This past fall MasterChef came to America. It was super fun for me to watch because being that I don't have cable I've never seen an episode. I loved how crazy the competition was and how not crazy(for once) Chef Ramsey was. It was nice to see him talking to people in a calm, courteous fashion as opposed to screaming obscenities and spitting all over the place, ewww.
My favorite moment had to be at the end when Whitney, a 22 year old girl from the South, beat out this cocky dude who had the nerve to use Beef Wellington(Gordon Ramsey's signature dish) in the finale. Whitney, on the other hand, chose a very homey dish-Chicken Fried Steak-and added her own variations on the prep while deciding to cream the collard greens to help elevate the dish. Sounds amazing and looked it to!
In my opinion every home cook operates more like Whitney and rarely like the dude who lost. It's inevitable that we will be missing some ingredient that will force us to be creative in order to save the dish. Sometimes it's not even an ingredient but the lack of culinary equipment that will trip us up. Instead of wigging out when these things happen we should consider it a challenge! Practically every dish I make on a regular basis has two or three different incarnations depending on what's in my cupboards.
For example, a few years ago I had to make a large cake for a party. My chocolate cake recipe can be a little labor intensive and requires the use of a stand mixer. Being that I only had a hand mixer at the time, I didn't know how I was going to make it happen. So I decided to use a devil's food cake mix(Duncan Hines) and do a little elevating by substituting butter for the oil and adding finely chopped snobby chocolate at the tail end. It worked so well that I can't remember the last time I used my chocolate cake recipe. Whenever there is a sale on Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker cake mixes I always buy one of the super chocolatey varieties because I know one day I'll need it.
Here are a few tips if you ever need a delicious cake and don't have a lot of prep time.
My favorite moment had to be at the end when Whitney, a 22 year old girl from the South, beat out this cocky dude who had the nerve to use Beef Wellington(Gordon Ramsey's signature dish) in the finale. Whitney, on the other hand, chose a very homey dish-Chicken Fried Steak-and added her own variations on the prep while deciding to cream the collard greens to help elevate the dish. Sounds amazing and looked it to!
In my opinion every home cook operates more like Whitney and rarely like the dude who lost. It's inevitable that we will be missing some ingredient that will force us to be creative in order to save the dish. Sometimes it's not even an ingredient but the lack of culinary equipment that will trip us up. Instead of wigging out when these things happen we should consider it a challenge! Practically every dish I make on a regular basis has two or three different incarnations depending on what's in my cupboards.
For example, a few years ago I had to make a large cake for a party. My chocolate cake recipe can be a little labor intensive and requires the use of a stand mixer. Being that I only had a hand mixer at the time, I didn't know how I was going to make it happen. So I decided to use a devil's food cake mix(Duncan Hines) and do a little elevating by substituting butter for the oil and adding finely chopped snobby chocolate at the tail end. It worked so well that I can't remember the last time I used my chocolate cake recipe. Whenever there is a sale on Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker cake mixes I always buy one of the super chocolatey varieties because I know one day I'll need it.
Here are a few tips if you ever need a delicious cake and don't have a lot of prep time.
- Soften your butter to room temp, I pull it out of the fridge the morning of.
- Line your cake pans with parchment or wax paper, but you'll still need to butter and flour the pans under and on top of the paper.
- Use a sweetened or milk chocolate, you can also do a 70/30 blend of sweet and bittersweet if you want to tame the sugar content. Don't be frugal with chocolate, buy the most expensive one on the shelf.
- I usually add about 1/3-1/2 cup of chocolate per box.
- Finely chop the chocolate-you can also use a small cuisinart just pulse it so you get an even consistency without melting the chocolate.
- Add chocolate right after your final scrape down of the bowl.
- Follow the directions on the box, but watch baking time it might need 5-10 extra minutes.
- Turn cakes out onto wire racks while still warm and pull liner off of the bottoms.
- Let cool and if your not frosting right away freeze them, it's so much easier to frost a frozen cake.
- I like to make a cream cheese frosting or ganache-please make your own frosting nothing ruins a cake faster than the gross, sugary canned stuff.
-Natasha
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