Week Four: Methods of Cookery

Fish (Whitting) and Chips with Green Garden Salad and Tartar Sauce

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Cooking is classified into two categories: wet and dry cooking methods that are used on a daily basis in our kitchens at homes without being given much thought.

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Stir Fried Vegetables in Oyster Sauce

Frying (sautéing, pan frying, shallow frying + deep frying) are commonly used as well as boiling and simmering, while poaching (shallow + total immersion) and steaming (pressure + atmospheric) are healthier options that aren’t as common as the former options. All of these are wet methods of cooking that are used to turn out favourites like fish and chips, stir fry’s to steamed puddings.

Vanilla-Sultana Steamed Pudding

The oven is very much an invention of the west, and its usage as I have recently learned continues to be predominantly restricted to America, Europe and Australia. While the majority of Indian city homes are fitted out with ovens, they are usually only used to bake cakes and very rarely employed in the preparation of roasts or braises. In China, the oven is almost non-existent since their do not have much of a cake-eating culture to begin with and their cuisine calls for no requirement of an oven in any way, shape or form.

Above Chef Jimmys Beef with Turned Potatoes, Baby Carrots, Demi-Glace with Fried Shredded Leeks. Below, my version - a long way to go

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Trussed and Roasted Chicken... Before and After Shot

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Personally I love using the oven, particularly because everything that goes in either comes out tender, soft and scrumptious, or crispy, crunchy and caramelised – both flavour and texture combinations to-die-for. Baking and roasting are considered dry methods of cooking. Last week I did a beautiful slow braised leg of hogget – it was cooked for five hours at about 160 degrees C, and was infused with Moroccan flavours – black Genoa figs and homemade preserved lemons. This is my favourite way to spend my Sunday, getting laundry and household chores in the day while keeping a watchful eye on my oven. In the end – falling off the bone, tender meat as a reward for all the slow cooking and infinite patience. A handsome reward I reckon!

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Pork Piccante with Pasta Milanese

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Crumbed Chicken Breast on Rosti Potato, Corriander-Tomato Salsa & Lemon Vinegrette

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In commercial kitchens, majority of dishes are prepared or rather “started” on the stove top and “finished” in the oven, to allow for multi-tasking, effective time-management and a quality finished product. Steaks, snitzels and crumbed fillets are more often than not prepared this way.

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Poached Kingfish on Bok Choy with Hollandaise Sauce

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This week I learned what will perhaps prove to be one of the most important lessons for life – how to truss meat – an entire chicken and beef sirloin of fillet mignon. And with my super sharp Victorinox knives and carving fork, slicing the meat away in beautiful slices is beyond easy!

Counter to all the Francophile kitchen creations, Chef Jimmy whipped up a batch of finger-licking sweet-sour Chinese style Pork that had our class buzzing, and before I could say “delicious” the week was over!

Enjoying Sweet-Sour Chinese Style Pork