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.
rouxbe cooking school
a chronological journal of my online culinary school excursions
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.
Pandora’s Box?
I had chosen not to look at it until it was time to actually work on it, so I was a bit nervous. I won’t go in to details/requirements of this assignment in case you are thinking about taking the course, or are taking the course, and want it to be a surprise but I chose to make savory butternut squash soup because after looking in my cupboard, I was inspired by the squash I saw. Normally, I find butternut squash soup to be a bit on the sweet side, but felt that I might be able to offset that sweetness with some slightly bitter kale and salty bacon. In addition, I love Asian flavors so was hoping to blend the classic pairing of butternut squash and sage with Eastern spices.
Roux the Day
Roux-based soups are often referred to as cream soups and have a silky-smooth and cream-like consistency. But here is an interesting fact: Roux-based soups are actually based on a thin velouté sauce or a thin béchamel sauce. The practice assigments consisted of cream of broccoli, cream of asparagus, and cream of cauliflower soup. My favorite was the cream of cauliflower. It was very good and I am going to try roasting the cauliflower first the next time I make it for some added depth and smokiness.
Smooth, Silky, Thick, or Chunky
Unit Eight takes the base of making stock and broth and runs with it in an entire unit on soup! I learned how to make four basic soup bases: broth-based clear, stock-based clear, roux-based, and starch-base and builds on previous skills, such as stocks, broths, knife skills, and seasoning.
quookie 