Wednesday, June 25, 2008

All this time it was just a little flour?

Each week I try to introduce variety into our meals. 2 nights a week we have chicken, 1 night we have red meat, 1 night we go vegetarian with it and then 2 (sometimes 3) nights we'll have something in the seafood family and then we go out one night.

Whenever we go out the FH will usually get a piece of fish and usually it's pan seared and it's got this nice golden crusty outside. Now I'm good with seafood - I know my way around marinades and grilling but this pan sear I could not do. How did they get it to brown like that? How? So I cornered a chef friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and I said "Jordan, you must tell me HOW does this brown crusty pan seared goodness GET on the seafood". And because he's nice and not temperamental like some chef's I know he actually shared the secret.

It's flour.

No joke. Just a little flour. First you get your pan good and hot, THEN add a touch of oil - roll it around the pan so it coats the pan perfectly. Then take a little flour and season it with whatever you like and then coat your seafood with it and then add to your hot oiled pan. That's it. Crusty goodness - perfection browned. I've used this technique on scallops (seasoned with paprika, salt and pepper) and the FH was Wow'd then I did it with salmon and once the salmon was to it's perfectly medium-rare ish doneness I added some teryaki sauce and it carmalized onto the brown goodness so perfectly that I actually can't wait to eat it again tonight.

Am I the only one that didn't know how to do this? Was this featured the day that I missed Home Economics? Do they still teach home economics?

3 comments:

chefmom said...

OH Cass....You should have just asked!! I do it with chicken also. My kids love it that way, and it's avoiding all that extra breading that they don't need. Not all of us chefs are willing to be helpful. Lots of stuck up chefs out there that are tight-assed and stuck up. I will share any recipe or secret except one. My award winning cheesecake. And that's only becuase it took me a long time to master it. mmmm...now you've got me thinking of chicken marsala!

Anonymous said...

Flour is the magic ingredient with a really, really hot pan! Funny and I'm not sure about home ec. Bummer.

Sunny said...

Yeah....that's what ya get for skipping Home Ec that ONE day!!!!

(Don't feel bad tho- I skipped the day they did tenderizing steak and perfecting pie crusts!!)