Psych and the Kitchen

Asian Noodle Salad

2011-03-25T22:09:00.000-05:00

Oh. So spicy. I need to be more careful with my chili sauce - I think I accidentally put in double the amount. I could have sworn I had garlic-chili sauce, but it's not what the label said, even in the ingredients, so I just minced my own.

My fingers burn. It is winter so my hands are really dry. I didn't really think through using lotion all day before cooking this.

I watched Kings of Pastry while I made this. Those guys are amazing.

I was looking at some design books I had at my parents house and I started daydreaming. Went further to sketching out what I want my apartment to look like. The disorganization and stuff all over the floors and corners is driving me nuts when I come home. So Ikea it was. I really like the Expedia, 4x4. But I drive a red rabbit, so that meant I had to buy two small ones, which I actually like better side-by-side.
oh my goodness my arms hurt trying to carry those from the garage to the front door! When I got up to my floor, I just dragged the boxes. Clearly I need to lift in addition to yoga sculpt on Mondays.

yum. I want more. I think I'll do tofu for the leftovers - although I could bring this cold to school for lunch. mmm.

Now I want cake! darn pastry chefs making everything look so good!

Asian Noodle Salad
adapted from Epicurious Bon Appetit 2009

1 package rice stick noodles (maifun)
4 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 limes)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pound peeled deveined cooked medium shrimp
1 cup thinly sliced Japanese cucumbers or Persian cucumbers
1 8-ounce package sugar snap peas, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups) - can find frozen at ethnic groceries
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 cup (loosely packed) fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup (loosely packed) fresh cilantro leaves

Cook noodles in large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Using scissors, cut noodles into thirds. Do this, or you feel like you are choking each bite you take.

Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and sugar in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Place shrimp in medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons dressing; toss to coat. My shrimp was uncooked - I marinated in a little of the sauce and then cooked until pink.

Divide noodles among bowls. Top with cucumber slices and all remaining ingredients. Spoon shrimp with dressing over, and drizzle with remaining dressing.

The Rest of February

2011-02-27T22:03:00.000-06:00

Since I last posted, I have:
Walked through an empty city after the blizzard

My landlord cleaned this - thank you!

Can you spot the street?

Path along Diversey Harbor

Diversey Harbor. You can see the tow trucks on LSD way back there.

Dug my car out:

Entrance to parking underneath my building.

Good thing I put the wipers up

My back wheels and trunk were hiding...

Took me an hour to dig out - at least it was sunny!

That white car has 3 inches of dust underneath the snow. I have never seen it not there - I wonder if it even works anymore. And who owns it.

Thanked the second grade team for doing their job:

Made my own frozen berries

Didn't have room in my freezer for a bigger tray.

Screw IQF - they came apart just fine!

Cooked and cooked:

Beginnings of Filipino Adobo Chicken

German pancake

Lasagna

Tofu. And yogurt. because I didn't measure the garlic chili sauce. Whoops!

Stopped by HomeGoods and TJMaxx on my way home from the gym:

2 9-in cake pans, mise en place bowls, orange teapot, turquoise bowl (tag: "not for food"), marble, 8x8 pan, Le Creuset: 10 1/4 rectangle & 9 1/4 square, 2 Bormioli Rocco glass storage jars: just over $100. Awesome.

Participated in Restaurant Week. Twice!
Cute bartender: awesome cocktails, before visiting French Vietnam: grilled beef tenderloin strips, Chilean sea bass, mango sundae.
Laughing while drinking half a bottle of wine: baked oysters, chicken breast with mole, vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate-espresso cake
Will definitely go back here again, for a special occasion.

What I've learned:
Friends make good food even better.
Three thunderstorms in Februrary is a beautiful sound of an incoming spring.

Internship, First Try

2011-02-06T21:15:00.000-06:00

I neither had the time availability nor the interest in completing my internship at a restaurant. Unless it would have been working under a pastry chef. But even that, it wasn't really my interest.

What I was interested in was combining my interests of food and psychology, preferably in a way that helps others. There were two options for this: a non-profit baking company that was aligned with a church to train homeless people how to bake (and job-skills, of course), and a cooking program through CPS. I couldn't do the high school program because, well, I work during the day.

So I talked to the baking company. I'd link, but there's this thing on their website that says you can't link to it without talking to them, and, as you'll see, things didn't really go so well that I would want to link to them.

The purpose of the company was to put a group of homeless people (about 6-8) through courses on sanitation, baking, and job skills, and then they would work in the kitchen, under the guidance of two lead bakers, who had years of experience working in restaurants and hotels. The company is a collaboration between a really talented pastry chef who worked for years in Florida and a church ministry. They sold their baked goods to companies in Chicago - particularly breakfast items that were delivered daily and baked goods for special occasions.

I tried to start my internship early - with the permission of my program. I was trying to bank the bulk of my hours over my winter break, since the company worked only some days in the evenings and weekends.

I accidentally asked the lead baker if she was one of the students - oops. See, this is where introductions would have been helpful.

We had a set schedule that would have allowed this to work, but then the manager decided they should stop accepting orders during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Which was a business choice, but did not exactly work well for me.

While the bakers and students worked hard, I couldn't quite figure out what the other people did - there was the person who ran the classes, but there were multiple weeks between groups, and I couldn't figure out what else she did. She was really nice to talk to, though.

And then there was the manager - I think she created the recipes, but it appeared that every time I was there, she spent those hours (and sometimes I was there for at least 6 hours) just talking in her office with someone else - I think he was in charge of selling the products and managing customers. I could have missed what else they did, but it appeared that they had more people working there than were needed. Then again, it was the end of December, and they didn't have a ton of clients.

Somehow, their computer program that multiplied the recipes didn't work properly - they wouldn't come out the same as the single batches, which they are supposed to. That isn't good for business.

The snow didn't help. While that storm was nowhere near as bad as the one we had just last week, it was enough that they sent us home early. But I didn't get to leave for awhile since we were on a side street and my car's wheels spun and spun no matter the amount of salt I put around the tires. Luckily, a chef from a catering company down the street, who was much stronger than me, was able to push me out after a few tries. That was not fun!

Then the manager called me in for a photo shoot for the baked goods for their website. I made it through the snow, and she didn't really explain how much shortening I was supposed to put in the ganache to make it hold under the camera lights. So I kept having to put more in. But then it didn't even matter because the photographer couldn't get there due to the snow. Darn it. More hours that did not happen.

Next I had to go back to my actual job. And I started to look at my calendar - when could I call in sick? Did we have any days off? Looking at the number of hours I still had to complete, I just could not figure out how I could make it work without putting my school psychologist career in jeopardy. And I went through this huge debate in my head - why did it even matter if I completed it? I wasn't planning on becoming a chef, so did it matter if I graduated the program? Well, if you know my family, it mattered. We're not big on quitting.

So I hunted down some help at the culinary school - turns out, they don't advertise it, but if you do well in the program, such as be on the honor roll like I was, they'll let you complete the internship in their in-house cafe. I had to meet with the head of program, but she approved me, and I called to set up an appointment with the manager of the non-profit.

I made the appointment. She didn't show, and wouldn't return my calls. I left a message with the minister, who was the only person in that day, and he was really nice. I would have liked to speak to the manager though. It just felt wrong to quit that way, even if they weren't paying me.

Then again, writing this two years later, and you all having read the post about how I ended up quitting that high school job in a not-so-great way either, that this is clearly something I need to grow up about already...

Blog Thoughts

2011-02-01T21:40:00.003-06:00

So, in theory, I love the idea of a blog. I love to write and think, think and write. And I love opportunities to be creative.

At the same time, I'm a pretty private person. Not if you're my close friend or family, but to everyone else. co-workers know pretty little about my life. I don't want 15 minutes of fame or everyone in the world to have a chance to learn details about my life.

But, that's kind of what a blog is - it's on the internet and open to the world.

Good thing nobody really reads this and I have a day job that I live far away from so I'm gone 14-16 hours a day and don't have time to blog on a regular basis

I have been cooking and love to share. But Blogger is kind of stupidly set up and ~~makes it difficult to upload and move photos within the text~~. Okay, now I saw they updated editing materials. But, Google, get your act together because there are essential things one should be able to do that I can't (see below).

So, I'm going to try something. First, I'm going to begin posting again. Which means I should probably take more photos of things I cook. And then, I'll share that I do this with people.

I might even share my name.

Maybe.

That would mean people could find me. If anyone were interested.

So, to start, this has been my cooking list for the past few months. I am not allowed to buy a new cookbook unless I keep doing actually cooking from them. I'm finding I'm not interested in some recipes I've collected over the years, but I'm also discovering some gems, and that's great!

Okay. See, blogger, what the hell? I should be ~~able to copy and paste~~, especially from a google doc, which you. also. own. I figured out how to copy and paste, but seriously, blogger, a little annoying of a process. And, since you have to copy and paste into Edit HTML, all my links for the paste disappeared. Booooo Blogger.

List will come. Once I ~~get over being annoyed at Blogger~~ find the time to do all the links over in my list. And, no, I will not be using the snow day for that - that is going towards cooking and baking for a team that did their job on time and music and movies.

oh, yeah, and going down to the lake to see the waves and what the snowstorm did. Fun!

Because travel is always worth a half-day's docked pay

2011-02-01T20:35:00.009-06:00

Took my second annual trip to San Francisco this year to visit my sister Suzan. Beautiful weather, fun times!

This is what happens her friend Karo is a fabulous pastry chef:

So sad I could not take the rest home with me on the plane!

And her lifelong best friend, Pegs, bought me these:

Also wished I could take these home - so beautiful and smelled amazing!

Taking advantage of warm November weather, we took in the view from a big bridge: We walked among trees.

And found an elf who just did not want to leave.

Then we took a sunset cruise to Sausalito.

A bookstore sucked us in and I bought the fattest copy of War and Peace I could find (and finally finished it in the beginning of January).

And Sunday morning we visited Pegs and watched the Bears game (near) the Marina.
Next year: we hit the vineyards.

Gosh I miss the sun given this is what we are currently living in:
(credit: Chicago Tribune)

(credit: NASA)

P.S. Did you know thunder can come with a snowstorm? I didn't but it's happening right now!

Until next year, SF.

Roll with the Punches

2010-10-16T20:27:00.005-05:00

This is what happens when you get on the phone with your office roomie, a social worker (whom you never see anymore because faculty requested mental health services across the week, both of you only being part-time in that building) while your spiced cumin potatoes are baking in the oven:

Hint: they're not supposed to be all shriveled like that. Which you might be able to tell better if I had a better camera, or even if they would just actually fix my kitchen light so that it, you know, turns on.

So this is how you solve the dinner question, since you live in the city and treats are just a block away:

Because everyone needs a little nilla wafer now and then...

Other things to know about me:

I need lo-jack for my glasses. I constantly misplace them in a one-bedroom apartment. My office roommate suggested a chain to wear around my neck after I walked around at work today with a fuzzy view because I took my contacts out...

I think facebook might actually be evil incarnate. But I don't quit it, even though I've had that view for ages.

I don't have a coffeetable, so in order to use my brand-new adult-sized couch and work on my laptop, I have stacked three paper ream boxes up next to the couch and place the laptop on top. It's the perfect height for me. What was I supposed to do? I have nowhere to put the boxes, and I don't like the look or prices of coffeetables I've seen out there.

Also, I bought a gorgeous new tv, adult-sized, a month ago and it's still sitting in its box. Because not only do I not have a coffee table, I don't have a stand to put the tv on. I want one long, low shelving unit, like they sell at CB2, but not modern like that. Guess I should actually make an attempt to look somewhere besides Target.

I love tv, but I refuse to pay for cable. If a show isn't available online, I just never become a fan...

I get kind of punchy when I don't sleep enough the night before work, and then don't come home for 14 hours because of my Spanish for (Educators) class.

Buenas noches.

I Recommend You Visit...

2010-10-02T15:57:00.009-05:00

This summer my family and I took our vacation in Turkey. We were fortunate to visit some familiar sights from our childhood, including Sariyer, where our aunt lived.

This is my memory of a market, still similar 15 years later:

Can we please import that from Turkey to here? Farmers Markets don't even come close to the beauty and plenty available here.

A bakery:

Bread at the hotel continental breakfast:

Now I want it again. How do they make this??

And this is why I'm tempted not to try new food:

Turns out fries with mayo is better than fries with ketchup. Now I want to buy mayo and keep it in my fridge. Even better? Mayo and ketchup mixed together.

One meal - a sampler plate:

Simit, the best bread/breakfast/snack food ever, and possibly my most desired food memory:

Back Home, In a New Home

2010-09-22T20:37:00.005-05:00

I've been busy since I last posted.
Work started up again, busy in a different way from last year. Have been dealing with the double whammy of horrible allergies and a cold that won't leave for two months now.
But I moved - back to the city! Ignoring the commute, which, truthfully, could be so much worse - at least I'm done by 4, and can miss most of the congestion. I'm so happy to be back.

This time, I'm in a one-bedroom. The living room is huge, and so is the bedroom. It's a really good size for a decent price in a wonderful location. But of course the most important piece is...

I have a kitchen - with enough room to use both walls - and have a full-sized stove! How exciting is that?

Ugh. Ignore the mess on top of the fridge. Looks better now, but I'm trying to figure out where to find a shelving/stacking unit for all my baking items.

Next week, they're spraying the cabinets and closets. Which, awesome that they're proactive about pests, but ohmygoodness, where am I going to put all my kitchen stuff? Uh, and my clothes?Major summer goal was to improve my organization, and I have - but that sure means I have move a lot of stuff back out into the open.

I'd show you photos of the rest, but the living room and dining area are wide open - see, I have a small table, but no chairs, and I've been sitting on the floor of the living room for over a month now. Couch should be delivered soon, but then I have to slow down on the bulk items - it'd be good if I saved at least a little of my salary each month...

But I'm cooking all the time - more lessons and practice posts soon! My food runs the gamut across the world during the week.

In Which I Learn How a Restaurant Works

2010-07-27T16:10:00.006-05:00

Okay, wow, it is 2010. Halfway through 2010. And I finished culinary school in January 2009. That is a long time ago. A lot has happened in that amount of time.

Spring 2009, I trained for and completed the Soldier Field 10-miler, and then a month later completed my first sprint triathalon. I quit my high school psych position during my very positive evaluation in May, and finished out the last month stringing along my boss until the district I currently work for called her and informed her they had hired me. Whoops. They just got to her first, I swear, I was mulling their offer! I dated a man for longer than we should have, and subsequently broke his heart, something I get twinges of guilt about a little too frequently in my friends' opinions. I started working for a district in which I am stretched too thin across two needy elementary schools, but where my skills are valued and interests encouraged. I never thought I'd be in an elementary school, but have found I can truly help kids when I actually get to work with them... what a strange concept.

I moved out of the city, tempted by a 10-minute commute to work, and one year later, I'm going back. Screw the commute! Isn't that what podcasts and mp3 books are for?

For spring 2010, I trained for and completed a half-marathon, and then completed the same sprint triathalon, but this time with no training. Whoops again.

These days, I concentrate my culinary interests on tackling the hundreds of recipes I have saved in word documents, favorites on both explorer and firefox (across two laptops and one desktop at work), and magazine and newspaper clippings. Oh yeah, and eventually, I'll conquer my cookbooks. I'm not allowing myself to buy any new cookbooks until I finish this project. I never even enter bookstores anymore - it's too hard not to give in to the pretty pictures and daydreams of future meals... I'm also not supposed to save any more favorites, but when the majority of blogs I follow on Google Reader on foodie blogs, this is a hard line to stick to.

Anyway. Culinary School. From the world foods class, we moved on to the restaurant. The school had a tiny restaurant that was open for breakfast and dinner, and we had three rotations across the class. The first one, I was on desserts. Then I was waitstaff, and learned I am not capable of opening a wine bottle without assistance. That clearly must be improved, and I have a couple friends I think who would be willing to help me learn by drinking a bottle or two with me... The last week I was on a station I can no longer remember, except it was across from space in which I had baked my cakes...

But back to the first week, which I remember best. It was a three-member team, one person making cheddar rolls, and the other two on cakes. Yum. Cheddar rolls. We took the liberty of eating a few right out of the oven, until Head Chef caught us and we got the I'm-disappointed-in-you look.
I made the individual cakes. They were gingerbread cakes with a dark beer for liquid, with a caramel pear topping. They were served with tuile paste cut into triangles, baked, and then folded over a rolling pin. Into that fold then went Gelato di Crema. And in the ice cream went caramel sticks. Salivating yet?

This is what they looked like for the final plating:

In order to make them, we poured caramel into the silver cups, topped it with sliced bosc pears, and then poured the cake mixture about 2/3 of the way. It was so odd though - I would make the exact same mixture every night, and the first night was the only night I actually got the expected 64. Every other night, it was a little short. And it wasn't just me - the Chef couldn't make it right either, and he was the head pastry chef for major hotels in Las Vegas for years! So strange. And disappointing. Clearly, I am not meant to be a cog in a machine since I can't be consistent...

I loved making these. I handed over caramel duties to my other teammate, and poor girl, she was stuck with that the rest of the week, when she really would have liked to have a hand at the cakes. But one night she tried, and Chef wasn't happy, so I won back my spot. These would take us the entired service to create - it was a long process.

Waiting on people was interesting for me - I'd never done it before. Very kindly, some friends and family came by. Very kindly for family, since they came during a blizzard. I ended up shouting at the Head Chef because he wanted to cancel dinner service that night... there were angry words said. But polite ones. I would never swear at a supervisor. I ended up winning anyway since he couldn't get ahold of a party of 10.

The week I was waiting was tapas, and I had to memorize the English descriptions of Spanish dishes. The guy working the calamari station was my buddy, so he'd save me some when he could - there was never any left for family service at the end of the night.

The last week was Swedish dishes. I was disappointed I couldn't do desserts again, but it actually worked out since my station required only a little bit of prep and then very little clean-up. It was a salad? Clearly, it did not make an impression. But then one night I had to sub at the meat station because so many people were absent. That might have been the night of the storm. But look, so good -

I can't remember what cut of meat it was (maybe duck?) - it was marinated in Swedish vodka. With a cranberry compote and roasted brussel sprouts.

I enjoyed working the different stations, but I was starting to get a little restless and tired of the process. That, and my body was exhausted. My migraines were happening almost daily, and I did not really enjoy taking naps in my office a couple times a week. I know, I can't believe they were giving me a positive evaluation either - but then again, they didn't really know about the naps, did they? I always managed to get the paperwork done, so what did it matter if my door was locked? No one ever ventured up to my fourth-floor closet with the view of the Sears Tower on a clear day anyway... I could never have taken this on at my current job, and for that, I am grateful to my old job.

That was my last official class. Next I did my internship, and I'll come back to explain that, maybe in another 18 months? Just kidding. It'll be sooner!

Japan

2008-12-20T19:26:00.016-06:00

And, finally, we have Japan. Um. Depending on how long you've known me, you may not know of my love for sushi. How I can stuff my face with far more sushi than a human is supposed to eat and still want more as long as some is sitting in front of me. All you can eat sushi nights are both the best and the worst, for obvious reasons. I also love ramen. And miso soup.

Miso Soup

Make dashi, drain the tofu. Soften the red miso in a medium bowl by adding 2t of water and blending with a whisk. Gradually ladle the softened miso into the stock pot, while simmering over medium heat. After the miso is disolved, add trefoil stalks, shittake mushrooms, and tofu, and heat thoroughly. Remove from the heat and serve garnished with a little sansho pepper.

Sushi

Wash the rice at least 3 times, until the water runs clear. Drain the rice in a colander and let it stand for 30 minutes. Cook equal parts rice with equal parts water. Clearly, watch carefully so the rice does not burn! Remove from heat, place a damp towel of rice, and let it cool.

Pour seasoned rice vinegar (rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt) over cooked rice and mix it gently.

Make tetzu - 1c. water and 1T rice wine vinegar. For dipping your hands into, so rice doesn't stick to hands.

Toast nori over light open fire, shiny side down.

Place nori on makisu, with rough-side up. Spread rice, leaving a 1/ in. at the side ear you, and a 3/4 in. at the side furthest from you. Hold the makisu with both hands and carefuly roll it up, wrapping the fillign in the middle, adn rolling away from the side closest to you. Hold the rolled makisu with both hands and squeeze gently to firm the nori-roll. Cut into eight pieces, using a very sharp knife.

Lay rice over nori, then place filling, and roll, pulling tightly toward you as you wrap.

Or make a rice ball in palm of hand, and place shrimp/fish on top.

Lay rice on nori, then flip over, place filling on inside, and roll as above.
Yum. T and I did an amazing job. Aren't his avocado slices beautiful?

Grilled Chicken Skewers with Yakitori Glaze

Mix glaze: soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, crushed garlic, sliced giner, water, and cornstarch.
Thread chicken andonions onto water-soaked skewers. Apply glaze.
Grill until done. Baste as necessary. Finish with five spice powder and salt.

Tempura and Ponzu Sauce

Pour rice wine vinegar into a small bowl. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolvd. Taste for sweetness. Add cilantro, chile, and garlic and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and allow to sit for 10 minutes to 1 hour, for flavors to combine.

Mix the ice-cold water into the flour until the mixture is slightly thicker than buttermilk consistency. Dip slice vegetables (we used zucchini, onions, and eggplant) into the batter mixture and shake offany excess. Deep fry vegetables until the batter are light golden in color and crisp. Turn the vegetables at intervals to ensure that both sides are cooked equally and then remove. Season with salt and eat with Ponzu sauce: lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, mirin and lemon zest - bring to a boil, then cool; strain and reserve.

And... grilled steak. Yum.

Lessons Learned:
This only reinforced my love of Japanese foods. I think miso soup is going to make it into my regular rotation. So simple, so good.

And that's it for classes, folks - next step: cooking in the school's restaurant. Cooking for people besides ourselves. Fun! Scary! Guess we'll find out for sure what I think of working the line...

Vietnam

2008-12-20T19:26:00.014-06:00

Okay, sadly, I do not have the photos for Vietnam. See my Thailand post for explanation.
I also may have mentioned, I recently discovered where the Vietnamese markets are near me - when the weather gets better (seriously, is it ever going to be consistently not winter?) I plan on taking the el up and exploring. Anyone want to join?
Anyway.

Summer rolls with Peanut Hoisin Sauce
Soak the cellophane noodles in bowl of hot boiled water until they soften. Drain noodls and shock in cold water.
Working with one sheet at a time, completely immerse a sheet of rice paper in hot water for a few seconds. Remove and lay it on a board. Place a leaf of lettuce, 2 pieces of shrimp, 3 cilantro, 2 mint leaves, a wad of noodles, bean sprouts and carrots. Fold the sides of rice paper over the filling and roll up the rice paper into a cylinder - really tight - you don't want it to be able to open up.
Serve with peanut hoisi sauce: rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, peanut butter, fish sauce, hot water, sugar, lime juice, minced garlic, ground peanuts. Simmer until sauce is not too thin or too thick.

Bo Nuong - Beef Skewer
Soak bamboo skewer in water. Combine lemon grass, chopped garlic, sesame seeds, fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, onions, honey, an dsugar. Marinate meat at least 2 hours, turn periodically. Skewer and wrap with caul fat then grill well done. Serve with dipping fish sauce: hot water, sugar, white vinegar, fish sauce, minced garlic, minced thai chile, and juiced lime.
This. was. fantastic. Caul fat is not exactly pleasant to work with, but when it melts into the meat, it makes it juicy and delicious.

Lessons Learned:
I miss Chef T! He subbed this night, and he brought all kinds of Vietnamese herbs for us to sample. He's the one that told me where the markets are, and encourage me to go exploring. He was such a nice teacher, and actually very interesting to talk to. I would have liked to have ended the program with him.

Just in case you wanted a reason to keep reading (for those of you that do)... I'm actually back to cooking at home these days, and I'll probably keep blogging about things I've enjoyed making. And then you can listen to me daydream about my plan to buy a stand mixer.

Thailand

2008-12-20T19:26:00.011-06:00

I only have a few photos from my final, which was on Thai dishes. My camera's battery had died, and I kept forgetting to charge it. So, these photos are on Irish's camera, and, well, she's not exactly good at following through on reminders to send them to me...

But this night was delicious. It's hard for me to pick favorites when it comes to food, but definitely Thai is way up there.

*Tamarind water - made by rehydrating the tamarind paste in equal amounts of warm water, mashing the paste to dissovle and passing through a strainer. You can also buy tamarind water - just look for products that only have the ingredients of tamarind and water.

Kai Look Koei (Son in Law Eggs)
Hard cook eggs first, then peel
Simmer tamarind water, palm sugar (brown sugar if can't find this), and fish sauce, stirring, until syrupy, 5-8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
Deep fry the eggs, turning to brown evenly. When gold and blistered, after 3-5 minutes, drain on paper towels. Make and alternate sauce with a combination of sambal and fish sauce with a little bit of brown sugar. Adjust the seasonings so that all the flavors are represented.
Toss the 3 whole eggs in the tamarind sauce and the other egg in sambal sauce. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise and arrange ona platter with a dollop of sauce under each. Scatter the chiles and fried shallots on top.
Okay, so this may sound kind of disgusting, but it was pretty good. I wouldn't be able to eat more than one just because of the deep frying, and, well, that's just too much egg, but, still, not as awful as it may seem based on the description.

Green Curry with Chicken

Brown chicken in oil. Add eggplant until see color. Add 1T curry paste. Add milk, then heavy cream, add lime leaves, simmer until nappe. If bland, add fish sauce. Served with rice.

Pad Thai

I know this is so cliched, but, honestly, pad thai is one of my favorite dishes. It's just so good. Plus I really liked this recipe. This is definitely a keeper. Now, if only I had a real stove and not a stupid 2/3 electric stove that doesn't really allow me to cook on a wok...

Now, if you are lucky enough to have an actual stove... here's the directions:

Fry an egg in oil, then take out. Fry shrimp, and turn down heat. Add shallot and garlic, then brown sugar, then scallions, then half the sprouts. Oh. Buy real sprouts. As in, go to your nearest Asian market, not the boring old grocery store you would go for simple staples. You won't believe the difference.

Anyway. Then add noodles. Strain the tamarind water, pour over noodles, then add egg. Break up among noodles. Add a couple T of water, then add fish sauce. Careful! Not too much - it will make it really salty. Serve with coarsely chopped peanuts, lime wedges, shredded carrots, cilantro, and thai bird chiles.

Lessons Learned:

I think I could eat pad thai every single day. And oh man does fish sauce smell so bad, but it makes dishes taste so good.

China

2008-12-20T19:25:00.012-06:00

Okay, so writing this post is making me crave these dishes. Seriously. I realize it's dinnertime, but don't these dishes look so good? I'm going to have to stop in HMart when I visit my parents tomorrow - I wouldn't buy seafood there, but I will for sure buy noodles, spices and vegetables there.

Pork and Ginger Potstickers
Dough: Mix flour and salt. Slowly add hot water to flour in 2 oz increments. Mix until a ball is formed and dough is not too hot to handle. On a floured surface, knead dough until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball. Place back in bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rest for at least 1 hour. Working on a floured surface with floured hands, roll out dough to form a long log 1 in in diameter. Cut 1/2 in. pieces and turn them over so the cut sides are facing up. Flatten with your palm and roll out thin using a rolling pin. The dumpling wrapper should end up about 3 inches in diameter.
Filling: Sprinkle cabbage with half the salt and let stand for 30 minutes. Place the cabbag on a clean dishtowel or cheesecloth and squeeze out any water. The dryer the cabbage the better. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the cabbage with ground pork, minced ginger, minced garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and egg Cook 1 T to check seasoning. Reserve.
To put together: Put a tiny bit in the middle of the wrapper, and seal with water. Pinch all the air out - just like ravioli, this is key to them not exploding. Press fork tines into edge to make the pretty border.
Sauce: Soy, dijon, honey, sesame oil, minced giner, water, and minced scallion.

Mapu Dofu
Re-hydrate tree ear muchrooms in boiling water. Stir fry the minced ginger in oil and add minced pork and chili garlic paste. Then add scallions, tofu, peppercorns, soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch. Drain the mushrooms. Deglaze with sake. Stir gently to coat.

Pork Fried Rice
Use day-old rice. Use a wok. Heat egg in oil, then take out. Fry pork 2 minutes, remove and set aside. Heat 1/2 T of oil in same wok. Add rice, mix well, toss in mushrooms and scallions. Add soy sauce. Add egg back in, break with rice. Add sprouts and sesame oil. Add pork back in, toss. Serve hot.

Yet again, I have another dish I don't have a recipe for. Shoot, I am only screwing myself, since I remember liking this - wish I knew how to make it again! Anyone have any ideas what it might be?

Lessons Learned:

I'm trying to increase my tolerance to "heat" in dishes - it's getting better, but I'm still a weakling compared to lots of people. But, now, I mostly just keep stuffing my face even if it burns because it just tastes so good. That's how it'll get stronger, right?

India

2008-12-20T19:25:00.008-06:00

I love Indian food. I tried it for the first time several years ago when I was hanging out at a friend's house - his dad is Indian. But the person who really made me love it is my sister's husband. He's an amazing cook, and he really knows how to make any Indian dish. I love eating over there.

Seriously, is there any region whose food I don't love? No. No, I don't think there is.

Mmm... Rico made the most amazing black tea... this was so good. But since we get out at 11:30pm and I have to get up at 5:45am, I had only one sip and then took it home. I had it the next day, cold - it was fantastic!

Black Tea

4 c water, 1.5 c milk, 14 cardamon pods, 6 whole cloves, 1 in. piece fresh ginger, 3 cinnamon sticks, 2T honey, 2T black tea, 2 T vanilla

Boil 10 min, strain

Naan

(see photos below)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mae a well in the middle. Dissolve fresh yeaast in 1/2 c of warm water. Mix the water and yogurt in a bowl. Pour this, plus yeast mixture, into the center of the flour and knead, adding water if necessary to form soft dough. Knead the dough again and cover and leave for 2 hours.

We grilled these, but they can be baked similarly to pitas if you want them to puff up a litle bit.

Tomato Chutney

Um. Yeah. So I'm blanking again on which dish is which. Whoops. I seem to have photos of additional dishes, but not the recipes...

Mix tomatoes, creamed ginger, creamed garlic, minced cilantro, chile powder, sugar and salt. Simmer until a saucy consistency is reached. No oil is required for cooking. Remove from fire, cool and serve. Sprinkle with minced mint.

Tandoori Chicken

Blend half the plain yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, ground cardamon, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, ground mace, ground aniseed, saffron, red chili powder, red pepper flakes, black salt, pepper, salt, orange food coloring, and yellow food coloring. Can be either mixed by hand or in a blender. Fold in remaining yogurt, and reserve 1/4 c for basting. Add chicken to marinade (remove skin). Reserve. Grill chicken until done, basting occasionally with yogurt mixture then butter. Serve with onion and cilantro.

Aloo Gobi

Fry potato in oil until golden and tender. Reserve some of the oil used to fry the potato and begin pan roasting the cauliflower (add small amounts of water to steam near the end of cooking). When the cauliflower is tender, return the potatoes to the pan. Add the minced ginger, minced garlic, turmeric, cayenne, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Cook to heat the potatoes through. Add small amounts of water to prevent sticking.

Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt and chopped cilantro. Adjust the seasoning with salt.

Lamb Curry

Toast whole cumin in oil. When brown, add minced onion and minced tomato and cook to brown. Add yogurt, chili powder, coriander, turmeric, and garam marsala, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add 1 in. cubes of lamb and continue simmering until cooked, about 15 min. Add water as necessary. Add onion gravy, and simmer 10 minutes more.
Onion Gravy: sliced onion, sliced tomato, yogurt, cream, cashews, cumin, cardamom pods, whole clove, ground cinnamon, ground mace, ground coriander, turmeric, chili powder, paprika, and salt.

This is a lentil dish. I love lentils. But I don't know the recipe. Sorry!

Oh, and everything is served over basmati rice. I buy all my rice and noodles at ethnic grocery stores - I feel like finding those in every city or suburb is the key to finding quality food at reasonable prices. I love me some Trader Joe's and Aldi, but I love exploring Indian and Asian grocery stores. Next step is Mexican and African grocery stores. I've located them, but I haven't had as much of a reason to go into them - I'm more likely to make Indian or other Asian dishes at home.

Lessons Learned:
There are a lot of things I have learned to really enjoy over the past year, both because of and before culinary school. One of those is tea. Coffee. Alcohol. I realize this could just be because as we get older, we are earning more money (hopefully) and therefore have more disposable income to buy better quality... Mmmm. Tea. Sitting in a sushi restaurant, waiting for my food to be ready, I love to sip on hot green tea. It's just so good.

South America: Brazil & Argentina

2008-12-20T19:24:00.020-06:00

I apologize for my photography lately... lots of blurry shots for some reason... maybe I was eager to eat and took the photos too fast...

There are lots of Brazilian restaurants in Chicago... steak places, but I've never been to one. A little out of my price range, and since meat isn't my life, I figure I can wait.

Vatapa

Sweat onion and a quarter each of red and green pepper (brunoise) until translucent. stir in tomatoes, salt, pepper and cook 2 minutes more. Pour in the clam juice, bay leaf, and scallions, and make a slurry with the coconut milk. Add to the pot. Bring to a simmer over med-high heat. Reduce and adjust consistency. Cook 10-15 min, stirring occasionally, until peppers are tender. just before service, add the scallions, scallops and monkfish and season with salt and pepper. cover and simmer 5-7 minutes, lifting cover twice to stir gently. Add the lime juice, dende (palm oil) and cilantro and simmer 2 minutes more. Ladle into large bowls and garnish with the toasted coconut and lime sections.

Churassco con Chimichurri salsa and Yucca Frita

Beef Flank Steak and plantain chips

Pat steak dry. Stir together salt, cumin, coriander, and pepper in a small bowl and rub mixture onto both sides of steak. Broil steak to desired doneness. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Meanwhile, with motor running, add garlic to a food processor and finely chop. Add cilantro, parsley, distilled white vinegar, oil, cayenne, and salt, then pulse until herbs are finely chopped. Slice steak thinly on the bias and serve with sauce.

[we grilled the steak instead of broiling, and also chicken]

Chimichurri: 1/2 c chopped parsley, finely mince 3 cloves garlic, 1t oregano, 1t chili flakes, 1/2 lemon (juice), salt, black pepper, paprika, bay leaf, olive oil to thicken. Marinate one hour.

Feijoeda Completa

Soak dried black beans overnight. Drain and add ham hock and fresh water. Simmer until the beans are soft. Shred meat from hock. Reserve beans, water and meat.
Render bacon, remove when cooked.
Brown pork butt and andouille sausage in the bacon fat. Remove.
Sweat onion and garlic in the bacon fat, add tomatoes then bay leaf. Return all meats to the pot, simmer, in addition to beans, orange juice, and bean water to cover. Simmer for 1 hour to combine flavors.
Tastes good with braised collard greens.
Okay, so I did not help with this dish. Once I saw what a ham hock looked like, I could not bring myself to help. I didn't even taste it. It was just too much pork for me. Rico happily took my plate.

Lessons Learned:
Either meat is extremely popular in the majority of the world's cultures, or these are just the recipes I'm being exposed to through this program...

Mexico

2008-12-20T19:24:00.018-06:00

Sadly, I was not present on Mexico night, much to my dismay. I had to attend conferences for work. You know, where I sit at a table playing on my laptop or walking around catching up with people - in my role, I don't have any parents that want to speak to me. How many parents want to be caught sitting at the table clearly labeled "psychologist." Not too many.
But then you know, luckily, Chef K made two of the midterm practicals recipes from this night... awesome Chef. Love you. I burned all the stuff. Oh, and the chicken wasn't cooked. ha. Whoops.
But I really was disappointed because I love Mexican food and I didn't get to learn how to make it. But then I was told if I had seen how much lard they put in the tamales, I would never want to eat Mexican food again... so maybe it worked out in my favor!
But I would have really liked to have learned how to make a good mole... guess I'll have to teach myself when I have time to myself again...

Lessons Learned:
Getting angry at the chef doesn't help one cook better... in fact, it may make you burn things.

Spain

2008-12-20T19:24:00.017-06:00

This night we visited Spain. I love tapas. But I like to balance with lots of vegetable dishes - tapas can be pretty meat-heavy.

Gambas al Ajillo

I made this dish twice - I think I burned the garlic the first time. But it was kind of nice making it twice, one because it's so easy, and then two because there's only four shrimp and I wanted more!

Cook garlic, red pepper flakes, and sea salt in olive oil over moderately low heat, until garlic is pale golden, about 4-5 minutes. Increase heat to moderately high, then add shrimpa nd saute, until shrimp are just cooked through, 3-4 minutes. Finish with lemon juice.

So simple and so good!

Borrego en la Parilla con Salsa Romesco I don't really think the sauce is supposed to look like this... but Chef K said that's how he likes it.

Sweat garlic until fragrant and light brown. Remove and add bread slice and fry until golden. Remove and gently fry the almonds. Remove and cool oil. Place garlic, bread and almonds in mortar and pestle and work to form a paste. Add peeled and roasted red pepper, tomato, paprika, and cayene pepper and continue to work into a paste (we used the blender). Add vinegar. Slowly drizzle in oil to form an emulsion, adjust seasoning with salt. Should be the consistency of a light mayo. Serve over grilled lamb steaks.

Paella

Looks good, right? I didn't actually have any of this - I was getting restless by the time it finished cooking.

Warm the while wine and add saffron, steep for 10 minutes. In a separate pan, sear chicken (leg, breast, and thigh) to golden brown on all sides. Remove. Repeat with sausage (andouille or chorizo, bias cut), then remove. Add onion and garlic, sweat to golden, add rice and paprika, toast for one minute, then deglaze with tomato. Degalze with wine mixture. Add stock, chicen and sausage to pan. Cover. Simmer paella until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. In last 8 minutes, add red pepper, mussels, clams and shrimp. Arrange the seafood, chicken, and sausage, alternating in a spiral around the dish. Add peas just before serving.

Serve in dishcooked in. Garnish with parslep and a dollop of Aioli in the center of the dish.

Oh, and by the way, it was my birthday! Whoops, I have clearly been too busy to post, since my birthday is in the middle of November...

Here's what Irish brought me:

Not to be ungrateful. But. Pound cake is nice. But it's not my "favorite" cake like she claimed I told her. Just because it's low fat doesn't mean it's healthy - it's loaded with sugar! And, really, I guess yellow cake would be my favorite. With pilsbury frosting. It tastes like cake. Like my memories of cake. But whatever - she claimed I mentioned that one night. Considering I haven't eaten pound cake in years, and she never asked me what kind of cake I wanted, I'm going to guess that she misremembered. What I do like, though, is all the fruit on the cake. That is my idea of a good dessert!

But the whipped cream Chef K made for me tasted excellent. Whipped cream and strawberries. Yum!

Lessons Learned:

I'm starting to get a little... I don't know. I go through these stages where I don't know if I can trust people. And I'm just starting to doubt my friendship with Irish and Tennessee. I just don't think we're really friends. For example, this cake - compare it to what she made Rico or Tennessee. Or Nemo. Which, whatever, if she doesn't really consider me a friend, that's okay, that's the beauty of adulthood is you get to choose your friends. But there's no need to fake it, and I'm pretty sure that's what they're doing with me. Granted, I have major trust issues, but usually I'm pretty right about who is faking it. 6 months. 5 nights a week. That's a lot of time to spend with the same people. But it is possible to be friendly without pretending to be a friend. True, I am writing this months later, with lots more history to support this theory. You'll see when I get around to January.

Anyway. Spain has good food! I've been wanting to visit Spain for years. Someday...

Italy

2008-12-20T19:24:00.013-06:00

And we make it to Italy... I wish we had practiced more with making pasta, I really enjoyed that. But we made Gnocchi Piedmontese (which I realize is kind of like making pasta), Insalata di fruiti di mare, and Saltimbocca. Oh, and just for fun, we got to make pizza.

Meet Mr. Octopus. He has a mouth! and an Ink Sack! Yum!

Gnocchi:
To be honest, I don't like gnocchi. I really wasn't that motivated to learn this. Also, I was really tired this week - I was starting to hit a worn out phase again. So this really isn't a good example of what they should look like. No need to judge - I already did.
Boil potatoes whole with skin in salted water until soft and peel. While very hot, pass through food mill, until smooth. Add olive oil and when it cools slightly mix in egg well. Gradually kneed in flour to form a stiff but slightly tacky dough. This is similar to pasta: make a pile of the potato, form a well, and add the olive oil and egg. Add more flour as needed. Roll, cut and score. To score it, press lightly against the back of a fork to indent, then peel away. Cook in boiling salted water for 5-10 minutes or until they float. in a warm saute pan, lightly toss with butter, olive oil, garlic, sage, salt and pepper. Here, we just tossed with browned butter and sage.
Beurre Noisette a'la Sauge (browned butter): in saucepan, melt butter and cook till milk solids at the bottom of the pan start to turn brown - do not burn!!! Take off heat, and add sage.

Insalata di Fruit di Mare
Cook seafood (shrimp, squid, clams) in poaching liquid. Par cook octopus in water and white wine, enough to cover. This will allow you to remove the skin. Bring to boil, shut off, add octopus, and leave 30 minutes.
Combine with red onion, celery, carrot, red pepper, and green olives. Marinate in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, garlic clove, capers, oregano, basil, parsley, salt and pepper:
Marinate at least one hour, but ideally overnight.

Saltimbocca di Pollo alla Sorrentina
Slightly pound chicken out after removing skin and wing joint. Season with salt and pepper and dust in flour. Top each piece of chicken with sage, salt, mozzarella, and then proscuitto. Pound out. Saute, then place in oven until cooke.
For tomato sauce: Render bacon, remove bacon, then sweat mire poix. Add tomato puree, chopped tomatoes with juice, salt, sugar, fennel, oregano, thyme, and chili flakes. Simmer 15-30 minutes, then put through food mill.

Meanwhile, T. made some pizza.
He went for the classic. This was good, but I ate it when it was too hot. Like I always do. And then I end up with a burned tongue instead of being able to taste how good pizza is...

Look, it was Rico's birthday!
Okay, well, actually her birthday was the night before, but she had taken the evening off to be with her mother.

Lessons Learned:
I learned some nice recipes that were a little different from the pasta variety. I'd like to try make the polenta recipe we were given sometime. And maybe figure out how T made that pizza from scratch...
mmm cake. now I want some again!

Russia & Eastern Europe

2008-12-20T19:23:00.011-06:00

This night we made Russian and Eastern European food. Food from cold countries - not really up my alley.

Salmon Kulebiaka with Lemon Veloute

Poach salmon in cour bouillon to par cook, then chill. Cook rice, and mix with sour cream, lemon rind, and dill. Lay out puff pastry, and lay crepe over the pastry. Slice a hardboiled egg and lay over the crepe. Spoon rice over the egg. Spoon the duxelles over the rice. Lay salmon over the top. Fold remaining pastry to seal package - decorate with scraps of dough. Egg wash for seal and good color. Bake until golden brown. Make lemon veloute supreme using poaching liquid as stock.

As you can see, Nemo and I went all fancy. I cannot take any credit here - Nemo was the one that really wanted to do this, so I let him have at it. I thought he did a pretty good job - it made it more fun to break in to.

Being a huge rice fan, I really loved just eating the scraps of rice - I like sour cream a lot more than heavy cream, and it added a tanginess to it. Actually, really similar to the plain yogurt and dill we spooned over rice growing up. Yum!

Court Bouillon is just water, white wine, lemon with rind, mushroom trim, carrot trim, onion trim, celery trim, parsley stem, thyme stem, black peppercorn, and bay leaf. We actually used vegetable stock instead.

You remember duxelles, right? Nemo loves doing this, so this dish was all his. Melt butter, sweat shallots, add minced mushrooms and reduce cream.

The crepe should be rested for one hour before putting it into the puff pastry - so plan ahead when making this dish!

Goulash Soup

Ha. This does not look that appetizing. Mostly because I did not make the vegetables small enough. So partly I fault Chef here - he didn't give us any instruction on this dish, and I thought, well, once I actually get the seven sides for the tourne, I'm not touching them again - but, apparently, and this made sense once I saw the final dish, the vegetables should be much smaller.

Dredge beef in flour and paprika. Saute in olive oil until brown on all sides, remove and reserve. Add onion, caraway seed, and saute until onion begins to softn. Deglaze with stock and add beef back in. Bring to simmer. Simmer until meat is just tender, about 40 minutes. Stir potato, parsnip, carrots, and garlic into soup. Simmer until vegetables are just tender. Stir in tomatoes, celery and bell pepper. Simmer until vegetables and meat are very tender, about 15 min longer. Cool slightly. Reserve beef and transfer 1/2 of vegetables to blender. Blend until smooth. Return pureed vegetables to pot with beef and reserved vegetables. Stir in parsley, season to taste. Garnish with sour cream.

Golabki

Cut core out of cabbage. Parboil cabbale whole in salted water. Drain and dry. Sweat onion in butter until translucent. Let cool. Combine raw meat, seasoings, cooked rice and eggs. Add sauteed onion. Stuff cabbage leaves and roll. Bake, basting with tomato juice. Tomato juice should be reduced to almost a sec.

Some tips - cook off a piece of meat mix before stuffing cabbage rolls to make sure it tastes right. Also, we stuffed the filled rolls in these tiny aluminum pans - that way they wouldn't unroll while they cooked.

For the sauce, render bacon in butter (wow, could it be any more unhealthy?), remove excess fat, add onion and mushrooms which are sauteed until golden and tender. Add stock and reduce to consistency. Season and serve with cabbage, under rolls.

We were also supposed to make pierogis, but nobody had the time. Too bad - I would have loved to have learned how to make them. I hear all the time from people of Polish ancestory who say no one makes pierogis like their grandmother...

Lessons Learned:

In lecture we learned about caviar - in France and the US, only roe of sturgeon can be called caviar, but the US allows it to be called caviar as long as the type of fish is printed on the canister. One of the reasons caviar is so expensive is directly related to the age and size a sturgeon must reach before developing the valuable roe. Beluga - as long as 20 years and weighing up to 2000 lbs; Osetra - 12 to 14 years and weighing 500 lbs; Sevruga - 8 to 10 years and weighing 150 lbs. I've never had caviar - is it good? Is it worth the expense?

Greece & the Middle East

2008-12-20T19:23:00.007-06:00

Yay! I learned how to make pita! I love pita! This was a really fun activity for me - and mine turned out so pretty!
We made gyros again - this wasn't very challenging since we had made it in Meat Fab. But now there were pitas we had made ourselves to stuff it in...

Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce
We didn't make the tzatziki sauce ourselves - at least Nemo and I didn't. We again missed out on having classmates leave us enough. This time it was the yogurt. But people had way too much tzatziki, so they shared easily enough.

Combine ground lamb, pepper, garlic powder, kosher salt, oregano, cornstarch, and onion powder. Make into a log, several inches across. Bake at 300 degrees to internal temp of 135. Slice thin and serve with raw sliced onions, tomatoes, warm pita bread, and tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki sauce: peal cucumber, remove seeds, and cut into small dice. Combine cucumber, yogurt, sour cream, garlic, fresh dill, lemon juice, and sugar. Chill until service.

Lamb Kabobs
Also served with tzatziki sauce. Trim and cut boneless lamb into 1 in cubes. Prepare marinade (red wine vinegar, lemon juice, tomato paste, ground allspice, ground cardamon, ground cinnamon, salt and pepper), and add meat. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 1 hour. Thread meat, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes onto skewers. Grill.

Taboueleh
Whoops, I made mine a little spicy, but much better than any packaged taboueleh I've had - usually people make it too garlicy - this recipe had no garlic.
Mix: finely chopped scallions, black pepper, finely chopped fresh mint leaves, finely chopped jalepeno pepper, lemon juice, olive oil. Separately mix: fine bulgur, small dice tomatoes, and chopped fresh parsley. Mix together right before service and serve on romaine lettuce leaves.

Baba Ghanouj and Khubz (pita)
Whoops, this one I made way too garlicy. But it wasn't horrible, still edible. I kept trying to balance out the tastes as I spun it in the food processor, but it just wasn't happening. Like my pretty pita plate?

Grill whole eggplant in skin, then shred flesh out of skin when cool. Process eggplant, tahini, garlic clove, fresh parsley, ground cumin, lemon juice, and salt. Pour in olive oil.

Sponge method: yeast, lukewarm water, sugar, and bread flour. Add remaining ingredients (lukewarm water, bread flour, salt and olive oil). Knead well by hand. Let double in size. Punch down, knead again for a few minutes. Divide and round into 8 pieces. Flatten each one into 7-8 inch rounds, and proof for 20 minutes. 1/2 in thick. Bake 500 degrees 3-5 minutes. Wrap in cloth until ready to serve.

Tip: Place hot sheet pan upside down in oven as it heats - slap rounds on hot pan once ready to bake. Flip halfway through.

Okay, unfortunately, since this was weeks ago, I don't remember if this is the method we used. I thought we did something slightly different, but I didn't write it down if we did. I guess I'll just have to try to make them again during my Christmas break to find out - darn!

Finally, Greek Chicken with fries. Always fries.
Marinate chicken in olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon, fresh oregano and garlic. Roast in pan.
Um, if I remember correctly, Nemo and I were lucky Chef didn't cut into this, because it was raw on the inside. Which didn't really make sense because he had cooked it a long time. Oh well, the fries were done perfectly if I do say so myself!

We were also supposed to make baklava, but I'm glad we didn't because I don't like Greek baklava - they use almonds, whereas in Turkey you use nuts like pistachio. This pastry is sweet enough as is - you need salty nuts to balance it out.

Lessons Learned:
I just love making bread. Look, a heart: I think I could do this for the rest of my life. Anyone know of any openings in a bakery? Preferably bread bakery?

Morocco

2008-12-20T19:21:00.004-06:00

So we're back with Chef K. I found his e-mail to us the night before class started a little odd:

Hello Everyone,

This email is to inform you about International Cuisine.
I expect everyone in full uniform when ENTERING the classroom.
This is a professional class and I expect each and everyone of you to act accordingly.
There will be class rules handed out on day 1.
Please bring your knife kit as well as a camera. The camera will serve useful for your final project.

Chef Wook Kang

Weird. It's a little harsh - our class has never shown up without full uniform, and our class had never had problems behaving professionally. This just started the road toward me questioning Chef K....

I was really looking forward to this class, especially after being forced to make all that food with cream and butter and bacon for Culinary Skills II. Finally, food I would really enjoy.

We made B'Steeya, Golden Beet Salad, Lamb Tagine, Cous Cous. Other class members also made enough Harissa and Mint Tea to share with the class.

B'Steeya

I don't remember if this is a dessert or a sweet entree, but it was good. I think it's a sweet entree. Inside the layers of phyllo dough is poached chicken, onion marmalade, egg, cream, garlic, and lots of spices. After you cook the chicken, you layer the phyllo is a pan, put in the filling, and then fold over the phyllo. Then you bake, and dust with sugar. This would be a really pretty and surprising dish to serve to guests.

Golden Beet and Pomegranate Salad

But of course they couldn't actually provide us with pomegranates. Even though this is completely the season for them.

This was the first time I had ever had beets. I know, I can't believe it either - how have I never had beets before? For some reason, mine and Nemo's took forever in the oven, and in the end, were still a tiny bit raw. After roasting them, peel with gloves on, or you will have the color on your hands for days.

Chef B (from Meat Fab) is teaching the other half of our cohort next door, and he kept coming back to eat from our salad. This is a pattern that would be repeated throughout this class - I got teased repeatedly by my friends about my ability to get along with this man that so many hated. I can't help it - in the end, I found him amusing. There are certain people, and I don't know why, but I have learned to just ignore their pompous behavior and see through to their fun side - BB is the same way. Sometimes, I could just scream over how sure of himself he is and how strict he is with ideas. But I don't. I just remove myself mentally and let him talk - it's the only way to put up with behavior like that. Anyway, people claimed Chef B loved me, and was flirting, but I don't think that was true at all - I just made an effort to talk to him about things besides food.

Anyway. This is a great salad! Boil onion, red wine vinegar, stock, pomegranate molasses, sugar and orangezest until liquid is reduced to 2T. Cool to room temp, then combine with beets. Sprinkle with feta cheese. You can use any lettuce base you would like - we were supposed to have arugula or frisee, but no surprise, my classmates did not leave enough to share even though there was plenty. So Nemo and I got stuck with plain old lettuce. Which, given that Chef K didn't really seem to be grading us except that we had completed this dish, was fine.

Lamb Tagine and Couscous

This was really good. Ha. Clearly. I obviously couldn't wait to take the photo before I started eating... It just smelled so good! Saute lamb. Remove, then sweat onions, deglaze with stock and add dates, prunes, saffron and salt. Braise with meat. Stir in honey, lemon juice, and season. Eat. Enjoy!

Lessons Learned:

I don't think this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I loved making Moroccan food. How could I not? It's a cousin of the food I grew up eating - filling tasty and healthy... Finally!

P.S. Sorry I'm 7 weeks behind. Things got a little hectic in my life. In a good way. well, except work. That still remains annoying. The schedule change for culinary school for the last three weeks was a little rough.

Final Practical - Black Box

2008-11-13T23:33:00.002-06:00

For the final, we were given one protein, vegetables and a starch and told to create a meal. We ran the idea past Chef and then were allowed to start. The last five people were going to have to stay and clean the kitchen, so we were all motivated to work quickly. I was sixth to last - yes!

I had pork, lentils, and squash and zucchini. The only part I was unsure on was the pork - although it was better than getting chicken because I still hate cooking chicken.
I decided on Sauce Robert, which meant I needed to turn veal stock into espagnole without the demiglace step.
This recipe was actually pretty simple, because it just meant searing the pork and then sauteeing to finish. Meanwhile I reduced the stock down to espagnole and cooked the lentils. Then I sauteed the vegetables in the leftover pork juice and oil.

This turned out pretty tasty. I especially liked how the vegetables tasted with the little bit of pork taste. I did decently on this - the lentils just needed a little more flavor.

For the quizzes in class, I got 13/15 on sauces, 17/20 on fish, 12/15 on stocks & poultry, 13/13 on soup, and 18/18 on meat and game.
We also had to do a blog entry. I got teased a lot by the class because I did not want to put my name on the entry - I don't like to have my name anywhere on the internet. It used to take six pages on google to find me. But as you can see, Chef let me just use my initials.

Final Thoughts:
Although I wouldn't really eat much of this food because of all the cream, I feel like I learned a lot about improving techniques. Chef Z was a nice guy, and a decent instructor. He would show us these slideshows of photos of food from his trips around the world, in particular China.

Last Day to Practice

2008-11-13T22:50:00.014-06:00

Election Day!! Chef released us early due to his concerns about us getting caught in the excitement of people leaving Grant Park. He kept us updated on the election results during lecture from his laptop, but soon into cooking, it became very clear who was going to win. The city was so quiet when I left - I could clearly hear a speech being given in Grant Park, and my school is almost a mile away. I have never heard the city so quiet. And it wasn't eerie, but completely beautiful. Just peaceful.

This night we made Bouillabaisse, which is a country fish stew. Someone else made the fish stock for the class, which is the base to this soup.
Heat olive oil and gently sweat leeks until they turn translucent. Don't let them brown. Add chopped tomato, saffron, Pernod, and 10 oz fish stock. Simmer until tomatoes have softened, then season with salt and pepper. Add all fish (we used trout, cut in large chunks, halibut, cut in large chunks, shrip, and mussels) and simmer covered until mussels open. Do not let soup boil or fish will fall apart. Take out fish, and stir in rouille (see next). Place fish in vowl and ladle broth over. Garnish with grilled baguette slices.
Rouilee:
Process a roasted and seeded red pepper, a quarter of a jalepeno, one clove of garlic, salt, and one baguette slice with no crust. Puree. Transfer to bowl and work in olive oil with wooden spoon.

We didn't plate this, so you know I just snacked on the baguette slices all night...

Moules Marinieres
Sweat shallots, then put mussels in pan, coating with butter and shallot. Deglaze with white wine, cover with another saute pan, cook 2-3 minutes over high heat. Reduce wine by half with top off. Add 2 oz heavy cream, reduce by half. Monte au beurre. Season with parsley, and toss to coat.

For this assignment, Chef told us to work on other tasks, and then he would yell out this dish and we would have 5 minutes to cook and plate it. Stressful, yes? Mine tasted okay, but I had reduced the sauce too much.

Coquilles St Jacques, Beurre Blanc au Curry

Dry scallops and season well, then coat with spice blend (I used Master's curry blend). When oil begins to smoke, add scallops and then sear both sides. Remove and reserve.
Add shallots and sweat, deglaze with wine and white wine vinegar and reduce to au sec. Add cream, curry powder, and tomato paste, and reduce until nappe. Monte au beurre. Strain and adjust seasoning.

Lessons Learned:
Alright. I admit it. Plating matters. That scallop looks much more appetizing when plated like this than if I had just thrown it together. Fine. I guess the chefs win.

More Fish

2008-11-13T22:49:00.007-06:00

And we've hit November. At least I'm in the same month for keeping up with posts. Three more posts, and I'll only be 12 days behind... And I'm only posting to avoid working on a project from work that's due tomorrow morning. I'm screwed. Oh well.

This night we plated Loup de Mer end Papillote with rice and Beurre Blanc.

I got a 40/40! My first one for this class - I tend to lose one or two points per dish, but I got a perfect! yay! And by the way, this is an amazing way to cook fish. I loved this dish. Two fish dishes I like - who knew it could happen?

Anyway. To make this dish:

Cut parchment paper in half, smear butter on the right half of the paper, as big as the fish. Season the fillet (we used lake trout) with salt and white pepper and place on top of the butter. Top fish with eminceed shallots (super thin!), fine julienned red pepper and zucchini, thyme and parsley, then season on top. Remember, when using white pepper, use only a sprinkle! Place the lemon slices on top and add a splash of wine. Only a splash. Fold the paper over and seal - we folded the seal starting at the corner at 45 degree angles. Bake in 425 oven until parchment is puffed and browned - you are looking for expansion of the pouch, about 5 minutes. You serve it in the closed pouch to the customer - and then they open it to open and smell the steam.

A Beurre Blanc is an acid reduction emulsified by butter. You can use any acid, but in this case we used champagne vinegar. (As an aside, I always have trouble spelling that word because I went to school in Urbana-Champaign. So I always have to pause when writing about the drink). So. Melt whole buter, then sweat shallot and thyme. Reduce champagne vinegar to au sec, then add heavy whipping cream and simmer until reduced. Monte au beurre. Pretty simple, really.

Here it is prior to cooking, with all the layers:

Here's the perfect plating!

Saumon Grille with potatoes

This one, we had to come up with our own way to make the potatoes, and give him a explanation of why we did what we did. Nemo and I decided to do a version of "fish and chips." Chef and I had an argument over why salt and pepper was not creating a new flavor. I'm sure I was wrong, but I also love dishes seasoned only with salt and nothing else.

Grill a seasoned salmon fillet. Make potatoes. Serve with sauce.

Um, I can't remember what sauce we used here. I think Nemo created another Beurre Blanc with different flavor. But I could be wrong. Yummy looking, right?

We also learned how to make Hollandaise.

In a stainless stell bowl, combine vinegar and yolks and whisk over a really low flame until thickened and warm - keep moving bowl on and off heat - until 145 degrees. The sabayon with triple in volume. Gradually whisk in warm butter drop by drop at first, then in a slow, steady stream. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a bit of water or lemon juice, this allows all butter to be incorporated without breaking the sauce. Season with salt and cayenne. Serve warm, not hot.

Lesson Learned:

I really don't like these sauces. I hated the mayo, and I didn't like the hollandaise. I just really can only feel the oil and butter on my tongue. And that is just gross.

The First Time I Really Liked Fish

2008-11-13T22:48:00.009-06:00

Halloween! Irish brought true Chef hats for us to wear as a joke for Chef Z. He thought it was really funny. But man they itch! I've gotten so used to the baker's cap, I don't like anything else on my head. Yep, that's all the people we had Halloween - everyone else took the night off!

Bisque de Crevettes

In a small pot, melt butter and add bruinoised onions and carrots - sweat. Add shrimp shells and cook until they turn pink. Add herbs (bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems) and sweat until fragrant. Add tomato paste and pincer. Add flour and gently cook a white roux. Deglaze with brnady and wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add 12 oz water and simmer until you achieve a full shrimp flavor. Remove bay leaf. Puree in belnder until smotth and pass through a fine chinois. Reheat and add cream, adjust consistency and seasoning. Garnish with sauteed shrimp. Never never cut up shrimp. Put in the whole shrimp. I didn't really like this - to me, it didn't seem to have any flavor. Maybe I messed up, but Irish said the same thing about her's - she says it wasn't a very good recipe.

We plated Paupiettes de Sole au Vin Blanc a la Nage and Pommes de terre Duchesse

Chef actually did this part: [Process samon until smooth in a chilled food processor. Add the egg white adn pulse to incorporate. Scrape the bowl. Add cream slowly while machine is running. Pulse in cayenne and season with salt and white pepper.]

Place fillets skin side up on plastic wrap - cover with another sheet and gently pound to flatten evenly. Season the fillets with salt and white pepper. Spread a portion of almon mousseline on the fillets and roll starting at the tail end. in a small saute pan, rub 2 tsp of butter on the bottom. smrinkle with minced shallots and place the Paupiettes atop. Add the vermouth and stock to the pan bring the liquid to a simmer adn cover with a parchment round rubbed with the remaining butter. Gently poach until cooked through. Remove and keep warm. Add cream to pan, and simmer. Monter au beurre. Serve "swimming" in sauce.

Puree a Russet potato and fold in butter. Add egg yolk and season to taste with salt and white pepper. Pipe out in desired shape. I think Duchesse potatoes are a waste of perfectly good potatoes to eat as mashed. But that might just be me.

Sole meuniere, Beurre Noisette

Season halibut (because we can't possibly get the ingredients we are supposed to) and dredge in flour. Saute in clarified butter until lightly brown on both sides. Drizzle with lemon juice and finely chopped parsley. Pour out remaining clarified butter, and add whole butter cubes to hot pan. Without heat, it should turn noisette. Pour immediately over fillets and serve with lemon supremes/slices and chopped parsley.

This was fantastic! I wish we had made so many more pieces... the halibut was a great batch, Chef said - some of the best fish they've gotten at the school.

Here's Chef T - he's so fun! I'm going to miss seeing him.

Lessons Learned: To make an herb broth, use equal parts mirepoix (as opposed 2:1:1 onion:carrot:celery) and sweat. Add salt and white pepper. Add small amount of herbs then 8 oz water. Simmer 10-15 minutes.

"Wild" Game

2008-11-13T22:45:00.007-06:00

Tonight we were supposed to cook venison, but we of course didn't get what our chef ordered, so instead we cooked rabbit. Luckily, it was already quartered for us. But have you ever seen a skinned whole rabbit? Not to gross some of you out, but I always tell people it looks like a cat. But it was weird, when Chef talked about it, he described the bone structure as similar to chicken - the front legs are much shorter than the back.

Tonight we made Corn Chowder, Lapin a la Moutarde, Sauce Gastrique, and Lentilles Vertes

Corn Chowder
Render bacon fat from lardons (do not brown bacon), reserving lardons for garnish. Add onions, celery, carrots and leek to bacon fat, sweat until soft and translucent. Add garlic and sweat until fragrant. stir in flour to make a white roux. Add stock and bring to a gentle boil; soup will thicken. Lower to simmer and add potato, corn and herbs, and cook until potatoes are tender. Finish with a few tablespoons of cream. Adjust seasoning and garnish with red pepper coulis.

Lapin a la Moutarde, Sauce Gastrique, and Lentilles Vertes
Season rabbit with salt and pepper. Toss the pieces in mustard until well coated, then dust with flour. Sear both sides, remove and reserve. Saute onions until soft and translucent, then add garlic. Deglaze with white wine and reduce by half. Return rabbit pieces to pan, then add enough stock to cover 2/3. Cover and maintain a low simmer until tender. Remove rabbit to a plate and keep warm.
Serve with Sauce Gastrique: Heat sugar and water until caramel is a rich amber color. Deglaze with wine and vinegar and add orange juice concentrate, red currant jelly (optional), and dried cherries. Reduce by half while stirring to dissolve caramel. Add the veal stock and simmer until nappe. Monter au beurre if desired.
Cook lentils. Basically, boil in water until tender.

Lessons Learned:
Rabbit is tasty. And so are green lentils. I love lentils. Especially lentil soup. But eating them this way, as a starch alone, is really good too! Just make sure you season well, or they are really dry.
Oh, and just in case you were concerned, these are not the same bunnies/rabbits you buy in pet stores. These are raised for eating, they aren't soft, fluffy, and fat (or smelly and mean if you ask me) like the ones in the store.

Sick Day

2008-11-13T22:44:00.004-06:00

This was the first day of lamb, but I missed class due to illness. I can't remember if it was another migraine, a sore throat, or severe congestion. I've come down with so much this year with my stressful schedule and lack of sleep I can't even keep track anymore what illness I have when...
Someday, when I have time, I'll practice on my own making:
Cotelettes d'Agneau Duarry, Cotelettes d'Agneau Persillees, Haricots Blancs a la Bretonne

Pork

2008-11-13T22:43:00.005-06:00

Today we made an asparagus soup, stuffed pork chop, apple sauce, and braised fennel. Yum! Now that I'm looking at this, it's basically a complete meal at a restaurant - all that's missing is dessert.

Creme d'Aspereges

-melt butter and sweat onions over medium heat

-add chopped asparagus stalks and a pinch of salt, sweating slowly to extract flavor

-add flour to make a white roux

-add stock and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until asparagus pieces are cooked through

-puree soup in blender until very smooth ans strain through a fine chinois, then adjust consistency (no thicker than cold heavy cream)

Soup should taste of asparagus, not cream

Entrecote de Porc Farcie, Compote de Pommes, and Fenouil Braise

To make the stuffing (farce), heat the butter in a small saute pan and sweat the onions and celery until soft. Add the sausage meat and break apart using a wooden spoon. Add the sage and cook until fragrant and sausage is no longer raw. Season with salt and pepper and cool slightly. Add breadcrumbs and just enough stock to bind it all together (about 1t). [want to be able to gently ball up the stuffing]. Adjust seasoning. Cut a pocket in the pork chop [do this opposite of bone] - fill with farce but do not overfill! Season chop with salt and pepper. Sear chop on both sides and finish in hot oven (400) until 145 degrees (about 10 min).

Melt butter in a small saute pan, add apples and saute until soft. Sprinkle a litte sugar over apples and a litle water to help apples break down. Check for sweetness and add a little more sugar if desired. Let apples gently cook down to the consistency of chunky apple sauce. Stir in vanilla and spices if desired.

Trim and clean fennel. Melt butter and add fennel pieces, cut side down, in an even layer. Cook over low heat until fennel is ust beginnign to soften. Turn fennel and add enough stock to cover by about 2/3. Season.

We also had to make roasted potatoes - our choice how to serve them.

Lessons Learned:

Learning how to have all the food ready and warm at the same time has been a really great lesson for me to learn - it's teaching me better organization skills. Plus I'm learning those obvious kitchen tricks of a low oven to keep food warm, or foil tents. Fun!

A Change of Plans

2008-11-13T22:39:00.006-06:00

We didn't do day 7 - pork. Chef instead assigned us to create appetizers for a party of 50 people from the student-run literary magazine. After a lengthy brainstorming session in which he told us to come up with recipes from the ingredients we had in front of us, we (or, really, Chef) came up with the following: mushroom tart, caramelized onion tart, grilled vegetables on skewers with sauce, pork skewer with sauce, pork sandwich, veg sandwich, rice pudding balls

My table made the mushroom tarts, pork skewer with sauce, and rice pudding balls. I did the mushroom tarts, or, more specifically, I made the tarts. 50 triangular puff pastries. Which means: cutting out 50 triangles, cutting out 150 edge pieces, then "gluing" on the edge pieces with water. This took a really long time.

Chef said we did a pretty good job, but it would have been faster if I had made all the tarts for both teams - he said a circular shape would have been easier because it would have cut down on time. I would only need to have cut the original circle, and then another smaller one to line the edge, x50 of course. But 100 is a lot less than 200. The other group made squares, which was even more work.

Here's my completed tray:

And a close-up:

Then we had a lecture on meat cookery - mostly repeated from Meat Fab. But it never hurts to review.

And it was Tennessee's birthday! Irish actually had me and her over to her apartment on Sunday for a formal dinner -but this is the cake Master brought for Tennessee - standard Jewel yellow cake because that's what Tennessee loves best!

There's this guy Peanut next door - he's given all of us nicknames. I'm Smiley because, well, he thinks I didn't smile enough when he first talked to me. She's e-dub because it's an abbreviation of her real name. Anyone of us that interacts with him has been given a nickname. It's kind of sweet actually.

Lessons Learned:

Maillard reaction: caramelization of carbs in protein.

Rare meat 130 degrees, medium 140-145, and well at 160 degrees.

Because you can never have enough veal

2008-11-13T22:37:00.005-06:00

This day Chef put us on time limits. He had each table turn in the plated dish by a certain time. This worked out really well - we weren't all scrambling at the stoves or for the ingredients at the same time. I wasn't due until the last group, so I worked on the other dishes first.

Potage aux Poireaux et Pommes de Terre
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and leeks until soft - do not brown leeks. Then add mirepoix and salt. Add potatoes, stock, and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Pass through a food mill, then add cream to adjust the consistency. Do not boil - the cream will curdle.
As you can see, I broke the cream. Whoops. But mmm chives.

Escalopes de Veau a la Viennoise - scallops in the style of Vienna

Pound veal into thin medellions, about 1/4 inch thick, season. Use SBP (standard breading procedure) to bread cutlets. Heat oil in pan, then fry cutlets, then remove and keep warm. Discard oil, and add butter to pan off heat. Add lemon juice and reduce. Pour over veal and decorate with the classic Viennoise garnish: anchovies, chopped simmered in shell egg, capers, and lemon supreme.

Veau Cordon Bleu with Broccoli a l'Anglaise and Sauce Tomate

Pound veal to 1/4 inch thickness, season. Place the slice of ham on one escalope and then lay the cheese on the ham. Leave an open ring around at edge so it can seal. Place the second escalope on top to form "sandwich." press down to ensure the layers are stuck together, season. Use SBP to bread the veal making sure it is evenly coated and sealed tightly. Brown both sides in oil.

Sauce Tomate:

Heat diced salt pork to render fat, remove pork, then add mirepoix and saute to get a little color. Add the tomato paste and pincer, add flour to make a roux. Deglaze with white wine and let alcohol evaporate. Add tomato puree and stock and bring to a simmer. Add herbs (bay leaf, thyme, rosemary) and peppercorns and hold at a very low simmer for about 30-45 mins, Pass through food mill thren strain througha fine chinois; adjust seasoning.

Blanch broccoli.

Um, yeah, mine is raw on one side. Whoops. The cheese is supposed to melt when cut into. Clearly, mine is still solid. Ha.

Lessons Learned:

Standard Breading Procedure: what we've previously called 3-step breading. Flour. Egg wash. Bread crumbs.

Veal

2008-11-13T22:36:00.005-06:00

This day we plated Escaopes de Veau Marsala, Riz Blanc, and Asperges a l'Anglaise. Like my plating? Don't you want to eat it? This is a really good veal dish.

Begin cooking rice - just plain rice - 1 part rice to 2 parts water. This gets easier each time I make it.
-Pound veal cutlets flat to 1/4 inch thickness. Season then dredge in flour.
-Heat a large saute pan, add oil, and fry cutlets to desired doneness (about 30 sec per side). Remove and keep warm
-Discard oil and add shallots to hot pan (10 seconds)
-Deglaze with Marsala (au sec) and add thyme and stock
-Simmer until nappe, remove herbs
-Monter au beurre and adjust seasoning
Meanwhile, cook asparagus - blanch them. So simple! Season vegetables by heavily salting the water, not the vegetables themselves.

We also made Blanquette de Veau.
I don't know why I don't have a picture of this, but it might be because it looked so disgusting. When I turned it in, Chef asked me how it tasted, and I said I didn't know because I don't really like cream-based dishes, and have no schema (ha! psych! education!) for what they are supposed to taste like. He says I need to get over it - but he doesn't know I don't plan on being a chef, and so don't really need to get over it...
-Blanch cubed veal
-Put blanched veal in pan with enough white stock to cover, add bouquet garni, onion pique, and salt
-Bring to a boil, skim foam, lower to simmer until tender about 90 minutes
-Meanwhile, prepare white roux and reserve
-Make liaison by whisking yolk and cream together in bowl. reserve
-When veal is tender, remove and keep covered. Strain liquid through a chinois and discard the garni and onion
-return stock to saucepan and reduce, whisk roux into reduced stock in small amounts (this is a veloute)
-In a new pot, temper liaison into sauce: temper 1/2 veloute, stir, temper other 1/2. stir constantly
-return meat to sauce
-season with a few drops of lemon juice, nutmeg, salt and white pepper

Lessons learned:
An onion pique is an onion pierced with a clove and bay leaf. We were making such a small serving of the veal that we only used a quarter of an onion, but I would imagine if you use a whole onion, you would pierce it with more than one clove

Day 4

2008-11-13T22:33:00.016-06:00

Wow it's been a long time since I posted - sorry, people! it's been a busy few weeks.

Way back, we made the following dishes:

Boeuf Bourguignon

-reserve beef cubes and vegetables from marinade separately

-render fat from bacon, reserve bacon

-saute mushrooms, remove

-dry beef cubes, season, then brown until well caramelized, add vegetables and saute

-add flour to beef and vegetables (make a roux) and cook 1-2 min

-add stock, cover with foil and simmer until very tender

-remove beef from pot and reserve; strain braising liquid through a fine chinois and discard vegetables. return liquid and beef to pot and add bacon and mushrooms

-simmer to heat through

-garnish with pearl onions and finely chopped parsley, serving with buttered noodles

Bavette de Boeuf Grillee

-dry and season flank steak with salt and pepper

-brush lightly with vegetable oil

-grill both sides, rotating to create quadrillage

Here's the story of what happened: each table was given one giant flank steak to season and grill. Our table got two, because we had the biggest table. Guys at each table decided to do this task - and then, ha! Every single one of them was raw when Chef cut into them. So they had to put them in the oven. And then - this drove every one else nuts - Army was the only one who shared "his" steak with the class - every other one of them wrapped that huge steak in foil and walked off with it. Chef was not happy. Seriously, selfish? Why do you need an entire flank steak all to yourself?

Sauce Espagnole into Bourdalaise

-heat oil and brown beef trim

-add mirepoix and saute

-add tomato paste and pincer

-add stock, bring to simmer, add 2T of roux and whisk

-add herbs and simmer for 30 minutes

-strain sauce through a fine chinois

In our case we strained this into the wine reduction here:

-heat pan and sweat shallots, then add thyme and peppercorns

-deglaze with red wine, reduce to au sec

-take 4 oz espagnole, stir, reduce to nappe

-turn heat off, monte au beurre, strain, and season

Lessons Learned:

There are three types of roux: white (the most thickening power, less heat, gelatanizes more, cooked 1-3 minutes); blond (cooked 3-5 minutes); brown (cooked 5-10 minutes, less gelatanization power, more caramelization). Always add a hot roux to cold liquid, or a cold roux to a hot liquid. Stock can be reduced three times to create three new sauces: stock takes one day, then you can make brown sauce (which takes a couple hours), then demiglace (another couple hours), then finally boardalaise (about 15 minutes)

moving on to beef

2008-10-21T23:18:00.006-05:00

Today we made Boeuf Bourguignon (prep for day 4), Gratinee a l'Oignon, Filet de Boeuf, sauce Marchand de Vin, and Jardiniere de Legumes

We started off by preparing a marinade for a beef stew with red wine. More on this tomorrow.
Then we made onion soup. No surprise here, but you caramelize the onions and then add stock and simmer. Really simple. Right before service, toast the baguette slices and top with grated cheese - melt cheese and serve on top of soup. I could not stop snacking on the baguette. This might be chef sacrilage, but I don't really like Gruyere cheese. I think I might have eaten at least 5 slices of the baguette besides the three I toasted, but I only had a little bit of cheese. Bread. Carbs. So good.

Then we plated Filet de Boeuf, Sauce Marchand de Vin, and Jardiniere de Legumes. Wrap the tenderloin with bacon (barding) and sear both sides, then finish in the oven. Once it is cooked, set aside the beef, but use the pan to make the sauce out of red wine and veal stock. Blanch carrots, green beans, and turnips. Can you believe this is the first time I've had a turnip? In order to season vegetables, heavily salt the water - never season after they have been cooked.

Chef Z liked my vegetables - he said you can tell they're purposely placed, but they looked natural also. The stock tasted too much like stock instead of wine and stock (I had to put in extra stock because it had reduced without getting nappe). The vegetables and meat were properly cooked, but needed more seasoning.

I talked about politics with Chef T (from Garde Manger) in the dishroom tonight. I kind of thought he was a little dull originally, but the more I talk to him, the more interesting he is. He's quiet and clearly lonely, but he really enjoys politics. We talked about voting early, and I told him how Obama is doing election night here, and about Palin on SNL. Chef's very funny. I bet he'll write me a letter of rec for my externship if I asked him.

Lessons Learned:
The chefs really are right when they say everything tastes better with bacon. It's so true.
I'm starting to better understand the purpose of plating. I used to make fun of it, but I can see how it matters. And why you only put a tiny bit of sauce when you make more than a plate's worth.
I'm doing pretty well on the quizzes in this class - we've had one on soups and one on stocks and poultry. They're multiple choice, and he said the final will pull from them. But he does a decent job with his lecture - he doesn't really drift off-topic, so I have an easier time listening and remembering what he says.

Chicken, day 2

2008-10-21T23:17:00.002-05:00

This day we made Soupe de Legumes (vegetable soup), Poulet Roti au Jus (chicken roasted in its own juice), and plated Magret de Canard, Sauce Bigarade, and Puree de Pommes de Terre.

This is a simple but tasty vegetable soup. I took the rest home to eat for lunch. Mine was a tiny bit oily because I used to much butter to soften the vegetables, but if I corrected that mistake, I would make this again.

To keep the roasted chicken moist, we made a compound butter that we spread under the skin and then roasted it with white wine and water.

The plated dish was sauteed duck breast with sauce and mashed potatoes. The sauce is a caramel-base degalzed with wine, vinegar, juice and zest, cooked until nappe and monter au beurre.

The errors I made on the plated dish were that it was messy (that should be obvious to you) and that I forgot to season the meat. Whoops. Always season your meat! But the mashed potatoes were amazing. Seriously. I wish I had made at least double. I love mashed potatoes. And I make good ones. Mmmm now I want them again.

Lessons Learned:
Have you ever had duck? It's really good. It's super-fatty, which is why it's so good. He said the dish normally is served with two breasts, but I just think that is way too much meat. One duck breast is plenty of protein in my opinion.
There are two main categories for soup: clear (broth/bouillion, vegetable, and consumme) and thick (veloute, cream, pureed, bisque, and chowder). When a restaurant is making soup for service, they prep in small batches and then reheat in small batches.

Beginning to cook real french meals

2008-10-21T23:16:00.005-05:00

And so begins Intro to Culinary Skills II - where we begin to cook entire meals (starch, vegetable, and protein) in true French fashion. I prefer baking, but working so late around so much sugar can be hard. It makes my teeth hurt even to just breathe. I like making real meals that I can then sneak out of the kitchen to take home and have for lunch later in the week...

My initial thoughts are that I like Chef Z - he's nice, quiet, and a decent instructor. Tonight we started on chicken. Each night we will have to "plate" one dish - and it's up to us to use the rules of plating to figure out the best way to set it up. Then we get graded on the plating, flavor, consistency, cooking method, and general kitchen organization.

We made
Volaille Fermiere au Vinaigre

This is braised chicken in a vinegar sauce. Sear the chicken on both sides, then simmer, partially covered (about 2/3 up sides) with vinegar liquid mixture until tender. To determine if it is done during a "moist cooking process," never do a temperature check - if the meat is falling off the bone, it's tender.

Poulet Saute Chasseur plated with Nouilles au Beurre

This is just a sauteed chicken breast in tomato-based sauce on buttered noodled. Which, by the way, are amazing. We never ate buttered noodles growing up - just plain. Which I still love. But when you put just the right touch of butter and a nice dose of salt, it's just so good. Clearly I'm late to the buttered noodles game - I know other people have had it since childhood. I got a 38/40 on this dish - my noodles were a little too buttery (again, newbie!), so once I put the sauce on, it got a little oily.

Lessons Learned:
Searing tightens the protein strands on the outside and allows moisture to stay inside the protein.
So Rico and Whiskey cooked up this scheme to make T and Russia work at the tables at the front of the class in order to make it so they can't get away with working so slowly and never cleaning up for anyone but themselves. They made sure they got to class early, and had Country and Sutra set up at our table (it stands 8) - those 4, myself, Nemo, Tennessee, and Irish. We'll see how it works. I didn't really want to be at a table with Country and Sutra again - they are really frustrating to work near. Country is always running (literally running) to get stuff done, and is very sexist and condescending. I can get along with him, but I also don't hesitate to tell him when he is being condescending. And Sutra, well, I've told you before - he's creepy.

Final Practical - a three day affair

2008-10-16T23:29:00.008-05:00

Phew. We reach the end of Baking and Patisserie 2. While I love the work, and I ended up getting along with her individually, she wasn't exactly the friendliest. And I noticed that she doesn't even really pay attention - she is so used to yelling about certain things, it doesn't even matter if we are actually doing them - she yells anyway. It's like she's programmed to go off at certain points.

Oh! I finally figured out the macro setting on my camera, so I'm hoping my photos will look better. I hadn't been able to figure out how to do close-ups, but now I think I've got it.

For your pleasure, here my sweets are, up close and personal.

Carrot cake with marzipan carrot

Mexican Wedding Cookie

Fruit Tartlet

Brownie

Petit Four

Puff Pastry

Madeleines

We also had to take a final, which I as usual did not study for. I think I may have pulled off a B.

For the practical, from what I remember, this is what she said.
The nuts for the mexican cookies were almost burned, but she liked it darker like that, but most customers wouldn't. She recommended that I taste my product even if I'm not much of a sweets person. Rico said again that my madeleines could be served at Starbucks - she said they are the exact color that they sell them. I got 22 -28 points on the treats, which was fine with me. By the third day, I was kind of done with the whole thing. I didn't really give much effort to the specific icing jobs.

Final thoughts:
All my chefs so far have told me "it's been a real pleasure" to have me in class when I go up for my final practical. I try to make an effort to talk to them, but it's not about sucking up - I actually really enjoy most of the chefs. Even the ones who shout. I'm a softie in the end. I really enjoy what I'm learning even if I don't plan on becoming a chef. Even with the late nights and how tired I am all the time these days, I love it. I'm going to be sad when it ends.
I learned a lot in this class - I really love this stuff. Even the details. I liked it better than the details for garde manger - it's just different for some reason.

Sorry for the delay with updating, everyone - I'm exhausted and my weekends have been really busy. I don't really have time to keep up with the posts. I'll get there.

Mini Treats

2008-10-16T23:06:00.003-05:00

On Day 11, we made brownies and chocolate tartlets. Chef says that if it is a complicated recipe, it won't make a good brownie - you should be able to mix it by hand. These were really good, so I'd say she is correct.

Brownies

Melt cocoa with butter, stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir in eggs. Stir in dry, just enough to bring together.

Here's where I got pissed off: she had written the recipe on the whiteboard because she didn't like the one in the packet. And right next to the temperature, she has down "45-60 min." Which seems odd, once you think about it, right? When do brownies ever bake for that long. But I didn't question it because it was on the board - you'd figure the chef would write her recipe correctly, right? Anyway, she starts yelling at us to check our brownies at after 20 minutes, and mine are totally and completely hard. And I look at the whiteboard, and loandbehold, the "45-60" has been erased - I can still see it, but it's clearly been erased. And she continues to yell at us for not checking our brownies. Now, okay, that's correct - we should be checking them. But if the recipe tells you 45-60 minutes, you don't start checking until around 40 min. Unbelievable! And how immature for her not to admit that she screwed up, but instead just erased what she had written up there.

Whatever.

Since we were going to be able to use these for the final practical, I made them again another day.

Tartlets.

Huh. I apparently did not take photos this day. Well, they were really cute. You'll see a fruit one for the final practical. Make pate sucree, and roll out to fit 10 tartlet pans. Put together (I prefer a bowling pin formation), and lay out the pate sucree over. Press into pans, then par-bake. See baking I for those instructions. I used the chocolate tart filling because, well, it had the least ingredients. It tasted really good in the end - you think it's going to be hard because of the cracked crust on top, but it was moist and sweet on the inside.

But here's what I made for the practical on Day 10:

I got a 54/60 on the creme caramel - there were some bubbles in the batter and I broke one when I tried to get it to flip over.

59/60 on the Mexican wedding cookies - I do really well on these. She said I hard really good color, nice dipping, and the flavor was right. Oh, but as you can see, I had one runt - so that was the lost point.

60/60 on the Devil's Food Cake. She said this was done perfectly. It was the right thickness, and excellent flavor. Here's what it looked like when she cut off the top:

You want to eat it, don't you? Well, invite me over to your kitchen with a real oven and I'm happy to make you one!

Lessons Learned:

If the time doesn't look right, challenge it. And accept that even chefs make mistakes, so it's okay if you do as a student.

Icing for Cakes!

2008-10-13T18:05:00.006-05:00

Now, here's the thing people should know about me. I love my canned icing. That stuff is fantastic. You can just eat it right out of the can. With a spoon. After spoonful after spoonful. Well, not anymore because of how sensitive my teeth, but I still daydream about it. And then it's a little bit hard but yet smooth...so good.
I've never liked the icing that comes on cakes that are bought. I mean, fine, I'll eat it, but it's way too sugary for me.
So Chef had a hard sell in me. But now I get it. She said the stuff I've eaten is probably Jewel cakes, and what they call buttercream isn't buttercream as chefs know it. Alright, she wins. But I'll still happily eat my betty crocker vanilla icing.

Italian Buttercream
Heat sugar and water to 240 degrees (soft-ball stage). Soft-ball stage: stick an ice-cold hand (or, really, because that takes years of baking and burning your hands to get those callouses, stick in a metal spoon) into the boiling sugar and immediately into an ice bath, where you see if you can form a ball - if you can, turn off heat, and immediately pour the sugar down the side of the mixer. BUT. While you're heating the sugar, whip egg whites into soft peaks. Don't pour the sugar until the eggs are at this stage, and don't pour any on the paddle attachment! Continue whipping on high speed till mixture is completely cool. Once cooled, gradually whip in softened butter in clumps. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract. Then we bagged and cooled.

Make lemon curd. Unfortunately, I have misplaced this recipe, so couldn't tell you exactly how it was done. It's made on the stovetop - so heat a lot of lemon juice with cornstarch? Ha. I'll get back to you on that. So what's happening in these steps is that I'm putting together the chiffon cake. First, cut it into two or three layers, depending on height. Make a border of buttercream, then fill in with lemon curd. Imitate at each layer.

This is the finished product:
lay down a layer of "crumb coat." This protects the final layer from having any crumbs on it. Theoretically. I was a little messy this day. But's that's all about practice makes perfect. Cool in between crumb coat and final layer of icing. Then cool again, and make indentations with back of knife for slices. Make a rosette for each piece and a tiny dot of lemon curd. What goes on top should indicate the flavoring inside. That crumb edge covers up the harder parts to ice - bakers have their tricks! I can't remember exactly what it is called.

Ganache
Shoot. I'm clearly missing a page out of my recipe packet. Melt some chocolate and pour over the leveled devil's food cake.
Oh, to level a cake, cut top to make even, then flip the cake to make the bottom the top: this way you guarantee you have a flat top since the pan you baked the cake in theoretically should have a flat bottom.

Pour the ganache evenly and quickly, making sure to cover all side. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top. Move the cake around the rack so no "feet" form at the bottom of the cake.

Marzipan.
Paddle almond paste and corn syrup together till well icorporated. Add in sifted powdered sugar and blend very well. This covers the almond cake.
Wait, I'll back up. First, slice the almond cake in half. Cover with a thin layer of apricot jam. Then lay down top layer. Cover with rolled out marzipan. Cut with bisquit cutters into desired size. As you can see, my cake is a little uneven and would never do for a formal event. But I think they're kind of cute all lopsided! These will be covered with a layer of poured fondant and then roses will be created on top. I had a photo, I thought.

Lessons Learned:
Seriously love this. It is so much fun! I think if there weren't so much time pressure, it would be even better. And I know with more practice I can do an even better job. I could see doing this for an externship - helping out at a catering company or under a patisserie in a restaurant.

Cakes!

2008-10-13T17:58:00.009-05:00

Tuesday we made Devil's Food Cake, Almond Cake, Carrot Cake, and Chiffon Cake.

Chiffon Cake:

This uses the Chiffon method. Sift together cake flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Combine oil, yolks, water, and extract - whisk. Making a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and stir well, without over-mixing. Stir in lemon zest (if using). Whip egg whites to soft peaks; add in sugar and cream of tartar and continue whipping to form firm, moist peaks. Fold meringue into cake batter. Pour into parchment lined, ungreased 2 8" cake pans, filling only 2/3 of the way. When done baking, line rack with parchment, place on top of cake, and flip over - this flattens top and it won't sink further.

You'll see what we do with this in the next post...

Devil's Food Cake:

Mmmmm. Devil's food cake. This. Was. Amazing. Use the creaming method (you know what that is by now, right?). The most important step for this one is not to overmix once you've added the cocoa paste (which is just warm water and cocoa powder - nothing fancy). Don't worry if some of the flour isn't completely mixed in - scrape it down and stop the mixer. Use parchment and spray sides and bottom. Don't you wish you could have been there to smell this? I am not a huge chocolate person, but I think I could have just sat in a room filled with this smell.

Almond Cake:
Creaming method. If it starts to break when adding the eggs, just add a tiny bit of flour. Once all 12 eggs have been added (in three batches), fold in dry ingredients. Parchment line and spray pans. Spread with an offset spatula and pinch edge away from pan. Ha. This one was clearly too thin on one edge - I gave it to Master to work with, because if I do three out of four cakes, why should I get stuck with the burned one? Especially when she is very open that she doesn't care.

Carrot Cake:

This uses the two-step method - mix wet, mix dry, then mix together. Pretty simple. Irish says she has a much better recipe, but this tasted pretty good to me. Apparently her's has pineapple in it.

Lessons Learned:

Oh my goodness does chocolate cake smell amazing. And I like baking cakes! I really think I am going to have to go out and buy myself these different flours - I tried to make chocolate chip cookies at home but only using all-purpose, and they definitely did not turn out as well as the batch I made in class. Now, I also have a sucky 2/3 oven, but still. And I really want a kitchen-aid. But that's silly until I have an actual kitchen.

Fancy Desserts

2008-10-13T17:22:00.006-05:00

Monday we made Creme Brulee, Creme Caramel, cheesecake, and souffle.

Creme Brulee:

Whip together egg yoks, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Scald heavy cream in a pot, gradually whisk into yolk mixture. Be careful when you do this - you don't want bubbles floating on the surface. If there are, you can pull them out withh a paper towel. Fill ramekins to the top and bake at 300 in a bain marie (water bath). Bake until set in center - shake to make sure it doesn't jiggle. Cool. Remove from cooler and spread a thin layer of sugar on top. Caramelize with torch in an even, steady movement, being careful not to scorch the sugar, which will create a bitter taste.

Creme Caramel:
Pour 1/4" layer of caramelized sugar into prepared ramekins. (I will explain how to make this on my practical day - Master made the creme caramel this day). Whisk eggs and sugar together. Scald milk and gradually mix into egg mixture. Stir in salt and vanilla. Use the same tactic as with the brulee to get rid of bubbles. Pour custard base into ramekins (once caramel is completely set) and bake at 300 in bain marie till custard is set in the middle. Allow to cool. Using a paring knife, separate custard edge from sides of ramekins and invert onto serving dish.

Cheesecake
We made a flat cheesecake - this is how they do it in catering and restaurants in order to cut out bite-sized pieces. Fancy restaurants of course do not serve gigantic triangle slices - having never been to one, I can't vouch for this, but I've seen photos...

Make a graham cracker crust out of a combination of graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Bake for about 8 minutes.
Paddle cream cheese until lump free (must be completely lump free!), then add sugar till smooth, then bread flour until smooth. Add eggs and yolks a little at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Scrape well between additions and afterwards. Add in cream, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Blend well. Pour over crust. Bake.

Now, to do what I have on top, those are different step.
From left to right:
Before cooking the cheesecake, draw thin lines with thinned out jam or chocolate. Then pull the paring knife gently down through the lines all the way down. In-between those lines, pull the paring knife in the opposite direction.
Marbeling, drop dots of color in a random formation. Take your paring knife and gently swirl the dots.
Hearts, drop dots of color in order. Pull your paring knife through the dots in one direction.

Souffle
Combine bread flour and butter to form a paste. Combine milk and sugar, bring to a boil then remove from heat. Temper a portion of the hot liquid into the flour/butter mixture, and then add all of this back into the pot. Beat vigorously to ensure there are no lumps. Return mixture to the heat and bring it to a boil, beating constantly. Allow to simmer for several minutes until it is thick and no starchy taste remains. Tranfer to mixing bowl, cover and cool 10 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.
Prepare souffle dishes by buttering and dusting interiors of ramekins.
Prepare meringue, whipping to soft peaks and then add sugar, whipping until firm and moist. Fold meringue into souffle base, 1/3 at a time.
Portion into ramekins. Flatten top with offset spatula and clean the edges (pinch edge between thumb and forefinger - circle the edge). bake for about 15 minutes for small dishes.
This is a sweet souffle - other flavors are chocolate, lemon and coffee.
Clearly, these are supposed to rise straight, but we were kind of rushed. We just barely got them in on time - Chef kept shouting if we didn't have them in the oven, not to bother, but I refuse to listen to that. As far as I could calculate, we had just enough time to have them in the oven and clean out space, and pull them out right before class ended. I was right, but clearly we messed up on something.
But she said they looked good on the inside. I sampled the tiniest bit, but really could not stomach any more sweetness.

Lessons Learned:
I lost track and almost ruined my cheesecake, but it turned out okay! I've made a lot of cheesecake for my boyfriend in college, but never this way. I also like this recipe better.
Also, people always think souffles are really hard, but you should expect them to start to fall almost as soon as they come out of the oven. In kitchens, the saying is, "people wait for souffles, not the other way around."

Dessert Presentation

2008-10-10T17:58:00.006-05:00

Friday night we worked on plating desserts. We learned how to make tuile and sabayon.

To make tuile cream butter and powdered sugar, then paddle in egg whites, cake flour, and vanilla. Bake in 2-3 piece batches for about 3 minutes in a 300 degree oven. Must be shaped while hot - lay over a cup or a rolling pin, or shape in some other way. You can also spread it onto a silpat; this is called "marbeling."

Chocolate Mousse: This was my first and second one. The cookie you see sticking out is tuile.

Bavarian Cream:

I really liked my last one, but she pointed out, which made sense, that you don't want to tilt the bavarian cream because the fold makes it unattractive. But otherwise she said I had good ideas.

Lessons Learned:
Plating is fun, but I don't know that I have the best eye for it. I love art, but I don't have any training beyond junior high and photo in college.
I really enjoyed this activity - it's making me think I might be able to do my externship either in a restaurant under a pastry chef or a catering company.

Perishable Pastry

2008-10-03T09:22:00.008-05:00

Thursday we made mousse, bavarian cream, ice cream and sorbet. Master and I both like lemon, so we made lemon sorbet. I had to almost double the amount of simple syrup before the baume would read solidly at 15. It's supposed to be at 16.

Master and I made a lemon sorbet. Combine lemon juice with simple syrup. Test in baume - a measuring device to determine how much density there is to sugar syrup. 11-14 intermezzo, 15-18 dessert sorbet (16 is the best reading), 20 cloyingly sweet and won't set up. I could not get it to move from 15, no matter how many times I poured in more simple syrup. I gave up after about 10 minutes - I figured I prefer the tartness of lemon, so I didn't need to keep making it sweeter. Process through an ice-cream machine.

We also made vanilla ice cream. Scald milk, whisk yolks and sugar in a medium bowl, then gradually temper hot liquid into yolk mixture. Whisk well and return to the pot. Using a wooden spoon, stir until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour through chinois into clean bowl over ice, then pour in vanilla and cream. Process through an ice cream machine, after resting overnight.

To make chocolate mousse, melt bittersweet chocolate with butter over bain marie (bowl over boiled water - heat turned off), then whisk in yolks. in a separate bowl, whip egg whites with sugar to medium soft peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture. Whip cream separately to soft peaks, then fold into mousse. We stored these in ruber molds refrigerated overnight.

To make fruit bavarian, combine fruit puree (any kind), sugar and lemon juice. Bloom gelatin in water and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Warm over bain marie until gelatin granules are completely dissolved. Stir melted gelatin into puree mixture. Whip heavy cream to medium peaks and fold into puree/gelatin mixture. We also poured these into rubber molds and refrigerated overnight.

Lessons Learned:

It's really easy to make these frozen desserts by yourself, but you just need to buy a good ice cream machine. The hardest thing with mousse and bavarian cream is the folding: put one third of whatever you are folding in in with the whipped eggs, then cut down the center and move the spatula under to the left and fold the mixture over. Keep doing this, turning the bowl around as you go.

These will be plated - get excited!

Puff Pastry

2008-10-02T17:27:00.006-05:00

Wednesday we started off with a quiz - weights and measures. I'm really glad we had to memorize this - I think it's really good to know without having to always check references. She did throw in some curveballs by making us do real math. We had to figure out how many ounces are in 3/4 cup, how many cups 8 T makes, and how many tablespoons are in 1 pound.
Just in case you're curious,
1T = 1/2 oz = 3t
2 cups = 1 pint = 16 oz
2 pints = 1 quart
2 quarts = 0.5 gallon
4 quarts = 1 gallon

We finished off the eclairs with chocolate fondant, dripping chocolate, powdered sugar, and almonds. To cut open the rounds, cut with a serrated knife, turning the pastry underneath your palm as you cut. This way you won't cut your hand and you won't break the pastry.

To make chocolate fondant, warm the fondant, stir in melted chocolate and simple syrup to make a smooth and creamy consistency. No one makes fondant from scratch - you have to buy it ready made. Some classmates told me you can find it online.

To make caramel, cover sugar with water and 2 oz of corn syrup in a pot, making sure there is no sugar on the sides - this will cause it to cede and ruin the whole batch. Put it on heat, and don't touch! Wipe down the sides with a wet pastry brush, making sure not to touch the boiling water. Cook to a medium amber color.

Fill the puffs with pastry cream in base, even with top, then dust with powdered sugar. To fill eclairs, poke two holes in the bottom, and pipe in creme chantilly. For the Paris Brest, pipe diplomat creme with a star tip, then drip chocolate, put down almonds (always an uneven number), and dust with powdered sugar. For the caramel, poke hole in the bottom, dip in, allow to harden upside down, and once cool, pipe in creme.

I love eclairs - and these turned out really well. They were a childhood treat, my dad would bring them home and they would be in the freezer - I would eat them after microwaving 10 seconds to soften the creme but keeping it cold. So tasty!

In order to clean the caramel pots (never, never pour this down a drain - you will pay a lot of money for a plumber), pour water to cover and then put on the heat. Once all of it becomes liquid again (including the bottom), pour hot down the drain. We had about six pots going, one by one finishing. The last one won't finish! Chef yells at us, twice, and finally tells us we will pay penalty points the next day. I want to point out that it's only 11:30 and technically class ends at 11:45, or that by yelling at us, she makes me want to dump the unclean pot under clean ones in the dish room and ditch it for someone else to deal with. Right after she threatened the penalty and walked out, the pot was finished and actually clean.

Lessons learned:
Start cleaning caramel early - it takes a really long time to finish.

Cookies, continued

2008-10-01T18:07:00.010-05:00

Tuesday we made pate a choux and pastry cream (praline and vanilla). Brief lecture to begin again.

Pate a choux is a a tasteless batter that is piped and filled with pastry cream. You can tell the batter is done when it looks like stalagmites and stalagtites connected in caves.

Combine water, butter, andd salt in a pot and bring to rolling boil until the butter is completely dissolved. Add flour at once, stirring vigorously until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan (about 10 minutes, your arm will hurt). Mix on moderate speed with a paddle attachment until dough cools below 140. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until fully absorbed. Will be piped into rounds, Paris Brest (logs), or eclairs.

I was way more on time today - I got done plenty early with my mixing, and then the baking took way longer than to be expected. You're supposed to do about 15 minutes at 425 and then 5 at 375 to brown. You know it's done at the first oven when you can press on it and they don't collapse under your finger. Mine took at least 25 minutes. Probably because people were in and out of the ovens since I was the first in.

Took home some mexican wedding cookies and biscotti to give to a couple people at work.

Lessons Learned:

Practicing piping is important. Chef may not be the friendliest, but she really does help. She showed me how to stop at the end of the cookie, and then pull back up or roll around the edge so there is no tail.

Baking and Patisserie 2

2008-10-01T17:59:00.007-05:00

Monday we began cookies. Things weren't really going well. Master and I partnered up. The night started with a lecture - some girl in the bathroom called Chef L a "nazi" - which, I hate that word. But then I pointed out to Master that we've both seen that girl out in the hall during class on the phone, so no wonder she failed the class twice - Chef L is really strict about the rules. But. We get out around 11:30.

Anyway we made madeleines, three versions of mexican wedding cookies, and biscotti. I don't know why, but I felt majorly rushed - I felt like I was way behind. We screwed up the madeleine twice - first time mixing the eggs in right away, and then the next the butter wasn't soft enough. But the third time, the batch turned out well.

But by that time, I was having these chest pains that were freaking me out. I was bent over trying to breathe while still putting together ingredients.
Mexican wedding cookies:
sift confectioner's sugar, then cream butter and sugar.
add pastry flour, vanilla extract, and chopped nuts to creaming mixture.
3 shapes: small ball, small ball rolled in nuts then thumbprint for filling, and icebox (log 1.25 inches in diameter) then slice thin.

They got dipped the next day: some in chocolate, the rounder version in powdered sugar as soon as it came out. This isn't our dipped tray - I accidentally dipped the madeleines in the wrong side. Oh well.

Lessons Learned:
We learned how to make paper cones for dripping chocolate our of parchment paper. This works really well for a thin drip. Fold the parchment to make two triangles (kind of like starting an origami crane). Then cut the triangle in half. Grab with two fingers along the hypotenuse, fold one corner into the tip. Roll the other side around, then shuffle your fingers to make the tip sharp as a point. You should be able to fill the cone without any water dripping out. Fill with chocolate, then cut the tip enough to drip out the chocolate.

Final Practical, Part 2

2008-09-26T00:20:00.006-05:00

Thursday we finished up the final practical - Tennessee and I had good teamwork tonight. We were graded on different categories - I can't remember the exact ones, but he graded our aspic gelee, the design/layout, clean/organization, timeliness, color, pate/terrine/galantine, and canapes. We did well on the design (he described it as "forest-like" - between the two layers of gelee, I laid down patterns of parsley. It looked really pretty!

I didn't really want to put anything on top of it), timeliness, clean/organization, and gelee. We lost some points on the actual food because they were lacking in color (not enough visible red in my galantine and the canapes appeared "messy"). I thought the platter looked a little crowded - we hadn't grabbed a platter quickly enough on Wednesday, so we had to take one of the smaller ones.

The cute boy next door (who I am now nicknaming Simon because his name is in a Simon & Garfunkel song that I always want to break into when I see him): He invited me to look at his platter and encouraged me to eat some. But, I had the exact same platter, and I had done enough sampling of my own. I know, I know, it was flirting, I should have responded, but I was full! And flustered! The boy makes me tongue-tied! He let me borrow a bisquit cutter because I really admired the way he had plated his salad - and I knew it would hide that I had not done a very consistent job of cutting my potatoes...

Ugh, we got out late again - it probably was even later, but at midnight, I told Chef I had to go, and he let me (another student also had to catch her train, so he didn't ask me for an explanation).

Oh! And we had a pop final! Okay, so, technically, he mentioned that we would have a written final at the beginning of the course, but, Chef, if you do not remind students the day before, how can they be expected to prep for it? Especially if they work full time? Anyway, guessing I failed it. Damnit. I am totally fine with doing bad on tests when I refuse to study, but when I don't even know one is coming...it makes me upset. He let us review our notes after T requested, but by then I was in panic mode and also, five minutes does nothing for me in terms of studying. I actually went up to him and apologized later for what I predicted my grade would be - not sucking up because I wasn't looking for him to give me extra points - but just because it embarrasses me as a student. Ohhh the training I have received throughout my years of education. Chef said I shouldn't worry about it - there was a lot to learn in the class and it's only a few percent of the grade.

Ha! I just checked my grade - somehow I managed to pull off a B. Now, Chef did tell me that lab grades and the final practical matter way more than tests. I wonder, if I hadn't failed the first quiz and the final, could I have pulled off an A even with my absences? Maybe not.

Final Thoughts:

Well, I definitely will not be working in catering. I find this stuff too tedious and not very rewarding. Why would anyone want to eat something with the gel on top? Granted, I did not taste it, but it made everything look plastic. The canapes, those were really good. When he was grading us, Chef said he would never eat this stuff - he doesn't like it! Isn't that funny? He teaches the class but he has no interest in it? He said he'd much rather make and have things like mashed potatoes.

Chef was a really nice guy. Still a little boring, but when you got him talking about cooking and his experiences, he really was so cute with his enthusiasm and love for this stuff. He really wants to teach us again for Culinary Skills 2, but right now we have a different chef on our schedule. He says if he gets the class next door, he will definitely be cracking down on them - he hates that they aren't in full uniform and that one student is clearly an alcoholic and under the influence during class. By the way, duh, that's dangerous.

Lessons Learned:

Master and I are planning to pair up for Baking II - coming up next. She and I decided that in order to keep our friends, we cannot partner with them.

And I'm looking forward to having a Friday night off! Yay! It will be a whole new world - I can take a nap and work out and hang out with family! Fun!!

Here's some from other people. I think you can click on them to make them bigger.

Final, Part 1

2008-09-25T00:27:00.005-05:00

Wednesday we began working on the final.

This is our menu: Chicken Galantine, Potato Salad with Creamy Horseradish Dressing, Smoked Duck Canape, Red Bean and Shiitake Mousse, Cumberland Sauce, Savory Cracker

I was irritated again tonight. I began working right away on the galantine because Tennessee had been absent that night. The galantine was freaking me out because I can't seem to remember how to get the skin and meat off the chicken using Chef's method. But Rico and Irish quietly gave me some tips, and once I got into it, it seemed to come off okay. But while I was doing that, Tennessee didn't seem to be doing anything. She settled into working after about 45 minutes and eventually my irritation went away. She was complaining about things where I didn't really see what she had to complain about (how long it took her to find ingredients - um, it didn't take the hour she claimed and really, it involved her going into the next door kitchen. So what? I do that almost every night). It took me about 2.5 hours to finish the galantine. That is a long time to work on one thing that I won't even eat. At least with cakes you can take breaks.

So during that time, Tennessee finished most of the rest of our menu, and they tasted good. Whoops, we accidentally burned our beans, but then it turned out they were done. And Chef said he's not tasting any of our food, so we figured, why not keep it? Ha. Clearly, we don't care as much as other teams.

Tennessee really did so much in the time it took me to finish the galantine - I just get irritated sometimes, but I know I'll get over it.

Tonight we made the galantine, brined the chicken (there was no duck), made the dressing, mixed the mousse, made the sauce, and made the cracker dough.

We got out late tonight - I didn't get home until 12:15. I did get in a brief run (and I mean brief - just 18 minutes) in the afternoon, and that might have helped keep me awake. But I'll be tired at work on Thursday.

Tomorrow will be busy - we have to finish the canape spread, smoke the chicken, bake the crackers, poach the mousse, make the salad, design the platter, and plate it! That sounds like a lot, now that I write it. You'll see the final tomorrow!

Chef made us chicken cacciatore and mashed potatoes.

Today was Nemo's birthday - Irish made him a red velvet ice cream cake. She's so sweet! It was good, too. That was really good.

Oh! And I got a 25/25 on the pop quiz! Yay!

Lessons Learned:

Apparently, around midnight, red lights are optional. Somehow I must have missed that lesson in driver's ed. It's best not to think about the other drivers too much, or I might be afraid to get in my car.

Practice

2008-09-24T18:14:00.005-05:00

Tuesday we practiced for the final. We took what we made Monday, and came up with platter designs. Other teams are making really fancy things, but I don't really see the point and I'm not feeling very artsy at the moment.

So the other reason I wish we took a week off occasionally - I tend to get annoyed with people when I spend too much time around them without breaks. I'm someone who needs their space, and especially this class, where every night has been partner or group work, I just haven't had that.

Anyway, I found out tonight I am paired with Tennessee for the final. Which, if you were Chef, would seem like it makes sense since she and I have been paired up most nights. But I've been getting frustrated. I know I don't always give the best effort, but when it's time to get down to work, I do.

This is the walk-in:

Crowded, right?

Lessons Learned:
At the beginning of class, I was just chatting with Tennessee, but eventually I wanted to actually practice - we have been assigned a meat-heavy final, and I hadn't made any of the dishes on the days they were on the menu. So I practiced making the aspic gelee glaze (a specific ratio of powdered gelatin to consumme), and after she to make the gelee that would cover the bottom of the platter, she didn't try anything else. I screwed up the glaze, and then tried again. And then tried making the crackers. Which I also screwed up. 3 times. But Tennessee, she wasn't doing anything. And then she kept saying "we" weren't doing anything, but I was - at least I was trying to! And then when I finally asked her to try making crackers, she kept trying to tell me my dough looked fine - but I knew rolled out, it would not work. She finally made some, but only near the end of class. It sounds silly, but my grade depends on her making at least a little bit of effort...

I didn't want to tell her to work - we're friends, and I understand not feeling like working. And I was having a really off night, and thought I might be mean if I opened my mouth, so I just kept my mouth shut.

So I just tried to keep to myself. Which I probably did not do that well. I think it was obvious I was irritated.

But I'm not the only one frustrated with partners. Several other people have mentioned frustrations as well.

Charcuterie

2008-09-24T18:13:00.005-05:00

Monday we were in groups of four - whoops, Chef forgot me! And then when someone else remembered me, he misspelled my name. Oh well - it happens! I was with T., Nemo, and Whiskey.

Our menu was:
Summer Melon with Mint
Apricot Cherry Chutney
Whole Grain Mustard and Tarragon Sauce
Tourneed Spiced Potatoes
Marinated Jicama
Pickled Vegetables
Savory Crackers

I made the Apricot Cherry Chutney and Whole Grain mustard and tarragon sauce. We saved the food for tomorrow to practice building platters.

Here's the Apricot Cherry Chutney:
Sweat red onions and garlic, add cider vinegar, honey, orange juice, water, lemon juice, curry powder, coriander, apricots, and cherries and simmer over low flame until thickened. You want the sauce to coat the back of a spoon - but don't wait until it coats while it's heating. It will still be liquidy in the pot because it's so hot - pull it off the heat and allow it to cool and it will stick to the spoon.
This was really good. Sweet, but not overwhelming - you could still taste the vinegar.

This is the whole grain mustard and tarragon sauce:

This was really tangy - I just wanted to eat the whole bowl. But that might have made me really sick. And really fat. Since it's mostly mayo and sour cream... Mix equal parts mayo and sour cream, then mix in whole grain mustard, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper, tarragon, sugar, and lemon juice.

Lessons Learned:
We had a pop quiz tonight. Luckily it was open note. And we got back the other quiz, and I got an 18/20 on it. Sweet... I may pull off a B if I do well on the final practical - those days I was sick really hurt my chances for an A. That, and I don't really think I'll do that well on the practical.

Terrines, Galantines, Pates, Roulades, and Timbales

2008-09-21T13:02:00.005-05:00

Thursday and Friday we made more cold dishes. Supposedly, people at fine dining restaurants eat this stuff. But I don't see why. it takes a really long time and effort to make, so I could see why it's only served at expensive places, but why anyone would want to eat it...I don't really get. It just looks gross.

Thursday we made Seafood Roulade, Pate de Campagne, Fennel Mousse. On Friday we made Roasted Vegetable Terrine with Goat Milk Cheese, Roasted Red Pepper Mousee, Red Bean Timbale, and Classic Chicken Galantine.

Terrines and pates are baked forcemeats (ground meat) - terrines are baked in a dish but pates typically have a crust. In our case, the crust is made from pork fatback. A galantine is forcemeat that is wrapped in the skin of the animal it comes from (duck, chicken) and then usually poached. A mousse as the base of the terrine is the pureed meat/fish/vegetable bound with gelatin and lightened with lightly whipped heavy cream.

This, I think, is the seafood roulade - a smooth paste is made out of pike, seasonings, white bread, egg white, and heavy cream (this makes a mousseline) and then diced salmon, diced shrimp, and spices are folded in.

This is Chef working on his Chicken Galantine. First, he deboned the chicken while barely using his knife. This was really impressive to watch. And so much easier than the way we had been taught.

Then this is layering - skin, proscuitto, chicken breasts, mousseline, tenderloins. Then is was rolled up and wrapped in cheesecloth and poached.

This is what my team's looked like:

Not quite as pretty at all - Chef said T tried to overstuff, a common early mistake for chefs.

Lessons Learned

People will pay good money to eat things that aren't even appetizing. Or maybe I just don't know what's good. No major lessons these nights, except that I'm getting worn out. I wish they would allow us breaks in our training besides one institute day every few months.

Cold Soups and Consomme

2008-09-19T17:56:00.004-05:00

We had another quiz tonight. He told us to study canapes and smoking/curing, but the quiz was on canapes and sandwiches. I think, though, as a result of everyone's scores on the previous quiz, he thought it would be best to review directly from the quiz. So I might have pulled off a B. I don't really have the best attention span, so even though he was reviewing, I wasn't listening all that well. I really should fix that behavior.

Anyway. I switched teams this night. I worked with Whiskey, Rico, and Irish. Irish made the Aspic Gelee, Whiskey made the Gazpacho Andalusia, Rico made the Cantaloupe soup, and I made the Vichyssoise.

I guess I am able to cook again, since breakfast foods went well, and so did the soup. Vichyssoise is a cold potato soup. I don't usually like cream soups, because I think they're too heavy, but this had less cream because the potatoes help make it thick.

Sweat leeks and onion, then add the sachet (remember: bay leaf, black peppercorns, parsley, and thyme), potatoes and stock. Bring to a full boil, then simmer until potatoes begin to fall apart. Remove and discard the sachet, puree mixture. Mount in butter and cool rapidly. To finish for service, add in half and half, fold in chives, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

All these soups require pureeing. I bought myself a hand blender, which is how I would do this at home. I highly recommend investing in one of those! That way you don't have to make a mess ladling into a blender and then pouring back out again.

We also made a Lime Granite for the cantaloupe soup. This didn't freeze well during class, so we left the cantaloupe soup for the next night. When Irish scraped it up the next day, I had to stop her because she was accidentally scraping up the aluminum from the sheet pan - those curlies were sharp! A granite is just water, sugar, lime zest, and lime juice combined in a shallow pan. Stir evey 25 minutes so it doesn't freeze solid - you want it to be more like slush.

So we have this class next to us, they are also doing the certificate program. There's this one boy, he asked me during baking to send him the photo I took during our huge fest, and he said he would give me his e-mail later. But he never did. But he always smiles at me, and he has a really cute smile. It makes me feel really shy - I always blush and duck my head.

And then there's this other guy. I was in the dish room one night, and this older guy says to me "Smile. I bet you have a beautiful smile." Okay. I hate being told this. I have been told it my entire life. What the hell do people want? Me to walk around with a goofy grin on my face? I smile when I want to, not just randomly. Anyway. Later, this younger guy says something similar to me, and I snapped at him. So then he started saying hello to me before and after class. And this night, I was alone washing dishes, and he came in. He wouldn't come near me, and asked if it's okay - apparently he's worried I'm going to hurt him. I just said I don't believe in violence - not mean or anything. Now, I realize he was flirting. But I'm still sick, and I'm tired in class, and, oh yeah, I kind of am not a fan of boys right now given the way The Boy has been treating me lately. So I don't really feel up for flirting. And then, I was in there alone again, and he came in again, and said we keep running into each other, and what soup did I make? lo and behold, we made the same one... I guess it's fate. Or just that we share the same dish room.

Lessons Learned:

Cold soups are really good and refreshing! I highly recommend the cantaloupe soup for a hot day in summer. Let me know if you want the recipe. But don't eat this vichyssoise unless you can brush your teeth a couple of times: chives, leeks, and onion? That's a strong flavor!

Breakfast Cookery

2008-09-18T17:20:00.011-05:00

Chef decided tonight's simple egg recipes did not need to be practiced (scrambled eggs, sunny side up, over easy, over medium, over hard, American omelet, French omelet, and shirred eggs).

We worked in teams of four - me, Nemo, T. and Tennessee. I made the Frittata, French toast, and crepes. T. made the spinach souffle and potato pancakes. Tennesse made the crepe batter and German apple pancake.

Tennessee made a German Apple Pancake. Doesn't that look good? She mixed together eggs, milk, flour, salt, lemon juice, butter, dark brown sugar, and cinnamon. Then she baked and it puffed and browned. She made a simple syrup and warmed the apples, and poured them on top after the pancake was completed.

This was my second try at the crepe.
Compared to someone else's batter, I think our's didn't sit long enough - I don't know much about crepes, but our's seem more like really thin omelettes while their's looked like the ones at the store.

Mmm. I did a good job! My French toast was really good.
Can't you just picture biting into it? That's real maple syrup - we had this giant brown jug of Kraft syrup, but Chef K had the real stuff, and Irish had gotten some from him and gave me her leftovers.

These are the potato pancakes.
I don't know the recipe, because Chef just demoed it, but grate some potatoes, blend in spices and flour with hands, then brown on a griddle. Mmm salty.

This is my spinach frittata.
Wilt spinach, add mushrooms and cook until light brown. Cool. Beat eggs and pour into oven-safe pan. Add in vegetables, and push under egg batter. Cook in the oven. Slide the frittata onto a plate and cute into wedges - make sure to serve before it deflates!

Here's T.'s spinach souffle.
In the bowl, it looked like the whip had fallen and it wouldn't rise in the oven, but it managed to work! I didn't have one - too much food at that point. And you can't save them for later because they fall.

I had to drive to my parent's home after class because I had a conference out by them in the morning. It was just easier doing the drive at midnight than sitting in traffic on the interstate in the morning.

Chef is turning out to be a really nice guy. I think his meds and the pain really got to him last week, because he's been a little more lively this week. He tells stories about his catering of parties, and he's so cute - he gets so excited explaining the menus he's created.

And Chef K, from Culinary I, he's teaching the class next door, and he's always coming over. Supposedly, as a class, we make quite the impression - our chefs love us.

Lessons Learned:

Even when there appear to be a lot of recipes to finish during class, if you work together and divide duties, it isn't really that hard to finish.

And we've been getting out around 11:30 every night - which is great. Just that extra 15 minutes allows me to get to bed around 12:15 or 12:30. I'm still tired the next day, but it's nice to get those 15 minutes.

Sandwiches

2008-09-18T17:20:00.006-05:00

Monday night we made sandwiches. The story is that the Earl of Sandwich needed a fast way to serve luncheon meat to gamblers without making them leave the table.

We split up the work by the whole class tonight - we did not have very many people in class. Lots of people had flooding damage from the weekend, and some people took the night off.

I made the braised sauerkraut for the Reuben sandwiches. I did a good job! Mince some onions, then saute in bacon fat over low heat. Add the sauerkraut, sugar, stock, salt and pepper. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed.

To make a Reuben, butter each slice of rye bread. spread each piece with Thousand Island, lay the slices butter side down on a sheet pan and top with a slice of Swiss cheese. Place two oz of corned beef brisket, sliced thin, on each bread slice. Top sandwich halves with 2 oz sauerkraut. Toast both sides in a skillet.

We also made Turkey Club Sandwiches. Use either white or wheat Pullman bread (named after the Pullman tain car). Toast the bread. Spread mayo on each slice. Arrange lettuce, tomato, and bacon on one slice of toast. Top with a slice of bread, and arrange turkey and 1 piece of lettuce. Top with the last piece of bread. Place frill picks on all four sides. Cut diagonally into four pieces. Plate triangle up, with french fries in the center.

Thousand Island Dressing:

whisk red wine vinegar, sugar, mayo, ketchup, chopped pickles, chopped hard-cooked egg, chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and worcestershire.

I got my quiz back. 20 out of 40. ouch. well, that's not really surprising since I didn't know about it and he wouldn't give me time to review my notes. Good. Times.

Lessons Learned:

Reubens are good! And I need to stop eating. I don't have time to work out anymore, so I really should not be eating in class. Everything is full fat, which is not helping. Ick. I feel gross.

Curing and Smoking cont'd - Canapes

2008-09-13T13:31:00.006-05:00

Friday we worked in teams of 4 making canapes. Just in case you don't know, canapes are 1-2 bite, open-faced sandwiches. The base can be made of pretty much anything (wontons, tortillas, crackers, unsweetened pastry shells, etc.) but we used toasted Pullman loaves cut into tiny shapes.

I made the canape spread (16 oz butter creamed with 16 oz cream cheese) - no these are not healthy at all, but then again, you're only supposed to be sampling.

Then I did the Grilled Chicken and Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin. Except, ha, I didn't do any of the meat portions. Apparently, I cannot cook anymore. I have always hated cooking chicken - I'm kind of terrified of it not cooking all the way and tonight I was so busy, I didn't pay enough attention, and totally burned it. Luckily, there actually was extra chicken breasts, so T redid it for me. I also burned the red onions when I went to soften them, but I redid it, without following the recipe, and they turned out much better. And then the beef, well, there was none left by the time I was ready to make it. So Chef said I would just have to have someone share slices with me. But the recipe must have been way off because we as a class ended up with way too much. People did a really good job cooking it though - it was fantastic.

We didn't start plating until after 11, and then it was a rush for us to finish - we ended up not being able to make the tuna carpaccio, but we did everything else.

Here's our platter:

From left to right is: grilled chicken, asparagus and sun-dried tomato, smoked salmon, smoked whiskey shrimp, peppercorn beef tenderloin, and around is smoked trout mousse.
Looks good, don't you think? He didn't critique any of mine, but he said even though the shrimp should have been stood up to add height, he liked it best.

We ate some, but after tasting all the bases all night, I really couldn't eat much. I think the most amazing thing about these canapes is that you don't even taste the individual parts of the dish - it becomes this amazing new flavor combination in your mouth. There was then a rush to clean up - I took home the tenderloin and chicken mixes, because it just seemed such a shame to throw it away. I should have taken some of the others, but it all tends to just sit in my fridge because it's only me to eat it. So it gets thrown away anyway.
We got out 5 minutes late, but considering we didn't start plating until 11:10, that's not bad.

Lessons Learned:
Apparently, when protein is involved, one needs to pick up their portion early. Now, this shouldn't be necessary if we actually got our proper amount of supplies, but I'm being naive to pretend that we ever do, so I should have realized this.
People are really starting to divide in the class - and it's more that almost everyone is furious about certain people, rather than exclusive cliques. I think the one that has the most people frustrated with her is Russia. She really pissed off her group tonight. Apparently, she told them they were making the canapes wrong, so she made all her own (once everything had been put together - she just did her own platter), and her group ended up complaining to Chef because they were really furious about it. I heard about that after class - I was irritated because while we were being critiqued (and he took about 10 minutes to critique), she was just standing there. I'm assuming it was to look like she was busy so she wouldn't have to help clean, but that's rude - critiques are considered private and everyone else is supposed to stay away. Obviously.
I just don't know what she's going to do - everyone in her group is going to make sure on Monday there is no room for her at the table, and she's not welcome at our's, and the last table is full, so where's she going to go? Who is going to get stuck being her partner? There are other people in the class who are annoying, but they have redeeming qualities when it comes to cooking, like Sutra being a really quick producer and willing to help when asked.
I don't know if she understands why even the nicest people in the class want nothing to do with her after working with her. Even when people tell her off, she doesn't change her behavior... Monday should be interesting.
On that note, time to work out - I ate too much at class this week!

Curing and Smoking

2008-09-13T12:39:00.003-05:00

Thursday I stayed home from work, but by the time it was afternoon, I wasn't having any more trouble swallowing and I really didn't feel like I could miss another class. I was a bit testy toward people, but that's because of different stressors.

Anyway.

Wednesday I missed Starch and Vegetable Salads, which are going to be on the Final Platter presentation, but we're doing that in groups of two, so I'm hoping I get paired up with someone who was there that day. I also apparently missed a quiz.

But look at the flowers Irish brought me! She's taking a flower arranging course during the day, and she gave me a "Freedom" Rose arrangement because I was out... awww. She's so nice.

We brined Duck Breasts to be smoked tomorrow, marinaded shrimp in bourbon and hot spices to smoke, dry cured salmon to smoke tomorrow, and smoked trout.

I did the smoked salmon cure. But, of course, we didn't actually have enough proteins, so instead of having 1.5 lbs for each team, I had to take one salmon filet and quarter it. And then I shared our group's with Army because there was none left for his group.

I asked Chef if I could make up the quiz, and he said "right now?" And I asked if I could possibly wait until tomorrow (since I didn't know about it, was still a little foggy, and had had no chance to study), and he said that was too late because he wanted to put the grades in and hand the quizzes back. "Um, okay, then I guess I'll take it now." It was fill-in-the-blank about salads. I think I knew maybe five answers. Out of 20. Seriously. I hadn't looked at those notes since I took them in class. That should be an interesting grade.

There really wasn't that much to do today, so we were all kind of dilly-dallying, and then he lectured for a bit, and then we smoked our meats over mesquite chips. This can be done indoors, like we did, but you need to have excellent ventilation. This is our shrimp:

So, we're standing there eating them - because bourbon with hot sauce is an amazing combination, thinking we only had to save four because that's what he said, and Chef is standing right there as we're eating, and when there are only about 6 left, he says, "you know you need 4 each, right?" Well, no, how would we know that? You said that we needed 4. And you are watching us eat. So why wouldn't you mention "4 each" in the first place when we ask you how many to save? I don't think he's doing it to be mean, I just don't really know what's going on there. He did mention he's on a lot of medication because of a fall off of his bike, and he is working doubles. So maybe he's just tired.

Lessons Learned:

Missing days of class is stressful. I feel like I missed a lot of information, and his lectures don't really make sense, so borrowing someone else's notes doesn't really help.

Sick day

2008-09-10T21:53:00.002-05:00

No story about culinary school tonight.
I left work early today, after lunch, due to the fact that I still couldn't swallow. I stood in my apartment at 6:50 in the morning wondering if it was too late to call in. But I needed to attend an IEP meeting and then work on a BIP. So I figured I'd go half a day.
Went home. Slept for 2 hours and wanted to keep sleeping. Still couldn't swallow, so I called my doctor. Not working this week! Luckily, he had a sub in the same building set up who could see me at 6:30 (school starts at 7:15). She was really great. She wasn't even actually seeing patients that late, but the nurse had told her it was urgent. Turns out it was. She described my throat as "white dots with also a look of someone spreading mayo over it." Gross. And fitting given what we made Monday night... Ha!
Since I'm not running a fever and the quick strep test came back negative, she sent out for a culture because she says it looks like I'm somewhere between strep and a virus. And now I'm on antibiotics. And had her write me a note for class - Ha! Who knew it'd be like I'm back in elementary school and need a note for it to be an excused absence. And I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Well, I still have to drive out for a meeting at 8 with my boss, but I'm going home after that. And I will sleep. And sleep. And sleep.
If I have time, I'll also try to make these this weekend. Missing class makes my grocery bills expensive! Hopefully this chef is more flexible - if you miss too many days, you can automatically fail classes. But I have a note!
I'm off to bed. Being actually sick makes me really tired!

Protein and Grain Salads

2008-09-10T21:40:00.004-05:00

I don't have much to say for Tuesday because...sadly, I had to go home sick after the lecture and demo. Chef discussed the nutritional background behind using grains and how to plate a salad.
Ta da!

Ha. This is definitely Chef's Tuna Nicoise. Look how good it looks. He likes to use a Nike swish formation to plating - follow from the tuna to the beans to the potatoes to the tomatoes. Yum. Would have liked to have tasted this since I didn't get to make my own...

I had to go home after this. I just did not feel I should be touching food other people might eat. I went to Trader Joe's (which, by the way, I am totally obsessed with this store. By far the cheapest grocer in the city - except for the produce up on Devon. But those are really far away now that I have so little time). I bought all the ingredients for the recipes and will make them this weekend.

Lessons Learned:
Um. I guess, lesson learned is when you can't swallow, you probably shouldn't be going to culinary school that evening.

Basic Dressings

2008-09-10T19:47:00.003-05:00

Monday we started Garde Manger, and I started to come down with a throat ache.

Chef T. While nice, he is a little boring. He lectured about the history of garde manger, appetizers, salads, and dressings. Then he demoed how to make mayonnaise and vinaigrettes. Wow is there a lot of oil in mayo. I rarely eat mayo, and usually only accidentally, because it hurts my stomach, and now I think I might know why - I just don't eat that much oil or fats in anything except, well, fried foods because I love fried foods.

Anyway.

Basic red wine vinaigrette. To Tennessee and I, this seemed creamier than we expected, but Chef said it looked fine. But other people's seemed less creamy. Oh well. It tasted pretty good. Combine vinegar, Dijon, and shallots. Slowly whisk in oil. Then season with salt, pepper, sugar, and herbs (tarragon, chives, and parsley). This is served on the following salad:

2 oz mixed greens, 1/2 tomato, 1 oz carrot, 1/4 head belgian endive, 1/8 head of radicchio, 2 oz cucumber, 2 oz red onino, and 1/4 apple. We didn't actually make this salad, but doesn't it sound good?

Emulsified Mustard Herb Vinaigrette.

I made this one - combine egg yolk, cider vinegar, dijon mustard, shallots, parsley, chives, and sugar and whisk until lightened. Slowly add in oil while whisking constantly. Continue until all oil and vinegar (add walnut oil) is used. Season with salt and pepper.

This tasted really good. I usually hate vinaigrettes because the vinegar bites too much, but this was a really nice blend. And it tastes like there are walnuts in the salad when it's only a minor amount of oil...

I wanted to drink it. Seriously. I ate almost the entire mixing bowl once I tossed it with Romaine.

Mayonnaise.

Ew. I didn't even taste our's. I tasted Chef's and it felt like I might have just drank from the bottle of oil. But that might be the quality of the oil purchasing gets us. Because, you know, $15,000 for a 8-month program couldn't possibly buy you quality ingredients...

Anyway.

Mix egg yolks, white wine vinegar, and dry mustard. Whisk in oil - drips at first, then a light stream as it starts to thicken. You will whisk. And whisk. And whisk. And add oil. And more oil. And more oil.

Tennessee, Irish and I switched off whisking for at least 10 minutes. I was not much help. Besides being tired, I apparently don't have the arm strength. And, sometimes, whisking just seems dirty - I don't think I need to describe for you what it sometimes looks like a person is doing... but just in case you don't live in the gutter like I do: it involves a hand and a male body part. Ha! This was being saved for tomorrow.

Blue cheese dressing. Irish made this. It tasted good, but I don't really like blue cheese (I think I just haven't tried it often enough). Mix mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, blue cheese, shallot, garlic, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, hot sauce, and worcestershire.

Serve on 1/4 head frisee, 1/4 head Bibb lettuce, 1/4 pear, 2T walnuts, 1/4 head Beligian endive. 1 oz red onion, 4 oz roasted beet.

This was going to be my first opportunity to eat a beet (kind of shocking I've never had one before), but we didn't have time to make it because lecture went too long. I think Irish took this home to her doorman. She's so nice.

Lessons Learned:

Garge Manger goes back to the medieval kitchen. It was where they stored preserved meats and food before big banquets.

We will learn platter presentations (you know, good old nitpicky chef stuff). Guidelines for plating a salad: color, height, ingredients cut uniformly, cold food on cold plates, not overdressed, and no food on rim.

To make a good salad, you need to match the dressing to the lettuce. Two types of dressings: vinaigrettes/citronettes and creamy.

Don't store lettuce with any water on it, but also not totally dry. Use bus tubs, with a damp towel over.

Final and Practical

2008-09-07T22:43:00.004-05:00

We did the exam first - as I said for Thursday, luckily he had reviewed every question. I was exhausted Friday.

Then we moved on to making one pastry cream tart and 6 buttermilk bisquits. I was upset with my products Friday. I just know I could have done better but I just didn't have the energy to start over.
I got a 75/90 on the tart - my topping was overwhipped and there was too much cornstarch in my filling so it wasn't smooth enough. But my crust was well-baked. Chef could tell I was upset (I am so quick to tears these days since I am so tired all the time), and he asked me if I thought his products turn out perfect all the time. They don't - we've seen him get really pissed off at himself when he screws up his demos - usually he is so jokey with us, but when he screws up his demos (usually due to the heat of the classroom and how it destroys products quickly) he snaps at us a lot.

I got a 90/90 on the bisquits. 20/20 on overall kitchen behavior. I earned a 95% in the class.

But. I found this a little laughable - I got a 45/50 on the paper. I have a graduate school education - and my paper is not considered good enough? I just wanted to know why I didn't do better, since there was nothing marked on the paper, but all he could tell me was that I didn't give enough detail. Apparently, other people had written 4-5 pages. And then he said I used double-spacing (according to the grading criteria, this was required), and I used too large a font (12point Arial, again, required). I pointed out that I followed the directions, and there were no page requirements, and he just looked at me and told me he still loved me and it had not impacted my grade in any way. I also pointed out that the cupcake shop I went to was about 10 feet big, so there really wasn't that much to describe further, but I don't even know why I was kind-of arguing since I didn't really care. I know I hadn't made much of an effort with the paper. I didn't remember to write it until I woke up from my nap at 4:15 Tuesday, the night it was due. I guess I just think it's weird that my writing wouldn't be considered good enough with all my education - I've read other student's papers when they've shown them to me, and they have grammatical and punctuation errors everywhere, and they did better. Maybe because it's a technical school rather than the educational background I come from?
Rico was taking pretty long to finish, and the rest of us were at our table just standing around eithe after being graded or waiting to be graded. Irish took the piece Chef has sliced to see the inside of the tart and taste it, and pushed it into Rico's face. It was really funny. I was too slow to catch the actual cream on the face though. Later, she said she was wondering why we were all watching her pipe, and then she noticed Irish very close to her but she was concentrating so much on piping that she wasn't quick enough to stop the tart from being pushed into her face. She laughed it off, but the rest of the night she said she kept smelling whipped cream because it got up her nose. Oh, the fun we get into late at night...

Final thoughts/Lessons Learned:
Chef C was great. He told us he will either have us for B&P 2, or definitely the restaurant. He said that he doesn't really see more of us dropping - we lost a few this class - but the other class will lose a lot (he aided in there for Meat Fab) and we will end up combined into one class. He said we all seem very dedicated, whereas students in the other class just sometimes don't show up for class. Interesting. Next up is Garde Manger. We've heard good things about the Chef, but then again, we also hear it's a class that is the breaking point for students. Should be interesting for me given how stressed I already am. Boy stresses aren't helping. It's time for me to state what I need, and I have never been good at that, even if a lot of people have the impression that this would be easy for me. It never has been, but it's the worst when it comes to boys. Sometimes I think it's amazing that I'm a psychologist given all my own issues. Those who can't do, teach, right?

Off to bed - I was up until after 4 both nights this weekend, and though I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon/evening, I think I need to try to fall asleep again. Full week of work ahead - goody. Can you sense the excitement?

Assembly of Tarts

2008-09-07T22:33:00.002-05:00

Thursday we put together our tarts, and prepped for the final exam and final practical. It was a really short day. He had to stretch it out to make it to 10:30. He went over the entire exam, which was a good thing, because I have been so busy with new duties at work that I do not have the time I thought I would to study during the day. Otherwise, I probably would have done really bad on it.
Anyway. Assembly just involves placing the filling in the tarts and topping them off. I sadly forgot my camera, but T let me use his. I'm just waiting for him to e-mail me the photos. We put whipped topping on the tart with the pastry cream. Whipped cream is really easy to make on your own - it's just heavy cream and powdered sugar with vanilla extract to taste. Then whip until it has stiff peaks. Use a pastry bag to pipe the cream. I didn't like the shape I did, but Tennessee took her's off because she felt like she was having an off night. Chef said it's most important to be consistent rather than the design itself.
The pear halves were sliced (not all the way through) and spread out over the Frangipane filling, and then baked until golden brown. I was watching our's, and I pulled it out at the exact right time.

Lessons Learned:
I am worn out by Thursdays. I enjoy this much more than my job these days, so I'm going to try to keep up the program, but but I'll just have to take it a week at a time.

Tart Fillings

2008-09-04T23:52:00.006-05:00

Wednesday we made the ingredients for tarts.

Tart dough: Otherwise known as Pate Sucre (sweet dough). Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Then flour. Obviously these were baked in tart pans; this was before they were going to be wrapped and cooled overnight.
These are my and Tennessee's three doughs: two par-baked, and one fully-baked.
Except the fully-baked one isn't. It needs to be browner on the bottom. We finished it the next evening before adding the filling.

Frangipane: Warm almond paste with hands, then cream with sugar then butter. Put in bag, and refrigerate overnight.

Pear Poaching:
Basic poaching liquid: water and sugar, but can add white wine. We also had cinnamon sticks and lots of other things. Chef actually had it ready for us, so I don't know what went in it. We each cut up one pear into halves, and cored it. Dig a melon baller into the center to get the seed portion, then do v-cuts to get the hard end pieces. Then poach.

Bourbon Pecan Filling: combine eggs with sugar and corn syrup, molasses, bourbon, butter, vanilla extract, and pecans. Tennessee made this while I did the Frangipane and Pastry Cream.

Pastry Cream: This is a staple of a pastry kitchen, because it fills so many things like cakes, eclairs, etc.
Scald milk and sugar (when see bubbles at edge, pull off heat). Whisk eggs, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth, then temper about 2/3 of the milk in (add slowly; allows you to raise the temp of eggs nearer to temp of milk without cooking the eggs). Then whisk all back into remaining milk. Boil, whisking constantly (if you stop, the eggs will cook), making sure to scrape sides and bottom. Whisk for one minute at full boil. Pull off heat, whisk in flavoring (extracts, zest, etc). Whisk in butter and then whisk in chocolate. Put over ice bath to cool. When cold, it will look like gel. It will congeal overnight, and then will be paddled smooth again the next day. It has a 3-day shelf life.

Lessons learned:
Getting out early is a really nice feeling. I don't think Garde Manger (my next class) will be like that. Sad. I like being asleep by 12:30 since I have to get up before 6am.
If you are using real vanilla beans for the pastry cream, split and scrape them and add them when scalding the milk. Extracts, however, go in near the end.

Introduction to Fruit Pie and Custard Fillings

2008-09-04T23:40:00.008-05:00

Tuesday we made old fashioned apple pie, cherry pie, and quiche lorraine.

Apple pie: We were supposed to learn the Cooked Fruit method, but Chef prefers Old Fashioned Apple Pie. In OFAP, the fruit cooks while it bakes. I was paired with T, and he made this one. Having been raised to wash all my fruit, I expressed some surprise during lecture that Chef did not wash the apples before he peeled them. He teased me about this, and said that in the industry, if a chef caught me washing a carton of apples, I would get in trouble. And he said it doesn't matter, since the peel is removed and they'll be cooked, but my father taught me that since you touch the outside with your peeler which then touches the inside as you peel, it transfers whatever is on the outside to the inside. It's not even the pesticides, because we don't worry about that in my family, it's I think the dirt. Actually, I don't know what it is. We've just been taught to wash all fruit. Plus, I love to eat apple peels, so it seems gross not to wash it. Anyway, to core an apple, I'm sure you've seen this on the Food Network, slice it into quarters and then stand it up or lay it down and straight cut the core.
Cut the slices about 1/4 in thick, making sure you're consistent. Mix with lemon juice, sugar, constarch, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Lay the apples in the crust, piling higher in the center. Cut up 1T of butter, and put pieces on top of apples. Pour residual juice over top of apples. Lay crust on top, and pinch together. Use water to seal together. Make sure you make vents, any style you like! Egg wash, and can sprinkle with sugar in the raw. Cover with foil (hole in middle) and bake 45 minutes with foil, and 15 min without foil. Parchment paper is key here, as you can see that apple pie tends to leak as it bakes. You wouldn't want that mess on the oven floor! He did a nice job, don't you think?

Cherry pie: I made the cherry pie. We used IQF fruit, as usual - it's just easier. This uses the Cooked Juice method. Whisk cherry juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot to simmer. Make a slurry - cornstarch dissolved in cold water. Add this to the juice mix, bring to a boil, continue whisking. In a few minutes, it will become gel-like. Make sure you didn't allow the sugar to burn, or this won't work, trust me. I had to start over, because I definitely burned my sugar the first time - it's supposed to be this really pretty clearish pink gel, and mine was dark and some parts were brown. Mix this with the cherries in a bowl, and allow to cool. If it is warm when added to the pie, it will melt the dough.

Blind bake the dough (do this with all pie dough): Cover the bottom crust with 'pie weights' - we wrapped a couple cups of beans in plastic wrap, and lay it on the dough. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the crust becomes white/opaque. Pull off beans, and then bake long enough for the bottom to get color. Dough docking: poke holes in the bottom for steam - otherwise when you try to brown the bottom, it will puff up. You can break the puff, but that then creates cracks in the bottom crust.

Fill with cherries, then make a lattice crust. Roll out the remaining dough, and cut strips. Lay four to five strips down, then pull back every other one. Lay a strip perpendicular, then return strips that were pulled back. Now pull back the opposite strips, and repeat with a perpendicular strip. In other words, don't picture this done like I always had - where a person will weave through, like a basket. That, not surprisingly, would be very difficult to do. Press down to seal, egg was, and bake closer to the bottom of the oven for 30 minutes. Looks good, right? It was too sweet for me, but I didn't actually taste mine - we sampled one team's in the class, and the rest are saved for orientations or staff meetings.

The flakes are from the oven - when T put in the apple pie above mine, some stuff from the oven fell off onto the pie. Oh well. Chef said it didn't matter.

Quiche Lorraine: This is really rich. But good. I read about quiche recipes all the time, but I've never made one before. I actually wouldn't have expected to learn it in baking class, but I guess it makes sense, since the crust is important. Whisk cream, eggs, yolks, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Use white pepper so it blends in and there are no specks. Mix bacon, onion, and cheese, and a small amount of base. Pour this mix in the dough, then pour remaining liquid over. Bake for 20 minutes, until when you shake it is seems like set jello.

Ha. TNT. aren't we funny?

Lessons Learned:

There are two types of pies: mealy (one crust; custard) or flaky (double crust; fruit). Mealy pies are either par-baked or fully baked before filling is added (quiche, pecan, chocolate silk). There are eggs in the filling. Flaky pies are fruit pies.

Introduction to Cut-In Method (Physical Lamination)

2008-08-30T17:11:00.007-05:00

Friday we made scones, biscuits, and pie dough. We had a grand total of 10 people at class Friday night - everyone else took the night off for the three-day weekend. Their loss - they're going to need the pie dough Tuesday! And class went soooo fast. We were out by 10 pm. Awesome. I was just going to go home, but Rico asked me to get a drink, so Master, Whiskey, Rico and I went to pizza.

Tonight I was paired with T because Tennessee's sister was in town and Irish is back home dealing with legal stuff. And going to a pig picking. As in picking the pig to roast. It's a southern thing, apparently.

I made the bisquits, T made the scones, and we each made a pie dough (me flaky, him mealy).

The cut-in method creates flaky dough. Steps: 1) whisk dry 2) cut up butter into large pieces 3) break up butter into flour by hand (size of hazelnuts) 4) make well in center, pour in buttermilk 5) toss by hand until just together 6) gently knead together

Bisquits:

7) if rolling out, do to 1/2 in thick, and cut out rounds (max two roll-outs/cuts per dough before gets tough); if flattening, flatten to 1/2 in thick circle, then cut 12 wedges 8) milk wash with leftover buttermilk drops

Our partner class made a big batch of sausage and bacon gravy. I've actually never had gravy before but this was really good. And mine and T.'s bisquits were perfectly flaky on top.

Scones: between steps 3 and 4, can add in flavors (T used chocolate chips and dried cherries). 7) divide dough in half, flatten two rounds, cut six wedges in each. 8) milk wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar. Chef recommends using a heavy cream instead of buttermilk for the scones.

Pie Dough:

Depending on the recipe, you may need either flaky or mealy dough. Follow the above directions for flaky, and for mealy, break up the butter in the flour into tiny pieces, until the dough starts to look like cornmeal. Then gently knead together. We wrapped it up and froze it at this point - pie dough keeps well in the fridge for about 2 days, but once you need it later than that, freeze it.

Scones and bisquits can also be frozen - either the dough or the baked. I wanted to have more practice with flaky because scones are on the practical.

Rico blew my mind tonight with an observation she has made about T. - he never helps clean. Sometimes, he may do his own space, or push a broom, but generally, he does not clean. And no one ever notices. I definitely had not. He works at a pace that allows him to finish right at the end, and then moves enough that no one notices that he isn't helping to clean. Amazing. She made a good point though: why be mad about it? He really wants to be in a kitchen, and this is going to catch up with him on the job. I wasn't mad so much as shocked. I admire T.'s culinary skills, and it amazes me that he wouldn't participate in a major part of being in a kitchen. Interesting.

On another note, my fridge is stocked full of baked goods. And I don't really know what to do with them. I gave some to my dad and mom, but we really aren't much of a sweets family, so I know they'll eat it because they want to taste my product, but I didn't want to give them a bunch of food they won't eat. And I don't really want to bring it to work, because I don't have enough to go around, and so many of my co-workers claim to be dieting. And some of it crumbled, since I bring it home in plastic bags stuffed into my bag so no one sees us "disposing" of it. But I hate throwing food away. It's a serious dilemma, people! I would just freeze it, but let me remind you that I have a 2/3 fridge, and it already looks like this:

It's a three-day weekend, and I am very excited about it! Not because I have a fun-filled weekend ahead, but because I'll be able to sleep all I want, work out daily, do laundry, and go grocery shopping. Party animal here, people. I have plans with friends that I'm looking forward to, but it's those four things that excite me most about 3 days off from work and school...

So. The boy. The text messaging is still happening, but he had to go to Mexico for work. Two weeks to a month. That's a long time when you aren't defined. And, really, it's longer, since I didn't see him see the weekend before he left due to the wedding. I'm so busy working and going to school full time, but it's amazing how quickly one gets used to talking to and seeing someone...

Oh, recipes... I'll get them up, but I've just been a little busy. I'm not sure if people want recipes, or just more instruction on methods.

Lessons Learned:

Things go a lot quicker when there are less people in the kitchen.

The amount of sugar is the only difference between bisquits and scones.

Practical 2

2008-08-28T23:47:00.002-05:00

Today we had our quick breads and cookie practical: make six muffins, 12 chocolate chip cookies, and 6 macaroon sandwiches.

I got a 191/200 (58 muffins, 55 cookies, 58 macaroons, 20 kitchen behavior).

Here's what my mistakes were:

As you can see, my muffins are a little off in shape. I was being just a bit lazy, and instead of just pouring the extra batter to make a tiny seventh, I topped off two of the six. That was stupid since consistency matters in grading. Oh well, he said they tasted good.

Similar problems with consistency for the chocolate chip cookies. I knew that walking up there. I lost 5 points for it because it was so obvious. I need to buy a scoop instead of using my measuring spoons - getting all the batter out of the spoons is a mess. And they're darker than I wanted, but he said it still falls in the acceptable range. And they tasted right too.

No surprise here, but also problems with consistency for the macaroons. I am still frustrated with this process, but at least I'm closer now, so give me a reason to practice whipping eggs and sugar people... throw a party or something! I got the meringue exactly right, but I must be messing something up with my folding technique. I think it's also because it's an intricate process, and I don't have the best attention span or focus - I get bored pretty easily and just want things to be done, especially when I'm tired. I'm not the most dedicated person you'll meet, not even close... So I was disappointed, and even though they didn't spread as much as yesterday, I thought they would get marked down a lot, but he said they tasted fine, and the color is good. Cool.

Then we took a test, which, he's so nice, he found an all multiple choice version instead of fill-in-the-blank. Thank goodness. I still definitely missed some, but at least I have a chance to guess correctly!

I got a 94/100 on the written part of the first exam, and 23/25 on the vocabulary.

Lessons learned:

When you get soaked in the dishroom in an attempt to clear another few feet of dishes, you don't dry very quickly. But getting out at 11pm makes up for it! On that note, I'm off to bed to catch an extra hour of sleep - maybe then I can work out tomorrow afternoon instead of napping for 1.5 hours. And go out tomorrow... Tennessee's sister is visiting and she wants me to meet her. Then possibly Jazz Fest and out again. Mostly, I'm just excited about the fact that I will have time to work out and do laundry. And sleep until I feel like waking up. Here's to three-day weekends!

Introduction to Egg Foam/Sponging Methods

2008-08-28T14:28:00.004-05:00

Wednesday we made Almond Macaroons, Chocolate Brownie Cookies, and Baton Marechaux. These were hard! Each involves some level of meringue, and I haven't made that since 7th grade Home Ec because the procedure scares me off - you have to do it exactly right or your cookies fall. And fall mine did...

When using the foaming method, everything should be room temperature when whipped together (eggs and sugar). Then fold in the rest of the ingredients, taking care not to lose too much air. If you lose air, you can't fix it once the dry ingredients have been added - you just have to start all over. Make sure to fold, not mix - this will knock out the air.

Almond Macaroons: whip egg whites until foamy, then slowly add sugar. Once have medium stiff peak but still glossy, whip in vanilla (although this can also be folded in). Don't whask whisk against side of bowl, or you will lose air. Sift dry ingredients, then fold in, a little at a time. Folding should be done quickly and gently. Then pipe out into quarter/half-dollar size, using medium plain tip. Set aside to dry before baking (when touched with finger, should not pull away any batter). Bake at 350F convection.
As you can see, mine are way to runny. Chef helped me whip it, and he said it was the right stiffness, but I must have messed up when folding in the dry. Practice Practice Practice. Except it's on the practical tomorrow. Oh well. Tomorrow I'm whipping mine by hand instead of the machine - it just didn't work!
Chocolate Brownie Cookies: Heat chocolate over double boiler. Whisk eggs and sugar, add vanilla. Fold in cooled but still runny chocolate, then fold in dry. Fold in nuts (optional), and set aside covered for 5 minutes. Can either be scooped or piped. 325F convection 8-10 minutes. These turned out pretty well.
Baton Marechaux: Sift dry. Double boil egg and sugar, whip. Fold in dry. Pipe 3 inches long. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake 325 convection. Also too runny.
We were there late today - it took forever to clean the kitchen. There were so many dishes! I don't know if our class ditched them, or the class next door (we share a dishroom), but oh man was it a mess. We always get stuck doing the final clean in the dishroom. Even if we weren't the last ones in there - they must tell their Chef it was us. I heard some of them complaining loudly while we were all in there that we had made the mess - but our people doing dishes said it wasn't our stuff. I mean, of course some of it was, but not all of it. I don't know. When I had taken stuff in there for the first and second recipes, I did mine and put them away, and there was nothing else in there. But when we finally finished our third, there were several stacks of a couple feet. Just like in the cartoons. And then Chef reviewed for the test tomorrow for fifteen minutes. I was very tired this morning when I got up.
Chef expressed some frustration with our class last night - he said some people had been done an hour and a half before the last people, so some people need to pick up speed. And then that people standing around doing nothing instead of helping made our cleaning take longer than it needed to. Again, I don't really understand what happened, but I don't doubt that some people who finished early didn't bother helping clean. Some partnerships are starting to break apart at the seam due to frustrations that people aren't pulling equal weight either in gathering ingredients, mixing, or cleaning. Tennessee continues to pick me, so I hope I'm doing my part like I think I am.
I'm at work, so I'll upload pictures when I get home. Speaking of, time to go meet some more case management kids, and then it's time to leave!

Lessons learned:
In a commercial microwave, you can put in stainless steel bowls. But it must say "commercial" on it!
Pistoles are small coin-sized chocolates
To make meringues fluffier, heat egg and sugar to 11-120F in double boiler before whipping. Stir while over double boiler. This does not take long to get to this temperature.

Creamed Cookies

2008-08-27T08:42:00.008-05:00

I feel like I’m learning to live with less sleep – I didn’t even drink coffee at work yesterday, and I felt like I was functioning fine. Although, I did take a 1.5 hour nap after school, and I struggled a bit after that. Luckily, Rico brought me a vanilla latte (she works at Starbucks), and that was really good. But I think this might be okay – when I’m busy, I don’t feel as tired. We'll see how today goes - I went to sleep around 1am, and I think I remember waking up a lot during the night. And I already miss working out. I see the beautiful sky reflecting against the lake and skyline and people dressed in shorts and sneakers, and I think, oh man I wish I could go running.
We made cookies Tuesday night – Chocolate Chip and Spritz. We were also supposed to make Oatmeal Raisin, but apparently our oats did not come in. Again, it’s not like that is a hard item to get or used infrequently in kitchens – why doesn’t purchasing work properly at a culinary school?
Anyway.
Both cookies use the creaming method. We worked individually today because the school takes student cookie products and uses them for meetings, open houses, and orientations. Since we worked individually and I didn't pick up a mixing bowl until after I had my mise en place, I got stuck with a baby mixer.
I consider these kind of lousy professional mixers. As you can see, it is tiny. And not very strong.
Cookie dough is really soft, so it's okay to use these machines for that, but still, it was an irritating process. I just didn't like it as well as the bigger ones.
Here's my large tray of chocolate chip cookies.
These are a flat Tablespoon portion sized (as opposed to rounded). If they spread flat, it means your dough was too soft/warm. If you don't work fast enough portioning them out, just stick the pan in the refrigerator for a few minutes until they're harder again. As you can see, I tried to fit too many onto the pan - after this I still had dough left over, so I ended up needing another pan anyway, but they were getting soft so i couldn't move the portioned dough... No big deal, they turned out the right shape and size. Even though we weren't supposed to "discard" any until the good ones had been packaged for storage, I took my quarter sheet pan of six to take home and bring to work.
These are Spritz cookies. This is a very basic recipe where the point is the shape and additions. They can be made into rosettes:
figure 8's:
bars:
or shells.
They can then have drops of jam added (rosettes and figure 8's),
or dipped in chocolate and/or nuts (all).
Or you just leave some plain. My piping has really improved since Culinary Skills I. I haven't been practicing, but I think maybe this stuff all just becomes easier the more you work with everything and learn basic rules with the tools. Or maybe I'm just a natural.... ha. I liked these in their pre-baking state - the piping is so clear. Then they spread a little when baking and become more flat. Chef says that's what they're suppsoed to do, but I just don't think they look as pretty. As soon as they start to show color on the edges, pull them out and cool.
With all cookies (and everything else, really), there is carry-over cooking, so you want to bake almost just under and then pull out. Then cool on the sheet pan in a cooling rack. This is obviously not possible in a home kitchen, so I usually do about 1 min on the pan, and then move to wire racks.

Lessons Learned:
Never put oil or butter a pan for cookies. Just use parchment paper. There is enough fat in cookies to make them not stick to the pan.
Confectioner’s sugar is just regular sugar ground down. There are two types of confectioner’s (powdered) sugar when bought commercially – 6x and 10x. It is the degree of how many times the sugar is ground down. Use 6x when the sugar will be mixed into the dough. Use 10x when it will be visible, either for dusting or in frosting.
Chefs always use unsalted butter when baking cookies, as it gives them more control over how much salt goes into the cookies. However, if you are using a cookbook, judge based on what the recipe says, as most are written for home cooks who are likely to have salted butter in their fridges.

Principles of Baking - Muffin Method, Creaming Method

2008-08-26T10:28:00.007-05:00

Monday was a busy day for me. I met Chef at 4pm like he had suggested, but he had worked a double (been at school since 6:30), so he said since I’m an efficient worker, I could come back and start at 5:30 instead. I had rushed there from work, so at first I was a tiny bit irritated, but I realized that allowed me to unpack all my stuff from my car and eat a real dinner, so I was okay with it. I came back at the appointed time, and he left me alone in the kitchen to start prepping my dough. Technically, students are not supposed to be left alone in the kitchen (we could steal or damage things), and another Chef asked me why I was there, but the Chef who teaches the other certificate class was actually keeping an eye on me from his kitchen next door.
I had to make enough dough for 12 soft rolls and then enough dough for 3 baguette loafs, the best of which would be presented to Chef. I don’t think I used warm enough water so it took my dough awhile to rise, but I was having trouble judging how long they are supposed to take to rise since I was all alone and had no one to compare to. And when there was a fire drill at 6:30 (which, I had to point out to some person in office clothes that you can’t actually hear the alarm in the bathrooms) and I saw Chef, he seemed fine with my progress that the doughs were still rising. It took me until about 8:30/8:45 to finish baking off everything, which meant I missed a lot of the lecture/demo for Monday’s recipes, but he said I meant my time requirements easily.
I got 85/90 on my baguette loaf, losing a few points for consistency in rolling and shape. But, Chef said the color was excellent, as was the taste. My rolls turned out perfect – 90/90. He didn’t even mark down points in the individual categories because he said he could see right away that I had gotten full points in each category. Master sampled one of my extras (the dough comes out to about 20 rolls) and said my rolls should be in a bakery – yay!!! Chef says I am very consistent and do a very good job. Since I was trying to not miss too much of the lecture while completing my practical, I forgot to take photos of my finished product. I took one baguette loaf and the rolls home, so maybe I’ll remember to take a picture this afternoon.
This is what happens when you try to dump flour into a mixer without lowering the bowl:
whoops! Clearly, I tried to scrape some of that back in (the tables are cleaned and sanitized after every class) since it's measured exactly to the ounce, but when I moved the mixer to clean the table after I finished, I definitely found I had not picked it all up. Oh well, it didn't effect the taste. Lesson learned.
This is a photo of my roll dough before I moved it above the oven to allow the heat to help it rise (never put it directly on the oven - put another baking sheet upside down and then set it on that). The reason I have this is I just think this photo turned out really well - the lighting and everything. Cool photo, right? The room still had daylight at the time I took it, as opposed to the ugly old fluorescent lighting we have at night.
Technically, we’re not supposed to leave with product, but Chef says that as long as he does not see how we “dispose” of the product, he doesn’t know. I was so glad I had a backpack instead of my large purse last night – it was filled to the brim with goodies!
I’ll take the exam tomorrow, which means I should really study today at work – since I’m getting about five day extra.
Okay, on to what we learned in class: we made a basic blueberry muffin recipe, chocolate zucchini bread, and vanilla pound cake. We also have a recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins.
So, after lecure, Tennessee and I paired up. Since my school teaches "methods," we were taught the Muffin Method, which Chef admitted makes lousy muffins compared to the Creaming Method, but we have to learn it anyway. Basically, you whisk dry with dry, and mix wet with wet, and then mix together until just combined.
We did our mise en place one at a time because once lecture finished, we had plenty of time. We actually started last with our first one because it was kind of crazy over at the measuring table - as usual, the same people rush rush rush and crowd others out... No problems though, Tennessee and I are very efficient, so we were done at the same time as everyone else. Chef wanted to get out early tonight due to his double that day and the triple he was doing Tuesday. Even though he's part-time, he subs a lot, so he's always available to his students.
The only mistakes she and I made weren't even caught by Chef. She accidentally used 2 t of vanilla for the zucchini bread when we were only supposed to use 1 (we halved the recipe, and she accidentally used the original amount). But I don't think it was noticeable. And then our pound cake looked all crispy and done, and Chef approved it, but then when we cut into it, soft batter pooted out of the top - whoops! Good thing he was getting tired and didn't test our's with a toothpick for doneness. We had started our's in a 325 oven, but Russia said it was supposed to be at 300, so I moved it to another oven - Tennessee thinks that might be why it seemed all done except for within an inch of the top. We just dumped it - I was kind of carbed out, and she said she didn't want it either.
I took home half the muffins and half the bread. That's it below. I haven't tasted either yet, but Tennessee said they turned out well. I tasted a little bit of the bread batter, and it was good. I love batter. It smells so good and tastes so creamy. I don't really worry about the raw egg part - since I'm the one that cracks them open, I can see that they are fresh.
We were ready to go around 10:45, but Chef kept us until 11:00. Technically, we're supposed to stay until 11:45, but 11:00 seems to be a time a lot of Chefs let their classes out. Definitely our partner class is always out way earlier than us. I still went to bed at midnight, but at least I fell asleep right around then - usually class keeps me up for at least an hour after I get home.

Lessons Learned:
If you can find good fresh blueberries, use those, but typically in professional kitchens, IQF (individually quick frozen) berries are used. Take 1 T of your dry mixture and stir it with the berries to absorb some of the moisture, or you may turn your muffins into smurf muffins. Oh, and these are all known as quick breads, because they use chemical leaveners (baking powder or soda) to help them rise.

Rich Dough

2008-08-25T10:28:00.013-05:00

Thursday we made cinnamon rolls. I highly recommend making these – I brought them for the road trip for my sister’s wedding (!!) and they were loved by all! I love this class. I have been baking from scratch since I was an undergrad, and people always told me they liked my stuff, but I always wondered if that was just because they were being nice… but I think I might actually be good at this. Not that I’m a star by any means, but I do feel like my stuff is pretty consistent, and I really really enjoy it as we work on it. Of course sometimes I’m tired and I just want to stop, but so far, I really find a lot of pleasure in baking.
It was just Irish and me on this recipe (doubled again) because Tennessee paired off with Nemo because Rico had not come to class. Sad. We love our threesome!
Recipe:
Sponge –
2 oz water
8 oz scalded and cooled milk
1 oz fresh yeast
10 oz bread flour
10 oz pastry flour
Straight dough –
2 oz butter
1.5 oz sugar
1 egg
½ oz salt
Sponge then straight dough method.
Roll out to size of half-sheet pan, about ¼ in thick. Spread butter over dough, then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon mix (seasoned to your liking). Leave about one-inch at the edge empty. Pull dough away and pinch down, starting away from you. Do this all the way toward you. This will form a roll. Cut into 16 even pieces. Usually these are baked in a pie tin, but we didn’t have enough to go around, so they looked like this (proofed, then baked and glazed): Hee! So fat! Clearly, our dough bounced back to about one-half inch instead of one-fourth, but look how funny and fat they are!
The glaze is just powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract. Make sure you only use a tiny amount of vanilla, or it comes out brown. Whoops, mine was not totally brown, but it wasn't exactly white either! I made mine thick, but Chef said it could have been even thicker. Look - Tennessee and I made quite a mess on the table glazing the rolls - fun times!
After class, I picked up my sister’s (Suzan) boyfriend, and we headed off to the airport to pick her up. Then we drove out to the suburbs to stay with another sister (Aylin), from which we were leaving at 4 am to drive up to Mackinac Island. It was a long ride, but fun just the same! Deniz (my oldest sister) and Brad had beautiful weather for the ceremony after a monsoon in the morning, and it went off without a hitch! Congratulations again to the couple!

But, going there meant I missed the exam and practical Friday. So, that means Monday I go to work, go straight to school, take an exam, make baguette and rolls from scratch, and then go to class. They got to make their baguette dough Thursday night. I’m going to be tired by the time I get home. Just a bit. I care about how I do, just because I like this stuff, but at the same time, I realize that due to my schedule, I cannot necessarily be expected to perform my best. I’ll do the best I can, but I have not been known to perform flawlessly when I tired – I tend to forget things. Oh well – the weekend was worth it!

Lessons Learned:
Irish and I panicked a little bit, because after I made the dough and it was fermenting and she was cleaning our station, she found an egg in our mise en place. I could have sworn I cracked two eggs, but then why was there another egg there? Oh, it took us a bit, but then we realized who we were standing next to, and remembered that that pair, instead of cleaning up after themselves and putting stuff away, tends to just move it over into someone else's space. Which is also how the croissant cutter ended up on my clean table when I had already put my stuff away. These are also a pair that hide in the broom closet instead of helping everyone else clean the kitchen. You can't choose your classmates or workmates, so it's good to learn how to deal with all kinds. And learn to vent in your head, or possibly on your blog... I think it is unbelievably rude, immature, and lazy to behave this way, but some people go their whole lives acting this way... I figure, they are the ones that will get fired from jobs, not me, so why get too upset about it? This class is actually helping me practice all kinds of maturity/coping skills. This summer and year has been all about learning when to let go, when to ignore things, and when to learn to laugh about situations/behavior. I am really learning to shrug my shoulders when I used to explode, and walking away instead of talking back. Not perfectly by any means, but I really do find myself calming others down more often than I need calming down. Am I actually growing up?
Now, the challenge will be to apply this to my actual job. Even just being back for a couple days, things are really hitting the fan here. Applying those skills there will be the ultimate challenge.