You ask the questions, and I give the answers as I know them. As always, you can ask me any questions by checking out my Ask the Chef! page.
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John Ralosky asks:
I made chicken stock last week, used some for soup and froze the remainder. When preparing the soup, I noted that the stock was thick and gelatinous and diluted it with water.
Today I am defrosting the stock for use in risotto. Should I dilute it? If so do you have any recommendation on how much water to use?
Fantastic! A quality stock will have gelatinization, which is what you are experiencing with your stock. What that means is you have successfully extracted all the goodness from the chicken carcasses you used to make the stock. Do not thin it out with water, rather heat up the stock first for your risotto, and then use it like normal. Once heat is applied to it, the stock will liquefy. You will find that your risotto will have extra body from the quality stock you made.
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Slevenst asks:
I’ve really gotten into baking…mostly just cookies and cupcakes, but the possibilities are endless! I’m about to give red velvet cupcakes a try for the first time. I’ve been scouring the internet for recipes, and I’ve found that some call for all-purpose flour, while others call for cake flour. What is the difference and which is preferred? Thank you.
Really, it depends on the application. Cake flour is one of the lightest in gluten (about 8 to 10 percent gluten if memory serves…) which means that for a cake, you will get a light, fluffy crumb. If you used all-purpose flour, the crumb will be tougher. You could just use the all purpose, but watch that you are scaling your ingredients, and not measuring by volume. (Especially when you are talking about sifted ingredients. Volumes will be different all over the place.)
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Pot clanger asks:
I am obviously thinking too hard here, but I am curious: there are a dozen different ways to cook beets – some say cut the tops off, some say leave them on; some say peel, some say don’t; some say bake for 2 hours at 375, or 45 minutes at 425; some say leave an inch of water in the pan and cover with foil while cooking in oven, some say steam, others boil… Is there any good reasoning or superior results for any of the afore-mentioned methods?
Ah yes, you are now discovering that there is more than one way to skin a cat. J With the internet here, it is really hard to know who has the authority when it comes to that. I cannot give you the answer, but I can ask you a question:
What is your use for the beets after they are cooked?
If I am using them in a salad, or another cold application – I like to cut the top off, leave the tail on, then coat with oil, salt and pepper. I then wrap them in foil and roast them at 200°C (400°F) for about an hour until they are soft. I let them cool down, then I peel them. The reason for doing it that way is the flavor of the beet is intensified.
If I use them for a puree, such as salmon with a beet horseradish crust – I cut the tops off, and then boil them until they are tender. The reason for doing it that way is I want a more pure beet taste to intermix with the horseradish.
So, the answer is – all of them are the right way to cook a beet. It is the context of how you are using them that matters.
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CommisCookR asks:
I’ve never done this before and I would like to use it as a garnish for my sautéed chicken…do you put sugar on top to get nice grill lines or do lines just appear on their own?
Sounds yummy! I would not do anything to the lemon. What you need to do is:
- Make sure your grill is clean. I guess this is logic, but you have no idea how many cooks skip this step.
- Oil your grill with an oil cloth.
- Cut the lemon in half, and then place the cut side down on the hottest area of the grill.
- Wait a minute or two, and then rotate the lemon 90°.
- Use your lemon the way you like.
image courtesy of Mat_the_W of Flickr under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0
Eric Austen asks:
My cornbread muffins tend to stick to my buttered muffin pan.
so I bought those little paper cup inserts like for cupcakes, but now the cornbread sticks to the paper cups.
is there a non stick paper cup, or maybe a better brand?
I totally understand how frustrating this can be. One trick that helped me is to lightly spray the muffin cups with vegetable oil when they are laid out in the muffin tins. Failing that, I have switched over to some nice silicone muffin molds that eliminate the cups all together.
Do you have a question for the Well Done Chef? You can ask me any questions by checking out my Ask the Chef! page.
