Conquer Your Cooking Fears And Feel Comfortable In The Kitchen (p.16)

By Ralston Jones

My culinary experience is a bit unique – I started out in the restaurant business as a novice without a culinary school degree. My grandmother's and my mother's kitchens were my personal schools of instruction, and my greatest lessons learned came through experimentation, trial, and of course, some error.

It was a fun process of figuring out what I liked to eat, pairing flavors and trying new combinations – and it is still that way for me as a professional restaurant chef today. You may not realize that experimentation is a constant and evolving process in our restaurants. We are always looking to improve upon the current menu items and create new and tasteful dishes. Of course, a new item is never added to the menu until it has been tested and retested for perfection.

That is why I encourage people all the time to experiment in their own kitchens. Never be afraid to try something new or out of the ordinary. Even with a recipe in hand, be willing to tailor it to your personal taste or that of your guests. Trust your taste buds and adjust those recipes accordingly. If you do not care for onions, for example, leave them out of the dishes you prepare. Or if you dislike salty dishes, reduce or remove the salt altogether.

Accept now that everything will not be perfect the first time around. If you prepare a "failure," eat it anyway (unless it is burned!), tasting it thoroughly to discover what it is that is missing or that you do not enjoy, and change the dish next time, so it will be closer to what you do desire. By being willing to experiment in this way, you will eventually develop a recipe that you really enjoy, and if you like it, chances are your family and friends will, too.

Don't Be Afraid To Mess Up

Even professional chefs mess up occasionally. We have written recipes for everything, but even when we try something new, we write down each ingredient and its amount, and keep notes on the process, so that a line cook or sous chef can follow our creation. If I am experimenting, I make adjustments the next time if I am not pleased with the results.

Become familiar with the tastes and aromas of various spices and how they can change the flavor of foods. Some of this you can accomplish by tasting foods, such as broths or sauces, as you go along, then adjusting the seasonings or ingredients. After awhile, you will find that you will be able to imagine what a dish will taste like before you even make it.

If you taste a dish you really like at a restaurant, go ahead and ask for the recipe. Many chefs are willing to share their ingredients, although the quantities of course will be very different for a restaurant compared with what you will prepare in your own kitchen at home. Sometimes a chef will reveal everything except a certain recipe's "secret" ingredient – it helps maintain our mystique!

Just do not be afraid to fail. Every recipe that exists is not always great, and many can be improved upon. Cooking is a creative endeavor. It is like painting, where you start with a blank canvas and add splashes of your favorite colors to paint whatever you can imagine.

With cooking, you put ingredients, spices, and flavors together however you want, in innovative ways, to come up with imaginative dishes. I look at it as an adventure, and you can, too.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes you can try – one is a fail-safe recipe for crab cakes that your guests will rave about, and the other is a slightly more complicated dish that will give you confidence when it comes to impressive desserts.

Pumpkin Roll With Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:
1/4 cup powdered sugar (for rolling cake after baking)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar, for serving

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease 15" x 10" jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour extra wax paper (two sheets, both larger than the cake pan). Place one sheet on a spread out kitchen towel.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixing bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared wax paper and towel. Carefully peel off the paper that the cake baked on and replace with a new prepared sheet. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack for at least 30 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel and wax paper sheets. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Hints:
Soften cream cheese and butter, but not to room temperature – you do not want it to be too soft.

Use waxed paper in the bottom of the pan before baking, peel it off when the cake is done baking, apply new sheets of wax paper to the top and bottom of the cake, and roll up. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes, then unroll, remove wax paper, frost, and roll up again.

Crab Cakes

Ingredients:
1 can special crab meat
1 can jumbo lump crab meat
2 large eggs
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup fresh chopped parsley
¼ cup diced bell pepper (mixed colors)
¼ cup diced red onion
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
Dash Worcestershire
Dash Tabasco
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine eggs, mayonnaise, vegetables, and spices. Mix well, making sure there are no lumps of mayonnaise in the mixture. Add crabmeat and mix lightly, and be careful not to break up jumbo lumps of crab very much. Add breadcrumbs and slowly incorporate into mixture.

Portion out at 3 ounces. Make portions into 2" round cakes. In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter and sear crab cakes for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Serve as an appetizer or entrée with your favorite accompaniment. (Just a little lemon is all they really need!)

Note: You can make crab cakes any size you want – just remember the smaller they are, the less cooking time they will need.

Executive Chef Ralston Jones works for Rocky Top Hospitality restaurants at The Mash House Brewery & Chophouse in Fayetteville, NC. For more information, visit http://themashhouse.com.