I figured I'd put up a quick post on a recent discovery. Apparently all the "cool kids" leave the bulk of their cooking kit at school, and just carry around a knife roll with their main knives in it. I must admit, it would save a HELL of a lot of trouble. Because carrying a pepper mill and a ladle around NYC is very necessary. Its advised by the school that we don't leave any of our kit in the lockers, but hey, if it makes life easier. As things stand, I constantly get funny looks on the subway when I carry my kit, like "is he a terrorist?" or "I wonder if there's a gun in the bag." I've been asked once if it was a musical instrument or a specialty bag because it was so oddly shaped. As I simply said no, the three gay guys loudly discussed the prospect of it being a gun or a bomb. I could have told them, but I didn't want to take their fun away and I wasn't in the mood to strike up a conversation with them.
Anyhow, I'm now on the market for a new knife roll, a good pair of spring loaded needle nose pliers for fish bones, and a good (cheap) vegetable peeler (the kind that holds the peeler sideways so you pull down against the veggie, I may be unclear, but you all know what I'm talking about).
I'll let you know if and when I become one of the cool kids!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Poisson (not the skull and crossbones kind)
After royally screwing up the potato class, I found it to be in my best interest to ROCK the fish class. The word of the day was to be "Perfection." We rocked it. (My partner was in agreement, we needed to step up our game today)
We also had a quiz. I studied hard (he gives us the study material, pretty much exactly as it appears on the test), and I was very confident that I was going to let the word of the day prevail over the test. Rocked it. It was basically memorizing a few sizes of tourner (bouquetiere -3cm, cocotte - 5cm, vapeur - 6cm), remembering a couple of derivative sauces of mayonnaise and hollandaise sauces (I listed sauce verte and sauce aioli for mayo, and sauce bernaise and sauce choron for hollandaise), lets see, a few methods of cutting and cooking potatoes, and a few things about salads. Piece of cake, especially when he tells you beforehand.
Most of us will pick up a piece of chicken breast (or a piece of beef) and hack away, cutting it down to the lengths and shapes we want. You'll trim the fat, season and cook, without a thought. However, put a whole fish on your cutting board and you may be a little more hesitant. At first glance, it is indeed intimidating. An entire might-as-well-be-live animal for you to cut up, cook and eat.
Well after the filleting demo it was less intimidating. My stomach was feeling a lot better and I was focused (and determined to uphold the word of the day). Normally, you will have to scale and gut the fish. We were using bass and trout, both of which were gutted, only the bass was scaled. Apparently, we can eat the trout WITH the scales, since they are pretty tender. But thankfully he made us scale them. There were scales EVERYWHERE. I was picking scales off myself and the table for the rest of the night. But I'm glad we did it. We then had to cut off the fins (we cut up the bass entirely before touching the trout) and cut out the gills. It was weird touching the lungs of the fish. But I guess its no weirder than touching its ribs... and eyes, and head in general. We used our kitchen shears (not scissors, "scissors are for arts & crafts"), and some of those bass fins were pretty thick.
Behind the gills, there is a bony plate, you start your cut right beyond that to get as much meat as you can, and work your way up along the gills and toward the head. It results in a curved cut that outlines the gills. Then you make long, shallow cuts, trying to keep your blade flush against the backbone and the ribs. You can't do it in one cut, it takes a number of strides. Hopefully, when you're done, you'll have a meaty, not mangled ("it looks like your fillet was attacked by a beaver") fillet. You then trim off any fatty parts and pull out any bones.
I had 4 beautiful fillets. I was very proud of my cuts. I felt very confident, and I was upholding the word of the day.
The first method of cooking was very intricate, and required a lot of steps. Primarily, we had to cook a number of ingredients (veggies) in varying methods. We needed to make our fondue de tomates again (which we burned a few classes ago and wanted to perfect this time, and DID), we needed to julienne celery, carrots and leeks, and cook a l'etuvee, and then finely dice mushrooms and cook down until the moisture was gone.
After you had everything laid out, you took a heart shaped piece of parchment paper and spooned on some tomatoes and mushrooms, followed by the fillet, and topped with the celery, carrots and leeks. Splash some white wine, S&P, and a sprig of thyme, and then fold and seal the parchment paper with egg white. You bake that sack for 7-8 minutes and it poofs up nicely, cooking in its own steam, trapping the aromas for you to open in front of the customer.
It was beautiful, and passed the taste test. Perfect.
The trout was fried. We seasoned the fillet, and lightly floured the fish. We cooked it in clarified butter until barely golden, and nice and crispy, and topped it with a deeeelicious sauce.
We cooked a bunch of butter until it reached noisette stage (hazelnut - lightly browned), then threw in lemon supremes, parsley and capers, and at the last second, tossed some homemade croutons in this mixture and topped the fish. It was delicious! And, again, perfect. Could have maybe used a touch more lemon juice for the acidity, but it was, nonetheless, delicious.
So yeah, the fish was delicious, and we picked up our game. Real interesting right? I bet it is.
I went out for a couple of drinks with a couple of classmates after we were done. We discussed our new partners. At the end of class, Chef Tom said ok.. you, come here, you go there, you, here. He reorganized the class so that we mixed up our partners. It was a tricky move. We did, somewhat, settle into a groove with our partners, and I feel like we paired up with equal skill levels, and the better skilled people were together (I put myself in that category). All that was about to change.
As we discussed this over Bud Light's, I tried not to judge my new partner, as I have not worked with her. She comes off as a little lethargic at times (i.e. during chef demos she leans on the chefs station with her head on her hands, and she speaks very very quietly, not putting any oomph into her statements). Sure its a late class, and we probably all work during the day, but you should show some enthusiasm. One of my beermates mentioned that she looks high all the time. Another good description. My ex-partner was paired with one of the guys who I mentioned previously that I found to be immature, and the other beermate was paired with someone who was about to dump in about 30 grams of black peppercorns in his sauce tonight, rather than capers. That would have been interesting had I not helped him out. They were both worried about working with their new partners, which, I guess deep down, I am too, but they were a little more vocal about it. I'm sure their fears are definitely warranted, but I'm hoping that my new partner has a lot more to her than meets the eye.
We'll find out. Should be interesting. Flat fish on Saturday.
We also had a quiz. I studied hard (he gives us the study material, pretty much exactly as it appears on the test), and I was very confident that I was going to let the word of the day prevail over the test. Rocked it. It was basically memorizing a few sizes of tourner (bouquetiere -3cm, cocotte - 5cm, vapeur - 6cm), remembering a couple of derivative sauces of mayonnaise and hollandaise sauces (I listed sauce verte and sauce aioli for mayo, and sauce bernaise and sauce choron for hollandaise), lets see, a few methods of cutting and cooking potatoes, and a few things about salads. Piece of cake, especially when he tells you beforehand.
Most of us will pick up a piece of chicken breast (or a piece of beef) and hack away, cutting it down to the lengths and shapes we want. You'll trim the fat, season and cook, without a thought. However, put a whole fish on your cutting board and you may be a little more hesitant. At first glance, it is indeed intimidating. An entire might-as-well-be-live animal for you to cut up, cook and eat.
Well after the filleting demo it was less intimidating. My stomach was feeling a lot better and I was focused (and determined to uphold the word of the day). Normally, you will have to scale and gut the fish. We were using bass and trout, both of which were gutted, only the bass was scaled. Apparently, we can eat the trout WITH the scales, since they are pretty tender. But thankfully he made us scale them. There were scales EVERYWHERE. I was picking scales off myself and the table for the rest of the night. But I'm glad we did it. We then had to cut off the fins (we cut up the bass entirely before touching the trout) and cut out the gills. It was weird touching the lungs of the fish. But I guess its no weirder than touching its ribs... and eyes, and head in general. We used our kitchen shears (not scissors, "scissors are for arts & crafts"), and some of those bass fins were pretty thick.
Behind the gills, there is a bony plate, you start your cut right beyond that to get as much meat as you can, and work your way up along the gills and toward the head. It results in a curved cut that outlines the gills. Then you make long, shallow cuts, trying to keep your blade flush against the backbone and the ribs. You can't do it in one cut, it takes a number of strides. Hopefully, when you're done, you'll have a meaty, not mangled ("it looks like your fillet was attacked by a beaver") fillet. You then trim off any fatty parts and pull out any bones.
I had 4 beautiful fillets. I was very proud of my cuts. I felt very confident, and I was upholding the word of the day.
The first method of cooking was very intricate, and required a lot of steps. Primarily, we had to cook a number of ingredients (veggies) in varying methods. We needed to make our fondue de tomates again (which we burned a few classes ago and wanted to perfect this time, and DID), we needed to julienne celery, carrots and leeks, and cook a l'etuvee, and then finely dice mushrooms and cook down until the moisture was gone.
After you had everything laid out, you took a heart shaped piece of parchment paper and spooned on some tomatoes and mushrooms, followed by the fillet, and topped with the celery, carrots and leeks. Splash some white wine, S&P, and a sprig of thyme, and then fold and seal the parchment paper with egg white. You bake that sack for 7-8 minutes and it poofs up nicely, cooking in its own steam, trapping the aromas for you to open in front of the customer.
It was beautiful, and passed the taste test. Perfect.
The trout was fried. We seasoned the fillet, and lightly floured the fish. We cooked it in clarified butter until barely golden, and nice and crispy, and topped it with a deeeelicious sauce.
We cooked a bunch of butter until it reached noisette stage (hazelnut - lightly browned), then threw in lemon supremes, parsley and capers, and at the last second, tossed some homemade croutons in this mixture and topped the fish. It was delicious! And, again, perfect. Could have maybe used a touch more lemon juice for the acidity, but it was, nonetheless, delicious.
So yeah, the fish was delicious, and we picked up our game. Real interesting right? I bet it is.
I went out for a couple of drinks with a couple of classmates after we were done. We discussed our new partners. At the end of class, Chef Tom said ok.. you, come here, you go there, you, here. He reorganized the class so that we mixed up our partners. It was a tricky move. We did, somewhat, settle into a groove with our partners, and I feel like we paired up with equal skill levels, and the better skilled people were together (I put myself in that category). All that was about to change.
As we discussed this over Bud Light's, I tried not to judge my new partner, as I have not worked with her. She comes off as a little lethargic at times (i.e. during chef demos she leans on the chefs station with her head on her hands, and she speaks very very quietly, not putting any oomph into her statements). Sure its a late class, and we probably all work during the day, but you should show some enthusiasm. One of my beermates mentioned that she looks high all the time. Another good description. My ex-partner was paired with one of the guys who I mentioned previously that I found to be immature, and the other beermate was paired with someone who was about to dump in about 30 grams of black peppercorns in his sauce tonight, rather than capers. That would have been interesting had I not helped him out. They were both worried about working with their new partners, which, I guess deep down, I am too, but they were a little more vocal about it. I'm sure their fears are definitely warranted, but I'm hoping that my new partner has a lot more to her than meets the eye.
We'll find out. Should be interesting. Flat fish on Saturday.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Well let's see...
... there's Fried potatoes, baked potatoes, potato gumbo, barbequed potatoes, roasted potatoes, potato stew, potato soup, potato salad, mashed potatoes... that's.. that's about it.
Ok, so perhaps that was an unsuccessful twist on the Forrest Gump line by Bubba, but you get my point. You can pretty much do anything with a potato (even shoot them out of guns). We certainly did fry them (our first introduction to the deep fryer in class), and slice and dice them. We also used a mandoline for the first time, which proved quite the foe to some in the class (including my partner).
Before I continue, I am having some mixed feeling about Chef Tom. Yes, he is very skillful, and all of his demos come out pretty much perfect, but I think he secretly wants ours to come out not quite as good as his. We all do things at slightly different paces. But he constantly calls us up to the front of the class (mid-preparation/cooking) and makes us watch as he prepares a dish.. from slicing entire potatoes on a mandoline, to laying the slices out, to S&P (salt and pepper, as I write it in my recipes), etc. I agree its helpful to see the process, but certain things can be skipped. More importantly, he calls us up as we're cooking, and inevitably the food is going to burn. It happens to almost all of us. Meanwhile we watch him prepare something from start to finish, and he'll lay it out on a dish and say, "oh wow, did you taste my salad, or my potato, or my_______ (insert name of food he demonstrated). Isn't that good?" Starting to get a little bothersome.
Anyhow, another aside before I get into potatoes. About an hour into class, after we watched him fry a bunch of different cuts of potatoes, I was having some terrible pains in my stomach. I felt like I was welling up with gas, but I wasn't sure why, nor could I do anything about it. With that said, my mind wasn't quite focused on the task at hand. I was more concerned with the clock hitting 10:45 than my potatoes being perfect. Further when my partner sliced her finger on the mandoline, I had no choice but to try and fully focus. It was difficult, and I would love to do it all over.
On to frying potatoes. Its not that difficult, we've all done it, probably without really thinking about it, and most likely without a thermometer (though, if Alton Brown always uses one, maybe I should too). For recipes that call for a one time fry (opposed to frying twice or thrice) the oil should be at approximmately 350F-375F. This provides a crispy outside and helps prevent the potato from adbsorbing too much oil. We made waffle fries (more like chips) using the mandoline (a number of people, including my partner, had a hard time with this cut because they did not realize that you must rotate the potato a little before each pass on the mandoline. Not rocket science). We cooked these in the oil until no more bubbles formed, that is, the moisture has been cooked out of the potato leaving a crisp waffle chip. You can't do this for thicker cuts or else you'll be left with a rock hard piece of fried potato.
We then made a bowl. How cute! ehm... I mean... it was really pretty easy, and its nice to know that we can easily make a bowl out of potatoes. Easily if you have the right tools for shaping the bowl and being able to submerge in oil (we used these two metal "baskets" one for inside the other, so the potatoes were pushed in between. We cut two round parchment paper circles to put between the bowls and the potatoes to prevent sticking. But yeah, it was cute.. and easy). A little tip, when you want to fry potatoes and ou want them to stick together (a hash, these baskets), it may be best that you don't rinse them before you fry them. That is, you can store them in water as you are cutting them, to prevent discoloration, but do not rinse before fying. We don't want to lose the starchy goodness. Also, for frying we use starchy potatoes, such as good ole Idaho's, and Russet potatoes. HOWEVER, it is in yours and your skins, eyes, hands... best interest if you dry the potato before you place in the oil. Again, you probably don't need to be told this, but we were, and I'm passing it along to you. For a regular french fry, it may be best if you rinse off the extra starch, though its not necessary.
Next we made a gratin dauphine. Layers of sliced potatoes, with cheese and cream. It was pretty darn good!! Chef Tom said we used a little too much cheese, but I disagree. It wasn't overcheesy at all. It was, if anything, a little undercheesy. We baked this one in the oven for about 30 minutes, and it got nice and browned on top, a little crispy, as well. Oh yeah, Chef Tom also said the potatoes may have been a little on the undercooked side, which I totally disgree with as well. They were not undercooked, nor al dente. They were fully cooked and delicious. But I suppose he knows best.
What was pretty humorous was for dinner break, they had the audacity to serve us mashed potatoes!! The last thing we needed was more potatoes. But they didn't know, so I forgive them, I suppose.
That new guy, (Lee, whose name is Dongchen, who is a very nice guy) was working alone. He made all the recipes by himself. These recipes weren't difficult, but it took time to gather the ingredients, slice potatoes, fry them, keep an eye on them, prepare supplementary ingredients (like boiling milk), or boiling the potatoes (PLUS having Chef Tom call us up every 5 minutes). He did a good job, considering, however, he lagged behind a bit. But I don't blame him. I helped him clean up his station, but I'd like to work whit him again one day. He was pretty cool, and my partner has been lagging behind a little (though she was super helpful on this dreadful stomach aching potato day).
We made a couple more potato dishes, which I will mention briefly. We made another layered and baked dish (pommes Anna), a hashed potato looking thing (pommes something), pommes puree (mashed), and pommes duchesse (a puree mixed with an egg yolk and usually squeezed through a pastry bag into shapes).
I'd love to give you details but they're a little fuzzy to me, and quite honestly, its easy to mess these up, but if you pay some attention to what you're doing, its easier to get right.
We have a quiz at the beginning of next class. We received the low down at the end of this past class. So we should all do well. I intend on getting it perfect (again). It's idiotic not to memorize the 10 things he takes the time to explain to us for the quiz. I'll let you know how it goes, and if I can stomach it, I'll prepare some potatoes for my friends. Also, by the way, you may have noticed that the blog is no longer white text on a black background. I received a few complaints that it was harsh on the eyes. I am still trying to find the right color scheme that captures the aura of this blog. I am open to suggestions. Feel free to leave a comment with ideas, and with anything else you'd like to say or hear more about.
Ok, so perhaps that was an unsuccessful twist on the Forrest Gump line by Bubba, but you get my point. You can pretty much do anything with a potato (even shoot them out of guns). We certainly did fry them (our first introduction to the deep fryer in class), and slice and dice them. We also used a mandoline for the first time, which proved quite the foe to some in the class (including my partner).
Before I continue, I am having some mixed feeling about Chef Tom. Yes, he is very skillful, and all of his demos come out pretty much perfect, but I think he secretly wants ours to come out not quite as good as his. We all do things at slightly different paces. But he constantly calls us up to the front of the class (mid-preparation/cooking) and makes us watch as he prepares a dish.. from slicing entire potatoes on a mandoline, to laying the slices out, to S&P (salt and pepper, as I write it in my recipes), etc. I agree its helpful to see the process, but certain things can be skipped. More importantly, he calls us up as we're cooking, and inevitably the food is going to burn. It happens to almost all of us. Meanwhile we watch him prepare something from start to finish, and he'll lay it out on a dish and say, "oh wow, did you taste my salad, or my potato, or my_______ (insert name of food he demonstrated). Isn't that good?" Starting to get a little bothersome.
Anyhow, another aside before I get into potatoes. About an hour into class, after we watched him fry a bunch of different cuts of potatoes, I was having some terrible pains in my stomach. I felt like I was welling up with gas, but I wasn't sure why, nor could I do anything about it. With that said, my mind wasn't quite focused on the task at hand. I was more concerned with the clock hitting 10:45 than my potatoes being perfect. Further when my partner sliced her finger on the mandoline, I had no choice but to try and fully focus. It was difficult, and I would love to do it all over.
On to frying potatoes. Its not that difficult, we've all done it, probably without really thinking about it, and most likely without a thermometer (though, if Alton Brown always uses one, maybe I should too). For recipes that call for a one time fry (opposed to frying twice or thrice) the oil should be at approximmately 350F-375F. This provides a crispy outside and helps prevent the potato from adbsorbing too much oil. We made waffle fries (more like chips) using the mandoline (a number of people, including my partner, had a hard time with this cut because they did not realize that you must rotate the potato a little before each pass on the mandoline. Not rocket science). We cooked these in the oil until no more bubbles formed, that is, the moisture has been cooked out of the potato leaving a crisp waffle chip. You can't do this for thicker cuts or else you'll be left with a rock hard piece of fried potato.
We then made a bowl. How cute! ehm... I mean... it was really pretty easy, and its nice to know that we can easily make a bowl out of potatoes. Easily if you have the right tools for shaping the bowl and being able to submerge in oil (we used these two metal "baskets" one for inside the other, so the potatoes were pushed in between. We cut two round parchment paper circles to put between the bowls and the potatoes to prevent sticking. But yeah, it was cute.. and easy). A little tip, when you want to fry potatoes and ou want them to stick together (a hash, these baskets), it may be best that you don't rinse them before you fry them. That is, you can store them in water as you are cutting them, to prevent discoloration, but do not rinse before fying. We don't want to lose the starchy goodness. Also, for frying we use starchy potatoes, such as good ole Idaho's, and Russet potatoes. HOWEVER, it is in yours and your skins, eyes, hands... best interest if you dry the potato before you place in the oil. Again, you probably don't need to be told this, but we were, and I'm passing it along to you. For a regular french fry, it may be best if you rinse off the extra starch, though its not necessary.
Next we made a gratin dauphine. Layers of sliced potatoes, with cheese and cream. It was pretty darn good!! Chef Tom said we used a little too much cheese, but I disagree. It wasn't overcheesy at all. It was, if anything, a little undercheesy. We baked this one in the oven for about 30 minutes, and it got nice and browned on top, a little crispy, as well. Oh yeah, Chef Tom also said the potatoes may have been a little on the undercooked side, which I totally disgree with as well. They were not undercooked, nor al dente. They were fully cooked and delicious. But I suppose he knows best.
What was pretty humorous was for dinner break, they had the audacity to serve us mashed potatoes!! The last thing we needed was more potatoes. But they didn't know, so I forgive them, I suppose.
That new guy, (Lee, whose name is Dongchen, who is a very nice guy) was working alone. He made all the recipes by himself. These recipes weren't difficult, but it took time to gather the ingredients, slice potatoes, fry them, keep an eye on them, prepare supplementary ingredients (like boiling milk), or boiling the potatoes (PLUS having Chef Tom call us up every 5 minutes). He did a good job, considering, however, he lagged behind a bit. But I don't blame him. I helped him clean up his station, but I'd like to work whit him again one day. He was pretty cool, and my partner has been lagging behind a little (though she was super helpful on this dreadful stomach aching potato day).
We made a couple more potato dishes, which I will mention briefly. We made another layered and baked dish (pommes Anna), a hashed potato looking thing (pommes something), pommes puree (mashed), and pommes duchesse (a puree mixed with an egg yolk and usually squeezed through a pastry bag into shapes).
I'd love to give you details but they're a little fuzzy to me, and quite honestly, its easy to mess these up, but if you pay some attention to what you're doing, its easier to get right.
We have a quiz at the beginning of next class. We received the low down at the end of this past class. So we should all do well. I intend on getting it perfect (again). It's idiotic not to memorize the 10 things he takes the time to explain to us for the quiz. I'll let you know how it goes, and if I can stomach it, I'll prepare some potatoes for my friends. Also, by the way, you may have noticed that the blog is no longer white text on a black background. I received a few complaints that it was harsh on the eyes. I am still trying to find the right color scheme that captures the aura of this blog. I am open to suggestions. Feel free to leave a comment with ideas, and with anything else you'd like to say or hear more about.
Monday, September 10, 2007
I said WHAT TIIIIIME IS IT?
ITS FOOTBALL TIME!!! Oh, keep it in your pants you sports junkies. You wish this blog turned towards how badly the Jets lost, and how much promise the Giants may show. TOO BAD! I'm talking about tourner. Tour-who? Tourner (tor-nay), or "to turn." That is, cutting the vegetables into pretty little pieces shaped like none other than a football! (Get the football Benny!) How fitting that we learn this on the eve before the season openers.
So, how exactly do you turn a vegetable? Its really not too hard. But hard enough that it takes a lot of practice to do right. The French love to assign names to techniques and different sized cuts. For instance, we primarily turned vegetables in a 5 cm size (2"). This size was called cocotte. This is the usual size for many vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes. Artichokes can be turned as well, though not into a football shape, and when done, all that remains from a big ole artichoke is a small bowl shaped piece. Its pretty incredible that a pricey artichoke gets chopped down to a tiny 30-50 gram piece.
I would mention other sized cuts of tourner, but I don't remember them off hand. Anyhow, first you wash and peel the vegetable, then cut it down to the basic size you need. Holding the piece in one hand you take your paring knife and start making curved cuts, coming towards you. If you cut the turnip to a box shaped piece, you start by trimming the ridged corners.
Once you have a general shape you cut the vegetable, turning it a bit, and placing another cut directly next to, or overlapping your previous cut. The final piece should be a pretty little football shape, with, traditionally, 7 continuous sides (side by side, continuous from front to back, which means you made fluid cuts, not jerky, and no signs of stop and go cutting).
Sounds a little complex, but it really isn't too bad. Again, its hard to do right, and borderline nonsensical. Though, I must say, they really do look nice, and as we were told, it shows that the chef, or whomever prepared them, has learned the technique and put time and attention into the food being prepared. It is a good thing to learn.
ANYWAYS, all these good things I'm saying about this classic technique may be overshadowed by the fact that I probably tournered about 30 pieces of vegetables in 5 hours. I do believe this is quite a bit for a beginner. It was pretty soothing, but my hands were sore and red by the time class was over.
So we made a couple of dishes with our tourner. One was just a salad of cooked carrots, turnips, string beans, and peas on an artichoke bowl. Let me say, my partner was OFF HER GAME. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, vegetables should be cooked until tender. The butter glaze we were making for this particular recipe should be a blanc, not browned. Not only were her cooked veggies browned, they were by no means fully cooked. They were borderline raw. It was a little embarrassing. Further, she started to cooked the green beans a l'etuvee, rather than a l'anglaise. She ruined them, and there were no more to redo it. It was a shame to go to the Chef with our plate of uncooked vegetables, and missing an ingredient. I must say, however, that the artichoke that I turned, and the peas I prepared a l'anglaise were perfect. I would have done the string beans as well if she didn't already cook them improperly. I didn't want to say anything negative, because, well, I didn't know how to say "wake up, get with the program!" in a nice way. So I just stayed quiet.
We also had to tourner some potatoes and cook them by first boiling, next, sauteeing in oil, draining, coating in butter then baking. This was much more of a success. And they tasted really good. Really really good. I tournered pretty much all of the potatoes we used, and I think they looked great.
Also, our head chef, besides spending about a half hour helping my partner tourner (she had such a hard time getting it), he kept making these comments about classical music and this and that (my partner plays classical music). It was pretty annoying, but as she said it, any face time is good. Overall, Chef Tom is really nice, and for an ex-marine, he is less strict than one might imagine. He doesn't enforce the "YES Chef" "NO Chef" replies policy as one would expect. And he really knows his shit, which is great for us.
So, how exactly do you turn a vegetable? Its really not too hard. But hard enough that it takes a lot of practice to do right. The French love to assign names to techniques and different sized cuts. For instance, we primarily turned vegetables in a 5 cm size (2"). This size was called cocotte. This is the usual size for many vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes. Artichokes can be turned as well, though not into a football shape, and when done, all that remains from a big ole artichoke is a small bowl shaped piece. Its pretty incredible that a pricey artichoke gets chopped down to a tiny 30-50 gram piece.
I would mention other sized cuts of tourner, but I don't remember them off hand. Anyhow, first you wash and peel the vegetable, then cut it down to the basic size you need. Holding the piece in one hand you take your paring knife and start making curved cuts, coming towards you. If you cut the turnip to a box shaped piece, you start by trimming the ridged corners.
Once you have a general shape you cut the vegetable, turning it a bit, and placing another cut directly next to, or overlapping your previous cut. The final piece should be a pretty little football shape, with, traditionally, 7 continuous sides (side by side, continuous from front to back, which means you made fluid cuts, not jerky, and no signs of stop and go cutting).
Sounds a little complex, but it really isn't too bad. Again, its hard to do right, and borderline nonsensical. Though, I must say, they really do look nice, and as we were told, it shows that the chef, or whomever prepared them, has learned the technique and put time and attention into the food being prepared. It is a good thing to learn.
ANYWAYS, all these good things I'm saying about this classic technique may be overshadowed by the fact that I probably tournered about 30 pieces of vegetables in 5 hours. I do believe this is quite a bit for a beginner. It was pretty soothing, but my hands were sore and red by the time class was over.
So we made a couple of dishes with our tourner. One was just a salad of cooked carrots, turnips, string beans, and peas on an artichoke bowl. Let me say, my partner was OFF HER GAME. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, vegetables should be cooked until tender. The butter glaze we were making for this particular recipe should be a blanc, not browned. Not only were her cooked veggies browned, they were by no means fully cooked. They were borderline raw. It was a little embarrassing. Further, she started to cooked the green beans a l'etuvee, rather than a l'anglaise. She ruined them, and there were no more to redo it. It was a shame to go to the Chef with our plate of uncooked vegetables, and missing an ingredient. I must say, however, that the artichoke that I turned, and the peas I prepared a l'anglaise were perfect. I would have done the string beans as well if she didn't already cook them improperly. I didn't want to say anything negative, because, well, I didn't know how to say "wake up, get with the program!" in a nice way. So I just stayed quiet.
We also had to tourner some potatoes and cook them by first boiling, next, sauteeing in oil, draining, coating in butter then baking. This was much more of a success. And they tasted really good. Really really good. I tournered pretty much all of the potatoes we used, and I think they looked great.
Also, our head chef, besides spending about a half hour helping my partner tourner (she had such a hard time getting it), he kept making these comments about classical music and this and that (my partner plays classical music). It was pretty annoying, but as she said it, any face time is good. Overall, Chef Tom is really nice, and for an ex-marine, he is less strict than one might imagine. He doesn't enforce the "YES Chef" "NO Chef" replies policy as one would expect. And he really knows his shit, which is great for us.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
A whole class on salads?
Yes, an entire class on salads. And quite frankly it may be one of the more important ones we've had thus far (though emulsification was fun and proved quite interesting). If you think about it, depending on what type of cuisine you're having, the salad could be the very first, or very last thing you shove down your pie hole. It could make or ruin a meal. If the first thing you put in your mouth is a soggy piece of lettuce or a big chunk of raw carrot, it could leave a bad taste in your mouth.
To be honest, I sent an email to a few friends who asked me what I've been up to in class. Quite frankly I feel like I wrote what should have been the entry for this blog post, and I may have lost the words after writing it the first time. Hence I am pasting in the bulk of that email so you can get the same passion that went into writing it the first time, rather than a watered down repetition as I feel it may be if I were to write it a second time. Here goes:
The salad dressing is what brings it all together. The key is a temporary emulsification... That is, the oil and vinegar, not having a binding agent, like egg yolks, can only stay in suspension for a short period. the general ratio of dressing is 3:1 Oil to vinegar, plus salt, pepper, and any other herbs or seasoning and flavors (lemon juice, wines, etc..) you want to add. Beat them together with a whisk and they emulsify, though only temporarily, and will need a quick beating before using.
With that said, a salad is anything you want to put in it... the one that may have taken the most time was the salade nicoise. Originally, it was intended to be a rustic salad, everything tossed together and devoured, but in order to charge 15 bucks for it you need to use the finest ingredients and make them look pretty. I really should be writing this in my blog and sending you there... but you're special.. anyhow, this salad consists of boiled new potatoes, hard boiled eggs, anchovies, tuna, and some greens and tomatoes.
FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION!! When boiling almost anything, you should try to have like sized ingredients (match the sizes of your potatoes when boiling, a tiny one will turn to mush before a larger one gets soft, and usually boiled separately - turnips cook faster than carrots - as they will take different times despite their sizes), and you start in cold water. This allows the items being boiled to heat up at a constant temperature throughout the entire item - potato, egg, etc. Rather than throwing it in boiling water, flash cooking the outside, then overcooking it just to cook the inside. You catch me? And it doesn't take any longer than the time to boil the water. Also, reduce to a simmer after the boiling process has begun.. the water temperature pretty much remains the same.
The nicoise salad consisted of boiled eggs and potatoes, peeled, seeded tomatoes, peeled, julienned green pepper (yes peeled with a peeler, it was weird), green beans cooked a l'anglaise (boiled in really salty water then shocked in an ice bath, but contrary to my previous statement, the water should already be boiling...) In French cooking boiling/cooking veggies is usually to the point that it is tender. Al dente is too raw. But when cooking these veggies, you usually cook them separately.
(We made a different salad of cooked veggies - carrots, turnips, peas, string beans, all cut to the size of the peas, and we had to cook them individually a l'anglaise. It was a bitch, but that one was really good, we bound them together with mayo that we made and seasoned with salt and pepper.. really good)
So we cooked the peas and string beans, and broke up some romaine lettuce. Plated everything nicely [the potatoes were sliced and laid out in a ring, each slice overlapping the previous slice, with the lettuce piled on top], then topped with some anchovies and chunks of white canned tuna (in water). Dressing was drizzled on everything, though the lettuce was dressed separately by drizzling the sides of the bowl with dressing and gently tossing the salad against the sides. They should not be overdressed!!! or else they get soggy as you all know.
------ The email ended here. I'll continue with some more insight.
The first salad we made was the cooked vegetables bound together with a home made mayo. The veggies consisted of carrots, turnips, peas and string beans, all cut to macedoine size (.5 cm cubed, the string beans were not cubed, just cut to size, and the peas were... well, the size of peas) Each vegetable was cooked a l'anglaise individually because each vegetable takes a different amount of time to cook. But by cutting them to the same size, we could pretty much guarantee that within its own species, the vegetables will all be done when one cube is done.
What differentiated our cubed-vegetables-in-mayo salad from a normal something-in-mayo salad was that the veggies weren't drowning in mayo. The mayo was simply there to bind the veggies together, and for some flavoring. It did not overpower the sweetness and individuality of the vegetables, and having them in uniform sizes was pleasant to the tongue, and no vegetable stood out over the other. It was quite a nice blend.
The nicoise salad, as I mentioned in much detail, was pretty good too, though we avoided eating the anchovies. Close minded? Maybe, but we didn't need 'em. I can't recall anything too memorable besides the salads that we made, but there can't always be drama and me passing judgment on others... boring? Sure, whatever.
To be honest, I sent an email to a few friends who asked me what I've been up to in class. Quite frankly I feel like I wrote what should have been the entry for this blog post, and I may have lost the words after writing it the first time. Hence I am pasting in the bulk of that email so you can get the same passion that went into writing it the first time, rather than a watered down repetition as I feel it may be if I were to write it a second time. Here goes:
The salad dressing is what brings it all together. The key is a temporary emulsification... That is, the oil and vinegar, not having a binding agent, like egg yolks, can only stay in suspension for a short period. the general ratio of dressing is 3:1 Oil to vinegar, plus salt, pepper, and any other herbs or seasoning and flavors (lemon juice, wines, etc..) you want to add. Beat them together with a whisk and they emulsify, though only temporarily, and will need a quick beating before using.
With that said, a salad is anything you want to put in it... the one that may have taken the most time was the salade nicoise. Originally, it was intended to be a rustic salad, everything tossed together and devoured, but in order to charge 15 bucks for it you need to use the finest ingredients and make them look pretty. I really should be writing this in my blog and sending you there... but you're special.. anyhow, this salad consists of boiled new potatoes, hard boiled eggs, anchovies, tuna, and some greens and tomatoes.
FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION!! When boiling almost anything, you should try to have like sized ingredients (match the sizes of your potatoes when boiling, a tiny one will turn to mush before a larger one gets soft, and usually boiled separately - turnips cook faster than carrots - as they will take different times despite their sizes), and you start in cold water. This allows the items being boiled to heat up at a constant temperature throughout the entire item - potato, egg, etc. Rather than throwing it in boiling water, flash cooking the outside, then overcooking it just to cook the inside. You catch me? And it doesn't take any longer than the time to boil the water. Also, reduce to a simmer after the boiling process has begun.. the water temperature pretty much remains the same.
The nicoise salad consisted of boiled eggs and potatoes, peeled, seeded tomatoes, peeled, julienned green pepper (yes peeled with a peeler, it was weird), green beans cooked a l'anglaise (boiled in really salty water then shocked in an ice bath, but contrary to my previous statement, the water should already be boiling...) In French cooking boiling/cooking veggies is usually to the point that it is tender. Al dente is too raw. But when cooking these veggies, you usually cook them separately.
(We made a different salad of cooked veggies - carrots, turnips, peas, string beans, all cut to the size of the peas, and we had to cook them individually a l'anglaise. It was a bitch, but that one was really good, we bound them together with mayo that we made and seasoned with salt and pepper.. really good)
So we cooked the peas and string beans, and broke up some romaine lettuce. Plated everything nicely [the potatoes were sliced and laid out in a ring, each slice overlapping the previous slice, with the lettuce piled on top], then topped with some anchovies and chunks of white canned tuna (in water). Dressing was drizzled on everything, though the lettuce was dressed separately by drizzling the sides of the bowl with dressing and gently tossing the salad against the sides. They should not be overdressed!!! or else they get soggy as you all know.
------ The email ended here. I'll continue with some more insight.
The first salad we made was the cooked vegetables bound together with a home made mayo. The veggies consisted of carrots, turnips, peas and string beans, all cut to macedoine size (.5 cm cubed, the string beans were not cubed, just cut to size, and the peas were... well, the size of peas) Each vegetable was cooked a l'anglaise individually because each vegetable takes a different amount of time to cook. But by cutting them to the same size, we could pretty much guarantee that within its own species, the vegetables will all be done when one cube is done.
What differentiated our cubed-vegetables-in-mayo salad from a normal something-in-mayo salad was that the veggies weren't drowning in mayo. The mayo was simply there to bind the veggies together, and for some flavoring. It did not overpower the sweetness and individuality of the vegetables, and having them in uniform sizes was pleasant to the tongue, and no vegetable stood out over the other. It was quite a nice blend.
The nicoise salad, as I mentioned in much detail, was pretty good too, though we avoided eating the anchovies. Close minded? Maybe, but we didn't need 'em. I can't recall anything too memorable besides the salads that we made, but there can't always be drama and me passing judgment on others... boring? Sure, whatever.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
eMulsification
Most people have heard the term emulsify, and know exactly what it means. Other's will just smile and nod, having heard the term, kind of understanding it, and just move right along. That used to be me. An emulsification is the binding of two liquids that don't normally combine. The greatest example: oil and water. In this class, we emulsified. We made a few sauces using the standard emulsification process... whipping that bad boy up until your arm fell off.
The usual ingredient that is used to bind is egg yolk. Egg yolk, by some miracle power of chickens, has the ability to hold up to 200mL of oil in an emulsification. We made a few sauces, particularly Mayonnaise and an orange dessert with an orange saboyan (I believe the term saboyan refers to the step before emulsifying a sauce, that is, before slowly whipping in the oil).
The mayo was SO much better than Hellman's and miracle whip. (I wonder why they call it miracle whip? Should we be eating something that must have taken a miracle to create?) It was also extremely simple. It was 1 egg yolk, some salt, some white pepper, a touch of vinegar, and then veg. oil beat into it very slowly.
My team consisted of myself and a new guy from Korea. He started in the day classes and has changed over to the evening program. I can't remember his first name(s), but I do know his last name is Lee, and I am more than happy calling him Lee for the sake of this blog. He spoke in broken English, but I could tell he was a kind person, pretty stylish, and pretty interested in food. He was also very confident in his English, and considering he has not been in the US for too long, it was pretty damn good. He was a good partner, and fun to talk to. Lee had some significant culinary experience, particularly with Japanese and Korean cuisine, which is awesome because I'd like to extract some tips from him on those. Unfortunately Grace went partnerless and had a hell of a lot of whipping to do by herself. She did a good job though.
Anyhow, the mayo was delicious. So delicious I made it again the next night to make a MEAN chicken salad. It was quite flavorful. A delicious fresh mayo can make or break the sandwich, I have come to realize. (I'll keep that in mind for my restaurant). These are the things I came to learn.
The orange dish was memorable. We had to parer a vif the oranges (method of peeling citrus fruits), and then supreme it (cut out the slices from the membranes). What a world of difference it makes when the fruit is completely free of seeds, peel, pith and membranes. The flavor is basically the same, minus some bitterness, but the effort and carelessness that goes into eating it is great. The sauce, however, was key. It was a saboyan of 3 egg yolks, some sugar, some orange liqueur and a splash of grenadine all whipped together to form a foamy froth. Then we folded in (CAREFULLY) some almond flour and mint leaves in chiffonade. (A chiffonade is simply strips of leafy herbs, or lettuce, usually rolled up like a cigar and then sliced).
After laying out the orange supremes in a beautiful pinwheel design, you nap the slices with the saboyan, and then place it under a broiler until it lightly browns. WOW. It was delicious. The oranges did not quite get hot, so they were still refreshing, and the saboyan had great flavor. The almond flour was clutch, and browning it was so good. The mint also threw in a subtle taste, but added so much. Some people topped their dish with the mint chiffonade, though the recipe called for it to be incorporated in the saboyan. I think a combination of both would have been ideal, and a little whole mint leave as a garnish.
There wasn't any drama in the class, though the one guy who missed 3 classes missed a fourth, although he had an emergency and notified the Chef. Not my call to judge, I suppose, but I don't think missing 4 of the first 7 classes is a good thing.
Next class, we do some salads. I think we only do about 3 salads and 2 or 3 dressings... in the entire 5 hours!! So I hope they're good. I assume the prep, which would normally be done way before hand, takes the most time.
As always, I'll let you know how it goes.
OH, by the way, we had a quiz, not a pop quiz. We were WELL prepared in the previous class. And I got a 100. Sweet. I hope he prepares us the same way for the next one. Though I don't really know what a number grade says for a Chef applying to a restaurant. But I'm shooting 100% right now!
The usual ingredient that is used to bind is egg yolk. Egg yolk, by some miracle power of chickens, has the ability to hold up to 200mL of oil in an emulsification. We made a few sauces, particularly Mayonnaise and an orange dessert with an orange saboyan (I believe the term saboyan refers to the step before emulsifying a sauce, that is, before slowly whipping in the oil).
The mayo was SO much better than Hellman's and miracle whip. (I wonder why they call it miracle whip? Should we be eating something that must have taken a miracle to create?) It was also extremely simple. It was 1 egg yolk, some salt, some white pepper, a touch of vinegar, and then veg. oil beat into it very slowly.
My team consisted of myself and a new guy from Korea. He started in the day classes and has changed over to the evening program. I can't remember his first name(s), but I do know his last name is Lee, and I am more than happy calling him Lee for the sake of this blog. He spoke in broken English, but I could tell he was a kind person, pretty stylish, and pretty interested in food. He was also very confident in his English, and considering he has not been in the US for too long, it was pretty damn good. He was a good partner, and fun to talk to. Lee had some significant culinary experience, particularly with Japanese and Korean cuisine, which is awesome because I'd like to extract some tips from him on those. Unfortunately Grace went partnerless and had a hell of a lot of whipping to do by herself. She did a good job though.
Anyhow, the mayo was delicious. So delicious I made it again the next night to make a MEAN chicken salad. It was quite flavorful. A delicious fresh mayo can make or break the sandwich, I have come to realize. (I'll keep that in mind for my restaurant). These are the things I came to learn.
The orange dish was memorable. We had to parer a vif the oranges (method of peeling citrus fruits), and then supreme it (cut out the slices from the membranes). What a world of difference it makes when the fruit is completely free of seeds, peel, pith and membranes. The flavor is basically the same, minus some bitterness, but the effort and carelessness that goes into eating it is great. The sauce, however, was key. It was a saboyan of 3 egg yolks, some sugar, some orange liqueur and a splash of grenadine all whipped together to form a foamy froth. Then we folded in (CAREFULLY) some almond flour and mint leaves in chiffonade. (A chiffonade is simply strips of leafy herbs, or lettuce, usually rolled up like a cigar and then sliced).
After laying out the orange supremes in a beautiful pinwheel design, you nap the slices with the saboyan, and then place it under a broiler until it lightly browns. WOW. It was delicious. The oranges did not quite get hot, so they were still refreshing, and the saboyan had great flavor. The almond flour was clutch, and browning it was so good. The mint also threw in a subtle taste, but added so much. Some people topped their dish with the mint chiffonade, though the recipe called for it to be incorporated in the saboyan. I think a combination of both would have been ideal, and a little whole mint leave as a garnish.
There wasn't any drama in the class, though the one guy who missed 3 classes missed a fourth, although he had an emergency and notified the Chef. Not my call to judge, I suppose, but I don't think missing 4 of the first 7 classes is a good thing.
Next class, we do some salads. I think we only do about 3 salads and 2 or 3 dressings... in the entire 5 hours!! So I hope they're good. I assume the prep, which would normally be done way before hand, takes the most time.
As always, I'll let you know how it goes.
OH, by the way, we had a quiz, not a pop quiz. We were WELL prepared in the previous class. And I got a 100. Sweet. I hope he prepares us the same way for the next one. Though I don't really know what a number grade says for a Chef applying to a restaurant. But I'm shooting 100% right now!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Preserving goods
This was our Saturday class, and quite frankly I don't recall everything we did. I do know that we burned a couple of the dishes, and yet, we got away with one of them.
The general idea is that there are different methods and ingredients used to preserve foods. One method which was demo'ed for us was gravlax. Salting the a fillet of salmon for a few hours (I believe we did it for a few days), and then rubbing in your alcohol of choice and preserving.
Another was the confit. We salted duck legs for a couple of days (maybe too long, but since we didn't have class between Saturday and Tuesday, it had to do), then we cooked it submerged in its own fat. It cooked at a very low temperature for a few hours. We didn't taste it, but we will for the next class.
Most importantly, we prepared a couple of vegetables "a la greque." Its preserving the food with an acid, in this case lemon juice and a little vinegar, I believe. We burned the cauliflower pretty badly, but when it was time to taste it we took only the most perfect fleurettes (least burned, and cut off the burnt parts) and plated them for the Chef to taste. Sure enough, he LOVED it! Perfect texture, and the cauliflower was seasoned pretty well. The mushroom and zucchini were almost as good as the cauliflower, according to the Chef. I broke down in laughter when I returned to my desk...
Unfortunately, we burned the tomato fondue too badly to disguise. The fondue requires enough tomato to cover the pan, however, we did not compensate for lost mass when we removed the seeds and some of the liquid in the middle. Although the mixture DID taste delicious, it was not the proper dish. Fondue means melt. The tomatoes are literally supposed to melt to a near mush. Quite interesting. A low and slow cooking process. Ours was pretty darn low, but it still burned.
Also, apparently the guy who I counted out, with 3 absences, showed up. He was very sick, and had a pretty nasty cough that probably shouldn't have been in the kitchen. I was glad to see he stuck with it though.
The general idea is that there are different methods and ingredients used to preserve foods. One method which was demo'ed for us was gravlax. Salting the a fillet of salmon for a few hours (I believe we did it for a few days), and then rubbing in your alcohol of choice and preserving.
Another was the confit. We salted duck legs for a couple of days (maybe too long, but since we didn't have class between Saturday and Tuesday, it had to do), then we cooked it submerged in its own fat. It cooked at a very low temperature for a few hours. We didn't taste it, but we will for the next class.
Most importantly, we prepared a couple of vegetables "a la greque." Its preserving the food with an acid, in this case lemon juice and a little vinegar, I believe. We burned the cauliflower pretty badly, but when it was time to taste it we took only the most perfect fleurettes (least burned, and cut off the burnt parts) and plated them for the Chef to taste. Sure enough, he LOVED it! Perfect texture, and the cauliflower was seasoned pretty well. The mushroom and zucchini were almost as good as the cauliflower, according to the Chef. I broke down in laughter when I returned to my desk...
Unfortunately, we burned the tomato fondue too badly to disguise. The fondue requires enough tomato to cover the pan, however, we did not compensate for lost mass when we removed the seeds and some of the liquid in the middle. Although the mixture DID taste delicious, it was not the proper dish. Fondue means melt. The tomatoes are literally supposed to melt to a near mush. Quite interesting. A low and slow cooking process. Ours was pretty darn low, but it still burned.
Also, apparently the guy who I counted out, with 3 absences, showed up. He was very sick, and had a pretty nasty cough that probably shouldn't have been in the kitchen. I was glad to see he stuck with it though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)