CHEF TALK, Part 2

CHEF TALK

FROM ME TO YOU

My aim in CHEF TALK is to share some of my cooking experiences with you and to provide insight and ideas as to how and what to do when choosing products you may not be too familiar with and also how to work recipes.

With that in mind I will also explain how to make best use of a vacuum sealer.

Many home cooks often see a recipe that looks fantastic, appetizing, delicious, and has a pretty picture and decide to cook that to surprise the family.

I also try to surprise the family when I cook. Then the most exciting part of cooking is to see happy faces around the dinner table. Besides getting the results you desire of course.

Finding a recipe is easy, finding a good recipe is another story. The same goes for reading recipes which require a decent knowledge of cooking.

Some people only need the idea, which a nice picture often provides, but most of us will still need the ‘how much of this and how much of that’ part.

It can be quite tough however to see or read from a recipe (if you are on the right track, replacing parts of the recipe or omitting ingredients). Stacks of recipes from the internet are not workable, many are good, no denial, but which is which.

What do you do with leftovers if the quantities given are too large?  

Best is to start with an example and work through that recipe.

I love crackling pork. Millions of people love crackling pork, the sound alone makes your mouth water.

Crackling pork is a must have meat dish to have on a regular basis especially for Australian and British meat lovers. 

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT, CHOOSE THE RIGHT CUT OF MEAT:

There are basically two types of crackling pork, one made from bone-in cuts, like pork loins with ribs and whole pork shoulders, the other one made from bone-less cuts of meat, like pork belly or pork loins without ribs.

Choose the cut of meat that suits your family best but make sure that your cut of meat has the skin intact.

In order to get that lovely ‘crackling’ effect, you need to score the skin of the meat, preferably vertically in one direction and about the size of a finger apart from each other.

This type of scoring makes it easy to slice the meat after cooking, because you can follow the score lines and is essential to get the crackling right.

Pork skin is pretty tough and you will need a really sharp knife to achieve good scoring, make sure that only the skin is cut, the scoring should not go all the way through and reach the lean meat.

A Stanley knife works well. Another good tool is your butcher, he will be pleased to help you out. It is a good idea also to tell your butcher how you want your cut of meat.  

Now you have the right cut of meat and you are almost there.

You only need to cook it. Sounds simple and it is, because you started on the right foot.

The recipe for crackling pork is maybe the simplest you have ever seen.

It is comprised of the scored cut of meat and crushed rock salt. That’s all.

Next pressure points to look at are your oven temperature and the cooking time.

Rub crushed rock salt on the skin side of the meat. Make sure the salt penetrates the score lines. 

When you do this, the salt extracts moisture from the fat under the skin and the fat will start bubbling around the whole piece of meat.

You can rub the salt a day before cooking, but that is an option not a necessity.

TIMING:

Your cooking time should be: 35 minutes per pound of bone-in meat.

25 minutes per pound of bone-less meat.

NOW THE CRUCIAL PART:

Pre-heat your oven to 400 F or 240-250 Celsius. You need this heat to get the crackling going.

Place the meat on an oven tray and position the tray in the center of your oven, allow roasting for about 30 to 35 minutes.

You should now see that the skin is getting blisters. When that is the case, lower the heat to 325 to 350 F or 180 to 200 Celsius and continue roasting as per the given time.

Likely your piece of meat will be about 1 ½ to 2 kilos, if your meat is boneless you need 1 hour to an hour and a half of total cooking time.

Check with a meat thermometer to be sure that the roast is cooked. The thermometer should point at 170 F or 74 Celsius. 

Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

Slice and serve.

To accompany the roast, choose roast potatoes, garden vegetables and apple sauce.

What you have achieved is a great dish, because you had: 

The right recipe

The right preparation

The right cooking method

NOW THE VACUUM PACKING PART:

http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html






From a good butcher you will get the best cut of meat you are looking for but you may not use the meat the same day you purchase it.

If so, vacuum seal the meat and it will stay in perfect condition, up to 4–5 days chilled.  If you need to keep it longer, vacuum seal and freeze  it and it will stay in perfect condition for at least 3-4 months.

I mentioned earlier that your piece of meat will likely be 1 ½ to 2 kilos so it may well be that you have some balance.

If so, let the roasted meat cool through completely, best overnight, slice it (without the skin) as thin as you possibly can.

Portion the slices and vacuum seal in smaller vacuum bags, the roasted meat becomes an extraordinary sandwich filling. You can store the sliced roasted meat chilled and keep up to two weeks.

Use your vacuum sealer for raw/fresh produce but also for cooked produce. 

Ensure that you work clean. Good hygiene lengthens storage time and product freshness significantly.

Enjoy the ‘Crackling Pork’ !! 

Written for PMG

By (Professional Chef) Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development.  

www.vacupack.com

1-800-227-3769

  

          

         

   

TO ALL CHRISTMAS DINNER COOKING HOME CHEFS, PART 2

CHRISTMAS IS COMING SOON

When you have read part 1 of Christmas is coming soon, I assume that you are convinced that pre-preparation of your Christmas dinner with the vacuum method works. 

There is usually a bit more to a Christmas dinner than a main course, even though your main course is and should be the highlight of the evening.

But you will most likely also have one or two starters and a dessert to complete the menu and to make Christmas dinner a true feast and memorable to look back at.

Let me refer back to some parts of part 1 of my Christmas article.

I mentioned that we all tend to overdo Christmas dinners and make them  lavish. It is perfectly okay to be lavish during Christmas though but if you put in a lot of effort and your efforts result in being futile, there is no gain for anybody. 

I would like to  therefore give you some tips to choose your menu wisely and proportionately.

An average adult consumes between 700 grams and 1 kilo of food during a dinner with a starter, main course and dessert.

This fact is calculated per meal segment. 

Starter 150 grams

Meat (or other protein) 175 grams

Vegetables 200 grams

Potato (or other carbohydrates) 150 grams

Dessert 150 grams

Drink 150 ml

These segments combined total up to 975 grams.

But it is Christmas and we are allowed to indulge our self. Enjoy the occasion and be merry and happy, so keep the above list just in mind when you shop.

If you plan for ten people for example, this list will help you not to break your wallet .

A turkey will give you between 50 and 55% of meat in a raw state, cooking loss will be 

10 to 15 %.

So for ten people you need approximately 2 kilos of meat, which a 5 kilo turkey will give you and you do not need an 8 kilo turkey because you are afraid that you do not have enough.

For hard vegetables like the parsnip, Brussels sprouts, carrots and red cabbage you can calculate a weight loss of 10 to 12 % from the raw weight due to peeling and cleaning. Cooking loss is negligible for these types of vegetables.

Same percentage of weight loss can be used for the potatoes.

Now back to my menu.

Whole Roast Turkey with a Sauce of mixed Berries and Port Wine

Garden Herbs infused Roast Potatoes

Assorted Garden Vegetables

Roasted Chestnuts

Christmas stuffing 

Having done your pre-preparation with the vacuum method as explained in part 1, all you need to do on Christmas day is to place your turkey in the oven and you need about ½ an hour to finish the condiments, roughly 1 hour in the kitchen.

So there is time to complete your dinner with a starter and a dessert.

Let’s fill in some ideas.

When planning a menu one should always keep variety in mind, when your main course is meat choose a starter with vegetables or fish.

Think also about shapes, color and textures of the dishes to serve.

It happens to be that I am in charge of the selection of dishes in this article and I love fish. So I choose a surprising fish based starter.

Quite easy to make and best of all it can be made in advance. I keep in mind that chefs also celebrate Christmas

My starter:  

SMOKED SALMON SOUFFLE   (serves 6)

Soufflé always sounds a bit scary but do not worry about this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

40 Gr Butter

25 Gr All purpose flour

300 Ml Milk

85 Gr Philadelphia cream cheese

2 Tsp Chopped dill

3 Nos Egg

85 Gr Smoked Salmon (chopped)

Zest of ½ Lemon

To Finish:

6 Tbsp Crème Fraiche

6 Small Smoked Salmon slices

Twigs of dill, some color full winter salad leaves

METHOD: 

Place the butter, milk and flour in a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring on medium heat.

When the mixture boils lower the heat and add the cheese bit by bit and the chopped dill, mix well to incorporate.

When the cheese is incorporated turn off the heat and add the eggs one by one.

Add the chopped smoked salmon and lemon zest.

Pre-heat an oven to 180 -200 Celsius or

Grease six ramekin moulds and cover the base with grease paper.

Divide your mixture over the six mould about ¾ full.

Place the moulds in an ovenproof tray and place in the oven, fill the tray half way full with hot water.

Bake for 15 minutes uncovered.

You will see that the mixture rises above the edge of the mould.

Remove from the oven and let cool, the mixture will now sink somewhat, that is ok.

When the soufflés, have cooled down cover them and store with the moulds in the refrigerator.

You can do this up to two days in advance.

To finish the dish before you serve: 

Remove the soufflés from the moulds. If needed move a small knife around the inside of the moulds. The grease paper on the bottom of the moulds will help the removal.

Pre-heat your oven to 180– 200 Celsius or between 350 and 390 F

Place the soufflés on a baking tray, top with a tablespoon of crème fraiche each and bake for ten to fifteen minutes or until the soufflés puff up.

Place some of the color full leaves on a plate, then the soufflé, top with a slice of smoked salmon and a twig of dill

Serve warm.           

      

Main course:

Best is to follow the cooking instructions given by the turkey supplier, some have a pop-up pin and sometimes there are cooking times given.

I explained how to finish the vegetables, sauce and potatoes after you have pre-prepared and vacuumed them in part 1.

That leaves us with a dessert, personally I prefer to use something easy, something that you just have to place on the table.

Remember that you will be also somewhat poofed after the main course.

Besides, desserts are usually quite tedious and time consuming to make. 

I advise therefore buy a nice Christmas cake or log.

After or with that coffee, some pralines and the whole family, including you, can lean back very satisfied.

You will have a great Christmas dinner this way.

Pre-preparation and vacuuming an important and time consuming part of your dinner has saved you a lot of time on Christmas day. 

Go for it.  

Written for PMG 

By Professional Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development. 

www.vacupack.com