Russia & Eastern Europe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.