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Knife Skills and recommendations

Hello to all,
I understand that it has been over a year since my last blog. For that I am sorry, I have of course made multiple new dishes all of which were delicious and tasty! Well at least most were. I have been asked by a friend to do a blog on knives and I figure as my return i will do just that. So Beth this is for you, I hope others get things out of it as well.

The knives we use when cooking should be an extension of our hand. In saying this I mean that they should fit comfortably in our hand and we should be able to use them with ease. Your knives should be sharp at all times and dent free. All knives will have a factor razor edge when you buy them, but depending on how you use them and the quality will determine how fast you will have to resharpen them.

There are only really 3 knives that are a must: chef, paring, and boning (filet).  The chef is the all purpose does everything knife, it is the most commonly used knife by any chef. The paring knife is a 2-3" bladed knife used for the small things that a chefs knife is just too big to do. A boning knife is exactly what it sounds like it, a knife used for removing meat from a bone, it has an extremely flexible blade. As you grow you can add knives to your collection. A few of my favorites are offset bread knife, 10" slicer, 5" Santoku, and my 8" Santoku.

So lets start looking at the big things that make the difference.

Comfort:
This is a big one!! How can the knife act as an extension to your hand if it doesn't feel good on your hand? For instance Cutco knives are held in high regard by some for their sharpness and unique handles. I for one cannot stand the handles. I do not like the way the handle feel in my hand and the slightest wetness makes them too slippery in my hand and the round handle makes them easy to turn on you. I actually borrowed someones knives instead of walking 20 feet to get mine and cut the edge of my thumb off.

Weight: 
Not only does the grip need to be factored in, but the weight also needs to be considered. If you have a small hand then a huge 10" blade might not be the best knife for you. The longer the blade on a knife usually tends to make it heavier. I am capable of using a 10", but I much prefer to use my 8" Santoku.

Quality: 
When it comes to knives you truly get what you pay for. If you go to Wal-Mart and buy a Mainstay knife for $10, than you can expect the knife to dull quickly and probably get dinged up easily. On the other hand that doesn't mean everyone (or anyone really) needs a $150 Shun knife. While I do suggest biting the bullet and buying a good set rather then settling for just a decent set, if you don't use them all the time you don't need them.

Durability: 
Blade quality is mostly determined on blade thickness. If your blade is too thin on a knife that shouldn't have a thin blade then it can easily get bent or even break. So make sure you have a decent thickness on your blade! One thing to make sure your knife has is a tang that goes all the way through your handle. The tang is the anchor for the blade in the handle. Basically your blade is a long piece of metal that runs from the sharp tip all the way down to inside the handle. By having a full tang your handle is less likely to break over the years and your blade is less likely to loosen.


Brands that I suggest are Henckel and Wustoff. These are very nice knives, but can get expensive. Chicago Cutlery is a good inexpensive brand.

When I was a kid I actually used to bang my mom's knives into the edge of the counter. If I found my child doing that I don't think they would be able to sit for a week. So let's talk knife care!

NEVER PUT YOUR KNIVES IN THE DISHWASHER. That's pretty much knife care. Oh and make sure you keep your knives sharp by using a steel and a sharpener when needed. A steel should be used every time or every other time before you using your knife. For the sharpener any store bought sharpener will suffice, but always hone the knife on the steel after the sharpener is used.

Well that's all I got right now, if you have any questions I would be more than happy to share my thoughts.

Pizza Pizza!!

So as I have stated before one of the best perks about my job is that I get free food. Lately we have had an influx of pizza toppings being shown to some customers. So what do you do with mass amounts of cheese and pepperoni, besides eat it together as is... You make pizza!!

So I don't keep a stash of yeast so I jumped online to get a yeast free pizza dough. I tend to go to www.allrecipes.com or www.cooks.com, they have a wide assortment of recipes and comments on each dish.

Main Dish: Pizza
Prep: Pizza Dough
Prep: Pizza Sauce

Pizza dough
2 C All-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 C water
Olive oil
Semolina flour

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Mix AP Flour, Salt, and Baking Powder together until well blended. Add water and mix thoroughly until a nice dough is formed. Once dough is formed knead for about 2 min. You don't want to OVER knead the dough because that will over work the gluten and make the dough tough and chewy (Note: All doughs will do this).

Press the dough out to form any shape you want your pizza to be. Since the dough does not have yeast it will not be the fluffy easily pliable dough you see people flipping around in the air. Since it is a stiffer dough I simply pressed it out on the counter to flatten. Sprinkle a little semolina flour on your pizza pan, if you dont have semolina you can use corn flour, corn meal, or just regular flour. The purpose of this is to just make it easier to lift off the pan after baking. Move the pizza dough from the counter to the pan, continue flattening if needed. Flatten out to 1/4 inch, dough will rise.

Using a pastry brush or spoon spread olive oil on top of pizza, this will help to keep the sauce from absorbing into the crust. Par-bake the crust in the pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. Remove pizza and top with sauce. You can use a canned pizza sauce or make your own. I like to take Mammaw's stewed tomatoes and puree them with some garlic, spices (of the Italian region), salt, and pepper. Once sauced layer a thin coat of cheese, then some toppings, then more cheese. Place pizza back in oven for 8-10 minutes to melt cheese and heat up meat.

This is the pizza all topped and staring to bake.

And here it is ready for my belly!! YUM YUM!!


This is a very easy dish and great for kids. Altogether you are looking at around 30 min to fix and bake.

You can also try it as a calzone or "hot pocket" by using the dough recipe and just encasing the toppings inside. If you decide to go this route simply follow the recipe, but DO NOT par-bake the crust.

Hope yall enjoy!!

The Second Day...

One of the best things about making extra food are the leftovers! Not only can you eat them just like they are, but if you are feeling adventurous you can change them to be something TOTALLY different. When I was a kid I became the king of leftovers. Any of my friends will tell you that my house was the place to be. After church we would all head over to my house and raid the fridge. I would sit down in front of the fridge while my friends would lounge on the couch. After finding the best and most versatile left overs I would get to work on lunch. To make leftovers new all you got to do is change them a little and tweak that flavor.

So like I told you in my previous blog I had gotten some steaks and divided the meat into four pieces. Michelle and I ate the larger pieces and left the filets for the next day. I was originally just going to heat up the steaks as is, but we ended up having to go somewhere soon so something had to change!

New Orleans is the home of Poboy's and one of the biggest seller's and easiest to make is the Roast Beef, thus it was my muse.

Main dish: Roast Beef Poboy
Cooked ingredients: Leftover Steak, Onions, Beef gravy
Other: Toast and Cheese
 

So I started off by slicing some onion long wise, so I had multiple onion
strips. I sauteed those off over medium-high heat with a little olive oil until they were tender but still had a little snap to them when you bit them. By under cooking them you ensure that they wont over cook when you add them to the sauce later. After the onions are done take them out of the pan and set aside.

Take out the steak and slice into strips. You can slice the beef as thin as you want, just remember that the thicker you slice it the longer it takes to cook and the less sloppy it is. I prefer mine thin so you get more gravy coverage. The nice thing about cutting the beef while it is cold, is that the juices have had a chance to congeal again and will be present in the heating process. Once all the beef is sliced set it aside. We will get to it in a minute.

Now we will make the gravy, which is surprising easy. So you can make gravy a few different ways: a gravy mix, jar gravy, frozen, or you can make it, I decided to make it. This is what you do:
1. Get a beef boullion cube and just follow the directions for make the stock. Usually one cup of water to one boullion cube. Taste the stock and if it is beefy enough then pour in your pan, if it is not beefy enough add another cube.
2. Pour the boullion in the pan and heat up until it starts to bubble.
3. While the stock is heating, mix a spoonful of flour and a spoonful of oil, any kind, in a bowl. You are now making a raw roux, like any roux you want to try and have equal parts flour and oil.
4. Add roux to the bubbling stock until desired thickness. Add more roux to thicken or more stock to thin.
Now you have a easy homemade gravy!! This recipe can be used for pork or chicken as well.

Add all ingredients to the pan and mix with the gravy. Continue to cook until meat is heated all the way through. Pile your meat and gravy high on toast or other bread and add any other toppings you want. I like mine with just some parmesan cheese.

You can also do this same recipe to make fajitas! Just change the gravy to a taco sauce by using a packet or chili powder and cumin. It's leftovers have fun with it, if you end up not liking it at least you got one good meal out of it and you and you had fun trying new things!!!

Free Deliciousness!!

While growing up, like most other people, my food preferences have changed. I used to drink coffee with cream and sugar, now it has to be black. I used to eat prefabricated chicken nuggets, now its while cooked chicken breast. I used to use A-1 on my steaks, now it salt, pepper, and flame kissed. However, sometimes its fun to not be a purest about everything.

Recently I received some food from work at no cost. At first this does not sound weird because almost every week I am coming home with some type of food that i have gotten from work. However, this day my free item were two PORTERHOUSE STEAKS!! I was in heaven, and I was prepared to eat like a king as if I was sitting at the big banquet table in the sky! Well I will stop blabbing and get to the food since that is why yall are here.

The Main Dish: Porterhouse Steaks
The Side Dish: Grilled Squash and Zucchini
Additional Dish: Fire Sauteed Onions



Okay this is what we started with.

Quick lesson on steaks! A Porterhouse and T-Bone are practically the same steak. The difference between the two is the smaller portion of meat on the steak. Look at the steak on the right, the large portion of meat on the left of the bone is the strip or New York Strip, the smaller portion on the right of the bone is the tenderloin or Filet. On a T-bone there is very little to no tenderloin and on the Porterhouse there is a much larger portion of the tenderloin. Now to cooking!

I went ahead and cut both sections of meat off the bone for easier grilling. I smothered butter all over the steaks, this not only helps seal in flavor, but also gives it a nice buttery flavor and who doesn't love butter! I have also seasoned them with Montreal Steak Seasoning and Garlic and Herb Seasoning, both of which can be found at any grocery store.

As a side I cut up some Yellow Squash and Zucchini length wise then coated them with olive oil and Garlic and Herb seasoning.


Everything gets thrown on the grill and cooked to your preference.

I also put some onion ring slices into a foil pouch with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. I simply placed my pouch on the edge of the coals and turned maybe once or twice the whole time i was cooking. You basically want them to cook in there own juices and caramelize.

This is what your finished product should look like.

Another get reason to cut the meat off the bone before grilling is portion control. Lets face it, a porterhouse is more of a meal for TWO rather then a meal for one. So Michelle and I decided to eat our respected strips and save the filet's for supper the next night and boy were those some good leftovers, but that is for the next blog!

Coming Soon!

So I have been really busy and plan on doing my first post either tomorrow or Thursday, so watch for it!

In the Beginning

In the beginning God created vegetables, fruit, grains, animals, and man! Man got hungry and decided to start throwing stuff together to hopefully fill the void in their stomachs. Sometimes it was a great success and sometimes it was a complete flop!

One of my chefs from school used to always say "We have wine, bread, and cheese, what more could you want?!" I always enjoyed his class and have always found joy in his saying, though I do like to add "meat" into it sometimes.

So that is exactly what this blog is for! To chronicalize Michelle and I's food adventure. I plan on giving recipes and tips that we like to use. I hope to also have lots of pictures! I tend to find it easier to cook when I know what something looks like, plus food is just fun to look at!

I hope you enjoy these entries as much as I enjoy the dishes. Who knows you might even be lucky enough to get some of the dishes! So Bon Apetite!