Cooking in Quantity

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.

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.

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.

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....

MACARONI & CHEESE

Yield: 30 servings

Elbow macaroni 5 lbs
Butter 1 ½ cups
Flour 1 ½ cups
Whole milk 1 ¼ gallon
Salt & pepper to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Cheddar, cubed 1 ½ lb
Mozzarella, cubed 1 ½ lb
Monterrey jack, cubed 1 ½ lb

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.
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.
3. Remove sauce from heat, stir in three cheeses. Combine with pasta and stir well. Pour into baking dishes.
4. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until top is desired crispiness. Rest 20 minutes before serving.

I had the kids taste the cheese sauce before and after adding salt and Worcestershire, really bringing home the importance of NEVER forgetting seasoning.

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.

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.

CHICKEN STOCK

Yield: 1 gallon

Chicken bones 8 lbs
Cold water 1 gallon
Salt 2 tsp
Mire poix, medium dice 1 lb
Sachet d’Epices 1 each

1. Rinse bones, place in stockpot, add water and salt.
2. BTB RTS
3. Simmer 2-3 hours
4. Add mire poix and sachet, continue to simmer 1 more hour, skimming scum as necessary
5. Strain. Use immediately (degrease by skimming if necessary) or rapidly cool and store for later use.

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.

FUDGE BROWNIES

Yield: 12 servings

Butter 1 cup
Unsweetened chocolate 4 oz
White cane sugar 2 cup
Eggs 4 each
Vanilla extract* 1 tsp
Salt ½ tsp

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease a 9x13 baking pan
2. In a 3-quart saucepan, met butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly until fully melted and incorporated.
3. Remove for heat, stir in sugar. Allow to cool slightly.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
5. Add vanilla and salt, stir well.
6. Fold in flour, mix minimally. Spread batter into pan.
7. Bake 30-35 minutes. Brownies are done when toothpick is inserted into center and comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

*Can be replaced by scrapings of 1/2 vanilla bean

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.

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...

CROUTONS

Yield: 1 lb

White bread 1 lb
Butter, melted 4 oz, or as needed
Salt 1 tsp, or as needed
Black pepper, ground ½ tsp (optional), or as needed

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.
2. Toss the bread, fat and season together on a sheet or hotel pan.
3. Bake at 450˚ until lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes

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.

CAESAR SALAD WITH CHICKEN

Yield: 10 appetizer servings

Romaine lettuce, chopped 1 lb
Croutons 12 oz
Sliced chicken breast 25 oz

Garlic. minced 1 tsp
Anchovy fillets 5
Salt ¾ tsp, or as needed
Black pepper, ground ½ tsp
Egg yolks 2
Lemon juice 2oz
Olive oil 10 floz
Parmesan, finely grated 6 oz, or as needed

1. Separate romaine leaved. Clean and dry thoroughly. Tear or cut into pieces. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
2. Prepare croutons and hold at room temperature until ready to serve
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.
4. Pan-sear chicken right before service. Slice when rested.
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.

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.

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....

SIMPLE GREEN TOSSED SALAD

Yield: 20 servings

Boston lettuce, chopped 3 head
Romaine lettuce, chopped 3 head
Carrots, peeled, rounds 2 lb
Cucumbers, peeled, sliced, quartered 4 each
Red onion, diced 2 each
Red peppers, diced 2 each
Celery, peeled, sliced 1 head
Simple red wine vinaigrette 2 cup

1. Toss all vegetables together in a large bowl.
2. When ready to serve, pour vinaigrette over, toss, serve immediately

We made the vinaigrette almost as an afterthought, and the student muffed it, with too little seasoning....

SIMPLE RED WINE VINAIGRETTE

Yield: 2 cups

Red wine vinegar 4 oz
Dijon mustard 1 tsp
Olive oil 2 lb
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Sugar to taste

1. Combine vinegar and mustard in an anchored bowl.
2. Whisk in oil gradually.
3. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.

We didn't have time to muck around with it, but will remake it tomorrow when we prep for the event.

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.

SAUTEED CHICKEN BREAST

Yield: 1 serving

Chicken breast, boneless, skinless 1 each
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Vegetable oil ½ floz

1. Season chicken cutlet with salt and pepper
2. Heat sauté pan over medium-high heat, then add oil
3. Saute cutlet for 2-3 minutes per side or until done.
4. Rest ½ the time of cooking before serving or slicing.

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.

I dashed out a bit of whipped cream to go with the brownies as the kids cleaned up.

WHIPPED CREAM

Yield: 16 servings

Heavy cream 1 cup
Vanilla extract* 1 tsp
Confectioners sugar 1 tbsp

1. In a large bowl or mixer with whip attachment, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form.
2. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

*Can be replaced by scrapings of 1/2 vanilla bean

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...

Food Costs/Oil and Vinegar/Greens and Vinaigrette (The Mathematical Measurement of the Olive Garden's Evil)

Waste will put your profits in the garbage, kill a restaurant dead, and destroy the environment to boot. This seems to be a running theme in Chef M's lectures, none so more so than our brief look into the management of food cost. I'll skip the mathematics here, but any executive chef or restaurant manager will be very concerned with the Food Cost Percent (the cost of the food divided by the menu price) and more crucially, the Prime Cost Percent (Food Cost% + Beverage Cost% + Labor Cost%.)

A good restaurant will have a prime cost of about 60-65%, with about half of that going to food. In a mediocre place like, say, the Olive Garden, food costs will only be 15% because they buy 2nd-rate ingredients in bulk, and labor another 15% because they pay near minimum wage. That leaves a lot of wiggle room for advertising and overpaying CEOs.

Back to the matters at hand. We ran through the different kinds of oils, their uses and individual smoke points. When Chef M went to culinary school, he was told only to use olive oil for dressing, never cooking. In his career, he has met Italian people who cook with nothing but olive oil, including deep-frying. Now that olive oil is perceived to be a great healthy oil, the common wisdom has changed. As for vinegar, we learned about its bacterial beginnings -- it's rotten wine, after all. Or rotten juice, depending on the kind of vinegar.

The knives came out and we had our way with a bucket's full of shallots, minced finely. Chef M showed us the proper way to remove stems and veins from various kinds of cooking greens; then we rough-chopped them and sautéed them with a little olive oil, shallots, and salt -- wow! Mustard greens, chard, bok choy, kale -- I tend to avoid this stuff, but these tasted surprisingly....palatable!

Using a hand whisk, we put 1 part vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar, though any acid, like lemon juice, will do) and a small dash of Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt in a bowl. While whisking, I slowly poured 3 parts olive oil in the bowl until it was all in and it became thicker than any of the original ingredients. With some pre-mixed mesclun on hand, we tossed it with the dressing and had our late morning vittles.

Everyone in class is warming up to each other a bit, and Chef M seems to be enjoying himself, peppering his lectures with personal details. He's in the process of opening up his own restaurant near where he lives, and will be looking for externs around the time we'll be graduating. Other personalities are emerging, some rather loud and talking too much, some as focused on absorbing as much as possible without fuss, others dumber than I first assumed. Well, as long as they don't stab me on the way to the sink to wash their knives, we'll all be OK.

ADDENDA:
Tomorrow we have off, but Thursday we are going to experiment with a bunch of different cooking oils by making scrambled eggs. I don't want to make a big deal of this, but since my mom used to force me to eat really badly prepared eggs several times a week, the smell of scrambled eggs makes me nauseous and the thought of putting them in my mouth makes me gag a little.

That indulgent pint of Ben & Jerry's pisses me off. I used to scarf gallons of the stuff in college, thought it was great. Now it tastes tainted with glue! Thanks, Ilsa! Today after school I went home and built the batter for this ice cream, gonna run it through the ice cream attachment of my mixer after a long bike ride tomorrow. I roasted and salted some raw cashews and took a hammer to a good block of 70% dark chocolate, ice cream nirvana awaits...

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, 2 pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk was slightly off, so cooked these to prevent waste. Two other pancakes went in the freezer for future consumption.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, small piece of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTING: 11:30am, sautéed cooking greens with shallots and olive oil, mesclun salad with vinaigrette, 1 bowl

LUNCH: 12:45pm, various BBQ meats, small amount of mac & cheese and french fries, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Greens were too healthy, had to get them out of my system fast!

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, B&J's Half Baked ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, tablespoon of hot salty roasted cashews, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 8:45pm, 1 grilled cheese sandwich with Racette soft stinky raw milk cheese, the good butter, and superhippy bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really tasty. Needed salt.