Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sure is a lot of pressure to get breakfast out for 40 people! Make three pots of coffee, get out the yogurt, dish it up, put our little boxes of cereal, put out three carafes, one with orange juice, one with milk, one with apple juice, put out disposable cups for hot and cold, ceramic coffee mugs, cereal bowls, napkins, silverware, cut up a BIG platter of fruit, slice three loaves of banana bread and make sure I keep checking the levels on the coffee and juice AND get my pate brisee rolled out and in the tart pan and in the freezer before lecture starts!! Oh, my! Good experience though. Everyone like the banana bread I made yesterday. Out of four and a half loaves, only one was left!

Our first lecture was on Laminated or layered doughs: puff pastry, danish dough and croissants. For all three doughs, you start with a "Detrempe"-mix your flour, salt, butter and water (or in the case of croissants-flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and milk.) and let it sit in the fridge. Then you take a Beurrage or butter block, and layer and roll the dough into a Paton or "package". Croissants and puff pastry are rolled differently but are very similar. I am happy to share the exact recipe if anyone is interested. Applications of puff pastry are: Napoleons, Mille Feuille (thousand leaves), Jalousie (think gourmet pop tart!), Pithivier (round version of a Jalousie), Fleuron (a crescent shaped puff that is used for garnish), Bouchee ("mouthful", a one bit round basket that you can fill with savory or sweet ingredients) and Vol-au-Vent ("fly in the wind"-same as the Bouchee but bigger).

Then we started both puff pastry and croissant doughs. We'll finish them tomorrow. They should turn out well!

Once we were done with that, we had another lecture, this time on Alsace-Lorraine, two regions (or departments as the French call them) in northwestern France. They border Germany and through the years have been under French rule and German rule but have always considered themselves to be French. Alsace-Lorraine is as far north as you can be and still grow grapes, although most of their grapes have a more German association than French association. There are mountains (which give them game for stews) and lots of rivers (fish stews). The people there raise pigs and geese as well as hops, grains, barley (think lots of beer!), plums, grapes and they also make lots of cheese. Quiche Lorraine originated here as well as Madeline's (the national French cookie).

After the Alsace-Lorraine, we had an Alsatian lunch! There was lots of beer! Lunch became very jolly, lol! We started with Flammekuchen, which is a type of pizza topped with cream, sauteed onions and bacon. Wow! This is definitely something that would make a great appetizer for a party! The main course was Choucroute Garni, which is several types of sausages served with boiled potatoes and cabbage. It made me think of Jordan, he loves sausages (and so does Kasha!). There was smoked beef tongue and duck confit. Dessert was a cheese platter and dessert wine.

I pre-baked my quiche dough for tomorrow's breakfast and also made a blueberry cream tart. As the new class needs a substantial breakfast tomorrow, they asked Chef Brian (who teaches some of the rec classes and often makes lunch during the wine portion of a new class) to make a more substantial breakfast, so some of the "heat" will be off of me tomorrow morning.

I came home from school and made some Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies. They were a hit already with Carl and his friends Rebeca and Richard! Nice!

Monday, August 30, 2010

First day in Pastry and we hit the ground running! The next class started today and Pastry is responsible for making breakfast not only for our class but for the new class (we have 14 in our class and they have 22 students in their class). The new class will spend their first month in Wine just like we did in June. Once we got coffee made (we are the first people there in the morning!) and started to set up the breakfast or "snack" table as Chef Lexie calls it, she gave out assignments for the next week. I have snacks! I am the only woman in my group again so the "boys" got to choose what they wanted to do. Shawn and Geoff are doing bread, Corey and Collin are doing dessert, and April has snacks. First thing I was told to make was blueberry muffins, tripling the recipe to feed all these people. Hurry, hurry! Corey cut up fruit for me, although tomorrow that will fall to me. Collin sliced cheese and meats to put out. Corey also soft boiled some eggs.

We had a lecture after that on Provence. Provence in southeastern France is known not only as the "Port of Olives" but also as the "Land of the Sun". Southern Provence is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea (lots of seafood here), the Rhone River to the east and the Alps and Italy The climate in Provence is dominated by two factors: the wind and the sun. The summers are hot and sunny, the winters are chilly with the "mistral" winds that begin in Massif Central and makes its way down the Rhone.

The Greeks brought olives to Provence 2500 years ago and established the harbor of Marseille (mar-say). Because of this, you see more olive oil here than butter used in cooking. 500 years later, the Romans came and took over this area. Provence was the first Roman province outside of Italy. With the Romans came vineyards and wine making. The Romans also developed irrigation systems for agriculture using water from the Rhone River. Provence is actually older than France itself!

The "holy trinity of Provence" is olives, tomatoes and garlic. Vegetables play an extremely important role in the cuisine here, zucchini, sweet peppers, greens, artichokes, fennel, eggplant, fava beans, asparagus, and haricot vert (green beans). Herbs grown here include lavender, thyme, rosemary, savory, chervil, mint, marjoram, oregano, saffron and basil. The further away from the Mediterranean coast and further north into this region, olive trees make way for nut trees, so nut oils are frequently used for cooking in northern or "Haute Provence". Fruits include berries, cherries, figs, lemons, apricots and melons. Livestock includes goats (with LOTS of goat cheese being made-Provence is world famous for their goat cheese), rabbit and lamb as well as some cows.

Boullabaisse is their most famous dish as well as ratatouille (just like the movie!). Provence is mostly known for their rose wines-70% of wine from this region is rose. Grapes grown here are mouvedre, grenache, cinsault and syrah. They also make Cassis wine (not to be confused with the liquor Creme de Cassis) and Pastis-the French national drink and aperitif (tastes like black licorice).

Then we learned how to fabricate a rack of lamb, which, by the way, is what we had for lunch today. Hot Plate did a good job! Pistachio Crusted rack of Lamb served with Ratatouille. GardeMo made Crespeau, which is egg pancakes layered with green olive tapenade, black olive tapenade, and goat cheese, served with a tomato/red pepper coulis. Yummy!

For dessert Colin and Corey made a Paris Brest, which if you remember is the round ring of Pate a Choux first made to celebrate the bicycle race between Paris and Brest (pronounced bress). They cut it in half then layered boozy cherries, Pastry cream and whipped cream in it then put the "lid" back on. They did a great job!

Then it was time to clean up and go home. I am doing breakfast (or snacks, depending on your point of view!) by myself tomorrow so it will be a busy morning. I made Pate Brisee for quiches on Wednesday and mixed a Royale (3 eggs to one cup of liquid, in my case I chose cream) using 9 eggs. I'll choose the filling for it tomorrow after I see what's in the walk-in. I also made four loaves of Banana Bread! That's for breakfast tomorrow. Busy, busy, busy!

Friday, August 27, 2010

First thing today was our exam. I know I missed at least two. We'll see what my grade is next week! Today is my last day in Hot Plate. That means I only have four weeks of school left! Next week I start in Pastry. Today is also "cooking without a net." The chefs give us a menu (something we have made in a previous class) and then give us 2-2 1/2 hours to make it.

We had a short lecture on Petit Fours from Chef Lexie. Petit Fours translates to "little oven". They are really any sweet little treat. They are usually 1 inch in diameter, one bite, cut, intensely flavored and intricately decorated. It is the sweet version of the Amuse Bouche.

There are four categories of Petit Fours:

1. Frais ("fresh"), which means higly perishable (the quality becomes easily compromised). This would be for example, a mini fruit tart.

2. Sec, ("dry"), which are dry, crisp little cookies. Shortbread, toiles, little biscotti. they are good for coffee service and to put with a serving of ice cream.

3. Glace ("glaced") which are the classic cute little cakes.

4. Deguise ("disguised"), these include things like chocolate dipped fruits (apricots or strawberries), baby biscotti dipped in chocolate or caramel.

For cooking without a net, Hot Plate had to make Chicken Roulade with Sauce Veloute and Butternut/Parsnip Puree. We had a little over two hours. We fabricated 12 chickens so we had enough chicken breasts to do the main course and enough to make chicken mousseline. We ended up doing ok (I was in charge of making the mousseline used for filling the flattened chicken breasts), but our sauce was a little thin because we started it too late. Our parsnips were roasted so ended up woody and could not be piped. The squash was good as was the chicken. The four chefs gave the entire class and the entire meal a 78. We were kind of disappointed (all of us) that we didn't do better. Oh, well, it was a good learning experience!

We got out of school early today. I'll be working on my project part of the weekend, going out to sushi with one of my friends from school and going to Cherry Creek Mall to look at Sur La Table (a cooking store) where we get a 10% student discount. Have a good weekend everyone!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Lectures today covered Piedmont and Emilia Romagna. (Piedmont is where I will be going for a week of class in October.) Piedmont has a continental climate with cool, humid weather. Turin is the capital city of Piedmont. Two of the other important cities in Piedmont are Alba-which is the white truffle capital of the world and Asti, where they produce Asti Spumante (Janell's favorite!). There are two major rivers in Piedmont, the Po and the Tamara Rivers. Therefore, fish is a part of their diet. One of the major dishes in Piedmont is Bagna Cauda, a garlicky anchovy dip for vegetables. Piedmont is also on of the most important rice growing regions of Italy. The quality of this rice was already appreciated in the 18th century when the American President Thomas Jefferson smuggled two bags out of Piedmont so he could plant it in his estate in Virginia. Most of the rice grown here is Arborio rice, which is used to make risotto. Meat and game are also important to this region as is cheese. Pasta is not so important in this region.

The biggest historical influence on Piedmont was the ancient ruling house of Savoy, who owned much of the land in the western portion of France as well as northern and southern Italy and whose seat of power started in France but thru marriage was moved to Turin in Piedmont. This accounts for the large French influence in this area. French cooking has improved the cuisine of this northern region of Italy. Here cooking is elegant and yet still tied to the land, thanks to the pride the locals have in their produce and products. As a result of the dichotomy, the local cooking is best described as cucina borghese (the cuisine of the bourgeoisie).

Emilia Romagna is in the middle of Italy and essentially separates northern and southern Italy. Lombardy lies to the north of Emilia Romagna with the Po River running between the two regions. The Adriatic Sea lies to the east, Liguria to the west and the Apennines Mountains to the south. The region embraces two different areas, Emilia, the western part and Romagna to the east. The cooking of these two subregions is different, yet many general characteristics are shared. It is always full-flavored cooking created by people, for people, who are deeply involved in what they eat. Emilia Romagna is essentially one big fertile plain and is considered Italy's "bread basket". This big fertile plain promotes agriculture, wheat being the main product, as well as pastures for cows and pigs. As you can imagine with all that wheat, pasta is a mainstay of this area. The local housewives are experts in making pasta. Shapes and stuffing's vary but the quality is always the best. The imaginative creativity in matching shapes with different sauces is unequaled. From the pork raised in this region comes prosciutto and many kinds of salami, coppa and pancetta. The city of Parma is here which produces outstanding Prosciutto di Parma and culatello. The city of Modena is famous for it's aceto balsamico (balsamic vinegar). Milk is a vital ingredient for the third most important product of this region-Parmesan cheese, grana padano and the more valuable Parmigiano-Reggeiano, a must for pasta sauces, baked pasta dishes and for some of the meat and vegetable dishes known as alla parmigiana. Romagna, thanks to its coastline, offers many fish dishes. From sole to eels there is a wide choice of fish and they are usually cooked more elaborately here than elsewhere. The most famous wine of Emila Romagna is Lambrusco although this is not a region famous for its wines.

The two major factors in the history of this region around the 6th century were the Romans, who brought irrigation, agricultural techniques and urban organization. The Romans also understood how to harvest salt from the sea water of the Adriatic. The Romans built the "Via Emilia", a 125 mile road, the first road to connect northern and southern Italy thereby promoting trade. Then came the Gauls, who warred with the Romans and split the area in two. One side was Emilia, the other Romagna. The Gauls brought pigs to this area.

Lunch today was very good. We had Bagna Cauda with Grissini (long breadsticks famous in Piedmont)and a variety of vegetables as well as Peperone Farcito (tuna stuffed roasted red peppers) made by the students in GardeMo. Hot Plate made Hazelnut Stuffed Quail with Barbera Fig Sauce and Polenta (sorry Jordan, no green vegetables on this plate!). We had an ice cream buffet for dessert (the ice cream from yesterday). There was Lavender-Cassis ice cream, Chocolate-Espresso ice cream, Chipotle Chocolate ice cream, Raspberry-Chocolate ice cream, Orange-Chocolate ice cream, Mango Coconut ice cream and Tropical Mango ice cream. Looking at this list, I'm thinking chocolate is a popular flavor in this class! There was also a raspberry coulis sauce as well as a chocolate sauce and Swiss meringue for anyone who wanted it. We also had the nougat and brownies left over from yesterday as a side. Yummy! We had a "chef for a day" potential student who asked if we ate like this every day. We said yes!

We have another test tomorrow (I got a 93 on last week's exam) so I better get studying! Tomorrow is also cooking without a net. Hot Plate has to make Chicken Roulade stuffed with chicken mousseline, Sauce Veloute as well as a squash/parsnip puree we had back in week 10. Originally we were suppose to make Sauteed Chicken with Sauce Robert, but they felt this was too easy for us!?! We'll see how we do.

Carl hired a new chef to replace Eric, who is still in school at The Art Institute. His name is Carlos. He has two semesters left of school but was unable to get funding for this semester and so was looking for work. I will still be doing the baking, but he will do the majority of breakfast prep. Seems like a nice guy!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Chef Pete talked about the Lombardy region of Italy today. It is localed in Northern Italy nestled between Piedmont and the Veneto. Emilia-Romagna lies to the south of Lombardy. It's major city is Milan. It has mountains to the north where you will find typical game like hare, venison and birds. Mountain pastures are littered with grazing dairy cows and sheep. On the hills of Lombardy, you will find fruit and nut trees, mushrooms, and herbs such as rosemary, laurel and sage (hearty herbs). Lombardy also has plains that were formed from alluvial deposits from the mountains. The Po River runs thru here and when it floods, corn, wheat and rice fields were formed. Milan is considered the veal capital of the world. Because of the many lakes and rivers, fish is plentiful-pike, trout, perch and carp.

Specialties of Lombardy include Bresaola (dried beef tenderloin), risotto, Pizzoccheri (buckwheat pasta with Savoy cabbage and potatoes), Cassoeula (pork and cabbage stew), Osso Bucco (a dish made with veal shank) Grana Padano (a cheese much like Parmesan), Gorgonzola, Mascarpone, Taleggio, Mostarda di Cremona (preserved candied fruits in syrup flavored with mustard), Torrone (nougat), and Pannetone.

They are not well known for their wines as the landscape and weather does not allow for great tasting grapes, but you will find Lambrusco and Francia Corta (a sparkling wine).

After that, Chef Lexie lectured us on frozen desserts. Most frozen desserts are made from some combination of cream, eggs, milk or sugar or simple syrup. Creme Anglaise (ice cream, really) and frozen custard are made with cream and egg yolks, Gelato is made from milk and egg yolks and simple syrup is what is used to make sorbets and granitas. If you add Swiss or Italian meringue to sorbet, you get a "Spoom". I've never heard of that! Sherbet is a sorbet with a little bit of dairy added, either a powdered milk or regular milk.

You can make your own proportions for these ingredients to get the texture and creaminess you want. It really takes three days to make good ice cream. On day 1 you make your base and allow it to "ripen" overnight in the fridge. On day 2, you churn your cream in an ice cream maker. It needs what is call "over run", which is the amount of air churned into the ice cream. You need some, but not a lot. Cheap ice cream has more air in it than more expensive ice cream and you can taste the difference. You ice cream will always come out soft from the ice cream maker, so put it in the smallest container you can and store it in the freezer for 24 hours to harden. On day 3 you eat it!

We broke down into teams of two and each made Creme Anglaise and then decided what our own flavor profile would be. We started out by scalding 2 cups of cream. While that was heating, we whisked 4 egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar. Once the cream had scalded, we tempered the eggs with some of the cream to bring the temperature of the two closer together, then put the mixture back on the burner to cook (so the eggs were sterilized). Kim and I decided to do Lavender and Creme de Cassis for our flavor profile. I'll have to let you know tomorrow how it turned out. We are going to have an ice cream buffet for dessert tomorrow to try all these ice creams!! Experimentation can be such a trial!

For lunch, Gardemo made Zucchini soup topped with a ravioli that had a walnut pesto, ricotta cheese and an egg yolk in it. It was surprisingly good! Hot Plate made Friccassee de Veau (French veal stew). I know it's Italian week and we were suppose to make Osso Bucco, but apparently our order got confused and we did not get our veal shanks. One adapts, lol. Dessert was a chocolate sauce with bourbon in a shot glass that you drank! Very rich. There was also a nougat on one side of the glass and three 1 inch x 1 inch little brownies on the other side. The brownies were excellent!

After class we met with Becklien and finalized our flight to Rome, so at least that is taken care of. Two days in Rome, two days in Florence, then on to Milan and Piedmont for our cooking class.

I made Easy Cinnamon Buns tonight. Take an entire package of Phyllo dough (you can buy this at the store in the freezer section) and let it thaw. Unfold the sheets so that the lines run left to right, using a little water to repair any dough that may have torn when you unfolded it. Brush the dough with 1 Tbsp of melted butter for each sheet, then sprinkle each sheet with half a mixture of 2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar mixed with 3 tsp cinnamon. You can then sprinkle it with raisins and/or nuts if you desire. Roll up starting with the end facing you and slice each sheet into six pieces. Put these pieces in a greased muffin tin (you will end up with twelve buns) and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. You can drizzle them with a powdered sugar frosting if you want once they cool. Easy!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We spent most of the day together at school rather than in our separate kitchens. Chef Dale Demoed veal hind quarter fabrication (dividing the hind quarter into usable parts). I mentioned primal cuts yesterday, well today we learned about sub-primal cuts. The hind quarters can be divided into nine cuts: lower shank, flaps, tenderloin, top sirloin, knuckle, top round, bottom round, eye of round, upper shank. The lower shank and flaps and fat are considered "trim" and used for stock in the case of the first two but the fat is rendered with a bouquet garni and kept for cooking. Once Chef Dale had taken the hind quarter apart, he divided us into groups of two and gave each one of us a muscle. We each weighed our muscle before we trimmed it, then again after we trimmed it. We also weighed the trimmed material (fat, "silver skin", tendons if present). The exercise was to see how accurately we could weigh and to see how much of the veal would be left "saleable" (the amount you can actually sell and charge for). We started out with 57 pounds of veal at $5.75 per pound. We measured 11 pounds of bone, 6 pounds of fat (only the fat that was initially removed during fabrication) and 51 pounds of muscles. That adds up to more than 57 pounds, so obviously we did something wrong. The point of the exercise, however, was to show us what we get for our money and that we can save money by doing the butchering ourselves. Although there will be times when buying cuts of meat already cleaned and ready to go will be more cost effective for us.

We also talked about our final project (I already talked about that the other day) and Chef Dale showed us some previous projects so we could see what to do and what not to do. It is definitely a lot of work!

The only thing we had to do for lunch was make our own veal scallopini (which is actually a cut of meat and NOT a specific dish). Veal scallopini is very thinly sliced meat. We dredged the scallopini in seasoned flour, then dipped them in an egg/Parmesan cheese mixture, then sauteed them in blended oil until lightly brown and just cooked. Chef Pete made Panzanella (a Tuscan bread salad) and gnocchi for us and Chef Lexie made Arborio Rice Pudding seasoned with quatre epice. A very good lunch, if I do say so myself! Our wine was a Valpolicella from Italy.

We got an email from Jackie, our Alumni Director, about a four month culinary internship in St Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands working at a resort. Their executive chef is a Cook Street Grad so is looking for other Cook Street grads! Nice! I am thinking about taking it. It would cover their busy time, which is essentially winter for us. A hardship, I know, but somebody needs to do it!

I've had to rewrite my resume, as it is all about nursing. Now I need to be sure that potential employers, etc, realize this is a career change for me (when they look and see I have no real culinary background) but that I can bring many skills and talents from my nursing career to my new culinary career (management, purchasing, organizational skills).

All that said, it is time for laundry! No baking tonight-we still have things left over. Carl is completely full from now until after September 1. He is very happy about that. He is planning a Restoration Party in September and is going to let Cook Street students cater the party. We are all excited about it! Will let you know more later....

Monday, August 23, 2010

I had a wonderful weekend with my friend Vicki. She did however, tell me she has only read this blog once and it was too much information. I have heard from a couple of you telling me you enjoy the blog, so I am not sure what to think! Believe it or not, I do leave some of the things we learn out of the blog, otherwise it would be even longer! It has been a good study guide for me, and hopefully some of you have learned some new information along the way.

I started my final project for school yesterday after Vicki left. We have to choose a business (catering, personal chef, restaurant or bed and breakfast), come up with a business plan, a menu with recipes, then cost them all out. We also have to come up with a list of kitchen supplies/equipment we would need. It is due a week before graduation. We also had to choose a region in France or Italy to pattern our business menu around. My region is Tuscany (now a huge surprise to the people who know me!).

Today in lecture we started learning a little about food costing and the need to find the "yield" or the usable and saleable portion of purchased food. We should get more information on that tomorrow as we will need it for our project and right now, none of us can quite figure out exactly what we need to know!

Then Chef Dale talked about cuts of meat. 90% of the protein we consume is four legged (although he included chickens in that and as far as I know, chickens and turkeys only have two legs!). The different cuts that come from steer, lamb, veal and pigs are called primal cuts. The four primal cuts for beef are beef round, beef loin, beef rib and beef chuck. It seems that the industry is always looking for ways to market or sell meat and so they have come up with many different cuts of meat (some of which are the same meat, just different names) to sell us poor consumers. The other interesting bit of information I learned today was about veal. Veal is a by-product of the dairy field! Farmers want cows that can either provide milk or birth babies, so they keep the female cows but send the male cows off to be sold for veal.

Chef Dale also talked about grading beef. The three top grades of beef are Prime, Choice and Select. In order to be granted Prime cut status, you have to pay to have your beef graded. The grading is based on the amount of marbling in the meat between the 12th and 13th ribs. Prime accounts for 8-10% of beef sold and it is usually bought by hotels or restaurants as a special order item. Choice makes up about 20% of the beef sold and is what you find most commonly in restaurants and can sometimes be found at Costco or Sam's Club. Select cuts also make up 20% of beef sold and is what you find in grocery stores. The other 50% of beef sold is standard or utility. You see these cuts at buffets (i.e. prime rib buffets) and conventions where people do not want to pay high prices for meat.

Red meat is aged (beef and lamb). White meat is not aged (pork and veal). There are two types of aging: dry aging and wet aging. In dry aging, the meat is hung up in a humid and heat controlled environment for a period of time. Dry aged meat has what some people consider a "sour" taste, so if you do not know what you are eating, this meat is sometimes thought to be "bad". Wet aging is meat that is in a cryovac package with blood and fluid. It is generally sold by the box and should be protected from light. Wet aging is the most common.

We will start to cover specific regions of France and Italy, about one per day until the end of the school term. Today we talked about the Veneto, which is a region in northeast Italy. The Veneto is bordered by Switzerland to the north, Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea to the east, Emilia Romagna to the south and Lombardy to the west. The Veneto is a fertile plain between two rivers, the Po River and the Tagliamento River. This plain extends all the way to the Adriatic Sea to the east, so not only is a large amount of fish and seafood seen in their cuisine but the plains allow a great amount of produce to be grown. Arborio rice is grown along the Po River. Venice is the capital city of the Veneto. At one time Venice was the home of Marco Polo and Venice soon gained control of the spice trade. The use of many spices is still seen in the cuisine of this area today, which makes it quite different than say, food from Sicily. Wines from the Veneto include Soave, Prosecco, Valpolicella and Amarone. The cuisine of this area ranges from peasant type stews of game and beans to more refined dishes of Tiramisu, Risotto, and Carpaccio.

Lunch today was a first course of Fresh Pasta with Braised garlic and Balsamico. Our entree was Veal Scaloppini with Braised Radicchio and Gorgonzola Potato Cakes. I was in charge of the radicchio. I quartered the radicchio, cored it, then put the quarters into a hotel pan. I put lemon juice on them, salt and pepper, then a layer of brodo so we could steam or braise them in the oven. Once they were done, the liquid was drained and Grana cheese grated on top of the quarters. The radicchio was finished under the broiler. The radicchio has a somewhat bitter taste, but all the above food paired together makes a wonderful pairing. Dessert was a "Puzzle Cake" on of the students made as a special project. It is a six layer cake that alternates between vanilla and chocolate cake, then has sections cut out of it, frosted and reinserted so that the inside of the cake looks like Teutonic plates in the earth. Very cool looking! And tasty!

Then it was time to clean up and go home. I made some cookies tonight as well as the Baklava muffins (Carl's request). I am determined to get this high altitude baking down! Either things do not rise (or rise well) or they spread out too much. I'm working on it!

Friday, August 20, 2010

We had our weekly exam this morning. I think I did better this week, although I thought that LAST week too! They reintroduced product ID-would you believe I missed vanilla extract?!? Ah, well....

Today's lecture was on caviar. The definition of caviar is salted, unfertilized eggs of the Caspian Sea Sturgeon. Did you know that America was once the largest producer of sturgeon caviar until the early 1900s? At least until sturgeon started dying out.

There are three types of Caspian Sea Cavair: 1. Beluga, which comes from sturgeon that can grow up to 2500 pounds and costs $140-300 an ounce. 2. Osetra sturgeon which gets to be 7 feet long and 350 pounds and cost $120-200 an ounce. 3. Sevroga, which is more common and costs $100 an ounce.

They used to harvest roe by killing the fish, then harvesting the roe. Modern harvest consists of gathering in two forms: "C-section"-the fish is anesthetized, the roe is harvasted thru an incision, sewn up and the fish released. The second method consists of catching the fish then "milking" the roe our of the fish then returning the fish to the water.

American caviar comes from Paddlefish, Hackleback, lumpfish, salmon roe and Tobiko. There are many ways to serve caviar-by itself, with blinis (tiny buckwheat pancakes), butter, shallots, mimosa (minced eggs). Caviar does not keep, so eat it up after it's opened!

Lunch was a buffet today. We had Shallots, more oysters, two types of caviar, haricot vert, fried yellow tomatoes, smoked trout stuffed with salad and shredded beets, a lovely composed salad of greens, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives with a vinaigrette and Pot de Creme. Our wine today was a Rose Champagne.

After I left school, I went to the airport to pick up my friend Vicki. She is here for the weekend. Yeah!!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

If you are queasy, you might want to skip the first part of today's notes......

We spent the morning "dispatching" (what a deceptive word!) cull lobsters (remember, less than perfect). That means we took our live lobsters, put then on a cutting board, (petted them to keep them from moving), the stuck a knife tip between their tail and body, then brought the knife down to cut their bodies in half. This is a quick and humane death for your lobster, rather than boiling them in a pot. I liked the fact that Chef Dale said we did not need to do this if we felt uncomfortable and were NOT to do it if we felt we could not go thru with the "dispatching". Once that was done, we pulled the tails off, then finished cutting the body in half and took off the claws and small legs.

Once we finished with the little lobsters, we learned how to shuck oysters. Every oysters has a different look depending on where they came from. The oysters we had today were from Maine. The bottom shell was rounded but the top shell was softer and flat. You use a special oyster knife to open the shell at the joint at the back of the shell, then twist the knife perpendicular to the shell to break the seal on it. You then run the knife flat along the middle of the shells to the other end of the oyster. Discard the top shell (unless you are doing a beach/shell theme project) and leave the oyster in the bottom shell along with its juice. Oysters can be eaten raw or cooked in some way. GardeMo made Oysters Rockefeller for lunch today. Oysters Rockefeller were first served at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The oyster is removed and a small bed of cooked spinach, garlic, onions, parsley, cream, Pernod and vermouth is placed in each shell. The oyster is then placed on top of the spinach mix, given a dab of Mornay sauce and cheese and placed under the broiler to cook. They were pretty good!

As for Hot Plate, we took the lobster shells and added them to mirepoix that had been etuveed, then flambe them with brandy. Once the flame was out, white wine was added and the alcohol cooked out. Tomato paste was added, (you could use tomatoes that have been concasse)and fumet(fish stock) then heated to boiling. The claws were poached in this and then the tails of the lobster. While the fumet mix was simmering, we took the meat out of the tails, saving the fantail for garnishing and the meat out of the claws. Chef Dale seemed excited that this took little time. He said the last class barely finished. We set the meat in a hotel pan and set it aside to reheat later. The lobster meat was not fully poached so that we could reheat it without overdoing the lobster. Then we took the lobster shells out of the sauce (as much as you can anyway) and put the sauce thru a Robot Coupe. The sauce was then put back on the stove top so we could reduce it by at least a quarter. Then we strained it thru a chinoux and put it back in a clean pot on top of the stove. Roux was then added as well as paprika and cayenne and the sauce was left to thicken. Right before serving, we added reduced cream to the sauce and left it to continue to be warm. I made the basmati rice for this dish, called Lobster Americaine (although originally it was called Lobster Amorecaine-lobster love!), by starting to etuvee the minced onions on the stove, toasting the basmati rice with the onions, adding chicken stock, then baking the rice in the oven until it was done. It turned out well. This was probably the best lobster I have ever had-several other people thought the same!

Dessert was Lime Frozen Yogurt with Cold Watermelon Soup. The frozen yogurt was divine and the cold soup was just like eating really good watermelon. I was SO impressed! The frozen yogurt was in the shape of a pyramid, turned out onto a bowl, then the watermelon soup was poured around it from a coffee urn. YUMMO!

We got last week's test back. I only got an 89-not as good as I have been doing. More studying it in order, I think.......

That being said, I think I will go study

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Today's lecture was all about shellfish. There are three categories of shellfish: Crustaceans, Mollusks and Cephalapods.

Crustaceans are animals with bony outer jointed shells, such as crab, lobster and shrimp. When you buy crab or lobster raw, it should still be alive. There are Alaskan King crab, Dungeoness crab, Soft-shelled crab and spider crabs. Crab is most often boiled or grilled. You can tell when most shellfish is cooked because the meat changes color.

Lobster is considered the "king of shellfish". There was a time when lobster was considered the poor man's dinner because it was so plentiful. There are two species of lobster: 1. American/Northern lobster (these have large claws, are black and orange with sweet tasting meat) and 2. European lobster (these are bluish in color and less sweet). Lobsters that are 1 1/4 pounds or less are called "chicks". "Culls" are "less than perfect" lobsters (meaning they may be missing one claw or have a deformity of some sort) but still taste good. When presentation does not matter and you are only interested in the meat, culls are a cheaper choice than perfect lobsters. Lobsters have a liver which is called the Tomalley. It is not meant to be eaten. Lobster also has Coral(e) which is roe or fish eggs but different from other fish roe, therefore highly prized. Lobsters are generally poached, steamed or grilled, but never boiled, which results in tough meat.

Shrimp are the most popular shellfish. However, a shrimp is a shrimp is a shrimp. The only difference between a shrimp, a prawn, scampi or langoustine is size and where you are when you buy them. Prawns are large shrimp. Scampi is Italian for langoustine, it does not reflect how it is cooked. Langoustine looks like lobster but is actually a VERY large shrimp. There are several important things to know about shrimp: 1. They need to be deveined (although you are not actually taking out a vein, but the shrimps intestinal tract which runs along the back of the shrimp).
2. If shrimp are going into a sauce, you need to remove the entire shell as well as the tail. 3. Shrimp cocktail needs a handle, so leave on the tail when you remove the shrimp shell so you have something to hold on to. There are many different ways to cook shrimp.

Mollusks are soft bodied invertebrates inside a hard shell. There are univalve mollusks (abalone and conch) and bivalve mollusks (oysters, clams, mussels and scallops). When you buy mollusks, they come with a tag that tells you when it was taken from the water and where it came from. Restaurants must keep these tags at least 90 days in case there are problems with customers becoming ill from shellfish. Abalone and conch can be cooked either hot and fast or low and slow (stewing or braising). They are usually tough as there is only one muscle doing all the work.

Oysters are the most prized and can be fried, served on the half shell raw, stuffed, oysters Rockefeller, stews. Oysters can be found in many places-East coast, West coast and the Gulf. The difference in all these oysters is their terroir or environment in which they grow (sounds like grapes!).

Many of our mussels come from Prince Edward Island and are American farm raised. During the winter months, when the water is cold, shellfish are sweeter tasting than in the warm months. Mussels can be steamed, grilled, roast, just don't over cook them or they get tough and rubbery.

There are several types of clams: soft shell clams, which have a protruding neck; hard shelled clams which include littlenecks (up to 2 inches wide), cherrystones (2-3 inches wide) and chowder clams which weight 5-6 oz each (big ones!). Clams can be served raw, steamed, smoked but are best eaten from September thru April.

Scallops: there are two kinds-Bay scallops (small, from the Northwest) and Sea scallops, which are large. They can be sauteed or grilled.

Cephalapods are technically a mollusk that has a reduced internal shell. These include squid, octopus and cuttlefish. Squid is sweeter than octopus. Squid ink is also sold in small or large quantities and is used as a natural food coloring. This is what they use to make black pasta. Cooking method is either hot and fast or low and slow.

My friend, Kim, came for lunch today. Hot Plate made an Amuse Bouche. We made tomato pedals then placed a poached mussel on top of that that had been seasoned then mixed with pesto. We served it on a salad fork that sat on a plate. Very nice! One bite! GardeMo made crab cakes with Romesco Sauce. They did a GREAT job. You could taste the crab as well as the other things used to flavor the crab cake. In Hot Plate, I got to clean and fillet a grouper-it was a HUGE fish! Then I sectioned the fillets out to individual portions of about 6-7 ounces. We peeled potatoes, then shredded them on a special machine. We then wrapped the fish in the shredded potatoes (they were shredded but in long strands like spaghetti), then browned in clarified butter and placed in the oven to finish baking. We served the fish over a bed of sauteed spinach and green olives. Cris made a Rouille Hollandaise Sauce derivative to serve over the fish. It turned out well. Dessert was a frozen lemon souffle with a lemon curd center. Very light and refreshing after our large meal.

I came home from school and baked Lemon Bread and a Cinnamon-Walnut Coffeecake for the B&B. I will be baking for a wedding shower that will be held at the B&B on Sunday afternoon. My friend, Vicki, is coming to spend the weekend with me. Maybe she'll help!

Tomorrow we "dispatch" lobsters. We'll see what happens....

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Today we took a little detour before starting another lecture on seafood. Chef Lexie lectured on Souffles and Custards.

Souffles have two parts: an In-active base (which adds the flavor) and the Active Lightener (which is always whipped egg whites). Chef Lexie described souffles as "a sauce that holds its breath", a somewhat apt way to put it! When you keep in mind that souffles are MEANT to deflate once they come out of the oven, it makes them less scary. Souffles are also usually served with a sauce of some type, which helps to mask the falling of the souffle. You make your base (melt some chocolate, maybe add salt, whip your egg shites until firm but not stiff, fold your whipped egg whites into the chocolate, then bake. The souffles go right from the oven to the table. An interesting thing about souffles is that they can be frozen instead of cooked. You make your souffle batter, put it in a ramekin, then freeze it. It can go right from the freezer to the oven to bake. That way you have a fancy dessert ready to go at any time. What could be better? Once baked, you should have a slightly molten center in a dessert souffle. A savory souffle should be cooked all the way thru. To check for doneness, you can "lift the lid" to check the center to see if it is done.

There are two types of custard: Stove top (Pastry cream and Creme Anglaise) and Baked (Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel). Both the Pastry cream and Cream Anglaise are made the same-scald your dairy, which your egg products and sugar together, temper your dairy with your eggs, heat on your stove top and cook appropriately. What cook appropriately means, is that pastry cream has cornstarch in it so needs to come to a boil to get rid of the "starchy taste". Creme Anglaise has no cornstarch so should not be brought to a boil otherwise you will scramble your eggs.

Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel are similarly made. You scald your dairy, whisk your egg product and sugar together, temper your dairy with the eggs and bake in the oven. The base can be made up ahead and time and kept in the fridge to be used at any time. Creme Caramel uses whole milk and whole eggs. Creme Brulee uses heavy cream and uses only egg yolks. Tips for cooking both Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel: both are baked in a water bath or bain marie-water half way up the ramekins; cover then entire pan with foil (and not the individual ramekins); cook low and slow-200 to 250 degrees for several hours. The low temperature gives you a greater change of success and a softer, more delicious product. You can tell the custards are done by gently shaking it; if the whole ramekin wiggles, it's done! If it ripples, it's NOT done.

Lastly, she covered Pot de Creme, which means "pot of cream". It is a rich royale-(custard) usually chocolate. It contains 3 eggs plus extra yolks, which makes it very rich and thick!

When you think about it, cheesecake is a baked custard but in this case cream cheese is your dairy. And the same holds true for doneness, if it wiggles it is done, if it jiggles, it is not done. Cheesecake should be baked like a custard not a cake, which will yield you a cheesecake that is moist and tasty, not dry and crumbly!

Next, back to fish....Chef Dale covered cooking methods for fish as well as recapping some of yesterday's fish lecture. "Flipper grade" fish is flash frozen on the ship that caught it, then delivered frozen. Sushi grade depends on how the fish is handled and the quality of fish and fat content. Fish live in zero gravity so they are tender by design and should be cooked accordingly. Cook fish like you would cook an egg-it has albumin (protein) and can easily be overcooked, which causes synteresis. The flesh should be just set.

How to check fish for doneness? 1. Fish that just separates into flakes but does not fall apart. 2. If bone is present (like in a salmon steak), the flesh separates from the gone and the bone is no longer pink. 3. The flesh has turned from translucent to opaque (although this last method is somewhat dated, you do want a little transluscency). Another suggestion is to cook fish for 10 minutes for every inch of thickness.

Not sure if you remember the nine methods of cooking from a previous lecture but each of these can also be applied to fish. Steaming, braising, frying, stewing, baking, grilling, boiling, griddling and roasting.

Look at the fat content of the fish to determine the cooking method, i.e. cod is best for fish and chips because of low fat. Salmon is not a good choice for fish and chips because it is so fatty-you take a fatty fish, then deep fry it-not a good choice!

You can also look at texture for deciding a cooking method. Use firm fish for grilling: Atlantic Bonito, Bigeye Tuna, Black Drum, Blackfish, Blowfish, Skate, Dover Sole, Yellowfin Tuna, catfish, Shark, Swordfish, Sturgeon, Eel, and Yellowtail. You can also look at the moisture level in the fish as well as the grain.

Lean fish needs added fat, such as sauteing in butter. Lean fish (cod, grouper, halibut, orange roughy) can be cooked using dry heat, dry heat with fat or grilled. Serve fatty fish (salmon, lake trout, whitefish) with some form of acid to decrease the fattiness.

I did learn that Mahi Mahi is NOT dolphin, but called a dolphin fish because it follows boats just like dolphin do. It looks more like a sailfish.

For lunch, we had Clams Casino for a first course, served over a small spinach salad. Clams Casino is a clam on the half shell, covered with a light "stuffing" and baked. GardeMo did a great job with it. It was quite tasty! In Hot Plate, we cooked Halibut cut into Pavi (squares or "pavers")by poaching, served it over blanched red cabbage flavored with dill and roasted baby carrots, sauteed fava beans and poached tiny red onions in a fumet broth. There was a "schmear" of pistou (pesto) aioli on top of the fish (I made that) and bacon strips for garnish. Interesting plate but the flavors went well together. Our fish got a little over cooked, but that is a problem sometimes with holding a dish for service. Dessert was chocolate souffles served with a raspberry coulis and Creme Anglaise.

Cris and I talked about the last two days, that we felt we did not perform as well as we should have. Not sure why that is the case. Although not everyone in our kitchen has the same skill level and I guess there are times when you are only as good as the sum of your parts. I guess we'll see.

I am watching "Chopped" on the Food Network to help prepare me for our school "Iron Chef" competition. What a lot of pressure!

My friend Kim is coming for lunch tomorrow. I am excited to have a guest!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Today started our week of seafood. Chef Pete also gave us a handout from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. It talks about buying and eating sustainable fish. By purchasing fish caught or farmed using environmentally friendly practices, you're supporting healthy, abundant oceans. Their website is www.seafoodwatch.org. Check it out!

Chef Pete started the lecture talking about a little (very little) history of fish and fishing. There has been fishing since the beginning of recorded time. Historically, in the United States, it has been a large part of life in the Northwest and New England.

These are the things to look for when buying fresh fish:

1. Smell: The fish should smell wholesome and smell like the water they came from, not fishy.
2. Eyes: Fish eyes should be clear and plump, not cloudy or deflated.
3. Flesh: The flesh of the fish should spring back when you push on it. If it stays depressed, the flesh is old or is damaged.
4. Gills: The gills on the fish should be red and plump, not pale or white.
5. Scales: The scales should be intact, not falling off all over the place.

Even when you buy fish fillets or steaks instead of a whole fish, you can smell the fish and check the flesh for freshness.

There are two types of fin fish: flat fish (i.e sole, flounder, halibut) and round fish (i.e. salmon, trout). Flat fish yield four fillets, round fish yield two fillets.

There are a number of different cuts of round fish:

1. Darnes-which is a half a fish steak
2. Medallions-which are two darnes put together and wrapped.
3. Demi-Medallion-which uses only one darne.
4. Steak-when you cut thru the fish and spine (mostly salmon)
5. Fillet-which is one side of the fish
6. Goujon-which is a "fish stick" 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide
7. Tresse-you take the Goujons and braid them
8. Supreme-which is a fillet cut at an angle so that each surface is flat. It cooks more uniformly and looks a lot bigger on the plate.

The cuts of flat fish are:

1. Fillets-taking the meat off the fish following the contour of bones
2. Papiette-a rolled piece of fish, usually stuffed (i.e. sole stuffed with crab).
3. Deliche-a fillet folded in thirds to form a "little package".

To properly store fish, it should be wrapped in plastic to protect the flesh from water and ice then placed on a bed of ice.

After the lecture, each of us got to fillet a whole Dover sole. We removed the skin from both sides of the fish, the ran our knife along with spine of the fish (which i would consider the side of the fish, not the top of the fish. Apparently they swim on their sides!). We removed all four fillets, removed the head and roe to ready the carcasses for fumet (fish stock). Interesting project, lol!

Lunch was a salad of mixed greens dressed wi a light vinaigrette, topped with shredded rabbit confit. In Hot Plate we made Sole En Papiote. We julienned some carrots, onions, celery and fennel and made potato tourne (which is cutting a small potato into a football shape, then giving it seven sides with a flat top and bottom). We laid all of this on top of a heart shaped piece of buttered parchment paper, laid three sole fillets on top of that, put a splash of white wine with a small amount of Pernod liquor mixed in to it, put tomato concassee on top of that, laid a few fennel fronds over top, wrapped it up much the same way you fold a calzone, and baked all the packages for about 15 minutes. They puff up because of the steam and when you take them out of the oven, put them on a warm plate and cut into them, all the steam comes pouring out. Once the packages were opened and in front of each student, we poured Lemon Buerre Blanc over the fish. Yum! Dessert was Creme Caramel, another form of custard.

Tomorrow, more fish!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Today was a better day.....and it's Friday!! We had our quiz first thing this morning. They started introducing wine questions again, I need to look at those old tests more closely!

After our exam, Chef Pete gave us a lecture on curing. First he covered confit (con-feet), which is a protein that has been cured, cooked and then stored in it's own fat. This is usually done with duck and goose, which both contain a lot of fat. You can also make chicken and rabbit confit although both of these meats do not contain a lot of fat, so often the chicken is cooked and stored in duck fat and the rabbit in butter or olive oil.

First you take the meat and cure it. You can use 100% salt or 50% salt and 50% sugar to do this. Cook Street uses 2 parts salt to one part sugar (so if you use 2 lbs of salt, you'd use 1 lb sugar). They also add Quatre E'Pice to taste. (You remember that mix of spices? Equal parts cinnamon, dried ginger, nutmeg, white peppercorns and 1/2 part clove. Smells heavenly!) Standard curing time is 3 days in the walk-in. Take the salt mixture and sprinkle it over your meat, then put it in the fridge. This process helps remove impurities from the meat as well as drying the meat slightly. The meat can be cured up to 5 days. The longer the meat is cured, the longer it lasts-up to six months. Once you take the meat out of the fridge, rinse off the salt mixture (otherwise it will be too salty), dry it off, then poach in fat until cooked. Store this meat in it's own fat until you are ready to eat it!

Next Chef Pete went over making Gravlox, which is cured fatty salmon. It is one of the oldest curing processes known, starting with the Vikings, who dug a hole in the ground, put the salmon in it, covered it with salt and left it. Hence, gravlox, or "salt grave". To cure salmon, take 3 parts salt to 1 part sugar (mix 3 pounds of salt and 1 pound of sugar). Put a little in a pan large enough to hold your salmon (we are curing a half a salmon) put less salt on the thinner tail end than at the thicker portion of the salmon, then lay the salmon on top of the salt mix. Cover the top of the salmon with the rest of the salt. Put it in the fridge for three days. Once that time is up, take the salmon out, wash it off, then put it back in the fridge, uncovered for 24 hours. After the 24 hours is up, you can eat or use the salmon as you like. It will develop a film called a pelicle, which is perfectly fine to eat.

After the lecture, we had our first Iron Chef competition. Their secret ingredients were chicken, corn, peaches, mayonnaise and pesto. They could also use anything in the walk-in or dry storage. They were given ten minutes to plan, 30 minutes to prepare four plates and get them to the judging table. Immediately upon serving, the teams had ten minutes to clean up. Both teams served seared chicken breasts. One team made butternut squash/corn fritters to go with the chicken. The other team served corn on the cob, a small salad and a pesto vinaigrette for the chicken. The fritter team won! My turn won't come for a couple more weeks.

Lunch today was a Mushroom and Asparagus Souffle with Saffron Sabayon. Veggies on the bottom of the ramekin, egg souffle poured over, fantastic flavor, piping hot, creamy sauce poured into the top of the souffle, YUM! Hot Plate made Jambonette. You take the hind quarter of a chicken (leg and thigh), debone the thigh, make a stuffing of bleu cheese, walnuts, apples (or pears), bread crumbs and chicken stock, stuff the thigh portion with the leg still attached, truss it up, seared it, then bake it. Pretty good, especially with a mushroom sauce to go with it. We were suppose to have potatoes (again) but Chef Dale decided to go with polenta instead (good choice!). I made polenta first. Once it was done, we added grana cheese and creme fraiche. We then put half of it into a molded oblong container, laid down "drunken prunes" then covered them with the rest of the polenta. We covered the container with plastic then placed it into the walk-in to cool down and firm up. Before serving we took it out of the mold and cut it into ten slices (so the prunes would show up in the center of each slice), then cut the slices diagonally into triangles. We placed the triangles into a pan and warmed them back up. Not bad, even with the prunes, lol. Dessert was the Gateaux St Honore, which I described the other day (brisee dough on the bottom, a ring of pate a choux, then cream puffs on top with chocolate and vanilla cream in the center. Impressive to look at, taste-ok, not the best dessert the school has put out!

I am hoping for a quiet weekend. A few of us are cooking at Cris's house tomorrow and talking about plans for Europe. Carl is hosting a wedding reception tomorrow afternoon, but he and Eric pretty much have things all taken care of. Have a good weekend everyone!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Today was a very frustrating day! It didn't start out badly.. We had a lecture today on Pate a Choux (pat ah chew-sorry I don't have the appropriate little marks that go over the letters so you can better figure out the pronunciation!). Literally translated it means "cabbage paste" (those French LOVE cabbage, lol, using it often as a term of endearment). The definition of Pate a Choux is a plain, crispy, baked paste that puffs to three times its original size when cooked. Chef Lexie also calls it "a vehicle for yummy goodness". Pate a Choux has four ingredients: Fat (usually butter), Liquid (usually water), Flour and Eggs.

The Method goes as follows:

1. Place the 1/2 cup of butter in a saucepan and melt it.
2. Add 3/4 cup of water and bring it to a "rockin' boil".
3. Add 1 cup of flour all at once and stir, stir, stir.
4. Stir and cook over a medium heat for at least several minutes-until the dough starts to move around the spoon as a ball, the finish goes from matt to shiny and a film forms on the bottom of the pan.
5. Move to a Kitchenaid (this can also be done by hand) and stir using the paddle attachment to dissipate the heat so you can add eggs.
6. Add 3-4 eggs, one at a time, beating until fully Incorporated.
7. Shape your dough into balls (cream puffs) or a log form (for eclairs). You can use a pastry bag for this and pipe the dough or drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
8. Bake in a HOT oven (425 degrees) until the puffs are dried thru completely (you can take one out and break it open to check this (this will take probably 30-40 minutes).
9. This dough does not keep well, especially when filled with pastry cream so is best made fresh before each use.

Applications for this dough are:

1. Eclairs which are oblong shaped Pate a Choux filled with pastry cream and frosted with chocolate ganache.
2. Cream Puffs which are round shaped Pate a Choux filled with pastry cream and topped with a caramel "hat".
3. Croquembouche, literally translated means "crack or crunch in the mouth". This is a conical shaped tower of cream puffs held together with caramel with a sugar "cage" drizzled over it. This is a traditional French wedding "cake".
4. Gougere which is a cheesy puff. Cheese is added to Pate a Choux after the egg stage. Dry cheese works best for this. It makes a great appetizer.
5. Paris-Brest, Pate a Choux piped into a ring shape and filled with pastry cream or fruit or whipped cream. This was created in honor of the bicycle race from Paris to Best.
6. Gateau St Honore which sounds really complicated but here goes: take Pate Brisee dough and form it into a disc and bake it flat. Make Pate a Choux and make a ring form, and also cream puffs and fill with pastry cream. Combine gelatin, pastry cream and Swiss or Italian meringue to form Creme Chibouste (a specific Bavarian cream). the Brisee goes on the bottom, put the ring on top of it and the cream puffs on top of that (using caramel as a "glue". Use chocolate and vanilla flavored Creme Chibouste to fill in the center of this dessert. Sounds like a lot of work! Pastry is making this for dessert tomorrow. We'll see how that goes, lol!

We paired up and each team made Pate a Choux, which we piped into eclair form (we had chocolate and vanilla filled eclairs for dessert today!). Once we finished this, it was back to our individual kitchens.

And this is the start of the frustration! Hot Plate made roasted Rabbit with Mustard Sauce, Broccolini and Pommes Dauphine. We took the rabbit thighs and stuffed them with pancetta that had been cubed and pre-cooked. The boned thigh meat was then wrapped around the pancetta cubes, tied into a neat little bundle, seared on the stovetop, then finished in the oven. The sauce was made with the pan drippings and rabbit stock, then finished with mustard and cream and herbs. My job was to make the Pommes Dauphine. We started with Pate a Choux that Chef Lexie had made as a demo for us during lecture. I peeled and boiled the potatoes ( I SHOULD have left them unpeeled to boil, then peeled them after they were cooked). Then I had to rice the boiled potatoes. What a pain! The first ricer was broken and didn't work. The rest of the ricers were old and rusty and did not work well. Some of the potato squished out the sides and I was NOT suppose to mix those snippets with my RICED potatoes, oh no! Once the potatoes were riced, I had to make mashed potatoes with them adding mild and butter and salt and pepper. Once that was done, I mixed the Choux and the mashed potatoes together. Then you stuff all that into a pastry bag with a round tip. You heat peanut oil to 350-370 degrees (we don't really have an accurate thermometer for hot oil). You pipe the potato mixture out in lengths of approximately 3-4 inches using a knife to cut off the stream of potato mixture, dropping it into the hot oil. My first few developed "hernias" which means the oil is too hot. The outside sears quickly then the inside starts to cook, puffs up and breaks thru the outer crust in one, sometimes two placed, like little hernias. I turned the fire down under the oil, it got too cool, I turned the fire up, it got too hot again. Some of the Pommes Dauphine cooked in oil that was not hot enough got too greasy so could not be used. By the time I made 100 of these, I couldn't even LOOK at them any more!! Pommes Dauphine would not be my first choice for potatoes (I have finally met a potato I did not like!). No picture today!

Anyway.....it's time for me to study for my exam tomorrow morning. We got our tests back from last week. I got a 98. Not bad! Tomorrow we also start our first round of "Iron Chef". We were broken down into teams of two. We will be given one hour to plan, make and plate a meal which our chef instructors will then judge. Becklien and I are a team but are not up for a couple of weeks. The three winning teams will compete against each other for one winning team. We'll see how it goes!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Today's lecture was very short! Each of the chefs review their portion of the lunch menu. Chef Pete talked about Oeufs en Meurette (Eggs in a Wine Broth). En Meurette is a Burgundian cooking style, classic bistro fare. It is anything cooked in a wine broth. In our case, poached eggs. However, Chef Pete decided to poach the eggs in water and vinegar as the color the eggs pick up from being poached in red wine is "not very pretty". The wine sauce was made separately with red wine, mirepoix and bacon (just for flavor). (And it did taste very good, like everything at school!)

Chef Dale talked about vegetable puree. Any vegetable can be pureed. You cook the vegetable until tender, then puree it thru a food processor or ricer (so you do not develop starch, which will adversely affect your puree), strain the puree to get out the last bit of fiber, dry the puree in a pan on top of the stove, then season and finish the dish off with either butter or cream (some form of fat). Yummy! We had a butternut squash puree for lunch. Very good!

After our puree lecture, we "fabricated" rabbits (I'm sorry but this word makes me think we are going to build or make something, not deconstruct it!). It was a little hard watching "Peter Cottontail" be carved into pieces! You have to just not think about it. I certainly don't feel that way about chickens, but then again, chickens are not usually "pet material". You remove the front legs, then the "flap" (which is the fascia that covers the entire trunk), then remove the hind quarters (we are having the thigh meat stuffed with proscuitto for lunch tomorrow), then remove both tenderloins that run along the back. You can make estouffade from the bones by roasting them and adding them to remy (remember "remy" or remoulade, a secondary stock usually made from roasted veal bones). Poor Peter Rabbit......

We broke down or "fabricated" 18 chickens before lecture this morning so we would have them for lunch today. We are getting faster at this, lol. When we returned to our kitchens after lecture and rabbit fabrication, we started a busy few hours preparing our portion of lunch. I was in charge of the board again (where you write down what their is to do and how to do it and when to do it). Having been a manager the last 4-5 years makes this part a little easier! I was in charge of cleaning all the chicken breasts to make them boneless and skinless, pounding them out flat. (Chef Dale had a great idea for doing this with a minimum of mess: cut the ziplock portion off a gallon size Baggie, then open up both sides but leave the bag connected at the bottom. Place your chicken breast between the layers and pound away. The bag does not rip as it is very sturdy and there is no mess to clean up!)
We made a chicken mousseline to spread over the center of flattened chicken breast, then folded them up, rolled them and covered them in heat resistent plastic wrap and poached them in a water bath. Once they were cooked, I sliced them up into four pieces and laid them over Sauce Veloute. We made parsnip chips (much better than I thought they would be!) and put some chips around the chicken. On the side we served our butternut squash puree. A GREAT meal! We got lots of compliments today.

Dessert was Creme Brulee, very well done. The bread was French baguette and dinner rolls (better than Parkerhouse rolls!). We had a red wine with the first courses that no one was familiar with, a Breitholder from Italy. We had a white wine with our entree-a Vouvray (chenin blanc).

Then it was time to clean up and head for home. I made Baklava Muffins tonight. Hope the guests like them!

Tuesday, August 10,2010

Today's lecture was on the cold mother sauces of which there are two-Vinaigrette (a temporary suspension) and Mayonnaise (a cold emulsified sauce).

The three main ingredients in a Vinaigrette are Acid (any citrus or vinegar), Base (oil, usually olive oil) and Salt. That is not to say you cannot add other flavors, such as mustard, herbs and spices. Put your lemon juice or vinegar into a bowl along with your salt, then whisk in the oil slowly. This can also be made in a Cuisinart Food Processor. Vinaigrette are usually served over salads.

There are three types of salads:

1. Simple Salad-mixed greens, mildly and lightly dressed. This is usually served after the fish or meat course during a French meal.
2. Mixed Salad-cooked or raw vegetables that are served with a vinaigrette (think picnic salad).
3. Composed Salad-which is pretty much a salad bar or Salad Niscoise.

When dealing with greens, remember to wash, wash, wash! Pick thru them to remove any debree, slimy leaves or bugs. Spin them dry-otherwise the vinaigrette won't stick to the greens. Then decide how big you want the greens to be for serving and cut or teat them to that size.

The formula for mayonnaise is 1 egg yolk to 1 cup of oil plus lemon juice, water and salt to taste. Put your egg yolk in a bowl, squeeze in half a lemon or less, a pinch of salt and about a tsp of water and whisk. In a slow stream, add your one cup of oil (canola oil is the most common). You can thin the mayo with more water or lemon juice if it becomes too thick. Season with salt and more lemon juice when done. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

There are at least 11 mayonnaise variations:
Aioli (mayonnaise flavored with finely pureed garlic, lemon and boutique olive oil Andalouse (flavored with thick tomato sauce and minced chives)
Au Curry (flavored with curry powder and orange juice)
Dijonnaise (flavored with Dijon mustard)
Echolote (flavored with finely chopped roasted shallots)
Gribiche (flavored with chopped hard cooked egg, minced capers, minced cornichons, fines herbs and minced shallot)
Verte (flavored with parsley, chives, basil, watercress)
Remoulade (flavored with minced capers, minced fines herbs and chopped anchovies) Rouille (flavored with cayenne, mashed garlic and roasted red pepper pure
Suedoise (flavored with thick applesauce and horseradish)
Tartare (flavored with minced parsley, minced chives, minced cornichons, minced capers and minced hard cooked eggs).
We had eight variations with our salmon at lunch today!

Do not give home made mayonnaise to the elderly or the very young as the yolk in this mayonnaise is served raw. Commercial mayonnaise barely has any egg in it-just emulsifiers, therefore can't go bad.

After we split into groups of two and made our own mayonnaise, we went off to our own kitchens. GardeMo made mushroom soup, which tasted so hardy, some people thought there was meat in it! They did a great job! Hot Plate poached salmon in fumet (fish stock), I got to make a "coleslaw" of celeriac or celery root, apples, mayonnaise, a little Dijon mustard and salt. I have included a picture of it for today! Chef dale carved an apple bird and some lemon halfs for us. We also made a beet salad with an orange-flavored vinaigrette. Dessert was a Frasier, an almond sponge cake filled with strawberries and creme mousseline (pastry cream "lightened" with butter). It was YUMEEEEE!

A couple of us got together after school to talk about our European trip. So much to see and so little time! All in all, I will likely be there 3-4 weeks, for which I am very pleased.

Then home to the B&B to do laundry and a little baking (white Chocolate Cranberry Cookies and Almond Poppy Seed Muffins). Now I need some sleep!!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Back at school! Today was a pretty relaxed day. Between 8am and 9am, those of us in Hot Plate cleaned and stemmed spinach, grated cheese, mise en place'd the eggs, butter and fresh fines herbs for omelets for lunch.

Chef Lexie started her lecture on eggs and egg cookery. Eggs have been a stable food source since Egyptian times (this is the extent of what we covered regarding history of the egg!). Otherwise, hens begin laying eggs at age 20 weeks. Hens usually only lay one egg a day and for the most part are able only to lay eggs for a total of two years. The smaller the egg, the younger the hen. The larger the egg, the older the chicken (I guess it gets easier!). The color of the chicken's feathers determine the color of the egg shells. The hen's diet determines the color of the yolks (the better the diet, the darker or more orange the yolks). Brown eggs are not necessarily more nutritious than white eggs. Eggs in and of themselves, are nutritionally complete.

There are three main components to the egg:
1. Shell-the egg's first "defense" and weighs about 1/2 oz.
2. Whites-contains half the egg's protein and weighs about 1 oz.
3. Yolk-contains all the fat and all the nutrients as well as the other half of the protein (in other words, you are not doing yourself any favors when you only eat the egg whites!).

There are two tests that you can do to check for freshness in an egg-the buoyancy test and the spread test. An egg that is newly laid is heavy so when put in water, sinks and lies flat. As the egg ages, an air pocket explands and adds buoayancy. A week-old egg begins to rise. A three week old egg stands upright as the air pocket expands further. In a newly laid egg, the yolk is compact, the white is dense and there is a slight fluid outer layer. In a week old egg, the yolk moves off center, the white loosens and becomes more fluid. In a three week old egg, the yolk flattens and the white becomes thin like water.

Eggs have 9 properties:

1. Thickening (when used in custard)
2. Binder (when used in meatloaf)
3. Clarify (when we used eggs, mirepoix and ground meat as a "raft" to cleanse our consomme a few weeks ago)
4. Leavening (for cakes)
5. Adhering (used in the standard breading procedure to hold breading in place)
6. Emulsifying (egg yolks have lecithin that can hold water and oil together as in mayonnaise)
7. Glazing (as in egg wash to glaze a loaf of bread before baking)
8. Sealing (an egg wash can be brushed onto a tart dough to make a seal between the crust and the filling to keep both layers fresh)
9. Retards crystallization (used in sorbets and ice cream to prevent crystals from forming in the freezer)

Eggs should always be at room temperature before cooking. There are quite a few ways eggs can be cooked:
1. Hard boil eggs(For perfect hard boiled eggs, place the uncooked eggs in a saucepan just large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add cold water to cover by one inch. Bring to a full boil over high heat. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for the appropriate number of minutes (4 minutes for firm whites and yolks set with a liquid center. 7 1/2 minutes gives you whites that are all firm with yolks that are solid but looks wet. 10-12 minutes give you whites that are solid throughout with a solid yolk throughout.) Immediately remove eggs from pot and shock them in cold water. This produces a layer of steam between the egg and the shell which facilitates peeling.
2. Fried eggs
3. Poached eggs (In a shallow pot filled with water, heat the water until you see bubbles on the bottom of the pan-no rolling boil. Add a little vinegar to the water, it helps coagulate the whites. Cook until soft-the whites are set but the yolks are slightly runny. Remove with a slotted spoon and place them in a pan with an ice water bath. This can be done up to 24 hours ahead of time and the eggs reheated in the same pan you put them in for the ice bath.)
4. Baked eggs-en cocotte or baked in a ramekin or shirred-eggs with a little cream poured over them.
5. Scrambled eggs
6. Omelettes of which there are three kinds: Flat (frittata), Rolled or Furrey (rolled like a cigar then split down the middle and filled with a sauce)
7. Devilled eggs
8. Mimosa (and I'm not talking OJ and champagne!). You hard boil the eggs, then separate the yolks from the whites and push them thru a sieve. They can then be used for garnish.
9. Basted (baste with the oil or butter used in frying the egg to gently cook the top of the egg-sunny side up)

For lunch, we practiced making three egg omelettes, each of us making our own. We learned not to over cook the eggs and also how to roll them in the pan and onto our plates. GardeMo made Wilted Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Vinaigrette and also put out Duck Confit they made last week. Hot plate made Crepe Parmentier (think thin potato latkes or potato pancakes-yum!). Pastry made Berry Galette, a rustic berry tart/pie and served it with Creme Anglaise laced with raspberry puree.

We ended up getting our early today. Although at one point, I went on a walk with Chef Dale looking for the delivery truck that had our spinach (that we had for lunch). It was actually nice having a one on one conversation with him. He asked how I was doing and was the program what I had expected it to be? I told him it was, that there were some things I needed to unlearn (we pick up bad habits so easily!). I also said a friend had asked me over the weekend if there was one particularly important thing I had learned. It took me a while to answer, not because I had nothing to learn but because Iwasn't sure if there was just ONE big lesson I had learned. And I don't put every little thing I learn into this blog-you and I would be here forever! I think learning to make the perfect stock and all the uses it has in cooking would be one of the biggest nuggets of insight into being a professional chef. That and learning to season at every step, layering flavors so that all your dishes have depth.

Carl made dinner for me tonight. One of these nights I am going to have to cook for him! He did a three course dinner for a couple tonight and decided he needed to make dinner for he and I at the same time. We had a banana/orange/avocado salad with poppy seed dressing, scalloped potatoes, steak on the grill and jalapino corn muffins. What a nice guy!

Friday, August 6, 2010

The first thing we did today was take our test. Another long test, this one covered savory sauces, dessert sauces and cookies. It's hard to image how long our actual final will be given each of the weekly tests are at least 7-8 pages long!

Our lecture was an overview of France, the geography, which is important to the types of food available to eat. Chef Pete covered the four "ades" of Provence: 1. Tapenade (olive spread). 2. Brandade (a spread made from salt cod). 3. Anchoiade (a spread made from anchovies). 4. Lemonade, made from lemons (I bet you were surprised by that one!) The Tapenade, Brandade and Anchoiade are meant to be eaten with toast.

French Menu construction was also covered. First realize what your body is being asked to do. Muscles are going to work, digestive processes are started-so you want to begin slowly and gently--get your juices going. A traditional French menu consists of the following elements:

1. Amuse ("to amuse the mouth")-It is something to entice, relax, comfort. It gives you a sense of anticipation. The Amuse is a single bite, two at most. There is also plenty of water at the table.
2. Entree-this is the beginning-usually a soup, savory souffle or mousseline.
3. Intermet-a palate cleanser to ready the mouth for the main course. This is usually something like a tart sorbet, greens with vinaigrette, fruit. This course has somewhat fallen out of fashion.
4. Plat Principal-the main protein in a menu. You are often drinking wine with every course. Sometimes in a fine dining establishment this can be a fish course followed by a meat course. Your body is doing most of it's digestive work during this course.
5. Salad-sweeps away the reachness. Typically it is gentle leaves with dressing, which cleans the palate. This course is generally not included in a fine dining establishment but is standard in any family setting.
6. Cheese and Fruit-cheese often has bacteria that aides in digestion. Many cheeses in France are unpasteurized. The cheese and fruit course may be served at the same time in a family setting.
7. Dessert-this will be a sweet that is in harmony with the rest of the meal.
8. Mignardises-these are a selection of miniature chocolates and pastries to furhter entice you.
9. Coffee can be considered a digestif and it helps keep you at the table. It is always served after the dessert has been cleared.
10. Other digestifs include: Marc, Grappa, Eau de Vie, Brandy and Cognac. They are usually consumed away from the table in a more comfortable setting.

Lunch started with a Tapenade and a Brandade. The entree was Sea Bass in Bric. We were joking that we were getting bricks for lunch, but in reality it is sea bass wrapped in a crepe-like pastry brushed with butter that can be cooked on top of the stove or in the oven. Dessert was a cheese platter and Petit Fours. A fine white wine and then Sauternes to drink for dessert with the cheese.

I must confess to cutting out of school early today in order to take a short trip to see Jordan so borrowed notes from Becklein! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Today's lecture was given by Chef Lexie and was all about Mousse. Mousse consists of two things: a Base and a Lightener. The Base gives the mousse flavor-chocolate, gianduja (chocolate hazelnut, NOT to be confused with Nutella!), creme anglaise, lemon curd, pastry cream. Mousse can also be savory-fish or vegetables for example. There are only three Lighteners: whipped heavy cream, meringue-Swiss or Italian and sabayon.

There are several styles of Mousse:

1. Creme Anglaise (vanilla), which can be put into any type of vessel (it won't stand up on its own).
2. Pastry Cream, which can be used to layer in cakes and tortes.
3. Quick, the type of mousse that you make when you are in a hurry (no surprise there, lol!). The formula for this is twice as much chocolate or lemon curd as heavy cream. Melt your chocolate, whip your heavy cream to soft peak stage. Take 1/3 of your whipped heavy cream and stir it into your chocolate to set the chocolate (stir, stir, stir!). You sacrafice this much of your whipped cream to stabilize the chocolate. Then in two additions, FOLD in your remaining whipped heavy cream. Put it in your serving bowls, wine glass, etc and keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve. All this happens very quickly!
4. Sabayon, which uses all three lighteners and is used for plated desserts. You fold your chocolate into your sabayon, then fold in meringue, then fold in whipped heavy cream.
5. Meringue-style is good for tarts and for those people who are lactose intolerant. This style eats very sweet, almost like fudge.
6. Bavarian, which is mousse and gelatin. This style is good for molded desserts (think old-fashioned jello molds, lol).

We learned about two forms of gelatin. 1. Powdered (like Knox gelatin) and 2. Sheet or Leaf gelatin. 1 package of gelatin (or 2 1/4 tsp) equals 4 sheets of gelatin. To use any gelatin, you must first "bloom" it. Which means dissolving it in water for the powdered gelatin and soaking it in water for the sheets.

We paired up and each made either milk chocolate or white chocolate mousse using the Quick style. We had to whip our heavy cream by hand!!! It took a while but it did happen. We had varying levels of success, lol.

Chef Dale took some time to review sauces, which was helpful. Chef Dale also told us that if you do not want the expense or want to take the time to make your own stock, you can enhance store bought stock by adding mirepoix and bouquet garni to your store bought stock and letting it simmer for a while. You could also add a chicken or turkey carcass if you had it. I had not really thought much about it before. Good idea!

Then it was time to get into our kitchens so we could make lunch.

I am going to try to remember to take pictures of all our Entree platings, but I forgot today!! GardeMo made Smoked Salmon Baravian served with a dressed frissee salad. Hot Plate made Prime Rib of Beef with Au Jus (I was in charge of the Au Jus-turned out delicious!), Gratin Savoyard (Potatoes Gratin) and Glazed French Baby Carrots. For dessert, Pastry made a Four-Level Chocolate Mouse Cake using the chocolate mousse we made during our demonstration. The bottom two layers were Devil's Food Cake and Chocolate Hazelnut Cake that ate more like a candy. Yummy!

Now it's time to study for my test tomorrow! Oh, by the way, I got 101 on last week's exam (out of a possible 107)! Yeah!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A new day in Hot Plate.....This morning before lecture, the five of us fabricated ducks! We had duck breast for lunch so had to work on preparing those before we started anything else. At least Chef Dale did not say today that he was doing 2-3 birds to our one bird! Once that was done, we sat down to another lecture about sauces.

Today Chef Dale talked about Brown Sauce and it's derivatives, Demi-Glace, Glace de Viande and Beurre Blanc. Espagnole or Brown Sauce is made from brown stock (Estouffade-stock made from roasted veal bones), brown roux (cooked roux that is half butter and half flour) and matignon. Matignon translated is "enrichment" and is made up of mirepoix, bouguet garni and pork parts (proscuitto or pancetta or sarano ham). Demi-Glace is a mix of 50% Estouffade and 50% Espagnole reduced by 50% or half, hence Demi- or "half" glace. Glace de Viande is 100% Estouffade reduced by 90%(which becomes quite gelatinous and firm at that point). The Glace de Viande can add a lot of flavor to a dish.

There are many sauces you can make using Espagnole or Brown Sauce: if you add duck stock, gastric (which is the French equivalent of sweet and sour, i.e. orange juice and vinegar) and orange zest, you get Sauce Bigarade. If you add thyme, white wine and Dijon mustard, you get Sauce Robert (row-bear). If you add red wine and bone marrow, you get Sauce Bordelaise. If you add mushrooms, creme fraiche and brandy, you get sauce Diane (one of my favorites). So many sauces, so little time!

Then Chef Dale covered a little vocabulary. Au Jus means "with juice". Jus Roti means "juice of the roast". Salpicon is a sauce that is used as a binder (to hold something together). Corolary (not to be confused with coronary!) sauces are sauces made independent from the cooking process. Intregal sauces are sauces as part of the cooking process. Duxelles are minced (Brunoise) mushrooms with minced shallots or onions all sauteed in butter, then flambed with madeira. Duxelles are found in Beef Wellington.

Chef Lexie made the Buerre Blanc Sauce, which is a butter sauce. It contains shallots, white wine, white wine and BUTTER! Season to taste. You can add herbs or citrus. Acid (vinegar or citrus) plus salt prevents the sauce from being too fatty. The sauces containing eggs and butter (with the exception of mayonnaise) do not always keep well so if you don't use all of it, you must throw it away. Most unfortunate! Chef Lexie says you can hold Buerre Blanc Sauce in a Thermos to keep it warm (never hot) or in a covered bowl sitting on a heating pad. Adding cream at the end will also help stabilize Buerre Blanc.

For lunch today our first course was Seared Scallops with Tuna Tartare and Beurre Blanc. Our entree was Duck Bigarade with Pommes Parisienne (little nuggets of potato removed with a melon baller, then shallow fried in butter-although we used duck fat to go with our duck breast!) and Spaghetti Squash Nests (finished off with cubes of rendered pancetta and diced tomatoes). Dessert was Lemon Lavender Tarts-a nice refreshing, tart (no pun intended, lol) finish to a rather heavy meal! We had two wines, a white and a red from Spain. Our breads today were Challah and French baguettes.

Chef Lexie gave me a round loaf of bread left over from yesterday that didn't get wrapped. I brought it home and made Peach Bread Pudding for the B&B. Of course, I also made Coconut Macaroons and Mini Bran Muffins with Cream Cheese filling (batter left over from Monday). Then it was on to a little studying. Doing this blog has been a very nice study tool for me, so it helps me and hopefully helps you!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Today was more about sauces. But FIRST, my group had to fabricate 18 chickens! That means taking apart a whole chicken, cutting off the first joint of the wing, opening up the pockets between the legs and the breast, then cutting the breast away from the ribcage, then taking off the leg and thigh (make sure you get that "oyster"!!) then cleaning the carvas of skin and fat so it can be used for making stock. That's a lot of chicken!

After we finished with this, it was time for another lecture on sauces. It's interesting, but I always thought mother sauces were stand alone sauces, but they are actually components used to get you other places, so to speak. Chef Pete talked about Tomato Sauce, another mother sauce. There are two French Tomato sauces, one modern, which consists of tomato concasse, shallots, wine and thyme which is then pureed and strained (which makes it a coulis). The Classic French Tomato Sauce uses roux, tomato (no garlic) and stock. Then of course the many derivatives of the sauce: if you add meat to the tomato sauce it is a bolognese. If you add capers, anchovies,crushed red peppers and olives to the tomato sauce, you get Sauce Putanesca. There are many more sauces that can be made from this. Apparently, with sauces, you are limited only by your imagination and taste buds!

Next we covered Sauce Veloute. Veloute (vel-oo-tay) translates as "velvety". It consists of white stock and white roux. By adding other ingredients, you can alter the flavor profile however you like. If you add egg yolks, the sauce would be called Sauce Allemande. If you add tarragon to tomato sauce, it becomes Sauce Estragon. Once again, you are limited only by your imagination when it comes to making a sauce and adding a flavor profile. We made Sauce Veloute with Chef Pete, then went to our respective kitchens.

Lunch today was Tomato Soup and Cauliflower soup, served together in one bowl. The entree was Sauted Chicken with Sauce Robert (a derivative of Sauce Espangnole). We also made Grilled Bibb lettuce and Beer Battered Mushrooms. I was in charge of slicing the chicken and while doing so, cut my finger (much like the chicken slices I was carving, lol) and had to stop to wash my hands and put on a bandaid. The knife was really sharp and the cut hurts like the dickens! I will live to carve another day, however. At least we got good marks on the main course! Dessert was Oeufs a la Neige (Eggs in Snow)-which is egg shaped meringues poached in milk. The milk it then used to make Creme Anglaise. The topped it off with spun sugar, so it looked like a nest of gold sitting on the plate! Everything is SO good! It's hard to imagine food getting better and better!

Tomorrow I am going to be in charge of Hot Plate and running the board. We make a timeline and assign tasks to make sure that everything gets done in a timely fashion. Wish me luck!