Thanksgiving 2008

We had a little break from Culinary School this week and last week and won't have class until Monday night. I have been very busy making things for people and Thanksgiving. Jesse McElreath, pastor and friend, hinted that "it was pumpkin season, wasn't it?" at church a couple weeks ago. I have been giving him pumpkin spice cakes with cream cheese and orange glaze for a few years now ever since I gave him some for Pastor Appreciation Month one year and he confessed he ate them all without sharing any with his wife, Darlene. He puts butter in the well in the center of the mini-bundt cake, heats it and then eats the whole thing. I made a batch of pumpkin bread for him, us, and brought some to work where it was promptly eaten and I was even asked for the recipe by the Warden.

For Thanksgiving dinner I started preparations a week ago by making homemake stock and drippings from the turkey parts I roasted were saved for the gravy. As usual, I made too much food, ate too much food, and now have too much food in my refrigerator! The menu was:

Crudites

Cheese tray

Spinach Dip

Herb Salted Turkey with traditional gravy

Ham with apricot glaze and cranberry chutney

Cornbread stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Candied mashed sweet potatoes

Fresh green bean casserole

Cherry Jubilee salad

Homemade yeast rolls

Key Lime Pie

Pumpkin Caramel Pie

Pumpkin Tarts

My favorites are always the turkey and cornbread stuffing. I have memories of helping my father may Thanksgiving dinner, especially the stuffing and gravy. I wish now I had paid more attention to his instructions, but I do remember him saying how important it was to make a good stock, a proper roux, and brown everything going into the stock beforehand. His stuffing and gravy were always so delicious but I don't know what his secret ingredients were.

I make my stuffing as close to his as I can with bacon, sausage, celery, onions, cornbread and various seasonings.

My children all have their favorites and I have to include them in the meal. My daughter, Helen, who couldn't be here told me she misses the homemade rolls the most about our family Thanksgiving. She especially liked eating them the next day with turkey in sandwiches. My son, Glenn, likes green bean casserole. My other son, John David, couldn't be here but he has to have cranberry sauce, jellied, from the can and sliced. My daughter, Alexandra, has to have the cherry jubilee salad which she always calls, "pink stuff". Everyone got their favorites and we enjoyed sharing the meal together. Glenn's girlfriend, Jennifer, brought samples from her family's Thanksgiving dinner including her chocolate steamed pudding and cheesecake. I haven't tried them yet but I will.

For dessert I made Key Lime pie for the first time and I loved it. The crust was made of graham cracker crumbs, pecans and butter and I made it in a large tart pan so it looked really neat. I made a new recipe for pumpkin pie using caramel and I did not care for it. I'll go back to the regular pie next time.

Now, I'm off to put up Christmas decorations and start thinking about the dinner I'm making tomorrow night for Jennifer's parents. I will make a sukiyaki dinner.

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Week 11: Soups

Photos: Ray and Robert: Partners in crime and 4 of the 5 soups

I was looking foward to soup class. After all, one of the best parts of fine dining for me has been eating the soups. There is a restaurant in Fredericksburg, Texas, The Nest, where I always look forward to the soup as a first course. Even ingredients I don't normally like, such as mussels, taste wonderful in soup prepared by Chef/Owner John Wilkenson, a graduate of the CIA. Over the years I've had all types of creamy vegetable and other soups there that I have yet to find as good anywhere else in the country. Maybe I was hoping I could learn to make really, really good soup. I was therefore a little disappointed to learn we would be making the following soups:
Puree of Split Pea
Beef and vegetable
Vichyssoise (Cold Potato-Leek Soup)
Fresh Peach and Yogurt
New England Style Clam Chowder

Personally I am not a fan of cold soups. On a trip to Switzerland in 2005 we ended up in a restaurant with a menu we couldn't read and a waitress who didn't speak English, although she did say, "Oh shit!", and I ordered soup, expecting a nice hot bowl of soup. Instead I got a bowl of cold soup which was probably a vichyssoise, although I didn't realize it at the time. I did not eat it. So, needless to say, I wasn't to enthused about making cold potato leek soup, but volunteered to make it anyway, as a joint effort with Ray.
Fortunately Robert had practiced making split pea soup at home and volunteered to make it.
Split pea soup is another soup I could live without--the color is nasty to me. Ray said he'd make the beef soup, and I was happy to make the clam chowder, a soup I actually like. The clam chowder turned out very well and was not too difficult to make. Our other soups got good remarks from the instructors except for our not white vichyssoise. We used a darkish stock so it was not the right color and our peach soup had too much yogurt and not enough peach. Robert's split pea soup scored a 9 our of 10, and my clam chowder got positive remarks.
I brought the clam chowder home and served it for dinner with rave reviews.
New England Style Clam Chowder
Adapted from On Cooking, Fourth Edition

1 qt canned clams with juice
approx 3 cups water or fish stock
1 large potato, diced
4 oz bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 T flour
2 cups milk
4 oz heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
tabasco sauce, to taste
worcestershire sauce, to taste
fresh thyme, to taste

Drain clams, reserve clams and liquid. Add water to liquid to total 4 cups. Simmer potatoes in this clam/water liquid until nearly cooked. Strain and reserve the liquid.
Fry the bacon, add the onions and celery and sweat until tender. Add the flour and cook to make a light colored roux. Add the clam liquid, whisking to avoid lumps. Simmer for 30 minutes, skimming as necessary. Bring milk/cream to a boil in another pan, and then add to the soup.
Add the clams and potatoes, seasonings and cook at a simmer for a few minutes. Enjoy!

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Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays: Internship Hours

We are required to complete 22-24 hours a semester working at the Culinary School as our "internship". I signed up to work at "Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays", an adult continuing education course offered at TCU (Texas Christian University) in conjunction with the Culinary School of Fort Worth on November 14, 2008. People enrolled in this class paid $75.00 for the four courses pictured above and five wines. I sure hoped we didn't disappoint them. When we show up at the school we don't know what to expect in terms of assignments for the day. My first assignment was to slice baguettes for crostini with a student I've never met, Becky. Becky was very quiet at first but opened up after a while. She is about the age of my youngest daughter and from a very small town, Van Horn. In a way, it was like working with my daughter in that she glanced at her cell phone every five minutes! She is attending the school on a full scholarship. Becky and I were then assigned to make appetizer frittatas in mini muffin pans. There is a photo of these mini frittatas piled up. They were really quite delicious and people kept coming up and trying to snag them for a taste because the smell was irresistable!

Roasted Tomato Frittata
Cut tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 400 until skins are brown and crusty.
After they cool, chop and put tomatoes and juice in a large bowl.
Add crumbled feta cheese, approximately 1/2 of the amount of tomatoes in the bowl.
Add minced garlic, basil (chiffonade), salt and pepper.
Add several well beaten eggs and mix.
Spray mini muffin tins with non-stick spray. Bake in oven at 375 for 12-15 minutes, or until brown and crusty on top.

I helped set up the appetizer table, pictured above by plating the frittatas and the risotto balls.
I thought the appetizer table was beautiful with all the different colors of fruit, cheeses, and pastries.
Later I was assigned to help in the final plating by putting sauces on the foods. A long assembly line was set up in the kitchen where every item was placed in exactly the same place on all the plates and handed to the students who served it to the guests. Keeping everything hot, moving quickly to get it all out at the same time, and getting the right sauces on the various foods was not easy. When it was over we got to sample the food:

Seafood Cake with tropical fruit salsa and smoked shrimp
Turkey Tenderloin with herbed stuffing
Apricot glazed ham with cranberry chutney
Ancho Cocoa rubbed Pork tenderloin with pumpkin seed mushroom pesto and sour cherry and fig compote

Too bad the wine was off limits! I'm sure the guests were not disappointed because everything I tasted was very, very good. In fact, I plan to add the Apricot glazed ham to my Thanksgiving menu.

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Week 10: Egg Cookery

It hasn't been a big week for culinary school practice. On Sunday I made some chili for a chili cook-off at work and grilled flank steak for the family. On Tuesday I started getting ready for a big lunch event I was in charge of on Thursday. I made the dessert, a white chocolate covered nut, pretzel, candy chex mixture. The chili cook-off was on Wednesday. My Santa Fe chili, a beef and pork chili with Hatch green chili, won 3rd place. Thursday was very hectic. I didn't realize that making wraps and sandwiches for 50-60 people would be so much work. Of course, I had to make chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad, ham & swiss, beef and cheddar with garlic-herb spread, turkey and havarti with chipotle mayo, and a special roasted peppers and mushrooms with feta for my vegetarian friend. Whew! Good thing my son Glenn was there to help. I left the kitchen a huge mess so when Alexandra, my daughter, woke up and saw it she was not too happy. The sandwiches were a big hit. My favorite was the herb egg salad. Hard cooked eggs, chopped with dijon mustard, mayo, chopped tarragon, cilantro, pepper, celery, shallot, and a few capers. Try it on some whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato!

Truthfully, I was burned out after Thursday so I was more than happy to go out on Friday night to Cafe Soleil, a restaurant in Azle, the town in which I live. Chef Paula Ambrose, a real culinary school graduate and experienced chef, has a very tiny restaurant in Azle, a very, very unusual place for this town. The only other restaurants are Mexican and country or fast food. There was once a great Thai restaurant but it went out of business because the locals did not want to try Thai food--too strange. Chef Paula makes the best tenderloin steaks around and charges less than half the price of the name restaurants in Fort Worth. Friday night she had a tasting menu of butternut squash bisque, wild mushroom salad, fig and goat cheese ravioli, tenderloin steak with crab and hollandaise, and a sugar scone with berries and ice cream for $30.00.

It was over the top!

I got up extra early Saturday morning to get some practice in with the 2 dozen eggs I bought just for that purpose. As you can see from the sheet pan of eggs I was not very successful but I did get better after flipping all those eggs without the aid of a spatula or any tools, just using the pan and my arm. It is not easy, believe me. I have new respect for the cooks I used to watch when I was working in my parents coffee shop, Mr. Ed's, in the 70's. I left a big pan of my practice eggs out on the counter and left the egg I accidentally flipped right out of the pan on the stovetop under the burner. When Alexandra came down to the kitchen and saw the mess she was not amused. She hates eggs! When I came home I knew she was going to say it and she did, "I hate you." We had a good laugh about the mess in the end and she doesn't really hate me.

At school we were lectured on eggs, safety of storing them, cooking temperatures, and all the other facts concerning eggs. Chef Waier demonstrated a souffle by making a berry souffle. I learned that I had been "folding" ingredients wrong all these years and now I know the proper technique. Turn the bowl as you fold. Our assignments for the day included spending a few minutes at the stove with the instructors while we cooked sunny side up eggs, over easy eggs, sometimes using 2 pans and both hands, no utensils, and lots of messed up eggs. We learned to make a 45 second omelet using nothing but the pan and our movements and it actually looked pretty good.

I was able to successfully flip a few eggs without breaking the yolks or overcooking them. It was a lot of fun in the end.

Our other assignments were: Chocolate souffle, grits and cheddar souffle, shirred eggs, Scotch eggs, and Champagne Sabayon. Penni made the chocolate souffle and shirred egggs, Robert made the grits and Sabayon and I made the Scotch eggs. I have posted photos of everything but the Sabayon. In case you didn't know (and I didn't), a Sabayon is made of egg yolks, sugar, wine/champagne, and cream. Very rich but maybe good with fruit. The chocolate souffle was made with orange juice and Grand Marnier. Very light and tasty and I will definitely practice making it at home. The photo is not of our group's souffle. Ray, from another table, made the best looking souffle of the day so I snapped a photo of it. Good thing because ours wasn't that great looking. The grits souffle was also tasty and an unusual way to prepare grits. Scotch eggs are hard-cooked eggs covered in raw sausage which has been seasoned with herbs, then covered in breading and deep fried. I guess you could also call them heart attack eggs. They tasted pretty good, though. My favorite was the shirred eggs.

A layer of parmesan cheese, a slice of ham, 2 eggs baked in a 325 oven for 8-10 minutes, longer if you like more cooked eggs, sprinkled with shredded swiss cheese and a tablespoon of cream at the end. Delicious! I will make this for breakfast today.

Egg class was more relaxed than some of the other classes and enjoyable without the pressure of plate presentation and a window of time to present our dishes, and I learned some new techniques.

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Week 9: Sauces

It's been a busy week for cooking but not just for culinary school. I started out last Sunday by making homemade pasta for the first time (not under supervision). Jennifer, my son Glenn's girlfriend, and my daughter Alexandra helped and were fast learners. We had fettucine with a homemade meat sauce. I intended to practice sauce making this week in anticipation of Week 9 but didn't have an opportunity until Wednesday morning. On Monday morning I made a pumpkin spice cake to take to Marie at Hairworks for being a great stylist and friend. On Tuesday morning I made a huge bowl of Asian Chicken Salad to take to work for a staff event. I also made another pumpkin spice cake. Finally, Wednesday I was able to practice making Hollandaise Sauce. It was a flop. Too thick, overcooked the yolks and didn't realize I could thin it by adding hot water. I tried again the next morning and was more successful by time 3.

On Friday, Oct 31, I decided to have a night of sauce making. I made Espagnole (brown sauce),

Hollandaise, and Bechamel. Along with all this sauce making I also made dinner for the family--mashed potatoes using the new ricer and Salisbury steaks and salad.

The sauces came out great, although I ruined the Hollandaise by trying to hold it over a pan of too hot water. Turned out that after letting it set while we ate dinner it thickened and after a few seconds in the food processor came out just fine (too late to eat it though). The Espagnole was delicious, although a little too much carrot taste from my unbalanced mire poix (carmelized mixture of onion, carrot, and celery). I know it tasted good because all I saw everyone trying to get every last bit of this sauce off their plates. The Bechamel (white sauce) was also a success.

I felt ready for anything at sauce class, however I was determined NOT to make any Hollandaise Sauce if I could avoid it. I hate to say it but I seriously dislike the stuff. I mean, anything made of egg yolks and lots of butter is on my list of artery-clogging foods to avoid. I actually went to Sam's where I could get cheap butter and bought a 4 pound package of it, now down to 1 pound after making 3 batches of Hollandaise sauce with it. So 4 sticks of butter, clarified, mixed with 3 egg yolks produces a relatively small amount of sauce. Yikes!

We got our class instructions and were divided into new groups. I was placed with Ray and Robert. I've been working with Robert and I know that we work well together. Ray is very competent and easy to work with as well. We had to make 12 sauces including all the Mother Sauces (Tomato, Hollandaise, Bechamel, Veloute, and Espagnole) and 7 other small sauces which are made from the mother sauces. Thank God, Robert actually wanted to make the Hollandaise!

Ray volunteered to make the Espagnole(brown sauce) and I made the Tomato and Bechamel, along with cream sauce and cheese sauce. The first sauce photo is the tomato sauce. I had never made it before but it was not too difficult and very tasty. Using the immersion blender was a new experience and I can predict that I will buying one for home very soon. Good comments from the instructors, just needed a little more salt & sugar, but good consistency and flavors. The next sauce is my cheese sauce. This was my best sauce, made from the Bechamel. It is Bechamel sauce with cheddar cheese and dry mustard and a dash of Wochestershire sauce. I learned that cooking the Bechamel sauce for 30 minutes, then adding the other ingredients results in a very velvety and good tasting sauce. I would make this again as a sauce for vegetables or macaroni. Yum.

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Cooking for my family

I spoke to my oldest daughter, Helen, today. She lives in Houston, is married to Andy, and has an almost 8 year old daughter, Grace. Helen said she had been reading this blog and was interested in getting some of my recipes. I hadn't thought of doing that but if she found it helpful I'll write some entries from time to time about things I cook and give the recipes. Last week I made Katsudon on Sunday (see photos). Katsudon is a Japanese dish of pork cutlet, breaded with Panko and fried, then simmered in a broth of dashi and soy sauce with onion and egg. It's served over rice. I made some really good tortilla soup on Monday, Cambodian Pork on Tuesday, and Poached Tarragon chicken on Wednesday. Helen said she was looking for good recipes for pork chops. The problem with pork chops is they dry out easily. A great solution for this is braising. Braising is something most of us have done, involving searing the food, adding liquid partially, though not completely, covering the food, then simmering it on the stove or in the oven for 40 minutes or longer. The most popular dish I've made at home that I learned at the school is Country Braised chicken.

For pork, try this recipe for stuffed pork chops:

4 large pork chops (8 oz each)

celery, diced (approx 2 T)

onion, diced (approx 2 T)

butter or oil (1/2 T)

fresh bread crumbs (1/2 c)

parsley (1 T)

salt & pepper

chicken stock (4 cups total)

olive oil (1T)

Cut slit in pork chops. Saute celery and onion in butter or oil. Add bread crumbs, parsley, and salt and pepper. Add stock to get the stuffing to the consistency you desire, but not too wet.

Alternately, you could use cooked wild rice as a stuffing. Use toothpicks to close the slits.

Sear pork chops in hot olive oil. Add stock to partially cover pork chops, bring to a simmer, cover and place in a 325 oven for 45 minutes. Remove chops, degrease the sauce and reduce it.

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Week 8: Poultry Fabrication

The photos are not from Culinary School. They are from Stephan Pyles in Dallas! More on that later.

I didn't know that I had been cutting up chicken wrong all my cooking life until today. When Chef Waier demonstrated the proper way I was amazed to see how much easier it would have been had I learned this many years ago (and a lot less dangerous than my haphazard method), so it's worth the price of school know the proper technique for fabricating chicken (pause....not).

Today we were educated about all things chicken (and other poultry) and given the packet of assigned dishes. I scanned the pages of recipes and didn't think it looked too bad. Should have read them a little more carefully though, but more about that later. My team today consisted of Robert, Julie, and I. We were given the following dishes to prepare:

Country braised chicken with sauce--Robert

Pan-fried chicken with spring mix salad and vinaigrette--Julia

Poached Tarragon chicken with simmered rice--Julie

Roasted bone-in chicken breast with Duchess potatoes--Julia

Our dishes were good and bad. Julie's was perfect and one of the best they had seen. Robert's braised chicken was great, although points off for having too big and uneven vegetables, my pan-fried chicken tasted good (my spice rub) but was a little overcooked on the bottom, thanks to the too-hot convection oven time, and the roasted chicken was a tad dry, but still good. Disaster was Duchess potatoes that I forgot to brush with butter and heat in oven. Not good to serve raw egg to the instructors. This is what happens when you don't read the recipe all the way to the end.

Live and learn. Also, I forgot to put the vinegar in the vinaigrette. I did put orange juice in it, but nothing escapes Chef Nona's palate and she caught it. I swear she can taste EVERYTHING.

Overall we did OK but I felt a little frenzied toward the end and started making mistakes, so lesson learned--timing is important, watch the ovens, and pay attention to details.

At the end the class got a big lecture on "hitting the wall", not being serious enough, people goofing off, and that we were not up to par for this stage of the program. It was pretty negative and not all that accurate for some of us. I take this program very seriously. I mean, who else in their right mind would get up at 5 AM at least 3 days a week and cook whole meals for practice!

Oh well, next week we are going to work on mother sauces. I will practice and be ready to go.

On a more positive note, my husband and I went to Stephan Pyles' restaurant in Dallas to celebrate our anniversary. I've got all his books and studied the creative and delicious looking photos for years so it was great to finally go. He even came to our table and talked to us for awhile. I told him I really enjoyed finally getting to try his signature dishes and about the culinary school. He asked several questions and seemed interested. Later he sent us a gift dish of chocolates!

Above, see the photos of some of the things we tried:

Ceviche sampling: tuna, salmon, and sea bass

Caesar salad: his version uses chipotle and tamarind in the dressing

Bone-in rib-eye on mushroom/bean ragout with onion rings

Heaven and Hell cake

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Week 7: Meat Fabrication

This photo is not from the culinary school. I didn't take any photos during the meat class, just got busy and didn't take the time, however since we studied meat I wanted to display a the tenderloin steak I got at Lonesome Dove last night. It is a great example of a perfect steak.

Not that we made steaks at school. It was a weird day. First of all, five people were absent and we had a person join us from another class.

Then, although we were told last week that we would be studying poultry, the class handout indicated "meat fabrication". I couldn't believe it.

I thought maybe I heard wrong last week but a few others had thought the same thing. To get prepared for poultry I had spent the week making chicken. In fact I purchased 5 whole chickens, made braised chicken, roasted chicken, boned chicken legs stuffed, chicken stock, and practiced "fabricating" (cutting up) all those chickens. I hadn't even looked at the meat chapter. In the end, everything was OK, though.

The lecture by Chef Waier was not too long, pretty basic information on the primal cuts of beef, same type of thing about pork, some mad cow disease scary stuff, and reminders about safe handling of food. He had created some big posters to show us the various cuts as well.

Everything was straight out of the textbook, so for those of you who missed class, just reading that chapter would cover the lecture quite well.

Our assignment for the day was to split into two groups and prepare the folllowing:

Mashed Potatoes

Shish Kebab (with pork)

Classic Rice Pilaf

Home-Style Meatloaf

Brown Beef Stew

Stuffed Pork Chops

My group was Robert, Rebecca, and Lanie. We each took a dish or two to work on and I had the beef stew. I also helped with the mashed potatoes. We were given a huge pork loin to cut off the pork chop from--and showed how to do it right. I got half a 4 pound piece of beef chuck for the stew. We had to make all our dishes and put them together with starch and other things available in the kitchen. For example, the other group made a very nice looking fruit chutney to go with their pork, and Robert made a very tasty tomato jam to go with ours. Lanie browned some proscuitto in clarified butter to mix in our mashed potatoes, and I added carrots, potatoes, and celery to the beef stew. The instructors liked the proscuitto mixed with the potatoes (although I had oversalted them and put too much white pepper in them.) We also made vegetable kebabs to go with the pork kebabs, and we made these separately. We used some of the vegetables from the kebabs with the pork chop but got points off for the holes in the zucchini (from the skewers). Our meatloaf plate was great.

Lanie cut the meatloaf (which was the size of a 10 ounce burger) into half. On a large white plate we placed some brown gravy (which I made) set the piece of meatloaf on the gravy, put an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes next to it. She garnished the mashed potatoes with chives, cut into 1 inche pieces, criss-crossed. (I sure wish I had taken a picture of this, since Chef Nona said it was the best dish presented by both groups.)

My beef stew was good, but had a very strong thyme taste. I put a tsp of thyme into my garni, way too much, and my vegetables were undercooked. I was trying hard not to overcook them so I steamed them, but not quite long enough.

Rebecca made the mistake of cooking the pork chop before she stuffed it which was a disaster. Chef Waier suggested she make a new one, which she did. Her rice pilaf was undercooked as well.

Robert's kebabs were nice to look at but a little too pink for pork. The vegetables were just slightly underdone, but he got compliments for the nice flavor.

All in all, it was not as stressful as previous classes. We had from 10:00 until 12:45 to get our food prepared. The hardest part for me is to think creatively. What side dishes can be made from ingredients on hand? This is difficult since we don't know in advance what we'll find in the walk-in or pantry that day. What can we do for garnish? I'm not very good at figuring this out yet. The extra touches, like chutney and sacues are also a challenge.

Well, the good news is I don't have to study up on meat fabrication and make a bunch of meat dishes this week!

I think I will work on garnishes and sauces instead.

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Week 6: Vegetables

You would think cooking a few vegetables wouldn't be too hard, wouldn't you? Well, you're wrong. I'm finding out more and more that all the cooking I've done since age 10 (that's 44 years) didn't prepare me for vegetable class. I couldn't recognize jicima, kohlrabi, or celery root when Chef Heather held them up in class. I was praying that those particular vegetables wouldn't be in my "mystery basket", an assignment in which we would get 3-4 vegetables to prepare, sight unseen. Guess what our mystery basket contained? Yes, kohlrabi and jicima, red Swiss chard, fennel (which I hate), and cauliflower. Our instructions for the day were to make the following:

Duxelles (finely chopped mushrooms cooked with shallots, garlic, and butter)

Stir-fried vegetables: any vegetables, any sauce, but use some vegetables from the basket

Vegetable tempura (using a vegetable in our basket, we picked cauliflower)

3-4 vegetable dishes using the vegetables in our mystery basket. We could use other vegetables set out for the class, proteins in the walk-in, and anything in the pantry.

I was very, very happy that I had done some homework by writing down several types of vegetable preparations that could be used for various vegetables. This came in very handy because we were told we could use recipes from our text book, look on the Internet in the office, etc. It would have been a lot harder to start looking for ideas with the time crunch effect.

We decided to make Asian slaw with the fennel and jicima, Thai curry style vegetables using the kohlrabi, Swiss chard with bacon and an egg, and then we made the stir fry using peppers, brocolli, swiss chard, jicima, and a few other vegetables. Our sauce was a hoisin, soy, garlic, ginger sauce.

As usual, the chef instructors were brutal. Facing the presentation table is nerve-wracking. You know they will find something wrong with every dish and they do. Their comments are very helpful, even if they sting. Too much slaw in a too small bowl, not enough flavor; too much bacon in the Swiss chard (but it tasted very good), egg on top overcooked; stir fry had too many uneven cuts of vegetables; curry was flavorful but carrots were undercooked, but overall our dishes were creative and tasty. We get credit for using so many ingredients and picking somewhat complicated dishes.

I learned a lot, particularly that when you're pressed for time to come up with ways to cook food your mind will go blank, so be prepared ahead of time. Even then, finding all the ingredients you need is not so easy, and watch the cooking times when using many different vegetables.

Next week is Poultry class. I plan to buy a half dozen chickens and practice!

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Working at an event: Sunday Brunch, October 5, 2008

One of the requirements of culinary school is to work between 22-28 hours during the 14 week course. I signed up for 3 different events, the first one being the brunch, Oct 5, at the school. People can call in for reservations or just come to the school. I showed up at 7 AM, not really knowing what to expect, although I knew from looking at the sign up sheet for the event that a dozen students signed up, all but 2 from Chef Pro 1, a the other 2 from Pastro Pro 1/2.

I figured we might be in trouble, but what did I know? When I arrived I saw a full kitchen of people, and was relieved to see Chef Heather, Chef Nona, and a couple chefs who were graduates of the school. I was given an assignment to juice and zest and orange, mince ginger, and slice candied ginger. That wasn't so bad. As I worked I looked around and saw that I didn't recognize most of the students in the room. I saw 4 from my class, however, and that was comforting.

I continued to get assignments such as rolling meatballs, making a feta salad dressing (which I mistakenly put goat cheese in instead of feta cheese), and put barley in soup and watch it cook.

At around 10:00 it was announced that some students would be "on the line" cooking the food for the guests. I was surprised, but pleased to hear my name called out. Chef Justin, a graduate from the school and a chef at The Vault was in charge. He showed us couple sample plates and gave detailed instructions on how to cook and plate the dishes being served. Two of us worked on the fish dish and pasta dish and the other two on the cornish hen and pork chop dishes.

Eric and I were assigned the pasta and fish dishes which consisted of several components:

Poach the fish, cook the risotto by sauteeing onions, adding risotto, adding stock, adding peas, stirring, adding salt, adding butter, and then make sauteed snow peas. We handed the prepared items to Justin who plated everything. Good thing he was doing the plating because it wasn't easy to cook the food, let alone get it on the plate right. For the breakfast pasta we cooked the fresh pasta in water, made sauce by heating a mixture of vegetables, add cream sauce, bacon, then the pasta, more cream if needed, spinach, and seasoning. To top the pasta we made a sunny side up egg and piece of bacon. Although these two dishes don't sound all that complicated it sure seemed hectic, but then it was my first time to cook on the line. Chef Justin was great--very calm and positive, showing us how to plate, telling us the right time to start things. We all worked good as a team and it went very smoothly. No dishes were sent back! Chef Heather and Chef Nona gave us good feedback so all in all it was a great learning experience and exhausting.

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Starch Cooking

Week 5

October 4, 2008

Who knew that after sampling 22 different starch preparations that the preparation of various starches makes a big difference in taste.

I learned that mashed potatoes made with steamed yukon gold potatoes taste much, much better than mashed potatoes made with boiled Russet potatoes. Steamed corn is more flavorful than boiled corn and roasted corn tastes better if the silk is removed (to me, anyway).

After all these years of cooking I never knew that "mealy" potatoes, such as Russets shouldn't be used for everything. No wonder they fell apart when I tried to use them occasionally to make my mother's famous potato salad. My version tasted more like mashed potato salad.

Now I know.

Rice is very hard to make at the cooking school. The burner shuts off, or is mysteriously turned on when you don't know it. In any event, it turned out gummy and nasty again, however I learned that we can bake it in the oven and that version was great. The rice cooker is even better but that might not always be available.

Notice the photo of the pasta machine. Well, I purchased that today after learning to make fresh pasta in class. I couldn't believe how much better the fresh pasta tasted and how easy (well, everything is relative) it is to make. Can't wait to try it!

Last, but not least, there is a photo of my partners in crime, Robert and Penni. We have been working together the past two weeks. They are great partners because they both are low-key, nice, work hard, and we just get along well. I have enjoyed working with them.

Well, it's 5 AM, Sunday morning and I'm off to work my first internship event, the Sunday brunch at the Culinary School. I may either be assigned to work in the kitchen or dining room, so I'm a little nervous. I waited on tables as a teen, but then went to college and grad school so I could become a "professional". Should be interesting.......

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Plate Presentation

I wish I had taken a photo of my face when I heard our assignment today. We were given a stack of papers with recipes for the following:
Pan-fried trout with toasted garlic
Brennan's red-wine and mushroom sauce
Basic simmered rice
Roast Cornish game hen with wild rice stuffing
Country Braised chicken
Tomato concasse
Teriyaki salmon with pineapple-papaya salsa
We were told to get with 2 other people who would make up our team for the day. We had a short lecture on plate presentation and garnishes, mostly warning us not to arrange our food to appear as a smiley face or a "phallic symbol" which the chef described as sunny side up eggs and bacon (sounded more like "breast symbol" to me--but then I'm a psychotherapist and studied Freud.) Then we were warned that any garnish which was not a food used in the recipe would be "flicked" off the plate at the presentation window. The presentation window would be open for 1 hour at which time each of the 4 teams would bring their plates to be evaluated.
Whew!
We had about 2 hours, give or take depending on the presentation time, to figure out how to prepare 4, yes 4, plates of food consisting of the entree and side dishes. We had to decide which side dishes went with which food and we could look in the "par stock" (foods available in the walk-in or pantry) for other side dishes, and decide how to garnish the food. Additionally, our plates were to be hot at the time of presentation.
I thought I was nervous, but one look at my partners and they too had the deer in the headlights stare. Before we began, however, we had the pleasure of practicing cutting up an onion, potato, and carrot in 5 minutes. This only added to the nervous energy in the room.
Somehow we managed to fix all the food required, although we were criticized for the following:
rice--not done enough and no seasoning (trying to cook rice on the stove on low heat proved to be a big challenge as the flame kept going out)
salsa piled on top of seared fish--not good, put the salsa to the side
fish served skin side up--didn't we know that even a skinless fillet has a "skin" side where the skin has been? (no--I guess not) don't serve it skin side up
lemon zest on zuchinni--somehow there was a lot of bitter skin in the zest which tasted bad
red wine sauce on the cornish hen--don't put the sauce on top of a nicely roasted thing, put in underneath
too many sprinkled herbs--we didn't need to sprinkle cilantro and parsley on everything
We did get some positive comments on our creative use of vegetables, french fries with our pan fried fish and use of teriyaki glaze on the seared fish, so it wasn't all bad.
I learned a lot and plan to read up on food presentation and practice at home.

I really enjoyed working with my team, Robert and Penni. We managed to get everything done on time with no drama.

Exhausted, but still went grocery shopping after changing out of the uniform and enjoyed a dinner at Sushi Axiom (no COOKED FOOD) and a very nice appletini.

Tonight I'm cooking Singapore chicken-rice. I watched an Anthony Bourdain episode in which they traveling to Singapore and sampled the chicken-rice, their national dish. It sounds and looks wonderful--chicken simmered in ginger, garlic and onions served with rice cooked in the chicken stock and dipped in dark soy, chili sauce and other citrus soy sauce. I'll make some stir-fried bok-choy as a side dish.

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Week 3: Major cooking techniques

Although this food in this photo may not look that appetizing to you, trust me, it was delicious.

For major cooking techniques we learned to sear, saute, pan-fry, grill, roast, deep fry, braise, poach, simmer and steam. We had to grill pork, roast chicken legs, braise chicken thighs, sear a pork chop, pan fry a breaded chicken tender, deep fry batonnet potatoes and onions, saute shrimp, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, poach an egg, poach flounder, steam shrimp and simmer rice and pasta. Wow! Although I've used all these techniques many times I have never had to bring my finished piece of chicken to an instructor to be evaluated. Talk about stress!

She pried the chicken leg open with tongs to see if it was done all the way through, so good thing we used our instant read thermometer to insure it was 165 degrees inside.

At one time my plate was piled with french fries, more onion rings, and a nicely roasted chicken leg, however I sampled a few of things on the way home. We don't get a lunch break at schoool, so after having breakfast at 9:00, then racing around the kitchen, smelling all the good food, by 2:00 it's time to have a bite to eat. I guess I was really hungry because I thought my food tasted great.

We had a new instructor this time, Chef Jesse Watters. He is a personal chef with a business called, "Let's Cook Gourmet". He told us about his business which sounded like something I would really enjoy one day. He often cooks for small groups of people in an individual's home and also teaches cooking classes for private individuals and their friends. He has a mobile kitchen, so to speak, and can set up a cooking demonstration just about anywhere. He taught us how to saute, poach, and steam. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him.

School is getting both easier and harder. Knowing the rules, people, and process makes it easier but getting the assigned tasks done in a new kitchen where you don't know where everything is kept and working around a group of people who are all competing to use the same burners, fryers, oven, etc. is hard. Organization, timing, memory, and skill are critical to completing the tasks. The instructors are very detail oriented and observant so you can't get away with anything. If you do something wrong it will be noticed, however I was happy to receive a positive observation from time to time and I can honestly say I have learned a lot in 3 short weeks. Chef Heather Kurima, Chef Nona Sively, and Chef Brad Waier have all been great instructors.

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Week 2: Mise en place and stock

Week 2: Mise en place and Stock:

(and knife skills practice)

In cooking everything has a place and must be in the right place before you start cooking. I guess that's why Rachel Ray always gathers up her giant armful of stuff and brings it to the counter before she starts cooking. I always just started cooking and then would run around the kitchen grabbing stuff as I cooked, hoping I had the ingredients somewhere. I think back on all the times I rummaged through the spices in the cabinet looking for allspice or cloves or something I don't use that often, or even worse started frying the onions before noticing I was out of garlic and green peppers. Oh well, no more of that syle of cooking. Tonight when I made dinner I made sure every last thing was on the counter, even the fresh basil out of the garden which I usually send Steve out to get at the last minute. It really was more efficient but it will take time to get into the habit. Makes sense in a commercial kitchen, though. With our class of 12-13 students it would not be a pretty sight to see us all scurrying around constantly grabbing stuff as we went.

We also made 3 types of stock: brown stock, white stock, and court bouillion. Stock is very important, very tedious, and very slow. Translation: boring..... So just remember, don't use Swanson's broth. It has salt in it and real stock does not have salt it in. Real chefs use real stock made by using veal (beef, chicken) bones, lots of mire poix (onions, carrots, celery), fresh herbs, wine and slow cooking at a bubble, not a simmer.

Clarified butter is also important for professional cooking. Instead of just melting the butter and living with the cloudy color, we learned that by melting it and heating it the milk solids separate and can be skimmed off the top (and left on the bottom), yielding a clear, golden substance that has a higher smoke point than whole butter. Who knew?

And, of course we practiced knife skills. We were told to get a potato, onion, and carrot and then told to peel them all, julienne the potato (2 inch long, 1/4 x 1/4) dice the onion (1/4 " cubes), and brunoise the carrot (turn it into 1/8" cubes). We were timed and after what seemed like no time at all, told time was up. We had been given 12 minutes. Chef told us during our final test we would have 5 minutes to complete these tasks! Yikes! I had diced the onion, not touched the potato, and brunoised about the half the carrot. I tried to practice at home as you can see from the above photo. I julienned the potato, brunoised part of the carrot, but didn't touch the onion.

Much more practice is needed.

Finally, notice in the photo, a mandoline. I had to learn how to use this scary piece of equipment. I see chefs using them on Iron Chef and always worry they are about to slice their hand along with the potatoes, apples, radishes, etc. and I feel very uncomfortable. Turns out you're supposed to always use the guard. We were told to get comfortable with the mandoline because we'd be using it a lot (and it makes neat waffle fries like Chick Fil A.) I decided to take the plunge and buy one so I wouldn't look like a total idiot if I had to slice paper thin cucumbers one day. In one of the photos, notice the waffle cut potatoes. We had delicious, very crisp potatoes tonight and everyone was very impressed. Steve used the mandoline more than me and kept slicing different types of potatoes. It was actually fun and I look forward to using it.

It can sure julienne potatoes a lot better than me.

I signed up to volunteer at the Jazz on the Boulevard event next week so I will be out there in public. Hope nobody I know wanders by and recognizes me (or a real chef asks me to do something I don't know how to do).

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Week 1: Knife Skills

Wearing the chef uniform for the first time was quite an experience, but following all the instructions in the first 5 hour class was even more challenging. They don't fool around at the school. I hadn't heard so many rules since Air Force basic training, and that was in 1973 when I was 19. Within a short time after receiving the knives we were in the kitchen cutting up carrots into 1/4 x 1/4 x 2 inch planks which were then cut into pieces that were supposed to resemble cubes. While the instructors watched I felt clumsy and uncoordinated cutting up celery and carrots and didn't do a great job. We were told how to hold the new, and very sharp Wustof 8" chef's knife and I learned I had been holding knives wrong all my life. There are 12 students in the class, some young, some not so young, and a couple who may even be middle-aged, but we are all treated the same, even when it comes to clean-up and everyone is scrubbing, cleaning, sweeping, and mopping.

In my everyday job I'm in a leadership role but at the cooking school I am nobody special!

A humbling experience, but I don't regret the decision to go there yet. (Next week is making stock so I may take that statement back.)

I have signed up to work on October 5 from 1-8, Sunday brunch, November 14, 1-8, wine-pairing event, and December 1, from 1-8, Sunday brunch. Details on how to reserve a table can be found at the website: www.csftw.com

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Preparing for Culinary School

I attended orientation last week and received my chef coat, text book, and policy manual that sounds a lot like military boot camp--no jewelry, no nail polish, no earrings, and no cell phone AND always be 100% in uniform while at the school. I will be going every Saturday for the next 14 weeks and will receive a certificate of completion for "Chef Pro 1" at the end.

The uniform consists of the chef coat, black checkered pants with an elastic waist, a neckerchief, and a funny looking hat. (Photo will be taken on Saturday.) If I thought I looked middle-age frumpy under ordinary circumstances, wearing this get-up will be a real joy.

We were supposed to get our knife set last week, however we were told that they now wait to issue the knives on the first day of class. Seems the students practiced with the new knives (which are actually sharp, unlike the usual kitchen knives) and came to Day 1 with cut up hands.

I'll be signing up for my 24 hours of "internship", working at the cooking school events. This means family and friends can come and observe me making omelets or whatever (if they're willing to pay $35.00 for dinner or $15.00 for Sunday Brunch). I can hardly wait.

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Preparing for culinary school

I have decided to enroll in the Culinary School of Fort Worth. The school offers a professional culinary arts program consisting of five 15 week courses. At the end of the year and a half I will recieve a culinary certificate if I complete all the requirements. If I decide to take the pastry arts program I would recieve a pastry chef certificate instead. I'm not sure yet which direction I'll be taking. Why culinary school? I have been a social worker and private practice psycho therapist since I graduated with my MSW in 1982 and will have 30 years of active duty in the uniformed services and military in 2015 when I plan to retire. I love cooking, reading about it, watching people cook, sampling all types of cuisines, and always look forward to preparing all types of food, from meals to cakes. One day I may work in a food business, either a restaurant, personal chef or catering business, or teaching classes. Or I may just keep cooking for fun, but the culinary education will prepare me for whatever direction this interest takes. My family and friends are all happy for me and have all agreed to sample any experiments.
Wish me luck!

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