Aimee Herring

More on Caramel and Sweet Sauces:

• Watch Gail Simmons make her Salted Caramel Pecan Pie.
• Find more caramel recipes, including caramel rice pudding and caramel-pecan brownies.
• Try Curtis Stone's mango chutney for a sauce that's both sweet and savory.
• Want fondue? The CIA shows you how to make chocolate fondue.
• Or, try Marcus Sameulsson's fondue recipe.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Knaster from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make caramel sauce.

Today we're going to make caramel sauce, which basically is a mixture of sugar, corn syrup, cream, butter, and a little vanilla. I'm going to start off adding some water into a pot, two ounces of water, and five ounces of corn syrup. The corn syrup's going to give you that nice gooey caramel texture. Then I'll add seven ounces of sugar. When you're cooking any kind of sugar mixture, you want to make sure you stir it the entire time until it comes up to a boil, just to help make sure the sugar gets dissolved. We're going to cook it over high heat until it comes up to a boil, stirring the whole time. Then you don't want to stir any more until it is done cooking.

The sugar's going to get on the sides of the pot a little, so you want to be careful, and get all those washed off the sides of the pot. Use just a little water with a pastry brush, to try to wash all those crystals away. If you don't wash the sugar crystals off the sides of the pot, they can end up going back into the sugar mixture and cause it to get grainy or crystallized. I'll do this a few times within the first three or four minutes, and then I'm not going to do that any more because during the sugar cooking process I'm evaporating the water, so if I keep washing down the sides of the pot too much I'm just adding water back in there. Maybe two times in the first three or four minutes is fine.

At this point I"m not stirring; I'm just going to let it cook. Again, that's to make sure it stays nice and smooth. The more water we evaporate, the higher the temperature's getting, until eventually it's going to turn to that nice caramel color. It might take about eight to ten minutes for that to happen.

We're getting a nice caramel color. I'm going to turn the heat down on the pot, and swirl it to get it to cook more evenly. Now the sugar's caramelized; we have a nice, dark caramel color. You want it to look nice and dark in the pot like this, so that you get a real strong caramel flavor.

Now on very low heat I'm going to start to add the cream. We're adding thirteen ounces of heavy cream. The sugar's very hot, and the cream is cool or room temperature, and if you add it too fast it's going to seize up - so we add just a tablespoon at a time, using a whisk. When you see it's not foaming up as much you can start to add the cream a little faster. Then off the heat, I'm going to add the vanilla and the salt. Vanilla is basically alcohol, so you always want to add any extracts off the heat so you don't evaporate all the flavor out.

Once you see all the cream is incorporated, you can turn off the heat. I'm going to add in the butter, which is nice and soft, a pinch of salt, and the vanilla extract. Stir to combine all that. So now that we've got everything incorporated, I'm going to start to cool it down. I pour it from the pot into a bowl, and put that bowl in a bowl of ice water. I'm going to stir for a few minutes until it's just slightly warm.

I've been cooling it down for a few minutes, and it's looking nice, so I think we're ready. Here's our finished caramel sauce.

For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on Cooking with Chocolate:

• Get more chocolate recipes here.
• Start your day with Marcus Samuelsson's Chocolate Pancakes.
• Get the Skinny Chef's recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate.
• Let Slashfood teach you how to pair wine and chocolate.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Knaster from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make chocolate fondue.

Today we're making chocolate fondue, which is actually very easy. You don't need any kind of special equipment - you don't even need to go buy the special little fondue pots for this. We have fifteen ounces of chocolate. I'm using a combination of bittersweet and unsweetened, but you can use whatever combination of whatever your favorite chocolate is. About ten ounces of milk , an ounce of honey, and four and a half ounces of corn syrup. I'm also going to use a vanilla bean, and to get all the flavor I'm going to split it down the center. A lot of people just scrape the seeds out and don't put the bean in there; most of the flavor is actually in the pod - the seeds are more for a visual. I"m not even going to bother scraping the seeds out. I'm going to put the split pod right into the pot with the milk. I'll turn the heat on to medium, add my one ounce of honey, and my four and a half ounces of corn syrup, and stir that together just to make sure it's combined evenly.

We're going to get that up to a boil - just be careful, because it'll boil over. Keep an eye on that. We have it up to a boil, so I'll turn off the heat, add the chocolate, and just let that sit maybe thirty seconds to give time for the chocolate to start to melt so I can get it incorporated properly.

Now it's been sitting about thirty seconds and the chocolate's had time to soften up. I"m going to use a whisk to get this incorporated. You'll see it get nice and thick. At this point I'll take out the vanilla bean and add the butter - two ounces of unsalted butter, and get that incorporated. You add the butter at the end, instead of with the heavy cream, because it keeps that nice creamy texture of the butter.

Now the butter is totally incorporated at this point, and it's ready to use. Or you can keep this in a container in your refrigerator for up to four days. You can reheat it in a double boiler or the microwave. I'll just pour it into my container - in this case a serving bowl - and set it up with the assorted stuff. You can use any kind of fruits, cookies, I have some meringue sticks, some leftover pieces of cake. Anything like that is perfect, that you can dip into the fondue. Dried fruits are also nice, in addition to fresh fruits.

That's chocolate fondue. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on Cooking with Chocolate:

• Get more chocolate recipes here.
• Start your day with Marcus Samuelsson's Chocolate Pancakes.
• Get the Skinny Chef's recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate.
• Let Slashfood teach you how to pair wine and chocolate.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Knaster from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make chocolate mousse.

We're making mousse today, which is basically any light, airy, creamy mixture. We're doing chocolate mousse. We've got eggs, sugar, bittersweet chocolate - but you can use your favorite kind of chocolate - a little bit of butter, and some heavy cream. We have five eggs and nine ounces of sugar, which I'm going to start to heat up. I'm going to do that over barely-simmering water, basically to heat up the eggs to about 145 degrees, to pasteurize them and make it safe to eat. You're stirring the whole time - otherwise the eggs will start to cook. It might take five to seven minutes to get the eggs heated up to 145 degrees. Right now they're really thick, but as they heat up you'll see they start to thin out.

Okay, the eggs are heated up to 145 degrees. We've got a good consistency here: you don't want to see them start to get thick at this point. We're going to put them into the Kitchen-aid. We'll whip this on high speed for about eight to ten minutes; they'll get to room temperature, triple in volume, and be nice and thick.

Now the bowl's nice and cool; I can see the beater marks in the egg mixture. I'm going to keep it on low speed while I start to melt my chocolate. No water can come into contact with chocolate, so you want to make sure my bowl's wiped out. Another precaution: you don't want to overheat the chocolate, so the water should be below a simmer. You don't want the water boiling, or you'll end up burning and scorching the chocolate, which will make it grainy and thick. I'm going to stir the whole time while it's melting. It's starting to melt. Keep stirring so it melts evenly. You shouldn't really heat chocolate past 120 degrees, but if you're keeping the water below a simmer, stirring constantly, you'll be fine.

I have all my chocolate melted, so I'll turn off the heat. I'll add one and a half to two ounces of unsalted butter, and once I get the butter incorporated you'll see it start to thicken up a little bit. I'm going to turn off my eggs.

I've just added half the eggs, and you want to make sure you get those incorporated quickly so the chocolate doesn't start to seize up. Now I can get the rest of the eggs. Here I'll start to fold it a little more delicately, so I can try to keep the air from the eggs, which will help make it nice and light and creamy. I'm turning the bowl in one direction, stirring through the center and over the top in the opposite direction, which helps incorporate it a little faster.

I have my cream whipped up, and as an optional ingredient I have some frangelico - some hazelnut liqueur, about an ounce and a half. If you don't want to use liqueur, you can omit it from the recipe. I'll add that before the cream - you always want to add the cream at the end, because you don't want to overmix the cream. I whipped my cream ahead of time; I had it in the refrigerator, kept it nice and cold. This is sixteen ounces of cream that I'll add into the chocolate. The consistency you want on the cream is a soft peak, because what will happen is during the folding it will firm up a little more, so you don't want to make it too stiff at this point. Same motion: through the center, over the top. You can see a few little streaks, which is okay; you don't want to overmix at this point. Now I have my mousse finished, so I'll just ladle it into my glass and just refrigerate it for about sixty minutes, to give it time to firm up. If you want you can leave a little room in there, to add some fresh berries or some whipped cream. FIll it up about halfway, and now refrigerate it for about an hour.

The mousse is set up nice and firm. I'm going to add a few chocolate shavings, or you can add a lot - depending on what you like. Again, you can add fresh berries, or some whipped cream would be really nice with that. And that's chocolate mousse!

For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Rossomando from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to prepare a cookie crust.

Today we're going to make a cookie crust. We're going to use graham cracker crumbs; you can also use chocolate wafers. We have about two cups of graham cracker crumbs, a cup of packed brown sugar, and ten ounces of melted butter. I'll start off by adding my brown sugar into my graham cracker crumb and just combining the two dry ingredients - just fold them over, you're looking for the brown sugar to incorporate into the dry graham cracker crumb. Then I'm going to moisten the graham cracker crumb with the melted butter, just a little bit at a time - you don't want to pour it in all at once. I'm going to toss that around until the graham cracker crumb gets absorbed with the melted butter. If you wanted to do a low-fat version of this, you could use egg white instead of the melted butter. Please remember that both of these must be baked off to set the shell.

Our last small amount of butter is getting added in, and the result is basically the consistency of wet sand, I would say. Then we're going to take a small portion of it and line our teflon-coated tart shells. You could also spray the pan to help with easier removal. I'm going to portion out - for this case, for this shell, which is roughly a four-ounce shell - about three tablespoons of my mixture. We'll just press it into place. You get all the graham cracker crumb going up the walls at a really nice 90-degree angle. You want to make sure it's straight, so you don't have these sloped walls. You could also use another tart shell to help you press it in place, to really sandwich it in and make it really secure. This other one's a fluted edge, which just gives you a finished edge. The wetter the mixture, the easier it is for you to get it into the pan. Don't be worried if you see pools of butter; it'll toast off nicely. I'm going to take the shells and put them on a sheet pan, just for easy removal. We'll bake these off at 325 degrees, in a regular oven, for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

Now we can see that our tart shells are done. We're looking for a really golden-brown edge, and if you were to touch the center you feel some resistance; it wouldn't be completely soft. We'll let them sit for about five to ten minutes and let them cool, then we'll fill them.

Now our tart shells have cooled, so I'm going to remove my sheet pan and we have our tarts. All you have to do basically is invert them and flip them out, place them on the surface where you're going to fill them. I'll fill them with a pastry cream. I have a star tip on the end of the bag, but you could use a straight tip. I'll just do a couple of rosettes around the circle, and the same on the inside just to fill the shell, with a nice finished edge. For the smaller tart shell, a slightly different variation, which is a piped shell shape. You could fill this tart shell with basically anything: whipped cream, chocolate ganache, fresh fruit - it's a great vessel for any kind of filling.

In this case we'll finish it off with some raspberries, so you can just finish the perimeter and show the interior. That's one way of finishing it. And the other would be maybe more of a rustic finish, where you can just throw the berries on without any method to your madness. There you have your finished tart shells, with a super-easy graham cracker crust - three ingredients, you can just whip it together.

For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on Asian Cooking:

• Learn how to season a wok and stir-fry from the experts at The Culinary Institute of America.
• Got your technique down? Try this Sichuan Style Chicken with Peanuts recipe.
• See how Gail Simmons incorporates Ginger into an Asian recipe.
• Bring your own dishwasher-safe chopsticks to a restaurant to save a tree.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Dave Smythe from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic today: how to use chopsticks.

To hold chopsticks, you simply take one stick, place it in the crook of the thumb and against end of the ring finger, and you hold with moderate pressure - and it's immovable. The second stick is the movable stick, and it's held more like a pencil. It tends to roll across the top of the thumb, held stationary and firmly with these fingers. So the motion is simply the rolling across the thumb.

Ideally you would hold your chopsticks toward the back half of the sticks, not forward - but not too far back; just like this. Basically, you simply move the wrist in this way as you hold these, and put the food into your mouth.

The hardest thing to pick up, naturally, is small items. Rice, usually, is picked up with a scooping motion, and held in this way. Other small items actually require you to squeeze them gently, and pick them up. It might seem rather time-consuming to eat in this manner; however, at the Asian table time is not an issue. You're there for the experience of dining.

Picking up the difficult items is the way to practice. Don't start with the big chunks - start with something little. Challenge yourself. This is very simple. Nothing could be simpler than two sticks: the sound of two sticks chopping.

For more great culinary tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on Steak:

• Get steak grilling tips.
• Grilling guru Steven Raichlen knows how to grill a great steak -- and alerts you of these six steak myths.
• Get flank steak recipes.
• Find out how to cut strip loin steaks, too.
• Know someone who loves meat? Give them the gift of a meat club membership.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Mark Elia from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to properly slice a flank steak.

We have here a beef flank steak - broiled to perfection, I must say. The proper tools you want to use are a typical kitchen slicing knife, and a fork.

You want to pay attention to where the fibers of meat are. Fibers are like straws: some thicker ones, and some thinner ones. This particular meat has a heavier fiber. We locate the fibers on this piece; we're going from left to right. We want to take our knife and go across the grain, and yet lay it down on a bias, so we're actually exposing a larger surface of the fiber itself. If you were to look closely here, you would actually see the large circles of the fiber, the actual muscle fiber. We have the flecks of fat within the muscle fiber, which is also known as marbling.

We want to continue to slice across the grain and on the bias. You want to keep your slices less than a quarter of an inch thick. Hold your fork down nice and tight, and just slide your knife back and forth. This should not be that hard to do. If you were to slice straight down, these muscle fibers would be cut very short, and it would end up being much chewier than if you cut them on a bias. So please make sure you lay that knife down at about a forty-five degree angle, each and every time. If all of a sudden you don't see the red as you're slicing, that means you're probably slicing straight down, which is wrong. Make sure you maintain that angle, and you continue all the way through.

Then we just slide our slicing knife under it, hold it down with our fork, continue to plate - and we're ready for lunch.

For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

• Learn more about cooking with beef.
• Get more delicious recipes using the braising technique.
• Wine-fed Okanagan: The next great beef?
• Get more beef recipes from our archives.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Brannon Soileau from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to braise a pot roast.

In this braise, we're braising a shoulder blade that we have trimmed and tied. Bottom round would be another great selection for a pot roast. Braised items are tough cuts of meat that become very soft and tender. We're going to start off with a high heat, because we want to create a crust all over the outside of the meat; we want to brown the meat very well. We want to season the roast. I'm going to start very simply with salt and pepper. When you season, season high! Don't season from right on top of your product; get your hand up high so that you evenly distribute the salt and pepper.

I have a high heat on my pot, a minimal amount of fat, and we begin to sear. That's exactly what you want to hear: you want to hear that meat starting to sizzle. Searing is going to leave some drippings and color on the bottom of the pot. That's known as a 'fond' - we're creating a fond. We create fond for two reasons: good flavor in the pot, for the sauce, and also texture on the meat.

Once all sides have been nice and browned, remove the meat. Assess the fat in the pan. If you burned it up, if your heat was too high and you didn't control the heat, and you burned your fat, discard the fat and continue to the next step I'm about to show you. Also look at the fond we've created on the bottom of the pot. That's exactly what we wanted to create for flavor and color.

Aromatics! I'm using celery, carrot, and onion in this case. I'm going to go with about a cup of aromatics into the established fond and oil that's in the pan. If I didn't have enough fat in there, I could add a little more - but I happen to have just the amount I want. I coat the vegetables with fat lightly , make it shine a little bit, and I continue down the road with caramelizing. To caramelize, we are pulling certain sugars out of vegetables by using minimal heat and high fat. You can see they're getting caramelly, we're getting good color on the vegetables. Now we're going to do what's known as a pince. We're going to caramelize with tomato paste. I've got about six ounces of tomato paste that I"ll throw into my caramelized vegetables, and we're gong to cook it lightly. I want to caramelize it a little bit, until it gets brick in color. This happens pretty quickly. You don't want to burn the caramelization of the aromatics, and you don't want to burn the pincing of the tomato product.

Now I've pinced, it's brick-like in color, and now we're going to deglaze. We've created fond on the bottom, and now we're going to remove it with red wine, about a cup of red wine. To deglaze is to remove a fond that's been created from high heat - searing or caramelization - by a liquid: red wine, in this case. My red wine goes in, and I continue reducing the red wine until it gets kind of a sludgy consistency. Notice I'm scraping the sides of the pot off, removing the fond we've created for good flavor and good color. We're getting nice and thick now. After this time, you can choose to put garlic in, if you like. I like to put the whole clove in; I like the character and the rusticity of the garlic, when you get a whole clove. I put my garlic in; that was three cloves of garlic. Now you see that sludgy consistency.

We move on! We return the meat, and now you want a good quality stock. Brown veal stock is what I'm using. You could use beef stock - some type of a stock. Any braise you make, any braise you cook, halfway to three quarters up with liquid on the product that's being braised. We're going to bring it back up to a simmer, and you can begin seasoning the liquid. Bay leaf may be one type of spice or aromatic you want to add. Once I hit a simmer, put on a tight fitting lid and we're going to pop it into a 350 or 375 degree oven for close to three hours, in that ballpark. Every fifteen to twenty minutes I want you to go inside and you're going to turn the meat, rotate it so it cooks evenly. In the oven we go.

It's been just under three hours now, braising time. I've been rotating the meat every fifteen, twenty minutes. How do I know it's about time to come out? I need a braise to be fork-tender. When it is fork-tender you can pull the fork out, and the meat releases. Now we're talking about done! Our braise is done, and I have to cut the strings off. We tied it so that it cooked evenly, and we have to cut those strings. Our meat is braised, we're ready to roll - and now we have to finish the gravy.

You may have some grease that comes around the outside. You want to skim that grease off. Use the full circumference of the ladle, and just push anywhere you see a little bit of grease pooled up. Then you want to put the heat back on the gravy. It's too thin right now to serve as gravy. You want to thicken it up a little bit. You're going to take some water and rehydrate your cornstarch. You want to incorporate the cold liquid until it looks like heavy whipping cream on the back of a spoon. One ounce of pure starch, in weight, thickens one quart of liquid. That's how it's supposed to look; if it looks like the thickness of heavy whipping cream, you're in the right ballpark. Now I'm going to incorporate it slowly into the base of my braising liquid, bring it back to a simmer, and that'll thicken pretty much immediately. Kill the heat, ring the dinner bell.

That smells wonderful. Bring on the mashed potatoes! For more great tips, go to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

• Get more beef recipes from our archives.
• Learn more about cooking with beef.
• Find new ground beef recipes.
• Wine-fed Okanagan: The next great beef?

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Mark Elia from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to properly tie and trim a roast.

The cut of meat we've chosen today is known as a zero-by-one beef strip loin. To properly trim this, we'll first need to remove all the excess fat that's on top. We don't want to take it all off; we want to leave about a quarter of an inch to an eighth of an inch of fat for cooking purposes. We'll start with your ordinary kitchen eight-inch fillet knife. We'll just lay it down and slightly cut across the back, layers at a time. We don't want to take too much off at once, because sometimes it's quite hard to see how thick it is. I'm just going to trim this off. Sometimes the fat is very loose, sometimes it's quite tight, but either way we have to get the excess fat off.

We need to notice that along the front of this piece of meat is what we refer to as a collagen band. This collagen band can be as much as a quarter of an inch thick, and extremely hard to remove at the table. Come around to the top of the eye muscle, and just make a very small line right across to give us a gauge as to where we're going to remove this collagen band. Now, this band does go all the way down the back of this muscle, but the hardest part, the thickest part of it, is right up here at the front. We'll take our knife and go underneath the collagen band. We'll lift our collagen band over our knife, and cut through.

Once the collagen band is removed, if there's any bone connective tissue - which is very common - just shave it off. Just shave it off; you don't want to take too much. We'll now turn it over and work on the bottom side, which has a lot of bone connective tissue. We'll just get underneath that connective tissue, slide our knife out, and shave off any of that unwanted tissue. If it's left on, bone connective tissue gets very hard during the cooking process. That's that little piece of meat that gets very hard, and you bite down on it and say it's a big piece of gristle. That's bone connective tissue. We don't want to dig into the meat, though - just take it off the top.

As a last step in trimming, just take your fingers and run them all over the surface of the meat, just to make sure you don't feel any bone connective tissue that you may have missed, or any possible bone fragments.

The next step is to tie it for a roast. We'll use a standard 16-ply butcher's twine that can be purchased in grocery stores or from your local butcher. It's a cotton twine that is food-safe; you can cook with this, with no problem. We'll start with our feed side in the left hand and our waste to the right. We'll go underneath the roast, right in the middle - always start to tie your roast right in the middle, so when you're done it has a nice even shape all the way through. To tie a simple butcher's knot, we'll take our waste side and form an 'A' with our index finger and our middle finger. We'll cross the feed side, bring it around the bottom, bring it through, and pull down. We'll hold tension on it, bring it back up again, make another 'A', bring it around again, pull down and just touch together. We don't want to pull it too tight here because that'll lock the knot and we'll have to start all over. This time we'll take our fingers and go behind the knot, and pull - to tighten everything up and give it a nice shape. Again, we'll slide under the roast, come up over the top, make an 'A' with our fingers and our string, then we'll cross the feed side, wrap the string around and pull down. We'll come up with the second 'A', cross again, and pull down lightly - we don't want to lock the knot at this point, we still have to cinch it in tight. Then we pull tight, and at this point we'll take our string and wrap it around two fingers, reach down and pull that loose piece of string through, and lock it down. You'll notice all the knots are nice and lined up along the bottom, away from your guests while you're cutting.

And there you have the proper way to trim and tie a roast. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

• Watch chef Curtis Stone's prepare his roasted leg of lamb recipe.
• Get tips on buying lamb.
• Find more lamb recipes in our archives.
• Peppercorn-encrusted lamb medallions? Get it now!

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Chef Kowalski from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to bone and tie a leg of lamb.

We're going to face the top part of the leg with the shank part away from us, and we're going to begin with the bottom part. We're going to go right around the bone here, and there's a bone that extends inwards; we're just going to slide the knife right along that bone toward the H-bone and around the H-bone. There's a little section here with a hole, and there's meat in there. We want to put our finger in there so we can pull this product forth. We get our knife all the way around that bone, open up the socket a little bit here - there's a joint, and we want to get our knife in there so we can go right through that joint. There's a little cartilage that holds it together, pulling back on the bone and running a knife right around the bone on the other side - trying to keep as much meat off the bone, of course, so we don't waste any. This is really good because you can pull with your finger here and it opens the seam up a little bit, where you can just take that bone out. We're going to put that off to the side; that's a fairly good-sized bone. You can use that in a sauce, and you can also chop it up a little bit into smaller pieces.

At this point we've exposed the bone a little bit. What I like to do is take this, and turn it around so the opening is facing away from you - and now we have a better angle to follow along the bone. Now we come across the second joint. This is a knuckle. We're going to go right around the knuckle here, trying to lift the bone up at the same time so we can pull it away from the meat and loosen it up a little as we cut. Now we have the knuckle; this part of the meat, what we have here, you can buy at the store for osso buco; you'd cut it in maybe three or four inch lengths and braise them.

Here, all we're doing is following the seam. If you move your fingers around, you can loosen the meat; notice these chunks of fat inside. This section would be a top round, and that's the tender part of the leg. We take out this chunk of fat, and the end piece here has a lot more collagen in it, a little bit tougher but still not too bad - you can use it for roasting. I personally like to take that off because I either use it in sauces or braise that a little bit later; it's a much better product for that. Now we're getting down into smaller pieces of the lamb we have left behind. Notice we have another piece of fat here; we'd like to get as many of these pieces of fat out as we can. We also have the other section here. We're going to once again turn this leg around to make it much easier for us to handle. We continue with the next section, rolling our fingers around and just pulling this fat out a little bit.

Now we're just going to turn it over onto its other side. You notice there are a lot more fat segments here on the bottom part, and we want to clean some of that off, so it looks much more palatable. I think this is a good amount of fat we have left here. In cooking, most of this will melt as you're cooking it, probably leaving you an eighth of an inch afterward, at most.

So here we have the product nicely deboned and cleaned, and what we like to do is take this flap and roll it on the inside, and we're simply going to tuck this almost jelly-roll style, if you're making a jelly roll - rolling it up. You can take this flap and tuck it under if you wish. Turn it sideways, clean off the cutting board a little bit, and then we're going to take a butcher's twine. Run it under the roast with the short end away from us, and bringing it up we loop around, up and then through this little loop. Slide this fairly tight. Now I can take the excess string here and I make a loop; as I make that loop I pull the back part up, pull up the slack here, and then we tighten it up. Not too tight but so it's kind of snug. It may take four times or six times, depending on the size of the roast. We try to do this as uniformly as we can. The reason we make this as uniform as possible is that when you're cooking it, you'd like this product to cook uniformly all the way through. When we get to the end, we'll probably take the string about a length and a half of the roast, cut it, and now we go to the bottom part of the roast, and we'll go around and back under the looped strings to hold it as evenly spaced as possible, and also make it fairly snug, so it's firm. We'll tuck the end under, and come up to the top where we're going to now finish it off with another slip knot. We cut the last bit of the string off, and here's your boneless leg of lamb.

For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

Aimee Herring

More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

• Watch chef Curtis Stone's prepare his roasted leg of lamb recipe.
• Get tips on buying lamb.
• Find more lamb recipes in our archives.
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  Video Transcript

  Hi, I'm Chef Kowalski from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to tie, season and roast a leg of lamb.
  
  Here you have a leg of lamb which has been totally boned out, and we have some salt and pepper, and we also have some rosemary pesto that we've made (with rosemary, pine nuts, garlic, a little bit of salt and pepper, and olive oil). We'll begin with a little salt and pepper, seasoning the inside so we have our flavors coming through: the salt and then the pepper, and then we'll do the pesto. Just mix your pesto up a little so you don't have all that oil on the top, and we'll very nicely dab small amounts, pressing it onto the lamb. This will give you a lot of really nice flavors; this is great whether you have this for Eastertime, or just for a nice gathering like Sunday dinner.
  
  At this point what we're going to do is roll this meat up. We'll begin to roll it like a little jelly roll, trying to tuck the odds-and-ends pieces inside, so we totally encase the pesto - and now we're going to tie it. Take the short end of the string to the outside, bring it back, loop it around, go underneath and up through the other loop - basically forming a slip knot, which we tighten. Whether you do this, or tie it any other way, doesn't matter, as long as it's uniformly tied. Now we'll just pull the back part to snug it a little bit, bring up the front - and we'll try to space it as evenly as we can. Sometimes it'll be a little difficult, as some pieces are wider than others; but try to get it as uniform as you can. So we have this one end that we've tied, and now we're using the remainder of the string, making loops with this one long string around the lamb so we can tighten it. Then we'll cut a piece about one and a half times longer than the product itself so we can turn this roast to the other side and (the opposite of where we ran this string down the other side) we'll now go past the string under and back, so that it secures the string and keeps it uniformly spaced. We have the flap or meat at the end here that we're going to tuck under, and we'll turn it back over again - and when we come back to the beginning where we started, we're now going to finish by tying the two pieces of string together, and securing it in place. We take the ends and trim them - and there you have your leg of lamb.
  
  We have a roasting pan here that we're going to pick up onto the cutting board, and we'll place our meat onto the roasting rack. We'll try to place it so the fat is on the top so that as it's melting, the roast is basting itself as it's cooking. Now we'll put it in the oven and cook it at about 350 degrees, for roughly an hour and a half or so, taking it to an internal temperature of 135 to 140.
  
  As you see, the roast has cooked to about 135 or 140 degrees. You can see how nice and moist it looks, with juice everywhere. We have to take these strings off before we can begin to slice. You can just go along and cut all the pieces of string. You see the pesto has changed a little color - at the outside especially, because you have more heat at the ends than in the center. For slicing, we'll need a slicing knife and a fork so we can hold onto it. Just put your fork a little bit into the meat so you can hold it, make some resistance so the meat will stay together, and we then slice this very nice and easy - not putting too much pressure on the knife, just a little bit. Notice those juices coming out of there; you have a good color in here, and you can see the pesto on the inside here. Take a couple of nice thin slices - now you can enjoy this great roast leg of lamb.
  
  For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

  ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:30:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-potato-pancakes/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-potato-pancakes/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-potato-pancakes/#comments

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  Aimee HerringCrisp, golden potato pancakes (often called latkes) are within your reach with these easy tips from chef Bruce Mattel of The Culinary Institute of America. First, chef Mattel grates onions with a box grater set over a bowl. It's important to grate the onion first, because the acids from the onion keep the potato from oxidizing once they're mixed. Next, he grates the potato (the ratio of potato to onion is 5:2). Next, he adds salt and pepper for seasoning, and, once the salt draws out some moisture, presses out any liquid from the mixture.
  
  To cook the pancakes, he pours about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch of olive oil into a nonstick pan (you can use vegetable oil, too, but avoid fats with a low smoke point, like butter). He makes his pancakes fairly small, about 2 ounces each, and makes sure not to crowd them in the pan. As they cook, he swirls the pan occasionally to make sure they brown evenly. When the bottom side is golden, he flips the pancakes away from him so as to avoid getting spattered. When the pancakes are done, place them on a paper-towel-lined plate and blot up any excess oil. (You can reuse the oil leftover in the pan for more pancakes but be sure to remove any leftover pieces from the pan or they'll burn.) Serve the pancakes with applesauce or sour cream -- or both!
  
  For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
  
  Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
  

  More on KitchenDaily:

  • Looking for another classic potato latke recipe?
  • Try more latke recipes, including some made out of other veggies and even chocolate!
  • See our Festive Hanukkah menu.
  • Get more Hanukkah recipes.
  • Read more about the history of Hanukkah food.

  
  
  

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  Video Transcript

  Hi, I'm Chef Bruce Mattel from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make potato pancakes.
  
  The first thing I do is grate the onion. I have a box grater and do this over a bowl - and I try not to tear up while I'm doing it! It's important to grate the onion first, because it's the acids in the onion that prevent the potato from oxidizing once it's grated and mixed together. So I'm going to take my potato that I've stored in water, to prevent oxidation, and I'm going to do exactly the same thing. The ratio here is approximately five parts potato to two parts onion.
  
  Now that I'm done grating my potato, I'm just going to clean off the grater a little bit and put it aside. I'm going to place a little bit of salt into the mixture, half a teaspoon or so, and a pinch - or about an eighth of a teaspoon - of black pepper. I'm going to mix that up with my hand, and the salt's going to draw out a little bit of the moisture from the potato. Before I start cooking these, I'm going to press out a little of the water and pour it off into a small bowl. A little bit left in the mixture is just fine.
  
  I'm going to use a nonstick pan here, but you could use any really good-quality sauté pan. I'm going to turn it on to a medium-high flame, and let it heat up. I'm going to use pure olive oil; however, you can use other vegetable oils, like safflower oil, sunflower oil, or corn oil - you just do not want to use anything that has a fairly low smoking point, like butter, or extra virgin olive oil. I'm going to put a considerable amount of oil in the pan: approximately an eighth to a quarter of an inch in depth.
  
  Waving a hand above the pan, it feels now that our oil is hot, so it's time to add our potato pancakes to the pan. You want to grab approximately two ounces or so, and just lay it in the pan. I like to leave them where they have some small pieces of potato hanging out at the edges; they get kind of like a spidery look, and I think that's attractive, as well as giving some added crispness to the potato pancake once it's made. You don't want to overcrowd the pan; I'm going to place approximately five potato pancakes into this pan at once.
  
  Now that the potatoes are starting to brown on one of the edges, I'm going to make sure I swirl the pan around a little bit and move those potato pancakes, so they get even color all around. I'm going to give them a little press now, to compact them and make sure they hold together.
  
  Before you flip them you might want to lift one up, and take a look underneath and make sure they're evenly colored - and this one is. You want to flip it away from you so you don't splatter yourself with the oil. We can see they've all gotten nicely golden brown, that really nice color that's associated with well-made potato latkes. Now I'm going to check the potato pancakes on the underside to make sure they have even color with the top side, and if they do, I'm going to remove them from the pan. Yes - they look great.
  
  At this point I'm going to shut off my pan, and I'll remove them, and blot them on a piece of paper towel. If you were making additional batches of potato pancakes, you could continue using the oil that's in the pan. However, if you have little pieces of potato floating around, you want to get them out of the pan so those pieces don't burn. I'm going to make sure I blot the pancakes on both sides, and then I'm ready to plate them up. Simple, crispy potato pancakes, ready to be enjoyed with applesauce or sour cream - or both.
  
  For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

  ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:25:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-applesauce/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-applesauce/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-applesauce/#comments

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  Aimee HerringMaking applesauce is incredibly simple, explains chef Bruce Mattel of The Culinary Institute of America. And homemade versions are vastly superior to supermarket brands when it comes to taste. He starts out with 3 Gala apples, which he peels, cores, and dices. (Dice them into fairly small pieces so they'll cook down faster.) He fills a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup of water, then adds 1/4 cup sugar and stirs over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. He adds in the chopped apples, along with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, then cooks the apples down over a medium simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the apples are soft and still slightly chunky. And that's it -- the sauce can be served warm or chilled.
  
  For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
  
  Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
  

  More on KitchenDaily:

  • Learn how to choose the perfect apple for whatever you're cooking up.
  • Looking for a fun baking project with the kids? Try this easy applesauce spice cake.
  • Search for more delicious applesauce recipes in our archives.
  • See our Festive Hanukkah menu.
  • • Get more Hanukkah recipes.

    
    
    

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    Video Transcript

    Hi, I'm Chef Bruce Mattel from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make applesauce.
    
    We're going to use gala apples today, and what you want to do first is peel the apples; then we're going to dice them, then we're going to get them cooking. I have a regular vegetable peeler, and I'm just going to go around and get the skin off. Now that our apples are peeled, you can cut them in half or quarter them, and then cut them up - or what I like to do is just take a chef's knife and cut them right around the core. I make about two slices, turn and continue. Then I'm going to go ahead and dice up my apples, working with a couple of pieces at once. You want to dice the apples into fairly small pieces so they cook rather quickly because, let's face it, you're just going to make sauce out of them anyway - so keeping them in larger pieces doesn't give you any kind of advantage. If you dice them up, the apples also get softer faster, and it makes the process of making the sauce that much quicker.
    
    Now that the apples are diced, we're ready to cook the applesauce. I'm going to use a medium-sized saucepot, and the first thing I'm going to do is put about half a cup of water in the pot and approximately a quarter cup of sugar; turn the heat on, and let that sugar dissolve into the water. I'm going to stir this with a wooden spoon to make sure the sugar doesn't brown on the bottom. Now we can see that the sugar's pretty much dissolved, so I'm going to add the apples into the pot. Now I'm going to add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon into the apples as they cook, for extra flavor. Make sure they're evenly coated with the sugar and cinnamon. It smells really good!
    
    I'm going to turn the heat down to a medium simmer for approximately ten to fifteen minutes. Some of the apples might break down sooner and some may take a little more time to get soft, so you might have to taste a little piece halfway through the process.
    
    Now that our applesauce has simmered for about twelve minutes or so, it's looking right about where I want it to be. It's pretty much puréed, it's still a little chunky; some of the water has reduced out and it's gotten a little thicker. Now, applesauce is great served warm, but can also be served chilled. I prefer it pretty much at room temperature myself.
    
    And here you have it: nice, fresh-made applesauce. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

    ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:20:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-yorkshire-pudding/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-yorkshire-pudding/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-yorkshire-pudding/#comments

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    KitchenDailyNot sure what to make of Yorkshire pudding? This English holiday classic is basically a savory baked pancake that works well for sopping up the juices of roasted meat -- particularly roast beef, says chef Katherine Polenz of The Culinary Institute of America. The ratio for the batter is very straightforward: 4 ounces each of eggs, milk, flour, and water, all whisked together. After letting the runny batter rest for 20 minutes, it's poured into a hot cast iron pan along with the fatty juices from the roast to create a meaty, deeply flavored pudding. Once the batter has been poured into the pan, it's baked at 400F for 20-30 minutes. If you like your pudding to have a soft, custard-like texture, you can remove it after 30 minutes. If you prefer it more firm, turn the oven down to 325F and cook it for an additional 20 minutes. When it's done, tear or cut pieces from the pudding and serve alongside your roasted meat.
    
    For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
    
    Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
    

    More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

    • Get expert tips on cooking with beef.
      
    • Need ideas for a fabulous roast to accompany your pudding?
    • National Yorkshire Pudding Day? Find out more
      
      

    
    
    

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    Video Transcript

    Hi, I'm Chef Katherine Polenz from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make Yorkshire pudding.
    
    Yorkshire pudding is something that can be sort of intimidating, I guess. It's a dish that is commonly served at the holiday times. It's an English tradition, and one that usually accompanies a good piece of roasted meat, usually beef. It's actually quite simple in its ingredients. This particular recipe comes to me from a British colleague: four eggs, four ounces of flour, four ounces of milk and four ounces of water. That makes it really easy!
    
    I'm going to turn the pan on. I think in its most traditional sense, Yorkshire pudding is done right in the pan the meat is roasted in. I'm going to use a cast iron skillet. You could use an oven-safe frying pan; that would work as well. The trick is that you're going to take some of the fatty juices from the roast, which is what I have here in this dish, because the fatty juices from the beef are what's really critical in the flavor profile of good Yorkshire pudding. They actually want to come up in heat until there's almost a haze coming off the pan.
    
    While that's happening, I'm going to make my batter. I'll start by putting my four eggs into a dish, and I'll whisk the eggs. At this point I'm going to put a little bit of salt in, because that actually helps with the breaking down of the eggs - not to mention seasoning for the Yorkshire pudding. I'm going to add the milk, four ounces of whole milk, and then the flour. You don't want to add the flour all at one time; you want to work it in in stages. It'll look a little lumpy; that's okay, just keep beating it. It will eventually smooth out some. There should actually be a resting period for this batter, anywhere from five minutes to fifteen or twenty minutes. You could make the batter well ahead of time and have it just sitting on the kitchen counter when it's time for you to do the Yorkshire pudding. Now I'm putting in the four ounces of water, and I'm going to whisk that. Now I have a nice and smooth, but very runny, batter. At this point I'll let this batter rest for about twenty minutes.
    
    The batter's rested for about twenty minutes so I'm going to give it one last whisk, to try to get out any last-minute lumps and bumps. You can see that my pan has gotten quite hot; I've got a little bit of a haze coming up off the pan. I'm going to make sure I have the fat evenly distributed in the pan, and at this point you want the heat very hot. What you're looking for in this preheated fat is that when the batter goes in, it's going to immediately start to bubble, and it starts to actually form the beginning of the Yorkshire pudding. At this point I'm going to put it into a preheated 400-degree oven for about half an hour. If you like your Yorkshire pudding soft and custard-like in the center, remove it from the oven in about thirty minutes. If you like it drier, lower the heat after the first half hour from 400 to about 325, and then continue cooking for about another twenty minutes.
    
    There it is! You're going to tear a piece of the Yorkshire pudding, or cut a piece delicately with your knife and fork, and sop it in the gravy or the juice that you're having with your roast beef. So the next time you're making roast beef for your friends or family, be sure to put some Yorkshire pudding on your menu.
    
    For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

    ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:10:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-hot-chocolate/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-hot-chocolate/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-hot-chocolate/#comments

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    Aimee HerringTo make thick, rich hot chocolate, maitre d' instructor Doug Miller begins by adding 8 ounces of heavy cream to a small saucepan. You can use skim, whole, or even soy milk, but heavy cream will give you a wonderfully silky texture and mouthfeel. Next, he adds 10 ounces of milk and a tablespoon of vanilla extract and brings the mixture to the point right below a boil. (You don't want to boil the milk -- it could scald and bring out off flavors in the milk.) Next up, he adds 8 ounces of chocolate and allows it to sit in the hot milk for about 20 seconds, or until it's soft and melted. Using a handheld blender, he blends the mixture until it's smooth and slightly frothy, then ladles it into a coffee mug.
    
    For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
    
    Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
    

    More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

    • Spice things up with this recipe for hot Mexican cocoa.
    • Find other decadent hot chocolate recipes in our archives.
    • Want your hot chocolate to be over-the-top? Add homemade marshmallows.
    • Find out the scientific reason behind our chocolate cravings on That's Fit.
      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Maitre D' Instructor Doug Miller from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make hot chocolate.
      
      Hot chocolate is a classic winter beverage. I'm going to start by turning on my burner, and add into my pot about eight ounces of heavy cream. If you like, you can use skim milk, whole milk - perhaps even soy milk. Then I'm going to add ten ounces of milk, and about a tablespoon of vanilla extract. I'm going to let that sit on my burner and allow it to come to the point right below a boil. You don't want to boil your milk, because you'll scald it, and bring out some off flavors in the milk.
      
      Now that my milk mixture has reached the proper temperature, just below the point of boiling, I'm going to add about eight ounces of chocolate into the mixture. I'm going to let the chocolate sit in there for about twenty seconds, to the point where the chocolate softens up and melts. Now that the chocolate's softened, I'm going to take my handheld mixer and just incorporate the chocolate into the milk. I'm going to do that for about fifteen to twenty seconds. The other advantage to doing this is that I incorporate a little bit of air into the hot chocolate so it'll not only be rich, it'll have a little airiness or lightness to it.
      
      I'll turn my burner off and ladle this lovely mixture into my coffee mug. This hot chocolate is a little on the thicker side; it's very, very rich. If you like, you could decrease the amount of chocolate or increase the amount of milk. You can add whipped cream to this, you can add marshmallows: it's the perfect beverage on a cold winter day.
      
      For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>beveragechocolatehow-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:05:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-eggnog/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-eggnog/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/12/how-to-make-eggnog/#comments

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      Aimee HerringWhipping up a batch of rich, creamy eggnog is easy if you follow these easy steps from maitre d' instructor Doug Miller of The Culinary Institute of America. He begins by adding 4 egg whites to a large bowl and using a hand blender to whip them just short of soft peak stage, 1 to 2 minutes. He sets them aside, then adds 4 egg yolks, a tablespoon of vanilla, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of allspice and a bit of fresh nutmeg to another bowl along with 1/4 cup of sugar. Using the hand blender again, he mixes them until combined, then pours in 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of milk. (You can use reduced-fat milk if you prefer.) He blends this mixture until the cream and milk are incorporated, then adds the egg whites and gently works them in to give the drink lightness and an airy texture. If you want to add alcohol, you can certainly do so -- bourbon, rum, and whiskey are all good choices.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

      • Find more eggnog recipes in our archives.
      • Get more Christmas recipes and traditions.
      • Try out our homemade eggnog.

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Maitre D' Instructor Doug Miller from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make eggnog.
      
      Traditionally we drink eggnog over the holiday season. The recipe I'm going to show you today, we've been making in my family for well over thirty years. It starts off with egg whites - I have four egg whites already in this bowl. I'm going to use a handheld mixer, and what I'm doing is incorporating air into the egg whites; you want to whip it until it gets almost to the point of soft peaks. This takes approximately one minute to two minutes.
      
      I'm going to set the egg whites aside for the time being, and in my other bowl I'm going to put four egg yolks, and to that I'm going to add a tablespoon of vanilla extract, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of allspice - and then I'm going to grate a little bit of fresh nutmeg. If you don't have fresh nutmeg you can always use nutmeg that's already been ground. I'm also going to add a quarter cup of sugar, and I'm going to mix this with my hand mixer for about thirty seconds. Once that's incorporated, I'm going to add a cup of heavy cream and also a cup of milk. You can use whole milk, 2% or skim milk.
      
      After I've incorporated that, I'm going to add my egg whites into the bowl, and just use a spoon to fold in, or incorporate, the egg whites. The reason I've separated my egg whites is so the eggnog becomes a nice frothy white drink. The whipped egg whites will add a little bit of air into the mixture, and it won't be so dense. If you like, some people prefer to add a little bit of alcohol in their egg nog; you can add bourbon, rum, whiskey, whatever your preference is.
      
      And that's holiday egg nog. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-12T02:00:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-creme-brulee/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-creme-brulee/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-creme-brulee/#comments

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      Aimee HerringMaking creme brulee isn't difficult, says chef Dieter Schorner of The Culinary Institute of America. He begins by heating 2 cups of heavy cream with a pinch of salt in a small heavy saucepan. In a bowl, he adds 1.5 ounces of sugar and whisks that together with 4 egg yolks until combined. He scrapes the seeds from half a vanilla bean and adds it to the cream, stirring until the flavors combine. (You don't want to boil the cream, so keep a close eye on it.) He slowly pours a bit of the cream into the egg yolk mixture (don't go too fast or you'll get scrambled eggs), then strains the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.
      
      Next, he transfers the custard to shallow ramekins set on a baking tray with sides. If you're using a conventional oven to bake them, you'll need to pour hot water halfway up the side of the pan to ensure proper cooking. He gives the following instructions for baking: If you're using a convection oven, set it at 200-225F (you don't need a water bath) and bake for 25-30 minutes. If you're using a conventional oven, set it at 300-325F and bake in a water bath for 30-37 minutes. In either case, turn the pan around 180 degrees about 15 minutes into baking to ensure the custards cook evenly.
      
      Once the custards are finished, let them cool at room temperature, then chill for at least 2 hours before moving on to the brulee step. Once they're chilled, sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the top, making sure it's nice and even. Though you don't want it to be too sweet, don't skimp on the sugar -- if you don't have enough, you'll just burn the skin of the brulee. Using a torch, caramelize the sugar, going over each custard cup twice to achieve the best color. Give the brulees at least 10 minutes to set up, then enjoy.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

      • Get creative with the creme brulee variations in our archives.
      • Learn new tips and techniques for baking and desserts.
      • See our round-up of decadent chocolate desserts.
        
      • Find out the scientific reason behind our chocolate cravings on That's Fit.

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Chef Dieter Schorner from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make crème brûlée.
      
      Crème brûlée is actually very easy to make. It doesn't take a long time, you need about five ingredients, and you can make a beautiful crème brûlée. First you have to heat two cups of heavy cream with a pinch of salt and half your sugar. This is about one and a half ounces of sugar here, and you keep the other half of the sugar for your four egg yolks. While that heats, you stir the egg yolks with the other half of your sugar, quite well, without foaming it up. You have to add half of a vanilla bean, which you scrape, into the heavy cream. The cream doesn't have to boil; it just has to be quite hot. Once your cream is hot, you temper your egg yolks with the hot cream, without stirring too much, so you don't make much foam. Then you need to strain the liquid, because you have the seeds of the vanilla bean here, some of which actually goes through but we have some of the residue left from when you scraped out the vanilla bean. Then you pour the mixture into your molds, which I have arranged all on a baking sheet. I fill the molds up about ninety percent so I can still carry them to the oven.
      
      Now, the trick is in the baking. If you have a convection oven, you bake at between 200 and 225 degrees Fahrenheit, and you don't need any water bath. But if you have a conventional oven, you need to add water in your sheet tray, half full, and you bake at 300 to 325. Baking time in a convection oven is 25 to 30 minutes; in a conventional oven, five to seven minutes longer.
      
      One of the most important things when you make crème brûlée is this: please, use shallow molds! Don't use the mixture to fill up deep molds; it has to cook very slowly and it has to be in a shallow mold. Now you add water here, in the base of pan your molds are resting on: warm water, and it just has to be half full, so it's easy for you to carry to the oven to bake. You see how shallow the water is: it doesn't need more than that. Then to put this in the oven, open the oven door first and move the tray in. The best thing is to put it on the bottom shelf. Put it in carefully, so you don't spill the crème brûlée, and leave it in for ten to fifteen minutes before you give the tray a turn.
      
      Now the baking time is complete and I've taken out the crème brûlée. Do not take the molds out of the hot water; you'll get burned. Leave it in the hot water until it's cold. Never caramelize the crème brûlée when it comes out of the oven! It would just cook like pastry cream. You have to cool it down for at least two to three hours in the refrigerator.
      
      After cooling, I sprinkle some sugar on the top like that. I make it nice and even all over the top of the crème brûlée. Don't add too much sugar, or it will taste too sweet, but you have to cover the top with sugar. If you do not have enough sugar, it just burns the skin of the crème brûlée. The best thing to use is a torch. You just turn it on and the best thing is to do it two times: you do the top, stop and do the next one, then go back again and it becomes a much nicer color. See, I go back again to finish this one. Now we have a beautiful caramel on the top. Don't eat it right now! It's very hot, and it's not caramelized, It has to be completely cold and then it has a beautiful crunchiness. After ten or fifteen minutes you are able to enjoy your crème brûlée.
      
      For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>desserthow-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-11T02:15:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-vegetable-stock/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-vegetable-stock/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-make-vegetable-stock/#comments

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      Aimee HerringTo make your own flavorful vegetable stock, you need to start with a variety of vegetables and aromatics, says chef Robert Mullooly of The Culinary Institute of America. He peels an onion and a carrot, then roughly chops them and adds them to a stockpot. Next, he roughly chops fennel and celery and adds those, too. He smashes two cloves of garlic and adds them to the pot along with 3-4 peppercorns, parsley stems, and bay leaves. He pours in a gallon of water and an ounce of salt, then brings the liquid to a rolling boil. Once the stock is boiling, he reduces the heat and simmers the stock for 25 minutes, then strains it, and presto -- it's ready to use.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily:

      • Learn how to make homemade chicken stock.
      • Try your hand at making soup without a recipe with Michael Ruhlman's simple ratio method.
      • Get Lauren Costello's Summer Corn Chowder recipe.

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Chef Rob Mullooly from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to make a vegetable stock.
      
      Te first thing we want to do is prepare our vegetables. I have a variety: we've got some onion, we've got some celery, a carrot, some nice garlic, some fennel, bay leaves, and some black peppercorns and parsley stems. All these are going to give us a good, well-balanced vegetable stock.
      
      So you're preparing the vegetables: peel the carrot, peel the onion, peel the garlic. The first thing we want to do is cut into our onion. We've got a nice onion here: go ahead and cut it in half, then cut some good medium-sized pieces. Then your celery: again, about the same size pieces. Rustic cuts! They don't have to be beautiful, we're just using them for the flavor. A little carrot: this is pretty standard right here, you take the core off the carrot, the root, and then slice this into medium-sized pieces. The vegetable stock is only going to cook for about twenty-five minutes and then we're going to strain it through. Chop the fennel, too, and then what I like to do with the garlic is just smash the bulb: with the side of your knife, just give a little pressure here, because you want to be able to extract the liquid; you don't want to just add whole cloves of garlic to it.
      
      I'm going to add my vegetables right to my pot, and I want to add my aromatics: two bay leaves, three or four peppercorns - don't go too heavy on the peppercorns - and we've got some nice parsley stems here as well. They all go right inside the pot, and then we start with cold water: we're using one gallon of cold water for these vegetables, and then one ounce of salt. You want to add a little salt to help bring out the flavor a little bit. This all gets started nice and cold, and then we go ahead and turn the heat on.
      
      We've brought this up to a rolling boil, and we want to let it come down to a simmer, and simmer it for twenty-five minutes. Then we're going to strain it, and cool it. I can turn my heat off at this point and strain right through a strainer - to catch all the vegetables - into my bowl. We're looking for a neutral flavor in the vegetable stock, and also a neutral color. It smells fantastic! And there's your vegetable stock.
      
      For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-11T02:10:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-cut-up-a-cooked-chicken/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-cut-up-a-cooked-chicken/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-cut-up-a-cooked-chicken/#comments

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      Aimee HerringEveryone loves roasted chicken, but portioning the bird can be intimidating. Chef Bruce Mattel of The Culinary Institute of America demonstrates that it doesn't have to be difficult. He uses a boning knife -- a thin knife with a bit of flexibility -- and starts by cutting off both wings from the carcass. Next, he moves on to the leg quarters. There's a thin piece of skin that connects the drumstick and the breast, and once you slice through it, you can pull the leg and thigh away from the breast with your hand as you slice downward with the knife. Once you see the socket that connects the leg to the body of the chicken, bend it back until you feel the leg quarter release, then cut away any skin remaining and place the leg quarter on the plate. (You can separate the thigh from the leg at this point if you prefer.) Repeat this process with the remaining leg quarter.
      
      Next up? The breast. There's a keel bone that separates the two breast halves. Run your knife down along one edge of this bone, then up and around the wishbone, and the breast half will come off in one piece. Do the same on the other side, and you've got a beautifully portioned roasted chicken.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

      • Ready to roast your own chicken? Get recipes and watch videos on how to make Country Herb Roast Chicken and Whole Roasted Chicken with Tomato-Basil Butter.
      • Get more chicken recipes.
      • Learn more about how to cook chicken.
      • How 'natural' is your chicken?

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Chef Bruce Mattel from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to cut a whole cooked chicken.
      
      Whether you roast chickens at home, or you bring them back cooked from the rotisserie section of the supermarket or grocery store, they're pretty easy to cut up. Let me show you how to do that. I'm going to use a cutting board and a boning knife to do this; I have a little flexibility with this knife that allows me to get into the crevices and cracks of the chicken.
      
      I'm going to hold by one wing portion and just make a small cut, and release that wing and place it on a plate. I'll do the same thing on the other side and remove that wing, and place it there.
      
      Now I'm going to separate the leg quarters from the rest of the carcass. There's a thin piece of skin that runs between the drumstick and the breast here. I'm going to place a little cut in there, and that will allow me to see the separation of the chicken breast and the leg quarter. I'm going to keep using my knife, pulling the chicken apart with my hands and using the tip of my knife to cut that and to separate it. Once I have cut to where I can see the thigh socket, I'm going to stop, place down my knife and just - using my hands - bend the chicken leg back until I release the little bone from the socket. Then I'm going to take my knife again and, slicing as close to the bone as possible, separate that leg from the rest of the carcass. I'll place that down and do the same exact thing to the other side: slice through that thin skin, pull the leg back to expose the bone socket, then take my hand and bend it back, and use the knife to release that leg from the carcass.
      
      There is a keelbone right here in between the two breast halves. I want to feel where that bone is, and I take my knife and run right down that. Now back here is the wishbone, so I'm going to slice down right along there to score it, and remove the breast that way. I'll turn the chicken around to make it a little easier now - and as I pull the meat apart I'm going to use my knife to release it. Now, there is the second part of the wingbone here: I want to find that socket and pull back a little bit, then use my knife and cut right down. Here I have one half of the breast. I'm going to do the same thing on the other side: take my knife, run it back, slice around that wishbone, take my fingers, pull back and find that wingbone socket, and cut right through that. What's left is a fairly clean carcass. If you wanted to make soup with that, or clean off that excess meat and use it in another dish, you could feel free to do so.
      
      Then what I like to do is leave my breast whole like this. With the leg quarters you can either leave them whole with the leg and thigh attached, or you can just cut them in two pieces. Right between the thigh and the leg is a little piece of fat; you identify that, and just slide your knife right through, and it separates them into two pieces.
      
      Here you have it: one nicely portioned, roasted chicken. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-11T02:05:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-fry-a-chicken-cutlet/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-fry-a-chicken-cutlet/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/11/how-to-fry-a-chicken-cutlet/#comments

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      Aimee HerringOnce you've got your chicken breast pounded out and breaded, it's a snap to cook, says chef Robert Mullooly of The Culinary Institute of America. He preheats a pan at medium heat, then adds enough corn oil to come 1/4 of an inch up the side of the pan. He lets the oil heat up, then drops in a breadcrumb to ensure the oil is hot enough. Since it sizzles and bubbles, he knows the oil is ready (you don't want to put the chicken in before the oil is hot, or it won't brown properly). He places the cutlet carefully in the pan, then allows it to brown. He doesn't shake the pan or fuss with the cutlet, just lets the oil do its work. It generally takes 1 1/2 - 2 minutes per side for the chicken to cook through and take on the golden color you're looking for. When the chicken is done, move it to a plate and blot with paper towels.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily and AOL:

      • Get inspiring recipes for chicken cutlets from our archives.
      • Love chicken? Find more recipes for poultry.
      • Learn the fundamentals of cooking with chicken.
      • Four steps to chicken perfection.

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Chef Rob Mullooly from the Culinary Institute of America, and today I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to fry a chicken cutlet.
      
      To begin, preheat your pan, and you want to get probably a low or medium heat; this way you pour the fat in, and the fat gets hot right away. We're going to use corn oil today, a neutral-flavored oil that can withstand the heat. A general rule, when you're pan-frying a cutlet, is that you want to make sure you have enough oil to cover the bottom of your pan, and probably about a quarter of an inch up - so you want a generous amount of oil.
      
      Waving my hand above the pan of oil I can feel the heat, and really this is kind of how we check for it. If you put the cutlet in too early, your breading's going to fall off; it'll stay inside the oil. If it's too hot you're going to brown right away, and you won't be able to cook the cutlet. Another little trick you can do is to take a bit of breadcrumb off your cutlet and put it inside the oil: I see movement around the breadcrumb, and that's a sure sign that I'm ready to go. What I wouldn't want to do - and it's a common mistake - is put a couple of drops of water inside the oil. Once you've got water inside your oil, you're going to get splattering all over the place and it becomes a dangerous situation. For testing, stick with the breadcrumb.
      
      Shake off the excess breadcrumb from the cutlet, and you want to gently lay it into this hot oil, again so you don't get splattering. I see bubbles right away: good. A common thing people want to do when they're cooking is they want to move it, shake it - you know, just let the pan do its thing. Let the cutlet brown evenly on one side, and you're looking for indicators that it is browning. I can see some brown around the outside edge, so I'm going to use my tongs to take a look and see where we are, as far as brownness goes. I'm getting a little brown here, but I think I can get a little more. A little later, look at that: beautiful color here, golden brown, I've got good crispy edges here, golden in the center - and I"m looking to do exactly the same thing to the other side.
      
      You should serve it right away at this point - or you can hold it and then reheat it, but there's nothing better than a pan-fried cutlet right out of the oil. We can take it out at this point, and put it on a paper towel to let it absorb some of that fat. A general rule on a cutlet, you're looking at probably a minute and a half to two minutes per side.
      
      So here's a beautiful fried chicken cutlet. For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-11T02:04:00Zhttp://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/10/how-to-cut-strip-loin-steaks/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/10/how-to-cut-strip-loin-steaks/http://main.kitchendaily.com/2010/11/10/how-to-cut-strip-loin-steaks/#comments

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      Aimee HerringMost of us buy steaks pre-portioned at the grocery store or butcher shop, but as chef Mark Elia of The Culinary Institute of America demonstrates, it's not hard to cut them yourself -- and it saves you significant cash. Chef Elia starts with a beef strip loin, which is a very common restaurant cut that you can buy in any supermarket. Cutting and trimming your own steaks from this cut will save you anywhere from $3 to $5 a pound. To begin, he marks his first steak by slicing lightly on the fat cap (you want to portion the steaks first, then trim the fat). He follows his mark with a large slicing knife, cutting down nice and straight. (The nice thing about cutting your own steaks is that you can make them as thick or thin as you like.) Once he's cut all of the steaks, he uses a boning knife to remove all but 1/4 to 1/8 inch of fat from the steaks, also removing the collagen band on the end portion of the steak. Now your steaks are ready for the grill.
      
      For 60 years, The Culinary Institute of America has been setting the standard for excellence in professional culinary education. In this video series, experienced chefs and educators show you how to tackle essential cooking techniques.
      
      Read more about The Culinary Institute of America.
      

      More on KitchenDaily:

      • Can't get enough steak?
      • Get more beef recipes from our archives.
      • Learn more about cooking with beef.
      • Wine-fed Okanagan: The next great beef?

      
      
      

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      Video Transcript

      Hi, I'm Chef Mark Elia from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to properly cut and portion boneless strip loin steaks.
      
      The cut of meat we've chosen today is a beef strip loin. This is a very common restaurant cut, easily purchased at any grocery store or any butcher market. To cut these steaks yourself is a tremendous savings. You'll save anywhere from three to five dollars a pound by just learning how to buy this whole piece of meat and then cut it into individual steaks.
      
      We're not going to worry about taking the fat cover off the top just yet. We're going to slice our steaks first, and then we'll trim the fat and gristle off at that point. We're going to use a standard ten- to twelve-inch slicing knife, and we'll start by measuring off the width. If you haven't done this before, you might just want to make a little bit of a mark on the top so you can follow a line, nice and straight. We don't want any wedges or door-stoppers! We want a nice, even slice of steak. Once you've made your initial slice to see where you want to go, just come down over the top of your steak nice and straight, just a few back-and-forth motions to lay the steak open. There's one, and we're going to slice a couple more - again, making sure to cut straight through. If you're doing this yourself you can do any size steak you want. You're not fixed on buying what the store's cut for you already; you can make them thick, or make them thin.
      
      Now to properly trim the strip loin steak, we lay it flat and then we would switch knives and more than likely use a smaller knife, a six-inch boning knife or an eight-inch fillet knife. You want to look at the fat cover, and remove all but about a quarter to an eighth of an inch of the fat on the top. It's just a matter of pointing your knife straight down and sliding your knife right through to remove the fat. On the front of the strip loin, you have a heavy collagen band. This is not something you want to leave on the steak for cooking. You would just take your knife at about a forty-five degree angle, and just cut that piece right off. It's not something you want to put on your plate. If you like to have a little fat on the tail for grilling, you leave it on. Some people like to take it off; just put your knife in there and wedge it off. There we have our boneless strip loin steak, and we'll lay it out flat.
      
      We'll trim another one: we're leaving about a quarter to an eighth of an inch of fat on top just by slicing right through that fat. This little piece of collagen band here must come off. You cannot leave it on there: it's very distasteful and very tough. We'll slice that off at a forty-five degree angle and take a little fat off the tail - and there you have a portion-cut, boneless strip loin steak.
      
      For more great tips, log on to kitchendaily.com!

      ]]>how-tomn-kitchen-basicsThe Culinary Institute of America2010-11-10T02:03:00Z