Catering Tricks of the Trade
Professional Chefs' Tricks and Shortcuts for Tasty, Pretty Food
Sep 30, 2008
Salad for Dozens, Fast
The late health-food cooking guru, Adelle Davis, would have a duck. She believed cutting lettuce with a knife was the worst thing you could do to the vitamins it contained. But when you need salad for 50 and you've got ten minutes, washing leaves one by one and tearing them artfully is a non-starter.
Do as caterers do. Buy Romaine lettuce, whack off the bottom with a knife so the leaves separate, fill a basin with cold water, dump in a few heads and swish them around to remove the dirt. Do it twice if you need to.
Spin them dry in the largest batches that will fit in your spinner, or put them in a large plastic trash bag (preferably unused!) with a couple of kitchen towels and swing them like a dead cat. (Caterers don't use big plastic bags. They use big spinners. But this works well, and saves the cost of restaurant equipment you probably will use no more than once a year.)
When the leaves are dry, stack them up on a large cutting board and shamelessly slice across the leaves at about one-inch intervals. If you're feeling fancy, or have time, you can slice down the length of the leaves, too, to make more bite-size lettuce pieces.
Bland flavor? Cure it this way.
The meat dish you've made seems flat, tasteless. What to do? Shake in a bit of soy sauce. Not the fancy, all-natural Japanese soy sauce. Plain dark brown non-low-sodium inexpensive soy sauce from the supermarket.
Potatoes and Veg in One Pot
You are making potatoes and broccoli for two dozen (or even for two, but you have no time). Boil the potatoes in their jackets. When done, do not drain. Rather, take them out of the water with a slotted spoon or fork and place in colander in sink.
Cut the broccoli from the stems and break further into serving-size pieces. Toss into the still-boiling potato water and drain when done.
Meanwhile, if you want to remove the potato skins for a salad or for mashing, while the broccoli cooks, spear potatoes one at a time on the end of a kitchen fork. Hold under running cold water and peel off the skins with your fingers. The potatoes will still be warm inside, but you won't burn your hands.
Quick Elegant Potato Recipe
Once you've done that, if you want a quick, tasty potato dish that's not salad and not mashed, try this:
Directions:
- When the potatoes are peeled and still quite warm, place in a clean pot, and toss in a tablespoon of butter for every two-three potatoes.
- Cover with a tea towel and slap the lid on.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and some fresh herbs, at least 2 teaspoons for every two-three potatoes. Fresh rosemary works particularly well. Stir this all around; the potatoes will break up slightly.
Hint: You can make the same recipe without having to use the water for broccoli.
What the tea towel step does is a mystery. It's an old Irish way with potatoes, and for whatever reason, it seems to drive the butter and seasonings into the potato, making the dish unusually delicious and succulent, a word one wouldn't often use for potatoes.
Play the Mandoline
A kitchen mandoline may not be a musical instrument, but it will make music of your food.
Most cooks buy a mandoline to make French fries or waffle potatoes. But cooks pressed for cooking time know that using it to make finely shredded carrots or zucchini ahead of time can save them stove time when company is on hand, and looks elegant as well.
Directions:
- Shred the carrots or zucchini and store in a plastic bag. A few minutes before you are ready to serve, put them in a saucepan with a little water on the bottom and turn the heat to high.
- Watch carefully. Zucchini will cook in only a minute or two after boiling begins; carrots will take perhaps twice that long.
- Drain. With so little water in the bottom of the pan, you won't lose too much nutrition by just pouring it off.
- Place the carrots or zucchini in a serving dish, and dot with butter and chopped chives (fresh or frozen).
- Serve.
Hey, Sugar!
About that blandness problem: Use sugar. Most home cooks don't realize that a teaspoon of sugar will enhance almost any meat dish and almost any vegetable. Even if your recipe doesn't call for sugar, tossing in a half a teaspoon to a teaspoon for a recipe that serves four will brighten the flavor while adding negligible calories.
Cooking Spray to the Rescue
Here are three caterer's uses for cooking spray.
- Your scrambled eggs stick, leaving more on the pan than on your serving plate? Spray your pan with cooking spray before you melt the butter to cook the eggs.
- Your pie looks drab and boring. Before serving, spray lightly with cooking spray. For extra sparkle, sprinkle with granulated sugar. Not fancy raw sugar; plain old white granulated sugar.
- You've made stuffed mushrooms and they look all in: pick them up with a glitz of cooking spray just before serving.
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