Beef Tenderloin w/ Espagnole Sauce

Wow... I've been M.I.A. for quite some time!  It's been even busier around here, and it's hard to even wrap my head around what I've gotten myself into!

The restaurant is going quite well.  I was on the pantry line (salads & desserts, a few cold and hot appetizers) for a bit of time, and last week I started training at the grill station.  I'm having tons of fun, and learning a hell of a lot!  Which is the whole point of all of this!

Did everyone (who celebrated) have a good Thanksgiving?!  I know we did.  My whole family went down to Andy's family's Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and it went quite well.  I'm glad that our families could get together on a day like that and get along so well.

Anyway, I know everyone still might have turkey on the brain, but in honor of me training on the grill station, I thought a nice, juicy steak felt like just the thing to post.  Hopefully I'll be back sooner next time, instead of going on a three week hiatus, but who knows what the next week of life has in store for me!

Ingredients:

2 6-8 oz. cuts of beef tenderloin
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut medium dice
spinach, optional
Espagnole sauce, recipe here
salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil, for rubbing and drizzling

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Rub each steak with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  Season your steaks with salt and pepper, on both sides.

Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Toss well and spread into one even layer.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Heat a large skillet under medium high heat.  Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. 

Add steaks and cook until desired doneness (I think a medium rare is perfect, about 6-8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of your cut).  Let rest on a cutting board for about 5 minutes.

Warm up Espagnole Sauce, if needed.

To plate, place a good amount of sweet potatoes on the center of the plate.  Top with steak and drizzle Espagnole sauce over top.  Serve with a side salad of spinach and some fresh bread.

This brings "meat & potatoes" to a whole new level.  It was a simple enough dinner to be ready in no time, but also one that is sure to impress dinner guests, as well!

And on a side note, a reader had asked in the comment section of the Espagnole Sauce recipe about a proper way to make a Demi Glace. 

By definition, a demi glace is half brown sauce (Espagnole), half brown stock (beef stock), reduced by half.  Easy enough right?  So for 1 cup of demi glace, use 1/2 cup of Espagnole Sauce, 1/2 cup of beef stock... bring to a boil, then let reduce until the whole mixture is 1/2 cup, or until desires consistency.

Hope to see you guys sooner than later!  And thanks for sticking around with me =)

Secret Recipe Club: Creamy Mac n' Cheese

With all of the craziness of my schedule, it's nice to still be able to do Secret Recipe Club.  To not think about school, or work, or anything.  Anything except exploring another blogger's site and making something delicious!

This was just the case with my assignment this month.  I got to explore Crystal from Mrs. Happy Homemaker's blog and was definitely impressed!  I found meals that were just the epitome of comfort foods and lots of things that made me smile.  It was a hard decision, with things like Deviled Egg Spiders to Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing!  She even has updates on good deals and coupons, as well as DIY craft ideas (quite kid friendly!).  There's lots to explore over there, and I could definitely get lost for hours on her site.

Ultimately, I chose something that has always been comforting to me - Mac n' cheese.  Crystal's quest for the ultimate mac had me quite intrigued and I decided to give it a try (especially since we just learned about bechamel and this had a bechamel base!).  So I used what I had on hand - I replaced the 3 cups of cheddar with a nice block of gouda and gave it a little kick with some cayenne because I dig a spicy mac!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Mrs. Happy Homemaker's Recipe

1 lb. fusilli pasta
1 oz. flour
1 oz. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon hot Spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups milk (I used 2% so it took a little longer to thicken)
3 cups gouda, shredded
6 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup garlic bread crumbs
1 cup grated sharp cheddar for topping
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain.

Preheat oven to broil. 

Meanwhile, in a large, nonstick pot over medium high heat, add butter.  Let it warm up and then whisk in flour, paprika, mustard powder, cayenne, and nutmeg.  Cook for 1-2 minutes until it starts to turn a pale white.  You've got the start of a white roux (except it'll be a tad red because of the paprika and the cayenne)!

Slowly add little increments of the milk so the roux doesn't get lumpy, and once you have a smooth mixture, add the rest of the milk.  Bring mixture to a simmer, whisking constantly. Cook until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in cream cheese and the gouda. It will melt without being on the burner.

Mix cooked pasta with sauce and place into a greased baking dish. Top with the shredded cheddar cheese, breadcrumbs and parmesan. Broil until brown and bubbly, about 2-3 minutes.

This was some great mac!  It was definitely creamy and full of tons of flavor.  I'll be making this again, that's for sure!  Hope everyone has a great start to their week - I know I did!

Espagnole Sauce

It's been a bit hasn't it?!  I've been running around like a mad woman.  I'm surprised I'm even able to stand right now, let alone stay awake long enough to type this.  I've got long days, getting up at 5 am and working and then turning around and going to school at night (or going to the restaurant to work job #2!).  But success doesn't come easy.  It's a long, hard road.  But winning the lottery would help out just a little bit... anybody willing to share the winning numbers?  I'll split it with ya!

Anyway, we've been learning about mother sauces in my Theory class.  What are the mother sauces, you ask?  Well, there are 5 of them.  And they're pretty much the base for hundreds of other sauces.  They include Espagnole (which I'm going to show you today!), Veloute, Bechamel, Tomato, and Hollandaise.

Espagnole (pronounced es-pan-yole) is also called "brown sauce," but if you want to stick to being fancy, we can continue calling it Espagnole.  It's pretty simple and is basically a gravy.  So when we know the basics, we can improvise and add other ingredients to make even fancier-named sauces - but we'll get into that later on.  Let's get saucin'.


Ingredients:

1 oz. clarified butter
1 oz. flour
2 oz. onion, minced or brunois (a knife cut that is a 1/8" perfect cube)
1 oz. carrot, minced or brunois
1 oz. celery, minced or brunois
1 teaspoon tomato puree (good ol' ketchup works fine here!)
2 cups beef/veal stock
salt and pepper, to taste

Now, first thing's first.  We start this sauce with a roux.  You know fat + flour = roux.  But wait!  You'll want a digital scale (or old fashioned kitchen scale) for this, because a proper roux is equal parts fat (in this case, clarified butter) and flour, by weight.  This way, enough butter can absorb and take in enough flour to properly thicken.

And another thing about a roux.  There are 3 stages of a roux.  White. Blonde. And brown.  Each stage depends on how long you cook the roux for.  Obviously, we're making "brown sauce" so we want a brown roux.  One key thing about the color of a roux.  The darker the roux, the less thickening power it has.  So basically, it'll just take a little bit longer for your sauce to thicken up if you're going with a dark sauce!

Okay, so I'll stop babbling school talk.

Heat a medium saucepan under moderate heat and add your butter.

Let the butter warm up in the pan for just a minute, then add your flour.

Stir the flour until it's incorporated with the butter.  You'll want to heat your roux until it's almost the color of peanut butter.

Then you'll want to add your onions, carrots, and celery.

Give it a good stir to incorporate the vegetables in with the roux.

Cook the mixture until your vegetables start to caramelize, about 3-5 minutes.  Then add your tomato puree, aka ketchup.

Give it a good stir to incorporate the ketchup into the vegetable/roux mixture.

Then slowly add in your cold beef stock, while stirring.  You want to do it slowly so that you don't get any lumps.

Once you have all your stock in the saucepan, bring mixture to a boil for about 3-5 minutes.  This is to ensure that you cook out your starch in your flour.

Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until mixture is thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

If you can make a line on the back of your spoon and the top doesn't move, you know you've got the right thickness!

Then you'll want to strain your mixture.

And season it to taste with salt and pepper.

And voila!  You have espagnole sauce.  You can use it as is and put it on steaks, or as a gravy for mashed potatoes.  Or you can use it as a base for other sauces like a Perigueux (just add demiglace and truffles!), or a Cherveuil (just add demiglace, red wine, and a dash of cayenne).  The possibilities are really endless! 

Hopefully I'll get some time to post within a couple of days to show you what I did with my espagnole sauce - because it sure was delicious!  Have a great week guys!

How-To: Dice an Onion

So I asked if you guys wanted some knife skills posts and there was a resounding yes!  I'm glad you guys are excited - because I love having an excuse to bust out my knife set!

Anyway, this may seem like a roll-your-eyes kind of post because I'm sure many of you know how to cut up an onion.  But if maybe you're like me (before culinary school), you may just roughly chop and not try to get it too precise.  I've noticed that since I've been in school (5 weeks already and I feel like I've learned such a vast array of tasks!), I find myself wanting perfect and symmetric everything.  It's getting to be a little OCD almost.

So I chose to show how to dice up an onion because I practically use an onion for almost every dish I cook.  It's crazy when you think about it, you know?  So we'll ease into something easy, and then I'm open to taking suggestions for future knife-cut how to's (anything in particular you guys want to learn how to do?  If I don't already know how to do it, we'll learn together!).

You won't need anything fancy.  Just an onion, a (really sharp) chef's knife, and a cutting board.

Honestly, you want to have a really sharp knife.  You're more apt to cut yourself with a dull knife than a sharp one.  So invest in a whetstone if you don't already have one (they average about $10 and last a really long time, so there's no reason to not have one).

And another thing, don't "saw" at anything.  You want to strive for one fluid motion through whatever you're cutting.  No back and forth action. 

So you'll want to take your whole onion and before you peel it, cut it in half, from the root to the top.  Then peel your onion.  Set the onion flat and make a diagonal cut to trim off the top. 

So now you're left with the top (which you can just pitch) and the rest of the onion. 

You'll want to put the heel of your palm on the top of the onion (or make a fist and put the tops of your knuckles on the top of the onion) to hold it in place.  Starting with the bottom edge of your knife, you want to make one fluid horizontal slice (about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the onion), pulling the knife closer to you as you cut and ending just before the root - no sawing motions, so this is why it's very important you have a really sharp knife! You want to keep your onion in tact, so make sure not to cut through the root! 

You'll just want to slide your knife through, and if you don't make it close enough to the root, it's okay - no biggie

Then you'll go up about 1/4 inch from your first cut and make another horizontal cut the same way.

Depending on how big your onion half is, you might be able to get one or two more 1/4 inch-spaced horizontal slices.  I think I did one more with this one.

Next you'll want to turn the onion 90 degrees (so that the root end is at the north end).  Then you'll make a vertical cut (about 1/4 inch from the left or right, it doesn't matter which end you start).  Remember, you don't want to go all the way through, cut before the root so your onion still stays in tact.

If you want, you can hold the sides of the onion together so it's easier to cut, just watch your fingers and be careful!  Space the vertical cuts about 1/4 inch apart (we're going for consistency here, right?)  I think I got about 5 or 6 vertical cuts.

After you make your vertical cuts, you'll want to turn the onion back 90 degrees (whether you're left or right handed, it doesn't matter, my root end was to the right because I'm left handed).

The key to an even chop is to have a stable, sharp knife.  Make one fluid cut.  No sawing.  I know I've said that a million times, but seriously.  Having my chef say it over and over made a difference with me and a lot of the other of the students.  I used to be a "sawer".  I'll admit it.  But I can't go cutting anything like that any more, regardless of what it is!

Anyway, make sure the tip of your knife is on the cutting board (in front of the onion, and just bring your knife down to make a vertical cut - 1/4 inch spacing!).

Stragglers are okay - no biggie

Continue to make 1/4 inch-spaced vertical cuts until you get to the root.

Don't hold the onion or knife like I did (I have no idea why I'm doing that lol) - you're apt to cut yourself

And voila - you've small diced (1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4) an onion.  Of course, an onion is round and layered and you can't really get a perfect 1/4 inch perfect cube, but it's close enough! 

I'll hopefully pop in during the weekend (can't make promises!), but if not, we've got Espagnole sauce next sometime next week!  And if you have any knife cuts you want to learn - let me know and I'll try to feature them next!

Have a great weekend guys =)

Fried Chicken & Waffles

I've always been intrigued by fried chicken and waffles.  I know it's wildly popular down South, but after doing a quick poll amongst co-workers, 90% of them looked at me like I was crazy, having never heard of such a blasphemous thing.

But I tell you what.  It's far from blasphemous.  It's the perfect combination of salty and sweet.  Breakfast and dinner wrapped into one.  And you better bet your ass that if I ever open up a restaurant one day, it'll be on the menu.  This was awesome.  And is the perfect use for the remaining parts of your broken down chicken.

Ingredients:

Fried Chicken:

2 lb. Mixture of chicken parts - thighs, drumsticks, wings, tenderloins, drummettes
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon italian seasoning 
Vegetable shortening, for frying

Waffles:


1 cup whole wheat flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 & 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
maple syrup, optional (but not really, it's necessary, hehe)

Place the chicken pieces in a large plastic Ziploc bag and cover with the buttermilk.  Seal bag and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  This will help to tenderize the chicken.

Remove chicken from bag and pat dry with paper towels.  Set aside.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat about 1 cup of vegetable shortening.  You want to get about an inch or so layer once it's melted (or at least be able to cover the chicken pieces by half).  Heat until between 325 - 375 F. 

In a medium shallow dish, combine the flour, cornstarch, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. 

Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and shake off any excess. 

Working in batches (I did about 4-5 pieces per batch), fry the chicken until cooked throughout, about 4-7 minutes per side (depending on the type of pieces you used, some cook faster than others).

While the chicken is frying, you can prepare your waffles.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and vanilla until combined.  Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  Then whisk in the melted butter until just incorporated.


Grease your waffle maker with non-stick spray or butter and add about 1/2 cup of batter per waffle.  Cook per machine instructions and waffles are browned and crisp.

Serve fried chicken atop one large waffle and drizzle maple syrup around waffle.  Enjoy absolute bliss.

If you've never heard of chicken and waffles, I highly recommend you try this very soon.  You won't be sorry.

Have a great weekend guys!  That's it (for now) with the chicken posts - I used the carcass for a stock, Alton Brown's recipe.  I'll have a knife cut how-to up next and then we've got Espagnole Sauce (a mother sauce that's the base for fancy sauces like a Bordelaise, Chasseur, Chateaubriand, Cherveuil, Madeira, Marchand de vin, Perigueux, Piquant, Poivrade, and Robert).  So lot's of learning opportunities to come - for both of us!

Buffalo Chicken Breast Sandwiches

One of the first things we ended up making in class were Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.  I guess they want to start us off with something easy before working our way up to something more skillful.

I didn't mind because buffalo chicken sandwiches are actually one of my favorites. 

So the first installment of "What to do with your broken down chicken" is making use of the chicken breasts.  A simple sandwich that is as easy to put together as it is to eat!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, skin removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
lettuce
1/4 cup of your favorite hot sauce (I used Frank's Wing Sauce - it's thicker and coats the chicken perfectly)
bacon
2 whole wheat buns
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a large skillet under medium high heat and add oil.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides.  When oil is shimmering, add chicken to pan.

When the bottom side is a nice golden brown (about 4-6 minutes), flip the breast over.

Finish cooking the chicken until white throughout, an additional 5-7 minutes.  Transfer chicken breasts to a plate and let rest.

Assemble your sandwiches by placing lettuce on the bottom half of the bun.

Then you'll want to place your hot sauce in a medium stainless steel bowl.  Add chicken breasts, one at a time, swirling them around to coat well with sauce - kind of like you're saucin' some wings, ya know?

Then place your sauced chicken breast on top of the lettuce.

Then add a little bacon if you're feelin' frisky.

And close that sucker up with the top bun, and voila!  A buffalo chicken sandwich that'll be gone in less time than it took to put together!

Serve with fries if you'd like (I got to practice my battonet knife cuts in making them so I was all about it - speaking of, would you guys like some how-to knife cut posts?) 

Next up we've got a sweet and salty treat to use up the other edible parts of our chicken (those of you who are friends with me on Facebook probably have an idea of what's to come!).  Have a great Wednesday guys!

How-To: Break Down a Chicken

It's been almost a week, but I'm back with my first how-to post!  There are probably just as many ways to break down a chicken as there are ways to fix eggs, but the way I was taught in our second week of classes is by far the easiest way I've come across!

I did a Google search on "how to break down a chicken" and found video after video tutorial.  But I don't think I found a single post (or maybe Google just didn't recognize any) with a picture-by-picture tutorial.  I don't know about you, but I learn better with still images.  Videos are great, but I don't want to have to watch a whole video or pause every 5 seconds while I'm trying to learn how to do something.

So I can use the excuse that because there were so many pictures in this post, that that is the reason it took me so long to get another post up!  But we all know that isn't the case.  I'm just a busy bee - I had my first day in a restaurant kitchen last Thursday - It was definitely a LOT to take in, and a completely different scenario than cooking in my own kitchen (duh!).  So I'm excited about going back this upcoming Thursday and learning more!

Anyway, this post is going to be long enough, so I'm sure you want me to stop yapping!  Let's get to breaking down this chicken!

So let's see what we need...

 You want a bowl of ice so that you can keep your chicken at a cool temperature.  If you just set it out on the cutting board, 1. you'll run out of room quick, and 2. the warmer your chicken gets, the more it's prone to grow bacteria (and that's a bit gross, now don't you think?)  After each piece is cut off the chicken, you'll put it in this bowl.

And I didn't label it, but it should be obvious... you'll also need a cutting board.

So the first thing we do is cut off the wing.  You'll want to spread the arm out and look for the ligament between the wing and the drummette. Most important part here is to cut through the cartilage (the soft cushioning between bones)... NOT through a bone. 

Use the dotted line as a guide

Right through the cartilage - if you have any resistance, you're cutting through bone, not cartilage.  Cartilage should be as easy as cutting through butter.

 And you'll want to do the same thing with the other arm/wing area.  (Every step will be done twice, obviously - so I won't restate the obvious from here on out.)

Next we'll take off the thigh and the leg.  It's easier to see what you're working with if you grab the chicken by both legs and sort of bend them down - this pulls the meat away the carcass and allows you to better see the "hip knuckle" that you cut behind next.

 The knuckle should be in the crease between the thigh and the carcass.  Once you find it, you'll make your cut behind it, cutting the leg from the carcass.

Follow the line, not my knife

Cut off any excess fat, as desired

So if you like having the whole leg quarter then you don't need to go any further.  But if you want to break this down even more and end up with a thigh and a drumstick, then we make this cut...

You'll want to find the natural fat seam between where the drumstick and thigh meet. 

Then score against the fat seam until you can find the cartilage between the bones.  Remember, we cut through cartilage, NOT bones!  

 Then you can make a clean cut to have that leg separated into two pieces - the thigh and the drumstick.

And the final components to remove from the chicken are the breast and the drummette.

You'll want to score the middle of the chicken until you find the Keel Bone. (It's a small flat bone that divides the chicken.  And technically, it's more cartilage than bone, but we won't get into specifics).

Once you find the Keel, you'll want to make long strokes along the side of it, running your knife along the outside of the ribs, as well.  You can pull gently on the breast to peel it away from the middle, but a good 4-5 strokes of your knife (if it's properly sharpened, that is) should do it.

When you're close to having the breast almost removed, grab the drummette and breast in one hand.

 Find the cartilage in between the carcass and breast and make a clean cut through that cartilage to release the breast and drummette.

To remove the drummette from the breast, find the cartilage in between the breast and the drummette.  Cut behind that to remove the drummette from the breast.

Remove the skin from the breast, if you'd like, and remove any excess fat.

There should be a small flap-like piece of meat on the breast, which is the tenderloin.  Just lift it up and make a clean cut to remove it from the breast.

And you've got yourself a breast and a tender.

And now all you should be left with is a carcass!

So I know this was long, but I hope it was helpful!  If not, it at least helped me "study"!  Knowing how to break down a chicken saves you money in the long run!  A whole chicken costs way less than the already cut up parts - and is an invaluable skill to possess! 

In the next couple of posts, I'll be doing recipes with what to do with all that cut up chicken - so the only waste we will have had is the excess fat.  And honestly, if you wanted to, you could use it, but we don't want to be too glutinous over here!

See you guys in a couple of days!

How do you break down a chicken?  Was this helpful to you?  Do you like these "How-To" posts?