Back to Basics: Thinking in the Kitchen!

Eggs

Eggs! A great starting point for basic recipes that are accessible to almost everybody. Eggs are super versatile and always add a delicious depth to any dish. This ingredient is amazing on its own or as a side, but a personal favorite is when it’s used as an emulsifier! It can create such a complex creamy flavor to dishes like carbonara or aioli dressings. Today I’ve made a salad dressing with a strong mayonnaise as a base! Eggs really require a hands-on experience to get a good feel for how to use it. This recipe is great at practicing emulsifying things because, when making the mayonnaise, it’s important to keep on mixing so that the mixture doesn’t break, however, overmixing will also result in a foamy, light mayonnaise which isn’t always desired. My first-time making mayo gave me just that, a super frothy, light mayo that wasn’t the best for a salad dressing and that’s why it’s important for you to really get hands-on experience with this stuff!

Mayonnaise

Ingredients

- 1 tsp. water

- 2 tsp. lemon juice

- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

- 1 large egg yolk

- 3/4 - 1 C. canola oil

Instructions

1. Combine the water, lemon juice, and egg yolk in a large glass bowl

2. Whisk continuously while adding 2-3 drops of oil at a time (a towel wrapped under the bowl will help prevent sliding)

3. Once 1/4 of the oil is gone begin to pour in a slow but steady stream while whisking vigorously

4. Adjust seasoning as needed

Water

Water is such an essential ingredient/tool in the kitchen that is often taken for granted, here I’ve made some steamed snap peas that are quite a simple and delicious snack! Water really acts as an important tool in this recipe as it allows the snap peas to get a gentle cooking rather than direct heat charring the delicate peas. Water has many uses and one of them is using water as an indirect heat source to cook. This is often used to cook/heat things that are very easily burned and require a gentler heating process such as chocolate or steamed veggies. This recipe allows you to learn a technique of steaming veggies! It’s very important that when doing this with veggies you have a hot pan and seal the lid quickly to create a pressurized steaming environment inside. This will allow your veggies to cook quickly and thoroughly rather than letting steam escape and having to wait longer and risking all the water evaporating. 

Snap Peas

Ingredients

- 1/2 pound (224g) snap peas, stems and tough veins removed

- 1/4 cup water

- 1-2 Tbsp. butter

- Kosher salt to taste

Instructions

1. Heat up a sauce pan (with a good lid that won't let steam escape) so that water will bead as soon as it hits the surface

2. Combine the snap peas and water in a bowl and pour into the sauce pan

3. Immediately shut the lid and shake the pan allowing the peas to cook in the steam

4. Bring the heat down to medium and put the butter and salt in

5. Adjust seasoning to taste

Sugar

Sugar is a very fun ingredient to work with as it often does the opposite of what we’d think. It’s often added into savory sauces to create depth and flavor or it’s paired with salt when creating delicious desserts. I’ve made some candied orange peels here to demonstrate the technique of crystallizing sugar onto food! Now with the orange peels it’s important to blanch and rinse them initially to remove the excess bitterness otherwise you’d have a sweet exterior with a bitter aftertaste. This recipe is extremely versatile and helps save some of the things you would normally compost! Fruit peels is a common item to candy and when done properly it really is quite delicious. Candying really is quite simple but it’s important that you let the water-sugar mixture to reduce as it evaporates any excess water and lets the sugar stick and seep into the peels creating a sugary dessert!

Candied Orange Peels

Ingredients

- 1 orange

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Using a pairing knife, score the peel of an orange so the peel is divided into 4 sections

2. Carefully remove the peel from the orange without tearing it

3. Slice the peels into thin slices

4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the orange peels for about 1 minute

5. Rinse the peels under the sink (this prevents a bitter aftertaste later on)

6. In a pot combine the sugar, water, and peels and bring it to a simmer

7. Bring the heat to medium low and let the syrup reduce with the peels for about 1 hour

8. Place the candied peels on drying racks overnight and decorate with chocolate!

Butter

Butter has so much power as an ingredient, it could make a dish rich and decadent but could also make a dish too heavy and oily. Though most people use butter as is in cooking, taking your time with it really is a game changer. Today I’ve made a brown butter mashed potato that practices the technique of browning butter! Now browning butter is really just a test of patience, it’s important to really watch the butter carefully because any moment it could go from beautifully brown to blackish, burnt. All it requires is for you to watch the butter heat up in a pan stirring occasionally until the fats become a nice golden brown and a nutty aroma starts to form. It’s very important to not indulge yourself on brown butter excessively or else you’ll be left feeling bloated and defeated. The beauty of the recipe is that it doesn’t require a lot of browned butter to make a rich delicious mashed potato.

Browned-Butter Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

- 1/2 pound (225g) potatoes (russet, baking, or Yukon gold), peeled and cut into large chunks

- 1/4 cup milk

- Kosher salt to taste

- 40g butter

Instructions

1. Place cut potatoes into a pot and cover with water, bring it to a simmer over high heat then reduce heat to medium-low and cook the potatoes for about 20 minutes

2. Drain then leave in the pot for mashing later

3. Combine milk and salt and heat until the milk becomes hot. Once hot, pour it into the potatoes and mash

4. In another saucepan heat the butter on medium high and let it brown until the solids become golden brown

5. Combine the butter and mashed potatoes and garnish

Poaching

This skill is one that every chef should be familiar with. Poaching is very flexible and can be applied with many different ingredients. Poaching can be done with butter, water, or fats and can result in very tender foods. I’ve poached an egg and created a poached egg and kimchi fried rice dish to practice the technique of poaching. Now poaching an egg seems quite simple but there are quite a few small details that could really bring your egg to the next level. An easy mistake is to just throw an egg into some boiling water but there are already a few mistakes in that. Firstly, it’s important to get rid of the thinner egg white off the egg as those tend to break off in the water and create weird bits on the poached egg. Next is to bring your water down to below a simmer after a boil. Many people just throw in the egg once the water boils but it’s worth the extra wait time to bring the water down so that the egg has a gentler cook and comes out more tender and softer than ever.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Ingredients

- 1 cup rice

- 1/2 cup kimchi

- 2 eggs

- Assorted veggies (I used broccoli and beans)

- 2 Tbsp oil

Instructions

1. Cut and clean the beans and broccoli and cook in a pan until soft

2. Add the rice and kimchi and stir fry until kimchi juices evaporate, season with salt and pepper

3. Use 1 of the eggs and scramble in the rice. Once cooked set aside

4. Crack an egg in a small bowl and use a slotted spoon to strain out the thinner egg white

5. Bring a pot of water to a boil then reduce to below a simmer. Swirl the water and pour in the egg and allow it to cook for about 3-4 minutes depending on how you like your egg

6. Plate with your fried rice and enjoy!

Salt

The most famous ingredient of them all, salt. Now this ingredient is the ultimate wildcard as it really does make or break a dish. I made a pork schnitzel and it really practices the technique of searing and cooking meats. It’s so important that you don’t bother the meat while it’s cooking otherwise you end up losing the crisp sear it’s building up. Personally, that’s a challenge for me because I have no patience and I love lifting it up to see if it’s done already haha. But having that will power to wait it out really pays off and you get a delicious well-seared piece of meat. On a side note, knowing how much salt you put into a dish really helps you in the long run. Knowing just how much salt is in each pinch you take will help save you time as you won’t need to fumble around with teaspoon measures getting the exact amount. It’s encouraged for you to test measure how much salt you really are grabbing in each pinch just so you have a rough idea!

Pork Schnitzel

Ingredients

- 2 small boneless pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)

- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

- 1/4-1/3 cup of panko bread crumbs

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- 1/4 tsp paprika

- 2 Tbsp olive oil

- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

- 1 1/2 Tbsp salted butter

- 1/2 lemon, sliced

- 1/4-1/2 head of broccoli, cut

Instructions

1. Season pork with salt and pepper

2. In a pie plate, combine panko, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika then press the pork into the mixture making sure the coating sticks. Repeat on both sides of both pieces

3. Heat olive oil in a pan at high heat and once the pan is hot place in the pork schnitzels and let it sear and cook for about 3-4 minutes each side (if you keep agitating the pork the coating will begin to break off and won't form a nice crust)

4. An additional step is to clean the pan then place the schnitzel back on and, on high heat, pour in apple cider vinegar and allow the schnitzel to soak it up. Once it's all evaporated it is done

5. In another saucepan, sear the lemon and butter in a pan until the lemons are golden brown. Place the broccoli in and cook until it's slightly charred on the sides. Make sure to season as you go!

6. Plate the schnitzel with broccoli and lemons