Back 2 Work...

It's that time again...school is cranking back up for everyone! After a hot and sweaty summer working for a former employer in the beverage industry I am now back in the kitchen!

This will be our second year with a school lunch program and I am pretty excited that we started the year with a kitchen that is already open! In honor of a 'return to business as usual' I had my chef jackets sealed with the schools emblem. Its time to make things permanent, settle in, and get ready for the coming year!

Probably not the best picture, but you see it...our school colors are green and gold...and yes, that is an "old school" thermometer. Feel free to purchase and/or donate a Thermapen or TWO for the kitchen (or even some mini's ~ they travel better in the pockets), I will not turn it down!

Easy Bread and Pizza Dough

I put this recipe together for my own use a long time ago.  A yeast dough (and different kinds of dough in general) get a certain 'feel' to them and you start noticing this...Then you make better judgments on when to add a little more water, more flour, or a pinch more salt.  From this same dough, I can alter the sugar and other ingredients to produce cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, pita bread, naan...sometimes it's just the kneading, rise time, technique, or cooking method with the same recipe that makes it another dough 'product'.  It can even be multiplied successfully for bulk preparation in commercial kitchens. (I know, I was doing it for years!)

Easy "Bread" Dough (use whole wheat flour for wheat dough) for Bread or Rolls

• 4 Cups High Gluten Flour - or - 5 Cups of All-Purpose Flour


• 1 Tablespoon Yeast


• 1 Tablespoon Sugar


• 1 Tablespoon Salt (scant)


• 1 Tablespoon Oil


• 2 cups warm/hot water (not above 110F)

Put dry ingredients and oil in a mixer. Use mixer set on 2 or 3 (not fast, but not real slow) and use the dough hook. Add up to 2 cups of warm/hot water from the faucet. Pour in the mixer while the dough hook is working. Watch for the dough to start to come together then let the mixer run for about 5 to 8 minutes…you can also need the dough by hand for about the same amount of time instead of using the mixer.

You are looking for a soft smooth texture to the dough, oil dough ball, put in a bowl and cover…let rise for about 40-60 minutes (adjust rise time to your humidity/heat) dough may double in size quicker in more warm and humid conditions or slower in cold conditions.

** If you're making pizza, it's up to you about the rise time or if you want to store it overnight in the fridge to develop more flavor. But you can start working with the dough as quick as 30 minutes if you're rolling out pizza.

Smash or punch down, then shape into rolls or 2 loaves in bread pans and wait the same amount of time for the second rise (or longer if needed) bake in an oven at 160C or 350F for about 30-40 minutes.

Let cool slightly, eat fresh and warm.

*Later on when you feel pretty confident about your skills as a basic bread dough maker you can try mixing the sugar, water, and yeast together and waiting till it starts to bubble. Then you can add it to the flour and salt that is mixing in the bowl. And don't forget the oil!

Comments welcome or contact me for further questions...this recipe was developed as a beginner's understanding of dough.

Waffles & Pancakes!

Classic Waffles Mix

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons white sugar (or honey/other sweetener)

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups warm milk

1/3 cup butter, melted (or oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Pancakes, add another 1/2 cup of liquid.

This mix is extremely customizable! I used wheat flour, fresh blueberries, and some coconut milk as part of the liquid to make silver dollar pancakes for my boys the other morning.  I use an old GE Belgian waffle maker for waffles and a Cuisenart  griddle for the small pancakes. 

Favorites This Week!

Kenji, over at SeriousEats.com, posted an excellent article for grilling steaks this summer. Actually it's more about: The Food Lab: 7 Old Wives' Tales About Cooking Steak That Need To Go Away.  Let me give you three myths that I hear the most to interest you in reading the article:

1.  "Sear your meat over high heat to lock in juices."
2.  "Use the "poke test" to check if your steak is done."
3.  "You should let a thick steak rest at room temperature before you cook it."

And there are four other myths with the science to debunk them. Great job Kenji!

While out today i found the following in a local Walmart on sale for $1.50! Yes, hotdogs bragging to have been made with Bacon! But as the WEBstarauntstore.com tweeted me today "...apparently every other meat as well!". LOL!!! I think I would try them once in the name of research!

Next up I found that the 12 pack bottles of Landshark beer have an iron-on transferrable that you can put on a tee-shirt. Wow! What will they think of next? You get an iron-on and they get free advertising. 

I am not a beer drinker at all. But the concept was interesting. 

Just another day at work!

What Summer Brings...

My wife's parents called in May to say "We are coming to see the boys and we want you to leave." What? What! Uh, ok! We then started to plan a few days at the beach, just the two of us...Let me say that again for all you parents out there, A FEW DAYS AT THE BEACH JUST THE TWO OF US! Yes!

Moving on...Our itinerary went a little something like this: get up stretch, open door smell ocean, off to coffee and breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, dinner, cool ocean breeze while on balcony looking at beach. Repeat. 

Now back to my current reality, Sigh! Since my job at the academy is only 10 months (a school year) I am working at a prior job but only for the summer. In these days of high unemployment numbers it's best to have a good work ethic, integrity, and NOT burning those bridges behind you when you leave one job for another! I still work for the academy but I am off during June and July. People in the school system will immediately understand.

Posting may slow down because of the hours I work and my summer job is at a beverage company, so not much cooking going on for me. But fortunately for the rest of our family my wife can really "THROW-DOWN" when it comes to cooking. She is no beginner!

 

VFCA SR Graduation Reception

Last Friday I helped Debbie put out a reception for the Valley Fellowship Christian Academy graduates. Debbie does food events and knows her way around the kitchen! One of her specialties is cake. And I am fully agreeable to let people work in their element and this is one of her's! Actually sometimes it's easiest to sit back and 'be' the help or sous chef...you can learn from seeing things from another angle (besides your own) when someone else does it. 

Plenty of people commented on her food and the cake BUT I can tell she will give you the recipe for the cheese-ball, NOT the cake!!! LOL

Diet Trends

I have noticed either consciously or without realizing it America has started scrolling back their intake on carbs, glutens, and desserts. Is this because of the nations obsession on how overweight we are getting?

Steve, over at Roundthechuckbox.blogspot.com recently wrote on one of his posts:

"Beginning with pasta carbanara Friday evening, five cooks labored to set our best on the mobile serving line. We quickly learned that this East Bay group loved the sausages, roasted vegetables and salad bar. Though good, fresh baked dinner rolls, rich pasta and desserts fell by the wayside."

I have noticed that trend even with myself. I hate diets, but I started scrolling back my calories and increasing my garage elliptical workouts! LOL And the things that fall by the wayside first and foremost are the things listed above.

Really, I am just getting back to eating like I did in California, a lot of fresh veggies, cooked veggies, fruits, cheese, meats (lots of smoked and grilled meats)and usually only breads, pastas, and desserts if they are homemade and delicious! (As I am sure Steve and his cooks food are delicious!)

My advice has always been to ONLY eat food that is delicious AND eat it in moderation. As someone once said: 

"Life is to short to eat bad food!" ~ Amen!

May Highlights

We had another visit from the health department and if you follow me on twitter @tyronebcookin or Facebook you saw my humorous posting: Stick THAT in your dishwasher and sanitize it!

Things are wrapping up here in the kitchen as school winds down. We grilled a few meals outside in front of the kitchen just to kick things up a level. Chicken for fajitas!

Burgers for cheeseburgers and fries!

When I am not in the kitchen or out in the parking lot playing with fire, you can try to catch up with me at my mobile office:

Ice coffee, nothing fancy here...keeps me moving. 

Sign of the times...

Everyone is getting cheap nowadays. Foodservice is no exception. Prices and packages are getting changed with no forewarning...and probably in hopes that YOU TOO will not catch it right away!

Take for instance last week. Last Friday I was calculating costs on a particular meal and realized HEY! I am losing some money on this! How did that happen? Well I guess it's my own fault for not seeing it on my invoice but a particular item went up by $.50 and I didn't even realize it! Or did I? The delivery person said the price changed 2 months ago...REALLY? I am going to pull some invoices!!! But in the meantime I had no professional courtesy of even being told about the increase!

NEXT. Last food order I received plastic spoons like I usually order and no, the price didn't change, product number was the same, but the product was made much cheaper and smaller than before?!?!? Again, no warning or explanation. Did they think I wasn't going to catch this!!!

SIGH!

Pecan Crusted Chicken

Two ways to do pecan crusted chicken that have worked out rather well for me that do not include using flour or breadcrumbs. Can easily be Paleo and gluten free! The chicken can be crusted just on top or completely...some prefer to coat just the top as pecans definitely are not cheap.

First, a long time ago in East Texas I was part of a catering company (Exclusively Yours Catering Company) that specialized in giving people exactly what they wanted when they requested. Sure we did everything from fine dining to back yard BBQ but we also replicated family recipes and created new dishes from scratch based off of our customers wants and needs. One particular time we had a party that wanted pecan crusted chicken and I was so tired of other recipes calling for flour, breadcrumbs, or some other 'gummy' substance that didn't really help the overall taste of the pecan crusted chicken which led me to my first recipe. This is scaled down to a 'family of four' scenario:

4 - 4 to 6 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
1 - cup of honey slightly heated
1 - cup of pecans chopped by hand or food processor
2 - tablespoons brown sugar (optional)
1 - tablespoon Emeril's Essence (optional, can use your favorite spice mix that is similar we had one we used to sell online called Secret Seasoning #2)

Salt to taste in dry mix before using chicken. For consistency of chopped pecans see pictures below.

**Preheat oven to 400F. If using commercial convection oven then use 350F.
Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts. Mix dry ingredients including pecans in shallow bowl or pan. Put honey on plate or in bowl and place chicken in it, flip to other side coating evenly then letting excess honey drip off. Now place chicken in dry mix with pecans pressing the chicken down, shaking bowl slightly then flip breast over and repeat. Chicken should be well coated by now. Put in baking dish or sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Repeat this process till all the chicken is done and on sheet tray. Cook in oven for 20 minutes and check temperature. 165F to 170F internal temperature is what we are looking for...let chicken rest 5 to 10 minutes then serve with honey mustard sauce. ~~

Next recipe called for a little different take on the sweet part of the chicken instead of using honey. Why? Because the honey gave the pecan crusted chicken a taste not everyone liked and the chicken coating came out a little stickier...I am not saying that is a bad thing at all, just different. I think the honey results came out more 'caramel-y' (if that's a word). This time around I used egg whites as the binder:

4 - 4 to 6 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
4 - egg white slightly beaten
1 - cup of pecans chopped by hand or food processor
2 - tablespoons brown sugar
2 - tablespoons Montreal Chicken Seasoning
1 - pinch of cayenne pepper, Cajun seasoning, chipotle, red pepper flake, or whatever form of 'heat' you like! Or none! (This is optional)

**repeat cooking instructions above substituting the egg whites for the honey. ~~

What kind of honey mustard sauce you say?

1 cup preferably local honey (more flavor)
1 cup stone ground or spicy mustard
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of mayo

Mix together in bowl, adjust as you feel needed to your taste buds.

~~ Special shout out to Gary Hoag who I worked with when developing the first recipe! That party was a blast! Second recipe I developed and used in my current kitchen at the academy. Which also was met with excellent reviews.

Teres Major Steak

I remember back in the day (2006-2007) catering in East Texas finding out about this muscle in the cow between the shoulders or shoulder blades called terse major. It is a seldom used muscle second only to the tenderloin filet in tenderness. It is also referred to as a shoulder tender. If sliced into medallions, they are appropriately named petite tender medallions. Also known as (AKA) petite beef tender, beef filet, chuck tender steak...the list goes on. But with great beef flavor, a good chew/bite that's tender, and a fraction of the cost of tenderloin you can't lose on price and flavor!

Back then we bought it for $2.80 a pound. And it was a hit! It's said you can cook it all kinds of ways but the most successful way we found to do it was to rub it down (whatever rub mix or seasoning you want to use) and sear it on the grill or in a pan, finishing it in the oven to a medium rare. At that time a major meat company (and family) that we knew told us the price was about to go up! Apparently two nationally know restaurants were about to make very large purchases of the meat for their fajitas and other beef dishes. ~ fast forward to today.

I recently started doing some beef dishes and now that I am in Alabama it's a harder 'sell' for beef than chicken or pork. Remembering the teres major I asked my local meat supplier what the going rate was for it and it was $3.90 a pound un-trimmed or $5.40-65 a pound trimmed. Although you have to buy at least 65 pounds if the un-trimmed or 25 pounds of the trimmed for those prices. Still not bad at all considering the popularity of it has died back down and it's 7 years later! Not to mention the current price of beef tenderloin!

You can currently buy this meat at Sam's Club under the name petite tender beef filet, 2 in a package, already marinated in different flavors at $5.48 a pound. Which runs around $20 a package.

After serving this at a banquet hot (with a separate mushroom gravy) I served the leftovers cold as part of a sandwich platter at a luncheon. A few people were at both events and though they raved about it at the banquet, they later said it was even better cold with a horseradish sauce I had prepared!


I prepared the meat by searing it in a pan with a garlic herb mixture rubbed into it, then in the oven for 20 minutes at 350. After that it stayed in a warmer for 30. It was in a chafing dish for another 20 minutes. Which brings me to my last advantage of this meat, it stayed a nice medium-rare, to medium pink inside the meat thru this whole process. The picture on the bottom of this post is of the slices I used on a platter.

There doesn't seem to be a down side to the teres major!

Sweet Potato Fries, Pan Fried Tilapia...

Wasn't really going for Paleo diet but I didn't have buns to make black bean burgers! - fried sweet potato fries, pan fried tilapia with almond meal, Parmesan, and a homemade aoli sauce (was going to make tarter but no mayo, so had to make my own). Yeah, I know...first world problems!

Great Turkey

[Cooking in a commercial kitchen...]

Jenny-O has Turkey breasts in bulk usually coming in foil wrap at 8 to 12 pounds a piece. 2 in a case. Best bet is to defrost them in the fridge 3 to 4 days in advance.

After defrosting I would NOT cook them as recommended inside the foil. Cut the plastic and unwrap the foil to find two large turkey breasts that you can separate and lay flat on a sheet tray. You can fit a whole case on one full size sheet tray this way.

I use sea salt (although any will do) and a garlic and herb seasoning that has no salt added. I cover the top of them heavily with the garlic and herb mix.[I think I discussed this in the past but I prefer to control the salt AND you waste money buying pre-mixed seasoning and herbs because the first ingredient is salt, which is dirt cheap. Sometimes you want to heavily season but you can't because the salt in the mix will overpower it.]

Cooking the turkey in a convection oven on 350 to 375 (depends on which way your oven 'leans' toward on keeping good heat when the door is opened) for almost 2 hours or internal temp is 160. The weight of the Turkey will make the internal temp rise at least 5 more degrees when you put in on the rack to rest. AND YES, please let this meat rest!!! Easier cutting/slicing and less juices will run out.

Some juice will still escape when you cut it but If you use a little trick, like slicing the turkey on a cutting board that is laying inside a sheet tray, then you can pour the juice back over the meat.