Week 10: Garde Manger III: Charcuterie

Charcuterie traditionally referred to the production of pork-based pates, terrines and galantines, but now includes similar products made with game, poultry, fish and shellfish. The study of charcuterie is quite extensive and could take an entire semester easily, so our brief class barely scratched the surface. We also studies the cheeses and condiments during this class. Chef Loy lectured on the history of sausage making and how they are made. Although we didn't make our own sausage due to time constraints we were given the opportunity to create a sausage blend using already freshly ground pork. I learned many new terms such as forcemeat (a preparation made from uncooked ground meats, poultry, fish or shellfish that is seasoned and emulsified with fat), panada (something other than fat that is added to a forcemeat to enhance smoothness--such as white bread soaked in milk), and mousseline (light, airy forcemeat made with fish or poultry). For the evening's assignment we rotated to five stations to learn how to make the following: 1) Pate, forcement, or mousseline 2) Cheese (we drew a slip of paper with the cheese we had to make--I drew queso fresco 3) Sausage 4) Condiments and 5) our own dish made with things we made at the other stations.
I started out by making sausage. I added feta cheese, chopped spinach, garlic, red pepper and salt and pepper to pork. The sausage patty was then fried in olive oil. This was very tasty and I was pleased. The condiment station was also a good experience. I made oven dried tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and thinly sliced cucumbers in wasabi pickling liquid. Both were good, but the cucumbers could have used a little stronger wasabi flavor. I made my queso fresco which was fairly simple--cook salted milk with a little cider vinegar until a curd forms, then strain it. It was quite interesting to see the cheese forming as I stirred the milk. Someone even used my queso fresco on their final dish. My worst experience was with the mousseline. I chose to use fish and shrimp, processed in the food processor, then added cream and strained it. I added too much cream so it was too thin. Yuck! Fortunately my final dish was better. I used my feta spinach sausage, added slices of oven dried tomato and some sauteed spinach. It was very flavorful, however I overcooked the spinach (while waiting for my sausage to cook all the way through). All in all it was a very informative and fun class (except for the stress of making that awful mousseline!)

I included a couple extra photos here. Eric with his very tasty puff pastry and breakfast with his sausage, egg, and apple vinaigrette. I also made a pork tenderloin with roasted carrots and asparagus to take to someone recovering from surgery. It turned out really great. Lastly, one of my biggest fans, my granddaughter Kyndal who came to have Sunday brunch when I was cooking a couple weeks ago. Now she wants her own chef hat and coat. (Of course I'll get her one.)

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Student Supper Club: Asian Appetizers

I hosted this month's student supper club at my house. Lisa and her husband Grady, Ray and his wife Diane, and Tela came bringing some outstanding food and wines to share. Lisa brought Asian salad and Korean beef skewers, Ray made some Asian flavored deviled eggs and a dessert, banana-chocolate fried wontons. Tela brought some spicy Singapore noodles and I made spicy tuna rolls, edamame (stir-fried with garlic, ginger, soy, jalapenos and oyster sauce), tamago yaki, chicken yakitori and grilled salmon. We made sushi rolls with some salmon, avocado, cucumbers and baby carrots as well. We sampled Moonstone Asian Pear Sake, Becker Iconoclast Cabernet 2007, White Truck California Wine 2005, and Bella Sera Pinot Grigio 2007. It was very enjoyable to relax, talk about culinary school and all the stress associated with it and sample all the delicious food. Getting together with people who love to cook, eat, travel, watch food TV, and talk about all of it is really a lot of fun. Lisa and I had some good laughs at the end of the evening when she noticed my cookbook collection--seems like we both have excessive collections (and all the Bobby Flay cookbooks). It was a little cold for grillling but my husband, Steve, still managed to grill the chicken yakitori and salmon. All in all, a wonderful time.

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Chef Pro II: Week 9: American Regional II, South and West

I was looking forward to this class. After all, I live in Texas and know the foods, love New Mexico and cook many NM dishes, grew up in California, and was born in South Carolina.

At least I am familiar with the foods in this region and have a lot of experience cooking them.

We had interesting presentations on New Mexico, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, California, and I presented on Louisiana. I learned the differences between Creole and Cajun foods and the history of the Cajuns and their style of cooking. One place I've never been is New Orleans and I am anxious to visit there in the near future. We drew slips of paper with our assignments. Mine were: smothered pork chops and Cuban sandwich. We also had to create an individual dish with corn, inspired by our assigned state. I was at a loss to think of a corn dish specifically associated with Louisiana and recalled something I had read about called Maque Choux. I asked Chef Sivley if she knew what was in it and she immediately knew exactly how it was made. Thanks to her I was able to create a nice version of this dish. The food from this region was highly varied, colorful, and ranged from the healthy California-style dishes to the traditional southern dishes like my smothered pork.

Dishes we cooked:

Nuevo Laredo Chicken-Fried steak

Baked cheese grits

Navajo fry bread

Spam Musubi

Poblano and Potato soup

Jambalaya

Mole de Pollo

Cheese enchiladas

Chile rellenos

Jicama Salad

Warm baked goat cheese with baby greens

Chilled avocado and cucumber soup

Hoppin John Salad with pecan vinaigrette

Fried green tomatoes with blue cheese

Black bean soup

Fried Plaintain chips

Tropical Tuber torta

My pork dish was OK, a little tough on the pork and a little too much wine in the sauce. I followed the assigned recipe which called for 2/3 cup of wine and I should have learned by now that the recipes are not always right. My own style would be to add a lot less. The Cuban sandwich was well-prepared, however, and I loved it. Chef Kurima made some wonderful blue corn tortillas and fried them. She also made some excellent tamales. I'm making the Cuban sandwiches for the family on Sunday (if I have the energy after working the brunch that day)

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Week 8: Advanced Sauces

After a review of sauce basics with Chef JD Loy and a discussion of classical sauces vs. modern sauces we got down to business. (In case you're wondering, refer back to the entry in CP I on sauces for information on mother sauces. Modern sauces tend to be lighter, use more fruits and vegetables, and are often made a la minute.) We each had a container labeled with our names and inside the container were 8 slips of paper, each with the name of a protein: beef, pork, chicken, tilapia, catfish, cod, shrimp, bone-in pork chop. We selected a protein and then were told to prepare it with a sauce and present it in 20 minutes. My first protein was shrimp. Easy, I thought. I'll make a citrus buerre blanc and coat the shrimp with sesame seeds before I sear it.The shrimp turned out pretty good but my sauce separated while standing in line to present it. It was also way too salty. I then drew pork. No problem I thought--I'll make a nice herb crusted pork with red wine reduction. The herb crust, rosemary, thyme, toasted pine nuts, and garlic turned out nice and the pork looked brown and crusty, however I cut it a bit thin so it was a little overcooked. My wine sauce lacked a finished look because I didn't add a bit of butter at the end. It was runny and thin on the plate. The next protein I drew was beef. I was happy since I had practiced at home by making a beer sauce. I made a sauce with bacon, onions, garlic, beer, brown sugar, tomato sauce, mustard, worchestershire sauce, thyme, and salt and pepper. I strained it, reduced it and thought it tasted pretty good. My seared steak was a little on the medium rare side and I sliced it, fanned it on the plate and drizzled the sauce on it. I made some frizzled onions (thin onion rings) and placed them on top. I thought this would be the best so far but as I stood in the long line while each student had their dish evaluated I saw my steak changing when the juices mixed with the sauce and broke down. By the time it was seen by the chef it was not that great. This was discouraging--all my sauces were off and nothing seemed to be going well. I was getting pretty stressed and still had at least 2 more dishes to prepare and it was already after 8:30 PM. I drew tilapia but it was gone so I picked up a piece of cod--a huge piece. Had I been thinking clearly I would have cut it into pieces but I just made up some herb seasoned panko breading, dipped it in flour, egg, and breading and deep fried it. I made a weird miso, lemon, ginger sauce to go with it and to make up for all my runny sauces I added a little cornstarch to this sauce. While I waited in line (forever it seemed) the sauce turned very stiff so I had the opposite mess this time. It was now 9:00 and I still had 1 more dish to make before 9:15. I was frantic. I drew chicken. All that was left were huge chicken legs/thighs. I threw together something I knew well--spicy Asian marinade with soy sauce, sugar, red peppers, garlic, scallions, wine and marinated the chicken after I cut it into pieces. I quickly sauteed the chicken, used the cooked sauce for a warm vinaigrette and made up a salad with the chicken and

dressed with the vinaigrette. This was the one dish that got a more favorable review. I didn't

take a photo of it--too crazy and rushed.

I'll have to confess I was pretty bummed out after class, realizing I was stressed and struggling when I believed I would manage a lot better. Trying to think of creative ideas and not relying on written recipes is quite challenging. I was also trying to make sauces with out relying on the standard pan gravy sauces which use flour because I knew that would be too easy. I probably should have stuck to more basic sauces and done something I knew better. I do not have a lot of "sauce" expertise because I personally tried to avoid sauces most of my adult life in an effort to eat healthy. The typical sauce always has some amount of fat in it and the best ones have more fat, especially butter. I will have to really make an effort to practice making sauces at home and I'll probably just make them for skill building and not to eat. With this in mind I went to Central Market this weekend and loaded up on herbs, shallots, limes, cream and butter. I've got to get ready for the final which I hear is even harder than this class.

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