Learning with Cheeba

[cheebacheeba]

So...I was thinking, I don't remember processes so well sometimes, and it seems to help to write them out. As some off you would know, I'm studying to be a chef.
A lot to learn.
So, I figure I'll kill two birds with one stone here, help myself remember, while sharing some of the things I learn. I won't update super-often, but all the same, I hope you can all find some use of this stuff.
So, working on stocks and sauces at the moment.
Here's a couple of recipes for BECHAMEL and MOURNAY sauce.

Here's what you'll need, folks:

~Bechamel sauce (base)~
1 litre Milk
Whole peppercorns
Dried or Fresh Onion (if fresh, finely dice)
Cloves
Butter (or preferred fat agent)
PLAIN flour (never self raising)

~Mournay~
Preferred cheese
1 Egg
Large pinch of mustard powder
Smaller pinch of cayenne pepper (half of mustard powder)

Onto the recipe:

FIRST of all, In a pot, pour a litre of milk. Add 5-6 whole peppercorns, a tablespoon of onion (we used dried onion today, but either is fine), 2-3 cloves, then put it over heat, and bring to the boil...don't let it boil up, just get it to that point. this is a milk infusion. Leave this on a warm heat, doing NO MORE than simmering at most. If your pot retains enough heat, you can turn the heat off.
Bear in mind, this stuff HAS to stay at least "hot" for the recipe to follow.

Then you gotta make yourself a "roux" which is pronounced more or less like "roo".
This is the "base" of a lot of sauces, and it's basically used to thicken. It is a mixture of equal parts butter (or preffered fat agent) and flour.

There are "white", "straw/blonde", and "brown" roux', each getting darker, and more malleable with further simmering.
The further you do this, the further dextrinisation occurs, and the darker/more malleable the mixture becomes.
This is browning of the flour.

This first recipe, for bechamel sauce uses the first one, a "white", as does the mournay sauce, which is a "derivative" or "child" of the bechamel sauce.

Ok, white raux. Again, EQUAL parts butter and flour.
This does not change, regardless of which Roux you make.
The quantities I made today use 1 litre of the infused milk, and make about enough to fill up a LARGE takeaway container in the end.

You start with 80grams of both flour and butter. Never use self raising flour.

Melt down the butter in a cooking pan, not too high a heat, if it at all browns, it's ruined. So best to start with a "cold" pan, and let it heat up. Once you have done this, add your flour little by little, but overall...the point is, just get an even spread, then mix the two into a paste over heat.
Keep stirring it over heat, and when it starts to seperate, and has an ever so slightly darker colour (not really) and a "sandy" kind of consistancy, your white roux is ready. Personally, I think it's when it starts looking like scrambled eggs, same deal.

You must make sure both your roux and milk are hot.
They wont "take" as well otherwise. If your milk is no longer hot, microwave it (but if you've regulated the heat white you make your roux, this shouldn't be necessary.)

Take both milk and roux off the heat.

Strain your milk. Get yourself a mixing spoon, and stir the milk into the raux.
You gotta add it little by little, maybe 50-100 mills at a time, right?
Stir it in EACH time until the raux "absorbs" the milk, it'll just start making a thicker and thicker paste, it actually gets a little difficult to mix...but keep at it, these sauces are REALLY good.

Now, make sure you mix it REALLY well, making sure that you don't let thickER stuff build up on your spoon or anyplace in the pot - really get into all the corners of your pot all thru the process. This will give your sauce a silky and lump-free consistancy.

Keep adding your milk little by little, making sure each time it's absorbed by the mixture fully before adding more.
When there's about half a litre to go, you can start adding the milk faster, as the mixture gets thinner, it absorbs more easily.

When it's ALL together, it's more recognisable as the bechamel you's know...but, it's not done yet.
You gotta bring it SLOWLY towards boiling point. Medium-high heat only, and NEVER let it actually boil up. when you get bubbles, quit. Stir always, again, making sure to keep getthing into the corners.

Ok, turn your heat off for a moment, then make a cartouche'.
This is something you can put over your sauce to prevent a skin from forming.
Oven paper is best. Fold it once, then again across the first fold.
Kinda like this way - then this way | then this way \
At the corner that all the points meet, fold it into a triangle, making the long point, the point where all the corners are connected and "meet"

Then, at the point where all the corners meet, point it to the middle of the area of the TOP of your pot, and rip off all the paper that falls outside the perimeters of the pot circumference. when you unfold it, you got a perfect circle that will cover your sauce.

LIGHTLY butter the smoother side of the paper, and carefully place it down, butter side down, onto your sauce.
You can use your hands if you're not sensetive, or the CLEAN wooden spoon. Ideally, there should be little air touching the surface, as you don't want condensation, so it's a careful kinda process. I go with hands myself.
So, you kinda "seal" it.

Then, you put on a light heat, and simmer it for 20 (no more) minutes.
Make sure you regulate the heat, yeah?
DON'T let it boil up at all, but make sure you have SOME "movement", NO bubbles.

Then, get your preferred HEAT-PROOF container, and strain the mixture (preferably) through a chinoise.
Ah, a chionois is a conical strainer without the french bullshit.
It's pronounced a little like "shin-war".
The chinois is all I used today, and I'm not 100% on this, but I'd SAY any kinda strainer would be ok...

There you go, there's your bechamel sauce. You can refrigerate it, and it should keep 2-3 days.
You can use it for a LOT of things...I imagine you'll go down the lasagne path...and GOOD, because when you make it yourself,
it's actually a lot cheaper, and SO much better than store bought shit.
Sure, a little more time consuming, but then again, EVERY good recipe is.

Personal suggestion, try adding some capers, spanish onion and a little shredded smoked salmon, served over spinach pasta with cracked pepper on top.
That should go pretty well...but hey, experiment to your hearts desire.
END OF RECIPE 1.



Here, I'm gonna teach you some more...to turn bechamel into mournay. It's quite simple.

Grate some cheese...the finer the grate the better. Also, choose a nice "real" cheese...the better the cheese, the better the sauce.
We used this absolutely STINKING french cheese beggining with G...groudeir maybe? Smelled "aged" but tasted very bitey, and nice
Worked fucking WONDERS in the sauce. Basically, a good cheese, one you buy at a deli or whatever.
I would reccomend a finer grate, if you have multiple graters.

IF you've cooled your bechamel, get it out and bring it up to heat...almost to a boil, again..."hot".
If it's still "fresh" right outta the pot, all good, you won't have to do this. Keep it HOT.

Here's the part that you might find tricky...You need to seperate an egg.
The yolk is what you need this time, not the white.
Get a bowl, or two, to catch the whites, and the yolk.
To do this, the easiest way is to crack an egg carefully (so the crack doesn't carry through the entire shell), around about the middle, leaving a little
more space on the "bottom" (wider) side.
Then, CAREFULLY open the shell with your thumbs, keeping the egg "upright". When you do this, keep the "top" half in your other hand.
The yolk should sit within the bottom half of the shell, and the white should start falling out...let it.
Then "transfer" the yolk carefully between both shells again and again, at a SLIGHT angle. More and more white will seperate.
Be careful not to have the yolk collide with the jagged edge of the shell, as it'll break the yolk, which will then run into your whites.
All going well, you should have your egg yolk, ready to go, in your bowl.

Now you need to add the sauce and the egg together.
However, you can NOT add egg to sauce, you must add SAUCE to EGG.
This is to "temper" the egg, which I gather means get it used to the heat without immediately COOKING/coagulating it...basically, if you put the egg into all that sauce, it seperates and hardens too quick, and cooks just like that, and you want a SAUCE, not an egg scramble.
Also, if you fuck up, you haven't ruined your entire sauce.
So, what you do is get a spoon or ladle, and put about twice the quantity of sauce on and around the egg, then mix the sauce into the egg quickly...you should end up with a slightly yellow-er sauce.
(The egg is added for flavour, but primarily consistancy by the way)

Pour your egg/sauce mixture back into the main quantity of the sauce, and mix it in WELL.
Bring the sauce back up to a good heat, stirring all the while.

Then, add a large pinch of mustard powder, and a smaller (half the amount of the mustard powder, say) pinch of cayenne pepper, continue stirring.

Then you add your grated cheese, and stir it in. The finer the grate, the easier and quicker it will mix into your sauce and the more evenly it will distribute.

Turn the heat off, and that's it, thats your mournay sauce.
Anything you put this over will become "whatever - mournay".
Excellent baked onto lobster or oysters. But pretty good on just about anything, chicken, beef, whatever.
Creativity is what makes this one good, so again, experiment, and enjoy.

- B.

PS: Please bring any mistakes or continuity issues to my attention. Thankyou.

[scaryminda15]

good luck with it, cheeba.

[cheebacheeba]

good luck with it, cheeba.

Thanks, little 'un;)

People, something I forgot...
For the mournay sauce, you will probably want to know how MUCH cheese to put in, eh?
It's not a CHEESEY kinda sauce, so about 3 level tablespoons of your grated cheese will be enough.

Sorry bout that.

- B

[Spallalala]

Damm ya cheebs. Dont give em all our secrets.. We payed alot for this course haha.. Actually not the course itself. The wonderful government did that. But the idea is there right? hahaha


You should chuck the crazy french terms down too. Confuse em some. here.

I would but imma..kinda...doing tafe stuff already haha. Maybe later.

Heres one for ya all..

"Bruniose"
Its a verry small dice. Around 3mm x 3mm.
We Bruniose onions and carrots.
Im bad at explaining shit. Im more about visual kinda stuff. So if cheebs wants to explain it fully I will let him haha.

[cheebacheeba]

Ok...precision cutting...One o' these at a time, I think...

Onion a la' Brunoise (pron: broon-wharz)
To get a sufficiently fine dice, as per the specified unit size of 3mm X 3mm, you must first peel your onion.
Cut the "top" end off, being careful not to cut down too far.
The top end is the one without the roots.
The cut the bottom off, being sure to leave the root intact, sliced off, but only the loose roots themselves should be removed, so, you basically cut across to the point the onion flesh starts.
Then, put a vertical slice from top to bottom, only cut into the depth of one "layer" of the onion.
You can now grab around the sides of that cut, and remove the skin. What you are left with is a peeled onion that you should be able to stand upright on the root side.
Now, slice the onion in half, from the top down, to the root.
Place half of your onion with the flat side of the cut down. Face the "top" (which is now one of the sides) towards the hand that you cut with.
Place your other hand flat on top of the onion half, and get your knife, and make a horizontal cut along the top, starting your cut at what was the "top" side, proceeding towards the root, about 3mm down from the top. Then place another cut towards the bottom, another 3mm down. These cuts should go in to about a centimeter (third of an inch) to the root end.
Depending on the size of the onion, you may need a third cut to get the right size...you can assess this yourself.
Now, when your horizontal cuts are done, you'll need to make some vertical cuts....this part is a little easier. every 3mm, from one "side" of the onion to the other (nb: by side, I don't mean across sideways, I mean vertically, eg, the same direction as the top to the root goes, from the side furthest from you to the side closest.)
Make these cuts from one side to the other.
Then, comes the easiest part, you can now more or less "slice" down the onion, across the top side, and towards the root side, again, at 3mm intervals.
When you're done doing this, you should have your finely diced onion, aka Brunoise.

Of course, this is just if you want to do it "right" via the industry standard, in symmetrical dice.
If you just wanna dice your onion just do it any old way and keep chopping til it's as small as you want it, slightly less complicated.

Although, as long as this takes to READ, the actual process only takes about a minute per onion, less time as you get used to it.
The explanation is a lot more complex than the process itself...if I could give you guys a hands on video demonstration, I'd show you how easy it really is....well....I dunno, maybe I'll throw some pictures together at some point.
Lemme know if any of you guys actually try this one.

- B

[cheebacheeba]

I thought I'd elaborate on a recipe idea I discussed a little while ago in another thread, and give a bit of an update too.

~~~GLAZED LAMB RACK~~~

*Rack of lamb (one large, or 2-3 small per person)
*Plum Sauce
*Sherry
*Oranges
*Garlic
*Rosemary
*Thyme
*Beef Stock (real is better, store bought is OK)
*Cornflour
*Salt
*Ground black pepper

Chop: Garlic, Rosemary, Thyme. Juice an orange.
Mix In: Plum Sauce, sherry, Now you have your marinade.

**Remove any fat from the lamb if desired.
**Cut a few little scores in the lamb, immerse in marinade.
**Marinate under cover, in fridge for 30mins-1 hour.

Sear Lamb (keep marinade, keep pan sediment) and place in oven.
A 3 peice rack will cook in 10-15 minutes at 180-200c. (you guys can convert)
**Remove lamb...allow to sit for say 5 minutes,
**Add oven tray juices to pan, reheat pan on medium heat
**Deglaze (do that by mixing stock onto pan sediment, to use it for flavour) with stock, then add marinade remainder, a little more orange juice.
**Cornflour Slurry (cornflour + water mixed into a thin paste) to thicken, stir in well, keep hot, if too thick, add water, if too thin, add more slurry.
**Cut lamb into cutlets, cross onto plate.
**Strain sauce, serve over lamb.
**I'd serve it with some blanched beans, some pommes noisette (recipe below), perhaps some steamed honey glazed carrots with soy & sesame

**Home made compound butter will work wonders with this dish...they can basically be anything you want them to be, a mixture of herbs and spices
whipped into butter. A quick way is to chop everything you want up, then microwave some butter, mix everything together, and refrigerate, stirring
every 10 minutes until set. A compound butter usually has a longer fridge life than it'll take you to eat one.
**Garnish with rosemary, or as you like it.
**If you're into wine, I'd go with a full bodied red.






~~~POMMES NOISETTE~~~
(Uh...little seasoned balls of potato)

*Potatoes
*Continental Parsley
*Salt
*White Pepper
*Paprika

Potato - peel, cut into balls with melon baler / parisienne cutter, store in water to avoid browning.
Chop Parsley finely
When ready to use, transfer potato onto paper towel, DRY.

Shallow fry (or deep fry) until golden brown, I’d recommend olive oil over all things.
On a hot pan, toss the pommes in chopped parsley, salt and pepper, paprika
Serve.







~~~DESSERT~~~
APPLE FRITTERS
(serves 6)
*6 Apples
*Plain Flour
*Cinnamon
*Sugar
*Custard
*Nutmeg
*Strawberries
*Powdered sugar

(Batter)
*1/2 cup Milk
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*1 teaspoon active dry yeast
*1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
*1/2 cup beer, lukewarm
*3 egg whites
*Vanilla essence
*Vanilla custard (or make creme anglais, if you know how...)


Put flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
In a small bowl, stir the yeast in the lukewarm milk and sugar.
Allow to dissolve.
Add yeast mixture, salt and melted butter to the well and
gradually whisk in flour until smooth.
Whisk in beer.
Cover with a plastic wrap and let the batter rise in a warm,
draft-free place for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
***Keep the egg whites aside, they gotta be beaten and added to
the batter just before frying, otherwise the batter will be WAAAAY too thick ***

Peel and core apples, slice about this thick >> | | coat them in lemon juice, cover, and refrigerate.

Make Cinnamon sugar, to your liking, just add ground cinnamon to white sugar.

Whisk egg whites into batter

Heat/Make custard, add nutmeg, and vanilla essence.

Dry apples on paper towel

Dip your apple portions into some plain flour. Shake off any excess.

Apples to batter, deep fry, drain onto paper,

Place fritters into cinnamon sugar mixture

Serve IMMEDIATELY atop hot infused custard, dust with sugar, fan a strawberry over top.

Well...I hope someone finds some use for this stuff...again, if there's any problems or comments, let me know.
More to come at random intervals. - B.

[monalisa]

Dammit, now I'm gonna have to print this stuff instead of saying"oh piss off it's just Cheeba ranting again"

But seriously Cheeba, thank you for taking the time to put all of this out there. I love cooking and am always looking for different things to make or different ways of making things I've already tried.

Good luck with your schooling and career! :)

[cheebacheeba]

No worries, I like to pass this stuff on when I can.
Thankyou.

[Spallalala]

I should probably add to this also.. Since Im doing the same thing as cheebs and I dont want him getting all the credit hehe..

ok.. for todays lesson we have..

Cauliflower & Broccoli Au Gratin ( not as simple as you may think..its not just veg and melted cheese.)


Cauliflower & Broccoli Au Gratin....

You need..

1/2 Cauliflower
1/2 Broccoli
40g plain flour
40g butter
seasoning (salt and pepper)
500mls infused milk ( 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves,4 black peppercorns, boil this, then strain)
60g Grated cheese
Breadcrumbs (you can choose how much you wanna use)

Cut broccoli & cauliflower into flowerettes .. ( that means just cut em into the little segments. Very easy to see these ) ..
Steam broccoli and cauliflower. ( every now and then poke with a knife to see if there cooked.. They should be still kinda hard but almost soft. )

While steaming your veg, make the bechamel and then add ya cheese to make your mornay. Cheebs has already told you how to make these. I have just given the amounts to use. Try and time these things so your mornay is still hot when you add it to your veg.

Place your broccoli , cauliflower, mornay , breadcrumbs and a little more grated cheese in a oven proof dish. Either place this under your grill or a salamander. ( unless your lucky enough to have a blow torch use that ) .

Have your cheese looking a golden brown colour. Dont be burning it cause its gonna taste like shit. :)

Ah...next lesson...some other time.. hah

Enjoy.

:D

[monalisa]

Well then, thank you to both of you!