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