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"Have Pans, Will Travel!"

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Chef Chip Desormeaux - 678.480.4973

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AMUSE BOUCHE                 by Chef Chip Desormeaux

/ah-mooz boosh/ def: A small complimentary appetizer offered at fine restaurants. From French, literally, "it entertains the mouth."

Food & Entertaining Tips from The Portable Chef

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How are you? Hope you're having a great week so far! Hey, know what's ripe & ready right now? Blackberries! Some of my fondest memories are of being out on the farm, picking blackberries from the levies. We used to go out with our gallon ice cream buckets (remember those?) and come home with buckets brimming!

The game was to judge if a berry would be sweet or bitter before you'd bite into it. Then Mom would mash them up with sugar and serve them with ice cream.

Or, make a blackberry cobbler...mmm! We have a bush behind our house and we can usually pick a quart at any give time. Picked a mess of them this weekend and made a cobbler. Recipe included down below... Enjoy this week's article!

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Oven Dynamics

Have you ever baked a batch of cookies that looked great on top but burned on the bottom? Or biscuits that look great on the outside but are a gooey uncooked mess inside?

There are a few things to know about baking that you won't find in any recipe. You see, whoever wrote that recipe you're following, wrote it according to what worked in his or her kitchen, and in his or her own oven.

Here's what to look for to make sure you get it right.

Thermostat. This is the gadget that controls the heat source by deciding when your oven is too cold or too hot. It's that thin wiry thing at the back of your oven, up top usually.

If your oven temps seem to be off, check to see that this little gadget is bent back so it's at least a couple inches away from any surface.

Some thermostats are hidden, in which case you'll have to call a serviceman.

Temperature differential. Most ovens aren't really the temperature they say they are. Remedy this by hanging a five dollar oven thermometer from the center rack.

Position of the rack. Most of your baking should occur in the center of the oven. This means the rack needs to be one level lower than center so that the center of your food is in the right place.

The hottest areas of your oven will be those places closest to the oven walls. So, if you want something to have a pretty crust while still remaining tender inside, you'll want to position your rack in the upper third of the oven. If you're baking something like a beef tenderloin, where a crust will make clean even slicing extremely difficult, you'll want to position your rack smack in the middle or a little lower.

Sometimes, there's just too much in the oven at once. In this case, rotate top-to-bottom-to-top at two-thirds of the baking time to ensure both pans are done evenly.

Color, material, and construction of the baking pan. It makes a difference whether you're using a dull black pan or a shiny metal one, a glass dish vs. metal, or non-stick vs. conventional surfaces. And there are insulated pans, deep roasting pans or very shallow cookie sheets. But that's a whole nother article unto itself...

(A baking "pan", by the way, is a metal vessel; a "dish" is glass, generally.)

The Great Equalizer. One of the greatest inventions for an oven is the convection system. By simple installation of a fan at the back of the oven, temperatures inside suddenly become much more stable and consistent.

Also, because the fan is now blowing air all around the inside of the oven, it makes less difference what kind of pan (or dish) you use.

Convection Roast vs. Convection Bake. Those of you who've invested in the finer convection equipment have probably been wondering about the difference between "Convection Roast" and "Convection Bake."

Here's a photo of the inside of a Wolf oven. Wolf has tucked away heating elements all over the place in this oven: one beneath the floor of the oven, one in the ceiling and two more that loop around the convection fans you can see there in the back. There are three modes of convection that you will encounter: "true convection" uses

only the elements around the fans. (Not all ovens have elements around the fans.)

"Convection Bake" uses the floor element in addition to the fan elements.

"Convection roast" adds intermittent use of the broiler element in addition to the other two to ensure even browning of a nice roast or turkey bird.

Bon Appetit!

Chef Chip Desormeaux

But, Wait! There's More!
(Recipes, Nifty Gadgets, & Stuff Like That)

Recipe. Half the size of store-bought hybrids but three times as nutritious, wild black berries are one of the true pleasures of the Southern countryside. Cobblers are rustic, simple dishes that are great for showcasing delicious seasonal fruits without too much complexity. Originally a breakfast item served with heavy cream, cobblers are now more typically served as a dessert all over the country. Mom always used Bisquick Brand mix to make drop-biscuits for her Blackberry Cobbler. Good stuff, but I can't get away with that in my house!

If you have a decent food processor and a good old fashioned cast-iron skillet, you can produce a great cobbler in about 45 minutes—the time it takes to enjoy dinner. The secret to the good taste of mine is the addition of a couple tablespoons of Triple Sec orange liqueur to the berry marinade. Recipe here.

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