Cooking with rich, flavourful cream
THERE’S NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE RICH, FULL FLAVOUR OF CREAM IN KITCHEN
As a chef and a dad, Calgary’s Michael Allemeier knows how to throw a quick and nutritious meal together on the fly. To please his two school-aged boys, that often means cooking with dairy products such as milk, cream and cheese. Whipped into a sauce, tossed with vegetables, or pureed into soup — Allemeier has numerous dairy tricks up his white chef’s sleeve that serve to fuel the body’s engine and please the palate.
That makes Allemeier a perfect partner for the latest campaign by Dairy Farmers of Canada: the Chef Pantry Challenge. The campaign sees three chefs create family-friendly recipes, using cream, for spring and summer dishes. (For tips and recipes, go to anydaymagic.ca.)
Cream, Allemeier says, is versatile, adding nutrition and good taste to the most simple of ingredients. In fact, one of his favourite desserts is a bowl of sweet, fresh summer berries, tossed with a tiny bit of sugar and a few tablespoons of cream.
“If you have the best ingredients,” he says, “you don’t need anything else.”
Now a cooking instructor at SAIT, Allemeier, 44, has an impressive culinary resume. Born in South Africa, he has worked in numerous top-flight eateries, including Bishop’s in Vancouver, the restaurant at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in the Okanagan, and Calgary’s Teatro. A certified chef de cuisine, Canada’s highest professional culinary accreditation, Allemeier taught at cooking schools in Seattle and Vancouver before joining SAIT’s culinary arts staff in 2009. He’s appeared on Food Network programs such as Cook Like a Chef, and has prepared dishes for U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Heads of state are a cinch compared with the chef’s harshest critic — a child — and so Allemeier created two family-friendly recipes for the Dairy Farmers of Canada campaign: a chilled cucumber, apple and mint soup, and penne with ham, mushrooms and peas.
Allemeier says cooks must never feel guilty about making meals with cream. There is a spectrum of butter fats available — from the six per cent light cream (unique to the Alberta market) to half and half (10 per cent butter fat) to whipping cream (35 per cent). He says cooks should avoid switching milk for cream.
“I’m not a fan of substitutions. If the recipe calls for it, don’t change it,” he says. “A little goes a long way, and it’s all about moderation. I would rather eat less of something rich, than deprive myself of that ingredient altogether.”
Every cream, he says, has attributes that suit a given recipe. For hot chocolate, he recommends using six-per-cent cream, which “steams like a dream.”
If making a quiche, 10- to 18-per-cent cream works beautifully, and nothing says “home made” like a sinful blend of half-and-half churned with whipping cream to make your own ice cream.
“It’s very French,” says Allemeier with a cheeky grin.