Week in Review #2 - Tourné Around

We're still weeks away from doing actual cooking, but we're getting closer. I can, quite literally, smell it. I got to drop some stock on Friday, so I spent a good ten minutes ladling veal stock through strainers (which, if you missed it, are of the Asian persuasion).

Ten minutes standing over bubbling, lip-smacking, two-days-simmering veal bones and meat and wonderful, wonderful fat. We pretty quickly attacked some of the meat that had been set aside from one stock pot, and while most of the flavor had made its way into the liquid – that's pretty much the point, isn't it? – it was still pretty delicious.

By my count, we're up to 15 different knife techniques, which we've practiced on potatoes, carrots, zucchini, onions, shallots, celery, and turnips. I'm happy to say I've already shown improvement. I'm not happy to say we keep having to do tournés, which certainly make for cute little vegetables, but seem an awful waste, make my hands sore, and don't have an obvious culinary application unless I ever want to serve cute little vegetables that roughly resemble boat hulls or footballs.

Technique of the Week

Not tournés! I'm going to go with our basic 3-2-8-2-2-4 volume conversion shorthand. I have three refrigerator magnets for kitchen conversions that I can now retire because of 3-2-8-2-2-4. I'm trying to come up with a mnemonic device for this, or at least for the corresponding measurements (teaspoon, tablespoon, ounce, cup, pint, quart, and gallon). Alas, my mind keeps drifting to 867-530-niiii-eee-iiiine. Who can I turn to?

Injury Report

The consecutive non-cutting streak has reached double digits. Ten days!