Lesson 21: Written Exam; Lobster Bisque

Today was the final written exam for Module 1.. Yes, we are already done with 1/5 of the culinary arts program!  Crazy, huh?   After dominating the test (the study guide we were given was extremely helpful!!) we spent the remaining 3 hours of class making more delicious soups.  As shown above, one soup contained LOBSTER.. so I killed the second lobster in my life :(  .  It is kind of sad throwing a live lobster into a pot of boiling water, but the lobster bisque was SOOO SOOO SOO SOOOOOOOOO good!  No exaggeration.  I brought a tiny bit home so that my dad could try it and I know he's going to love it! (He's brining it into work for lunch tomorrow!)   Here's a picture of the creamy bisque simmering on the stove:

And Asli about to present her bowl to Chef Allen:

This is the bowl that my group presented:

It is the most satisfying feeling to plate a dish, garnish it, and present it with pride.  We knew it tasted delicious and we made it look beautiful!  

Also on today's recipe agenda was onion soup.  This soup was fairly simple to make and just involved a ton of onions (we also threw in some leeks) and white veal stock.  The onion soup was seriously the best I've ever tasted.  It wasn't too heavy and onion-y, but had great flavor and was sweet, but not too sweet (hard to explain, but trust me it was fantastic!).  We broiled croutes with gruyere to top on the finished, hot soup and it was perfection!  Chef Allen gave the best impression of someone eating hot, gooey french onion soup, with stringy cheese burning your mouth, big globs of bread that are hard to eat, and long strands of onions spilling on your prada outfit.  Soo true when you eat that soup, right?! (Well, except for the prada outfit part..) He told us that wouldn't happen with the soups we were going to plate, but I definitely still burnt my mouth from gobbling up the hot cheesy bread too quickly!

I had every intention of saving the rest of my soup to bring home for my dad to try since he loves french onion soup... but I couldn't resist finishing my bowl (sorry dad!)

We also made gazpacho today, which was definitely the easiest of the soups since it is basically just chopped up veggies served cold.  We pureed half of the soup instead of the whole soup so there were still nice chunks of fresh vegetables.  I personally liked it not pureed at all since the flavor was so wonderful and I loved the salsa-like texture of the mixture.  I enjoyed making the gazpacho because it didn't involve much measurement.  We just chopped up some cucumbers, tomato concasse, peppers, jalapenos, and green onions.  We mixed them up with some tomato juice, salt, pepper, sugar, and chopped cilantro.  The flavors extract more as it sits, so it is best the day after you make it.... but my mom and I already ate the rest of the soup that I brought home so we wouldn't kno :/    

Tomorrow's my practical exam and then I am officially done with Module 1!  

Lesson 20: Soups on a rainy day

This morning I woke up to HORRIBLE weather!  Dark, rainy, and windy!  What better way to warm up than some warm oatmeal?!  Oatmeal is one of my favorite foods and I have it almost every day for breakfast.  Most people top their oatmeal with healthy supplements, like granola, almond butter, or fresh fruit.  However, I top my oatmeal with WHIPPED CREAM!  I used to just use plain ol' reddi-whip..but I recently discovered that fresh whipped cream is the best on oatmeal because it slowly melts and makes it super creamy!  Seriously, I am obsessed with this breakfast. Sometimes I try and switch it up and have a muffin, but nothing satisfies me like oats and cream!

After some oats and pumpkin coffee I slipped on my rainboots (which were totally necessary this morning) and headed on my way to NYC.  Today's lesson was soo appropriate for the cold, nasty weather-- SOUPS!  After Chef Allen's lecture, each group prepared the day's recipes: Chicken consomme, cream of broccoli soup, and puree of carrot soup.  

I've never heard of consomme before I came to culinary school...and it is the weirdest soup I have ever encountered!  I reviewed the recipe before class and was really confused with all the talk about "rafts" and "chimneys".  Apparantly, we had to wait for a raft to form and then form a chimney?  Uhhhhhhhh?

It became a little more clear once we were able to make the soup for ourselves.  Consomme is basically a clarification of stock and a lean protein.  We whipped egg whites with mirepoix, egg whites, and tomato concasse and added in the chicken stock.  After heating the mixture over moderate heat, the proteins form on the top of the pan, forming a "raft" (aha!).. The "chimney" we had to make involved basically spooning a hole in the middle of the protein mixture to allow steam to vent through.  2 hours later, after straining the mixture and disposing of the weird globs of chicken & egg, we had a clear consomme!  I learned today that consomme is meant to eat/sip in small amounts as a palate cleanser or before a meal to stimulate your appetite and ease your stomach.  Very high class ;)

While our consomme was cooking away, our groups each made the broccoli and carrot soups.  I have to make the broccoli soup on Friday for my practical exam!  It's not your typical broccoli recipe, either..definitely more involved with lots of steps.  The result was a very smooth, thin (yet creamy), tasty soup!  I'm so used to thick broccoli soups with globs of cheddar.  In this soup, you can actually taste the broccoli flavor, which was very refreshing and enjoyable.

Our carrot ginger puree soup also turned out very tasty.  It had a very strong ginger taste, but was also sweet, creamy, and flavorful!

I was supposed to stay after school today and go to the Marcus Samuelson demo, but I actually decided to skip it.  I was extremely tired because I didn't sleep well last night, and I was stressing out a bit because I wouldn't get home until after 11 and still had to study for tomorrow's test.  It stinks knowing I have a long commute home.. especially late at night when the trains don't run as frequently :/   Well, I'll have to find out how it was from other students in my class!  Time for the Top Chef finale then bed!!  (I hope Kevin wins!!)

Lessons 18 & 19: Emulsion and Contemporary Sauces

I seem to slack on Mondays and never take pictures or blog... I've never liked Mondays!  Well, I'll catch you up on our continuation of sauces.  Yesterday we spent the day learning how to make different emulsion sauces.  An emulsion sauce is basically the mixture of a fat and an oil.  Air is beaten into the sauce to hold it up.  Emulsion sauces are difficult because they can break if you don't have the proportions correct, you don't whisk enough or fast enough, or even if you whisk too much!  We started off with two of the easier sauces (because they are cold)-- vinaigrette and mayonnaise.  I have to make the mayonnaise for my practical exam on Friday!! Here's the recipe for a basic homemade mayonnaise.. I must say it is very tasty! I really don't like Hellman's mayonnaise or any other commercial mayo..but the homemade stuff is more like a sauce than a gooey condiment.

1 Egg yolk

1 T. Lemon juice

2 tsp. Dijon

8 fluid oz (or 1 cup) Canola oil

Salt

Whisk the yolk, lemon juice and dijon.  Add the canola oil in a thin stream, constantly whisking.  Season with salt.  

Simple as that!  Salt is really key in this recipe because it counteracts the acidity.

Another interesting thing I learned regarding vinaigrettes:  Never use olive oil when whisking or blending a vinaigrette together!  The intense mixing causes olive oil to be bitter.. so if anything add a good olive oil at the very end and don't whisk it too much!

Next, we made the warm emulsion sauces: hollandaise, beurre blanc, and bearnaise.  These were more difficult because they break more easily and you have to be careful not to get the sauce to hot and scramble the egg yolks.  I partnered up with Emily and Dana to make these sauces and we did really well-- didn't break any of them!!!   Unfortunately, we had to throw out most of the sauces because they just break once you let them sit.  We made the beurre blanc sauce last (which is basically a butter sauce--soo good!) and dipped some warm bread in it!

After class I stopped in whole foods to pick up dinner for my mom and I.  I got the spinach and quinoa pie in the prepared food section, along with some broccoli rape.  It was a delicious dinner that we both enjoyed.  Unfortunately I didn't really like the broccoli rape.. It's the one vegetable I'm not a fan of because of its bitterness.. I REALLY want to like it though! So I always give it another chance and try it prepared in different ways.

Today I decided that I should probably add some more pictures to my blog and talk about some of my favorite food products :)    While I was at Whole Foods yesterday, I found pumpkin spice cream cheese and just had to get it!  I've expressed my love for anything pumpkin-flavored before..so it's clear why this cream cheese stood out to me!  This morning for breakfast I tried it on a pumpkin muffin.  I made the pumpkin muffins with a William Sonoma mix.  Instead of following the directions on the package, I always just add 1 egg, 1 cup of pumpkin, the amount of water listed on the package, some golden raisons, and a small amount of crushed walnuts.  I also cook it a little less just because I like it extra moist!  The pumpkin cream cheese was good on it, but I decided I like regular cream cheese on it better, because the pumpkin on pumpkin was just too much for me.  I will definitely try it on an english muffin or even make a "pumpkin cream cheese and jelly sandwich"!

Another new obsession of mine is greek yogurt!  I love the greek yogurt with honey (I usually get the Oikos brand, but could only find this brand in the grocery store).  I tried the vanilla flavored today and decided honey is still my fave.  Strawberry comes in second.  I'm thinking I should try making my own pumpkin greek yogurt with plain greek yog + pumpkin puree + pumpkin pie spice + sweetener?  If I try it, I'll let y'all know how it is!

Today was our last day on sauces.  We made contemporary sauces, which were a lot of fun.  These sauces included salsas, chutneys and coulis'.  We worked in our groups to prepare all of the sauces in our binders: roasted tomato coulis, tomatillo salsa, mango chutney, corn and red pepper relish, rosemary and basil infused oil, citrus juis, and jus de veau lie.  At the end of class we got to sample all of the sauces we made with bread, chips, and even grilled duck breast that Chef whipped up!After my less than comfortable train ride home (I was squished in the middle of a 3 seater with a guy falling asleep on me), I came home to a wonderful dinner prepared by my mom!  I wish I was hungrier and could have enjoyed it more because it was just delicious!  She roasted veggies (which in my opinion is the best way to make veggies--brings out so many flavors and makes them crisp and caramelized) and topped it over Israeli cous cous.  It was my first time having Israeli cous cous and I must say I'm a fan!  As Giada would say, "they're like little pearls of pasta".

Finished my night off with a slice of cheesecake in bed with my mom and Lillie the pug while watching The Biggest Loser finale.  Coming up tomorrow: Soups + Marcus Samuelson demo after class!  Hopefully the weather won't mess up my commute tomorrow :/

Lesson 17: More Sauces!!

Today was definitely not an easy commute!  I didn't think I was going to even make it to class!  First, I was waiting for the 10:23 train from Matawan and they announced that the train was cancelled because of mechanical difficulties.  The next train wasn't going to come until 11:23, which would get me at Penn Station a little after 12:30.  I was bummed because I knew I would be a little late for class and had to wait around for the train to come.  I decided to drive to Starbucks around the corner and reviewed some of  the recipes we were going to be making that day.  I had to pay for parking again and finally got on the train.  

THEN to make matters worse, there was an announcement on the train that the bridge was stuck open and they couldn't get into NYC.  They got us to Newark Penn Station and told us we could take the path train to 33rd street.  I had no idea how to take the path train, so I figured I'd go on an adventure and just follow everyone else ;)   .. I had to switch trains at Journal Square and miraculously ended up at 23rd street right by my school!  I ended up being only 30 minutes late, so it wasn't a big deal.

We spent the entire day making different sauces from the "mother sauces" that we prepared yesterday.  The homemade tomato sauce was DELICIOUS... so rich and thick.  I also loved the sauces we made from the bechamel, like the mornay (which is just the addition of cheeses to the bechamel + we added some green wind for color--very finely chopped parsley) and suboise (the addition of a lot of cooked, chopped onions pureed into the sauce and some reduced tomato puree).  I made the Allemande sauce in my group (with help on the prep).. I sweated onions and mushroooms and added some veloute sauce (from yesterday--thickened chicken stock with a blonde roux).  After straining the sauce, I tempered in egg yolks and cream for richness.

The last sauce we made was the creole sauce (because it included some of homemade tomato sauce that had to simmer for 1 1/2 hours).  I made a bitty mistake when I was adding the ingredients to the sauce :/.  All of the ingredients for the sauce were next to the stove and I was basically just adding them into the pot.  The very last ingredient I added was the cayenne.  I should have checked the recipe, but figured the cayenne was already measured out like the rest of the ingredients, so I just poured it all in (while thinking "wow that sure is gonna be spicy").  I tasted the sauce, and it tasted great at first..until the spice hit me at the back of my throat.  I made the rest of my group members try it and they all reacted the same way, turning red in the face and agreeing that it was verry spicy.  Finally, Matt asked me just how much cayenne I put in.  I told him, "well the amount you measured out, duh!"  He then informed me that the recipe calls for cayenne "to taste" and he just put some in a cup for me to put SOME in...definitely not all of it!!!  WOOPS!  I still thought it tasted good and brought a little home.  I even put some on my spinach omelet for lunch and it was delicious!!  Granted my nose was running and my heart was racing while I ate it, but it was definitely tasty!

We finished our Friday afternoon class with....... ya guessed it, more mac & cheese!  This time it was made with a mixture of the suboise sauce and the mornay to form 2 layers of macaroni cheesiness.  A few of us headed across the street to Limerick's for a cocktail to celebrate the end of the week and then headed on our different commutes home.  Luckily, the bridge was fixed and I didn't have to go on another journey to get back to Matawan!

Lesson 16: The Mother Sauces

Today our class got a nice intro to sauces by making 3 of the "Mother Sauces" in the culinary arts.  A "mother sauce" is a base sauce for tons of other sauces...so today's lesson was very important!  The sauces we made were espagnole, veloute, and bechamel.  I've always looved bechamel, especially when paired with pasta like lasagna and mac & cheese.  Actually, I just found out today that the homemade mac & cheese my mom used to make (which I was one of my favorite dishes) was made with bechamel.  It's really simply to make too... First, heat equal amounts of flour and butter (we used melted clarified) until it forms a white roux.  Add milk to the roux while constantly whisking.  Whisk until the mixture comes to a simmer and add an onion pique (which is just an onion studded with cloves).  Simmer for 30 min, stirring occasionally.  Strain the sauce and season with salt, white pepper, fresh nutmeg, and a dash of tabasco or cayenne.

The veloute sauce did not seem as rich and creamy as the bechamel, so I didn't like it as much.  A veloute is used more often as a base for other sauces.  It's the same recipe as bechamel except without the onion pique and with chicken stock instead of milk.

The espagnole sauce takes longer to cook, so we actually started this one first and simmered it for two hours.  We caramelized mirepoix, added tomato paste, and then finally added flour and butter to make a roux.  Then, we added simmering veal stock to the mixture and a sachet d'epices.  We seasoned this sauce the same as the others (salt, white pepper, tabasco, and nutmeg).  After the mixture came to a simmer, we lowered the heat and cooked it for another couple of hours then strained it.  We will also use this sauce tomorrow as a base to make other sauces.

It was Dana's birthday today!!! So obviously we needed to have something delicious to eat (other than just plain sauces).  Chef let us make mac and cheese with some extra bechamel sauce we made.  We mixed pasta with the sauce, 3 different cheeses (gruyere, cheddar and parmesan), and I think I saw him add some extra heavy cream for good measure!  Chef made a delicious crumb topping with a mixture of breadcrumbs and cheeses we used inside the mac.  MMM it was soooo good!

There was also a cracked wheat salad (I forget the exact name of the dish) that another girl in the class made.  It was a delicious blend of cracked wheat (kind of like whole wheat cous cous), herbs, and citrus:It was definitely fun getting to the stoves today and actually following a recipe.  There was a lot going on at once and much hustling in the kitchen!  Just a preview of what's to come I'm sure!

Lesson 15: Clarified butter & roasted peppers

Yay for a day without meat, blood, and guts!!!!  Today seemed like a breeze, with simple things to do like make tomato concasse, roast peppers, and clarify butter.  Tomato concasse was very simple to make.  It is a simple technique of par boiling tomatoes for 10 seconds in rapidly boiling water and then shocking them in ice water to stop the cooking process.  This helps to peel and seed the tomatoes to be used in sauces, salsas, etc.  While we each took turns with our tomatoes, we were also charring our peppers over the stove and clarifying butter.

Clarified butter is not as easy to make as it sounds.  I read about it last night and it seemed simple...just heating it until the milk solids separate from the butter.  However, if you boil it for too long, it starts to turn brown and has a different, toasty flavor.  If you don't boil it enough, the butter still has some milk solids in it and it's not as clear as it should be.  I felt like everyone's clarified butter varied in color and clarity.  We will review our containers of butter tomorrow and talk about which ones were clarified correctly.

For those of you who don't know, clarified butter is used in replace of regular, unsalted butter when cooking over high heats.  The milk solids in butter that cause it to burn are removed.  Cooking in clarified butter allows the food that you are cooking to have a more enhanced flavor.  Regular butter masks the flavor of foods because of its richness.  Interesting huh?

We wanted to make something out of some of the roasted peppers, so we made a yummy pimento cheese dip (umm I mean roasted peppers with aged cheddar).  Chef Allen was joking that when you say "pimento cheese dip" it sounds like cheap food..but when you say "roasted red peppers with aged cheddar, it is suddenly a gourmet hors'deorve .  It was made with chopped roasted peppers, shredded cheddar, and lots of mayonnaise!  We spread it on warm french bread and celery sticks.  Here's Kimberly whippin up the delicious dip:

With our dip we also enjoyed some par boiled/sauteed potatoes, but with a new twist!  We added persillade to them, which is just finely minced garlic and parsley, but it added great flavor!  

Next, we made croutons!  Oh how wonderful fried bread tastes!  I've actually been craving more of them ever since I left class.  I kind of wish I brought some extra home with me, but I know that if I did I would have devoured all of them on the train ride home!  They're so simple to make.. just cube and de-crust some white bread.  Heat up some canola oil (or any other oil with a high smoke point--not olive oil!) and drop a few in.  Spoon them around in the oil for a few seconds and lift them out with a slotted spoon to a paper towel.  Salt them right away while they're still warm.  They were truly addicting! MM I might have to make some this weekend...

The class ended with a brief lecture/demonstration on sauces, which we will start tomorrow.  I'm sure sauces will be hard, since there is an exact science that we have to learn to make each sauce perfect..but I'm really excited :)

Lessons 13 & 14: Veal stock, Pork, Rabbit, and Lamb

So I was a huuge slacker yesterday because I didn't take any pictures and didn't blog after class. What can I say? It was a rainy Monday after a long holiday weekend.  Well, on Monday we were surprised because Chef Allen wasn't there again!  Chef Lorrie took his place for the day and we got to experience yet another different teaching style by a very different chef.  We started out making our veal stock, which took a lot of time because we got a long lecture on stocks and we actually were more hands-on with making the stock.  

We skipped chopping skills and just quartered all of our vegetables for the mirepoix.  We finally started fabricating pork around 3:00.  We cut and trimmed pork chops, which we later grilled.  We also worked with some pork shoulder and separated the muscles and cubed the meat. Chef Lorrie definitely wasn't as concerned with perfection, but she was still very helpful. During her lecture she gave us a lot of information!  We didn't get to fabricating the rabbit until the last 20 minutes of class, which made us feel kind of rushed. Usually the last half hour is reserved for cleaning up and eating whatever we cooked that day. We didn't even have time to eat the pork chops we grilled, but I brought them home for my dad and he loved them!

Today Chef Allen entered the class a little late (leaving us in suspense as we wondered if he was going to be there today).  I must say I was relieved to have him back!  Class went by soo fast today as we had our last meat fabrication lesson on lamb.  First we worked on boning, trimming, and trussing the leg of lamb (picture on the top left).  It was pretty tough but we got through it okay.. I pricked my finger at one point and Chef Allen told me that baby lambs were going to start growing out of my thumb (oh how I missed his sense of humor).  While we were working on the lamb, some of the guys were straining the veal stock we made yesterday (made with browned veal bones, tomato paste, browned mirepoix, and herbs)  Here's a picture of Aaron straining the stock:

Next, we worked on trimming the rack of lamb (picture on the top right).  I never knew how much work went into trimming the bones.  It took a while, but it looked nice and clean when we were all done.  We roasted 4 racks for lunch and also made our usual par boiled, then sauteed potatoes.  The potatoes were extra buttery today (mmm).  

The lamb was delicious and I was even able to snag one to bring home for my dad to try (along with some extra bread!).  He loved it!

Thank goodness meat fabrication is OVER!!!  It was really interesting to learn how to cut different meats, poultry, and fish..... yet it was a messy/not very fun job!  I'm excited to get into sauces and soups!  Before I know it Mod 1 will be over.. only 1 more week!!!