Session III, Stocks,  Soups and Mother Sauces

SESSION III. STOCKS, SOUPS, MOTHER SAUCES, PAN SAUCES

A word on stocks and broths Making your own homemade stock is a great way to use up leftover food while imbuing your foods with fresh, seasonal flavor. It 's actually not as hard as you think. Check out these tips ….

Having soup stock on hand is an easy way to add a little punch of flavor to a multitude of dishes whether you are braising or making a sauce from scratch or simply deglazing a pan.
Your stock can be kept fresh for up to 7 days, or can be frozen so it's ready at a moment's notice. You can also put them in ice cube trays to store and then transfer them into freezer bags.

Preparing to make your own stock

There are four main types of stock: vegetable, chicken, meat and fish. It's usually best to stick with the stock that goes with what you're cooking. If you're making a chicken dish, use chicken stock .

Making vegetable stock

Poultry stock

You can buy inexpensive chicken or turkey parts (like backs and necks) to make stock, or use the bones that are leftover when you debone poultry. You can also use a leftover cooked chicken or turkey carcass instead of fresh raw meat to make stock.
You'll probably want to use vegetables in your protein stocks for extra richness. Use the same veggies we used in the vegetable stock, just fewer of them. If you want a darker, richer stock, roast your poultry, poultry bones and vegetables in a 450 degree F oven for about 40 minutes before adding them to your stock pot.

Meat stock

With meat stock, you'll want a dark, rich stock, so roast your meat, bones and vegetables for about 45 minutes in a 450 degree F oven before adding them to your stockpot and adding water.

Seafood Stock

Seafood stock comes in handy for many recipes. You can use any inexpensive white fish scraps, bones and trimmings (your seafood market or grocery store probably sells fish packaged for just this purpose). You can also use crab, shrimp and lobster shells to add flavor. Be careful what vegetables you use. You won't want as many, as they may overpower the fish.
Not only do you save money because you don’t have to buy boxed stock, the stock itself is so much healthier for you because of all the iron, collagen, and vitamin-rich marrow from the bones.

Let the stock cool before freezing. Stock should last a week or so in the fridge, and several months in the freezer.

WORLD OF SOUPS

MAKING ROUX

A roux is nothing more than flour and fat cooked together to form a flavorful thickening agent for cooking. Roux are used to thicken gumbos, stews, fricassees and is the soul of hearty Cajun dishes.

Making Roux Step by Step

There are four varieties of roux: white, blond, brown, and dark brown. The different colors are a result of how long the roux is cooked; white is cooked for the shortest time, while dark brown cooks the longest. White and blond roux are the most common, used to thicken sauces, soups, and chowders. Brown and dark brown roux have more flavor, but less thickening power than white or blond roux. Dark roux are primarily used in Cajun and Creole dishes like Gumbo and Jambalaya.

 SAUCES SAUCES

It's a knowledge of the five French mother sauces that will prove essential. They may seem intimidating, but they are not.. With a few simple ingredients (mostly flour, butter, and a liquid) and a couple easy techniques, these five sauces, will serve as the starting point for a great many sauces.
Once you get the feel for these sauces, you’ll be able to whisk them up whenever you want to get fancy. And soon enough, you'll feel confident enough to break tradition and take that Mother Sauce somewhere she’s never gone before. Here's what you need to know about the building blocks of sauces:

  Beyond flavor, the most important element of any sauce is its ability to smother and cling to whatever it gets drizzled, dolloped, or poured on. That means making the sauce thick and stable, which is accomplished with three techniques: a roux, an emulsifier and a reduction (liquid that's slowly cooked down until thick). 
Four out of the five mother sauces start with a roux. Roux is a fancy name for flour mixed with fat. Equal parts butter and flour get cooked over medium heat, then a liquid gets added. This mixture then boils, thickens (reduces), and becomes the base of your sauce. The last mother sauce is a product of emulsification.
Here are the basic formulas of the five mother sauces:

Bechamel (traditionally milk or cream)
Veloute :  Roux + White Stock (traditionally chicken but also vegetable or fish)
Espagnole:  Roux + Brown Stock (traditionally veal or beef )
Tomato:  Roux + Tomatoes (or, go the Italian route, my favorite  by skipping the roux and simply reducing tomatoes over medium-low heat until thick)
Hollandaise : Egg Yolks + Clarified Melted Butter + Acid (like lemon juice or white wine)
Now that you know the basics, let’s talk about each Mother Sauce (and what to pair them with
in the guideline

Bechamel
If you’ve eaten homemade macaroni and cheese a classic croque madame, or lasagna, chances are you’ve experienced the rich creaminess of Bechamel. It can be made in its most basic form by just combining roux and cream, or it can be mixed with other ingredients to create new sauces: Mornay is made by adding Gruyere or Parmesan, and mustard sauce is made by adding—you guessed it—mustard.
Here are some other ways to use Béchamel:

• Swap in Béchamel for some of the cream in a gratin.
• Pour it over polenta cakes and broil for a few minutes until bubbly and golden brown.
  

Veloute.
Like good old Béchamel, Veloute begins with a white roux, but then it gets mixed with white stock made from fish, chicken, or veal. Technically not a finished sauce, it's used as a flavorful starting point for gravies, mushroom sauces.
Espagnole 
Espagnole proves that dark roux is great too. . Also known as brown sauce, Espagnole begins with a Mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onions), beef stock, and deglazed brown bits (fond) from beef bones. From there, tomato paste and spices may be added.
To make a demi-glace, a rich French brown sauce, combine the Espagnole with more beef stock; to create Bordelaise, a red wine sauce that pairs well with steak and mushrooms, mix the demi-glace with red wine and herbs.

However, that demi-glace gets its characteristic dark color from the reduction and concentration of brown stock which itself is colored mainly through the browning of the bones that are later simmered for a long time to extract the collagen and other proteins from the bones. However, if the bones themselves are not roasted, or if the original sauce that is used to make the demi-glace was made using store-bought broth or stock that may not have been made with roasted bones (or any bones at all, for that matter), the abbreviated method may result in a demi-glace that lacks the deep color you probably want.

Tomato 
Probably the first mother sauce you ever tasted, tomato sauce is often a mixture of just onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Although some traditionalists may start with a roux, most tomato sauces merely rely on a tomato reduction to build flavor and create thickness.

SAUCES YOU MUST HAVE. WHY ??

Below are a few. Go through them and decide which are a MUST HAVE and WHICH runs second place. A sauce makes something lousy EDIBLE. It makes something edible PRETTY GOOD. It makes something pretty good SUPERB. It makes something SUPERB downright EXCELLENT. Ps. Providing the SAUCE IS EXCELLENT TO START WITH.

You will be making some of these

Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce White Barbecue Sauce Homemade Chimichurri

Kansas City-Style Barbecue Homemade Teriyaki Homemade Harissa

Homemade Sriracha Creamy Chipotle Mayo Homemade Curry Paste

Pesto Calabrese Creamy Sun dried Tomato Pesto Buffalo Hummus

Almond & Cilantro Pesto Balsamic Whiskey Steak Marinade Rtd Garlic & Cilantro

Spicy Lime & Garlic Marinade Sweet & Sticky Chicken Marinade Honey-Garlic Salmon Marinade

Lemon & Herb Marinade Aioli Salsa

PAN SAUCES
One of the simplest sauces for sauteed and roasted meat, poultry, or fish is a quick sauce made by deglazing the saute pan or roasting pan. Deglazing is the technique of adding a bit of liquid to the hot pan after the food has been cooked to dissolve the caramelized juices stuck to the bottom of the pan. Follow these guidelines for quick sauces that require few ingredients and provide a wonderful depth of flavor:
BASIC RULES TO FOLLOW

Sear the Meat

• Before deglazing, r so of spices (such as yellow mustard seeds or crushed black peppercorns) if you're so inclined. Cook, stirring to keep things moving, until the vegetables are softened and the spices have bloomed, about 4 minutes.
• Now’s the time to add liquid AND DEGLAZEI Deglaze by adding wine (red, white, or fortified), good stock, vinegar, cider, beer, brandy, or water to the hot pan. Use enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan—1/3 to 1/2 cup for a medium saute pan, more for a roasting pan.

OTHER TIPS
Mushroom Pan Sauce:
Mustard Pan Sauce:
Whiskey Pan Sauce:

Lemon-Herb Sauce: A
Another Route for Steaks …......
Rich and Herby
Creamy and Earthy
Sharp and Lemony

HERE IS A TRICK AND A SIMPLE TRUTH **** A restaurant worth its salt makes flavor-packed stock whereas at home, most folks are using store-bought stock which is pretty much worthless. Reducing good stock gives you concentrated good flavor while reducing bad stock gives you concentrated bad flavor.

The Science of Emulsions

A pan sauce is essentially a butter and water emulsion. Sure, there are trace amounts of other things in there that give it flavor, aroma, and brightness, but that rich, mouth-coating texture? The creamy body it gets? That's from the emulsion. Mayonnaise, Vinaigrette, Aioli are samples of emulsions not made in a hot pan.

Forming a butterfat-in-water emulsion is not as easy as just melting butter and water together. As we all know, emulsions are a just-barely-stable mixture of two things that really shouldn't get along under normal circumstances. In this case, water (broth and wine are essentially water), and fat.
An emulsified pan sauce should have the texture of heavy cream. The problem is, even with very, very vigorous whisking, it's difficult to actually get those fat molecules small enough to form a stable emulsion. To get there, you need a bit more help, which takes us to the gelatin.
Restaurant stocks are rich with gelatin that are extracted from the bones they're made with.

BRINGING IT HOME

Chicken Breast and White Wine-Fines Herbs Pan Sauce, Step By Step

Gather Ingredients BUT Remember the basic elements are always the same elements

Element 1 : Aromatics. Sauteed aromatics. Ingredients that hit the pan first and are generally cooked in a bit of fat before adding the remaining ingredients. This often includes garlic, shallots, and onions, and can also include spices that need blooming or toasting.

• Element 2: Your liquid. Broth or stock are the start of nearly every pan sauce. Oftentimes wine or another alcohol-based liquid will be added as well for complexity and brightness.
• Element 3: Butter. Butter is added after your liquid has reduced and concentrated in flavor. Butter helps round out the sharp edges of the flavor while also thickening the sauce to a creamy consistency (assuming you get a good emulsion, which, using these techniques, you will!)
• Element 4: Finishing flavors. These are the things that go in right at the end. Fresh herbs, a squeeze of lemon juice if the sauce needs acid, and for me, a splash of soy sauce or fish sauce because umami.
  

And that's about it. In this case, my liquid is chicken broth and white wine, my aromatics are shallots and garlic, and my finishing flavors are fines herbs (a mixture of parsley, tarragon, chervil, and chives), and a splash of soy sauce. The rest is just technique.

Chicken 

Sear Chicken

Flip Chicken
Add Aromatics

Add Stock and Wine, and Scrape!!!
Reduce
Add Butter and Soy Sauce
Add Finishing Herbs

Slice Your Chicken

I like to slice my airline chicken breasts on a sharp bias so that I can fan out the pieces. This is partly for presentation. TIME TO EAT .

WHY SPEND ALL THIS TIME ABOUT PAN SAUCES
Let's start with chicken stock which is a must have. Now you have the base for many pan sauces when you add aromatics , plus, plus. The quickest , most versatile and less time consuming path to sauces that you can use with meats, fish, shellfish etc.
Lets add a Mother Sauce. Tomato Sauce ( keep on hand ) which can give you many derivatives from Italian to Spanish.
Lets add another Mother Sauce. A Bechamel which is a cream sauce which again gives you other choices. The Bechamel you only make when you need to.
Let's Pick a couple of YOU MUST HAVE like Pesto, Chimichurri, Aioli, Vinaigrette, Teriyaki , Sweet Chili Sauce, A Chipotle base, A Sriracha scented, a Carbonara or Alfredo and a couple or so of Salsas.
This is all based on your preferred tastes.

WORLD OF SALSA
Salsa is any one of several sauces typical of Mexican Cuisine also known as salsa fresca, hot salsa or salsa picante, particularly those used as dips.. Salsa is often tomato-based, and includes ingredients such as onions, chilies, and herbs. It is typically piquant/spicy, ranging from mild to extremely hot. Though many preparations are called salsa in Spanish, in English, it generally refers to raw or near-raw sauces used as dips.

Well-known salsas include:

• , "Red S", is used as a condiment in Mexican and Southwestern (U.S.) cuisines; usually includes cooked tomatoes, chili peppers, onion, garlic, and fresh cilantro (coriander).

Pico de gallo (

• Salsa cruda, "
  Salsa verde,
  Salsa taquera,
  Salsa criolla
  Salsa ranchera, "

Outside Mexico and Central America, the following salsas are common to each of the following regions; in Argentina and the Southern Cone, chimichurri sauce is common. Chimichurri is "a spicy vinegar-parsley sauce that is the salsa (and leading condiment) in Argentina and Uruguay, served with grilled meat. It is made of chopped fresh parsley and onion, seasoned with garlic, oregano, salt, cayenne chilies and black pepper and bound with oil and vinegar

In Costa Rica, dishes are prepared with salsa Lizano, a thin, smooth, light brown sauce. In Cuba and the Caribbean, a typical salsa is mojo. Unlike the tomato-based salsas, mojo typically consists of olive oil, garlic, and citrus juice, and is used both to marinate meats and as a dipping sauce.

In Peru, a traditional salsa is peri peri or piri piri sauce: "The national condiment of Peru, peri-peri sauce is made in medium to hot levels of spiciness—the more chili, or the hotter variety of chile used, the hotter the sauce. Original peri-peri uses the African bird’s eye chili (the Swahili word for the chili is peri-peri). Milder sauces may use only cayenne and serrano chilies. To a base of vinegar and oil, garlic and lemon juice are added, plus other seasonings, which often include paprika or tomato paste for flavor and color, onions and herb—each company has its own recipe. It is also used as a cooking sauce.
At its most basic, salsa is simply chopped tomatoes, chiles, onions, and cilantro, flavored with salt and brightened with a squeeze of lime juice. But the beauty of salsa is its versatility and adaptability.

Here are seven insights for making exceptional salsas.

Leave your ingredients raw
Cook the salsa,
Layer in flavor, color, and texture
Play around with the primary herbs.
Trade the tomatoes

Balance flavors; add salt, vinegar, lime juice, bottled hot sauce, and pinches of sugar, tasting frequently, until you achieve the perfect balance of sweet, savory, salty, sour, and spicy.
Chop some, process some.

• A food processor makes short work of herbs and garlic;
• For most other ingredients, chopping by hand gives more control over the size and shape of the pieces -- and the finished product will look nicer.
• Dice the onion by hand: food processors tend to pulverize onions, releasing so much juice that the flavor becomes overpowering.
  

*** AS YOU CAN SEE I provide extensive guideline for all the sessions, COOKING is hands on deck BUT you need to have a background as to WHAT AM I DOING THIS plus a general knowledge of culinary world. So, you read the guidelines a few times just like reading a book DON'T MEMORIZE ANYTHING and then concentrate on that which you want to make your world. Ps. I am here to guide you and support you while you do your thing.

joseardizon@gmail.com
4437882111

 

 Session I, Methods of Preparation and Techniques

SECTION I. PREPARATION TECHNIQUES, MISE EN PLACE, ELEMENTS

What do all the techniques have in Common ?? HEAT. They are all about applying heat in order to cook. Heat is one of the building blocks in cooking. Salt, Fat, and Acid are the others.

We cover the following as listed below.. You receive a full detailed outline by e-mail prior to class.

YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO THE STUDY THIS OUTLINE AND OTHERS PRIOR TO CLASS. THEY ARE INTEGRAL PART OF THE SESSIONS

LOW HEAT TO PRESERVE MOISTURE

MATCH THE CUT TO THE COOKING METHOD

CARRYOVER COOKING
REVERSE COOKING
INTENSE HEAT COOKING

GRILLING

BROLING ,ROASTING AND BAKING

SAUTEIING

PAN FRYING

DEED FRYING

SMOKING- VERY GENTLE

MOIST COOKING METHODS

Moist cooking methods use water, broth, wine, or any other flavorful liquid to impart heat in a

convective, indirect method. SAMPLE : Cooking vegetables, starches, grains, pasta, reducing sauces, etc

POACHING

SIMMERING

BOILING

STEAMING

COMBINATION COOKING METHODS AND LOW HEAT COOKING

BRAISING

STEWING

Mise en Place

 Simply is the assembling of all ingredients needed for your work. Includes all from salt and pepper to utensils and equipment, and all food dry or perishable. Mise en place is a state of mind. The foundation of prep in a kitchen

Make sense? So why not apply the same technique to all your cooking.
A good example of using this technique is when you stir-fry. Because everything gets cooked so quickly, you must have all your ingredients ready.
If you look at a real professional kitchen ( THAT IS YOU- A PROFESSIONAL KITCHEN AT HOME )What you notice is their mise en place. Each station is fully prepped with all the ingredients necessary to make a particular dish.
All the meats, chicken, and fish are cut and de boned, the fresh herbs for seasoning sauces are washed, cut, and separated into small bowls, the vegetables are sliced, diced, or julienne to the correct size, everything ready to go because when the show gets going, there is no time to go back and dice up some carrots. IN KITCHEN LINGO , IF YOU DO THAT YOU ARE DEAD MEAT
You will be doing your mise en place in any of the session you take, regardless.

THE ELEMENTS
My definition of elements are the ingredients that are integral to the making of any dish. Any that may affect the finished product . Again, you are looking for Flavor, Aroma, Texture,, Temperature, Cooking Technique, Color.
You are in a nutshell applying F A C T to the ingredients .Same as you would do to the finish product. An ingredient may be great in its own BUT may not contribute to the whole.
REMEMBER THAT ELEMENTS HAVE A DIRECT IMPACT ON THE WHOLE.
This thinking becomes pretty much automatic to the point you don't realize you are doing it..

THE ELEMENTS

Every plate ; salad, appetizer, soup, entree, veggie, starch, is a combination of elements. What you do with the elements determines the outcome. Elements are the single components and they create the whole. They apply to techniques, ingredients, temperature, etc. You will learn how to work the elements and will become an outstanding home chef.

HIGH HEAT TO DEVELOP FLAVOR

The Maillard Reaction

Why you don'r hear enough of this ? Authors, TV shows sell you recipes. A few of the techiques; Boiling, Simmering,Steaming, Sauteing, Stir-Fry, Searing-Browning,Braising, Roasting, PanFrying, Deep Fring, Broiling , Grilling

Many dishes can be created with one technique while others require a combination . Example is: Searing-Browning and Braising. Techniques also affect color, texture, aroma and flavor. You need not to be proficient in all, but you need to know what they are. It differentiates your food and add character to your dishes

Mise en Place, is the Bible in a professional kitchen. Meaning, everything ready and in its place. Why ? You can't go around in a kitchen with your head cut off. The term applies to all you need to create a product; from equipment, utensils to food

You can see in the next session the linkage between metho of cooking and building flavor. See below

When we talk about "building flavor,"
We don't necessarily mean adding or changing the ingredients in the recipe. We're also talking about cooking techniques that create depth and character in a dish.

joseardizon@gmail.com
4437882111

 

Maxwell’s “Prep School for Home Chef” is a teaching program created for the sole purpose o teaching you to cook like a PRO in your own home.

The Core of our program is simple,, YOU CAN’T FAKE TASTE . We have lots of sessions, some are essentials and some you will learn as you go. Along with the session you are taking you will receive background on the course via e mail. Many tips that you should read .These sessions are based on true and proven professional techniques applicable to your home environment therefore you are able to create " top notch " restaurant quality meals based on your likes , budget and time constraints.

Here is a bit about myself

My name is Joseph Ardizon , your instructor and mentor. My training started as a European Chef Apprentice at the Diplomat Hotel , a 1300 room property with 6 restaurants, country club and large catering facility in Hallandale, Fl. I attended Florida International University and earned a degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management. Training completed I joined Radisson Hotels and became an executive Chef in Minnesota and Delaware in both resorts and commercial properties.

After a few years with  I moved to Atlanta as Director with the Colony Square Hotel, a member of the prestigious Preferred Group of Hotels worldwide. I orchestrated the opening of Toulouse a French Classical Restaurant.. This assignment also took me to Kentucky where I supported a Management Group that ran the famous Brown Palace Hotel and a Restaurant/ night club/ casino named Jim Porters Tavern.

I returned to the North East (D. C.)as Managing Director of Auger Enterprises; home of Blackie’s House of Beef, Lulu's New Orleans Cafe, Deja Vu night clubs and Alfredo, an Italian eatery.

My last assignment in the Corporate world came as General Manager and Corporate Executive Chef with Truffles Catering and Restaurant Group in Baltimore, MD

I went on my own and started Maxwell's, a family oriented dinner service. The business grew to doing 180 families on a weekly basis. .Retired after several years to enjoy my family and pursue the beach, fishing and motorcycle riding.

Those who realize that cooking is a trip not a destination

Chef’s are not born. They are made through training.

YOU CAN'T FAKE TASTE !!!

 Session II : BUILDING FLAVOR. Fats, Aromatics, Salt, Herbs, Acids and Heat. F.A.C.T.

This session will teach you the various ways of building flavors. From the use of Aromatics like onions, garlic, shallots, ginger, etc, to fresh Chilies and Herbs. We will also cover acids like vinegars and citrus juices as well some salty and smokey ingredients. Specifically cover Salt, Heat, Fat, Umami.

The impact of Heat as a flavor enhancement/ different kinds of fats and oils/ the application of Acids and Umami flavoring. All the above applies to diferent techniques and regional cooking ( US, Asia, Spanish, Southwester,Italian, Indian, etc) Spice guides will be covered and you will learn. the combinations that have stand the test of time. Brining as a flavor tool.Spice Chart is provided.

F.A.C.T. Is a program I developed in my early years as a Chef. You are basically destructuring a dish after is made to see if it meets standards of excellence. This is applies to every single item you are making in your kitchen. Yes, Is your Kitchen. It is easy and the program becomes automatic in your head when you start planning your menus and cooking your food Is fun.

F ( Flavor ) A ( Aroma ), C ( Color/Consistency ) T ( Texture ) and the combining of it all

You will use spice charts and learn what goes with what . The interactions of flavors and enhancements. When and how to use spice and aromatics , and learn how to work the F A C T program, apply the Elements to different dishes and styles of prep/techniques.

After going through the outline and the session ( hopefully the session on Methods of Cooking you will realize and learn that these are the Basics of all you want to cook, No need to reach for a recipe once your pantry stocked and you know what you want to eat. It becomes routine before you realize it..

This session starts with a review of basic flavors. Up until 2002, scientists recognized 4 ‘official’ tastes:

1) salty; 2) sweet; 3) sour; and 4) bitter. However, in 2002 Umami became the fifth flavor. Umami simply means yummy in Japanese, and it’s hard to describe what the flavor of umami tastes like. For simplicity sake, we are lumping it with salty because they share a lot of the same flavor attributes.

When we talk about "building flavor"

We don't necessarily mean adding or changing the ingredients in the recipe. We're also talking about cooking techniques that create depth and character in a dish.
These are basic techniques that you'll find yourself using again and again as you grow as a cook:
1. SEARING THE MEAT When cooking meat, taking time to sear the outside will add a heavenly depth of flavor to your final dish.
2. DEGLAZING THE PAN That dark layer at the bottom of your pan might look like burned food, but it's actually caramelized bits from everything you've been cooking. Once they've been deglazed, these bits melt into the background and form a savory flavor base in your dish
3. CARAMELIZING THE ONIONS - Like searing and deglazing, caramelizing onions and other vegetables by cooking them slowly gives your dish depth and adds interesting smoky and nutty flavors to your dish.
4. TOASTING THE SPICES- This brings out the natural oils in the spices and boosts their aroma in the final dish. It's most effective to toast whole spices and then grind them
5. REDUCING THE SAUCE- Reducing concentrates all the flavors in a sauce. High, middle, and low notes become heightened, which enhances the overall taste of the sauce.
6. SALTING TO TASTE- Salt reduces our perception of bitterness in dishes. If you've already added all the salt called for in the recipe, try adding a pinch of salt or more and then see if you notice a difference.
7. ADDING ACIDIC AND SPICY INGREDIENTS-These also accentuate the high notes. If you've already added salt and you still think your dish needs "a little something," try adding a squeeze of lemon, a splash of vinegar, or a few shakes of Tabasco Sauce.

8. ADDING A SPLASH OF WINE- Similar to adding an acidic ingredient, a splash of red or white wine can brighten the flavors in your dish.

These are BASIC STEPS, like building a house. Bypass the foundation or the roof YOU DONT HAVE A HOUSE . THERE ARE CERTAIN SHORTCUT that will come in time that may combine the steps or bypass one of tem to be added later. BUT THET ARE ALL THERE AS PART OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT,

BUILDING THE FLAVOR

AROMATICS

Aromatics are combinations of vegetables and herbs (and sometimes even meats) that are heated in some fat – like butter, oil, or coconut milk – at the beginning of a dish. The heated fat helps these ingredients release addictive aromas and impart deep flavors into the dish that’s being cooked.
Sauces, braises, curries, rice dishes, sautes, stir-fries, soups, stews, and stocks all typically start off with aromatics, which help form the flavor foundation of these dishes.
Most cuisines have a traditional combination of aromatics.

In French cooking, the combination is the classic mirepoix — the holy trinity of onions, carrots and celery that are sautéed in butter as the base of so many dishes. Parley, thyme, bay leaves, herbes de provence
Italian cuisine uses the same combination of vegetables sautéed in olive oil, calling it soffritto. Garlic, parley, sage, prosciutto, pancetta, wine.
Spain and Latin America sofrito always includes tomatoes , garlic, onions, bell peppers. Olive Oil and lard. Cilantro, Chilies,Bacon, chorizo, ham, cumin, paprika,vinegars.
Cajun Cooking highlight onion, celery and peppers in their Cuisine. Butter and olive oil,garlic, shallots, parsley and paprika.
Cooks from non-European traditions work with a wider and more varied palette of aromatic vegetables and spices.
A typical Indian base mixture for a curry may contain onion and garlic, hot chiles, and chopped ginger. Ghee is their favorite fat ( clarified butter ). Also chives, cumin, garam masala and tumeric. And just before liquid is added, sophisticated hand-blended curry powders are added and quickly sautéed to release their fragrance.
Indonesian cooks have an especially exotic base mixture—called bumbu—that includes shrimp paste, powdered galangal (an aromatic rhizome similar to ginger), and kemiri (or candlenut), an oily nut that gives a particularly unctuous texture to Indonesian stews.
Chinese favor garlic,scallions, ginger,, shallots, chives, chilies, cilantro, star anise and five spice. Neutral oil, and sesame oil.
Thai cooks make one of several types of curry pastes for their flavor bases. The pastes are made by grinding together aromatics like shallots, lemongrass, chiles, and kaffir lime leaves. Neutral cooking oil and coconut milk.

Any mouthwatering dish, no matter what the cuisine, no matter what the regional influence, is built upon a great flavor base.

When you ar making your menus, think of where you are going and apply the aromatics. Your dish start to become clear in your mind.
We provide you with a flow/step diagram that makes it very easy for you to follow and start the system.

Aromatics or aromatic vegetables are usually divided into "subtle flavor boosters" and "in-your-face flavor boosters." How those ingredients are cooked and when they are added to the pot involves a two-step process that softens them and brings out flavor.
Subtle flavor boosters are the "slow-cooking things that go in at the beginning … that can really cook for a while. Everything in the onion family, leeks, different types of onions, (plus) carrots, celery, bell peppers, etc. They're sturdy enough that they can be sauteed without risk of burning, or they can be sweated."

When they are sauteed over moderate heat, you'll get "a bit of flavor from browning as well as the release of the juices. If you put a lid on the pan, you'll sweat them: "You're really concentrating the flavors but not adding any of the flavors that come from browning."

Once the subtle aromatics are cooked, the in-your-face flavor boosters — i.e., garlic, ginger, tomato paste — are added. These are more prone to burning and scorching.
Adding spices to hot fat allows them to bloom, releasing some of their flavor compounds. Since many spice compounds are soluble in fat rather than water, it's important to add them to the pot before adding liquids like broth or wine. All these bases are best cooked at medium or medium-low. DON'T BURN THE BASE

Once you've built a great flavor base, then you can add your own signature.

How a flavor base is cooked will vary by region

Again ,a flavor base is usually added to a dish at the very beginning of cooking. Typically, it is cooked in fat until the flavors are released, but subtle differences in cooking methods can change how a flavor base affects a dish.

Usually, especially in European cooking, flavorful base mixtures are gently “sweated” before liquids are added. The distinction between sweating and sautéing is an important one, because sautéing, with its emphasis on high heat and rapid cooking, is designed to seal the flavor of the vegetables within the vegetables, while sweating, which is cooking over low heat, is designed to get the vegetables to release their flavor so that it ultimately ends up in the surrounding liquid.
Traditional directions for sweating vegetables call for covering the pan so the moisture and aroma from the vegetables is entrapped and the vegetables don’t have a chance to brown. But for some dishes, it’s useful to first cook the vegetables gently, covered, and then remove the lid and allow the vegetables to slowly caramelize before adding liquid. This caramelization gives soups and sauces a richer and more complex flavor and a deeper color.
What size pieces should I cut?

The size you cut the individual components of a flavor mixture depends on how long the mixture will cook and if it will be puréed. The French make a big deal out of demanding that a classic mirepoix be cut into very tiny dice (called brunoise)—a handy way of torturing beginning culinary students. But there’s actually a sound reason for chopping mirepoix into small pieces for a quick-cooking dish: the smaller pieces will release their flavor more quickly during the short cooking time. On the other hand, mirepoix for a pot of long-simmering stock can consist of very large pieces of vegetables—onions cut in half, whole celery ribs, and carrots in chunks.
For the same reason, other cuisines call for mincing aromatics like ginger and lemongrass that are too fibrous to eat in large bites; but for a long-simmering dish, those aromatics might be left whole and slightly crushed, and then removed after cooking. Size also affects the look of a dish; if you’re making a light sauce and you don’t intend to purée it, you’ll want to cut your aromatics in small, neat pieces for an attractive final presentation.

IMPORTANT TIPS
Do stir: "Don't just throw everything in and walk away. You don't have to stir constantly, but give it an occasional stir. Be ready to adjust the heat if you feel it's going too slowly or too quickly."
Don't toss everything in at once: "Think about things that really are going to benefit from more time and those that are going to benefit with less time in the pot."
Take care: "Be careful with the carrots and the celery. Celery can get very grassy and a little bitter. That can be a good thing depending on what else is coming, or it can be a bit much. And carrots can get very, very sweet.
Saute or sweat: Depends on the dish. "The flavor's different. You've got a sort of more pure vegetable without all those sort of Maillard reactions, browning, caramelization. … Or maybe the dish is lacking if you don't brown those vegetables. It depends on what is coming later."
Size matters: Similarly sized pieces (of onion, carrot, celery, leek) will cook in about the same time. "You don't want to put in 1-inch pieces of celery and grated onion at the same time — that's probably not going to work."

xxxxThis is a classic example from my training days ( Way Back ) Will always hold true.xxx

 The three dishes that follow each use a flavor base to make a unique sauce. The chicken is sautéed first, and then it finishes cooking in the sauce. We’ve used the same technique for cooking the chicken in all three dishes to illustrate how much a change in a flavor base can affect a final dish. The Classic French Chicken in White Wine Sauce  starts with a classic French mirepoix. The Indian Chicken with Coconut Milk uses chiles, curry and ginger and the Chicken with Mexican Charred Serrano Tomatoes Sauce starts with vegetables and peppers that are charred in a cast-iron pan with no fat .As you can see Aromatics add the characteristic flavors of a particular cuisine.

THIS IS A GREAT SAMPLE FOR COOKING SMART ( YOU ARE BASICALLY COOKING 3 COMPLETE DIFFERENT DISHES AT THE SAME TIME-IMAGINE DOING THE SAME WITH BEEF-PORK-SEAFOOD. YOU HAVE 12 SINGLE DINNERS-DONE) YOU HAVE A FAMILY OF 2 OR 3. JUST DO THGE MATH. SAME STEPS , SAME PROCEDURES. YOU JUST MADE DINNERS FOR THE WHOLE WEEK IN 2 HOURS OR LESS -DEPENDINDING IF SOME ITEMS ARE NOT READY TO EAT BUT READY TO COOK.
We have a ** COOKING SMART SESSION ** is great for cooking for a family. Saves you time and money. Allows you to cook a great variety of dishes and stock them for days ahead

HERBS
Dried Herbs & Spices. This is a partial list( it does not mean you need them all )

• Achiote Reddish-brown paste or powder ground from annatto seeds with an earthy flavor. Used primarily in Latin American dishes like sofrito, mole sauce, cochinita pibil, and tamales.
  

• Allspice- Similar to cloves, but more pungent and deeply flavored. Best used in spice mixes.
  

• Bay Leaf- Adds a woodsy background note to soups and sauces.
  

• Caraway Seed - These anise-tasting seeds are essential for soda bread, sauerkraut, and potato salad.
  

Cardamon- This warm, aromatic spice is widely used in Indian cuisine. It's also great in baked goods when used in combination with spices like clove and cinnamon.

• Cayenne Pepper d and ground red chili peppers. Adds a sweet heat to soups, braises, and spice mixes.
  

• Cinnamon - Found in almost every world cuisine, cinnamon serves double duty as spice in both sweet and savory dishes.
  

• Cloves - Sweet and warming spice. Used most often in baking, but also good with braised meat.
  

• Coriander Seeds- Earthy, lemony flavor. Used in a lot of Mexican and Indian dishes.
  

• Cumin- Smoky and earthy. Used in a lot of Southwestern U.S. and Mexican cuisine, as well as North African, Middle Eastern, and Indian.
  

• Fennel Seeds eet and licorice flavored. It's excellent with meat dishes, or even chewed on its own as a breath freshener and digestion aid!
  

• Garlic Powder r is made from dehydrated garlic cloves and can be used to give dishes a sweeter, softer garlic flavor.
  

• Ginger - Ground ginger is made from dehydrated fresh ginger and has a spicy, zesty bite.
  

Gochuraru - This Korean red pepper spice is hot, sweet, and ever-so-slightly smoky.

• Kaffir Lime Leaves- Used to flavor curries and many Thai dishes. Can be sold fresh, dry, or frozen.
  

Nutmeg- Sweet and pungent. Great in baked goods, but also adds a warm note to savory dishes.

• pastas, and other dishes to add a nutty, cheesy, savory flavor.
  

• Oregano, somewhat lemony flavor. Used in a lot of Mexican and Mediterranean dishes.
  

You know what you like so store your pantry according to what you are going to use regularly. Do the same with fresh herbs, spice blends and mixs.

FRESH Herbs

• Basil - Highly aromatic with a robust licorice flavor. Excellent in pestos, as a finishing touch on pasta dishes, or stuffed into sandwiches.
  

• Chives - Delicate onion flavor, great as a garnish.
  

• Cilantro- From the coriander plant, cilantro leaves and stems have a pungent, herbaceous flavor. Used in Caribbean, Latin American, and Asian cooking. .
  

• Dill - Light and feathery herb with a pungent herb flavor. Use it for pickling, with fish, and over potatoes. .
  

• Lemon Thyme - Sweet lemon aroma and a fresh lemony-herbal flavor. This is excellent with poultry and in vinaigrettes. .
  

• Bouquet Garni- Thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Used to flavor broths and soups. (Classic French)
  

• Chili Powder- Ground chilis, cumin, oregano, cayenne, and lots of optional extras to make this seasoning uniquely yours. Use for chili, stew, beans, grilled meat, and tacos. (Mexican/Southwestern U.S.)
  

• Chinese Five Spice Powder - Star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, fennel, cassia, and clove. Adds sweetness and depth to savory dishes, especially beef, duck, and pork. (Chinese)
  

• Curry Powder- Typically includes turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, and red pepper, but mixes can vary. Used primarily to quickly flavor curry sauces. (Indian)
  

• Dukkah - Includes nuts (most often hazelnuts), sesame seeds, coriander, and cumin. Great spice rub for lamb, chicken, and fish. (Egyptian)
  

SALT

*** As an ingredient in dishes, salt plays two very important roles. First, it reduces bitter flavors. Second, because it reduces bitterness, adding salt allows the aromas and tastes of the other ingredients in your dish to shine through.

BRINING Salt is also used to add succulence and juiciness to meat, poultry, and fish through brining. Immersed in a brine solution of salt and water, the proteins in poultry or fish will unravel, freeing up space for some of the salty water to be absorbed and retained. With a dry brine, the salt is rubbed on and left to sit on the meat overnight. The salt rub draws moisture out to-the skin, where the salt crystals dissolve into a mild brine. Eventually, this brine also becomes absorbed in the meat. Both dry and wet brines offer up the same benefits—a heightening of flavor and moistness.

FATS
Although we hear a lot about BAD FAT , that is not so. Most of them are good. They relate specifically to nutrients and flavor. My rule, read the label. Example; Read the ingredients for real butter and the artificial one and figure who will die sooner
The type of fat used to cook the base mixture will also influence the final flavor and sometimes even the texture of a dish.
The French generally cook mirepoix in butter.
A Provençal cook will probably use olive oil (and add garlic to the ingredients) / a cook in Gascony might cook the vegetables in duck or goose fat / an Alsatian cook may use lard.
Asian cooks might use coconut or peanut oil, and Indians are known for their flavorful ghee (toasted clarified butter). While Italians also use whatever fat is most abundant in their region (butter, olive oil, lard, or even the rendered fat from a prosciutto or pancetta rind)
Mexican cooks often don’t use any fat at all. Instead they dry-roast garlic, onions, and chiles on a comal, a kind of flat, heavy roasting pan. The comal gives the vegetables a distinctive and delicious toasted flavor.
Once the flavor foundations in a dish have been laid down, the cook can build the kind of dish they wants—a stew, a soup, a sauce, or a braise. Adding liquids like coconut milk or chicken stock can enhance the dish’s flavors one step further, and the final dish will have the distinctive character of a particular cuisine.

OLIVE OIL
Which is simply juice pressed from olives, tastes great when it’s fresh. The highest grade, called extra-virgin, is lively, bright, and full-bodied at its best, with flavors that range from peppery to buttery depending on the variety of olives used and how ripe they are when harvested.
HARVEST DATE: Since a “best by” date might be 24 to 32 months after the oil was bottled and 1 to 2 years after it was pressed, a harvest date is a more precise indication of freshness. Look for the most recent date, and note that in Europe and the United States, olives are harvested in the fall and winter, so most bottles will list the previous year.
TIPS -DARK GLASS: Avoid clear glass; dark glass shields the oil from damaging light. Avoid clear plastic, too; it’s not a good barrier to light or air.
OIL ORIGIN: Bottlers often print where their oil has been sourced from on the label; look for oil that has been sourced from a single country.

GRAPESEED OIL. This is my general use oil Not only does it have a high smoke point, making it great for sauteing and frying, but it’s also healthy:packed with vitamin E and linoleic acid (also called omega-6)

ACIDS

Definition of Acid ? Any substance that measures less than 7 on the pH scale is an acid Taste and you can tell. We all have tasted sour before,right. Then it is Acid. By itself it really sucks but if you balance it with other foods it brings out other flavor

Most dishes are a balancing act of flavors, which is why recipes often instruct you to season to taste with salt and pepper at the end. ( Do Salt First ) . Doing Salt and Pepper together often leads to disaster. Many also suggest seasoning with lemon juice or another acid like vinegar. This is because acid plays an important role in brightening flavors if they are flat or bland, reigning in sweetness, or toning down richness, just as it balances the oil in a vinaigrette. So the next time a dish is too sweet or flat or rich, try adding a touch of acid before you reach for the salt.

Sometimes you want to taste the acid, such as when you squeeze lemon over a piece of fish. Other times the effect is more subtle, as acid can balance a dish and tease out other flavors without calling attention to itself:

How to Use Acid to Make Your Food Taste Better

Don't get lost on any of this, your taste is the ultimate judge. From the times of the caves to the time our Mothers and Grandmas fed us , to now when you cook at home we have used acids in just about everything we cook. Is a matter of taste REMEMBER , just like salt, a little bit at a time. Then taste, maybe a bit more and taste gain til you know you got it.

UMANI,

A quality of meaty savoriness that brings depth to many dishes, is widely considered the fifth taste. These umami-enhancing ingredients boost the flavor of whatever we’re cooking

Soy Sauce

Anchovies
Worcestershire Sauce
Tomato Paste
Mushrooms
Olives
Parmesan Cheese
Broth/Stock

Beef broth is rich in umami-enhancing compounds, but beef stock goes a step further...

jiardizon@yahoo.com
727-710-6558

PS.. Great tool for a commercial kitchen. You need to enhance knowledge, ALWAYS

ARE YOU HUNGRY ??

CHOOSING AND KEEPING THE RIGHT CANDIDATE

Choosing and Keeping the Right Candidate 

Where do you get good people is a question you hear often. The answer is simple. The same place they got you. It is a common cliche to refer to people as our most valuable assets,however this is only true in as much as we can create the conditions in which they can contribute, in as much as we allow them to excel. So let's read this...

Sun-Tzu, one of the most famous generals in history was traveling to a far outpost when he notice one of his pallbearers kept a mirror behind his back. When asked why he said, I look at it every day to remind me that there lies both the cause and the answer to my problems. 

This awareness -reality must be management first concern. AWARENESS is an objective look at ourselves in how we deal with relationships within the group. Do you communicate fully with all its members. Are you swayed by group decisions or consensus. Do you instill group effort. Can you help implant what is most important to the group or do you simply guide the process along. Do you fully integrate and constantly strive to build a well -knit and effective group, are you willing to share both information and decision making. Can you exercise and influence up and down the organization that which affects morale, motivation and loyalty. Do you lead as well as follow. 

 Awareness we see relates to our behavior in dealing with situational requirements, values systems and leadership patterns. Awareness also deals with the organization concept of time, shifting criteria for effectiveness, and strategic orientation. As organizational needs change so should your structure, goals and skills, however these changes are not always reflected in hiring patterns, and gears are shifted and direction is changed without proper skills.

 The consequences are clear. Chosen candidates are rendered ineffective by not being able to shape events, at best delivering only what the system can support.

Awareness is also coming to terms with the business you are in, perhaps something not so obvious. What the guest is buying must be what you are selling, in either product or service, tangible or intangible. A product approach is guided by  competence and knowledge and a service one by behavior and attitude. One by necessity must fuel the other . There can only be one priority. Problems develop when you try to assume attributes you do not possess. Positioning a word we so often use in marketing  also has a profound effect in your human resources needs.

GENERIC is defined as applicable to, or referring to all members of a class, group or kind. Common. Generic hiring is synonymous with care taking and mediocrity. A generic manager hires lesser and not better, creating a devastating effect down the line. Generic hiring may result in getting the best of the lot but not the best for your needs. These needs are met by first determining your awareness and second by the careful integration of personal attributes and technical knowledge of the candidate.

Traditionally the emphasis has been to hire according to industry established practises, perception of titles and roles, structured setting, and work record, Even now that we are confronted by constant change and an unstable environment the criteria and steps for choosing candidates remain the same. We look more into the roles and less into the person as one did not influence the other, There is little wonder that we can hire the best to turn out the worst. The test here is not about finding the best candidate but to identify the right one.

The difference is clear;it lies between those who can and will and those who can and won't. You distance yourself from choosing a generic candidate by changing the criteria for the job and going beyond generalities. This facilitates integration and helps reduce boundaries, At this point you concentrate on traits relevant to values systems and leadership patterns, dealing with substance and uniqueness. These are found by looking at a candidate domineering skills, personal attributes and the binding of it all.
 
These traits are manifested in achievements and contributions and not experience, entrepreneurial and process understanding, external orientation versus internal, liberal education against specific industry, loyalty, continuing education, demonstrated resiliency ,perseverance and dedication. This wholeness is principal in determining your criteria as they represent that which can not be either changed or taught, character. 

JOHN WOODEN, Basketball Hall of Fame refers to stardom, " I always taught players that the main ingredients of stardom is the rest of the team. It's amazing how much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit. That is why I was always concerned with a players character. Your character is who you really are, your reputation is what others think you are, So, always make a determined effort to evaluate character "

MATCHING should reflect the candidates personality and ability to cope with different aspects of the position,specially in crossover situations where one must deal with both function and process, tactics and strategy, conceptual thinking and hands on knowledge. The match also relates to the organization philosophy and values, priorities and vision. 

A match also refers to business orientation ( external or internal ). A candidate with an internal orientation and its subsequent emphasis on controls would be out of place in a market driven organization, The same would apply if the candidate attributes and skills are only effective within a high levels of organizational support. One must be careful with an exact match. These fits relate to "group think" and gives away to expediency and rationalization. This perfection is worthless as everyone is always right and beyond criticism. Members are quick to accept consensus and willing to protect each other. They become legends in their own minds..

YOU should end the matching process with this thought in mind. People do not go sour,rather they are hired for the wrong reason, at the wrong time and with the wrong skills. Failure belongs to us all.
 
NURTURING, because the returns are staggering. To name a few, low turnover, selling a vision,enhanced leadership. sharing of culture and optimum performance. Nurturing because it is your obligation to pave the way so that your people can develop to their full potential. Even for a heathen the option is too good to pass. HOW you deal with nurturing may well be the deciding factor in working with either managers or disciples.
 
Managers work with a contractual agreement in mind delivering at best marginal performance. Disciples and leaders act act as your conscience throughout, reinforcing your vision, your dreams, Their efforts backed by belief and indomitable spirit. Do you have any doubt as to who will deliver the most ?
 Next time you hear that we just can not find good people or you are faced with marginal performance, give this a try and buy some mirrors.
This article was published more than 10 years ago and remains as true today. A reminder the answer is always with ourselves.
Would really like to hear your thoughts or comments. Joseph at jiardizon@yahoo.com 727-710-6558