Shift Gears Soon

I am now studying for the final exam, a written test and practical exam. I'll write about it next week. In the meantime I'm working on the website for my personal chef business and planning to continue my blog with a shift in focus. I'll be free to write about anything--and that's a nice thought. I have so many things to write about I don't know where to start, but I'll probably begin with my family. This Thanksgiving, my son Glenn remarked that the holiday meal was OK, but nothing all that special since he eats so many of my "gourmet" meals regularly. I had a good laugh over that. My husband, however, proclaimed that the ham was the best part of the Thanksgiving dinner. I made a cheese ball with applewood smoked bacon, fresh cranberry sauce, Garnet yam puree, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing with my own cornbread, salt & herb crusted fresh turkey, a corn casserole, fresh green beans with my own mushroom cream sauce, and pumpkin and apple pies, from scratch. The delicious ham was simply heated in the oven right out of the package and came from Sam's!
Oh well, you can't please everyone. At times like this I really miss my mother, a big fan of all things Thanksgiving. She would have loved it all.
I plan to write in detail about my family growing up. It is an opportunity to reach back in time, through food, to touch my loved ones.

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Chef Pro III: Week 12: Plate Presentation

I came to class feeling unprepared, not having spent much time reading up on plate presentation or looking at books or google images. I've been out of town on business and just plain busy. I told myself that I would just be inspired by the ingredients and do my best to be creative, something I always stuggle with when it comes to plating food. Chef Waier had prepared three types of plate presentations for us to view. The naturalist, architecture,and minimalist. The Naturalist

The naturalist brings to mind Alice Waters-style while the architectural style is what you might call "tall food" (see photo). The minimalist can best be described as the "deconstruction" method of plating. Architecture Minimalist

Final exam practice: Disaster! I had trouble cutting the potato, onion, and carrot in the 5 minute timeline. (Small dice the onion, julienne the potato, and brunoise the carrot). We had to make an omelet in 45 seconds--mine looked like a scrambled egg. By the way, we can only use the pan--no utensils). Even my blonde roux was not quite thick enough. We then had to produce mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce in 15 minutes. Making mayonnaise requires whisking egg yolks and lemon juice, and slowing adding oil--slowly is one drop at a time. I went to fast and it didn't emulsify the first time but I corrected it and it was fine. My hollandaise sauce, however, broke because I added too much butter too soon. We are going to be tested on all these things at the final in 2 weeks! Yikes, I had to get on the ball and practice.
For plate presentation we had to prepare three dishes and were given the recipes to use as a guideline--but we could make some changes as long as we used the ingredients that would identify the dish. The first dish was a club sandwich. We had several types of bread, turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, our homemade mayo, avocados (too hard to use) and bacon. I had the idea to make "club sandwich sushi" which was taking a piece of white bread, rolling it out a bit, brushing it with sambal flavored mayo, adding a slice of turkey, lettuce leaves, thin tomato slices, and a piece of bacon in the center. I took extra care to make all the fillings very thin so it would roll and it did. I sliced it into 4 pieces and held it together with a toothpick. It actually looked very cool and tasted good.

My second assignment was to make a cobb salad using typical ingredients--lettuce, tomato, turkey, cheese, vinaigrette, avocado, bacon, and boiled egg. Again, we could change it up as long as we used the basic ingredients. I decided to make a cobb tostada salad and deep fried a corn tortilla. I layered shredded lettuce, julienne tomatoes, cheese, and boiled egg on top. I made a sugar and chile bacon.
My vinaigrette was a chipotle vinaigrette with a nice kick to it. This also turned out well, looked nice and tasted good. The bacon is out of this world. Try it:

Thick cut bacon (1/2 lb)
1/2 cut brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
dash cayenne
Mix sugar and spices. Spread on bacon, front and back until well coated.
Place bacon slices on a baking rack and bake at 375 degrees, watching it so it doesn't burn.

Last assignment was to make Steak Dijonaise. Boring....how to make a piece of steak look good on the plate? The steak is basically a thinly pounded sirloin with Dijon mustard and diced onions pressed into it. I cut some thin potatoes in a rectangular shape, fried them and then layered the same size slices of steak and potatoes in a fanned pattern. I made a mixed field green salad with Dijon vinaigrette as a side.
This was OK but not that great looking, however it sure tasted good.

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Chef Pro III: Week 11: Fusion Cooking

The week before this class we all drew slips of paper which contained our countries or regions for this class. I drew Ireland, Greece, Asia, California, and Carribean.
Then for class we drew from three cups: 2 were countries and 1 was a type of dish to prepare. My first dish was Asia/Carribean/dessert. I greated a potsticker filled with a sweet potato, coconut puree. I fried the potsticker and sifted some confectioner's sugar on top. It was not too bad and best of all, it fit the assignment. I drew California/Ireland/soup next. Hmmm--this was a little tougher.
I made a vegetable broth based soup with fresh vegetables and chopped potatoes. It was light and pleasant tasting. For the next dish I drew Asia/Greece/appetizer. I saw some nice looking eggplant, tasted it and was surprized at how sweet it was. I made tempura batter, fried the eggplant and then made a Greek yogurt, cucumber sauce.
For the next dish, Carribean/Asia/entree, I made a chicken stir fry with various vegetables, chicken, and a sweet and spicy sauce, served with rice. Not too imaginative, but OK. Finally, the Greece/Ireland/amuse bouche, a grape leaf stuffed with a mashed potato/feta cheese filling. This was not too bad but truthfully I despise grape leaves so I'm glad I didn't have to eat it.
Overall fusion was fine but I was not feeling well that night. A couple days before I had twisted my back in some strange way and sprained it pretty badly, requiring a trip to the doctor and presciptions for a muscle relaxer and pain meds. Simply standing was very hard and I kept having muscle spasms in my legs. My goal was just to get through the class and survive so I felt good that I completed the assignments and even made fairly good dishes.

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Chef Pro III: Week 10: Wine Pairing

I've been so busy lately I've put off writing in the blog and now it's hard to catch up properly. Wine pairing class was something I was anticipating with a little anxiety. We were going to have Chef Jon Bonnell as our instructor and would be asked to make dishes to go with wine he selected for us. Chef Bonnell taught our wine class last year about this time and I knew how particular he is about attention to detail. He lectured very briefly on wine pairing and then had us taste the 6 wines we would be using. They ranged from lighter whites to very earthy reds, both oaked and unoaked, domestic and foreign. I wish I had paid more attention to the wines but in my anxiousness to figure out what I would cook I completely overlooked the wines we tasted. He assigned us each two different wines, one a white and one a red. We had to make two dishes and we were given a time based on the progression of lighter to heavier wines. I had to present a dish fairly early with a savignon blanc and then later with a pinot noir. We had a good selection of proteins to choose from and plenty of pantry and produce items, however it was hard for me to come up with a dish. I decided to make something similar to a delicious dish I had tasted recently which was served with a Chardonnay. It was a baked egg dish. I lined a ramekin with toasted french bread, sauteed some andouille sausage, mushrooms, and shallots, added some tarragon, parsley, and chives, then an egg and some parmesan cheese. I was worried about overcooking it and ended up undercooking it slightly. I drizzled on some reduced brown stock. We had to bring our dish out to the dining room where Chef Bonnell, Chef Kurima, and Chef Ray were seated at a table as if it were a fine dining restaurant. We presented the dish to the chefs and then waited while Chef Bonnell tasted the food, then took a sip of wine and told us whether or not the wine went with the food. Talk about pressure! Culinary school is a lot like being on a Food Network challenge or Chopped.
Chef Bonnell liked the taste of the dish itself but did not think it was a great match for the wine--a little too heavy with the mushrooms and brown stock. I tasted the dish and so did some of the other students who all agreed it was very tasty. Eric told me to be sure to put in on my menu if I ever have a restaurant. Here is the recipe:
Baked eggs (serves 2)
2 eggs (get the best ones you can fine--Eggland organic)
2 oz finely chopped smoked ham
1 shallot, finely chopped
chives, parsley, tarragon--finely chopped total 1 tsp each
Parmesan cheese, grated--2 oz
Brioche or French bread, cut to fit bottom of ramekin.
1 cup chicken or beef stock, reduced to 1/4 cup, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste

Grill or toast bread and place in bottom of 6 oz ramekin. Sprinkle with ham, mushrooms and herbs. Crack egg in ramekin and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15-20 minutes. Drizzle reduced stock on top.
Enjoy it with a glass of Chardonnay!

My second dish was more successful and I wish I had taken a photograph of it. I made a filet mignon, grilled and served with a potato, onion, bacon hash and a beer and pepper sauce. I roasted jalapeno peppers, add onions, garlic, beer and brown stock, reduced it and added some tomato sauce, worchestershire sauce and other seasonings. Chef Bonnell complimented my steak and said it was crusty, juicy, and tasted well seasoned. He also liked the potato hash and sauce--just wanted a little more sauce. I will definitely make this dish again. It is my version of the steak I've been enjoying at the now closed Cafe Soleil in Azle. Chef Paula Ambrose would not divulge how she makes her pepper sauce but mine, although different, was pretty good. It went well with the Pinot Noir, so I was pleased with the experience and felt a little better than I did after the first dish.

Needless to say, wine pairing is not an easy task and takes a lot of study and practice. I will continue to work on this as much as I can.

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Chef Pro III: Week 9: Escoffier

My cooking partner, Ray

OK, think of an assignment so complicated you will surely get a headache--that is the Escoffier class. Pick up the book, Le Guide Culinare sometime and you'll see what I mean. Escoffier is the first person to codify la grand cuisine, classic French cooking. We got a packet of "recipes" from Escoffier's book and were assigned a partner. Together we had to produce the following:
3674
4161
4151
See, I told you it was fun.
We then had to scan through pages of small print to figure out what the numbers represented. 3674: Cotelettes de Cailles d'Aumale, 4151: Oignons farcis
4161: Petis Pois a la flamande
Headache yet?
After figuring out we were really making quail with a mousselline forcemeat, layered and baked, peas and carrots, and a stuffed onion, we were off to the kitchen. Ray volunteered to make all the vegetables leaving me with the quail dish. I recognized mousseline as the awful thing I messed up in seafood class so I was worried.
I found the tiny quails in the walk-in and then started making the dish. Making anything with the meat from these little birds is a challenge but I managed to make a decent mousseline, layer it with seared quail breasts and mushrooms. It turned out right, a little overdone on the quail, but not bad considering I never saw or tasted this dish before. I actually thought is was a very flavorful dish and enjoyed the bite I tried.
Our other dishes were fairly good--a little underdone on the onion, a little overdone on the peas and carrots but good taste.
We were given a extra dish to make--a stuffed tomato. Having learned from the underdone onion, we cooked the tomato just right. I made the duxelles which were not quite brown enough but not too bad. Classmates made an assortment of strange looking dishes, some ok, some horrible tasting--not their fault. I loved Patti's Pears Melba with raspberry puree and homemade ice cream. Yum.
I will not be making a lot of classic French food in the future. Way too time consuming for the finished product.

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