Helpful Hint: Mincing Garlic

Saw this on the Kitchn and had to post this helpful little tidbit. Mincing garlic with a fork? Genius and wish I had thought of it!

I'm back because of a poached egg

I've been meaning to blog but it's kind of embarrassing to have a "comeback" when no one knows that you even left. Hey to my maybe one reader!

I started having more time to read the food blogs and it reignited my passion for cooking. I know I love food because the very mention of a poached egg drives me into a tizzy.

I've also been reading a lot about Cathy Erway and her book "The Art of Eating In" and it really speaks to me. I am the queen of take out - yeah, I love food. And I love to cook. But something about the hunting and gathering of ingredients I don't have, coupled by the cramped cooking quarters, and then hindered by my emotionally crippling need to avoid thinking of myself as a "single gal" (i.e. cooking a recipe meant for 4 and having to tupperware up the rest of the meal) makes me want to throw up. I cook when I have company, on rare special occasions, and if there is something I'm craving that I can't get from a restaurant. That's pretty much the long and short of it.

Regardless, looking at this helpful step-by-step guide on The Kitchn reminded me that I love to try cooking techniques when I'm actually doing it. I just forget sometimes when I'm busy watching a Breakfast in Bed marathon on Soapnet. I never regret picking up a pan, or eating a delicious meal that I've created. I just started personal training so I'd like to be held a little more accountable for what I put in my mouth (that's what she said). Might drop some lbs and regain a long lost hobby at the same time.

To cap off my entry, here are the poached egg instructions for your reference:

What You Need

Ingredients
1 or more eggs
White vinegar
Water

Equipment
Small saucepan
Measuring cup with a handle, or a teacup
Slotted spoon
Timer
Plate lined with a paper towel or clean rag

Instructions

1. Bring a small saucepan 3/4-full of water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to low and bring the water back down to a low simmer. There should just be a few bubbles hitting the surface.

2. Add about a tablespoon of white vinegar to the water.

3. Crack the egg into a measuring cup or a small teacup.

4. Slowly lower the cup into the barely simmering water, and tip the egg out into the water.

5. Set the timer for 4 minutes. The egg white should be immediately coagulating in the water.

6. Use the slotted spoon to carefully arrange the egg white into a more compact shape, if you desire.

7. Keep an eye on the water's heat; make sure it doesn't come back up to a rolling boil.

8. After 4 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the egg with the slotted spoon. Place it on the plate lined with a paper towel and gently blot it dry.

Additional Notes:

• The 4-minute time will give you a gently cooked poached egg, with a gooey yolk that still has a liquid center. Adjust the time if you want it more cooked.

• We find that the vinegar is really essential in helping cook the egg reliably and neatly; it helps coagulate the egg white quickly, so everything stay in place! If you have no vinegar, then the juice of about half a lemon will also do the trick, but it isn't quite as reliable as vinegar.

First Day at FCI

So as some of you know I started my course at FCI on Saturday, bright and early at 9:30am. Everyone put on their Chefs outfits which include a Chef's jacket, these dorked out drawstring checkered pants, an apron, a neckerchief (yikes), and a skull cap which made all the girls look like 12 year old boys. I looked super dorky... it was amazing.

In any case, our instructor was Chef Justin who was tall and gorg (future husband, thanks?), and coincidentally very talented. We were given an AMAZING kit with great quality knives, tongs, thermometers, whisks.. .pretty much everything we could ever need. The best part is that these are ours to keep so it saves me the trouble from having to go out and be confused in the kitchen section at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

The class was 5 hours long and there was a TON of information to retain. Everyone got their own station and most of the class was taught at the demo station where we were shown basic knife skills on vegetables and proper cooking techniques. All the terminology was in french and since luckily I speak french, it wasn't that hard to keep up.

Our first dish was a medley of garden vegetables - not exactly an exotic recipe but was great practice for how to cook veggies properly. I was most excited about cleaning and prepping artichokes which completely intimidated me prior to the lesson. You basically strip off the leaves, cut off half the stem, use your paring knife to get rid of the dark green around the base, and split the remain choke into quarters, removing the little hairs inside of the veggie. To keep it from discoloring, we rubbed it in lemon... then TADA! It was done!

We also learned about tournage which is a french taillage and basically the bane of culinary students' existences. You basically use your paring knife to get your vegetable into a football like shape - one of my fellow students definitely cut himself while trying to master this technique. Really not easy. In the picture at the bottom of this post, the zucchinis on the side are turned so you can get an idea of what a really shitty job of tournage looks like.

Another cool skill we learned was how to make tomato concasse. Basically what that means is a peeled, seeded, and diced tomato. A trick I learned for peeling tomatoes was to place an criss-cross incision at the bottom of the tomato, toss it in boiling water for a few seconds, and then into ice cold water basically "shocking" the tomato out of it's skin. An awesome trick.

In any case, here is the result of the vegetable medley we created - be very proud of me!