I know that answers will vary, but I’m just hunting for opinions: what is the best marinade for grilled chicken?
Oh Java, the last time I made ratatouille I grilled the squash and zucchini first…gave the finished dish a wonderful smoky top note. I also note that you use a lot less tomato than I do. Hm. Why not?
Max, here are some simple possibilities for chicken marinades:
Teriyaki sauce
Italian salad dressing
Mixed honey, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic and ginger
orange juice, marmalade, tequila, salt, and lime juice (this makes “margarita chicken”)
I love gnocchi in a alfredo with a little ham. Problem is, I’ve never been able to make an alfredo that I like. 
One gnocchi recipe that I’ve recently experimented on was gnocchi in chicken broth, with chicken and basil sausage, parmesian cheese and some scallions on top. It was decent enough, but it needed something else, am not sure what though.
When’s dinner?
I love chewy cookies. Not soft, like a cake, but chewy ones that get crisp when they cool down, then you warm them up to make them chewy again.
My question is, I just moved and lost my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and I’ve been trying a lot of them (I’ve even used websites to find recipes). I have noticed that the ingredients are virtually the same, just the proportions are different. So what proprtions of flour, butter, etc. make them chewy and what proportion make them crisp and what proportion make them cake-like? What do I look for if I want to know by if a recipe will be chewy? All the recipes I’ve tried that say soft come out like a cake and I don’t like that.
Yes, there are loans and grants available to accredited schools–I noticed that you’re in VA, so I may assume she’s looking at Johnson & Wales? If so, I’m pretty sure there will be no problem securing loans.
Your daughter will need average grades to get in; don’t worry, since she’s not going to Harvard, if she isn’t a 4.0, it won’t matter. I had to take a general aptitude test–I think just to check if I had a pulse.
Many culinary schools offer business & financial courses, due to the fact that, like many businesses, you need to understand what is happening, and that it all runs on money. But, unlike most businesses, the culinary industry is run on profits of pennies, not dollars–and it’s easy to lose your shirt if you don’t understand how to run a restaurant.
I think that these 4 year curriculums probably focus more on some certain things that some schools may brush over, and have added more hospitality industry courses. Call me impatient, but I like the 16 month curriculum I’m doing–I’m going broke being a student!
When I’ve done artichokes, I cut off the tops, about a 1/4 of the way down. I get a big soup spoon, and dig out that center. You know, I’ve never been able to get 100% of that choke out, either, without having to cut the whole thing in half.
For another way of doing artichokes, cut the top off, and trim the stem and any icky outer leaves. Take a lemon slice, and with kitchen string, secure the lemon slice on the top (the lemon will keep the trimmed ends from turning brown). Steam until tender. These are, by far, much easier to clean out the choke :).
Thanks Java, we really are excited, my daughter and I, about her decision. We didn’t even know that there was a school here in this state until recently. This year at her high school she will be taking a course from a very well trained instructor. He was a military man, classically trained and worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has had an excellent career. When he retired his wife loved Virginia and wanted to settle here. He decided that since his kids were going to be attending our local schools he’d apply for the job. We are lucky to have him here.
My daughter has a reading disability that we discovered sometime in the 1st grade. This has been a terrible burden on her academically. But the kid has improved and will be in “mainstream” classes next year. We’re Southern so naturally we like to eat and cook. She’s been watching cooking shows with me since she was a tiny thing. The kid is already a great “fly by the seat of your pants” cook, like her mom. She just needs to learn how to clean up behind herself as she goes. LOL She really is rather strange, she gets all worked up over a clove of garlic. LOL
As for ratatouille…wouldn’t it be pretty much OK for anything to go in there as long as you have eggplant, tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. I always use a little diced carrot for sweetness. Of course I also use zucchini and often yellow squash.
Max…I’m no classically trained chef but I can cook…if you don’t have a lot on hand a bottle of vinegar and oil based salad dressing is a wonderful thing for marinades. Right now Kraft has a nice line called “Classics” (or something like that) the entire line is very tasty and make great marinades. The Sun Dried Tomato, Greek Vinegarette, and Italian Pesto are my favorites. I’ve used them all as marinades for chicken, pork or fish. There are also many interesting dried spice blends on the market right now if you like using a dry rub. Two of them that I use are made by McCormick. The Santa Fe has chili, cumin, and red pepper, and the Key West has lemon, thyme, and basil. It really is easy to use some of the products available now. While I prefer to use herbs from my little pot on the back porch, sometimes I mow them down so badly they need a little time to grow back. LOL So we use dried spices. Just remember to use your spices, they can age and lose their flavor.
Needs2know
I’ve also decided that we are going to look into some schools out of state for her. I’m just not sure I want her living in Norfolk, even if it is only and hour and a half away. Got any suggestions?
Needs2know
My apologies to everyone… my chef decided on Monday night, last minute, that it would be a *really, really good idea * to start finals a day early, on Tuesday.
<sigh>
Well, I’m over with them now, and I do have to say, that it wasn’t such a bad idea to do them a day early. Tomorrow, we get to hang out, have a potluck dinner, and go home early. YAY!
So where was I?
Chef Troy: When I say “All-Clad Girl” I’m going for more the Warrior Chef Zena look, in copper, of course.
Needs2know: I would first have a look at any of the accredited (this is important–can’t get a loan for it if it’s not accredited) schools. Even if you don’t want her in Norfolk, I’m sure you still want her around on the East Coast. My school is one out of 18 that are around in the country that offer the Le Cordon Bleu diploma–you may want to see if there is one near you. There are a few in New York, such as CIA and French Culinary Institute. I believe there are a few Johnson & Wales near you, too. Any of those would be a good choice.
I’m glad your daughter is taking a cooking course before she starts school. My opinion, though, is before she starts full-time culinary school, that she take a summer job working in a kitchen, doing prep work–something on a starting level. She needs to see and do the down & dirty stuff like taking apart chickens for 4 hours straight. There is quite a bit of that, when you first start out, and she needs to see what work in a restaurant kitchen is like.
You may also want to remind her about the cleaning up thing. Our grades seriously depend on not only what comes out of the kitchen, but how clean we keep our stations and the rest of the kitchen. Sanitation is just as important as cooking techniques.
**MaryAnnQ: ** First of all, on those cookies, look for recipes that do not have * baking powder *in them–that will contribute to a more cake-like texture. Find recipes with a small amount of baking soda in them. Go with recipes that also have higher ratios of fat–eggs & butter. Make sure you cream your butter & sugar very, very well–that will also help. BTW, I’ve always found that the Toll House recipe works rather nicely for chewy cookies, as long as you don’t overbake them.
MaxTorque: Really, what you need to look at, is having something acidic in your marinade. From that point, everything else you can think of can be in your marinade to add flavor.
Acidic items: Citrus juices, tomato juice, pineapple juice, vinegar, and wine
So, using an acidic item, you can build from there, such as:
Tomato juice, garlic, onion, cumin, cayenne, and black pepper for a “spanish chicken”
Red wine, garlic, thyme, paprika, rosemary and black pepper–I use this one for wings, as an alternative for Buffalo Wings. I marinate for 12 hours, and bake off.
Lemon juice, dijon mustard, tarragon, and a little olive oil
With these building blocks, you can go all directions with some imagination.
Oh, I sooooooo love this thread!!!
Want a hint? Aloe vera’s are VERY easy to raise. They’re almost impossible to kill. I have a big aloe vera growing outside my kitchen. If you just cut the end off a leaf, cut it in half, put it in the fridge for a few minutes, then it makes an excellent burn application. I know this from burn after burn after burn… I can’t seem to cook without burning myself.
Gosh, all this talk makes me realize how little we normal folk know about FOOD. I’m fascinated!
thanks for the wonderful recipies: I printed them out and will surprise my family with them later 
(What, no canned ravioli again?)
Now, a question, and I hope it is not too broad: I would really like to learn to cook with wine. What kind of recipes should I start out with (a pasta sauce, maybe?) and what wines are best?
And another: What off-the-shelf everyday items can you personally not live without? Ex: BBQ sauces, steak sauces, Campell’s tomato soup, etc…
Thanks, Java!
Lauralee: Thanks for the aloe tip. I have 3 plants growing in my back yard, all looking quite abused by now, since my aloe use has been bumped up since February!
My fingertips have had the worst of it, but it’s worked to my advantage, since I am finally starting to develop asbestos fingers. I knew I had them when I could flip english muffins on the griddle with my bare hands, when I couldn’t find my spatula.
sweetcan: I’m glad you liked the recipes; I plan on posting a few more here.
On cooking with wine, the first thing you need to remember is that you always want to use a wine you have no problem drinking. *Never, never, never * buy a “cooking wine”, as they are salty, and may completely ruin the dish by making it too salty. Now, I’m not saying to put down $40 for a fancy wine, as there are good wines to be had for under $10.
Wine makes excellent sauces, especially if you’ve sautéd meat in the pan. It’s quite easy to make a pan sauce after you’ve cooked the meat–and only takes a few minutes to do it–just one of the tricks, though, is to have everything ready to go when you start the sauce. Like for a Veal Marsala, you’ll want to have about 1 1/2 cups of marsala on hand, with a Tablespoon of tomato paste, a little finely minced garlic, and about 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms. After you sauté your veal, cover and set aside. Toss in the mushrooms, and let them cook until the edges are starting to get a little bit of a crust. Throw in the garlic and tomato paste, and let the tomato paste cook until it’s a dark maroon color. Then, add the marsala, and let it simmer until the sauce has reduced by half–and pour on the veal cutlet (and, if you don’t like veal, you can do this with chicken)
Red wine also makes a great marinade for dark meat chicken (it doesn’t work as well on breast meat), and adds a nice depth of flavor to it. I’ll dig out my coq au vin recipe–it makes a nice, cold-weather Sunday dinner.
And, in pasta sauces, a cup of red wine in the sauce never hurts. Just remember to let it simmer for at least a few minutes. Alcohol burns off at 176°, so if it’s simmering, you don’t get an alcohol taste in your sauce.
For items I can’t live without? Well, let’s see:
Kikkoman Soy Sauce, Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce, Dijon Mustard, Canned Roma Tomatoes (for sauces during the off-season), Swanson’s Low-Salt Chicken Broth (for when I don’t have homemade chicken stock in my freezer),** Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil**. I’m sure I’ll think of more as they come along, but these were off the top of my head. I don’t buy barbeque sauces any more, since I can make better stuff on my own :).
Question: can you substitute pecans for walnuts in a dessert recipe? I accidentally bought the former, and wondered how much of a difference it would make. I am making Hello Dollies, those bar cookies with graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, condesnsed milk – and walnuts.
I really appreciate your help with this and my last question!
Just to bring up a point Chef Troy made a while ago, I use Global knives myself. But, I don’t have big hands, so that’s not a huge problem for me. I like them because they’re lighter, faster, and easier to clean than a lot of other knives out there. I do wonder if they’d hold up to the travails of a restaurant kitchen, though.
Question:
Is there a way to rust-proof your carbon steel knives? I have an excellent carbon steel cleaver, but it gets rusted and discolored really easily, and I always make an effort to keep it bone-dry. Is there any seasoning technique I could apply to the knife?
This one is my personal favorite, and everyone I’ve made it for enjoys it. It sounds cloyingly sweet, I know, but when I add the extras at the end it’s not at all. This works great as a sauce for ribs and cocktail meatballs, as well.
This is the base…
1 c ketchup
6 T Worcestshire (I mix white wine and regular)
1/2 c brown sugar
6 T vinegar (I vary the type I use - sometimes white,
sometimes mixed with apple cider, sometimes throw in balsamic)
Then I add things like garlic and dry mustard and ginger. Sometimes throw in grated apples. Sometimes a bit of Tobasco.
And I always always always marinade. I hate things that are splashed with a little bit of sauce for the 10-15 minutes it’s on the grill.
For a recipe like this, I certainly see no problem in using pecans.
Personally, I think it would be an improvement. (I love pecans :))
Chef Troy!!!
Can you help me with this one?
What’s the best food with which to garnish, say, a nipple?