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

Pâte Brisée

S2014 E48 / 3m 2s

Here's a classic recipe for golden, buttery, flaky crust that's perfect for pies and quiches. A jillion paper-thin layers melt in your mouth with every bite; brown and crispy on the edge, and tender in the middle—just like Grandma used to make. (But better!)

Steak with Red Wine Sauce

S2014 E46 / 2m 43s

For this delicious preparation, we begin by quickly searing the meat, then cook it in a water bath set to 135 °F / 57 °C, which yields a perfect medium-rare steak. We then finish it in a rich red wine sauce flavored with thyme and fattened up with plenty of butter. The result: a restaurant-level meat treatment that's simple to create and impossible to stop eating—no fancy equipment required.

Egg Nog

S2014 E44 / 1m 41s

Eggnog heralds the arrival of the holiday season, and our version takes advantage of some modern techniques to boost flavor and texture. Enjoy it plain or hooch it up with a nice shot of rum or bourbon.

Turkey Gravy

S2014 E43 / 1m 45s

If you're in the market for an easy gravy recipe—one worthy of the good china—you're in luck. Our way is super-easy, and requires no special skills. You'll have to stir some, but the effort is well worth the sense of satisfaction you'll get as your guests tuck into that perfectly cooked turkey, dressed in a sauce that's perfectly suited to a special occasion. A sauce to make your grandma proud.

Turkey Roulade

S2014 E42 / 3m 51s

At Thanksgiving, we like to separate turkey legs from the breast and use the dark meat to make a roulade seasoned with thyme and sage. It's a great way to feature those deep dark-meat flavors, and frees us up to roast the white meat without having to worry that breasts will be overcooked before the legs are done.

Pecan Pie

S2014 E41 / 4m 8s

Make this pie, and all your family and friends will bow down to your culinary prowess this Thanksgiving. Ooey-gooey nutty filling; rich, bourbon and vanilla notes; tender, flaky crust; and a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.... Yeah. Just trust us on this one.

Salmon with Green Pea Mash

S2014 E40 / 2m 7s

Elegant, vibrantly colored, and unfussy, this recipe exemplifies perfectly everything we love about sous vide cooking. A quick trip to the market for some fresh fish and herbs, and you're ready to create a dinner party–worthy plate that's pretty much foolproof and made mostly from ordinary kitchen staples like frozen peas, olive oil, and butter.

Wall of Fire: A ChefSteps Story

S2014 E39 / 11m 4s

In "Wall of Fire," we document our latest culinary exploit, where we designed and built a massive pig roaster from scratch, and then hosted hundreds of our friends and family at a farm in Sultan, Washington, for the feast.

Carotene Butter

S2014 E38 / 1m 27s

Carotene butter is a simple and versatile product. Serve it cold as a condiment, melt it into soups, or use it to sauté mushrooms or scallops to impart bright orange color. The technique actually works with any pigment-rich plant-food, such as tomatoes or micro-greens, so use your imagination to try other variations.

Chicken Noodle Soup

S2014 E37 / 2m 31s

Our eccentric take on chicken noodle soup transforms the noodles into actual chicken noodles, meaning, in other words, that the noodles are made of chicken. Lucky for chicken soup lovers, the noodles only accentuate the savory, home-y flavors and textures of the old American favorite, while elevating the preparation into something completely modernist.

What is Espresso?

S2014 E36 / 1m 12s

Espresso is simple enough: It's finely-ground coffee that's brewed under pressure, a-la-minute. You know, espresso—your morning ritual; your hands wrapped around a cup of warm deliciousness; a noisy coffee shop filled with chatter. Today more than ever, espresso and coffee culture play a big part in our lives. But what is this stuff, really?

Canelés

S2014 E35 / 39s

A canelé is a classic French pastry made from eggs, milk, and sugar. These little two-bite morsels encapsulate everything you want in a pastry: a crunchy caramelized crust gives way to a custardy interior, with a delicate balance of sweet and savory flavors. Visit chefsteps.com for the full recipe, plus troubleshooting, flavor variations, and tips and tricks for perfect pastries.

Nick's Nasti Salad Soup

S2014 E34 / 3m 40s

This lilypad-invoking creation was inspired by nasturtium, a peppery plant with edible red, orange, and yellow blossoms. You’ll often find nasturtium prettily packaged at high-end farmers markets, but, as any dedicated urban forager will tell you, it also grows wild—and wildly. Nasturtium plants (which we lovingly call "nasti's") spring up in untended gardens and public parks all over Seattle.

Savory Ice Cream Salad

S2014 E33 / 1m 1s

This is the ultimate farm-to-table appetizer. Raw Jersey milk lends inimitable brightness to the slightly sweet, slightly salty ice cream; as it melts, it creates a rich, yet subtle, dressing for a tender salad of microgreens. Raw milk flavor is key—you can sub in the pasteurized stuff, but the ice cream won't be as fresh and bright.

Fruit Minestrone

S2014 E31 / 1m 41s

This fruity dessert is a totally new take on the classic savory Italian soup. We used celery and strawberry as our base flavors, but you can substitute any fruits or vegetables that inspire you (something seasonal, perhaps?). After all, no Italian minestrone is the same, either: recipes vary by region, season, and kitchen, and each is usually as delicious as the last.

Rich and Moist Cornbread

S2014 E30 / 2m 27s

Caution: This is not your grandmother's cornbread. Indeed, it's the unconventional ingredients that set our cornbread apart, like isomalt, a popular non-sweet sugar. In sweet baked goods, sugar normally helps tenderize and moisten the crumb, but replacing it with isomalt yields cornbread that's exceptionally tender and moist, but never cloying.

Salmon Mi-Cuit

S2014 E29 / 2m 14s

A rough translation of the French phrase mi-cuit is half-cooked, but that utterly fails to express the decadent texture of this salmon. A combination of heat and salt work in concert to ensure that, although served chilled, the salmon is anything but raw.

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