Mid Atlantic 2

Mid Altantic Day 2 Menu:

Navy Bean Soup
Tomato, Egg & Cucumber Salad
Shaker-style Turkey Cutlets
Croquette Potatoes
Spaghetti Squash Noodles
Green Beans

Navy Beans got their name because of their use by the Navy. Why did the Navy use them? Dry beans are perfect for a mobile kitchen. They have a very long shelf life and can be cooked in sea water. In fact, before you start cooking them, you'll need to soak the beans, preferably an overnight cold soak to reabsord some moisture. A hot soak on the beans will work but the beans just won't taste as good. Don't soak em too long though, because the beans can get water logged, overnight is long enough. The beans have a thin skin and a creamy interior when soaked and cooked properly. It first starts as a simple clear soup, cooking bacon, aromatics and chicken stock. The beans are then added as the thickener to this soup and a ham hock is added for seasoning. The hock is very salty, so you need to taste before adding any additional seasoning to check for salt. The soup then simmers until the beans are tender. At this point, you can break the thin bean skins and mash out some of that creamy bean meat to give the soup some real body. To garnish, add some diced pieces from the hock and some chives. John did an excellent job on our soup and it tasted great. The only real critique we got was that ours needed a bit more liquid. Ours ended up more like a chili than a soup.

This salad is entirely about presentation. It has very simple ingredients put together rather well. Slices of tomato, egg and cucumber around a cup of bib lettuce filled with celery, cucumber and radishes and dressed with a red wine vinaigrette. Careful knife cuts and proportional plating are the focus.

--To get totally off topic for a little bit, did you know that the definition of Beefsteak Tomato is any tomato with a diameter of greater than 3"? Neither did I. Now we all know. Ok back to food. --

I was responsible for plating the salad. We were a little in consistent on the cuts for the center part of the salad but the cuts on the rest and the overall presentation was good. The vinaigrette turned out well and was added appropriately. You want the dressing just to cling to the salad and not pool on the bottom plate.

After baking the spaghetti squash halves, you pull a fork across the short side of the flesh releasing strands that look like spaghetti noodles. The noodle-like squash pieces are then sautéed before service.

With the turkey cutlets, we cut out about 3 oz portions and then pounded them into 1/4" pieces. We then dredged them in flour sautéed the turkey until golden brown. The sauce for the cutlets is called an "A la minute" sauce because it is made after cooking the the protein and just before service... at the last minute. The sauce was based from pan-drippings and reduced wine and stock with fresh tomatoes added in. The turkey turned out very moist with a sauce with a great flavor and consistency.

After 2 weeks in this class, I realized that I really like plating salads. It gives an opportunity to make a statement with the food that you are putting in front of others.

--Rees

Mid Atlantic

From New York and Pennsylvania south to the Virginias this region, is known for its extensive coastline and abundance of river valleys producing rich soil perfect for orchards and farming. New York is the original melting pot where different cultures mixed and shared their food. We get a lot of new creation in New York. New Jersey, the Garden State, became known for its soil and is a top producer of blueberries, peaches, lettuce, tomatoes and apples. Maryland and Delaware are home to 40 rivers that dump into the Chesapeake Bay, meaning "Great Shellfish Bay" was home to a wide array of seafood including oysters and blue crabs. The Virginias were the first states to use truck-farming (mechanical farming), allowing them to produce larger volumes of produce.

Day 1 Menu:

Vichyssoise
Waldorf salad
Braised Short Ribs
Rice Pilaf
Swiss Chard/Spinach Sauté
Glazed Carrots

The Waldorf Salad is classic salad invented at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NYC. This salad has stood the test of time and comes with certain expectations. Unlike a lot of foods you see these days, when making this salad you don't want to add your own personal twist. The other important element is the presentation. A good waldorf salad will have consistent sized matchstick-like cuts of apples and celery. These should cling together with mayonnaise and be piled up over lettuce and topped with chopped walnuts. Give it some height. The apple and celery sticks are sturdy.

Vichyssoise is another classic dish created in early 1900's NYC at the Ritz-Carlton. Similar to the Waldorf salad, you don't want to mess with the production of this soup because of its tradition. It is a cold potato and leek soup. This soup is thickened with potatoes and again at the end with cream. 2 things to remember about this soup is that after the soup chills, the seasoning will be muted and it will get thicker. Remember to re-taste and re-season after it has cooled. As you cook the soup, keep in the back of your mind that it will thicken up in the cooler. Pull it off before you reach your desired thickness. If it is too thick, you can thin it out before service.

I took ownership of the Swiss chard and spinach sauté. Unfortunately, our class was on a shortage on Swiss chard, so instead of getting the 6 cups of chard, I got maybe 1/3rd of a cup. Even still, chard has a strong enough flavor that just a small presence added a lot of flavor to the sauté (I love that bitter taste of greens). Most important when working with greens is to ensure that they are clean. Chard and spinach in particular tend to be very dirty and the last thing you want to taste is dirt in your dinner! This was a very quick preparation. After cleaning the leaves, they are quickly blanched in boiling water. The leaves should be well dried before sautéing them. Just before plating the meal, sweat your onion and garlic and add the greens for maybe 5 min. Season and plate. Done!

Braising is a great cooking technique for some of the less tender cuts of meat. Cooking low and slow in a liquid helps to pull flavor out of the meat into the sauce and make the meat more tender. Here, we browned the meat on all side to send the meats moisture to the center. The meat is then removed from the pan and the veg is caramelized in the same pan to utilize the fond (the good stuff left behind from the meat). The meat is then added back over the caramelized veg and then half covered with red wine and stock. The caramelized veg acts as a bed for the meat to lay on because braising is a convection cooking method. We want to heat the meat with the liquid and the steam, not direct contact with the pan. This is then covered and cooked until the meat is tender enough for the bones to slide out (the connective tissue is broken down) about 90 min. Remove the meat and cover to let it rest. The remaining liquid in the pan should be reduced until nappé (coat the back of a spoon) consistency and should have some shine. If it doesn't have the shine, you can mount the sauce with butter just at the end.

Because we learned all of the basic cooking techniques in our last quarter, we now focus our effort onto seasoning and presentation. It's amazing the jump in the level of sophistication when you don't have to focus on the cooking technique.

--Rees

New England Day 2

It's our 2nd day focusing on the New England region and where and when some of the regions came from and why. If it weren't for the Native Americans in New England, the early settlers may not have survived that first winter. The Native Americans taught the settlers how to cure meat so that it could be preserved for the upcoming long, harsh winter. They also showed them how to fish and hunt in the new environment as well as sharing with them some of the secrets of the native produce. There truly lies the reason that we all give thanks each November.

Day 2 Menu:

Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce
Mesclun Salad with Dried Cranberries
Roasted Turkey Roulade with Cranberry Sauce and Pan Gravy
Green Beans with sautéed onions and mushrooms
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Peach & Blackberry Crunch

Cod, as we learned in class, was the most important product to early immigrants in New England. After preparing the cod cakes (=crab cakes with cod vs. crab), we put them in the fridge to help them firm up for pan-frying. The cakes were served with tartar sauce that we prepared in class. Because the sauce could be held in the fridge, it was important to get that prepared early so that we weren't rushed at the end of class.

A theme this week in our critique was to manage our seasoning. Our cakes turned out well but needed to be seasoned before breading. The tartar sauce was creamy and had a nice tang.

The Mesclun salad had dried cranberries and fresh apples, both native produce to New England. The salads are our easiest opportunity to work on presentation and John did a great job keeping the apples from oxidizing in a bowl of ice with a bit of lemon juice. The bad news was that our apples looked so good, that some of the apple slices got jacked by people cruising by our table. Needless to say, we keep a very close eye on our table now.

Bobby has become our Protein Go-To guy, thanks to a fantastic Corned Beef and now his Turkey Roulade. The roulade is basically puréed dark meat rolled up inside a flattened turkey breast. It really is a cool mixture of textures. This is another food that gets prepared early and spends time in the ice box to firm up before cooking. The pan gravy that we made turned out great but we caught a bit of criticism because we chose not to strain it. Our table preffered the more rustic style, but what the chef wants, he gets.

For our supporting cast on the plate, we prepared mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans. To mix up the usual potatoes and green beans, we used sweet potatoes for some added color and added onions and mushrooms to the beans. For some additional color and to add to the Thanksgiving direction, we prepared some fresh cranberry sauce.

The suprise of the night was definately the dessert. I love fruit and consider that a great start in the inclusion of dessert but wow, I LOVE CRUNCH TOPPING. Carling could have served me a plate of crunch topping and I'd have been happy. Crunch topping is simply butter, sugar, flour and oats sprinkle a top the fruit and baked. YUM! I also now give thanks for Crunch Topping.

The next week we head south to the Mid Atlantic Region. More U.S. culinary history and more great food.

--Rees

Q2: Lab 1

So, I started a new cooking lab class: American Regional.

In this class we explore the use of indigenous ingredients in the preparation of traditional and contemporary American specialties. Each of the following regions is considered: New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Florida, the Central Plains, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, California, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

In a short quarter, we skipped the traditional admin stuff and we started right off the bat with cooking. We dove right into the New England menu.

This class assumes that we have mastered the basic techniques and kitchen etiquette that we learned in skills class. As we ended Skills, we started to prepare full meals; in American Regional, we start with a full 4 course menu every night. It's awesome. You really feel like you are preparing food for someone.

Day 1 Menu:

New England Clam Chowder
Marinated Tomato & Zucchini Salad
New England Boiled Corned Beef Dinner
Gingerbread Cake

We have a 1st year proffesor, Chef Alford, who already comes off as a seasoned vet. As in real kitchens he demands that each person on a team takes a role and does their job. He expects more of us from day 1 but also offers a lot of advice or suggestions/corrections as you go along with the preparation. Maybe the most important teaching technique is the preparation/service schedule. He laid out for us, a schedule on what items should be prepared early through what should be prepared just before service. In my opinion, and I'm not alone on this [my former roommate Johnny Boy and I have many discussions on this topic], preparation schedules and timing is the most difficult part of preparing a meal.

New England Clam Chowder, there are 3 different types:
New England: the most traditional
Manhattan: tomato based
Vermont: a clear chowder

For this class, we focused on the traditional, cream based New England Clam Chowder. As opposed to traditional soup preparations, this chowder is prepared in a single, large, flat saute pan and does not have to simmer for a long time. It only has to cook long enough until the potatoes become fork tender. The desired consistency should be of heavy cream. It should not be thick enough for a utensil to stand up. It should be a soup with chunks of the ingredients used to prepare it not mashed potatoes.

My teammate John took charge of the chowder turned out a great chowder. According to our chef instructor, it had a good body with well cooked bacon (crispy and appropriate garnish) and potatoes (tender but not falling apart in appropriate sized chunks) that had reduced to a good consistency. The only advice was that it should have been seasoned with a bit more salt to bring out more of the flavor.

Marinated Zucchini and Tomato Salad:
The importance of a good marinated salad is the knife cuts and timing. If the cuts are not uniform in size some pieces will be more marinated than others and just won't look as nice on the plate. Also, you want to cut your pieces so that they absorb as much of the marinade as possible. This means that tomatoes should be peeled because that skin will act as a shield. You want to seed the tomatoes as well becauase they are full of water and this water will dilute the marinade. The zucchini pieces should be cut into uniform juliennes. The reason for julienne is that the cut is small enough so that the vegetable will absorb a lot of the marinade and large enough that it won't get too soggy and fall apart. Also, if the pieces are too big they cannot easily be put on a fork in a single bite. As for the timing, you should marinate your vegetables for over an hour to ensure that the marinade has had time to get itself into your cuts, but should not be done overnight as it will cause your pieces to get soggy and gross.

I took the lead on the salad for our group. In general the cuts were good, consistent sizes throughout. However, I failed to season our lettuce. The marinade itself was good but it was not enough; I needed to also season the lettuce because the marinade meets the lettuce only moments before plating. All in all, it was a good salad but just needed a bit more punch.

New England Boiled Corned Beef Dinner:
Early European settlers in New England realized very quickly that they would need a way to preserve food through the tough winters and turned to the Native Americans who taught them how to salt cure their meats. This led to the pickling method of meat preservation and how beef becomes corned beef. Pickling spices in simmering water will leech the moisture out of the beef and adds flavor. The beef, traditionally brisket, is simmered for 2-3 hrs. About 30 mins before it is done, you add vegetables to be cooked in the broth as well. We included tourneed root vegetables (carrots, potatoes and turnips) and pearl onions. Once tender, remove the vegetables, the beef and the pickling spices. To the remaining broth we added some green cabbage for only a few mins until tender.

Bobby (yes the same Bobby from the beginning of last quarter) took the lead on our brisket. I am a huge corned beef fan and I must say Bobby did it right! Chef Alford agreed. He did say that we overcooked our potatoes a bit and that we needed to work on our presentation. The beef should be laid in a "shingle" and should be 3 consecutive slices.

To accompany our beef, we whipped up a horseradish sauce which was just grated horseradish, dijon mustard, lemon juice and cream. I love horseradish so this was a great addition to good dinner.

Gingerbread Cake:
Chef Alford has informed us that we will be doing a lot more baking in this class. On day 1, we made a cake! The most important part of making this cake is the creaming method. This is when sugar is added to butter and mixed until the sugar breaks down the butter to allow the cake to stay moist. When done properly, the sugar crystals actually break the butter into so many small bits that there becomes open space and more surface area to allow moisture throughout.

Carling (yes also the same one from last semester) took the lead on our cake. Somehow, and we're blaming our oven, our cake did not rise correctly. Whatever the mistake was I hope we can repeat it! Our cake was more dense, darker and shorter that it should have been but it tasted awesome. Chef Alford also could not explain why our cake came out the way it did.

I already appreciate the critique in this class more than in last quarter. I think that in Quarter 1, Chef Pierre is not too critical so as to keep intact some fragile esteems of new college students. In this class Chef Alford tastes everything and begins his critique. He provides more feedback on why things turned out as they did and how to correct them rather than just stating the problem. As he continues his critique he retastes things to refresh his mind and remember how it tasted along with the rest of the presentation. I love this class.

--Rees

Quarter #2

I apologize for the delay in posts. Ike really kicked the crap out of Southeast Houston. I lost power on Saturday morning Sept 13th at 1:17 am and I got it back sometime friday morning Sept 19th. I have to say: What an incredible storm!

This is a view of my apartment on Saturday morning. It is still raining lightly and all of the drains are over-flowing.

This second picture is a view of my street.... that tree was struck by lightning and blocked the street entirely... thank god I don't live in a cul de sac.

My real problem was an inch of standing water in 3 of 4 of my rooms. The only room that was almost entirely dry happened to be the room with all of the stuff propped up. I am cheap, so some of my furniture (night stands, etc.) were cardboard boxes and now they are wet, crumpled garbage. Also, I assumed that the front rooms were more susceptible to flooding to the back... it was the exact opposite. I had some stuff on the floors in the back room that I though were safer than the front rooms and had a lot of clean up work. Ugh... luckily I didn't lose anything that I can't replace.

This week marks the beginning of my 2nd quater of school. This quarter I am taking 3 signifigant classes.
1. American Regional Cuisine: explores the use of indigenous ingredients in the preparation of traditional and contemporary American specialties. Each of the following regions is considered: New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Florida, the Central Plains, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, California, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

2. Food and Beverage Mgmt: explores the psychology of service, professional standards of performance for dining room personnel, the fundamental skills required for serviceware handling, the service sequence, order taking, guest relations and the liability and consumer dimensions of alcohol service. The budgetary process is introduced, employee scheduling fundamentals of wine selection and pairing is covered.

3. Planning and Controlling Costs: explores the planning and control process in the food and beverage industry. Topics studied include budgeting, menu pricing, standardized recipes, and food, beverage and labor cost controls.

I also owe y'all a post about Poaching and Braising and about my final from my first quarter that I failed to upload due to lack of electricity. I've also got some great new food stories from my new job. I am working at the Meat Market at Central Market, an enormous specialty food grocer. I first heard of CM when I lived in SF and saw a Food Network special entirely about this store.

--Rees

Sautéing

Another cooking method this week… Sautéing.

Due to Labor Day, unfortunately, we did not have class on Monday. But, just because that we only had 1 day of class doesn’t mean that we didn’t try to pack in as much as possible into the day we do have.

Tuesday’s Menu:
Sautéed Chicken Chardonnay

Steak Au Poivre
Garlic whipped potatoes
Brussel Sprouts
Glazed Carrots

For today’s class we did something unique; for the first time, Chef Pierre had us prepare individually. Each person made their own Sautéed Chicken Chardonnay. Because sautéing is a cooking style that most everyone is familiar we spent a lot of time focusing on some details, mainly, presentation and plating.

Another rule that I learned in weeks past that I don’t recall writing about…. Heat the pan; heat the fat; add the main ingredient. This allows for even heating of whatever you’re cooking and it prevents sticking. Amazing…. it works every time and it’s a mistake everyone makes. I’m certainly guilty of it (mostly laziness and/or impatience).

So the chicken breast starts by being skinned and boned, patted dry, seasoned and dredged in flour. It is then added to a hot pan with heated fat, presentation side down. The reason that you do the presentation side down is because the protein firms up when exposed to heat. And, if you want it to look its best, it should firm up on the good-looking side. Once the 1st side turns a golden brown, flip to the other side and brown that side. You can tell without having to pick it up because you’ll see the color creep up from the bottom of the pan. With chicken, you can actually watch the flesh turn from pink to white climbing from the bottom of the pan.

Once browned on both sides, it is removed from the pan and put into a 350° oven to finish cooking. You could turn the heat down and finish it in the pan, but we used the oven so that we could make a sauce from the fond left in the pan. Adding a bit more fat (in this case, clarified butter), we added shallots and mushrooms to the pan and let them sauté. Before they brown (about 3-5 min), the pan is deglazed with wine and reduced. In my case, my pan was too hot and my shallots browned within 30 secs. This caused my whole sauce to be brown (very tasty but not quite right). I was told by Chef Pierre that in the future, I should have just tossed it and re-started. The fond, while tasty, does not MAKE the sauce. After the wine has reduced, chicken stock is added and left to reduce in half. After the stock has reduced, cream is added and, yep, you guessed it, left to reduce until it reaches the desired thickness. At about the time the sauce is done, the chicken should be cooked all the way through. The chicken is plated and covered with sauce. Of everyone’s I saw and tasted, I had the darkest sauce (I lose) and the most moist chicken (I win), so overall not too bad.

Once each group completed all of their individual chicken plates, as a group we got started on the 2nd dish. Each group was given 4 tournado steaks. Tournados usually are thinner and come from an area closer to the point of the tenderloin than Filet Mignon but in this class, we used and entire tenderloin. Again, we got to watch the breakdown of the tenderloin. – I really, really like this part; turning a big chunk of meat into individual cuts is awesome. Maybe I should be a butcher part-time (I’m still waiting to hear back from Central Market, fingers crossed). – These steaks were then trussed to keep a nice round shape, seasoned with salt and pressed into crushed black peppercorns. The steaks were added to a hot pan with heated oil and seared for 2 min on each side and, like the chicken, put into the oven. This sauce was made by sautéing shallots, deglazing with brandy and reduced. A prepared demi-glace and cream were then added and reduced until the desired thickness is reached.

On each served plate the focus is normally the protein, in this case, the tournado. Accompanying the protein are usually a sauce, a starch and 2 vegetables. The starch is the first item to be plated because it becomes the structure. Today, we piped whipped garlic mashed potatoes onto the plate. The first vegetable is called the Height Vegetable. Today’s height vegetable is the same glazed batonnets of carrots that we prepared 3 weeks ago. This is usually plated up against the starch to create movement. It draws the eye up and away from the plate. The second vegetable or Auxiliary Vegetable is usually plated next to the Height Vegetable and should be of a different color, shape and cooking preparation. One of the 2 vegetable servings should always be green. Because the Height Vegetable on this plate is carrots, we needed a green vegetable as our Auxiliary Vegetable. We prepared brussel sprouts. These were parboiled (remember that means partially cooked) and then reheated with bacon and onions. Then in front and on top of all of these, the protein should be front and center on the plate. Unlike roasts, other preparations can be covered in sauce.

It may seem a bit unnecessary to get this specific about plating, but there is a reason for everything. Every piece has a function. The protein is the focus; it is put front and center, to be the eye’s first target. Basically, it is the proof of why you spent the $$. The starch is there to act as the support and provide structure for the other items. The Height Vegetable is to draw the eye away from the plate. The eye moves from the protein to the part sticking furthest from the plate. The Auxiliary Vegetable is purposefully a different shape and color to bring the eye back toward the plate. From there the eye heads back to the protein (or $$). The pattern is Protein, Height, Aux, Protein: a full view of the entire plate and 2 views of the $$!

The main reason for all of this is because the plate is your last marketing piece. I mean, you want people to enjoy their food, right!?

--Rees

The Roast

I know I'm late, but I figured since it's a holiday weekend, I am allowed a break. Break is over....

Let's talk about last week. Rather than type of food (vegetable, starch, soup), we focused this week's efforts on a cooking method. This week's method was roasted. On top of that, we prepared meals rather than several different dishes that would be served separately. More important in this than in previous weeks, we had to ensure that the food finished and was served on time.

Monday's menu:
Roasted Chicken with pan gravy
Sautéed Green Beans
Vichy Carrots
Wild Rice Pilaf

First and foremost, we learned about the chicken itself. While simply roasting the whole chicken this week, Chef Pierre also taught us how to break down a chicken for future use (apparently the chickens we broke down this week, we use later). This is actually a monumental moment for some students; some students aren't good with this part. When I was a kid, for example, hated the idea that a live animal turned into my food and I did NOT want to know how it got there. Others in my class have more current issues (growing up in vegetarian or vegan households). The "oh it's gross moment" for me was when Grandpa and Uncle Mike came downstairs to my grandpa's basement with their catch from the morning's pheasant hunt. I wanted to be involved but when it came time to plucking and bleeding them, I felt ill. I was 10-12 yrs old (I think) at the time. At the same time, I hated onions.

Fast forward 15 years, I love onions and I certainly don't have the same problems with cleaning and breaking down poultry or meat. In fact, if my restaurant doesn't work as anticipated, I may have a very successful career as a butcher. We each get to break down a chicken in class and well... it was easy. If you know where to cut and what you're looking for and it's pretty simple.

After each class member got to break down a chicken, we focused on our menu for the day. The chicken and the wild rice take the longest to prepare so we made sure to get those started first. On this day, we also learned to truss a chicken for the roast. We all practiced on the chicken that we broke down. Trussing a chicken, I had not done before but apparently because I was the most willing to touch raw chicken, I got the privilege of doing it twice. And here, is where we made error #1. When roasting poultry, you need to season the bird before you truss it.

Why?

Because then all the joints where skin is pressed together don't get any seasoning... and well, frankly.... that's just not fair ... and certainly less tasty. So, we season and redo the trussing and pop that bad-boy in a 450° oven.

Too hot you say?
False!!

We need to sear this bad-boy for 15 min first.
Q: Why do we sear meats?
A: To seal in the juices.

FALSE!!
Actual answer: At high temperatures, the juice moves to the center of the meat.
Basically, it doesn't create a protective layer; it just moves the moisture farther toward the middle allowing a longer cook time before the juices work themselves out.

OK, so now, we've got the bird in a 450° oven for 15 min. That's enough to move most of the moisture inward. The oven is then turned down to 375° and left until the internal temperature reaches 155°. At 155°, it will need 10-15 min of resting for carryover cooking to reach the required 165-170°.

While Carling and I were working on the chicken preparation, Kenesha was getting the Wild Rice Pilaf started. This needed to be started early because unlike traditional rice, Wild Rice is not actually a rice. It is the seed of an aquatic plant and is tougher, requiring more cooking time to break down. Like the rice pilaf we did last week, we started by coating the grain with butter in a sauté pan and then moving to the oven to fluff. Once the chicken is in the oven along with the rice, we can focus on the side items that will be served with the chicken.

We've made both sautéed green beans and glazed carrots before in this class and know how long they take to prepare so we knew to start the carrots before the beans. These carrots, unlike the last preparation, are a different cut. Today, we learn a new cut, the rondelles or rounds (even sized disc shaped slices). These rondelles go into sauté pan with stock, salt, pepper, sugar and butter and left to reduce until syrupy. The green beans, we parboiled ahead of time and shocked them with cold water and held them until just before service. We checked the temperature of the chicken in the oven and got a reading of 140°. I pulled it to rest. 5 min later, I checked the resting temperature. Error #2, when we checked the temperature, we plugged the thermometer in the appropriate place. However, when the tip hit the bone, we did not pull the thermometer back a bit (the bones get hotter than the meat). We got a false reading; when we pulled the chicken and started it to rest, it was dripping red juices, a secondary indicator of doneness. Red juices in poultry = not done!! We quickly realized our mistake and replaced the chicken without too much harm done to the roast (if we had left it out too long and put it back in the oven, it would have very easily over cooked and dried out).

When the chicken was ready to be pulled, we heated the green beans bacon and onion and started the pan gravy.

Pan gravy = the roasting pan - the chicken + caramelized mirepoix, deglazed with chicken stock and thickened with beurre manié (premixed butter + flour).

Plating is becoming more important now. Lesson 1 is that if serving a roast, all sauce goes below the meat. Adrianna, our plating perfectionist, started with formed cups of the wild rice pilaf. Then she laid sliding layers of the glazed carrots. Between them, she stacked the sautéed green bean so that the points were off the plate. While Adrianna was plating vegetables, and the chicken had rested, I broke down the cooked chicken into 8 serviceable parts for 4 plates (4 pieces of breast meat, 2 wings, 2 thighs and 2 legs). Each plate got a breast piece and another bird piece. In front of all 3, I stacked 2 pieces of chicken, making sure that 1 piece was given height.

Tuesday's menu:
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Roasted Top Sirloin with jus lié
Broccoli Hollandaise
Potatoes Anna
Stuffed Tomatoes Duxelles

Along with roasting lessons learned on Monday, we were able to watch Chef Pierre break down a sirloin primal cut into the beef roast that we would be preparing for class. This totally confirmed my secondary career as a butcher. I loved the butcher I used in SF; mostly because he understood what I needed, knew how to explain why and seemed to enjoy breaking down custom cuts. For those of you that don't know, this is the guy I bought 24 double-cut pork chops from. I then marinated them overnight and flew to Los Angeles with them in a "Cooler-carry-on" and then proceeded to undercook on my way to losing to my roommate John in the 2nd annual Titanium chef weekend (Great story, poor result... unless you're John).

Priority #1 of the day was the soup:
1. it was being served first
2. it took a long time to cook
3. it can be served cold

A butternut squash is halved, seeded, oiled, fork pricked and placed in a 350° oven to roast until tender (longer than an hour), a simple preparation but a priority nonetheless.

Chef Pierre reviewed the proper way to truss a loin roast.... for the first time, I felt that I didn't need to pay attention. Thanks to NBCC (North Beach Cooking Club), I had done that several times and learned by trial and error how it's done properly. Differing from a roast chicken, you wait to season a beef roast until after it has been trussed. In fact, we pan-seared our roast and then seasoned our beef. We were given freedom on the seasoning our roast. Some groups used several fresh or dried herbs; however, I'm a bit of a stickler and since I had the tongs, we only used salt and fresh ground peppercorns.

Once the roast was in the oven, we had an opportunity to prepare for plating. First, we wanted to get the tomatoes and their filling prepared. We peeled and hollowed the tomatoes and held them for later. The diced mushrooms were added to onions sweated in butter and cooked until the liquid is evaporated (mushrooms add moisture at first, and then suck it all up).

The potatoes are the last to get started because unlike most preparations, you CAN'T soak the slices in water to keep them fresh. While they will stay fresh, the water will wash all of the starch. For potatoes Anna, the starch is needed to make the slices stick together to create a "pie" or "cake". When the time is right, about 45-60 min before service 1/8th" slices of potatoes should be layered in a skillet with what I call clarified butter grout (drizzle around edges and between layers). They are cooked on the stove until sizzling then thrown (covered with butcher paper) into the oven for 30-45 min.

While the others were roasting, the squash had finished. We scooped out the squash flesh into a blender with sautéed onions and chicken stock and pureed. That puree was added to a pot with additional chicken stock and simmered to the appropriate consistency.

At 15 min before time of service, we pulled the roast (internal temp 130° for medium) to let it rest and carryover cook to 140°. At this time, we started to reheat and plate. The warmed tomatoes were stuffed with the mushroom, onion and parsley mixture. The potatoes were pulled from the oven, flipped onto a plate and sliced into "pie pieces" and the jus lié was started on stove top.

Our jus lié was awesome. Its greatness was due mostly in part to the full or large peppercorn pieces that had fallen off the roast into the roasting pan. Honestly, there was too much pepper to start the sauce, so we actually had to remove about half of the peppercorns. After removing them, we added mirepoix to caramelize and then red wine and brown stock to deglaze. This then reduced and I thickened the remainder with a slurry (corn starch + liquid premixed). By the time the sauce thickened and strained, we were ready to plate. Adrianna got carried away with the soup plating (can we blame her, it's awesome) and left the rest to Carling and I. Again, with a roast, the sauce goes below the meat. Chef Pierre suggested that the tomato be centered between the Potatoes Anna slice and the Broccoli Hollandaise (preparation mentioned in "Veggie Crazy"). The sauce was layered in front with roast beef slices served over top.

Every week, I learn a new skill and sometimes (like this week), I learn something else I should have been other than a "Market Research Tool".

Just as am FYI, I am finalizing my menu for my Menu by Management class. In the process, I am experimenting.....
The Breakfast Reuben and the Roasted Red Pepper, Grilled Zucchini and Goat Cheese sandwiches are better than they are described in a sentance. I'll make you one if you want.

--Rees

More Carbo-loading

After Monday’s potato bonanza, we moved onto other starches…. rice and pasta. If Monday was our longest class, it’s only fitting that the day after was our shortest. After a quiz and short lecture, dove straight into our rice preparation.

Steamed rice……… uh… wash it, bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 min. Yep, that’s it.

Rice pilaf….. same as above except that you add the rice to sweating onions to coat and flavor the rice with fat (usually butter). The fat brings out a nutty flavor in the rice and the coating prevents the rice from sticking together.

The takeaway on rice prep, rice to liquid ratios:
Steamed Rice: 1 cup rice – 1 ¼ cup liquid
Pilaf Rice: 1 cup rice – 1 ½ cup liquid

30 min into class and we’re done with 2 of 6 of our dishes.

I got started on spaetzle. Spaetzle is a German pasta that is a mixture of flour, eggs and water with the consistency of thick pancake batter. The dough or batter is then basically run over a cheese grater into a pot of boiling water. This process creates little batter drops that cook and surface within 60 secs. The noodles are then shocked in an ice water bath to keep from over cooking. We then held these until near service time when we and reheated them in a pan of clarified butter. I remember having this before and it being very buttery and light. In our class, everyone’s seemed to be tougher than I remember and not quite flavorful enough. Because it was not as popular, I was able to take a portion of it home. When it sat overnight and I seasoned it again with more salt and cooked it with a lot more butter, it was much better.

In addition to our fresh pasta, we also made a dried pasta dish, Pasta “Alla Carbonara”. First things first, here are some handy measurements to have regarding cooking pasta:
Pasta: 1 lb pasta – 8 cup of water
Dry Pasta: 1 lb dry pasta = 2 ½ - 3 lbs cooked pasta; 8-10 min cook time
Fresh Pasta: 1 lb fresh pasta = 2 – 2 ½ lbs cooked pasta; 30-60 sec cook time

Adrianna prepared ½ lb of dry spaghetti in a pot and sautéed bacon in another. When the bacon fat had rendered she added the pasta into the sauté pan. The heat is turned down to low and finished the pasta with a liason (if you remember from Soups 2, this is 1 part egg + 3 parts cream). Unfortunately, our pan was a bit too hot and the liason broke a little bit and you could see dots of the coagulated egg scattered on the pasta. It still tasted fantastic but did not have the thick cream sauce that it should have.

Carling took the lead on the polenta. I have never made it before but had seen a Michael Chiarello’s Food Network show Easy Entertaining where he hosted a polenta party. Polenta = cornmeal + butter + liquid and can be served 2 ways. When first cooked, it’s most like oatmeal or grits and has the texture of a thick batter. Basically, it should run but have a doughy-ness to it that prevents it from breaking up. The most common restaurant preparation of polenta is to cool the polenta and let it harden. Then it is cut into shapes, re-heated (fried to add color) and served as a layer in a stack of food. At the “Polenta Party”, Chiarello served the polenta while runny. He poured it out over his table and had dishes of other ingredients like roasted vegetables that his guests served themselves directly onto the table and mixed in a portion of the polenta. It looked pretty awesome and is still something I’d like to do in the future. We served our polenta in its runny state and Adrianna formed it before plating and made ours look pretty. Mental note: this form of polenta needs to be served very hot; if it cools, it hardens and is like eating sandy jell-o.

The last dish before service was risotto. This dish is traditionally difficult because it requires constant attention to finish properly and is best served immediately. Apparently, there are several ways to prepare it though. Some people add all of the liquid at once, some add it gradually; some people stir consistently, some stir in intervals; some people add the wine up front, others finish with the wine. I followed the traditional preparation, liquid added gradually while stirring constantly and adding the wine at the end.

The reasons for these steps:
1. Adding the liquid gradually: to keep the pot at a constant simmer
2. Constant stirring: with a small amount of liquid stirring prevents the bottom from burning and/or over-cooking
3. Adding the wine at the end: to keep the white wine flavor

The desired texture is creamy and tender but with al dente centers to the rice grains. My arm started to get tired by the end but it was well worth it. This was my favorite of the day. Once all of the liquid is incorporated (1 cup rice – 3 cups liquid), parmesan cheese and butter are stirred in until melted. Service time. Oh man, was this good.

Today we were done early, and good thing, cuz we had a lot to eat.

Rees

Potato Monday

This week, we got new teams. As part of learning to work in a commercial kitchen, Chef Pierre wants us to learn to work with different people. I am now a member of a 4 person team with 3 girls. The hardest part about a new team is getting used to the way each person likes to work. In my last group it took 2 weeks to determine the roles each person would take based on each other’s personalities. This time around, we have a lot more on the menu and don’t have the luxury to take that kind of time. 2 of the girls in the group, Carling and Adrianna, are smart but quiet; it’s obvious that they will be good team members but will likely not take charge. The 3rd, Kenesha, is very independent; she is outgoing enough to take charge but would rather take her duty and just manage her own responsibilities. This leaves me to oversee the group and to make sure that all items are prepared and served on time. It’s my first kitchen management role, a role that I wasn’t sure I was ready for but needed to learn at some point.

Monday was all about potato preparation.
We cooked potatoes 6 different ways.
1. Mashed: Duchesse potatoes
2. Deep fried: Croquette potatoes
3. Baked: yes, it’s that obvious, baked potatoes
4. Potato pasta: Gnocchi
5. Sautéed: Pommes Lyonnaise
6. Boiled: Pommes Anglaise

For the Duchesse, Croquette and Gnocchi, we used the same type of potatoes and prepared them the same way. This meant that we could save time by starting them together and then splitting them up when it came time to finish them. The 4 of us began by washing and peeling 5 lbs of russet potatoes. For these preparations you want to use starchy potatoes (usually russets) because when they are cooked they break down and are easier to mash. The peeled potatoes are then put in cold, salted water and brought to a boil and simmered for 25 min. The potatoes are then drained and dried (put in a 350° oven until the steam is gone) and put through a food mill. We then separated the potatoes into 3 batches: 2 ¼ lbs for the Duchesse, 1 lb for the Croquette and 1 ¼ lb for the Gnocchi. By the way, at this point in the class I had already used the “hot-potato” comment 3 times. Potatoes do get really hot. I decided that after milling all the potatoes that I needed to cool my hands so I went to do dishes while the girls started the preparations for the 3 different potatoes.

To the still-hot 2 ¼ lb portion of mashed potatoes, egg yolks and softened butter were added and put into a piping bag with a star tip to make Duchesse potatoes. Then, we each got a chance to make 4 oz mounds. Mine looked terrible; somehow it wasn’t round on 1 side; Carling’s attempt was way too small; Kenesha’s tower started great and then turned into the leaning tower of potato; the best of our group was Adrianna. The tops are then drizzled with melted butter and broiled for 15 min.

To the 1 lb portion of hot-mashed potatoes, we added a different proportion of egg yolk and softened butter and put this into a pastry bag as well to make Croquette potatoes. For this one though, we did not need a tip. We wanted to make long sausage-like tubes. These tubes were cut into 2” long pieces and breaded using the Standard Breading Procedure (the procedure for coating foods with crumbs or meal by passing food through flour, then an egg wash and then the crumbs). These pieces are then put in the deep-fryer at 350° until golden brown. These were awesome; they are like mozzarella sticks but filled with mashed potatoes!

To the 1 ¼ lb portion of hot-mashed potatoes, we added flour and an egg to make a pasta dough for the gnocchi. This pasta is rolled into 16” long sticks about an inch wide and cut into ¾” pieces. Painstakingly, each little piece is rolled over a fork, leaving indentations and making texture. Just before service, these are dropped into boiling salted water. When they rise to the surface, about 30-60 seconds later, they are done. These were served over fresh tomato sauce that Kenesha had prepared and topped with parmesan cheese and beurre noisette (brown butter). The brown butter preparation was cool. To an already hot pan you add the butter and wait until it almost burns and then pour over the food. If the pan is not already hot, you will just melt the butter.

To ensure that everything would be cooked on time, we made sure to get the baked and Lyonnaise potatoes started, adding them to the oven at 400° as soon as the first three had been pulled out of the oven after drying. To prepare the potatoes for baking, you simply rub the skins in oil and a bit of salt if you choose, pierce the skins with a fork and throw in the oven for an hour (yeah, it’s that easy). Kenesha also fried up some bacon and found sour cream and green onions to top our potatoes. Mmmm…

On a side note, baked potatoes are almost always disappointing, because about halfway through it, you realize that you have already eaten all of the toppings.

For the Lyonnaise preparation, we used waxy potatoes because they are more moist and firm and hold their shape well when cooked than the starchy potatoes. We had a choice of white-skinned or red potatoes. I chose the white-skinned because it seemed that most everyone else was using red (I’m sure they picked them for the color, but we were peeling them so the color really didn’t matter). We partially cooked the white-skinned potatoes for 15 min. We then removed them from the oven leaving the baked potatoes in for another 45 min (hot-potato comment count: 5). We peeled these potatoes and cut them into ¼” thick slices for sautéing. These potatoes were the best of the group. To start, onions are cooked in butter until tender but not browned. The onions are then set aside and the pan is filled with the potato discs and more butter. The discs are cooked and tossed until all sides have browned and then the onions are added back in to combine the flavors.

The Anglaise preparation is relatively simple: boiled potatoes topped with butter and parsley. The reason we did this in class was to learn another new knife skill, the tourné. A tourné is a football shaped cut with seven equal sides and blunt ends. We had to practice this cut from quartered potatoes. This cut is very hard at first but once you get the hang of it……. it’s still very hard. The motions get easier and you get more comfortable holding the knife and the potato, but the sides still looked uneven and very UN-smooth.

Monday was by far, the longest class we had and we didn’t get out until after 10:30, but when we’re that busy it didn’t really seem that long.

Rees

Veggie crazy!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I finally understand why the vegetables I cooked went from raw to over-cooked like that [insert finger-snapping here]. This week was focused on the proper preparation of vegatables. C'mon, I know everyone has ordered green beans at a restaurant and said to themselves, "I can do that. It's beans and oil." I also know that when you try it at home, you get one of these results:
1. Army green/khaki colored, mushy green beans
2. Brightly colored and undercooked burnt beans

I don't care if you do or do not understand food science but it's really helping me, so I'm gonna write about it and it explains how and WHY everyone gets those same results at home.

Lots of vegetables get boiled right? Of course; but nobody knows how long. Wanna know
why? .......

Each vegetable has a very different structural integrity; from species to species and size to size, each vegetable is different.

Rule #1: Cut all your vegetables into uniform sizes and shapes so that each piece cooks evenly. This addresses the problem with weird shapes: make them all the same relative size and they will cook at the same speed (among the same type of veggie).

Rule #2: Cook as short as possible to preserve texture, color and nutrients. Most vegetables get overcooked!

Rule #3: When cooking different vegetables in a medley, cook them separately. Cook them in order of starch content and add less starchy vegetables after more starchy ones.

Now, here is the big science piece that helps me understand this best. All vegetables have at least some level of cellulose, which is an undigestable fiber that makes up the cell walls of vegetables. Cooking vegetables breaks down that cellulose. Some vegetables need to break down more or less than others. My favorite examples are zucchini and beets. Zucchini can be sliced and eaten raw (doesn't need to be broken down); beets on the other hand, need to be cooked to have a desireable taste (needs to break down lots of cellulose). Basically, if you'd eat it raw, it needs less cooking than those that you wouldn't. This week in class we applied that common sense and put it to action. This is the main factor in vegetables.
Know your food.
Know which take longer to cook.

Other than vegetable science, this week, we learned and applied several different cooking methods to vegetables in order to display their versatility. There are 3 types of cooking methods:

1. Dry-heat method
2. Moist-heat method
3. Combination method.
To kill 2 birds with one stone, we learned both vegetable preparation and cooking methods.

On Monday, we prepared:
Grilled Vegetables
- Grilling is a dry-heat cooking method.
- Rule #1 is the most important when grilling. We marinated onions, zucchini and mushrooms. Each of these have different cellulose contents, but with grilled foods, you'd expect different textures but uniform heat and char. Size is the most important issue becuase if one item is thicker than the rest, the other don't get the same heat and/or grill contact as the thinner items. don't get the same heat and/or grill contact as the thinner items. When grilling, you should be aware of the cellulose content of the items grilled together. Grilling is best for higher heat, lower cellulose veggies. Can you imagine grilling a potato or beet? You'd need to pre-cook something with that much starch. To get the appropriate look, uniformity of shape is imporant, because when you lay skewers down on the grill, you want all of the veggies to get good grill marks. If they are improperly cut, some veggies touch the grill, other end up suspended.

Sauteed Green Beans:
Finally, we are back to my original example. Sauteeing is a dry-heat cooking method. The way to avoid bad beans is to understand that the integrity of this vegetable requires a little bit of breakdown before it can be enjoyed. Raw beans taste chewy and bitter. To counteract this, they should be par-boiled (par-boiled = blanching + extra time) to break down the cellulose. The beans are then shocked in a cold water bath to stop the cooking. If not shocked, the hot beans will continue cooking themselves and make themselves mushy (mushy = bad, for the most part). Just before service, you add the cooled, par-boiled beans to a heated, buttered pan and saute until hot. Minimal cooking retains more nutrients and maintains color.

Roasted Acorn Squash:
- Roasted = Baked. They are both a dry-heat cooking method.
- This was the least exciting food to prepare on Monday. Cut in half; cook; flip; season (the only fun part: butter,brown sugar and orange juice); cook more. The service was cool though; it came in it's own bowls!



Braised Lettuce: - Braising is a Combination cooking method. - Wilting greens is not new. Very common cooked wilted greens are spinach, mustard and collard greens. I had not ever heard of wilted Romaine until this week. Apparently, Europe does not see Romaine as a cold salad lettuce the same way as we do in the U.S. For this dish, we blanched the lettuce in already boiling water (blanching = add vegetable to boiling water and remove when water returns to a simmer). After the water returns to a simmer, we removed the lettuce from the heat and shocked it in ice water. Boring, so far, right? Then, I halved the head without cutting it in half... basically unfolded it. With the unfolded lettuce, I broke the stems in thirds and folded it into itself (fold the bottom third up and the top third over the bottom third) to create a long rectangle. I quartered this rectangle into 4 servings. These then went into a pan, topped with mirepoix, and finished in the oven. Suprisingly awesome. Dude, it's cooked lettuce and it really tastes good. -- Mom, I'll make this at a family event and people will think it's gourmet.... it's braised lettuce!--


Broccoli Hollandaise:
- Par-boiled Broccoli is a moist-heat method.
- Again, par-boiling = blanching + more time. Par-boiling is used on tougher vegetables. The general rule is that if it grows below ground (root veggies, etc.), you should par-boil it. We all know that broccoli is more tender cooked but can get a little flavor-less all by itself. Here, we added Hollandaise sauce (yes, we applied our previous learning to make Hollandaise) to the broccoli. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.... much better.

Tempura Vegetables:
- Frying is a dry-heat cooking method. Yes, you heard right. This is because dry-heat = direct contact. In this case, the frying oil becomes the heating element. The heating element is in direct contact with the cooking food, therefore it is a dry-heat method.

- To prepare tempura batter, Stormy mixed egg yolks, sifted flour and cold water. She skewered her veggies and dipped them in flour and then the batter (the flour removes moisture which helps the egg-yolk-based batter adhere to the veggies) and placed them in the deep fryer. For battered items, you want employ the "swimming method", where the cooking items just float in the hot oil, so that they don't stick to the fry-basket while cooking.

On Tuesday, we prepared:

Glazed Batonnets of Carrots:
- Sauteing is a dry-heat method
- Batonnet = 1/4" x 1/4" x 2" cuts
- This preparation is a fairly easy glaze. Chicken stock + butter + sugar added in a saute pan to the carrots. When the liquid reduces to a syrupy texture, you're done. Very simple, very tasty and sweet.

Glazed Beets:
- Another glaze, another dry-heat method saute.
- Not a lot of people in class were beet fans. I am. I took charge of the beet preparation. I couldn't wait. And......then I screwed up twice. I broke my glaze 2 times. Glaze is a reduction of the cooking liquid. In this case, butter, lemon juice, sugar and beet juice. The first time, I had too much fat to reduce and when the liquid (lemon juice) evaporated, the sauce broke. To fix it, I should have added more liquid. I made the mistake of adding more butter; it was melted, so I figured melted = liquid. However, butter = fat. And fat is a dry cooking method. Ooops. Chef Pierre had me pull out the beets and tried to restart the glaze with water (Water = liquid). Unsuccessful. He had me toss this glaze and restart it. This time, I used less fat to get the glaze started. The glaze was working well the 2nd time when I added back the beets. By the 2nd application to the saute pan, the beets were near done so I didn't cook the 2nd glaze long enough. Upon service, the beets were well cooked (slightly colored) and sweet enough (I used the sugar twice), but did not have the thick glaze coating it because the 2nd glaze didn't have enough time to reduce. Lesson learned; be patient and do it right the first time.

I think the funny story of the week had to be beet-related though. To start the beets, we needed to par-boil them and peel them. After they become tender, we shocked them in cold water and then I started peeling. In case you didn't know, beets bleed. That red, blood-stains everything. I wore gloves when I peeled them and had plastic wrap on the cutting board that I was peeling onto. On one of the corners however, an air pocket had developed and while peeling my gloved thumb pressed the air pocket and it burst like a pimple. Gross!! Drops of purple juice shot in every direction, including directly back at me. My chef's coat got drilled with staining blood. And unlike blood, this doesn't come out with cold water. During a break, I worked it over with the Tide-Pen that I keep in my car, thinking I was a genious for having one. It turned a purple dots into a huge pink target!!! Here I am 2-days later after overnight soaks in Oxy-Clean and it's finally white again. Lesson learned... don't mess with beet juice.

Ratatouille:
- It's a glamour stew. Stewing is also a combination cooking method.
- Of course, the first thing you think of is the Disney-Pixar movie. And just like the cooks in the Gusteau kitchen, ratatouille is viewed as a dish for the commoner.
However, when done well and not over-cooked, it can be a tender summer favorite. Now, to be traditional, our vegetables were a large dice (3/4" cubes) to reflect the rustic origins, not the "fussed-up, fancy, thin-sliced" disney preparation. This is a dish that I will keep on had though. It is an amazing conglomerate of vegetables caught directly between undercooked and mushy... really hard to describe beyond that and the word "Awesome".

Summer Squash Stir-Fry:
- Stir-fry foods are prepared in a wok on high heat. This is fast-frying or fast-saute and is a dry-heat method.
- For this dish, we cut the veggies (leeks, zucchini and yellow squash) into long julienne. Long Julienne = 3" x 1/16th" x 1/16th" = painstaking. The point is to make the veggies look like noodles. I'm just going to let you know (without the in-class emotion) that these cuts take FOREVER to do properly! This preparation is a good example of rule #3. Zucchini and Yellow Squash cook much faster than leeks. The leeks need to be added first and when the start to get tender, we added the faster cooking summer squashes.

We stir-fried these in oil and basically served them garnish-less. For the most part, I went into class understanding that wok cooking = high heat + constant movement. However, Stormy, having grown up in Hawaii, gave me a little extra insight. I had the heat on Medium-High and knew that they needed to keep moving in the pan; Stormy says, "high-er heat and move it faster. Don't let it sit". She also added extra oil, appropriately using sesame oil, adding an extra flavor component that many of the other teams didn't have.

Cauliflower "Au Gratin":
- Au Gratin basically means topped and browned. Most often with cheese and bechamel and broiled in the oven.

- The whole cauliflower is par-boiled until tender and cooled. Before service, it is covered with bechamel sauce (yes, we made that before too) and parmesan cheese and broiled in the oven until the sauce and cheese start to brown.

--Aside: I haven't mentioned it yet because there is no magic time for tenderness on vegetables. Al Dente doneness is determined when you spear the toughest spot of the vegetables with a paring knife. If it pulls out without sticking, you're done. If it sticks, it needs more cooking. If it destroys the structure, you've over-cooked it unless you plan on pureeing it.--

They are grinding it in me, I'll pass it on to you.
Science + Technique = good cooking

-- Rees

Breakfast

Q: Do you know why a chef's toque (tall white hat) has so many folds?
A: Traditionally, there were 101 folds in a toque, 1 for every way to prepare eggs.

Q: Do you know how many ways you can prepare eggs in 5 hours?
A: We were able to prepare 10: poached eggs, hard cooked eggs, soft cooked eggs, sunny side up eggs, over easy eggs, omelets, quiches, frittatas, crepes and hollandaise. And we still had time for a lecture, clean up and a feast!

Now, just about everyone can make an egg breakfast. I was thinking that this class was going to be fairly unimportant or that I wouldn't learn much. After this class period, I realize that yes, I do know how to make most of these, but now I know a few tips and tricks for each to make them all a bit better.

I'm pretty sure most people are confident in how to make a hard cooked egg. 3 things I took away from this preparation:
1. Never boil them. They should be cooked in water that is simmering at 185-190° water.
2. There are 3 ways to cook them. Pick one and do it that way every time.
-Add the eggs to already simmering water (~10 min)
-Start the eggs in cold water and bring them to a simmer (~12 min)
-Add the eggs to boiling water and turn off the heat and let them sit in the hot water (~15 min)
3. Adding vinegar to the water keeps the egg white from expanding in the shell making it easier to peel.

Soft Cooked Egg = 3 min egg
Its' like a hard cooked egg but only cooked for 3 mins. The protein in the egg white coagulates but the yolk is still runny in the middle. Great for dipping toast!

Poached eggs are cooked 3-5 min using the same procedure as a hard or soft cooked egg. The easiest way to keep the egg together when adding it to the water is to break the egg into a cup or bowl and slowly lower it into the water.

Here is our plate of hard cooked halves and poached eggs. I whipped together a hollandaise sauce just before service and added it to the poached eggs. The crack in one of those poached eggs is from Chef Pierre. He opened it up to check and make sure that the yolks were still runny. They were; and they were delicious. I could have used some English Muffins and Canadian Bacon right about there too.

The trick with fried eggs is that if there is any color on the egg white, it has been overcooked. This becomes a time and temperature challenge when preparing. For example, for our over-easy eggs, Stormy had the 2 eggs sitting in the pan and were ready to flip. However, she couldn't muster up the courage to fling 'em. While preparing to do it, she waited too long and when we finally flipped it, they had started to brown. Even though, we managed to flip it without breaking the yolks, we didn't want to serve the browned eggs. So we tried again, this time, the pan had gotten hotter so the bottom cooked faster. So, when the bottom was ready to be flipped, the top was still too loose and when I flipped the eggs the yolks broke. 0 for 2 on Over Easy. We had a plate of "no-serve".

The sunny side up egg was a different story. This has to be cooked on low heat so that the bottom doesn't out-pace the top. The egg white has 2 parts: thin white and thick white. The thin white is the outer most part of the egg white and cooks quickly. That's the stuff that turns white as soon as it hits the pan. The thick white is the part of the egg white that
surrounds the yolk. That has to coagulate before the bottom of the thin white turns brown. In order to avoid another "no-serve" fried egg, we were very careful and very patient with our Sunny Side Up and it turned out really well.
Stormy got creative with our plating and wrapped the eggs with a "handle" of bacon creating a little Sunny Side Basket.

The omelet preparation taught me 2 new things too.
Most people when making an omelet use milk with the beaten eggs to help make them fluffier and then once the eggs are poured into the pan, the eggs sit still to form the disc. In our class, we used egg only. Chef Pierre demo'd an omelet and he kept moving and scrambling the eggs so that they puffed up and cooked all around. As they started to set, he set down his spatula and just shook the pan until the whole pan set. Then he flipped and rolled the omelet and served it upside down. so that you couldn't see the seam. It didn't need to be flipped because the eggs had cooked all the way through as he was moving them around in the pan. And because they had been moving, they were very soft and fluffy eggs. It was pretty awesome. The other thing to remember is that all of the ingredients for your omelet should be cooked before adding to the omelet. Eggs cook a lot faster than anything you're going to add to the omelet.

I have never made a frittata or crepes before. So the process was new to me for both. Bobby took control of the crepes and turned out some great looking ones. Crepes like most of the egg dishes are not supposed to have any browning. So… he just ladles in the tiniest bit of batter, just to coat the bottom of the pan and lets it set and flips it; a matter of minutes for each. With both of these items, each team was allowed a bit of freedom and creativity. The crepes were allowed to be filled and topped with anything and the frittata was allowed any number of ingredients as well. The frittata is a Spanish dish that’s a mix between and omelet and a quiche. First you sauté all of your ingredients in an oven-safe pan, pour the eggs over it and put it in the oven to finish. We used mushrooms, cheese, tomato and onion. I think that might be my new favorite egg preparation.


We filled our crepes with a cream cheese and sugar mixture and topped it with berries and powdered sugar; Stormy, again with great plating. I actually overheard Chef Pierre at the end of class talking about plating and he said that many of the groups went a little over-the-top with the garnish but pointed to our table as an example of good plating without over-garnishing. Boo-Yah!


And the last thing we made was Quiche Lorraine. Secretly, my mom has been making quiches since I can remember and there was nothing new about the preparation. Advantage me; thanks Mom. I let Bobby handle the quiche because I had nothing to gain by preparing it.

-- Rees

Soup's Up 2

Yesterday, I talked about clear soups. Today, we're talking about thick soups.

Thick soups break into 2 categories:
1. Purée Soups
2. Cream Soups

In Tuesday’s class, we made another 3 soups.
1. Purée of Split Pea (Purée Soup)
2. Cream of Mushroom (Cream Soup)
3. Chicken Waterzooi (Cream Soup)

We started with the split pea. Purées are best made with a starchy star ingredient as the starch becomes the thickening agent. If additional thickening is needed, potatoes are often added because of their high starch. Puréed soups are similar to the French Onion in that, they are simple and focus heavily on the main ingredient.
Seriously, very simple:
Render bacon
Sweat mirepoix
Add stock, peas (star), ham hock and potatoes; simmer for 90 min
Remove ham hock; purée
Boom; done

This is where we jumped ahead of other groups. We had a purée secret weapon. Stormy has worked in a smoothie shop before and took control of the blender. Too bad for her, this is my blog and I’m gonna spill the secret. You only fill the blender about 1/3rd of the way full. Then as it purées in the blender, the smoother it gets, the higher it will shoot up the sides of the blender. When it gets to the top, it’s nice and smooth. Thanks to Stormy we got compliments from Chef Pierre on the consistency.

While Bobby was getting started on the split pea, Stormy took initiative on the mushrooms for the Cream of Mushroom, 3 lbs of them! In case you didn’t know already, mushrooms are light. Those packs of mushrooms you buy at the grocery store are 8oz. So imagine chopping 6 of those packs in 15-20 min.

I spent much of the first hour and a half working on chopping veggies as well. We had a lot to get through.
1. Split Pea:
-12 oz diced onion
-4 oz diced celery
-2 cloves of chopped garlic
-16 oz diced potato
2. Cream of Mushroom:
-8 oz diced onion
-4 oz diced celery
-4 oz diced leeks
-3 lbs sliced mushrooms
3. Chicken Waterzooi:
-5 oz allumette carrots
-5 oz allumette celery
-3 oz allumette turnips
-8 oz allumette potatoes
-4 oz allumette leeks

Allumette is a new knife cut that we all got to learn. This was important that we all practice this because we have a mid-term in 2 weeks and part of that mid-term is a knife practical.

Interjection:
Here are the cuts we’ve used so far in class.

Medium Dice: cube-shaped cut; dimensions ½” x ½” x ½”
Small Dice: cube-shaped cut; dimensions ¼” x ¼” x ¼”
Brunoise: cube-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 1/8”

Bâtonnet: stick-shaped cut; dimensions ¼” x ¼” x 2”
Julienne: stick-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 2”
Allumette: stick-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 1 ½”
-This is normally only used for potatoes (matchsticks)

Paysanne: flat, square, round or triangular item; dimensions ½” x ½” x 1/8”

OK, back to soup. After finishing up the slicing, Stormy got started on the Cream of Mushroom. Cream soups are also puréed but are not called purées because they are not thickened with a puréed starchy ingredient but are thickened with a roux or an alternate starch and are finished by adding cream. After sautéing the mushrooms in butter (great smell by the way), we sweat the other veggies with them. Now, we need to do 2 things add the liquid and add the thickener. The order does not matter but the technique does. If you add the liquid first, you have to pre-make a roux (flour+fat). If you add the flour directly into the sautéed veggies you’ll make a roux with the veggies in it and can then add the stock after the roux has formed. At this point, you have a velouté with sautéed veggies. The mixture is still thick and has chunks of mushrooms. Stormy, the smoothie queen, again got our soup to a silky texture.

While that was working I got started on the Chicken Waterzooi (yeah, I’ve never heard of it either). We had been cooking an entire chicken for the first half of class in chicken stock, creating our own chicken broth (Why broth? Because we used the meat, not just the bones). We pulled the chicken from the broth and set it aside to tear up later. To this broth, we added a cold roux that we had already prepared and simmered it for an hour. After the hour we added the allumette veggies.

At this point, we have 3 almost finished soups. The cool part is that none of them are really done until just before service. For a cream soup, you don’t remember me saying “add cream” (you don’t have to scroll up and check, I haven’t). Just before service, we have to finish and garnish.

Here are the 3 soups we made on Tuesday:
Top: Purée of Split Pea is bowled and garnished with the diced up meat from the ham hock we pulled from the soup earlier and a few croutons.
Bottom Right: Cream of Mushroom is finished with cream (pouring in hot cream), bowled and garnished with some sliced mushrooms that we removed and saved before puréeing the soup and some finely chopped parsley
Bottom Left: Chicken Waterzooi is finished with a liaison (1 part egg yolk and 3 parts cream whisked together to add richness and smoothness). This, just as the cream is added, bowled and garnished with finely chopped parsley. The reason that the veggies for this soup were all cut allumete was because this soup is not puréed and that these veggies should look uniform to enhance the visual appeal of the bowl.

A little advice that we got from Chef Pierre on our cream soups:
The soups will always thicken as they cool. As soon as the soup is served it starts to cool. Make the soups thinner than desired in the pot so that when they are served, they don’t get too thick as ours had started to do.

The best part about preparing served items is that after we plate things, we get to eat them. I'm gonna let y'all in on a little secret, I've always loved French Onion and Split Pea Soup. Now, I love them more than ever. I’ve had 6 bowls of soup in 2 days and I still hunger for more.

--Rees