The Cocktail Hour Chef

Potato Soup

2011-09-19T21:28:00.003-04:00

In the past few days the weather has gone from full on summer to something far closer to fall.

This means that it is time to break out the soup recipes. In looking over my pantry it occurred to me that I had all the ingredients for potato soup. You probably have most of these in your kitchen right now... potato, onion, bacon, garlic, cheese, milk and chicken stock.

First things first, the bacon needs to be diced. I find that if you put the bacon in the freezer for a few minutes cutting it becomes far easier to work with. Once the bacon is cut, place it in a cold pot over medium/low heat.

While the bacon cooks there is more than enough time to deal with the onions, garlic and potatoes! The onions and garlic get a very fine dice so that they will cook quickly. The potato ends up with a medium dice, this is because I want it to hold together for most of the cooking!

Once the bacon is browned take some out so that you have it to garnish the soup with when you're finished.

Then add the onions and garlic to the bacon and the oh so delicious bacon fat!

After adding the onions and garlic let them cook until they are soft and translucent. This is a moment when you do have to keep an eye on things so that you don't burn the onions or garlic.

After the onions reach the correct color add the potatoes and chicken stock to the pot. You will want to add enough stock so that the potatoes are totally covered.

Let this come to a low simmer and cook uncovered for the next half hour or so. What you are looking for is a potato that is still a square when you pull it out of the pot, but that breaks when you smush it between your fingers.

Once they get to that magical "smush point" remove the pot from the heat and add the milk. Once the milk has been added and the soup has cooled down just a touch it is time break out the immersion blender!

Blend the soup until you get to a texture that you like. I like my soup to have a silky texture with just a few chunks of potato to remind me that it is potato soup I'm eating. I will also take this moment to say how much I love my immersion blender... but when you're using it be careful because the soup can splash back and the last thing you want it is a bath of molten hot soup!

Return the pot to the burner, but be sure you have it on a very low heat setting. At this point all you are really doing is keeping the soup warm while you add the cheese! Just toss it in by the hand-full and stir well.

Now there is nothing left to do but find a bowl to put the soup in. I find that topping it with the classic baked potato toppings makes for a great meal!

Enjoy!

Field Trip!

2011-04-21T18:14:00.005-04:00

For as long as I can remember I have always loved a good field trip. In grade school those were the days we didn't have to wear our uniform and could pack a lunch. In high school field trips were few and far between but still fun days. In college I managed to sign up for a real estate law class where we took a field trip every single Friday!

When Chef mentioned in our morning meeting that there was an optional "kitchen field trip" to the farm where we get some of our herbs, mushrooms, squash, and (when we use them) micro greens. I think I might have let out a giggle of delight when he mentioned this. The reason we were going was to pay them a friendly visit as well as check out how they grew the shiitake mushrooms that we use in our pasta dish.

I don't have all the technical details down but you start with these logs...

They have holes drilled in them, the holes get mushroom spawn put in them and then the holes and ends are coated in cheese wax. After this process the logs are stacked up for 6-8 months before this starts to happen...

If you look really closely you can see the itty bitty mushroom that is just starting to grow!

At this point the logs get moved from the pile to standing up...

And when the time comes the mushrooms look about like this...

They are harvested! To harvest them you just grab them by the stem and twist.

In addition to the grove of mushrooms in the woods the farm also has beehives, a ton of fresh herbs, beautiful plants and an adorable store.

Balsamic Vinegar

2011-04-13T20:59:00.004-04:00

I am exceptionally fond of balsamic vinegar.

I have been using it on everything recently...

Pile of Boston Lettuce (or Butter lettuce depending on where you're from), fresh avocado, little cherry tomatoes, fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt.

Grilled vegetables.

Roasted potatoes.

Grilled chicken.

And my favorite of the moment... Strawberries! I adore strawberries with balsamic, the two flavors work so beautifully together.

These are just a few ways to use it, one can also whip up fantastic dressings and marinades with this magical ingredient.

The Results...

2011-03-11T21:55:00.002-05:00

Many moons ago, okay back in January, I took the International Sommelier Guild level 2 exam. This was a 3 part adventure (4 blind wines to taste and identify, 6 essays on a variety of different topics pertaining to things we learned about, and a major multiple choice exam covering everything in a very large book) has kept me on pins and needles waiting for the results. Earlier this week I got an e-mail from a classmate saying that scores were up.

Taking a deep breath I went to the website clicked the button and voila my scores appeared! Taking a moment to process the numbers I realized that I'd passed all three parts! I'm acutally REALLY happy with my scores!

Cheers!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T22:28:00.002-05:00

It is a given that there are a few days in the restaurant industry that are going to be "special," for lack of a better term.

One of the key things that the kitchen does is look at the reservations to see how many guests we are expecting. The reservation book is one of the most useful tools that a chef has. It shows us how many people are coming, how many came last year, and when we can expect people.

What the reservation book doesn't show us is how many people have made reservations all over town. We plan for a give or take number, expecting some people not to show up, but when close to one fourth of your reservations don't show up it is down right frustrating.

So, on behalf of restaurants everywhere... if you make a reservation and change your mind, can't make it, don't feel like going out... please call us, go online and tell us, do something so we know. Also, most of the online reservation systems have ways of tracking people who no-show.

Cheers!

French Onion Soup

2011-02-10T14:16:00.017-05:00

Since the "chilly" weather has returned I am back to craving soup. Looking around the kitchen I realized that I had everything I needed for French Onion Soup! I adore French Onion soup but haven't ever made it at home before. I made it in culinary school, I've made it at work, I know my mother has made it... but I don't have a "go to" recipe for it. I consulted a few different cookbooks and pulled parts of two different recipes to create my own.

The first thing that you need to go is gather all the ingredients, as you can see this is basically a pile of onions and some beef broth (or chicken broth if you prefer it.)

A quick word about the butter... Normally I would just use "normal" butter, but I was out. Thankfully I had a slab of Plugra in the fridge. I tend to reserve this product for baking, finishing sauces, and buttering croissants... applications where you can really get the benefit of the full flavor and richness that it brings to food.

It has been said many times that French onion soup is all about the onions! This is a rather true statement. I've covered one base by using a variety of different kinds because they all lend different elements to the dish. In this collection we have red, yellow and sweet onions. I also used shallots and a head of garlic (it is hiding behind the cheese.) The other thing that matters with the onions is how you cut them!

All the onions start out in a variety of sized and shapes. For the soup you want them to all go into the pot in about the same size and shape so that they will cook at the same rate. There are a two ways to accomplish this. First, if you have a mandoline this would be a great task to use it for. Second, pull out the trusty chef's knife and get to work. I opted for the knife since I love the one I got for Christmas and am still at the point where I think up random reasons to use it.

Either way you will end up with a pot of onions that looks something like this.

You want your slices to be thin, but not so thin that they will totally break down to nothing in the cooking process. And speaking of the cooking process... once the pot is on the stove over a low/ medium-low heat basically ignore it for the next 30-50 minutes. I checked on the pot a few times to stir things around and see how the color was coming.

You want the onions to go from the above photo to something like this. At this point the onions have spent lots of time in the pot with just a little butter and a splash of olive oil.

Hiding under the mess of onions is a layer of deep brown bits of onion that have secured themselves to the bottom of the pot. These bits are full of flavor and need to be removed from the bottom and worked in before the been broth is added.

The best thing for deglazing a pot is liquid... especially alcohol! In one of the books it mentioned using balsamic vinegar and port. I have the vinegar, but I was missing port. Looking at my alcohol collection I noticed a bottle of Courvoisier, I've never known it to screw up a recipe so I used it.

Once the courvoisier and balsamic have been added, the bottom of the pot has been scraped, and every thing has been mixed together it is time to add all the broth. I like to add warm broth, so way back when I started the onions I also put a large pot on the back burner and filled it with the broth and put it on a very low heat so that it would be ready when I was.

So... add the warm broth to the onions, stir to mix it all together, crank the heat up to a boil and once it boils reduce the head to a simmer and leave it alone for another 30 minutes or so.

When it is all done you will end up with something resembling this pot.

Shortly before the soup is ready you want to slice some bread (mmm baguette) and grate some cheese (gruyere.) I was feeling rather decadent so I took the bread, melted a little more butter, buttered the bread and popped it into the toaster for a few minutes to create giant buttery croutons.

To really have the whole "french onion soup experience" it is necessary to ladle some soup into an oven safe bowl, add the croutons or sliced bread, top with the cheese, and as a last step slide the whole thing under a wicked hot broiler to melt the cheese! You end up with delicious melty cheese & soup soaked croutons covering a delicious rich soup.

Cheers!

Cookbooks

2011-02-03T18:40:00.008-05:00

For the longest time my cookbooks lived on the counter, in a basket on the floor, on the dining room table and stacked on a bar stool. They took up valuable counter space in my not too brilliantly designed kitchen, they were in the way on the floor, they got lost in the shuffle on the table and got knocked off the bar stools.

Recently I embarked on a "re-do the livingroom" kick, which still isn't done. To start with I got rid of the tall towers by my tv, one now lives on the other corner of the room but that one doesn't matter. The one that matters is the one that moved to the nook by my kitchen and now holds cookbooks!

I'm just happy to have all the books in one space! Ones I use most often are all lined up on one shelf. They are in no particular order, but the one in the middle (the Les Halles cookbook) is one of my favorites. It isn't written like any other cookbook, but then again it is a Tony Bourdain book! Reading a recipe from that book is like having the man in your kitchen telling you what to do and the pitfalls to watch out for.

I'm also very fond of the Jamie Oliver books, they are seasonal and really focus on the quality of ingredients used. On the far left are a trio of cookbooks that I grew up with. Mom had the Silver Palate books and I had to have them too. The New Basics cookbook has been with me since college and there are chunks of it that are falling out. Martha, in orange, is a requirement for any kitchen. Not that book, but one of her book... The Martin Yan books both came from his visit to Johnson & Wales and one is signed. He was such a fantastic man to watch and listen to.

The shelf below that one holds books that while I don't use as often I find really useful in the moment. The Pioneer Woman cookbook is well worth the money for the food photography alone!

Stacked beneath that are 2 fascinating books by Nigella Lawson and a really fun looking book on baking that I picked up not too long ago. I'd like to round out my baking skills, I make killer cookies and pretty darn good cupcakes but I'd like to get into breads and interesting cakes and things like that.

Stacked on the top of the tower are the big heavy books that are more reference text than anything else. The huge blue one is the text book from culinary school. It isn't all recipes, there is a ton of general information in it too.

The book above it, with the shiny cover that didn't photograph well at all, is the Larousse Gastronomique. It was first published in 1937, since then it has been updated and translated from French to English. It is more of an encyclopedia than a cookbook. The information in it is tried and true. The green book above it takes the place of a large stash of Gourmet Magazines. The James Beard book is another cookbook/encyclopedia selection. It highlights more American leaning food.

The Joy of Cooking is one of those cookbooks that has been around for ages. Every so often it gets updated and a new cover but when you can compare a version from 1943 and 1997 side by side...
The "guts" of the book remains true. The recipes are still set out in a page saving format, the illustrations are simple and the needed information is all there. In the 1943 version there is far more lard used than in the 1997 one. But 1997 has ingredients that weren't in the 1943 version.

In the last two photos there has been a portion of a small grey box. This box is the key to my recipe collection, it is filled with handwritten index cards of recipes that are in cookbooks I'm not allowed to "borrow" from my mother. There are old family recipes, ones from newspapers and magazines, and things I've played around with.

Almost all of the recipes I use in cookbooks have notes in the margin, I have no problem writing in a cookbook. My theory is that anything I think enough to make a note of will only help me the next time I give the recipe a shot.

That final lower portion of the tower has more cookbooks in it too... but not nearly as well organized!

Cheers!

Four Blind Wines...

2011-01-24T22:45:00.003-05:00

four blind wines
four blind wines
see how they taste...
(keep humming to the tune of 3 blind mice)

I'm in the last 2 weeks of my level 2 International Sommelier Guild class and tonight we had our blind tasting portion of our final exam. Walking into class tonight we were greeted by 4 glasses and two sheets of paper.

Looking at the glasses I breathed a major sigh of relief. I was pretty darn sure about one of them on sight alone. Tasting it would confirm my initial thought. The rest of the tasting was pretty straight forward... 2 reds and 2 whites. The wines were basically spot on hallmarks of what they should be.

That said, in a move classic for me, I totally over thought the last wine and screwed it up. Hopefully I wrote a decent tasting note for it and can still get most of the points.

The only thing left in class is the exam...

Wine Review

2011-01-10T21:30:00.005-05:00

Monday is wine class night, however class was called off due to the snowy/icy weather. Feeling the need for some wine I ventured to my trusty wine rack. In looking at the options I went for a 2006 Ridge Geyserville. This wine is a blend of 70% Zinfandel (just under the 75% minimum to call it that varietal), 18% Carignane, 10% Petit Syrah and 2% Mataro grapes.

In absolutely non-technical terms this wine rocks! As in go to your wine shop and buy some, and stick it on the shelf for the next few years. The label tells me that I'm drinking it a bit too early, but it tastes so very good. If it is this good now, I can't wait to see what it will be like in a few years.

Getting to the technical stuff...
On the nose there are great fruit elements (deep red cherries and dark berries) with hints of earthy leathers and vague overtones of baking spices (nutmeg, spice, clove.)

In tasting the wines I found all those elements I smelled showed up and blended into one elegant expression. The tannins balance the alcohol and acidity of the wine, and lend a great structure to the wine. This wine lingers on the palate in a pleasing way enticing you to drink more of it.

All in all... I like Ridge to begin with, and I really liked this wine. I might have to go out and pick up a few more bottles to let them rest for a few years.

Cheers!

Cold Weather = Chili Weather

2011-01-09T21:27:00.017-05:00

With rumors of snow tomorrow and a free evening after work I took a quick spin through the grocery store, where I might have been the only person not buying bread and/or milk, for a few things to whip up a batch of chili. Growing up chili always appeared when the weather turned chilly, so the weather today had me craving some!

The ingredients are straightforward and already in most kitchens, all I had to buy tonight was the ground beef and the diced tomatoes.

The first step is to dice the onion and mince the garlic. I usually say that precision in knife cuts matters, heck I even did a whole blog post on it, chili is one of the exceptions to that rule. While you're getting the onions and garlic down to a reasonable size it is a great time to put your pot on the stove and get the butter melting!

Once the butter is melted and sizzling toss the onions into the pot and let them go from this...

To this...

The process of sweating the onions and garlic to get them soft with very little color on them takes about 10 minutes, and requires very little effort. I use the time to measure and blend the spices.

With the spices blended and the onion mix cooked add the ground beef and spices. If you are not a huge fan of ground beef it is possible to whip this recipe up with ground turkey or chicken.

Let the onions, beef and spices cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Then add the tomatoes. I find that the petite diced are the easiest to work with, but you can use chopped, diced, crushed or whole tomatoes. I find that folding the tomatoes in and putting the lid on the pot for a good 30 minutes gets the best results.

I might open the pot once or twice to stir the mix and check that the seasoning tastes right. Once those 30 minutes are up the chili is done and ready to eat... but there is nothing wrong with leaving it on the stove over low heat until you are ready to eat. The longer it cooks the more the flavors develop.

When you are ready to eat it add your favorite toppers (cheese, sour cream and chives), find the right beverage (I opted for beer), and dig in!

New Year... Same Blog

2011-01-05T16:29:00.004-05:00

As the new year begins I have decided to come back to the Cocktail Hour Chef Blog! (please cue noise makers, trumpets, and confetti.) For 2011 I hope to have more posts with actual recipes (and hopefully photographs), lots of wine information, segments on my favorite kitchen tools and other surprises along the way.

Kicking this off lets talk about knives...

They are one of the basic tools of the kitchen and there are about as many variations on them as there are people on the face of the earth. When I arrived at culinary school one of the first things I got was a large blue bag and a box of knives. Sitting in a large circle our class identified the knives, talked about what they did and then put them into the blue bags. The knives we got that day were pretty decent German knives. They cut, they chopped, the sliced students who were not paying attention. While I liked these knives I didn't love them. I had a kinda sorta old Henckels knife (I'm pretty sure I bought it at Target after college) that I really think worked better. If nothing else I liked how it felt in my hand more than the school knives did. Still, at school I used the knives the school gave us and kept my old trusty knife at home.

Since graduating I've had time to try out other knives. I've tried a few brands some German, some Japanese, and a single brand from Switzerland. What I found in all of this is that I adore German knives and just not at all fond of the Japanese ones. As for the Swiss knives, they're fun and I like them, but they don't have all the products that I need.

Christmas rolled around and while I'd fallen in lust with one knife I knew that while it was stunningly beautiful and cut like a dream it wasn't sensible to ask for it. A few days after Christmas I once again found my self in Sur La Table playing with knives. This time I looked at a slightly different one and it came home with me.

The knife I ended up getting (Zwilling Henckels Twin Profection) has been up to every task I've put before it in the past few days. A head of cauliflower... nothing to it, carrots... like a sharp knife through hot butter, raw potatoes... easy. This is a knife that wants to cut what ever ends up under the blade.

On that note... I'm off to whip up dinner!
Cheers

Cleaning Up

2010-04-02T10:08:00.002-04:00

I've had a chance to rotate through all four of the brigade positions that we use in class and I have to say that they each have their pros and cons, and they are all very important to the running of a Classical French Dining Room. I was in the Debarrasseur position again today and I realized that this position really is key to the running of the room. The Debs make everything happen. We clear tables, pour water, tidy up after the chefs, and take care of the little details that make the meal what it is.

French Wine!

2010-03-31T10:05:00.002-04:00

Today we worked on more French Wines... we left Bordeaux for Burgundy and the wine labeling laws got even more chaotic. Thanks to the WSET classes I had an inkling of what was coming, but having to learn it in a room with 20 people who don't particularly care about it and just want to get done with lecture is very different from learning about it in a room of 20 people who are truly interested in wine.

Burgundy is crazy with how they label wine, but sometimes you just have to let go and realize that the French do things in their own way. And they make some of the best damn wine out there, so sometimes you just have to learn the rules and go with it. You can't argue with people about it, it just is what it is!

Playing with Fire!

2010-03-30T09:59:00.002-04:00

Today I was the Chef for my brigade. This meant I really did very little other than whip up a table side Caesar Salad for one table and make dessert for another.

Okay... so there might have been a little more to it since dessert was "Bananas Flambe" Flambe... as in on fire!

Since the school is still standing and there are no scorch marks anywhere in the advanced dining room classroom it is safe to say that all went well. I was pretty comfortable making the dessert, and the biggest hiccup I had was peeling the banana with a knife and fork!

Full Service!

2010-03-15T20:34:00.002-04:00

Today was our first day of full service in the kitchen. All things considered the day went really well. We didn't have a lot of food to produce and everything was from one country so the food made sense!

It was fun to "work the line" today and create food to order. It is the closest to a real restaurant situation that I have been in today. The class really came together and while some of us were producing the food the rest of the class was cleaning up so that we would all have less to do after service.

Tomorrow we head to Africa...

How Many Countries?

2010-03-12T19:05:00.003-05:00

Today we picked up some of the "slack" from not really cooking for the past few days. Instead of regular service we threw a buffet hitting food from... Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and India! Yep... all 8 of those countries were represented on a "wild international buffet."

It was a ton of cooking and a variety of different styles for everyone to be working on, but we managed to get it all out for people to eat and eat they did! I was bummed that we didn't have a full day for India as it is one of my very favorite countries to eat from, but I did see how I can make naan bread at without a tandori oven!!

Yan Can Cook...

2010-03-11T20:27:00.003-05:00

As a general rule, the International Cuisine class doesn't go to see the Distinguished Visiting Chef lectures. This is because we are responsible for creating the food for the dining room class to serve at lunch.

Today we broke the "general rule."

Since the class has been involved with preparing a variety of things that have gone along with Chef Yan and his visit to JWU Chef Pearson took us to see the presentation. What was scheduled to run 60- 75 minutes went for nearly 2.5 HOURS! Chef Yan has such an amazing way of presenting his talent that you don't even realize that you have been sitting on the edge of your seat for hours. He can do things with a knife that I only dream of...
*carrot slices so think that you can place on a piece of paper and read through
*yellow pepper that is slivered to about the thickness of dental floss
*garlic turned to paste in the blink of an eye
*one tomato sliced so thin that you could cover an entire dinner plate with the slices
and the most amazing part...
*breaking down a chicken in 15 seconds.

The last one is amazing to me, when I had my meatcutting practical it took me 30 minutes to break one chicken down. Here is a video, not from today, but this is pretty close to what he did today!

The People That You Meet...

2010-03-10T20:49:00.002-05:00

Today I was reminded of the Mr. Rodgers song about "the people that you meet when you're walking down the street in your neighborhood." At the end of a long day of work I stepped on to the elevator with fellow students and a small cluster of people from one of the upstairs offices. In looking at one of the gentlemen in the group he seems familiar, but I can't quite place him. Upon reaching the ground floor the cluster of people step off and Chef Calenda, who had been on the elevator with us, asks if anyone knows who was riding with us. It turns out that the familiar looking gentleman was Chef Martin Yan! Martin Yan... as in the tv show Yan Can Cook, tons of cookbooks and a slew of California restaurants.

What was he doing at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte, North Carolina of all places... Well, he is a visiting chef as well as being the guest of honor at a dinner event that our International Cuisine class has spent the past two days doing major prep work for! Tomorrow he will be giving a lecture and demonstration for the students and I am really looking forward to seeing it.

Magic Tricks

2010-03-09T20:38:00.000-05:00

According to Chef Pearson cooking is just a bunch of magic tricks. In thinking this over I realize that he might just be right. If you think about it, taking a variety of different raw products and mixing them up and creating something totally different is magic! The more you practice your craft the better you get at it, when you start magic you start with the card tricks and at some point you will be able to make a building vanish. With cooking you start with the basics and work to the big showy things.

Today was the start of my 3rd and final trimester of classes at Johnson & Wales. I have a full slate of interesting labs that I'm really looking forward to. The new trimester brings together yet another different group of people, so once again there will be adjustment time as we learn to work as a group and support each other to get the work done.

International cuisine should be a really interesting class, we will be touching on quite a few countries in Asia as well as a quick stop in Italy.

Beef Stew

2010-02-25T20:25:00.002-05:00

Practicals day 3 of 3. Not only am I done with my practical exams, I am done with this trimester! I am more than ready for a week off!

Today I was cooking again, this time I was totally comfortable with what I was doing and with the meat I was given. My father has a beef stew that he has been making for as long as I can remember so when I was handed a hunk of beef I knew exactly what I was going to do!

I altered the recipe a bit from what dad does... I used a variety of onions (pearl, yellow and shallots) instead of just one type and put the mushrooms in at the start so that their flavor could spread through the whole dish.

That gamble played off and Chef really enjoyed the mix of different flavors that the variety of onions brought to the dish.

It was a great way to end the second trimester at Johnson & Wales!

Comis

2010-02-24T21:47:00.002-05:00

Practicals... Day 2 of 3.
Today was a fun fluffy day, I didn't actually have a practical exam today I was in the role of helper. I floated around the room helping out if I was needed. I also took a mid morning field trip to starbucks to grab a mocha for me and a latte for Chef. A few of us who were on the comis team today made fresh lemonade... I was entertained by the fact that as we are making this drink that is associated with summer there were a few flurries of snow drifting down from the clouds.

After the lemonade we experimented with an Indian rice pudding and a roasted veggie medley... not exactly flavors that go together, but it was fun to play with food.

The Little Things DO Matter!

2010-02-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

Ox Tails...

2010-02-23T21:31:00.001-05:00

Day 1 of 3 days of practical exams... and I get to braise ox tails. Prior to this morning I have cooked ox tails all of... oh wait... I've NEVER cooked them before!

With a grade in the balance of how this dish turns out I decided to keep it super simple flavor wise. I cut a very basic mirepoix of celery, carrot and onion, for a little extra I added some pearl onions and some fresh sprigs of oregano. From there I followed the 9 steps of braising!

1. mise en place (get it all together... thought up what I was doing!)
2. prep main ingredient (trimmed some of the fat from the very fatty ox tails)
3. Sear meat (nice hot braising dish with some oil in it too. Seared the ox tails in batches and got them all pretty and carmelized on the outside)
4. Sear aeromatics (where I took all the meat out of the pan and added in the mirepoix I'd cut up earlier and got a hint of color on them.)
5. Deglaze (I added a healthy amount of red wine to the mirepoix and scraped all the yummy good bits off the bottom of the pan.)
6. Return the meat (I added the ox tails back to the pan and filled it with veal stock til the ox tails were almost submerged, but not quite)
7. Seal (exactly what it sounds like... I got a nice tight seal on the pan with heavy duty tin foil)
8. Oven (again... into the oven it went until it was "fork tender." Because ox tails are so tough it took a good long while to braise and I checked it every 30 minutes or so to be sure that there was still enough liquid in the pot.)
9. Create Sauce (once the meat is done you take it out of the pan and strain what is in the pot so that you have just the liquid to work with. I took the liquid and cranked the heat up and let it reduce to a thick syrupy goo that was divine!)

Turns out that the first time was the charm with ox tails... Chef said that the dish was fantastic and the sauce was perfect!

Monday...

2010-02-22T21:26:00.002-05:00

Mondays are never the best day of the week, and today was no exception. The whole class was just sort of "off." The required work got taken care of, but nothing was over the top fantastic. I think that it had a bit to do with the fact that we'd just come off a 5 day week and that we were in the home stretch to spring break.

Hopefully we will survive these next four days...

Why am I Eating Rabbit at 8:30am?

2010-02-19T17:12:00.000-05:00

It is thoughts like this filter through my head at least once a day while at JWU. With class starting at 7am, we are usually cooking not long after that so food is being tasted. I've never been a fan of eating early, my mother would force me to eat breakfast when I was a kid, so having to taste food, especially heavy food is a challenge for me in the mornings. The rabbit was pretty good, and when we were done preparing the dish it was fantastic.

Aside from the rabbit I worked on a new knife cut today... the Tourne! If you've ever eaten out and seen potatoes (carrots and hearty root veggies are also used) that are shaped similar like footballs that is probably a tourne cut. It is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of the motion and chef was complimenting mine after a few quick moments of playing with the knife.

All I Want is Salad...

2010-02-18T16:56:00.000-05:00

Or maybe a vegetable that hasn't been braised or stewed or covered in butter. I mentioned that to Chef today and he laughed and pretty much said that the closest I could get to salad in this class would be an endive. My eyes lit up as I thought of a salad that I could whip up the following day, then he burst my happy salad bubble by telling me that not only would he find me an endive or three that he would bring me a recipe for braising them.

I understand that we need to be eating the food that we are cooking, but the food in this class is so incredibly heavy it is unreal, and it is a huge amount of meat!

Letting People Fail

2010-02-17T20:50:00.002-05:00

I have a hard time letting people fail when I think that I can help. There is a girl in my work group who doesn't quite get what we're doing, and to be honest she hasn't really gotten it all term. Some of the chefs we have worked with have been telling us to help her, to work with her, to support her. The chef we have now has told us to let her make mistakes, to not fix things behind her, and to stop coddling her. He's told us to let her fail. While some might see this as cruel, I sort of see it as a weight lifted off my shoulders. I have been given permission to really focus on my work, I realize this might seem selfish, but that is the way things are. I have a limited time at Johnson & Wales, and I am going to make the very most of it that I can.

Braising and Fresh Pasta

2010-02-16T20:52:00.002-05:00

Today was my first day working in the kitchen today, and it was great fun! My group had to create a braised beef and vegetable dish, a carrot and onion dish, a puttanesca sauce and fresh pasta!

The braised beef was super easy and wonderfully delicious. I always think of braising as this long drawn out process that has tons of steps and requires lots of work. In truth it is 9 steps. Nine simple, easy, tidy steps. Knowing this it bums me out that spring is around the corner and there won't be many days I can braise something for dinner. While I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots the dish was pretty darn good.

Fresh pasta is something I've never made before and will totally make again. I think there might be a pasta machine attachment for my super duper kitchen aid mixer added to my wish list of fun kitchen gadgets. Making the pasta is super easy; I really don't see why I bother buying the stuff...

Traditionally Speaking

2010-02-15T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today I started Traditional European, my last class of the 2nd trimester, I can't believe how quickly time has flown by! In this class we will be doing lots of stewing and braising. Those two cooking methods can turn even the toughest cuts of meat into something delicious.

Family Style

2010-02-11T17:46:00.000-05:00

Last day of this class and what a great time it has been! I've loved this class, the little things I've learned about how to serve and the different styles of service will serve me well from here on out. Today was a bit more casual in the dining room. Instead of everyone having their own table to serve we worked in groups of 4 to serve tables of 10. It was interesting to work in groups, having to coordinate the service of the table took a few minutes to figure out but once we got the choreography worked out it was actually fun.

Practically Speaking

2010-02-10T17:44:00.000-05:00

Today was practical day for most of the class, thankfully I got mine done with yesterday. I got to be the "bartender" for the class, which means that I had to have all the beverages set up and ready to go for my fellow students when they came through the service bar. It was a very low stress day for me today!

Tea Party!

2010-02-09T17:41:00.000-05:00

Today was the tea tasting, other than the food and wine pairing this was a day I was looking forward to. I love hot tea and the service that goes with a proper afternoon tea. Ms. C, our fantastic instructor, asked two of us to make scones for the class. Scones are something that I not only adore but have a killer recipe for! The lemon poppy seed scones and fresh lemon curd were a huge hit today!

Wine Pairing

2010-02-08T17:39:00.000-05:00

Today was one of my very favorite days in class! It was food and wine pairing day today. I have done this very cool deconstructed tasting three times now and I always find something new that I either adore or can't stand. The one that makes me laugh the most is the pairing of a Riesling and something spicy!

Allergies

2010-02-04T17:37:00.000-05:00

We had a really interesting discussion on allergies today and what servers and managers can do to work with guests who have allergies. Allergies are a hot topic in the food world because when not taken seriously the consequences can be horrible.

First Day of Service

2010-02-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

Today went really well, or what I define as really well. I served my first table of guests and didn't spill a thing on anyone!

What Happens When it Snows?

2010-02-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Today should really be the third day of class but due to a 'snow day' we are on our second day. We have yet to serve a table, and really that is just fine with me. I'm not great at serving, so the longer I can put it off the happier I am. We learned more about the different kinds of service today. Let me tell you that there is far more to serving a table than just setting a plate down in front of a guest and telling them to enjoy.

Snow

2010-02-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

So it snowed last Friday and we have a snow day today. And yes, I am well aware that today is Monday.

Out of the Kitchen Again

2010-01-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

Once again we are out of a kitchen and sitting in a service class. This time we are learning about the front of the house, which is restaurant speak for "where the guests can go." Our instructor has a great background ans has worked at some fantastic properties so her knowledge base will be fantastic to learn from.

Fish & Chips

2010-01-27T20:40:00.002-05:00

First a confession... I don't like fish. With the exception of a little lobster in Maine, New England Clam Chowder, a bite of shrimp every so often, and a tuna sandwich once in a blue moon I don't eat fish.

The deep frying practical exam involves making french fries and fried fish. This might sound easy but the knife cuts on the potatoes have to be perfect, all the fries should be exactly the same. And the fish... well we're not exactly getting breaded fillets from the nearest market. We have to break down a whole fish into fillets and then into portion sized cuts. I managed to break the fish down pretty easily. The technique is similar to the ones we learned in meatcutting class on larger animals.

With my fries and fillets in hand I headed to the deep fryer to coax all sorts of crispy goodness out of the raw product. The good news is that I succeeded! My fries were both crispy and fluffy and the fillets were cooked properly.

Grill Baby

2010-01-26T20:26:00.002-05:00

The grilling practical was all about a simple perfect grilled steak. Diamond grill marks, medium-rare steak, and that is about it. We also had to make grilled asparagus, roasted potatoes, and a sauce.

All in all it went pretty darn well for me today. I got my grill marks right, my sides looked good, and the "sauce" I made went over really well. For my sauce I made a simple compound butter with garlic paste and rosemary.

Tomorrow is the final written exam and the frying practical. In the practical I'll have to make fish and chips.

The Only One Making Risotto

2010-01-25T19:25:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day of practical exams for this class...

I was in the roasting group today and we each had to roast a chicken, make a pan gravy, saute a medley of green beans & julienne cut carrots, and serve it with a side of either mushroom risotto or red rice pilaf. Out of the 6 of us, I was the only one who decided to make the risotto.

I opted for the risotto because I know how to make it, I've made it in class, I had the time to make it, and I needed the thirty minutes at the stove spent stirring to clear my thoughts and mentally design my plate presentation. My decision was a good one because I ended up with a very pretty plate and something different, which is always good! Chef had good things to say about my whole plate, which was nice to hear and I got a great score.

Tomorrow we have the second leg of practical exams and I will be grilling. I've been practicing my 'grill marks' with the grill pan that I got for Christmas. I can now make beautiful diamonds on my grilled products, and hopefully that will pay off tomorrow.

Debate Day

2010-01-22T20:31:00.001-05:00

French Settlers vs. Native Americans in Louisiana...
A simple topic for debate if you have the side of the French and thankfully my group did! We were able to show that the French brought all sorts of techniques and foods with them that the Native Americans didn't have and that these foods and techniques are still in use today.

Peeling Ginger

2010-01-21T20:12:00.000-05:00

Today we highlighted Jamaican flavors and I worked on a jerk marinade for the chicken we would be grilling. This marinade is something that I will be putting into my rotation of things I like to cook. The flavors in it are familiar yet have a different twist. I can see this being a fantastic summer chicken dish.

In making the marinade I learned that you don't peel ginger with a peeler, a knife or anything else you use the edge of a spoon and scrape the skin off!

French Fry Tasting!

2010-01-20T20:53:00.002-05:00

Today was the day we had sadly put off for more than enough days. We started the day with a lecture about the three main types of potatoes we took the next step and saw how those differences manifested themselves in the cooking process. The best way to see how the potatoes stand up is to fry them and see what kind of fry they make.

The Waxy (yukon gold), Russett and Chef potatoes were cut into beautiful uniform fries, blanched, frozen, and brought out to swim in the fresh fry oil! In looking at them there were slight variations in form and color once they came out of the oil. The real differences were seen when we started tasting them...

The Russett potatoes made a fry with a super crisp outside and the fluffy soft interior that is similar to a baked potato.

The Chef potatoes made a middle of the road fry, nothing super to write home about, but I'd still eat and enjoy them.

The Waxy potatoes made an interesting fry. This potato had the biggest taste difference of the three, I can't quite point out what it was that tasted different, but there was something that did.

All said... it was a pretty tasty day!

Substitute Chef

2010-01-19T20:45:00.001-05:00

A different take on things, a new view point, another method to use... these are all things that you get when your regular chef is unable to come to class and the chef who teaches the evening section takes over for the day. It was actually really nice to have a different chef, not because I dislike the current one, but because the more chefs and their methods I can be exposed to the happier I am and more I can get out of my education.

Steak Tasting!

2010-01-14T22:15:00.003-05:00

One of the ways that life is totally different at Johnson & Wales from life in the real world is that how often in the real world do you line up beautifully grilled flank, skirt, and rib-eye steaks for a side by side by side tasting? At Johnson & Wales this type of thing is almost normal. It is such fun to see great food products lined up and waiting to be tasted! And having them lined up you can really taste the difference between them and think of different applications for each steak.

The other very cool thing today was that the dean of the culinary school did a presentation on healthy cooking for us. He was very interesting to watch and I really enjoyed the program. His base of knowledge is amazing and the passion he has for his craft shines!

Cooking For Others.

2010-01-13T21:23:00.002-05:00

For the past 9 days I've been making soups, stocks, and sauces. While these are vitally important components of cooking, there is something comforting about being in a full kitchen again and cooking for people!

Yes, in baking and pastry we baked all sorts of yummy good things for other classes to use and in SSS we created the stocks that other classes need... but there is something so fulfilling about spending all morning cooking and knowing that there will be other classes, deans, and other chefs coming to eat the food that you have prepared.

In New World Cuisine Chef Brener will lead us through the fundamentals of roasting, grilling and deep frying using the flavor profiles that are found in "New World" countries. So lots of South American, Central American and Island influences. Everything we made today was fantastic and I can't wait for tomorrow!

Who Won the Bechamel Grudge Match?

2010-01-12T21:22:00.002-05:00

Day 9 of Stocks, Sauces & Soups... that brings us to another round of practical tests.

Knife cuts were a breeze... I rather enjoy the discipline of them, while my knife and I still don't have a fantastic relationship it is getting better and I'm learning to get a straight cut more of the time.

Sauces...
The Hollandaise and Bernaise sauces were great, chef liked them and I was pleased with them.
The Bechamel sauce was not as easy as I would have liked, but it got done with out a major catastrophe! The sauces I made from the bechamel tasted decent as well.

I had a great 9 days in this class and it really is the major building block of what happens in a kitchen, especially a classical French kitchen.

Me vs. The Bechamel Sauce

2010-01-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

Bechamel Sauce... that classic base of milk and roux that is the base of all sorts of nice creamy sauces. You have got to have a perfect bechamel for the other sauces to taste right.

What is perfect...
1. Starchy (floury) taste cooked out... this can take any where from a few minutes to hours.
2. Nappe consistency... a texture thing, it has to coat the back of a spoon and hold a trail when you run your finger through it.
3. Seasoning... salt and white pepper and just a touch of nutmeg, not enough to make it "taste like Christmas" but enough to just give it a little sparkle of extra flavor.

Now I've made a good bechamel sauce in class more than once this term, but today in the 3 batches I made today I had trouble. The starchy taste just wouldn't cook out, which led to the bottom of the pot scorching and the sauce getting to the right consistency but tasting burnt, which means that it ended up in the trash can.

Hopefully I have better luck with the bechamel sauce tomorrow, as it is one of the mother sauces that we have to make and two of our compound sauces use it as a base!

I Can Totally Clog Your Arteries!

2010-01-07T23:50:00.002-05:00

Today was all about the many sauces that belong to the "artery clogging" family. The key member of this family is a staple of Sunday brunches around the country, a wonderful topping for asparagus and, a lovely mother sauce... none other than the one and only Hollandaise! Hollandaise is rather deceptive, looking at the ingredients it seems simple, but there is the whole delicate dance of an emulsion. And the truth about emulsions is that they are flat out hard to work with and you have a pretty darn good chance of them not playing nice and having to start over. The good news is that my Hollandiase came out correct the first time, a little cold, but that was an easy fix.

Being a mother sauce you can toss something into Hollandaise and create a new sauce! The sauce we created today was Bearnaise. I adore Bearnaise Sauce... I'm not sure how my arteries feel about this, but it is not like I'm drinking cups of this stuff every day... just having it with some beautifully cooked beef. To get Bearnaise from Hollandaise all you do is add in a reduction of tarragon, shallots, and white wine. I know, totally simple!

Also bubbling away in the class room today were pot of shrimp bisque, more Bechamel, Mornay and Soublise sauces. I'm still having issues with my patience when making the Bechamel... I hate waiting for the starch to cook out! But then again I have very little patience to begin with!

Miss Independent!

2010-01-06T21:32:00.002-05:00

While yesterday was mother sauces today was all about the independent ones. The sauces that are out there all alone; butter, broken butter, compound butter, salsa (yep it's a sauce!), relish... I could go on, but my fingers would fall off it I kept listing them!

Each group had to make a compound butter today, ours went with butter, garlic, lemon zest, thyme, and basil. Sounds odd, but really it tastes good! I'd been lobbying for rosemary, but there wasn't any in the fridge. We also made a cream of mushroom soup that turned out decently, each group had a slightly different flavor in their soup, but that is to be expected, and truly part of the fun!

Knife cuts, the bane of my existence, rounded out the day. The cuts are exacting and everything has to line up for them to turn out right. I hold my wrist at a terribly odd angle (it isn't odd for holding the reins when riding a horse, but really doesn't work too well for holding a knife) so I really must pay attention to my hand position, where the knife is going, heck even how I'm standing! Yes where your feet are make a huge difference when you cut, I totally didn't believe it but the proof is there and I do have better results when I'm standing one way as opposed to another. My patience paid off today and Chef said that not only were my knife cuts improving, but my orange supremes were fantastic!

Mother of All...

2010-01-05T21:20:00.002-05:00

Today we got to the true heart of the stocks, sauces and soups class... mother sauces. This is where all the goodness comes from! Without these leading ladies there would be no joy. Food would be sad and bland.

Okay... not really sad and bland, but not nearly as fun! We've been working with the veloute for a day or two already so it was a quick refresher and the bechamel is incredibly similar, you are just using a different roux (white not blonde) and a different liquid (milk not white stock.) The espanole sauce is a different ball game! There are vegetables to cut up, tomato paste to play with and some bacon. If anything the espanole sauce is more like a stock than just a sauce.

We also began to work with the mother sauces and see how they turn into other things. The veloute we made yesterday got mixed with heavy cream, shallots, tarragon and white wine to become white tarragon sauce!

Back In The Kitchen

2010-01-04T21:19:00.002-05:00

After a well deserved vacation where I did very little cooking (I love that my family has people who love to cook in it) today was back to the reality of Johnson & Wales and life in the kitchen.

We did a madcap review of all sorts of things in class today before getting into the production of stocks (white chicken, brown chicken, white fish and, brown veg), soups (minestrone all around) and sauces (pesto & veloute.)

Veloute is a totally basic white sauce... yet good lord it can be contrary to make! One starts with a roux and then adds chicken stock. Simple sounding, now there is also the matter of the constant stirring, the cooking out of the starch, the need for it to be the correct viscosity. Such fun! Oh and if the stuff gets too hot and you taste it... say good bye to your taste buds for a few days! Thankfully I didn't make that mistake today, I learned my lesson before the break!

Tomorrow we launch into "Mother Sauces" which is the heart of the class, I'm really looking forward to this. I know how to make some of them, but I'm sure that I'll learn new ways and techniques...

Scrub A Dub Dub...

2009-12-17T21:09:00.001-05:00

Last day of classes before winter break and all we did was clean. Every surface in our kitchen had to be scrubbed. Major deep cleaning... pots, pans, floors, walk in fridge, sinks, drains, plates, stools, counters... and so on!

The good news is that we learned that 20 student chefs and one chef instructor with a power-washer can clean an entire kitchen in about 90 minutes!

I'll be back in the New Year with more tales of life in the pretty kitchens!

Guest Chef!

2009-12-16T21:19:00.003-05:00

Today was a slightly unusual day. Instead of a full day of production we did about 3 hours of work in the morning and then we took a "field trip." Instead of spending the whole day in the kitchen working on stocks and sauces we headed to the auditorium (which is beautiful) to hear a guest chef give a fantastic lecture and watch him prepare some items on his menu. Our lecturer today was Christopher Hastings, the chef and owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Alabama. His lecture and demo were awesome, listening him talk about his craft and watching him prepare these dishes that looked beautiful, smelled amazing, and tasted out of this world!

After the visiting chef lecture and presentation we returned to our classroom and finished up the bacon, cheddar and potato soup and a few little odds and ends before we headed out for the day.

On a fantastic note when I got home today there was a large white envelope waiting for my in my mailbox. The single sheet of paper in the envelope informed me that I passed my WSET Intermediate level wine exam!

Back in the Kitchen Again...

2009-12-15T20:59:00.003-05:00

It was so nice to go to classes today and be back up on the 3rd floor. At Johnson & Wales the school is divided by floors, the 2nd floor houses all the baking and pastry classrooms and the 3rd floor houses all of the culinary classrooms.

Today started Soups, Stocks and Sauces... this class is a major foundation class for the ones that follow, especially Classical French (that I get to take this spring!) This segment of classes will be a bit different from the other ones because winter break is scheduled in the midst of it. We will have 2 days of class and 1 day of deep cleaning before the break and then finish out the final 6 days in 2010!

Today we made clarified butter, chicken broth, and a variety of chicken stocks. Or I should say we started chicken stocks, we left them in the kettles to cook and the evening classes will take them off the heat and let them cool so we can work with them tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be hectic with a presentation in the middle of class time, but the chefs that the school brings in are always very interesting to listen to!

Practically Speaking

2009-12-14T21:29:00.002-05:00

Day 9... the last day of this class, final exam day, and the day we have the second part of our practical.

Today started with the written exam... I'm honestly not sure how well I did at all. I studied and knew what I needed to know, but once again got tripped up by how Chef asks the questions. I shall have to wait and see to find out what my grade is.

For the second half of our practical we had to make three things... all things that we have made in the past. Challah bread, a 4 strand low braid and a 5 strand high braid, as well as a bit of pastry cream.

The measuring went well except in a fit of lunacy I managed to scale the flour to the weight that the water should be and leave the water out of the dough. Thankfully my tablemate noticed and we were able to fix it very quickly and without any damage to the dough. Braiding the dough ended up being far easier that it was when we did it in class. I don't know if it was because I wasn't over thinking every step or because my practice with string all weekend had paid off!

After tucking the bread in the proofing box I used my spare time to tidy my workstation (a key part of working in a kitchen) and make my pastry cream. I remembered the instructions that Chef had given me when I made the cream for the chocolate pie, and tried not to make the same mistakes again.

My challah bread went from the proof box to the oven with a minimum of fuss and all that was left was to stand by the door of the oven and peek in the window and watch to make sure that the bread only turned a medium golden brown and didn't over brown. Whipping the bread out that the right moment is all in the looks... one second the bread is a pale dough color and the next it is a dark dark brown. Sadly the color needed is a pretty medium golden brown with shine from the egg wash.

With my bread out and the right color all that was left was to gather the two loaves and the pastry cream and place it on a tray to take to Chef for his critique. This is always a tense time, he is looking for perfection and I did know that there were a few flaws, but nothing that I could correct in the moment. His comments were that the bread was correct and could be sold, but that there were itty bitty lumps of starch in my pastry cream. That said I did pass my practical!

Next up... Soups, Stocks, and Sauces!

Just Like An Airplane Landing...

2009-12-10T23:44:00.004-05:00

...and taking off again from the center.

That is how you are to move your knife to get the icing of the cake to form a perfect 90 degree angle where the top and sides meet. How do I know this... well the first part of our practical exam was today and we had to ice a cake (made the same day we had a substitute chef) using the Italian buttercream we made yesterday. It might sound like a simple task but sides and top of the cakes needed to be smooth as glass! This is possible, but try as I might I couldn't get the whole thing totally smooth. I could get most of it right, but most isn't really good enough for Chef (or me.) It did get to the point that I realized I was doing more damage to the cake in re-icing and trying again and again, so I decided that it might be wise to let it go.

We also had to make soft dough rolls in the shape of croissants, I still need to work on my rolling technique, but out of the 12 I made I found 5 that I liked enough to present to him. All in all I didn't do as well as I would have liked to have done, but it is only a small portion of my grade!

We have the final exam and the second half of our practical exam on Monday. I have no clue what we will be making, but according to Chef it is "something we've made before."

Pizza and Frosting

2009-12-09T20:51:00.003-05:00

Really these two things go together. Just not on the same plate!

Today we made an Italian Buttercream that we will use to ice our cakes tomorrow (eek... a practical test!) It was an adventure in testing my patience. It took two tries to get it done, but I have learned what sugar looks and feels like when it reaches 250 degrees.

Before you get worried, I'm not burned, well not all that burned. Actually the best way to check the temp of the sugar is to let a bubble pop just under your finger and then stretch and roll the little bit into a ball. I did manage to get a little bitty burn on my finger, no larger that a pin prick so I wouldn't call it much of a burn at all!

The reason for the two tries today wasn't so much that the sugar wasn't correct, but a realization that when you are stuck with a group of people sometimes you have to almost walk them through the steps, even if they just sat through the same lecture you did! There is no way to know if they took notes or paid attention...

As a fun treat we made pizza from scratch. The crust was amazing! I shall have to talk to chef about how the recipe can be reduced and still maintain the overall integrity of the dough. Chef was entertained by my inability to make a circle out of the dough, I can make rectangles, ovals, eggs, lopsided circles, I probably could have made a star or a triangle if I'd tried, but a circle... nope. Chef muttered something about needing to go to geometry class and I laughed. Geometry and I don't get along at all!

We had tons of pizza left over so we loaded it on to pans and took off through the culinary floor handing out slices as we made the rounds. One of things I've learned about culinary students is that food, any food... especially food that they haven't had to cook or clean up after is appreciated!

I Think I Have Chantilly Cream In My Hair!

2009-12-08T23:33:00.001-05:00

Today was a ball... we had a fantastic substitute chef! It was interesting having a different perspective on the same information. We finished up our cream puffs and eclairs from yesterday... by finishing I mean filling with a mix of pastry and chantilly cream and dipping in chocolate ganache! And then there was the tasting, we have to taste everything so that we know it is good.

I'd love to say more about today, but there is a paper on disaccharides that needs to be pulled together.

Cheers!

Puff The Magic Pastry Beast

2009-12-07T16:10:00.003-05:00

Monday.

Do I have to say any more?

We had a short lecture, but a rather heavy production schedule! There was Challah Bread, Pate au Choux, Chocolate Cream Pie, and Pastry Cream. All these treats to make and once again my work trio was a duo, meaning that we would have to work even harder... and smarter than usual.

The first item we got going was the Challah bread since it needs to proof for ages and we could get all sorts of other things done while it was doing that. Braiding the bread was great fun, and although it looks like just three strands of dough in a traditional braid, it isn't. You can do a 4 strand flat braid or a 'high' braid with at least 5 strands of dough. The high braid is appropriately named since it puffs up rather high when proofing and baking.

After the bread was tucked away and proofing it was time to tackle the pate au choux. Pate au choux is the pastry for cream puffs and eclaires. The batter is insanely easy to make, my problems come with getting it from a blob in the piping bag to a properly twirled shape on the baking sheet. I couldn't get the technique... no amount of trial and error or chef holding my hands and doing it for me while I went along for the ride turned out the proper shape of dough. I tried my hand at a few more blobs before turning the pastry bag over to the other member of my duo and heading off to work on the chocolate cream pie.

Chocolate and I get along, we always have! The cookie crusts for the pies came together in the blink of an eye and the filling worked out reasonalby well, it was a little lumpy due to my inability to whisk at high speed and pour at the same time (I have trouble patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time too!)

The pastry cream was delightfully easy as well, a similar recipe to the filling for the chocolate cream pie. Once made the cream got put into a container and will be used tomorrow for filling eclaires and cream puffs!

In honor of the chocolate we worked with today I shall share my Chocolate Martini recipe!
You will need...
a cocktail shaker
ice
a martini glass
vodka (skyy is one of my favorites)
chocolate liqueur (godiva is always good)
grand marnier (optional but tastes yummy)
cocoa powder (unsweetened is best)
orange slice

Run the orange slice around the rim of the glass then dip the glass in the cocoa powder to coat it.
In the cocktail shaker filled with ice add 1 1/2 ounces vodka, 1 ounce chocolate liqueur and 1/2 ounce grand marnier, then shake!
Strain the drink into the glass, serve and enjoy!

If you're not a fan of chocolate and orange you can use a different liqueur... there are tons of flavors out there that work well with chocolate!

Cheers!

Raisns are uncooperative grapes

2009-12-05T14:10:00.002-05:00

Friday we had classes... this happens two or three times a term and they are a pain. And they wipe me out so you all are getting this blog a day late.

Today we had a mountain of things to produce and our usual 6 hours... more like 4 hours after lecture to produce them. Remember the dough we made yesterday and left in the fridge... well using that dough we made quiche! Each member of the class was to create their own filling and produce their own quiche. I went with bacon, mushrooms, onion and cheddar cheese. In cooking the bacon I found out where the school puts the stoves that are less than stellar... they go to baking and pastry, which kind of made me giggle because of all the trouble we had with the ovens upstarts in one of my culinary labs! Let me just say that the ovens in the baking and pastry labs are awesome!

After quiche came Dutch apple pie! I cannot stand apple pie... something about the texture of cooked apples... As I was mixing the filling for the pie (apples, cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg) Chef came over and asked if I was putting anything in the filling, maybe raisins. I feel the need to confess here that I cannot stand raisins. I have also realized that Chef has a sense of humor, so I smiled and sweetly said, "Nope, raisins are uncooperative grapes and I'm not a fan of them." He raised an eyebrow at me and I continued, "the good grapes turn into wine, and that I adore." Watching him try not to bust out laughing was a pleasure. He smiled as if my explanation made total sense.

Muffins round out the list of things that we had to produce for the day! These might have been the most difficult item of the day only because we had to create their dough from scratch and weren't pulling it out of the fridge like we did with the dough for the quiche and apple pie crusts. Chef seems to be fond of letting the groups of students personalize their products, I find this fantastic and it allowed us to turn basic muffins into chocolate chip ones!

In a rare treat, we were permitted to take our quiches home, since time did not allow us to taste them in class. I must say that I rather enjoyed the slice I had yesterday and enjoyed the slice I had while writing this today even more! I paired it with a glass of viogner. While I'm not a huge fan of white wines I do know that they taste far better with eggs than the big reds that I adore!

Butter, Butter, and More Butter...

2009-12-03T21:27:00.002-05:00

After a morning lecture about fats and baking I can say that I have now learned that butter... good cold... AA... 80%fat... unsalted butter is the best stuff for baking with. Unless you can get your hands on some European Butter which is 82% fat and even better for baking with. We put the butter is good theory into practice today with the making of

1. Croissants... buttery flaky croissants. And there is a fun little method of rolling them to get their pretty shape!

2. Danishes... filled, not filled, coated in cinnamon sugar, mmm they were all fantastic! We turned this simple dough into windmills, twisty circles, and windowpanes.

The smells of these items baking in our kitchen were amazing. I left the room for a moment at one point and I could smell the pastries baking halfway down the hall!

I am getting to know our Chef and he is amazing! His background is in sugar and chocolate. I've seen examples of what he can produce with chocolate and would love to see his sugar work; sadly we won't cover it in this class.

Flinging Flour!

2009-12-02T20:12:00.005-05:00

I feel as if I'm covered in flour when I leave the kitchen. We spend more time flinging flour to prevent sticking that just about anything else... we fling it on the work table, we fling it on the dough, we fling it at each other, we might even fling some on the floor just for the sake of doing it!

We made Baguettes, and they were far easier than I ever imagined they would be and we made the dough for Croissants. Croissants involve lots of rolling flat, folding, and letting sit so that the butter chills again. Tomorrow we can prepare and bake them. Did you know that a croissant has 135 layers!

Bakers Scale

2009-12-01T19:30:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of my second trimester and Johnson & Wales University. Hopefully I'll do better keeping this blog this term.

At 7am I reported to room 255 for my first day of "Introduction to Baking & Pastry." There are some familiar faces from last term and quite a few new ones; it should be interesting to see how we mesh as a group. Chef Gronert is incredibly well versed in the subject at hand and I am looking forward to learning from him. Today we made whole wheat rolls, it was actually interesting to see how you manipulate the dough to get all sorts of shapes of product. Once we were elbow deep in dough the day flew by!

A quick break left me just enough time to grab a text book for my next class and a quick drink.

My afternoon was spent in "Introduction to Nutrition." This class will run two days a week for the whole trimester and is considered an academic class, which means we sit at desks and don't get the fun of playing in a kitchen.

All in all... it wasn't too bad for the first day of the new term.

I'm feeling rather old school and somewhat festive today so I think that the drink of the day shall be the ever so hip Champagne Cocktail!!

You will need:
champagne flutes
muddler, spoon (something to crush the cube with)
sugar cubes (one for each flute)
bitters (angostura bitters are my brand of choice)
bubbly of your choice (champagne, cava, prosecco, as long as it bubbles it will work!)

How to:
drop the sugar cube into the glass and splash a few (3 or 4) drops of bitters on top of it
crush the cube and the bitters together
add champagne
drink!

It All Starts Here...

2009-09-06T22:59:00.003-04:00

Long day today, but I'm finally all done with orientation at culinary school! I have time this evening so I figured I should get this blog rolling.

Bright and early, yes early... 7am early, Tuesday morning I start my first class. In a twist of events that entertains me to no end my first official class at school is "Principles of Beverage Service." I didn't know my class schedule when I named the blog, so I think of it as a sign of good things to come.

I'm not sure what the nice people at the school are thinking arming us with ar variety of kinves and having classes where we USE the knives starting at 7am. I don't know about most people, but my hand eye coordination isn't the best before one or two cups of something good from Starbucks. I guess I shall be thankful that I can ease into pretending to be a morning person and not have to worry too much about the knives at the start since there isn't much call for them in the bar class.

To start things off on the right foot I shall offer up one of my very favorite cocktails! This one goes back to when I was "the hostess with the mostess" and would go out after work with a rockstar friend of mine for post work recovery drinks. We'd usually end up at a little local place where the bartender served up something called 'Kool-Aid.' As you can guess an drink for adults that comes from a bartender and is called Kool Aid is a recipe for mayhem.

To recreate this you'll need:
A glass... the size is up to you. If you need a big drink use a big glass.
Ice
Orange Vodka
Cranberry Juice
Club Soda... totally optional, but add it if you like a fizzy drink.
An orange slice... again, optional but it makes the drink look pretty.
Bendy straw... in life I've found that bendy straws tend to make drinks even better.

Fill the glass with ice.
Add vodka and cranberry juice in a ratio that you like (bad day, add more vodka.)
Top the drink off with the club soda if you are using it.
Add the orange slice and bendy straw.
Drink!

Cheers!