Rouxbe Cooking School Series: lessons for the frying pan
5 Comments
Karen Hamilton
September 30, 2008
Despite what the rash of restaurant and event posts indicate, we’ve been doing a fair amount of cooking at home. Just take a look at some of the fabulous meals my husband has treated me to of late:
Lapin à la moutarde (rabbit with mustard sauce) – La Régalade cookbook
Proper chicken caesar salad – Jamie at Home
Crispy grilled trout with parsley and lemon – Cook with Jamie
My own culinary efforts are outcomes of investigations into the Online Cooking School at Rouxbe.com.
One such assignment addressed pork’s tendency to come out of my frying pan with a moisture level akin to the Sahara. It was fortuitous that Rouxbe had released two Technique Tuesday lessons on pan frying and pan sauces. A lesson on working with pork is in the official curriculum and is yet to be published, but the tenderloin and blueberries in our stash were already crying out to be cooked.
My first goal was to render the pork tenderloin with an attractive sear on the outside while retaining a most, slightly pink interior. According to the Rouxbe pan frying lesson, one way to attain this is to get the ingredients, pan, and oil to the correct temperature before the food even touches the surface. Properly heated equipment will prevent the items from sticking to the pan and minimize the risk of steaming, which will foil your efforts to achieve colour and crisp. In hindsight, this makes perfect sense to me now, but as I sat in front of my screen and absorbed the rationales and methodologies, I wanted to kick myself for not figuring this out long ago.
Testing the temperature of your pan
You can determine the temperature of metal pans using the “Mercury Ball” Water Test, which consists of dropping 1/8 teaspoon of water into your pan every 10 – 15 seconds and observing its behaviour. Pans that are too cool will cause the water to splat on the surface like normal drops of rain or bubble off into steam. Pans that are too hot will cause the water to immediately fracture into tiny beadlets (imagine silver cola balls rolling around the pan). What you should be looking for is the point where your drop of water forms a single, large, mercury-like bead that bounces around the surface of your pan with no or little to no accompanying beadlets. Take a look at how my water test turned out:
Choosing your oil
Once your pan is at the correct temperature, add an oil that is suitable for frying or searing: canola, corn oil, grapeseed oil (preferred by the Rouxbe team), or any other oil with a smoking point higher than 400F. Note that extra virgin olive oil, butter, and most cooking fats have a smoking point around or below 400F and are not recommended for frying, as discolouration / off-flavours could occur. (As I read this bit of the lesson, I smacked myself in the forehead–no wonder my pan kept turning yellow after subjecting extra virgin olive oil to max heat!)
Controlling temperature
The lesson continued with techniques throughout the frying process that rely on sensory indicators, all of which I monitored as I laid in the pork. The amount of smoke, the volume of sizzle, the shimmer of the oil–these should signal whether to adjust the heat. Varying the stove according to the needs of your food should give you better results than by following a recipe’s heating instructions to the letter.
Watch this clip as we seared the tenderloin (hopefully you can make out our commentary through the noise of Sunday football):
We then finished the tenderloin for another 20 minutes in the oven, or until the internal temperature reached 150F.
Pan frying vs. pan searing
Rouxbe CEO Joe Girard found my clip on YouTube before I published this post and clarified some differences between pan frying and pan searing: ”Pan frying is when you cook smaller pieces of meat or fish all the way through in the pan. Larger pieces [like our tenderloin] are most often pan seared, then finished in the oven.”
Thanks, Joe!
Creating a great pan sauce
If you succeed in pan frying your ingredients, you should be left with a good amount of sucs: golden, toasty bits on the bottom of your pan that can be used to create a terrific sauce to finish your dish. In my case, the pan sauces lesson helped me figure out how to make a quick blueberry and port reduction for the tenderloin that was now resting prettily on our cutting board.
Using a Googled blueberry sauce recipe as a rough guideline for ingredients, I followed the techniques outlined in the lesson to combine the port, blueberries, sugar, lemon zest, apple slices, and cornstarch in a logical order:
It resulted in a zingy glaze that was promptly poured over the pork medallions and served with steamed rice and sugar snap peas. My husband ate his meal with gusto while I chewed thoughtfully on mine, amazed at how a few additional techniques freed me to cook with what’s in our pantry instead of having a recipe control me.
And the applications continue…
One week after this culinary success, my husband applied the same techniques he observed from my meal to prepare an ambitious rack of lamb dinner for four:
He did a good job, no?
Culinary resources galore!
Relevant Rouxbe lessons and Drill-Downs:
- Pan Frying (trial access or membership required)
- Pan Sauces (trial access or membership required)
- What is Deglazing?
- Why Rest Meat?
Other useful references:
- The Elements of Cooking (especially the essay on heat)
- Elements: Done, doneness (Michael Ruhlman’s blog)
Rouxbe Cooking School series to date
- Rouxbe Cooking School is now open. Will you enroll?
- Rouxbe Cooking School Series: the rolling technique
- Rouxbe Cooking School Series: lessons for the frying pan
- Improve your cooking skills with Tiny Bites and Rouxbe
Categories: Culinary Resources, Dinner, Food, Recipes
Breakfasting with Stéphane Dion and the Burnaby Board of Trade
2 Comments Tiny Bites ConsultingSeptember 28, 2008
This week, my search for all that is edible in Vancouver took me outside of the city proper: the Firefighter’s Hall by Metrotown Centre, to be precise. It was there that my public food quest melded for one day with my personal endeavour to learn more about the issues surrounding our country’s federal election.
I awoke at an ungodly hour on Tuesday morning to commute to an early bird breakfast hosted by the Burnaby Board of Trade. The keynote speaker was none other than Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, who commuted from much further away to talk about his party’s electoral platform. Prior to this event, my awareness of the Liberals’ attempts to unseat the Conservatives was limited to my husband’s disgruntled mumblings of an uncharismatic figurehead. Sadly, I’m probably better informed about the presidential fight in America than what’s going on within our own borders. So I was grateful for the chance to hear at least one Prime Ministerial candidate wax poetic on the campaign trail.
Breakfast began promptly at 7:30am but no one seemed to realize that it had. A buffet table had been laid out in the back corner without much ado, and only those salivating over the promise of a Deluxe Breakfast made a beeline for the spread. My back was to the action, perhaps foolishly expecting table service at an event with such an illustrious guest. Looks like a $40 admission only gets you self-service these days.
The buffet itself was so-so. A mountain of fruit; a basket of croissants; one tray each of bacon & sausages, scrambled eggs, and potato hash. Hardly a selection that warrants being called Deluxe, but quantity was plentiful and an enterprising diner could theoretically put away their $40 worth before the speeches began.
The meal at our table was accompanied with a serving of skepticism about the Liberals’ environmental focus. Some were doubtful that steps Canada takes towards conservation would make even a ripple against the waves of pollution that powers like China and the USA are making. Others (myself included) were of the mind that action is better than inaction, leadership better than inertia, and that no one benefits from a fatalistic worldview on climate change.
With this mixed bag of opinions aired and the breakfast plates cleared away, the chain of introductions commenced. A star-studded Liberal cast presided; while all were given a moment in the spotlight, most of the attention was directed at Burnaby-Douglas MP hopeful Bill Cunningham, who was seated prominently at the head table.
Dominic LeBlanc, MP for Beauséjour in francophone New Brunswick (and oh-so-coincidentally removed from BC political machinations) riled up the audience with anti-NDP and anti-Tory sentiments just before the arrival of Mr. Dion. It was chilling that the spin doctors could be this adept at selecting a fall guy to smear the other parties so that Dion wouldn’t have to. The Liberal leader then made his entrance with an entourage of staff, security, and paparazzi. He took some time to warm up the crowd and throw in his support for Cunningham before launching into his address.
While I quite enjoyed the inclusion of French in Dion’s opening remarks, a few listeners seemed to disconnect each time the presentation veered away from English. Happily for them, the bilingualism didn’t last for long, and only English was used during the exposition of issues as Dion’s speech progressed.
Much of it underlined the Liberal Green Shift plan. I’d heard much of it before. No taxing at the pump. Revenue neutrality. Cuts to income and corporate taxes. Rewards for actions the nation wants more of; penalties for actions the nation wants less of. Dion attempted to convey the common sense of it all. While the Liberal panderers in the crowd ate it all up, our table didn’t quite buy into the rhetoric.
As with many political essays, Dion’s speech was meant to stir passion for Liberal ideologies and result in more votes in the party’s general direction. At the very least, it made me take one morning out of my busy schedule to reflect on the state of the country and whether I wanted the same people in power for the next few years. Personally, I do want to see a change in who’s in charge…but after seeing the guy in the flesh, I’m not convinced that Dion is the one to take the reins. He certainly seems competent, intelligent, informed, and passionate. But influential? Charismatic? Capable of handling tête-à-têtes with major world powers? That, I’m not so sure. But judging by the fervent applause that punctuated every other sentence that escaped Dion’s lips, it seemed that my lukewarm reception of his keynote was in the minority.
What did perk up my ears was the idea of profitable sustainability. This, lumped with the BC-centric Green Gateway Strategy, envisions economically vibrant but environmentally sustainable trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region. My colleague, who believes that unsustainable development in China must be reined in to make environmental inroads on a global scale, lost his jaded expression for the first time during the talk. Other topics of importance to British Columbians were rattled off like a grocery checklist, as if to placate all the lobbyists in the room.
The morning ended with Burnaby Board of Trade CEO Darlene Gering, who presented Mr. Dion with a token of appreciation wrapped in the “party colours” of red and green. The Board of Trade continued with small housekeeping announcements while Mr. Dion vanished from the stage, with hardly a whiff of fanfare, into the maw of the media that waited just outside the doors.
Many thanks to @scales and @kk of Raincity Studios, who harnessed the grapevine that is Twitter to have me join them at their breakfast table. News of this breakfast would not have gotten on my radar otherwise.
Thanks also to the folks at Uva for keeping my tummy and liver happy while I sat at the bar and scribbled down this post =)
Categories: Events, Food, Going Green
Sipping France with Vancouver Wine Casual
7 Comments Karen HamiltonSeptember 10, 2008
This past weekend was a such a flurry of activity that I cannot believe how much was accomplished in only 48 hours. Between a gruelling 6-hour hike in Garibaldi and a Sunday spent in Victoria, I managed to fulfill my duties as official Photojournalist for Vancouver Wine Casual, an informal wine appreciation club that my husband and I discovered through Facebook.
The latest VWC blind tasting was hosted by Janine and Colin, who by the notation on the Facebook group is our resident Wine Geek. The theme was France. Que j’adore du vin français!
The crowd worked through 12 bottles and shared tasting notes with one another. VWC officer and Wine Bard Karen G. was kind enough to share her musical style of wine deconstruction, shown in the table below (with her top picks starred).
| Wine | Tasting Notes | Song Pairing |
|---|---|---|
| A – 2004 Mas des Aveylans: Cuvee Prestige *** | Woodsy, pine, leather, spicy, tart, cranberry | Hallelujah |
| B – 2005 Chateau de Montfancon | Like an old man. Dentisty. Sweaty. Thin | Anything by Tom Waits |
| C – 2004 Coudoulet de Beaucastel *** | Honey on the nose. Spicy, raspberry, maple. Tannic | Bittersweet Symphony |
| D – 2001 Domaine Marcilhac Appellation Cahors Controllée | Old spice. Thin. Licorice, cassis | Good Riddance |
| E – 1999 Chateah Fabas “Le Seigneur” Appellation Minervois Controllée | Strong nose. Earthy, peaty, truffle all up front. Black pepper. Chewy | Hungry Like the Wolf |
| F – 2005 Domaine Saladin “Loi” Cotes du Rhone | Very fuzzy. Merlot? Fig | Black Velvet |
| G – 2004 Chateau Sainte Marie Bordeaux | Floral, herbal, grassy, wheaty, hay, grapefruit. Reminiscent of heffeweisen | Aux Champs Elysées |
| H – 2001 Chateau la Gurgue Appellation Margaux Controllée | Clean but musty. Forest floor. Peppery, marzipan | Come Rain or Come Shine |
| I – 2006 Moulin a Vent Les Vignes du Vieux Bourg | Medicinal, like a Chinese health shoppe. Sulfites. Smells like a latrine. Metallic on the finish | Hurt (Karen G.) Dirrty (Colin) |
| J – 2002 Chateau Boucasse Appellation Madiran Controllee *** | GSM? Earthy. Raspberry, chocolate | Paradise City |
| K – 2001 Domaine Marcilhac Appellation Cahors Controllée | Fennel, mint; green | Smooth Operator |
| L – 2004 Mas des Aveylans: Cuvee Prestige *** | Blood orange (blossom), blue raspberry | Raspberry Beret |
Thanks to the thoughtful videotaping of VWC newcomer Duc, you can observe The Reveal for yourself and hear Karen G’s rationale for each song pairing:
After the reveal, the group indulged in a 2003 Chateau d’Armajan des Ormes Sauternes, which paired beautifully with the biscotti and wafers that our hosts added to the banquet table.
We left that evening with our senses overloaded with Old World libations and personal reflections of what we liked and didn’t like about French wine.
For more photos and blog coverage of previous VWC happenings, look no further:
- Our first VWC event: a sampling of pinot gris and syrah
- A survey of Big Reds
- A taste of California
- A taste of BC
If you are on Facebook and have been looking for a way to survey a bevvy of wines in a relaxed atmosphere, look up the Vancouver Wine Casual group and join us for the next one.
And while you’re at it, stop by the Tiny Bites Facebook page and join in on the discussions there!
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