Essentail Skills 3 - Veal

After having Chef Peter as an instructor for two days, I wised up an began my day with a double espresso before I left for school, and a coffee for the road. I needed a little caffeine to keep up with him.
He began by getting veal shanks prepared and in the oven for Osso Bucco. A rustic Italian dish created by braising veal shanks in wine, stock, and vegetables. This is traditionally served with a risotto Milanese. The braising process was basically the same as the previous days recipes - just a different cut of meat.
He then fabricated some medallions from a veal loin, pounded, floured and seasoned them and in a blink of an eye put together, a Veal Piccata and a Veal Marsala. He really emphasized speed and technique when making these quick sautes and a pan sauces. If you dilly dally and waste to much time checking your recipes or cook your sauce to long you won't get good results. A pan sauce is quick. Brown your meat, take it out, add your alcohol, reduce and finish, add the meat back in to warm and plate immediately.

In the case of the piccata, the medallions were browned very lightly. White wine was used for the alcohol and the sauce was finished with butter, lemon juice and a touch of cream. Almost like a beurre blanc. The veal for the Marsala was browned more deeply. Mushrooms were sauteed before the sauce was finished with, of course Marsala, then some stock.
A little trick I learned was to always "refortify" your dish with the flavoring used before serving. So in this case he splashed a bit of Marsala in the finished dish to really pick up the flavor in the sauce.I have a new partner now. His name is Glenn (the soup winner of our first final). We did fairly well with putting together our recipes. A little slow with the pan sauces so our first sauce got a bit too thick. Glenn, if your out there, we need to pick it up - no more "Beer -Pong" on school nights!"


Thank you Andrew for browning up all are lamb shanks for tomorrow. Isn't he cute?
(Chef Peter calls him one of the "wake and bakes.")

It's been a fun few days with Chef Peter. He is teaching a Hobby class this weekend; "Smart and Simple Dinner Party" and asked me if I wanted to come and help at his class. I jumped at the chance.



Goodnight.

Essential Skills 3 - Beef

We began our morning with short ribs. Our
method of cooking was braising so we had to get
them browned and in the oven first thing. A good braise, whether it is short ribs, a lamb shank, or a old fashioned pot roast is one of my favorite meals to cook and eat. A dish with tender flavorful meat, a sauce that only gets better as it cooks and goes well with any starches, or simply served, as my Grandfather liked it - with just some good home made bread and butter.

Chef Peter then demoed his way through Hungarian Goulash, a basic a stew, and Swiss Steak, which is a braised bottom round. Each dish has it's own unique seasoning, but by the end of class everything was beginning to taste the same.

I grew up up with having Pot Roast once a week. Three different recipes in the same morning was a little much.

I left class craving fruit so I stopped at my local produce market and went crazy. I made a huge assorted fruit plate that night for dinner.

It's all about balance.
Goodnight.

Essentail Skills 3 - Beef

Let the carnage begin.
The only thing getting rest in this class is the meat!
As I mentioned before, Chef Parker went out of town to judge a food contest in Las Vegas so we had Chef Peter to break us in to Meat Cookery.
He moves fast and throws information at you in a constant stream all while he prepares a perfectly cooked steak with some wonderful pan sauce and by the time he finishes plating you wonder - "How did that all just happen?"
I loved the way he abandoned the recipes and improvised and challenged us to do the same. I felt a little lost without my recipe cards and measuring spoons but it was a push I needed.
We changed partners around and worked in teams. After cleaning and portioning out a whole tenderloin and strip loin, and learning to prep Foie gras, we went to work. I used my big scimitar for the first time and felt like Crocodile Dundee. I loved it.
We stared off by making pepper steak using a New York that we portioned from the Strip Loin. We seared the pepper encrusted steak in the pan then finished it off in the oven. While the steak was resting we created a sauce in the pan, much more methodical than Chef Peter, but just as tasty. Peppercorns, Cognac cream and butter. How can you go wrong? Our steak was perfect.. I have to give Dennis all the credit though. Good job partner!
Next we put together a Stroganoff with leftover tips from the tenderloin.
Almost a stir-fry with this cut of meat, it went fairly quickly as we seared the meat, sauteed onions , added mushrooms , demi-glace, cream and sour cream with our seasoningsgs. A nice dish served over egg noodles. Our last dish was Tournedos Rossini. A classic dish that consists of a tournedos of beef (fillet Mignon), served on a crouton and topped with pan seared Fois gras, engulfed in a Truffled Madeira sauce.
Our fillet was a little rare, but everything else was on the money. I am really enjoying making these pan sauces. It makes me want to never be without a good veal stock in my freezer.

How can anyone be a vegan?

Goodnight

Essential Skills 2 - The Final: Vegetables, Potatoes, Grains and Pasta

I was ready. I had all my recipes down. I practiced them over the weekend and decided how I was going to present and created my time line. Despite all my efforts to prepare, I was still up most of the night with crazy food dreams.

These were the dishes I had to prepare.

1 portion of Rice Pilaf.
4 portions of Duchesse
1 portion Roesti Potatoes
1 portion of Roasted Tomato, Onion and Goat Cheese Frittatini
1 Grilled Portobella Mushroom
1 portion of Deep Fried potatoes of my choice.
1 portion of Beer Battered Onion Rings.

I had about 2 1/2 hours. Let the games begin.

Sharing the grill, and deep fryer got a little tricky. I opted to wait until the very end to fry and was the lastt to use the grill. I wanted my mushroom to marinate as long as possible.
I followed my time line pretty well and presented my dishes as I finished them. I really had fun. I served the grilled Portobella over some simple greens tossed with olive oil , salt and pepper and a drizzle of reduced balsamic over the top. My Frittatini was served over greens as well but I used a basil vinaigrette. I had roasted some extra tomato rounds and used them for a garnish. Both dishes turned out nice. My pilaf was perfect. I garnished it with a few toasted almonds. The Roesti went slow. It was hard to get the flame right with the fans going so browning evenly was challenging. My Duchesse potatoes looked like cousins instead of identical twins so I got a point taken off. I made shoestring potatoes (yes, hand cut,) that came out great and finally my onion rings that could of used another minute in the deep fryer. Another point taken off. I guess I got a little excited to finish and got impatient. All in all I was quite happy with my points and comments.
48 out of 50.
Not bad.
Chef is going to Las Vegas to judge a food competition for three day so tomorrow we will have a substitute to star us off with Meat Cookery!
I am definitely ready for some protein.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Spaetzle and Orzo

This morning started with my third written final. I am a pro at test taking now. I still read the chapters twice, and fill out my workbook, but I don't spend the day before at Pete's re-reading the text and stressing out. My husband says I'm settling in.

The test went quickly and we moved right into making spaetzle. In Austria, Germany and Switzerland, spaetzle is a traditional accompaniment to roasted meats and game stews.


Like a small dumpling, these was very interesting to make. You pour the sticky batter (water, flour,egg and salt) into the grater like spaetzle maker and press it through with a plastic pastry spatula. Little droplets of batter fall through into simmering water and cook to form tiny dumplings. They float to the surface when done. We shocked them and then dried them a bit before sauteing them in butter and glace de viande.

We also made some orzo pasta with creamed leeks and Parmesan cheese. Another comfort food.
Quite easy to
put together, you just boil up orzo, which is a small oval shaped pasta. While that is cooking, saute your sliced leeks in a little butter then cook them until tender in chicken stock. Add some cream. Reduce down a bit, then mix in the Parmesan cheese.
A great side dish.

We are preparing 7 recipes for the final on Monday and were able to start gathering some supplies and begin our mise en place.

I know what I will be doing this weekend. I think my husband is pretty tired of pasta and potatoes but I do need to practice. Even Jim is starting to get full.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Pasta

I like pasta for breakfast. It's comforting. Like oatmeal but with much more flavor. Maybe I just prefer savory to sweet in the morning, anyways, it's nice to not have to worry about making breakfast in the morning before I leave.

We rolled out our pasta and turned it into fettuccine and raviolis. This was all quite labor intensive. We used a large hand cranked past machine, carefully feeding our dough through it and bringing the rollers closer together after each feed, until we reached the desired thickness.
We then attached the fettuccine cutter and fed the flattened pasta sheets through this cutter to create our ribbons . We formed the raviolis by hand with sheets of very thin pasta. A true labor of love.

Our filling for the ravioli was a mixture of goat cheese, Parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Chef, using a very quick and simple technique, created fettuccine Alfredo right in the pan. He tossed the cooked pasta, which only took a very short time to cook, with a little pasta water, Parmesan cheese and butter.
It was delicious.
The raviolis were carefully boiled (more like a simmer) and then served with a variation of the classic Alfredo. (Adding cream and omitting the pasta water



We took a break to preview the Garde-Manger Banquet that another class was putting on. It was incredible. Chef told us to take a good look because he expected us to take what we saw to a new level.

Nothing like a little pressure. It's hard to believe that we will be putting on a banquet like this in just a month! I get to invite 10 people. Who wants to come??


























Tomorrow is the written final, a few last pasta recipes, and setting up for for our practical on Monday. My days are starting to blur together.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Grains and Pasta

It took me awhile to assemble this Polenta Napoleon. There were so many components. First we cut the polenta that we made the day before and had left to chill overnight into circles, and grilled it, along with a portabello mushroom, a roasted red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and asparagus. Then it was like making a lasagna. One layer at a time. Served on top of a red pepper coulis and some reduced balsamic vinegar. I ended up with a nice little tower.





We also made a classic rice pilaf and Risotto Milanese, which is a risotto made with a saffron infused broth, and of course, Parmesan cheese. I have been making risotto for years. When I made it today, I kind of fell apart. I completely over-caramelized my onions and then added way too much wine. A recipe rescaling error again and a flame problem on my burner. Am I making excuses or should I really start questioning my math skills?

We finished by putting together a pasta dough by hand that will be used in the morning.
Pasta for breakfast. Yum.
Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Potatoes, Grains

Comfortably back in my kitchen with my partner Laurie we continued with potato recipes and attempted our first grain recipe - Quinoa. (keen-wa). Quinoa is an interesting grain, which was a common food of the Incas. Although not botanically a true grain, it's tiny seeds are treated as such. Gluten free and increasing in popularity these days it is marketed as the world's "super grain" because the seeds form a complete protein and contain important vitamins and minerals as well as carbohydrates and fats. (Yes, I'm a nerd who actually reads the text book.) It is basically cooked similar to rice. Sautéed then allowed to steam.

The next recipe was Duchesse Potatoes. These were so fun to make. It is basically a mashed potato with some eggs and then piped into a conical shape. These are traditionally served with chateaubriand or used for a buffet.
We will have to make these for our next practical test on Monday. Mine were not the most uniform shapes so, once again, I had the Traina's over for dinner to practice and once again, I forgot to heat their plates! They are tough.

The next recipe was Roesti Potatoes, which was a type of Potato pie, hash brown style, stuffed with caramelized onions and fried stove top. We all practiced out flipping technique. Plate on top, flip pan and plate over, slide pie back into pan. I didn’t hear any plate shattering.




Finally we made some potato pancakes that were absolutely delicious. I have a good friend named Virginia, (are you out there) who in my mind makes the best potato pancakes ever. (Actually, everything she makes is the best)



Her recipe was passed down to her from her Lithuanian Grandma. I think the ones I made today might hold a candle to hers. Maybe. We just might have to have a pancake cook off!!

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Potatoes

I switched from my morning class to the afternoon class just for today. It was a good experience to be with a different class and a different chef. I thoroughly enjoyed Chef Udo's style and personality, and enjoyed seeing a few people I had met in the Serve Safe class. I also came away with a new appreciation of my class when it comes do doing dishes.

One potato, two potato, three potatoes.....Did you know that there are 7,000 different varieties of potatoes in this world? I see maybe 10 different types in the produce markets around here. Where are the other 6990? I recently took a trip to Argentina (via Taylor-Made Tours; see my links) and came across these beautiful wild potatoes in a cooking class.

I'm straying.....back to class.

We learned which types of potatoes worked best for the various cooking methods. Your "mealy" (also known as starchy) potatoes have a high starch content and thick skin. They are low in sugar and are best for baking, deep frying and mashing. Your "waxy" potatoes (fingerlings, Yukon gold’s, reds) have a low starch content and are better for steaming boiling and roasting. They are too glutinous for mashed and contain too much moisture for deep frying.

With that said... we took some russets and made Gratin Dauphinoise. You really can't go wrong cream and Gruyere. We then put together a nice grilled potatoes salad using red potatoes and dressing it with basil vinaigrette. Next some classic Lyonnais potatoes (fried potatoes and onions), little steamed tourners with parsley and butter and finally some French fries.

Tomorrow...

…four potatoes, five potatoes, six potatoes more.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - More Vegetables

We finished up our vegetable run with Brussels sprouts in Pecan Butter, Parsnip puree - piped into cute little spirals, and braised celery hearts, which I had never had before, and to be quite honest wasn't too excited about it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked them. I'm sure the Basil Beurre Blanc that we made from the braising liquids and served over it helped. No pictures today. No matter how many shots I took I didn't seem to be able to quite capture the beauty of braised celery.

I like going to the movie on Friday afternoons with my girlfriends. I think I was going a little vegetable crazy today when the new Veggie Tales Movie appealed to me. I couldn't talk my friends into seeing it. They wanted to take me for an In Out Burger after the movie to bring me back to my senses.

I am looking forward to beginning Potatoes on Monday.



Goodnight

Essential Skills 2 - Vegetables, Deep Fried and Fried

After today, my worrying about too much healthy eating shifted to a concern for my arteries. A fleeting concern, thank goodness, that vanished from my mind as soon as I tasted a beer battered onion-ring fresh from the fryer. A crisp golden exterior, perfecttly salted with the soft sweet onion consealed in the center. Nice and moist with no greasy flavor.


I know I sound like Florence Henderson in a Wesson oil commercial but it really was that good!

It also helped that we had a commercial deep fryer that kept the oil at a perfect temperature



Another crucial Mise en Place day. When deep frying, you especially need all your vegetables blanched, and ready to go. We made an Asian style dipping sauce for the tempura vegetables, and the different batters were all made and kept in an icebath to stay cold. ( I learned that having your batter ice cold is one of the most important factors to deep frying) You want a reaction when the food hits the oil. ) And finally our breading station was set up. Chef made it all look so easy when he demonstrated.


We were not as smooth at the deep frying when set loose in the kitchen.
My tempura and eggplant was great - my Chile Relleno - I threw away, though I was blow tourch queen at blackening the skins and prepping the chilis.





It was not as easy as Chef made it look. I will be practicing deep frying this weekend.

"The only way to learn to cook is to cook."

Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967)

American writer

Goodnight

Essentail Skills 2 - Vegetable, Stir Fry

I love Asian style stir-fried vegetables.


However, the prepping for all the various vegetable and sauces can
be tedious.

Our menu for today was;
Stir-Fried Asparagus with Shiitake Mushrooms
Mixed Wok Vegetables
Spiced Bean Curd (Tofu)
Duxelles
Ratatouille

Mise en place took up most of the class. Everything had to be completely at hand and ready to go.

Asparagus, cut, blanched, refreshed and dry. Mushrooms sliced.
Cabbage, carrots, zucchini all julienne. Ginger and garlic minced. Cilantro chopped. Tofu cubed. Bean sprouts cleaned. Spicy sauce put together.
Onions, eggplant, zucchini, red and green pepper all in an even dice
Shallots and mushrooms minced.

Let the games begin.
With 16 woks going and 16 sauté pans - things were smoking! Aside from the ratatouille, which simmered a bit in the sauce after sautéing the vegetables, it was amazing how fast the dishes came together.

“...organization is just as important in the kitchen as in any business office…
Dione Lucas (1909-1971)English-American Chef

One mishap today. After cooking up are duxelles, (minced mushrooms with shallots and wine-usually used as a stuffing) chef had us combine our finished product and lay them out on a big sheetpan to dry. Well, at the end of class they were gone. Chef was not happy. Oh where or where have the duxelles gone?

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Vegetables, Baked and Roasted

Though I love them dearly, all the freshly steamed, blanched, and grilled vegetables I'd been making, were beginning to make me feel a bit too healthy.
I was happy to see a baked garlic custard and a frittatini on the class syllabus. This girl cannot live on vegetables alone! I don't know how Jeremy does it or what he's going to do when we move into meats.

The Garlic Timbales were first. The garlic was first blanched a bit to take out the "bite" and also to softened the cloves. I blended it with cream until smooth then added the eggs and seasoning - white pepper and "thyme tea." I poured the mixture into the little Timbales molds and then baked them in a water bath. Served with carmalized onions in a glace de viande. It melted in your mouth with the creamy taste of garlic.

Practicing my knife cuts , I prepared the squash in two different sized dices and one in a disc shaped, scored. Which I thought was quite nice. It will be my new vegetable presentation until my family tires of it and tell me to stop. The squash was baked with a little brown sugar and cardamom glaze, and a few other ingredients that I will reveal only to my faithful commenters.

The frittitaini was just a mini version of a frittata (baked omelet) . It looked much cuter than a frittata and was fun to plate and garnish. This is one of the items that I will have to make for my next final. Are you ready Jim and Ginna for some frittatini tastings? Judy, are you in too?

The baked corn was like a Corn con Queso. Roasted corn in a spicy chipotle sauce then baked with cheese. I can't wait until summer when I can make this with fresh corn in season.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 -Vegetables, Grilled and Steamed

More vegetable cookery today. Our one vegetarian in the class (Jeremy) is quite happy right now. When vegetables are prepared and cooked properly they can be exquisite. When cooked poorly, it’s a waste of time to put them on a plate.We made grilled vegetable skewers and grilled portabello mushrooms, a simple assorted vegetable platter, and some broiled tomatoes with a Persillade Sauce, which is basically bread crumbs, parsley, garlic and butter. The only trick was to make sure that you cut your vegetable uniformly and attractively, and blanche them to the proper doneness. Too much time in the water, and the grilling would turn them to mush, not enough time, and they end up raw on the inside and charred on the outside.

We worked in teams, and while Laurie was blanching her heart, out I made the tarragon aioli for the vegetable plate. I can add aioli to the list of things I have been making all wrong. My aioli has always resembled mayonnaise. This aioli that Chef made was silky smooth and more of a sauce consistency. It's all in the whisking. Too much and you have mayo - not enough and you have oil!Mine came out a little thick but with a bit of warm water it was perfect. We marinated our mushrooms, which I "de-gilled" first. A step I was unfamiliar with. I always have just dealt with the black juice that comes from leaving the gills on. This was much cleaner. We grilled our skewers together along with the mushrooms, starting them at a 10 o'clock angle, then rotating them to 2 o'clock to achieve a nice criss-cross. We popped out the tomatoes in the oven and assembled our dishes. We placed our skewers on top of a little red pepper coulis. Every day things get a little smoother.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 Vegetables - Blanching, Steaming and Sautéing

The feel of Friday was in the air once again. Everyone had a skip in their step, especially Chef. He began the morning by passing back our written final. I got a 100! I think everyone did pretty well. We went over the test, and then he told us all to get in our aprons and hats and come into the kitchen. He started giving everyone random tasks like: "cook this bacon," and "crack a flat of eggs;" "cut up some baguettes, grate some cheese." Then he said "Do you guys see what's going on here?" We were all a little confused, thinking were supposed to start vegetable cooking this morning.
"We're making breakfast. I'm hungry," he declared. This made some of the boys in our class very happy.

It felt like a class party. As everything was being set out, a couple of pastry angels came in with fresh apple muffins. It became a joint party with the class next door! We had a great breakfast, mixed it up with the pastry class (no pun intended) then began our first lesson on vegetables.

I learned more today about cooking vegetables than I have in all my years of cooking.

Chef had pots of water boiling, each with a different additive. Alkaline (baking soda) in one, lemon juice in another, salt in the other. It was so interesting to learn what all the different type of vegetables needed to cook properly, retain their color and stay tender.
All my life I have blanched green beans in salted water thinking it would add to their flavor. Wrong. Salt water will make them tough. I always wondered why it took so long for them to sauté after I had blanched them.

We made cabbage turn blue, green beans turn dingy. Cooked and sautéed cauliflower and brussel spouts. (The troublesome and unpopular vegetables.) After properly cooking these vegetables, he finished them off with a quick sauté, creating some wonderful little sauces as he did this. Quickly and effortlessly.
The cauliflower was perfectly roasted, after a quick blanch in acid to retain its white color (instead of turning yellow) then finished by sautéing in a little butter with some caramelized onion, pear vinegar and toasted pine nuts. Delicious.
It was like Chef was just playing with different vinegars and seasonings, and just happened to create these beautiful sides of vegetables in mini Beurre blancs. Effortless.

He sent us off to kitchen with a challenge to come up with the best cabbage dish and best cauliflower dish. We worked in teams of two. We could use anything we found in the refrigerator. He gave us 30 minutes.
We all had a ball. He blind tasted them all them gave us his reviews. Laurie and I did well with our cauliflower but created a pickled cabbage with some leftover jalapeños from breakfast that came out way too hot! We almost made it work.
It was a fun day.

Goodnight.