Definition: Bake

Baking is a form of cooking that involves dry heat, usually in some form of contained area such as an oven. Baking is one of the most popular forms of making desserts in western styles of cooking. These types of desserts include cakes, cookies, and such. Bread is another popular baked item.

Julie and Julia

I love food as much as I love cooking! I think cooking is one of the best therapy when you are alone, bored or to just want to get away from every day life. I love French food and I do have quite a few French cookbooks that I have collected over the years but unfortunately are not being used as much as it should have. One of my favorite collections are Le Cordon Blue cookbooks. I have the Le Cordon Blue At Home, Le Cordon Blue Complete Cooking Technique and Le Cordon Blue Dessert Technique.
Being a mom with two kids my life has totally been busy to the point I don't have much time to really cook a gourmet meal or doing any other craft stuff. But after watching Julie & Julia (the movie) I feel inspired by Julie Powell who is nothing more but a regular person just like you and me who has an uninspired job and wanted to do more in her life. And so she has this crazy idea to to cook every single recipe off from Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" cookbook (which contains 524 recipes by the way)in 365 days. The result? She did it!
I love the movie and I am going to buy her book, "Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. After watching that movie I went out and buy Julia Child's Volume One Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. This is going to be exciting and challenging for me at the same time being there are two toddlers in my house who love to play with my pots and pans in the kitchen. Not that I want to be like Julie cooking all the recipes off from the book, however, I am attempting to cook most of the French dishes that my family will eat. :) I will also try some of the French dishes from other French cookbook collections as well.
Bon Appetit!

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Boeuf Bourguignon

I have decided to make 'Bouef Bourguignon' last night since this one of the famous beef dish in France. I have never eaten boeuf bourguignon before and it seems to be super delicious when I saw it on Julie & Julia movie. So, I have decided to give it a try since I have 2.1 lb of stew meat.
Well, little I have known of that it takes a lot of time to prepare and cook boeuf bourguignon. It took me about 3 hours in total to prepare and cook. Of course I follow Julia Child's recipe which takes a lot longer on the preparation side but the outcome is superb. I wouldn't say this is my favorite French dish but definitely a pretty good stew. However, I have screwed up on one of the preparation (instead of sauteing the bacon only, i sauteed both bacon and the rind) but it turns out well. Also, I didn't realize it needs pearl onion (small white onions) at the end of the preparation and I don't have any. So, I substitute more yellow onions (it won't taste as great as the white onions but still pretty good) and brown braised it. Instead of using a fireproof casserole dish (I don't have any), I used a big pot. The taste is probably a little off since it's not cooked from a dutch oven. Well, I will never know till I get myself a dutch oven and cook it with or go to a French restaurant and try the boeuf bourguignon.

I guess I should invest myself a dutch oven- Lodge or Le Creuset?

Poulet Roti (Roast Chicken)

OK...so my husband went out to the grocery store last night and came back with a whole frying chicken. It is not any other normal chicken but an Amish country chicken that does not contain any antibiotic or hormone added, aka organic chicken.
He wanted roast chicken for dinner and I figured maybe it's time to start with one of Julia Child's poultry recipe. And so it begins... I salt the inside of the chicken along with butter and I rub the chicken skin with more butter. I cut some carrots and some onions and I spread the vegetables around the bird (to flavor the sauce). And then I stick the bird into the oven. However, sad to say, I did not truss the chicken like the recipe called for. Not that I don't want to but I don't any white strings or needle. Ok.. How many people out there actually truss the chicken? To be honest I have never trussed a chicken before except turkey that already came with a metal to fasten the drumsticks.
Nevertheless, 1 hr and 20 mins later (after much basting the bird while it's cooking), Voila, I have Poulet Roti! I have to say it is one of the best roast chicken I've ever eaten especially eating an organic chicken flavored with butter. The chicken is moist and tender and it's amazing! With the chicken gravy that are made out of stock and the juices in the pan enhanced even more flavor to the meat. Wonderful!! As for the accompaniments, I cooked some rice flavored with butter and some steamed broccoli.
I must agree with Julie Powell that there is no such thing as too much butter in French cuisine. Butter is your best friend when it comes to cooking!
I rate this roast chicken 10 out of 10!

Baking, Baking, Baking!

Aaahh....bread. Who doesn't love bread? Bread is one of the best staple food out there next to rice. :) (well, I am Asian and coming from that background rice is our main staple food) I love all kinds of bread. Any bread fresh and soft from the oven such as rye, cinnamon, white, brown, wheat, sourdough, brioche are the best!
I made Rye Swirl Bread last winter from scratch. It is basically made out of rye flour and unbleached white flour. Do you know that Rye flour has a lower gluten content compare to wheat flour and it also contains higher soluble fiber than wheat flour?

Since I don't have a bread machine it definitely takes a little more time and energy to made the dough.

Nevertheless, the bread turned out great!

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Dictionary of Equipment

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Dictionary of Cooking Terms

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B
Bake
Baste
Boil
Braise
Broil

C
Chop
Cook

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Dish




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Skim
Skin
Souffle


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