ChefSteps

Food Series / 4 Seasons

ChefSteps is here to make you a better cook. Drawing on our years of combined culinary experience, we create hands-on online classes and original recipes that are both informative and entertaining. We don't tell you how to sharpen your knife or make macarons from scratch, we show you. Whether you're a home cook, a professional chef, or just love watching cooks work, we can help you cook smarter.

Watch: S2014 E48

3m 2s

Endive Salad

S2014 E28 / 1m 51s

Sturdy, bitter endive is a great salad base. Here, we combine it with skinny slices of pork belly and our Soubise Fluid Gel. The gel adheres winningly to the leaves, creating a great coat that reminds us of the best Caesar salads. Topped with crunchy homemade bread crumbs, this flavor-forward dish would be an excellent first course at an al-fresco dinner party.

Fish and Chips

S2014 E27 / 2m 38s

The perfect fried fish has a delicate, crisp crust surrounding a perfectly cooked fish. It's actually tricky to get this just right; often the crunchy batter is great, but the fish is overcooked. Our version of fish and chips uses a batter engineered to crisp quickly, so that there is little risk of overcooking the fish.

Starburst-Style Chews

S2014 E26 / 3m 33s

Bright in flavor, with a yielding, chewy softness and the mouth-coating heft that can only come from added fat, Starburst is a uniquely satisfying confection. In commercial factories, powerful machines perform the pulling required to align sugar crystals and incorporate air into candy. At home, it's your arms that do all the work. The more you pull, the softer and fluffier your candy becomes.

Kouign-Amann

S2014 E25 / 7m 3s

Kouign-amann (pronounced QUEEN-ah-mahn) are made of laminated dough—croissant dough—that's about 50% butter and 50% yeasted dough. They're generously dusted with sugar and salt right before baking, so they develop a thick, caramelized crust that's at once savory and sweet, but, at least with our recipe, mostly savory. Traditionally, kouign-amann are formed in the shape of a large cake, but individ

Home Clambake

S2014 E24 / 3m 36s

We included some traditional clambake ingredients, as well as some Pacific Northwest favorites (like Dungeness crab instead of lobster), but you can use any ingredients that will fit inside a Dutch oven. Mimic the smoky beach fire with toasted wood chips, and use rehydrated kombu for a dose of brine. Pile rocks in the center to store heat in the middle of the pot so the food will cook evenly.

Strawberry Shortcake

S2014 E23 / 44s

Perfect for a summer evening, this refined strawberry shortcake focuses on simple flavors and textures, marrying sweet macerated strawberries with bright lemon mascarpone, and silky-smooth strawberry-Angostura sorbet with crisp and tender dehydrated olive oil cake. Chilled components make for a delightfully refreshing, sophisticated version of the American classic.

Egg-Free Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

S2014 E22 / 1m 22s

We bring the vanilla bean to the forefront with this ice cream, and do away with the yellowy appearance and eggy flavor of a richer French-style vanilla ice cream. A blend of hydrocolloids—naturally occurring gums that aid in stabilization—work in concert to provide the stability the ice cream base needs, without adding egg. The result: smooth ice cream that’s vanilla, through and through.

BBQ Beef Short Ribs

S2014 E20 / 1m 43s

Short ribs are a flavorful cut of beef that can be remarkably tender and juicy when cooked properly. The secret? Cook 'em low and slow in a moist environment. For barbecue, we believe short ribs are an even better cut of beef than brisket. Not convinced? Try this recipe for sous vide–cooked and traditionally-smoked barbecue beef short ribs with an East Texas–style Sweet and Sticky BBQ Glaze.Short

Chicken Wings

S2014 E19 / 1m 54s

These wings are ridiculously easy to prepare. Pressure-cooking tenderizes the meat very quickly, and a dusting of cornstarch before deep-frying keeps the outside crispy. We finish ours with Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce, but you can use any sauce you like (teriyaki? mustard sauce? Sriracha?). And if you don't have a pressure cooker, don't fret. Visit chefsteps.com for an easy hack.

Microwaved Radicchio Salad

S2014 E18 / 1m 59s

Can a salad be seductive? It can when it's a warm salad, made with jewel-toned radicchio—gently wilted, still a little crunchy—dressed with rich buttermilk, verdant chive oil, and funky blue cheese. We heat the radicchio in the microwave to achieve that perfect in-between texture; toasted hazelnuts bring deep, nutty flavor and more satisfying crunch.

Brioche Burger Buns

S2014 E17 / 4m 25s

We'd like to meet the guy who first decided to put a big, juicy burger patty between two slices of brioche. It's a multicultural marriage made in culinary heaven: the French are responsible for the rich, eggy bread, and the Americans (with a little help from 19th-century German immigrants) lay claim to the ground-beef patty. If that's not international diplomacy, we don't know what is.

Salmon Crudo

S2014 E16 / 1m 39s

There's no better way to showcase a great piece of fish than to serve it chilled, sliced, and gorgeously garnished, no cooking required. We use salmon, but you can substitute whatever looks fresh at the market.

Foie Gras Parfait

S2014 E15 / 2m 6s

Preparing this parfait for a dinner party? Get ready for your friends to marvel at your newfound fanciness. Layering our rich, unctuous Foie Gras Ganache with a ruby-hued pomegranate gelée, it's a gorgeous feat of textures and flavors that’s at once refined and decadent. We cast the molds in individual portions, using bowls that are smallish but deep, so each scoop gets a bit of both layers.

Blini

S2014 E14 / 1m 50s

Eating a tiny blini with all the fixins is the embodiment of posh (think czars and Fabergé eggs), and a longtime fixture of Russian cuisine. The pancake itself is soft, springy, and mild, a perfect vehicle for creamy toppings like crème fraîche and beet fluid gel. Pile a little salmon roe and fresh chervil on top, and you have a sweet, salty, and sour treat with amazing textural complexity.

Beef Tartare

S2014 E13 / 2m 12s

This is a sophisticated, unique tartare that's well-balanced and flavorful, finished with caviar for a salty pop, and radish sprouts for a bit of bitterness. Many people like to leave tartare to the professionals—they'll order it in a restaurant, but won't make it at home. At ChefSteps, we want to dispel all your tartare-themed apprehension. You'll be making it at home in no time. All the time.

Dinner Rolls

S2014 E12 / 2m 44s

Home cooks are often wary of baking bread, assuming you need a special oven to get bakery-quality results. And most home ovens do lack the key components that result in a soft, pull-apart interior and browned, crisped exterior. To get around that, we’ve adapted a technique popularized by Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery that essentially turns a covered heavy cast-iron pot into a bread oven.

Chicken Roulade

S2014 E10 / 3m 2s

Traditionally, roulade is made of boneless, skinless chicken breasts stuffed with ingredients that mask the real flavor of the chicken itself. Though we love Mom's old recipe, we wanted a roulade that would better feature the real flavor and texture of chicken. We used Activa to achieve tight bonds in the meat, yielding a unique and flawless product, with golden, crispy skin included.

Sous Vide Kale

S2014 E9 / 1m

Kale is all the rage right now, and for good reason. Its hearty texture, pungent flavor, and deep green color make it a great addition to grains, soups, and meat dishes. And cooking kale sous vide means you'll never overcook it into a withering mess. You'll have firm, chewy greens every time—in 10 minutes flat.

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