Archive / Tips and Techniques

RSS feed for this section

Cool tricks in the culinary world

Finding the Right Kitchen Knives

As any chef will tell you their knives are one of their most prized items in the kitchen, they bring them along when they cook outside of their kitchen and they typically take better care of them than any other tool used when cooking.  There’s a number of great reasons for the esteem chef’s hold for their knives and we’ll outline them briefly and then offer some tips to help you find the right knives for your kitchen.

Chef’s don’t bring their pots and pans, their cooktops, favorite spatula or any other tool with them when cooking in a kitchen other than their own, but they will likely bring their knives.  The more you use a knife in the kitchen the more it becomes almost a part of you, you get used to the weight, the blad flex, the balance, the ability to hold an edge and the sharpness of the blade itself.  I’m not a professional chef but I will admit it is VERY frustrating to go to a friend or family members house and start helping prepare a meal, I am very hands on with everything I do, only to find they have a set of cheaply made knives from the 1970’s.  I know it sounds snobbish and even like an urban legend, but I’ve had more close calls at cutting myself with dull, down right cheap knives than I have with razor sharp knives, knock on wood * knock knock* I’ve never once cut myself with a sharp, quality knife.  This union between chef and knife is only increased the more you use it, so I can only imagine the connection a full time chef has with their knives after years of using them over 40 hours/week.

Another reason chef’s love their knives so much is a quality knife will last the rest of your life.  With proper maintenance and a little cautionary care they will easily last longer than any of us will.  Learn the proper way to maintain your knives, take care of them and they will reward you with a lifetime of superb performance.

As anyone who knows me would tell you I have a reputation for being very frugal, though they say it in a slightly more insulting way, the term they use rhymes with “heap.”  With that said I have the most expensive set of knives of my circle of friends, they also all have knife envy when they come over.  I am a firm believer in purchasing quality when it will offer a better experience during the service life of the product and the service life is longer than a cheaper counterpart.  In fact I sometimes wish I spent even a little more, because I will have the knives I have until I die or a natural disaster takes them from me, though I have no regrets or complaints about my knives.  It’s just that when you are committing to something for the rest of your life I think making sure you’re going to be happy with it just makes sense, after all you don’t marry the first person you meet, you wait until you find the right person to spend the rest of your life with, any “until death do you part” relationship should be looked at for the long term.  If you take cooking seriously DON’T CHEAP OUT ON YOUR KNIVES!

Caveat emptor, if you know that you are not the sort to take care of things, if you tend to be on the lazy/sloppy side don’t waste your money buying fancy knives because you will just ruin them.  We are all different and some people are just inherently messier than others, if you can look at yourself and say you know you’re not going to take care of them save yourself the headache and a lot of cash.  An expensive knife will dull just like a cheap knife and if you’re not prepared to maintain your investment you’ll be better served with an inexpensive solution.

The most obvious first item you have to consider when purchasing a knife or more likely a knife set is your budget, this is totally up to you, we all have different situations we live in and I never encourage anyone to live beyond their means, though most people can easily save at least several hundred dollars/month with basic lifestyle changes, but that’s up to you to figure out.  Don’t go in debt to purchase knives but don’t go to Wal-Mart and by a 35 piece knife set for $16.99 and expect it to be even remotely decent.  In fact, if you’re budget is on the smaller side I would strongly advise not purchasing a set at all, instead just purchase the few knives you’d use the most.  I originally purchased an 8 piece knife set, keep in mind 1 piece is the steel, another piece is the block and yet another piece is the kitchen sheers, so in reality it’s a 5 knife set.  I have added another 4 knives to it over the years but still find that I use 2 or 3 of the knives 95% of the time.  It is handy to have some of the others but I think if I had a tighter budget I could happily get by with just a few knives purchased individually.  I’ve seen some professional chef’s who use a cleaver for just about everything and yet others rely on just a few knives of their sets, in other words don’t get blinded by having a huge knife block with a knife for every purpose, focus on getting the best quality you can afford on the knives you’d use the most.  Before you go too much further you should honestly ask yourself if you’re the sort who always uses the same 1 or 2 knives or if you want a full arsenal of knives that you’ll use all the time.  If I could go back this is one thing I would change, I would likely have purchased just the few that I use all the time in even higher quality, with that said I am extremely happy with my knives and plan on keeping them the rest of my life.

The next step is that you should go out and hold/handle some of the knives you’re interested in, places like Bed Bath and Beyond offer a decent selection and everyone knows about their 20% off coupons which can add up to huge savings with items like kitchen knives.  Though places like Williams Sonoma offer higher end offering and will even allow you to get medieval on some vegetables of you’re serious about purchasing.  Holding and actually cutting with the knives you want is extremely helpful to find out what feels comfortable to you, what is balanced and what isn’t, don’t pay super close attention to the factory edge, without proper care that will be gone in no time, even cheap knives can be made super sharp for short periods of time.  One of the most common complaints I hear about an expensive knife is the pricier Shun knives, between the handle shape and the blade angle some people find them to be uncomfortable to use.  The point of this is no two people are the same, we all are a little different and finding a quality knife that you are comfortable with is more important than finding a knife that other people like a lot.  The more comfortable you are with a knife the more confident you will be and the more your skills will develop.

Another big item to consider is stamped vs forged.  Some brands are kind of sneaky about this but as a general rule if the knife is forged they will tell you about it because forging a knife is a more expensive process and creates a knife that is typically always higher quality.  The one downfall of a forged knife is they are not flexible like stamped knives, if you bend them too far they will stay bent and a crooked knife is just about useless in a kitchen.  Forged knives typically cost more but will hold an edge better, be easier to realign (more on this later) and can be sharpened if dulled.  There have been advancements in stamped knives, but as a general rule they are cheaper and lower quality than their forged counterparts.

This point is EXTREMELY important, don’t buy into the gimmicks! Chances are high that you’ve never cut a brick and even higher that you’ll never find a recipe calling for sliced brick, so who cares if a knife can cut a brick.  Virtually any knife can be made sharp for a short period of time, a quality knife will hold an edge and be able to be sharpened for a lifetime.  Don’t trust door to door salesmen selling a single knife brand, this is true beyond just knives, of course they know the sales tactics and angles to prove to you their knives are better while there, but you are paying for inexpensive knives at premium prices.  Do you really think they are going door to door for fun? They are doing it to make a living, in this case off unsuspecting people who are looking for good in others.  No knife will stay sharp forever, don’t believe them.  Any other claim that seems impossible means you’re probably right.  If these gimmick’s were right the pro’s would be using them too and they never are.

I’ll follow up soon with post about knife care, straightening and sharpening so you can maximize the life and user experience of your investment.

 

Snickerdoodle Disaster

I really didn’t want to admit this, but here goes…

When preparing a previous post about Cream of Tartar I included a recipe for Snickerdoodles because they are traditionally made with Cream of Tartar. However, in my rush to get everything done I made the mistake of adding the sugar to the rest of the dry ingredients when it was supposed to be creamed with the butter and shortening first.

Rather than throw out the flour mixture I saved my mistake in a zippered bag and started preparing the recipe over again from fresh ingredients and using the proper method. Well, that mistake has been staring at me in the pantry ever since. So I decided I would try to turn that mistake into a success.

Using the original Snickerdoole recipe as the basis, I took 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar and creamed it with the 1/2 cup of softened Butter and 1/2 cup of Vegetable Shortening.  Then added the Cinnamon, Vanilla, and Eggs (since I was changing the recipe anyway, why not try the cinnamon inside the cookie?). I blended it in the mixer just until all the ingredients were incorporated, then refrigerated the dough for the regulation one hour.

After rolling the cookies into little balls and baking  on cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 10+ minutes, they came out like this:

Snickerdoodle Disaster

They taste awesome. So, now our family members are all grabbing a tall glass of ice cold milk. Don’t think these will last long.

What is most interesting, besides their having a completely different texture from standard Snickerdoodles, is they actually have a slight coconut flavor as well, although the recipe contains no coconut.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my kitchen crisis and how it was resolved. If only every mistake in life could be remedied this easily. 🙂

We at Lukewarm Legumes would like to hear about your kitchen disasters as well and how you dealt with them; whether and how you were able to turn what looked like kitchen defeat into a resounding victory.

 

Light and Fluffy Sourdough Bread

For those of you who love the flavor of Sourdough bread, but also prefer a light and fluffy loaf with a thin crispy crust, this is the recipe for you.

Mise En Place - Bread

 

We start with Mise En Place by first carefully reading our recipe instructions and its list of ingredients*. Then we gather all the necessary items and measure them into separate containers.

An essential ingredient which must be prepared ahead of time is the sourdough starter. I am very fortunate to have a friend who several years ago brought me some starter from Germany that had been Sourdough Starter maintained by a German bakery for several hundred years. If you do not have access to sourdough starter, you can either purchase some, or make your own. The purpose of this blog is not to tell you how to make or where to purchase sourdough starter, so I recommend you enter “sourdough starter” in your favorite search engine to locate the resource you need.

Once you have your starter, to maintain it you will need to regularly ‘feed’ your it and store it in the refrigerator.  I keep mine in Mason Jars.

The first step to making this bread it to mix the dry ingredients. Then blend in the butter. Finally add the rest of the ingredients, including the warm water. It is essential to check the water temperature because if it is not warm enough it will not activate the yeasts properly. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeasts.

Very important to making this bread is kneading the dough in order to form the gluten. It is the gluten that enables the sponge to develop the bubbles from the yeast and produces the lighter loaf.

Water Pan

Another technique I use with this bread is to place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven and heat it with the oven before placing the bread in for baking. The purpose of this is to delay the crusting over the top of the loaf to allow the expansion of the dough by the additional activity of the yeast from the oven heat before the dough becomes so hot to deactivate the yeasts.

It is extremely important to take great care in how the dough rises. Extra rising times help to ensure a lighter loaf. Also, after the first rise, when you ‘punch’ down the sponge, do not literally punch it down, be gentle. The purpose of this stage is simply to eliminate any large pockets of air, rearrange the dough so the yeast comes in contact with more ‘food’ to create additional carbon dioxide, and form the loaves in preparation for baking.

After the second rise, you are ready to bake the bread. Place it in the oven, which should be full of steam from your water pan, and set the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, rotate the loaves and continue to bake. The bread will be done when the crust has turned a golden color and the internal temperature has reached between 190 and 200 degrees.

Baked Temp Loaf

Loaf 1 Baked

Enjoy!

* Light and Fluffy Sourdough Bread

Ingredients
4 c Flour, bread
½ c Flour, potato
¼ c Milk, dry
2 t Salt, kosher
1 ½ T Yeast, instant

½ c Butter, unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ c Water, warm (105 – 115)
1 c Sourdough starter (room temperature)
2 T Honey

Instructions

In a large bowl combine the flours, dry milk, salt and yeast.

Add the butter and mix with dough hook on low speed.

Then add the honey, warm water and sourdough starter.

When all the flour is thoroughly moistened either beat on medium or knead by hand for 7 minutes to encourage gluten formation.  The dough should be moist and sticky.

Place in oiled bowl, turning once to coat, cover with plastic and allow to rise for 1 ½ hours.

Pour out sponge on a lightly floured counter; gently rearrange dough, shape and place in bread pans.

Coat with oil, cover and allow to rise another 1 ½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.  Have the oven shelf at the lowest level.

Bake for 30 minutes, then turn.  Bake until crust is golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 190 to 200 degrees.

Do not use a baking stone for this bread as the heat retained by the stone will produce a thick hard crust.

Slice with Butter

Healthy Baked Vegetables

Personally, I am more of a sweets girl than a vegetable fiend, but every once in a while I get this silly notion that I am going to eat healthier.  Especially around the first of the year, I get on this kick that “I am going to look like a super model by summer” and start working out more, along with every other person who wrote this on their New Years Resolution, and I will do this by eating more fruits and vegetables.

 

Thinking

Hmmmm....

Fruits aren’t usually a problem for me, but unless I am forcing myself to drink my V8 with more meals than breakfast, I am not getting my daily required servings of vegetables.  I’d grab a roll, a piece of chocolate cake, a cookie, or a milkshake first.   Who wants a vegetable when you can have a decadent piece of chocolate? It has antioxidants, right? Better yet, if  it’s chocolate ice cream, it also has calcium.  Yeah, well, I have finally given into the battle won by my waistline, when the world according to Tiffany (chocolate ice cream is healthy) was creeping my scale to new heights and my dreams of looking like Cindy Crawford or Niki Taylor by summer were dreams of 6 months too late.

It was time for operation veggies.  In an effort to getting myself back on track, I found a very simple way of cooking vegetables that was low in calorie, very simple to do, and I actually like them!  They taste great!

 

All you need are:

Vegetables of choice (I chose some yellow and orange carrots, broccoli, snap peas, and green beans)

Cooking spray (I like to use the store brand, butter flavored cooking spray.  It has zero calories.)

Baking sheet (I used two of them because I had a lot of vegetables I wanted to bake, but how many you need, really depends on how  many vegetables you want.)

Seasoning  (I don’t normally add anything because I like the vegetables baked with the butter flavored cooking spray, but you may prefer to add some salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary, fresh basil, garlic…)

Parmesan Cheese (Sometimes I like to sprinkle a couple of teaspoons on top when I make a bowl of baked vegetables.  It adds some nice flavor.)

Green Vegetables

Broccoli, Snap Peas, Green Beans

First, you set the oven to 400 degrees.  Second, you clean and prepare your vegetables in slices or dices of your choosing.  I tend to cut the florets from the broccoli, leave the beans and snap peas whole, and peel and slice carrots into 1 inch chunks. In the picture below, you will see that I used the small bags of baby carrots this time.  In that case, I did not need to peel or cut up the carrots.  However, it did take longer because I didn’t.  I would recommend cutting them up a little bit more so they cook quicker.

Green Beans, Carrots

Green Beans, Carrots

 

Third (optional step), place the vegetables in a bowl and toss them with the spices of your choosing.  You may want to add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to every 2 cups of vegetables to help blend and adhere the dry spices to your vegetables.  Fourth, you lay out your vegetables on your greased baking sheets, I just spray the pans with cooking spray, then lightly spray the tops of the vegetables with cooking spray as well (you can skip spraying with cooking spray on top if you added the extra virgin olive oil in step three).  Fifth, when the oven is ready, place the baking sheets in the oven for 20 minutes.  At the 10 minute mark, you may want to mix the vegetables around on the pan a little bit, then put them back in the oven for the remaining 10 minutes.

 

Oven mixed veggies

Off to the oven

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tips:

Make sure the vegetables are a single layer on the baking sheets to ensure even cooking.

Frozen vegetables take less time to bake than fresh vegetables.  Some fresh vegetables, such as carrots, take closer to 30 minutes to bake.

The smaller the vegetable and the thinner the vegetable, the quicker the vegetable will cook.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I make my vegetables this way, I tend to make a ton of them because they make a great snack for later as well.  If I was to add Parmesan cheese, I would add it to the vegetables just before eating and after they have been baked.  I hope you enjoy this quick and healthy recipe.  Bon Appetit!

food veggie pic

Healthy Baked Vegetables