I received an email from Kurt who made an attempt at the Pan Roasted Sea Bass recipe posted on my web site. He had a few problems and sent me some great questions describing in detail what had gone wrong. I immediately contacted my friend Chef Alan Bickel, an expert in seafood cooking, and asked him to look at the Sea Bass recipe to make sure it was correct and to help Kurt with his situation.

Here is what Kurt emailed me:

“I found your site looking for a good recipe for Chilean Sea Bass and have really enjoyed looking through all your recipes and tips.  You have a fantastic site here!

I tried to make the sea bass the way you suggested and it came out looking nothing like yours and I’m sure it didn’t taste as good either.  I have a couple of places where I think I went wrong and was wondering if you had a minute or two to offer some advice.

I got the fish from a local market and when they gave it to me, it was in one big piece (2 lbs) and I decided to cut it into 4 smaller pieces, once down the middle lengthwise then once across more toward the thicker side so I had 2 smaller thicker pieces and 2 bigger thinner ones.  Was this the correct way to cut it?  Or should I have just cut it like a swordfish steak?

Next, when I pan-fried it, I put it skin side down for 6 minutes but when I went to turn it, the skin peeled right off and the underside wasn’t cooked at all.  As a result, I had to put it back into the oil more and it didn’t really brown up and crust at all, so after I popped it in the oven it came out very loose and had almost a milky look to it.  Any idea what could have caused this?  Or was I just impatient and should have let it sit longer on the stove?

My last question is about the mushroom and onion sauce.  I couldn’t get it to thicken one bit and all the liquid cooked off leaving me with just sautéed mushrooms and onions.  Is there some kind of trick to this?

I’m looking forward to trying some of the other recipes on the site.  Keep up the fantastic work and thank you very much!”

Here is Chef Alan’s response to Kurk and me:

“As far as your recipe goes, you’re pretty much Spot On with the way we pan-sear fish in the kitchen.  Your technique is great, and the finished dish is something that looks great! (I’m sure it tastes out of this world, too- Sea bass is one of my favorite fish, it has such a great flavor, and you can do just about anything with it!)
 
and now onto Kurt’s dilemma –

Kurt, from the sound of it, the way you’ve fabricated (cut up) your filet sounds about right (without seeing it, i really can’t be sure)  You want to end up with roughly block-ish cuts, the thickness will simply dictate your cooking times. (Thicker fish= more time in the oven.) 
 
Here is where I think you can improve on your methods. 

(more…)

Even as a novice home cook, I would say I have a better than average knowledge when it comes to cooking but the other night at Blackfish, one of the hottest new restaurants in the Main Line area, I was humbled.

My wife and I were invited there by our good friends Catherine and Eric Raymond to participate in an evening cooking class hosted by Carole Blum, the founder of Take Five, a day camp for women here in the Philadelphia suburbs. After her campers drop off their kids at camp, they meet up with Carole to have their own day camp by taking cooking lessons, yoga classes, Pilate workouts, massages and of course, wine tasting.

Carole put together this cooking class for 18 of us on a Monday night when the restaurant is usually closed. We walked in, said hello, met the rest of the “cooking staff” who would be preparing the meal along with Chef Jeff Power and Chef Ashley Hess who were there to make sure we actually managed to prepare something we could eat and keep all our fingers attached.

This was a totally hands-on class so to decide who was going to prepare what, there was a fishbowl filled with slips of paper, each with a different dish from our abbreviated menu. Each couple picked out of the glass to see what they were going to prepare and headed back to the kitchen to get started.

As I said above, I am usually comfortable in a kitchen but to walk into a professional kitchen with all the “big” pots and pans and commercial sized equipment expected to make a meal for 18 people in less than an hour, I was truly intimidated. You just can’t appreciate what goes on in the kitchen while you are sitting out front sipping your glass of wine.

Our menu item was Molten Chocolate Cake. You know, that rich dark chocolate cake that oozes out hot liquid chocolate when you cut into it. Not being much of a baker, I was really getting nervous about how this would turn out especially after reading that we were going to make 20 of these molten cakes.   (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.)

Chef Jeff came by often making recommendations on when to add this and how to fold that and then be off to help the couple dressing and trussing the chickens. He moved quickly through the kitchen giving advice and taking over when necessary. Chef Ashley, who normally works the front of the house but is also a trained cook, walked around offering words of encouragement and calmly helping those who needed it.

The menu consisted of an appetizer of corn risotto, followed by roasted chicken with Jus de Poulet sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and eggplant Caponata and finished with our molten chocolate cake with sage gelato. Unfortunately the guys working on the gelato had a few problems and ended up with scrambled eggs before Chef Jeff could save them. Lucky for us, Jeff had some sage gelato as a back up in the freezer.

As for the wines, we started off with a Domaine Hering 2005 Pinot Gris, a white wine of Alsace, then a Georges Duboeuf 2005 Moulin-A-Vent, a red Beaujolais and finished with a Banfi Rosa Regale 2005, a sparkling Dolce red wine that was perfect with our molten chocolate cake and sage gelato.

Our chefs, Jeff and Ashley were great. They shared their cooking knowledge willingly, taught us new techniques and answered my numerous questions. I was like a little kid asking why this and why that. I had a blast. Thank you Jeff and Ashley.

I’m hoping they will both participate on my Novice-to-Chef Interview as well as the owner and executive chef Charles (Chip) J. Roman Jr. who wasn’t there for the class but is a great cook himself from what I’ve heard and read.

So look for the interview and the recipes from the evening in the next few days. I think you will enjoy them. I know I did.

A reader asked what is best for baking, a gas convection oven or an electric oven so I asked Chef Leslie Bilderback, a certified master baker what she thought.  As you will see from her anwer, it’s not about gas or eclectic but more about convection or non-convection. I have a 6-burner gas stovetop but the attached oven is electric where Chef Bilderback has a gas stovetop and oven.

So here is Judy’s Ask A Chef Question and Chef Bilderback’s answer. By the way, you really want to read my Novice to Pro Interview with Chef Leslie and if you are thinking of going to culinary school, you definitely want to read her book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Chef.

Judy asks, “Would you please inform me if a gas convection oven is better to bake cakes, cookies, etc than an electric oven. I am ready to purchase a gas convection oven to bake with. Thanks

Chef Leslie Bilderback replys,

“In my opinion, convection  ovens are only useful if the fan can be disabled.  The fan makes it hotter, which is useful when you want to cook something faster.  This works for cookies, biscuits, muffins, puff pastry, and other laminates, and small stuff.  Larger items will brown on the outside, and look done, before they are done on the inside.  This is terrible for large loaves of bread, pound cakes, white meringues, or anything that’s delicate, like custards.
 
Gas or electric is not an issue for me in terms of ovens, but I must have a gas stove, and the oven is attached, so that’s what I have.   
 
If you can disable the fan, then go for it.  Otherwise, stick with a conventional oven.  
 
FYI, convection ovens were developed for restaurants to speed things along.  The fan was supposed to circulate air so that things brown evenly.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work.  Things still brown unevenly with the fan.  It is always necessary to rotate pans throughout baking. 
 
One more note…Don’t be in such a hurry… stop and smell the rosemary!  Some of my most enjoyable kitchen experiences happen while waiting for things to be done!