Here's the recipes we never made in meat fab...
Chicken Picatta (1 portion)
season flour with salt and pepper
season 1 pounded chicken breast with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour
heat a saute pan and add 2 T of butter and 1 T of olive oil
add the chicken and saute until golden on both sides
remove the chiken to a warm plate and then deglaze the pan with 1.5 T lemon juice and 4 oz chicken stock
add 1/4 t capers and check seasoning. return chicken to the pan and simmer to heat through
add 2 t parsley and remaining butter to finish sauce.
Chicken Wing (for 1/2 lb of wings)
season wings with salt and pepper
fry until golden and they float
immediately toss in sauce mix (1 bottle hot sauce, 4 oz butter, 1/2 t cayenne, 2 T honey, and 2 oz red wine vinegar)
Grilled Turkey Paillard with Chimichurri
combine (1/4 c cilantro, 1 T chopped mint, 1 T chopped parsley, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 pinch red pepper flakes, 1.5 t cider vinegar, 1.5 t water, and 1/4 t salt) and check seasonings
Confit (for 6 lbs of duck)
combine:
2T ground black pepper, 1/2T ground cinnamon, 1/2T ground clove, 1/4t ground allspice, 3 crumbled bay leaf, 4T kosher salt, and 1 t TCM
Turkey Burger with Onion Confit
combine (2.5 lb ground turkey, 1 t salt, 1 t sugar, 1 t minced garlic, 1/2 t fennel seeds, 1/2 t chopped rosemary, 1/2 t chopped thyme, 1/4 t cayenne, and 1/4 t black pepper) and paddle for 2 min
form into 4 oz patties
bake or grill ntil they reach an internal temperature of 165F
Onion Confit
combine (1 lb sliced onion, 2.5 oz red wine vinegar, 2 oz honey, 2 oz red wine, and 1 pinch ground black pepper) and simmer until jam-like
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Meat and Seafood Fabrication Practical
Thursday we had our final and practical for meat fab. We had to truss a chicken, then cut it into quarter pieces, cut another into sixths, filet a flat fish and skin one filet, filet a round fish, and clean half a tenderloin. Oh yeah, and take a final. Making it more hectic, you have to bag, clean and sanitize between every different protein in order to avoid cross-contamination. whew!
I missed 7 points on the final, but earned 3 extra credit, so I really only missed 4 points. The first third was questions from previous quizzes, so I got all those. Then there was true/false, where you had to correct the false statements. Then fill-in-the-blank.
Grades on practical as follows:
truss 4/5
1/4 technical 23/25 portion 23/25
1/6 technical 24 portion 25
flat technical 23 portion 24
round technical 23 portion 22
tenderloin technical 23 portion 24
organization/sanitation 48/50
I got a 93% in the class! Currently on the road to honor roll, people - woohoo!
I actually really liked Chef B today - yesterday too, actually. He and I joked around and chatted. He teased me about how small I write, so he made a tiny box for me on my grade sheet to see if i could fit my name in - which i totally did. And I made him admire what a nice job i did skinning the filet, because, people, it was amazing - I left no flesh at all on the skin. I think if I had super-sharp knives, i would be near perfect at fish. The grading on technical for the round fish - well, I was right in the middle, but the people who scrambled at the end before the time was up got better grades than me even though they left more flesh on the bone. I think he wanted his break.
So final analysis on the class/Chef. When he told us our grades, I told him twice that I had learned a lot. I meant it - he's tough, but boy do I really feel like I understand how to handle meat (ha! dirty!). And in the end...yeah, he has an ego, yeah, he likes to boss people around, and, yeah, he doesn't have the best teaching skills. But, if you show him you tried first and want help correcting your mistake, he was very good at showing you how. Plus, he was actually really interesting to talk to when there was down time. Turns out, he was a psych major in college. And, he ended class by saying he was very impressed by how well we all work together, and that we should never lose sight of that. And that should we need anything in the future, no matter the class or where we are, he's available to us. Which I thought was really nice.
I didn't go out last night because i had to go back to work again today. Next up: intro to baking. Yay!
I missed 7 points on the final, but earned 3 extra credit, so I really only missed 4 points. The first third was questions from previous quizzes, so I got all those. Then there was true/false, where you had to correct the false statements. Then fill-in-the-blank.
Grades on practical as follows:
truss 4/5
1/4 technical 23/25 portion 23/25
1/6 technical 24 portion 25
flat technical 23 portion 24
round technical 23 portion 22
tenderloin technical 23 portion 24
organization/sanitation 48/50
I got a 93% in the class! Currently on the road to honor roll, people - woohoo!
I actually really liked Chef B today - yesterday too, actually. He and I joked around and chatted. He teased me about how small I write, so he made a tiny box for me on my grade sheet to see if i could fit my name in - which i totally did. And I made him admire what a nice job i did skinning the filet, because, people, it was amazing - I left no flesh at all on the skin. I think if I had super-sharp knives, i would be near perfect at fish. The grading on technical for the round fish - well, I was right in the middle, but the people who scrambled at the end before the time was up got better grades than me even though they left more flesh on the bone. I think he wanted his break.
So final analysis on the class/Chef. When he told us our grades, I told him twice that I had learned a lot. I meant it - he's tough, but boy do I really feel like I understand how to handle meat (ha! dirty!). And in the end...yeah, he has an ego, yeah, he likes to boss people around, and, yeah, he doesn't have the best teaching skills. But, if you show him you tried first and want help correcting your mistake, he was very good at showing you how. Plus, he was actually really interesting to talk to when there was down time. Turns out, he was a psych major in college. And, he ended class by saying he was very impressed by how well we all work together, and that we should never lose sight of that. And that should we need anything in the future, no matter the class or where we are, he's available to us. Which I thought was really nice.
I didn't go out last night because i had to go back to work again today. Next up: intro to baking. Yay!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Chicken, Day 2
More cutting of chicken today. Chef B. was slightly less of a dick today, but then pulls the lovely move of telling the other class we'll wash their stock dishes, and then yells at us when it takes us until exactly 11:45 to finish clean-up. And the other class? They were out at 11:00. How do we keep getting the sticklers for the time?
No photos, because my hands just get so gross and we're really time-pressed. He makes his demos much longer than they need to be, then gives us a short amount of time to imitate him.
We got to sample rubbed chicken, brined chicken, and compound-butter roasted chicken that we made today. They were okay. I'm not the hugest chicken fan, but I guess I liked the brined one the best.
I managed to pull out two wishbones today without breaking them, and popped out the wing from the drumette on two birds with the knuckle also, so yay! That probably doesn't mean that much to you unless you've done it, but that meant I didn't have to chop at it with my nails, which is really hard.
A funny/odd thing happened at the beginning of class... Like I've described before, people kind of settled into "tables" in the last class, but this room is much smaller, so we had to condense a little. Most people are generally at the same table, although I moved to the be with the group I went out with on Friday because they had extra space. And when I got there today, Whiskey (from the front table) had set up his stuff on that table so that the only way someone else could be there was to be within inches of him (did he really think he as going to get an 8-foot expanse of table to himself? I don't know exactly what he was thinking when he set up his stuff). Anyway, I was told by the people of my table to just put my stuff down, so I did. Right next to Whiskey. When I came back from the first demo, I realized his stuff was gone - weird. I mean, it was fine, he could stay at our table - I spent the first week working at the same table as him - I just needed him to move over a little. I don't know why he moved - we did make room for T. because he walked in late, or maybe he heard me mumbling about how much space he seemed to want for himself, but, whatever, the table was mostly back to normal.
It's kind of funny though - it's like how in a college classroom, even the lecture halls, even when there aren't assigned seats, most people sit in the same seat. But then you've always got those one or two people who don't, and they always mess up someone on the day they move. But you can't complain or tell them to move, because they're not assigned spots...
Anyway, there's this one older woman, she's really nice but really quiet and I'm not sure how well she speaks English, and she's always at a different table. Which means someone else loses their spot for the day. Yesterday was T.'s good buddy, New York. When she walked in, T wasn't there yet, and we had no spots at the time, so she ended up at a different table because the older woman had taken an extra spot. Ha. Confusing. And silly of course. But it kind of sucks being separated, because we've established a rhythm of helping each other.
Lesson learned:
Brining keeps the chicken moist because of osmosis and cells then trying to balance the equilibrium outside and inside the chicken. Or something like that.
No photos, because my hands just get so gross and we're really time-pressed. He makes his demos much longer than they need to be, then gives us a short amount of time to imitate him.
We got to sample rubbed chicken, brined chicken, and compound-butter roasted chicken that we made today. They were okay. I'm not the hugest chicken fan, but I guess I liked the brined one the best.
I managed to pull out two wishbones today without breaking them, and popped out the wing from the drumette on two birds with the knuckle also, so yay! That probably doesn't mean that much to you unless you've done it, but that meant I didn't have to chop at it with my nails, which is really hard.
A funny/odd thing happened at the beginning of class... Like I've described before, people kind of settled into "tables" in the last class, but this room is much smaller, so we had to condense a little. Most people are generally at the same table, although I moved to the be with the group I went out with on Friday because they had extra space. And when I got there today, Whiskey (from the front table) had set up his stuff on that table so that the only way someone else could be there was to be within inches of him (did he really think he as going to get an 8-foot expanse of table to himself? I don't know exactly what he was thinking when he set up his stuff). Anyway, I was told by the people of my table to just put my stuff down, so I did. Right next to Whiskey. When I came back from the first demo, I realized his stuff was gone - weird. I mean, it was fine, he could stay at our table - I spent the first week working at the same table as him - I just needed him to move over a little. I don't know why he moved - we did make room for T. because he walked in late, or maybe he heard me mumbling about how much space he seemed to want for himself, but, whatever, the table was mostly back to normal.
It's kind of funny though - it's like how in a college classroom, even the lecture halls, even when there aren't assigned seats, most people sit in the same seat. But then you've always got those one or two people who don't, and they always mess up someone on the day they move. But you can't complain or tell them to move, because they're not assigned spots...
Anyway, there's this one older woman, she's really nice but really quiet and I'm not sure how well she speaks English, and she's always at a different table. Which means someone else loses their spot for the day. Yesterday was T.'s good buddy, New York. When she walked in, T wasn't there yet, and we had no spots at the time, so she ended up at a different table because the older woman had taken an extra spot. Ha. Confusing. And silly of course. But it kind of sucks being separated, because we've established a rhythm of helping each other.
Lesson learned:
Brining keeps the chicken moist because of osmosis and cells then trying to balance the equilibrium outside and inside the chicken. Or something like that.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
New Class, New Teacher
First the good news: I got A's in both my classes! Woohoo!
Now on to my new class: Meat Fabrication. My new teacher, Chef B, well, he's a real dick. Stereotypical egotistical chef who screams at students under the mistaken belief that people actually learn that way...
So you may be reading a lot of venting over the next 14 days. Thank goodness it's a 14-day class rather than 15.
Anyway, he yells a lot. Tells us he loves "knocking chips off shoulders" right off the bat. Here's a thought, how about you actually give students a chance before you assuming we're going to challenge your authority? I mean, it's just a thought. And how about you figure out that yelling at people doesn't make them perform their best, but instead only makes them do it well enough that it won't bring you over to their station to scream at them?
Oh, and keep in mind, it is "meat fabrication" so you will be seeing raw meat, if I do manage to take photos - that involves a lot of extra hand washing so I can pick up my camera - I may not always do that.
Here's what we did today: trussed a chicken (cool, mine got selected to be one of the five that we're roasting tomorrow), "spatchcocked" another one, and then lastly, removed the thighs and breasts of another one.
Here's the trussed chicken:
He taught us a "triple x" method - I could show you if you asked, but I don't know if I can describe it all that well. Here's what the book says:
"Place the chicken breast up with the neck end toward you. Tuck the first joint of the wings behind the back. Press the legs forward and down against the body. Pass the center of a length of twine under the hip bone just ahead of the tail. Bring the twine up and across the ends of the legs. Pass the twine under the ends of the legs as shown and pull tight. Bring the ends of the twine twoard the neck end of the bird. Pull firmly on the twine while pressing on the breast portion. Tie the twine tightly. The stub of the neck holds the twine in place, preventing it from slipping behind the back."
Here's a cut one: Actually, I realized that is really gross looking. So, I'm not going to post it.
By the way, that wishbone is not easy to get out in one piece. I don't know how you're supposed to get it out without tearing apart the breast. I probably would if I had an instructor that was actually interested in answering questions instead of shouting at you for not already knowing how to do it...
Ha. Serious issues with this guy. This should be interesting.
Lessons learned:
Probably best to keep your mouth shut when Chef B is telling you that cold water doesn't stop bleeding, only pressure does. Ha. Well, gee, Chef, thanks so much for telling me, I mean, don't bother asking if I've been CPR certified on and off for the last 10 years, but really wow I am learning so much under you. And resist the urge to point out that as a psychologist it is your opinion that he could stand to see someone for his obvious anger issues, and as a school psychologist, that he could stand to do a little research into the best teaching methods. Gonna have to control that urge for the next three weeks. We'll see how well that works.
Updated 8/3/08 - I bought a chicken and trussed it myself at home, and then roasted it with a brining solution that I just guessimated the ingredients (I think Nemo accidentally kept my recipe when he borrowed my notes) - it turned out pretty good, and I was proud of myself, having never made a whole chicken all by myself before!
Now on to my new class: Meat Fabrication. My new teacher, Chef B, well, he's a real dick. Stereotypical egotistical chef who screams at students under the mistaken belief that people actually learn that way...
So you may be reading a lot of venting over the next 14 days. Thank goodness it's a 14-day class rather than 15.
Anyway, he yells a lot. Tells us he loves "knocking chips off shoulders" right off the bat. Here's a thought, how about you actually give students a chance before you assuming we're going to challenge your authority? I mean, it's just a thought. And how about you figure out that yelling at people doesn't make them perform their best, but instead only makes them do it well enough that it won't bring you over to their station to scream at them?
Oh, and keep in mind, it is "meat fabrication" so you will be seeing raw meat, if I do manage to take photos - that involves a lot of extra hand washing so I can pick up my camera - I may not always do that.
Here's what we did today: trussed a chicken (cool, mine got selected to be one of the five that we're roasting tomorrow), "spatchcocked" another one, and then lastly, removed the thighs and breasts of another one.
Here's the trussed chicken:
He taught us a "triple x" method - I could show you if you asked, but I don't know if I can describe it all that well. Here's what the book says:"Place the chicken breast up with the neck end toward you. Tuck the first joint of the wings behind the back. Press the legs forward and down against the body. Pass the center of a length of twine under the hip bone just ahead of the tail. Bring the twine up and across the ends of the legs. Pass the twine under the ends of the legs as shown and pull tight. Bring the ends of the twine twoard the neck end of the bird. Pull firmly on the twine while pressing on the breast portion. Tie the twine tightly. The stub of the neck holds the twine in place, preventing it from slipping behind the back."
Here's a cut one: Actually, I realized that is really gross looking. So, I'm not going to post it.
By the way, that wishbone is not easy to get out in one piece. I don't know how you're supposed to get it out without tearing apart the breast. I probably would if I had an instructor that was actually interested in answering questions instead of shouting at you for not already knowing how to do it...
Ha. Serious issues with this guy. This should be interesting.
Lessons learned:
Probably best to keep your mouth shut when Chef B is telling you that cold water doesn't stop bleeding, only pressure does. Ha. Well, gee, Chef, thanks so much for telling me, I mean, don't bother asking if I've been CPR certified on and off for the last 10 years, but really wow I am learning so much under you. And resist the urge to point out that as a psychologist it is your opinion that he could stand to see someone for his obvious anger issues, and as a school psychologist, that he could stand to do a little research into the best teaching methods. Gonna have to control that urge for the next three weeks. We'll see how well that works.
Updated 8/3/08 - I bought a chicken and trussed it myself at home, and then roasted it with a brining solution that I just guessimated the ingredients (I think Nemo accidentally kept my recipe when he borrowed my notes) - it turned out pretty good, and I was proud of myself, having never made a whole chicken all by myself before!
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