Ask an Expert
Questions Received
"China Red" eggplants
I planted "China Red' eggplant this year. There was no picture so I could see what I was planting. Now I have all of these brilliant red eggplants! I searched all over the internet to find how to prepare them to no avail. Any ideas? They almost look ornamental!
Thanks,
Donnelly
Hi, this took some research but you are right it is used mainly for ornamental purposes. It seems though that it can be cooked and is suitable for use in Asian style dishes. I beleive its flavor is quite bitter so it is probably suited to dishes that can mask its bitter tone!
sun dried tomatoes
Is there a flavor difference between sun dried tomatoes packed in oil or those just packaged dried once they are soaked in warm water.
Is one a better quality than the other or deeper taste?
Dear Susan,
yes there is a difference, very often the dry packed once have been dried too much and although reconstituting them mellows their flavor somewhat, they are still mostly bitter. While a good product that has been preserved in olive oil in a glass jar, generally tastes much sweeter and less bitter, since the drying process has not been taken too far and they had time to marinate in the oil.
Hope this helps.
Happy cooking
Rainer
Stuffed Turkey Breast / Overdone
I used my convection oven to cook a 3 lb turkey breast stuffed with roasted peppers, fennel & pine nuts etc. Recipe asked for 180 degrees finishing temperature.....buy the time my instant read thermometer read 180 degrees it was almost the cooking time of a regular oven. We then found the breast to be over cooked. Could this be because my thermometer was registering the temp of the stuffing?? If so how do you read the temperature when you are dealing with something stuffed?
Dear Charlee,
Well there is a few things that went wrong, first and foremost is that cooking a small bird with stuffing is always a difficult task, since the stuffing temperature needs to be in the safe zone and thus most of the times the meat overcooks. Most of the professional chefs do the two things separate from each other. However the thing that is effecting you even more is the internal temperature of 180°F, thats way too hot, if you want to make sure the stuffing is safe to eat you only have to heat it to 165°F, you could get away with less, but you will have to increase the time its in the oven (not difficult, just a bit risky if you dont know how to calculate the formula).
Another thing is that you used convection, which basically rotates hot air around your turkey, thus assisting in drying out the outer layer of your meat (not good!).
So next time try the following, season and stuff your turkey, sear on both sides in a pan with some oil. place on its back, add a bit more oil to the pan and then roast on normal heat (not convection) at about 380°F for 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 320°F, which is probably much lower than your recipe calls for, but the ideal temperature for it not to dry out. Every 10 minutes or so, take a spoon or ladle and pour some of the grease over the bird (bsting it). Leave to roast until you reach a core (the center of your turkey stuffing) temperature of about 158 - 160°F, remove from the oven and turn onto the breast, cover with aluminum foil and leave to rest in a warm place for about 15 minutes before using it. (what will happen is that the core temperature will rise to the required 165°F even though its out of the oven.
Now you can either serve it straight away or if you finished it too early, just turn up the oven to 400°F and put it back in for 2 minutes prior to serving, just to heat it up again.
This should give you a juicy, tasty and safe to eat turkey. Let me know if it worked!
Happy cooking
Rainer Zinngrebe
professional help
I am sorry if this was a bit misleading but my question is more of a " I need help with being a pastry cook" then " I need help with a recipe". As you ca read from my e-mail my name is Eric. I am 24 have been in the culinary field for about 5 years now and things are not going well. My question is how can I best fo about getting ahead in this business. The last 5 years have been an up hill struggle to stay in the field I'm crazy about. I have the skills and education needed but most of the time due to shear necessity I have to take jobs as a line cook to make ends meet. I don't think that I should always have to stress and fret about having a job with my resume skills and education. Any advice you can give will be a tremendous help. Thank you Chef Zinngrebe.
Eric, i will email you directly and you can fill me in about your situation a bit more in detail, so that i can point you in the right direction.
Happy cooking
Rainer
