cooking school sagittarius

Day 44

2008-12-07T15:05:00.001-08:00

I am still in school. We have been catering and I have been catering and have had to go see family for a funeral and for the holidays. Its been busy. I have lots to share still. Don't worry.
For my 3rd day of our secret ingredient test I have been gifted with filet mignon and scallops. I had no fucking clue as to what to do with scallops. I do know how to cook them I just had no plan whatsoever. Like for meat I could do roast potatoes and a wild mushroom ragout.

I know the presentation is not amazing. Its too crowded with the ragout. And the ragout is very chunky so it spread too much. But I have to say it tasted great. The mushroom ragout starts with bacon (duh) and then sauteed onion, shitakes, dried guajillo chiles, chicken stock (to braise), and then garlic, parsley, maple syrup, and lime juice to finish. I cannot take credit for the madness. Its in the gourmet cookbook. But luckily I had made this before and remembered it. The recipe originally used ribeye but I just did it with the filet. Which unfortunately was shaped like a rubic's cube. Great. Just the kind of steak you want to try to cook medium rare. Why the fuck can't we just get normal shaped protein? That's what I want to know.

So I coated my cube with kosher salt, white pepper, minced garlic, chili powder and olive oil. And then I seared the shit out of it. Pretty much charred and burned. Of course the inside was completely raw. I finished it in the oven to medium rare. I also roasted fingerling potatoes at the same time. I presented it as "crusted" filet mignon over roast fingerling potatoes and wild mushroom ragout.

My feed back on the presentation was that I could have made the ragout fit into the dish better. It looked crowded. Uhhhh. Well, if I had responded I might have said "oh". I had no idea how this was going to plate up. Surprises all around. I was just glad he didn't say it tasted burnt as hell. I then turned to my ugly stepchild, scallops. I normally like scallops. I was just completely unprepared. So searing and pan sauce was my go to idea.

It actually looked nicer in person. I started my potato rosti style cake (that's the light brown disk) which is just julienned potatoes smushed into a teflon pan with some oil and lots of seasoning and slowly browned, then flipped. I held it in the oven where it kept crisping. I then seared my scallops and sauteed my asparagus in different pans but at the same time. At this point my classmate was cursing very loudly at her filet mignon dish. I did my best to ignore her rage against the meat and finish my dish on time. After my scallops were finished searing I moved them to a plate and started my pan sauce with shallots, white wine (to deglaze) and parsley and cream to finish. I simmered the done sauce with the scallops added back in for about 10 minutes. I flipped the scallops halfway through cooking in the sauce. Once finished I plated potato cake, sauce, asparagus, and scallops.

It did look better in person because the colors were all brown tones but not the same colors. That kind of made no sense but I tell you in person IT LOOKED BETTER!. Not sludgy. So after all that stress we then had to be scored and graded on our plates. I was sure my home spun ideas were not going to earn me top marks. I was wrong. I got 20. Out of 20. It was a huge surprise and highlight and exciting moment in my cooking school life. I love perfect scores.

Another terrible secret ingredient day tomorrow. And supposedly harder proteins than today. These were pretty easy. No carving or trimming or filleting or scaling. I don't want to scale and fillet a fish tomorrow. Let's hope its like chicken breasts or something.

Day 43

2008-12-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

I have been doing the fam holiday thing. And it was my birthday. And my brother got engaged. So I have been doing things besides writing and studying and staying home all snuggled in. Lots of eating out, drinking and socializing.

So on day 43 we went to visit the meat distribution center that we order our meat from. They don't slaughter there. They only do small or custom cuts and supply local businesses. For example if you want to order precut filet mignon they will cut the tenderloin into the whatever ounce portion that you need. I don't care for the beef that they sell. Its feedlot and low in flavor and slightly fatty (not in a good way). But they do use natural pork and poultry. Its a start, right? So do you think we could take pictures in there? Hell no. We were not allowed photos. Not that there was anything good to see. Nothing shady or gnarly. Just a distribution plant.

So that was my day. Not very exciting. Tomorrow holds more torture in the form of the mystery ingredient time trials again. Wahhhhhh.

Day 42

2008-11-24T19:59:00.001-08:00

So after yesterday's temper tantrum I decided to return to school better planned and organized. I did a test run of what I knew had to be coming. Pork tenderloin medallions.

Above was my first plate at home in the morning before class. I wanted to do pork with potatoes and apples but I knew we only had 2 apples left in the walk in at school and I was in the second group of students to come in. Meaning that if pork was assigned I was out of luck if others used apples. So I chose mangos. We had a few mangos and I didn't think that was going to be on anyones agenda. Except mine. So I picked up a few potatoes, mangos and defrosted some pork from my freezer and set my timer for 1 hour 45 minutes. ( I assumed that is how long we would get after our 2 hours yesterday). I wanted to try the potatoes 2 ways. One plate with pureed and one with dijon roasted.

I enjoyed eating the roasted potatoes more but in the context of the dish the puree was better. I also made a mango chutney (but I guess not the way Chef would have made it). The medallions just got seared. I finished my dish in under an hour which left me more than enough time for my second dish which I assumed would be a seafood protein. So I chose the first picture for my official plan.
So I arrive at school and see the other students still running around the kitchen and it did not look good. They were obviously feeling pressed for time and trying to drop their plates in time. If we did not drop anything we would not be scored at all. So once they finished and cleaned up I went in to hear my sentence. Pork and Shrimp. Two main courses. Two sauces. Plates do not have to be dropped at the same time. That made it easier. I went ahead with my final draft of my morning dish.
I made a few mistakes, however. While boiling my potatoes next to my chutney, I seared the shit out of the side of my chutney from the flame from the high heat burner on the potatoes. So caramelized mango chutney it became. Golden in color with flecks of brown for extra flavor. I also slightly over cooked my pork. I should have known better. It looked fine from the outside but was medium well in the center. Chef was not pleased with that.

So his other complaint on my dish was that it looked too dry. He suggested a simple ladle of seasoned demi glace around the chutney to moisten things up. He said nothing about the potatoes which were the best mashed potatoes I have ever made in my life. I assume that means he liked them too. Its funny how when you throw calorie consciousness to the wind in order to achieve maximum flavor you find the best taste. They had cream, milk, butter, and more salt than I want to actually know about. I just kept adding things (after ricing the potatoes) until they were great. Then I took them home and ate them for dinner. No guilt. Just good.

On to my little shrimps. I had this orzo recipe that I had made many times for myself and entertaining from one of Ina Garten's books. Its orzo with roasted vegetables and a lemon vinaigrette. Its great on its own and I thought it would be a lovely lunch like entree with sauteed shrimp. Now my only problem was that I needed an official sauce and I knew that a vinaigrette would not count. The salad originally called for toasted pine nuts, cheese, and chopped basil so I opted to make a pesto and call it a day. So I cut my bell peppers into lovely little diamonds (lozange cut) and roasted them with garlic and onions (I tried to make them diamonds but I felt short on time so they were not as nice as my peppers). I only had 1 hour 45 minutes. It goes fast, okay? Especially as Chef stares at you working. Probably thinking that his toddler niece can cook faster. You try it. But only if you get someone to stare at you THE WHOLE TIME. You just keep that relaxed look on your face as you scoop charred chutney out of your black pan. Call it caramelized.

So next I cooked the orzo pasta and dressed it with the lemon vinaigrette and stirred in the roasted vegetables. I covered it to keep it warm. Somewhere in the process I made a pesto in the food processor and let it sit at room temp. Lastly I seasoned my shrimp heavily and pan seared them.

I garnished with a lemon twist and basil leaves. The pesto was in little blobs around the five shrimp as you can see. I had I think 10 or so minutes leftover. I used a ring mold to help shape the pasta salad into that circle. Orzo is so slippery you cannot really expect it to hold anything up. I just nestled my shrimp in there. I loved how this turned out. I would like to serve it at a luncheon or have it outdoors on a warm summer night.

Chef liked the shrimp dish. He was pleasantly surprised at the strong flavors in the pasta (which was the lemon dressing). He expected my only sauce to be the pesto, I guess. So my total for today (due to the overcooking of the pork) was 19. Not bad, huh? The pork dress rehearsal really helped. Tomorrow we get a break from the stress to go on a class field trip to the place that supplies us with our meats for school. I'm sure you can't take pictures in there.

Day 41

2008-11-23T12:55:00.001-08:00

So at my school they do this mystery ingredient week. It is a week of hell that you realize you paid for. Which makes it way worse. The days are shorter as the class is split up into two groups. You show up at your assigned time and are given a protein to work with, a time frame, and parameters of the dish you must make (main course, soup, sauce). You get to use your notes from class and can bring any supplemental notes you may have. You cannot bring in any ingredients. Does this sound fun? Its NOT. You spend all weekend making lists of proteins and possible ways of combining them with vegetables we may have on hand and starches and sauces... Then you get to school and you find out you have to make soup. Okay, my first day I had 2 hours to make a soup and a main course with a sauce (the protein in the main being halibut). Does it sound easy? It's so fucking NOT.

I decided to make a spicy tomato soup. With a puff pastry lid. We had frozen puff pastry in the freezer. I am not a magician. My soup starts with onion, garlic, ginger, jalepeno and some ground cumin. I added canned tomatoes and chicken stock and simmered until onions were tender. I cut out a round of pastry and put it on top. I brushed it with egg wash and baked it until the pastry was golden.

It was cool looking. I would have liked it in one of those french like bowls that have the footed bottom and curve up the sides. Not our boring school cups. It looks way too mushroomy. Still it was kinda cool. Chef did not seem impressed. He said my soup needed something, like a punch. He suggested oven drying tomatoes. Thats great if you have time, huh? I should have just creamed it. He would have gone for that more than anything else.

For the halibut I made a sauce with Chinese cooking wine, sugar, fennel seed, ginger and some soy. Added a little cornstarch to thicken and let it wait while I made a cinnamon rice pilaf (just added cinnamon stick and cumin seed to rice pilaf) and sauteed some baby patty pan squash. I pan seared my halibut and finished it in the oven. I plated my rice with a ring mold and poured my sauce around, topped with squash and placed halibut on top. My rice leaked around into my sauce.
It looked way better than this when I dropped the plate to Chef. It smooshed more because he tasted it. And cut into the fish and all. I don't think he likes asian food very much. He was not into the sauce. He also said that my rice and protein were underseasoned. Meaning not enough salt. He said to not use rice any more. NOT CREATIVE ENOUGH.

We get scored for the plates. Its a combined score totaling 20 points. We get 5 for plating/presentation, 5 for creativity, 5 for taste, and 5 for work habits. Work habits include station cleanliness, keeping raw proteins out of dangerous temps for too long, and safety. We can use whatever ingredients are in our walk in, but not other proteins (except like eggs). I felt like I was going to throw up most of the day. And the great news? Doing this all week. Except tomorrow the time gets shorter.

So my score for the day? 18

I might not come back tomorrow. It was way too stressful.

Day 40

2008-11-20T16:31:00.000-08:00

The first recipe of the day was not what I pictured as Spanish. It was a shrimp cake that to me seemed like chinese food. I loved it. You saute a brunoise of celery, onion, red bell pepper and garlic. Add saffron to it (okay, not chinese) and chill it until cool. Mix in equal parts chopped raw shrimp. Add eggs to wet mixture and flour and water to thicken to a pancake batter. We fried them in a teflon pan and kept them warm over the stove. The smaller the pancake, the better it worked.

If you thought we were done deep frying, you were wrong. See the picture below? That is cheese, my friend. We are about to deep fry cheese. With HAM IN IT. Ridiculous? Yes.

They were over the top. And wonderful. You mix up flour, egg yolks, and milk. You whip egg whites and fold them in to the yolks. You fold in cheese (tetilla and manchego), serrano ham, grated onion. Fry, fry, fry. Eat while hot so you scald your mouth and suffer severe burns that are worth every blister. I don't have any pictures of cooked cheese balls. They do sit in your stomach a bit though. We prepped our paella next.

That's my cubed swordfish and chopped garlic. We had all our ingredients ready similar to a stir fry. First was Spanish chorizo, then chicken, then shrimp (cut into thirds), then swordfish, then vegetables (onion, red bell pepper, tomato), then "wet seafood" (calamari, clams, mussels), then garlic and saffron, then rice, then chicken stock, fumet, and clam juice. Simmer and put in oven to cook. Finish on stove top to evaporate any extra liquid.

Serve with lemon wedges and parsley. And sangria if you like day drinking like my class does. Our sangria was made from possibly the shittiest wine ever, orange juice, brandy, 7 up, and fruit with skin. Don't leave the fruit in more than half a day or the skin will leach bitterness into the death punch. Oh and you might get a headache. Enjoy.

Next week we have a terrible challenge involving secret proteins and time limits. I might puke. Why can't we just go back to France?

Day 39

2008-11-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

So, I don't want you to worry. I still go to school every day. I just got behind in my notes and my life due to an insane week at school. You will hear about this madness soon and then you will understand why halfway through the insanity I had to go get acupuncture to keep myself from spontaneously combusting. But for today, we fry.

Did you know bread was so good deep fried? No one told me this. I thought it was just something people did at like county fairs. But in class we fried bread to go into our sopa de ajo. I had made this soup before in college because it is cheap. It has garlic, bread, cumin, paprika, saffron, beef broth, and beaten eggs. You lightly fry your garlic in olive oil to infuse it first. Then, fry your bread. Then remove all but 1 tablespoon of oil and add spices. Add beef broth and chopped up fried garlic and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in some beaten eggs and top with fried bread. Its really good. And obviously simple. Our next dish was not so simple. Its a version of "Mar y Montana" which means sea and mountain in Spanish. Its a braise of chicken breast (seasoned with cinnamon) and shrimp with tomatoes, garlic, and brandy. Its actually not complicated but has this annoying paste called picada that you add at the end to thicken and enrich the dish. The picada is almonds, hazelnuts, chocolate, and fried bread. Its not unlike nutella, but rough. You bind it in the food processor with olive oil. Its crazy how the cinnamon comes up later. I wasn't in love with the dish.

It looks like sludge, huh? Well, people liked it. People also like fried potatoes. People like me like fried potatoes. Look how pretty waffle cut chips are. We used a mandoline. Duh.

So waffle chips don't need a first fry. You just deep fry them at about 350. They are amazing in your mouth and feel light and airy. They should be immediately salted and eaten. We had to soak and dry all the potatoes first, though.

These cuts above had to be blanched in the oil at about 325-350 to cook them with no color first. Then the oil was heated to 360 and they fried until golden. We needed homemade aioli to further increase our caloric intake.

Notice the ratio of aioli to ketchup. I find that funny. So after that I had half of a coke which I don't normally drink to wash down the salty fatty starchy mess. I felt sick for like 3 hours. I don't deep fry at home. My parents never deep fried when I was growing up. So this was exciting and slightly naughty. Bad fried food! Bad!

Tomorrow when I recover I will be making paella and sangria. Just the thing to help one feel balanced again.

Day 38

2008-11-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

It may be overdone and out of date but I still really like this presentation. Look at that martini of shellfish. In the center is a mound of Spanish cocktail sauce. I had never had this sauce but people seemed to like it. I thought it was foul. It was homemade mayo, ketchup, tomato paste, hard boiled eggs (chopped), tarragon, capers, parsley and Cognac. It was too sweet. Take out the tomato paste and ketchup and add lemon and I might come around.

We had to present all our food at the same time today. All 5 little dishes. In the picture there are two gazpacho. I still don't know why we had to make two of those.

In the above picture you can see the mushrooms with bacon in the tapas style dish. Those were just quartered sauteed mushrooms with diced bacon, garlic, white wine and parsley. I forgot to deglaze mine with white wine. So did someone else in my class. He confessed before Chef came around to taste. I didn't. Chef said they were good and didn't mention the missing wine. Lucky. We made a court bouillon for poaching our shrimp. Once cooked, we drained them and chilled them.

See the simple little gazpacho below? Its your typical blended gazpacho. But let me tell you about my silent fight with Chef over my brunoise garnish. So he gives a demo on how he wants us to cut our brunoise (fillet the pepper, julienne skin side down, cut across into tiny brunoise cubes) (peel cucumber, and cut thin slices lengthwise, turning the cucumber 1/4 each time so that once you get to the seeds you can throw them away). I was slicing my cucumber (not turning it) and cutting around the seeds and he stormed over to my station, takes my knife and loudly asks me if I had watched his demonstration. He proceeded to cut the cucumber (almost all of it) the way he wanted and walked off. Awkward silence. Note to self: cut only in manner of Chef, unless humiliation is desired. Just to spite him I didn't use any of his brunoise and re cut my own. It didn't make the embarrassing sting go away, though. But my soup looked pretty nice.

The gazpacho had marinated overnight and included roasted bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, celery, garlic, tomato paste, tomato juice, salt, and bread soaked in milk. Blend. Garnish with brunoise and bread cubes fried in butter. The milk part creeps me out but it kinda faded away under the garnish. Below is a monkfish dish with tomatoes and almonds. I didn't dig it. My fam and friends ate it up, though. Maybe I was just sick of my own food at this point. It got served over crostini.

We also did a scallop dish from the south of Spain. It had serrano ham, shallot, garlic, tomato sauce, and green olives. Its in the picture of all the dishes at the top. It was tasty but again I was so over my food. I guess that just happens.

Tomorrow I will have a serious stomach ache from gorging on deep fried potatoes.

Day 37

2008-11-10T15:47:00.000-08:00

I don't think I told you yet about my classmate who quit school. Well, he was the one who was seriously hard of hearing and already had not come for a week of school. It was actually Asia week which makes me think he just does not like Asia or the foods of it. He was on a "business" trip. He came back for Italy and then at the end of the week he announced that he would be leaving school because his other "business" endeavors were suffering due to his absence. So odd. But as a parting gift he gave all of us brand new microplanes. Thanks? Good luck? Not sure what to wish someone like that. Oh, did I mention that he also just bought a restaurant (in addition to whatever else he is up to)? So random. Anyways, today I made mayonnaise.

Homemade mayo is so far superior to jarred that if you dislike mayo you need to Pepsi challenge this shit. Jarred mayo vs. homemade. So different. I had made it before at home but wow. How much easier is it when someone else is pouring the oil for you! No wonder it took like 45 minutes at home. Dar. Mayo is great. Everyone should make and eat it. *Except persons with compromised immune systems, pregnant women and the elderly due to the risk of salmonella* I don't think they worry about that in Spain, do they?
I made a Spanish chicken chorizo stew next.

Sauteed chicken legs (boneless/skin on) and chorizo are already great. So when you then add orange zest, thyme, garlic, onion, carrot, red wine and whole plum tomatoes it just get better. We braised it.

This got served over a braised cabbage. We sauteed the cabbage, removed it from the pan, sauteed a brunoise of onion and carrot, deglazed with sherry and added cabbage back in along with veggie stock. It cooked until just tender. It was great with the chicken/chorizo.
Yes, cabbage rocks the stomach, but I think we must need it. It probably helps deal with the digestion of the chicken/chorizo. I think about this stuff.
We made shrimp tapas next. ENJOY MY CROOKED PICTURE.

You have to turn your head so you can see the lovely tomato rose in the middle. I made that! It was one of the most exciting things I have learned so far. Its not difficult at all. Just so crafty. You make it with the skin of a shitty hot house beefsteakish tomato. Start at the bottom and peel carefully with your pairing knife (use a short sawing motion) until you reach the stem. Then roll the skin up and finish it by setting the "rose" on the piece of the bottom that you started with. I would like a whole bouqet of tomato roses. They are fantastic. The shrimp were good too. The toast with the garlic cream sauce was better. The shrimp get sauteed with the tail on, add onion, add garlic, deglaze with wine, add cream and parsley and chile flakes and serve. Preferably with tomato rose.

Tomorrow is going to be rough. All dishes must be presented at the same time. 5 things at once! I am coordinated but still. That's a a lot. I think if I was making dishes that I had made before or maybe had read the recipe before it would be less intimidating. Learning 5 dishes and getting them right and timing them right the first time is tough. I expect crisis.

Day 36

2008-11-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

I love when my pictures turn themselves like maybe they are possessed. This is one of my favorite pictures. I love the color of the choke in the artichoke heart. Have you ever tourneed artichokes? Its the worst job. Ever. Its a bitch, really. The payoff is for sure the flavor and texture of the fresh artichoke vs. canned. It can't be beat.

We simmered our hearts with the lemons to help them from turning black until they were tender when pierced with a knife. They then got chopped into about 8 pieces.

We also chopped Serrano ham and parsley and garlic. The artichoke hearts get a fast, hot saute and then in goes the ham, parsley and garlic. Tapas are served!

These were soooo good. It would not be the same with canned/jarred hearts. So the awful tournee was I guess worth it. I will have to make these many times more.

We next made tortilla espagnole. It looks in the picture like mac n cheese. Its not though. Its potatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, and beaten eggs. It gets browned on one side, baked to cook through, and then flipped. We flipped it using a plate and sliding it back into the pan to brown the other side on the stove top.

Look how nice the layers are. Like strata. Its great warm or at room temp. I like to eat it in the morning like a breakfast frittata situation. It takes a lot of seasoning to make it flavorful. We seasoned both the potatoes as they went in and the beaten egg mixture.

We will be continuing our journey through Spain by making more tapas, chorizo/chicken braise, lamb stew, gazpacho, and aioli. Hopefully drinking Spanish wines too. Great values. Cheers.

Day 35

2008-11-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

This pizza is purposely rolled into the shape of Sicily. What? It doesn't look like that? Oh. Well, maybe I am just a shitty roller. I am not Italian. I have no nonna.

But I did make a kick ass pizza with arugula, prosciutto, mozzarella, and a little bit of tomato sauce. Don't wish your pizza was this rustic looking? It wasn't by accident. Okay, it was. I also made two more awesome pizzas. I put roasted mushrooms (shitake, portobello, and crimini), thyme, tallegio, and fontina on one. On the other I put sauteed leeks (in butter), goat cheese and thinly sliced pancetta. They were all good. And different from each other. The mushrooms were earthy and the fontina stinky. The leeks were delicate and the goat cheese tangy. My family and I went through a pizza phase this summer where we grilled pizza for like 3 weekends in a row. So this was a nice revisit of homemade pizzas. They usually buy pre-made dough. No more, I tell you. It was simple and worth it. I will make the dough for them come next binge. And maybe if they are lucky I will roll out the dough into beautiful abstract shapes that I obviously am very good at.
This is a fab fall recipe. Its a Chianti risotto. You make a regular risotto, using 1/2 bottle of Chianti before switching to stock. You finish the risotto with sage and Parmesan. Lots of sage. Its great. We made it to plate with a veal costelleta. That is a bone in steak from the end of the veal loin, like a bone in NY strip of veal. Its a perfectly tender and juicy cut of meat that I will make again for sure. Its a nice size too. A little big for one serving for me, but nice for most eaters, I think.
We grilled it and finished it by roasting it in the oven.

We made a porcini sauce to go with it. Just dried porcini, shallot, red wine and demi glace. It was very flavorful. Rich tasting without fats. This is one of the ugliest plates I might have ever made, by the way. And I fucked up by covering the perfectly symmetrical grill marks with sauce. Duh. The sage leaves are pretty, though.

To finish our time in Italy we made tiramisu. It was an easy one. I don't like it really, but people freak out over tiramisu. They love that creamy shit. You separate a bunch of eggs. Beat the yolks with some sugar until sugar is melted. Stir marscapone into the yolks. Whip egg whites to soft peaks and then add sugar and take it to stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Fold whites into yolks. Take ladyfinger cookies and dip them into a mixture of liqueur and espresso (or really strong coffee). Layer into pan. Spread creamy mixture on top. Repeat. Chill.

When chilled up, dust the top with cocoa powder. I think cinnamon would be nice on top too. We used Marsala for the liqueur but my mom uses Kahlua and rum sometimes.

Italy was fine. I am looking forward to Spain next week. Not for the paella (which I think is overrated) but for the yummy paprika and small tapas style plates. Small plates are a great way to convince yourself that you are just way too petite to consume a regular sized portion of food. Pack for sunshine!

I am not blog savvy

2008-11-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

So I just realized that when I saved a half done post and then published it later it stays in order of when I half wrote it. So you get to scroll down to see new exciting photos and days at school. At least day 33. And I told you about my test.

I can't be bothered

2008-11-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

I have a test tomorrow. A big fucking test. I am a good test taker. But NOT when I have NO IDEA what this test will be like. IT SUCKS. I am super behind with my posts due to serious studying. So I cannot be bothered to tell you what I did in school last week when I can not remember what I did. Because there is way too much information floating around in my head. Is it going to be just ratios? An example of a braise? Specific sauces and exact recipes? I like to know what to expect. And I don't. And I feel vulnerable and powerless. I have to get back to my flash cards. Yes, I am a dork and made flash cards. When I get back I will tell you the story of the guy who quit school on Friday. At least he doesn't have to take this damn test. Did I mention that I want to get 100% on my test? Oh, you couldn't have guessed that? Wish me luck.

Day 34

2008-10-30T18:22:00.001-07:00

Drinking in the morning? We can only wish. No, these are glasses of consomme and clear beef stock. The consomme is on the left. What? How did I make such culinary feats? Okay, I will tell you.

So you take your clear beef stock and bring it to a simmer while you prepare your Clarification mixture. The magic mixture is ground beef, chopped tomatoes, egg whites and finely chopped carrot and celery. You decide how much mixture you need based on the size of the pot of stock you wish to clarify. Once simmering you dump the grody sticky mixture into the stock and whisk as hard and fast as you can, burning your forearms. You must stop whisking so that your mixture will form a raft and filter your stock. This MUST NOT BOIL. I assume the world ends along with your chances of clarifying your stock. So as is forms the raft you poke a hole in the center, not unlike ice fishing, so that impurities can float up through the hole. You ladle the stock over the sides of your raft and let it filter back down. You can see your stock getting clearer through the hole. If the gods shine on you, you will have consomme. Ladle the consomme out from the hole quickly (the raft will start to sink) into another container. Below is a picture of the raft with the hole in the center.

This would be amazing to watch if the pot was clear. Do they make see through pots? They should. Just for this process. Which is amazing. It's nerdy and awesome. Cloudy to clear via ground beef, egg whites, and tomatoes. You should try it. Plus then you have lots of egg yolks leftover and you can make cinnamon gelato like I did. You can do all sorts of smug culinary tricks with consomme. Float little raviolis in it, or fancy cut vegetables. Just think how crazy things could get!

These are the ingredients for pappa al pomodoro. Its a way simple tomato basil soup that you throw old bread into for thickening. Saute your onion and leek, add your garlic and basil, add your tomatoes (fresh and canned), add stock (we used chicken), and simmer until the onion is tender. Serve with old bread. Its satisfying and light. I ate it for breakfast the next day.

That's it in a big bowl. I don't like that much bread in mine, but that's just the lunch pot. We also made some bruscetta. I'm sure you can figure out how to top bread with stuff. Saute mushrooms and add Parmesan on top of toasted bread. Make a tomato, basil, garlic sauce and top bread. Mix together raw Italian spicy sausage and cream cheese and spread on bread. Bake until bubbling, sausage will be cooked. I did not like the last one. Real white trash like. What's up with that?
The white nuggets with the parsley garnish are spinach/ricotta gnocchi in a Gorgonzola cream sauce.

I had my doubts about whether my stomach could handle the gnocchi sauce but I was okay. The gnocchi are really easy and only involve mixing and chilling and boiling. My favorite flavor in them was the grated nutmeg. They are spinach, ricotta, flour, Parmesan, eggs and nutmeg. The sauce is just onion cisele, delgazed with wine, add cream and simmer, add Gorgonzola cheese and melt it in. Toss gnocchi in sauce. Take aspirin to help with heart attack. If you live through heart attack you can make it for others who wish to suffer myocardial infarction.

Tomorrow we make pizza.

Day 33

2008-10-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the test was not that hard. But it was annoying. It was detailed but all over the place. I definitely memorized a bunch of useless shit. Fine, maybe it will be useful at some point. I missed at least 2 questions. I didn't remember why you had to cook a lobster alive. Well, it is so that the lobster does not flush itself out which I guess is what it does when it dies. I thought maybe the meat was just more tender. oops. So the other question was about which flat fish has 4 fillets. I don't know what the answer was but I was for sure wrong. Oh well. I was able to name 5 red and 5 white grape varietals used to make wine. Which I am sure is more important.

So we made clear beef stock using the ingredients below. Those black circles are charred onion halves, it gives some caramelized flavor that complements the beef. We tied up our chunks of beef and tied them to the sides of the pot. It was kind of like fishing. Also into that pot went oxtails, celery, the burnt onions, carrots and large bouquets.
The stock simmered for 8 hours. It came out looking like clear beef stock. But here in Italy week at school, this is not good enough. We went on to clarify said clear beef stock, but that's tomorrow. Today: osso buco. Osso buco is made from veal shank and is simple to make. My recipe was for osso buco a la milanese. Which involves prosciutto and tomato sauce. It works like any other braise. Sear meat. Remove. Add prosciutto and saute. Add small mirepoix and saute. Add garlic and saute lightly. Deglaze with white wine. Add equal parts tomato sauce and demi glace. You need enough liquid to go about 1/2 way up the side of the meat. Bring to simmer, cover, bake until meat is super tender. Add more demi if the liquid gets too low. This should take about 1 1/2 hours, maybe more.

Serve it over homemade egg pasta. People will like you more because of this meal. Make them bring fantastic wines to your dinner. I need to make friends with people who have/drink fantastic wines. Another great dish that we made was a veal scallopine with an artichoke and pancetta pan sauce. You start it by pounding your veal (from the top round) super thin. Flour and season and pan sear. Remove from pan to begin sauce.

Change fat in pan and add thinly sliced pancetta. Saute. Add finely chopped shallots, saute. Add chopped artichoke hearts (cooked), saute. Add chopped garlic, saute. Deglaze with white wine, reduce. Add about 1 cup demi glace and a shot of cream, simmer. Add meat back in to pan and serve. This is also good over egg noodles. Finish it with chopped parsley.

We had some extra time in class (since we had a student drop out last week) so Chef said we would take a short detour back to France for some crepes. He haughtily whipped up a simple crepe batter (no measuring) of flour, eggs, sugar, milk and melted butter. Then he quickly got 2 pans going to start cooking the crepes.

They were light and delicious just like this with sugar sprinkled on top. But nooooo. Chef said "I will make the crepes suzette". And seconds later they were there and gone. I could not photograph them because they were eaten by wild dogs which were me and my classmates. I did remake them though this weekend. It goes like this: equal parts butter/sugar in pan. Melt sugar and once done add orange juice (not too much). Add shot of grand mariner and add folded crepes to the pan. Swirl crepes around in the sauce and pour onto a plate. You can be smug and French too.

Day 32

2008-10-28T18:47:00.001-07:00

Oh my god, rachel ray is on tv right now and is drilling holes in my ear with her diarrhea of the mouth. But today in school I made delicious swordfish.

We made a minestrone cut soup first this morning but I didn't photo it. It was just veg soup, people. It was a clean out of the veg drawer but with nicely layered flavors and some garbanzos. I didn't use pasta in mine although most of the class did. I don't like when you open the fridge the day after and the pasta has eaten all of the broth and become mammoth. It turns alien in size and falls to mush upon reheating. I don't enjoy this. But I did enjoy my swordfish.

This is marinating in garlic, parsley, oregano, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and capers. It sat in the marinade for about 20 minutes and then got a dose of salt and pepper before heading onto a hot grill. I did my best to make lovely diamond patterns on it.

It had a little rest after grilling while I finished my risotto. It was a fennel risotto, started with onion and large dice fennel. I used veggie stock and when I finished it I added fennel powder to the Parmesan. Its good. It served as a base for the grilled swordfish.

Isn't it nice looking? I thought so. Chef asked us to plate it in this manner. I would have liked to stir some fresh herb into the risotto at the end. Parsley or tarragon maybe? I might try it at home. We then made grilled steak Florentine. Big grilled meat with a topping of parsley, Parmesan, lemon, and olive oil.

Big steak. I think the grill could have been a little hotter. Its fine though. I didn't really eat much of it anyway. Especially with the thought of tomorrows dish: osso buco. Love it...but for lunch? Its a lot. Whatever. Maybe we'll have wine with it and that makes all manner of protein suitable at any time of day. That's official, you know.

Day 31

2008-10-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Italy! We are with a guest instructor today learning some hand made pasta recipes. We start with dough. We made egg pasta and semolina pasta. Later we made gnocchi dough.

We let our dough rest while we made sauces and prepped what would eventually be lunch. We picked basil from our plants outside and cleaned it up. Okay that is a benefit of our
hot weather, we have basil almost year round.

We had such a pretty assortment of colors. We made a pesto from this with pistachios instead of pine nuts. We made filling for ravioli too. It was just ricotta, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and Parmesan cheese to taste. It made a lovely filling.

Yes, they were big. Not huge but like small sombreros almost as big as my palm. I ate two leftover cold this morning. Gross? Hell, no. They were great. And the texture of the pasta was fantastic. We used the egg pasta for the ravioli. We cut paperadelle and some fettuccine from the egg pasta also. The cut pasta was to be tossed with a simple meat and tomato sauce that we simmered while cutting shapes.

Nope, still can't figure out how to rotate pictures. If you can, let me know.
We made little ear shaped pasta with the semolina pasta. I can't spell it, but it might be orcheiette. or not. We treated it the same way we did our potato gnocchi. We tossed it in browned butter with some fresh sage leaves. That was grub.

Pasta day was all hands on. I can see, however, that this is something that you could do for the next 30 years and still be figuring it out. I might make it more often. Maybe. For sure if someone else wants to clean up my kitchen afterwards.
Tomorrow: Italian style grilling, a risotto, and minestrone.

Day 30

2008-10-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Sushi day! I have made sushi before with my cousin on one adventurous day. It wasn't hard. Just takes obvious practice. I'm talking about rolls though here. Not perfectly sliced fish with a knife that could take off your scalp like in the kill bill movie. I made rolls. We did start with baking some salmon skin until cooked and slightly crispy.

We made a huge batch of sushi rice, seasoning it with the usual vinegar/sugar mixture and keeping it covered so that it won't dry out. We started prepping all the ingredients for rolling.

Isn't this amazing. I love the color. That is not me cutting it. I avoided the uber sharp knife cutting expensive fish. The instructor was cutting this down. Some went to nigiri sushi, some to sashimi, some to a poke dish, and some to spicy tuna. A poke is a Hawaiian dish of diced fish, with sea salt, ogo seaweed, ponzu, chili paste, sesame oil, scallions and masago. Its great and in some asian markets they sell seasoning packets for it. You just dice tuna and stir in seasoning. Poke is fun.

This is the scraping of the tuna meat off of the silver skin that runs all through it. You use the scraped off meat for spicy tuna mixture. That is also not me with the little finger condom on. I did not have injuries this week. Yea me.

So some of our rolls were spicy tuna, poke, salmon skin, crunchy (shrimp tempura), eel, salmon, california and vegetarian. We also made a lightly marinated cucumber salad with thinly sliced octopus and some edamame. The colors on the platters were lovely.

Lunch could have been better with some big kirin lights and some sake. Well, next week is Italy. I will be puffy and full from all the carbs I am sure. If it wasn't still hitting 90 degrees I could hide in sweaters like the rest of the country. Fucking California sunshine.

Day 29

2008-10-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day in Asia with Chef. Tomorrow we have a guest chef for sushi. So today I think was like Chef's version of movie day. Normally he is very specific about what exactly he wants to see in our recipes and on our plate. Today I made veg (clean out the walk in fridge) stir fry.
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?

Day 28

2008-10-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Malaysian Coconut Beef. Its some of the same flavors as earlier curries this week but thickened with an unsweetened coconut galangal lemongrass garlic chile paste that we made. The sauce is great. Beef, meh. I just don't really do well cooked beef. It takes too much chewing. The sauce was kafir lime, coconut milk, and tamarind juice.

Serve, again, over rice. Next we made we made chicken soup. Tom Yan Goong. Thai style chicken soup. So good and comforting. We simmered lime leaves, galangal and lemongrass in chicken broth for 15 minutes to infuse the flavors, strained, and then returned to a simmer. In to the stock went pieces of shrimp, enoki mushrooms, a Thai green chile, cilantro leaf, lime juice and fish sauce. Lots of fish sauce.

It was strong and delicious. I don't ever order this at Thai restaurants. I will have to try it at my favorite place. It should definitely be made at home too. Its simple as long as you can find the ingredients. It helps to have solid homemade chicken stock on hand as well.
Next dish was another Indian chicken dish. This one was shorter on ingredients but had an interesting technique of using a cooked, pureed onion to season and and add body to the sauce. It gets added after the spices but before the chicken and yogurt. It also gets a pinch of saffron for color. Its not my favorite, but it was good over basmati rice for lunch. I hope to pawn it off to the family tonight. See the black specks in it? Those are cardamom seeds. At home I have only used pods, which I like to remove. The seeds are really strong in flavor and overwhelm my mouth often. I would substitute pods if I made it again. But I doubt I will. Meh.

But lets talk about deep frying now, shall we? I don't deep fry at home for all manner of reasons having to do mostly with cleanliness. But I will make a mess in other people's kitchens no problem. So today we made Filipino lumpiang. They are an egg roll sort of situation. This version used equal parts shrimp and pork, water chestnuts, green onions, egg, and soy sauce. You roll em up into small cigars and fry. Mine were large cigars as you can see. I don't have that small nimble rolling thing down quite yet.

You fry for them for about 5 minutes and then burn the fuck out of your mouth while trying to eat them before they cool down enough to handle. We made a funky dipping sauce of ketchup and sugar, water and Tabasco. It was really sweet so we upped the spice to try to balance it. It was tasty with the lumpiang. Are homemade deep fried crispy egg rolls ever not tasty?

If you said no go fuck yourself. They are of course good. And afterwards your stomach expands and you feel sleepy for a good few hours. I have leftover filling that I am going to use with wonton wrappers tonight. I will not be making ketchup sauce.

Tomorrow? Chef says we will eat the best fried rice of our life. I am of course skeptical. I'll let you know. We also are making my favorite Thai soup: chicken with coconut milk. MMMmmm.

Day 27

2008-10-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

So we started our morning with a yogurt chicken curry situation. It was a fabulous situation actually. It has a list of ingredients like 2 pages long so here is a summary: chicken, aromatics, spice mixture including, cinnamon, clove, bay leaf, cardamom, and nutmeg, garam masala, cilantro and nut paste to thicken and stabilize. You simmer chicken until cooked really. We ate it with rice and it was fine.

Its something I might make again, if I was craving Indian foods and not interested in the old standards like tikka masala. I tend to always make daal (yellow split peas) and eggplant (benghan bharta) so this was a nice change up. The spices were really tasty.

We then made the lamb balls. We made little 1/2 ounce meatballs of lamb and seasoned them with jalapeno, ginger, cilantro, garlic, cloves, and mace. They get fried and please reserve your balls for later. The sauce was tomato and yogurt based and also utilized the nut paste made earlier. Once sauce is simmering, return balls, and simmer long enough to cook through. No Pink Balls, please!

The little balls get a minty finish and served over rice. Try not to love my balls!

Wonton soup was our last dish of the day. It was an easy simmered soup that had snow peas, black ear mushrooms, shitakes, and chicken stock. The wonton filling was long on ingredients but quick to make. It had shrimp, chicken, water chestnuts, oyster sauce, sugar, Chinese wine, egg, cornstarch, and soy sauce. Wrap them up and drop them in simmering soup to cook in about 3 minutes. They are great pan fried too. I have leftover filling and will probably make some more tonight for dinner.

I can't seem to get enough dumplings in my life. We are doing another one tomorrow: Lumpiang. Its the Filipino egg roll.

Day 26

2008-10-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Asia is quite a bit of land to cover, you know? So we hit up some main flavor combos and cooking techniques. First we deep fried beef. If you don't like fried beef for breakfast, get over yourself. It was great. Real fortifying like. We marinated our meat in rice wine and then just deep fried it in oil. After that it just gets tossed with garlic, coarse ground black pepper, oyster sauce, soy, szechwan peppercorns, and sesame oil. Serve over iceberg lettuce. I balanced out my meal by eating extra lettuce. I know it helped. I am sure.

It was super good. I just can't be bothered to deep fry at home due to the whole spattering and disposal of oil situation. Next we made wontons. A basic pork, ginger wonton that we boiled and served with a fragrant dipping sauce that had chile oil and cinnamon in it. I tried folding them all sorts of ways but I do not yet have the nimble fingers of an old Chinese lady.

The wontons were good. Not as good as some we will make later this week. We also pan fried and deep fried some just to taste the difference.
Our next dish was mango pork curry. I guess its Burmese. It was my favorite dish of the day. The sweet and velvety mango and spicy savory meat are a killer combo. You sweat your aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, chile flakes) and then drop in the raw cubed pork, mango slices, and a small amount of water to coax the mango into puree. This simmers for about 15 minutes and then you can serve it over rice. The color is much nicer in person. I would have really enjoyed eating this as leftovers but someone beat me to it.

Next time I will hide it in an old yogurt container or in the cheese drawer.

Our last dish was an eggplant salad dish. I usually like any eggplant preparation, especially when it starts with roasting an eggplant until super tender. These were scored and seasoned and drizzled with a little peanut oil before roasting.

We took them out of the skin carefully and mixed the loosely chopped flesh with peanuts, onion, garlic oil, cilantro, red chile, and fish sauce. I was too full to eat it then but it made an amazing breakfast the next morning on toasted pita bread.

Isn't it nice all tucked back into its shell? I like it. And it tastes fresh and delicious. Please note that this is one of the ONLY non meat dishes we have ever made in school. I asked chef if we would be doing any more veg this week and he said "Why? Are you on a diet? Huh!" Please say it with a French accent and make the Huh almost a snort.

Tomorrow: Sauteed balls of lamb. Lets see how many balls jokes can be made in one day. Yes, I am maybe 12.

Day 25

2008-10-17T19:46:00.001-07:00

So with the running of a half marathon and all, I have been neglecting my school memoirs. I have now recovered feeling in my legs and am prepared to share school with you. I did finish my half marathon in case you were wondering. It was awesome and terrible all at once. So for our last day in France we made bouillabaisse and tarte tatin. Our bouillabaisse (I will from here on out refer to it as soup, since typing bouillabaisse annoys me) started with a saute of fennel, onion, and celery, then rockfish (red snapper), then garlic and saffron, then fresh tomatoes, then fumet (fish stock). This gets simmered until the veg is well cooked (about 45-60 minutes) and then painstakingly pushed through a food mill. I recommend going to the bathroom while your classmates struggle with this step. You now have fish soup. To serve the soup you line up your fantastic array of Mediterranean seafood in a saute pan with a drizzle of olive oil on the bottom. We stabbed that lobster through the head just this morning. I did not even feel bad about it or pray for his crustacean soul. These exoskeletons don't tug at my heartstrings anymore. I am hardened, cold, and crusty.

But doesn't soup sound great? Just ladle the soup on top of the seafood and simmer for maybe 5 minutes. The seafood cooks up quick and is ready for serving.

We made a rouille with boiled potato whisked with egg yolks, saffron, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. Baguette croutons were baked and rubbed with cut garlic cloves. Rouille goes on croutons, croutons go on soup and pour some rose (we drank Tavel from Provence) and you can pretend you are somewhere other than in stinky fishy chef whites sitting on a stool sweating and eating in your hot stuffy kitchen. The soup was great though. What a good party dish.

For tarte tatin apples get peeled, cored and halved. They are then wedged as snug as possible into a baking pan lightly greased. If you have extra cracks you should fill them with apple quarters.
From here we used chef's shortcut version. We made a caramel on the stove top and poured said liquid hot magma of sugar on top of apples. They got baked for about an hour (until tender) and then covered with a round of puff pastry. This baked until the crust was cooked and then cooled in the fridge. Once cooled sufficiently it got flipped out of its pan and cut into wedges to eat. I didn't like it very much. It tasted a little burned and the pastry tasted tough. I would make it again for sure to try it but I didn't take any home for late night noshing.

Au revoir France. Next week we go to Asia.

Day 24

2008-10-17T19:12:00.001-07:00

Have you ever eaten 6 different potato preparations in one day? Well, I don't recommend it. Ever. Even if you are recovering from the worst day at school ever. I am sure I just changed clothing sizes. But here they are for you to see.
The red one is sauteed and then finished in red wine. Sooo much better than it sounds, I swear. The next one is plain old lyonnaise potatoes, sauteed with onion and thyme in olive oil. Next to that is a saute finished with chicken stock, obviously a class fav at 10 am. At the end the mostly empty pan was holding the orgasmic duck fat sauteed potato. It far surpasses any and all other potato preparations on earth. Don't even think about being grossed out by duck fat. If you hate duck fat please immediately pack your knives and go.
We also made 2 versions of au gratin style potatoes. Nothing mind blowing. One was cream over potatoes with cheese on top, the other was more of a custard type like potatoes dauphinois. It was hard to tell if the dauphinois sucked or was overcooked. I would like to try it again. We made it in teams and I was not on that team so I'm not sure what they felt "cooked" meant. I do like the idea of serving au gratin that has been cut into shapes with a cutter or ring mold. I think the layers will look pretty.
We moved on to duck a l'orange. Duck breast with orange sauce. I had always wondered how this sauce was made. You start with a gastric (vinegar + sugar) reduced to syrup, add oj, reduce and then add demi glace. Simmer and voila! Viva la France! I cooked my duck to medium rare and then freaked the fuck out about how not to make it look shitty on the plate. While trying to make sure all hot items were as hot as possible. My potatoes did stay crispy though. Thank you little buds. I fucked up though by not using odd numbers. It would have been so much nicer to look at. I also should have used a bunch of green in the center too. This is like a bad fall sweater.

I did enjoy it for lunch though. Those are orange segments in between the duck slices and that's orange zest at the top. Its in a cute fluffy little pile that you can't really tell from the birds eye view. Our next dish was so French that I can barely stop from having the rest of this post translated into French. Lucky for you I am tired and can't be bothered, really. Behold sauteed sweetbreads (ris de veau). I spared you the pics of the raw ones. It was rather unappealing. But seared? super.
These lovely thymus glands of baby cows were braised in a port wine/demi glace mix. They get 2 pan sears. One before the braise and one after. The one after with the big flambe is much more fun. All the good juices join together with some sauteed mushrooms to make a killer sauce. Sort of a liver texture but in a good way. I really liked them. Don't be scared. They are not creepy.
You can make a cute little bowl for them out of puff pastry like we did. I even carved Viva France into the top rim of the bowl for chef's entertainment. He seemed pleased by that. He then carved the pretty tomato rose and placed it on my plate. Bonus points for being fired up about France.
Big day tomorrow as we have our beautiful bouillabaisse and a tarte tatin.

Day 23

2008-10-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

I had my first bad day at school.

I pretty much kept a steady stream of fuck ups all day long. I have scars to prove it. I even wept a little on my drive home.

It started with my burning the bacon.
I made bouef bourguignon today. Its just brown stew. Its good brown stew. But still...brown stew. Not so exciting to look at. Not even super appetizing to look at. But taste is GREAT. I was too distracted by my misery and pity to take pictures of it. I had not made a beef Burgundy before. I seared well and made sure to season heavily when I browned my beef. Then I put in my bacon. I like crispy bacon. I didn't think it was even bad. But chef was not pleased. He reminds me of it, often. So as my beef stewed, so did I. For like hours. And amidst my stewing I made some other awesome screw ups. So after you don't burn bacon you add mirepoix (carrot/onion/celery) and saute it. Add back in the beef marinade and deglaze. Add meat back in and cover with demi glace to loosen up the stew. Simmer about 3 hours. At the end you can add in any manner of sauteed vegetable that you like. We used button mushrooms. Serve over buttered rice noodles. Next dish was Poulet Chasseur (a braised chicken dish with mushrooms).
That's my little chicken looking as good as ever. I took him apart and sauteed his major pieces. I then sliced some shallots and added them to the hot fat in the pan. After them went mushrooms (domestic and wild) (dried porcini and morel, fresh shitake and button). A white wine deglaze and then stock 1/2 way up the sides. We used 1/2 chicken stock and 1/2 demi glace. Bring to simmer and cover with lid of parchment paper. Bake until chicken is cooked. About 25 minutes.
Here' s where I was awesome again. My cooking neighbor took his pan out and set it next to me. I turned and just brushed my forearm across his pan handle. that had been in the oven. for 30 minutes. It burned all day and now I have an inch long red stripe on the underside of my arm probably forever. Thanks douchebag.

I do know that it was really my fault but at this point someone else is going down with me. The chicken was not enough sacrifice for my bad day. When I took out mr. chicken I removed the meat and thickened the sauce. A little too thick for my taste, but that was a given, right? I was sure at this point that I was not meant to be in cooking school at all. I only have potential to be a crabby lunch lady with zits and a hairnet.

I did perk up a little bit when we started making the escargot.
Escargot come in a can from France, duh. They are meaty and nothing to be scared of. Not slimy or stinky. You should try them somewhere reputable, though. Above they are sauteed with a little garlic, shallot and white wine. Just to add a little flavor to them. Then you begin to make the butter.
I can't even imagine how much better this would be with really good french butter. I will have to try. So in the bowl above is unsalted butter, parsley, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper. Make sure to taste and test it for seasoning before baking. I chopped some of the shallots. And managed to chop into my thumb while doing it. I was ready to leave at this point. I'm sure I had not spoken to anyone for at least 2 hours. I held together if not just to taste the wine we were going to taste at lunch. You can stuff the butter into actual snail shells or just on top of a bunch of snails in ramekins. Bake until bubbling and lightly browned.
That's my really cute snail plate that I carried back from France in its virgin state. Le sigh...
Snails were great. Just try not to soak up all the butter with bread. I dare you.

Day 22

2008-10-14T16:31:00.001-07:00

So this looks suspiciously like chicken pot pie filling. In fact it is Poule au Pot. Chicken in a pot. Its delicious and comforting. I took my leftovers and piled them into leftover pie dough and made a pot pie. It was lovely. I could not take a picture of it though as I did not have time before it was eaten. Just think chicken stew + pie dough + 375 for about 45 minutes. Super easy. The original stew was made by boiling a chicken with whole veg until cooked. Then remove chicken and pull apart. Keep chicken meat and use veg if desired. Saute pearl onions and mushrooms separately "a blanc". Add their leftover juice to your stock and bring to a simmer. "A blanc" means that you put a little water, butter, salt and pepper into a fry/sauce pan with the stated veg and simmer with a parchment lid until tender. Don't brown the veg or will not be "a blanc". It would be "brun". Once stock and veg juice is simmering add cream (not much) and roux to thicken. Whisk to incorporate roux and once thickened as needed allow to simmer for a few minutes to cook out flour in roux. Season as needed. Add back in chicken and veg and BAM. Can you imagine if Emeril was your cooking teacher every day? You'd try to drown yourself in a huge vat of brown stock. Or poke your eyes out with lobster claws. Which one would you rather do?

So then we started on a quick dish: Rosti. Its not technically French, its Swiss. But I guess they like to eat it in France. Last time I had it I called it hash browns. Its super good though. So satisfying. Julienned potatoes, salted and peppered, and fried til crispy in a small frypan. We flipped it in the pan all fancy style. At home I would never have been nervous about that. But at school no one said they felt comfortable giving it the pan flip. SO- they all stared at me while I got stressed since I was ready to flip. In my crazy head they were all watching to see if the potato cake landed on my face, scalding me with hot clarified butter and causing me to lose one or both of my eyes, while seriously disfiguring me. Luckily, I just flipped it and it was fine. Then all the smug fucking classmates proceeded to sack it up and flip as well. Thanks guys. Let me go first while you stare at me with no encouragement waiting for me to take the chance you are afraid of. Assholes. It was scary. My stomach had butterflies. Anyway, it turned fine. And tasted great. This might be better than late night french fries.
Mine would have been more evenly browned if I had squished it down into the pan harder. Next time I guess. After potato cake came scallops Provencal. Its a pan sauce dish so its done and done in no time flat. Scallops go into a pan, get seared (real hot pan), add shallot, thyme, garlic, niciose olives and fry, deglaze with wine, add chopped plum tomatoes with their juice, simmer, and dish it up.

Look at that drama. The scallops look like meatballs in this picture. Sick. Whatever. They are scallops. In a scallop shell no less. Over a bed of rock salt and pretty spices like star anise and bay. I was slightly concerned that if you actually served it to people at restaurants that the bed of spices would be too aromatic for some. I have way too many questions.

Oooohh. Tomorrow? escargot and boeuf bourguignon and poulet chasseur. Jealous? Duh.

Day 21

2008-10-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

We are now in France. Chef likes to group his dishes of a certain cuisine into a week of study so that we understand the flavor profiles. We started our day with a lecture on some of the famous foods of major regions (burgundy = snails + Dijon mustard). So then onto French onion soup. Start by meticulously slicing onions very fine. This sounds simple. But when your eyes are burning so bad that you feel dizzy its really fucking hard to cut small thin slices of onion all the same size. I recommend goggles or really large sunglasses. I had to sack it up at school though. I was such a pussy. So you put the eye needles (onions) into a soup pot that has been heating up with clarified butter. They need to brown right away. If the pot is not hot enough they will just steam and then release liquid and then boil. I know this because that is how mine started today. The pot was a really thick bottomed pot and it did not seem to hold and keep the heat. I had to grab another pot and heat the shit out of it and then transfer my boiling onions into it to try to get color on them. This was annoying. Especially after the eyeball searing. I did finally get them brown, though. They have to get dark and have lots of bits on the bottom of your pan to scrape up later.

Then I deglazed with sherry. Chef said we could use whatever liquor we chose. He prefers marsala. Many classmates used brandy. I thought my sherry was too sweet when all was said and done. Then we added stock (we only had veg stock on hand, so that's what we used). You could add clear beef stock if you wanted too. Too much stock will dilute your flavors, so you have to be prudent in your amount of added stock. Season and simmer for about 20 minutes. Your soup is now ready to be topped with crusty baguette and gruyere and baked until melted. If you don't have a broiler but have a blowtorch you can brown your melted cheese with that. We don't have a broiler. What the f? So then you happily eat a bowl of your soup. I debated telling my husband that I had made it so that I would not have had to share. Luckily, I filled him up with my next dish and he didn't want soup too.

This was the start of our flamiche (a leek pie/tart). We made pate brisee (flaky pastry) and filled it with leeks. First we sauteed a whole mess of leeks. They went in to the fridge to chill on sheet pans while we made our dough. The dough gets blended by hand and given a rest in the fridge. This pic is of chef blending the dough to ensure no butter pockets that will steam and create holes in the pastry when baked. One of my cookbooks calls this step "fraisage" in French. Once dough is rested it gets rolled into shells and rests again to prevent shrinkage. Heh heh. Shrinkage.

Filling is made from cream, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. It is smooth and sort of thick. And white. And fattening. To assemble we spread leeks in shells and poured filling over the top. It got a sprinkling of gruyere and went into the oven for about 40 minutes. We checked the underside of the crust for doneness. At one point the tops were browning too much so chef reduced the oven heat while we waited for the crust to finish baking. I am not sure why we didn't blind bake the crust. I'll have to ask him tomorrow.

The tarts/flamiches came out searingly hot. We took them home and I ate mine for dinner with a salad. Its really rich tasting. I love the leeks. They are sweet and wonderful, right? I luckily got to take home leftover sauteed leeks that we didn't use in the pies. I plan on mixing them into some mashed potatoes later this week.

So that was our first day in France. I love France. Its one of my favorite places to travel. I am looking forward to learning more about the food from chef's prospective. A classmate and I were asking him if you could make this with milk or a lower fat filling. He first said "why?". Then we explained that people might shy away from the super rich filling. He looked at us, slightly annoyed, and said "This is French food" and walked away. I guess that means no. Sor.

Tomorrow? Chicken in a pot. Later this week: duck and sweetbreads and escargot, oh my!

Day 20

2008-10-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

So today we are being used for slave labor. We will be doing a catering on Saturday and today we prepped all day. We made appetizers and main courses for a beer pairing for 100 people. We made four apps: smoked salmon canapes, turkey meatballs in cream sauce, bacon wrapped dates, and grilled zucchini stuffed with herbed goat cheese. Nothing amazing. Good though. The salmon was sliced bread spread with lemon butter (butter, lemon zest, lemon juice) and topped with smoked salmon. On top of the salmon I piped a small rosette of sour cream and topped that with a small piece of lime segment (lime with no membrane). Finely chopped chives finished it off. The lemon butter and lime were great compliments. I love the lemon butter. The meatballs were just that. We baked them to cook them and then topped them with the cream sauce at serving time. The zucchini was grilled in thin long slices and then spread with a mixture of goat cheese, cream cheese, and herbs (I think chives and parsley but not sure). Once rolled up it was secured with a toothpick. Same idea for the bacon wrapped dates. Really salty and really sweet were nice. Even though I don't usually like dates.
Main dishes started with paella. It was seafood and chicken with saffron, rice, and clam juice for extra seafoodyness. It was okay. Not amazing. The next course was a bed of sauteed cabbage with caraway seeds with potato salad and grilled bratwurst. It was good but my classmate overcooked the sausage and it was a little dry. The last course was braised shortribs. They marinated in red wine overnight and then braised in the oven for a few hours. Sauce gets strained and reduced and poured back over them for serving. They were plated over some roast potatoes and carrots. The cuts of meat were so fatty, though. I didn't like the quality of the beef. I want to make them with natural meat and see the difference. So that was my uneventful day of prep for someone else's party. I'm glad its overwith.

Day 19

2008-10-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

So today was Fish plate day. This is where our day revolves around making two fish centered plates. First up was John Dory over rice pilaf with a saffron mussel cream sauce. The mussels we got were great. Not the biggest or plumpest (sp?) but very clean and few duds. We washed them and steamed them to make the sauce.
After that the meat gets separated from the shells and the shells discarded (save 3 or so for garnish). The cooking liquid (shallot and white wine) gets simmered with cream and saffron and whole mussels for about 10 minutes. The whole deal goes into the blender and we then added roux to thicken and held the sauce while finishing the dish. We had a rice pilaf that we started on the stove and finished in the oven. I have made this recipe before from a french cookbook and its basically the same. You sweat an onion in butter, add rice, add stock, simmer, cover and bake for about 20 minutes. The rice:stock ratio is 1:2. Its pretty easy. Any long grain white rice seems to work. Today we used converted which I cannot stand so I will be trying my luck with every other long grain varietal out there just to be smug. We then sauteed the john dory quickly over high heat and plated over a circle of rice.

You cannot see the rice in my picture because its under the fish that took up a lot of space. Those are shelled mussels around in the sauce. It was really pretty in person, but a little jaundiced for my taste. We devoured it for lunch. Next dish was roasted monkfish over duxelles with clam, bacon, and thyme sauce. Duxelles is just shallots sweated in butter and then a bunch of chopped mushrooms added and sauteed and finished with a shot of cream. Its real easy. And maybe my new favorite plate accessory. It was delicious. That just hung out while we made sauce. We started by frying a chopped up piece of bacon then adding onion and thyme. After that we added clam juice and fish stock (fumet) and simmered for like 5 minutes. Cream is of course necessary and then roux is added to thicken. And then the whole thing gets strained (chinoised) and checked for salt and pepper. It does not need much salt since the clam juice is all salt. So sauce is done and mushrooms is done and was my fish roasting in the oven yet? No. Chef made sure that I realized that. I should have let my sauce wait to be strained and gotten my fish in the oven. So then I began my crust of pepper, thyme, parsley, and salt. I rolled the monkfish loin in there and sent it into a super hot small frypan to sear.
Oh. I guess you get to turn your head for this one too. So after flipping it onto its 2nd side I put it in the oven for abut 10-12 min before checking it with a toothpick to feel its resistance. I can't lie. It was done perfectly.
Why do some turn and some don't? If anyone could tell me that would be AMAZING. So the mushrooms get shaped with a ring mold and then sauced around the edge and then meat stacked and flashed in the oven. Add garnish at the end and done.
Chef said that mine was a perfect plate (for him, obviously). The sauce consistency was right, everything was hot (this is not as easy as it might sound), and the protein was cooked correctly. A successful school day, indeed.

Tomorrow: we are prepping for a catering that our class is doing on Saturday. Its a beerfest/charity event and I guess we will cook and then get to drink beer. Cheers, yo!

Day 18

2008-10-08T16:40:00.001-07:00

Doesn't everyone want to make a salmon mousse? What, no? Well I don't know what to tell you. It was not on the top of my list either. So I'll tell you how we made it. We pureed salmon in a food processor and then added egg whites and salt and pepper. We needed to check the seasoning before adding the cream so we pan fried a mini salmon patty. It needed more salt. Once the cream was incorporated we used this mousse in two different preparations.
The first preparation was to make a salmon forcemeat of sorts. We wrapped and shaped the salmon mousse into log shapes with plastic wrap. They have to be super tight and well wrapped. Many many distasteful jokes followed the rolling of the salmon logs. I'm sure you can see why.
It was just too easy. They got poached and then sliced . We had folded in some blanched carrot and bell pepper brunoise. It looks like confetti. I love it. Not the taste of the mousse so much as just the appearance of the specks in the roll.
The other way we used the mousse was to slather it onto fillets of sole and roll them up to make paupiettes. These we poached in a court boullion and served over a beurre blanc and a bed of sauteed spinach.
Yes mine looks pretty nice. I will explain how I was scored lower than I liked. I like perfect scores in case you forgot. I had too much protein on the plate. I should have only plated two of the three pieces of fish. I would have done just 2 but they did not look good. Uneven and all lobsided. I thought one would make chef annoyed because he can eat very large amounts of protein in one sitting. Once I saw him put down a pork chop and then a lamb burger. He is French. So I over filled my plate. Bad choice that as you can see below got me a 9/10 for plate. For temperature I really took a hit. I have excuses though. My plate sat on his table waiting for him to finish testing others (3 others) plates first. So I had reheated my fish in the court boullion liquid and thought they had enough heat for serving. Not so much. The internal temp was only 123 or so which is warm, not hot. Other people didn't even heat the fish back up except for when they flashed the plate in the oven before serving. They got 5- I got 6. Mine was not COLD! So I was frusterated. Whatever. Lesson learned. It was warm, not hot. I am still pissed.
Tomorrow we are doing 2 plates. I will fare better. I am sure. We also pan seared salmon fillets. Not a full plate but I think he was just checking to see if we knew how to basically cook a really common fish. Mine was fine. It had good color and was cooked medium rare +. Almost too medium rare, but fine.

Monkfish and John Dory tomorrow. I am telling myself "one plate at a time".

Day 17

2008-10-08T15:41:00.001-07:00

Turn your head so that you can look at my friend John Dory. Doesn't he look grumpy? He was grumpy. And he didn't want to be nice about my filleting him. It was tricky. He had lots of bumps and those beady mean eyes. Don't you worry. I took him down.
He looked less menacing after his run in with mr. fillet knife.
Now he just looks sad. He was filleted and skinned and saved for Thursdays class. Next up was Mr. Monkfish. He is one ugly motherfucker. Please immediately look him up on the internet so you can see what he looks like with his head on. We didn't have the pleasure of getting head on monkfish. Just a slimy tail. This is called poor man's lobster, you know.
It looks like lobster meat in shape and color once the grody skin and membrane are removed. We will roast it later this week with mushrooms. I am really stoked on this. I had roasted monkfish with wild mushrooms in Iceland and it might have been one of my favorite dishes of all time. I am sure the quality of our monkfish (and freshness) will not match up.

We then gutted and scaled red snappers. That's not pleasant. Unless you like scales flinging themselves into your face and trying to lodge themselves up your nose. My nose is not abnormally large, either. It was a hot mess. The guts were fine, just those damn scales. I would do it outside like on a dock, but not in my home kitchen. Once cleaned, we filleted and skinned the snapper in preparation for a papillote of red snapper. A papillote is a parchment package that you can fill with whatever flavors and vegetables you please as long as they are thinly sliced and cook within about 10 minutes. I put my snapper on top of julienned red pepper, shitake mushrooms, and green onions. On top I placed julienned ginger and shallot and some lime slices. I poured some rice wine over the top, seasoned everything and add some cilantro leaves. I would have used mirin if they had it but no luck. It would have been better, though I think. You heat this folded up package in a frying pan until slightly puffed and then pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve with rice and TA-DAH!

The best part about this dish was the start to finish aspect of it. We started with actually gutting and finished with a lovely lunch. Very satisfying.

Tomorrow: more fish and maybe a salmon mousse.

Day 16

2008-10-06T14:47:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Fish Week. If you could smell me right now you would immediately leave.

This is fish friend number 1. He is a petrale sole. He liked to hang out with his friends and take long swims around reefs before he met his end. He is not attractive since both his eyes are squished together on top of his head. So we took him apart (not because of his looks). He has 4 filets and is a flat fish. Once we cut off all 4 filets we skinned them. You can skin fish easily with a flexible and thin bladed knife. Keep the knife parallel to your work surface and the skin taught as you slide the blade between flesh and skin. Its not so hard really.

Much harder, however, is salmon. He is bigger and firmer and has some mean looking teeth. Luckily the salmon were gutted when we got them. We just had to filet them.

They were firm and it was not easy to wedge the knife between flesh and bones. Some of the filets looked like tartare when we were done. Mine weren't that bad but I was sweating when we finished. If you get creeped out by heads of any animals you would eat then you should get over yourself before you look at the next picture. If you would eat it then you should see it. It doesn't all happen by magic, you know. If you still are super grossed out then you should think about becoming vegan, or maybe a fruitarian. But a fruitarian who only eats fruit that has fallen from the tree or vine so as not to disturb or injure the plant.

That was what I looked at while I skinned my salmon filets. MMmmmm. So that was all we did today. Tomorrow we will fabricate monkfish (unfortunately the heads are already off). If you have not seen a monkfish you should look one up right now. It might just be one of the most homely creatures on our planet. We will also take apart snappers and john dorys. If we get through all that we will portion and cook some of our salmon too. Its a great change from meat week. Although the duck tacos I made last night with last week's leftovers were fantastic. Like carnitas and topped with radish, cilantro, onion, chipotle salsa, and queso fresco on flour tortillas. Now I just have to find 3 days worth of time to make the demi glace with the 40 lbs of beef bones in my freezer. Perfect.

Day 15

2008-10-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing like carnage to get your weekend going. Mine came today in the form of a leg of lamb.

Yes, that is it. A large leg. I took charge of my leg and deboned it in the longest amount of time I'm sure ever...EVER. It was not total wreckage and I didn't massacre the meat, but it sure took awhile. There's a guy in my class who is a retired army medic who did it like 5x faster than I did. I asked him if he ever had to do some kind of amputations in the field or battle or whatever but he said no. I bet he's not allowed to tell those kind of stories anyway. I have my theories. So after we (I) finished (last) this is the lovely image that followed.

With the legs deboned we cubed up all the meat and made a stew. It was real relaxing compared to plating for the last two days. All we had to do was brown meat, remove meat, add veg, add meat, deglaze, add flour, add stock, tomato sauce and bouquet and simmer until meat is super tender and stock has thickened. It was okay. I think sitting in the fridge overnight will improve it. We set the lamb bones in the oven for a good roast in preparation for lamb stock next week. Isn't that gnarly?
I thought you'd like to see that big pile of roasted carcass. Next we made duck. Roast duck. The downside to this duck situation is that we had to share 1 duck for every 2 people. I shared my duck with a classmate who has severe hearing loss. Everytime I get to share with him its real tricky since he has maybe little or no idea what we are actually doing. I had a lot of responsibility so I could not find time to take any pictures of the sharing of the roasting of the duck. It went down like any other poultry you have ever made. It was neither exciting nor climactic. Season duck, truss duck, roast duck, lower temp, add mirepoix, test for doneness by color of juices, remove to rest, degrease, deglaze on stove with wine, transfer drippings to pot, add stock, simmer 15 or so, carve duck and serve with jus. I would have taken a picture of the carving of said shared duck but the other half didn't' fair so well (not my half). I did get to take all of the duck home though since my partner doesn't care for it. I think duck hash and duck tacos are going to be on the weekend menu. I don't know other ways to reuse leftover roast duck.

Tomorrow we will be going wine tasting with our class. I am not driving. Let's see how this goes. Oh, and chef said that the girls should wear high heels and skirts. We informed him that since we now wear pajama pants every day that we no longer shave and that might be a reason not to wear a skirt. Oh and we'll be at vineyards...in dirt. Dar. I would call him a pig but I thought it was funny the idea of girls wobbling around in heels all day. Who would do that? Never mind, I know people who would do that and I am glad that is not me or my classmates. I can't wait to see what people are like outside of class.

Day 14

2008-10-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Now I am starting to understand why chef's really like to drink. I can't articulate it very well other than it involves heat and chaos. Which somehow is quenched by alcohol. So we made two plates today. First was Herb Crusted Lamb "Loin" with Sauce Marchand de Vin. This is a fake out lamb loin because we actually just cut the meat off of racks of lamb and cleaned it up. The sauce is a wine merchants sauce or just red wine sauce. Sauce is a red wine reduction which then you add demi glace to and NOT CREAM. Don't add cream because that is what I did wrong. I confused our first sauce with our sauce in the next plate and added cream to it. And started all the way over with my reduction. Nice. I felt like a douche bag for like a long time. You then dice and saute potatoes and make up a crust for your lamb. The crust is softened butter, herbs, salt and pepper, an egg yolk, and panko breadcrumbs. *Please note that in the future I cannot be bothered to say panko breadcrumbs and will only be saying panko. You test this mixture on a plate with a blowtorch to check its ability to hold together. I had never used a blowtorch before today and now I understand something new about why people like to torch things. I cannot explain it, you just need to try it. Not on anything weird, okay? Don't be creepy. So then you sear the lamb, crust it, and bake it for a few minutes to cook it up. I gave it a rest and carved and plated and then popped the whole thing back in the oven to reheat sauce with potatoes and meat and here you go. I actually did not finish late considering I had to start my sauce over. Chef was pleased by that.
That the aerial view. And lucky you, here's the diner view. Yes, that is a very large sprig of thyme. Why? Because as I was plating the lamb the top piece of the loin decided to jump in the sauce. So I tried to hide it. I think it looked way better in person. It was good tasting and chef ate half of it for lunch.

After lunch we made plate no. 2: Sauteed Pork Medallions with Green Peppercorn Sauce.
This was in some ways easier than the lamb. Its easier to judge doneness on these medallions and you don't have to sear off your fingertips by trying to give it a crust bath halfway through cooking. The downside is that you don't get to use a blow torch. So we made our peppercorn sauce using port wine instead of red or white wine. The sauce was not to be strained (so that you can enjoy the peppercorns, dar!) so I made sure to cut my shallots evenly and as small as I could have patience for. Once the reduction was at a syrup we added demi and cream (finally) and simmered and thickened. Then I began the onion confit (that sat under the pork). You just saute onion very thinly sliced and then deglaze with port. You probably wouldn't assume that you have to flambe the port but that is what we were all of a sudden supposed to be able to do. I cannot even fit my thumb into a corona so me and the port bottle were not working out. After 2 tries I still could not get a flambe. I was completely impotent. It was embarrassing and awkward. I tried to make myself feel better by dwelling on the fact that at least I did not have premature eflambulation. It helped a little. Luckily you could not tell the difference by tasting my onions. Then I sauteed tourneed apples in clarified butter and the pork in olive oil. Plating was easy and satisfying. I ended up finishing first (I am so that kind of student) and chef did a taste and check of all the components
I was given a grade of 19 out of 20. Chef said my sauce was perfect in taste but a tad too thick. All of my other parts must have been fine. It looks real fancy like with the mirror plating and all.

So I have a feeling this flambe ghost will be back to haunt me in the next few classes. Damn, I need a bigger thumb.

I heard that tomorrow we will be deboning a leg of lamb (YES! complete with arm pump) and making a stew.

Day 13

2008-10-02T17:06:00.001-07:00

So finally I got to work on something that felt like intense knife skills. Even if that was only just deboning chicken. I am greedy, though, and now I want a turkey. I am so deboning a turkey. Just look at these chicken pieces. Okay they are not mine. If you thought those were my hands I'd be seriously upset.

So after taking apart le chicken and deboning his wittle leggies we went on to butterfly the breast and stuff it with sauteed spinach and goat cheese. This was fun. Okay we are moving, using ingredients, different forms of heat, however, chef says he's not telling us any specifics so he can see what else we need to learn. I can't stand teaching method bullshit like this. Let's let everyone flounder and flail and then have them learn from their massive disasters. Great. I want to eat shitty chicken for lunch, don't you? So everything was going fine for me. I made the sauce robert which is a brown sauce with lots of dijon mustard in it. Its just a wine reduction with demi glace and salt and pepper then seasoned heavily with dijon. This was tasty. I butterflied, stuffed, seared, and sauteed my chicken breast. It was cooked to the right temp and I gave it a good long rest. So I dutifully slice and fan as vaguely instructed and look how it turned out.

So NO I haven't figured out the rotation shit yet. Turn you head. Mine is the one on the left with the great cheese ooze disaster of '08. Yes, I let it rest for 14 minutes! Believe it or not these two plates were the best of them. Did I mention I despise not knowing what I'm doing? Luckily I ate mine and did not die. We then moved on the fillet with "mushrooms" which are actually tourneed potatoes (potatoes cut into annoyingly tricky little barrels) that you balance a sauteed mushroom cap on top of. And, of course, we made sauce. A Chateaubriand sauce is a wine reduction/demi glace situation that you add chopped parsley and tarragon to at the end. It was goooood. So my beef situation was much better in my opinion because we had a little more direction. The meat turned out fine (I do pretty well so far with cooking times and sauces) and I took it home to let my family devour it directly from to go containers. No cute fake-out mushrooms for them.

Doesn't my parsley look cut on the side? Like a little carnivore's forest.

Tomorrow: more meat and plates. I will be vegan by saturday, I am sure.

Day 12

2008-09-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

So I have to say that I am slightly disappointed in my knife wielding carcass splitting experience. Only because the closest we got to a carcass today was a rack of lamb. That's like barely a carcass. Like barbie goes to cooking school sized carcass. Everything else we worked with was cryovac packaged. So the lamb part went like this: Chef opened a package of two racks of lamb from New Zealand. For the first one he cut the meat off the bones (like a tenderloin, but not) and sliced noisettes from half and left the rest whole (like a tenderloin). For the 2nd rack he cut off two double chops (meaning 2 bones sticking out) and left the rest of the rack whole. So then he heated up 4 saute pans on super high heat with a little oil in all of the pans. He seasoned the lamb very well with kosher salt and finely ground white pepper. In to the pans went the four cuts. Once seared he pulled the noisettes off heat. The tenderloin, chops and rack all went in to the oven at about 425 to finish to medium rare. He checked them all and one by one pulled them out to rest (the rack took longest). He carved them up and had us taste them to see how the difference the amount of surface area seared had affected the flavor.

Why my picture is sideways I have no fucking clue. Please cran your neck accordingly.

So on to pork. We took pork tenderloins out of a plastic package and trimmed them of silver skin and excess fat (not much) We then portioned them into 3 oz medallions for searing.

This special picture is rotated too. Fun with technology. So to sear these little piggy parts we seasoned them, browned them and finished them in the oven. Not difficult. I enjoyed it as I enjoy cooking in general but I wanted more today. Lets crust and deglaze and make pan sauce. But instead we had pork tenderloin medallions.

Lucky you, this picture is not jacked up. Okay so I don't mind pork tenderloin but I don't like medium well meat. Which when all your class doesn't quite seem to be concerned with temperature makes for a mediocre lunch. We ate them with Dijon mustard. I can at least say that mine were not overcooked. After lunch we moved on to the beef tenderloin. Once again in plastic with big usda stamps on it. Like the usda has any cred with me. I read food politics by Marion Nestle and am now completely cynical and totally over the usda. Do your research, and vote with your dollars. Okay back to the beef. I didn't like the feel of mine. It weighed 7 pounds before any trimming or cleaning. The fat was grainy and stiff and the meat was almost watery. Maybe all tenderloins vary, I don't know. So our job was to take off the chain (a fatty, sinewy piece on the side of the tenderloin) and then take off the silver skin and then scrape of the excess outside fat. I started with 114 oz of meat and once cleaned and trimmed had about 84 oz of "sellable" fillet. I did get about 8 oz of usable trimmings though. I might make tacos. What else do you do with small fillet scraps. Once done the tenderloins were packed up and refrigerated for later use. I think we are using them or some of them tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be deboning something and not just scraping down grisly plastic packaged meat. Is all restaurant meat this gnarly? I am beginning to suspect so.

Day 11

2008-09-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, its the third week already. Last week was weird with the serve safe one day and wine class another. It feels like we barely cooked. Except when I remember that I tasted more sauces based on butter than I knew existed. Wine class today was the same agenda as last week. We talked more about different wine regions around the world and then tasted a bunch. So today we had a sauvignon blanc from Napa, CA, an albarino from rias baixas, Spain, a pinot grigio from veneto, Italy, a viognier from south Australia, and a Riesling from CA. So those were the whites. I liked the sauv blanc and the albarino. If you haven't tasted one before, you should give it a whirl. Its very easy to drink and has some great floral notes, yet is still dry with medium to full body. For reds we started with a chianti classico (surprise! I actually liked it), a ribera del duero, spain, an easy drinking malbec from mendoza, and a zinfandel by Bogle in CA. I have a hard time enjoying tasting these big reds. They are really overwhelming in my mouth. Maybe that just means I need to practice drinking them more. I should get a good chance this week as we are beginning meat fabrication tomorrow. I can't wait. I have always wanted to learn how to fillet things and debone. Very mysterious techniques that I think are part secret ritual that regular home cooks don't get to learn. I plan on penetrating this secret circle tomorrow. Yes, I know that sounded really dirty, sor.

DAY 12 - I find out secrets involving carcass and knives!

Day 10

2008-09-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

So we tasted wine today. We had a basic lecture which was long but informative and comprehensive. Then we tasted. We had a rose from Tavel, France, a chardonnay from Burgundy and a chardonnay from Sonoma, California, a Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, California, a cote du rhone and lastly a bordeaux from Lalande de Pomerol. I didn't really like drinking either of the last two as they sort of blew my tastebuds off. Chef assured me that I would feel very different about them if I was eating some large portion of animal flesh. Unfortunately all I had was a crust of bread. It was a fun day, though. I did miss cooking at the stove, but a day of wine education was certainly not bad. I ended up going to dinner with chef, his wife, and some other couple that they had worked with. The evening ended with us drinking cocktails and having sort of a dance off. I haven't quiet figured out how things escalated to that but I had a fantastic time.
Monday's agenda: Wine Day #2

Day 9

2008-09-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

So after throwing out half my fridge in fear of contracting one of the many foodborne illnesses that I learned about yesterday...Today I made sauce all day. It was fantastic. We made tomato concasse to start. This is just tomatoes and shallots with a pinch of tomato paste, sugar, bouquet garni, and salt and pepper.

Do not be tricked by the simplicity of this sauce. It is more than tasty and I will show you what I learned you can do with it. You just simmer these little ingredients up until pretty much all the water is evaporated. The test, as chef said, is to part the tomatoes with your spoon like Moses did the red sea. No liquid should scoot into the cleared walkway.

Let my people go! The mixture then can be adjusted for seasoning and used for garnishing and plating as well as in other sauces.

Look at that cuteness. Precious.

This one is ready for action, right? A piece of grilled swordfish and hey aren't I fancy? I love this stuff. Not for the plating but I liked how it tasted. I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning so I had to eat like half of mine before packing the rest up to freeze. Next we made beurre blanc 4 different ways. I don't really like beurre blanc. It doesn't do anything for me. I like the tang of the reduction but otherwise, meh. The basics are this: reduce, whisk in butter, strain. See, you can do it too!. I reduced equal parts wine and wine vinegar with shallots, peppercorns, and thyme until it was a syrup. Then pull it partially off heat and whisk in lots of butter, bit by bit, until it is smooth and shiny and then strain if desired. Maybe I just need the right protein to enjoy it with. This is one of the reductions before the butter was added.

This was the version from the CIA cookbook (culinary institute of America). It varied from the classic version with the addition of lemon juice and zest. After the butter orgy we started the hollandaise derivatives: Bearnaise (tarragon reduction), Choron (bearnaise + tomato concasse), Paloise (mint reduction), Foyot (bearnaise + beef glace), and mousseline (lemon + whipped cream). I have never seen so much saturated fat in one kitchen in my life. They were all delicious. I was assigned the original bearnaise and I have to say it rocked pretty hard. I love the shallots that taste like wine and the tarragon and the fluffy butter hollandaise base. You should make bearnaise, too. I had never heard of some of the other variations (like choron) but they were all really good. One of the highlights of the day (other than tasting all of these buttery sauces) was when a smug classmate (a dude) couldn't whip the cream to medium peaks for the mousseline cause his wittle arm got tired. Chef asked me to take over for him. He made some lame sounding excuses for his pussyness and I whipped that shit up. It was awesome especially because he worked for a very high end hotel around here and reminds us quite often of how they do things there. Why do I get so much satisfaction from kicking his ass in matters of whipping heavy cream?

Big wine day tomorrow! I can't wait to see everyone start to get tipsy.

Day 8

2008-09-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

It was not a normal day of class at school. We had a guest instructor and took our servesafe exam. I don't know if these exist in other states but here its a test that makes sure you know not to spit in your salad before you serve it. Its mostly common sense. You cannot floss your teeth and then fillet some fish. Stuff like that. It might have been one of the most boring days I have had in a long while. I am pretty sure I passed. But you never know. Just because I say it was boring I might have to retake it because I forgot how you can get scromboid poisoning. Its a scantron type test that you have to wait a few weeks for to get results, real SAT style. It was not exciting. Tomorrow might be, however, because we are making beurre blanc and 5 variations on hollandaise. Who brought the English muffins?

Day 7

2008-09-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

Isn't day seven supposed to be a day of rest? Not at cooking school. Today was mother sauce day. I made bechamel, tomato, hollandaise, and veloute. You should make them all too. They are not difficult and could greatly improve your meal. Bechamel is necessary because it is the base for mac'n'cheese. If that's not important to you then you should stop reading because you obviously don't get it. Bechamel is onion, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper. You sweat onion in butter, add flour to make roux, add milk to correct consistency and then season and strain. I have made this a few times due to the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (many misadventures) and I enjoy it on pretty much everything. If I can get it together I might make biscuits and slop my leftover sauce on top. SOS style, baby.

I made tomato sauce next. Simple 30 minute tomato sauce: onion, garlic, basil chiffonade, tomatoes and salt and pepper. Don't tell me you don't know that one already.

Hollandaise was a life changing experience today. Chef demoed the sauce first and then we tasted his and then made our own. His sauce was for sure the best hollandaise I have ever tasted. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. It was fluffy. I swear, fluffy. It was like lemon pillows and you forgot you were eating a heart transplant.

Yes, we ate it with baguette. Sweet buttery pillows of the gods. This changed all prospective on brunch. To make it we first made the sabayon by whisking egg yolks and water over a double boiler. Once fluffy we mixed in an unholy amount of clarified butter. Then seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Try to eat it moderately, let me know how that works out.

Next we made a veloute. This is a sauce based on chicken or fish stock. You sweat a small amount of mirepoix and add your stock of choice. Then after 20 minutes of simmer you thicken it with cold chopped roux.

Roux's your daddy? It thickens and then you season it and strain it. Then you wish you had something to put it over. Or you just eat sauce with spoons like we did all day.

Tomorrow: Serve Safe Certification!

Day 6

2008-09-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

Its crazy how 2 days away from school can make you feel out of touch. We got a lot of pots going today. We started with a simple vegetable stock. We filled a pot that would hold a small person with vegetable trimmings of all sorts (after sauteing mirepoix) and water and simmered for abotu 4 hours. Drain, chill, done. We also made a sauce espagnole. Beef trimmings were sauteed until very dark and then mirepoix and tomato paste were added and sauteed. Brown stock was added to that and simmered for 2 hours. After the simmer, roux was added to thicken and then the whole brown mess was drained and chilled to used for demi glace later this week.

So next was potato leek soup. I have made this at home a few times but never using a mirepoix first. We used a white mirepoix (no carrot) and sweated it before adding leeks, potatoes, bouquet garni, and chicken stock.

After simmering until the potatoes were just tender, we added cream and simmered 10 minutes more. Then into the blender and strained to desired thickness. Below is the thickness I desired.

I thought, as well as some of my classmates that it was slightly oversalted. Then chef walks over to taste it and proceeds to add at least 2 tablespoons more of salt. It didn't make it taste salty. I still don't get it. It just tasted stronger. This seasoning thing is taking me longer than I expected to figure out.
One thing I didn't do to embarass myself today: Not one, but two of my classmates attempted to puree their bouquet garni along with their soup. As you can imagine string + blender = bad news. I can't tell you how happy I am that it was not me.
Then we made a court bouillon. A poaching liquid used for fish, and seafood. Ours had water, white wine, white vinegar, and the rest of what you see here.

We combined all ingredients and simmered for 20 minutes. I plan on using mine to poach some shrimp later this week and possibly make a homemade remoulade sauce to go with them. Smug and smug I say!

So those were today's major activities. I am glad to be moving on to sauces and away from soups. I think I would be appreciating the soups more if it wasn't still in the mid eighties everyday. I forgot to mention the tourneed carrots. Yes we took the most annoying vegetable to cut and tried to cut it into near impossible football like shapes. I don't care for football or carving hard vegetables into football shapes. And I am pretty sure after a while you would get carpel tunnel.

Up tomorrow: Mother sauces motherf***er!

Day 5

2008-09-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I get that I might not post Friday's happenings until Sunday. It was for a lot of reasons though. One, I went straight over to a friend's house. Two, we had to drink a bottle of wine at her pool. Three, I was beat. So beat, in fact, that over the course of the weekend I have not stayed up past 10:30 pm. This is by far the worst side effect of my new routine. On day 5, however, we made lobster bisque. It started with a demo by chef on how to murder a lobster. I said a prayer and then proceeded to murder my own lobster by stabbing it through the head. Wow. I had never killed an animal before and it was intense. I almost held the knife like in the horror movies until chef came over and humiliated me before class so I could remember not to do it like that. I was real focused on taking the life of an animal. It didn't do anything weird like scream but I still felt real responsible for ending its life so that I could make soup. It was good soup.

So you take your chopped up lobster, and saute it until browned, add veg, and saute until brown also, season both, of course. Add tomatoes and fumet (fish stock), tomato paste, and lobster paste. Below is just a glorious shot of a just slain lobster, milady.

So then you simmer all above mentioned ingredients for about an hour. Then you add some cream for another 10 minutes.

I can't lie. I love this picture for its random lobster claw sticking out of the pot. So sorry, Sebastian. Once simmered and creamed, we strained the stock and returned it to heat to add the roux. It thickened, we reseasoned, and we grubbed. It was pretty great. Then we tried to cut potatoes and zucchini into ridiculously small pieces that were "turned". To my chef that means you carve a shape with 6 or 7 sides shaped like a small barrel.

Chef demoed a few and his are on the right of my cutting board. Yep, those are them all smug and real nice looking next to my boats. I guess this will take some work. What's up for next week?

Day 4

2008-09-18T20:56:00.001-07:00

We started making brown stock today. Roasted bones, added veg (mirepoix) and tomato paste.

Very exciting. Not really but I did like the smell. Here is a close up, don't wet yourself.

So after this little party was toasty we drained off some of the fat for safety before moving the sheet pan. Please note that the draining part what with the sheet pan BENDING did not feel safe at all. But I lived. I was pretty sure that the man who stands next to me and was helping me carry it was going to send me to the ER but he did not end up disfiguring me. Yes, I am grateful too. So we then just let it cool down and chilled it til tomorrow. Big beef brown stock day. TGI bbbsday. Then we made soup. Broccoli soup, actually.

See my cute little bouquet garni in the corner? Its so cute and little and tidy. Okay the string is a little sloppy. I'll do better tomorrow. I started my soup with pommace oil and a sweat of white mirepoix (leek, onion, celery). I then added broccoli, bouquet garni, and chicken stock. It simmered, and before it was done I added a touch of cream. I pureed that shit up in a vita mix and then simmered again and added roux for thickening. I chinoised (I'm sure that's a word) and reseasoned. It was boring. Great texture, good flavor but boring. The ones I liked best thickened at the beginning with flour or potato and then discarded extra liquid when pureeing to adjust thickness. Damn. I was grumpy about it for a solid hour or so. I did enjoy taking it to go, though.

Then we started working on fancy cuts again. This time on potato. So same routine as yesterday but on a much softer vegetable. Much easier. Next on to segmenting citrus. I have done this before and I have to say that the first time I did it I was amazed at the beautiful little shiny juicy pockets. Today I still enjoyed it but it wasn't like the first time. Is it ever?

Up tomorrow: I will murder a lobster to make a delicious bisque. Dessert, anyone?

Day 3

2008-09-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

That my friends is a roux.

So we had very little lecture today. Almost all WORK! YEA! This is what I really enjoy. My classmates and I set up and began our first roux. Well, our first roux at school with a pro french man watching over our shoulder. I wish I could tell you that it was advanced and very professional. But not so much. Just 1 to 1 fat and flour. Heat fat. Add flour. Stir and simmer at least 3 min. Take off heat when desired color is reached. Meh. Now fish stock (fumet)- Thats way more exciting. Especially the part where you hack up the skeleton of an 80 pound halibut with a cleaver bigger than your head. I loved it. Felt real primitive like. So, after the hacking you just set up your mirepoix and then begin sweating the bones. Ratio of bones to mirepoix is 2/3 to 1/3. Let bones sweat and then add mirepoix. Sweat and then deglaze with white wine. Add water and bouquet garni and simmer for about 45 min. You must skim and degrease all the while. Chef said you have to treat the stock like you are making love to it. Would that be tender and sweet or rough and sweaty? My guess is the former. After the lovefest we worked very seriously on fancy cuts. These were done on a carrot. Have you tried cutting carrots into booger sized pieces? It fucking sucks. At first. My first carrots were mangled and awful and I was really concerned as I thought I was okay with knives. It was rough. By the end my bicep was tired and I was seeing double orange booger cubes. They were dancing around and laughing at me. Okay no but it was classic when I was stuck as to how to make one of the cuts and I look up at the girl in front of me and she was just staring at the carrot as well, waiting for it to tell her what to do next. She looked up and we just laughed at ourselves. Duuuuhhhhhhh.

I am assigned trash duty this week so I schlepped the bags and boxes out and that was day 3.

So my embarrasing moment of the day was at lunch. I brought my lunch and ate it with everyone else and used one of the forks from the school. I was finished and placed my tupperware back in my bag absentmindedly with the school fork. Chef asked me if I had brought that fork with me to school? I was immediately flustered and was like "no, I just didn't think". He sort of laughed? and then I was like, great he thinks I want old forks. I really can't do that again.

Tomorrow? A broccoli soup.

Day 2

2008-09-16T21:20:00.001-07:00

We had another day of mostly lecture. Chef led us through spices, peppercorns, salts (I had never heard of curing salt-with nitrites added to it), cooking fats, and produce. I get REAL excited about produce so I was very chatty during that part of our class. I then felt insecure and annoying and was sure I might just be asked to never talk again during lecture. Its paranoid. I know. I'm trying to get over it. So then chef lectured about mirepoix and its variations, roux, and how to clarify butter (low heat, skim, ladle off pure butter, discard solids). He then moved on to stocks and the many variations of brown, chicken, veg and fish stocks. He explained demi glace and sauce espagnole. Then we got to move. The energy in the room picked up as we set up our stations for the first time. We laid out our knives and waited at the ready for our first hands on lesson. Then chef proceeded to chop an onion into pieces smaller than I have ever seen. They were like onion mist I tell you. I'm not kidding. Mine finished smaller than I started so I guess that is progress. I will need to practice cutting so fine. I like the french word he used for mincing: cisele. After our short knife lesson we clarified butter. Simple task that smelled nice. I always wondered how much butter you got after you removed the solids. We lost about 40 percent of the weight. Our last task was to make a quick slurry of cornstarch and water to the consistency of heavy cream. It was strange. The mixture went from seized and stiff to watery. I had to adjust it a good deal to work out the texture. By the time I finished I had a slurry big enough for the world's largest pot of soup. Meh. I can't wait to do more actual work, though. I am of course scared and intimidated too (what if I have no creativity and make paste everyday?). "What if" is a terrible game to play in one's head and I know better. I assume its just going to take time to adjust to a very regular routine and find a groove in it. I did make a kick ass green veg curry and Thai chicken thighs tonight for dinner. The chicken takes a short marinade in chile powder, brown sugar, fish sauce, garlic, and cilantro. Sounds real random but once sauteed tastes fantastic.

Due up tomorrow: Roux, Fish Fumet (stock), and more knife skills

FIRST DAY!!!!!

2008-09-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

The first day of school came so quick. What with a weekend in vegas to get me focused. Nothing like vegas to balance you out. Real sober-like. But not to worry. I was ready and not hungover this morning in my freshly ironed uniform. My husband sweetly made me a fried egg for breakfast and a cup of tea. I didn't expect fireworks today at school and we there weren't any. We had lecture all day on topics of safety and sanitation, conversions and kitchens. It wasn't boring but it was a little tedious by the end of our day. I will be thankful to chop onions tomorrow.
My classmates' personalities are unfolding and I have been watching people with interest. Only 2 of our class are there for enjoyment, the rest are there to shift careers. I was suprised by how many were taking that leap and at their varied ages and previous job experience; military, marketing, sales, and psychology to mention a few.
So its time to talk about the 2 times I was embarrased enough to get bright red cheeks and feel tongue tied. First it was when my notebook slid off the shelf and slid onto the floor. I know it sounds real simple and not important but I really don't like to make any sort of scene on like the first day of school/work/relationship/date. You get it. So then a few minutes later my shitty pen lid fell off and slid onto the same place on the floor and the chef said "Jennifer is dropping things all over the place". Great. I am the girl who drops stuff. The next moment was when he was talking about our suppliers for the school who deliver our varied produce, meats, and supplies. I asked if the meat supplier also provided offal. He looks at me like I might just be speaking an extinct dialect. He says "What? I have never heard of that word before. What is it?" I looked around the class and repeated myself "Offal?" Several of the class nodded and repeated. That was sort of a relief. He then said "I have not heard of this word". I am not sure how I feel about the fact that he had not known this word. Did other students not talk or inquire about it? Is it not a strong culinary trend? Maybe he just didn't understand me (He is French) (and has an accent). I did feel stupid, though. So in short, I hope I didn't come across as weird and clumsy. One or the other is forgivable, but both...yeesh. This could be a daily feature: what embarrassing moment did I have today?
Oh, and I did find out that chef has sort of bad breath.

Back to School...

2008-09-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

So I have to submit an essay of 1 to 2 pages to my chef before I start school on Monday. It is supposed to be about me and where I'm coming from. I've been procrastinating for a month. Its real long I think. But I like it. I might go back and change stuff before I send it this weekend. Hope he likes to read. Here it is:

I, Jennifer, was born and raised here in Orange County. It was an imaginative and outdoor upbringing filled with sunshine, laughter, and exploration. I certainly leaned towards the arts as a young girl, baking pies for the fair in lieu of kicking soccer balls (or getting them kicked at me). Some of my favorite things to do were to raise and show rabbits, go to summer camp, and dance with my friends. I begged my parents to take me to actual dance lessons until finally they caved, allowing an inflexible 12 year old to jump headfirst into what would be a torrid love affair spanning the next 15 years.
I danced at all times possible. Class and movement and music and training were the most important things. I attended an all-girl catholic high school where I had to put in serious hours as well, leaving little time to get in trouble. This was a good thing. I followed my love to UCI and began there to understand what foundation really meant. I had passion, joy, and style, but soft foundation. With an intense and rigorous schedule juggling rehearsals, academics, dance technique classes, and teaching my own classes I felt alive and competent. I was learning and teaching, giving and taking. I finished school early, ahead of my peers, and backpacked through Europe for my last semester. It was there that I seriously fell in love with food. I incredulously asked “All of this bread gets made BY HAND?” and “People like cheese THIS STINKY?” Wine pairings, serious seasonality, and cult food obsessions were not part of my daily life. These things were new and fascinating. I loved them all and the artisans who made them. It would be some time before I came back to think about these questions again. But happily, I did. I left for New York City the morning after I graduated UCI.
New York ages you faster than you expect. Possibly dog years fast. I was there for about 2 years and might as well just have lived for 14 anywhere else. I danced, auditioned, waited tables and learned how to layer clothes for cold weather (the last one is more important than one might think if you are from southern California and your idea of warm shoes are closed toe). I found myself looking to connect with friends over meals and outings and ended up spending time with my fellow restaurant staff friends more than I expected as the dancer friends didn’t eat. We would spend a few weeks searching out the “best of” any number of foods including pizza, steak, and margaritas (if you eat chips with margaritas it is considered a food group). A few of us decided to make thanksgiving dinner together. We used memory for recipes and an ironing board for counter space. Bob Marley played and we improvised. It was creative and wonderful. One of the best times I had ever had in the kitchen, even though we had no roasting rack and jacked up our bird on piles of silverware. All of these wonderful tastes and even my desire to take cooking classes were not enough for me to leave my leotards and work in a kitchen. I didn’t know you could change paths that way. I did know that you could move to San Francisco, closer to family, and still dance.
I don’t know if it is because of the cloud of culinary smug that sits over San Francisco or not, but those outdoor markets just suck you in. Next thing I knew I was sourcing ingredients all over the bay area in between ballet and my modern dance class. It was green and lush and full of food energy. My new lover, food, was moving in to my studio apartment with great gusto. I googled recipes and watched the food network. It was magical courtship. I ate at House of Nanking and Chez Panisse in the same weekend. Napa Valley was only an hour away. My head was spinning with this new found fascination and I was tiring of teaching at the dance studio there for little pay. I was offered a job here in so cal by the studio that I first danced at. I moved the next month.
It took me five years to build the training company that I just left. If I could have been in culinary school while doing so, I don’t know that I would have. Maybe the two lovers would not have gotten along. Maybe they would not have minded sharing my time. But I am loyal and devoted and even felt dance being edged out by food and cooking in these past few years. I felt frustrated that I had to prepare choreography and design costumes instead of poach salmon or dissect chickens. My favorite project was Le Cordon Bleu at Home, a cookbook I am still determined to cook every recipe from. I kept a journal of these endeavors and love to look back at the ambitious menus that can take a few days from start to finish. I didn’t mind the wait or work so I went to work for a natural foods grocery store in my spare time. I said I wanted to learn how to cook and then was hired as part of the marketing team. I would help with catering projects, perform cooking demonstrations, create recipes to feature new products and serve special diet needs, and then of course all of the other things you have to do in marketing that I wasn’t as interested in. I was so lucky to have those 2 years to learn about ingredients and producers. It put me in touch with environmental issues and food chain dynamics. It was like a mini food/earth school.
After leaving the foods store, (they wanted my time to be theirs, and I did not want to leave teaching yet), I slowly began researching schools. I did not consider this school first as I had never really heard of it. The more looking I did the more I found out about my own food foundations. I never gave notice to the small seasonal changes that I did grow up with in my home in Orange County; the abundance of zucchini in summer, as well as tomatoes, herbs and plums. Tangerines, first strawberries, and year round lemons, both eureka and meyer. Some of my first memorable restaurant meals including swordfish at Chez Panisse at about 10 years old (“Does the fish REALLY have a sword?”) and sizzling rice soup at a local Chinese place. Magical things happen in those kitchens, I was sure of it. Food had been with me before I had realized I was in love. Like some sort of romantic comedy with the silent best friend. A few months in Europe at 22 just blew my mind open to it. I am ready to dive headfirst into this continuing adventure. I can’t wait to be a student again and I am so grateful that I am able to attend school. I hope to bring my passion, joy, and style to the kitchen.

Mild Anxiety

2008-09-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

So starting culinary school is similar to starting regular schools in that you need a few supplies. Like notebooks and sharpies. However, at my school they give you some of the supplies. Like the biggest cookbook I have ever held. And some really sharp looking knives in a super smug case. I will officially piss off all friends and family by showing up at parties and such with said knife case. They also give you uniforms. I haven't picked mine up yet but I might today. I will not be altering it. Unless I lose like 20 pounds. Which you never know might happen out of nowhere maybe...not. School does give you a list of recommended reading. I have read many of the titles including the best food writing, and michael ruhlman, and the french laundry and heat. But I have not read Kitchen Spanish: A Quick Phrase Guide of Kitchen and Culinary. I find that funny. Not that spanish is unnecessary (as here in socal I use it everyday) but that the school recommends it as reading. I imagine like a high school textbook dialogue but in kitchen settings.
"Hola, me llamo Paco"
"Hola Paco, por favor dame el cuchara"
I have a feeling it won't be so entertaining. So in between reading up and gathering the few supplies I am left to clean up my house and have mild anxiety. I have no idea where this will lead and I am really tired of hearing myself say that to people. The anxiety will pass, I am sure. I hope it takes with it my mild obsessings on where I will end up when its all done. In between musings I spent the weekend camping and cooking food outdoors with just fire and some basics. I whipped up some random yet tasty potato pancakes that I recommend to any camper or thrifty cook. I used leftover baked potatoes and mashed them up with eggs, greek yogurt, sauteed onion, raw green onion, grill seasoning, and salt. I pan fried them in a small amount of olive oil and butter and topped them with more greek yogurt. My husband, the smug eagle scout, said that I would have earned my cooking badge at scout camp. I was really excited about that.

Just another day

2008-09-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

If you don't have a job and haven't started school yet then a three day weekend is just your average day. It really takes the juice out of a holiday. Especially one that involves laying around, swimming, eating and drinking. Meh. I did manage to do all of those things well and cook a few solid meals. We watched the usc game with friends and made Ina Garten's chicken ceasar sandwiches and heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese dressing. Tomatoes from farmer dave in placentia cannot be beat. Sorry mom. They are gorgeous and grown without chemicals. Love him. So sandwiches were great. Salad was outrageously summery good. If you haven't cooked any of her (barefoot contessa) recipes you need to. They are solid, easy, and generally delicious. I love how they translate to entertaining. Easy to present and make ahead. The sandwich is roast chicken breast, sundried tomatoes, arugula, ceasar spread (like a dressing), parmesan cheese, and toasted ciabatta. Tomatoes are simply sliced and drizzled with blue cheese dressing. Her recipe obviously includes cheese, mayo and heavy cream. The cream is just to make sure it's good. And it was. You could half the dressing recipe though for sure.

If you are sitting around your house trying to find things to occupy you other than cleaning you could try making pickles. I have not yet figured it out. I keep making different takes on the kind that don't require the canning process as I don't have canning salt or special lids. Today I am making a daikon, carrot, cucumber pickle with ginger. I like the colors, I like ginger. By late afternoon we will see how this all comes together.

I also made shortbread this weekend. I used the ina garten recipe since it seemed simplest and I didn't feel like chopping and toasting nuts between laying around, playing wii, and drinking beers. Shortbread is so easy. I think I would like a ginger shortbread variation. Or a pinenut rosemary one. I need that recipe for the one at Pizzeria Mozza. That shit is tight. Mine were larger than I liked. I would make them way smaller next time. The thickness made them seem more cakey less cookiey. They were a lovely white sand color with pretty fluted edges though. I plan on eating one with tea later.

BEEF!

2008-08-27T13:27:00.001-07:00

Okay, I am back to cooking at home. Feeling much better about it. Although cheap mexican tacos still sound sort of tempting. Nonetheless, I broke my bad streak by grilling ribeye. Hub actually did the putting of meat on fire but whatever. I had to tell him what to do so its like I made it myself. I swear I can grill too! Stop teasing me! I seasoned the meat heavily with the bicentennial rub from penzey's spices and served it with a fennel salad. The fennel salad was 2 bulbs, thinly sliced and tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, and capers. Easy, refreshing and a good steak topper. I also grilled sweet potatoes. I boiled the slices first and then seasoned them with the same grill seasoning and tossed them with a little olive oil. Just grilled them until marked and slightly crisp on the outside. They looked colorful and festive. I will figure out how to take pics and put them onto posts. Its a big goal. Next few nights will include a take on carbonara and possibly cold soba with dipping sauce and daikon radish. And I think I might make pickles. Research needs to be done first. Any pickle tips? That sounded gross.

Idle hands...

2008-08-25T15:11:00.001-07:00

So being super bored while no longer working and waiting for school to start is expensive. I have put myself sort of out of harm's way by not allowing any redecorating of house or shopping. There is, however, the eating problem. I am just finding all sorts of places to spend money on food. I am obsessed with japanese pub food at the moment. Oh, and the noodles at Fukada. These are not cheap habits. I wish I could be totally content just scrubbing floors and exercising. I am not that person. So I need to not eat out and figure out a way to be totally satisfied eating from the pantry and clean my house. And exercise. But its so hot out, ma! and I am a wuss in the heat.

To entertain myself last week I hosted Cuba day. My friend and I made mojitos (she made amazing mojitos), cuban sandwiches, black beans, yuca, and chickpea and octopus salad. We swam in the pool and got sort of drunk on those damn mint/lime sodas she was making ("but they don't taste strong?"). So going to Cuba was fun even if the trip back was a little rough. Everyone seemed to be slightly seasick from that ride. I have to recommend the recipe for the cuban sandwiches. It was from the gourmet cookbook. Its just rolls with roasted pork, thinly sliced ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and yellow mustard smashed in a sandwich press and grilled. My favorite food group is not sandwiches but I loved me some cuban sammie. And it wasn't just from the rum, I swear. Really.

Cooking School, 90210

2008-08-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

So at the orientation we were given super large books, knives, and measured for uniforms. I was relieved to see that it was a randomish mix of men and women. No marcel from top chef types. No real housewives looking ladies. Except one. We'll see how that pans out. But in all real chill. The first impressions are shallow and judgemental so I'll wait to really dig in to my classmates. Otherwise, just your ordinary orientation with basic rules: No raised rings, big earrings, open toed pumps, fake fingernails. We were given the cia cookbook. Largest book I have ever owned. And a cordon blue baking book. And a servesafe sanitation book. We were given a calendar with our curriculum schedule. One of my favorite moments was when the chef was describing how some female students had there uniforms altered to be more flattering. Awesome. Halfway through the course they had to order new ones because they were uncomfortable.

The course will last until end of February. You get to come to school with me.