Good Times in the Kitchen

    I’ve been having lots of fun cooking these days, maybe even too much fun. There’s a loaf of homemade Portugese bread, crunchy with cornmeal, sitting on the counter. I don’t even bother to put the bread knife away. Chocolate chip cookies, made with browned butter to give them the perfect taste and chew, wait patiently in the freezer. The mushroom risotto Rouxbe (the online cooking school) taught me to make is almost as good reheated as it was the first time around. I even went so far as to make scrambled eggs for breakfast (I hate breakfast) the other day because I wanted to use my newly acquired knowledge of egg cookery. I stirred them endlessly over low, low heat and they turned into a silken, creamy mass. Delicious.

     The preliminary egg lesson was fascinating. Once you understand the structure of an egg and what happens to it as it ages in its carton, all the different ways to make an egg become understandable. For instance, if you want to hard boil an egg, less fresh ones are easier to peel because a large air pocket has formed at the larger end, making it the perfect place to start removing the shell. You can even tell if it’s older because instead of lying horizontally in a bowl of water, the air pocket will cause that end to rise. And if you don’t want that gross gray/green ring around the yolk, it’s necessary to place the cooked eggs in a cold water bath to prevent oxidation. When poaching, fresh eggs are essential because much of the white of the egg will have thinned in an older egg, and rather than clustering around the yolk, it will make a feathery mess. I was intimidated by the over-easy fried egg however. I think it’s probably impossible to explain the flip of the wrist necessary to make the eggs do a somersault and remain in the frying pan. It looks easy in the video, but until I can get the instructor in my kitchen, cleaning cloth in hand, I don’t know that I’ll try it.

     I had never understood Ken’s love of risotto until I made it at home.I wonder if I’m just totally prejudiced because it’s something I’ve made, or if it really is better than what I’ve tried in restaurants. Making something so creamy with practically no fat (except that used to saute the flavoring vegetables and the rice in the beginning - a relatively tiny amount) is a miracle. I used shallots, crimini and shitaki mushrooms, vermouth, and the last of my homemade chicken stock (I can’t believe I’ve actually used it all up - will I make a new batch...?). Made the traditional way, risotto is a very labor intensive dish. The liquid has to be added in small increments and be fully absorbed before adding more. I found it took about five to six minutes for the rice to drink up the stock, which meant I couldn’t leave the kitchen and do other things. I ended up rearranging shelves. Actually, the aroma made it worth hanging around the kitchen, and when I added the Parmesan at the end, and watched it melt, all the waiting was forgiven. Rouxbe even told me the trick restaurants use when risotto is on the menu. After adding about three-quarters of the liquid, you spread the risotto out on a large flat tray, like a cookie sheet, and refrigerate it. Before serving, you put it back in the pan and finish the process with the remaining stock. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that’s why I never liked the restaurant versions all that much.

     I’m still using the $10 I get each day we don’t eat out to buy culinary toys. I just ordered a kitchen scale, bundt and loaf pans, and a book about baking with whole grains. Fun.