Top Ten Tips from 2008| Recipes Articles

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There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

- George Bernard Shaw

Top Ten Tips from 2008

Once an amateur foodie crosses the threshold, yes, that moment in your life when you realize you have to cook those luscious meals in your own kitchen because you are simply addicted to food fabulous food, it's a perplexing moment. I totally know how to relish the flavors, but how do I manage on my own? Your salvation: Behind the Burner. Launched in the Fall of 2008, Behind the Burner features the top tips, tricks and techniques of chefs and experts. These tidbits are paramount to each foodies foray into the kitchen, big or small. Behind the Burner has made it easy for you foodies, a hit list of 2008's top tips, tricks and techniques.

Behind the Burner's hit list of top 10 tips, tricks and techniques for 2008... drum roll please...

1. Tap out of it... your cheese soufflé that is. Chef Florian Hugo taps the bubbles out of his cheese soufflé to allow the soufflé to rise without air pockets. The result - more depth and texture for each mouthful.

2. Sriracha for the New Year. Chef Harold Dieterle isn't afraid to seal the deal with a little heat. Shake up a chili sauce or seasoning that you enjoy and just go with it.

3. Garlic strip down with Chef Patrick Connolly. Use a large Tupperware, Rubbermaid or simple plastic mixing bowl with a cover, throw in your garlic cloves and shake it up! (Vigorously) The ultimate strip down. (a great arm exercise too!)

4. Have your cup of tea and drink it too. Tracy Stern at SALONTEA points out ways to bake chai tea pancakes and infuse a number of recipes with loose leaf teas. These teas can be used for marinades, cold teas, and medicinal purposes.

5. Lost your lid? Find yourself lidless? Chef Connolly creates a cartouche that'll top all your needs. Carve a circle out of parchment paper. This make-shift lid will serve as an insulation to your simmering goods without burning or spillage.

6. Press the living shortness out of your short ribs with Chef Gavin Kaysen. Before you braise your short ribs take a large baking sheet or flat surface and place it over the top to press your ribs and separate and distribute the fat.

7. Pomegranate pound out with Chef Craig Hopson, take a meat mallet to the half of your pomegranate, hold it in your hands and let the gems fall like rubies into a bowl under your hands.

8. Leave an even score with octopus, but using Chef John DeLucie's tip. Smashing it against the wall to break down the protein is so last century. By slicing an X through the meat of the octopus, you allow the octopus, to cook faster and char up and look as pretty as a starfish.

9. Chocolate Brioche Pain Perdu sounds a little intimidating, but Pastry Chef Francois Payard graciously demonstrates. For a wealth of taste and ingredients, use a brioche for your octopus, when the brioche is soaked and covered in chocolate simply freeze it! Freezing the dipped bread melds the flavors and ensures the cocoa won't slip away in the frying pan.

10. Be a curious grocer, this is a tip ALL of our experts suggest. Taken this advice and fly into the New Year. Behind the Burner has great deals on products to which foodies wouldn't normally be privy. Purchase cookbooks that suit you and your food style. Savor every moment.

Behind the Burner connects the foodie to the source. Follow this recipe, eat, experiment, and resolute to learn new techniques. Happy 2009, it's going to be one tasty trip.