#cupcakehour baking tips

macroons

Use a Mat: If you can, buy a Moule Macaron, a silicon mat designed specifically for making macarons

Coloured Macarons: For coloured macarons, use food colouring paste not a liquid; using a liquid alters the macaron texture

Chocolate macarons are slightly different find a good recipe for it

Be Prepared: Weigh and measure all your ingredients before you start and always sieve the icing sugar and the ground almond

Clean and Sparkly: Use egg whites that are a few days old and at room temperature. Before whisking make sure your whisk and bowl are sparkling clean and grease free

Slowly Does it: Don’t add all the sugar to the egg whites in one go, in three parts is usually best. Whisk the egg whites really, really well, they should be so stiff you can turn the bowl upside down, and they will not fall out

Do not be heavy-handed: When mixing the almond / icing sugar to the beaten egg whites, use a slim spatula and fold quickly and gently

Less is More: Use a simple round nozzle in your piping bag, anything fancier is a waste of time

Tap and Wait: Once piped, tap the baking sheet sharply on the work top to remove any air bubbles and to help the mixture settle

Waft, Waft: Half way through cooking, open the oven door and quickly waft it a few times to allow any steam to escape

#cupcakehour baking tips

this week its all about choux pastry

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Bring the liquid just to a full boil: Cut the butter into pieces so that it will melt completely by the time the liquid just hits a full boil

Add the flour right away and all at once so that you don’t boil off too much liquid

Cook the dough: When the mass of dough comes together in the pan it will look a bit like mashed potatoes, but it’s important to continue to cook it for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat

You’ll know it’s ready when it really cleans the side of the pan and a thin dry film forms on the bottom of the pan

the cooking process also helps break down the starch and develop the gluten

Cool the dough slightly before adding the eggs: If you add the eggs right away, the hot dough will cook them

Add the eggs one at a time: Don’t overwhelm the dough with all the eggs at once

Add them one at a time and beat the mixture until each egg is incorporated before adding the next

However many eggs your recipe calls for, add all but one of them, then test the dough

Form even-sized mounds: The easiest way to form consistent mounds is to use a pastry bag with a large plain tip

bake the puffs with a pan of hot water on the bottom of the oven

a bit of foraging today

a few of the culinary gangsters were in ballyseedy woods today picking wild garlic and exchanging info on dishes and uses in photos are Noel “the don” keane head chef of eabha joans restaurant listowel with Kevin “wolfman” o Connor duty manager at the ash hotel Tralee , Marcus “the kitchen assassin”eidner head chef the whiskey experience Killarney and paul “baby elephant”cotter chef de partie eabha joans

Reality of chef life.

by Paul cotter

Chefs

 

Part 2

Aside from the stress of being a chef there is the buzz from service and the thrill of satisfaction of sending out great food that binds friend and family alike.

Many of us working in a busy places know that buzz of service when the orders come in and there is a rhythm that comes on where the cooking and the sending of food seems to flow nicely no matter how busy it is. On these rare occasions I feel 10 feet tall my heart beats faster there’s an adrenaline rush from it like no other.

From the service buzz I have also gained job satisfaction (as well as a few pounds) from being in the kitchen knowing that the food that leaves the kitchen is of a high standard and tastes food again the pounds I have gained can attest to this.

For me I suppose being a chef means more to me than just a career that I love it’s a lifestyle choice where the kitchen runs your life to such an extent you are looking for ways to improve everything or try different combinations that may or may not work but it’s a chance you are willing to take to give someone a new taste experience and go WOW that was amazing, or simply a piece of meat cooked perfectly where it is still juicy and packed full of flavour alongside a simple sauce made from juices in the pan.

Also the re-creation of my childhood where I had great food and didn’t realise it until I was in my early 20s and was eating out myself thinking nan used to make this way better or something a neighbour cooked something similar but it tasted way better which is now driving me to match my childhood nostalgia for particular dishes or ways of doing things like simple brown soda bread or my aunt’s egg Mayo sandwiches I know this reads kind of odd he’s on about brown bread and an egg salad sandwich but it’s my childhood my nans brown soda bread or Apple tart  and Sheila’s egg sandwiches but it’s my childhood and I suppose with nostalgia everything will always be better in the past, but that’s not gonna stop me from trying.

Many of my life plans have changed now that I am in the kitchen I once wanted a bar/ restaurant that served simple honest food to now wanting a funky cafe where I can make buns, cakes, breads, pastries and soup and sandwiches maybe a quiche or 2 final details yet to be worked out but it’s a dreams and I intend to realise this dreams come hell or high water I will have this cafe, where tea is served with a mug that you can fit more than 2 fingers through the handle and have a variety of novelty mugs to make it feel like home.

Mother sauces

without question every chef and I mean very chef who wants to call themselves a chef must know the five mother sauces by heart, they are the foundation of cookery. Without these base sauces you can not make all the other sauces, and sauces finish dishes and lift them to new heights, often the difference between a good dish and a great one.

Set in stone by two of the greatest chefs to have ever lived Maire-antoine Careme and the godfather of cookery Auguste Escoffier. so here they are

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Béchamel

made with milk thickened with a white roux

from this you get mornay, soubise etc

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pomodoro sauce (tomato sauce)

napolitana bolonesa, ketchup

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Holandaise

maltaise, noisette, bernaise

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espanola

the base of most sauces

charcutera, sauce africaine, chasseur

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veloute

bercy , poulette , aurore

there are thousands of derived from these mother sauces , I will do each sauce in detail in the coming weeks from making to all the derived sauces