My Perfect Pot Stickers

After 12+ hours of cooking classes and lots of practice in between, my confidence is growing. So far I’ve learned knife skills, saute, stocks, poaching, braising, searing, frying, confit, steaming and stewing.  Next I learn sauces, roasting, broiling, grilling, breads, batters, pasta, starches and grains.  The cool thing is that with practice between classes, it all starts to come together.  Using the right knife properly is now becoming second nature, I’m much improved with mis en plas and I’m  tackling new techniques and harder recipes.  Ask me at what temperature food begins to cook and it will roll off my tongue (212°F).  I’m learning the logical reason behind each step of the cooking process and by thinking while I cook, I’m becoming a better home chef and it’s a lot of fun.

Here’s some tips from Class 4 – Searing, Frying & Confit

• Making good fried food is harder then I thought.  You must have consistently correct temperature, the right style and size pan (stove top vs electric fryer), correct oil level (almost half way covering your food) and dry food because if it is wet, the water jumps out of the pan and pushes the oil away causing the food to dry out and then rehydrate by soaking up oil.
• If you hear the fat sizzle in your frying pan (without smoke) it’s ready for the food (about 220°F).
• Why fry foods at all? If it’s done right, it doesn’t taste oily and it can still be very healthy (think Spring Rolls).
• Use a fine mesh fry pan cover to keep oil from splattering–you aren’t going to cover a fry pan and walk away.
• Frying small items use the stove top, big things use an electric fryer to keep the temperature consistent.
• When you bread something, the moisture is trapped inside steaming the food thus it is moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. The trick is have very dry breading (like Panko) and keep the temperature perfect so that the food has time to cook inside while the outside browns. (It took me several tries to not fail at this–breaded raw fish anyone?)
• Why does my frying pan look dirty when it’s not? That’s oil melted into the metal pot.  If you don’t like the look, use cast iron.
• Flavor your french fries immediately after taking them out of the pan, otherwise the salt just bounces off the cold fries.
• Use a mandolin to make nicely cut vegetables, not a food processor.
• When picking an oil, match it to your dish flavor (i.e., peanut oil for Asian food) and cost (why use expensive olive oil when you can use veggie oil?).
• Chef says “smoke point” is irrelevant which makes sense; you don’t want your oil to smoke. When smoke happens, turn it off and wait for it to cool down and don’t reuse this oil, it is ruined.
• You absolutely need a temperature gauge to fry successfully on a stove top and a mesh spoon is handy too.

Merci Chef Oliver & Kitchen on Fire!

Tags: Cooking school, Food in My Kitchen, frying, Kitchen on Fire, learning to cook