Cooking, American Style
Class 1
American Cuisine
International Center
at Catholic Charities Community Services
May 2013
Instructor: Virginia Guilford
Cooking, American Style
• Class 1 – American Cuisine
• Class 2 – Navigating the
Supermarket
• Class 3 – Recipe & Shopping
Reports
Cooking, American Style
Class 1
• Is there an American Cuisine?
• Recipes for American Classics
– Small-Batch Microwave Strawberry Jam
– Corn on the Cob / Barefoot Contessa Corn
Salad
– Good & Plenty Macaroni & Cheese
– Steaks with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce
– Aunt Betty Bob’s Brownies
• Your Assignment
Is There an American Cuisine?
• Is American cuisine simply a mix of food
from other countries?
• Are there any uniquely American dishes?
• Is there a uniquely American style of
cooking and eating?
Types of American Restaurants
• New American Cuisine
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Union Square Cafe
Gotham Bar & Grill
Mercer Kitchen Restaurant
Cookshop
• American Comfort Food
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Sarabeth’s Bakery
Shake Shack
Clarke’s Standard
Smith & Wolensky
Bobby Van’s
Little Pie Company
• Regional Specialties
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Southern/BBQ
New Orleans
California
New England
• Fast Food
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Burgers
French Fries
Chicken & Waffles
Onion Rings
Chili
Recipes
•
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Small Batch Microwave Strawberry Jam
Corn on the Cob / Barefoot Contessa Corn Salad
Good & Plenty Macaroni & Cheese
Steaks with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce
Aunt Betty Bob’s Brownies
• Choose a partner. Read each recipe, and decide
what kitchen equipment is required to make it.
Basic Kitchen Equipment
•
•
1.5-quart & 4-quart saucepans with
covers
Stainless steel sauté pan
•
2-quart baking dish
•
•
•
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Measuring cups & spoons
•
Whisk
•
Silicone spatula
•
Spatula
•
Tongs
•
Chef’s knife
•
Paring knife
•
Instant-read thermometer
•
Grater
Cast-iron skillet
•
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Microwave safe bowls & plates
Cookie sheet
Baking pan
Microwave
Kitchen Range with Oven
Small Batch Microwave
Strawberry Jam
• It is fun to make your own jam. It is easy to do!
• Don’t try to double this recipe – it only works for
making a small batch of jam. If you want to make
more jam, you should use traditional methods of
stove-top cooking.
• Serve your jam on buttered toast, on muffins,
scones, or popovers or over vanilla ice cream.
Small Batch Microwave
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
•
•
Stir the strawberries and sugar
together into a microwave-safe
bowl. The bowl should be a lot
bigger than the fruit so that there will
be plenty of room for the jam to
expand as it cooks.
•
Microwave at high. Stop every 5-10
minutes to stir the fruit and scrape
down the sides. Continue
microwaving the fruit, until the jam
has thickened. This will probably
take about 30-35 minutes.
•
This recipe makes about 1 cup of
jam.
•
Jam will keep for a few weeks in the
refrigerator. To keep longer, store in
the freezer.
•
•
2 cups strawberries, hulls removed,
and cut into quarters
1 cup sugar
This recipe can also be used with
other fruits - like plums or apricots
(remove the pits, and cut into chunks)
or peaches (peel, remove pits, and
cut up) and you can also make jam
with combinations of fruit - like
strawberry & rhubarb or apricot
pineapple (use 1 1/2 cups apricots
and 1/2 cup canned crushed
pineapple) or raspberry peach, or
blackberry raspberry.
Ingredients & Techniques
• Hulling strawberries
• Cutting Up Peaches, Apricots, Plums
Corn on the Cob
Barefoot Contessa Corn Salad
• Corn on the cob is a classic American side dish.
• The recipe for Barefoot Contessa Corn Salad is
from Ina Garten, who is a chef and caterer who
works on Long Island. Her cooking show, The
Barefoot Contessa, is on the Food Network. She
is a very good cook who uses fresh and local
ingredients. This is a good salad to serve with
grilled steak or fish, and it is also a good dish to
bring to a potluck dinner.
Corn on the Cob
Ingredients
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 5 ears of corn, husks
removed, and silk pulled
off
• 2 Tablespoons of butter
for each ear of corn
• Salt, to taste
Directions
• Bring a large pot of water
to the boil, add the salt
and the ears of corn.
• When the water with the
corn in it returns to the
boil again, cover the pot,
turn the heat to low, and
let the corn steam for 5
minutes.
• Remove the corn from
the water, and put the
corn on a large platter
and serve with butter & a
sprinkle of salt.
Barefoot Contessa Corn Salad
Ingredients
• 5 ears of corn, cooked &
cooled
• ½ cup diced red onion
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves
Directions
• Cut the corn kernels off the
cob. (Stand the corn on its end
in a large bowl, and slice down
with a knife, cutting close to
the cob. The corn kernels will
fall off into the bowl.)
• Toss the kernels together with
the diced red onions, vinegar,
olive oil, salt, and pepper.
• Just before serving, slice the
fresh basil leaves into thin
strips, and toss into the salad.
Taste for seasonings and
serve cold or at room
temperature
Selecting the Best Corn
Buy corn when it is ‘in season’ and fresh –
July and August
• Buy corn with the husks on. Choose corn
that has green, fresh-looking husks and
golden brown corn silk
• Buy corn that is heavy
Ingredients - Corn Varieties
• Kinds of Corn
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Field Corn
Blue Corn
Popping Corn
Sweet Corn
• Some Types of Sweet Corn
– Yellow Sweet Corn – ‘Early Golden Bantam’, ‘Incredible’
– White Sweet Corn – ‘Silver Queen’, ‘Argent’
– Variegated Sweet Corn – ‘Butter & Sugar’, ‘Honey &
Cream’
Techniques - Preparing Corn
• Shucking corn –
– removing the corn husks
• Cutting corn kernels off the cob
Techniques - Dicing & Slicing
• Diced – cut into small squares
• Julienned / Thinly Sliced - cut into thin strips.
Ingredients - Vinegar
• Types of Vinegar –
– cider vinegar – sweeter, milder vinegar, made
from apple cider
– white vinegar – standard vinegar
– red wine vinegar – used for salad dressings
– Balsamic vinegar – rich, slightly sweet, made
from fermented grape pressings
– rice vinegar – mild, less acidic
Good & Plenty Macaroni & Cheese
• Macaroni and cheese is a classic, home-style dish.
Children love it, and so do adults. Many people say that
it is the ultimate comfort food. Cheese-y and rich, with a
brown crust, it can be served as a main dish (maybe with
sautéed spinach and a sliced-tomato salad on the side)
or as a side dish in a larger dinner. It is a popular sidedish to serve with baked ham or barbecued spareribs.
• Any leftovers can be frozen in single-serving ziplock
bags or freezer containers, and reheated in the oven or
microwave.
• This recipe is from a famous little take-out place called
Good and Plenty To Go, which is now closed. So if you
want the famous Good & Plenty Macaroni & Cheese,
you will have to make it yourself!
Good & Plenty Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
•
1 lb elbow macaroni,
cooked
•
2 cups heavy cream
•
2 cups milk
•
8 Tablespoons butter (1
stick)
•
6 Tablespoons flour
•
2 cups yellow cheddar
cheese, shredded (about
8 oz of cheese)
•
2 cups Muenster cheese,
shredded (about 8 oz of
cheese)
Directions
•
Preheat oven 350 degrees.
•
To cook the macaroni: Bring a large pot of water to a
full, rolling boil. Add the macaroni, stir once or twice.
Cook 9 minutes until the macaroni is tender. Place a
colander in the sink, and pour the macaroni and water
into it. Allow the water to drain away.
•
To make the white sauce: Heat milk and cream in a
saucepan until it is warm; set aside. Melt butter in
another sauce pan; whisk in flour. Let the butter and
flour cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly with the
whisk. Remove from heat and add the warm milk &
cream. Stir together.
•
To make the cheese sauce: Shred the cheese using the
large holes on a shredder. Add most of the shredded
cheeses to the warm white sauce. Stir to melt the
cheese. Set aside a handful of the shredded cheese
(about ½ cup) to put on top.
•
Put the cooked macaroni in a large 2-quart buttered dish
or pan. (It is good if the pan is not too deep – you want
to have plenty of golden brown crust. You can use 2
pans if you don’t have a pan that is the right size.) Stir
cheese sauce into macaroni. Top with the reserved
shredded cheese.
•
Bake at 350⁰ until brown and bubbly on top – about 2530 minutes
Making a Roux or White Sauce
•
•
Roux = Butter and flour cooked
together is called a roux. The roux
is added to a sauce to thicken it
and give it a rich flavor.
A roux can be light in color, if it is
only cooked for a few minutes, or
it can be darker, if it is cooked
longer.
– A light roux is the basis for a
white sauce.
– A darker roux is the basis for
the sauce for many French
dishes, including Cajun
French Jambalaya.
•
White Sauce = White sauce is a
sauce made by cooking together
flour and butter into a roux and
adding warm milk. The sauce can
then be flavored with cheese or
other flavorings.
Ingredients – Milk & Cream
Milk and Cream = There are many different kinds of milk and cream
products. They are sold in gallon, 2-quart, 1-quart, pint, and half-pint
containers. Basically they differ in the amount of butter fat they contain.
• Heavy Cream = 36%
butterfat
• Whipping Cream =
30% – 36% butterfat
• Half and Half =
10.5% – 18%
butterfat
• Whole Milk = 3.25%
butterfat
• 2% Milk or Reduced
Fat Milk =
approximately 2%
butterfat
• Skim Milk = 0% 0.5% butterfat
Ingredients – Types of Milk
• Organic Milk &
Cream
• Ultra-pasteurized
Milk & Cream
• Cow/Goat/Sheep
Milk
• Soy/Rice/Almond
Milk
Ingredients – Small Pasta
Macaroni is a kind of small pasta used in casseroles
• Elbows
• Radiatori
• Ditalini
• Farfalle or Bowties
Steaks with Mushroom Red Wine
Sauce
True American-style steaks are grilled on
a barbecue grill. But you can also make a
good steak with a nice red-wine sauce on
the stove top.
Steaks with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce
Ingredients
•
4 filet mignon steaks
•
Olive oil
•
Balsamic vinegar
•
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Blackened
Steak Magic or other seasoning blend
•
4 Tablespoons of butter
•
8 mushrooms, sliced. Use the brown
Baby Bella mushrooms, if possible
•
1 cup red wine (a Cabernet, such as J
Lohr Cabernet Sauvenoign is good)
Directions
• Pat meat dry with paper towels. Put in a
shallow dish or plate and sprinkle olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, and seasoning on the
meat.
• Heat the frying pan over high heat. Add a
splash of olive oil and swirl around so that
the bottom of the frying pan is lightly covered
with oil. Add the steaks.
• Cook on the first side for about 5 minutes, or
until the steak has a dark brown crust. Then
turn the steak over, and cook for about 5
minutes on the other side. Test for doneness
with a meat thermometer (meat should be at
120 for medium rare), Remove the steaks
from the pan, and place on a platter.
• Add the butter to the pan (do not clean the
pan), and swirl until it is melted. Add the
mushrooms, and cook, stirring all the time,
until the mushrooms are dark and cooked
through – about 2 minutes. Then add the red
wine, and cook over high heat until the wine
and mushrooms and the pan drippings are
reduced to a thick, syrup-y sauce. Pour the
sauce over the steaks and serve.
Types of Steak
• Filet Mignon - leanest, most tender. From the tenderloin
• Boneless Strip Steak or New York Strip Steak - marbled
and tender with abundant flavor
• T-Bone & Porterhouse – combines the filet mignon &
strip steak together, with the t-shaped bone that
separates them.
• Ribeye – juicy and flavorful; cut from the rib
• Sirloin – less tender, but with a bold flavor.
• Flank steak – cooked medium rare, and sliced in thin
crosswise slices for London Broil
Testing Steak for Doneness
Doneness –
• Rare
• Medium Rare
• Medium
• Medium Well
• Well
There are several ways to test for steak doneness
– Cut into the meat with a knife (the meat should be pink for medium
rare),
– Test with a meat thermometer (120 for medium rare), or
– Touch the meat with your finger – the meat should feel like your ear
lobe for rare, like your cheek for Medium-rare, and like the tip of your
nose for Well-done
Aunt Betty Bob's Brownies
• These are my favorite brownies. They are
very easy to make.
• If you don't have a baking pan of the right
size, you can just use a flat cookie sheet
and create a pan by folding up a piece of
heavy aluminum foil into a pan shape create sides that are about 1.5" high.
Aunt Betty Bob’s Brownies
Ingredients
• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons unsweetened
cocoa powder (Ghirardelli is a
good brand)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup flour plus 1 teaspoon for
the pan
• 1½ cups pecans, roughly
chopped or whole
• PAM oil spray
Directions
• Preheat oven 350 degrees.
Prepare the pan by spraying it
with PAM and then shaking the
teaspoon of flour around the pan
to spread the flour all over the
bottom & sides.
• Melt butter in saucepan. Add
sugar, cocoa powder & vanilla to
the melted butter and whisk
together. Let this mixture cool for
5 minutes. Stir in eggs & flour and
mix with a whisk until blended. Stir
in pecans, and scrape the batter
into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 25 minutes at 350
degrees. Cool for 30 minutes. Cut
into squares.
Techniques - Prepare the Baking Pan
• To grease & flour the baking pan for cakes
and brownies:
Spray with PAM
Add flour & shake
Your Assignment
• Either:
– Cook one of these American recipes
• Or:
– Eat an American food at a restaurant
• Report on your experience in Class 3
– What Recipe did you prepare?
– What Restaurant did you visit?
– Did you like what you cooked or ordered?