Regional Cooking of Europe - Italy

This is Mookie. One morning chef came in the kitchen and told us all that he had an epiphany during the night and dubbed Ron , which is his birth name, Mookie. No one has called him Ron since. He says he is over 18 but I've yet to see his drivers licence. In fact now that I think about it, I have never seen him drive. Mookie challenges me to no end. If he isn't sticking a hand in one of my pictures thinking it is funny for the 100th time then he is scooping or shoveling, depending on the dish, food into his mouth in a way that would make any mother cringe. I tell him it's not so cute anymore but he's dead set on eating like it's his first meal in weeks. Maybe months. It's amazing the amount of food this little sprite can put away.

Mookie wrapped up the unit on Italy with some Sicilian fare. He marinated some olives with peppers, red onions, cauliflower, and carrots, then grilled some swordfish which he served with a sauce of fresh mint , capers, lemon juice and parsley that he had made earlier. A bit short of a demonstration though the fish was very tasty. The olive mixture was also quite nice and would get even better as it marinated.






To the rescue Chef Doug, who is the pastry and Baking Chef that is in the kitchen next door. (Remember, serious but with laughing eyes-a little mysterious?)

Chef Doug gave us a lesson on how to cook the perfect pizza. He had made the dough the night before and had it all ready for us to create our own personal pizza's.
We had a whole
smorgasbord of toppings to choose from and after assembling our pizza we baked them in Chef Doug's ovens to achieve a perfect crust. It was great pizza. It's amazing what the right oven can do.


The taste made me yearn for Italy.



It was a wonderful end to a busy week. A Friday pizza day. After class a few of us went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I still managed to find room for popcorn.


Goodnight.

Baking and Pastry - Moonside Bakery Field Trip

I dreamt of the sourdough starter all night long, billowing out of it's container, and filling up my house like "The Blob." I finally got up at 4:30 to find it behaving itself in it's bin. I took the croissant dough out of the freezer to thaw and made up my focaccia dough. I rolled it out, leaving it to rise in a sheet pan then loaded everything up in the car. I don't know about this baking thing. It all happens pretty early.
I picked up some classmates at Pete's and we all headed over the hill for our Field Trip to the Moonside Bakery. I was reminded of the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, with Jack Nicholson. After all, this was our first outing since January, and some of my classmates are a little suspect. I made a mental note to try not to play the part of Nurse Ratchet too much, tempting as it was.

Chef Thomas was waiting for us with fresh pastries and coffee. He immediately put the sourdough starter in the big mixer with the flour and water and started the dough. It's a bit difficult to get a perspective here, but to give you a comparison, this mixer was bigger than my kitchen table and held about fifty pounds of bread dough.
There is a rhythm to a bakery and if you miss a beat you disturb the song. While the bread was mixing we scaled out the challah dough, rolled and braided it. While that was proofing we formed and benched our baguettes and rounds. We egg washed and baked our challa bread then went back to do the final panning of the sour dough breads. While those were proofing, we rolled out the croissants. It was a steady and comfortable rhythm that was very grounding and satisfying. It brought to my mind the biblical examples of bread being the substance of life and the comparisons of the Kingdom of God being like a yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Luke 13:21)
OK. I went from Nurse Ratchet to Evangelist. Any way, bread making moves me.
Sometimes pictures speak louder than words.























































What a great day. Thank you Chef Thomas.

Baking and Pastry - Muffins, Danish Dough, Puff Pastry and Chef Bruno Neveu

Today was another fast paced, dough making day. I kinda got my doughs mixed up. Not a pun. I really did get then mixed up! After beginning the morning with a lecture on puff pastry and a demonstration on muffins we then went into the kitchen to make a Blitz pastry, which is a quick method of puff pastry, a Danish pastry, which I think is a type of puff pastry but I need to confirm that tomorrow, and a "sponge " or starter for our bread on Thursday. The one thing that is confusing is that we have these doughs for different recipes at various stages. Some need double turns, some need single turns, some need to be in the refrigerator and some need to be in the freezer. I was a little mixed up for awhile. All I know is that these doughs are working tonight while I'm sleeping, and if I was a real Pastry Chef I would never sleep.


Dennis and my muffins came out nice. (above picture) Too nice. When I went to leave today they were gone! Maybe it's because we chose to use real muffins tins instead of the "flexi-pans" they had in the kitchen, I couldn't believe the difference in the browning.


It is very interesting how puff pastry works. There is no yeast at all, The only leavening agent is butter. It is all in the technique on how you incorporate the butter into the dough that will give it it's rise. For the Blitz, the butter is mixed in with the flour briefly so the butter is in fairly big pieces. You chill the dough first then roll it out in a rectangle then give it a double turn as shown in the picture sequence.













The Danish Pastry is a bit different because you make a butter "block" with butter and flour then add that to your dough separately. You proceed the same with rolling, then a single turn. I think.
Like I said, I got confused. We finished all our turns. Three for the Danish and two for the Blitz.
We made our sponge, which is yeast water and flour, that will work overnight and be ready to use in the morning for our bread dough.



At 11:00 a guest chef began a demonstration.
I was so enthralled but unfortunately had to tear myself away at 1:00 because I had to leave for an appointment. I could have watched him cook and listened to his accent all day. A French Chef, named Bruno Neveu. He prepared some contemporary dishes that you would see in France today. He began with a carrot soup that looked like it was going to be better than wonderful. Then he moved on to a sole that was stuffed with a salmon mousse and cray fish. I had to leave before the whole dish came together so I'm hoping that my classmate stayed to get some final shots. I know that this final dish involved a crayfish fricassee and a parsley emulsion. I hated to leave. I got a few pictures before I tore myself away.
I love the way that PCI brings in these Master Chefs for us to experience. I need to start keeping my afternoons open! Thank you PCI and Thank you Chef Bruno.


Goodnight.