tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25758140387360024002024-02-21T08:53:47.732-08:00Culinary School ConfidentialTales from the Training KitchenUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger233125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-61623955352858584542010-05-26T18:21:00.000-07:002010-05-27T06:12:50.939-07:00Steak n' MousseNo theme today, just the next week hanging over us -- next week is the last class, and we will be serving dinner to the friends and families of the students and a number of the staff, perhaps 25-30 mouths all together. So today was all about making some fancy labor-intensive desserts for next week, and a few simple dishes to get us fed today.<br /><br />Pastry chefs run in a slightly different world than the rest of the kitchen, due to the fact dessert is usually NOT a la minute -- it can be prepared hours, if not days in advanced, and will not lose quality. These workers can come in early and take over the kitchen and make complex recipes like the following, before the main staff come in to prep the rest of the menu....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TRIPLE-CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 2 cakes, 24 to 36 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>BOTTOM LAYER<br />Butter, cut into 12 pieces 6 oz<br />Bittersweet chocolate, fine chop 14 oz<br />Instant Espresso powder 1 ½ tsp<br />Vanilla extract 1 tbsp<br />Eggs, separated 8 each<br />Salt 2 pinches<br />Light brown sugar, crumbled 2/3 cup packed<br /><br />MIDDLE LAYER<br />Cocoa powder, dutch process 4tbsp<br />Hot water 5 oz<br />Bittersweet chocolate, fine chop 14 oz<br />Heavy cream, cold 3 cup<br />Sugar 2 tbsp<br />Salt ¼ tsp<br /><br />TOP LAYER<br />Powdered gelatin 1 ½ tsp<br />Water 2 tbsp<br />White chocolate, fine chop 12 oz<br />Heavy cream, cold 3 cup<br /><br />Shaved chocolate or cocoa powder for serving</blockquote><br /><ol><li>BOTTOM LAYER:<br />Preheat oven to 325˚. Grease bottom and sides of 2 10”<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">spring form</span> pans. Slowly melt butter, chocolate and espresso powder in double boiler, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Wait 5 minutes. Whisk in vanilla and egg yolks. Set aside.</li><li>In stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt until frothy. Add half sugar and beat until combined. Add rest of sugar and beat until soft peaks, scraping down sides half way through.</li><li>Fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture one third at a time, until no white streaks remain. Pour into two prepared <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">spring form</span> pans.</li><li>Bake 13-18 minutes, just set but soft in middle. Cool for 1 hour, leave in pan.<br /><br /></li><li>MIDDLE LAYER.<br />Combine cocoa <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">powder</span> and hot water, set aside. Melt chocolate in double boiler until just smooth, take off heat and let cool 2 minutes.</li><li>In stand mixer, whip cream, sugar and salt together to soft peaks.</li><li>Whisk cocoa powder mixture into melted chocolate until smooth. Fold whipped cream into chocolate 1/3 at a time until no streaks remain. Spoon into <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">spring form</span> pans on top of bottom layer. Smooth with spatula and clean off any drips from the inside sides. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Refrigerate</span> for a minimum of 15 minutes.<br /><br /></li><li>TOP LAYER.<br />In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.</li><li>Bring 1 cup cream to a simmer in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture, stir until dissolved. </li><li>Pour cream mixture over white chocolate in a bowl, whisk until smooth. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes</li><li>In a stand mixer, whisk remaining 2 cups of cream to soft peaks. Fold into white chocolate mixture, one third at a time. Spoon over middle layer.</li><li>Set in fridge for at least 2.5 hours. Serve with garnish of cocoa or shaved chocolate.</li></ol> This recipe was adapted from Cook's Illustrated, which was much more wordy and full of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">explanation</span> of why. Which is great for someone like me, but a bad distraction from students just trying to get the thing done in the time given.<br /><br />We cooked off a few flank steaks in the oven -- ideally it would be on a grill, but we had no access to one, so into the convection oven we went. The marinade was blended to smooth, the steak poked fill of shallow cuts with the tip of a chef's knife.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">CHIMICHURRI</span> FLANK STEAK</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 12 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Flank steak, trimmed & scored 1 each<br />Vegetable oil 2 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">floz</span><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">EVOO</span> 2 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">floz</span><br />Cider vinegar 2 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">floz</span><br />Garlic cloves, minced 2 each<br />Cumin 1 tsp<br />Oregano, fresh 1/3 cup<br />Cilantro, fresh ½ cup<br />Parsley, fresh 1 cup</blockquote><br /><ol><li>Combine all ingredients except steak. Puree in blender. Marinate steak in ½ of marinade for 1 hour.</li><li>Cook in oven at 300˚ until internal temp reaches 135˚. Rest 10 minutes, slice against grain, serve with remaining marinade.</li></ol>135 is medium rare, and as I found out, feeding medium-rare meat to this population of students is about as likely as serving a vending-machine hamburger at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Nobu</span>. So I cooked off each of the three steaks differently -- medium rare (135), medium (142) and well-done (150), but even the well done was not well-done enough for them. There was no pink, but it was still juicy. After it was sliced, one student put it in a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">sautee</span> pan and cooked it until it had browned edges, and the consistency was closer to tough leather than <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">unctuous</span> steak. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Blech</span>! Over-cooked meat is part of a culture of fear of illness from undercooked meat, particularly established in lower economic rungs, where access to good meat is more rare.<br /><br />A student last week suggested collards, and we did a pretty standard version.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">COLLARD GREENS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 12 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Smoked ham hocks 2 lbs<br />Water 1 g<br />Salt to taste<br />Collard greens 4 bunch<br />Cider vinegar 1 cups<br />Sugar 3 tbsp</blockquote><ol><li>Place the pork, water and salt in a pot. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">BTB</span>, skim off any fat that rises to the top. Reduce temperature to low and let simmer for 30 minutes.</li><li>Meanwhile, prepare greens. Discard damaged or yellow parts of leaves. Cut away the tough ends from each leaf. Place greens in a colander, wash thoroughly. Fold each leaf in half at its center vein, fold over once or twice more, then cut in half.</li><li>Stir prepared greens into the simmering liquid. Let simmer all together for approximately 1 hour over low heat. Add half of sugar and vinegar, taste and adjust. Serve.</li></ol>One student decided to "spice" it up at the end, throwing in a bunch of dried spices and a bit too much hot red pepper flakes. Regardless, the long boiling in the smokey stock eliminated any bitterness, and the vinegar gave a nice kick.<br /><br />One student has been bragging about his skill making banana pudding since the day I met him, but unfortunately he did not show up today. When everything was well underway, I decided to fit this in at the last minute.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BANANA PUDDING</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: Two 9 x 13 pans</span><br /><br /><blockquote>White sugar 10 oz<br />AP flour 2/3 cup<br />Salt ½ tsp<br />Egg yolks, beaten 6 each<br />Heavy cream 1 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">qt</span><br />Vanilla bean, scraped 2 beans<br />Rum 1 oz<br />Butter, softened ¼ cup<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Bananas</span>, peeled & sliced 4 each<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Nilla</span> wafers 12 oz</blockquote><ol><li>In medium saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs and stir well. Stir in cream, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly. When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and continue to stir, cooling slightly. Stir in vanilla, rum and butter until smooth.</li><li>In two 9x13-inch dish, layer pudding with bananas and vanilla wafers. Chill at least one hour in refrigerator before serving.</li></ol>We went off the reservation with this recipe a bit. First, we ran out of cream so substituted coconut milk for about 1/3 of the cream. Second, in deference to next week, we decided to make mini banana pudding cups in cupcake papers. Third, we were given horrible "reduced fat" <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Nilla</span> wafers, so we <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">ground</span> them in a blender and added a few sticks of butter to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">unreduce</span> it. In the cups we pressed in some of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Nilla</span> mix, a layer of the rum-vanilla <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">pudding</span>, a few slices of bananas, then a layer of simple whipped cream. When we serve it, we'll sprinkle some cinnamon sugar.<br /><br />Next week, the wrap-up!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-4559258201239458202010-05-19T20:30:00.000-07:002010-05-20T08:03:19.570-07:00Italian with Mario<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbn9hzhcXTAQ0bQFlLyzFUx7sUamKk7hcOGXs4ScKzAkHdqvDG5f-tWxbhSWXc-owWN2v6WJk9vM70If2MsfkuKpx3FcLDMhAZ2xrK6TqNdydG9r9O_P8q7_hQCYgnnSzefBfKQ6voh35i/s1600/photo-88.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbn9hzhcXTAQ0bQFlLyzFUx7sUamKk7hcOGXs4ScKzAkHdqvDG5f-tWxbhSWXc-owWN2v6WJk9vM70If2MsfkuKpx3FcLDMhAZ2xrK6TqNdydG9r9O_P8q7_hQCYgnnSzefBfKQ6voh35i/s400/photo-88.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473190262641673874" border="0" /></a><br />I started today's lesson with a personal story, which seems to be an effective way to start a class -- seems simple, why didn't I figure this out sooner? A few years ago I was visiting an old friend outside of London, England, where she took me to her best friend's house for dinner. The friend made a lasagna "from scratch". It certainly looked like a normal lasagna. When I cut a piece off with a fork (felt right), I placed the bite in my mouth and tasted...nothing. At all. I was not sick or stuffed up, but I took a paper napkin and quickly blew my nose to make sure it was clear -- the only time I ever had an experience like this was when my nose is stuffed, preventing nerve ending in the nasal cavity from detecting taste. Nope, the lasagna tasted like nothing.<br /><br />I politely said it was great, and helped clean up. At this point I was able to do some detective work. Premade sauce from a jar. No-fat diet ricotta cheese. Pre-cooked lasagna pasta sheets from the refrigerator section. No-fat diet mozzarella cheese. Dried herbs, probably been sitting in a jar for years in her spice rack. No sign of salt or olive oil. Wow. That pretty much explains it.<br /><br />Today, we would make an Italian baked pasta dish, truly from scratch. But to make something like a Baked Ziti, you don't just go and buy the components, some of them you should make... particularly the bescamela sauce, the bread crumbs and, of course the tomato sauce....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BESCIAMELLA</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: about 5 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Butter ½ cup<br />AP flour ½ cup<br />Whole milk 1 quart + ½ cup<br />Salt 1 tbsp<br />Nutmeg, freshly grated 1 tsp</blockquote><ol><li>In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Cook, stirring until light golden brown 6 to 7 minutes.</li><li>Meanwhile, in another saucepan, heat the milk to just under a boil. Add the milk to the butter mixture about 1 cup at time, whisking constantly until very smooth, and bring to a boil, whisking. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 10 minutes; remove from the heat.</li><li>Season with the salt and nutmeg. Transfer to a bowl and let cool, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.</li></ol><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BASIC TOMATO SAUCE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 cups</span><br /><blockquote>EVOO ½ cup<br />Onion, small dice 2 large onion<br />Garlic, minced 8 cloves<br />Thyme, chopped ¼ cup<br />Oregano, chopped ¼ cup<br />Carrot, grated 2 each<br />Basil, chiffonade ¼ cup<br />Whole peeled tomatoes, milled Four 28oz cans<br />Salt to taste</blockquote><ol><li>Heat olive oil in saucepan. Soften onion, then add garlic for 1 additional minute.</li><li>Add thyme, oregano and carrot and cook until carrot is soft, about five minutes</li><li>Add tomatoes and basil. Simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes.</li></ol><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BREAD CRUMBS</span><br /></div><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: about 4 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Italian bread, thickly sliced 1 loaf, fresh</blockquote><ol><li>Place bread slices on a sheet into a cold oven. Heat to 200˚</li><li>Remove when bread is dry but not too browned. Place in a food processor and pulse until only crumbs remain – not too chunky, but not a fine powder, either.</li></ol><br />I had three teams of two bang out these three, and as they finished, I had them work on the other components of the ziti -- pasta that is undercooked then chilled fast, grate the cheese (NOT pregrated, of course) and good imported buffala moz chopped into cubes.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ZITI AL TELEFONO (BAKED ZITI)</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Ziti 2 lb<br />Tomato Sauce 4 cups<br />Besciamella 4 cups<br />Buffalo mozzarella 2 lbs<br />Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated 1 cup<br />Bread crumbs, fresh 1 cup</blockquote><ol><li>Preheat oven to 425˚.</li><li>Bring 3 gallons of water to a oil in a large pot, and add 2 tablespoons of salt. Cook the ziti for 2 minutes short of the package instructions; it should be too al dente to eat. Drain and rinse under cold water until cool. Drain a second time and place in a large bowl.</li><li>Add the tomato sauce, besciamella, mozzarella and Parmigiano to the ziti and stir to mix well. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs.</li><li>Bake for 20 minutes, until bubbling and crusty on top. Serve immediately.</li></ol>When all six components were laid out in front of us in mise bowls, I called the students over and gave a short lecture about Italian cooking. These six ingredients -- pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses, white sauce and bread crumbs -- are all not only simple common things, but used in thousands of configurations to make hundreds of different regional styles. Italy has literally had thousands of years to develop their cuisine, while being limited to a relatively small group of ingredients. Pasta alone, there are hundreds of shapes that grab sauce in particular ways, changing the taste, texture and experience of a dish. Angel hair pasta in tomato sauce can have the same exact ingredients as spirals in tomato sauce, but will be quite a different dish.<br /><br />And then we got all Grandma with it and mixed everything together, topped with crumbs and slammed in the oven.<br /><br />Last weeks, one of the kids requested fried shrimp, and pretty much every cuisine will have a version, and here is an Italian one...<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FRITTO DI GAMBERONI (FRIED SHRIMP)</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 6 servings</span><br /><blockquote>EVOO Enough for deep frying<br />Large shrimp, cleaned 3 lbs<br />Lemons, 1/8” slices 2 each<br />Cornstarch 2 cups<br />Wondra flour 2 cups<br />Salt to taste<br />Black pepper to taste<br />Lemons, wedges 2 each</blockquote><ol><li>Set up deep saucepan with fryer basket. Heat oil over medium heat to 375˚. </li><li>Place shrimp in a bowl. In another bowl, combine flour and cornstarch. </li><li>Combine half the shrimp, half the lemon slices and half the flour mixture in a 3rd bowl. Toss quickly with hands to coat, then toss in a colander and bat against your hand to remove excess flour mixture.</li><li>Place coated shrimp and lemons in fryer basket and gently lower into hot oil. Cook until golden brown and crisp, 1 ½ to 2 minutes. Transfer to a drying rack to drain.</li><li>Once oil returns to 375˚,immediately repeat with remaining shrimp and lemon slices. </li><li>Season with salt and pepper, serve with lemon wedges and tomato sauce for dipping.</li></ol>The kids were a bit freaked out by the deep fried lemon slices, they didn't like the pale color of the final product or the lack of crunch, BUT they liked it anyway. They're used to the fried shrimp out of the Chinese takeaways, but appreciated this different spin.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BROCCOLI AL FRASCATI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 6 servings</span><br /><blockquote>EVOO 3 oz<br />Garlic, sliced 4 cloves<br />Broccoli, cut into spears 3 lb<br />Frascati or other dry white wine 1 cup<br />Hot red pepper flakes 1 tbsp<br />Lemon zest 1 each<br />Orange zest 1 each</blockquote><ol><li>In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil with garlic over medium heat until just sizzling. </li><li>Add broccoli and cook, tossing frequently and gradually add the wine to keep the garlic from browning, until stalks are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.</li><li>Add red pepper flakes and zests, tossing well.</li></ol>I was impressed by this recipe, but I had never made it before, and unsurprisingly the kids didn't dig it. Redolent of wine and fruit without being sweet, the broccoli was tender but crisp, and nice spicy kick that made the wine and fruit flavors pop.<br /><br />As I was doing the final cleanup after the students ate and left, I found this copy of the recipes, from a student who I assumed was not paying attention, because she stared at her sheet and doodled through my entire lecture. As it turns out, she was taking notes AND drawing little hearts!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5MmsREAjr3tzPWDW_77kGBY6zeZ36HXsTm4F9QMEuritiQZxzYPmz_OrxVXeM32NX1eudBJmQrq8BF6Tjipo6P0hnhdlAAHLXmK26cssSoqknipQEpXDfPfg6mD0FNsuvOu5P4ofRdZ8/s1600/photo-87.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5MmsREAjr3tzPWDW_77kGBY6zeZ36HXsTm4F9QMEuritiQZxzYPmz_OrxVXeM32NX1eudBJmQrq8BF6Tjipo6P0hnhdlAAHLXmK26cssSoqknipQEpXDfPfg6mD0FNsuvOu5P4ofRdZ8/s400/photo-87.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473190254700083874" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-75683459374299509902010-05-14T06:37:00.001-07:002010-05-14T06:37:21.447-07:00Norbert Thursday (A momentary lapse into veganism)Edie is doing better, but she's used to eating just formula all day, so spending more time with her as she sits with solid food is a focus. We went out on foot today for a solid 4 hours and she was totally back to normal, food excepted.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AM SNACK: </span><span style="font-style: italic;">8:30am, <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">large glass of iced mint green tea</span></span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />BREAKFAST: </span><span><span style="font-style: italic;">9:45am, <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">organic whole grain <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">chex</span></span> with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />LUNCH pt 1:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> 11:30am, <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">large green salad</span>, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">LUNCH pt 2:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> 1:30pm, <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">slice of 'zen' pizza, </span>small cup of vegan chocolate 'ice cream', 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5<br /></span><span>A big <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ol</span>' vegan lunch in honor of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">HVS</span>. Went to Viva Herbal to have the spelt-crusted green tea-infused soy mush and other stuff thing. Walking down the street, felt the urge for sweets but didn't want to go too far into the red, so stopped in at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Stogo</span>, for their so-called "ice cream", but what I ate was kinda gritty, bland and bitter punctuated by dry, pasty chunks of "brownie". <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Ick</span>.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">PM SNACK:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> 2:30pm, bottle of unsweetened green jasmine tea<br /></span><span>Thirsty after a short Wholefoods shop, I picked up a bottle of Tea's Tea unsweetened green jasmine tea, the same kind of tea I've used in my last batch of ice tea. I wanted to taste green jasmine in unsweetened form, and it surprised me -- the jasmine flower flavoring gives a depth of flavor that is kinda like sweet without the sweetness. No wonder my iced tea tastes so sweet, the jasmine perfume is amplifying it.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">DINNER: </span><span style="font-style: italic;">7:30pm, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">roti</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">cannai</span> with curry dipping sauce, <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">spicy shrimp & vegetables over brown rice</span>, <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">chocolate experiment</span>, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5<br /></span><span>I plan to make the MOST DECADENT OVER THE TOP RE-GOT-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">DAMM</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">DICULOUS</span> chocolate ice cream for Edie's birthday, so for Saturday's brunch, I'm going to serve experimental chocolate ice cream, a winged-recipe based on a creme <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Anglais</span> base. I put one ramekin of the custard in the freezer just to taste it for sweetness when cold -- it was good. The balance ain't there yet (less instant espresso, a different technique to get the chocolate less gritty needed) but it's a good start.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-82035978858201739332010-05-13T06:13:00.000-07:002010-05-13T06:41:10.330-07:00Breakfast<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7yhyxeYm46efRZJCR7aGnLMuGlFs5qQUGCDA_-NB8QVzXcBwKCzzqfmmRx4mon8K5MSbY10cGLpVYrSn0XIBY4GJ54WanfoA1XEdkY66xJEcZsRXHwGOyutIPDz6Y6r0BNqcpqdkj7lz/s1600/photo-86.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7yhyxeYm46efRZJCR7aGnLMuGlFs5qQUGCDA_-NB8QVzXcBwKCzzqfmmRx4mon8K5MSbY10cGLpVYrSn0XIBY4GJ54WanfoA1XEdkY66xJEcZsRXHwGOyutIPDz6Y6r0BNqcpqdkj7lz/s400/photo-86.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470744377733338546" border="0" /></a><br />Most of the food we've done in class is lunch or dinner or dessert or snacks -- nothing particularly aimed at the first meal of the day. I purposefully excluded eggs because of two reasons: one, the many methods and techniques of cooking eggs can be a class to themselves and two, I absolutely despise eggs as a dish. Probably because my mom made me eat really poorly cooked eggs, but <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">that's</span> a rant for a different kind of blog.<br /><br />My lecture was short and sweet and about sausage. By taking "off" cuts of meat, cuts of the tougher, less palatable cuts and grinding them up and added spices, the sausage method made previously unusable parts of the animal not only usable, but quite delicious. I showed them the meat grinder and took it apart and explained how it worked, and discussed why it's important to cube the meat into small pieces -- the connective tissue between muscles, or "silver skin", will get caught in the blade and create friction and heat, which will cause the fat in the chilled meat to warm up and run out, creating dry, crumbly sausage.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BREAKFAST SAUSAGE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 6 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Sage 1 tbsp<br />Salt 1 tbsp<br />Pepper 1 ½ tsp<br />Marjoram ½ tsp<br />Brown sugar 1 tbsp<br />Red pepper flakes 1/8 tsp<br />Cloves, ground 1 pinch<br />Pork butt, chilled 3 lbs<br />Fatback 1 lb</blockquote><ol><li>Combine all ingredients except meat in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.</li><li>Cut meat & fat into 1” cubes, then run through grinder twice – first through the big dye, then through the small dye. Keep meat on iced bowl to keep fat emulsified.</li><li>Combine spice mix with meat with hands, quickly. Form into equal sized patties. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Sauté</span> patties in a large skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes per side, or until internal pork temperature reaches 160 degrees. </li></ol>We had a "pork butt", which is actually the shoulder, and the students watched while I broke it down, removing the skin and the center bone. When the ground meat came out of the machine, they were surprised that it looked just like the stuff they bought in the shop.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Toward</span> the end of class we cooked off the sausage in small heaping-tablespoon patties in peanut oil, and the students were impressed how delicious they were -- like real breakfast sausage. I told them they COULD just buy ground pork and mix in spices and make the sausage very simply that way -- and it would be <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">hella</span> more healthful than the Jimmy Dean crap you buy in a freezer case.<br /><br />Speaking of healthful, the next recipe is probably the healthiest thing I've cooked with this class. This is my riff on the Olive Oil Granola that was made popular by the NY Times.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">GRANOLA</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Old-fashioned rolled oats 3 cups<br />Raw pistachios, hulled 1 ½ cup<br />Raw pumpkin seeds, hulled 1 cup<br />Shredded dried coconut 1 cup<br />Maple syrup ¼ cup<br />Light brown sugar ½ cup<br />Extra virgin olive oil ½ cup<br />Salt 1 tsp<br />Cinnamon, ground ½ tsp<br />Cardamom, ground ½ tsp<br />Vanilla, 1 tbsp<br />Dried apple, chopped ½ cup<br />Dried cherries, chopped ½ cup</blockquote><ol><li>Preheat oven to 300˚. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the two dried fruits. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted.</li><li>Transfer granola to a large bowl and add dried fruit, tossing to combine. </li></ol>One student was moaning about how she didn't like coconut, but when it came out and she tried it, she loved it -- the coconut was very subtle and was nice and crispy. Staff from the whole building visited the kitchen, as the aromas of the granola got everywhere. Which makes me wonder about ventilation....<br /><br />The next two recipes were done at the same time, as they both involved frying in a pan. The students had only ever made pancakes from a mix, and the french toast they had made at home was always disappointing because it was leaden and hard, probably due to the kind of bread they were using.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FRENCH TOAST</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Milk 1 quart<br />Eggs 8 each<br />Sugar 2 oz<br />Cinnamon, ground pinch<br />Nutmeg, ground pinch<br />Salt pinch<br />Clarified butter, for frying as needed<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Challah</span> bread, sliced 12 slices<br /></blockquote><ol><li>Combine the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and mix them into a smooth batter. Keep this batter refrigerated until ready to use. </li><li>Heat a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">sauté</span> pan over moderate heat, add the butter.</li><li>Dip the slices of bread into the batter, coating the slices evenly. Fry the slices on one side until evenly browned. Turn them and brown the other side.</li></ol><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">PANCAKES</span><br /></div> <span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 servings</span><br /><blockquote>AP flour 24 oz<br />Sugar 3 oz<br />Baking powder 1 tbsp<br />Salt 2 tsp<br />Baking soda ½ tsp<br />Milk 24 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">floz</span><br />Eggs, lightly beaten 3 each<br />Butter, melted 2 oz<br />Canola oil as needed</blockquote><ol><li>Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.</li><li>In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and melted butter.</li><li>Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk and egg mixture.</li><li>Lightly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until just combines.</li><li>Heat a large <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">sauté</span> pan or the flat side of a griddle over medium heat.</li><li>Brush lightly with the canola oil.</li><li>Ladle the batter into the center of the pan using a 4 ounce ladle</li><li>Cook the pancake until the underside is brown, the edges begin to dray and bubbles begin to break the surface of the batter.</li><li>Turn the pancake and cook until the second side is brown.</li></ol>Both turned out great. The french toast was light, fluffy, creamy, crunchy, all at once. The pancakes will rich and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">pillowy</span>. We had real maple syrup on hand, but one student insisted on going into the school supplies to get some "pancake syrup", and insisted that it tasted better. Both my supervisor (pictured above) and myself were a bit horrified and amazed, and had to take a picture. You can lead a horse to water....<br /><br />Not sure what we're cooking next week, but I'm leaning to Italian...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-83030308128959980942010-05-05T11:43:00.000-07:002010-05-06T12:13:29.601-07:00Chinese Take Out, Made InThe kids all know and like, if not love, Chinese take out. It's cheap, it's available, it's filling, and strongly flavored. Outside the fact that it's "Chinese" and tends to be made in shops with Asian people in it, there is not too much deep <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">knowledge</span> going on.<br /><br />I started the class with a story about my friend Sonja, a Brit who liked to travel and have adventures, and when she got married, she and her husband decided to have the trip of a lifetime for their honeymoon. They flew to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hong</span> Kong, took a train out as far as it would go, then took a bus even further, then hitch hiked further, then the roads ended, and they hiked into the countryside, where the villages are connected by foot paths.<br /><br />As you can imagine, there is no hotel, no restaurants, no running water. In the villages, you are invited to sleep in the barn of a farmer, and the village came out for a communal meal to welcome their odd, foreign guests. Sonja & hubby remember being served, with great pride, a plate of white rice topped by a whole, roasted and crispy field mouse. This was the best the village had to offer, and it would have been poor form to do anything but eat it with great smiles and gusto. Suffice to say, Sonja lost a lot of weight on her trip. And after the mouse, they turned back and headed home.<br /><br />Part of the character of Chinese and Asian cooking is the use of all sorts of sources of protein and food, and nothing is wasted. Such a large country with so many mouths to feed and limited <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">resources</span> -- being resourceful is job #1 of the chef. Multiply that with 1000s of years to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">develop</span> a cuisine, and it was inevitable something interesting would emerge.<br /><br />I presented the students with smells of the different soy sauces, oyster sauce, rice wine, rice vinegar and of course stinky fish sauce, all part of the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">artillery</span> that Asian chefs use to make plain stuff extraordinary.<br /><br />I broke up the students into two teams -- one did the pork dumplings and pad <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Thai</span>, the other did the scallion pancakes and the chicken & <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">broccoli</span>. There was some resistance from the students: despite knowing and loving much of the menu, the recipes seemed to be....so long and full of words. There's few things more annoying in life than taking the time to go over a recipe with a student step by step, and when it's time to get started, they first thing they ask is what is the first thing they need to do.<br /><br />The pork dumplings went well, though upon tasting, adjusted with a little bit more soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">PORK <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">SHAO</span> MAI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 60 dumplings</span><br /><blockquote>Pork, ground 2 lbs<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Gingerroot</span>, minced 3 tbsp<br />Scallions, mostly green, minced 4 each<br />Rice wine 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Soy sauce 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Sesame oil 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Egg whites 4 each<br />Cornstarch 3 tbsp<br />Water chestnuts, fine dice ¼ cup<br />Thin round dumpling skins 60 each</blockquote><ol><li>Hand mix pork, ginger, scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg white and cornstarch. In batches, place mix in a food processor. Pulse to mix further, then puree.</li><li>Once the entire batch in pureed, fold in the water chestnuts. Chill until ready to use.</li><li>Place approximately 2 tsp of the filling in the center of a wrapper. Bring sides up and push/pleat sides together so that the dumpling has an “Empire waist” and some of the filling pushes out the top. Place the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">shao</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">mai</span> on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp cotton towel until you are ready to steam them.</li><li>Place enough water into a wok or pan so that it comes up to inch below the steamer basket. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">BTB</span>. Open the steamer and arrange the dumplings in the steamer basket with space between them. Steam until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.</li></ol> The pad <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Thai</span> came out <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">surprisingly</span> well. The thing about this dish (and the Chicken & Broccoli) is that it's a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">stir fry</span> -- it's pretty fast in the cooking, all the work is in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">mise</span> en place, getting all the components together.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">PAD THAI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">entrée</span> portions</span><br /><blockquote>Fettuccine-width rice stick noodle 1 lb <br />Peanut oil 1 cup <br />Tamarind paste 1 cup <br />Honey 1 1/3 cup <br />Fish sauce 1 cup <br />Rice vinegar ½ cup <br />Red pepper flakes 2 tsp, or to taste <br />Chopped scallions 1 cup <br />Garlic cloves, minced 4 each <br />Eggs 8 each <br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Nappa</span> cabbage, shredded 1 head <br />Mung bean sprouts 2 packs <br />Peeled shrimp and/or pressed tofu 2 lbs <br />Cilantro, chopped 1 cup <br />Peanuts, chopped 2 cup <br />Limes, quartered 8 each<br /></blockquote><ol><li>Put noodles in a large bowl and add boiling water to cover. Let sit until noodles are just tender; check every 5 minutes or so to make sure they do not get too soft. Drain, drizzle with a small amount of peanut oil to keep from sticking and set aside.</li><li>Put tamarind paste, fish sauce, honey and vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and bring just to a simmer. Stir in red pepper flakes and set aside.</li><li>Put remaining oil in a large wok over medium-high heat; when oil shimmers, add scallions and garlic and cook for about a minute. Add eggs to pan; once they begin to set, scramble them until just done. Add cabbage and bean sprouts and continue to cook until cabbage begins to wilt, then add shrimp or tofu (or both).</li><li>When shrimp begin to turn pink , add drained noodles to pan along with sauce. Toss everything together to coat with tamarind sauce and combine well. When noodles are warmed through, serve, sprinkling each dish with peanuts and garnishing with cilantro and lime wedges.<br /></li></ol>I never made this recipe before, and was happy how authentic they came out. One student who claimed to hate any kind of onion said that she really liked these, because the scallions were subtle.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SCALLION PANCAKES</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 thin 8” round breads</span><br /><blockquote>DOUGH<br />AP Flour 9 oz<br />Baking Powder 1 tsp<br />Salt 1 tsp<br />Cold Water 5 to 6 oz<br /><br />PREPARATION<br />AP flour for dough rolling as needed<br />Toasted sesame oil as needed<br />Scallions, thinly sliced, all white and a little green 2 bunch<br />Kosher salt as needed<br />Vegetable oil for pan-frying as needed</blockquote><ol><li>Add flour, baking soda and salt to the work bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. With processor running add water slowly until dough forms a bowl</li><li>Remove the dough and knead into a ball with the heel of your hand until “earlobe soft”, 1 to 2 minutes. Coat the dough in sesame oil and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.</li><li>Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured board and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Divide into 4 equal pieces and keep one covered with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Roll out the balls of dough into 4 1/8” thick rounds.</li><li>Brush these well with sesame oil and sprinkle evenly with scallions and salt. Roll up the circle into a cylinder – not too tight or too loose. Pinch the ends shut. Wind this cylinder into a flat, round spiral. Press this to flatten and roll out to about 8” diameter. (THINNER is definitely better for this bread.) Keep the breads covered until you cook them. (If they become too rubbery and hard to roll out, simply cover and wait 15 minutes. The gluten will relax.)</li><li>Heat a heavy skillet. Add oil to the depth of 1/8”. When oil is hot, add the bread – it should sizzle. Cover and cook over moderately low heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the bread is golden, about 2 to 5 minutes. Check frequently.</li><li>Flip the bread over and add more oil if necessary. Cover and cook again, shaking the pan occasionally, until the remaining side is golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. Slide the bread onto a cutting board and cut into pie-shaped wedges. Sere immediately</li></ol>We used a Thai Jasmine rice for this, and it came out perfect. Nice and sticky, flavorful, everyone agreed they wished when they ordered take out, the white rice would come like this.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CHINESE LONG-GRAIN PLAIN BOILED RICE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 10 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Long-grain white rice 4 cups<br />Water 8 cups<br />Salt 1 tsp</blockquote><ol><li>Wash rice well with cold water. Drain. Put rice and 7 ½ cups water into heavy sauce pan. Add salt, bring to boil.</li><li>When water boils, lower heat to a simmer and cover. Cook 15 minutes, no more. Turn off the heat and quickly pour the extra half cup of water in around the edges of the rice. Then cover and don’t touch, uncover, stir or move the rice or pot. Just leave it to steam for another 10 minutes.</li><li>Uncover the pot and fluff the rice with a fork. Fluff onto a serving platter or bowl. Try not to mash or break the grains.</li></ol>This was the most complicated recipe of the day, involving a lot of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">mise</span>, and several times of using the wok, cleaning it out then using it again on different components before doing the final thing. The final <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">result</span> was really good, but the broccoli was a little over cooked and we should of doubled up on the sauce...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CHICKEN WITH BROCCOLI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">entrée</span> size portions</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Chicken breasts, 1” cubed 2 lb<br />Egg white 2 each<br />Cornstarch 2 tbsp<br />Salt ½ tsp<br />2 tablespoons oyster sauce 4 tbsp<br />Light soy sauce 2 tbsp<br />Dark soy sauce 2 tbsp<br />Water 2 tbsp<br />Broccoli 2 lb<br />Water 1 cup<br />Salt ½ tsp, or to taste<br />Sugar 1 tsp, or to taste<br />Garlic cloves 4 each<br />Cornstarch 2 tsp<br />Water 2 tsp<br />Peanut oil 5 cups<br /></blockquote><ol><li>Mix together egg white, cornstarch and salt. Add mixture to chicken cubes, coat evenly. Marinate the velveted chicken in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.</li><li>Prepare the sauce: mix together the oyster sauce, light soy, dark soy, and water in a small bowl and set aside. </li><li>Prepare the thickener: mix the cornstarch and water thickener and set aside. </li><li>Prepare the vegetables: wash and drain the broccoli. Cut the stalk diagonally into thin slices. Cut the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">florets</span> into 3 or 4 pieces. Crush the garlic.</li><li>Preheat a wok. Heat 2 cups oil in the wok until it reaches 275 degrees Fahrenheit. (Test the heat by placing a piece of chicken in the wok - it should float). Add the chicken cubes, and let cook until they just turn white (about 30 seconds), using a wooden spoon or chopsticks to gently separate them. Quickly remove the chicken cubes from the wok as soon as they turn white, and drain in a colander or on paper towels.</li><li>Drain the oil out of the wok or preheat a second wok on medium high to high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is hot, add the crushed garlic and stir fry for 10 seconds.</li><li>Add the broccoli, sprinkle the salt and sugar over, and stir fry briefly, turning down the heat if necessary to make sure it doesn't burn. Add the 1/2 cup water, and cook the broccoli, covered, for 4 - 5 minutes, until it turns a bright green and is tender but still crisp. Remove from the wok and drain.</li><li>Clean out the wok and heat 2 more tablespoons oil. Add the broccoli and the velveted chicken, stirring and tossing to cook the chicken through. Add the sauce and cornstarch mixture in the middle of the wok and stir quickly to thicken. Mix everything together and serve hot over steamed rice.</li></ol>Next week, breakfast foods!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-8461755954002368702010-04-28T20:27:00.000-07:002010-04-29T09:11:05.642-07:00Sugar All Around<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPPa51e7T5QlwLuFC9_Z07SGZrwstBndepcA_J42WySxk4UXOK9NxhbFYQuPvxK8xy_ngVsUaFME_gXg-VVBMRs8wg4dLsYtuYMBD2EpKLlu305WVTN46yFGi6v9GucpulN3x9bwoRovD/s1600/photo-83.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPPa51e7T5QlwLuFC9_Z07SGZrwstBndepcA_J42WySxk4UXOK9NxhbFYQuPvxK8xy_ngVsUaFME_gXg-VVBMRs8wg4dLsYtuYMBD2EpKLlu305WVTN46yFGi6v9GucpulN3x9bwoRovD/s400/photo-83.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465397635482364178" border="0" /></a>Today was the first completely new lesson of this round. The semester was two classes shorter last time, and we dedicated two classes to Thanksgiving. While one could argue this lesson deviates from our mission to teach how to cook with nutrition in mind, one also must be a realist -- we eat sweets, even if our bodies don't need them to live, because they are delicious. Better to eat sweets that are made by your own hand than by the industrial complex.<br /><br />Cheesecakes take a long time to bake -- after baking off and cooling the crusts, the filling must go into a hot 475 degree oven for 10 minutes before being turned down to 200 degrees for two hours, then sitting in the turned off oven for another hour. Why? It's all about getting all the eggs in the recipe setting without getting tough, to get that unbelievably silky cheesecake texture, rather than bits of cheese sitting in little granules of scrambled eggs...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">NEW YORK CHEESE CAKE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 3 Cakes, 48 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Butter, melted 2 cup<br />Graham cracker crumbs 4 cups<br />Sugar ¼ cup<br /> <br />Cream cheese, softened 5 lbs <br />Sugar 3 ½ cup <br />AP Flour ¼ cup <br />Eggs 10 each <br />Egg yolks 4 each <br />Vanilla 2 tbsp <br />Orange zest ½ each <br />Lemon zest 1 each <br />Heavy cream ½ cup <br /></blockquote><ol><li>Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 3 10” spring form pans, line with parchment. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.</li><li>Make the crust: Combine butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Spread to the edges of the pan. Prick all over with a fork, bake 15 minutes. Allow to cool.</li><li>Increase over to 475 degrees. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, whole eggs, egg yolk, zests and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add cream and mix only enough to blend.</li><li>Place boiling water in a pan that will fit on the bottom of oven. Pour filling over crust and bake for 10 minutes at 475 degrees. Reduce temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake for 2 hour. Turn off oven and leave cake in for another hour. When done, it may look a little jiggly in the center.</li><li>Chill overnight.</li></ol>So when the kids arrived a little after 3, instead of waiting until 3:15 to lecture, I grabbed them as they came in and started them on the cheesecake. The first tow just did the crusts, greasing pans, processing cookies, melting butter, cutting parchment and getting it into the oven. I had two teams of two each make a half batch of cheesecake batter in the mixers. It's amazing that even though the recipe is basically throw everything in the mixer EXCEPT the cream, I had to catch one of the teams about to throw the cream in before turning the thing on. During this lesson, when asked simple questions, a lot of the time I said, "The answer is in the recipe, you just need to read the recipe before touching anything."<br /><br />While the crusts baked, we quickly cleaned then sat for a lecture. And being that today was about sweets, the lecture was primarily...a chocolate tasting!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7EFgsLRcvoBdHzhMoi77SDRSzXFFHD3GshiPpxDX7HDTRu6fXC1NRvqJ-VYYE1efSUag7AT6J8TFxS8jrdC59SM1xxRv3qZnqfmsN1thNMhkB1D4nxc8XT4Km44DOXQvB6CRcbgj0TzG/s1600/photo-82.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7EFgsLRcvoBdHzhMoi77SDRSzXFFHD3GshiPpxDX7HDTRu6fXC1NRvqJ-VYYE1efSUag7AT6J8TFxS8jrdC59SM1xxRv3qZnqfmsN1thNMhkB1D4nxc8XT4Km44DOXQvB6CRcbgj0TzG/s400/photo-82.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465397538905811570" border="0" /></a> To paraphrase Tropic Thunder, we were in danger of going "full retard", but I stopped myself from serving 100% baking chocolate, which is bitter and painful to eat straight. I put out a spread from 86% down to white chocolate, and two milk chocolates -- a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Giradeli</span> and a Hershey's.<br /><br />Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean, the seed of the fruit of the cacao tree. It must be 'conched', or processed by grinding into a paste called "chocolate liquor". This is pure chocolate, which can be processed into bars. 100% chocolate liquor is baking chocolate, and as you add sugar, it becomes dark chocolate. A 65% chocolate content means that the bar is about 35% sugar. Chocolate liquor is basically made up of two things, the cocoa which can be processed out into a dry cocoa powder (good for drinks, deepening the flavor of baked goods) and cocoa butter, the fat of the liquor. White chocolate is not actually chocolate at all, as all the cocoa (the flavor of the chocolate) is all removed -- it's just cocoa butter and sugar.<br /><br />The kids hated the darkest chocolates, too bitter and it made them screw up their faces. The darkest most seemed to like was the 50%. The two milk chocolates were a revelation for them -- they were all used to the Hershey's style of slightly sour-milk flavored chocolate, but when they tasted the other high quality milk chocolate, I really got them talking about why it was better. It melted smoother in the mouth, it was less sweet and more chocolaty in a mellow way. One put it, "It just tastes more elegant!"<br /><br />As they gobbled the rest of the not-too-dark chocolate, I spoke to the importance and reasoning behind creaming butter and sugar, when a recipe calls for the butter and sugar to be put into a mixer and paddled until it's, well, creamy. Creaming allows the fat of the butter to envelope every grain f sugar, while taking in millions of tiny air bubbles that will end up in the final product. When all these millions of air bubbles get into the oven, the air expands and makes everything more light n' fluffy.<br /><br />To take in air, the butter most be soft at room temp, not hard and not melted. Sugar firms it up, by just beating the butter alone you'd get very very delicate bubbles that would dissipate with the addition of other ingredients. Using vegetable shortening will get you a lighter, fluffier product because unlike butter, it's 100% fat, but then you won't get the great flavor of butter.<br /><br />From here I had two students do the donuts and glaze, and two teams of two do the chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were the standard Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, and yet the two batches came out quite different...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8m9r-sA3S3YrXelcssTFgx7S8dZf8m4IKffd5azl_rbj2isdKP3c_APjgm1dw6gI9RTsAtz3i-hMeo1Y75vnaCN6-OmYcC_7t8uKA4K04NarnYiUvPz2780uE1Z60rXIA_dy_CdOXSso/s1600/photo-84.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8m9r-sA3S3YrXelcssTFgx7S8dZf8m4IKffd5azl_rbj2isdKP3c_APjgm1dw6gI9RTsAtz3i-hMeo1Y75vnaCN6-OmYcC_7t8uKA4K04NarnYiUvPz2780uE1Z60rXIA_dy_CdOXSso/s400/photo-84.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465397859028674306" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CLASSIC CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: about 16-24 cookies</span><br /><blockquote>AP Flour 2 ½ cups<br />Baking Soda 1 tsp<br />Salt 1 tsp<br />Butter, softened 1 cup<br />White sugar ¾ cup<br />Brown sugar ¾ cup (firmly packed)<br />Eggs, room temp 2 each<br />Vanilla extract 1 tsp<br />Chocolate chips 12 oz</blockquote><ol><li>Preheat oven to 375 degrees.</li><li>Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.</li><li>In a mixer, beat butter, white sugar and brown sugar until creamy.</li><li>Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla.</li><li>Turn off mixer. Gently beat in flour mixture and chocolate chips with a spatially until just combined.</li><li>Spoon rounded tablespoons of dough on a parchment lined baking sheet, a few inches apart. Bake 9-11 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.</li></ol>After I blathered in my lecture about why we cream, why creaming is important, etc etc, one of the two teams added an egg to the creaming butter and sugar. To the left of the pictures are light, cookie-looking cookies. To the right are smooth rock-like orbs, much tougher due to the egg-proteins developed into long strands.<br /><br />I had never made donuts before, and teaching students how to make them is not the ideal situation to learn, but hey, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">whataya</span> gonna do -- I don't typically bring a few gallons of hot lard to scalding temps in my kitchen to make many dozen donuts...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CINNAMON SUGAR CAKE DONUTS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 24</span><br /><blockquote>AP Flour 4 cups<br />Sugar 1 cup<br />Salt 2 tsp<br />Baking Powder 2 tbsp<br />Cinnamon 1 tbsp<br />Nutmeg ½ tsp<br />Butter, melted ¼ cup<br />Milk 1 cup<br />Eggs, beaten 2 each<br />Oil for frying<br />Sugar enough for dredging<br />Cinnamon enough for dredging<br />or<br />Vanilla glaze enough for dipping</blockquote><ol><li>Heat oil in appropriate vessel to 375 degrees.</li><li>In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk and egg until smooth. </li><li>Knead lightly, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with a doughnut cutter, or use two round biscuit cutters of different sizes.</li><li>Carefully drop doughnuts into hot oil, a few at a time. Do not overcrowd pan or oil may overflow. Fry, turning once, for 3 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towels.</li></ol><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">VANILLA GLAZE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: about 2 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Powdered sugar 1 ½cups<br />Milk 2 ½ tbsp<br />Salt ¼ tsp<br />Vanilla extract ½ tsp<br />Butter 1 tsp</blockquote><ol><li>Melt butter then add rest of ingredients. Mix until creamy</li></ol>A gallon of peanut oil met with a few pounds of solid beef lard and with a thermometer, got it up to about 400 degrees (the donuts would bring the temp down to 375). The dough of the donuts were pretty straightforward to make, and rolling and cutting was simple. The frying, on the other hand, was a bit tricky.<br /><br />The quarter inch rounds pretty much expand into donut-shape pretty quickly, then you go for the color you need. We did about 3 minutes on each side, and it was clearly over-cooked -- very crunchy, almost no chew in the middle. The finesse of this procedure is to make the donuts the right size consistently (we were using a combination of round cookie cutters, and getting all sorts of shapes) and a consistent heat of oil.<br /><br />The sugar was fine, but we didn't make enough glaze, which was the most popular. By the time we sat down to eat cookies and donuts with milk (the cheesecakes were cooling, will have to be for next week), the kids were coming down from the chocolate high and weren't that hungry, he he he.<br /><br />Next week, another new lesson -- explorations in Asian cuisine.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-36779207713832242652010-04-22T05:33:00.000-07:002010-04-28T05:33:13.109-07:00Meat, it's what's for the Lesson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVs1pUWY53C_T9QGFnHRLSLCphCqIra1WiGUmf4RdUoo9lfsU5moG2VVqjdzzPtimA8Nl4OPrmDmVeaw8UJP7NXk8g5H1xlzlOIu-Gr5E-eK2vg8uRdAnicmMGRKh-Csdx3Yrd2qpcNcy/s1600/photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVs1pUWY53C_T9QGFnHRLSLCphCqIra1WiGUmf4RdUoo9lfsU5moG2VVqjdzzPtimA8Nl4OPrmDmVeaw8UJP7NXk8g5H1xlzlOIu-Gr5E-eK2vg8uRdAnicmMGRKh-Csdx3Yrd2qpcNcy/s400/photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462939687833126210" border="0" /></a><br />Once again, we had 3 hours to teach the students about the entire world of red meat. I started with asking why people are vegetarians -- answers were "don't like the taste" and "they like animals." I broke it down into two categories -- ethical and health, and would not address the 1st, as this is a cooking class, not a philosophy class. If your going to work in a restaurant 98% of the time you're going to have to deal with meat.<br /><br />Health is another story. Today we were working with chopped meat, one of the most dangerous meat products out there. I explained the process of unhealthy, overcrowded cow pens in industrial farms, how they are forced to eat grains instead of hay, the use of antibiotics to keep them well, and the act of slaughtering is so fast that when the carcasses are cleaned, some poo remains. If you have a solid piece of muscle (like the pork chops we would be cooking), it's a relatively simple task to clean the meat at some point in production -- all the bad stuff is at the surface.<br /><br />But if you send the meat to the grinder, all the bad stuff is mixed up all the way through. There are limited ways to make the meat clean now -- you can treat it with ammonia, but that stinks and destroys the meat's flavor. You can cook it thoroughly to kill all bacteria, but the fat runs out and you have tough, crumbly cooked meat with little flavor.<br /><br />So you can do what McDonald's does -- take this crappy, cheap ground meat and add fillers to soften and give flavor to the meat, typically soy product and bean gums. And to a certain extent, that's what we'd be doing today with our meatballs (recipes <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/12/meaty-meat.html">here</a>) -- adding things to the chopped meat so that it would still be delicious after being cooked at a fiery 550 degrees.<br /><br />We set to work on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">making</span> the meatball mix, a traditional <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">spaghetti</span> sauce and a sheet of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">polenta</span>. Like last semester, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">polenta</span> failed -- we didn't have to to saute it, and it just looked and tasted unappealing. This time we used a big enough pot, and the pasta cooked correctly, but we let it go for the minutes on the package and was a tad too soft -- should of cut back by 2 minutes. The sauce was great, but not enough of it. The meatballs, well, Louis from the restaurant where I got the recipe recommended doubling the bread, but the meatballs came out TOO soft and mushy, despite being well done.<br /><br />Lastly, I had the students <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">saute</span> pork loin chops in a pan, getting a nice brown fond on the meat and the pan before resting the meat on a rack, then making a simple pan sauce in the pan with wine, shallots, stock, salt and finishing with butter. The chops and the sauce went down surprisingly well.<br /><br />Next week, a new lesson -- pastry.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-84303114557726504342010-04-15T08:48:00.001-07:002010-04-16T10:14:15.802-07:00Pizza Pizza<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPYE7LGv2uU-MHgVLy9323I8Xp6vBjfFHI4q27xs6dDXT7Aqb5bU2xue0VXGrYYy7WBrrYtf1EUioioX74qonQxMmy16h6NmzXNcxri0RceSabxwZYJwrEiGRlWwx5uWR00zj2rz3LANX/s1600/photo-80.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPYE7LGv2uU-MHgVLy9323I8Xp6vBjfFHI4q27xs6dDXT7Aqb5bU2xue0VXGrYYy7WBrrYtf1EUioioX74qonQxMmy16h6NmzXNcxri0RceSabxwZYJwrEiGRlWwx5uWR00zj2rz3LANX/s400/photo-80.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460391927875245058" border="0" /></a><br />Pizza. It's my specialty, and today's class was just about that. We were also feeding parents, who were coming to school to fill in some sort of survey, so the production of enough food to feed about 50 mouths were also on the agenda.<br /><br /><p>Alas, this was the lesson for bread in general, so I began by speaking a little bit to yeast and gluten. Yeast are these neat little bacteria that can be stored stably at room temp, but when you give them a combination of water, warmth and food (the sugars in flour or, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">umm</span>, sugar), and they eat and poop out CO2, the gas that makes things puff up when baked. That which is puffing is defined by the proteins in the flour called gluten -- the more gluten you have, the firmer, tougher hole structure the bread will have. Less gluten, you have more tender, looser hole structure like for cake or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">wonderbread</span>.</p><p>The lesson was rather straight forward. Make <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/12/i-wanna-pizza-all-day-and-pizza-each.html">the dough</a>, let it rest and rise for an hour while prepping the toppings. Stretch dough, top, bake, serve. It was nice that there was a good variety of tasks to keep every one hopping, and cleaning. I brought in two pizza stones for the convection oven, but the pilot lights on the two conventional ovens were out so we had a bit of a pinch point in our production. We produced about 30 pies, some of surprisingly good quality, some of pretty laughable looks. One student could not get the hang of stretching, and bungled 4 in a row and wanted to give up. I told her we made extra on purpose, and that she should just keep going. And she did, and the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">th</span> was fine. I told her I wanted to smack her hard, in a good way. </p><p>I went on a bit about how less is more, how a properly stretched pizza skin can not accept too many topping without it becoming a soupy mess when it hits the plate. I also stressed the importance of keeping the pizza peel dry, or the pizza would stick and create an ungodly mess. A few times they left the pizza on the board too long and I showed them how to lift up an edge and blow, unsticking the raw skin. Funnily enough, no one's pizza died except for the very last one, where the student built her pie on a damp peel.</p><p>Undecided what to cook next week. On the sign in sheet, got some nice feedback, tho: <br /></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9C7Ma5wjHYRFTu6_FAa63H87VLAD1-TpFsl4p8klb6yY0pNqGYJHJysv10yNdAWMvbp1zlLYyWM0HHs80IQAJhBruzLTof3Eym4L8E5Vt4LdmIhVwTIHIRpAbuRsRgZPO74I8kLPrX_ti/s1600/photo-79.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9C7Ma5wjHYRFTu6_FAa63H87VLAD1-TpFsl4p8klb6yY0pNqGYJHJysv10yNdAWMvbp1zlLYyWM0HHs80IQAJhBruzLTof3Eym4L8E5Vt4LdmIhVwTIHIRpAbuRsRgZPO74I8kLPrX_ti/s400/photo-79.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460391919486633634" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-20940420975035408612010-04-08T05:21:00.000-07:002010-04-08T07:31:09.889-07:00Last Minute RisottoI got a phone call a few hours before class was to begin -- the freezer had stopped functioning sometime over Spring break, and was at about 100 degrees when discovered. Our large pot of extra-concentrated chicken stock (and the lovely fat that rose to the surface) was now a bacteria cesspool, having easily been in the danger zone for what could be a week. I suggested to my supervisor that he go purchase a few gallons of sodium-free chicken broth and a pint of either chicken or duck fat.<br /><br />The fat was a no-go, so I decided to simply eliminate the <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/11/grains-kickin-it-with-kasha-farro.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">kasha</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">varnishkes</span> </a>recipe this time around. However, when I checked in the groceries about 30 minutes before class, there was no <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">farro</span>, a grain kinda central to the <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/11/grains-kickin-it-with-kasha-farro.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Farro</span> & Sausage</a> dish...not an easy ingredient to source at the last minute. On top of that, with 90+ degree unseasonable Spring weather, was not expecting a big student turnout. I suggested to my supervisor that we cancel, but he politely declined and suggested <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">subtly</span> it was up to me to pull something out of my butt....so....<br /><br />Today is grains. We had the ingredients to do a simple pilaf using long grain rice, need at least one more recipe. Got all the other components of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">farro</span> & sausage.....sausage, fennel, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">potatoes</span>, beans, tomatoes, stock....in the cupboard, found a couple of boxes of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">arborio</span> rice: risotto! The risotto method is something that is very hands-on, and can <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">repurpose</span> the main <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">farro</span> ingredients....but I have no written recipe for the students to follow. I guess they're going to have to be real cooks, and wing it by vibe, under my tutelage....<br /><br />Only three students presented themselves, making it much more possible to teach a hands-on method without a recipe. A brief lecture about what a grain is (the combination dried fruit/seed of a cereal grass) and what they are (wheat, corn, oat, rice etc), the parts of the grain (inedible husk on the outside, the bran that makes brown rice brown and has vitamins and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">fiber</span>, then the starchy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">endosperm</span>, then the core germ, where the rest of the vitamins and the fat is. An <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">explanation</span> of long grain versus short grain (light fluffy <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">separate</span> grains vs starch sticky grains) got us into the hands on of making a simple rice pilaf.<br /><br />We made the <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/11/grains-kickin-it-with-kasha-farro.html">rice pilaf</a> with long grain Thai jasmine rice, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">sauteing</span> onion in butter, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">sauteing</span> the rice, covering with stock in equal amounts, adding a few herbs, then baking covered for 20 minutes. I thought it came out perfect - firm with nice chew, fragrant and flavorful, but all the students agreed that it was too tough and tasted too mild. Oh well.<br /><br />To work without a recipe, I made the three students <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">mise</span> everything and have everything <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">in front</span> of them before starting -- they could not start, as they had no instructions in front of them to jump ahead. Chopped onion, chopped fennel, hot Italian sausage crumbled and browned, pound of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Parmesan</span> grated, 1 cup of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">arborio</span> rice measured, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">sautiors</span> and wooden spoons and stock at the ready.<br /><br />We set up four pans, and basically had the three students do as I did. Olive oil in the hot pan, enough to just <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">sloosh</span> around to get the bottom wet. When it shimmered, throw in a fist of onion and a fist of fennel. Move around until translucent and smelly, a little salt to get it moving. Toss in one cup of white wine from a measuring cup, as pouring directly from the bottle is a fire hazard. Start stirring constantly as you toss in cup of rice, blast heat. When the wine has been evaporated/absorbed by the rice, add about a cup of stock and stir until rice is almost dry. Repeat adding stock by the cup and stirring until the grains of rice are tender enough, and a starchy sauce has formed from starch coming out of the rice and the stock. This took about 25 minutes. When we got it where we wanted, turned off heat, threw in about 1/4 pound of grated <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">parm</span> and about 4 oz of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">marscapone</span>, and 1/2 pound of the browned sausage. Stir to completely combine, taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.<br /><br />No real measurements, just looking at how your food behaves and cooking until done. One student was impressed by how it looked like rice pudding and added a bit of powdered sugar to hers, another student burned her onions and fennel a little, and her risotto had a reddish-brown tinge. The cooked wine sent a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">fennel</span>-onion perfume through out the building and we had a bunch of staff stop by to compliment the students on something smelling wonderful.<br /><br />Surprisingly, all three students were gaga over the risotto, eating large portions and asking, "Can you order this in a restaurant?" among other things.<br /><br />Next week, making pizza for about 50 staff and parents....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-32479515640866171542010-04-05T19:54:00.001-07:002010-04-05T19:54:48.316-07:00Norbert Monday (Strengths, Weaknesses)I had some crazy idea that being it's Monday, I'd try for an all-green day, but the social meal of the day knocked me out with sweets and alcohol.<br /><br />Did my first whole weight-work out this morning, felt a little feeble but it was fun with the music and the Edie observing from her crib. Improvised a potato salad with stuff laying around the kitchen, then attended a baby's birthday party. Edie was feeling awfully <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">clingy</span>, crying every time I put her down for the first hour, but she loosened up. Good thing I love holding her! Afterwards met up with B and walked home, rode out to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Coney</span> and back. Feel good.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AM SNACK:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">9am, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">glass of iced mint green tea</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />BREAKFAST:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">10:30am, crispy brown rice cereal with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AFTERNOON TASTING: </span><span style="font-style: italic;">12:30pm, bites of potato salad</span><br />Made a batch of potato salad for a kiddie party attending this afternoon, using stuff laying around the house. Bag of red bliss mini potatoes, egg yolks & olive oil with some mustard powder to make mayo, fresh rosemary, parsley, carrot and celery, salt, Worcestershire, some hot pepper, voila, potato salad...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">PM SNACK: </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1:30pm, </span>large green salad, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1 bowl, hunger 4/5</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LUNCH:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">3pm, 2 wedges of eggplant and zucchini hero, bits of industrial potato salad, macaroni salad and some of my own potato salad<span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">, 1 brownie, 1 piece of carrot-cream cheese cake, 1 glass wine</span>, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5</span><br />At a 1 year-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">old's</span> birthday party. They had a several feet of vegetarian hero and some bland sides, to which my potato salad sat with. Funny, the industrial potato salad was bone-white and was simply potato slices in loose white <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">mayonaisy</span> blandness. My potato salad was a rich yellow color (from the yolks in my mayo), studded with crunchy bits, herbs and the loose red skins coming off the quartered potatoes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">DINNER:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">9pm, baked ocean perch, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">sofrito</span> brown rice & beans, smoothie pop</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5</span><br />Got a frozen fillet of perch, sprinkled a bunch of old bay seasoning and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">wacked</span> it in the oven -- before c-school, I'd be too intimidated to just cook a simple piece of fish without instructions, now it seems ridiculously easy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-49944515513031636132010-03-25T06:04:00.000-07:002010-04-05T08:13:08.499-07:00Mac n' Cheese Marathon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRflpjjbh0-By_7x2oGnxFx0ZX3v1V-YLqRPlyMg3PFzrccIZE_Tv2tfDKKY4QjlFO87pN4c6holHohL9-9cQ0XZsKuKD7lQxqYioz5NRavwMJSactRihmOQlq_6gYNvCafp62_QXhfT3w/s1600/photo-72.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRflpjjbh0-By_7x2oGnxFx0ZX3v1V-YLqRPlyMg3PFzrccIZE_Tv2tfDKKY4QjlFO87pN4c6holHohL9-9cQ0XZsKuKD7lQxqYioz5NRavwMJSactRihmOQlq_6gYNvCafp62_QXhfT3w/s400/photo-72.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452557645868335026" border="0" /></a><br />The class was psyched for today's lesson -- everyone loves mac n' cheese, and we were going to make three versions. The point was to get them thinking about sauces. It's one thing to lecture about mother sauces (which I did, which did not elicit much interest), it's another thing to make a sauce and apply it in real life.<br /><br />Mac n' cheese is not just macaroni slathered in cheese -- if we did that, and baked it, you'd get a dry, burnt, excessively lumpy mass that would congeal and room temperature to something guaranteed to back you up (at the least.) That thing that makes a mac n' cheese something more is the sauce: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bechamel</span>, a mother sauce which is white sauce made by thickening milk with a white roux. A roux is the classic thickening agent that is made by cooking equal parts fat and flour (in this case, butter and AP.) Once we have our <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">bechamel</span>, we add out cheeses and seasonings (see the recipe<a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/cooking-in-quantity.html"> here</a>), then into a pan with very stiffly cooked macaroni to bake and come together.<br /><br />Traditionally, the seasoning is salt, pepper and mustard powdered, and that's what we did with one version. Another version we added crumbled bacon and extra mustard powder, and a third replaced the mustard with jerk seasoning and a bunch of softened diced onion.<br /><br />This is not light food, so I thought rather than make another heavy sauce dish, make a protein and a veg to make a balanced plate of food. I got one student to just go for it, sauteing a bag of adult spinach leaves. Super simple: heat saute pan, add a little olive oil, drop in dry leaves, move around until wilted, then add more until it's all in pan. Salt while cooking to taste. Stop and remove from heat when all is wilted.<br /><br />The protein was "shake n' bake" chicken. Simply, take chicken breasts cut to size and dredge in a flour and spice mix, then bake.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HOME MADE “SHAKE N’ BAKE” CHICKEN BREASTS</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Flour 1 cup<br />Corn meal ½ cup<br />Old bay seasoning 2 tsp<br />Paprika 2 tsp<br />Black pepper 1 tsp<br />Salt 2 tsp<br />Chicken breasts 8 each</blockquote>1. Grease baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350<br />2. Combine all ingredients except breasts in a bowl<br />3. Toss breasts in mixture then place on greased sheet.<br />4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or when meat thermometer reads 155˚.<br />5. Rest meat for 10-15 minutes covered in foil, then serve.<br /><br />Old Bay Seasoning is basically celery salt and paprika, and the final result was surprising like the commercial shake n' bake mix, only without the extra chemicals or anti-caking agents.<br /><br />The kids were not impressed with the chicken -- they liked the seasoning, but it was too "dry" for them (though due to the instant read thermometer, the bigger pieces did come out juicy, the smaller pieces were a bit tough.)<br /><br />However, there was universal acclaim for the spinach. None seemed to ever have a simple spinach like this, done fresh -- usually, if at all, they've had it from frozen. I think a few kids said they're going to make that at home, which really made me feel like today's class wasn't JUST a fat n' <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">carb</span> festival.<br /><br />We also made a vat of <a href="http://http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/cooking-in-quantity.html">chicken stock</a>, which will factor in to the next lesson: grains, including rice, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">farro</span> and buckwheat...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-87983670588306358752010-03-19T07:37:00.000-07:002010-03-19T08:11:16.427-07:00Shrimp Poo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAaP3Vgc4i5JntWPT6KhKW_bWb0gQJ1oCx8vNOWyM91zN2FwK8-pP40KmSLTcIO5AK3xuJgJQaPTDGpkgWVG9es6oFxHi9bCoVPjkl87cbziTMJvBaQbgI6IGrP7fVNC1Dfp3usjnmWJY/s1600-h/photo-69.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAaP3Vgc4i5JntWPT6KhKW_bWb0gQJ1oCx8vNOWyM91zN2FwK8-pP40KmSLTcIO5AK3xuJgJQaPTDGpkgWVG9es6oFxHi9bCoVPjkl87cbziTMJvBaQbgI6IGrP7fVNC1Dfp3usjnmWJY/s400/photo-69.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450359506895207618" border="0" /></a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><br />We skipped any lecture to review the recipes quickly then, got straight into it. The first thing was shrimp for the Shrimp Louis. Everyone got a pound or so of jump shrimp, and I showed them the proper way of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">deshelling</span> -- tail first, trying to preserve the tail meat. Then the rest of the exoskeleton can be pretty much easily removed. Then the back of the shrimp is cut with a pairing knife, about 1/4 inch deep, and the vein a.k.a. the intestine is removes. Most shrimp are starved for a day or two before processing so the intestine is empty, but occasionally you'll get a swollen blue vein full of sand, grit and purple stuff. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Mmmm</span>, shrimp poo!<br /><br />I broke up the class into three at this point, after wiping down everything, washing the boards and washing hands -- you can never be too careful when dealing with raw seafood. One team of 2 made the sauce for Shrimp Louis (based on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">herbed</span> mayo we made yesterday), then made 2 large composed platters, with bib lettuce as the base, the shrimp in the middle, and garnishes like sliced hard boiled eggs and olives all around. The second team did a pasta salad, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">fusilli</span> dressed in our mayo and grated Swiss, with a lot of vegetable mix-ins, also composed on platters. The third team did a simple Cesar with the dressing made yesterday, and cut up a few loaves of bread and tossed them with melted butter and salt before toasting them in a 450 degree oven for a few minutes.<br /><br />While that was going on, I pulled on student aside who muffed up brownies yesterday. I pulled all the ingredients out for a batch of brownies, and had her make them on her own. I think he confidence might of been bruised yesterday because of distractions from her disorganized team, so letting her do this seemed like the move....and we can always use more good brownies in this world!<br /><br />The 10 lbs of shrimp were dropped into a large pot of boiling water spiked with the juice of 4 limes, and after 2 minutes were taken out and placed in an ice bath. Not enough can be said to stress the importance of shocking when boiling shrimp. Few things nastier than rubbery overcooked shrimp.<br /><br />Once the three sets of salad were out, we cleaned and set up for sandwich making. I spoke a bit about the importance of balance, erring on the side of too-little, folding the fillings so it's not too dense, putting oil-based spreads on the bottom to prevent mushiness, etc. Most of the kids never had prosciutto, which freaked them out when I told them it was aged for months and months instead of being cooked.<br /><br />Sandwiches were banged out, the salads were out, the brownies presented. On a funny note, someone mistook the clumps of unsifted flour in the gluey mint brownies as nuts:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1Zd3GclBd4yLm_9n9RG5fM4MSS9ZQSvLaQ87TpFbzQqr0Ft7YuJpmRLHGz-OrMVy29nonct1_iLpPIVXhfaMYOltSfiLlV1wVI2LtcwjU0MvGpj5DccUQwTd1G6MF9JZWD1MigEjnMOr/s1600-h/photo-68.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1Zd3GclBd4yLm_9n9RG5fM4MSS9ZQSvLaQ87TpFbzQqr0Ft7YuJpmRLHGz-OrMVy29nonct1_iLpPIVXhfaMYOltSfiLlV1wVI2LtcwjU0MvGpj5DccUQwTd1G6MF9JZWD1MigEjnMOr/s400/photo-68.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450359504475059826" border="0" /></a><br />The kids seemed pretty happy, everyone pitched in with the cleaning, and the staff and parents had the kids come out of the kitchen for minute for a round of applause. Next week, sauces, featuring funked-out mac n' cheese...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-51861629243257938272010-03-18T06:10:00.000-07:002010-03-18T08:29:27.429-07:00Brownie FAILToday was the first half of a two-fer: tomorrow is Parent Teacher Conferences, so we cooked in preparation for setting up a buffet tomorrow. It spring instead of fall, so rather than exactly repeating last semester, we're skipping the mac n' cheese in favor of a lighter pasta salad. (Though now that I think about it, I think I'll do mac n' cheese next week to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">demonstrate</span> sauces.) Today we finished our vegetable soup, made <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">mayonnaise</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Cesar</span> salad dressing, then 3 different kinds of brownies. Recipes can be found earlier on the blog <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/composing-with-salad.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/cooking-in-quantity.html">here</a>.<br /><br />We started the class with a little lecture about the brigade system, the traditional organization of the kitchen roles, from Executive Chef to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">commis</span> (trainee), but I could see the kid's eyes glazing. I did a demo of whisking oil and vinegar alone, and watching it separate, then whisking with a little mustard, and watching it stay set -- a simple <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">emmulsion</span>.<br /><br />The kids set about processing a whole host of vegetables for the stock we made last week to make vegetable soup, including the the blanched, shocked peeled and scooped out tomato <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">concase</span>. We turned over, and I demoed mayonnaise before setting the kids out in teams to make it themselves. Some of the kids are sharper than others, and when I tried to get them to set up their <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">mise</span>-en-place before I demoed, one kid didn't understand the concept of pouring two oils into the same measuring cup, and didn't understand that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">mise</span> didn't mean dumping everything into one bowl, but grouping stuff together in a way that makes sense -- the oil and everything else must be in two containers, as the method of making <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">mayonnaise</span> involves a lot of whisking while pouring oil slowly into the bowl.<br /><br />I had two students that I had last semester go nuts on the Cesar salad dressing, making an evil mash of garlic and sardines, before making the emulsion that would be joined with a lot of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Parmesan</span>. Both the mayo and the dressing would be held until tomorrow.<br /><br />We reset and I broke the class into two teams. One would make normal fudge brownies, one would make a batch with <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">macadamias</span> and chocolate chunks. I demoed with a third batch -- mint brownies. I never tried this method before, I just made it up, and I suspected it would fail, though I wasn't sure how. I replaced the 2 cups of sugar with 2 cups of mint simple syrup -- Boil two cups of sugar with one cup of water, then place a bunch of mint and let it steep for about 30 minutes. The problem is you are adding a cup of water. We tried the brownie immediately after and while it tasted good, it had the tough consistency of jello -- despite minimally folding the flour in, the extra water really developed the gluten to make it very non-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">flaky</span> and weirdly elastic.<br /><br />I demoed how to make powdered sugar, simply by putting normal sugar in a blender for a few minutes, and added a few drops of food dye to turn it green, green to sprinkle over the mint brownies and green because it was St. Patrick's day. We sat down to eat the soup and the inferior brownies, and we went around the table discussing what was good and what was bad about today's session. Most mentioned the brownies as a highpoint, despite it tasting inferior. Many mentioned that the soup didn't have enough salt, though it tasted salty to me -- it gave me an opportunity to talk about salt -- it's easy to add more, but impossible to take it away without a lot of complexity. That's why you have salt on the table of restaurants -- it's left up to the customer to season to taste.<br /><br />Tomorrow, we bang out salads and sandwiches....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-26289059945205646062010-03-11T12:01:00.000-08:002010-03-11T12:27:02.283-08:00Feel like ch-ch-ch-ch-chicken toniiiite!For the second lesson of the second semester, I stuck to the recipes and format (see <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/no-thats-not-ice-cream.html">this post</a> for the gory details) but ran the class a lot smoother, ending on time for the second week in a row. We started with the question: what is cooking? It is applying heat to food to change it's nature. Last week we were chopping, mixing, blending, all preparation. That's legit, and there can not be cooking without preparation, but it is not cooking. Last week we prepared. Today, we step up and cook!<br /><br />But not before preparing. These kids still have no knife skills, so first thing was to whip out 20 lbs of russets and have them cube them off (rather than peel), then make small cubes. Once that was done, I took a few kids to be on potato duty, while the others did soup-chop on a selection of vegetables for stock. The potatoes were boiled, drained, spread on a sheet and baked for a minute to make them perfectly dry, run through a food mill then mixed with an obscene amount of cream, milk, butter and salt. I stopped the class, had everyone come over and had them taste it without salt. Then I seasoned and made them taste it again. I got the "AH HA!" moment I was looking for in the smoothies last week. Loose, creamy and outta sight!<br /><br />The stock pot got full, covered with cold water and set to boil. After 20 minutes, I showed the class how to make a sachet <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">d'espices</span> (parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cracked peppercorn in a tied-off cheese clothe) and added it to the stock. Last time, I attempted to make vegetable soup in the same session but there wasn't enough time. This time, the stock went into the freezer right after.<br /><br />Ten heads of Swiss chard were <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">deveined</span>, cleaned and chopped up. I took four students, assigned them one fat (chicken fat, butter, sesame oil and peanut oil) and had them slow saute onion half-moons to soft, then slightly brown. The chard got boiled for a minutes, drained, thrown in ice water for blanching and shocking. Once the onions looked right, we through in the chard, chopped up <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">kalamata</span> olives and adjusted with salt.<br /><br />It was only 5pm! I made a promise if the kids were to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">hustle</span> and clean up and we had time, I would show them how to bread and fry chicken breasts properly. I really expected to not do this, but these kids did not have to be ridden to clean up. Once they had finished their tasks, they started cleaning every time. So I busted out 8 breasts, sliced each one in half at a 33 degree angle to kinda keep the thicknesses even. I set up the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">SBP</span> -- standard breading procedure. First bowl, AP flour. Second, egg wash with whole egg and milk. Third, the breading, in this case wholewheat <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">panko</span> breadcrumbs, AP flour and salt. In a preheated <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">rondeau</span>, dumped about 1/4 of an inch of peanut oil. Once the chicken got dipped in each bowl, using alternate hands to prevent the creation of a batter mitt, the chicken went straight into the oil. Flipped after about 5 minutes, when the first came out I asked them how do you know it's done? Ya take a small knife, make a slit on the underside and you peek into the middle! It looked fully white, but still juicy. One student insisted in looked slightly pink, but it was JUST right. It was probably pink 30 seconds before, but in this state it was still very juicy.<br /><br />So the meal was pretty complete -- crunchy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">panko</span> chicken breast, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Swiss</span> chard with onion, and whipped potatoes. As we did last week with the time, we went around the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">table</span> after the main feed was done and said what we liked most and what we liked least about class. Most said the best part was eating. Some kids says there was no bad, which is nice, a few said tasting the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">kalamata</span> olives were the worst, or the cutting of onions, or wot-not. Compliments all around about the chicken, which was nice. Makes me think I should make something like that, simple but interesting, at home more often.<br /><br />Next week is salads, both mixed and composed, as well as some additional things, as we'll be cooking for Thursday's PTA conferences, too!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-82791900905222182162010-03-03T07:14:00.000-08:002010-03-04T08:01:40.147-08:00I'll be your Ratatouille, if that's what it takes.So it begins again. For the first class, I stuck close to the original lesson plan, so I won't go into too much details (you can get all the recipes and nitty gritty <a href="http://www.culinaryschoolconfidential.net/2009/10/first-time-teaching-nobody-died-or.html">here</a>.) We had a group of 9 students, including 2 from the last session who are graduating soon, but wanted to hang out and relive the memories. One was in class for the first half of the program, but dropped out because of personality conflicts with another student. I'm glad she's back, she's clearly very intelligent and motivated, but socially a little awkward -- I hope she makes it through this time, and I'll lean on her a little to be a little bit more responsible for things.<br /><br />First was the lecture about contamination -- physical, chemical and bacterial. Had to inform two girls with long-ass fingernails that they had to either lose them and wear gloves during class, another had to remove her big hangy earrings, others had to tie hair back and put on a hair-covering. A brief explanation of how bacteria travels (contact), and how this understanding was revolutionary -- doctors used to cut people open and use unwashed hands, leaving behind all sorts of bacteria.<br /><br />I could tell at points during the safety lecture I was starting to lose the interest of the students, but was able to pull them back in with personal, mostly humorous, anecdotes. In speaking of knife safety, in how you must announce yourself while travelling across a busy kitchen with a sharp knife, you must say "Sharp" as you pass. At the last restaurant I worked, a very sweet Afgahni fellow with a limited use of the English language pronounced it as "Shark", and it seemed there was a killer fish wandering around the kitchen whenever it got busy.<br /><br />We got into the kitchen, washed hands, then I set up a station -- cutting board at the edge of the counter with a wet paper towel under, two knives at twelve o'clock. I showed how to hold a knife properly, then demonstrated on each veg how I wanted them cut for salsa -- tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro. It went well, I went around correcting their grips and consoled the two students crying over cut onions. The best I could recommend is not to hunch over the cut onions, keep your eyes out of the line of fire.<br /><br />The students from last session jumped in and helped the new kids with knife skills, and helped direct them how to clean up. Surprisingly, the turning over of the kitchen from salsa to smoothies went lickity split -- we turned over, i.e. washed down our stations and reset up, to prevent cross-contamination. One blender walked away, so we were on one blender for 9 students. I demoed one smoothie, and then made a big goof. I wanted to show the importance of salt in increasing/improving flavor, so I divided my smoothie into two cups -- one with salt, one with out. Unfortunately, I way over-salted and it ended up tasting oddly briny.<br /><br />As the kids got their mise together, they immediately started cleaning while waiting for their turn at the blender. As they produced them, I tasted each, asked them what they thought and why, and commented on salt-level. Some didn't follow the recipe closely enough and made them too thick or too thin, and only one student straight-up disliked their smoothie.<br /><br />I had my experienced students prep the 10 cheeses for tasting, chop bread and a new student was shown how to slice an apple correctly. (Half it, take out the top and bottom stems with a paring knife, then remove the seeds with a melon-baller) The kitchen was cleaned and we sat down to eat by 5:30, earlier than usual, but gave us time to talk and really get into the cheese tasting.<br /><br />The cheeses were sharp cheddar, smoked gouda, buffala moz, pecorino romano, morbier, tallegio, brie, marscapone, roquefort and stilton. I explained how the stinky cheese taste much better than they smell, and for the truely foul ones, eating it with a sweet fruit like apple changes everything. As I explained my own experience discovering the delicious smelliness of tallegio, then amping it up by eating it with apples, one student guffawed "Ratatouille!" and a bunch chimed in in agreement. I guess being compared to a food-loving cartoon rat is a good thing. There was a lot of hesitation to trying the cheeses, but when I explained that the smoked gouda kinda tastes like bacon, everyone tried it and all loved it. One kid said it tasted like a Bodega meat stick/cheese stick combo wrapped into one. There was uniform scorn for the blue cheeses, but a few kids liked the ashy wine-subtle smoothness of the morbier, which made me VERY happy.<br /><br />It was a good start to the session. Next week, more focus on knife skills. We'll make the whipped potatos and vegetable stock, though I may mix it up with the chard, we'll see.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-4602691190114023602010-02-12T15:45:00.000-08:002010-02-12T16:27:48.483-08:00Teaching, Cycle 2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeW6U5Ohn7MOcCeEK7MBZiYptEtkHJpgVwF6nnMKY_VNC1TC7Qz6ka8F5h1pYGUjwoYoLBO7-9HLSP3LnBhIMrepcnxrQ0IbqQHMioasKwgG0GU3XVZOm-H7Zgexy7IXG8NbO4SUxBlwb/s1600-h/photo-63.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeW6U5Ohn7MOcCeEK7MBZiYptEtkHJpgVwF6nnMKY_VNC1TC7Qz6ka8F5h1pYGUjwoYoLBO7-9HLSP3LnBhIMrepcnxrQ0IbqQHMioasKwgG0GU3XVZOm-H7Zgexy7IXG8NbO4SUxBlwb/s400/photo-63.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437516090839918066" border="0" /></a><br />Hello, everybody! I was at the high school today, recruiting student's for the second semester of culinary classes that I'll be teaching starting in March. Again, I whipped out a batch of brownies based on <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fudge-Brownies-I/Detail.aspx">this recipe</a>, and put them side-by-side with some bodega-purchased Lil' Debbie brownies.<br /><br />Again, I put this info sheet out:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfUb0EttuNjevBrdpw6MgxMCivGAxnRKcvpC3vVrzKGtXiP7nxvz6KZevUyeOlAXZBh6tlN6IykMmHdL0qtYqB69bCPzwuYXJuEjd50rniS5TyYxUDTqxxjS6VDQUDNGJNZcb2ynHg-jRb/s1600-h/BrownieInfo.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 411px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfUb0EttuNjevBrdpw6MgxMCivGAxnRKcvpC3vVrzKGtXiP7nxvz6KZevUyeOlAXZBh6tlN6IykMmHdL0qtYqB69bCPzwuYXJuEjd50rniS5TyYxUDTqxxjS6VDQUDNGJNZcb2ynHg-jRb/s400/BrownieInfo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385547070749434146" border="0" /></a>Spoke to about 15 interested kids. Talking with the supervisor about coming back in a couple of weeks to do a meatball demo class to further recruiting.<br /><br />Basically, I'll be basing this round of classes on the curriculum I've developed, based on the C-CAP literature, but take it a step further. Now that I've done it once, I kind of know what works and what doesn't, what can be done in how long, etc. Should be interesting!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-25865660309443278112009-12-16T08:37:00.000-08:002009-12-21T12:05:22.044-08:00Student's Choice/End of SemesterTo close out the semester, the students suggested what they wanted to make. One said pork dumplings, another said fried calamari, the third suggested brownies, to which I steered to the next step up in elegance: flourless chocolate cake. One three students suggesting 2 appetizers and a dessert does not a meal make, so I rounded it out with a dish I wish I had hit up on grains day: risotto.<br /><br />First up was making the cake. Flourless chocolate cake was trendy a few years ago, but now that everyone has taken a crack at it, people have recognized it for what it is: an extra dense brownie that doesn't have much chew.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaxzAjpYQVGjcmvMDZA9laNreylErxWAlXw7Cj46Q7P4m69cWzI9eMvF-mB8BEM-EQ6DStdqVz1NYpS28QtyoZ1vtBGY6Eu0aSUeembfG-GGaXKpWGAG3lKKGyAL4EopCdrTLblAqBYPo/s1600-h/photo-48.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaxzAjpYQVGjcmvMDZA9laNreylErxWAlXw7Cj46Q7P4m69cWzI9eMvF-mB8BEM-EQ6DStdqVz1NYpS28QtyoZ1vtBGY6Eu0aSUeembfG-GGaXKpWGAG3lKKGyAL4EopCdrTLblAqBYPo/s400/photo-48.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416618746220424690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 16 small serving</span><br /><blockquote>Semisweet chocolate 4 oz<br />Butter ½ cup<br />White sugar ¾ cup<br />Cocoa powder ½ cup<br />Eggs, beaten 3 each<br />Vanilla bean, scrapings 1 each</blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease an 8” round springform pan, dust with cocoa powder.<br />2. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Remove from heat, stir in sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla.<br />3. Stir in eggs. Pour into prepared pan.<br />4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.<br /><br />This is a VERY chocolaty and rich dessert, requiring something to compliment and mute it's strength. Vanilla ice cream (which I made at home and brought in -- not enough time and not enough equipment to make it at school) is a nice, straightforward companion, but a fruit sauce is also pretty classic.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">RASPBERRY SAUCE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 2 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Raspberries 1 pint<br />White sugar ¼ cup<br />Orange juice 2 tbsp<br />Cornstarch 2 tbsp<br />Cold water 1 cup</blockquote>1. Combine raspberries, sugar and orange juice in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk cornstarch into cold water until smooth. Combine cornstarch mixture into the sauce pan, BTB RTS<br />2. Simmer for 5 minutes or so until the desired consistency, constantly stirring. Note: sauce will thicken further as it cools.<br />3. Puree in blender. Pour through fine metal sieve. Serve warm or chilled.<br /><br /><br />Fried calamari is as simple as simple can be. I didn't really do any deep frying in class because it doesn't take much skill or talent to do it -- monkeys run the deep fryers at fast food restaurants. But if we were going to do it, I'm glad it was squid -- I got a student to take whole squid and take them apart. And unlike somethings, calamari only needs a minute in the fryer. Our first few batches came out perfect, but the last was a flop -- the temp of the oil dropped, and instead of coming out light and crisp, the last calamari came out heavy, greasy, overcooked and nasty. Mistakes are a learning opportunity.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox4k-AkpNiT6jDvf_Uua_6HGTdB5bDCfpYuFirrpIj0Ae7MJjePIXdd5fnR6pEPm3CbZGNmtoJi80RIaAlSCAn_lknBXCI9O-t03DXtQznZQ2CMeVaVvgnqEr6q5PQZDpUIVmtroKzR7c/s1600-h/photo-45.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox4k-AkpNiT6jDvf_Uua_6HGTdB5bDCfpYuFirrpIj0Ae7MJjePIXdd5fnR6pEPm3CbZGNmtoJi80RIaAlSCAn_lknBXCI9O-t03DXtQznZQ2CMeVaVvgnqEr6q5PQZDpUIVmtroKzR7c/s400/photo-45.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416618736360657122" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FRIED CALAMARI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 16 small appetizer portions</span><br /><blockquote>Peanut oil 1 gallon<br />Squid, tubes & tentacles 2 lbs<br />AP flour 1 cup<br />Plain cornmeal 1 cup<br />Salt to taste<br />Ground black pepper to taste</blockquote>1. Place oil in appropriate vessel. Bring to 375˚, measuring with fry thermometer.<br />2. Combine flour and cornmeal in a mixing bowl.<br />3. When ready to fry, in small handfuls, dredge the squid in the flour and cornmeal mixture and shake off the excess. In batches, gently lower the squid into the hot oil. Cook for 1 minute. The squid will not be browned, but lightly golden in color. Remove the squid and transfer to a cooling rack turned upside down set over a newspaper-lined sheet pan. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Repeat until all of the squid is cooked. Make sure to check the temperature of the oil before each batch to ensure it is 375 degrees F. Serve immediately.<br /><br />Dumplings at their core are meatballs wrapped in dough. In this case, a Chinese-style pork dumpling involves pureeing the pork to make a mouse, spiked with a variety of Asian flavors like ginger, scallion, garlic, sesame, soy sauce and rice wine. We didn't have time to make the dough, but the premade goza wrappers were pretty good.<br /><br />The dipping sauce was made on the fly, mixing ingredients from the recipe (soy sauce, sesame oil) and spiking it with a bit of vinegar.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVUM-z1C0W-ThybLtEbSu6f53z2jxd66POVsegoCjpt2uDo0Xi41WgbudITBOx1WtnJW5yZ399OSXxETgMg2M1M7HSO81sD0SP4iwh0paBblLvZptKVx66-QKvrwn0vZcgH8KmE0U63REJ/s1600-h/photo-46.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVUM-z1C0W-ThybLtEbSu6f53z2jxd66POVsegoCjpt2uDo0Xi41WgbudITBOx1WtnJW5yZ399OSXxETgMg2M1M7HSO81sD0SP4iwh0paBblLvZptKVx66-QKvrwn0vZcgH8KmE0U63REJ/s400/photo-46.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416618737828799762" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">PORK SHAO </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">MAI</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 60 dumplings</span><br /><blockquote>Pork, ground 2 lbs<br />Gingerroot, minced 3 tbsp<br />Scallions, mostly green, minced 4 each<br />Rice wine 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Soy sauce 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Sesame oil 1 tbsp + 1 tsp<br />Egg white 4 each<br />Cornstarch 3 tbsp<br />Fresh water chestnuts, fine dice 2 oz<br />Thin round dumpling skins 60 each</blockquote>1. Hand mix pork, ginger, scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg white and cornstarch. In batches, place mix in a food processor. Pulse to mix further, then puree.<br />2. Once the entire batch in pureed, fold in the water chestnuts. Chill until ready to use.<br />3. Place approximately 2 tsp of the filling in the center of a wrapper. Bring sides up and push/pleat sides together so that the dumpling has an “Empire waist” and some of the filling pushes out the top. Place the shao mai on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp cotton towel until you are ready to steam them.<br />4. Place enough water into a wok or pan so that it comes up to inch below the steamer basket. BTB. Open the steamer and arrange the dumplings in the steamer basket with space between them. Steam until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.<br /><br />Risotto is a very interactive method. Once you have sauteed the aromatics and the rice andcooked off the wine, it's all about stirring while adding small portions of the liquid, to bring out the starch in the rice to make that thick sauce between the grains. Finished with lots of fatty things, it doesn't take a lot of add ons (in this case asparagus) to make a loud flavor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWr2X64cAT2kFZNbAviBQ4IPjFDdU3ECTnUlE6GdO6jhMlrKGZQHLP-c1dOWi4sMes3Hg6L9Te7cRmOdaQv1W43KUz5hYyKC5bwY_v20w_iCV50pD9948XlLWmmHODMy6SN0DQ0fYmhA1/s1600-h/photo-47.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWr2X64cAT2kFZNbAviBQ4IPjFDdU3ECTnUlE6GdO6jhMlrKGZQHLP-c1dOWi4sMes3Hg6L9Te7cRmOdaQv1W43KUz5hYyKC5bwY_v20w_iCV50pD9948XlLWmmHODMy6SN0DQ0fYmhA1/s400/photo-47.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416618742627660978" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CHICKEN ASPARAGUS RISOTTO</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 14 servings</span><br /><blockquote>XV OO ½ cup<br />Onion, medium, dice 2 each<br />Garlic, minced 1 tbsp<br />Asparagus, peeled, diced 2 bunch<br />Asparagus spear tips 2 bunch<br />Rice, Arborio 3 cups<br />White wine 1 cup<br />Chicken stock, hot 16 cups<br />Butter, cold 8 tbsp<br />Parmegano-Regiano, grated 1 cup<br />Mascarpone 17.5 oz<br />Parsley, minced 3 tbsp<br />Chicken breasts, large dice 6 each</blockquote>1. Sautee cubed chicken until medium rare. Set aside. Deep fry asparagus spear tips for 1 minute in 375˚ oil, set aside.<br />2. Heat oil in a large rondeau, add onion and asparagus, sweat until translucent. Add rice and cook until toasted and opaque, 3-4 minutes.<br />3. Add wine and cook until alcohol smell dissipates.<br />4. Add 1-2 ladles of stock at a time until absorbed, constantly stirring. Keep adding ladle by ladle, absorbing fully each time, until all is gone.<br />5. Remove from heat. Add butter, cheeses and parsley. Stir 30 seconds. Season. Add cooked chicken. Garnish with more grated cheese, parsley and fried asparagus spears.<br /><br />And that was that. My wife and child came to the school, a few extra staff joined us, and rather than do family-style, I did some plating with the students, using garnishes to decorate appropriate sized portions.<br /><br />After eating and clean up, I thanked the students, and told them that they were better than the other 7 students who dropped out over the semeseter -- in their professional lives, just being consistent and showing up will be a large part of what proves them to be successful, more than the flakes and the fakers.<br /><br />There was some talk of starting a new semester in March, perhaps twice a week -- we could get through a lot more recipes and methods, and drill much deeper into theory and directed experimentation. So until then, have a happy new year!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-59440224126656861302009-12-09T08:49:00.000-08:002009-12-13T16:24:49.134-08:00I wanna pizza all day, and pizza each and every night<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gFNwKi6fkix_Eiiu5_a1gmYm_V_0fv3uCly1PcC-eaAk1GXYUBH0XfJPBohJc_yeY33yGJZvr2P7zM8mH-aqWTwF2gLZMKMtXCZ3YCagyU_dKxpe8iSGBcagXhl4H1GFzno2nYK-Gj6H/s1600-h/photo-40.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gFNwKi6fkix_Eiiu5_a1gmYm_V_0fv3uCly1PcC-eaAk1GXYUBH0XfJPBohJc_yeY33yGJZvr2P7zM8mH-aqWTwF2gLZMKMtXCZ3YCagyU_dKxpe8iSGBcagXhl4H1GFzno2nYK-Gj6H/s400/photo-40.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413652043765055330" border="0" /></a><br />I don't know if learning the ephemera and details of making proper pizza will help these kids figure out how to deal with the world at large, but it may help them appreciate good pizza just a little bit more.<br /><br />I brought two pizza stones from home and immediately started preheating them in the convection oven full blast -- 550˚. Yeast, flour, honey,everything was laid out as orderly as possible to make dough by hand...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">PIZZA DOUGH</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 7-8 inch rounds</span><br /><blockquote>Warm water 2 ½ cup<br />Active dry yeast 2 1/2 tsp<br />Honey ½ tsp<br />Olive oil 1 ½ tbsp<br />AP flour 5 ½ to 6 cups<br />Kosher salt 2 tbsp</blockquote>1. Make sure water is warm to the touch – not luke warm and not painful to the touch. Sprinkle yeast in water and let the yeast soften for a few minutes. Stir the yeast to dissolve it completely. Add the honey and the olive oil. Mix to combine.<br />2. Add flour one cup at a time to liquid and mix with spoon, fork or hand until a sticky mass. Add salt and knead to combine.<br />3. Turn out onto a dry, lightly floured surface and knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball that can be kneaded easily. Place in an oiled bowl, covered with a towel, and put in a warm place and rise until doubled.<br />4. Deflate dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 equal portions and roll each into a ball. Let rest covered with towel for 15 minutes.<br />5. Stretch into a round disc about 1/8” thick.<br /><br />The kids complained about how hard it was to knead the dough, I didn't have the heart to tell them that no one does this by hand -- it's all done in a mixer, either at home in a small kitchen aide or in a Hobart floor-model in a restaurant. Still, it was good to work it to a smooth state.<br /><br />The dough had to rise, so during that time we mised all the toppings -- sliced and grated cheeses, made some simple tomato sauce (sent canned whole tomatoes through a food mill, seasoned with salt, balsamic and sugar to taste), loosed up some raw sausage, cleaned some raw shrimp, sliced pepperoni, roasted green peppers on the stove top, slowly caramelized onions in chicken fat, and arranged a toppings area that included all that plus prosciutto, red pepper flakes, salt, olive oil and ground pepper.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBB3dEv-0xGL5txE4nasSswU7AIYdtQZOXwXtOkGmmLnDo8n8CMACLapPgMjOEjFDSlkyINrkQ_q8Fs2UPo3LlHgeNoz-WZIjGD9ibic_Fc2bIZiFrpAj8bbZwWfa8r3sjNNfPAlG4tLD/s1600-h/photo-41.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBB3dEv-0xGL5txE4nasSswU7AIYdtQZOXwXtOkGmmLnDo8n8CMACLapPgMjOEjFDSlkyINrkQ_q8Fs2UPo3LlHgeNoz-WZIjGD9ibic_Fc2bIZiFrpAj8bbZwWfa8r3sjNNfPAlG4tLD/s400/photo-41.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413652052794396770" border="0" /></a><br />Stretching is not something that can be lectured about or written about, it must be shown, then repeated. There are many techniques, but there are certain commonalities. NO SLAPPING -- it knocks the CO2 right out of the dough and makes it more wafer like than pizza like. Spinning and throwing is fun and cool, but does not make for good pizza. Stretching, pushing, but not too much pulling, tearing is a no no.<br /><br />I only distributed one recipe, and demoed it....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MARGARITA PIZZA</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 8” pizza</span><br /><blockquote>Stretched dough disc 1 each<br />Tomato sauce to taste<br />Mozzarella cheese to taste<br />Parmesan, grated to taste<br />Oregano to taste<br />Olive Oil to taste<br />Salt to taste<br />Basil to taste</blockquote>1. Place dough disc on peel. Pour sauce directly on the center of dough disc and spread evenly with back of spoon until there is more sauce towards the rim than the center.<br />2. Place cheeses on top of sauce, taking care to be light towards the center<br />3. Sprinkle with oregano.<br />4. Apply olive oil in a spiral, starting with a big loop by the cornicone and coming short of the center.<br />5. Sprinkle with salt.<br />6. Place pizza in a preheated 500˚ oven on a stone. Bake until crust is golden. Check bottom, as it may cook faster than the top. If the bottom gets dark golden first, it is done regardless of the top.<br />7. Apply basil, either whole, torn or chiffonade. Hit with more olive oil if it looks dry. Serve immediately.<br /><br />With all the other toppings available, I let them go at it with just a few rules:<br /><ul><li>Less is more.</li><li>Heavy on the outside, light on the inside. Too much in the middle makes for a wet, uneatable pie</li><li>Finish with olive oil and salt, unless you're using a fatty, salty topping like pepperoni</li><li>It's easy to under cook a pie. It's hard to get it to the point where it looks a little burnt but not yet carbonized and bitter.</li></ul>The school was hosting some representatives from some companies of some sort, so we provided several trays of miscellaneous pizza for the people, about 30 in all. The students did ok -- I had to correct a lot of stretching jobs -- mostly understretched. I let one go in and when it come out, it was a small, fat bready disc with toppings. A few undertopped their pies, leaving patches with nothing on it, not even oil or salt. But by the time each one of them got 7 or 8 under their belt, they seemed to get a feel for basic balance.<br /><br />The next day, I met the kids and the counselor at the pizzeria I consult at for a tour and a snack. The kids were pretty into seeing a restaurant kitchen and talking to L, the chef/owner who is a bit of a character.<br /><br />Next up, the final class of this group. I asked the kids to suggest what they want to cook, and we're gonna make a meal of it...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-59417012306735445882009-12-02T19:23:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:59:09.791-08:00Meaty Meat<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLYgfghlAHH_lxj8KxAS1TQ0U-WHpgxRV9cPVCXTVim11HANQUysQ4gGyu1L0r1DYilnhHmxjTLX28psONJ6AxS1wkr5FrsTxQSkrtG99ODBdkFrabcfr5TBfTdPkHzzOTxfPj-cLfN2/s1600-h/photo-38.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLYgfghlAHH_lxj8KxAS1TQ0U-WHpgxRV9cPVCXTVim11HANQUysQ4gGyu1L0r1DYilnhHmxjTLX28psONJ6AxS1wkr5FrsTxQSkrtG99ODBdkFrabcfr5TBfTdPkHzzOTxfPj-cLfN2/s400/photo-38.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411192668744281234" border="0" /></a><br />How does one teach about the entire world of meat in one three hour session, when an hour of it is dedicated to lecture and clean up? One can not. On top of that, half the class was absent, probably due to a combination of being burned out of the two intense days it took to get Thanksgiving lunch out to 150 mouths and the pressures of the holiday <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">season</span>. One thing for certain -- they didn't flake because of the menu: they all love their meat.<br /><br />Meat is edible animal product, typically muscle, fat and bone. Other animal products, such as skin and offal (organs), are edible but not "meat", and then there are certain animal products, like hair, leather and waste, which are neither meat nor edible.<br /><br />The USDA recommends all meat be cooked to an internal temperature of 165˚. That would guarantee all meat to be at best well-done, at worst barely edible shoe leather. Meat loses flavor, texture, and color at these temperatures. If meat is sourced from a reliable (read: not dirt cheap), known vendor, is treated correctly, and cooked correctly, illness from meat (in this country) is very <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">overhyped</span>.<br /><br />The exception to that is ground meat: Because the outside of the meat is where all the filth is -- and where it can be cooked away at temps well above 165 without destroying the meat, is broken up and mixed in, right to the middle and the sides. But won't ground meat be inedible if cooked well above 165˚? Well, not necessarily, because we can mix stuff in to help it retain what we like about it. Take this meatball recipe, for instance....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ESTELLE’S MEATBALLS</span><br /></div> <span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: About 85 balls</span><br /><blockquote>Chopped Meat 10 lbs<br />Italian bread, chopped, soaked 2 loaves<br />Onions, finely minced 4 each<br />Romano, grated 3 cups<br />Parsley, with stems, chopped 1 bunch<br />Breadcrumbs ½ cup<br />Salt 4 tablespoons<br />Pepper 2 tablespoons<br />Eggs, beaten 4 each<br /></blockquote>1. Oil two hotel pans. Preheat oven to 550˚. Press chopped, soaked bread through colander to remove as much moisture as possible.<br />2. Loosen chopped meat in a large bowl by hand. Mix in soaked bread, onion, Romano and parsley. Mix by hand until just combined.<br />3. Add breadcrumbs, if needed, if mixture is too moist.<br />4. Add salt, pepper and eggs until just combined.<br />5. Roll lightly into 3 oz. balls – DO NOT <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">OVERROLL</span>.<br />6. Bake in oven until done, 10-15 minutes.<br /><br />This recipe comes from the mother of the chef for whom I worked before my baby was born. While meat becomes gray, chewy, and dry if cooked at a high temperature in an oven, the feel of the ball is retained by the mushed bread and the mushed moist onion. Cheese and eggs also serve as binders and replace some of the fat that runs out of the meat during cooking. When these came out of the oven, they were very mushy to the bite; once they came close to room <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">temperature</span>, they firmed up to just the right consistency.<br /><br />It's important in this recipe not to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">overroll</span> and not to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">overmix</span>, or your balls will turn into lead pellets when they cool.<br /><br />And what's a meat ball without some nice tomato sauce...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BASIC TOMATO SAUCE</span><br /></div> <span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 4 cups</span><br /><blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">EVOO</span> ¼ cup<br />Onion, small dice 1 large onion<br />Garlic, minced 4 cloves<br />Thyme, chopped 3 tbsp<br />Oregano, chopped 2 tbsp<br />Carrot, grated 1 each<br />Basil, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">chiffonade</span> 3 tbsp<br />Whole peeled tomatoes, milled 2 28oz cans<br />Salt to taste</blockquote>1. Heat olive oil in saucepan. Soften onion, then add garlic for 1 additional minute.<br />2. Add thyme, oregano and carrot and cook until carrot is soft, about five minutes<br />3. Add tomatoes and basil. Simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes.<br /><br />I adapted this recipe from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Batali</span>, a nice simple sauce. He just adds thyme, which I find a bit one-dimensional, and I mill my tomatoes while he hand-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">smushes</span> them, which I find makes for a very watery/chunky sauce.<br /><br />Sauteed meat is an a la minute preparation -- once it's out of the pan and rested for half the time it took to cook, it needs to be served. So we made a simple <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">polenta</span> before we got our steaks on...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">POLENTA</span></span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 8 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Water 4 cups<br />Yellow corn meal 1 cup<br />Salt 1 tbsp<br />Parmesan, grated ½ cup<br />Olive oil 2 tbsp</blockquote>1. Grease a 9 x 12 pan. In saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil.<br />2. In a bowl, combine 2 cups of cool tap water with cup of corn meal.<br />3. Slowly whisk water/corn meal mixture into boiling water. Add salt. Continue whisking until it comes to a boil.<br />4. Reduce to simmer. Cook <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">polenta</span>, stirring occasionally 35-40 minutes, until thick, creamy and no longer gritty.<br />5. Stir in Parmesan until incorporated. Pour into pan. Chill 30 minutes or until firm.<br />6. Cut into triangles. Reheat in oiled <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">sauté</span> pan, brown on each side.<br /><br />Unfortunately, we were rushed and didn't have time to try to cook each steak to different degrees of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">doneness</span>, which is more of an eye/feel/experience thing that can only be learned by doing. Basically, if you salt correctly, if your flame is at the right hotness, a nice brown layer will form on the surface of the meat, indicating deliciousness.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SHELL STEAK WITH SIMPLE PAN SAUCE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 serving</span><br /><blockquote>Steak 1 each<br />Salt to taste<br />Shallots, minced 2 tbsp<br />Red wine ¼ cup<br />Beef stock ½ cup<br />Butter 1 tbsp<br />Salt to taste</blockquote>1. Heat <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">sauté</span> pan, add oil, medium high heat.<br />2. Rub down steak on both sides with salt right before cooking. Place steak in center of pan. Cook 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on size of steak. Cook to medium rare.<br />3. Set steak on resting rack.<br />4. Add shallots to pan, soften in pan while scraping up fond.<br />5. Add wine. Cook until <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">au</span> sec.<br />6. Add beef stock. Cook away half of liquid, or until thick.<br />7. Add butter. Add salt.<br />8. Serve steak with pan sauce pour over top.<br /><br />Next week, we spend the day dedicated to my personal hero, Pizza...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-66600097884797314302009-11-25T05:49:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:59:43.185-08:00Thanksgiving for 150<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMCBZZNcgGQ0QzwikeGUAERKDveb1XOe0rstJ9-n_cNo00IIcroZnh_BcOOT4C6nGrhedmksecXs8aftLYIvGnCLhLM3oJIR9yKKsCKqpaOC7cam4FvApvvxwY3Vq-rZxkrvgIn4DhcSY/s1600/ThanksgivingMenu2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 354px; height: 486px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMCBZZNcgGQ0QzwikeGUAERKDveb1XOe0rstJ9-n_cNo00IIcroZnh_BcOOT4C6nGrhedmksecXs8aftLYIvGnCLhLM3oJIR9yKKsCKqpaOC7cam4FvApvvxwY3Vq-rZxkrvgIn4DhcSY/s400/ThanksgivingMenu2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409153940571577010" border="0" /></a>We held class on Tuesday at the normal time, around 3:15. Only one student showed up on time -- after loading in 100s of lbs of food only minutes before, it sent a chill down my spine. Will all the labor of setting up a meal for 150 fall on my shoulders? Fortunately, 3 were outside smoking, and 2 more showed up late due to a conflicting class trip.<br /><br />Tuesday was all about prep and cooking off what could be held. The mac n' cheese was made, but not baked. I had never held an unbaked mac n' cheese before. We saved the topping of the bread crumbs for the next day, too. Yams were scrubbed, forked and wrapped in foil, then put on the shelf. White potatoes were peeled, chopped, and put in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">acidulated</span> water. Sausage was cooked off, stuffing was assembled, then <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">refrigerated</span> without the final baking.<br /><br />The only things that were 99% cooked and ready to go were the drinks, but even that I held back. A whole case of lemons were squeezed with a rotating Kitchen Aid mixer attachment. Pots of syrup were made, one infused with mint. A gallon of strong tea was infused. I left them with out a lot of additional water, left them strong, because....they took up so much damn space! Watering them down with cold water to taste right before service made sense.<br /><br />Smoked turkey necks came whole, so they had to be hacked apart. Placed in water and boiled to make a nice stock, but not enough time to cook off collards, so the whole pot was placed in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">the</span> fridge along with bowls full of sliced up greens.<br /><br />Before class, I took the two turkeys, stripped them of packaging, giblet bags, necks and plastic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">doohickies</span>, and dropped them into large containers full of salt <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">solution</span> and got them in the walk-in. At the end of class, I had students remove them, pat them down and place them back in the fridge. The glaze for the hams were made and placed into large bags with the hams, then into the chilly walk in. Fresh pineapples were demoed then hacked up.<br /><br />We were cleaned up by 8pm, and eating some pumpkin pie, cornbread and strong sweet tea. It flew by, everyone was busy. The potatoes were a lot of labor, but everything went smoothly.<br /><br />I was back in the kitchen by 6:30am, cooking off yams. The first student joined me at 7am, and I had her doing fun stuff, like making additional cinnamon butter and making dessert arrangements. Some things were simple -- get the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">stuffings</span> and mac n' cheeses in the oven, out, cover in foil, hold in a warm oven or above the ovens until service. The white potatoes were boiled off, then run through a food mill and folded into hot cream and butter and salt. The turkeys were rubbed down with butter, stuffed with chopped mire <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">poix</span> and fresh herbs, stabbed with an electronic thermometer, then off to the races. The hams were studded with cloves and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">pineapple</span>, then placed in the oven to heat through -- being a smoked meat, it's already cooked. Cinnamon butter plated, drinks watered down to taste then bottled. Collards boiled in the turkey neck stock, spooned out and slathered in chicken fat.<br /><br />Service was at 12:30, and everything except the turkey was locked and loaded by noon.<br />The only thing I was really unhappy with was the turkey -- I've never actually roasted a turkey before (because, well, I don't like turkey and we roasted plenty of other meats in c-school) and I now know why it has such a bad rep. I don't mean bad rep, like evil factory farms, animals bred into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">unwalking</span>, unhappy mutants or unhealthy hormones, antibiotics and chemicals stuffed into these poor birds. I mean it's REALLY difficult to roast a bird this size AND have it all come out good. If you get the center of the meat to 165˚, the outside is gonna overcook, period. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Brining</span> only got us so far. Looking at the pic above, yes, it's a nice color and yes, the butter basting let the skin come out nice n' crackly, but about 1/4 of the dark meat and 1/3 of the white was dry and tough, despite me following every method and maxim drawn from my experience.<br /><br />If I were to do the bird again, I would either a) forgo roasting the bird all together and fry the mother or b) choose 3 smaller birds instead of 2 large, brine for 8 hours instead of 4 and baste twice as much. Oh well.<br /><br />Speeches of thankfulness were given, then the food rolled out finally by 1pm. It was pretty organized -- 5 big tables of about 20 people each, so each dish was either baked in or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">divided</span> into 5 big portions. The amounts were pretty spot-on except for two dishes -- I should have doubled up on the mac n' cheese, and I should have done a different yam recipe, as they were nearly untouched. I think this population was used to a mashed, very sweetened yam preparation, and a simple baked yam with butter (albeit sweet, jazzed up butter) was a step too far to take with them. And by 1:30, it was over!<br /><br />Only three more classes left: next week is meat, then pizza, then students' choice....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MACARONI & CHEESE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 30 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Elbow macaroni 4 lbs<br />Butter 1 ½ cups<br />Flour 1 ½ cups<br />Whole milk 1 ¼ gallon<br />Salt & pepper to taste<br />Worcestershire sauce to taste<br />Cheddar, cubed 1 ½ lb<br />Mozzarella, cubed 1 ½ lb<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Monterey</span> jack, cubed 1 ½ lb<br />Bread Crumbs 10 cups</blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Warm milk, but do not boil. Grease 5 large aluminum pans. Bring enough salted water to a boil. Add pasta, cook until very <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">al</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">dente</span> – 2 minutes shorter than package suggestion.<br />2. Melt butter and stir in flour to make a roux. Whisk in warm milk a ladle at a time to make white sauce. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">BTB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">RTS</span>. Salt and pepper to taste.<br />3. Remove sauce from heat, stir in three cheeses. Combine with pasta and stir well. Pour into 5 baking dishes.<br />4. Sprinkle tops with breadcrumbs to coat.<br />5. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until top is desired crispiness. Rest.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CORNBREAD & SAUSAGE STUFFING</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 100 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Sausage, casing removed, crumbled 10 lbs<br />Onion, finely chopped 8 each<br />Celery, finely chopped 2 head<br />Salt & pepper to taste<br />Cornbread, cubed 10 lbs<br />Fresh sage, minced 10 oz<br />Eggs, lightly beaten 30 each<br />Chicken stock 10 to 12 cups<br /></blockquote>1. Brown sausage in large pot until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon.<br />2. Add onion and celery to pot with hot fat in it. Cook until vegetables soften. Season generously with salt and pepper.<br />3. Toss sausage and vegetables with cornbread in a large bowl. Moisten with stock until correct texture is achieved. Divide into 5 baking dishes.<br />4. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake – 350˚ for 45-60 minutes until top crust is achieved.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">COLLARD GREENS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 50 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Smoked turkey necks, chopped 5 lbs<br />Collard greens, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">chiffonade</span> 5 bushels<br />Salt to taste<br />White vinegar to taste<br />Chicken fat 1 cup</blockquote>1. Cover necks in cold water. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">BTB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">RTS</span><br />2. Add greens, fat, salt and vinegar.<br />3. Simmer until greens are soft, 45-60 minutes.<br />4. Strain, refrigerate until service.<br />5. Before service, reheat in pans with chicken fat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57FDZv2E7MPod1eCGuYu1deRoONLzFPKlVuZiKyPlKz-qsa1SaK9YhG2UUu7LthlWxwR85VeD2o_Ce31GxL1XC033jGK8sGcGXpKWV7-Qr9Ay7x83fHThSUem1kgYGj2KTNCil5JDTwf4/s1600/photo-33.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57FDZv2E7MPod1eCGuYu1deRoONLzFPKlVuZiKyPlKz-qsa1SaK9YhG2UUu7LthlWxwR85VeD2o_Ce31GxL1XC033jGK8sGcGXpKWV7-Qr9Ay7x83fHThSUem1kgYGj2KTNCil5JDTwf4/s400/photo-33.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409153930481759394" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CREAMED POTATOES</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 100 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Russet Potatoes 40 lbs<br />Butter, room temperature 8-10 cup<br />Milk, hot 1 g<br />Heavy cream, hot 1 g<br />Ground black pepper to taste</blockquote>1. Scrub, peel and cut potatoes into large pieces.<br />2. Boil or steam until tender.<br />3. Drain and dry over low heat or on a sheet pan in a 300˚ oven until no steam rises from them.<br />4. While hot, puree potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer into a heated bowl.<br />5. Add butter and mix into potatoes by hand or with the paddle or whip attachment of an electric mixer until just incorporated. Add milk, cream, salt, pepper by hand until smooth and light<br />6. Spoon potatoes onto heated plates or transfer to a piping bag and pipe into desired shapes.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BAKED YAMS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 100 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Yams 100 each</blockquote>1. Wash and scrub each potato. Fork each several times. Wrap in foil.<br />2. Bake 1 hour at 400˚<br />3. Test with fork – if fork meets no resistance, it is done.<br />4. Can be held, uncovered, for one hour. Serve with sweet cinnamon butter.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SWEET TEA</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 5 gallons</span><br /><blockquote>Sugar 10 lbs<br />Cold water 3 quart<br />Loose black tea 1 lb<br />Hot water 2.5 gallon<br />Room temp water 2.5 gallon</blockquote>1. Combine sugar and cold water. Bring to a boil. Allow to cool.<br />2. Infuse loose tea into hot water for 4 to 5 minutes. Strain into room temperature water.<br />3. Sweeten tea with simple syrup.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MINT LEMONADE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 5 gallons</span><br /><blockquote>Sugar 10 lbs<br />Cold water 3 quart<br />Mint 10 bunches<br />Lemon juice 1 gallon<br />Cold water 4 gallon<br />Salt to taste</blockquote>1. Combine sugar and cold water. Bring to a boil. Add whole mint, stems removed. Simmer 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool.<br />2. Combine lemon juice, mint syrup and cold water. Season.<br />3. Refrigerate until ready to serve.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8w2042JcSIBLQv_AggS5_BwoFZLXr1jPqTr5GMGFPQcO1BCy3_FlXKGmbNPluquB5owezO5VzehLh10E-mHiou4xuQpMiL4WJmaUpcl58C0gHQ-15xatLdX31KhjG3MZuCKzHw1UB2qY/s1600/photo-34.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8w2042JcSIBLQv_AggS5_BwoFZLXr1jPqTr5GMGFPQcO1BCy3_FlXKGmbNPluquB5owezO5VzehLh10E-mHiou4xuQpMiL4WJmaUpcl58C0gHQ-15xatLdX31KhjG3MZuCKzHw1UB2qY/s400/photo-34.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409153922245025650" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">GLAZED HAM</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 100 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Smoke ham 2 each<br />Pineapple juice 1 g<br />Cherry juice 1 g<br />Mango juice 1 g<br />Lemon juice .5 g<br />Smoked hams 4 each<br />Salt & pepper to taste<br />Brown sugar 4 lbs<br />Fresh pineapple, sliced 4 each</blockquote>1. Boil juices until reduced to syrup<br />2. Place hams in high-walled pans. Rub with brown sugar, salt and pepper.<br />3. Place hams in plastic bags. Fill with syrup. Refrigerate overnight.<br />4. Remove from bags, place excess syrup in pans. Place pineapple slices around the ham.<br />5. Bake until heated through, occasionally basting with syrup.<br />6. Rest 30 minutes, then slice and serve.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtaFeqz4cdKyAqK3DvY0f3c1CoVANOkGPcO04btqP-5x8lkIl4GW7h_tTnXLryVP4qyUdMqjXLV2sBdmpyZF5CyKK1UCwxua7lQI945DGrjHDwfHBDVgYX5_3peUuixbbQlVcZMeuiYCb7/s1600/photo-32.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtaFeqz4cdKyAqK3DvY0f3c1CoVANOkGPcO04btqP-5x8lkIl4GW7h_tTnXLryVP4qyUdMqjXLV2sBdmpyZF5CyKK1UCwxua7lQI945DGrjHDwfHBDVgYX5_3peUuixbbQlVcZMeuiYCb7/s400/photo-32.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409153934819051986" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ROASTED TURKEY</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 turkey</span><br /><blockquote>Turkey 1 each<br />Salt 1 cup per gallon of water<br />Onion, chopped 3 medium<br />Carrots, chopped 7 each<br />Celery 5 ribs<br />Thyme, fresh 4 sprigs<br />Butter, melted 6 tablespoons</blockquote>1. Remove giblets and neck from cavity. Prepare bringing solution of 1 gallon of water to 1 cup salt and cover turkey in non-reactive container. Refrigerate minimum 4 hours.<br />2. Remove from solution, rinse turkey in fresh water. Pat dry, place on pan and allow drying in refrigerator overnight/8 hours.<br />3. Preheat oven to 400˚.<br />4. Coat vegetables and thyme with melted butter, reserve some butter for brushing turkey. Place in cavity of turkey. Bind legs, wings and body of bird with cooking twine.<br />5. Place bird, breast side down, on wire rack in roasting pan. Brush back of turkey with butter. Pour 2 cups of water in pan. Place in preheated oven.<br />6. At 45 minutes, baste.<br />7. At 1 hr, 15 minutes, turn over and baste.<br />8. At 1 hr 45 minutes, check temp with thermometer. Breast should be 165˚, deepest part of the thigh 175˚<br />9. Rest turkey for a MINIMUM of 30 minutes. Carve and serve.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-54996412155447838762009-11-18T07:26:00.000-08:002009-11-24T07:18:54.420-08:00Sweets for Thanksgiving<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfcrr17kT4z413jT0ZHXh2mzZz5mzd-32FGbjhOjc_2VPiRmFX-4pvWzVvWhArijQcuZvBMuXz94GFWqtxv46xHIZHpsT0Mpx-WZT7cJoJ77Ok7uxduJfC7HZDmS8j-qEYJKdrzBbnWII/s1600/photo-28.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406952238309112674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfcrr17kT4z413jT0ZHXh2mzZz5mzd-32FGbjhOjc_2VPiRmFX-4pvWzVvWhArijQcuZvBMuXz94GFWqtxv46xHIZHpsT0Mpx-WZT7cJoJ77Ok7uxduJfC7HZDmS8j-qEYJKdrzBbnWII/s400/photo-28.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Today's class was dedicated to preparing for (and storage of) next week's Thanksgiving meal. The meal is for the school -- about 150 mouths to feed; the logistics are a bit different than for serving 5 or 15. Desserts, whose high fat content makes them very freezable, were knocked off, as well as a special butter for yams and the corn bread for stuffing, which does not need to be fresh to be absolutely delicious.<br /><br />There were a lot of recipes to get through, and only 6 students. I wanted to be out of there in a reasonable amount of time, I knocked off the easiest recipe off before the students came, a compound butter:<br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />SWEET CINNAMON BUTTER</span><br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 2 pounds</span><br /><blockquote>Butter 2 lbs<br />Powdered sugar ½ cup<br />Cinnamon 3 tbsp<br />Salt 1 tbsp</blockquote>1. Cut butter into uniform chunks.<br />2. Beat butter in mixer with paddle until soft. Scrape down sides with spatula. Add sugar, cinnamon and salt.<br />3. Continue beating until fully incorporated. Remove from mixer bowl onto center of large parchment paper square.<br />4. Roll into tight log, wrap in plastic, refrigerate minimum 2 hours.<br /><br />This is probably the first (and will probably be the last) recipe that I simply made up. In conversations with the students last week about what was good and bad about last year's Thanksgiving meal, they described some sort of yam dish that involved marshmallows, which personally made my stomach tighten and twitch in a bad way. Next week, we will simply bake yams and serve them with <em>this</em> butter -- a candied, sweet element. At the end of class, we had an extra box of graham crackers and I served a little bit of the butter on them -- everyone really dug it.<br /><br />The first recipe I had the students work on was the cheese cake. It can be complicated to make -- a batter of cream cheese and flavorings, slowly firmed by eggs. </div><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 16 small servings x 5 </span><br /><blockquote>X1 x5<br />Butter, melted 12 tbsp 2 lb<br />Graham cracker crumbs 2.5 cup 12.5 cup<br />White cane sugar 2 ¾ cup 14 cup<br />Cream cheese, room temperature 2 lb 10 lb<br />Sour cream ¼ cup 1 ¼ cup<br />Pumpkin puree 1 15oz can 5 15oz cans<br />Eggs, room temp, lightly beaten 6 each 30 each<br />Vanilla extract 1 tbsp 5 tbsp<br />Salt 1 tsp 5 tsp<br />Cinnamon 2 ½ tsp 3 tbsp & 1 tsp<br />Ground ginger 1 tsp 1 tbsp & 2 tsp<br />Ground cloves ¼ tsp 1 ¼ tsp<br /></blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 325˚. Brush 5 (five) 10-inch springform pans with some of the butter. Stir the remaining butter with the crumbs, 2.5/12.5 cups of the sugar and a large pinch/2 tsp of salt in a bowl.<br />2. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the 5 pans, packing tightly and evenly.<br />3. Bake under golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Cool, wrap the outside of the five pans with foil, place in hotel pans.<br />4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in mixer until smooth. (Do 2 cakes in one machine if necessary, by doubling the ingredients of the “X1”column.) Add remaining sugar and beat until just light, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beaters as needed.<br />5. Beat in the sour cream, then add the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, salt and spices and beat until just combined.<br />6. Pour into cooled crust.<br />7. Gently place the hotel pans with the springform pans in them into the oven and pour boiling water into the hotel pan until in comes about halfway up the side of the springform pan.<br />8. Bake until the outside of the cheesecake sets but the center is still loose, about 1 hour 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and open the door briefly to let out some heat.<br />9. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 more hour, then carefully remove from the hotel pans and cool. Refrigerate at least 8 hours.<br />10. Bring cheesecake to room temp 30 minutes before serving. Remove from springform pan.<br /><br />First thing were to press buttery graham cracker crumbs into pans and blind bake them for 15-20 minutes, until they were nice n' toasty. I made the students really look at the recipe and make batches of the mix-ins (everything that went in together, the pumpkin, the eggs, the spices) while another started whipping the cream cheese and the sugar. The crusts came out and went into the freezer to cool fast while the batter waited for its home.<br /><br />While the students got on with the other recipes I put the batter into the shells, got the pies into water baths, then the water baths into the oven for a long bake time; then set to cool.<br /><br /><div align="center">*</div><br />Brownies, revisited. I let one student, who was so proud of his brownies last year, go with it. I was a bit disappointed; he didn't set up his mise, and got slowed down by having to crack eggs after he mixed sugar into his melted chocolate and butter<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">...</span><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></span> </div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">FUDGE BROWNIES</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 120 small servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Butter 5 cup<br />Unsweetened chocolate 20 oz<br />White cane sugar 10 cup<br />Eggs 20 each<br />Vanilla extract* 5 tsp<br />Salt 2.5 tsp<br /></blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease a hotel pan<br />2. In a large pot, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly until fully melted and incorporated.<br />3. Remove for heat, stir in sugar. Allow to cool slightly.<br />4. Beat in the eggs three at a time, mixing well after each.<br />5. Add vanilla and salt, stir well.<br />6. Fold in flour, mix minimally. Spread batter into pan.<br />7. Bake 30-35 minutes. Brownies are done when toothpick is inserted into center and comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">*Can be replaced by scrapings of 3 vanilla beans</span><br /><br /><br /><div align="center">*</div><div align="left"><br />Apple crisp: A recipe I've been making for years at home, revising it slowly. Things I learned: Tart green baking apples work best. Butter has to be cold going in to yield proper crumble and crisp. And even when the dish comes out over-baked, it's still kinda good.<br /><br />I found that we were running out of hotel pans, so we divided this up into 6 10" cake rounds.<br /><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">APPLE CRISP</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 100 servings</span><br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Sugar 3 cup<br />Lemon juice 1/4 cup<br />Water 1 1/2 cup<br />Cinnamon 2 tbsp<br />Apples, peeled, cored and sliced 36 each<br /><br />Flour 4.5 cups<br />Sugar 3 cup<br />Salt 1 tbsp<br />Butter, small cubes, cold 2 ¼ cup</blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 375˚. Combine 3 cups sugar, lemon juice and water in a hotel pan. Toss in apples, coat well.<br />2. In mixer beat flour, 3 cups sugar, salt and butter until crumbly.<br />3. Spread flour mixture over apple mixture, pat smooth.<br />4. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is browned. Serve warm.<br /><br /><div align="center">*</div><br /><br />Cornbread stuffing (with sausage), a fundamentally simple method that depends very much on the quality of ingredients more so than skill. The last time I made cornbread at home, it was a flop because I used stale cornmeal that was in my cupboard for years. No such problem this time. This bread came out moist, delicious and got raves when we sampled it at the end of class.<br /><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">BASIC CORNBREAD</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 70 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Butter 2 lb<br />Sugar 5 ¼ cup<br />Eggs 16 each<br />Buttermilk 2 quart<br />Baking soda 1 tbsp & 1 tsp<br />Cornmeal 8 cups<br />AP flour 8 cups<br />Salt 1 oz</blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 375˚. Grease a hotel pan.<br />2. Melt butter in a large pot. Remove from heat and stir in sugar.<br />3. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended.<br />4. Add buttermilk and baking soda and stir into mixture.<br />5. Stir in cornmeal, flour and salt until only a few lumps remain. DO NOT OVER MIX.<br />6. Pour batter into prepared pan.<br />7. Bake in over 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.<br /><br /><div align="center">*</div><br /><br />The class went well, only 45 minutes late after making a selection of desserts for 150. Next week will definitely be a challenge, on every level from organizing the sourcing of ingredients to the serving...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-26664164942071480672009-11-04T18:15:00.000-08:002009-11-24T07:24:19.519-08:00Grains: Kickin' it with Kasha, Farro & Sausage revisited<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOh2D-gzv_t0tNk3CpB_eiz18MGpfqM4N0si-HacS689pU_-uLxB792dTCpfIV5-9AHdJQkDRdBrNGIv7v5FdfYJrolJzuBaTkhWhuKhoEgev6ojmPCxAQR9Oap58DxniVIV-YBzUwzGN/s1600-h/photo-24.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400437735864604290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOh2D-gzv_t0tNk3CpB_eiz18MGpfqM4N0si-HacS689pU_-uLxB792dTCpfIV5-9AHdJQkDRdBrNGIv7v5FdfYJrolJzuBaTkhWhuKhoEgev6ojmPCxAQR9Oap58DxniVIV-YBzUwzGN/s400/photo-24.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Today was a lesson on grains. I gave a quick lecture before reviewing the recipes. Sure, there is meat and veg, but a huge part of what we eat is something else. What do you eat during the day that comes from grain? Bread, cereal, and pasta are primarily grains, but when you start talking about foods with grain product in it (corn and its many many forms), it's a cornerstone of our diet.<br /><br />The definition of a grain is the small, dry single-seeded fruit of a cereal grass; fruit and seed is one in the same. While we are <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">familiar</span> it being bought and sold in massive quantities on the commodities market produced by industrial farms -- wheat, rice, corn -- there are literally thousands of other grains and varieties out there in the world.<br /><br />Most grains are made up of:<br /><blockquote>Husk – inedible sheath of some grains<br />Bran – outer layer, what makes brown rice brown. Full o' fiber.<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Endosperm</span> – carbohydrate inner layer.<br />Germ – small inner core, contains vitamins and fat</blockquote>Long grain rice is the #1 grain in world, which cooks up <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">separate</span> and fluffy. Short-grain rice is more starchy and cooks sticky -- hello, sushi rice, and risotto's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">arborio</span> rice!<br /><br />First recipe was one of my favorite from c-school. It's based around <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">farro</span>, a kind of heritage Italian wheat which, when cooked with chicken stock, just comes alive. Add to that the flavor of sausage and a wallop of fresh licorice-like fennel, and the whole dish sings. A lot of starch comes out the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">farro</span>, and it's helped along with potato and kidney beans. The kids liked the dish, and I think the ones who took some home are in for a treat -- it gets thicker the longer it sits.<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">FARRO</span> & SAUSAGE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 16 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Sweet Italian sausage 2 lbs<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">EVOO</span> 1 cup<br />Spanish onion, diced 4 each<br />Chicken Stock 1 gallon<br />Idaho potato, cubed 4 each<br />Tomato <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">concassé</span> 8 each<br />Fennel 2 bulbs<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Farro</span> 2 lbs<br />Red pepper flakes to taste<br />Water as needed<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br />Red kidney beans, cooked 32 oz</blockquote>1. Brown sausage meat in olive oil. Add the onion and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">sauté</span> until onion is soft.<br />2. Add the stock, potato, tomato, fennel, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">farro</span> and red pepper flakes.<br />3. Cover the mixture with cold water. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">BTB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">RTS</span>, season to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">taste</span>, simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if needed.<br />4. Add the kidney beans and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">continue</span> to simmer for an additional 15 minutes<br />5. Serve hot or at room temperature, drizzled with additional <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">EVOO</span>.<br /><div align="center"><br /><br />*</div><div align="center"> </div>Pilaf: S<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">aute</span> the grain before simmering it in a covered pot to absorb all the liquid. The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">sauteing</span> of the fat does two things: it gives the final dish both a slightly nutty flavor and a richer undertone to the whatever fat that's used, allowing the grain to cook faster. We used a very plain straight-ahead recipe, which came out tasting very buttery and lightly floral.<br /><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">RICE PILAF</span><br /></div><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 2 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Spanish onion, small dice 2 oz<br />Butter 2 oz<br />Long-grain white rice 14 oz<br />Chicken stock 14 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">floz</span><br />Bay leaf 2 each<br />Thyme sprig 2 each<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br /></blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Heat sauce pan. Melt butter, sweat the onion to translucent<br />2. Add the rice and stir to coat well with the butter, cook for a minute while constant stirring<br />3. Add stock, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper<br />4. Bring liquid to a boil. Cover the pot and transfer to oven. Cook 18 to 20 minutes until the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">liquid</span> is absorbed and the rice is tender.<br />5. Remove <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">bay leaf</span> and thyme sprig. Use a fork to separate the grains of rice and release the steam.<br /><br />Half the class made pilaf and the other half made a dish that I've never actually made myself but ate many times <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">growing</span> up. Originating in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">shtetles</span> of Eastern Europe, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Kasha</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Varniskes</span> is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Yiddish</span> soul food -- egg noodles tossed with buckwheat and caramelized onions and finished with a healthy dose of black pepper, it packs a big flavor of the funky buckwheat.<br /><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">KASHA</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">VARNISHKES</span></span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 8 servings</span><br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Onion, diced 4 cups<br />Chicken fat 1 cup<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Chicke</span> stock 3 cups<br />Buckwheat 1 ½ cups<br />Salt to taste<br />Black pepper to taste<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Bowtie</span> egg noodles 1 lb</blockquote>1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, saute onion in fat slowly, until dark golden.<br />2. In a separate medium sauce pan, bring 3 cups of stock to a boil, stir in buckwheat and about 2 teaspoons of salt. Cover and simmer until <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">kasha</span> is soft and fluffy, about 15 minutes. Let stand, covered.<br />3. Salt large pot of boiling water and cook noodles to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">al</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">dente</span>. Drain, combine with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">kasha</span> and fatty onions. Season with more chicken fat, salt and extra black pepper.<br /><br /><div align="center">*</div><br /><br /><br />Next Wednesday is Veteran's Day, but we will continue in two weeks with early prep for Thanksgiving.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-31279774814182993402009-10-29T04:21:00.000-07:002009-11-24T07:31:32.915-08:00Banging out a buffet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqfk4EqV6Mfp2RDl4a_d3wu2ULnYzIIBApkX2LiEdaLBBw5s5YON75CzWDTTOqul40NxTBnybqZhx3viDf2EKKTFuPLRJPE_tqbkAsZD2ZSQnKMRTw3wuBX6PXf-BxMjlF8pzh9IrEsqRv/s1600-h/photo-22.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398352273850642066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqfk4EqV6Mfp2RDl4a_d3wu2ULnYzIIBApkX2LiEdaLBBw5s5YON75CzWDTTOqul40NxTBnybqZhx3viDf2EKKTFuPLRJPE_tqbkAsZD2ZSQnKMRTw3wuBX6PXf-BxMjlF8pzh9IrEsqRv/s400/photo-22.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The class reconvened with four students to present a buffet for the parent-teacher conferences. When I arrived, I took the chicken stock out and scooped off the hard layer of fat to find chicken jello -- just what you want. This is some triple-strength stuff, and will go a long way when we cook grains next week. I rendered the fat in a saute pan and put it away.<br /><br />The mac n' cheese just got warmed in the oven and presented in the hotel pans, no fuss no muss. The brownies were a little over-cooked, so I had them trimmed of their edges -- voila, every piece is a center piece. Put on a shiny silver plastic tray and sprinkled with powdered sugar, it looked just as good as any fancy catering outfit. Salads were put out from yesterday, but yesterday's vinaigrette was rushed and not very good, so I had the students do it again.<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">SIMPLE RED WINE VINAIGRETTE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 2 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Red wine vinegar 4 oz<br />Dijon mustard 1 tsp<br />Olive oil 12 oz<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br />Sugar to taste</blockquote>1. Combine vinegar and mustard in an anchored bowl.<br />2. Whisk in oil gradually.<br />3. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.<br /><br />This time, I had them season it correctly -- meaning, a lot more than just a pinch. We tasted and tasted, and eventually the right sugar and salt balance made the flavor explode. At first it just tasted like oil, then suddenly....vinaigrette.<br /><br />We received two 3-foot hero rolls; a lot of prep went into breaking down all the vegetables to go into the sandwiches -- tomatoes, onions, iceberg lettuce, etc. We took romaine leaves and made a bed for the sandwiches and, when one student suggested hard boiled eggs as a garnish, we knocked those out, too. We made mayo again -- always good practice.<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">HERBED MAYONNAISE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 2 ½ cups mayonnaise</span><br /><blockquote>Egg 1 each<br />Egg yolk 1 each<br />Salt ½ tsp<br />Ground pepper ¼ tsp<br />Olive oil ½ cup<br />Vegetable oil 1 ½ cups<br />Lemon juice 2 to 3 tsp<br />Chopped fresh herbs ¼ cup<br />(Parsley, chives, dill, etc.)</blockquote>1. Place egg, egg yolk, salt, and pepper in an anchored mixing bowl. Whisk until blended<br />2. Whisking constantly, drizzle in the oils, gradually increasing the amount added as the sauce thickens<br />3. As soon as the sauce is very thick, thin with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, followed by the remaining oil.<br />4. Add herbs, whisk to combine.<br />5. Taste. Add more lemon juice, if necessary. Season to taste.<br /><br />It was fun talking about sandwich theory, it's something you kind of forget after c-school. Rather than get anal and give a sandwich recipe, we talked more of method...<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">SANDWICH FORMULA </span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Four elements: bread, filling, spread, garnish</span><br /><ul><li><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Bread: </span>Open or closed. The base is the only element compulsory.</li><li><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Spread: </span>fat-based spreads applied directly to the bread provides barrier to keep bread from getting soggy</li><li><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Filling: </span>Focus of sandwich – hot or cold, substantial or minimal. Determines other elements of sandwich.</li><li><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Garnish:</span> Should compliment or contrast the filling. Either on sandwich or as a side garnish.</li></ul>I showed them all the meats we had and discussed them: turkey, roast beef, Genoa salami, and prosciutto. We tasted and discussed each, and I gave a quick anatomy lesson about the leg of a pig (where prosciutto comes from), versus the belly (bacon). The ideas of balance, over-stuffed versus minimal meat, and spreads as a cohesive element that brings a sandwich together both physically and flavor wise were covered. Could not forget to show how to lay meat, with a fold to add spring and air rather than just stacks of flat stuff.<br /><br />We did the sandwiches last; we were done with half of them when the crowds started to file in. The supervisor had to run out and get more bread (the sandwiches were very popular!), and we had enough fillings to keep going. It was nice to see the kids under a bit of production pressure, and pull through.<br /><br />Next week, some rice dish, another grain, and using that jellied stock...yum.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-3424972835536639092009-10-28T06:14:00.000-07:002009-10-29T07:19:09.652-07:00Cooking in Quantity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7UFPGbGEleHOl2OF1lPsQSL2-IIgufJ8SaVn8EL_6pftchYqzedPPvxEA7bz2rbrJ_Ii-DHsRn6AZqB7mXooT9ZFyZeDVnWZ8XiyyoPyOPUu_Ul3lnsLQMZXTZcl8-XVLjSBmNg8MCjc/s1600-h/photo-21.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7UFPGbGEleHOl2OF1lPsQSL2-IIgufJ8SaVn8EL_6pftchYqzedPPvxEA7bz2rbrJ_Ii-DHsRn6AZqB7mXooT9ZFyZeDVnWZ8XiyyoPyOPUu_Ul3lnsLQMZXTZcl8-XVLjSBmNg8MCjc/s400/photo-21.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398011118840078690" border="0" /></a><br />I really don't know what this poster in the school cafeteria was about. My supervisor didn't know, either. Something tells me I really don't want to know. Yum-o, I say. Yum. O.<br /><br />The syllabus was all about stock and sauces, but we also needed to cook for PTA parent-teacher conferences tomorrow. Rather than be capped at 3 hours, we took 4 and a half to get it all done.<br /><br />We started with a short lecture about mother sauces and the danger zone. The danger zone is 60 through 140 degrees -- the zone where bacteria will grow and multiply if given the three elements it needs: protein for food, moisture for environment, and low acidity. Stock has all three.<br /><br />Bechamel, veloute, espagnol, tomato, hollandaise -- today we were making bechamel -- warm milk thickened with a roux. Roux is equal parts fat and flour, whisked while cooked to turn it into a paste. The darker it goes, the bigger flavor it'll have. This would be the base of our Mac n' Cheese....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MACARONI & CHEESE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 30 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Elbow macaroni 5 lbs<br />Butter 1 ½ cups<br />Flour 1 ½ cups<br />Whole milk 1 ¼ gallon<br />Salt & pepper to taste<br />Worcestershire sauce to taste<br />Cheddar, cubed 1 ½ lb<br />Mozzarella, cubed 1 ½ lb<br />Monterrey jack, cubed 1 ½ lb</blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Warm milk, but do not boil. Grease 4 large hotel pans. Bring enough salted water to a boil. Add pasta, cook until very al dente – 2 minutes shorter than package suggestion.<br />2. Melt butter and stir in flour to make a roux. Whisk in warm milk a ladle at a time to make white sauce. BTB RTS. Salt and pepper to taste.<br />3. Remove sauce from heat, stir in three cheeses. Combine with pasta and stir well. Pour into baking dishes.<br />4. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until top is desired crispiness. Rest 20 minutes before serving.<br /><br />I had the kids taste the cheese sauce before and after adding salt and Worcestershire, really bringing home the importance of NEVER forgetting seasoning.<br /><br />This was my own recipe -- the syllabus had a horrible recipe involving mustard powder. The teacher who lead this program the last two cycles stopped by and ate with us, and confided that the first time she taught this program, she stuck closely to the syllabus and all the kids pretty much were grossed out by the mac n' cheese. This recipe is pretty solid, except this was the first time I was using the ovens in this kitchen -- they ran hot, and they ran uneven. The final product was a little over-done, but still very edible, very rich and decadent, if not as loose as I would of liked.<br /><br />Before class, I got chicken stock on the fire. We just had too much to do and this is a 4 hour affair, and I got whole chickens that had to be broken down without fuss or drama.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CHICKEN STOCK</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 gallon</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Chicken bones 8 lbs</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Cold water 1 gallon</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Salt 2 tsp</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mire poix, medium dice 1 lb</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sachet d’Epices 1 each</span><br /><br />1. Rinse bones, place in stockpot, add water and salt.<br />2. BTB RTS<br />3. Simmer 2-3 hours<br />4. Add mire poix and sachet, continue to simmer 1 more hour, skimming scum as necessary<br />5. Strain. Use immediately (degrease by skimming if necessary) or rapidly cool and store for later use.<br /><br />The mac n' cheese was done in one huge batch broken into three hotel pans. Once into the oven, I demoed the brownie recipe. One kid asked why we didn't use a double-boiler to melt the chocolate -- an excellent question. Because we were melting it with butter, it was protected by the water content in that fat. As long as we didn't boil it, we were safe over an open flame.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FUDGE BROWNIES</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 12 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Butter 1 cup<br />Unsweetened chocolate 4 oz<br />White cane sugar 2 cup<br />Eggs 4 each<br />Vanilla extract* 1 tsp<br />Salt ½ tsp<br /></blockquote>1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease a 9x13 baking pan<br />2. In a 3-quart saucepan, met butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly until fully melted and incorporated.<br />3. Remove for heat, stir in sugar. Allow to cool slightly.<br />4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.<br />5. Add vanilla and salt, stir well.<br />6. Fold in flour, mix minimally. Spread batter into pan.<br />7. Bake 30-35 minutes. Brownies are done when toothpick is inserted into center and comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Can be replaced by scrapings of 1/2 vanilla bean</span><br /><br />Since there is only four burners that are accessible at once, we broke into four teams and they made the brownies, with me looking over and giving guidance as we went. Soon enough, five trays of brownies joined the mac n' cheese in the oven.<br /><br />Two students took on the Caesar Salad, and four students got to work on the green salad. The Caesar was pretty straight forward. First step was making the croutons...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CROUTONS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 lb</span><br /><blockquote>White bread 1 lb<br />Butter, melted 4 oz, or as needed<br />Salt 1 tsp, or as needed<br />Black pepper, ground ½ tsp (optional), or as needed<br /></blockquote>1. Remove the crust from the bread if desired. Slice and cube the bread into desired size. If bread is fresh, dry out cubes in over for 5 minutes before continuing.<br />2. Toss the bread, fat and season together on a sheet or hotel pan.<br />3. Bake at 450˚ until lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes<br /><br />The great thing about this was that it was super simple, and the end result was INSANELY better than the crap you buy in a box, industrial croutons that are designed to be shelf-stable forever and taste like weird chemicals. The student who I was directing to flip and stir the croutons said she really did not like croutons. I picked one up and put it in her mouth by hand, and I could see the lights turn on in her eyes. THIS is why we cook from scratch and not buy a box. Sure, it's cheaper, but the real reason is that it is so much better. Rather than an industrial interpretation of what a crouton is, here she had the REAL thing for the first time, just as they were made when they were invented. True dat. Hollah.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CAESAR SALAD WITH CHICKEN</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 10 appetizer servings</span><br /><blockquote>Romaine lettuce, chopped 1 lb<br />Croutons 12 oz<br />Sliced chicken breast 25 oz<br /><br />Garlic. minced 1 tsp<br />Anchovy fillets 5<br />Salt ¾ tsp, or as needed<br />Black pepper, ground ½ tsp<br />Egg yolks 2<br />Lemon juice 2oz<br />Olive oil 10 floz<br />Parmesan, finely grated 6 oz, or as needed</blockquote>1. Separate romaine leaved. Clean and dry thoroughly. Tear or cut into pieces. Refrigerate until ready to serve.<br />2. Prepare croutons and hold at room temperature until ready to serve<br />3. To prepare dressing, mash together garlic, anchovies, salt and pepper in a bowl to form a relatively smooth paste. Add egg and lemon juice and blend well. Gradually add olive oil, whisking as it is added to form a thick emulsion. Stir in Parmesan. Adjust with salt and pepper as necessary.<br />4. Pan-sear chicken right before service. Slice when rested.<br />5. For each serving, combine 2 oz greens with 1 floz dressing, tossing gently until evenly coated. Garnish with a few croutons. Top with 2.5 oz sliced chicken.<br /><br />The dressing's key is to mash the anchovies and garlic until it is homogeneous (a word I had to define for my student, which was cute!) before making the emulsion. Because of a student allergic to seafood, we had to serve the salad with the dressing on the side.<br /><br />The other four got to work on the tossed salad for the meeting tomorrow. A lot of knife skills involved here, and I demoed how I wanted each element. I had them peel the celery, just like my wife likes....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SIMPLE GREEN TOSSED SALAD</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 20 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Boston lettuce, chopped 3 head<br />Romaine lettuce, chopped 3 head<br />Carrots, peeled, rounds 2 lb<br />Cucumbers, peeled, sliced, quartered 4 each<br />Red onion, diced 2 each<br />Red peppers, diced 2 each<br />Celery, peeled, sliced 1 head<br />Simple red wine vinaigrette 2 cup</blockquote>1. Toss all vegetables together in a large bowl.<br />2. When ready to serve, pour vinaigrette over, toss, serve immediately<br /><br />We made the vinaigrette almost as an afterthought, and the student muffed it, with too little seasoning....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SIMPLE RED WINE VINAIGRETTE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 2 cups</span><br /><blockquote>Red wine vinegar 4 oz<br />Dijon mustard 1 tsp<br />Olive oil 2 lb<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br />Sugar to taste</blockquote>1. Combine vinegar and mustard in an anchored bowl.<br />2. Whisk in oil gradually.<br />3. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.<br /><br />We didn't have time to muck around with it, but will remake it tomorrow when we prep for the event.<br /><br />The class ended with the four burners given over to saute pans. I demoed how to butterfly a chicken breast by cutting it length wise but leaving the two halves attached, so it could be opened like a book. Uncut, the cutlets would be too thick to cook all the way through and would have to be finished in the oven, which we just did not have time for.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SAUTEED CHICKEN BREAST</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 1 serving</span><br /><blockquote>Chicken breast, boneless, skinless 1 each<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br />Vegetable oil ½ floz</blockquote>1. Season chicken cutlet with salt and pepper<br />2. Heat sauté pan over medium-high heat, then add oil<br />3. Saute cutlet for 2-3 minutes per side or until done.<br />4. Rest ½ the time of cooking before serving or slicing.<br /><br />The magic moment is when you turn the meat over and everyone sees the browning. A typical home cook will keep on moving the meat and no browning happens. It's a sexy "ooo" moment. Every one cooked at least one breast, and another student sliced the meat, to which I had to hold her up as to not cut unrested meat.<br /><br />I dashed out a bit of whipped cream to go with the brownies as the kids cleaned up.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">WHIPPED CREAM</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yield: 16 servings</span><br /><blockquote>Heavy cream 1 cup<br />Vanilla extract* 1 tsp<br />Confectioners sugar 1 tbsp</blockquote>1. In a large bowl or mixer with whip attachment, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form.<br />2. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Can be replaced by scrapings of 1/2 vanilla bean</span><br /><br />We sat, ate with the supervisor and last year's teacher, and everyone seemed pretty happy with the food. I didn't like the over-doneness of the baked goods, but in the end, every one dug it so I didn't want to disrespect the student's efforts. Just because I'm hard on my own cooking doesn't mean I should be a spoilsport. Tomorrow we reconvene to make sandwiches, dress the salad, reheat the baked goods, plate the food and try to impress the parents...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2575814038736002400.post-41182832847441687352009-10-21T17:02:00.000-07:002009-10-23T06:14:49.626-07:00Composing, with Salad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxXVYfXJTU3eK8EK1xxJ8KDhY5hsnkSUxa9RfSjK49Z57MgnTynZaofPICo6VCxlTqWpOCirwA6BhP9CLdjvoeCxSSsxeIBPx_zp0VXoqw_5X3gfYXvSSUZfZx_NcJ_JqRUHQax8AK86uh/s1600-h/photo-18.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395207995036432434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxXVYfXJTU3eK8EK1xxJ8KDhY5hsnkSUxa9RfSjK49Z57MgnTynZaofPICo6VCxlTqWpOCirwA6BhP9CLdjvoeCxSSsxeIBPx_zp0VXoqw_5X3gfYXvSSUZfZx_NcJ_JqRUHQax8AK86uh/s400/photo-18.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Again, six students, a really good number. We started with a brief lecture. Today, the central portion was salad, the dish the Garde Manger (pantry cook) would make in a functioning restaurant, so we reviewed the brigade system. The Chef de Cuisine, the big boss, the man, the guy or gal who gets famous as a TV chef and doesn't actually cook in their restaurants anymore. The Sous Chef, the assistant chef, the boss when the Chef is out, who really makes sure the cooking gets done. The Chef de Partie, the line cooks, the cooks who cook your food. The Pastry Chef, who does baking and answers directly to the Executive Chef. And the Garde Manger, the cold pantry cook. Let's not forget the Stages, the assistants, the up and comers.<br /><br />There are three kinds of salads -- tossed, composed, and bound. Tossed is usually greenery tossed with dressing. Composed is a body ingredient, usually a protein, on top of a base of greenery, surrounded by garnishes. The bound salad is an ingredient or ingredients within a theme, bound together by mayo, jello, or the like.<br /><br />First thing out, we got down to knife skills, getting the vegetable soup on and out of the way...<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">VEGETABLE SOUP</span> </div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 1 gallon</span><br /><blockquote>Olive oil 4 tbsp<br />Chopped leaks, whites only 2 cups<br />Salt 1 heavy pinch<br />Garlic, minced 2 tbsp<br />Carrots, thin rounds 2 cups<br />Potatoes, large dice 2 cups<br />Green beans, ¾” pieces 2 cups<br />Vegetable stock 2 quarts<br />Tomato concasse* 4 cups<br />Corn kernels 2 ears<br />Ground black pepper ½ tsp<br />Parsley, chopped ¼ cup, packed<br />Lemon juice 1 to 2 tsp<br />Salt to taste<br /></blockquote>1. Heat oil in large rondeau or stockpot and add leeks and a pinch of salt.<br />2. Cover and sweat the vegetables until softened, stirring occasionally, 7-8 minutes.<br />3. Add garlic, carrots, potatoes and green beans and cook for 4-5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.<br />4. Add vegetable stock, BTB RTS*<br />5. Add tomato concasse, corn and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until vegetables are fork tender, approximately 25-30 minus.<br />6. Remove from heat, add parsley and lemon. Season to taste. Serve immediately<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">*Tomato Concasse: peeled, deseeded and chopped flesh of tomato</span> <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">BTB RTS: Bring To Boil, Return To Simmer</span><br /><br />While that was happening, I had a student boil some eggs properly, a garnish for our composed salad...<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">PERFECT HARD BOILED EGGS</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 6 eggs</span><br /><blockquote>Egg* 6 each</blockquote>1. Place eggs in a single layer sauce pan, cover with cold water by 1” to 2” minimum<br />2. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover for 15 minutes<br />3. Remove, shock in ice water, peel<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">* Eggs that are NOT fresh will peel easier, ideally a week old</span><br /><br />After soup, I had everyone set up their stations to make mayo. I spent several days learning to make proper mayo in c-school. The trick is to move fast -- the faster you get an even stream of oil into your eggs, the faster you beat it with a whisk, the faster it'll come together and thicken without a lot of drama.<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">HERBED MAYONNAISE</span><br /></div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 2 ½ cups mayonnaise</span><br /><blockquote>Egg 1 each<br />Egg yolk 1 each<br />Salt ½ tsp<br />Ground pepper ¼ tsp<br />Olive oil ½ cup<br />Vegetable oil 1 ½ cups<br />Lemon juice 2 to 3 tsp<br />Chopped fresh herbs ¼ cup<br />(Parsley, chives, dill, etc.)</blockquote>1. Place egg, egg yolk, salt, and pepper in an anchored mixing bowl. Whisk until blended<br />2. Whisking constantly, drizzle in the oils, gradually increasing the amount added as the sauce thickens<br />3. As soon as the sauce is very thick, thin with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, followed by the remaining oil.<br />4. Add herbs, whisk to combine.<br />5. Taste. Add more lemon juice, if necessary. Season to taste.<br /><br />Funny, most of the kid's mayo came out a little bit thin, and I had to show them how to lay in some "elbow grease" to make it come back to life.<br /><br />After cleaning, everyone got a mound of shrimp to shell and de-vein. Some shrimp still had their last meal in them, which lead to a bit of twittering about not having doo doo in our food. Once collected, dropped into lime-squirted boiling water for a few minutes then ice. Everyone chipped in on getting the garnishes together.<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">SHRIMP LOUIS</span> </div><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Yield: 4-6 servings</span><br /><br /><blockquote>Shrimp 2 lbs<br />Salt to taste<br />Bibb or Boston lettuce 2 heads<br />Tomatoes, sliced 2 each<br />Eggs, hard cooked, quartered 4 each<br />Lemons, quartered 4 each<br />Black olives 8 each<br />Bell peppers, thin rounds 2 each<br /><br />Herb Mayonnaise 2 ½ cup<br />Chili sauce 4 tbs<br />Grated onion 2 tbs<br />Parsley, chopped 2 tbs<br />Salt to taste<br />Pepper to taste<br />Heavy cream 1 _tbsp +/- to adjust thickness<br />Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp, or to taste<br />Tabasco a few drops, or to taste</blockquote>1. Defrost, deshell and clean shrimp if necessary. Set up ice bath<br />2. Bring large pot of water flavored with salt and lime juice to a boil.<br />3. Cook shrimp until just pink, 1-2 minutes. Remove and shock in ice water. Drain, place in bowl, cover and refrigerate until service.<br />4. Combine mayonnaise → Tabasco. Stir until blended. Cover and refrigerate until service. If too thick after chilling, add more cream.<br />5. Arrange lettuce leaves to cover large serving plate. Place mound of shrimp in middle. Place tomatoes, quartered eggs, lemon wedges, olives and pepper slices decoratively around the shrimp.<br /><br />After eating the soup and salad, I found a big jar of Hellman's mayo in the back and we did a taste test of it versus ours. Hellman's tasted MEGA salty, and strangely rubbery compared to ours.<br /><br />Next week, a tossed Caesar salad with chicken, proper mac n' cheese, and chicken stock.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2