I have to admit that this turned out to be the most difficult assignment thus far. I actually had to throw out my first attempt at the udon noodles. They just would not come together. I tried adding more water, but didn’t want to end up with a sticky mess either. I thought that if I let it rest it would come together, but after 10 minutes of kneading and 30 minutes of rest, I finally gave up and started over. In the end, I had to add 1/4 of a cup more of water than the instructions called for in my second attempt. The kneading was exhausting, but in the end, the noodles came out and the final dish was really tasty.
Author: micahquookie
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
Unit 16: Pasta should have been one of my easiest units. I love pasta, I love cooking pasta, and I love making homemade pasta. But like much in life, to guess the future is a fool's game. This unit is becoming my nemesis in more ways than one! But more on that in future posts. The unit started out well enough with a graded assignment in which I was to choose from a few options of pasta dishes. I chose wild mushroom and truffle oil pasta.
Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit
Unit 15: Legumes gave a bit more knowledge on how to best cook beans, different options on timing of cooking and how it will affect the final dish, and timing of adding other elements to the beans such as the fact that acid should only be added to the beans at the end of the cooking process or you prolong the cooking time significantly. Who knew? Not me! But my favorite part of this unit had to be the graded assignment which gave me an opportunity to show two creative ways of using one legume--of my choice--even (think Snagglepuss from 70s Saturday cartoons)!
A single grain of rice can tip the scale.
Unit 14 turned out to be another enlightening chapter in my culinary, dare I say, journey. I grew up on rice. I am not sure which came first, but the three things I can not remember not knowing how to make are pound cake, tea, and rice. And to this day, I love all three. But, and this is an enormous but, I now know a better way to cook rice. No more stove-top absorption method for me. Whether I am making simple rice or pilaf, it now gets popped in the oven to finish cooking. No more uneven cooking or burnt bottom. It just comes to down to simplicity for me. I can then focus on the other parts of the meal knowing that the rice will be perfect.
Plant-based what?
It's easy to think of a plant-based red sauce; that is what tomato sauce is. But white sauce, not so much. After all, traditional white sauces consist of butter, flour, and milk or cream. In one of the assignments in Unit 13, we were asked to do just that. In this plant-based version, soaked cashews are used as a base combined with white wine and seasoning, but without the dairy or wheat.
The Great Cover Up!
Learning to cook has been an ongoing process that was propelled by this cooking course. And while there have been quite a few "aha" moments, one that sticks in my head is when I made my first beurre blanc sauce way back when I first had a trial membership on Rouxbe. Not to be obnoxious, but it turned out perfect. As I recall, it was a recipe that included a white fish and golden beets. I have made that sauce many times since, but my favorite has to be with tarragon beurre blanc over a bed of fingerling potatoes and pan-seared salmon.
Getting to the Meat of It
Unit 12: Moist-heat Cooking Methods is all about comfort food—from braising, stewing, pot roasting, steaming, pressure cooking, submersion, and combination cooking—pretty much everything you might want on a chilly autumn night in front of a fire. Just my luck, it is late October, slightly dreary, and definitely cold.
It’s a Dry Heat
In Unit 11: Dry-Heat Cooking Methods, much to my shagrin, I learned that dry heat cooking methods encompass many of the most common cooking methods--from pan frying and sautéing to shallow and deep frying. I learned the proper way to pan fry, sauté, sear, stir fry, and sweat. And I even got to try my hand at pan tossing. This has proven to be something that I will have to master over time with practice.
DO sweat the small stuff!
As part of Unit 11, there was an graded activity that involved sweating minced garlic for a study in flavor development. I was then instructed to write my thoughts and observations on the results.
’tis the Season’ing
Unit Ten: Seasoning was all about correct and balanced seasoning. Brining, salting, cooking with herbs and marinating were covered to build deep, delicious flavor. By the end of this unit, I felt comfortable with the process of brining, using herbs and creating marinades.
quookie 