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!

Pan-Frying (Canola-ola)

Pan-frying is like sautéing, also a dry-cooking method, except that (a) it's quicker because (b) it involves submerging an item half way in fat. The resulting food should have a crisp golden-brown exterior and a moist juicy interior. That interior is not grease: though coating can retain grease, the coating also acts as a envelope in which the item actually gently steams in its own moisture.

Typical coating is snazzily called Standard Breading Procedure: first, you coat the item lightly in starch (typically wheat flour); next, the egg wash (whole eggs made looser with water or dairy); then, finish by dropping into bread crumbs. Chef M showed us why it's important to have one wet hand to hold the raw meat and deal with the eggs, and one dry hand for the starch and the crumbs. If you mix them up, you end up with two breaded mitts.

Variation on SBP includes using different starches like corn, potato, and arrowroot. Switching out the bread crumbs with panko (Japanese flaked white crumb), nuts, coconut, or a combo is not unheard of.

Why SBP? Coating gives even color, holds in moisture for internal steaming, gives a crunch (and Americans love crunchy food), and adds extra flavor. Speaking of extra flavor, for coated items, seasoning with kosher salt is discouraged, as it'll stay on top of the food in uneven salt-pockets. Chef advises to use fine salt, only when the food is out of the fire and hot, so the salt dissolves into the food evenly.

Oil temperature is crucial: With sauté, use high heat and kept a close eye, to reach the appropriate doneness; for pan-fry, if the oil is too cold, you've created an oil sop, too hot and you're running a crematorium. Ideally 300-325, 350 degrees max for smaller quicker-cooking items. Chef M poo-poos using a thermometer, which is too delicate in a rough n' tumble kitchen and not dependable. He recommends throwing in a small piece of bread -- when it bubbles and turns golden, it's time to fry.

And fry we did. N was absent today, but RH, 2LG and I muddled through with our mise. The potato pancakes and crab cakes list of ingredients weren't too long, and the plantains, chicken, and veal required little more than breading. I set RH shredding the taters and onions for the pancakes, I mixed the slurry that the crab meat went into, and 2LG made the apple sauce for the pancakes and the mojo for the plantains. The chickens had to be suprèmes: chicken breast with the wing and bone attached. I broke down two chickens, took off the skins, and chopped off the end of the wing bones with the butt of my chef's blade. As with the first time I did this, it was more than a bit freaky to watch the bone bleed as I chopped into it.

Pan-frying is relatively easy, compared to sautéing. We got through our dishes pretty quickly. The tostones and crab cakes got high marks, as well as the potato pancakes. The veal was uneventful, but my chicken was a dud. I simply pan-fried it at a relatively low temp, with a panko crust for more even browning. I fried that thing a good 8 minutes on each side, but when Chef M opened it up, it was raw in the middle. I was falsely confident that it was done because it looked pretty and was cooking 15 minutes, but I didn't test it. To test, you can feel it (it should be firm, not mushy). More intrusive, you can jab it with a metal knife on the unpretty side and peek. The problem is that this will allow more oil into the interior, but it's a guarantee you're not serving a health-code violation.

Tomorrow, out of the pan, into the deep fry.

ADDENDA
The blood pressure this morning was 127/91, better but not ideal.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
AM TASTINGS: 2 fried tostones with Cuban mojo sauce, 2 potato pancakes with a little apple sauce and sour cream, 1 large crab cake with avocado sauce, 2 bites of veal milanese with salsa verde, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
The plantains were good but weirdly bland. The potato pancakes were nice, but the recipe I use is better -- it ain't a potato pancake without matzo meal. The crab cake was over the top great, with lots of jumbo lump crab meat and not a lot of filler. By the time I got the veal out, wasn't very hungry, and it was a rather ordinary dish. The chicken, well, I wasn't touchin' that.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, Israeli salad, 1 beer, 1 piece of bread with butter, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, lobster bisque with low-salt tortilla chips, large baby spinach salad, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Bisque was school-made and out of the freezer, really good though salty.