Feel like ch-ch-ch-ch-chicken toniiiite!

For the second lesson of the second semester, I stuck to the recipes and format (see this post 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!

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!

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 d'espices (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.

Ten heads of Swiss chard were deveined, 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 kalamata olives and adjusted with salt.

It was only 5pm! I made a promise if the kids were to hustle 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 SBP -- standard breading procedure. First bowl, AP flour. Second, egg wash with whole egg and milk. Third, the breading, in this case wholewheat panko breadcrumbs, AP flour and salt. In a preheated rondeau, 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.

So the meal was pretty complete -- crunchy panko chicken breast, Swiss chard with onion, and whipped potatoes. As we did last week with the time, we went around the table 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 kalamata 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.

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!

Grains: Kickin' it with Kasha, Farro & Sausage revisited

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.

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 familiar 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.

Most grains are made up of:

Husk – inedible sheath of some grains
Bran – outer layer, what makes brown rice brown. Full o' fiber.
Endosperm – carbohydrate inner layer.
Germ – small inner core, contains vitamins and fat

Long grain rice is the #1 grain in world, which cooks up separate and fluffy. Short-grain rice is more starchy and cooks sticky -- hello, sushi rice, and risotto's arborio rice!

First recipe was one of my favorite from c-school. It's based around farro, 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 farro, 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.

FARRO & SAUSAGE

Yield: 16 servings

Sweet Italian sausage 2 lbs
EVOO 1 cup
Spanish onion, diced 4 each
Chicken Stock 1 gallon
Idaho potato, cubed 4 each
Tomato concassé 8 each
Fennel 2 bulbs
Farro 2 lbs
Red pepper flakes to taste
Water as needed
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Red kidney beans, cooked 32 oz

1. Brown sausage meat in olive oil. Add the onion and sauté until onion is soft.
2. Add the stock, potato, tomato, fennel, farro and red pepper flakes.
3. Cover the mixture with cold water. BTB RTS, season to taste, simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if needed.
4. Add the kidney beans and continue to simmer for an additional 15 minutes
5. Serve hot or at room temperature, drizzled with additional EVOO.

*

Pilaf: Saute the grain before simmering it in a covered pot to absorb all the liquid. The sauteing 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.

RICE PILAF

Yield: 2 servings

Spanish onion, small dice 2 oz
Butter 2 oz
Long-grain white rice 14 oz
Chicken stock 14 floz
Bay leaf 2 each
Thyme sprig 2 each
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Heat sauce pan. Melt butter, sweat the onion to translucent
2. Add the rice and stir to coat well with the butter, cook for a minute while constant stirring
3. Add stock, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper
4. Bring liquid to a boil. Cover the pot and transfer to oven. Cook 18 to 20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
5. Remove bay leaf and thyme sprig. Use a fork to separate the grains of rice and release the steam.

Half the class made pilaf and the other half made a dish that I've never actually made myself but ate many times growing up. Originating in the shtetles of Eastern Europe, Kasha Varniskes is Yiddish 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.

KASHA VARNISHKES

Yield: 8 servings

Onion, diced 4 cups
Chicken fat 1 cup
Chicke stock 3 cups
Buckwheat 1 ½ cups
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Bowtie egg noodles 1 lb

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, saute onion in fat slowly, until dark golden.
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 kasha is soft and fluffy, about 15 minutes. Let stand, covered.
3. Salt large pot of boiling water and cook noodles to al dente. Drain, combine with kasha and fatty onions. Season with more chicken fat, salt and extra black pepper.

*

Next Wednesday is Veteran's Day, but we will continue in two weeks with early prep for Thanksgiving.

No, that's not ice cream....

Above is a picture of cold shmaltz, a.k.a. rendered chicken fat. A byproduct of making chicken stock, it floats to the top and, when refrigerated, solidifies, and is easy to remove. It's then reheated again over the stove; all non-fats evaporate and all non-fat solids burn and float to the bottom. Pour off the hot fat, refrigerate, and it's good for a year or so (if kept in the back of the fridge). And what better way to make some icky bitter greens magically delicious than adding a wallop of chicken fat...?

Today's class was about vegetable cookery, but really, how many vegetables can you really get into on 3 hours? First thing, we sat and I briefly lectured. What is cooking? Applying energy via heat to food to change its composition. There are only two classes of cooking: dry heat (baking, roasting, broiling, frying in all its forms) and moist heat (boiling, steaming, simmering). There is a bastard third, combination heat (braising, stewing, where something is browned in dry heat then moisture is added to finish).

Then we went quickly from abstract to solid, reviewing the recipes of the day...

“MASHED” POTATOES

Yield: 10 servings

Russet Potatoes 4 lbs
Butter, room temperature 6-8 oz
Milk, hot 12 fl.oz.
Heavy cream, hot 12 fl.oz.
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

1. Scrub, peel and cut potatoes into large pieces.
2. Boil or steam until tender.
3. Drain and dry over low heat or on a sheet pan in a 300˚ oven until no steam rises from them.
4. While hot, puree potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer into a heated bowl.
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
6. Spoon potatoes onto heated plates or transfer to a piping bag and pipe into desired shapes.

The class started with knife skills. To save time, we didn't peel the potatoes; we just turned dirty round potatoes and rectangular skinless beauties into large dice. I already had a large pot of boiling water on, we dumped the potatoes in and I assigned a student to watch the potatoes, taste a cube for tenderness ,and call me when ready. I had the other students start the knife work for the next recipe -- while others drained the potatoes and pushed them through the food mill into a bowl heated from the ledge on top of the oven. I showed them the correct way to fold (with a rubber spatula, from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock around the edge, then flip to the middle. Turn the bowl clockwise 90 degrees, repeat). Then came the butter and half-and-half...and finally the consistency was right. I had everyone taste; then I salted th dish and everyone tasted again and...what they tasted blew their minds. As I had promised, these were the best mashed potatoes they'd ever had!

VEGETABLE STOCK

Yield: 1 gallon

Vegetable oil 2 fl.oz, or as needed
Mire Poix*, large dice 3 lb
Nonstarchy vegetables* 3 lb
Salt 2 tsp
Cold water 1 gal
Sachet d’Espices* 1

1. Heat oil in large rondeau or stock pot and add mirepoix, vegetables and salt.
2. Cover and sweat the vegetables 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add water and salt. Simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add sachet, simmer 10 minutes.
5. Strain the stock. Degrease by skimming if necessary. Use immediately or cool rapidly and store for later use.

*Mire Poix: 2 parts onion, one part carrot, one part celery
Non-starchy vegetables like leeks, tomatoes, garlic, etc.
Sachet d’ Espices: Enclose the following in cheeseclothe, bound by kitchen twine
3 to 4 parsley stems,
1 sprig of thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme,
1 bay leaf,
1 tsp cracked peppercorns

In the lecture I told them about mire poix, the mix of vegetables that are sauteed first before adding other things to add a certain flavor. It's French, but every culture has a version, like Spanish Sofrito (onion, green pepper, garlic) and New Orlean's Holy Trinity (Onion, bell pepper, celery) and the idea of stock -- a flavorful liquid that can be cooked with that brings an intensity of flavor rather than a dilution of flavor. A lot of soup-chops, and another student assigned to turning the veg in the stock pot until soft. We made a sachet, covered in cold water, then we were off on the next recipe. (Next week, we're going to make vegetable soup with the stock...)

We made tomato concasse. How-to: Score the bottom of the tomato, drop in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Shock in ice water to prevent any serious cooking. Peel off skin, which now comes off easily. Cut into quarters and cut out all the jelly and seeds, so just bare solid tomato flesh is left. This can be used in stock and soup, without generating scum, papery skins or bits of seeds floating everywhere.

SWISS CHARD WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS

Yield: 6 servings

Olive oil/Sesame oil/butter/ shmaltz 2 tbsp
Onions, thinly sliced 2 medium onions
Salt A pinch or two
Swiss chard, stems removed, 1” x 4” chiffonade 1 bunch
Kalamata olives, pitted, rough chop ½ cup
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of well salted water to a boil
2. Heat large skillet over medium heat, add oil
3. Add onions, stir to coat with oil and salt
4. Continue to cook onions, making sure not to burn or brown. If they turn brown within 5 minutes, reduce heat. Cook 20-25 minutes until caramelized (a golden brown color). If they get to dry, add more fat.
5. When water is at a rolling boil, add Swiss chard. Cook to tender, 2-4 minutes
6. Shock chard in a bowl of ice water, drain and remove all excess water.
7. Stir chard into the onions, cook until excess moisture has evaporated and chard is heated through, 2-3 minutes
8. Toss with olives and salt to taste. Serve immediately.

Everyone sliced onions, then two students de-veined and made chiffonade of the chard. Chiffonade is rolling the leaf into a cigar-like shape and cutting it thin -- it results in more even, elegant cuts and prevents bruising of more delicate leaves. Four others got on the oven and I introduced them to the saute pan. Heat the pan first then add the oil. As I discussed in the lecture, one of the least healthy things you can do is eat scorched and burnt oil. Not only does it taste bad, it has all sort of cancer-causing substances. Heat the pan first, then add the oil. Test with a piece of onion, then go for it, constantly moving with tongs, paying attention to color, adjusting the heat if it's browning too fast or not fast enough.

For interest, I had each one use a different fat -- olive oil, butter, sesame oil, and chicken fat that I brought in from home. The butter took noticeably longer, due to the water content in this fat -- the others were all lipid, but butter is actually a mishmash of fat, proteins, sugars and water. I had them taste, looking for the sweet flavor. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go the full caramel, but they were good.

The chard was blanched and shocked, dropped into boiling water for 3 minutes, then drained and dropped in an ice bath. I explained blanching -- and how, in this case, doing so cooks the leaf and removes tge bitter elements. The shock of the ice stops the cooking abruptly, and locks in the bright green color. Squeezed out, it was tossed in the pan with the onions with some chopped olives, then seasoned.

After cleaning, we sat down to eat and it was a lot of fun eating each of the chards with the potatoes. Everyone was gaga over the potatoes and took some home, but no one liked the chards enough to take any home. To my taste, it tasted more like caramelized onions and olives which had greens in it as an afterthought, but STILL they didn't dig it. They did agree that chicken fat tasted the best, but not enough to finish the plate. You can bring a horse to water....and you can make a healthy vegetable extremely unhealthy, but a teen still won't dig it!

Next week, salads, which will be matched with sauteing of tender cuts of meat. And that damn vegetable soup. Soup n' salad!

Brigade System/Executive Chef/Purchasing/Fats and Oils (Not My Mother's Scramble, ohmmmmmmm)

Yesterday, I had the day off from school -- I rode a bicycle all day and cooked up a storm in the evening, including my first-ever proper broiling of a crustacean. I also made this interesting ice cream recipe, which involved espresso. I had one serving around 7pm for dessert, and still hungry had a 2nd serving around 8pm. When I tried to get to bed around 10pm, I realized I was wired. I didn't hit the hay 'til around 1am. When I woke up at 6am, my stomach was tight -- OH NO, I had to eat scrambled eggs today! (See Addenda.)

First, however, was the day's lecture . Chef M reviewed the militaristic hierarchy of a large kitchen, starting with the 4-Star General, a.k.a. the Executive Chef a.k.a. Chef de Cuisine a.k.a. Boss of the Kitchen. The Sous Chef is the 2nd-in-command and can fill in for the boss. Under the Sous are several different Chefs dePartie -- section heads, which include Saucier (sauces), Grillardin (grilled items), Patisseur (pastry). Of these sub-commandants, the top would be the Tourenant, the one who can fill in at any station. The lowest, most junior would be the garde manger: cold prep. Things like salad can be worked up before service time and when the pressure is on, no cooking is involved -- just assembling. Having the new guy work garde manger is logical; without the heat of cooking, you can hurt yourself (and others) less.

After going on at length about the responsibilities of the Executive Chef (hiring, firing, purchasing, menu writing, payroll, marketing & PR, sanitation, training, delegation, getting face time on the Food Network), Chef M pointed out the drama of purchasing and dealing with purveyors, the salespeople who sell food and consumables to restaurants. "Always check everything," he told us, "they will always try to rip you off." The class took a walk to the purchasing department of the school, which is equivalent to the purchasing department of a mid-sized hotel. With a refrigerator as big as my bedroom, a pantry like a couple of well-stocked aisles at Wholefoods, a liquor cabinet that fills up a large walk-in closet and 50 and 100-gallon steam-kettles to make stock, this was something to behold.

After some basic knife-skill drills, we were shown the proper way to care for cast iron. Since it is porous, it will rust easily so never get it wet. To clean, heat and scrub with coarse salt repeatedly (my caste iron wok is gonna get some good luv from me next time I use it!). Then, he showed us the proper way to scramble an egg: 1.) whisk 3 eggs (less will cook too fast) until the yolks and whites form 1 homogeneous color. Hit with a healthy dash of salt. 2.) Heat cast-iron skillet and drop enough fat of your choice to coat the bottom of pan, no more. Do not let smoke. Put a drop of egg mixture in pan to see if it cooks quickly. If not, heat more. 3.) Drop in egg mixture and immediately start shaking pan AND stir rapidly with wooden spoon. Repeatedly scrape down sides and bottom. 4.) When the egg still slightly runny, after about a minute, plate and serve. It will continue to cook and firm up on plate.

My partner and I did three rounds of different oils to taste and see how they cook. The sesame oil tasted very strong, overwhelming the eggy flavor. The peanut oil was mildly pleasant, with only a faint peanuty aftertaste. The clarified butter, however, was very pleasant, giving a round, almost sweet mouth feel to the springy egg.

I made the first batch with sesame oil, and put it on the plate. I grabbed some bread while my teammate washed the pan for the next batch. I put a small amount of the egg on the spoon, brought it to my face and looked at it, and it looked nothing like my mom's scramble (again, see Addenda). I popped it in my mouth and....it wasn't that bad. Pleasantly poofy, not sulfurous at all. The chef brought out a brick of foie gras to accompany the eggs, and the two items slathered on french bread wasn't a bad snack at all.

Tomorrow, I visit the Dean of Student Affairs to talk volunteer opportunity. C-school is art school, but it's also vocational school. Where am I going?

ADDENDA:
On the bicycle ride up to school today, I listened to NPR podcasts and chanted out loud, "NOT MY MOTHER'S SCRAMBLE" over and over again. I would of said, "Not my mother's eggs", but that just had too many off-colored meanings. The little meditation was my nutritionist, Ilsa's, idea.

When I met with Ilsa Tuesday, I confided that I was a bit concerned: Thursday would be scrambled eggs. If I am to be a serious student of the culinary arts, I can't just dismiss such a major foundation ingredient as 'inedible.' Over the past year or so, eggs have started showing up in my fridge, mostly as ingredients in pancakes, ice cream, and various baked goods, but the smell of frying eggs makes me literally gag. Why?

It's all my mom's fault. She was a brilliant, successful, intelligent, loving woman, but she could not cook if her life (hell, my life) depended on it. She would cook breakfast quickly for my brother and me every morning and, 4 out of 5 times, it would be scrambled eggs. Eggs quickly beaten, thrown on a hot pan without much of a shake, and what would appear on my plate would be a little bit burnt on the bottom, a little bit raw on the top, and bits of white and yolk everywhere. No salt, not egg, fried in no oil but in a (now recognized as toxic) teflon no-stick pan. Literally looked like fried boogers. My mom would not tolerate waste, and eventually I learned to place the cut-up egg on a napkin between my legs when she was not looking.

As soon as I could get out of the house, the last thing in the world I would want to eat is an egg. Looking back, it was the lack of choice, the powerlessness of having to eat those eggs that has given me such a visceral reaction to even the smell of a frying egg. Being confronted by a properly made scrambled egg, however -- and made by my own had -- might just help me to get over this detritus that has hung around my brain for so long. Therapy Session, $35K, with Culinary School thrown in for free!

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 1/5

AM SNACK: 9am, small piece of French bread, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTING: 11am, samples of scrambled egg fried in sesame, peanut and clarified butter, small piece of foie gras, french bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, good quality Margarita pizza, minus crusts, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The pizza at Naples 45 at Grand Central is, surprisingly, probably in the top 20 of the city.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, fresh shrimp spring roll, small quantity of seaweed salad, 2 inari, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pre-made snackies from Wholefoods.

DINNER: 8pm, boca burger on whole wheat, 10 saltines with good peanut butter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5