Ice Carving

As part of our Garde Manger II class, we carved blocks of ice. We had two ice carvers come to our class and demonstrate the four stages - tracing and chipping the outline, sawing the basic shape, giving it dimension, and finalizing the details. After they demonstrated each step, we worked on our own block of ice. Everyone made the same sculpture - a fish.

While it's by no means perfect, I was pretty happy that my sculpture looked like a fish. It's hard to see the fish's head because of my white coat, but I carved him with a small eye and a mouth. The fish is supposed to be sitting on the wave with his bottom fin curved towards me. Overall, a fun experience, something I would try again even if I'm not good at it.

Garde Manger II

In August, we began the second phase of the cold kitchen and practiced fruit and vegetable carving along with making chocolate shapes.

While I made several fun chocolate shapes for ice cream, fruit, pudding garnishes or decorations on a cake, I couldn't help but make a little something for Kaitlyn. She grabbed Mickey and bit off part of his ears and his smile before I snapped the photo, but you see most of him.




We learned to carve ducks and swans out of apples and melons, which was a lot of fun. It's not as hard as it looks, but not something I can explain online. I recommend checking out some of the videos on YouTube if you want to learn.

The wishing well photo is from my cell phone. However, we were pretty happy with how this watermelon carving turned out given that no one in my group had ever carved a watermelon before. The string for the cucumber bucket came undone as evidenced by the photo, but it looked even better when it was tied up by the handle, which actually rotated.


In the next few weeks, we will learn to make sausage, pate, charcuterie, and ice sculptures/carvings (using a chainsaw). Stay tuned....

Garde Manger I: Vichyssoise (Cold Soup)

One class was devoted to cold soups, like vichyssoise or gazpacho.

Here are links to both:

• http://www.starchefs.com/JChild/html/recipe_02.shtml - a Julia Child recipe
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gazpacho-recipe/index.html
  

Vichyssoise soup is a potato leek soup made with chicken stock and heavy cream (sometimes) and served cold. This photo is from a vichyssoise I made with cucumber last summer.

My teammate and I created our own recipe and made an avocado vichoyssoise topped with red bell pepper slices. We think croutons would have added some crunch as well.

Ingredients in our soup:

• Avocado
• onion
• garlic
  
• bay leaf, pepper, kosher salt, cayenne pepper
  
• potatoes
• chicken stock
• red bell pepper
• lime juice

We sauteed the garlic and onion in olive oil until fragrant. Next we added the potatoes (chopped into quarters) to the pan. We covered the potatoes with chicken stock and brought it to a boil. We allowed it to simmer until the potatoes were soft. While simmering, we added the bay leaf, pepper, salt and a pinch of cayenne. Meanwhile, we thinly sliced a red bell pepper to use as a garnish and juiced limes. If you decide to add croutons - prepare them at this point. We did not use cream b/c we worried that the combination of cream and lime juice would cause the soup to curdle - not very appetizing! About five minutes before pulling the soup off the stove, we diced up avocado as we pureed the soup and avocado together to make a smooth, velvety consistency. We cooled it using an ice bath and serve it with the red bell pepper garnish small bowls.

For an original recipe created on the fly, my teammate and I were very happy with how this soup turned out. The chef instructor recommended a few dots of a flavored oil to add a little zest and help with presentation.

Garde Manger: Salads & Mayonnaise

As for salads...

If you ever have the opportunity to try greens side by side - it's a great exercise in flavors. Greens have mild, bitter, sweet, and spicy flavors. I didn't think I liked spinach until I realized that was the green that I thought tasted best... shocking!!

• Spring salad: mixed with sweet greens
• Mezclan salad: mixed with bitter greens
• Spicy greens: arugula (YUM!) and watercress
  

Ideas for salads include bistro beef salad with a red wine shallot vinaigrette, roasted mushroom wild mushroom salad, tomato and cucumber salad.

We made vinaigrette and cream based dressings. One dressing we made was a warm bacon dressing for a spinach salad - it tasted of grease and did not appeal to me at all. Based on where we live, this is blasphemous to say that I actually didn't like something with bacon or bacon grease in it, but sorry folks - it's a no go!!

Last thing I want to share is that we made mayonnaise. It tasted delicious! We tasted the mayonnaise side by side with store bought mayo and it tasted SO MUCH BETTER! If you are worried about the raw egg in it, be sure to buy pasteurized eggs.

The mayo* we made had the following ingredients if you want to look for a similar recipe:

• egg yolks, pasteurized
• salt
• white pepper
• dry mustard
• white wine vinegar (good WW vinegar)
• salad oil (not canola, but actual salad oil)
• lemon juice

You whip the egg yolks on high speed until thick and lemon colored. Then you add the dry ingredients and half the vinegar and whisk to combine it all. You VERY slowly add the oil one drop at a time into the mixture until it thickens and starts to emulsify. Then you add the oil in a slow stream. If you want to thin it out, add a little vinegar. Continue whisking until oil and vinegar are incorporated. Add the seasonings and lemon juice to taste. Refrigerate until needed.

Our group made it using a stand mixer while another made it by hand. Both tasted great and for sake of ease, I recommend a stand mixer if you have one. We in turn used the mayo to make a variety of sandwich dressings - pesto mayo, green mayo (sauce vert - basil, parsley, spinach and chives), and roasted red pepper mayo.

*I didn't give amounts above b/c the recipe I have is for an insane amount of mayo. However, you can use these to find a suitable one online.

Like I said... these were some of the highlights from the last month of class. Hope you enjoy reading!

Garde Manger I: Oils & Vinegars

Oils

• Walnut oil: nice nutty flavor (obviously), great as a finishing touch with a garnish; great for dressings; I really enjoyed the flavor of this oil and hope to use it more in the future
  
• Truffle oil: interesting aroma and taste - probably a preference type thing; drizzle a few drops to finish off a salad, soup or appetizer. For example, one chef recommended finished a salad dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing with a few drops of white truffle oil
• Vegetable oil: blend of oils - typically corn and/or sunflower; used in cooking, not typically used for dressings
• Canola oil: made from turnips; high smoke point so useful in pan frying or deep frying
• Peanut oil: made from peanuts; high smoke point so great for deep frying if allergies are not an issue
  
• Olive oil: rumor has it that color indicates quality, but color actually indicates ripeness or species of olive used; the process of making the oil presses the olives 2x or 3x and heat or chemically treats the olives and oil; chef prefers olive oil from the southern region in Italy based on taste; look for an acidity of 1% or less to find a nicely flavored oil
  
• Extra virgin olive oil: this oil is about the flavor; oil obtained after first press of olives; not great for sauteing; very low smoke point
• Flavor oils: often used in place of dressing; if you make a garlic flavored oil - MAKE SURE TO REFRIGERATE IT as you don't want to get botulism.
  

Vinegars

• Rice vinegar: you can buy a sweet or sour rice vinegar. The sweet version is rice wine vinegar and works very nicely in salad dressings; chef recommended aged rice vinegar if you want to use it; you can sweeten regular rice vinegar by adding sugar to it
• Balsamic vinegar: true balsamic vinegar is aged in Italy from 4 to 50 years through wood casks and is often rather pricey; it tastes like reduced balsamic vinegar that we make in the states and is never used as a dressing, just as a garnish to finish off a dish
  
• Wine vinegars - red wine, white wine, sherry wine are all options for dressings, sauces, etc. depending on your flavor profile; if you need to use white wine vinegar and do not have it on hand... use 2 parts white wine to 1 part distilled white vinegar and VIOLA!
  
• Apple cider vinegar - used in dressings, sauces, etc. just depends on flavor profiles

Making a Vinaigrette Dressing

• When making a vinaigrette dressing, remember this rule of thumb... one part acid/vinegar to three parts oil. You don't want your acid/vinegar to overpower the salad.
• If using herbs, use fresh herbs if possible; If only dry herbs available, rehydrate or cook them to bring out flavors
• Chef recommended honey, mustard, fresh herbs and oil as a very basic vinaigrette - maybe a touch of rice wine vinegar
  

Garde Manger I - Appetizers

In July, my cooking class focused on the cold kitchen - meaning breads, dressings, salads, sandwiches, cold soups, and appetizers. While I won't touch on everything we learned, here were some of the highlights...

Garde Manger = refers to the preparation of and presenting of cold food items like those listed above.

Some of my favorites from this class included making cold soups (vichyssoise and gazpacho), appetizers and mayonnaise from scratch.

Below is an appetizer I made during class: Parmesan crisps* topped with prosciutto, green mayonnaise (sauce vert) and chive sprigs. The center bowl is the green mayonnaise with a Parmesan crisp in it for presentation.

Our chef instructor also shared a couple of appetizers with us:

1. Cucumber crab appetizers: Use a slice of cucumber with the center slightly hollowed out (use a melon baller) and top it with crab meat, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and fresh parsley. Garnish with fresh dill.
2. Salami cones: Take a slice of salami and make one cut to the center. With two fingers, wrap the salami around into a cone shape (narrow at bottom, wide at top and slightly flaring out). Fill salami with sun dried tomatoes, garlic, salt pepper and cream cheese mixture. Garnish with a black olive.
3. Spicy shrimp on a crostini: Marinade shrimp in spicy mixture (for example: olive oil, garlic, paprika, season salt (only a little) and cayenne) while mixing some BBQ sauce and cream cheese. Place BBQ cream cheese mixture on crostini and top with shrimp. Garnish with a chive.
4. Scallop Ceviche: Use 2 pounds of sea scallops removed from shell and cut thin lengthwise to 'cook' faster in acid mixture. Season scallops with salt and pepper - set aside. Add the juice of 3 lemons, 3 limes and 3 oranges, plus the zest of 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 orange and 2 teaspoons of sugar into a blender. Start to blend it and add 1/4 extra virgin olive oil until emulsified. Upon completion, pour juice mixture over the scallops and let the scallops 'float' in it. Cover it, place in fridge for 2-3 hours, and serve in small bowls. I'd use those Japanese soup spoons if I make it again.
   
5. We also made poached shrimp with cocktail sauce (nothing new here) and deviled eggs (reminds me of Thanksgiving and Easter).

*To make the Parmesan crisps, line a baking sheet with tin foil and coat it with a thin layer of olive oil. Shred Parmesan cheese across the entire pan making sure you have a nice layer that you can not see through to the tin foil. Bake at 400 to 425 degrees for approximately 15 minutes or until the cheese is nice and crispy. You don't want it malleable. Pull from the oven and allow to cool. Once cool enough to touch, break cheese into pieces and prepare to serve. I recommend regular Parmesan instead of Parmesan Reggiano as it tasted better toasted to me.

Avocado and Cranberry Coulis Phyllo Cups

I entered this recipe, an original (yahoo! I made my own recipe) in an avocado contest through the cooking school. It's best to use perfectly ripe avocados to maximize the taste. Sorry I don't have photos. Oh, no it didn't win, but it was still fun to create my own recipe.

Avocado and Cranberry Coulis Phyllo Cups
8-10 mini phyllo cups
1/3 cup whipped cream cheese
1/3 cup pureed cranberry coulis (recipe below), room temperature
1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 Avocado, small dice
1/4 cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped
Optional ingredients: lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place eight to ten mini phyllo cups on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for three to five minutes or until crispy. Meanwhile, dice on half of an avocado into small cubes and set aside. Chop pecans into very small pieces. Pull phyllo cups from oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once the phyllo cups cool, spoon or pipe (using a piping bag and tip) the whipped cream cheese into the bottom of the phyllo cup to cover the bottom in a thin layer. Place the cranberry coulis on top of the whipped cream using a spoon or piping bag. Sprinkle eight to ten granules of kosher salt on top of the cranberry coulis. Place a heaping pile of diced avocado on top of the coulis and finish with a sprinkling of chopped pecans. Finish with lemon zest on top.

Cranberry Coulis
1/2 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 T orange juice
1 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Place on burner and turn into medium high heat and add water. Whisk ingredients together. As mixture starts to simmer, add butter, cranberries and nutmeg. Stir frequently and let the mixture boil until it thickens. Once thickened, allow coulis to cool down for about five minutes and use an immersion blender to puree any remaining cranberry bits. Optional step: if you desire an extra smooth coulis, run it through a chinois or strainer. Allow coulis to cool to room temperature before using. The coulis may be made in advance and stored in a refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before use.

In a future post, I will add a recipe for Bobby Flay's Roasted Red Pepper sauce as it would work as a great substitute for the cranberry coulis. The recipe is from his Mesa cookbook if you have access to it.

Bon Appetite!

Beef Tips

No, I'm not posting photos of actual beef tips, just sharing some information I learned in cooking class tonight. This post may be out of order as I may post more on the vegetable and starch section.

Testing for rare, medium or well done steaks. You can use a thermometer and go by temperature or as we learned tonight, touch/feel the steak. Beware, the steak will be hot!!

• If you want to know what a rare steak feels like, touch and push your cheeks from the side. For a medium steak, touch the tip of your nose and push. For a well done steak, touch and push your forehead.
• Another feel method is to touch your index finger to your thumb on one hand and touch the pad under your thumb with the opposite hand for the feeling of a rare steak. Touch your middle finger to your thumb and touch the pad again for the feeling of a medium steak. Touch your ring finger to you thumb, touch the pad and this is the feeling of a well done steak.
  

What to Serve with Beef?

• Garnish: watercress (expensive), fresh horseradish - julienne in long sticks, parsley (typical in restaurants and more affordable)
• Vegetable: a vegetable that stands on it's own, hearty, no gravy, no sauce, just the vegetable. String beans and broccoli are very common. Carrots are not recommended.
• Starch: Most common are baked potato or french fries.
  

Tonight we cooked and tasted - prime rib, NY Strip, Flank steak and brisket. My favorite was the NY Strip and least favorite the Flank stead (super tough, chewy, limited taste).

• Prime Rib: cook low (200 degrees F) and slow (2+ hours) like I've mentioned in previous posts. Also, once you pull it from the oven, let it sit for 20 - 30 minutes in order to allow the juices to settle and not spill out when you slice into it. Remember with prime rib that the center will be the most rare and the ends well done.
• NY Strip: nothing special about this. Only I learned that steaks at restaurants are cooked in butter (lots of it!) and sometimes even serving with melted butter on top of it or almost as a sauce surrounding it, sometimes with sauteed garlic too. So that's why some restaurant steaks taste so good and yet, so unhealthy!!!
  
• Flank steak: had it before class. Do not like it. It will always be a tough, chewy steak, but it's cheap. Often times, it is served covered in a brown sauce - like a mushroom sauce to mask the unappealing texture and look once it's cooked. If you do cook flank steak, slice it SUPER thin to minimize the toughness. My recommendation - use flat iron steak instead. It's close in price and much more tender and flavorful.
  
• Brisket: "Ya ain't had good brisket unless you been to Texas!" I believe brisket is tough and chewy unless cooked properly. Low and slow is the way to go here. Find a good Texan to teach you how to get the right texture and BBQ flavor. When we cook corned beef brisket, we add some specialty seasonings (courtesy of Pa Clinton), bring the water to a boil and ten reduce to a simmer for almost eight hours on our stove submerged in water. The corned beef just falls apart when you slice it up. Yum!!

That's all for now!

More Knife Skills

So, it's taken me almost two weeks to figure out the blog.spot is no longer uploading videos through Google, now they're through YouTube. This is why it's taken me SO long to post this entry. Sorry it's so big - I now have to learn YouTube. Yes, I know, I'm way behind on the times!


We recently learned some new knife skills in our cooking class. We've learned to section citrus, flower a green onion (for a garnish), flute a mushroom and tourner a potato (make it look like a football). I'm going to show you how to section citrus and flower a green onion in this video. Hopefully a future installment will show you the other two skills (I'm still practicing :-) ).




Here are some photos of the green onion:

Slice the onion first (see video) and then place it in cold water.

After 1/2 hour to 1 hour of soaking in ice cold water, look at the end result!

Side Dishes for You!

I have three recipes to share from my cooking class without any photos. I'm to afraid to take our digital camera to class to take photos as I can see myself dropping it in the fryer, on the griddle or in a big sink of soapy water.

Sauteed Broccoli Medley

• 2 medium to large size broccoli crowns, cut into pieces per your size preference
• 2-3 cloves garlic (add as much or as little as you want), minced
• 1 red bell pepper, small chop
• 1 green bell pepper, small chop
• 1 red or yellow onion, medium dice
• Ground Black Pepper
  
• Kosher Salt
  
• Olive Oil - probably 2 T, maybe 3T. You need enough to lightly coat all veggies.
  
• Optional: Parmesan Cheese

Prep all ingredients. Heat olive oil in saute pan and add broccoli. Saute broccoli for five to seven minutes before adding remaining ingredients. I like to add garlic last to ensure it doesn't get overly brown. My classmate added all the ingredients at once and sauteed them together for the same amount of time. Add salt and pepper to taste. Plan to saute vegetables for 12 to 15 minutes and serve. Optional: sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top if desired.

Go Blue Dad loved this dish. We've made it three times since the class!

Amaretto Carrots

• 5 regular sized Carrots; peeled and cut in obliques, julienne, rounds, etc.
  
• 1 to 2 T clarified butter (if you don't have it, just use regular butter, but do not burn it)
  
• Kosher Salt
• Pepper
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of Amaretto

Prep carrots. Melt butter in saute pan and add carrots, salt and pepper. Saute carrots until you feel they are two to three minutes from achieving the perfect edible texture and pour the Amaretto in the saute pan. Using the flame from a gas burner, pull your saute pan handle towards you and tilt the farthest point of the pan towards the flame/back of stove, so the Amaretto creeps up the side of the pan almost to the edge of it. Allow the amaretto to 'flambe' (yes, catch on fire!), thus burning off the alcohol. Simmer carrots in liquid for two to three minutes to allow the butter and amaretto to thicken slightly and coat the carrots. Serve and enjoy! FYI: do not pour alcohol over an open flame into saute pan and do not keep alcohol bottle near saute pan or stove top. I recommend using a measure cup to pour alcohol into saute pan for safety!

If you do not wish to flambe your food, you may bring the Amaretto to a boil to remove the alcohol. Once boiling, allow it to cook the carrots for a few minutes and let the butter/Amaretto combination thicken.

Another satisfied consumer at home!

Sauteed Bok Choy

• 1 to 2 bunches of Bok Choy (belongs to cabbage family)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
  
• Olive Oil
• Soy Sauce
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Clarified Butter

Prep ingredients. When cutting the Bok Choy, separate the white stem pieces from the green leaves. The white stem pieces need to cook longer than the leaves. You may cut the stem straight on or at an angle and slice them thin. Some classmates held their knives almost horizontal to make the nice, thin angled cut. Once the rest of the food is prepped. Saute the white stem, garlic, salt and pepper in butter. Once the stems have softened, add the leaves and cook until soft, but do not wilt like spinach (doesn't taste as good). At the very end, start by adding 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Taste and add a little more at a time. Your goal is to taste the Bok Choy, garlic and soy sauce, not just the soy sauce.

I made it perfect in class, but when I tried to recreate it at home, I overcooked the Bok Choy (looked like cooked spinach) and added to much soy sauce. Go Blue Dad was not to excited about this dish.

The Saucey Sauces Worked!!!

Go Blue Dad and I attempted two sauces during the month I took my sauce class. We made a veloute (chicken piccata) and a brown sauce (red wine and baby bella mushroom sauce). Overall, we were very happy with how both sauces turned out and would make each of them again.

I only have photos of the chicken piccata for this entry, but will describe the brown sauce for those interested.


For the chicken picatta, we reviewed a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis

• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-piccata-recipe2/index.html

and from epicurious.com

• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Piccata-5154

We primarily used the epicurious.com recipe, but kept both on file. I made roux (without clarified butter) to thicken the sauce and while it did, the roux did not turn as blonde or smell as nutty as the blonde roux we made in class with clarified butter. I also had to remake the roux b/c I let the unclarified butter get to hot. Once we added the roux to the sauce, it turned out very nice. Our only mistake is that we added to many capers (more than the recipe called for), so we'll adjust that next time. This was a late night dinner, so we just served it over pasta instead of preparing a full meal. Our main goal was to try to make a new sauce, so mission accomplished!


As for the brown sauce - we made a red wine mushroom sauce by combining brown stock and demi glace (made by my stepdad) along with some Chilean cabernet sauvignon wine and baby portabella mushrooms. We also added parsley, a bay leaf, thyme and pepper to the sauce in the beginning for flavor and eventually filtered it out.

As for the roux, I clarified butter the butter at home and then made a roux. It turned out better than the piccata and definitely thickened the sauce. This sauce had great depth of flavor and lingered on the taste buds and finishing a bite. Go Blue Dad said we should make it again. My only issues is that we made this dish late Sunday night (yes again!) due to a rescheduled tennis match, so I got a little impatient and added 3 tablespoons of roux, which brought the sauce very close to a gravy thickness. While it tasted very good, I would have liked it a little less thick and next time will be patience and allow the roux to thicken the sauce without adding too much.

We served this over a flat iron steak, cut very thin and served it with sauted carrots with thyme and brown rice. Next time I make this sauce, I hope to mix the meat, rice and sauce together. Yummmm - mouth watering right now!!

You Saucey Sauce, You!

So, we devoted a whole month to sauces, which will probably turn into a few blog entries. Talk about information overload!!!

What is a sauce?

• Liquid + thickening agent + seasoning (spices, herbs, etc.)
• A sauce is thicker than a soup, but uses a similar process to soup to create it - prep, saute veggies/herbs, add liquids, add thickening agent, finishing touches and serve.
  

We covered the five mother sauces, plus buerre blanc/rouge, salsas, coulis and compound butters. This blog will discuss the five mother sauces.

Do you know the five mother sauces?

1. Bechamel: Considered a white sauce. Made by adding heavy cream or scalded milk to roux (some sources say white roux, some say blonde roux - we used blonde). The cream or milk is often flavored with onion and clove or onion and bay leaves and strained before adding to roux. A bechamel sauce should be rich, creamy and smooth and is often used in pasta dishes, vegetables dishes and egg dishes. There are several versions of a bechamel - cheese sauce, cream sauce, mornay sauce (guyere and parmesan and cream added to base bechamel - recommended for chicken scallapini), nantua (cream and seafood butter), soubise (extra butter and onions) and many more.

• Our instructor said you can add almost anything to a bechamel to make it into a flavorful sauce.
• Any cream sauce should not be heated past 190 degrees F. The ideal temperature range is 170 degrees F to 190 degrees F. You add roux to the sauce when it is 170 to 180 degrees F.
  

2. Veloute: Considered a clear sauce. A sauce made by thickening a veal, chicken or fish stock with roux. Veloutes are smooth, rich and lump free. You match the stock with the dish (i.e. fish stock for a fish dish). Veloutes should be thick enough to cling to food, but not overpowered by the roux used to thicken it. Examples of veloute sauces include allemande sauce (eggs yolks and lemon juice), supreme sauce (mushrooms), and bercy (shallots and white wine with fish stock), etc.. Like a bechamel sauce, you can make a myriad of veloute sauces with different ingredients.

• Chef does not recommend the allemande sauces b/c they have an eggy taste. So, why not use a hollandaise sauce instead.
  
• Chef most commonly uses a veloute with meats, casseroles, vegetables and seafood (crab and shrimp) dishes. A true veloute sauce always uses a meat stock in the sauce.
  
• Chicken picatta is an example of a veloute sauce dish.
  
• The supreme veloute is a creamy sauce while others are not creamy.
  

3. Espagnole Sauce (Brown Sauce): This full bodied rich sauce is the base for almost all brown sauces. You would not serve a dish with a plain brown sauce. Espagnole sauce is brown stock, brown roux, mirepoix, tomato puree and herbs (bay leaf, parsley stems, thyme and black pepper). Here are some common sauces that started off as brown sauces - chasseur (mushrooms, white wine and shallots - delicious!), chateaubriand (white wine and shallots - best served over filet Mignon), chevreuil (bacon, red wine and cayenne pepper), mushroom sauce, poivrade (pepper, vinegar, white wine, mirepoix) and many more!

• If you've heard of a demi glace - it is a thickened brown sauce that was reduced over time. Demi glace is a 1:1 ratio of brown stock and brown sauce.

4. Tomato Sauce: Now who hasn't had tomato sauce! We technically learned to make a marinara sauce because our sauce did not have any animal fat (pork/bacon grease) in it. Traditional tomato sauce apparently has some sort of animal fat in it. If you want to add animal fat for flavor, wait to do it until you determine the type of meat you will serve with the dish. The recipe we used included mirepoix, tomatoes, herbs, white stock, sugar or honey and animal fat. Like the other sauces, there are several variations on tomato sauce - milanaise (mushrooms, butter, ham and tongue (ewe!!!)), spanish (creole sauce with mushrooms and onions), creole (green pepper, hot pepper), etc, etc..

• I've never used fresh tomatoes before to make a tomato sauce, but we did. You bring water to a boil - enough to submerge a tomato. On the non-root end of the tomato, score it with an X about 2" long. Submerge the tomatoes in the boiling water and allow to roll around until you see the tomato skin start to curl in the water. Pull from the water, peel the skin off, remove any seeds and rough dice the tomato. This is called tomato concassee.
• Tomato paste is a sauce with the water removed.
  

5. Hollandaise Sauce: This is an emulsified sauce - meaning a chemical reaction in the ingredients brings the sauce together into the final product. If you mess this sauce up - over or under cook, it won't work and you have to START OVER. Hollandaise is a smooth, buttery, rich sauce that is light yellow colored. It is not as heavy as mayonnaise. Hollandaise has egg yolks, water, vinegar/wine/lemon juice (an acid), butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It's optional to add Worcestershire sauce and/or hot sauce. The lecithin in the egg yolks serve as the emulsifier to bring the sauce together.

• For an individual serving - using two egg yolks, whisk 1 T water and 1 T acid (wine or vinegar) with the yolks. Once you place on the heat source - you continuously whisk the egg yolks until they thicken and have a texture like uncooked pudding.
  
• Use the double boiler method for heat source because this sauce is SO temperamental! It's not uncommon to pull the bowl off the heat source to cool and whisk and place back on heat.
  
• Whisking the egg in the beginning is very important. You need to get enough air into it. I'll admit, I didn't whisk enough air into my eggs, so I had to start over.
• Once you reach the pudding consistency, pull from heat and SLOWLY add melted, warm butter to the yolks. Whisk, whisk, whisk the butter in and DON'T cook the eggs. Once butter is added, add lemon juice and any other flavor components.
  
• Do not heat a hollandaise past 150 degrees F because the eggs will cook and make the hollandaise grainy. On the flip side, do not cool past 45 degrees because the butter will solidify.
  
• Do not hold a hollandaise past 1 1/2 hours because it won't survive! Keep it warm, room temperature, not hot temperature.
  

That was a quick and dirty version of a hollandaise sauce. I could type a dozen more bullets, but do not have the time, so I shared the most important lessons from our chef.

That's all for now folks. Stay turned for the next blog on sauces.

Stock Tips - Not the Money Kind (& Soups too!)

I plan to keep my stock tips rather short...

Stocks vs. Broths*
Stocks: uses bones to obtain flavor through the marrow and cartilage and has a gelatin like texture.
Broths: uses meat to flavor the liquid through boiling or poaching the meat.

*Some people have different definitions of the two, so I chose the definitions I've heard most often.



In order to make a stock, you start by roasting the meat or poultry bones in a roasting pan in the oven for two to two and a half hours. Here is the suggested method for creating a stock:

• Prep ingredients - bones, mirepoix (celery, onion, carrots) plus any additional ingredients like garlic and herbs.
  
• Roast bones for 15 to 30 minutes on each side.
• Pull bones and paint tomato paste (adds flavor and color to stock) on every bone with a basting brush and roast for 15 to 30 minutes; flip bones, paint and repeat roasting.
• Pull bones from oven and add mirepoix and continue roasting for another half hour to one hour.
• Pull bones and mirepoix and other ingredients, place in stock pot and add liquid (if using water, always use cold water from the faucet b/c hot water sits in a tank and can obtain a metallic taste).
• Simmer (don't boil - just have some small bubbles around the edges) for a minimum of two hours (recommended to simmer for a longer period of time).
• Viola! You have just made a stock.
  

Soup Tips
We made six soups in class: Manhattan Clam Chowder, New England Clam Chowder, Split Pea Soup, Shrimp Bisque, French Onion Soup and a Corn and Chicken Chowder. Outside of the French Onion soup, most soups have a similar process in creating the dish. My favorites were the French onion or the corn and chicken chowder. My least favorite was the shrimp bisque - I prefer crab or lobster bisque.

French Onion Soup before toppings

The key tip to take away from making soups is that almost every soup has a similar process from start to finish. An exception is French onion. Here is the process most commonly used for making soups:

• Mise en place (layman's terms: organize and prep ingredients).
• Saute/Sweat vegetables (typically your mirepoix) in clarified butter and poach meat if needed; our chef recommends always sweating vegetables before adding to a soup and adding dried herbs to rehydrate them and release the flavor.
  
• Add stock, broth and/or liquid to stock pot - never bring a soup with milk to a boil because the milk might curdle - ewwww! Heavy whipping cream won't break initially if it boils, but in general it's recommended not to boil cream soups.
  
• Add roux to thicken soup - many recipes recommended adding roux early in the process, but Chef recommends adding it towards the end.
  
• Bring soup to 170 to 180 degrees F and serve. Yum!!!

Crostini for French onion soup

The photos shown here are of French onion soup that Go Blue dad and I made at home. If you have not tried French onion soup, it has carmelized onions in a beef based broth topped with a crostini and melted guyere cheese.

Crostini in soup before adding cheese

We read a great tip for carmelizing onions at home... put four or five pounds of sliced onions into a dutch oven and roast in the oven for about three hours on 350 degrees. You'll be amazed at how much the the onions reduce. After the three hours, the onions reduce to about a third of the size and you can easily carmelize them on the stove top. I mention this trick b/c most people don't have a four foot wide griddle surface to carmelize onions at home (this is what we used in class).

Go Blue dad adding Guyere cheese

Another idea for French onion soup is to add some demi glace into the broth for an intensely rich, meaty flavor that compliments the carmelized onion flavor and adds great color. We didn't have beef stock in our class, so the chef pulled out the demi glace and the French onion soup tasted delicious!!

Finished French onion soup
Bon Apetite!

Clarified Butter & Roux

As we started the soup section of our cooking class, our chef instructor explained and demonstrated two basic concepts - clarified butter and roux. Many home cooks have made a roux for a recipe before and may not have realized it.

Clarified butter results when you separate the milk fats from the butter. In a home kitchen, you can do this by place butter in a double boiler and allowing it to separate. As with chocolate, do not boil it. This will ruin the separation process and you will not receive the desired outcome.

As the butter separates, the milk fats float to the top and you skim them off. Then you strain the remaining butter to ensure all milk fat particles are removed and VIOLA you have clarified butter! Idea for amounts... if you want 5 lbs of clarified butter - start with 6 lbs. regular unsalted butter. Clarified butter is often used to make roux, soups and sauces. It can be stored at room temperature for 30 days or in the refrigerator indefinitely.

Roux is a mixture of flour and clarified butter* (or oil or other fats) used to thicken soups, stews and sauces. The make up of roux is typically a 1:1 ratio. For a roux to reach it's full flavor and aroma, you need to simmer it for 10 - 20 minutes to a temperature around 160 degrees F (170 degrees F) at the highest. You heat the butter/oil first. Add just a small amount of flour to see if it generates some bubbles in the butter/oil and if it does, whisk in the rest of the flour. It is okay to simmer, but do not boil as noted below.

Clarified butter is preferred over regular butter because it doesn't burn. However, if you do not have the time to make clarified butter, I've found that you can still use regular butter for roux at home. Granted, you must keep a close eye on it to make sure you don't burn it.


White Roux: roux that just cooks the flour (~5 minutes) - stays relatively white and does not taste or smell 'nutty' like the blonde and brown roux. It also can have a gritty texture to it. It can be used in a milk based sauce, like a bechamel sauce, or a clam chowder. Our instructor says he almost always uses blonde roux, even in bechamel, because he doesn't like the texture, smell and taste of white roux.

Blonde Roux: roux that is cooked for ~ 20 minutes until it achieves a golden color and a 'nutty' aroma.

Brown Roux: roux that is cooked for ~ 35 minutes until it achieves a light brown color. It has a stronger aroma than a blonde roux, but does not thicken as well because the extended cooking time weakens the flour. Dark brown roux is cooked for ~45 minutes and is used more for flavor than thickening. Brown roux's are common in gumbo.

In general, the darker the roux, the stronger the flavor and the weaker the thickening power.

This is an example of a blonde roux, which we later used in a sauce.
This is an example of a roux that I accidentally let boil and as you can see the butter and flour separated. So sad!!

I showed the two photos because our chef indicated that you can 'break' a roux if you heat it over 180 degrees F.

More to come on roux's, soups, and sauces...

Switching from Time to Temperature

After working side-by-side with restaurant chefs and watching them cook meat using it's internal temperature instead of the time on the grill or in the oven, I think this method would save us from overcooking a bunch of chicken. I'm always afraid of under cooking chicken!!

Here is some information on proper cooking temperatures for everyday foods:

165 degrees F - must register on thermometer for 15 seconds

• Poultry - chicken, turkey or duck (whole or ground)
• Stuffing containing meats, eggs, seafood or other ingredients that must be stored a specific temperatures
• Stuff meats, seafoods, poultry and pasta

155 degrees F - must register on thermometer for 15 seconds

• Ground beef, pork and other meats
• Injected meats like ham or roasts
• Ground, chopped or minced seafood

145 degrees F - must register on thermometer for 15 seconds

• Fish, shellfish, crustaceans and other seafood
• Pork, beef, veal and lamb steaks or chops
• Eggs

145 degrees F - must register for 4 minutes

• Pork, beef, veal, and lamb roasts

Knife Skills

We had a class on knife skills last week. We saw the technique and briefly practiced it with the expectation that we will apply it in future classes. I wish we would have spent hours chopping, dicing and receiving critiques, but we didn't, so I practice my kitchen knife skills at home instead.

Knife and Sharpening Steel
(for use after sharpening a knife on a stone; keeps blade straight)

Red, Green and Yellow Bell Peppers chopped in a small dice

Since I felt like practicing my knife skills and sharing some of the tips that I learned, I made a short video for you.

FYI about the video... you will notice I cut slowly because I want to focus on technique rather than speed. In the first video - IGNORE the onion part, I completely messed it up!

Since I did not want to start the video over, but could not let the onion error go unremedied, I recorded a second piece with just the onion slicing to redeem myself.



Julienne: cut food into strips, usually thin strips, sometimes the width of a match.

Julienne of Two Carrots
The four strips came from two different pieces. The length gives it away.

Dice: cut food into cubes of varying sizes (small, medium, large or by specific measurements).

Small Dice of Carrots
I consider these a small dice b/c they measure less than 1/4 inch.

Chop: cut food into smaller pieces without uniformity in size or shape.

Correct Onion Dicing Video...



Other cuts exist in the culinary world. For example, you can cut simple round slices from a carrot, cucumber, or other fruits and vegetables. Some people prefer cutting vegetables in diagonals - commonly seen with carrots and celery.

Oblique, lozenge, paysanne,and tourner are other fancier cuts that exist in the culinary world. However, we haven't attempted these, so I will skip them here too.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my knife skills experience. Ciao!!

Food Vocabulary

Here are my words of the week, day, moment - whatever you want to call it.

Woodsy - think of smoked foods, reminds you of a campfire smell, reminiscent of smells found while hiking through the woods

Caramel - think of burnt sugar (taste and smell), the deep dark smell of molasses, tan or brown in color

Rancid - unpleasant smell or taste, stale, fishy smell

Grassy - smells like fresh cut grass, green bell peppers are often described as grassy

***************************************

Do you know the difference between a seasoning, flavoring, spice and condiment? Let's test your food knowledge...

You can match each word with the correct definition*:

A. Seasoning
B. Flavoring
C. Spice
D. Condiment

__ Typically used in whole or ground in dried form; the bark, roots, seeds, buds or berries from a plant

__ Used to enhance the flavor of food, but does not change the taste

__ Added to a dish to enhance the flavor; can be a prepared item (mustard) or a vinegar or herb

__ Adding an ingredient to a dish that changes the natural flavor of the item and adds a new taste to the dish

**Reworded definitions used from "On Cooking" by Labensky and Hause.

More Food Vocabulary

Shannon Words for the Day:

• Briny - a salty taste; think of salt water
  
• Caramelized - to sweeten by browning over heat (i.e. onions); tastes sweet and/or nutty
  
• Chocolatey - tastes of cocoa; rich, dark flavor, yet slightly sweet;
  
• Fruity - tastes or smells of fruit; can be excessively sweet; considered full bodied, concentrated and full flavored if relating to wine
  

How Do Internet Sources Describe:

Fennel (Herb & Spice)

• crunchy; slightly sweet; mild anise flavor;
  
• herb has white bulb with green stalks and wispy leaves;
  
• spice is from dried seeds;
• related to parsley, carrot, dill and coriander;
• Uses: fennel seeds are great with fish dishes; used in Italian and French sauces and dishes; Italian roasts and sausages; used in Chinese five spices; used in breads and cakes, etc.

Currant

• fruit - grape or berry
  
• grows as berries on a shrub if fresh, most dried currants are actually Zante raisins (grapes) from Greece
  
• tangy & tart flavor for fresh currants; mild, slightly sweet flavor for dried
  
• Uses: fresh currants = jam, preserves and liquor; dried currants = mainly for baking and desserts, but sometimes used in savory dishes or as a substitute for raisins
  

'Ode to Amarillo' Pizza

In class tonight, the second night in the kitchen, our assignment was to make a pizza (dough and sauce provided) using ingredients found in the refrigerator and cost it out. In an effort to move out of my comfort zone (and due to a lack of ingredients), I opted to create a southwestern style pizza.
Before I get into the details, I will admit that the professional kitchen intimidated me. I certainly did not know my way around and had trouble getting my head wrapped around it all. Working with 17 other people, prepping ingredients, sharing ovens and tools, planning the pizza, and just trying to figure which piece of equipment was oven, definitely left me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I openly admit that everyone finished dressing their pizza before I did, but I gave it my best and was relatively happy with the results. Thankfully, our head chef is very friendly and approachable, so he humored me and answered all my questions, showed me how to use the professional oven (Hobart double door, hot, hot oven) and even shared a few tips.


Two tips from our head chef tonight:

Is there a secret ingredient in pizza sauce? Outside of basil, tomatoes, olive oil - the secret to making your pizza sauce not taste like marinara or spaghetti sauce, might be the addition of fennel.

Want to avoid a soggy crust in the middle? When you are adding the tips, leave a 1" to 2" diameter circle of exposed crust in the middle. Do not put sauce, toppings or cheese in this area. As the pizza bakes, the toppings fill in the center area.


My ingredients:

• Roasted red and green bell peppers ($0.50 green bell; $1.50 red bell)
  
• Jalapeno peppers (2 at $1.50)
  
• yellow onion ($1.00)
  
• ground beef w/ garlic powder and ground black pepper ($2.00 <>
• mozzarella cheese ($1.50 <>
• cheddar cheese ($0.75 <>
• Barbecue sauce (or an attempt at it since we didn't have any) - I mixed ketchup, spicy brown mustard, worcestershire sauce, and ground black pepper and mixed it with the pizza sauce to give it a smokier flavor ($2.00)
  
• dough ($2.00)
• Total: $12.75 for eight slices (I think this might be a little high for grocery; restaurants who order this in bulk could probably make it for $6 - $8)

Other ideas I did not have the chance to develop: red pepper flakes, bacon instead of ground beef, green chilies, and/or cheddar jack cheese.

Review: Not a bad first attempt. If I make my 'Ode to Amarillo' pizza again, I will use my favorite barbecue sauce, Cattlemen's, to mix with the pizza sauce, consider swapping bacon for the ground beef and using a slightly spicier cheese. Seeing 25 pizzas laid out in a row and tasting several made for a nice end to the evening.


Cost Exercise
As we prepared our pizzas, the head chef instructed us to write down every ingredient we were using and to estimate the cost. If you look at my ingredient list above, I have a dollar value next to each item. I based my prices on grocery store values, so keep in mind that if you worked in a restaurant, you would purchase goods in bulk and therefore pay even less than shown above. My pizza had approximately eight slices.


To end the day, I brought some of the pizzas home for Go Blue Dad to eat. He enjoyed them!!!

Roasting a Bell Pepper

We've roasted bell peppers before, but it was not until my last cooking class that I discovered the chef's method for roasting a bell pepper - green and red. I assume the same principle applies to other peppers as well in case you are wondering. We'll test it at some point.

- Place oven rack close to top of oven
- Set your oven to 400+ degrees
- Place a whole bell pepper on baking sheet and put in oven - that's right, don't cut it up!
- Back until skin has blackened
- Pull from oven and immediately wrap in tinfoil*
- Let sit in tinfoil for five minutes and then unwrap
- Peel the skins from the peppers and slice to desired size/shape
- Add to dish

* You place the peppers in tinfoil to steam them, thus allowing the skin to peel of easier.