Flourless Chocolate Torte
with Homemade Whipped Cream

Recipe courtesy of Jessica Soleil
Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:

8 oz. milk chocolate chips
8 oz. dark chocolate chips
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup cream
¼ cup sugar
Butter and extra sugar to prepare mold

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, rum, brandy, or hazelnut liqueur

1.       Butter and sugar the mold. Spread a thin layer of butter over the inside of the mold.  Make sure you get all the corners!  Sprinkle in sugar, then tap and rotate to make the sugar sticks to the butter.  Shake out the excess. 

2.       Preheat oven to 350°F.
3.       Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.
4.       Whip the cream and sugar to soft peaks.
5.       Temper the eggs into the chocolate by adding a little chocolate to the eggs to bring up to temperature and then add all of the eggs to the chocolate. 
6.       Fold in the cream
7.       Pour into the mold.
8.       Place mold in a 2” hotel pan and pour hot water ¾’s of the way up the pan.  Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.  Then rotate by turning the pan 180 degrees and cook an additional 25 minutes.  To finish, remove foil and cook an additional 10 minutes or until cake is set in the center.  Cool before unmolding and serving. 
9.       As it bakes, whip the cream, powdered sugar, and flavor of choice together until the cream hold stiff peaks.  Store covered in the fridge. 
10.   Service:  Slice the torte into 8 even slices.  Top with a portion of whipped cream.  Garnish with a shake of cocoa powder or chocolate shavings. 

Asparagus Risotto

serves 4

1 pound asparagus, peeled, trimmed and cut into one-inch-long pieces, tips reserved
4 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot, diced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add half the asparagus stalks and cook until quite soft, at least 5 minutes. Rinse quickly under cold water. Put cooked asparagus in a blender or food processor and add just enough water to allow machine to puree until smooth; set aside.

2. Put stock in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add shallot, stirring occasionally until it softens, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is glossy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine, stir, and let liquid bubble away. Add a large pinch of salt. Add warmed stock, 1/2 cup or so at a time, stirring occasionally. Each time stock has just about evaporated, add more.

4. After about 15 minutes, add remaining asparagus pieces and tips, continuing to add stock when necessary. In 5 minutes, begin tasting rice. You want it to be tender but with a bit of crunch; it could take as long as 30 minutes total to reach this stage. When it does, stir in 1/2 cup asparagus puree. Remove skillet from heat, add remaining butter and stir briskly. Add Parmesan and stir briskly, then taste and adjust seasoning. Risotto should be slightly soupy. Serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of Amy Jermain

Kitchen Knife Basics: One cook’s lesson in cutlery

Guest Post by Dan Pearson of Lake Oswego, IGT student

I’m a self-taught cook who knows his way around a kitchen. I’ve made do with minimal training and fancy equipment, and I can cook a mean beef wellington from scratch.

But, when it comes to the technical stuff, I could use some professional instruction. So, I took to the In Good Taste (IGT) cooking calendar to see how I could enhance my cooking credentials. 

While I’m no stranger to the stockpot, grill pan or food scale, I know very little about knives. The cooking shows that I watch don’t offer much in the way of basic knife skills, as much of the ingredients are already washed and prepped prior to airtime. And, the cookbooks I use don’t go in depth about the type of knives one needs for a particular dish.

Naturally, the IGT Hands-On Knife Skills class caught my attention. The basic knife set that I own is reaching middle age, so I thought that it might be in my best interest (and my wife’s) to update my technique and equipment.

Garbed in my favorite apron and with my wife in tow, I went to the class ready to learn how to dice, julienne and rondelle with finesse. The class, which was led by Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School alum Wes O’Neal, focused on the fundamentals: knife anatomy, knife safety, knife handling and knife cleaning.

By the end of the class, I knew how to properly rondelle a cucumber, dice an onion (without crying), batonnet a potato, chiffonade fresh sage, mince garlic and more. I learned knife tricks that will help me save time, prevent injury and enhance the appearance of my ingredients.

Some key takeaways from the class (other than that I need a new knife set) included:

Knives 

Knife Type
According to Chef Wes, the classic chef’s knife handles about 80 percent of his professional needs. His everyday standard is an eight-inch, high carbon stainless steel blade by Shun with the preferred, distinctive “tang” (a finger notch that aids balance). But, other brands abound. 

The Chef’s Resource online store carries nearly 30 brands and lists more than 15 special-purpose knives, mostly from Japan, Germany and Switzerland, made to handle everything from deboning to utility. Chef Wes advises expecting to pay between $70 and $150 for a chef’s knife that should last a lifetime.

Knife Maintenance

Keep it sharp by properly storing it between uses and by using a sharpening or honing steel, or both. And, don’t leave a knife exposed to moisture for long periods of time, like one would in a dishwasher or in a sink filled with soapy water.

Cutting Boards

Material

Don’t use glass because it dulls the blade. If you use a wood cutting board, throw the board away when and if it splits at the edge. “It’s a perfect place for bacteria to form,” chef Wes warned.

Board Type

You don’t need to have separate boards for meat and produce, if you rinse well between uses and clean the board periodically with a mild bleach solution.

Best of the Best

Chef Wes’s cutting board of choice is a pressed wood product by Epicurean. Apparently, it’s durable, dishwasher safe, easy to handle and can be had for as little as $25 from online retailers such as Williams & Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond and Sears.

For more information about the IGT Hands-On Knife Skills class or other classes, visit the website or call (503) 248-2015.

Beef Pastrami                                     Makes 2 pounds

Brine
2 ½ pounds bavette or boneless short ribs
1 gallon cold water
1 ½ cups kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ ounce (by weight or 4 teaspoons) pink salt (sodium nitrite)
1 tablespoon pickling spices
½ cup, packed, dark brown sugar
¼ cup honey
5 garlic cloves
To Finish
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, lightly toasted

1. Place the meat in a deep casserole dish that is just big enough to hold it.  Reserve the meat in the refrigerator while preparing the brine.
2. To make the brine combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepot and bring the mixture to a boil.  Remove the brine from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.  Place in the refrigerator and allow it to cool to 50° F. 
3. Poor the brine over the meat and use a heavy plate to keep it submerged.  Brine the meat in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 
4. Remove the meat from the brine, rinse it and then pat it dry with a clean kitchen towel.  Leave the meat uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to form a pellicle.
5. Hot smoke the meat to an internal temperature of 150° F, about three hours.  At this point the pastrami can finished immediately or refrigerated for up to three days and finished later. 
6. Combine the coriander seeds and black peppercorns in a spice grinder and coarsely grind.  Rub the mixture over the entire outside of the meat. 
7. To finish the pastrami preheat the oven to 275° F.  Place a wire roasting rack in a roasting pan with deep sides.  Fill the roasting pan with one inch of boiling water.  Place the pastrami on the rack and slowly roast the pastrami for two to three hours or until it is fork tender. 

Equipment:  Cutting board and knife, measuring cups, measuring spoons, large casserole dish, large stockpot, clean kitchen towel, spice grinder, smoker, meat thermometer and a large roasting pan with a wire rack.

Pickling Spice                               Makes 1 cup
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons mustard seeds, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons coriander seeds, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons hot red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons allspice berries
1 tablespoon ground mace
2 cinnamon sticks. Broken into small pieces
24 bay leaves, lightly crumbled
2 tablespoons whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger

1. Lightly crush the black peppercorns, mustard and coriander seeds with the side of a chef’s knife.  In a small mixing bowl combine the toasted and crushed spices with the remaining ingredients.  Mix well and store in a plastic zip lock bag.

Equipment:  Cutting board and knife, measuring spoons, small sauté pan, small mixing bowl and a plastic zip lock bag.

In The Crust we Trust - Roasting Techniques

In the Crust we Trust

Developing a crust on a roast is extremely important.  The crust adds flavor, texture, dimension and depth.  The crust is developed by caramelizing the sugars in meat and by the Maillard reaction, a complex reaction between amino acids and sugars that produce sulphur compounds found in onions giving a more savory flavor to food.


The crust is almost always developed during the first part of the roasting process by one of two techniques:

1.       Oven searing uses the high heat of the oven (400°F to 450° F typically) to develop the golden brown crust.  Following are some searing times according to roast size:

A.      Up to 4 pounds – 20 minutes

B.      4 to 6 pounds – 30 minutes

C.      6 pounds or more – 40 minutes or more

2.       Pan searing develops the crust by cooking the meat first on the stovetop with a roasting pan, such as a sauté pan or preferably, a cast iron skillet.  The roasts are seasoned and then seared in the pan with a fat until each side of the roast is deep golden brown.  Pan searing is especially useful for developing a crust on smaller or more delicate meats, such as cote de boeuf.  I like to let the meat rest for a few minutes or even longer before finishing it in the oven.  This allows the heat to move to the center of the roast and further temper it.  Try using pan searing to develop a crust on the roast and then let it rest at room temperature while finishing other parts of the meal.  It’s a great trick to help out with timing.

Heat it up and settle it down!

It’s important to use high heat to get that beautiful golden brown crust, but if a roast is cooked at high temperatures for the entire time, the results would be dry, overcooked and chewy meat.  Therefore; it is important that once the crust is developed that the oven temperature is lowered to somewhere between 275°F to 325°F.  I prefer 300°F when finishing a roast.  So it’s high heat to develop the crust and then lower heat to gently finish cooking the roast.

Roasting 101 – Fundamentals of Roasting Meats

Chef Jeremy gets lots of questions about roasting meats so for the next few weeks, he'll cover a number of topics to help you roast meats successfully. He starts with the tools needed and then talks about tempering meats.

Tools for successful roasting

·         Oven thermometer – An oven thermometer is the only way to truly know the temperature of your oven.

·         Digital Probe thermometer – Designed to fit in the pocket, this is the best way to determine when meats are cooked to specific temperatures. 

·         Slicing knife – Slicing knives are designed to delicately carve roasted meats with accuracy and perfection. 

Tempering

Tempering roasts refers to allowing the cut of meat to come closer to room temperature before the roasting process.  Tempering a roast before cooking warms the internal temperature of the meat.  This allows the center to cook to the desired temperature without overcooking and drying out the exterior.  This important technique will help create the perfect and consistent doneness from the inside out instead of dry and chewy on the outside and raw and tough on the inside.


Next week: Jeremy will cover how to develop crusts on roasts.

Top Ten Pantry Items

Start the year off right with new items for the pantry... Jeremy Niehuss has provide his list of must-have pantry items for you.

Kosher Salt – Salt is the most important ingredient in the kitchen. Kosher salt has become an industry standard for seasoning in a professional kitchen. The grains are large, making it easier to season and control the amount of salt used. For general seasoning I prefer Red Diamond kosher salt, because they do not use chemical additives, such as anti-caking agents.


Maldon Sea Salt – Generally, as a chef I always season food as I cook, but sometimes a dish benefits from a small amount of salt just prior to serving. When I need a special salt to finish a dish, I almost always use Maldon Sea Salt. The large flakes of Maldon add a delightful crunchy texture. It is hand harvested from natural salt beds where the flakes develop their complex flavors from the minerals present. It’s this patient process that gives Maldon Sea Salt unparalleled flavor and texture.

Salt Works Black Truffle Salt – If you like black truffles, then you will love this salt. Artisan Salt Company out of Woodinville, Washington offers many different salts infused with exciting and unique flavors. Their black truffle salt is a blend of pure sea salt and Italian black truffles. Perfect sprinkled on foods like French fries, popcorn, pastas and potatoes.

Tellicherry Peppercorns – If salt is the most important ingredient in the kitchen, then peppercorns take a close second. Pepper plays an important role in seasoning savory foods, but often we don’t give a second thought about reaching for the tin of pre ground pepper. But, the truth is, much like good coffee, peppercorns loose most of their flavor once they are ground. At In Good Taste we use Tellicherry peppercorns for their rich, complex and aromatic flavor that develops because they are picked from the top of the plant where they tend to be riper and larger. Tellicherry peppercorns come from the Malabar Coast of India

Vinegars – Quality vinegar, is not only the foundation of a good vinaigrette, it also adds complexity to food by providing a balance to richness and sweetness.

La Vecchia Balsamic Vinegar – Good balsamic is expensive and bad balsamic is, well frankly, horrible. So what’s the budget minded chef to do? Use La Vecchia black cap balsamic. This balsamic vinegar is aged for 6 years giving it a slightly syrupy consistency and rich caramel flavors. La Vecchia Black Cap balsamic vinegar is perfect in vinaigrettes, marinades or for just dipping bread. Try drizzling this vinegar over grilled meats or vegetables.

Sanchez Romate Reserva Sherry Vinegar – Good sherry vinegar is the cornerstone of Spanish cuisine. With so many brands of sherry vinegar to choose from, I almost exclusively use Sanchez Romate Reserva sherry vinegar. This sherry vinegar has smooth and velvety taste with a slight caramel sweetness followed by a pleasant tart finish. This vinegar is aged for 3 years in oak barrels giving it a complexity that is unpatrolled in the world on vinegars.

Unio Moscatel Vinegar – Because this vinegar is made from the Muscat grape it has a very fruity and floral aroma with hints of nectar, blossoms and honey. The vinegar is flavor forward with a pleasant acid undertone that is not overbearing or harsh.

Beaufor French Vinegars – Beaufor is a French company that makes a full line of artisan vinegars. All of their vinegars show the flavors of the grapes used to make them and have well balanced acidity. We use Beaufor Champagne, white wine and red wine vinegars here at In Good Taste.

Unio Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Extra Virgin Olive Oil is an essential pantry ingredient. While there are hundreds of types and brands of olive oils on the market, I prefer Unio Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain. Unlike its spicy and often bitter Italian counterparts, Unio is a rich and buttery extra virgin olive with a fruit forward flavor.

Grapeseed Oil – Grape seed oil plays an important role in our cooking school. Its neutral flavor combined with a high smoking point makes it the best choice for vinaigrettes, pan searing, sautéing, baking and making emulsified dressings, such as aioli or Caesar. Grape seed oil is also rich in antioxidants making it a healthier choose for those health conscience cooks.

Freddy Guy’s Pure Hazelnut Oil – Cold pressed with local hazelnuts, Freddy Guy’s hazelnut oil has a clean hazelnut flavor, without any bitter flavors. Freddy Guy’s hazelnut oil is best used in simple preparations, allowing its amazing flavor to come through. Drizzled over grilled meats or added to a vinaigrette, this oil will add a whole you dynamic layer to your cooking!

Paprika (Pimenton) - Paprika is one of my favorite spices. It adds character and flavor to dishes without adding spice. Paprika, called Pimenton in Spain, is arguably the most important spice in Spanish cuisine, playing an important role in preparations including Chorizo and Paella. I am very partial to El Rey de la Vera Pimenton.

Dijon Mustard – In the pantry no one item is as versatile as good French Dijon mustard. Dijon has a clean and tart flavor that adds sharpness to foods. It also contains an important ingredient called mucilage, which is a sticky substance that helps create emulsifications, in preparations like aioli and Caesar salad dressing. Spending a little more money on a better quality Dijon is worth it. I am very partial to Fallot brand Dijon, although Beaufor makes great mustards as well.