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The Envelope, Please: Cooking En Papillote
The cooking method known as en papillote -- for the parchment paper that encloses the food in an envelope -- has held its own through any number of culinary fashions. It was ideal during the height of the healthy eating movement, because the method requires little or no additional fat.
Now, it still maintains its place, mostly in restaurants, thanks to what is perhaps a purer, more esthetic reason: a dish cooked in this way is intensely yet harmoniously flavored. Done well, it can present itself in unparalleled and unadorned beauty.
When food is sealed in paper, it cooks in its own juices. It is a more flavorful approach than ordinary steaming and less restrictive than cooking in a hermetically sealed pot. There is no water beneath and no lid above. Ingredients cook quickly because they are surrounded by moist heat. As the package is heated, the air inside expands, and the flavors of the ingredients are swept into it, swirling and mingling, with no escape. The ingredients are, in a sense, cooked with flavored air and form a sauce purely of their own essence.>>more>>
The End of Cooking?
We no longer really have to cook, and many of us don't really know how to cook. If this article from the Wall Street Journal is right, it may even be cheaper to eat out, get carry out, or heat up a frozen meaI. Can you afford an $80 halibut?>>more>>
Take Steaming Seriously? Chefs Do
TODAY'S buzzwords for menu writers are roasted, grilled and braised. No steaming on that list. It has fallen victim to its own virtuous image: these days, steaming sounds like deprivation cuisine; too healthy, too boring.
But all across the country, great chefs are quietly steaming away. If they are trying to save anyone's heart, it's not the main reason.
Steaming happens to be a treasured, time-honored way to cook, and one that happens to use no fat. It produces tender, moist fish, chicken and vegetables, leaving them bright and full of flavor and not waterlogged, as boiling or even poaching does. Now, chefs are taking steaming even further, using unusual liquids, flavoring them with aromatic vegetables and spices, and infusing simple foods with a depth of flavor and complexity.
Not that most chefs would ever say so on their menus. But they steam shrimp rolls, mushrooms, potatoes to be mashed, even foie gras. And they have developed techniques that take steaming well beyond simply laying food in a basket over simmering water in a covered pot.>>more>>