Chopping up a large amount of fruits and vegetables, whether you’re baking pies or making a stew, is not a problem if you have the counter space to really spread out. If you don’t, you will probably find that even large cutting boards start to look small as you fill them up with slices, dices and juliennes. When you can cut everything and push it straight into your pot, there usually isn’t much of a problem with kitchen space, but if you like to prep everything first you might end up with a lot of chopped veggies and no where to put them. That is when something like the Cut and Collect Cutting Board can come in handy. This sturdy cutting board has a slide-out drawer beneath it that you can use to catch freshly cut fruits or veggies (or anything else you’re chopping) and clear the board for the next batch. You can also fill it up with peels and scraps to keep them out of the way, and simply unsnap the drawer and dump it out when you’re ready.
The board gives you a solid cutting surface and is just over 1.5-inches tall. It is made of polypropelene and is completely dishwasher safe, too.
Separating eggs is one of the most basic skills that a baker should have. There are many recipes for baked goods, including cakes and souffles, that require eggs to be separated. And it’s handy to know if you just want to whip up an egg white omelette for breakfast, as well. This is also a skill that can take a little bit of practice to master if you want to get cleanly separated whites and yolks, without bits of egg shell, every time.
I put together a little photo tutorial to help provide a visual of exactly how I separate eggs.
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Crème fraîche is a thick, cultured cream that is very popular in France and is growing in popularity in the US. The cream has a slightly nutty, slightly tangy taste to it but is much milder and with a more distinct cream flavor than sour cream. It has a high fat content, a rich consistency that is somewhere between heavy cream and sour cream, somewhat like that of a creamy yogurt. Traditional crème fraîche is made by adding a bacterial culture to cream, allowing the cream to ferment and thicken slightly.
Crème fraîche is often referenced in recipes, both as a creamy addition to an almost-finished sauce and simply as a garnish for a bowl of soup. It is used to thicken sauces, enrich scrambled eggs and can be used in baking recipe to add tenderness, just like yogurt and sour cream can be. It is becoming more widely available, but is still not as easy to find as other dairy products are in the US. Fortunately, you can make your own version of crème fraîche by adding a small amount of buttermilk to slightly warmed heavy cream and allowing the mixture to sit and thicken for several hours, until the cream thickens. The homemade version doesn’t quite have the same tang and richness of the real thing, but it can be used in the same way and still makes a great addition to many dishes.
Culinary school isn’t for everyone – no matter how appealing it sounds to be able to work with top chefs, improve your skills and learn to create really top-quality dishes – because most people don’t intend to become professional chefs and the time and cost involved in attending a full time school just isn’t worth it when you cook recreationally. That said, there are many at-home chefs who want their skills to be on-par with those of “real” chefs and one way to learn those techniques, recipes and skills is by signing up for an online cooking school. Online cooking schools have sprung up over the past couple of years, offering anyone with a computer and a good internet connection the chance to watch video lessons on everything from basic knife skills to roasting the perfect chicken. These schools are intended to give you a solid base in these skills, not just to entertain you with stories (like most food tv shows do). They’re less expensive than full time culinary school and can be done on your own schedule.
The Wall Street Journal recently took an in depth look at three online culinary schools to see how their online classes – which are aimed at home cooks looking to get culinary school skills – compared and whether they were worth the investment: Top Chef University, Rouxbe and Culinary Institute of America Prochef Podcasts.
- Top Chef University got a thumbs up for their impressive range of subjects, with more than 235 lessons and over 60 hours of video content. The instructors vary by lesson (former Top Chef cast members), but the skills demonstrated were all detailed and lessons were packed with useful tips. The classes are broken into 12 courses and you’re encouraged to complete them in order. It was $199.95 for one year/$24.95 per month for one course at a time.
- Rouxbe is an online only school with more than 75 classes and over 1,000 videos. They were praised for their polished videos, attention to detail and very thorough lessons that walked you through every detail of the techniqes. A discussion forum with staff and other users provided a classroom-like atmosphere, too. $299.95 for one year/ $4.99 per lesson for 90 day access or $9.99 per lesson for lifetime access.
- Culinary Institute of America Prochef Podcasts were not organized into neat courses to follow like the other schools. Instead, these engaging videos allowed you the freedom to pick and choose what topics you were most interested in without being encouraged to view them in a certain order. All videos were taught by CIA instructors, though there were no quizzes, etc. like the other schools offer and no way to really track your progress. $4.95 per podcast
The WSJ didn’t really rank these schools because with their different styles they will appeal to people looking for different things. They’re all worth checking out, however, to get a little bit of that culinary school skill set without leaving your own home.
The term “half and half” shows up very frequently in cooking and baking recipes in the US, but it is not particularly well known outside of the US (or the term refers to something completely different). When it appears in a recipe, it sometimes generates a little confusion as to what it is. “Half and half” is a mixture of half heavy cream and half whole milk that is commonly found in the US. Heavy cream has a fat percentage of about 35% and that concentration of fat is what helps stabilize it when you whip it into whipped cream. Half and half has a fat percentage around 12% and, although much thicker and creamier than milk, it will not whip up into fluffy whipped cream like heavy cream will.
The rich, creamy consistency of half and half is ideal for adding to black coffee to lighten it up without watering it down and for adding to soups to enrich them. It can be used in place of milk in many recipes, such as cakes and quickbreads, and will give baked goods an even finer, more tender crumb than they would typically have (although it is worth noting that the extra fat can create a product that is too rich and even slightly greasy occasionally). My favorite application for half and half is in ice cream, where may recipes will call for both heavy cream and milk. Using half and half saves me a step when mixing up my ice cream base, it also saves me a step when writing the recipe because I can call for one convenient ingredient rather than two separate ones.
You can substitute for half and half by mixing half whole milk and half heavy cream. IF you live in a county where “light cream” is widely available, know that it has a slightly higher fat content than half and half and should be mixed with approximately one third whole milk to make a substitute for half and half.
