Brazilian Churrasco

Last night I went to the Copa Cabana. Anyone who immediately starts humming Barry Manilow's song may move to the front of the class.
For a fixed price Latin waiters came around to individual tables with 2 foot long skewers holding large pieces of meat. They would then shave off thin wafers of meat onto your plate. There was probably 15 different types of meat seasoned with everything from traditional sea salt to funky marinates. We were given a card, red on one side and blue( traditionally green) on the other. You turned the red side up if you wanted them to stop with meat, the blue side up if you wanted a break. My group from class all ate until we were in pain.  Then we enjoyed the buffet......

It was carnivore heaven,

Midterm in two weeks...

Maybe by them I'll fit back into my jeans! lol

Christine

Feijoada Experience

I did it! I made the Feijoada, pigs ears and all, and my family ate it. It helped that there was many different types of meat so everyone had several meats on their plate that they liked. My husband liked the texture of the beans in the stew. I served a salad with it which was good as the stew was quite rich in flavour.

Of course the main thought in my children's minds....where are the ears?

I do have quite a bit of leftovers....hope it freezes well.

Christine

I am going to a Brazilian restaurant this week with my study group as part of our project....BBQ Rio style should be fun....with all this eating, losing weight is a killer right now! lol

Egg Whites Look like Magic!

Wow!  I just clarified my beef stock, which by the way is being treated like liquid gold. I was distracted and let it boil,....not good, it breaks down the impurities and gives you a cloudy stock. So that's what I got... cloudy stock.
After babying this stock for two days....yes TWO, I did what every self respecting cook would do...

I moped..

THEN I remembered what Chef_________ said about clarifying stock with egg whites.
So I tried it, putting out of my mind that if I had been in class I would have failed my stock for letting it boil.

Oh wow ...sooo cool. It worked,... all the impurities coagulated with the egg protein,....I think...I need to check that.... and I have super clear stock.

Nifty...soaking beans for my Brazilian dish tomorrow.

TATA
Christine

Smells Amazing

The brown stock smells amazing! Really need a proper skimmer to get the foam off, the slotted spoon doesn't cut it at all! I am definitely making stock this way from now on!

I Found Them!

I found pig ears...oh yeah.....and all the other stuff! Tomorrow I will make beef stock by the book including roasting the bones to brown them with mirepoix and tomato products. So I will be making a brown stock not white.
I'll post the instructions for brown beef stock in the recipes section....

Then on to Fejoada!

I'm so excited!!! lol

Christine

Julia Child Rules!

My class was given a sauce tonight which, without looking at a book or our notes, we were expected to explain in detail. Wouldn't you know it, it was Beurre Blanc the sauce Meryl Streep goes on about in the movie Julie and Julia. I knew I loved that movie for a reason! Ok so I thought it was clarified butter instead of raw butter, but I still knew more than the others in my group!

Yeah Me!
and Meryl,
and of course Julia

"Oh what big ears you have!"......NOT

Cooking school with kids, ...love the school ...love the kids more. Sooo...... I still don't have the ears or the meat, I will prep the beans today. Of course, I didn't think about my children reading this blog when I posted about cooking with pig's ears yesterday. My oldest informed me that I was NOT going to serve her something with pig's ears in it. Compromise was reached when I told her I would take them out before serving the stew.

I have great kids!
But I don't think I'll inform my youngest about the ears...

Christine

Feijoada and Pigs Ears

I have to do a group project in my food theory class and my group choose Brazilian food to study. I have to admit I am enjoying the process. I love learning about new ways of cooking and trying new things. I am supposed to research a national dish and Brazilian cooking methods. So this week I am hoping to make a bean and meat stew called Feijoada. Its origins come for Brazil's slavery days where they would collect meat scraps left over and cook them with beans.  The recipes vary but all include pork, sausage, ribs, beef and of course black turtle beans. I assume these have nothing to do with turtles.

It gets interesting when they start adding things like pigs feet or pigs ears to the recipe. I don't mind trying unusual ingredients it's finding them. I will go to a butcher today and see if I can find pigs ears.

I don't know if I will buy them,..... I don't know if anyone will eat the stew if I use them.

EEEWWWWW, ok it's gross.

I also need ham hocks, hopefully they will be easier to find.

Maybe if I hide the ears no one will notice them.

Christine

Sauces

I am overloading in sauces,.......... reading, reading. Julia Child where are you when I need you?

Need to make some to figure them out!

time to watch the waist line GROWWWWW!
lol
Christine

Yesterday' Food Success

Yesterday I experimented! Yeah me! I cooked sausage in olive oil with caramelized apples which I watched so they did not burn. I also cooked potato wedges with a new spice combination of ground thyme and fresh rosemary. These also I watched so they too caramelized beautifully.

I didn't burn anything and I tried something new. I even covered the food done early so it would not lose any moisture.

yum!

Applying What I Have Been Learning

I would love to say that my few classes on food theory have resulted in tastier food at home. More adventurous cooking, more variety in my menus and more experimenting resulting in the beginning of a well honed skill.

Uh.....no

What I AM doing is watching how I am cooking with a greater degree of knowledge. Rather than cooking better, I am able to explain with a greater degree of knowledge, ( FAR from complete), why my mistakes and errors in the kitchen are happening.  I guess you could say I can explain my mess ups better. I now understand what is going on in the pot when I caramelize onions for french onion soup and why the onions partially burnt.  I know can explain in detail why my bread burnt on the bottom shelf but not on the top. I now know why there is a white film on the bottom of the pot after I cook milk.

Hopefully this knowledge translates into better food.

Hopefully.......

Off to fix my baked beans,.....( I didn't put the meat in with them, so the sweetness had little to balance with, result ....too sweet )

Cheers 

Christine