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