Saturday, September 25, 2010

Wasn't sure what to do with myself today! Seems weird not to be thinking about school or studying for school. I ran errands today as I will not have much of a chance to do so over the next two days. I did some baking today for Monday and for breakfast Sunday morning. I made a half sheet pan of brownies with chocolate chips and would have added Kahlua if Carl had had any! I also made raspberry filled cinnamon muffins and a Cinnamon-Almond Streusel Coffeecake. I mixed up a batch of Sun and Moon cookie dough-it needs to chill overnight. The dough is similar to sugar cookies but has an orange flavor profile. I will dip them in chocolate after they are baked (hence the sun and moon).

Tomorrow we start cooking and baking for Carl's Party on Monday. It will be Cris, Alta, Paula and I. Should be fun! Interesting to see if all of us can work in Carl's small kitchen, lol!

Looking forward to going home! Can't wait to see Jordan and Janell and Ah Choo and actually have my own kitchen!

Friday, September 24, 2010

I was up by 6:30am this morning so I could do a some more studying. I was at school before 10am which was good because they started our blind taste test (one red, one white) at exactly 10am. We had 20 minutes to figure out which wine was what, then the written exam started. I was a little dismayed at the exam. I finished a little before the time limit was up, but I ended up leaving some blanks because some of the answers I just couldn't remember. I guess I have to remind myself that all I want to do is pass and not worrying about the grade I got! Yikes!

At 1 pm, they cracked open a Jeroboam of champagne and we had a toast to our success. Then sat down to a Southern lunch of fried chicken, defiled eggs, salad with buttermilk dressing, mac&cheese, pickled vegetables of all kinds, buttermilk biscuits with grape jelly (which I had made earlier in the week) and peanut butter pie. Quite interesting! Not quite what you would expect, but good food none the less.
At the end of the meal, we (the students) went around and told everyone how we came to Cook Street as well as one funny story about our time at Cook Street. Everyone had really nice things to say. I'll be posting pictures for you soon!

We left the school to go to the Wrangler, where someone was throwing us a graduation party. How nice was that!? Carl and Bailey came too, my family in Denver, lol. We talked and danced then hugged and cried a little saying goodbye to everyone when we left. Only 8 of us are going to Europe.

Jordan flies out to Denver on Sunday to help me get my car and my "stuff" back to Reno. Myself and several classmates are doing the food for Carl, the owner of the B&B where I have been staying, whonis having a Restoration party on Monday, September 27. The outside restoration of the house is finally done (Capitol Hill Mansion is a historic landmark) and Carl wants to show it off. It will be a good experience for us. Then Jordan and I leave Tuesday morning to return to Reno.

I will not be writing everyday but will continue to log my culinary journies, especially while I am in Europe, so I hope you all will continue reading this blog and sending your comments my way. I'll even have time to share more recipes with you in the days to come! So enjoy and thanks to everyone for their encouragement!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

I was up and at school by 7:30am. At 8am, we lined up at our cutting boards and chopped and sliced and concasse and brunoise all our vegetables. Then we fabricated our chicken, making one airline breast and one boneless skinless. We had a 30 minute break, then back at the workbench to make Pate Brisee dough, chill it, make mayonaisse using one egg yolk and one cup of oil, make pasta using one egg and 3/4 cup of flour, then roll out our pate brisee and put it in a tart pan. We were given two hours total to do all these things.

After a brief break, we chose two wines from a box of wines for our lunch, then went into our respective kitchens to each prepare our portion of lunch. GardeMo made an amuse bouche of a tapenade of olives and fish in a little pate au choux puff as well as a Leek Mushroom Tarte. Hot Plate made an Intermet of Cantaloupe Ice with Pernod and an entree of Lamb chops with a beautiful sauce, potatoes gratin and sauteed asparagus. Pastry (Sean) made three breads-french, dinner rolls and wheat bulgar. Collin and Corey made "White Russian" chocolates-you see their picture at the top of the page, lol. And Geoff and I made the Gateaux Basque tarte. All of our food got good reviews from the chef judges. Our total team score was 85. Not bad, considering our previous "cooking without a net" meal only got us a 78. Apparently not one ever gets a 90 or above!

We did not get out at 2:30 but 3:30pm instead. A few of us walked across the street and got something to eat at "It's Brothers" then all went home to study. We have a three hour written final at 10am tomorrow morning. I guess I better go study, as I have not done much in the way of studying today! Wish me luck!!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My last day of school today! Still can't believe it! We had no formal lecture today, instead, Chef Lexie talked again about our practical exams tomorrow morning, then covered our written test on Friday. We don't have to be at school until 8am tomorrow, although I will go a little early to get settled in and set up as needed. Friday, we start at 10am with two blind wine tasting. These will not be for extra credit but will count as part of our grade. The written test is 27 pages long and is broken down into three parts: wine, savory and sweet. Unfortunately, we will not get any grades back until the end of October. I did get a 101.5% on last week's exam. They told us today that no class has had the high scores my class has had during this session. Wow! Hard to believe!

I finished my Charlotte today as part of the dessert buffet. I cut the sponge cake rolls, lined my bowl with them, then made a Bavarian to fill it, then chilled it. You can see for yourself how it turned out! We also served the Nougat Glace I made the other day that has been sitting in the freezer. Geoff made a Frangipane and apple filled tart with caramel sauce. Good eating!

It was a day of odd jobs as well as cleaning and setting things up. I set up the table for the 8 chef judges for tomorrow. It had to be a formal setting, so it took some time-a charger, three forks, two spoons, steak knife and dessert fork as well as a water glass and two wine glasses, tablecloths and napkins. A nice diversion for part of the afternoon. Sean made the bread dough, with a little help from yours truly.

We ate lunch late (not sure why, but oh well) today. Lots and lots of food! Our "last meal" so to speak, lol. Arancinette (little fried risotto balls filled with mozzarella)with Caponata (the Italian version of ratatouille), Broccoli Romagna, Grilled Prawns with Marsala, Orecchiette with mushrooms and peas, Roasted Cauliflower Salad and Grilled Lamb. Everything was yummy and we all ate way too much. Collin made french bread, cheese bread rolls and Rye Beer bread. We had two wines today, a Vermentino and a Canonau, both quite good.

I received a call from Carl during school, he fell of a ladder and twisted his ankle. He's having quite a bit of pain, but it does not appear to be broken-according to Dr Woodward, lol. Just some swelling and slight discoloration. I told him to stay off of it, elevate it and ice it, then wrapped his foot and ankle with an ace bandage. Carl does not sit still very well!

I had dinner tonight with my friends in Castle Rock-it was a nice break. I've decided to postpone my Personal Chef class until the spring. I am just too tired and too tired of school to take another course right now. So I will be driving back to Reno next week and staying in Reno until October 4, when I will return to Denver so I can fly out with my classmates on Tuesday, October 5 to Rome.

Anyway, enough for now.......Wish me luck!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I was late for school today cause I stopped to help Carl with his computer. He's been having lots of problems lately. Oh, well....he's going to call his IT guy and have him come over this afternoon to continue working on it.

We're having cheese for dessert today, so I worked on a variation of a Charlotte Russe. I made a vanilla bisquit-type cake and baked it in a flat sheet pan. Once it came out of the oven, Chef Lexie and I rolled them (I had enough dough for two) in a cloth to cool (so they would cool wound up. Once they were cooled, I brushed them with a white rum flavored simple syrup, spread some pureed strawberry jam on them, then rolled them up again. They are wrapped in plastic in the walk-in. Tomorrow I will slice them, then line a bowl or pan with them, fill the pan with some Bavarian (cream), put more slices on top, then chill this. It will be unmolded onto a plate and served along with the Semi-Freddo. It is going to be a dessert buffet so I am sure we'll be making more things!

Geoff finished making the Gateau Basque-the tart/cake will have to make for our final. It tasted pretty good, but we now have to figure out how to plate it attractively. That requires imagination! We are going to make our three bread doughs tomorrow afternoon, that is the only thing they are going to let us do ahead of time. Otherwise, we have about two hours to get everything done we need to get done AND plate them attractively AND serve them to the judges. Chef Lexie decided today though, that we need to make two Gateau Basque tarts, one they can look at and judge and one that we cut and serve (to check taste, presentation, etc). I think we'll do ok.

Chef Pete lectured on Southern Italy. This includes Umbria, Calabria, Campania,the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, Marches, Latium (this region contains the large city of Rome), Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, and Basilicata. Quite a lot! Umbira is the only southern landlocked area. All the other regions border the Mediterranean Sea, the Tyrrhnian Sea, the Tonian Sea and the Adriatic Sea. So as you can imagine, lot of fish and shellfish. The geography of these regions is mountainous, rocky, hilly and hot. There are flat areas along the Adriatic coast.

Southern Italy was colonized by the Greeks in about the 8th Century B.C. The Greeks brought grapes and olives. In the 3rd century B.C. the Romans invaded and unified the peninsula-the first step towards social and economic developments. In 1030 A.D. the Normans invaded, bringing salt cod to the area. In the 1700s the tomato was brought over from the New World. 1861 was the year Italy was unified. From 1880-1920, 5 million immigrants from Italy came to America (4 million are actually from southern Italy, bringing Italian foodstuffs and styles with them.

The pillars of the southern Italian table are bread, wine and olive oil. Pig is "king" meaning, there are lots of pork products from this region-bacon, mortadella, pancetta, sprressota, capicolla and coppa. Olive trees thrive here as do citrus trees-lots of lemons and blood oranges. Artichokes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, figs, tangerines, quince, almonds and pomegranates are also grown here. These regions eat lots of fish-tuna, shrimp, squid and swordfish.

The wines of this region are Montepulciano d'Abruzzi, Trebbiano d'Abruzzi, Marsala, Rose, Frascati, Primitivo (zinfandel), Vermentino and Orvieto. You will also find grappa and Limoncello here.

It was back to our kitchens after the lecture to get ready for lunch. Breads today were our usual French bread, semolina bread and ciabatta. Collin has done a great job all by himself this week, turning out bread! Like I said, not much for Geoff and I to do for dessert, as they cheese was delivered from the Truffle Cheese Shop and only needed to be plated.

Our appetizer was Affettata-which is a cold plate of cured meats, served with olives and roasted red peppers. GardeMo also roasted some red grapes-they were better than I thought they would be! The grapes were left in a bunch, rubbed with olive oil and salt and pepper, then put under the salamander (broiler) for 4-5 minutes, then removed. This is definitely something I will try at home! GardeMo also make Fried Fish Marinara-fried cod served with vinaigrette dressed salad and marinara sauce. Our entree was Braciole with Orzo. Braciole is flank steak pounded out flat, then spread with, in our case, an olive/garlic filling, rolled, tied, seared and then braised for several hours. It really was delicious!

We cleaned our kitchens, then I made it home in time before it started to rain, complete with thunder and lightening! Some of the students are getting together tonight to practice slicing and dicing, but I needed some time to myself so am staying home tonight. Tomorrow night, I am going to have dinner with my friend Kim and her husband, Eric, out in Castle Rock. Another nice break from the stress of this week (although I seem to be affected by other people's stress more than my own!).

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this blog. I appreciate the support. I will try and continue with it while I am in Europe so you will hear about all I learn and all I see.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Still things to learn! I started to Mise for the Semi-Freddo (essentially a frozen mousse) that we were suppose to have for dessert at lunch today, but no cream was in the walk-in. Had to put that on hold. The school is gearing down it supplies as after Wednesday, no students will be cooking in the kitchen until Monday, October 4. Instead, I got out the ricotta cheese I had removed from the freezer on Friday, wrapped in cheesecloth to drain and set it in a bowl strainer over a bowl with a weight on top of it. Helps to compress the ricotta so it drains better. I put the ricotta in the Robot Coupe food processor, along with sugar, vanilla and eggs and let it process. Ricotta can be grainy and the cheaper the brand, the worse it is. Putting it in a food processor helps smooth it out. I then put the ricotta cheesecake mix into individual rings covered in foil, to make individual cheesecakes, then set them in a hotel pan. Once those went in the oven at 250 degrees in a bain marie and covered to keep them moist, I made a sauce of dried apricots simmered in white wine, dark rum, GrandGala (an orange liquor) and a little cinnamon. The apricots that did not get "mushy", I set aside, then took the wine sauce and the rest of the apricots and put on that in a food processor and "woodged" it around. Then, of course, you have to make it taste good, so I added brown sugar and salt and a little more dark rum. It turned out well, although after a while, you can't taste the difference any more, so I had to ask a couple other people to help taste!

Then it was time for our lecture-see there still are a few things left to learn! Chef Dale lectured on Tuscany, which is bordered on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea. To the north it is bordered by Ligueria and Emilia-Romagna. To the east, Umbria, and to the south, Latium. The longest river in Tuscany is the Arno River, which runs across Tuscany west to east, curling up on itself just outside Camaldoli and Poppi. The major cities of Tuscany are Florence, Pisa, Grosseto, Montepulciano, Siena, Arezzo, Lucca and Carrara. Florence is considered the birth place of the Renaissance and was home to the de Medicis-a powerful ruling house around the 11th century. The Etruscans first settled this area and gave Tuscany it's name. You can still see Etruscan architecture in this region.

Tuscan cooking has often been described as the best "cucina povera" (poor cuisine) in the whole of Italy, povera in this context meaning lacking elaboration and based totally on the quality of the ingredients. Although the city-states of Tuscany were torn apart by fierce and bitter clashes all thru the Middle Ages, they remained unified in their cooking. One of the main elements common to all Tuscan cooking, apart from its simplicity and the excellence of the primary ingredients, is the wide use of herbs. Thyme, sage, rosemary, and tarragon, the last seldom found elsewhere, area added to soups, meat and fish. Spices are common in Tuscan cooking, fennel seeds and chili being popular. Chili is called "zenzero" in Tuscany, a word that elsewhere in Italy means ginger.

The Tuscan olive oil is what makes the region's food so unmistakeably Tuscan. Rather than a dressing, it is the main character in the gastronomic scenario of the Tuscan table. Food is sauteed and fried in it, soups are benedette by it (given a last minute benediction by spooning some oil into them), and every vegetable is made tastier with a couple of tablespoons of it. A traditional tuscan meal starts with a soup. Thick and nourishing, full of vegetables, beans, herbs and olive oil, it will be ladled over the local pan sciocco (unsalted bread). Traditionally pasta is not a Tuscan forte, although nowadays you can eat a good dish of pasta in most restaurants. There are however, two pasta dishes that are Tuscan through and through, Pappardelle con la Lepre and Pici.

The other great Tuscan love is the bean. Not for nothing have the Tuscans been nicknamed "mangia fagioli" (bean eaters). they invented the best way to cook fagioli, namely in a flask, to retain the taste of the while cannelloni. the modern equivalent of that method is to stew the beans in a cone-shaped earthenware pot. beans are served as an accompaniment to pork, as in arista (roasted) or with broiled chops and fegatelli (broiled liver wrapped in caul fat).

Wines of Tuscany include Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

After the lecture, I did get to make the Semi-Freddo, killing two birds with one stone so to speak. I have wanted to learn to make Nougat candy (the Italian soft white candy with nuts you see around Christmas time). Chef Lexie gave me a recipe for Nougat Glace (what they call the Semi-Freddo) and then walked me thru what I would do to make the Nougat candy instead. It turned out great! We will have it for lunch on Wednesday. I'll let you know how they like it!

We had a Tuscan lunch today, surprise! GardeMo made Passatelli, a meat broth with "pasta" made from bread crumbs and cheese which is then pushed thru a colander, (much like spaetzle) and cooked in the broth. Our main course was Bistecca Fiorentina (grilled Porterhouse steak) served with Tortellini stuffed with ricotta and pine nuts, All delicious! (Can't say we expect anything less at this point!) Dessert was the Ricotta Cheesecake. It was somewhat deconstructed as we made Pate Sable (a nut flour dough), then cut out little circles, baked them separately, then stacked the pate sable on the bottom, ricotta cheesecake on top, then topped the ricotta cheesecake with the apricots. You'll see what I mean-I took pictures!

Clean-up, then back to the B&B only to find a photographer taking pictures of Carl and Bailey for a magazine article. Carl is being interviewed tomorrow. Carl really has been a good business man, getting out there and meeting people, being involved with Tour Denver, etc. I wish him continued success, although he says he sure will miss me when I am gone!

I should study tonight for our exam Friday. I am not really worried about the practical exams (cutting and fabricating, making mayo and pasta)--those should be ok. I do feel a little like I did before my nursing boards-if we don't know it by now, we're in trouble!! So off I go.....

Friday, September 17, 2010

Geoff was back at school today, albeit a little slow. He made Pate Brisee for our dessert and I made the Roasted Strawberries with honey and thyme. Getting that all together and done, took about an hour. Corey and Sean worked hard on getting French Toast to the breakfast table for the hungry hoards. Chef Lexie made a bread pudding out of my panettone bread from the other day, threw in the custard I had made along with the caramelized "schmoo" from yesterday. It turned out very well!

We had a blind wine tasting at 8:45am. It turned out to be a chardonnay from the central coast of California. I was right about most of it but I thought it might be a pinot grigio. Silly me! Then we had our exam. Not as bad as I thought is might be. It was our last exam. All that's left is our day of practical exams and then our final!

Chef Dale showed us how to put together Cassoulet, a French casserole dish made with white beans, duck confit, lamb, sausage and bacon. Yummy! This was the dish we made back when I did my Chef for a Day this last March. It was better than I remembered!

Then we had our Iron Chef competition. It was Corey and Cris against Alta and Sean and Kim and Vanessa. The protein was Cornish game hen, otherwise the playing field was open. Alta and Sean, Kim and Vanessa had chicken that was not quite done, which pretty much took them out of the running. Although Kim and Vanessa had great sides! They made orzo with a Mediterranean flair-olives, feta cheese, and tomatoes, served with roasted Brussels Sprouts. Cris took the bones out of the game hen and pounded it to flatten it out, so they got a cooked meat with a wonderful pan sauce. Their polenta was a little rubbery, but their dish was the one every one wanted to eat by the end of the competition. Corey and Cris were both given a bottle of wine as a prize. They were very happy!

After that, Chef Pete showed us how to make our own bacon. Pretty cool! He had two slabs of pork back that he had placed in our salt/sugar mixture for two days. He removed it from the walk-in, rinsed it, dried it, then took it out onto the patio to place it in the smoker. The school has an expensive smoker that can also be used as a grill. It runs on electricity, gas and wood pellets. Again, pretty cool! He left one pork back plain, but put a flavored mixture on the other slab to "funkify" it. Hopefully we will be able to try them both next week. I am amazed how into charcuterie and curing Chef Pete is. He is very good at what he does!

Once we were done with that, we went back to our respective kitchens to get ready for lunch. GardeMo made a salad with roasted beets and blue cheese. The greens were dressed simply with a vinaigrette. The main entree of course was our Cassoulet. For dessert, we had the Roasted Strawberries with honey and thyme.

We got our early today and I was home by 3pm!! So I am going to enjoy my weekend, do some studying and pack up some of "stuff" to ship home. Time to think about getting everything back to Reno!