Are You a Gourmet?

!±8± Are You a Gourmet?

What exactly does it mean to be a gourmet? Does watching public television cooking shows on Saturday morning while folding the laundry count? How about being fascinated with Julia Child and having all of her cookbooks on your Amazon wish list? Knowing what zest, garam marsala and charcuterie mean, does this qualify you as being a gourmet? Where did the term come from and what exactly does it mean?

A gourmet is someone with a discriminating palate who is savvy when it comes to fine food and drink. The word comes from the French word groumet which defines a person in charge of the wines at a meal. While this definition is a start, most people think they have a discriminating palate, but discriminating between a Big Mac and a Whopper probably doesn't count. What exactly are gourmets discriminating about? Who decides what is and isn't gourmet? From my research, I have come up with three things that qualify a person to call themselves a gourmet. While not an exhaustive list, qualifying in each of these three categories is a good indication that you can call yourself a gourmet.

If you still don't own a blender because you are saving up for a Waring or refuse to brown your bagels in anything other than a Dualit toaster, you are good in the first category of gourmet, knowing your equipment. Note that I don't say you need to own this equipment to be a gourmet, just know what it is and have a sincere desire to own it all someday, like when you win the lottery and can actually afford it. A few of the necessities in a gourmet kitchen include a Cuisinart food processor, Emilie Henry bakers, All-Clad pots and pans, Viking range, SubZero built in refrigerator, Kitchenaid mixer, Espressione espresso machine, Wusthof knives, and a Polder thermometer and timer. You will also need to include fine china, silver cutlery and beautiful table linens. Doing some calculations from the Williams Sonoma site (which should be one of your favorite places to shop), a fully equipped gourmet kitchen including service for 8 would come to over ,000.00 This figure doesn't even start to cover the many food items you should have.

That brings us to our next category, food. Do you know terms such as foie gras, sevruga, gravlax, fleur de sel, truffles (not the chocolate kind) and herbes de provence? Have you ever eaten any of them? If you can answer yes to most of these, you are a definite gourmet. A good gourmet kitchen will be stocked with the finest wines, caviars, cheeses, produce, meats, breads and pastries. It will also have multitudes of herbs and spices as well as liqueurs and natural extracts. Hundreds of volumes of cookbooks are also a necessity and must include authors such as Jacques Pepin, Simone Beck, James Beard and of course, Julia.

The last area that defines a gourmet is drive. This means wanting to constantly learn more about fine foods and wines. Taking vacations to France and Italy are a start as well as visiting wineries, fish markets and farmers markets everywhere you go. Food should be an obsession, not just a past time. Magazines such as Saveur, Cuisine, Cook's Illustrated, Fine Cooking, Gourmet and Bon Appetit should dot the landscape of your home. You should also have a strong desire to take cooking classes and cooking vacations and your ultimate dream would be to one day attend "Le Cordon Bleu" cooking school in Paris. Yes, knowing French is a strong plus.

If you can say you qualify in even two of these categories, I would say you are a budding gourmet. Three would mean you are definitely a gourmet. Now that you have qualified yourself as such, don't hesitate to share it with others. Remember, however, that they may want you to actually cook something for them since they assume all gourmets can cook. This, however, was not one of the qualifying factors, so don't feel pressured if actually using your gourmet items scares you. Instead invite them to a gourmet restaurant and correct their pronunciations of items on the menu. Knowing the equipment, understanding the names and tastes of the foods and having the desire to cook someday is all you need to be a gourmet. Besides, who has time to cook when you are so busy learning to be a gourmet?

Copyright 2006 Emma Snow

Are You a Gourmet?

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How To Bread Meat and Keep it from Falling off of Your Fried Foods

!±8± How To Bread Meat and Keep it from Falling off of Your Fried Foods

How to Bread Meat So the Breading Will Not Fall Off (blog post & slideshow) ow.ly How to Keep Breading on Meat - Presentation Transcript How to bread meat and keep it from falling off of your fried foods. STEP 1: Season your meat with salt and pepper. STEP 2: Moisten your meat. I prefer a nice long soak in buttermilk. STEP 3: Prepare and season your flour. STEP 4: Thoroughly coat your meat with the seasoned flour. STEP 5: IMPORTANT: Place coated meat on a tray, cover, then placein the refrigerator for one hour. This photo shows meatbefore resting in the refrigerator. STEP 5 (cont): Here are what the pork chops look like after one hour in therefrigerator. Note how the flour has become moist and very tacky. STEP 6: Prepare breading in a shallow dish. I am using panko seasoned with more Pennsylvania Pork Twang. Step 7: At the same time, begin heating your oil to 350 degrees. STEP 8:Make an egg wash, and dip meat in the wash... STEP8(cont): Then coat thoroughly with your breading. STEP 9: IMPORTANT: Make sure your temperature is correct using aninstant read digital thermometer. For shallow frying, these work much better than a fryer thermometer. STEP10: Cook! Gently lay the meat into the pan. IMPORTANT: Do not overcrowd. STEP 10 (cont):Use your thermometer to keep tabs on the oil and meat temperature. Turn meat when browned nicely. STEP 11: When your meat is golden brown and at the proper temperature, place on paper towels to absorb the oil. STEP 12: You did it! Not only does ...

How To Bread Meat and Keep it from Falling off of Your Fried Foods

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Temper Yourself - Homemade Chocolate Candy for Valentines Day!

!±8± Temper Yourself - Homemade Chocolate Candy for Valentines Day!

Homemade chocolate candy for Valentines Day is even more thoughtful and special than the waxy, store bought heart shaped box. Creating your own treats is easy, quick and fun. It's something the children love to do, and adults become children when working with chocolate.

It's not as simple as just melting chocolate. To make your own candies or chocolate coated sweets, the chocolate must return to its hard, crunchy state at room temperature.

Have you ever melted chocolate to disastrous results? Most people have. A poor melting procedure will return rough, grainy chocolate or soupy brown liquid that never returns to its normal state.

Chocolate must be melted in a very specific way called tempering. Tempering chocolate correctly assures that it will be hard like a candy bar, or stick to items like a chocolate covered pretzel. Homemade chocolate candy for Valentines day MUST be done this way.

From a science and chemical standpoint, chocolate is a very complex item. When heated, the crystalline structure of the chocolate changes. When cooled, the structure changes again. Tempering chocolate means melting it to a precise temperature, then slowly cooling it back to room temperature without damage to the chemical structure of the chocolate. Otherwise, it will never recover.

The white spots you see on your candy bar are called bloom. When your chocolate has been left in a warm moist place, then cooled, you'll see those white spots. This is called bloom. Blooming chocolate is not ruined, and tastes the same, but the structure of the candy has taken on moisture, making it visually unappealing. It's not dangerous, just ugly.

Chocolate can also get moldy, as the water content will allow fungus to grow. Expired bags of chocolate chips left in your refrigerator will grow the blue/green mold very quickly. Chocolate can go rancid when their fats hydrolyze, taking on moisture.

Chocolate can burn. The milk solids in milk chocolate will begin to break down and burn at 130F (54C) and start to look grainy as if someone has added sand. You can never repair this mistake.

Thank goodness that chocolate melts as easily as it does. The fact that your mouth is 98F (36C) is what makes candy for Valentines Day so perfect. Chocolate will melt at 90F (32C), and the warm moist environment of your palate allows maximum enjoyment of this complex treat.

However, to correctly temper chocolate so that it melts and returns to its original state at room temperature, the chocolate must be melted to a precise 110F (43C). This is the optimum temperature to relax the crystal structure of the chocolate without destroying it.

All your homemade chocolate should begin with chips or pieces of chocolate that are the same size to allow for consistent melting. It's easiest to control the temperature over a double boiler using an instant read digital thermometer.

A double boiler uses softly simmering water in a sauce pan with a metal bowl fitted inside that is at least twice the size of the pan below. Hot moisture or steam that escapes from the sauce pan cannot fold its way onto the chocolate if the bowl is much larger. Moisture in chocolate will cause it to seize and turn to mud.

Melt any measurement of chocolate to 110F (43C), and keep an additional 1/3 of that measurement aside to seed the homemade chocolate later. If you use 1 cup of chips to melt, have another 1/3 cup to seed. If you use 30 grams of chocolate, have 10 grams to seed.

Once the chocolate reaches the target temperature, quickly add the seed chocolate and stir until everything is melted to a smooth, shiny consistency.

The original amount of melted chocolate will take on the crystalline characteristics of the room temperature seed chocolate added to it. It will give the melted chocolate something to aspire to, to become like its brother in the original state.

This correctly tempered chocolate can now be used to make shapes, pour into molds, dip marshmallows or pretzels into, or top cupcakes and petit-fours. You'll have to work quickly, because the goal of this homemade chocolate is to become stiff at room temperature again.

If the chocolate that you're using for candy for Valentines day starts to stiffen before you're finished working, just return it to the double boiler for 10 to 20 seconds to raise the temperature softly.

Tempering chocolate is a simple task that can be quickly mastered and used to express your love, have fun with your children, or just give yourself a deserved snack.

Temper Yourself - Homemade Chocolate Candy for Valentines Day!

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