Favorite Products: OXO Food Mill

One of my favorite pieces of equipment in my home-kitchen is this little number. I got it just before going to a culinary competition in high school in order to make mashed potatoes. How did that turn out? Got first place at the first level and third in the second level. Compliments on the potatoes.

I have only had a chance to use this with potatoes, but can I just say that they yield just an awesome freaking product its ridiculous. I use the finest grate to mash up boiled potatoes, then add cream (or milk) and butter and plenty of salt and pepper and voila! Best whipped potatoes you'll ever have. Simple, delicious, and made possibly by this.

Legs fold out to do this! And more!

I've used a lot of commercial food mills and this one destroys those in ease of putting it together and use. It's easy to take apart and clean as well. It is a bit pricy, at $49.99 but, for food mills, it is actually relatively cheap. I love it. And, if you buy it from Bed Bath and Beyond like I did, you can easily get it for 20% off with one of their handy-dandy coupons which I use so often! I bought it nearly three years ago and its still nearly brand new. It's fabulous-o!

If you're looking to buy a food mill, this is the one, trust me.

Fruit Consomme

Strawberry consomme at Per Se...not my picture.

If you know what a consomme is you're in luck. If not, well: it's a flavorful broth that is crystal clear thanks to the addition of egg whites that "clarify" the stock (the eggs come out along with all impurities).

While I was on my externship for school (location will remain unknown for fear of the night terrors returning) and my friend was on her's, she told me of consommes made from peaches, blackberries, strawberries, etc. Intrigued, I asked her how she did it. Turns out it's not a true consomme, but instead a purely crystal clear liquid that is a byproduct from macerated or gently, slowly cooked fruit. When I asked her about how she did she claimed she used a double boiler, putting fruit, and sugar or flavorings, in a metal bowl covered in plastic wrap on top and boiled for 1 hr, then removed and let stand (granted this last step she left out the first two times, the first time I tried on extern in front of the only Chef I've looked up to, scorched a pot and foggy liquid - never listen to your Baker friends!). Needless to say...her recipe was a bit off (though she swears by it), but eventually I got it down.

I realized that the appropriate way to do it is putting a pot of water on the stove, and simmer it, DO NOT let it boil. Place a metal bowl on top with the fruit inside (I added a liberal amount of sugar as well) covered tightly with plastic wrap. Double-boiler (and by that I mean SIMMERing water) for an hour to an hour and a half. The idea here is to make the berries (I used raspberries, washed, whole) sweat, not cook and boil. Once its sweated and a lot of liquid has seeped out remove it from the stove and let it sit for 30-45 minutes. Strain, gently, in a fine-sieve into a bowl.

Downward view into glass, iPhone underneath.

I still have a huge fascination with these awesome things. I haven't found a real use for them besides a sauce, but even then its much too thin for that. It's a beautiful liquid. A pint of raspberries yielded only about 1/4 C of liquid, but its really cool and very full of flavor. What can I say? These have kinda become a fetish of mine. Love them. If I had a stove of my own I'd be doing every weekend just for shits and giggles.

Apparently you can also make these simply by sprinkling sliced berries and fruits (pears, peaches, apples, plums) with sugar and letting them sit in a bowl in the refrigerator for several hours and you simply remove the berries and there's your liquid. The fruit is more palatable this way, certainly, but to me this is the cheating way...but that's just because I spent too much time perfecting the on-the-stove method.

By putting enough sugar with the berries you could essentially make a...fruit-flavored simple syrup that would be super intense. Just screams being poured into cocktails, ice teas, etc (none of those I drink...but it sounds good, right?).

Cooking with Soda!

Soda? Pop? Coke? Soda-Pop? Whatever the hell you call it (but I'd go with soda), I love cooking with it! The best, and I'd say nearly only way, to use them is to first reduce them into a slight syrup. With this you can add it to sauces, cakes, cookies, etc. However there is a catch. Sodas that use high-fructose corn syrup, when reduced, take almost...chemically, are much thicker, and taste more bland than all-sugar counter parts. The problem with this becomes finding these 'Throwback" sodas. Dr. Pepper is still produced in Dublin, Texas, Mountain Dew has recently come on the market, and the famous Mexican Coca-Cola can be found in most Mexican specialty stores but can also pop up in many places. There's many other varieties out there, like Fanta, Sprite, Pepsi, etc.

I've used soda reductions to flavor cakes, but the Dr. Pepper one I made tasted like sweet cherry not so much Dr. Pepper. Not that it was bad, just not Dr. Peppery. I also love using soda reductions as an ingredient in other sauces, especially sweet berry coulis for desserts.

Wylie Dufresne made this...thing with a Dr. Pepper reduction sauce.

One of the more ingenious ways I've seen them used, but never done myself, is as an ingredient in braises. Combine Coca-Cola with stock, and maybe some wine, and braise away the meat. The soda should add a nice sweetness that is otherwise unreachable in most braises.

I gave up soda recently in hopes of losing weight, gaining whiter teeth, and saving money. But cooking is another thing entirely. Eating my alcohol. Eating my soda. It's how I do.

Wines, Wines, Wines!

At the school's culinary arts program we are required to take a 3-week crash course in wines just before we go into what is called "Restaurant Row", or the collection of 12-week classes where students work in the restaurants on campus both as servers and cooks. When I got back from Christmas break, which was a joyous 9 days long, I was thrown into this course which is said to be the hardest class the school offers. First impression was that its not that hard...but whatever, that's not what this is about.

I don't drink, ever. Never have, still don't plan on it. In class we are required to spit the wines tasted but when some does slip down my throat it burns me like even bourbon would an alcoholic. All except for two.

Average 8-wine tasting at school. See that delicious one on the right? It's a white Muscat called Electra.

I have fell in love with two wines: Rieslings and sweet dessert wines (as of right now, white and black Muscats...I could drink bottles full). I have only had a chance to taste Rieslings once or twice, but Muscats three times now.

Rieslings are fantastic little acidic liquids of goodness. People say they taste all sorts of flowers and fruits, but I just taste a soft appley taste that cleans out my mouth and is completely refreshing. I know, I know, what riesling did I try you ask? Well I am speaking specifically about my favorite Riesling, Dr Loosen's from Mosel, Germany 2009. Have I tried others? Well no...but technically all Rieslings should have the same basic qualities just varying in flavors.

Dessert wines I have fallen in love with (except Ports, wtf is up with those alcoholic bitter bitches?). Muscats are to die for, and when given the opportunity to drink wines in class one day when paired with cheeses and chocolate, this is the only one that I happily drank. It's sweetness is so awesome, it smells sweet and whenever I tried it with the chocolate, it brought out the fruitiness of the wine that was awesome! By far my favorite so far has been Elysium, Quady, Madera, California 2007. First muscat I tasted and its actually a red dessert wine.

Here it is...mmm.

Now I know I've just ranted about 2 wines here...because they are the only ones I've enjoyed tasting. I love using wines in cooking, but school prevents that on my own time because I am currently underage, but wine transfers flavors of a dish. One of my favorites is to do a Coq au Vin, chicken braised in wine and stock, with a nice red wine (I believe I use Cabernets...but its been a wine).

We've talked about bridging wines (pairing a dish with the wine used in the dish), complementing, contrasting, etc. Without tasting it much myself there's not a lot I can say for that...maybe some day.

As of now, hand me Muscat or maybe even the famed Icewine and I'm a happy underage drunk...but only in class...where its legal...