basically a mixture of flour and fat (either oil or butter). One of the Southern staples I grew up with was "cream" gravy, a mixture of pan drippings, flour, and milk. This gravy is the basis for most Southern families' gravies, and it's easy to make; simply measure (either formally or informally, by eye) your amount of pan drippings after cooking meat. It doesn't matter what kind of meat--people use this after cooking sausage, pork chops, chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, or just about anything (except bacon). Add flour into the pan with the hot pan drippings, and mix until completely smooth. Now add the same amount of milk that you added of flour, and whisk (or in the traditional style, beat with a fork) until completely smooth. You will also reduce it a little in the process, and you'll be left with a delicious addition to your meal!

Sweet and Savoury

One of the tricks I use in keeping my menus varied is to think of ingredients and dishes as basic building blocks. So everyone is surprised when I come up with new twists on old dishes, simply because I've changed them from sweet to savoury, or vice versa.

I suppose this started from my love affair with French food. When I was a child my parents usually took me out to dinner for my birthday, and I got to choose (within reason) the restaurant. From the time I was a child, I wanted grown-up restaurants, and often chose French restaurants, where instead of sweets, they would bring cheese for dessert. I suppose it was about then that I started to think of food as pliable in its interpretation, but did not commence experimenting until much later.

As we saw from the example of French toast, the basics were eggs, milk and bread. Take away the bread, and we are left with custards, for sweet dishes, and custards, for savoury dishes (think quiche). This is why learning the basics and patterns of cooking is so important; you can turn just about any recipe into just about anything, depending on your available ingredients, taste, and your imagination!

So this week, I encourage you to experiment. Take that noodle dish, and turn it into dessert. Take that cake recipe and turn it into a savoury quickbread. Anything is possible with a little imagination and determination. Even the great chefs go through some catastrophic failures before they finally create their signature dishes. And no matter how bad the result turns out to be, usually one of the children will like it, and the dog will almost always eat it!

What Can You Do with a Roux? Part 2

A few weeks ago we discussed what a roux is, and how to make one. One of the famous "mother sauces" (sauces upon which other sauces are built) is the Sauce velouté. (Velouté is the French term for "velvety.") This sauce is made by heating the roux, then adding room-temperature chicken, veal, or fish stock. The proportions should be two parts roux to one part stock. This may be either reduced or thinned, and salt and pepper added. As with Sauce Espagnole, there are so many variations it would take an entire cookbook just to list them all and give instructions!

When cooking with roux, it's important to remember to keep the roux hot and the liquid room temperature, and to whisk well. The key to velouté sauce and all its "daughter sauces" (of which there are many!) is the velvety texture.

If you use chicken stock, try a velouté sauce over a light chicken dish, or over vegetables, potatoes or rice accompanying chicken. If you are using fish stock for your velouté, it makes an excellent accompaniment to fish plates as well.

French Toast -- Not Just for Breakfast Anymore!

In keeping with the goal of Food, Face First, where we take the basics and learn to free ourselves from recipes, here's an idea for revamping that old classic, French toast. In France, it's known as "pain perdue" or "lost bread." So how can you redo French toast to make it more versatile?

To do that, we need to revamp our thinking. We assume French toast is for breakfast, and is sweet, because that's what we've been accustomed to thinking. But instead of sweet, what about savoury flavours?

French toast is, at its most basic, eggs, milk and bread. What you do with the French toast after that is more important. So rather than fry it up and serve it with cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or syrup, what would happen if you took eggs, milk and bread, and combined them with something else that goes well with those basics? For example, you could top it with cheese, as a start. What else goes with those basics? How about some peppers, or some fresh herbs from your garden? Get a little more adventurous, and add some fresh chevre. How about an Asian-style French toast? Tex-Mex? What happens when you substitute olive oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil or avocado oil for your regular oil?

In fact, when you break it down, eggs, milk and bread are the basis constituents of soufflés. So any formulation that would work well in a soufflé will also work in French toast. (And vice-versa!). What happens if we chop the bread into small pieces and bake it rather than fry it?

Now what happens when you substitute some other starch for the bread? Potatoes come to mind, and then you have a casserole. What about pasta? And let's not forget rice and yes, tapioca! In fact, using the French toast base, you can create hundreds of wonderful dishes for your family.