Market Basket (Food, Like a Kiss from a Stranger)

Today was Market Basket, where we were given five ingredients that had to be used over two appetizers. It wasn't particularly difficult, as we were given a fully stocked pantry to work with, too. Really, it was too much choice.

The five ingredients were:

• Sea Scallops
• Slab Bacon
• Spinach
• Grape Tomatoes
• Shitake Mushrooms

Norbert and I teamed up, he went with a simple spinach salad with a bacon vinaigrette and sauteed scallops (with bacon fat as the lipid). I decided to go with a stir fry of vegetables, and brine and velvet the scallops.

Most of the work was collecting the mise and chopping the veg: oil, garlic and ginger to flavor the oil, sliced the mushrooms, carrots, red onion, devein the spinach, soy sauce mirin, sesame oil, a bit of garlic chili paste, a dash of fish sauce, fish stock.

I soaked the scallops in salted water for about 20 minutes, patted them dry, then dredged them in cornstarch. Got canola in the hot wok, moved around crushed garlic and ginger till it was browned and given up all it's flavor, then removed it. First, I placed the scallops (sliced into thirds) into the oil, saute about a minute on each side till a lovely golden brown. Moved them to the rack, then started stir-frying the veg: carrots, then shitake and onion, then the spinach, a dash of soy sauce goes up in a puff of steam, mirin a puff of steam, a little fish stock a smaller puff of steam then boils off. Taste, a smidgen of chili paste, a drop of fish sauce. A quick stir, then into a metal round on the plate. Topped with the three wedges of scallop, then off to present. From scallop in the pan to the plate, maybe 3 minutes.

Chef Al was not really tasting dishes so much as critiquing the plating in depth, more than any other chef has done yet - I suspect he may have some experience in food styling. His first critique is that I served him from the right, it should always be from the left, and it didn't get much better from there.

I served on a small plate, he felt that even though it is an appetizer, a large plate with some white space would of been more more dramatic. The dish looked dry to him -- no sauce. He made a comment, something like, "Food should be like a kiss from a stranger: moist, glistening and slightly salty." Eeeee! Anyway, my dish was not sauced, I did not make a sauce -- the stir fry was quite moist, but the sauteed scallops on top were 'dry'. He took a squeeze bottle of canola oil and dropped a few little droplets around the surface of the scallop, and indeed it popped to life. Maybe a few drops of reduced fish stock would of been the move.

The liquid off the veg ran a little when I moved the plate from my station to his table, which he found unattractive. I should of either made the veg a little bit drier or added liquid around the plate to make it look like on purpose.

Right before I brought the plate over, I looked at my station for garnish. I took a small leaf of spinach and placed it on top, it looked good to me. Chef did not approve of the garnish -- the spinach in the stir fry was dark and wilted. He though something like a small piece of fanned onion or a chiffonade of carrot would of added to the color and shown off more refined knife skills -- if you're going to pay $15 for an appetizer, you want to see the money on your plate, y'know?

At the end of class, after cleaning up the room, Chef ran through the different flavors (sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami), the different possible aspects of food (flavor, smell, texture, sound, temperature) and all the different possible textures -- smooth, crunchy, grainy, powdery, chunky, gelatinous, chewy, tough, spongy, squirty, greasy, slippery, and on and on, we rattled off words for a solid 5 minutes. Things to keep in mind when we continue with Market Basket tomorrow, with entrees.

ADDENDA:

The scale said 224 this morning -- does this mean I should eat McDonald's and Ben & Jerry's every weekend?

I have mixed feelings about today's exercise -- it's like telling a kid after using a pencil for the first time ever, to go draw something, and try to get depth and shading in there. On one hand, it's cool that it puts us in the mindset of using what's on hand -- at home, you have a dry pantry, and then you might have that bag of tomatoes from the farmer's market that'll go bad tomorrow if you don't use them right now. On the other hand, the pretense that any of us have the skills from the last 6-odd months to make something truly creative and good smacks of the school trying to make the customers (i.e. students) happy.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey and raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, velveted scallops with stir fried veg, freshly made potato chips, Israeli couscous, quart of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTINGS: 1-2pm, a few bits of chocolate

Went to demo of a chocolatier making decorations and truffles, pretty over the top.

DINNER: 6pm, philly cheese steak, mashed potatoes, water, 3 pieces of fancy chocolate, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Went to a diner with B, had this meal keeping in mind the divine steaks I ate in Philly. I thought the bread would be the worst thing about it, but that was pretty good -- the meat was sliced all wrong, too thick and in too big pieces, which totally altered the character of the sandwich. I could definitely make a better, more authentic cheese steak at home. On a side note, what the hell is wrong with me? Why am I on a shitty-food bender? The urge for salad in 3...2...

EVENING SNORT: 7-9pm, equivalent of half a glass of wine, a little cheese n' crackers
The sixth and final wine class, and wine still tastes like...alcohol and funky grape juice. Though I can detect 'oak' in wine. Woo hoo!