Edition 13 - A Blanched Cate Blanchett + Pop-Up Tickets
On lucky 13 I announce my first IRL event!
Coming to you live from San Francisco, it’s In the Kitchen!!!
DPo walks onto the digital stage, eyes squinting from the bright lights and looks out to everyone in the crowd. She can barely see from previously mentioned bright lights, but she relishes in the moment.
We back, baby.
**Queue clapping.** Crowd is overwhelmingly enthused to read on. Perhaps enough to subscribe to whatever this is once and for all.
In CaSe YoU mIsSeD iT.
Last edition (aka Edition 12), I went over techniques to level up your meat game. lol. It was a blast. For our not-ready-to-open-a-new-tab-right-now, here’s the summary:
dry brining* + spatchcocking a chicken** = a delocious dinner ***
*dry brining = You do this by salting the meat surface and letting it rest uncovered in your fridge for a day or so before cooking. The salt will draw out moisture from the skin while causing the inside of the meat to retain more moisture while cooking. Seems backwards but there’s $ci3nC3 here I promise (just read the edition).
After a day, you’ll unlock crispy skin and juicier insides in your final product. It’s basically like your 20 min night time retinol skin care routine but much faster and for a bird and with salt.
**spatchcocking a chicken = removing the spine from your whole bird and splitting it open, so that the legs are fanning out and your bird is on a single plane. By doing this, the breast and legs cook evenly, preventing a dry breast (amongst other benefits like cooking faster, cheaper than individual pieces, and being easier to carve). And if you’re interested but scared at the same time (totes normal), I offer a handful of options for ya in Edition 12.
***deliocious dinner = a Jean Ralphio 5 Star ReViiiEwwWWWw.
So, have you dry brined yet? Spatchcocked? If the answer is no, whatcha waiting for? A piece of meat to end up in your fridge randomly? A broken nose?
Also I broke my nose playing football.
“Strong segway, DPo” -DPo
All things considered, I’ve had a smooth recovery. The black eye is lingering, but it’s been giving me ample opportunities to yell PARKOUR and finally break out my latent skills. I’ve also rebranded from DPo to Rip Hamilton so that’s cool I guess.
The biggest challenge was sleeping with my head propped up to reduce swelling. How do you back sleepers do it? You are lunatics. I really couldn’t. Combined with the jetlag from Japan and well, it was rough.
Sleep deprived and swollen made for a sad DPo. Luckily my hypeman (and life partner) Reuben showed me extra TLC and I thought, why not get a bit greedy with it? In all seriousness, the extra love was needed and I did a brave thing and asked others for some help. Folks did not disappoint.
It was weird to use the internet that way, but tbh, it actually helped. Then another friend forced me to get up, shower and eat ice cream. This worked too. I guess we need a dose of both.
If you were looking for a pass to ask for help, please extend your right hand. I am now passing you the said pass! Go on now, ask for a little love!
If you just want a smile instead of a pass, here’s an amazing video sent to me of students worshipping a chicken nugget.
So yeah, the last couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster. This has made for a fun mix of rabbit holes… most of which won’t even make it to this edition because it reached a level of chaos even my brain couldn’t handle.
**Deletes 15 27 tabs to focus on a handful of rabbit holes**
Let’s dig in!!!
“Cate Blanchett, but as a blanched green bean”
After blanching some green beans and seeing the hilarious, but mildly terrifying AI-generated image of the pope in a puffy white jacket I was inspired to concoct some of my own remixes. The first thought that popped into my head was, “It would be funny if Cate Blanchett was morphed into a blanched green bean.” Get it? Blanched?
I took my talents to Midjourney, paid $10 and started prompting the bot with my wildest blanched dreams. After a few rounds of prompts, the blanched Cate Blanchett was born at 11:42am on 03/29/2023, weighing 1.2MB:
Next up, I wanted to dress a spatchcocked chicken with Juicy velour tracksuit. Ya know, because spatchcocking helps keep it juicy - and what else makes sense in the brain of a sleep deprived internet voyager? I’m trying to convince you to spatchcock!!! Here’s what I got:
Midjourney has clearly not yet been trained on the art of spatchcocking or on the early 2000s Juicy Couture tracksuit phenonemon. Sigh. It’s on Wikipedia so what gives?
My brief stint into the vortex of AI-generated art led to to the conclusion that it is incredible, terrifying and a lot of fun. It can bring new dimension to imagination and stretches our own definition of reality. I mean, this bird. It seems like it has a whole backstory. And the tracksuit has… a… feather print?? Or maybe it’s a cut-out and the chickens’ real feathers are poking through? Only the algo knows.
If you’ve got any fun AI generated images, send them my way. As usual, the weirder the better.
Blanch City B****
After a brief, yet fruitful stint into AI, I felt like I should maybe put some actual cooking knowledge into this edition. Since Cate and blanching were top of mind, why not break down the world of blanching. Also it’s spring in some places (how bout this weather, huh??) and the spring veggies are great for a little blanch action.
It’s a simple way to level up some cooking and of course, one up everyone at your own dinner party.
Your guests: Wow how did you keep the snap peas so green and crunchy after cooking it? Mine always comes out sad looking and mushy.
You:
Beyond preserving the green color, you also get the benefit of being able to achieve different textures (because you partially cooked the veggie vs cooked everything at the same time). This is useful in a casserole, for example. You may also use blanching to make an ingredient easier to work with. Like a fava bean for example.
Kk, so how do you do it?
Blanching is basically like a Russian bath house, but for a veggie.
Put the veggie-to-be-blanched in a very hot bath aka a big pot of salted boiling water with the lid off. This is the science part.
Let it steep in there until you get the desired texture. This is the cooking part.
Fish it out and dunk it in an ice bath or run it under cold water. This is the preventing overcooking part.
Why the large pot? Why the long face? TLDR: A big pot is critical to achieve the crispy crispy and green green end goal. But for our slightly-unhinged readers, here’s a convo between a long face dog and Cate, the blanched green bean, explaining why:
Now do you get it?
What should you blanch?
I loved this handy chart from none other - Kenji. For our Food Lab owning folks, please turn to page 407/408.
Personally, I’m going straight for the spring veggies and herbs. Starting with snap peas.
My brain can’t stop thinking about a snap pea salad and this recipe looks divine. Snap peas and mint, say no more. Maybe I’ll whip something similar up and post it on my new Instagram.
After that, I’ll try out remixing this green risotto .
I love the idea of keeping a sauce a rich green color. This recipe has been on the top of my list for a while. I’m going to experiment with a Peruvian interpretation of it, featuring loads of cilantro and aji (yellow pepper).
Maybe blanching isn’t for you. All good!!!
Sometimes I’m not into it either - you can of course develop different flavors with different techniques. Like a grilled asparagus sounds lovely. Even a braised one.
Alternatively, maybe you prefer to toss something in the microwave for a little while and crochet while you wait. Idk, your kitchen, your rules. Just have fun!
Blanching doesn’t have to be your only move, it’s just one of them. It’s a handy tool in your ever growing ITK-catalyzed cooking repertoire.
What I’m Cooking & Pop-Up Dinner Tix
I’m getting to the ticket part I promise!!
A tribute to the salad that set me on the green bean voyage:
A medley of fridge leftovers featuring BLANCHED GREEN BEANS!!!
Join me for the first In the Kitchen Pop-Up!!!!
Beyond cooking in my kitchen (and recovering in between), I’m cooking up the first in-person dinner!!!
In the Kitchen is hitting the town and taking over Beit Rima for our debut Peruvian pop-up.
I’m grateful to work with a close friend and mentor, Samir, to bring to life my vision for a Peruvian menu, honoring my roots and experiences. The dinner will be a 4 course family (and In the Kitchen) style experience.
When/where: Monday, April 17 in San Francisco at 7PM.
🎟🎟🎟 For today only I’m offering my readers first dibs on seats. Get it while it’s hot (and available): Ticket link.
It’s limited seating, so snag a ticket sooner than later if you want to join. And of course, bring a friend! Please note that the it is a set menu and meat forward. Veggie friends, I promise to design an event for you soon.
Lots of love and happy cooking! Hope to see you in person soon!
-Chef DPo
Thank you Ellen for the nugget content and thank you to everyone who showed me love when I needed the boost. I appreciate you!!