{"id":1039,"date":"2010-01-13T22:39:54","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T05:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2011-06-22T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T00:25:10","slug":"rest-the-meat-dont-shock-the-fish-or-fear-the-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/blog\/1039\/rest-the-meat-dont-shock-the-fish-or-fear-the-chicken","title":{"rendered":"Rest the Meat, Don’t Shock the Fish or Fear the Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 Things I Learned at Sur La Table’s<\/a><\/strong> Cooking Classes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"L1030017\"

Our Instructors Ready for Battle: Ryan Kennedy, Lisa Owens, Graham Turner.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"L1030032\"This week my wife, Renee, and I have been enrolled in the introductory Kitchen Essentials class at Sur La Table here in Portland, Oregon. \u00a0I know what you’re thinking– that this was a vaguely camouflaged way of ensuring a week of good lunches for myself, but I’m here to tell you that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a week of good lunches. \u00a0Many thanks to Sur La Table, Lisa Owens, Ryan Kennedy, and Graham Turner– and not just because they also cleaned up! \u00a0You want to take your cooking class from a lead instructor like Lisa, who admits to reading sauce books in bed at night.<\/p>\n

\"L1030023\"

Jeff vs. Creme Brulee. Instructors look on in fear.<\/p><\/div>\n

While knife skills, perky little chef tricks, and other general info garnished (er, I mean, garnered) from the class \u00a0have been cool to learn and fun to practice, the main advantage of the class comes in the form of tiny morsels of delicious information that the casual cook is unlikely to learn unless he’s married to a food scientist. \u00a0Here are the top things I hope to remember if I ever happen to show up in my own kitchen to cook something. \u00a0Forgive me if any of these are already obvious to you– and if that’s the case, I’m available for dinner on Friday night.<\/p>\n

1. Add salt to stop something from burning.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Take a pot off the stove grate even after you’ve turned the flame off, unless you want the heat from the grate to continue to cook whatever’s in the pot.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0When making stock, use cold water and bring the temperature of it up; if you want clear stock, don’t let it boil.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Even if you’ll be serving skinless chicken breasts (though why would you?), cook with the skin on and remove later. \u00a0The skin will act like a little tarp over the meat and keep it moist.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Don’t follow a recipe that tells you to chop cranberries by hand. \u00a0Use a food processor– it’s the 21st century.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Recipes are suggestions. \u00a0If you think of a better way to do something, do it that way. \u00a0Except if you are baking.<\/p>\n

\"L1030030\"

The man is serious about: pork.<\/p><\/div>\n

7. Rest your meat when it comes out of the oven. \u00a0It’s stressed from the heat and needs to relax before being carved and served.<\/p>\n

8. Do not be afraid of the chicken.<\/p>\n

9. \u00a0More finely chopped garlic will be more bitter.<\/p>\n

10. \u00a0Sugar will cook egg yokes, so when making creme brulee (yes please!) don’t let the sugar sit in the egg before you’re ready for it.<\/p>\n

11. Freeze butter and flour you’re going to use to make dough.<\/p>\n

12. \u00a0Spread sauteed vegetables or anything else that you want to cool up the sides of a bowl to cool faster.<\/p>\n

13. \u00a0Good olive oil is for finishing. \u00a0Olive oil is for cooking.<\/p>\n

14. \u00a0Vanilla bean paste, as opposed to vanilla extract, will suspend the \u00a0the vanilla in whatever you’re using it in, rather than allowing it to settle to the bottom.<\/p>\n

15. To move thin dough roll it up on your rolling pin, carry it where you need it, and unroll.<\/p>\n

16. \u00a0Unless you are a deer, most of the salt in your diet comes from processed foods, not from the salt you add during cooking.<\/p>\n

17. \u00a0Always pound chicken in a Ziplock or plastic wrap.<\/p>\n

\"L1030046\"

Yes, I actually made a souffle!<\/p><\/div>\n

18. \u00a0Olive oil isn’t good for frying anything because its smoke point is too low. \u00a0Adding olive oil to butter allows you to cook with butter at a higher temperature.<\/p>\n

19. \u00a0Take off your apron and name tag before entering the retail store at Sur Le Table or customers may ask you questions as if you know something.<\/p>\n

20. \u00a0Drain all the liquid out of the mushrooms or they will weigh down the souffle.<\/p>\n

21. \u00a0After carmelizing the creme brulee crust leave it out of the fridge or it will absorb moisture and liquify.<\/p>\n

22. \u00a0According to Lisa Owens, \u00a0“The egg is the most amazing thing in the world.”<\/p>\n

23. \u00a0The asparagus will tell you where it is freshest.<\/p>\n

24. \u00a0An emulsion allows opposites, such as oil and water, to merge. \u00a0That’s why you use the emulsion known as mustard in salad dressing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 Things I Learned at Sur La Table’s Cooking Classes This week my wife, Renee, and I have been enrolled… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1695,19164],"tags":[944167,5523,5524],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-travel-oregon","category-offcourse","tag-blog","tag-sur-la-table","tag-cooking-classes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/01\/L1030017.JPG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2596,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/2596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}