Thursday, April 24, 2008

Basic Knife Skills (There Really IS More Than One Way to Peel an Onion!)

Even though I arrived in the classroom at 7:58am, I was the next to last to arrive. "On time is late," indeed. The first half hour was dedicated to the thought behind good knife skills -- consistency in your cuts is a) attractive and b) allows the food to cook evenly. How consistent and accurate your brunoise (1/8" cube) and batonettes (1/4 x 1/4 x 2+" strip) is how a chef would size up a candidate for a gig. We discussed 'Mire Poix', the basic flavor base of many soups and sauces (1 part celery, 1 part carrot and 2 part onions). These ingredients are usually cooked down or removed after they've given their all; edible scraps created by turning round and tubular vegetables into squares can go in the 'Mire Poix Bucket'.

Finally, a brief talk on salt. According to my M.D., ideally I should cut out all salt from my diet. According to Chef M, ideally all food should have some salt, as it is essential for good taste in all things. Handouts of articles from a few foodie magazines were distributed; each waxed poetic about the varieties of salt I've never even heard, and from all over the world. I now know why any chef worth his salt uses kosher instead of table salt. (And Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt, very rare then, hence the term 'worth your salt.')

And then the chairs were put away, the knives came out, and off we went dicing onions and garlic, cubing carrots, slicing through tomatoes, putting on plastic gloves for jalapenos, balling up and dicing parsley and cilantro and watching demos from the chef all the while.

We used two knives: the 9" chefs knife and the paring knife. I know my way around the big knife due to a knife-skills class I took a few months ago. The little paring knife is something of new thing -- I actually was given a set of three really sweet Global knifes (chefs, utility, paring) and to be honest never use the little one. Chef showed us how to grip the whole blade with our hand so the point and the thumb become like tweezers. Even though you are gripping across the sharp edge, as long as you don't move the blade back and forth, a little firm pressure will not cut your skin. After slicing off the non-root end of the onion, using the paring knife we worked the skin off the onion with thumb and paring knife point. Hark, a new way to peel an onion! Also, by putting my thumb on the core of a tomato and spinning it while the point of the paring knife came in under it at an angle cleanly and easily cored the vegetable. Paring knife, you are sassy!

Now that we had all these mounds of vegetables, we scooped them into prep bowls, doused them with red wine vinegar (1 part) and olive oil (3 parts) and salted to taste with sea salt. Voila, the $30K quart of salsa!! Buy one quart, get a culinary education free of charge...

After cleaning our dishes and stations, the chairs came out again and a woman from the career department came down to talk to us about the future. What we can do with our $30k quart of s...culinary degree once we graduate. Restaurant grunt, hotel cook grunt, corporate dining, personal cheffing, catering, and my own personal interest: "alternative food careers." Hopefully more on that later.

After happily chopped vegetables with a pleasingly sharp knife for an hour, it was a bit of a 'back to earth' moment. What am I going to do once this blog has run its course? She spoke of how the 210-hour externship (after classroom work is over) can lead to a job. She also mentioned various volunteer opportunities -- next week, I think I'm going to sit with someone there and talk about volunteering. I think I need real-world experience of some sort before I get to the externship -- not to be an overachiever, but to help me figure out what I want to do. Nutrition and the politics of food has really gotten my brain-pan firing for a while now...

ADDENDA:
After class, dropped off the quart of salsa with B, took an appointment, then went to yoga -- my first open class. People were spinning on their heads without hands and pulling their feet behind their backs and over their shoulders like licorice. I, on the other hand, sweat profusely as I attempted to touch my ankles.

The thrill of culinary class left my stomach tight, hunger not really coming to me until home. The salsa we made was actually really tasty, as anything simple and fresh can be, but it made me think -- it was not really my choice to eat salsa, it's not something I eat too often. For the next six months, what I choose to eat for four hours a day will be dictated by school -- in fact, I'll be eating some things I've never chosen to eat. Tomorrow, we'll be slicing our way through assorted fruits, some of which I've never eaten before....

B, the HVS and I are going upstate together tomorrow to the Omega Institute -- they're doing a 'women of yoga' program, I'm bringing my road bike and plan to explore the hills and the Hudson. And eat lots of good vegan food.

BREAKFAST: 7am, farmer's market granola with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:15am, piece of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:15am, another piece of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, several spoonfuls of salsa crudo, a small handful of tortilla chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, hot dog with kraut, mustard, onions, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out running around doing things, spontaneously stopped by a Gray's Papaya. The lip-n-butthole flavor is everything I remember it to be. According to my textbook, a sausage like a hotdog is a "forcemeat", hmmm....

PM SNACK: 5pm, falafel on whole wheat, bottle water, hunger 4.5/5
After yoga, still had to get around, had to stop by a Maoz Vegetarian, a chain of falafel places. Not as good as the indie place I've been hitting up since high school on St Marks & 1st.

DINNER: 7:30pm, curry rice vermicelli, lotus-leaf rice wraps, spinach dumpling, quart of water, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from Tien Garden, a buddhist vegan joint in the hood.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, gnocci in tomato sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
B's leftovers from a restaurant meal.

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