Posted on: Wednesday, November 7, 2001

Food for Thought
A few tricks of the chef's trade

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

A few hours in a professional kitchen will humble you. The depth of knowledge possessed by people who cook for a living can be truly astonishing.

In dozens of cooking classes, demonstrations and visits to chefs' kitchens over the years, I've noticed that what remains with me afterward is not the recipes. OK, the recipes are all over the house; I just don't ever use them. But what I do use and treasure are the tips, techniques and creative ideas that I glean.

I saw James Beard do a cooking demonstration in the last years of his life, and what I remember is the way he used a heavy kitchen knife to whack a whole head of garlic into individual cloves with one heavy blow. I have never made the Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic recipe he showed us that day, but I've whacked hundreds of garlic cloves since then.

In recent weeks, here's what I've gathered:

Cream and flour are by no means the only way to thicken a sauce. Chef George Mavrothalassitis of Chef Mavro uses pureed steamed carrots in a pinot noir reduction. Chefs Yves Garnier and Bernard Le Prince at Halekulani used pureed, cooked white beans, chicken broth and — yes — some cream for sauce for lamb in a French Festival week cooking class last week.

Le Prince demonstrated a quick coating that could be adapted for any roasted meat or fish. Make fine bread crumbs by processing dry, stale white bread in a food processor. Add a handful of fresh basil leaves — enough to turn the mixture a bright, spring green and lend an herby flavor to the crumbs. Use the crumbs as they are or pass them through a tamis ("tammy"), a fine sifter, to strain out the larger bits. Try this with fresh parsley, chervil, thyme or other mild fresh herbs. The beautifully colored coating can be scattered or arranged on the plate as a garnish.

Every cook has peeled tomatoes by quickly blanching them in boiling water, but I never knew how much easier that would be if you first trim out the stem and then cut a shallow "X" in the opposite end of the tomato, on the bottom.

For a beautifully flavored oil to drizzle over roasting meats or to use in sauteeing, put a couple of cups of extra-virgin olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and throw in a handful of whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Heat over medium heat until the garlic is lightly browned; don't allow to boil or burn.