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

Poultry Practical

Phase 3, Week 2, Day 10

Practical menu for today:

Plate 1

Turkey Scaloppine w/ a Mushroom sauce

Potato Croquettes

Mixed Green salad w/ vinaigrette dressing

Plate 2

Poeler Duck Brest with Bigarade sauce a Gastrique

Gratin Dauphinoise

Sauted tourne of Cucumber

I still have not mastered the element of heat or sauce making. Two MAJOR things I need to accomplish and be able to do well before I leave school. Most of my sauces either break, where the oil separates from the main liquid, or I over reduce. Concerning heat, I have no control. My stuff is either not brown enough or burnt. WTF! It's not that hard, but for some reason I can't get it. URGH!!!!

In general, most of my dishes are typically "good with nice flavor", but I'm not really sure what that means. Is that like "Yeah, it's good, I'm not going to send it back," type thing or does it mean "it's good, I'd come back to eat here again."

I'm also trying to work on my plating and presentation, but chefs have such different opinions on what looks good. There are modern styles and classic styles. I don't know which is the right way to go. It boils down to two basic camps: 

•  all garnish should be functional and edible, but not always required if dish is done properly
• garnish is a requirement and should reflect herbs in the dish (ie; NFG , Non Functional Garnish)

The garnish debate is annoying to me because Chef Tim and Chef Bruce are exact opposites on this concept. I don't think our grade is reflective of the garnish, but I wish we could get some more ideas of NFG besides putting a bush of rosemary on my dishes. I tried a lemon spiral on my salad today and both of them scoffed at it. I mean what's the difference between a bush and a peal? I got props for using a bit of salad to top my duck. I guess I'll need to do some research to see if I can come up with a compromise.

Results:

Turkey- Could have used a bit more color

Sauce- Broke (having major issues here!)

Croquetts- Good seasoning, a tad too much pepper

Salad- Very nice vinaigrette, less on the plate with more height. Didn't like my attempt at garnish...

Duck- Good flavor, but should be served medium. A bit over done.

Gastrique- Very good flavor, over reduced

Dauphinois- Very good, nice color and texture

Cucumber- Good

Again; good over all. No grade yet.

Salad with a twist

Turkey Scaloppine

Poeler Duck with Gastrique

Duck, Duck, Goose

Phase 3, Week 2, Day 9

Today was all about poultry. turkeys, duck, and game birds. Chefs lead with a demo and finished with a lecture about various market forms and classifications of types of poultry including a lengthy tangent about foie gras.

Foie Gras is a pretty interesting topic in the food world. It was pretty controversial a few years ago and event banned in some cities, including Chicago. Many well known chefs including Wolfgang Puck stopped using the produce for a while. The main point of contempt is over how the ducks are fed. For those of you not familiarized with fioe gras, it is basically fattened duck or goose liver. The ducks are force fed a corn diet using a feeding tube. There are two manufacturers of foie gras and other duck products in the US, Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras.

During my first phase at school we had a representative from Hudson Valley come to school and give a lecture and demonstration on their products. Due to all of the bad press fois gras has received in the US in the last few years, foie gras purveyors have had to result to a grass roots campaign to educate the public and new and aspiring chefs about their product. Hudson Valley actually has a standing invitation to chefs and culinary students alike to come and visit their farm in New York so that industry professionals can make their own decision about the controversy.

Who would have thought that food could be so controversial?

Here is a link to pro foie gras articles as well. The choice is yours, but also think about where your chicken comes from and how they are treated....

Good

Phase 3, Week 2, Day 8

Today we had a practical covering three dishes:

1) Grilled Veggies
2) Chicken Ballontine w/ Latkas
3) Grilled Airline Chicken breast, Fruit Salsa, and Curried Lentils

The day went pretty smoothly.However, I cut off the second joint of my chicken wing off of the breast. Oops! That wasn't what I said though. ;0). An airline chicken breast has a bone from one of the wings left on it w/ the skin removed. Secondly,  I did burn my first batch of latkas. Man, if you turn your back for just one minute your food will turn on you like nothing else. Always be vigilant of what you are cooking and know how it will react to heat. For instance; all oils cook differently at different temperatures. Sauces with cream or eggs will break or separate on you if not handled with care. A sauce to go from nappe to burnt in 30 seconds.

The interesting thing we got to play with today was caul fat. Caul fat is the fatty membrane of a pig's stomach used to wrap meat. We wrapped our chicken ballontine in it and then sered it. The caul fat holds it all together and then melts away when exposed to heat. It's kind of cool.

Results:
Grilled Veggies: Good, nicely seasoned, nice little presentation
Ballontine: Good. Nice presentation, good flavor. Made a second batch of latkas ;0). Sauce, good.
Chicken: Even without the breast, the dish was "Good." A bit too much salsa on the plate. Lintels, good.

Overall it was all "Good." I finally asked if Chef Bruce had anything else to say about any of the dishes. Nope they were good. What does Good translate too?

Apparently a 97%. I'll keep chugging along to attempt to come back from my 300 pt deficit....

Chicken Ballontine

Chicken and Lintels

Grilled Veggies