Introduction to Fruit (and SUGAR)

Today we met Chef G, who will be taking us through Module 4: pastry. Like Chef K, she sounds very Noo Yawk and has been with the school for well over a decade. She's in the process of opening up her own cooking school in Italy, so it's safe to assume she has something to teach us.

My nutritionist would be happy to know we were working with fruit today. However, my nutritionist would be horrified to see what we did to these poor, innocent fruits. Chef broke us into teams of three, and I lucked out and got to work with Dirty Kim and the Long Island Lolita. (Dirty Dave got stuck with a double whammy of the slightly passive Roundhead and the walking DOH violation known as Dora the Explorer.)

Early in Mod 1 we were introduced to herb, veg and fruit ID, so Chef K simply went over the methods of cooking we knew (fry, roast/broil, grill, poach, braise, saute) and threw in a couple of new ones that would be pastry-specific: dry, macerate and candy.

But first she showed us the proper way to peel and core apples and pears: With apples, one long turn around the belly of the fruit from top to bottom, with pears individual strokes from point to base. The purpose is to make the fruit as round as possible so when it's sliced and used in a dish, it's all purty-like. Coring was another revelation: cut in half, then take a mellon baller and take out the middle sides. With a paring knife cut thin wedges to get out the rest of the core. Up until this point, I've used a dumb round corer-device that took out a lot of fruit, this new way saves a lot of the usable flesh.

DK split up the tasks, but by the end I got my hands into most everything. Poached figs were straightforward. Destem the fresh figs, boil sugar in water to make a simple syrup, add a vanilla bean, some lemon pear, a mint sprig then turn out over the figs in a single layer. Let sit to room temp, then refrigerate. Poached figs, ick, old people food. My poppa would of gone gaga over them.

I also made roasted pears n' figs. Take 4 pears in peeled wedges, halved dried figgies, sugar, dark rum, fresh and ground ginger, salt, lemon zest and vanilla extract, toss in a pan to coat, and bake till fork tender. Again, old people food. Needs vanilla ice cream in a serious kind of way.

DK went about grilling pineapple. After cutting into the appropriate wedges, drizzle with olive oil, grill, then finish with a sprinkling of coriander, cinnamon and sugar. Shockingly delicious. LIL sliced some pears thinly on a mandolin in full rounds, boiled them gently in a simple syrup until they turned translucent, then cooled and dried them onto a silicone baking mat. In an over around 200 degrees for 45 minutes, they came out dry, crisp and sweet, like the sugary equivalent of potato chips.

DK also made some candied grapefruit rinds. Peel off the rinds, pith and all, cut into slices. Put in cold water, bring to a boil, drain -- repeat 4 more times. Once blanched off all bitterness, place in simple syrup and store till ready to use. All sorts of citrus rinds were candied today for use in upcoming lessons. LIL also made a retardedly simple strawberry salad, which was simply sliced strawberries, sugar, balsamic vinegar and some basil.

The purpose of today was to get us comfortable with some of the methods, so the food really wasn't finished dishes. Still, it looked nice and for the most part, tasted great. Freshly dried fruit is NOTHING like the funky smelling bags you get at hippy health food stores...

Come Monday, we are introduced to dough.

ADDENDA:
When B and I were at the supermarket picking up groceries, she said she wanted to get some "flash frozen chicken cutlets", so her mom could show her how to make them at some point. I said, ok, let's walk over to the meat section and then she flip flopped, changed her mind. Buying raw meat skeeved her out a little, but her diet requires her to eat 5 oz servings of lean meat, ideally chicken. Why flash frozen? Because that's what her mom uses. Cutlets? We can get a whole fresh chicken and I can make cutlets! Whatever! Why like your mom? I can saute a chicken boob, I can roast a chicken boob, I can deep/stir/pan fry a chicken boob, hell, I can braise the sh@t out of a chicken boob! As we walked over, I said fresh chicken will taste a lot better, and B insisted that chicken can't be frozen from fresh. But right there on the fresh chicken packaging, instructions how to refrigerate or freeze. He he he.

Thing is, up until school, I shared her fear of the raw (evil bacteria! will kill ya! fast!) meat -- it was ok to buy it cooked at the market or restaurant, but getting it raw was just a little beyond the pale. Maybe the lack of confidence around raw meat is why some of my generation go vegetarian at home but eat meat while out? At least when you buy it raw, you can select the organic, humanly-raised, non-drugged up kinds. My mom and dad would fill the freezer with chicken and beef whenever it would be on sale, and that stuff would go green and frost-bitten before we got around to eating it. I guess with all the discounts, it eventually evened out to the cost of just eating the non-discounted fresh meat quickly. I shall prep my wife's chicken boobies this weekend for her. I just hard-boiled some eggies for her this evening...

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11am, baked pears, dried pears and apples, grilled pineapple, whipped cream, a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 12:30pm, 1 quart still

LUNCH: 3pm, grilled shrimp and linguine, seltzer, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Take out from a grill restaurant, very cheap but a stupid large amount of pasta, didn't even finish it.

DINNER: 7:30pm, small salad with fresh tomato, 3 pieces shortbread with peanut butter, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tired, gonna go to bed early on this light meal and have a (hopefully) physical weekend.