First Timers Cookbook

Mentors

Here’s to a couple of great guys . . .

The one sitting in the middle next to me is Chef Dave Prows, my mentor and a great friend.  I learned how to cook, how to live a fulfilling-balanced life and how to succeed in the crazy foodservice business from Dave.

The chef just to the left of Dave is Frank Krause.  You can see Chef Krause almost monthly on various local cooking shows around the Salt Lake area.  He is the director of the culinary program at the Art Institute and has become another mentor and friend of mine.  I have learned to be a better teacher from Chef Krause.

It just goes to show, that you can learn something everyday, from anyone.

Here’s to the mentors and friends in our lives that make us who we are!

Here is the latest review!

Our good friend and professional blogger Heather Justesen was kind enough to review the book!  Here is what she had to say . . .

http://heatherjustesen.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-first-timers-cookbook-by.html

First Timer’s Cooking on Studio 5

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

First Timer’s In the News!

Check out the Deseret News article on Shawn and the First TImer’s Cookbook!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705312437/Cook-by-the-book-Recession-puts-novice-cooks-in-kitchen.html?pg=3

Fishing

This was the biggest fish I have ever caught . . .  This picture was taken after 45 minutes of westling with what felt like an underwater horse.

While fishing with my cousin up on the mighty snake river near Twin Falls Idaho, we caught a Sturgeon. A member of the shark family, they are bottom feeders that look alot like a cross between a catfish and a shark.  They get pretty big and as you can see, the one we caught was between 7 and 8 feet long.  Because they are members of the shark family, you can’t take them out of the water since their bodies are not made to be out of the water their body wieght  will suffocate them if you take them out (plus, its Idaho law that you can’t take them out).  

You may be thinking, “What does this have to do with food and cooking and why are Sturgeon (which are normally ocean dwellers) in a freshwater river?”  Well, here is the answer to both.

As far as food goes, does anyone know where we get caviar from?  If you guessed Sturgeon, then you are right.  Which is yet another reason that we don’t want to harm them by taking them out of the water.

What is this ocean fish doing in the middle of Idaho?  Answer, living it up on the baby salmon that we fishmen use to catch them.  Years ago, the Snake River went all the way out to the ocean, which allowed the Sturgeon to swim up the river into Idaho.  When the dams began to be put in, the Sturgeon became trapped and have thrived in the Snake River ever since.

So the next time you go to a sushi bar and see some of those orange fish eggs, you now have an idea about how they may have gotten there and who/what they came from.

Cooking Eggs

The FIrst TImer’s Guide to Cooking Eggs

It never ceases to amaze me when we go to a restaurant and order eggs how many people don’t know what is what.  The questions that arise go something like this . . . “What is the difference between over easy and sunny side up?  What is over hard?”  And so on and so on. . .

So here is a pictorial tour of what is what.  That way, when you order your eggs, you know what you’re getting.

 

A very important part of cooking eggs is first not breaking the yolk.  If you crack the egg just above the pan so that it falls only a short distance, you will risk less chance of breaking the yolk.

Now, as the eggs cook, you will get various degrees of doneness.  For example, the above picture is “sunnyside up.”  This is done by letting the eggs cook in the pan without flipping.  This would be similar to a “rare” steak, its the least done of the egg cooking. 

After sunnyside up you will have over easy and over medium and over well.  All three of these will look very similar because they will all be flipped over (hence the preface “over” to each) before being served, but be different in the following ways.  Over easy will have the egg yolk and the closest surrounding white uncooked and still in liquid form.  Over medium (my personal favorite) will have the egg yolk in liquid form, but the white will be completely cooked.  Over well will have almost the entire white and yolk completely done. 

  

You also have the designation of over hard, that completely cooks the egg.  For this one, you can just break the yolk (or just keep going if you initially broke the yolk) and cook the egg white and yolk until there is no longer any liquid texture.

Now, here is everybody’s favorite, scrambled eggs.

You will notice that I crack them into a bowl first and then whisk, this serves two purposes.  First, if I cracked the egg into the bowl and a few stray pieces of shell just happen to come with it, no big deal, I just take them out.  Second, if the eggs are all in the bowl, it makes them a whole lot easier to whip into a nice even consistency before I pour them into a hot pan.

Now, you could just pour the eggs into the pan after they are whipped but I like to add a little bit of cream or milk to the mix, I found that it helps them come out fluffier.

Now that we have mixed our eggs we pour them into a nice hot pan and move them around frequently to make sure that they cook evenly.

Now when are the eggs done?  Well the answer to that question is another question, how do you like them? Scrambled eggs are alot like cooking whole eggs, there are different degrees of doneness.  So if you go to a nice diner and order up some scrambled eggs, they may ask you how you want them cooked, soft, medium or hard?  The difference in these is very minimal, just know that soft is less dense than medium or hard.  Most places don’t even ask anymore, once you say you want scrambled eggs the server will usually just put in “scrambled medium” on the ticket that gets sent back to the cooks. Its a nice middle ground and chances are you aren’t going to be able to tell a difference or even care for that matter.  But just for the record, I like mine scrambled medium.

Chef Shawn Bucher Makes Bananas Foster

Chef Shawn Bucher Makes Bananas Foster from Michael Potter on Vimeo.

Burnt outside, Raw inside

I made Halibut yesterday and it was sooo gross.  It was weird, the outside started cooking way to fast (and) almost burned but the inside was still raw. Uhggggg… Any tips?

Jerica, UT

The First Timers Guide to Evenly Cooking Meat

Man, if I had a dime for everytime I got this question . . .

One of the secrets that restaurants use on a very regular basis is “marking” items like steaks on a broiler or grill and then finishing them in the oven.  By cooking the food initially on the hot surface, you get those nice sear or grill marks.  The hard part about using this cooking medium is that your food tends to get done too fast on the outside and the middle doesn’t get cooked enough.  Thus, resulting in Jerica’s dilemma (and the title of this post), burnt on the outside, raw on the inside. 

This is why restaurants only “mark” the food on the broiler or grill and then finish it in the oven.  This allows for even cooking of the item(s) so that the inside gets to the desired doneness without the outside buring.

Have you ever been to a big banquet or dinner and wondered how they cooked each one of those steaks or chicken or fish so perfectly?  This is how, they mark them ahead of time and finish them in the oven right before service . . . Ta da!  If it works for the pros then why doesn’t everyone else do it?

Restaurants are healthy right?

Check out the list of some of the most unhealthy restaurants . . .

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/26542/americas-unhealthiest-restaurants

Egg Replacers

            I have a child that is allergic to eggs, milk, soy, etc. So I use replacement recipes a lot.  When I’m using egg replacers all the information says “choose your replacer based on whether the egg is acting as an emulsifyer, binding agent, or leavening agent.”  How am I supposed to know?  Also, which replacers are for which things?  Here are my (three) replacer recipes:

1.     1 tsp. baking powder, 1 T. liquid, 1 T. vinegar

2.     1 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water

3.     1 packet gelatin, 2 T. warm water. Do not mix until ready to use.

  Tiffany, UT

 

First Timers Guide to Using Eggs in Recipes

Eggs have a lot of different uses.  Namely, as an emulsifier, a binding agent, a leavening agent and not to mention just plain old eggs that you cook and eat.  Now, I’m sure that most of you are thinking, what is an emulsifier, binding agent or leavening agent?  Well, let me explain.

An emulsifier would be when you use eggs to make Mayonnaise, salad dressings or Hollandaise sauce.  It thickens and binds the oil or butter together.

The binding agent would be when you use it in something like meatloaf.  You mix eggs in with the meat to make everything stick or bind together.

Leavening agent is used when you want something to rise.  Soufflés would be good example of this (or any other dish you would add say whipped eggs whites into).

So to answer the question with your replacements, #1 would be an emulsifier, #2 would be a leavening agent, and #3 would be a binding agent.