Methods Review (Sweet Sweetbread's Baaaaadasssss Song)

Today was a mishmash of recipes to review different cooking methods. On the menu today was baked stuffed potatoes, sautéed supreme of chicken with white port reduction (a.k.a. pan sauce), wild mushroom fricasse, BBQ baby back ribs, and braised sweetbreads. There wasn't much lecture, and we got to it pretty quick.

Back together with Chef Jr, Speedy, Roundhead, and 2LG, I asked, "Who is leader this time?" CJ begs off, though I think he would be an excellent organized leader, he just needs the confidence. Speedy wants it; he got it. RH starts asking me what to do and I'm all, "Don't ask me, Sp is the leader." I'm set off making a simple shallot compote and sautéed shittakes for the port reduction sauce for the chicken, then make the sauce, having fun flambéing with the strong white port. Sp takes the chicken, and I assist him in pan sautéing to a nice crispy exterior before finishing in the oven. CJ rubs spices on the ribs before enclosing them in foil and into the oven. RH cleans up the sweet breads, assembling the mise and then helping to finish assembling the mushrooms with 2LG.

As the ribs are in the oven, CJ gets the potatoes in the oven; then, when they are soft, he takes them out, scoops them hollow, rices the guts with butter and salt spices. The potatoes are placed in a plastic bag with a metal tip, then are squeezed decoratively back into the potato skins. Finished with grated cheese, they are browned in the oven before being finished with parsley.

Even though we agreed to slice the sweet breads thinly and pan-fry them with standard breading, RH stuck to the recipe cards that called for braising. Thing is, this lesson focused on methods -- and as cooks, we should be able to switch up methods and still keep a cool head and know what we're doing. RH was too enamored of his own cards and not thinking independently.

Sweetbreads are glands from a veal cow's head, below the brain. They are soaked in milk and are eerily white. They are braised and cooked in liquid after a browning in a pan. Braising really softens a meat. I tasted the sweetbread -- it tasted very much like neutral chicken, except the consistency was slightly gelatinous and pasty/firm at the same time. As I was chewing, my stomach felt queasy and for the first time in class, I spit into a napkin without swallowing. Braised sweetbreads without sauce are kinda gross -- if we used a crispy method, that kept some firmness, it probably would of been a lot more palatable. Roundhead, THINK!

And while I'm getting down on my fellow students, Speedy is speedy out of the gate, but as he gets into it, he gets a little bit too precious about his food. When running late, we need to get things to a stage of "good enough," not perfect. Perfection may only take an extra minute, but getting food on the plate at the appropriate time has to be balanced with the quality of the cooking if we're ever going to get into this business seriously. And Speedy is always the last one out of the gate when it comes to solo-cooking recipes. (I'd say Late Kid was, but LK got suspended for being late all the time....)

I like Chef C, he's a sweet guy, charmingly dopey and he aims to please. However, he does not run a tight class like Chef M did. We kept the same groups, which is comfortable, but it's lazy and unchallenging. The recipes went by a bit quick, and we ended up cleaning the kitchen around 11am, and left around 11:45am. During this time, rather than ride the class to move quicker, Chef C helped clean. If we were all equals, that would be cool, but he needs to be the 5-star General. He should be teaching and leading, not on his knees moving cutting boards. Cleaning should have been 30 minutes, and that half hour could have been dedicated to, say, intense knife drills -- something productive. Urgh. Regardless, I think it would be fun to stage (assist) for Chef C in a recreational class for the public. However, I would not want him to be my mentor.

ADDENDA:
I've been slowly cluing in some of the cooler students in class about this blog, and so far the feedback has been surprisingly positive (surprising, as NO ONE comments on these entries! Hint hint...) Dirty Kim said her family has been really enjoying reading down in Trinidad & Tobago. Hollah to the Dirty Family! Get your lives together!

Once again, 224 lbs o' heaviness this morning, despite the crazy weekend eating.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, sauteed chicken with port reduction sauce, 3 babyback ribs with bbq sauce, one stuffed potato, 1 bite (spit out) of sweetbread, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, ramekin of soy-based chocolate-chocolate-cashew ice-cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Need a shot of sugar and caffeine to wake up.

PM SNACK: 4pm, baby carrots with hummus, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
So Ilsa will yell at me a little less tomorrow.

DINNER: 5:45pm, homemade pizza, grape soda, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh my. This is exciting. The best homemade pizza yet. I proofed the dough from Friday morning through Monday, in the fridge. I topped it with some sauce I made weeks ago, grated a few random cheeses in the fridge, moz, parm, gruyere, swiss, little bits of each. The crust was amazingly chewy, crisp to the bite, a wonderfully yeasty aroma, thin and crisp at the middle, pillowy and chewy at the edge. Now if I can only do this 500 times a night, I'll be in business...

EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, 2 hot dogs with kraut & onions, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice bike ride out to Coney, communed with the elder spirits of Brooklyn by chowing down on nitrate-laced lip n' butthole force-meats.