Cooking 101: How To Make the Perfect Omelet

Since I've been following the Trim Healthy Mama plan (and lost a total of 17 lbs. in 2 months, I might add!), I've been eating a lot of eggs for breakfast. In the beginning, when I tried to make an omelet it would turn into a pile of browned, tough scrambledy eggs with way too much cheese. Now, my omelets look like this:

Much better, huh?

So here's my foolproof process.

 

Two eggs (for extra richness add one extra yolk).

 

Salt and pepper.

 

Splash of milk (half and half is best, milk can cause the eggs to weep and heavy cream makes for a denser texture).

 

Whisk til combined.

 

Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick pan over high heat and melt a pat of butter.

Swirl the melted butter around well.

 Pour in your egg mixture.

 

It should start firming up right away and you should be able to shake the pan and slide the omelet around.

 Cover the pan for about 30 seconds to firm up the top of the omelet.

Look how nicely the omelet slides around the pan!

 

Sprinkle on some cheese.

 Cover for another 30 seconds to melt the cheese.

 Slide her off onto a plate.

Yup, just like that.

 

Perfection!

 

Kinda makes your mouth water, doesn't it?

 

Enjoy!

Cooking 101: Resting Meat

How important is resting your meat after cooking? Does it really make a difference?

Water is stored in the muscle fiber of meat, or myofibrils. When heat is applied to the meat, the myofibrils contract, expelling water from the cells. When you allow the meat to rest after cooking, the juices are able to reabsorb into the myofibrils leaving you with a moist, juicy bite. If you cut into the meat right out of pan, all those juices run and are lost.

In an experiment done by Cook's Illustrated, they cooked 5 boneless pork loins in a 400° oven until the internal temperature reached 140°. One was cut as soon as it was pulled out of the oven and the remainder were tented with foil and allowed to rest for 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes.

The roast cut immediately lost 10 tablespoons of liquid. The roast allowed to rest 10 minutes lost 4 tablespoons of liquid. The 20 minute roast lost 2.5 tablespoons, the 30 minute lost 1 tablespoon and the 40 minute lost 2 teaspoons. Tasters said the 10 minute roast was much juicier than the roast cut immediately (which was described as tough and dry). They didn't notice much difference between the 30 and 40 minute roasts.

The difference between the roast immediately cut and the one allowed to rest 10 minutes is obvious. We can all stand to wait a few extra minutes before eating if it means the difference between dry and tough or moist and juicy, right?

Here are some suggested resting times for different cuts of meat. Go with the shorter or longer time indicated based on the relative size of the cut you're preparing in the appropriate category:

Beef

• Steak: 5 to 10 minutes
• Roast: 15 to 30 minutes

Lamb

• Chops: 5 to 10 minutes
• Roast: 15 to 30 minutes

Pork

• Chops: 5 to 10 minutes
• Roast: 15 to 30 minutes

Chicken

• Parts: 5 to 10 minutes
• Whole: 15 to 20 minutes

Turkey

• Parts: 20 minutes
• Whole: 30 to 40 minutes

    

Cooking 101: Cooking Methods

There are so many different ways to cook and many different proteins. If you're a novice in the kitchen, how do you decide what method to use? Here's a helpful guide to get you started.

Saute: to cook in a shallow pan with a small amount of oil or fat over relatively high heat. This method is best for thinner foods, like steak or pork chops or chicken cutlets.. Since you're using high heat, you're able to get a nice sear on your protein. The key is to have a uniform thickness not much more than an inch. Any more than that and you tend to have a burnt exterior by the time the center of your meat is done.

Roast: to cook using dry heat such as in an oven. This method is typically done with larger cuts of meat and whole birds. When you have a steak, for example, over an inch thick, you would do well to use a mixture of cooking methods such as sauteing first to sear the surface and then finish off by roasting in the oven. (See recipe for How To Cook a Perfect Chicken Breast for an example of this method)

Poach: to cook foods in liquid that is well below the boiling point. There are no bubbles breaking the surface of the liquid. This method is a gentle cooking method for delicate proteins such as eggs and fish.

Simmer: to cook foods in liquid at or just below boiling, but higher than poaching temperature. 

Braise: to cook with a combination of moist and dry heat; to cook by sauteing first, then adding liquid and simmering. Braising is ideal for larger, tough cuts of meat that need prolonged cooking times to become tender. The key to this method is low and slow. The tough connective tissue needs time to break down into gelatin to make it tender but in order for you to have good texture, it needs to be seared first. Otherwise you'll end up with boiled meat. (See recipe for Braised Short Ribs Beef Stew for an example of this method)

Stew: to cook as in braising, except with small chunks of food instead of whole roasts.

Cooking 101: Steak

How often does this happen to you? You go to pick up a steak at the supermarket and you see Strip, Porterhouse, Sirloin, Skirt, Flank, Chuck Roast, Top Round, Bottom Round, Ribs, Short Ribs, Loin on and on. What do you pick? How do you cook it?

Here's a diagram where the cuts of beef come from on a cow.

Basically, the farther the cut of meat is from the cow's head or hoof, the more tender it will be. This is because the muscles closer to those areas do the most work and thus build up the most connective tissue making for a tougher piece of meat.

Connective tissue in the muscle, called collagen, will break down and turn into gelatin at 160°F and continue to break down through 180°F. When the collagen has all turned to gelatin, that's when you get that great bite of melt-in-your-mouth, fall-off-the-bone meaty goodness.

So why can't we just cook every piece of beef to 160° and enjoy the succulence? Well, for a rare steak, you want it to only reach 120°-130°F. Well done is 150°-160°F. Most people enjoy a steak somewhere in between. You start losing moisture once you breach 130°F. The key is to cook those tougher cuts low and slow in some sort of liquid, like the braising method, so you can achieve optimum collagen to gelatin exchange without losing it's juiciness.

For a go-to cut of meat to pan sear or grill up, go with a Rib Eye. It has a good amount of marbling which will melt while cooking thus giving you a tender, juicy steak to enjoy.

Here is another view of cuts of beef with their optimal cooking method.