February 15, 2011

Guest Post by Jaimee - Cooking with JT

A few weeks ago JT came over to help me make my weekly dinner.  You see, I'm tasked with cooking dinner at my house once a week and I like to try a new recipe every time.  I sent JT a few recipes I wanted to try.  I don't think he read past Tandoori Style Chicken Burgers before telling me that we were making them.


If JT ever gets around to sending me his guest post for my blog I'll link the recipe ;-).


Here are a few of the things I learned during our Tandoori adventure:


1.  Be careful when you tell JT you want to sub ingredients.


2.  If it says chicken thighs, use chicken thighs.  They are nice and juicy and they aren't any worse than breasts health-wise.


3.  Mise en place:  it means "everything in place."  It means to read the recipe before I'm about to do the cooking, before I'm about to perform that step.  Do all the prep work in advance.  Get your ingredients washed, chopped, measured, placed in individual bowls, etc.  Get them ready to go.  Get your equipment out and prepared.  Preheat your oven.  To me it means not stressing about getting my stuff together as I'm in the middle of cooking.  It makes for a much more enjoyable cooking experience.


4.  Knife skills.  So I'm not so great with a knife.  Knives scare me a little bit ever since I severed a tendon and nerve when I was 16  (I did it with a glass not a knife, but knives are sharp and can sever stuff too!).  I don't like butchers knives.  I really don't like watching JT use a butcher knife.  I don't actually cut myself very often, but I'm pretty slow and inconsistent.  JT watched me get some ingredients cut up for this recipe and I'm pretty sure he laughed at me.  Then he schooled me.
The main points are holding the knife and curling your fingers so you don't chop one off.  To hold the knife, wrap your pinkie, ring finger and middle finger around the handle and grip the blade with your index finger and thumb.  To avoid chopping your fingers off, you should curl the fingers of your non-dominant hand and place them fingertips down on your food.  Hold the blade against your knuckles as you slice, never lifting the cutting edge of the blade above your knuckles.  I may have written that totally wrong.  Correct me in comments if I did, JT!


I leave you with a picture of Tandoori Style Chicken Burgers for your salivating pleasure.



1 comment:

  1. Jaimee-you are not a "guest"-you are a contributor!! And YUM-looking meal (sans the chicken)!!! And yes, most anytime I cut anything in front of JT, he stands by and laughs, mostly because I have chosen the wrong type of knife. Live and learn with that guy!

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