Quiche

Saturday nights are usually reserved for nights out for dinner.  In fact, I don't remember the last time we stayed in on a Saturday and cooked.  With the snow still a fallin' we decided that tonight we should forgoe our usually Saturday plans and stay home.  

After a long day of cooking sauce and lasagna, a huge gourmet meal was definitely not in the picture.  I decided to feed leftovers from culinary school to my dad and brother and cook a light quiche to have later on.  I love love love quiche.. it was a staple go-to dinner that I made all the time in college.  Here's my recipe that I've adjusted over the years:

1 9" whole wheat pie crust (store bought or homemade)--today I used a store bought crust!

1 wheel laughing cow garlic and herb cheese (or any flavor--today I used regular swiss)

1/3 pint (or a large handful) cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 box frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

3 eggs

1 cup half and half

1 pinch salt

fresh ground pepper

2 T. crumbled gorgonzola

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the laughing cow cheese on the bottom of the crust.  Add cherry tomatoes and broccoli.  Whisk eggs, half and half, salt, and pepper.  Add the egg mixture to the pie shell.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with gorgonzola and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the eggs are set.  Let the pie sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.  I enjoy my slice topped with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for heat!

The best thing about this quiche is you can add whatever vegetable or meat you'd like and get creative with it.  I've also made this quiche with spinach and sundried tomatoes.  You could even switch up the cheeses and add some bacon for crunch!

My brother wanted to be pictured in the blog, so here he is enjoying some of my quiche!

Here's a sloppy pic of my second slice.  I have to learn to be more patient and take pictures of food before digging in!

Snow and Lasagna!

I actually ended up missing my first class yesterday so I will not be blogging about deep frying!  I wasn't feeling good yesterday morning and knew there were delays and cancellations on the NJ Transit so I decided to take the day off.  

This morning it was snowing out!  It was the perfect day to stay nice and warm in the kitchen and make Christmas lasagna!  My mom and I made a big pot of sauce for our traditional lasagna with mini meatballs and dried hot sausage.  We also made a separate sauce for our non-traditional lasagna with spicy poultry sausage.  We only assembled the non-traditional lasagna and put it in the freezer so that it is good for Christmas day!

So, first up: Tomato Sauce with spicy poultry sausage

1 package spicy italian poultry sausage (about 1.5 pounds)

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, small diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 28 oz can san marzano tomatoes, crushed

1 bouquet garni (I used 2 bay leaves, parsley stems, and thyme sprigs)

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 cup red wine or chicken stock

salt and pepper

evoo

We began by simmering the tomatoes with the bouquet garni.  In a large skillet, brown the turkey sausage on all sides.  Add to the tomato sauce.  In the same skillet, coat the pan with EVOO and add the onions and carrots.  Saute until soft and a bit caramelized.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the mixture to the tomatoes.  Deglaze the pan with chicken stock or wine (we actually added a little of both).  Add the pan drippings to the sauce.  Season the sauce with sugar, salt, pepper, and oregano.  Simmer for about an hour.  When the sausage was done, we sliced the links and added them back to the sauce.  

When sauce #1 was done, we got started on our second sauce with dried sausage and mini meatballs.  This sauce was made in the same way as the other one except we grated the carrots, and basically doubled all of the ingredients to make a huge pot of sauce.   Instead of poultry sausage, we browned partially-dried hot italian pork sausage:

Next, we made mini meatballs.  We didn't measure anything, and just eye-balled all of the ingredients.  In a large bowl, we mixed together 2 packages of ground beef, parmesan, 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, garlic powder, chopped parsley, and a splash of milk.  

Then, we formed them into cute little meatballs and browned them in a skillet to add to the sauce.

Here's the final product of our huge pot of traditional tomato sauce:  

Next, it was time to assemble out non-traditional lasagna.  My mom and grandma are putting together the other lasagna on Tuesday.  

First, we layered a little sauce and a layer of fresh whole wheat pasta sheets (cooked just shy of al dente).  Then we spread on part-skim ricotta, chopped spinach (mixed with salt, pepper, and a hint of fresh nutmeg), fresh mozzerella, a sprinkle of pecorino, and more sauce and sausage.  We continued to layer for 2 more layers.  I CANNOT wait to try this lasagna.  We usually just make 2 traditional lasagnas, but I figured it would be nice to change it up and make 1 lasagna a little different :)

Lesson 26: Pan Frying

Today started out a little rough.. I felt like I was having one of those days where I can't do anything right.  I tried sharpening my knives on my wet stone for the first time this morning and I couldn't get my knives sharp enough (I was probably doing it wrong) and I was left with smudges on my knives.  While on the train, the bridge was stuck open again and I was stuck between Newark and Secaucus for an extra 20 minutes-- 90 minute train rides are not fun!  

I finally got to class and was extra clumsy, confused and sensitive while we were setting up and mise-en-place'ing our recipes.  Thankfully, I snapped out of it and the rest of the day went a lot more smoothly!  (A special thanks to Matt for making me laugh today--I really needed it!!)

We moved on to pan-frying today, which is a lot like saute, except with extra fat in the pan and we used the standard breading procedure before cooking to ensure a golden brown, crisp finish.

First on the menu was potato pancakes  (or latkes) with spiced apple sauce.  For the pancakes, we grated potatoes and onions.  We mixed them together with egg, flour, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice (to prevent discoloration).  We pan fried them in canola oil, forming little pancakes and cooking them until they were golden brown.  We served them with homemade apple sauce that was made earlier in the class and some creme fraiche.  Soo good!

Next we made veal milanese.  We pounded out veal cutlets, seasoned them, then went through the standard breading procedure (flour, eggs, breadcrumbs).  They were also pan-fried in canola oil until they were golden brown--only took a couple of minutes.  I actually really liked how they tasted with the apple sauce!

Next up: panko crusted chicken supremes.  We formed supremes out of the chicken breasts and also put them through the standard breading procedure, except with panko breadcrumbs.  I love panko, since they are flakier and tastes lighter.  These supremes were also pan fried in canola and then finished cooking in the oven.

The last dish we made was my favorite: crab cakes with avocado sauce.  These were very easy to cook, since we just had to brown both sides and put them in the oven to heat through.  I forget everything that went into these cakes, but some ingredients included: lots of lump crabmeat (duh), sweated red pepper & onions, mayonnaise, eggs, worsteshire, etc etc...  All formed together into large patties.  The avocado sauce was the perfect complement and was so smooth and creamy.

TGIF tomorrow!  I'm so worn out after this long week of intense cooking!  We're ending the week tomorrow with deep frying (some menu items including fish & chips, tostones with mojo sauce, broccoli tempura with wasabi sauce, and fried oysters)

Lessons 24 & 25: More Saute!

During today and yesterday's classes, we were able to practice and perfect (well almost perfect) our saute-ing skills.  Yesterday's menu consisted of pork tenderloin with roasted red pepper sauce, sea scallops with onion compote, sauteed strip steaks with aguardiente, and pommes persillade.  I've never cooked scallops (or eaten them) and they were pretty good.   I loved the onion sauce that we made with it!  It was made with caramelized onions, tomato paste, dried chiles, heavy cream, culantro, and butter.  I have never heard of culantro before and honestly thought it was a typo for cilantro in our recipe.  It is a very tasty herb that has a stronger flavor than cilantro but also tastes very fresh.  It really made the sauce come to life!

For cooking scallops for the first time, I did a good job!  I improved a little bit on my saute-ing, even though nothing was perfect..but that's okay because I'm learning! :) 

I totally forgot my camera, so I didn't take pictures, but I was on my game today and took a picture of every dish!

Our mise en place for today was a little more difficult, since we had to filet whole fish for our sole a la meuniere (we used flounder instead of sole), prepare tranches out of a HUGE salmon, and prepare our lamb loin.  We also spent a lot of time fine julienning potatoes by hand and with the few mandolines that were available.

The first dish I prepared was the sole a la meuniere.  I dredged my two filets and sauteed them in clarified butter.  Once the filets were browned and cooked through, I prepared my sauce with whole butter (browned), lemon juice, and capers.  The finishing touch was some chopped parsley.

This was my favorite dish of the day!  The fish was cooked perfectly and the brown butter, lemon sauce complemented it perfectly.

Next, I prepared sauteed loin of lamb with pan sauce.  I seared the lamb loin on both sides and let it finish cooking in the oven while I prepared my pan sauce.  The sauce consisted of minced shallots, red wine, veal stock, and whole butter added in at the end.  My lamb was cooked perfectly! The sauce could have reduced a little more though!

Next on the menu was paillasson de pommes de terre.  What is that you ask?  Basically a huge potato pancake!  This is such a great dish because you can make small ones or large ones to serve a crowd.  They can also be made with sweet potatoes (I'll have to try it at home and let you all know how it comes out).  

To make this crispy potato cake, peel and julienne potatoes with a mandoline.  If you are not cooking them right away, put them in water so that they do not turn brown.  Squeeze out the liquid before tossing them in canola oil and salt.  Heat a non-stick saute pan and add canola oil and butter.  Add the potatoes, forming a flat layer on the bottom of the pan. Put a small lid or something on top of the potatoes to flatten them out.  After they are browned on the first side, flip over and continue to cook until brown and crispy on the other side.  Cut into wedges and enjoy!

The last dish of the day (which I unfortunately didn't have time to make) was the sauteed tranche of salmon with salsa verde.  The salsa verde was made with parsley, basil, garlic, evoo, sherry vinegar, capers, salt, and pepper.  I tried Kim's salmon and it was delicious.  I'm picky with salmon (and most seafood) but I really enjoyed the texture of the sauteed salmon and the pesto-like sauce with it.

Lesson 23: Mod 2! Chicken and Steak

I was very anxious/excited for today's class because it was the first day of Module 2 and we were introduced to our new chef instructor.  Chef Karen greeted us and laid out a new set of rules and instructions to follow for the next 6 weeks.  It's so different for all of us to get accustomed to a new chef who has different ways of doing things..but it is really going to prepare us for the future when we have to work for different chefs or even different clients/customers.  It will also be very helpful to learn different techniques from the different instructors.  

After preparing our mise en place (prepping the kitchen for the day's recipes), we each began trimming flank steaks and chicken breasts and mincing shallots.  We worked individually today to saute a few chicken breasts and portions of steak and make pan sauces for each.  The pan sauces were made simply with shallots, stock, wine (red for steak, white for chicken), and a few pieces of cold butter at the very end.  Sounds simple, right?  Wrong!  It takes a lot of practice working with commercial stoves when you have never worked with them before.  My shallots kept burning and either I didn't reduce the sauce enough or it would be reduced too much.  After a few mistakes with the chicken, I finally got the hang of it when I prepared my steak.  Today was like a trial-and-error day where everybody got to just saute away until they got it right!  After tomorrow and Wednesday's continuation of sauteing I'm sure we will be a lot better!

Sunday Night Dinner

My mom and I had a lovely afternoon and evening together.  We went to the mall after lunch and did some Christmas shopping.  I HATE shopping, so we got only the necessary things that we couldn't get online.  For lunch I made a delicious wrap with some of my leftover chicken from last night's dinner.  I took a sundried tomato flat out wrap and spread 1 laughing cow cheese wedge on it.  Then I added some chopped up leftover chicken, baby spinach, leftover corn and red pepper salsa, tomato slices, and a drizzle of wasabi mustard.  YUM!!   I always need something sweet after a meal, so I had a couple of christmas cookies that my mom made and chai tea with almond milk.

We didn't get back from the mall until around 4, so I started prepping dinner soon after we got back.  Like I said in my previous post, my mom and I definitely love to take advantage of nights when it's just me and her because we love to make fun, new recipes with lots of veggies and good, fresh ingredients.  I made a "polenta casserole" from my mom's "Clean Eating" cookbook.  I made a few changes while I was cooking.  Here's the recipe:

1 bunch swiss chard, triple washed and cut into small pieces

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 sprig rosemary, chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used baby bella)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Fresh grated nutmeg

1 package instant polenta

Grated pecorino romano (to taste)

About 1/2 cup part skim ricotta

About 1 cup good quality jarred marina, or homemade

In a large, nonstick skillet heat about 2 T. olive oil.  Add the onion, garlic, swiss chard, and rosemary.  Cook until the vegetables are beginning to soften.  Add the mushrooms.  Continue to cook until all of the vegetables are tender.  Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

In a sauce pan prepare polenta according to package directions.  Season with salt & pepper.

Preheat oven to 350.  In a 9x9  baking dish layer about half of the polenta.  Spoon half of the marina on top.  Spoon on half of the vegetable mixture.  Continue with another layer of polenta, vegetables and marina.  Sprinkle on pecorino and dollop a few spoonfuls of ricotta on the top.  Bake covered for 15 minutes.  Continue to bake uncovered for another 10 minutes.  Enjoy! (I added some red pepper flakes to my portion at the end.. mmm)

Here's a picture of the casserole before it went in the oven:

After preparing the casserole, my mom and I opened up my favorite bottle of wine that I haven't had in a year.. Vasse Felix.  I had 2 bottles left and was craving it, so I decided to share one bottle with my mom tonight.  The last bottle will have to be enjoyed on a very very special occassion!! 

We enjoyed our wine by the fireplace :)       In the picture it doesn't look like it's on, but the flash just ruined it!

Then it was time for dinner!!! It was soo good!  We each had 3 helpings! 

For an after dinner treat, my mom took out some mini pretzels and good-quality dark chocolate disks.  We placed one disk on each pretzel and put them in a 350 degree oven for a very short amount of time (prob only a minute and a half- 2 min)-- basically just until the chocolate sets on the pretzel, but is not melting down the sides.

The next step is to put the pretzels in the fridge to set and even freeze them if you like them cold.  But, I couldn't wait to try them.  I started jumping up and down and doing a booty dance because they were so good!  

Yupppp I'm a little weird!  After a few chocolate pretzels, my mom and I decorated our beautiful Christmas tree:

Now time to end the night with a Lifetime Christmas movie!! :)

Practical Exam & Restaurant Review

I entered class on Friday anxious and excited to complete the practical exam for module 1.  I kept going through the steps of making cream of broccoli soup and mayonnaise in my head over and over.  I even practiced my medium dice before I left my house and practiced 2 mayonnaise recipes on Thursday.  As a few of us entered class a little early, we began prepping the kitchen for our exam.  

We each drew a number from a bowl to determine the order we would be entering the kitchen (every five minutes somebody else could start--so there is some sort of order and everybody wouldn't finish at the same time).  I prayed that I wouldn't be last to enter the kitchen and that I would be in the top 5 to start.  I really lucked out and drew #1!!  I was sooo happy and had a 5 minute head start alone in the kitchen.  I immediately started making my veloute sauce because I knew it had to simmer for a half hour.  Then I began chopping my vegetables for the soup as more students gradually entered the kitchen.  Everything was going smoothly until I walked away from my cooking vegetables to get a strainer for my veloute.  I came back and saw that my onions browned.  Chef Allen specifically told us not to brown the onions because the caramelized flavor will overpower the broccoli.  I was bummed that I made this silly mistake and then I was flustered because I didn't know how to fix it.  

Not only did I not have the time to re-chop all my vegetables, but I knew there would not be enough broccoli stems since the recipe calls for 12 oz!  I washed another pot and tried to pick out some of the really browned onions and put the rest in a fresh pot with more butter.  I continued to cook my remaining vegetables over low heat while I kept a close eye on them!  I went through the rest of the motions-- strained my veloute, added it to the pot with chicken stock and brought it to a simmer.  While the soup simmered away I blanched my broccoli florets.  I pureed my soup + blanched florets, put it through a food mill and strained it.  In the meantime, I medium-diced my potatoes and made my mayonnaise.  I tasted my mayonnaise and couldn't tell if it was salty or lemony...or both?!  So, I added more salt to be on the safe side (for Chef Allen you can never add too much salt) to try and rid of the acidity.  Finally, it was time to present my finished products!

I ended up getting a 97.. not bad, but being the perfectionist that I am, I kept thinking how I messed up my vegetables and thinking about how I could've made that 97 a 100.  Since I was one of the first to finish, I spent the remainder of class cleaning up the kitchen and helping out with the overload of dishes in the sink.  We said our final goodbyes to Chef Allen (I'm going to miss him!!!) and left the kitchen wondering who is going to be our Chef instructor on Monday and what Module 2 will bring us.

Last night my family revisited a favorite restaurant located in Ocean Grove, Bia's (located in the Majestic Hotel).  We went to Bia's a lot in the summer because of its lovely atmosphere on the porch overlooking the ocean.  The last time we were there in August, I actually met the Chef because I was just beginning to consider going to culinary school.  He was a really nice guy, but scared me a little talking about his lack of a social life and all the hard work it takes to becoming a chef.  I still knew that I wanted to pursue my passion and knew that I wanted to work hard to do what I love.

In the past, my favorite dishes at Bia's were the vanilla-infused barbecue chicken with a delicious cornbread pudding and the crab cakes with a sundried tomato aioli.  I was kind of bummed to see a new menu when we arrived last night, but knew it would still be very good if Chris was still the chef.  To start our meal, we each received 2 thin slices of baguette with a dollop of soft whipped butter and a drizzle of olive oil.  For appetizers, my mom and I split a salad with mixed greens, walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and a pumpkin vinaigerette.  The dressing was excellent, but my mom and I agreed that the walnuts had a weird taste, like they were stale.  My brother had the crab & artichoke dip with toasted baguette (when he read the menu, he asked me what a "bag-wet" is.... oh boy).  I had a taste and it was very good!  My dad had the tomato bisque and really enjoyed it, but it was a large portion and was very heavy so he was kind of full before we even had our main dishes.

For my dinner, I had the curried chicken with mixed vegetables, pita, and jasmine rice.  The menu said it was made with pulled chicken, but the chicken was cut into little chunks.  It was still very good though and nice and juicy.  The sauce was really tasty!  I thought curry would be a tad spicy and it wasn't at all (I like spice, so it could've used a touch of cayenne).. The mixed vegetables were excellent and even contained sundried tomatoes, which isn't very traditional for a curry dish but I loved the texture and sweetness it brought to it.  The rice was soo moist and sticky, just how I like it.  The dish could've done without the pita.. it just got soggy under all the sauce.

My mom had grilled salmon with a tarragon reduction and wild rice.  It was just okay..  I'm not a huge fan of salmon so I didn't like it, and my mom wasn't crazy about it.  The sauce didn't have a ton of flavor.  My brother ordered the crab cakes, which were awesome as usual.  Instead of the sundried tomato aioli and jicama slaw it used to come with, it came with old bay mashed potatoes (which I didn't care for-- I like old bay, but not on potatoes) and a cervil aioli (not as much flavor as the sundried tomato).  My dad had the fresh spinach fettuccini with a short rib ragu.  I thought it was delicious, especially with the huge dollop of ricotta on top (I love ricotta!)  

Overall, our dining experience was not as good as in the past (especially because it was too cold to sit on the nice balcony!) but it was still an enjoyable dinner.  The restaurant is byo, so we brought 2 bottles of Copolla Director's Cut (1 cab and 1 zin), which we really enjoyed with our meal. 

My mom and I are spending the day Christmas shopping and then cooking dinner together.  We love nights that are just the two of us because we can experiment with new meals (my dad and brother are going to the Giants game).  I'll post pictures and a recipe of what we decide to make tonight!