I pity the foo...

Who doesn't like butternut squash soup!

Regretably I didn't take this picture because I'm too busy eating this soup. Sure, you can make it with cumin, lime, ginger, curry and god knows what, but I prefer NOTHING.

I got one of these delicious squashes before thanksgiving and just haven't decided what to do with it. It would never have been as good as this if I tried to cram as much mise en place as I could in.

I decided I wanted to make a soup on my way home from work and I didn't want to spend all night doing it. I'm impressed with myself that I was able to bang it out in about half an hour with half of that simmering time. Everything is about this recipe is designed to make it quick cooking.

I originally roasted the squash to develop some of those declicious dry heat sugars, but it ended up saving me time since it was already cooked when I added it to the soup. The smoky bacon gives it great body and goes so well with the roasted squash making it hearty and earthy. It has an amazing velvety consistency and is perfect in the cold november rain. I highly encourage anyone to make this, but it's a very small recipe so double it if it's for more than one person. Since there's no cream in it it will keep for a long time in the fridge and reheat well.


Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
serves 2

1 1/2 tsp bacon fat (I had some in the freezer but if you cook bacon for it, crumble it over the top for garnish)
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 medium onion, small dice
1/2 medium-small carrot, brunoise (1/8" dice)
1/4 celery stalk, brunoise
1 1/2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
1/2 medium butternut squash, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick pieces
3 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper

Preheat the broiler to it's highest heat, broil. Rub the squash slices with olive oil. Place on the highest rack, closest to the heat source. Flip the squash when it starts to brown lightly, careful not to burn it.

I used the time the squash was cooking to cut up the rest of the ingredients.

Heat the fats in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, onions, carrot, celery, rosemary and thyme and season liberally with salt and pepper. Sweat the ingredients five minutes or so until softened and aromatic, stirring frequently. If you wanted to add a splash of white wine at this point you could and let it cook off for a minute.

While the mirepoix is sweating, cut the roasted squash into a small dice, trimming off any burnt edges.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the squash and bring down to a simmer. Cook 15 minutes. Remove thyme and rosemary sprigs and blender with a stick blender until smooth. Check for seasoning adding more salt and pepper as necessary. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to a week. Also very good cold. Garnish with crumbled bacon.

Culinary School

these guys are confused and concerned.

Not much to comment on. I'm finally going back to work after my nearly week long hiatus. I can finally stop pretending to be a cook. I'm trying to write my application essay for culinary school. This paragraph didn't make the cut:

Rafael, the chef de partie, my first real culinary mentor and source of all my stress and anxiety at the kitchen where I work, said it more poetically through his thick south-mexican accent than Brillat-Savarin ever could have, "If I could not work with food, I would die of sadness." It was causally spoken without great thought or intention and might have been heard by no one other than myself, but this was the first time I ever felt connected to my coworkers. How could I? I had yet to prepare a dish without almost constant supervision, my knives were often dull and improperly honed, my battonet's too small, my julienne too big and all of them inconsistent and these were seasoned pros. I was, and still am, green as any blanched vegetable and clumsy and awkward at best in the kitchen. But Rafael might as well have been speaking for the entire culinary team with his accuracy and conciseness that somehow explained our devotion to a job that paid poorly, consisted of long and odd hours and lead others to search for a history of mental illness in the family. I knew I was at home.

Steph thought, and I agree, it's good but not something that admissions boards would take particular delight in and I need to realize I'm not Bourdain. :-P I still like it but need to tone it down. In other news, I'm about half way through Kitchen Confidential and it's really good. I highly recommend. Someone buy me a copy the The Silver Spoon for the holidays!

THANKSGIVING

I love thanksgiving so much I manage to have it twice each year. Usually a traditional one and the other less formal. This year my parents came out for a few days with my sister. I brined a turkey with turkey stock I made weeks earlier. Unfortunately the turkey got overcooked and any benefits were lost. :-( The usual suspects were found hanging around the turkey: mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and bacon, stuffing with sage, and turkey stock, gravy and cranberry compote. I wanted to do something different with the sweet potatoes so I made biscuits with them using a recipe I found on food network. They had a great orange color and were delicious, but didn't quite rise, a never ending problem with my biscuits. I found a recipe for that looked amazing so I made that as well; it was all we hoped for. Desert was a pumpkin creme brulee also from the food network website. I was made very similar to a pumpkin pie but then strained for a smooth custard. The whole thing was quite satisfactory.

Tonight we decided to give the old bird a rest and roast a leg of lamb. Using the same recipe from the post "leg of lame? NO!" but tweaked a little. It's an amazing roast rubbed with a garlic-rosemary-anchovy paste and roasted to a nice rare and served with a parsley mint pesto.

This meal was mostly planned by Steph while I was stressing the details of my parents visit. It included a classic oyster-cornbread stuffing, recipe courtesy of food and wine. It was a little wet from too much stock, but still very tasty. We planned on doing a deep fried okra, but decided it was better for tomorrow. The best part I owe entirely to Steph because I would not have made it without her insistence. It's her favorite so it wouldn't have been thanksgiving without: Green bean casserole. It was actually incredibly simple with a disproportionately delicious yield. I took the ramekins leftover from the creme brulee and filled them with a mixture of raw green beans cut into 1" pieces and grated fontina cheese, poured over some leftover cream of mushroom, topped with a little more fontina and baked until the cheese got some nice color on top. The individual casserole idea originally started out as a cute way of serving a revamped classic but evolved into necessity with all of our oven dishes in use at the same time. I would definitely make these again. My advice is make the mushroom soup, you won't be dissapointed. Then if you like, make the little casseroles if you're in a pinch, it'll turn out, trust me.

For desert we had another unforgetable classic: pumpkin pie. I wanted to make the crust but steph insisted on buying some. Another excellent thanksgiving for the books. Thanks everyone!

Chinese Steamed Dumpling

The nice thing about these is how incredibly easy they are to make. You can make the filling up to a day ahead. It's a little time consuming and unless you have a multi-tiered steamer, you'll end up doing at least 5 batches, but they're well worth it and it's almost impossible to screw up. I like serving these dim sum style with a little bit of soy sauce and sambal for dipping. You could also make a big batch and then freeze them to eat at your convienence.

I was walking through the local town and country the other day looking for inspiration. I was truly at a loss for what I felt like eating. I spied a package of ground pork and knew immediately, that this was perfect.

That night I actually ended up making a muffaletta because steph had mentioned wanting one and it had been a little while. So I made these the next day on my friday with stir-fried broccoli and carrots.

Chinese Steamed Dumpling

1 lb ground pork
3/4 pound ground shrimp, or chopped with a sharp knife or food processor
1 Tbs garlic, finely chopped
1/2 Tbs ginger, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup shredded napa cabbage or green onions or both
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 package square wonton wrappers
napa cabbage leaves for steaming

Combine all ingredients except the wonton wrappers in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate up to overnight.

fill a small bowl with water and place within reach. Spoon 1-2 tsp of filling in the middle of each wonton wrapper. keep the amount of filling consistent so cooking times will be the same.

Dip you index finger in the water and lightly wet two corners of the wonton. Fold all of the corners together at the top of the wonton making the dumpling. Place on a sheet pan and repeat.

Cover the wontons with a damp paper towel to prevent to tops from drying out.
Line the steamer with bamboo leaves and steam for 5-8 minutes or until cooked through. Serve immediately.

Cutlery metallurgy is a big interest of mine, though I still know very little about it. I have however, learned some important things to look for when considering a kitchen knife.
All knives are different and have different metallurgies. A sword for example, requires a softer steel so it won't shatter on impact. Since this is not an issue with a kitchen knife, hardness is the bottom line. If you happened to catch my earlier post regarding the henckels ceramax line, you'll know that steel hardness is measured using the rockwell scale. The unit is a degree.
Unfortunately, steel is a relatively soft metal. To harden it, knife makers add carbon to make 'carbon-steel.' However carbon-steel knives require more maintainence and are highly susceptible to tarnish and rust. For these reasons carbon-steel knives have lost popularity in the kitchen and have become difficult to find, even though they are sharper than any other knife. The most popular knives today are high-carbon steel knives or HCS. These knives are made by adding elements like, chromium, vanadium, nickel, cobalt and others to decrease the corrosive properties. This negatively effects the sharpness of the knife so manufacturers are constantly trying to find new ways around this tradeoff with different metallurgies and processes.

Any serious knife maker will drop forge their knives. Forging changes the atomic structures and creates a harder, longer lasting knife. Chef's knives, vegetable knives, bread knives and paring knives should always be forged. Boning knives, some slicers and other thin bladed knives benefit from being stamped, because they are always thinner than their forged counterparts.
Ceramic blades are very sharp but often cannot be resharpened and break and chip very easily.
Blade hardness usually means a sharper edge and longer edge retention. However, it's not the only thing that matters. Because most popular knife makers use very high quality steel (which you definitely pay for) as well as state of the art processes, most knives are 56-58 degrees rockwell. What I mean is most blades are comparable as far as strength and hardness and personal taste comes into play. Professional chef's don't all use the same brand of knives. The best knife is one you'll use often for many different tasks that fits comfortably in your hand. The new Henckels line boasts the highest rockwell of any other kitchen knife, however the handle is shaped and weighted in a way I find uncomfortable, making is useless to me.
Blade length is also important, chef knives, slicers and bread knives are completely useless when too short, the way a paring knife is when too long. A chef's knife is also useless when too long. I find using myself poking into other things and running off the board when using my 10" chef knife at home.

Don't get seduced by fancily shapen blades. There are four basic knives essential in every kitchen. They are:

a good Chef/Cook's Knife - 8-10 inches. This is your all purpose knife used for for anything from boning chicken to cutting vegetables. This is the most valuable knife in your collection and should be the nicest. A well made knife will easily last a lifetime properly taken care of. 8" is usually ideal for the home cook. Any shorter is worthless). Most professionals find anything longer than 10" to be cumbersome for home use. My problem with the chef's knife is the 10 ones are too heavy for lighter work like mincing herbs, cutting fruit etc. But the 8 inch is too short. One of the guys I work with has gotten around this problem with the global 8 1/4" carving knife. Because it's made for slicing, the blade is thinner and light. Global has a habit of making their blades wider than other brands, so it makes sense that the carving knife be just right for light chef knife work. One drawback is that it's not forged, and will probably not keep and edge as long.
Straight Paring Knife - 3-4 inches. There are many different styles, but this is the most useful.
Serrated Bread Knife - 8-10 inches. I personally prefer the round as opposed to pointed tip because it cuts through though crust better.

Secondary knives include:

Slicer - 8-12 inches. Length is important because many items being sliced greatly benefit from a single motion and can be damaged by sawing.
Boning Knife - should have a thin blade, preferably stamped
Chinese Cleaver - chinese chefs use these as you would a western style chef's knife. Heavy blade works great for cutting through bone and smashing garlic and ginger.

Meat Slicer with a granton edge. Thin blade and "scallops" cut down surface friction.

Bird's Beak Peeler/Paring Knife - extremely useful for peeling and small or decorative cuts.

Many different asian styles have become popular in recent years. They take the place of western style blade and can easily be swapped out for their western counterparts. These knives are very beautiful and include:

Chinese Vegetable Cleaver - Usually single beveled, which means the edge is ground on only one side producing a very sharp edge. Often used in place of a chef's knife, though bad for cutting through bone.
Santoku Knife - 6-7 inches. Thin bladed Japanese vegetable knife. Often used in western cooking as a chef's knife, though not designed for cutting meat or bone.
Deba knife - a heavy duty, all purpose knife. Single beveled. Japanese chef knife great for cutting off fish heads. Properly used in place of a western style chef's knife. similar to a santoku
Sashimi Slicer - 10-12 inches. Takes the place of a regular slicer. Designed for more delicate items: fish, sushi, etc.

Since I'm a big geek and japanese knives are extremely beautiful, I plan to put together a set of professional set of them. this would include:

Yanagiba or Takohiki 300mm
Nakkiri 180mm
Kurouchi Mioroshi Deba or Usuba 180mm
Kurouchi Santoku 180mm
Mukimono 105mm
Makiri 75mm

Shun knives are really good, but they're almost more a work of art than a tool. Also, the ebony handles fade when washed with regular dish soaps.

Stay away from specialty knives like, tomato knives and salmon slicers, they take up space and are mostly useless. Any good serrated knife will cut a tomato as well as a tomato knife.

Brands I've found to be popular among professionals include but are certainly not limited to knives from either Solingen, Germany or Seki City, Japan (the knife capitols of the world.) Among these, Wusthof, Global and Messermeister are extremely popular and all rate 56-58 HRC.

One final note. No knife blade is as hard as glass or ceramic, which is why cutting on these surfaces destroys the edge. You should never under any circumstance cut on these surfaces, especially when using a high quality knife. A tight grained wood cutting board is the best surface. Properly maintained wood is more hygegnic than poly or plastic boards because knives cut grooves in plastic that cannot be cleaned. Knives need to be honed often to re-align the edge. Use a fine-ceramic or diamond embedded steel to hone your knife. Regular steels can actually strip metal from the blade and wear down the edge. They are also not hard enough to properly hone a knife. And if you use these knives in the dishwasher, take one out and KILL YOURSELF with it.