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ironchefkorea · 04-30-2005, 01:01 AM

warning - before reading this, please understand that I'm delirious with adrenaline, cannabis, and alcohol after a decent 8 hour shift on the line. my tips and tricks may be convoluted, and my sentences senseless, but I'm trying, goddamnit.

when prepping everything in large amounts, do everything in single steps. for example - let's say you required a large quantity of garlic, like 4 or 5 heads. Instead of peeling off individual cloves and peeling them with the aid of your paring knife, do each step all at once. step 1: seperate the cloves from the root, discarding as much peel as possible. step 2: lay your garlic out on a cutting board, and with a chef's knife, cut the root from each garlic, holding the edge on the board and pulling the clove up and back from the blade. by doing this, you eliminate the unusable root portion of the clove and get a good start on peeling the clove itself. step 3: go back through the cloves, peeling the rest of the skin.

don't be fooled by chef tony. don't buy shit from wal-mart. you need, in your entire cooking life, a maximum of 4 knives. 1. Chef's knife, whichever size feels more comfortable. 2. Paring knife, for all those pretty tomato roses, all that aspic and presentation related stuff that you do to impress your guests. 3. Offset serrated knife. With this tool in hand, you can never complain - bread, fruit, veggies, meat, tree bark, and human craniums are all easily cut through by these useful, useful bastards. 4. a slicer. this is completely optional, but looks tight and is fun to use. As far as I can tell, the members of this forum are reasonably internet saavy people - research before you purchase.

don't ruin pasta. if you have children, don't bring them up on overcooked mush. cook your noodles in salted water until biting them gives resistance, but has just lost the stiff starchiness in the center of the noodle. strain your pasta but do not rinse with cold water. this is the reason why you don't cook the noodles completely in the water. carry over heat will bring your noodles to the perfect condition for saucing as you lay your noodles out on a sheet pan with parchment paper (or foil), tossing lightly with olive oil. keep the sheet pan near your bubbling sauce, checking the temperature until the pasta is just below the steam coming from your sauce (of course, this is variable on your perception, so be careful).

embrace lard. it is one of God's greatest gifts. use it to fry your breakfast egg with a bit of diced onion, garlic, jalapeno, and tomato. marinate pork with your favorite recipe and instead of grilling/sauteeing, make it confit - place the marinated meat into a pot and melt lard until the meat is covered - bring this to a slow simmer and cook it for two hours, and when you fish out that piece of meat, you will perceive heaven.

I've got more. I could fill this thread to 10 pages. But right now I've gotta watch futurama.

04-30-2005, 01:01 AM	#74 (permalink)
ironchefkorea Insane	warning - before reading this, please understand that I'm delirious with adrenaline, cannabis, and alcohol after a decent 8 hour shift on the line. my tips and tricks may be convoluted, and my sentences senseless, but I'm trying, goddamnit. when prepping everything in large amounts, do everything in single steps. for example - let's say you required a large quantity of garlic, like 4 or 5 heads. Instead of peeling off individual cloves and peeling them with the aid of your paring knife, do each step all at once. step 1: seperate the cloves from the root, discarding as much peel as possible. step 2: lay your garlic out on a cutting board, and with a chef's knife, cut the root from each garlic, holding the edge on the board and pulling the clove up and back from the blade. by doing this, you eliminate the unusable root portion of the clove and get a good start on peeling the clove itself. step 3: go back through the cloves, peeling the rest of the skin. don't be fooled by chef tony. don't buy shit from wal-mart. you need, in your entire cooking life, a maximum of 4 knives. 1. Chef's knife, whichever size feels more comfortable. 2. Paring knife, for all those pretty tomato roses, all that aspic and presentation related stuff that you do to impress your guests. 3. Offset serrated knife. With this tool in hand, you can never complain - bread, fruit, veggies, meat, tree bark, and human craniums are all easily cut through by these useful, useful bastards. 4. a slicer. this is completely optional, but looks tight and is fun to use. As far as I can tell, the members of this forum are reasonably internet saavy people - research before you purchase. don't ruin pasta. if you have children, don't bring them up on overcooked mush. cook your noodles in salted water until biting them gives resistance, but has just lost the stiff starchiness in the center of the noodle. strain your pasta but do not rinse with cold water. this is the reason why you don't cook the noodles completely in the water. carry over heat will bring your noodles to the perfect condition for saucing as you lay your noodles out on a sheet pan with parchment paper (or foil), tossing lightly with olive oil. keep the sheet pan near your bubbling sauce, checking the temperature until the pasta is just below the steam coming from your sauce (of course, this is variable on your perception, so be careful). embrace lard. it is one of God's greatest gifts. use it to fry your breakfast egg with a bit of diced onion, garlic, jalapeno, and tomato. marinate pork with your favorite recipe and instead of grilling/sauteeing, make it confit - place the marinated meat into a pot and melt lard until the meat is covered - bring this to a slow simmer and cook it for two hours, and when you fish out that piece of meat, you will perceive heaven. I've got more. I could fill this thread to 10 pages. But right now I've gotta watch futurama. __________________ If it wasn't for microsoft, if we lived in the middle east? Y'all wouldn't have no hands....