On the tablecloth, the cutlery can be counted on one hand. On the kitchen side, it is a wide variety of instruments that is used to work on food. Discover their origins, sometimes forgotten, and the best way to use them.
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Funny idea than to name a kitchen utensil from an origin. The most widespread hypothesis assumes that at the time when Chinese became democratized in France, at the end of the 19th e century, the cooks then associated its conical and flared form to that of the hats that the peasants carry in certain regions of China to protect themselves from the rain and the sun. In this case, why not “lampshade” or “ice cream cornet”?
The fact remains that the Chinese – or the Sauce pass, another name suggested by the Dictionary of the cuisine of Eric Glaton (BPI, 2009) – still remains one of the most faithful allies of the Marmitons. The pierced stainless steel container, the diameter of which varies from 10 to 25 centimeters, allows you to rinse or drain food before and after cooking; to filter a liquid or a semi-liquid (puree, cream, sauce, etc.) by separating it from its solid or aromatic elements; and sift or sprinkle with fine dry particles above a preparation.
The closer and tightened the holes, the more the liquid is rid of its undesirable substances. When the stitches are so thin that they form a sieve, we speak of “Chinese cheese”. The handle, always long, allows you to protect itself from possible projections of burning liquid.
its use
In the kitchens of Georges, the gourmet restaurant of the Grand Monarch, in Chartres, Thomas Parnaud makes daily use of Chinese. The young chef has developed a recipe in which he uses it in at least three different circumstances. “There is a classic of the culinary repertoire that I love to appropriate and destructure, it is the French pea, he explains, showing us the three types of passage pass that are around his work plan .
Before cooking my royal of soft onions, this taken cream that will garnish the bottom of the plate, I need to pass my device to the Chinese cheese, in order to make the preparation as smooth as possible. I use it again to pass a velvety of pods of peas mounted in butter. The Chinese with large holes, on the other hand, will allow me to filter a sauce with infused cream with smoked bacon that I will come to emulsify per minute.
At the time of dressage, he concludes, I use a very small Chinese cheese, which is called a passte, to sift a powder made from the skin of dried peas on the plate. This is what will bring a little texture under the language. “In the middle of the small hill of green grains with golden reflections by butter, Thomas Parnaud comes to hide five or six big bacon, sage leaves and some fresh pea shoots. The chief sends; Dive to take a little rest – it’s well deserved.