Day 15: Mise en Place

Mise en Place is the process of preparing the kitchen and ingredients prior to cooking. This can be as simple as setting up your knives but can also include cooking certain ingredients that will later be cooked within a larger dish. We will begin preparing soups and sauces Monday therefore we needed to learn basic mise en place so we can be prepared. We started  by learning how to make clarified butter. Clarified butter is butter after milk fat and water is removed. To do this you heat up cubes of butter until melted and then simmer until the water evaporates. The milk fat will rise to the top. You know if the water is evaporated by looking in the pot and seeing if you can see the bottom. If so, you are almost done! Next up you need to strain the milk fats by pouring the butter through cheese cloth. This is a fine piece of cooking cloth that will catch even the tiniest of things and keep your final product free of any unnecessary ingredients. Once it is strained you can use clarified butter for many recipes. Most commonly people use clarified butter to dip their lobster in.  It can also be added to sauces and soups. Since the milk fat is removed, clarified butter has a much longer shelf life and can be stored for future use.

Roasting peppers can also be prepared in advance. Place a pepper on top of a flame. Cook it until the entire pepper is black. Remove the pepper with tongs and place it in a paper bag or in a covered container to steam for 10 minutes. After it cools peel the charcoaled skin off using a paper towel. Now you have a roasted red pepper!

Tomato concasse was my favorite preparation of the day. This is the process of 'crushing' a tomato says the French.  To begin the process remove the core of the tomato. Slice a small X on the bottom side of the tomato (called the blossom) to help peel later. Now place the tomato in boiling water for 15-30 seconds. Remove and place in an ice bath until it cools. Now all we have to do is peel the tomato and slice it to the size you choose. Most people prefer to cut the seeds out before chopping. The final product is a soft tomato that can be thrown into salads or used as a base in a sauce. I accidentally found myself eating every other piece during this segment, I highly recommend giving it a try.

The final lesson of the day was making starch thickeners. There are three types of starch thickeners including Slurry, Beurne Manie, and Roux. Slurry is made by combining equal parts modified starch with a liquid. Beurne Manie is butter and flour combined. Roux is butter and flour cooked together to form a liquid combination. Roux can be cooked to 3 colors depending on what the dish calls for. These thickeners can be added to soups and sauces and are chosen based on the recipe. For example white Roux can be added to chicken stock to give it the standard thickness which is called nappe. A quick trick to determine if your soup is thick enough is to see if a sauce or soup consistency coats the back of a spoon. Now that I know all of these tricks I am excited to get cooking on Monday!