Sauce Robert

To start practicing the sauces, I made a Sauce Robert.  It’s a classic sauce, with a very meaty flavor (essentially demi-glace).  Couldn’t find the bones to make stock, or good commercial stock, so I finally settled on “Classic French Demi-Glace” which has mostly good ingredients.

You sweat onions in butter, add white wine and reduce it quite a bit, add some demi-glace, strain, add mustard, pinch of natural sugar, and lemon juice to finish.

Pair it with strongly-flavored meats.

Prior to that, I made a faux Robert, using stock and roux instead of demi-glace.  It’s not the same sauce, but it’s good.  Not so much sock-it-to-you meat flavor.

Tamales are wonderful.

Can you say tamales?  Ah, yes.  For one version, I made shredded chicken, and added my mole + tomato sauce, and for the other (under)roasted jalepenos and cheddar, though jack would probably be better. I mixed masa harina, warm water, salt, and schmaltz (instead of pork) for the dough, which worked great.  You want it moist enough to hold together, but not so wet that it sticks to your hands.  Salt it enough to counter the bitterness of the schmaltz.  (Maybe pure chicken fat would be better?)  Salt counters bitter better than sweet does.  Besides, the masa already has a certain sweetness to it, so it works out.  A little Tapatío goes well.

Here’s a picture of how they turned out.  Looks delicious, eh?

hopped up on cactus juice

“The man’s all hopped up on cactus juice.”  Ah, no tequila here.  Just nopal cactus fruit juice.

Nopal cactus fruit is supposed to be good for health.  That’s why there are $40 bottles of nopal juice available, of what appears to me less than $3 of juice.  I was a little shocked when I saw the price.  And, you can get a Kosher certified bottle for another $1!  I’m not out to knock the product, but…

You can make your own nopal fruit juice, people.  It’s not complicated, but there is a specific way to do it.  Go to Fiesta or another Mexican food store.  They have what they call “red tuna” or “white tuna” (green), for about 5/$1 or 4/$1.  These are the nopal cactus fruits. They have very hard seeds, which could possibly break your teeth.  So, here’s how you get the juice out….With your knife, cut into the jacket, as I call it, covering the fruit.  It’s a very thick skin.  Throw the inner fruit into the blender.  Just give it a quick whirl, with a touch of water as needed.  Don’t leave the blender on.  Then, pour through a wide-mesh strainer, which should remove all the hard seeds.  You probably need to swirl it to get it through.

the inspiration for the blog entry

Nopal Fruit, a.k.a. Red Tuna or White Tuna

cutting into the “jacket”

the fruit exposed for what it is

straining out hard seeds

My First Mole

Mole.  That’s pronounced something like mo-lay, not mull.  Instead of something gross (supermodel exempted), it’s actually something very good.

It’s a Mexican sauce.  If you’ve never had a good mole, you’re missing out.  The mole I made today was…..  disappointing, but it was the first attempt, and I didn’t really follow a recipe.  It started out with some really good things.  The toasted ceylon/cloves/sesame seeds smelled fantastic.

I prepared dried chiles the right way (destem, deseed, roast, and soak), charred my red bell peppers and peeled them.  It seemed like it should have been better.

However, a long, slow simmer improved the flavor.  Will have to try again, probably from a tested recipe, eh.

school’s out

School’s out for Summer!  School’s out for-ever!

Probably.  Friday was the last day in restaurant class.  I think it’s a good class for us to take, and it’s nice having a school restaurant that serves the public.  I’m sorry to see it go.  It’s not a part of the new program.

Now, I just have to complete my externship to graduate.

Italian meringue

Ah, to make meringue.  We never made any in school.  I had some leftover egg whites from making custard-based ice cream, so I thought I could make meringue for a pie my sister was making.

The process, it turns out, is not that complicated.  There are 3 types, according to my textbook.  The “common” meringue does not require any heat, but only that you whip the whites to soft peaks before adding the sugar.  I tried that.  Didn’t work with the whites I had.  So, I tried warming the same over a pan of boiling water, removing and whipping some more (Swiss meringue).  By heating the whites, a Swiss meringue is more stable.  Still no go. Maybe I should have started from scratch.

So, I disposed of those and made an Italian meringue.  This is more stable than a Swiss meringue.  It involves cooking sugar syrup to 240F, while whipping egg whites to soft peaks, then whipping in the syrup until the right consistency is reached.  This worked.  I also used a little cream of tartar to help the egg whites coagulate.  Might have made a difference.

Bake at 400F until a nice golden brown is attained.

The process of making an Italian meringue is the same as beginning the process of making a buttercream.  (For French buttercream, you use yolks instead of whites.)

Now that I know the technique, at some time I’ll try some alternative sweeteners, and post results.

a fond recap

I haven’t been posting for some time.  Pardon me whilst I ramble on.

To me, stock is made from bones, broth from meat, and bouillon from both.  At least, I’ve heard it defined that way.  Stock is what is what they call a fond in French meaning foundation.  It’s used for soups, and a lot of sauces, which are critical to French cooking.

I’ve been to France, but I don’t know that I ate a lot of “French” food.  I’m always broke.  Anyway, I was talking with a friend who said that she loves French cooking, and, at the time, I honestly couldn’t say what French cooking was.  It is partially about the sauces.  It comes down to thinking about the sauce before you ever start cooking.  What kind of sauce is going to go well with this?  How long will it take?  Do I need to start that first?  Do I need the juices from the entree to prepare the sauce?  Probably, you need to have stock on hand.