Brownie FAIL

Today 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 demonstrate sauces.) Today we finished our vegetable soup, made mayonnaise and Cesar salad dressing, then 3 different kinds of brownies. Recipes can be found earlier on the blog here and here.

We started the class with a little lecture about the brigade system, the traditional organization of the kitchen roles, from Executive Chef to commis (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 emmulsion.

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 concase. 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 mise-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 mise 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 mayonnaise involves a lot of whisking while pouring oil slowly into the bowl.

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 Parmesan. Both the mayo and the dressing would be held until tomorrow.

We reset and I broke the class into two teams. One would make normal fudge brownies, one would make a batch with macadamias 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-flaky and weirdly elastic.

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.

Tomorrow, we bang out salads and sandwiches....

Composing, with Salad

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.

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.

First thing out, we got down to knife skills, getting the vegetable soup on and out of the way...

VEGETABLE SOUP

Yield: 1 gallon

Olive oil 4 tbsp
Chopped leaks, whites only 2 cups
Salt 1 heavy pinch
Garlic, minced 2 tbsp
Carrots, thin rounds 2 cups
Potatoes, large dice 2 cups
Green beans, ¾” pieces 2 cups
Vegetable stock 2 quarts
Tomato concasse* 4 cups
Corn kernels 2 ears
Ground black pepper ½ tsp
Parsley, chopped ¼ cup, packed
Lemon juice 1 to 2 tsp
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in large rondeau or stockpot and add leeks and a pinch of salt.
2. Cover and sweat the vegetables until softened, stirring occasionally, 7-8 minutes.
3. Add garlic, carrots, potatoes and green beans and cook for 4-5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add vegetable stock, BTB RTS*
5. Add tomato concasse, corn and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until vegetables are fork tender, approximately 25-30 minus.
6. Remove from heat, add parsley and lemon. Season to taste. Serve immediately
*Tomato Concasse: peeled, deseeded and chopped flesh of tomato BTB RTS: Bring To Boil, Return To Simmer

While that was happening, I had a student boil some eggs properly, a garnish for our composed salad...

PERFECT HARD BOILED EGGS

Yield: 6 eggs

Egg* 6 each

1. Place eggs in a single layer sauce pan, cover with cold water by 1” to 2” minimum
2. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover for 15 minutes
3. Remove, shock in ice water, peel

* Eggs that are NOT fresh will peel easier, ideally a week old

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.

HERBED MAYONNAISE

Yield: 2 ½ cups mayonnaise

Egg 1 each
Egg yolk 1 each
Salt ½ tsp
Ground pepper ¼ tsp
Olive oil ½ cup
Vegetable oil 1 ½ cups
Lemon juice 2 to 3 tsp
Chopped fresh herbs ¼ cup
(Parsley, chives, dill, etc.)

1. Place egg, egg yolk, salt, and pepper in an anchored mixing bowl. Whisk until blended
2. Whisking constantly, drizzle in the oils, gradually increasing the amount added as the sauce thickens
3. As soon as the sauce is very thick, thin with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, followed by the remaining oil.
4. Add herbs, whisk to combine.
5. Taste. Add more lemon juice, if necessary. Season to taste.

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.

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.

SHRIMP LOUIS

Yield: 4-6 servings

Shrimp 2 lbs
Salt to taste
Bibb or Boston lettuce 2 heads
Tomatoes, sliced 2 each
Eggs, hard cooked, quartered 4 each
Lemons, quartered 4 each
Black olives 8 each
Bell peppers, thin rounds 2 each

Herb Mayonnaise 2 ½ cup
Chili sauce 4 tbs
Grated onion 2 tbs
Parsley, chopped 2 tbs
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Heavy cream 1 _tbsp +/- to adjust thickness
Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp, or to taste
Tabasco a few drops, or to taste

1. Defrost, deshell and clean shrimp if necessary. Set up ice bath
2. Bring large pot of water flavored with salt and lime juice to a boil.
3. Cook shrimp until just pink, 1-2 minutes. Remove and shock in ice water. Drain, place in bowl, cover and refrigerate until service.
4. Combine mayonnaise → Tabasco. Stir until blended. Cover and refrigerate until service. If too thick after chilling, add more cream.
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.

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.

Next week, a tossed Caesar salad with chicken, proper mac n' cheese, and chicken stock.

Emulsion Sauces and Hollandaise (Heart Attack Sauces)

After reviewing the Grand Sauces for a second time in two days, we set about focusing on the last and most hinky of the Mothers: Hollandaise, and its derivatives, all of which are emulsions. Emulsions are defined as sauces thickened by two liquids which under normal circumstances do not mix. Typically, one of those liquids is a fat and the other is a water-type liquid like wine, stock and, urrr, water. The water-type liquid is the 'divided phase,' which sits in the bowl, and the fat is the 'continuous phase,' which is slowly dripped into the divided phase while whipping.

Before starting with Hollandaise, everyone as individuals made mayonnaise. Rather straight forward, you take an egg yolk, a bit of mustard (two sources of the emulsifier lecithin), a pinch of salt and sugar, and a tablespoon of vinegar; then you mix it up and slowly drip in a cup of oil while whisking. The first few drops are the most important -- if they don't set into an emulsion, all the oil that follows will start pooling and 'breaking' the emulsion. About halfway through the oil, the emulsion becomes stronger and you can get the rest of the oil in pretty quickly. Once it's thick enough, add salt to taste. I've never really eaten mayo, but this stuff was surprisingly unrepulsive.

From there, we broke into teams. Late Kid (LK) was back, and even 5 minutes early today. 2LG had difficulty making her mayonnaise, and was late coming to help set up the mise en place for the four other sauces we were making, but LK and I muddled through.

First we got the Hollandaise out. LK put 9oz of butter on the fire, and I whisked 3 yolks, 1.5 floz of water and a pinch of salt in a metal prep bowl on top of a pot of boiling water and whipped till fluffy. Off the fire with a towel between the bowl and the pot, we slowly emulsified the liquid butter into the egg mix. Once it got to that thick and ribbony stage, the three of us tasted and added salt until it was ready for Chef M (who must have had a belly mightily full of eggy buttery emulsion by the end of the day!).

Next up was the Bearnaise, which is just like the Hollandaise, except instead of whisking yolks with water, you create a reduction of shallots, peppercorns, tarragon, vinegar, and white wine that when almost dry, is hit with water to cool it, strained, then whisked with eggs and then liquid butter. At the end before or during salting, you hit it with some chopped taragon leaves for some visual interest.

As I was directing LK and 2LG to get the mise, I added the white wine and vinegar (8oz/2oz) -- that was the measure for the next sauce. We required equal parts, so our Bearnaise was cock-eyed.

Beurre Blanc started with another reduction (shallots, bayleaf, peppercorn, wine, and vinegar) and after straining, skipped the eggs. Instead, a full pound of cut-up butter was melted into the reduction while whisking. After salting appropriately, this stuff tasted like a warm kitty hugging your lap and purring. The idea of dousing something with warm butter is attractive but kind of gross in practice. However, the practice of dousing something in Beurre Blanc will get you that doused-in-butter ideal.

As the other two made the vinaigrette (which we also did in Lesson 4), I remade the Bearnaise with the proper ratios. The hardest part was running around collecting the mise -- the actual cooking of these emulsion sauces went pretty quickly.

Chef M busted out the veal bacon, showed us how to poach eggs and fry bread in a pan properly (with butter, a little salt, medium temp -- and don't let it scorch), and then showed us how to assemble an Eggs Benedict-like dish with Bearnaise on top. Despite my egg being soft and runny, I didn't have nearly as many problems eating it as the scrambled eggs a few weeks ago.

All these sauces can be found in just about any traditional old-school French restaurant. On Monday, we'll be coming at infused oils and contemporary sauces.

ADDENDA:
It seems the Foie Gras ban in Chicago was recently lifted. I told Chef this morning and his face lit up, said it was the best thing he heard all week, and ran to the phone to gossip with another chef.

A few random thoughts about my uniform: The checkered pants are pretty sensible, as they cover stains and schmutz excellently. As for the whites, they have their own way of accounting for a lot of stains in their design. The apron is a large square that is folded: this allows for 4 opportunities to have a clean apron. The chef's jacket is double-breasted. This is not to disguise the large girth of a chef, but when the front gets dirty, one can unbutton it and put the dirty side on the inside. I can't help but wish all my button-down shirts were double-breasted, they'd last a lot longer.

BREAKFAST: 4:30am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowls, hunger 3/5
Woke up at 4 in anticipation of a 2:30am wakeup on Sunday.

LUNCH #1: 11:30am, Eggs Benedict a la Chef M, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
We pan-fried French bread in butter with a little salt so it was just toasted, poached eggs in hot water with a lil' bit o' vinegar, plopped them on top of our veal bacon, then poured Bearnaise over it. I've never eaten poached eggs due to egg-repulsion, and my egg broke and the yolk ran all over the place. However, it ran into the delicious sauce and it looked way too yummy and unhealthy to not taste....and it tasted good.

LUNCH #2: 2pm, 2 slices of local pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I like the slice joint on my block because usually they have very lightly cheesed slices, where red can poke through like a checkerboard. Today was a thin blanket, and suffered for it. Weird inconsistency, hopefully it won't be like that next time or I'll have to stick to homemade.

PM SNACK: 6pm, bacon/chocolate bar, hunger 4/5
As I'm making dinner, B comes in with a tiny one of these. Slightly smokey and salty, but not nearly bacony enough, with tiny bits spread sparsely through the bar. A bitter dark chocolate would of probably complemented a porky flavor better. Great idea, cute packaging, crappy execution....

DINNER: 6:30pm, Chili de Arizona with Beurre Blanc, kimchi and raw onions over pine-nut brown-rice pilaf, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Used up my c-school friend's chili, and poured some of today's beurre blanc over it. Oh my, it was an excellent combo. The vinnegary butteriness of the sauce was kinda like sour cream, only more complex tasting. I threw pine nuts, porcini, shallots and chives into the long grain brown rice when toasting it in good butter, and it's wide flavor profile kinda competed with the wild flavors of the rest of the dish. Still, if it were a celebrity, gossips would call it a 'hot mess'.