Tips cooks love

This book is filled with tips and tricks to ease your time in the kitchen. Have you ever wondered how to bake even cake layers, how to perfectly roast a turkey, or the difference between the grades of meat. This book answers those questions and more. This book is organized alphabetically for quick reference. You are cooking eggs, turn to E and there is everything that you need to know. Fried, poached, hard boiled and even the difference between white and brown eggs.

As a baker my favorite part of the book was the volume and weight equivalents. Knowing how many ounces of a ingredient are in a cup is valuable. For instance, if you spoon confectioners’ sugar into a measuring cup and sweep it level you have 4 ounces per cup. If you sift the confectioners’ sugar you only have 3 ounces per cup. Knowing this shows why my cookies are different each and every time that I make them.

Overall this is a great companion for the kitchen. You can pick it up at your local bookstore or from Amazon here.

As a Midwesterner I frequent Chicago and I  have been to the Berghoff Cafe.  The Bergoff Cafe is a larger than life restaurant that is loud and extremely fun.  The best part about the Berghoff Cafe is their vast selection of Berghoff Beers.  I like the original Amber.  They also have amazing food.  My favorite is the beer cheese soup.  I discovered that they had a recipe for the soup in the book. 

The Berghoff Cafe book and food is based around three principles: Reuse, Recycle and Reinvent.  What does this mean.  Well extra potatoes become Lyonnaise Potatoes, Potato Soup and more.  The roasted turkey breast goes on to star in the turkey reuben.  Basically everything is used for multiple purposes and never wasted.  This is a great principle in this economy.

Almost every recipe in the book contains a little history about the recipe, an ingredient or a historical period when the recipe was originally developed.  For instance they include history about “shot and a wash”.  Shot an a wash is basically whiskey dropped in beer.  Basically it is a refined boilermaker.  This was done as back in the day water was often impure and drank at ones own risk.  Further whiskey was primitive and had a lot of impurities making it have a bad taste.  So back in the day after a people would take a shot they would rinse their mouths out with beer instead of water.  Thus, a shot and a wash. 

This book is organized in a standard fashion from appetizers to entrees to desserts.  Although the majority of the book is appetizers.  The appetizers sections starts with Bar Snacks moves on to Soups, Sandwiches, Salads and Sides.  Then it moves on to Daily Specials to Pizzas.  Then it finishes up with Desserts.

Any book that starts out with bar snacks has to be awesome.  They have recipes for everything from deviled eggs to soft pretzels.  They even include a recipe for a classic relish tray.  When I was growing up my Grandma Donna always had a relish tray at every meal. I loved the gerkins, block olive and baby pickles.  Although not a real recipe, it contains the ingredients to assemble the perfect relish tray.

My favorite thing at the Berghoff Cafe is the Beer Cheese Soup.  They include the recipe for this in the soup section.  The soup is contains four cups of cheese and a whole bottle of beer.  While it is missing some bacon, it is a great recipe.  They garnish the soup with a freshly baked pretzel or freshly popped popcorn.  If this is the exact recipe from the restaurant then it is an amazing recipe.

The book also includes a whole section on pizzas.  Yep, I spent a couple of hours analyzing this section.  They have a great pizza that utilizes bratwurst and sauerkraut.  It is very similar to the Reuben pizza that I made.  It starts out with a caraway crust, topped with brown mustard and then layered with brats, kraut and onions.  Along with this tasty recipe they also have others that include smoked sausage and potato pizza and cafe’ onion and bacon pizza.  Every pizza in this section sounds amazing.

Overall this is a great book.  It contains easy and wholesome recipes that are amazing. This book totally reminds me of the comfort foods that I grew up with in the midwest.  If you are looking for easy comfort food with a midwestern twist this book is for you. 

The Berghoff Cafe Cookbook is available wherever books are sold and is available on Amazon here.

I am not the biggest fan of Down Home With The Neelys TV Show.  Not that I hate it, I think the food is great.  I find it quite lovey dovey and hard to watch.  You can only watch two people grind each other on the TV while they cook for so long.  I think the show would be a lot better with a little less PDA.  Based on that I figured the cookbook wouldn’t be the best.  However, I was completely wrong.  The book is nicely written, full of great stories and awesome recipes.

This book starts off with some great introductions.  The forward is written by Paula Deen.  From this I found that the Neelys were discovered by Paula’s Sons.  During their brief stint on the show Road Tasted the Deen boys came across the Neelys.  They told their mom and after a single episode of Paula’s Party their new TV career was started and the rest is history. 

This book includes great quotes and tips from both Pat and Gina.  Their personalities shine through in each chapter and really adds to the book.  Pat and Gina also include recipes and stories from their family members.  This includes grilling and barbecuing tips from Pat’s brother Tony.  Tony has excellent tips on how to start a smoker and how to cook on an offset fire.

Since the Neelys know barbecue, the book is centered around barbecue.  I see nothing wrong with this.  I love barbecue so this totally sparked my interest in this book.  The book starts out with Neelys barbecue seasoning and barbecue sauce.  These recipes are then used as a base for most of the barbecue recipes.  The sauce is a sweet Memphis tomato based barbecue sauce that sounds awesome.  I am going to make this sauce this week. 

The book is not all barbecue.  There is also great recipes for everything from coconut shrimp with spicy peanut sauce to corn chowder to chicken and noodles.  There are also great southern recipes like fried chicken, creamed corn, seared okra and tomatoes, Gina’s collard greens and barbecue spaghetti.  I have had some great barbecue spaghetti in my days and the one in this book sounds delicious.

Overall this a great book.  I must admit that my initial thoughts on this book were completely wrong.  The recipes are great and are easy to read.  The food is not complicated and the recipes use basic ingredients.  This is a book for common cooks with normal food budgets.

Down Home With The Neelys is available wherever books are sold and is available on Amazon here.

Every Wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing The Scandinavian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann.  When I saw this book I had to have it.  Being Scandinavian in descent, I wanted to learn more about traditional Scandinavian cooking.  Yes, I am Swedish.  Hej – (“hello”).  This book covers recipes from all over Scandinavia, from Denmark to Norway and yes Sweden.

This cookbook is organized very differently than most. Actually, it is organized in a unique and extremely cool way. It is organized by month of the year, and the different types of food that you would eat during each month. Not just comfort food, but by the types of food that are in season. Seasonal cooking is a great to way to help the environment. Fresh corn shouldn’t be available in the winter. If it is, it has been shipped from halfway around the globe to your table. There is a lot of energy wasted in shipping food. Enough of me preaching, back to the book.

The cookbook starts out in January and goes through the months all the way to December. Along with the recipes there are a ton of great photographs of the food and seasonal pictures from all around Scandinavia. The photographs are amazing. Lars Renek is the man behind the beautiful photographs in this book. Bravo, Lars! Bravo! Even if I couldn’t read, this book would be amazing because of the photographs.

The recipes are equally amazing. A lot of the recipes are for Smørrebrød which are Danish open faced sandwiches.  They are preferably made with rye bread and are served with aquavit and beer.  They had me at sandwich and only sweetened the deal with the aquavit and beer.  The Smørrebrød come in all different types.  From flounder and shrimp with basil dressing to chicken and lovage salad.  I must admit, I had no idea what lovage was.  Lovage is a perrenial plant that resembles celery.  My favorite Smørrebrød that was in the book had to be the smoked cheese salad on rye.  Wow, a cheese salad.  The cheese used in the book is rygeost which is a soft smoked cheese from Denmark, but they say you can substitute smoked ricotta.  Along with cheese it uses a lot of the same ingredients that you would put into a tuna or chicken salad, but you substitute cheese for protein.  Amazing!  Why didn’t I think of this.  Scandinavian people are awesome!

The book also covers seasonal drinks.  From hot chocolate in the winter to red currant and strawberry smoothies in the summer.  Not all of the drinks are alcohol free.  Take for instance the elderflower cordial that utilizes fresh elderflowers picked when they bloom in June.  The elderflower cordial is diluted with champagne for a fresh taste of summer.

Being a Scandinavian cookbook there are plenty of seafood recipes.  There are recipes for almost every type of seafood.  From flounder to salmon to mussels to lumpfish roe.  I love seafood and usually find myself preparing most of it the same way.  For some reason when it comes to seafood, I am not creative.  This book has sparked my interest.  There is a recipe in here for cauliflower soup with grilled scallops.  The creamy cauliflower soup with the smokey grilled scallops topped with lemon, sounds delicious.  I am totally going to make this and post about it.

In all, I loved this book.  I love that it is organized by month and by what is in season.  It totally takes the guess work out of what to cook.  Open the book, turn to the current month, and make something amazing.  Although the cauliflower soup is listed in November, all of the ingredients are in season here in Washington, D.C.  It is my lucky day.  I would totally recommend picking up this book.  The recipes, pictures and stories are worth it.   Trina Hahnemann has written a great book.

The Scandinavian Cookbook is available wherever books are sold and is available on Amazon here.

Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing I’m Just Here For MORE FOOD by Alton Brown. As an engineer and a certified nerd, I love Alton Brown. His show is designed around humor and the basics, that make food what it is. He takes the most complicated concepts and makes them fun and interesting. His newest book does not disappoint.  

Alton Brown’s   sequal to I’m just here for the FOOD.  This book is all about baking.  It is organized well and is set up to teach experienced and inexperienced cooks about baking.  Just like his first book in the series, this book is full of information.  Alton breaks down the book into the Parts Department, the muffin method, the biscuit method, the creaming method, the straight dough method, the egg foam method and custards.  Alton shows how all basic baked goods are created using one of the six methods disclosed above.

The Parts Department

Alton describes how each ingredient reacts with every other ingredient.  He teaches how proteins, carbohydrates, fats, water and air all come together to make the perfect baked goods.  My favorite part is that he describes each type of ingredient reacts in a baked good.  For instance, sugar tenderizes baked goods by breaking up proteins and asorbing water, they preserve by bind water, sugar leavens by airating fat molecules and sugar browns by breaking into color and aroma compounds when heated.    This section is the basis behind why our food looks, tastes, and feels the way it does.  I actually read this section a couple of times as it was so interesting. 

The Muffin Method

The basis of the muffin method is that you combine all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and all of the wet ingredients into a separate bowl.  Then you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  In this method you stir until just combined, remembering not to overmix.  In this method Alton describes why we sift our flour.  Flour when sifted is airated and requires less mixing to form a batter.  Thus, less stirring means less gluten, meaning a more flaky biscuit.  A thing to note, muffins are not cupcakes.  Cupcakes are moist and tender, a muffin is meant to be coarse and crumbly.  Another great tip is that you should heat your oven a tad higher than the recommended temperature before you place your muffins in the oven.  After you place them in the oven reduce the heat to the recommended temperature.  This will compensate for the cooler pans and the oven door being open.  Thus, giving you a better final product. 

The Biscuit Method

The basis of the biscuit method is to cut the fat into the dry ingredients.  Then once the fats are dispersed in the dry ingredients, you add the wet ingredients into the center and quickly mix.  Then you turn the mixture out on a surface and knead briefly.  Alton describes how this method is used to create biscuits, scones, shortcakes and dumplings.  My favorite part of the section is making homemade saltines.  I am always amazed at recipes for things that I wouldn’t even think to make at home.  The recipe is quick and simple.  I believe that you will be seeing a post in the near future about homemade saltines. 

The Creaming Method

The basis of the creaming method is to cream the sugar with the fats.  Once creamed you add the eggs and stir.  Then finally you gradually add the dry ingredients.  You have seen me use this method many times.  Take for instance my awesome chocolate chip cookies.  But, I never realized that the shortening should be at a temperature a little colder than room temperature.  According to Alton, he prefers using it at around 50 degrees.  You can either refrigerate it or cool it in a glass of ice water.  If you do the latter remember to dry it off before using.

The Straight Dough Method

The basis of the straight dough method is to start by soaking the yeast. Then adding the ingredients to a work bowl starting with the wet ingredients, then the dry, and finally the salt.  Mix until a dough ball is formed and then turn out on a surface to knead.  Allow to rise.  Punch down and allow to rise again.  Proof quickly and bake.  This is the method that I used to create my sour dough bread.  Alton uses it to make everything from dinner rolls, to pizza to homemade bread.  I am always learning from this book.  Near the beginning of the section he has step by step illustrated instructions for kneading dough.  I must say his method appears to be far superior to my punch and fold method. 

The Egg Foam Method

The basis of the egg foam method is to separate the eggs.  Using cream of tartar beat the egg white using a whisk until the whites are foamy and opaque.  Then use accordingly.  This method is the basis of meringues, souffle’s and angel food cake.  There is a recipe for cheesy souffle’ that sounds amazing.  There is 2 whole cups of cheese in it.  I love cheese almost as much as I love bacon.  I said almost, Bond.  This recipe would be amazing with some bacon bits in it.  Remember don’t over mix your egg whites and remember to fold so that you don’t crush your pretty air bubbles.   

Custards

The basis of the custard is to capture liquid in the mass of coagulated protein molecules to thicken it.  Basically it is the basis of custards, quiche, puddings and ice creams.  I have always found the process of tempering egg yolks with scalding hot liquid as hard and quite time consuming.  Mostly because I cook the eggs forcing me to start over.  Alton has put my fears to rest with a tourtise v. hare illustration describing the process.  Yes, this book even has illustrations for the kids.  The best part of the section for me was the cheesecake.  I love cheesecake, but I always overcook it and cause the top to crack.  Alton has a solution for that too.  He cooks it with the oven on for an hour and turns the oven off and leaves the cheesecake to cook in the oven with the residual heat.  Genius!  This prevents overcooking and with the times he lists, it is pretty fool proof.

Overall

This book is just as good, actually even better than the first.  This might be because I love to bake, but I think Alton has learned some new ways to get the information across.  The book is perfect for a beginner or for a seasoned cook that would like to know more about food.  I totally recommend it.  It was fun, entertaining and down right informative.  Alton is a genius with food.

Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich. When I first got this book I said to myself, “Am I really going to make pickles. Aren’t pickles just cucumbers and vinegar. Plus, don’t pickles take forever to make.” I had it all wrong, after reading this book I realized that I had a lot of misconceptions about pickles. Plus, what I learned about pickling turned me instantly into a pickling type of person.

Pickling can be quick
When I think of pickles I usually think of the ones that you buy in the store that come in the neon green brine. I was under the impression that they take forever to make. You need to get canning equipment, tons of salt and vinegar, and boil and let sit for months. To my surprise pickling can take as little as 10 minutes. I made burgers the other day and topped them with a quick pickle of onions and jalapenos that I found right in this book. They were the best part of the burger. No cooking or canning required. Just soaking in a brine of salt and vinegar. My first misconception was dismissed. Plus, the quick pickles were awesome.

Pickles are not just made from cucumbers
Linda has recipes for all types of vegetables, fruits, meats, fish and eggs. Who knew you could pickle meat. You can pickle beef, pig’s feet, oysters, shrimp, mussels and all types of eggs. Reading about the pickled eggs reminded me of when I was in college. During my ten year in college I spent some time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. Every bar had pickled eggs and now thanks to this book I can recreate the lost memories by making some eggs of my own. You can definitely pickle more than just cucumbers. My second misconception was dismissed.

Pickling is an International Affair
Pickling is done in every culture. You have Irish corned beef, Swedish Gravlax, Hungarian Summer Pickles, Chinese Fermented Daikon, Vietnamese Pickled Bean Sprouts, Korean Kimchi and numerous others. My favorite and the one that I am totally going to make is German Sauerkraut. I have been making my own brats, so why shouldn’t I make my own sauerkraut. This book has a great recipe for sauerkraut, you will be seeing a post on sauerkraut soon.

Overall
Overall this book is awesome. Buy fresh produce that is on sale and pickle it so that it keeps until you need it. There really isn’t a better book for this economy. Plus, pickles are just plane ole tasty. I forgot to mention that they have a couple of recipes for standard dill pickles. I haven’t made any yet, but I am sure that they will be 100 times better than the ones from the store.

If you would like to learn more about pickles or get any of the recipes for the pickles that I have listed above I suggest that you go out and buy this book. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing I’m Just Here For The Food by Alton Brown. As an engineer and a certified nerd, I love Alton Brown. His show is designed around humor and the basics, that make food what it is. He takes the most complicated concepts and makes them fun and interesting. His book does not disappoint.

Alton Brown grew up wanting to be a big-time film director and ended up being a Food Network TV personality and professionally trained chef. His show has been on TV for over 11 years and is consistently ranked as one of the highest rated shows on the food network. “I’m just here for the food” has won the prestigious Jame Beard Foundation Award for best reference book. Brown hasn’t done too bad for a man with a dream to be a big-time film director.

I’m just here for the food is written with fun quips, great illustrations and all around great recipes. The book’s illustrations teach basic concepts such as convection, teflon, why starch thickens and what the difference is between fresh and not so fresh eggs. They are informative and quite enjoyable to read.The recipes contain basic instructions along with lists of software (aka ingredients) and hardware (utensils and other equipment necessary for creating the recipes). Along with the hardware and software each recipe includes an application of heat. Application of heat you say, by what does that mean. Well he describes the process in which you are going to cook the food. Indirect heat, direct heat, boiling, sauteing etc. Along with the application, there are detailed instructions describing how to actually accomplish the recipe. This book is written in a fun and interesting way that only Alton Brown could come up with.

Version 2.0 of this book includes four refrigerator magnets that have become sort of an icon at my house. Everybody wonders where I got the animal magnets with detailed labeling of each cut of meat. I always tell them from Alton Brown’s book. The magnets are somewhat creepy and somewhat cute. Either way they are very popular with everyone that steps into my kitchen. I would purchase the book just for the magnets. People love them.

This book is fun, exciting and very informative.  Alton Brown is culinary gold.  It is like mixing comedy central with the discovery channel.  I believe that this book is a must have for anyone wishing not only to have good recipes but to have the knowledge of why cooking works. 

To be honest this is not a non-biased opinion.  This is one of my favorite books.  I use it all of the time.  The book is sectioned by type of food to make it easy for you to find the perfect recipes. The recipes in each section start with easy simple recipes and proceed gradually to harder more elaborate recipes toward the end of each chapter.  The organization is the key to this book becoming a must have in every home and kitchen.

The book starts out with lifestyle chapters regarding diet, health, entertaining, and menus.  Then it moves on to drinks, stocks, condiments, soups, eggs, hors d’Oeuvres and little dishes.  The middle of the book focuses on main courses from sandwiches to pasta to seafood and meats.  The last part of the book contains my favorite part of the book, breads, quickbreads, cookies, candies, custards and dessert sauces.  The book contains a recipe for any ingredient that you could imagine.

I am quite fond of the bread, dessert and pastry section.  The recipes go through each of the steps and with detailed instructions. As noted earlier the beginning of each chapter has easier recipes and the end of the chapter has harder recipes.  In the yeast bread section it starts out with recipes for fast white bread and the end of the chapter discusses the process and ingredients to make Panettone. 

I have made a ton of recipes from this book.  The last one that I made was creme brulee.  It came out perfect.  I wish that I had some pics of the brulees.  They were awesome.  Every single recipe that I have used from this book has been awesome.

As you can see Tucker also likes the book.

My copy of the book is in bad shape.  Tucker as a pup got a hold of it.  He found that the recipes were so good that he just wanted to eat the words as he has no thumbs and is unable to make the recipes.  I have reassured him that I would make the recipes and let him try them so he has decided to stop eating the book.