Cook Like a Rock Star (5 page)
Read Cook Like a Rock Star Online
Authors: Anne Burrell
HORSERADISH
TUNA FISH
KETCHUP
MAYONNAISE
SOY SAUCE
SAMBAL OELEK
(Vietnamese chili sauce)
SRIRACHA
(Asian hot sauce)
A FEW WORDS ON FANCY WORDS
Like I said, I’m not big on fussy language, but there are a few terms and Anne-isms that will help you follow my recipes.
BIG FAT FINISHING OIL
This is your big-money extra virgin olive oil, the good stuff. Heat changes the flavor of olive oil, so this is the oil you want to use when you’re after a pristine, green, olive-y flavor to drizzle on pasta, salads, soups, or anything really, just before serving. There are tons of different kinds of olive oil, so experiment with them. You may want to have different big fat finishing oils for different purposes—play around and decide which ones you like best.
BIG MEAT
Any big hunk of meat, usually red meat or game.
BRAISE
A technique for cooking tough cuts of meat low and slow in liquid.
BROWN FOOD
What you get when you take the time to sear meat really well and establish big brown flavor and color.
BTB, RTS
Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. To reduce to a simmer you must first bring your pot to a boil—you can never turn the heat down if it hasn’t gone up!
CINCHY
Easy.
CRUD
The delicious brown bits on the bottom of the pan that help develop deep, rich, meaty flavors.
DIPPER
A dipping sauce.
EQUATORIALLY
Through the middle widthwise, like the equator!
FORK-TENDER
When something can easily be pierced with a fork and meets no resistance; how you know it’s fully cooked.
HOMOGENEOUS
When things are uniformly combined.
LARDONS
Sliced bacon cut crosswise into ¼-inch lengths.
MISE EN PLACE
French for “put in place.” Means getting all your prep work done BEFORE you start cooking.
PICCOLINI
My teeny, tiny small plates; super-yummy, bite-size nibbles. Kind of like Italian tapas.
POC
Piece of cake, totally easy.
QC
Quality control, tasting to make sure everything is delicious.
Q&E
Quick & easy, the way we like to roll!
SAUTÉ
A quick cooking method in a “sauté pan” over high heat with a small amount of oil.
SHOOTIN’ MATCH
The whole thing, whatever it is.
SOFFRITTO
A combination of veggies (usually onions, carrot, celery, and garlic) puréed to a coarse paste in a food processor. The base for braised things.
SPRINKEY-DINK
A little sprinkle.
SUPER-SECRET FLAVOR WEAPON
An ingredient that adds amazing flavor to a dish.
SWEATING
To sauté without adding any color (e.g., cook onions until they’re translucent but not brown—guess what? You’re sweating!).
TECHNIQUE
An approach or a method, not a specific recipe (e.g., sauté).
Thinking ahead, taking your
mise en place
seriously, streamlining the process, being organized, and multitasking: These are some of the most important things you need to know—and keep in mind—to be a good home cook. It’s a process. Of course you’re going to screw up sometimes; all cooks do (and if they tell you they don’t, they’re lying). But you learn a lot from your mistakes. You learn what not to do and how to prevent it next time. You may even figure out how to fix it! Once you start to think about all this as you cook, you’ll be thinking like a chef—then you’ll start
feeling
like a chef. The next thing you know, you’ll
cook
like a chef. Remember, YOU are the chef of your own kitchen! Way to go, rock star!!!
See
my playlist
for rockin’ out in the kitchen.
I love to graze, to nibble on what I call “picky” food: itty-bitty morsels made up of different flavors and textures, delicious bite-size snacks in cute servings. That’s why I created what I call “piccolini.” In Italian,
piccolini
means teeny, tiny—which perfectly describes my style of lovely little bites. My piccolini are small plates to be eaten with a big glass of wine (or two!) as an intro to dinner. Think of them as Italian tapas.
I started making piccolini seriously when I was the chef at Centro Vinoteca in New York City because I wanted to share a special tradition with my customers. These days, many of our families are made up of people we’re not related to at all—friends who support us, care about us, and are there whenever we need them. My surrogate family is a group of friends I couldn’t live without—most important, Jim and Deacon. We help each other through work crises and personal dramas, we get together to celebrate the good times—and of course we spend a lot of time just laughing. For years, every Friday night our little group would meet up, sometimes pretty late, for what we called our “family dinners.”
Just like a family get-together, we’d meet at a restaurant to eat, drink, catch up on the week, and find out what was going on in everyone’s lives. We’d always have a lot of wine and then suddenly be totally starving, at which point we’d say to the waiter, “Three orders of croquettes—STAT!” Within minutes, three plates would arrive: gorgeous little fried bites, tasty snacks that were far yummier than diving into the breadbasket and that got us excited for dinner, more wine, and, of course, more gossip and laughter.
These family dinners meant so much to me, and this ritual was such an integral part of those nights, that I wanted to re-create a similar experience at my restaurant. I wanted everyone to be able to walk in, have a drink, and start tasting good things right away, even if they weren’t ready to dig in to a big meal yet. I figured, if I like to eat this way, why wouldn’t my customers? But I didn’t want to offer just a couple of snacks; I wanted to commit to this idea, this concept of having lots of lovely little nibbles to choose from. So I developed a separate menu of just piccolini—beautiful little bites of food designed to take the edge off while you have a drink, to get your palate going for the main course, or to make up an entire meal. As someone who loves food and tasting a variety of different things, offering lots of small plates made perfect sense to me—so I did it.
These piccolini recipes are some of my very favorites, the ones that I make over and over again and never get tired of eating—or cooking. When I make piccolini for friends, I make an assortment and serve them as a little family of flavors. Some are very easy to pull together while others take a bit of effort, but the main thing is they give you a reason to chat and drink, and they get you warmed up for what’s next!
If you’re making a few different piccolini, keep in mind how important variety is. Remember, always look at the big picture when you’re cooking and think about how different foods work together. You want each piccolini to offer something a little different in your mouth: a bit of crunch contrasted with something smooth, maybe something salty next to something sweet. But most important, you want to have fun! Invite a few friends over, open a bottle of wine or two, and pick a bunch of your favorite piccolini.
Zucchini & Parm Fritters with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Figs Stuffed with Gorgonzola & Walnuts
Chicken Liver Pâté with Balsamic Onions
Sausage & Pancetta Stuffed Mushrooms
Prosciutto-Arugula Breadstick “Brooms”
Polpettini (Yummy Little Meatballs)
Hard Polenta Cakes with Taleggio & Cherry Tomatoes
Parmigiano-Crusted Cauliflower with Garlic Dipper
White Bean Purée with Prosciutto
Grilled Corn, Bacon & Chili Crostini
Baked Ricotta with Rosemary & Lemon
