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.

Essential Skills 1 - The Final: Soups, Knife cuts, Soups, Stocks and Sauces

I've been in the kitchen for twelve days and now it's time to show if I can get it together and produce 1 qt. of Cream of Tomato Soup, garnished and "presented," and 1 cup of Demi-glaze and 1 cup sauce Robert (roh-bare).

Well, you know me. This would be actually be my second time around making the soup, since I made the soup Monday night and had our good friends over to critique. Thank you Trainas! I then had them back the next night (no complaints) to taste my Robert sauce, which I served with a top sirloin, roasted couliflower and some sauteed spinach). I even took out my grading sheet and made them rate everything just as I would be graded for the practical.

20 points possible for the soup
20 point for the Demi-glaze
10 pt's for the Robert Sauce

Criteria:
Temperature
Appearance
Doneness/Mouthfeel
Taste Balance
Flavor Balance
They were hard on me...told me that they were disappointed their plates were not heated.


We began today by taking our real knife competency test. I finished my parsley today going for speed instead of accuracy.
I was graded on Mise en Place, Presentation, Technique and Timing. Perfect score!

On to the soup and sauces. I right away began to reduce my stock and espagnole for my demi-glaze (and eventually Robert sauce), and while that was reducing I began my tomato soup.
We had plenty of time and I felt very calm. I started to get nervous when most people around me began to finish and take their plates into the lecture kitchen to be graded. My sauce was not nearly reduced enough and I was just straining my soup. The biggest mistake is to pay too much attention to your neighbors. I just tuned it all out and willed my stock to reduce.
It all came together. I reserved enough for a demi-glaze grade then finished off my Robert sauce- which is adding a mixture of carmalized onions with reduced wine, a little mustard and sugar. It was perfect. I strained and garnished it with a fine brunoise of cornichons.

I plated my soup in a large soup plate and garnished it with a little dollop of fresh pesto, some droplets of basil oil and two croutons. Unfortunately I bumped into someone leaving the kithcen and it messed things up a bit. Oh well, I knew it started out pretty.

Well, I did ok. My soup didn't get best in show but my sauce did ok.
Glenn's soup was the medal winner. He had a beautiful presentation. (Picture to be posted when camera is retrieved...Way to go Glenn!!!)
Tommorrow I get to start Essentials skills 11.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 1 - Puree Soups

Before we took our final exam, Chef demonstrated our last soup. Split pea.We were all soup pros by now so it looked pretty simple. While that was simmering we took our written final for this Essential Skills 101 class.If you had read the chapters in the book it would be pretty hard not to pass. It also helped that Chef had let us review the test the day before. He suggested that we do our knife skills competency test today instead of tomorrow. That way we would have the whole class time to make our cream of tomato soup and our Demi-glaze and sauce Robert for the practical. We all voted to take the knife test.We made our split pea soup in teams. We had a wonderful smoked ham stock to work with and while our soup simmered away we made these nice soup croutons. So easy. You slice a small baguette lengthwise at an angle. You ladle a bit of clarified butter on a sheet pan toss the bread over a few times to coat it, sprinkle a little kosher salt on it and pop it into the oven until it is golden. Pureeing the soup was a bit of a mess. It was reminiscent of when my kids were babies. Pureed green peas everywhere.I have to say that my partner Laurie and my soup came out beautiful. Perfect consistency and beautifully garnishedChef tasted it and said "downtown"
We also finished off our vichyssoise by putting a small dollop of a diced potato salad in leek vinaigrette on top. This was my favorite of anything we had made so far, I brought home some for Jim, (the taste tester) with a dessert from the angels. Well? Jim, are you out there? Wake up and tell me about the soup and the sponge cake.

We mise en placed for our knife drill, which was;

Produce 2 ounces of julienne carrot

1 onion-fine dice1 potato -medium dice

Two small tomatoes peeled seeded and small dice and pulp concassed.

1 potato cut into brunoiseProduce

4 T. minced and rinsed parsley.

Ready, set, go!

30 minutes later Chef yelled knives down and came around to grade us.I didn't get to my parsley. Darn.Then he said that was just for practice. See you tomorrow.

He enjoys toying with us.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 1 - Chowders and Bisques

Soups and more soups.
Moving right along, we went from broths and cream soups to chowder, bisques and pureed soups. I had to really get my "mise en place" together to get all my soups done on time today. The temperature in the kitchen was turned up a notch, and with our final just a day away you could feel the stress barometer rising. We began with our lobster bisque. I had never made one before, so I was quite surprised with the use of the lobster shells. After caramelizing the mirepoix and shells, I added the garlic, tomato, and little brandy. Then: flambé. Thank goodness the oven sprinklers were not activated! There were some major flames going on! I added some wine - reduced, added lobster veloute, and then let it simmer before I strained and finished.


On to my chowder. I cooked my potatoes for the chowder and the vichyssoise separately then began the clam chowder. (Chef always cooks his potatoes separately for this, in clam juice, so the finished chowder had perfectly cooked potatoes.) I rendered my fat, cooked up my onions and celery, made a roux then added my stock and sachet. While it was safely simmering, I then riced my potatoes for the vichyssoise, cooked them with some some crème and a little saffron "tea" (pictured at left), and cayenne. I then strained that and put it away to chill so I could finish it off the next day. Back to the chowder. I scalded some milk and cream (yes, I'm gaining weight) and added it to my base along with the clams and potatoes. I adjusted the seasonings. A little Tabasco and Worcestershire (Chef Parker Sauce) and it was done! Whew!

My review was good.

My written final for Essential Skills 101 is tomorrow. My practical knife skills test is tomorrow. I'm tired.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 1 - Broth, Consomme and Cream Soups

Soup is on!

We moved from stocks and sauces to soups today. This is a perfect fit for the cold and rainy weather we have been experiencing here in the Bay Area.

Well, to begin. We made "broth" not "stock." There is a difference. Just like a wonderful sauce has to begin with a rich stock, a good soup has to begin with a flavorful broth. Oh my gosh - I'm starting to sound like Chef Parker! (Basically, broths are cooked with meat, and stock with bones.)We started off with a cream of broccoli. After "sweating" the broccoli and vegetables, and simmering them in the Veloute sauce we made last week, we put it through a food mill then strained it through a chinois (a very fine mesh strainer). This process left us with a beautiful base. We finished it off back on the stove with a little cream.

Next, we made a hearty vegetable beef soup. This was good practice, since all our vegetables had to be a 1/4 inch dice, which will be part of the final on Thursday. While that was simmering away, I started my consommé. This was a little tricky. You whisk up some egg whites and add some finely minced meat, carrots, onions, celery and tomato concasse. You cook this with your stock, an onion brulé, which is half an onion seared, cut-side down, in a sauté pan until it is carmalized a nice brown (a great trick to add flavor and color to any dish), as well as a sachet with some herbs and spices. As soon as this starts to boil, you leave it alone and turn it to simmer. As it simmers all the particles in your stock adhere to this egg white mixture and a "raft is formed”. Once it is formed you just simmer it for a bit to increase the flavor. Don't mess with the raft! Under this mess lies the beautifully clear consommé. When it was done, I carefully ladled it out and strained it through a coffee filter. All this and I had under 2 cups! It was wonderful. (Chef calls it Texas Tea.)

We had to garnish our soups and present them to Chef. He tasted and critiqued. It was fun to plate them and add our own personal touch. I blanched a couple of broccoli florets for my cream of broccoli soup and for my consommé I sprinkled it with a fine brunoise of carrots and celery that I cooked with my florets.
I got another nod.

Tomorrow: chowder and bisque.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 1- Beurre Blancs, Compound Butters adn Coulis

I think Chef Parker likes Fridays (and football). He was in a really good mood today, joking around with us, calling us names. I have to remember now that I'm back in school that name calling from boys is endearing. (Some things never change, though “culinary sea hag” really doesn't sound good.) There was talk of the upcoming Super Bowl and I, in my honesty, couldn't pretend to be excited. Hey, I'm not a football fan. So Chef dubbed me an un-American culinary sea hag. I can safely say he likes me.

We made up some compound butters, a red pepper coulis, and then practiced a Beurre Blanc and Beurre Rouge. I felt that today our class was really having a good time and starting to feel comfortable with each other. I think we might be bonding!

I'll be spending the weekend practicing for our first “practical” next week. Oh no, another test.

Goodnight.