A quick pointer over at my hero Michael Ruhlman’s site – there is a post over there where they detail how they roast a suckling pig. The article is totally legit, and if I could get my hands on some pastured pork, I would be having a party soon!

See you tomorrow with the return of Ask The Chef!

Your meat sauce sucks! It needs more tomatoes, well something to make it juicier, its more just meat and not meat and tomatoes sauce. It’s just too – meaty!

Imagine you are me for a second. You have cooked for hundreds of people, and you are very proud of what you produce. The thing is that you are used to producing for a restaurant or a hotel. Not at all the same as for the family. What a blow to the ego, being told that your meat sauce sucks! Today, I bust out the secrets that changed my meat sauce forever.

Trust me, it is HARD to cook against a grandmother and tradition! I set out to find out why my sauce sucked. What was I doing differently than Nonna would?

The problem

My problem was that I was cooking how I know – restaurant style!

What most people don’t know is that chefs learn their culinary skills in one of two ways: at school, or on the job. In the case of a meat sauce, I have seen hundreds of different variations on the same theme.

Meat, aromatics, tomato sauce or paste, seasonings, and finishing.

At a restaurant, you just don’t have the time to let a sauce simmer for hours to develop the flavor you need; you need it now, no – yesterday! That’s why a lot of places will add sugar to the sauce to balance out the acidity, or carrots and celery to the sauce with he onions because that is how most sauces start out in culinary tradition. Worse, another shortcut is to just use tomato paste, as it is already thickened. All you need then is even more sugar to balance out the flavor.

That’s okay when you are serving 800 people a pasta dinner on a buffet. With enough salt, sugar, spices to hide a mass-produced product, most people will happily scarf down what’s on that plate because the flavor is masked by the other bits from the buffet.

In a restaurant, we cover up our hastily-made sauce with a good amount of garlic, white wine, a bit more sugary tomato sauce, (thickened with cornstarch!) dump in a whole shitload of fresh basil chiffonade and finish it off with Parmesan powder on the plate. Have you ever wondered why the server asks you if you want more Parmesan or freshly cracked pepper on your pasta?

Truly, Nonna’s ragù sauce will beat my old meat sauce any day. Here’s why – she made it with years of skill, patience, and simplicity.

Why You Should Care

When you purchase a canned meat sauce product, or go out to eat at that restaurant, you’ll get the product I described above. The reality is that corners are cut in order to save time and money producing food on a mass scale. It’s a shame really, because the preparation of a meat sauce is straight-forward. That’s why Nonna is always on your case when you buy the ready made stuff.

This is a project for when you have lots of time on your hands; that’s the reason it is known as Nonna’s Sunday Ragù. The good news is that you can use the time to your advantage to prepare a lot of sauce. We freeze it in small containers and always have it on hand. Once you taste this sauce, you will never be able to go back to the mass produced product.

How could a canned sauce compare to the love you put into this preparation?

A note before we begin – I know that pasta is a no-no for the low carb crowd. This sauce is excellent for spaghetti squash, or an eggplant lasagna. Diabetics can keep their mind at ease as we won’t be adding in any sugar to this sauce. Time is on our side to balance the acidity in the tomatoes.

The process

Now, this sauce is going to take a while, so I might as well start it off at the same time as I cook for my lunch. You'll see why in a second:

Nonna's secret? Well, I'm not going to give it out here.. (MIL would kill me!) but here is a good substitute - BACON fat!

A good glug of olive oil, and a healthy amount of bacon fat over medium heat. Here I have my largest pot because I am making a LOT of sauce.

In goes a chopped onion. You want to cook it for a couple of minutes for the onions to soften.

Mince some garlic. Here's a tip - sprinkle a little salt on the garlic and work it with the knife. It will be faster that way!

Normally I would be all about grinding the meat myself. That's a post for another day. Minced pork was on special, so I decided to put it into the sauce!

Brown the meat, breaking it up as you go. Don't worry if there are chunks that are too big, I have a solution for that later.

Yes, that's right. 100 OZ is a LOT of tomatoes. The good news is I bought this can for a song at Costco. That's roughly 3 to 4 regular sized cans.

My wife HATES it when I use the scissors to cut the tomatoes in a can. No worries though, I like it better the way I do it below!

Sometimes you just gotta get in there, you know?

Ahh! Lunch is almost ready! Now for the secret!

Most people would just clean the pan. That's like throwing away flavor. (We even do this in restaurants too!) Deglaze the pan with a bit of water from rinsing out the tomato can. (Nonna would be proud - ZERO waste!)

See that liquid brown gold? You can't BUY that flavor. (That's a lie - I ACTUALLY saw a container of roast drippings selling for around 6$ at the grocery store the other day. LOL)

I like to add a bit of red wine, just to help with tenderizing the meat. Not much, maybe a 1/4 cup. Note, Nonna probably would not do this, but I just can't help it.

Now we turn up the heat and drop the tomatoes in. Bring the works to a boil.

Then we cover the pot, and put the burner on the lowest it will go. Leave it like that for 2 hours.

Just a little break here to explain why there are no spices or seasonings in this mix yet.  Right now our goal is to tenderize the meat. I am not sure if that is the way Nonna would do it, but it is one of those things that I believe. If the spices are added now, they would overpower the sauce, or the flavor would dissipate. That’s not a good thing, because I would have to add more. I am sure Nonna would approve.

Here are the spices: bayleaf, dried oregano, crushed chilies, fresh thyme

After the two hours are up, remove the lid and add the aromatics in. Crank the heat up a bit and reduce the liquid to a sauce-like consistency.

Remember I was talking about the large chunks above? This is how I solve it. A quick blitz or two with the hand blender solved that problem.

Last, we season the sauce with salt and pepper. Why wait until the end? We don't want to risk over-salting the sauce by reduction if the sauce is too thin. Adding it at the end will ensure you have the correct amount.

Here is the finished product. You can see my wife's scribbled notes as a backdrop. No recipe, just a method. I am sure Nonna would approve.

There it is. A new – Nonna approved sauce. What do you think? An improvement, no?

Low and Slow, this will take all night to melt in your mouth!

 Today I rebel. That’s right. There’s no recipe – I don’t have one. It’s more a technique.

I took some paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, brown sugar and mixed that with a good smattering of annatto seeds. I rubbed that all over the pork shoulders, crusted them heavily with salt, added a couple liters of orange juice, then covered the works.

Into a 300°F oven for 8 or so hours, and the result was a tender, gooey pork roast. I shredded it with my fingers, then reduced the drippings down to make a sauce.

Add to that some sauteed peppers, onions, sour cream over a warmed tortilla, and we were in business.

Sorry, no recipe, only time – lots of it. Melt-in-your-mouth results – this dish took love.

Why don’t I have a recipe? I don’t really remember what I did. Now I will have to recreate this dish to let you all know the secret.

That’s how us chefs roll sometimes. Straight from the hip. You can too.

Picky Eaters? Get them involved in cooking it!

Have you ever tried to get your kids to eat something you were sure they would not like the name of? By the end of this post, I will have the solution for you!

What Happened:

Last night I made a Curried Coconut Chicken Soup* for dinner. I knew that there would be trouble when I picked my son up at daycare, and the first thing he asked me was if he could have the “big nuggets” at you-know-where**.

Well, how does one compete with that? Telling my son that what Daddy makes is so much better just doesn’t cut it.

I know, because I tried!

What I got was a tantrum, pouting, and general bad feelings all around.

Well, I stuck to the plan, and brought my son home. As soon as we walked in the door, he could smell the soup simmering away. Immediately his resolve weakened. “Wow, the house smells really good Daddy!”

I explained that I was preparing Coconut Chicken soup, and it was really tasty. I got “the look,” and a return to the “Nuggets” plea.

Understand, I was not going to cave in and get the little bugger his nuggets! Instead, I tried something different:

The Solution:

I asked my boy for help. He didn’t understand why, so I told him that I needed him to help me finish the soup, he needed to be the official taster.

I mean, how could Mommy like the soup unless he tasted it?

The stool came out, and the picture above shows my son stirring the pot. As I added fish sauce to the pot, I got my boy to stir it, and then to taste it. Even better, I asked him how he thought it tasted.

“Yummy Daddy!”

“Does it need a bit more salt?”

“Umm, yep!”***

We went back and forth with that, me explaining how important the tasting and adjusting was, and how he was doing a great job. I got him to put in the chopped baby corn, squeeze the lime juice into the pot, and to help me shred the chicken.

You know what? The little guy snuck off to the living room with some of the shredded chicken, and told Mommy how awesome the soup was that he made. He ate 2 servings of the soup, with everything included!

In Conclusion:

Here’s how you get your kids to try out the new recipes/lifestyle.

• Don’t just put it in front of them.
• Get them involved; invoke their curiosity.
• Explain what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

I am sure that it will build memories that last a lifetime, and will affect them later on.

*Recipe is in the wings folks!
**Names have been changed to protect my ass and their identity.
***Keep in mind this is a 3 1/2 year-old.

Do you REALLY know where these ingredients originated from?

The picture says it all folks! I have been slaving – err – working away at taking pictures of making beef stock at home, in an effort to convince you how simple it really is. While I organize everything into a video for you all, I thought I would share my thoughts on why you want to start making your own stocks verses using the powders.

Here we have a typical pail of beef base, the same you can find in the stores. Granted, this format is huge, but it has all the same ingredients as the store-sized ones as well.

Why bother making your own? Frankenfoods suck, that is why. In case you are interested, let me break down the ingredients for you: (The reasons I think you should see my next video are the links.)

• Salt – Sure, the first ingredient should be salt, right?
• Dextrose – Sigh. Of course, sugar should be the second, because salt is the first.
• Corn Syrup Solids – Aha! This item is not so bad… but wait a minute! Another name for this is corn syrup powder – That is just HFCS in disguise. Had you fooled, didn’t they?
• Palm Oil – Now, I have no problem with palm oil by its natural form. Unfortunately, the real name of this stuff is Refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil, which is used in a LOT of refined foods because it is shelf stable. In other words, it is NOTHING like what it should be, it’s a Frankenfood.
• Hydrolyzed Soy Protien – Look Ma! Another name for MSG!
• Corn Starch – To thicken. Of course. See, in the end broth will be mostly water, see.
• Autolysed yeast extract – What better way to get “flavor” into the mix by adding yeast? I mean, why have beef as the main flavoring here?
• Onion powder – Sure, I have no problem with this.
• Seasonings – Seriously, what the hell does this mean? What seasonings? Do they have carbs/gluten/anything else?
• Color - Well, I guess so, since the result of the above would be pretty pale.
• Disodium inosinate - The addition of this ingredient confirms the presence of MSG above. See, this ingredient is super expensive, and is almost never used without MSG present. Nice, huh?
• Disodium guanylate- Another food additive that confirms the presence of MSG in our food. Interestingly, it is usually made from seafood or fish… and is not recognized as safe for kids under 12 weeks. Hmm. Frankenfood???
• Silicon dioxide- Yah, sounds more ominous than it actually is. Thing is, it allows the powder to flow freely. It is usually added to salt as an anti-caking agent. Now, before you go sniffing lines of this stuff, remember it could cause lung cancer if inhaled. Otherwise, it has no nutritional value whatsoever. Again, why are we putting this in our bodies?

There you have it, 7 reasons why I think you need to see my next K101 post, Beef Stocks. You do not need this junk to make your soups, and after that video, you will wonder why you ever bothered with this stuff.

I do have a question though, where do you think the beef comes in on that list? Conspicuous in its absence. Until then, back to editing my video!

You won’t hear me say it too often, so here goes…

Now get out there and make some soup!

What do you do when your kid only wants the egg whites for breakfast? Don't fret; You eat his yolks of course!

I’m sorry, but despite what companies have you believe, the champs don’t reach for the box of cattle roughage frosted with sugar. They eat protein.

Below is almost embarrassingly NOT a recipe. It takes 3 to 5 minutes to cook, so breakfast is not an issue.

I did not take a recipe picture today, but here is the base of what I eat for a typical breakfast:

Omega 3 Eggs WDC Style

Calories: 308
Carbs per Serving: 2.6 grams
Nutrition count courtesy of LiveStrong Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 Natural Omega-3 Eggs Large
• 2 egg yolks that your kid refuses to eat
• 1/2 tbsp Butter
• sprinkle Atlantic Sea Salt
• couple turns of fresh Black Peppercorns

Method

Crack your eggs into a bowl. Add the egg yolks your kid refuses to eat. That way you can slide the eggs into your pan and not have to worry about the yolks breaking. (Clever, huh? It was a PASTRY chef that taught me that trick, horror of horrors!)

Heat the butter in an omelet pan over medium heat. You are not looking to burn the butter – just heat it through. Once the butter is heated up, drop your eggs into the pan. Season with salt and pepper; let the egg whites set.

You can try and flip it at this point with just the pan, if you are brave enough. Or, use a spatula. I prefer to live dangerously!

Once the yolks are set to your liking, slip the eggs on to your plate. Garnish how you like them, and go to town!

How do you like to serve up your eggs?

Guess what? You’re the family cook, and you just landed a high paying night job! What are you supposed to do? Last Friday, I asked that question, and got some awesome responses!

How Do You Cook Around a Hectic Schedule?

Mike wrote:

We try to cook throughout the week, even if it’s really just assembling a few things and quickly heating them. As much as possible we avoid fast food and only eat at restaurants once or twice per month.

Alright! I admit it – Sometimes I get home, and I just don’t want to F—ing cook. I mysteriously find myself at the Golden Arches™, or another place.

Jan wrote:

Since we both work full-time (if you can call 60 – 80 hour weeks full-time) we eat late a lot. … if I’m doing something that requires more care or longer cooking, we’ve been known to eat closer to 9. I also cook more than is required for the 3 of us, so we always have leftovers in the fridge.

Now that’s a money idea right there!

What actually happens at Chez WDC is the wife refuses to know what’s in there. (Because I didn’t put a sign on it or something.) See, the wife likes to pack the fridge so it is full. After a couple of weeks I’ll open the fridge, nearly puke, and try and figure out what the f— is making that smell. Hmm… Best intentions…

Dawn writes:

one of my jobs has me on the road a lot, so i have to make plenty of meals ahead of time.  …  on sundays i make a ton of sammies and make a couple of meals to freeze and/or store in fridge. Lots of salad wraps because you can throw anything in there and its the only way i can get hubby to eat A veggie. … now that it’s winter soups and chili’s are king.

Now that is how it is supposed to be! I know – I need to get my shit together, and make the stuff on my “Sunday.”

I admit it though, it’s hard to pull my ass off the chair in front of my computer! (Hey! At least I am not a COUCH potato, rather a COMPUTER NUGGET! LOL) Ask my wife if you don’t believe me.

So, what’s my “action plan”? Here’s a quick video on that:

Do you have a question for me? You can contact me through the Ask the Chef! page, my Facebook Fan Page, my TuDiabetes account, or my Twitter account.

What happens when you have to work nights and you cook your family meals? How would you manage? There are only so many times you can ask your family to hit the Golden Arches™ before they turn into a nugget!

Things are about to change here in WDC land. I will be starting a new job come Monday that will see me working nights. I am curious, dear reader, how do you manage with a hectic schedule like that?

I would love to hear about it in the comments.

October is Celiac Awareness Month

I just wanted to point you really quickly to a post on Michael Ruhlman’s blog written by a Celiac. I believe it is very important because there are instances of Type 1 diabetics who might also be gluten intolerant. Us chefs are led to believe that Gluten intolerance is very important, but the post over there explain just how important it really is.

What I Didn’t Know About Celiac – By Michael Ruhlman

image (Giant celebrates Celiac Awareness Month. Nice to see) by jerseyfreeze of Flickr under CC by Attribution 2.0