The Culinary Studio

This is the short version. The full breakdown is in the Chef Over Your Shoulder Podcast episode: Stir-fry Masterclass. Link in bio.

This is 23 seconds of a much longer discussion about pots, pans, and who’s actually cooking correctly. Full episode in our bio.

Epsiode: Pots & Pans

Gnocchi cooks in under three minutes. Pasta can take three times that.

Same carbonara you already know. You’re just ready fifteen minutes sooner.

Gnocchi Carbonara — serves 2

Ingredients:

1 x 350g pkg fresh potato gnocchi (Olivieri recommended)
4 slices bacon, diced
3 tbsp (45 ml) olive oil
2 egg yolks
½ cup (125 ml) finely grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided, plus more to serve
Diamond Crystal kosher salt, as needed
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Combine the diced bacon and olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is just crisp and the fat has rendered. Reduce heat to the lowest setting and keep warm.
Whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Whisk in about ⅓ cup (80 ml) of the grated cheese and season with a generous pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Set aside.
Bring about 5 cups (1.25 L) water to a boil. Season with 2 tbsp (30 ml) kosher salt. Add the gnocchi, stir gently, and return to a boil. Cook 2 to 3 minutes only, until the gnocchi float and feel just tender. Do not overcook.
Before draining, slowly whisk about ½ cup (125 ml) of the hot gnocchi cooking liquid into the egg and cheese mixture, a splash at a time, to temper.
Remove the gnocchi with a spider or drain and add immediately to the bacon pan. Toss to coat in the bacon fat. Scrape the gnocchi and bacon into the egg bowl and stir quickly until a creamy, glossy sauce coats every piece. Add a splash more cooking liquid if too thick.
Divide into two warm bowls. Finish with remaining cheese and a generous crack of black pepper. Serve immediately.

Send to your no-time-to-cook friend.

Your pan isn’t hot enough.

If it’s not smoking before the steak hits it, you’re steaming, not searing. That crust needs real heat.

Send this to whoever’s about to ruin a good steak.

I’ll be honest, I’m still going to keep doing it. Doesn’t hurt anything, the fridge is doing the real work anyway.

Send this to whoever’s convinced their spoon has magic powers.

Last week’s spice paste protein needs this mango salsa. Bright, fresh, with just enough heat from the jalapeño.

Start with onion, lime and salt, then stir in pepper, jalapeño, mango, and cilantro. It’s the reset your palate needs next to something rich with spices.

Save this. Every spiced plate needs a punchy partner.

Once these come out of the oven, they’re not just a side dish.

Pile them onto a caprese with fresh mozzarella and basil, stack them into a BLT for a serious upgrade, or toss them through pasta with nothing else needed. The concentrated flavor does most of the work for you.

Send this to the self-declared tomato farmer in your life who’s currently buried in the harvest.

   Diamond Crystal Salt Co.®

Oil and water are doing two different jobs in a spice paste.

Spice flavour is almost entirely fat soluble, oil pulls it out and carries it through. Water’s job is texture, it loosens the paste and keeps it from scorching before the oil finishes working.

Save this, it holds true for any spice paste you build.

The trick to schnitzel that shatters instead of just crunching: use egg whites only, not the whole egg, for your egg wash.

Yolk brings fat and richness into the coating, which softens it. Egg white is pure protein, so when it hits hot oil it sets into a harder, more glass-like shell, the same reason meringue turns crisp instead of staying soft.

Standard breading: flour, whipped egg whites, panko. Works the same way on chicken or pork cutlets too or anything that you are wanting with a crispy crunchy coating.