Mise en place

My goal is for you to have an enriching experience when you visit us at In the Kitchen, Soulfood for Comfort. We like to mix it up to provide a fun, an informed, divers and enriched experience.

As of today, I’m introducing French cuisine on the blog to enhance your cooking experience. While watching the PBS channel, I enjoyed a delicious recipe prepared by Executive Chef: Hilary White. While cooking she a  delicious looking meal she also referred to “ mise en place” , now my French is a bit rusty to say the lease so I went in seach of the meaning which is “to put in place”.

To put in place is to have all ingredients ready before beginning (gathered, clean and chop any vegetables that need it, apportion out your spices, trim and slice any meat, etc.) Have everything measured and ready to be used in separate bowls or cups (or combined if the ingredients are being cooked at the same time).  As she sautéed the chicken she advised not to wait but have preprations finished in advance.

When cooking I find myself feeling overwhelmed and rushed, sometimes even over cooking my meat while I preparing the other ingredients for the meal, this technique of “mise en place” opens up will help to enhance my cooking to be a better cook.

You’ll benefit by “mise en place” when:
Children are helping
Trying a new recipe
Assuring you have all the ingredients
Won’t overcook food
Modifications
Learning for children
When cooking, make sure you give yourself enough time to have meals ready.

This post in honor of President Obama and the First Lady’s visit to France.

ABC’s of cooking

It’s important to know the ABC’s of preparing successful recipe,  when I was a novice cook I found myself trying to understand what certain terms meant and how to blanching and  caramelizing, and other terms I wasn’t familiar with.

Part of the purpose of this website is to educate so this page will be dedicated to terms used in identify foods or preparing them and is dedicated to my mother Sally and grandmothers Eva Mae and Marie.

I believe African American cooking spans no much wider than what people traditionally think of when they hear the term “soul food”, I can recall lavish parties thrown by my grandmotherEva Mae where she would spend weeks polishing silver and silverware as well as a trillion piece chandelier (my job), tear drop by tear drop.

The parties were not thrown in the backyard with barbequed or fried chicken, chitterlings and ham hock but included a variety of delicious dishes.

I can also recall the best ever pies, and my favorite blackberry, made by my grandmother Marie.

I said that to explain the reason I’ll be including terms from a variety range of ethnicities.

 ANTIPASTO – Italian – An appetizer consisting of a variety of cold foods, served as a first course. Includes salted fish, cheeses, ripe olives and salad ingredients.

APPETIZER – A small portion of food and/or drink to stimulate the appetite. It may be served before a meal or as the first course, it sooths the hunger pangs.

Appetizing – a food with appealing color, texture, taste or all three of these that stimulates the appetite.

APPLE -  a round, firm, fleshy fruit with green, yellow, red or speckled skin, has small seeds. Eaten raw and used in hot and cold desserts, fruit salads, poultry and meat stuffing’s, hot and cold drinks, vinegars and liquors. Over 200 varieties, each with a distinctive sweet, mellow or tart taste. Big apples mature more rapidly and when soft have a mealy or mushy texture. Best to buy when firm and bright colored. Select the variety according to use. One bushel (48 lbs) should yield 15 to 18 quarts canned. Store in coolest place in the refrigerator. An average size apple has only 80 calories. They are grown in about 35 states, so not every variety is available in all parts of the country.