The Other Half

Ever since Le Petit Chef got started, Pam's been insisting I find something to post about. I've got a few ideas, but as a first step, I'll just say a couple things about how I got into actually enjoying the art (and science!!) of food preparation. I remember when I first started grad school, a coworker asked if I liked cooking. I said 'god no,' and he was shocked. His reply was something along the lines of 'how can you be a good chemist and not cook!' Through watching Pam and trying a couple of things myself, I've certainly discovered that organic chemists (at least) have a natural inclination, if not an outright affinity for the culinary arts.

Pam has already shown a penchant for things in the kitchen. In fact, I'm not allowed to do anything in the kitchen except prepare things for the grill. Needless to say, the stovetop and oven are not my forte. I won't go so far as to suggest that the grill (or if we want to be pretentious about it, the grille) is my forte, but I am learning. If you, our reader(s), start early on enough, you can learn with me that grilling is much more than 1/4" patties of low grade beef turned twice and served over cheese between buns. In fact, grilling goes much deeper than that, as I have recently discovered, to facilitate the preparation of almost any food.

So, as we proceed, I will do my best to chronicle my hopefully educational, sometimes comical, inevitably disastrous and ideally edible (if not downright delicious) experiments for you. Best-case scenario, Pam and I become a wildly successful Michelin-rated two-person operation. Worst-case scenario, you learn a thing or two that inspires you to fire up your cheap propane gas grill or Webber kettle and give some pork rubs or vegetable marinades a shot, and eat more happily and healthily.

In either case, I hope it's a fun ride. Bon apetit!

As American as Apple Pie

I don't think it gets more American than apple pie, so that was my choice for a 4th of July treat. Chris and I spent an awesome weekend out in Malibu on the beach with our west coast family and friends. As usual in Malibu, there was no shortage of good food! My contribution was this apple pie, which I adapted from "The Joy of Cooking." I cook the filling, first cooking the apples in butter for several minutes covered before adding sugar, a healthy dose of cinnamon, and a bit of nutmeg. After cooling the filling, I spooned it into my pie crust with the accumulated juices and syrup. For the top of the crust, I used aspic cutters to cut stars out and used the little star pieces to further decorate the top before placing it on top of my pie. After an egg wash, I sprinkled a little bit of coarse sugar on top to lightly caramelize the pie crust upon baking. In all, if you cheat a little (like I did here) and use a pre-made pie crust, you can make this pie in less than 2 hours, before cooling.

One Word: KitchenAid!

Or is it two words? Who cares! Thanks to my awesome (and baking enabling) parents, I welcomed my first KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer this week! KitchenAid has a great deal where you can buy a refurbished model for about half the MSRP through their website. I chose the 5 qt. Artisan stand mixer in "Ice" and couldn't be happier with it. It comes at a great time where I'm pretty sure that one more batch of icing would have burned out the motor on my small hand mixer. I'm most excited about beating perfect egg whites with it and not having to stand there holding the mixer while trying to slowly add sugar and such! That may not sound super exciting to all of you, but it's thrilling to me! I feel much more legitimate now as far as baking goes, that's for sure.

An Herb Garden Companion

As you may have read previously, Chris and I have been growing some herbs on my balcony in pots for everyday cooking. When Chris' mom was visiting, she taught us how to cut the herbs, dry them, and freeze them for future use. I for one certainly was worried what I would do when she left and we were left to our own devices in caring for our little garden. This was quickly remedied by Chris' mom (and sister!) who sent me (as a birthday gift) this great little guide to growing your own herbs and using them called "Your Backyard Herb Garden". It covers everything from growing your herbs to using them in cooking and crafts. I'm especially interested in the handy chart on pests and molds to watch out for. In short, this is exactly what we needed to keep our little garden thriving and keep cooking with our herbs through the winter season. Thanks for the awesome gift!

Birthday Cake, Anyone?

This Saturday will be my 26th birthday and I'm happy to share it with our great friend, Andy! Some of you may also know that Chris' birthday was just last week. Of course this calls for birthday cake! I put this little guy together over Wednesday and Thursday nights after work. It's a 2 tier, blue and yellow, birthday gift cake with a great big blue fondant bow on top. I added a few little yellow bows on the first tier to jazz it up a bit too.

Chicken with Madeira Cream Sauce

I think this is officially my favorite chicken recipe; and it's easy! It's from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1" and requires very few ingredients. The chicken is baked in butter in a dutch oven covered with parchment paper. Julia Child says the chicken requires only 6 minutes or so to cook, but I think this was before the time of our oversized American genetically engineered chickens because my thin sliced bread fillets take around 13 minutes to cook at 400 °C in the oven. Once the chicken is done, transfer it to a plate and keep it in a warming oven until the sauce is done. To the juices and butter in the pot add 1/4 cup Madeira wine and 1/4 cup beef broth. Heat these on medium-high heat and reduce to a syrupy consistency. At this point, add 1 cup of heavy cream and heat for a few minutes until the sauce thickens a bit. In the photo, I've spooned some of the sauce over the chicken cutlets and garnished with some parsley.

As a side note, some people are surprised by the use of beef broth in the sauce with a chicken recipe. Julia Child says you can use either but I found the beef stock compliments the Madeira wine better than chicken stock. The sauce can be made separately and served with vegetables as well. I served steamed haricot vert lightly buttered and salted and sauteed quartered mushrooms with green onions, shallots, and garlic. Both these side dishes taste delicious with the Madeira cream sauce. Serve everything with some good French bread, and you're done!

Our First Homegrown Herbs

About 5 weeks ago, Chris and I planted a few herbs on my patio in an attempt to grow some of the food we eat. We planted basil, oregano, mint and rosemary. Last week we used the rosemary in a balsamic rosemary garlic marinade for some portobello mushroom burgers. This week we collected our first samples of the basil, oregano, and mint. Fortunately for us, Chris' mom was here this weekend and gave us some good tips on how to preserve some of the herbs for use in winter. After cutting and washing, you can either freeze the leaves for use later on or you can dry them on a cutting board or hung upside down. Once dried, store in an airtight jar. I think our first use for the oregano and basil will be some homemade pizza, while we might use the mint in some mojitos this weekend. As someone with a thumb that is more black than green I was worried about growing usable quantities of these herbs and spices but found that they're easier to grow than weeds. (It's more likely though that Chris learned a lot about gardening from his mom and has been keeping them all alive.) The biggest bonus of growing your own herbs and spices though has to be that it's much cheaper than buying them in the supermarket, fresh or dried. And they taste better! Anyway, here are some pictures of our first homegrown herbs.