The Big Book of Sides – Rick Rodgers
I have been looking for a book like this for a long time. In fact, I own several cookbooks that are dedicated to side dishes. None are as good as The Big Book of Sides. It contains 450 recipes for…
Pork Scaloppine with Marsala-Porcini Sauce
This is one of those dishes that is not only good-tasting, simple to prepare, and is also photogenic. If you are looking for a dish that is an alternative to something marsala then this is it. The stock created by boiling…
Sear-Roasted Salmon Fillet with Rosemarie Beurre Blanc Sauce
The problem with nice thick salmon fillets is how to cook them. If the fillet is more than about an inch thick then you are faced with a quandary: Sautéing until the surface is nicely done leaves the center almost raw.…
Beurre Blanc Sauce
Beurre Blanc is a white wine and butter sauce that goes really well with any seafood. It has a reputation of being difficult to prepare but I'm going to show to a trick taught to me by a French chef…
What Does ‘Coat the Back of a Spoon’ Mean?
Many recipes contain the instruction thicken until it coats the back of a spoon Place a spoon - wood, metal, plastic, it doesn't matter - in the mixture. Remove it and and run your finger across the back of the…
Gouda Mac and Cheese
I was sitting in one of my favorite restaurants looking over the menu when I noticed a new item: Gouda Mac and Cheese...$14 It sounded interesting, but fourteen dollars? No Way. I can make it myself for a tenth of…
Pâtisserie at Home – Will Torrent
This is one of the books I bought when I decided to learn to make French pastries. My normal practice when embarking on learning a new subject is to buy two or three books on it, knowing that the first…
Sauce Choron
Sauce Choron is one of the 'child' sauces of Hollandaise. I love it on steak. I get these really wonderfully tender filet mignons, but as you know, tenderloin is not the most flavorful cut of beef. A sauce fixes that.…
Classic Cooking Academy was a Great Experience
Consider this my emphatic personal endorsement of Classic Cooking Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona. I just finished the 24-week Practical Series and without a doubt it was well worth the time and money. I consider myself a pretty decent home chef,…
Sauce Béarnaise
Hollandaise sauce is called a mother sauce because it is used as the starting point for many other sauces, one of which is Sauce Béarnaise. Sauce Béarnaise and steak is a match made in heaven. It is also great on…