Braising (Cheeky Cheeky)

Is there nothing prettier than a 10 lb roll of bacon? Wives excluded, of course.

Before the lecture, we had to get the osso buco in the oven. In addition to Natasha and Stoney, someone I'll call Speedy joined the group -- he talks fast and is really enthusiastic, and once underway, started refering to our group as 'the dream team'. Osso buco ("hollow bone") is a slice of the cow shank, as it has a marrow bone surrounded by meat, and is quite tough and full of collagen that needs to be broken down. We browned the hell out of it; carmelized the mirepoix; reduced wine to dry; threw in the stock, meat, and ; then set it into the oven to cook, covered.

The brief lecture revierwed the full one-pot braising method, and Chef M showed us how to cut a circular piece of parchment paper to place between the pot and the cover as a method of retaining heat and moisture in the pot.

Beef cheeks, another very tough cut of meat, was similar in method to the osso buco, except that at the end of class, we iced the whole braise (and will finish cooking it tomorrow). Endives were halved, wrapped in bacon; after braising, they were put under the broiler to give the bacon a little crunch. The fennel was braised in rendered bacon fat and olive oil, and the meaty chunks of bacon at the end were a highlight of the dish. Torward the end of class, we put a whole snapper (minus scales, guts, and sharp fins) in a marinade, started a braising liquid with olives and capers, and only took 30 minutes in the oven. Technically this is poaching, according to Chef M, though the method is similar -- fish just is not a very tough meat.

While things were braising away, for knife skills we tourned potatoes. This is taking a tall eighth of a potato with your left forefinger on top and right thumb on bottom, and pulling a short curved torne knife down the side in a curve, turning after each slice, until you have a neat 7-sided barrel shape. Chef M can do it and make it look ridiculously easy, for the rest of us it's a bit out of our grasps.

Braising, bobbing -- protein is halfway in the liquid. Tomorrow is stewing, swimming -- small pieces fully submersed.

ADDENDA:

Nicked my left thumb and bled over a few endive, burned my righ thumb grabbing a pot out of the oven with a towel. Ran it under cold water and put a burn cream on it, still ouchy. Not quite enough sleep last night, made me all thumbs.

After class, attended an early afternoon demo called, "Kaiseki: The High Art of the Japanese Meal." Kaiseki is a formal menu of a starter, appetizer, raw dish, grilled dish, soup & rice. The chef made it look easy, but I know enough now to see the tremendous amount of precision on display. The chef was one of the few women in the world to become a full-on sushi chef in Japan, nothing to sneeze at.

Met with Ilsa this evening, she busted my chops a bit about eating too little (and causing sugar cravings) and assigned me to make some interesting calorie-and-nutritionally dense smoothies for breakfast, looking forward to making something awesome. I picked up some grapes and cherries at Whole Foods, with a banana, the good yogurt, the good milk, wheat germ, a dash of honey, maybe some ice, some almond extract, it'll be unstoppable. Looked at soy powder in Whole Foods but it had a zillion multi-vitamin chemicals in it that kinda turned me off. I'm already taking a dirt pill a day, don't need duplications.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, granola with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 11am, one bite of osso buco with lots of sauce and french bread, 5 slices of bacon pulled from the braised endive, several bacon lardons from the fennel, 2 bites of napoleon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Braised meat is unpleasantly stringy and braised veg are unpleasantly mushy.

PM TASTING: 2-3pm, grilled branzino with basil paste and radish pickle, sauted sirloin over sticky rice with sesame radish pickle, seaweed-fishcake soup, asparagus cake, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tiny tastes at the Kaiseki demo. Simple broad flavors presented beautfully, really taking advantage of the freshness of color and taste of the ingredients.

DINNER: 7:30pm, chana sag with rice and nan, 1 lamb samosa, onion baji, 1/2 a beer, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
I was really hungry, but by the time the entrée came, could only eat half, was really full. Got to be the hot weater.