I love making veg stir fries so this was not in any way bad. It was just out of character for him. I used fennel, onion, carrot ribbons, garlic, ginger, baby corn, cabbage, and wood ear mushrooms. I sauced it with some salt, sugar and vegetarian stir fry sauce. The sauce sort of sucked right out of the bottle but mixed in the veggies it was okay. I just don't like bottled sauces, really. We also made a version of fried rice. I make this at home too, to get rid of leftovers. I don't think I have ever made uncle ben's rice at home so making fried rice out of it was a little weird. I would not do it again.
People liked it though. It wasn't bad. I just don't like that creepy uncle ben with his shitty processed rice. Who is he anyway?
Miso soup is a no brainer, right? We made ours without dashi (bonito/kombu) stock. Its still great although a little less complex. You boil or simmer water. Whisk in miso, add scallion, wakame seaweed, and tofu at the end. Breakfast is served. Next we made steamed seabass over Chinese egg noodles, zucchini and a beurre blanc of our choice. We were suprisingly free to set this up as we pleased. I set to work on my lemongrass beurre blanc. I made the usual wine reduction with smashed lemongrass added to my shallot, pepper and wine. After whisking in my cubed butter, I strained the whole sauce and adjusted the seasoning. Before plating I added finely chopped cilantro for color, freshness and texture. I liked it but I liked my classmate's sauce better. She did ginger garlic in her reduction and chives at finish. The ginger garlic had a sweetness that I liked. I steamed my seabass with salt, pepper, and sweet curry powder. It took on a lovely light yellow color (I guess from the tumeric). I burnt my fingertips many many times feeling up the fish to check for doneness. I realized later that a toothpick would have worked fine. Duh. So Chef boiled and then shocked the noodles that we were to serve between our sauce and fish. We were to plate and serve them as we saw fit along with some cooked julienned zucchini. I thought about how I like to eat egg noodles...crispy. Why couldn't I fry them until crispy like they serve them at all manner of Chinese restaurants? Naive? Of course. I cut my zucchini into long strips and tossed them with my noodles and heated some oil in a small teflon pan. I dropped my mix into the pan and pressed it together hoping that it would form into some sort of cake like disc that I could crisp up and serve fish on top of. No sooner had I dropped the mixture into the pan then I hear behind me "so Jennifer, what are you planning to do with that?" Like I really knew. So now all of class is looking at my pan and skeptically evaluating their own little plans for serving noodles. He thought it would probably not work without some sort of binding, like eggs. I just left it there until the edges were crispy and with prayers sent out flipped the noodle cake over. It stuck together but browned unevenly. I was pleased. I finished crisping the second side and dropped the sauce onto the plate, followed by a drained cake, and the steamed sea bass.
It looks a little yellow/beige for my taste but it was good. I was picking at the crispy noodle edges immediately after Chef looked it over and tasted it. He was really pleased. He said to remember the dish for my final or for when we stage our restaurant later in our schooling. Hmph. Everyone else had boring piles of bland noodles with limp zucchini under plain white fish. Yes, I felt superior. Don't worry. It did not last long. You can see in the pic that the edges browned uneven. Chef didn't like the crispy part. He said with a scowl "it's hard". I blame that difference of opinion on his being French. Tomorrow: Sushi...
Look at that rainbow parade! Where's a pride party when you need one?
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