Chef’ing it up
Episode 43: I took notes so you didn’t have to….today we are talking with Todd Fuller, a 20 year culinary professional, executive chef and also happens to be my husband!
We covered a ton in this episode and Todd had a lot of great tips and tricks for all of your cooking needs. Let’s get into this!
Todd’s must have kitchen tools, gadgets, knives and tups…
Paring knife, utility knife, chef’s knife, boning knife, tomato knife, bread knife, a slicer and my favorite knife the Santoku knife
Y Shaped Veggie Peeler (cheap ones work the best!)
Our new favorite Tupperware line (we like glass a lot but it chips so much and found we liked these)
Cooking Tips:
Tips for cooking fish…use a stainless steel or non stick pan and put in a mix of olive oil and high quality grape seed oil (higher smoke point). Get the pan nice and hot. the oil should be shimmering just before smoking. Season (salt and pepper) your fish and place it in the pan presentation side down (the side you want to put up on the plate) first. Wait until the side of the fish is cooked about a 1/3 of the way up the fish and do your flip. Cook on the other side for a few minutes but keep an eye on it because it goes from perfectly done to “shit this is overcooked” very quickly. Great fish to pan sear would be swordfish, halibut, monkfish, salmon (even though I would slow roast it), tuna loin or tuna steaks.
If your cooking and your dish is too spicy or too salty try adding a scrubbed raw potato in it. You don’t want the potato to cook and turn to mush but you do want it let it cook in whatever you are trying to get the salt and/or spice out of for a little bit of time. I would scrub a potato, cut it in half and put it in the dish. Let it cook for about 20 mins and then taste your food. If it’s still too salty or spicy and the potato isn’t falling apart then let it go a little longer. If the potato is falling apart, take it out and maybe add a second one plus a little extra broth or water or whatever the liquid in your recipe is and cook for another 10 or 15 mins.
Portions, if you need help with figuring out what to make or how much to make of food for a party you may be hosting Todd suggests (depending on how many courses you are making) 6 - 8oz of protein per person and 3 - 4 oz of sides/veggies per person. And if you have a ton of leftovers well get extra Tupperware and send your guests home with some leftovers!
Getting veggies crispy (like Brussels sprouts for example)…get your oven hot, say like 450 degrees F or 425 degrees F on convection oven. Cut the Brussels sprouts in half, toss them oil (like high quality grape seed), salt and pepper and put them on a sheet pan. DON’T OVER CROWD YOUR SHEET PANS. You want to see sheet pan peaking through in between the veggie pieces. Put them in the oven, keep an eye on them and shake them about 10 - 15 mins into cooking and get ready to serve them right away. When you take them out of the oven leave them on the sheet pan until you are serving them because if you put them in a bowl they will just steam and overcook.
You can cut back on heavy cream and butter with a few bold flavors in your mashed potatoes. Amp up your mashed potatoes with bold flavors like horseradish, buttermilk, fresh herbs, homemade roasted garlic, greek yogurt and use creamer potatoes or yukon golds. Also ricing or food mill, them makes a huge difference too!
So your fish is coming from the freezer…no problem! You want to “slack” it out in the fridge in the morning before you are going to eat it or the night before so it can thaw out on its own. Don’t run it under water. Next you want to dry it out the fish on paper towels before you start cooking it to try and get the most amount of water out. With freezer fish I might even suggest to wait to season it until the end once it’s done cooking. I know this sounds odd but if you season it ahead of time it may leach even more water and waiting until the end might help the browning and cooking process.
Recipes:
Now go forth and cook/eat some amazing food!!
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth
