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What Is A Shell In Cooking? - Yahoo Recipe Search
YummlyI kind of grew up in and amongst farmers markets. I grew up in a town, somewhere in the mountains, near Yosemite National Park, CA. My grandparents owned a huge apple orchard in the town and they would attend various markets, selling apples, cider and apple honey. I'd join them and hang out. One of the markets was a market in Fresno, and THIS market had sweet, hot, fresh, steaming, aromatic cinnamon rolls. These rolls became almost something like a part of my own DNA. Without them, I cannot function. Years later, I owned a catering company outside of Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico. A big part of my catering company was a gigantic portable catering trailer that I'd designed. Because of the horrible and bumpy roads in Mexico, I designed all the cooking devices to run on natural fuels, primarily carbonized coconut shells. Ultimately, it was a 3 ton beast of a machine. To show it off and promote the catering business, I served as a vendor at the local Farmer's Market, pulling my massive kitchen up onto the grass, sparking up my coconut ovens and baking fresh cinnamon rolls, for all the world to sniff out and eat. I LOVE cinnamon rolls! All this said ... it COULD be that I love frosting! A do enjoy a good cinnamon roll, drenched in melting butter; fresh and a little doughy, but if I had to look deep within my own genetic structure, it becomes clear that I run more efficiently on FROSTED cinnamon rolls. What we have here is an EXCEPTIONAL "One Minute Muffin", with a sweet and cinnamon twist, with the very same cream cheese frosting that I used to douse my rolls with, down in Mexico. Just swap out the sweetener for something a little less intense for my blood sugars and ... the end result would've made the 8 year old boy in Fresno smile, ear-to-ear.Food52My friend Guillermo is originally from Mexico City and is a great cook. Over the years, I’ve learned a number of authentic Mexican dishes by watching over his shoulder – including pico de gallo, savory sopes and killer huevos rancheros. But there's one recipe in particular that Guillermo taught me early on which I return to regularly for its freshness and simplicity: fish tacos. I remember the first time someone told me about fish tacos, rhapsodizing about how great they were -- all I could picture was a hard taco shell, stuffed with ground seafood that had been flavored with taco seasoning. Needless to say, I was in no hurry to try them. Years later, I showed up at a barbecue to find Guillermo manning the grill and making fish tacos. Of course, the reality was much different than what I'd originally imagined: tender chunks of grilled white fish nestled in a soft, warm flour tortilla among strips of sweet onion and green pepper, creamy slices of avocado and tufts of fresh cilantro. There were lime wedges for spritzing, and plenty of homemade salsa. These particular fish tacos were a wake-up call of sorts for me, and now I seek them out wherever I go. I like versions where the fish is encrusted in cornmeal and then fried, and I like those that include some sort of zippy homemade slaw. But when I make them at home, I always return to the simplicity of Guillermo’s tacos. These take all of 20 minutes to throw together, and if you don’t have a grill, by all means use a pan.Food52The idea is to take what’s in season—peas or corn or brussels sprouts, tomatoes or leeks, even grated pumpkin or fall squash—and toss it with pasta, adding about 3 to 5 ounces of meat (cured pork, bacon or sausage—I have even been known to dice salami and use it the same way) per half pound. I use this premise in many ways, sweating out a piece of lardo with finely chopped celery, carrots, and onions as the base for a wintry tomato sauce made with canned San Marzano tomatoes, or adding a tasty bit of bacon to peas for a spring pasta. In the fall, I crisp bits of pancetta in the pan and wilt brussels sprout leaves in the fat with a crushed clove of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme. In the summer, I take the classic ingredients for pasta amatriciana and use bacon and cherry tomatoes to make a “summer” version (in quotation marks because, really, Romans would never countenance this being called amatriciana). In the spring, I might make a purée of cooked greens and toss big fat shells with it, then lay slivers of paper-thin prosciutto or pancetta over the still-hot pasta so that the pork just wilts a little from its residual heat. At Porsena, our most famous dish is a twist on the Abruzzi classic of sausage and broccoli rabe, but we make it with North African spiced lamb sausage and mustard greens. As you play around with the combinations, you will see how easy it is to use this recipe as a template and to swap one thing out for another. With more delicate, tender vegetables, such as peas or corn, I use more delicate herbs like basil, mint or lovage (a favorite of mine but you probably need to grow it in your herb garden to find it easily); with stronger, bolder flavors, I add more robust herbs such as thyme or sage. Pea tendrils hold up better, but if all you can find are pea shoots, with tender leaves attached, just toss them in at the very end so they are slightly wilted by the residual heat of the cooked pasta dish.Food and WineAt the Culinary Institute of America, Egg Day occurs during Skills II, the class that comes right after students learn how to make stock and just before they’re expected to put a whole meal together. Egg Day’s polarizing qualities elicit a variety of superlatives: “Egg Day is the WORST.” “Egg Day is the BEST.” “Egg Day made me cry.” “I drank a whole cup of hollandaise sauce on Egg Day—I couldn’t stop myself.” That single day is one of the rites of passage of culinary school; one that upperclassmen like to swap war stories about, and new students lay awake at night fearing.What makes Egg Day so momentous? For me, it was my instructor, Chef McCue. Dave McCue was a graduate of the CIA who had gone on to have a career as a “working chef,” the kind who actually cooks food every day. After many years, he came back to the CIA as a chef-instructor to teach young cooks to stand up straight and be better and faster. The school outlines a curriculum, but it’s up to each instructor to execute the lesson and uphold the standards of properly cooked food. The way to learn cooking is through practice, and Chef McCue instills repetition. “The egg came first,” he assured me. If you can cook an egg properly, then you can move on to the chicken.For Egg Day, most classes receive a case of eggs to be split among the twenty students. A case of eggs is 30 dozen. Chef McCue orders THREE. I’ll do the math for you—that’s 1080 eggs for Egg Day. Chef obviously doesn’t mess around. He hopes they won’t all be needed, but eggs are the perfect, and cheapest, way to teach proper technique. There’s cracking the eggs correctly, having a place to toss the shells, the best tool used to beat them, the type and quantity of seasoning added before, during, and after cooking, how to heat a pan, when to add the fat, all the visual, aural, aromatic clues of coagulating protein, the essentials of proper presentation, and on and on and on.To pass Egg Day and move to Skills III, each student must cook eggs eight ways, three times in a row. If your soft scramble is a little too hard on the third try, you start over and make it three times again until all three in a row are perfect.This isn’t a mild form of torture intended for Chef’s enjoyment. (In fact, he takes a bite of almost every egg to check for seasoning and temperature—joke’s on him!). He knows when the students graduate, they will be asked to cook an omelet when they stage at restaurants. How they approach the task, from prepping their mis en place to presenting the dish, will show their level of finesse and determine whether they get the job. “How they roll an omelet is like a resume,” Chef McCue says.Having submitted my edible resume countless times to (thankfully!) rave reviews, I can look back with gratitude on Egg Day, and Chef’s meticulous training.Food.comThis is an absolutely scrumptious pie, based on one originally published in The Vancouver Sun. With its fresh summer berries piled high in a baked pie shell and a glaze poured over top, it makes a nice change from traditional pies, where the fruit is cooked. It makes a wonderful summer dessert with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top. (I am from Canada, but for you Americans, it would make a wonderful 4th of July dessert (strawberries, blueberries AND whipped cream) (smiles). The original recipe in The Sun called for fresh raspberries (2 cups for the glaze and 6 cups for the filling), and it's wonderful with that too, but raspberry season is very short, and this strawberry/blueberry filling is wonderful too. I have yet to try it with blackberries, but might do that this summer too .... NEW NOTE from Jacquelyn: I have had some questions about the 18-inch pie crust called for .... this was not what I wrote! I wrote two 9-inch pie crusts (as the recipe makes two pies), and the site must have done that automatically. So people .... it's not one 18-inch pie, but two 9-inch ones. Hope that clarifies things.Food.comI tasted a version of this salad while eating lunch at a restuarant in Fishkill, NY. I asked the waitress for the recipe, and she vaguely described how they prepared the chicken. Last night, I attempted to recreate the entire dish, and was very pleased with the results. Here is what I came up with. Please note that all of the dressing ingredients will be to taste and also the chicken cook time will be slightly different depending upon how much your pieces weigh, as well as how thinly you pound them. Herbes de Provence is a French dried herb blend containing lavendar. If you can't find it, use another herb blend you prefer. To get the amount of ground pistachios you will need to purchase a little over half a pound of them in the shell, then grind the nutmeats in a food processor until they resemble bread crumbs - and then measure them after grinding.Food52Like most pastry chefs, I endlessly test a recipe to get it exactly how I want it. But every now and then, I’m reminded that perfection can be a function of too many interrelated variables. Who says that a single recipe will work perfectly for every cook in every oven on any given day? Some recipes need to be practiced and perfected in one’s own kitchen—what works in someone else’s may not work the same in yours. Fortunately, these chocolate éclairs are perfectly imperfect—that is, they are exquisitely delicious, even as works in progress! (We at Food52 highly recommend that you read Alice's full guide, here. Equipment: 2 baking sheets A large pastry bag A plain 3/4-inch tip for piping the shells A plain 1/4-inch sized pastry tip for filling the éclairs.Food52This recipe is a good example of what you can do in a low carb, low sugar, low salt world and still eat a meal that you want to make again and again. I was inspired by this recipe (http://www.mendabody.net/postings/blogs/detail/heavenly-stuffed-chicken) although I've diverged a bit. I do not eat it every night, but the chickpea based pastas are BY FAR the best low-carb option. I use the ones sold by BANZA - you can get penne, rigatoni, fusilli, and shells. Half the carbs and twice the protein, and really as close to a wheat pasta as you can get (and sure unlike the rice varieties, or using tofu based foods). I am writing the recipe to serve 2 from one large breast. In fact I usually make 3-4 breasts worth at a time. You want to avoid the sugars of a store-bought red sauce and spend just a slight amount of time making your own, quickly? Then forget the jar. Puree 28 oz of San Marzanos in a food processor to the consistency you like. Add a half a cup of caramelized, diced sweet onion to which you added garlic at the end, along with the herbs and spices of choice (I use black pepper, red flakes, oregano, basil). Pulse well to mix and you are ready to heat with the cooked pasta for 5 minutes.Food NetworkThis is a simple version of what they call an Oyster Roast in the Carolina low country. You just put some nice plump oysters over a hot fire and when they pop open, you spoon over a little lemon butter and serve them immediately. A friend of mine, Tim Gilchrist, invented a special tool he calls a "Great Grate" which holds the oysters upright and allows you to pick up the grate instead of the individual oysters. It's really a very special tool. They are made in various sizes that can hold 6 to 30 oysters. The grate can also be used for clams. Great Grates can be purchased on line at www.greatgrate.com or by calling Great Grate at 877-768-5766. You can use any medium to large plump oysters for this recipe, but I like to use wild oysters like blue points; fancy half-shell oysters are expensive and some of their nuances are lost in the cooking. For equipment you will need a grill, grill brush and a pair of long tongs. The "Great Grate" is optional, but makes the job much easier. You will also need a 1-quart saucepan, a wooden spoon, and a whisk to make the sauce.
