Changes Coming to Tasty Techniques

Well internet, we meet again.  It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, which seems to be the norm these days, but there’s something else.  Maybe if you’ve noticed, I didn’t post a companion for the chicken stock video…and I probably won’t post a companion for the chicken pot pie video that just got uploaded.

You see, when I started Tasty Techniques, things were a little simpler, I was getting home from school at a decent hour and getting a fair amount of rest at night.  Then the semester changed.  Now I’m not one to make excuses, but with the new term meant new schedule… meaning I now get out of school at about 11:30p.  Then I wake up at around 5:15a-ish to go to work.  You don’t have to be a math genius to see that my rest amount had been cut dramatically.  The free time I have now is far less than the amount I had 6 weeks ago.  And I love doing Tasty Techniques.  I absolutely do, but in order for there to be a balance I need to make some changes.  And I care about my viewers and readers, so I want to be as forthcoming and honest with you as I can.

First, the companion pieces will be gone.  Well, for now.  I’ll try to keep up with regular posts more though, since they tend to be a little more interesting.

Second, and this is the big one…Tasty Techniques is going to become a bi-weekly show.  I can’t do it.  For instance, this last video I shot on Sunday night, ending at about 12:30a or so… and spent most of my day off on Monday editing it to much frustration.  Then I had technical difficulties which pushed back the upload to today.  I don’t want the process to feel like a job, and it was bordering that line, and I hate that.  I love cooking and I love what I’m doing on YouTube so I want to make sure I keep the integrity of the product for you guys.  Maybe as time changes I’ll get some more free time.  If that happens, I’ll re-evaluate the frequency in which I post.  But for now, I need to cut back.  For my own sanity.  I hope you understand, but if I keep it weekly, the quality will suffer, especially with these monster-length videos I’ve been posting.

And then… to piggyback on that last point.  Maybe after I see what my workload is with the show going bi-weekly I’ll look at doing companion posts again.  My goal however is to always have a show in my pocket…always staying a week ahead when I can, and I haven’t been able to do that.

So, there we are.  A little bit of a personal post today, but I need this.  The last thing I want is for Tasty Techniques to fall by the wayside.  I will continue to put my heart into it, and keep spreading the word just like I have been, it will just appear less often.

I do want to thank you dearly for reading my blog and watching my show.  It means a lot to me to see the support I get from all you guys.  I just need to try to convince another 100k people that they need some Tasty Techniques in their life

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll see you soon.

-Jonathan

Companion: Burger Time!

This was one of the most fun episodes I’ve filmed to date.  Mostly because I love making French fries… but probably because I was still hopped up on cold medicine.  Despite that, I want to try to keep this post on the shorter side since the video itself had A LOT of content.

First, it’s tough to determine how much content actually makes it into the videos.  I film for X amount of time with the hopes that I can edit it down to somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 minutes.  We all see how that worked out this time.  Oh well.  Probably one of my most informative posts to date.

Let’s talk meat.  I used a pre-ground ground chuck from the grocer.  If I am making burgers for more than just my wife and I, I will use a combo of ground chuck and ground sirloin, equal parts.  The chuck adds the fat, while the sirloin adds flavor.  I then weigh out my patties to equal sizes and go from there.  Work quickly with the meat since the heat from your hands can make it kinda… gummy, if you’re not careful.  And don’t abuse it.  The meat did nothing wrong to you, so don’t take your anger out on it.

Cheese.  I used American cheese because it melts very well in the burger.  I’ve used blue cheese and gouda.  Gouda is fun because it gets really melty and turns the eating portion into more of an adventure.  Try to pick a good melting cheese, and you don’t have to use a ton.  Perception is key here because even though I only used one slice per burger, it seems like so much more since it is oozing instead of sitting on top the meat.

The fries.  If you have never deep fried anything before, my greatest tip I can give you is to take your time.  Do it right the first time.  Make sure you have your station all set up to begin with so you’re not flailing around at the last minute.  Properly deep-fried food is not greasy and can almost be light and fun to eat.  That is not something people typically think of when eating fried food, but I think that’s because there’s a ton of badly fried foods in the world.  The bubbles around the food in the oil is an indicator that the interior moisture is escaping.  As long as the bubbles are … bubbling… oil doesn’t really stand a chance of entering the food, and when taken out at the right time..  it’s not oily or greasy.  Just crispy and delicious.

The bacon.  Yeah, I’m giving bacon its own paragraph.  Does that really surprise you?  I used one of my homemade bacons.  It was my thyme-garlic bacon and it really added a lot to the burger.  This batch of bacon is particularly salty, but on the burger, that kind of melts into the whole flavor of everything and worked well.  I was very happy with the outcome of this and was happy to eat it as well.

Toppings.  I sliced relatively thin some red onion, which I left raw, and that large tomato.  You know what else is awesome on these babies?  Those caramelized onions from a few episodes ago.  You should look that up.  And then put them on your burger. Soooo good.  I did not do that.  I also put a small layer of mayo on the bottom bun, and some ketchup on top.  Typically, I toast my hamburger buns on the residual heat of the grill, but I opted out of that at the filming time since… well, you could see that it was crazy dark outside.

I would also like to thank my neighbors for not driving by my house with their loud cars or trucks when I was filming.  But who am I really kidding?  They don’t read this crazy thing   I need to address the very end, too.  I know I mentioned that I would show the interior of the burger, but after I took that bite, it seriously looked like a car crash in there, and that would not look good on camera.  Ketchup all over the place, juice dripping, tomato guts strewn about.  It’s wasn’t pretty.  But it tasted good, and that’s what matters.

Need the link?  Who am I to disappoint?

See you next week!

Culinary Catch-Up.

Well, I figure since I am too ill to produce a video today, I will at least update the blog.  I realize that most of my energy has gone into the YouTube channel, but I hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am.  It’s really been a lot of fun so far thinking of things to teach, and the best ways to cram it into a short video.

That being said, school has been taking up a lot of my time and it’s about to get a lot worse. By worse, I mean for my free-time, not for my actual life.  I just finished a term where I was in Cuisines Across Cultures, which is exactly what it sounds like.  It really opened my eyes to many different cuisines from around the world, and the different grains and things other regions eat.  It’s already changed the way I shop for food since I have purchased different kinds of flours, both kinds of couscous, quinoa and other things and stuff.  It’s exciting to try these new things and it’s fun to eat something different other than rice or potato.

I’m sure I’ll cover couscous in a video coming up because it’s a great grain, cooks quick and sops up flavors very nicely.  Quinoa is another one.  Slightly harder to find, but it’s one of the few grains that’s actually a complete protein, that is:  a protein that includes all 17 of the essential amino acids… You could technically live off of quinoa, not that you’d want to though.

I will take this time right now to fill you in on my practical exam from the last class, since I was freaking out over it for weeks, and I happened to do quite well.  We had to pull a secret ingredient out of a hat on Tuesday, then make a menu that included that ingredient three different ways on three different plates from three different cultures.  Catch all that?  My head was spinning too.  Nobody knew what sorts of ingredients we would be given.  I drew potatoes.  Now, at first glance, I was excited… But as I delved deep into the recesses of internet recipes, I realized it was gonna be a little harder than I thought.  BUT!  I persevered and created three dishes representing those three regions.

First, I made vichyssoise.  It’s a potato and leek soup that’s served cold.  Not very difficult, but it’s all about technique to make sure the flavor is right.  Being that it’s cold, you have to over-season it while it is warm because the cold deadens your palate a little bit.  Mine was a little too thick, which I knew but didn’t have time to fix.  The chef told me that it was “damn good” with the exception of it being a touch too thick.  It really did have a great flavor, and of the 4 or 5 times I have made this soup, this was hands-down the best.  In fact, this soup didn’t even compare to the other ones I made.  I was happy.

My second plate represented Ireland where I made a boxty…it’s a potato flatbread, that gets cooked like a pancake.  In fact, it looks like a pancake, but it’s formed into a dough, not a batter.  I minced up some scallions and put them in there.  I served that with a grilled flank steak and grilled carrots.  The bread had really good flavor, the steak was cooked beautifully and I was particularly proud of my carrots.  I cut them into rectangle shingles and blanched them in boiling water to cook them through… then grilled them right before serving to heat them back up, and give them nice grill marks.  I’ll use that technique again. Here’s the kicker though…my chef only ate the boxty.  He commented on the steak and carrots and how they were cooked nicely and presented well, but only ate the bread and graded me.  Oh well.  I got a good grade so that’s all that matters.

Finally, I made gnocchi with shrimp in brown butter sauce, representing Italy.  This was my first time making gnocchi ever.  I had to make it from memory.  I did well  My only problem was that after I boiled them to cook them, I sauteed them in butter to crisp them up a little bit, but left them on the heat just a bit too long.  One side of most of the dumplings were at least slightly burnt.  I would say that this was my least successful dish, but that’s not to say it was bad necessarily.  I nailed the technique, just overcooked them a bit.  I plan on doing these in a video in the future since they are much easier to make than I thought, and they freeze well… So you can spend an hour making the dough and rolling them out, freeze them, and then in the future all you have to do it boil them and they’re good to go.

Did I mention that I only had 2 hours to do all of this?  Did I also mention that it had to all be from memory?  Yeah, I think I may have forgotten about that.  Regardless, my freaking-out for the weeks was simply over-reacting since I exceeded my own expectations and was left with some really good food to eat that night.  I then proceeded to come home and drink a few beers to calm my nerves.

Now I am moving into Wine and Beverage and Contemporary Cuisine classes.  In the former, we have no fewer than 3 or 4 tastings (of both wine and beer), and the latter… well in the latter we don’t use any animal proteins and we’re basically stuck with vegetarian, vegan and “other” types of food.  It will be interesting enough I suppose, but I’m just not that excited about it.  Hopefully my mind will be changed in a few weeks.

So that’s it for now.  Please keep an eye on my YouTube channel and continue to spread the word if you can.  The more people watch it, the more I am excited to continue doing it and trying new things.  On the horizon I’ve got stuffed hamburgers, homemade french fries and grilled pizza.  Just to give you a little teaser

Stay positive, love your life and play with your food.

Companion: Episode 5, Carving a Chicken

To be honest, there’s not a lot I can update on this episode.  Clearly, I need a bit more practice at butchering chickens, but you get the general idea.

One main point I want to bring to your attention is that you’re gonna want to get to know your chicken.  Don’t be afraid to move it around the board to get the best angle, flip it upside-down and stuff.  I do it all the time if I’m having a hard time getting through a joint, or around a bone.

Another point I’d like to bring to your attention is that once you can butcher a chicken, the same technique can be applied to almost any poultry item with only minor changes.  Start with chickens though, because they’re cheap… but the same technique can be applied to turkeys, ducks, geese, hen, etc…

I have two viewer requests right now in queue, so I’m excited to get to work on stuff that someone is specifically looking for.

I hope you guys and gals are enjoying my videos.  It’s definitely a labor of love right now, and sometimes, I’ll be honest, I feel like I’m only doing it for myself.  I know there are people out there who like this sort-of stuff, and I’m just trying my hardest to make these videos short and useful… and to be viewed by as many people as possible.

Please help me spread the word if you like what you see.  Link to me on Facebook…share my YouTube links, it really helps me out.  I’m not making any money off of this thing, but the more people I see view my videos, the happier it makes me.

Maybe that was kind of a selfish thing to say, but hey… I’ve been writing this thing for about a year and a half now, I think I can be honest at this point

But enough of me ranting.  Hope today’s video learned ya somethin’, and I’ll catch ya next week!

Fun fact:  That actually was my dog barking in the background while I was cutting the second chicken breast…I’ve spent millions of dollars sound-proofing my home for these videos, and yet that still leaks through…It’s almost like this is some sort of amateur production

Italian Food Done Right.

I’ve had this post in my head for a few weeks now, and It’s about time I share it with you!

There’s this new restaurant in my neck of the woods called Prato, and it was opened by the same chef who runs Luma on Park, which I’ve mentioned in my blog before. Anyway, this new restaurant is authentic Italian, and it’s very unique and very, very good. The decor is nice and all, but I’m not here to talk about that, right?

I absolutely loved this place, so much so that I’ve been back twice already to work in their kitchen But really, I can’t wait to go back as a diner again because the food is great, the ingredients are fantastic, and the flavors are amazing. They have two giant custom-built clay ovens right from Italy in the kitchen and they cook all of their pizzas in there.

Speaking of pizza, that’s what my wife had to eat. The Widow Maker pizza is the name, and let me first start by talking about the crust. I love the crust on pizza. I am always looking for a flavorful crust, and I found one here. Just crisp enough because of the oven, and really good flavor. The toppings were great, too…It’s got braised kale, fennel sausage, romesco sauce (which is a red pepper sauce), topped with goat cheese and… well, there’s supposed to be a farm egg on there, but my wife doesn’t like runny yolk, so she opted out of that item. Either way, it was quite, quite good. All of the toppings served a purpose and worked well with each other. I almost regretted my decision and wanted a pizza. But then I remembered that I ordered a pork chop

This was definitely one of the best pork chops I’d ever had…and you guys know I eat a lot of pork. It was grilled to a perfect medium doneness, and topped with this sweet apple relish (actually called mostarda,) served on top of a butternut squash farro risotto. Oh my goodness that risotto was good. It was the perfect amount of creamy, had a really nice texture, and when mixed with some of the apple, it was darn-near magical. The chop had a nice char around the rim which added a nice texture and flavor contrast. It was ridiculous. I did not regret my decision in the slightest.

We even had room for dessert, if you can believe it. My wife got a chocolate mouse with sea salt on top. Once mixed in, it was a very good dessert that she couldn’t put down, but in its “served” state, some bites were too salty. I had a tiramisu.

They serve all their desserts in those little canisters, which is a nice little single serving. My dessert was pretty heavy on the rum and coffee, which I really liked. Our waitress mentioned that some patrons had mentioned to her that it maybe was too much of that flavor, to which I respond: Bullocks! Why would you get tiramisu if you didn’t want that flavor?!

So that’s about it for now. I’ve got another post cooking (get it?) about my classes at school, so I’ll finish that one up soon too. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying Tasty Techniques, and the new episode will be posted later today.

Stay positive, love your life, and play with your food

 

 

 

Companion: Episode 4, Pork Chops and Apple Sauce!

Pork is the most amazing protein there is.  That’s it.  Good night everybody!

Obviously I’m kidding.  About the last part anyway.  Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I love pork.  I’m always cooking pork, and I’ve become pretty good at it.  I’m pretty aware of good flavors that go with pork and this technique will net you a nice pork chop when done properly.

I think the big problem a lot of people have with cooking pork is that they over-cook it to oblivion.  There’s no need for that!  Pork these days is raised so differently than the “pork of yore” that you can cook it almost to medium-rare and still be okay.  Overcooking your pork chops will just give you a hockey puck for dinner, and they’re gross.

These chops were bone-in and not particularly thick, maybe 1/2 inch at most.  Manage your heat well, and when you’re brown on both sides like in the video, you’re probably done.  Dredge the pork chops in seasoned flour.  I only used salt and black pepper for the entire dish, but you could do whatever.  Sage or thyme are really good with pork, but I would rub those right on the meat as to not waste it in your flour.  Also as I mentioned, I used my leftover flour in my bag to thicken my sauce.

If you don’t make the sauce, please make sure you rest your meat.  This goes for nearly any protein you cook:  you want to rest it at least 5 minutes after cooking before you go cutting into it.  I’ll demonstrate this in a future video, but by letting it rest, you’re giving the juices inside the meat (which have been highly agitated due to the high heat of cooking) to relax and settle throughout the meat.  If you cut into it while it’s right off the heat, your meat is gonna be sitting in a pond of juice that should be in the meat.

All ranting aside, I used the exact same technique to make my pan sauce this time as I did in episode 1 with the chicken.  The thing that was different was I let the cider reduce down quite a bit and that thickened it naturally, on top of the flour I put in there as well.

The onions were fantastic as well.  I divide these into 3 or 4 zip-bags and freeze them for future use and they’re very convenient.  Slice them thin and take your time.  It will take about an hour for 3 pounds of onions if you’re doing it right.  You don’t have to watch them continuously, but you *do* want to come in every couple of minutes and stir them now and again.  I also did not salt them at all.  None.  Don’t do it.  One time, I salted them at the beginning of the process, and it pulled a ton of moisture out of the onions and I had an onion stew… took forever to steam out all of the extra water that I didn’t need to deal with.  You can season the onions when they’re done and the moisture is cooked out, that’s fine.  You’ll find that the onions are very sweet and are unbelievably good on a nice cheeseburger… sautéed with some mushrooms for a steak, on your ice cream, in your eggs in the morning… nearly anything.

So that about sums it up for today.  I appreciate all of you stopping by, both here and the youtube channel.  Keep spreading the word and this thing can only get better!  I’ve already convinced myself that as I hit milestones, I’ll do something special for each milestone.  Details to come as I get close to certain milestones

Companion: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon!

Let me be clear:  I love breakfast.  I love bacon, and I love eggs.  Scrambled eggs are a staple in my household, mainly because they are easy, and you can add all sorts of things to make them delicious.  I also like eggs over-easy, but that’s another show.

The thing about cooking eggs is I don’t use measurements.  It’s hard to tell you how much of everything I used, so I will have to estimate.  Before I get into the content, I do want to mention that kosher salt is the main salt I use for almost everything, including scrambled eggs.  If you don’t have that, go get some.  You can get a pound of it for about $2 at the grocery store and it’s amazing stuff.

Now, the bacon.  It should be something fairly simple, right?  Well, yeah, but too many times I see bacon being cooked into oblivion, or cooked incorrectly.  I wasn’t lying about eating raw/undercooked bacon fat.  It’s no fun whatsoever.  The key, as I mentioned in the video, is to take your time.  As bacon rests, the fat that’s left settles and becomes crispy and pleasant.  Use a medium heat, don’t over-crowd the pan and flip often.  Wait till there’s some browning on one side, then flip.  Wait and flip.  That’s all.  Now, I only made two slices, which fit perfectly in my pan.  If I was making more, I would either do it in batches, or cook them all in the oven:

Oven cooking method:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Line a sheet tray (with a lip, please) with aluminum foil.  Lay your strips of bacon on the tray, overlapping slightly.  When the oven is ready, place tray in oven.  After about 10 minutes or so (or until the top is browned) flip the bacon and repeat.  It should about 15 or 20 minutes.  Don’t cut your pieces like I did in the video if you are doing this method.

The eggs.  These happened to be very good eggs I made, which was nice because I really was hungry.  The thing I can say about eggs too, is take your time!  If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, why would you rush through it and make it nasty?  I have had some bad eggs in my life, and I suspect that had the cook taken their time, and taken them off the heat earlier, they would be great!  So to recap, the two important aspects of eggs are to:  Season them very well and take your time.  I think I used 2 small pinches of kosher salt to season my eggs… maybe 2 medium.  How do you measure a pinch?! …I know the answer, just too lazy to do it right now  Anyway, season well.  Use the right fat.  If you don’t have bacon fat handy, use butter.  Melt it entirely and add the eggs.  Some dairy in the eggs is nice, but not required.  I teaspoon or two of sour cream is especially nice.  You could also add in fresh minced tarragon if you had it, chives, parsley…all are very good.  Gently cook the eggs, add cheese when they’re almost done and don’t overcook it.  If they look done in the pan, you won’t like eating them, I can assure you.  Don’t cook them to death, and you shouldn’t even get any browning if you manage your heat well.  I’m sure some of you will see my eggs and think that they’re under-cooked, but I can assure you, they were creamy, had great moisture and great flavor.  Ever see a plate of eggs sitting in a lake of moisture?  That’s supposed to be in the eggs.  I think I’ve said enough.

Thanks again for checking it out.  Please help me spread the word, both about my show and my blog.  I’m anxious to show you guys more techniques to make amazing dinners, lunches, snacks, etc…

Oh, and if you haven’t seen it yet