Sweetbreads are NOT Sweet!

Phase 3, Week 4, Day 18

OK, this is a fun one. Obviously, sweetbreads are not sweet. They are the thymus gland of a cow. The texture alone is enough to make you hurl, and those of you who know me know I don't really have much of a texture issue. But this one got to me. So, why do they call them sweetbreads? A brief internet search concluded that no one really knows why they are called that. I can't believe the internet didn't come through on answering something, I think that's a first for me. Apparently, I can't eat them but I can rock them in the kitchen.

Menu for today:

Veal Stew Vol au Vent

Tourned Potatoes

Sweetbreads with Sauce Maltaise

Pureed Butternut Squash

A couple of weird things for today. We are serving our sweetbreads with a sweet flavored hollandaise sauce, gross. During the demo the chefs commented how the sweetness of the orange cut down on the alkali flavor of many offal or varietal meets (cooking terms for stuff you wouldn't normally eat). I made a mental note.... Second weird thing is the vol au vent or puff pastry. It's not too weird but puts a different spin on presenting stew. Third, how the hell are we going to incorporate pureed squash with either of these dishes?

Production of both dishes was fairly easy. The fact the I always eff up stew has become a standard for me, and I just roll with it now. I have now added stew to the list of things I can't do well. The sweet hollandaise was a bit challenging to get it to the right consistency, although orange is an acid, it didn't quite act the same as vinegar or wine. Puff pastry, easy. Pureed squash, easy. Putting it all together, interesting.

Remember the last day of F2 when Adolf and Ava said you have to plan your entire dish ahead of time. I've tried to do this during F3 as best I can, and this is what I came up with this time around. A taste of seared sweetbread and candied orange peel w/ a quenelle of sweet squash puree w/ sauce malaise. Mini vol au vant filled with veal stew and tourned potatoes.

A taste of Sweetbreads

Veal Stew Vol au Vent

Result:

Sweetbreads- Both chefs liked the presentation, a bit too much sauce in the dish. They enjoyed the addition of sugared orange peel I added as garnish to cut the sweetbreads. But my sauce could have had more flavor...

Stew- Nice presentation, sauce was too thick and the potatoes were not quite done. Oops...

Grade for last two days, 87%. Not great, but not bad.

New Opportunities

Phase 3, Week 4, Days 16 & 17

Basically, these two days consisted of lectures about lamb and pork, three demos, and one cooked dish of Lamb Shank and Risotto. Nothing worthy to note, besides trying to plate an entire lamb shank was ridiculous! Talk about a truck stop portion of food, it might as well have been a turkey leg. Geeze!

I'll take this time to fill you in on some other stuff that's been going on. In the span of one week I got two new part-time jobs in the culinary industry. I got a job as a free lance writer for a St.Louis based online news periodical, calling it a news paper doesn't seem right. It's called Patch.com. It's is actually a collection of local online sites focusing on "local" news. Mine is based in Ballwin and Ellisville Missouri. I've written two stories so far and hope to have more published soon. I also got hired on as a demonstration cook for Your Commercial Kitchen in Springfield. I'll be teaching cooking classes on the weekends. So far I have started a Little Chef Culinary Series targeted to kids and of course, the first class is Holiday Cookies. I'll be scheduling more classes in the near future.

To keep up with all this stuff I attached a Twitter link to the bottom of my blog as well as starting a "fan" page on Facebook called Always Taste Enough. Feel free to follow either one to get the latest updates regarding my new ventures.

Whew!!!!

A ridiculous portion size....

Late for an Important Date

Phase 3, Week 4, Day 14 and Day 15

Looks like I have a little catch up to play here recently. Last Monday, was the half way point of the class, and I attended my regular class time since I had had the long weekend at home. In class we reviewed for our midterm written test and watched a demo on pork carnitas and strip steak. Seems lately the class has had a much more leisurely pace to it. We are only cooking every other day. Lecture and demo days are enjoyable, but tedious at the same time. Three and a half hours is a long time to stand and watch someone cook or discuss the primal cuts of different types of meat. And the cooking days move along pretty well but are much less frantic than they used to be, which is a great feeling to have!

Tuesday morning started off badly! I awoke when I hear my Uncle down stairs (I'm staying with my Aunt and Uncle while I attend school). This was not good! When I opened my eyes I saw light streaming through the window. Also not good! I looked at the clock, it was 6:20 am! NOT GOOD! Class started at 6:00 and we had a test and a practical!!! I shot out of bed, threw on my uniform and rushed out the door. I got to school in 25 minutes, in what was typically a 35 minute commute. I walked in just as the class was beginning the prep for the practical. I had missed the written test.

Ok- I just had to calm down and focus on the task at hand; which was:

Pork Carnitas

Salsa Cruda

Avacado and Sour Cream & Cilantro Quenelles

Grilled NY Steak

Maitre d'hotel Butter

Duchess Potatoes

Butternut Squash Gratin 

Working with Jeremy we got all of the dishes knocked out in record time. I couldn't believe it! It was actually pretty easy. Even the Duchess Potatoes, you'll remember from last phase, were pretty easy. Our only issue was I almost dropped our squash gratin when rearranging all the pots in the oven, but I saved it. Whew!

Result:

Steak- Great job, medium rare (who would have thought I would like mine that way now). Potatoes good color and flavor. Squash could have been dices in larger pieces and had a bit too much liquid in them. Otherwise very tasty.

Carnitas- They loved the presentation (took it's picture, always a good sign). Chef Bruce said it looked like the St.Louis Club was rubbing off on me. Good flavor over all. 

No Grade Yet. Good come back from a crappy start to the day.

I got docked 25% of my daily grade for being late, but Chef let me take my test right after class. Scored and 83%, not great but apparently par for the rest of my classmates. They keep sticking some zingers in there to keep you on your toes. What the hell is a Fourth anyway? I still don't know.

Sexy Carnitas

I'm hooked on the d'hotel butter

Thanksgiving

Happy Monday after Thanksgiving. I was so excited about Thanksgiving this year. It really is a cook's holiday. I mean, what other holiday completely focus around food for all of the festivities? This year I actually knew what I was doing and could kick it up a notch with out any issues. I had several new recipes picked out and a few old standbys on the menu . I was doing it all, except for the Turkey, sweet potatoes, and canapés. This is what I had planned:

Fried Turkey (Shawn's request)

Fig and Black Walnut Dressing

Whipped Potatoes

Fresh Green Beans with Roasted Red Pepper (sound familiar?) 

Winter Citrus Salad

Cranberry Pear Relish

Pan Gravy

Yumm!!!

The stage was set.

By Wednesday afternoon; Shopping was done. Stock was made. French bread for dressing was drying......

Enter sick child. 

Yes, at 9:00 pm Rhys stared throwing up. He did this on and off until 9:00 the next morning. Yuck!

Therefore we did not share the wealth, we did not go to Thanksgiving. We spent the day quarenteened, together, at home.

Through my wonderful friends I cooked my highly anticipated meal by phone. All of the little helpers in the kitchen did a fantastic job, BTW!

Rhys and I got a care package of leftovers on the doorstep to enjoy, at least I enjoyed them. Rhys was still on soup and crackers until Friday when things began to come out the other end. But that's a different story all together....

Half Way Home!!!!

Phase 3, Week 3, Day 13

Today, I'm half way home literally! Not only is it a short week but today marks the half way point for me. Our last phase of the certificate program is an externship, and since I'll be doing mine in Springfield, I will be back home in 15 weeks. I can't believe it! 15 weeks and I'll be home! YEA!

In class today to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we made rabbit. Just kidding. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we did make Braised Rabbit with Mustard Sauce, Fresh Carrot Pasta, and Snow Peas. A classic French dish.

I needed to redeem myself after yesterday's fiasco. Yesterday afternoon, I just slept and wallowed in self pity. Until, that is, my ex told me to get over myself. Everyone has a bad day, he said. Harsh, but true. I guess that's why he's my ex.....I digress.

For this practical we were just making one dish AND it was a joint effort. Which was very cool. First we had to break down the rabbit, which I did not enjoy. Chef Bruce made the mistake of equating the rabbit carcus to that of a cat, after that reference he lost me. We watched Chef demo the breakdown and perform two different cooking methods for rabbit. Chef Tim demoed fresh carrot pasta and holding methods and with a "bop on the head" we were off to cook.

Jeremy and I rocked today. Jeremy took the rabbit. Typically we share the process of breaking down the meat produce, but after the cat comment, I was done with rabbit. I took on the peas and fresh pasta. The instructors gave us some lientency as how to prepare our rabbit, what cuts, and what accompanying sauce to serve . We decided to plate two dishes,  I chose the hind quarters and Jeremy chose the loin. We agreed to serve the mustard sauce.

Our timing was impeccable. The dishes couldn't have turned out better. No negative remarks from the Chefs. And Chef Bruce even took a picture of our dishes! 100%

Rabbit, it's what's for dinner.

Discomboobulated

Phase 3, Week 3, Day 12

Discomboobulated is what Chef Bruce calls discombobulated, or when things get all mixed up and you are disorientated. That's what today was all about. Although, I made the barded beef dish last night and I figured I could make Calves Liver Lyonaise with Haricot Verts, what is basically liver and onions with green beans, with out a problem, it was not a good day.

Right off the bat, the liver was looking good and with in the span of 10 seconds BAM! It burnt! Crap! I flipped it, carefully watching the cooking process and the pan grabbed a hold of the meat and wouldn't let go. Now some would say, that's ok, the Maillard Reaction is taking place, let the meat do it's thing. Well, I could tell the damn thing was burning, AGAIN. Crap! Now any chance of making a pan sauce from this disaster would taste like licking a charcoal briquette.

Remember, this is a test, but since I wasn't "in class" the day before Jeremy could help me out. During this process of an epic fail of a liver lyonaise, Jeremy is "helping me a long"and laughing. Thanks J.

I learn from Jeremy that yesterday Chef Bruce totally used a different recipe for his Souffle, so different that cooking time for the side dish went from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. A BIG difference, and of course, the procedure is completely different too. For the last straw, Chef's Sauce Maderia was constructed in a different manner as well. I found myself arguing with Jeremy about processes. ARGH! At this point, I was completely discomboobulated, I had to change game plans and my overall thought process. Not too sure if I can save this one at the rate the ship was sinking......

Filet seems to be going well. Good. Wrapping up veggies. They just need to be sauted  after they have been blanched and shocked. No biggie there, we do it all the time without issue. Wrong!  Both the green beans and artichokes carryover cooked in the pan too far. In fact, the chokes totally burned. As Chef Bruce would say, "Sabotugie!"

Result:
Beef Filet- Could use more color on the searing. Temperature was good.
Sauce- Nice sheen and flavor
Chokes- He didn't even try them. (ouch!) I should have taken a page from Jeremy's book. He burned his too. He just served one piece of choke on top of the filet.

Soufflet- Very good. Liked the garnish of a cheese wedge.

Liver- All was well, until, he checked the underneath side of the liver. Fail.
Sauce- Could have used more onion. Remember, I had to borrow what I had because mine was burnt.
Beans- Overdone.

Grade: 87.

Needless to say I was definitely down on myself after today. Am I really going to be able to do this?

   

Barded Beef Filet w/ Charcoal Chokes

Charred Liver Lyonaise and Limp Haricot Verts

Souflet no. 2

Barded Beef

Phase 3, Week 3, Day 1

Back to the night class today. I still like spending time at the restaurant on Monday mornings and of course the extra night with Rhys, but going to the night class on Monday nights sucks. I like the class, I even have a nickname, "Monday." However, with so many practicals this phase I end up repeating tests or missing lectures because the classes aren't on the same schedule.

Today we had a 1/2 practical, where we are only doing one dish. My class demoed this and one other dish this morning for our test tomorrow.....menu for tonight was as follows:

Beef barded Filet of Beef (Filet Mignon) w/ Sauce of Madera 

Saute of Artichoke Heart

Blue Cheese Souffle

So several firsts today. Breaking down a fresh artichoke, making a souffle, and pan searing a filet. Awesome. Luckly there was only one dish and the chef instructor demoed the whole thing for us. Otherwise, not sure I could have pulled off the souffle.

Breaking down the artichoke was interesting. You end up throwing away 3/4 of the artichoke and keeping the little tiny heart. I also had no idea the thing was super prickly. The artichoke is part of the thistle family, so I guess that makes sense why it's full of spikes. The choke part is on the inside and is full of little spiky needles, many people are have been said to have eaten this part and choke. 


History note: In the 16th century, eating an artichoke was reserved only for men. Women were denied the pleasure because the artichoke was considered an aphrodisiac and was thought to enhance sexual power. Weird.

The cheese souffle was even more interesting, but not as difficult as I thought it would be. But it had some very precise steps in the process. Whipping the whites and folding them in to the mornay sauce was critical, as was the temperature and timing to determine doneness.

The Filet was easy, but we were required to "call" the doneness of the filet before the chef cut into it. Without a lot of experience in this arena I was kind of in the dark. My advice to the galls out there, don't just let your husband grill, you need to know about meat too!!!

Results:

Filet- Nice seasoning, on the line of medium

Sauce- Very good color and sheen 

Chokes- Nice flavor, but underdone

Souffle- Nice color, good texture and flavor

92%

DONE!

Filet, Souffle, and Chokes