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Jump in “Head” First at Meal-time

I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. In addition, for each section, I’m food bloggers and culinary experts – for this excerpt, it’s Alex and Sonja Overhiser, authors of A Couple Cooks.

I have this really odd habit of experimenting with new dishes and recipes when I have guests over for dinner. My spouse, Rob, thinks I am crazy to try something new without knowing what the outcome will be. And to his point……there was one time, I admit, when I got a little ahead of myself.

The great debate

I had always wanted to cook a whole salmon; maybe I saw too many fish tosses at Pike Market when I lived in Seattle. The underlying debate: Does a whole salmon taste better than salmon filets or steaks?

I needed a special occasion to unravel the mystery. After all, a family of three can’t eat a 12 pound fish in a day or two.

Testing the theory

When Rob’s parents were visiting last summer, we decided to host a party in their honor. This proved to be the perfect occasion to test the whole salmon theory. I ordered a ten pound fish from my beloved fishmonger and picked it up the day of the party. When I saw the size of the box in which my fishy friend sat, I was a bit intimidated, to say the least.

Now what?

The fish shop, surprisingly, had few suggestions on how to grill a whole fish, so I researched the topic online. I didn’t really find anything too terribly informative except cooking time, which in retrospect, was critical.

I also wasn’t able to resolve was how to handle the bones. Though I had been hoping my little fishy would arrive from the market conveniently de-boned, it did not. I decided not to worry about the whole cooking/de-boning debacle until party time approached.

Prep and de-head

Scarily, when I pulled that little monster out of its box to stuff and grill it, it was bigger than I had originally thought. Too big, in fact, to fit on my grill. So after filling her belly with lemon and pretty much every other herb I was growing in my garden, along with salt and pepper, I pulled out my trusted chef’s knife, sharpened it and prepared to chop off the fish’s head. Fortunately, my mother-in-law helped hold the fish while I was chopping; otherwise, the slippery, slithery creature might have found its way from atop the counter to the floor beneath.

It took a fair bit of brute strength to slice through its sturdy neck bones, so now I understand why there are special knives to fillet, skin and debone a fish. (Full disclosure: I have never caught a fish in my life, so all of this was new to me).

Party time

Maybe it was beginner’s luck; but the salmon turned out splendidly. After grilling it (for about 30 minutes), I let it rest for 10-15 minutes off the heat. The bones were quite effortless to detach and I was able to slice pieces according to everyone’s preference in doneness (leaving the rawest part for yours truly and other sushi lovers).

The verdict

The meal was huge success, and the whole fish was definitely more moist and delicious than fish fillets. No comparison, in fact.

The lesson

Though you may not want to behead a whole fish in front of guests, family or anyone else, for that matter, sometimes you may be faced with challenges you’re not really sure how to tackle. But as Sonja and Alex suggest, “To succeed in the kitchen, you’ll have to tackle fear of failure head on. And you may surprise yourself at the new things you have the ability to do! The only way we’ve learned what we have in the kitchen is by taking risks and going for it!”

Cookbooks, online tutorials and videos are a great way to learn techniques such as butterflying a chicken (to make this fabulous herb and ricotta stuffed chicken) or trimming a beef tenderloin (see below).  Adventures such as these can often save you money while yielding huge dividends in flavor and tenderness.

Ultimately, you can’t always know what you are doing before you do it. In these times, you have to pull out the big knife, or other utensil, and go for it. And even if you have to chop a head off or tear some grizzly meat in the process, you will probably learn something new in the process. Are you ready to embark on unchartered territory?

Trimming a tenderloin

If you want to save a lot of money without sacrificing a dime of flavor, buy a beef tenderloin and filet it yourself. I usually get mine at Costco, because they have  a nice selection of fresh beef. I start by removing any shiny, silvery membranes, or attempting to do so (it’s no more appetizing than it sounds, unfortunately). After removing any other thick fat clusters, I chop the meat into 2-3” blocks like they sell in butcher shops. I also remove any oblong shapes (which, by the pros, is deemed as muscle) and save them for fondue or Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Then I use my food sealer to keep the steaks as fresh as possible in the freezer till we are ready to eat them.

About Alex and Sonja

Alex and Sonja Overhiser are on a journey to eat better and master the art of cooking. They share while they learn via their blog, A Couple Cooks.

Their cooking journey began when they bought a house and needed something to feed dinner guests. They immersed themselves by perusing DVDs from Julia Child to Alton Brown, hundreds of library-loaned cookbooks, and numerous food blogs. In addition, they were inspired by Michael Pollan’s mantra “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” and Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters.

Cutting out almost all processed and prepackaged food from grocery trips, Alex and Sonja prefer to make most things from scratch. They believe that everyone can cook, and that preparing natural, whole foods can be accessible and fun!

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Try New Dishes (and Break Out of Your Comfort Zone)

I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. In addition, for each section, I’m food bloggers and culinary experts – for this excerpt, it’s Alex and Sonja Overhiser, authors of A Couple Cooks.

Whether it’s you or your significant other cooking, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Maybe you’re shy on time, out of ideas, or the family fallbacks are failing you, but your taste buds are yearning for new flavors!

We have an ongoing joke in our family when it’s my spouse’s turn to cook: “What’s it going to be? Turkey burgers? Chicken stir fry? or Turkey chili?” Despite his ability to cook a variety of dishes, he still falls back into his comfort zone. Though there’s nothing wrong with turkey burgers, chicken stir fry or turkey chili, it’s nice to try something new and different every now and then.

Like my motto in running – you never run faster till you run faster – you never become a better cook unless you experiment, try new things, and break out of your comfort zone.

Here are a few ideas to avoid the usual excuses:

Embrace failure. There’s a good chance you’ll get it right the second time if at first you don’t succeed. And if you remove distractions, you’ll increase your chances of getting it right the first time. Like Sonja suggests: “For all of our culinary successes, we’ve had just as many failures. The key to learning to cook is being confident enough to take risks and then try again when you meet with initial failure.”

Don’t give up. You didn’t know how to ride a bike the first time you got on one, but you kept trying despite the falls. Likewise, the  soufflé may not fall and the rice may not be lumpy – as long as you’re willing to make a second or third attempt.

Keep it simple. If a dish seems too complex to prepare, find something that is easier. Just because you are trying something new doesn’t mean it has to be extravagant (like the polenta encrusted chicken). Sonja and Alex share a number of tasty recipes on their web site that are simple, too. Check a few out: sweet potato with black beans and salsa, chickpea crostini, scallop and plum ceviche, and linguine with fresh tomatoes, zucchini and herbs.

Plan and organize. If you determine which night(s) of the week you will cook, before the day arrives, it’s much easier to carry out the task at hand. You might even consider thumbing through a cookbook during the weekend to find a dish you might like to prepare the following week, all while watching Game Day. At the very least, make sure you select a dish from the family meal plan that doesn’t sound too intimidating.

Speed it up. Sure, cooking isn’t always a snap; and it may not be as relaxing as a cold beer in front of Sports Center. But there are few things you can do to speed up the process, especially if you plan meals ahead of time. If something needs to be thawed, make sure it’s defrosting before 6 p.m. If a meat needs marinating, quickly mix up the marinade before work. Also, make sure you have all the ingredients you need to prepare dinner without a quick trip to the grocery,to avoid the near-bedtime-meal. If all else fails, plan your night to cook for Saturday or Sunday, when you have more time to create your masterpiece.

Team up. If you are still lacking the confidence to attempt a new dish solo, then team up with your spouse. Alex and Sonja vouch for this strategy:  ”Cooking together as a husband/wife team, we have learned many valuable life lessons.”

No more excuses. Time to get in there and cook – something different.

About Alex and Sonja

Alex and Sonja Overhiser are on a journey to eat better and master the art of cooking. They share while they learn via their blog, A Couple Cooks.

Their cooking journey began when they bought a house and needed something to feed dinner guests. They immersed themselves by perusing DVDs from Julia Child to Alton Brown, hundreds of library-loaned cookbooks, and numerous food blogs. In addition, they were inspired by Michael Pollan’s mantra “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” and Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters.

Cutting out almost all processed and prepackaged food from grocery trips, Alex and Sonja prefer to make most things from scratch. They believe that everyone can cook, and that preparing natural, whole foods can be accessible and fun!

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Don’t cook the heck out of food

I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. In addition, for each section, I’m food bloggers and culinary experts – for this excerpt, it’s Alex and Sonja Overhiser, authors of A Couple Cooks.

Years ago, when Rob lived in New Zealand, he ate some chicken which had been sitting out at a photo shoot all day. Eight days after the photo shoot, that is. Needless to say, he suffered a serious case of food poisoning as a result. This seemed to scar him for many years, as he continued to cook everything an extra 15 minutes “just to be safe” (and I used to blame it solely on ESPN).

About a year ago, a few days after Thanksgiving, he had a revelation……

I was elated because Rob had offered to cook dinner (I was still recovering from preparing the annual feast). When I saw a Donna Hay cookbook open on the counter, I was even more excited. I completely steered clear of the kitchen so as not to interfere with Rob’s culinary creation and/or annoy him with my advice, whichever might happen first.

About an hour later, we sat down to a lovely dish of baked chicken on sweet potato rosti with a side of baked broccoli and carrots. In three words, it was magnificent. The only downside was that Rob looked as if he were about to have a nervous break-down when we took the first bite of our meal. I turned to him and said, “What the heck is wrong with you?” (I was seriously worried about him). His only comment was a resound, “You stress me out.” I rebutted with, “But I wasn’t even near the kitchen tonight. I stayed away on purpose.” To which he then responded, “It doesn’t matter. You get upset if dinner isn’t ready until 8,” (well yes, that is true) and “you are a good cook and that puts added pressure on me. You stress me out.” (I decided not to take his remarks personally.)

Truth be known, I have created more than my fair share of flops, many of which he has sampled, so I don’t see why he feels pressured to produce an exquisite meal. But the good news? After he’d finished dinner and admitted just how wonderful it tasted, he began to relax. It was then that he admitted: “I learned something about myself tonight. One, you stress me out.” (Yes, I believe you mentioned that a few times already). “Two, I don’t need to cook the hell out of things.”

Poking fun at Rob’s story, I’m guessing that many of us overcook food, whether intentionally or not. Particularly with pork and chicken, we have heard one too many warnings of botulism. With beef, some prefer a well-done filet or rib eye (God bless them), or simply don’t know how to grill. When fish is overcooked, moisture and natural flavor are lost.

To avoid overcooking food, I offer three suggestions:

• Use a thermometer, to ensure you’re not cooking the hell out of your meal.
• Cut and see. Who cares if your soon-to-eat piece of fish or meat has a knife mark in it? Better that than a ruined meal.
• Remember that all meats continue to cook after you take them off the heating source. So remove your meal from heat and allow this slow and safe form “cooking” while you’re finishing up the side dishes.
• Turn down the heat on the stove or grill or in the oven to increase your margin for error.
• Last but not least, take a suggestion from Alex and Sonja: “Another way to avoid overcooked meat is to eat more meatless meals! Even just eating one meatless meal per week makes an impact environmentally, as well as on your own health. A good starter meatless recipe is sweet potato, black bean and green chili enchiladas, which are filling and satisfying without the addition of meat.”

With the holiday soon approaching, I wish you all a happy, relaxing day and a moist and flavorful bird (or tofu turkey, if you go meatless). Try not to overcook your meal; you might discover a whole new world of flavors as a result.

About Alex and Sonja

Alex and Sonja Overhiser are on a journey to eat better and master the art of cooking. They share while they learn via their blog, A Couple Cooks.

Their cooking journey began when they bought a house and needed something to feed dinner guests. They immersed themselves by perusing DVDs from Julia Child to Alton Brown, hundreds of library-loaned cookbooks, and numerous food blogs. In addition, they were inspired by Michael Pollan’s mantra “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” and Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters.

Cutting out almost all processed and prepackaged food from grocery trips, Alex and Sonja prefer to make most things from scratch. They believe that everyone can cook, and that preparing natural, whole foods can be accessible and fun!

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6 Simple Steps to Perfect Rice

I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. In addition, for each section, I’m food bloggers and culinary experts – for this excerpt, it’s Alex and Sonja Overhiser, authors of A Couple Cooks.

My company did a marketing research study last year in which we interviewed women in their homes about cooking habits, shopping preferences and overall perceptions of food. One issue that repeatedly came up among beginner cooks was the challenge and frustration over cooking rice. Lumpy, soggy or overcooked rice, in their opinions, ruined a meal.

My spouse Rob shares their sentiments. Not only is he unhappy with the soggy, mushy version he often produces, but he also makes enough to serve an army on most occasions. What can keep rice making measures from going array?

One way to improve your success rate is to buy a rice cooker, a handy machine that removes thinking from the preparation process. However, I find these to be unnecessary appliances that take up extra room in an already crowded kitchen.

Sonja also suggests: “Another option if you’re worried about getting rice right is cooking another grain instead! There are lots of alternative grains that are very easy to prepare and are very nutritious, like quinoa and farro.” I actually mentioned some of the cost/nutrition benefits of quinoa a while back, and am including a wonderful recipe at the bottom of this post.

Even with all the dependable alternatives, it’s easy to make fool-proof rice with a few simple steps, outlined below.

1. Rinse the rice. If you have extra time, soak it for 20-30 minutes.

2. Add water. I like to add approximately 2x the amount of water as rice (though I have seen other resources suggest 1.5x or 1.75x). Make sure you cook the rice in a large enough sauce pan that it doesn’t spill over the sides when it simmers (not only is it a pain to clean up your stovetop, but it throws off the cooking time as there is less water for the rice to absorb).

3. Add flavor. Add salt and olive oil. I often substitute chicken broth for water (1:1 ratio) for flavor. Or add other ingredients – such as onions, butter, thyme, cranberries, nuts and more – for a new twist to the usual rice routine.

4. Boil. Bring to a boil on medium heat then…

5. Simmer. Turn the heat to simmer, cover the pan and cook (~20 minutes for white rice, 40 minutes for brown rice). At this point, you can pull off the top and check for doneness. And despite popular belief, your rice will not be ruined if it’s not ready and needs some more cooking.

6. Take it off the heat. One thing that helps prevent disasters is to cook rice just short of its designated doneness, then pull it off the burner and let it finish cooking without heat for about ten minutes. This assumes you have time, in the midst of everything else you might happen to be preparing.

Sonja and Alex are a big fan of brown rice, “Not only is it great to eat as a side dish, but rice and other grains are also great for stuffing vegetables, like this recipe for poblano peppers.” Just bear in mind, when thinking through your timing for a particular meal, that brown rice takes two times longer to cook, on average, than white rice. (Brown rice also expands by 1/3 after it is cooked).

Quinoa with Black Beans and Corn

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

½ c. chopped red pepper

¼ c. chopped green onions

½ c. cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

½ c. black beans, drained

½ c. corn

¼ c. chopped cilantro

Dressing

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup white wine vinegar

½ of one lime

1 TBSP honey

1. Bring 2 cups of water to boil and add quinoa. Lower heat and simmer about 20 minutes. (Note: To add more flavor to quinoa, cook in 1 cup of water and 1 cup of apple juice).

2. While the quinoa is cooking, chop all the vegetables. If using fresh corn on the cob, cook in boiling water about 3 minutes before chopping. Prepare dressing in separate bowl and mix thoroughly.

3. After quinoa has cooled, combine all ingredients.

Serves 4-5 as a side dish.

Special note: This is a great dish to add/use whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand. Feel free to substitute as your tastes dictate.

About Alex and Sonja

Alex and Sonja Overhiser are on a journey to eat better and master the art of cooking. They share while they learn via their blog, A Couple Cooks.

Their cooking journey began when they bought a house and needed something to feed dinner guests. They immersed themselves by perusing DVDs from Julia Child to Alton Brown, hundreds of library-loaned cookbooks, and numerous food blogs. In addition, they were inspired by Michael Pollan’s mantra “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” and Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters.

Cutting out almost all processed and prepackaged food from grocery trips, Alex and Sonja prefer to make most things from scratch. They believe that everyone can cook, and that preparing natural, whole foods can be accessible and fun!

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Read the Recipe First (and Save Time and Stress Later)

I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. In addition, for each section, I’m food bloggers and culinary experts – for this excerpt, it’s Alex and Sonja Overhiser, authors of A Couple Cooks.

One of the hardest lessons to learn in the kitchen is:

Thoroughly read through the recipe before you dive in and start cooking.

It sounds like a simple rule to follow. After all, how long can it possibly take to read a recipe? Especially in comparison to how long it takes to chop an onion? Or worse yet, butterfly a chicken? Yet somehow, in the heat of the moment, in our hurry to get food on the table faster, we skip through the #1 thing that will save us time.

Even Sonja and Alex struggle with this one. According to Sonja, “This has been one of our biggest areas of failure in the kitchen. Often times we are so excited to start a recipe that we jump in before fully understanding it and miss crucial details!”

Here are a few recommendations to save time and increase the prospects of a superb outcome.

Read the recipe thoroughly. Sit down, take your time and read through a recipe from start to the finish. There are no substitutes.

Pre-heat the oven, unless you have no plans to use it. This is one little wrinkle that can set you back at least 10 minutes if you forget to do so until the last minute. So turn it on…and forget about  it.

Think about what takes the longest to do/cook. There’s really no way to speed up the process of roasting a vegetable, cooking brown rice, or baking a potato, for example. Start these tasks first, even if they are ready before the rest of the meal is.

Divide and conquer. If you are collaborating with another person in the kitchen, Alex recommends reviewing the recipe and dividing tasks before you start. “For example, have one person “run” the recipe and the other work as a sous chef to prepare the ingredients.”

Experiment with timing. As you learn your way and get a good feel of what takes how long to do and/or cook, start incorporating what you learn into the cooking routine. Sonja agrees that timing is one of the hardest parts of cooking, and it may take a recipe or two to learn. “We try to think about what could be made ahead and kept warm while finishing the rest of the meal. Sometimes it’s hard to know until you make a mistake – we tried to keep pesto pasta warm in the oven before our guests arrived, but the pesto dried out. Instead, we should have waited to mix in the pesto until directly prior to serving, which we’ll do next time!”

Chop and assemble before cooking. Many times, chopping takes longer than you think. As such, it may be easier chop food before you start cooking it. Even if this doesn’t save a lot of time in the end, it will spare you the stress of having to multi-task. Alex concurs: “It does take a while to assemble all the ingredients, but it makes the execution of the recipe much less stressful.”

Save new recipes for yourself. If you are cooking for guests and contemplating a new recipe, Alex suggests, “We’ve found it’s helpful to do a trial run for yourself first. This removes the stress of surprises in a recipe that can come up the first time though.”

As an example, my husband, Rob can be a little slow to get meals on the table. One such meal is a wonderful Jamie Oliver dish called Polenta-Encrusted Fried Chicken with Sweet Corn Mash, Fried Banana and Green Tomato Relish (from Jamie’s Kitchen). As you might surmise from the name of the dish alone, it’s not a snap-your-fingers-and-dinner-is-ready kind of meal. (Schedule this on Rob time, and you have turned the meal into an all day affair, though the wait is certainly worth it!)

This recipe requires the preparation of a relish, the breading and cooking of chicken, the pan-frying of bananas and the preparation of corn-infused mashed potatoes. I would not recommend preparing these sequentially, as I have just listed them, or you’ll have some seriously cold chicken on your hands. Any time mashed potatoes are included in the dinner mix, it’s helpful to make them first! It generally takes 30-40 minutes to chop and cook potatoes, and perhaps another five minutes to add sour cream, butter, yogurt, olive oil or whatever you use to flavor your mashies. It’s so easy to fix them to completion, let them sit while you are preparing everything else, and then warm them up quickly when you’re ready to serve dinner.

This is just a small example of learning how to read through recipes and thinking through any potential bottlenecks in the process. Some of these timeline issues take a while to learn, but it never hurts to know what you have to do before you do it.

About Alex and Sonja

Alex and Sonja Overhiser are on a journey to eat better and master the art of cooking. They share while they learn via their blog, A Couple Cooks.

Their cooking journey began when they bought a house and needed something to feed dinner guests. They immersed themselves by perusing DVDs from Julia Child to Alton Brown, hundreds of library-loaned cookbooks, and numerous food blogs. In addition, they were inspired by Michael Pollan’s mantra “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” and Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters.

Cutting out almost all processed and prepackaged food from grocery trips, Alex and Sonja prefer to make most things from scratch. They believe that everyone can cook, and that preparing natural, whole foods can be accessible and fun!

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