Beginning Gourmet Cooking Techniques | Tuesday, period 1

[sharp_as_knives]

The Danger Shop was set up once more with individual cooking stations, and one for Hannibal at the front. Only this time there were fire extinguishers strategically placed by every setup.

"First class, we covered boiling water. It's a good start, but obviously not everything is cooked that way. This week, we will go over cooking with oil. There are numerous different types of oils and fats, both vegetable and animal, and each one has a different purpose." He passed around a handout. "We could take an entire semester or more to cover them all, so for now please note that some oils are better for cooking, and some are better for eating."

He made a moue of distaste "Most of what you're likely to find in stores in this time and place is refined oils. If you think that sounds as if they've been processed with solvents and machinery until they have more chemicals than character, you wouldn't be wrong. We will not be cooking with them here." He motioned them all to join him at the front, where he set out a number oils in front of him, of various colors and consistencies. "Unrefined oils have much more flavor. They take more skill to cook with, but they're well worth it. They work best at lower heats; for things that require very high heats, such as frying, animal fats are generally better."

He took out a basket of good homemade bread and gestured them towards the oils. "Please, try them." He went over the list of oils and fats on the handout as they did so. "And of course," he concluded, "butter is one of the most common fats. Very good for baking, and very easy to find."

He nodded to them all. "Today, you will be making two things. First, bruschetta." Yes, after teaching them how to boil water, he was teaching them to make toast. Gourmet toast. "We have olive oil for grilling the bread and for the pancetta, and walnut oil for cooking the mushrooms, so you can see what it's like to cook with something a little different. Then, potatoes in goose fat. Which should appeal to those of you who are fans of french fries, although I do hope you'll find this superior." If you didn't, he would despair of your palate, but you would probably be in good company. Jono.

"Mademoiselle," he told Cosette, "since you have done that already, please use your skills to find a recipe that uses at least three different oils or fats, and make it. Let me know if you need any help; I will be your sous chef for the day. The rest of you, since this may be a fairly large task, you may feel free to pair up with each other if you like. When you've finished, I'll be sharing my versions of each of these dishes, as well as late winter vegetables roasted in bacon fat and pickled fig, robiola, and pistachio oil crostini. Meanwhile, if you have questions, please ask. And please, try not to set anything on fire, yourselves included." Dante.

Comments

RE: Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel looked at the toast for a moment, and then up at Lottie. And then back at the toast.

"Yeeees," she said, slowly. "Flambe. Flambe is what I'm making right now."

No. No, she'd been making toast.

Or charcoal.

Re: RE: Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"Then I would say you're doing an excellent job, chef!" Not that Lottie's opinion mattered at all. "Would you like assistance in . . . deflambeing your flambe?"

Lottie knew a thing or two about fires. You didn't know a pyro like Little Claire for long without learning how to put them out.

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel considered this offer carefu--

"Yes! Please, yes! Toast good, fire bad, blarg!!"

The most complicated thing she generally made in a kitchen was Mabel Juice. And there wasn't a single plastic dinosaur in sight in here.

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

Which really was quite an oversight on Hannibal's part.

Lottie grabbed one of the fire extinguishers and leveled it at the little toast fire. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she shouted dramatically, and pulled the pin and fired.

Really, she knew she could have just smothered the thing with a pan lid or something. But fire extinguishers. Come on!

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

And THAT was what assistant chefs were for!

"Excellent work!" Mabel held up her hand for a high-five. "Let's clean this up and then we can give it another try!"

Maybe it would go more smoothly this time?

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"That sounds well plan-like," Lottie said, nodding. "We can use my stove." Since it wasn't covered in chemicals.

And also came with a nicely toasted piece of bread that she'd finished before noticing the fire.

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel gave her own stove a thoughtful looking over, and then nodded her agreement as she ambled on over to Lottie's stove.

"Great idea!" A beat. "Maybe you can, um, show me how you got your toast so nice?"

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"Certainly," Lottie said. "The secret is to be patient and not turn the heat up too high."

Lottie wasn't actually that great at patience, at least when there wasn't a mystery involved. But her mum worked a lot and her older sister was pretty useless in the kitchen, so she'd had to learn to cook decently or she'd quite possibly have starved.

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"That doesn't actually sound so impossible," Mabel mused. "How high is too high, then?"

Because she had patience in spades!

Just so long as cooking didn't take very long.

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"When things start smokin, that's usually a good sign you've gone too far," Lottie noted. "I like to put the oil in and watch till it starts to kinda shimmer, then turn it down."

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel's eyes widened a little at the thought.

"That sounds... so... magical!" Magical toast. Yes. That had to be it! "I didn't know it got shimmery!"

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"You have to watch it closely," Lottie said. ". . . And not let it catch fire first."

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"Okay..." Mabel squinted a little at the pan. "How do you know it's about to catch fire, then?"

Smoke was generally a good indication, Mabel.

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"It usually starts to smoke first." Listen to your narration, Mabel! "It's actually called a 'smoke point'. Which does not mean the age at which it's legally allowed to buy a pack at the corner store, it turns out."

Lottie had had to overcome some strange and fantastic ideas about food terms in her day.

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Hey, for what it was worth, Mabel would have wondered if Lottie hadn't explained it to her.

"Ooooh." She paused to let that idea process for a bit, and then nodded. "Okay, that makes sense!"

Granted, 'smoke equals fire' was pretty much the most basic sort of kitchen common sense, but for a girl who thought that troll dolls added much-needed personality to syrupy fruit juice...

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

Honestly, Mabel probably had a bright and promising future in the kitschy food industry.

"So I'm going to turn on the heat about thaaaaaat far," Lottie narrated, switching her burner back on and turning the flame up about halfway. "Do you wanna put the oil in?"

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that, I can handle," Mabel declared, making a reach for the oil and, by some miracle, actually measuring out two tablespoons of the stuff without spilling or deciding to add more just for good measure. "And in it goes!"

And... in it went. Go team!

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

Lottie was impressed. She was totally a "just for good measure" sort of cook.

"Excellent. Now we kinda stand around for a bit until it starts to look shimmery."

This was the boring part.

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"Okay!"

And then Mabel stood there.

And stared.

At the pan.

"... How long does it take?"

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"Coupla minutes," Lottie said. She sighed. "They're very long minutes."

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"I guess that's where the 'watched pot' saying comes from," Mabel sighed. "But if you can't watch it or it'll never boil, how are you supposed to know when it's started shimmering?"

Cooking was so darn confusing.

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"That's hyperbole," Lottie explained. "It totally boils eventually. It just seems to never happen. Ooo!" She pointed to where a couple of teeny tiny bubbles had started in the middle of the pool of oil. "It's starting!"

Re: Cook your food!

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"Ooo!" Okay, now Mabel was invested in this, leaning forward with wide-eyes to get a better look. "Oh, this is exciting! Do we really have to stop it from being all shimmery by putting a piece of bread into it?"

She kind of just liked the glitter experience, here.

Re: Cook your food!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Thank you for the warning, Lottie." Hannibal looked a bit pained (largely to cover his amusement). "Now please use a non-toxic station for the rest of your cooking, girls."

Re: Cook your food!

[bestatmystery]

"Yes chef!" Lottie saluted as though speaking to a general. "Warnings are only the polite thing to do."

Possibly not quite so loudly, though. It really hadn't been that big of a fire.