Buffet!

I have been eating, drinking and sleeping this buffet for the past week and a half. In fact, I purchased 3 whole ducks from Chinatown for the buffet, as well as some other Asian products we needed (including white miso paste, and bonito flakes). I have a few issues about it that I will get into over the course of this post, but in general I am PSYCHED!

So let’s start with the basics. Level 4 started, and 1/3 of us (3 of us) are in the buffet group. The other 2/3 are split up evenly into “production” and “family meal”. Family meal is exactly what it sounds like. They make the food that all the staff and students eat for dinner. Production prepares all the beef, fish, stocks, etc. that the restaurant and classes need. It’s amazing to see what gets done in 5 hours.

Buffet, on the other hand, is in a world of its own. It’s the first time that we get to explore our creativity and abilities as aspiring chefs. We can choose any theme, or not even a theme if we don’t want one, but we choose the buffet menu. We came up with a tour de Asia theme. It wasn’t my first choice, but I’ll be the first person to delve into the unknown and leave my comfort zone to try something new. And, quite frankly, I may know a little more about some Chinese things than the people in my group, but collectively, for not being Asian, we have a wealth of knowledge in this or that.

Our menu (starting with the smaller items):
Filet mignon skewers
Chicken breast skewers
Vegetarian Vietnamese spring rolls
Pork (garlic and ginger) fried dumplings/wontons
Duck confit buns
Kimchee
Seared, rare fillet mignon slices with julienned cucumbers
Spicy Thai wings
Yellow fin tuna Tartar
A SLEW of dipping sauces for all of these things (ranging from spicy, salty, sweet and spicy, etc.)
Fried rice (kind of a cop out, but it’s our starch)
Duck breast sous vide
3 whole Peking ducks
A whole, stuffed suckling pig
3 various sorbets

I’d like to discuss the pig first. What we originally wanted was a traditional roasted sucking pig, similar to what you may see at a Chinese New Years feast. Nothing too fancy, just a whole roasted suckling pig… Somehow, the production Chef came in and said she had an idea for a suckling pig. And we were like, wow, we wanted to do a suckling pig. And we decided to let her roll with it. Her idea is truly brilliant, however far fetched it may be. First, you de-bone the body. Then she has this grand idea of mixing a very colorful pigment (they chose red beets and chlorophyll from a leafy green) with chopped pork and wrapping it in sheets of fat back, arranging them in a flower shape (picture the NBC logo, with two colors and making a complete circle) and stuffing it back into the pig, so when you slice it, you get skin, meat and the flower arrangement inside. It’s really a grand idea. What’s even grander is the method of preparing it. They want to cook it submerged in a circulation cooker overnight, in DUCK FAT, until its just cooked, then finish it in an oven to crisp the skin. Now, quite frankly, that sounds amazing. But I am curious as to how realistic it is. And will a pig submerged in duck fat get crispy and crackling like I imagine? We will find out. But it’s cool that they are doing it, and helping us out, and are as excited as we are about our buffet.

Next issue. I spent about 2 and a half hours pressing wontons together last night. That was great fun.

Moving right along, we have this wonderful plan for duck confit buns. The first day we had a case of ducks waiting for us to butcher. We also had a slew of vegetables to julienne for the spring rolls. Steve very nicely butchered the ducks, and saved the fat for the confit. We actually got a lot of fat from a case of ducks. It was pretty awesome. Chef then cured them in a delicious Indian spice mixture with salt. The next class we cooked them low and slow. The legs came out amazing.

Back to the first class. Within the first 30 minutes of level 4, we were on our way preparing for our buffet. We had to slice a number of veggies for the spring roll, starting with red pepper. One pepper in… SLICE. Carlos’s finger slips and he takes a cross section of his nail clean off!! I helped him clean up the wound (blood didn’t get all over), and we got a band-aid on and a protective finger rubber. Less than 5 minutes late, the rubber was SWELLING with blood. It was crazy!! Eventually it stopped bleeding, but still. Not a good way to start level 4.

Anyhow, by days 1 and 2, we finished a number of items, including the spring rolls, dumplings, prepared a basic kimchee, a bunch of dipping sauces. Prepared the bases for the sorbets, skewered the meats, prepared the duck for the duck confit buns, and a few other items.

Let’s move along to the whole Peking ducks… I purchased these ducks in Chinatown on Monday. 3 whole frozen Long Island ducks (which is pretty good, I’d expect the ducks to come from Guangdong province or something). So they were frozen solid when I got them, but I left them out, keeping a close eye on their temperature, throughout my day at work. By the time I got to class they were barely frozen, but still very cold.

What we did was first prepare a brine of 5 gallons of water, 3 lbs of salt (it was damn salty), 2 lbs of brown sugar, and a bunch of star anise and sticks of cinnamon. We brought that to a boil, cooled it down, and then poured it over the three ducks. I believe we are letting it sit in the brine for a few days, so the flavor penetrates the whole thing. Then on Thursday, we’re going to take them out, dry them up and hang dry them in the fridge until Saturday. Come Saturday, we’re going to baste and roast them for an hour or so until they are ready. I really think its going to be amazing!

Did I mention I pressed dumplings together for over 2 hours yesterday? Great fun!

The last thing I’d like to mention is that I am an avid fan of Chinatown pork buns, and I really wanted to tackle this challenge. We found a recipe for the dough, and we decided to use the duck confit legs for the filling (genius idea). We prepared a test run for the dough. It takes some time to rest and rise and so forth, but we didn’t pay attention to the part that said “Let sit overnight in the fridge.” That would explain why the dough tasted dense and yeasty. I took it upon myself to hold an experiment. I took the leftover dough home and cooked some that night and then prepared a few buns, put them in the fridge, and cooked them the next morning. Sure enough, the lightest and least yeasty buns were the ones I made in the morning. I think that means that I will be coming in Friday evening and preparing 60 or so buns for Saturday. It is what it is, and it will be great.

Sacrifices.