Modern Culinary Masters-- Rick Bayless

Rick Bayless, you are a genius. I enjoyed the food today more than any other day. Obviously, the theme was "Mexican", a cuisine that I am not very comfortable cooking. I'm not talking about the tacos and fajitas you get at your local Mexican restaurant on 99 cent margarita night. I'm talking REAL Mexican. I love how all of the ingredients that we used were very cheap, but had a lot of flavor and were stretched out because of the fillers or toppers.

Kim and I were paired up to work on the Chilied Chicken Steamed with Avacodo Leaves. Chef changed the recipe considerably, so we ended up searing and baking the chicken in the marinade instead of steaming it. The avocado leaves were similar to dried bay leaves, so we simply wrapped them in cheesecloth and added them to the marinade to add some extra earthiness and flavor.

I worked on the marinade while Kim seared off the bone-in, skin-on chicken breast (keeping the bone in and the skin on keeps the chicken moist and flavorful). I toasted and rehydrated some dried guajilos chiles (very spicy!). I also toasted some other spices and ground them up in a spice grinder. I blended up the spices, chiles, onion, garlic, cider vinegar, and water. Next, I sauteed the mixture with some canola oil in a skillet until it thickened to the consistency tomato paste. We spread the mixture over the chicken and let it marinate before we put it in the oven to finish cooking. Here was our finished product that we plated with some red tomato rice that every group had to prepare.
Once our chicken was marinating and ready for the oven, I started helping out with other tasks that needed to get done in our group. I helped Matt and Allison prepare the gorditas for the Bacon-Flavored Gorditas Corn Masa Pockets with Roasted Poblano Guacamole:


Next, I helped assemble the chicken tamales with Kim, Henry, and Nora. These were my favorite!!!!Nora and Rob prepared this delicious chicken in Oaxacan yellow mole with green beans and chayote. I tried chayote for the first time today. Chef told us it is similar to an apple, but it's a vegetable. I would describe the taste as a cross between a cucumber and jicama. It was very fresh tasting, with little flavor. It went well with this flavorful sauce!
Here is the Red Tomato Rice prepared by another group (every group prepared this same recipes, but they all looked different.. our group eliminated peas because one team member is allergic)
Here are the rest of the recipes prepared by the other teams. Like I said, everything was incredible!!

(Crispy Potato Sopes with Salsa, Goat Cheese, and Herb Salad)

(Chicken in Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce)
(Classic Shredded Beef & Tomatoes served with Corn Masa Pockets)

(Slow-Cooked Achiote Chicken)

(Classic Red Mole with Turkey)

Tomorrow I am group leader, so I definitely have to be on my game! The next couple of days are only going to get harder, but I'm excited for the challenge!

Modern Culinary Masters-- Ming Tsai

I cannot express enough how great it is to have Chef Chris as our chef instructor this module (no, I'm not sucking up... I'm too scared to tell him about my blog hehe). I took a moment during class today to just observe the chaos and professionalism in our class. We have definitely come a long way in the past few months!

We began today's class with knife skills. I definitely needed the practice! We each minced a couple of shallots and cloves of garlic. When I say mince, I mean MINCE... these had to be chopped until they could not be chopped any more. We were even given knife skills homework for tonight. I'm saving it for the morning... I have to mince 5 cloves of garlic, 2 shallots, and small dice 4 carrots (1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 inch cubes).

After knife skills and a quick review of today's menu, we got to work on the recipes (provided by Master Chef, Ming Tsai).

I started out by preparing an Asian Pear Chutney for our duck recipe. This chutney was spicy and sweet.. I loved it with the duck! The mixture contained, onions, ginger, sambal oelek, rice wine vinegar, apple cider, and Asian pears.

After that, I helped prep the fennel orzo salad, the shrimp stir-fry and helped saute the duck breasts. Just like yesterday, everything turned out beautiful and tasty! We were all scrambling during the last minutes to get our dishes on the table. It is seriously like a food network show when Chef is counting down the seconds and we're all putting our final touches on the presentation. Every minute is so worth it when we are all able to stand back and see all of the hard work we put into each and every dish. Then we EAT and it is DEFINITELY worth it!

Time for pictures....These first 3 dishes are the ones my group worked on:
(Achiote Duck Breasts with Asian Pear Chutney, Spiced Pecans, and Red Chile Oil)

(Spicy Shrimp with Mangoes and Snow Pea Salad)

(Citrus Herbal Tea-Rubbed Halibut with Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad)

(PEI Mussels and Chinese Sausage with Garlic-Ginger-Scallion Stir Fry Sauce)

(Blue Ginger Alaskan Butterfish with Soba Noodle Sushi)

(Traditional Mandarin Fried Rice)

(Oyster Corn Fritters with Two-Vinegar Emulsion and Spicy Mayonnaise)

(Napa Slaw)
(Oven Roasted Szechwan Squab with Steamed Scallion-Lemon Rice)

(Chicken-Rice Noodle Stir-Fry)

Everybody watch Chopped tonight--Chef Erica will be competing (our chef instructor from module 3!)

I'll be spending the rest of the night brainstorming menu ideas for our graduation! I'm working with Kim to create a very original and creative menu for the big day! We're meeting tomorrow before class to get our ideas down on paper for Chef Chris.

Lesson 93: Contemporary Modern Chefs--Mario Batali

Goodbye pastry, hello Mod 5!! We were back to cooking today and I realized just how much I missed it. I love pastry, mostly due to our amazing chef-instructor, but my passion truly is cooking.

We were instructed to arrive to school at 12:30 and were put right to work as soon as we entered the kitchen. Chef Chris means business and clearly instructed us as to how he wants the kitchen to run. I have never seen our class act so disciplined as we did today. We are always really good at cleaning up and attending to the chef's demands, but today was on a whole new level. "Yes Chef!" was being screamed by one or all of the students in response to Chef Chris's comments, demands and questions throughout the afternoon.

I know that the next 3 weeks will be extremely challenging, yet also rewarding and exciting. Chef Chris will whip our butts into shape and transform us into real chefs that are prepared for whatever comes our way. He will also help us make our graduation day successful and unforgettable.

Once we set up the kitchen and went over the recipes for the day, each table was ready to tackle Mario Batali's recipes. Every day this week we are preparing recipes from Master Chefs. Chef Chris instructed how to best approach each recipe and made some necessary changes to make the final product tasty and presentable.

My first task during prepping was to clean monkfish. Not the most glamorous job, but it was challenging for me and I'm glad I got through it. Monkfish is a really ugly fish that has silverskin and is shaped like a beef tenderloin. It's difficult to get that layer of skin off plus all of the red chunks, while keeping the fish as neat as possible. I cut the fish into appropriate sized peices for our dish and reserved it until we were ready to start cooking.

For the rest of class, I helped prep the other dishes that my team was working on. I also prepared the sauce that went with the Monkfish. The sauce contained white wine, lemon juice, tumeric, lemon segments, preserved lemons, and caperberries. The result was a very sour sauce. Chef knew that this result was likely to happen, as the sauce is supposed to be sour (but definitely not that sour). I mellowed out the sourness a bit by adding butter (of course) and some chicken stock. The sauce went very well with the mild, white fish. Here is our final plating of the monkfish, along with the 2 other dishes my group prepared:

(Monkfish Piccata with Caperberries and Preserved Lemons)

(Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style: Sauteed calamari in a spicy tomato sauce with Israeli cous cous-- My favorite dish of the day!)

(Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta)

These are the rest of the items that the other 2 teams prepared. Everything was delicious!
(Mint & Parsley Fettuccini with a Lamb and Olive Ragu)

(Sauteed Skate and Shrimp in a Saffron Sweet Clam Citronette)

(Scallion Barlotto-- A barley risotto with a scallion & parsley puree)

(Spinach & Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Pine Nuts, and Lemon)

(Fennel-Dusted Sweetbreads with Bacon & Onions-- My 3rd time eating sweetbreads... and I loved it!)

(Roasted Beet Farrotto -- I love beets..and farro. This was an amazing dish.. Plus it's pink!)

It was a great first day back to cooking. Every day is going to get harder and harder as we tackle more difficult recipes and start creating our own ideas while experimenting with different ingredients!

Restaurant Review: Vivas Restaurant

Tonight my parents and I visited one of our favorite Jersey shore restaurants, Vivas. Vivas is located in a small shopping center in Belmar. The outside of the restaurant isn’t impressive, but once you step inside, the atmosphere represents the amazing quality of food you are about to receive.

Vivas actually closed for a short amount of time last year so I have not visited the restaurant in almost 2 years. I was a bit disappointed to see that the menu has changed and they took off my favorite item, the Tango Lamb Chops. However, I knew that the chef would not disappoint with the other options on the menu.

I debated between a few choices, but ended up ordering the Signature Chilean Seabass. I have learned that you can never go wrong at a restaurant when you order their “signature” dish. Not to mention, the flavors and accompaniments sounded right up my alley. This dish was described as: “Encrusted in a sweet potato over an artichoke, rosemary, and Cabrales cheese risotto, topped with a wild mushroom caper reduction drizzled with a honey mustard".
The fish was cooked perfectly and had a crispy crust covered with a thin layer of sweet potato puree. The sweet potato added a perfect sweetness to the fish. The sauce was rich and creamy, however I was a bit disappointed with the lack of mushrooms and artichokes (I think I got a total of 3 slices of mushroom and 1 piece of artichoke). It was still very tasty and the risotto was creamy and delicious. I cleaned my plate!

My mom ordered the Ensalada Cubana and added on Grilled Salmon. I have had this salad before as a starter and know that it is fabulous. It is a large portion of greens, warm black beans, cherry tomatoes, and sautéed sweet onions. My mom said the salmon was cooked to her liking (medium rare) and tasted delicious. I know my mom loved it because she finished the whole thing. My mom never finishes her salmon, but when she does I know that it had to have been cooked perfectly!
My dad ordered a Skirt Steak Special wrapped in Serrano Ham and accompanied with shrimp and chimichurri sauce. His meal marked the only negative part of our dinner. When his dish came out, we realized it was not the dish that he ordered. Instead of a skirt steak, they gave him a strip steak (that was cooked not to his liking). He sent it back and received the meal that he originally ordered several minutes later. This was a mistake that could happen very easily in a busy restaurant kitchen, so I convinced my parents to get over it and have more wine :)
My parents also disliked the fact that the busboys wanted to take away our plates before my dad was finished with his meal. We like to keep our plates in front of us until the very last person is eating. I told my parents that the busboys are trained to take the plates away as soon as a person is done eating, but they still believe that it is common courtesy to let everyone keep their plates until the last person is done eating. I do agree that it is sort of awkward to have one person eating while everyone else’s plates are gone.

Vivas made it up to us by offering a few $10 coupons for our next visit because of the minor mistake they made. Although the meals at this restaurant are rather pricey, it is a BYO so we saved money on wine and were able to use coupons to make our bill round out to only $50 (We happened to have some coupons from the last visit too..). That's a bargain for 3 people, especially for the quality of food we received!

Overall it was a wonderful meal and I am very excited to come back again this summer!

Lesson 91: Pastry Plating II

I seriously debated taking the day off today and relaxing by the beach. I had an early doctor's appointment and was tempted to just head to my beach house right after. Instead, I was a responsible adult and made my usual 10:22 train to NY. After all, today was technically our last day of pastry!

Today's production list was less intimidating than the past couple of days. Nora and I started off by making upside down pineapple cakes while the other Allison and Vadim unmolded the mascarpone cheesecakes from yesterday. Here are our cakes next to another group's raspberry cakes:
We continued prepping other components for plating, including more sauces, whipped creams, and these caramel decorations:
Just like yesterday, we set up stations with desserts, pastry creams, sauces, ice creams/sorbets, and garnishes for plating.

My first plate that I made was the least impressive. I think that the line of sauce was not necessary (should have just left the few dots) and the sugared mint leaves should be more visible. I was excited to incorporate this fork-shaped cookie as a garnish!
(Pineapple upside-down cake, passion-fruit sorbet, mango sauce, candied mint, and fork-shaped tuille)

My second plate was my favorite! Chef loved it and told me to get a picture for my blog (duhhhh I already did!)

(Mascarpone cheesecake, fresh raspberries, fresh mint, raspberry sauce, chocolate tuille cookie, caramel decoration, and a light sprinkle of confectioner's sugar)

This was my final plate. I don't even think I showed chef this one because the ice cream was melting to quickly and the liquid from the berries was spreading...

(Milk chocolate panna cotta, mascerated raspberries and blueberries, chocolate and raspberry sauces, vanilla icecream, chocolate tuille cookie, and a small caramel decoration)

Tomorrow is our written and practical exam! I'm actually not nervous at all! Chef really prepared us for what we have to do tomorrow and clearly explained what he expects of us. Here's what we have to do for our practical:
-Pipe "Happy Birthday, name!" onto 3 10-inch circle cardboards
-Prepare 5 cornets
-Roll out pate sacree in a 12-inch cirlce and mold it into a 10-inch tart pan
-Prepare creme anglaise

Wish me luck!

Pastry Plating Design

Where did this heat come from?!!!! I normally love the warm weather, but this is just ridiculous! Needless to say, it was brutally hot in the kitchen today as we worked our way through another production list and began our first day of plating.

Like every other day this week, we began class with some chocolate piping practice. For our practical exam on Friday we have to pipe "Happy Birthday name" in uniform writing 3 times. Each one has to fit in a 10 inch diameter circle and all three have to look consistent. Here was my first piping practice from a few weeks ago:

Here was my piping practice today:
Improvement? I think so!!!! Chef said it looked great, so I just have to replicate this for the exam on Friday. I feel confident that I can do it!

Like I mentioned yesterday, today I was "head chef" of my group for production and plating. i discussed with Chef Chad what had to be done and reported back to my group. I assigned jobs to each person and we got to work! For today's production, my group worked on fruit tatins, lemon meringue tarts, mascarpone cheesecakes (for tomorrow), and semisweet whipped cream (for plating tomorrow).

Another group made zuppa inglese, which were basically parfaits made with some of the cakes we made 2 weeks ago (and froze), flavored pastry creams, and meringue.

Anything in martini glasses is pretty in my book!

By 3:30, all groups were finished with today's production lists and ready to plate. Chef demonstrated the first plate:

(Pear and apple fruit tatins, praline ice cream, dried apple, and caramel sauce)

We were all given free-range with our plating designs. It was actually a lot of fun experimenting with different colors, textures, and flavors. Here is my first plate that was my overall favorite:
(Lemon meringue tart, raspberry sorbet, raspberry sauce, and mint)

Here's my second plate:

(Banana tatin, pastry shell filled with white chocolate mousse, caramel sauce, toasted almonds, and dried apple)

This was my final plate...the ugliest one....and the one I ended up eating :)

(Apple tart, ginger ice cream, mascerated raspberries & blueberries, dried apple, and caramel sauce)

We had a ton of plates to give away to the other classes. In return, we received some of their delicious savory plates. It's always fun sharing foods with other classes!

After class NJ Transit disappointed me yet again and had some delays. I was hot, tired, and just wanted to get home! Thankfully, once I finally got home (a bit later than usual) I had a quick visit from the bf and enjoyed some wine with my parents in the backyard. Then I felt MUCH better :) Now I just need about 5 more fans in my room to cool me down from this heat!!!!

Lessons 88 & 89: Production Days

These past two days at school there hasn't been much to report about. I think I took a total of 2 pictures (and then left my camera at school..). We have been working to produce a variety of desserts and dessert components/decorations for our final plating designs (that we will be completing tomorrow & Thursday).

Yesterday I made a white peach sorbet and a strawberry sauce. We also made batter for "tulips", which are thin cookies that we baked off today in different designs.

We are working in groups of 4 and are competing for the best production and plating designs. Today our group made pate sablee for some cookies and small tart shells. We also made a HUGE batch of chocolate mousse (mmmmm!). Along with that, we managed to produce the tulip cookies, crepes, poached pears, and espresso caramel sauce. It was definitely a busy day!

Tomorrow I'm "chef in charge" of my group.. We will be producing more desserts and finally putting together all of the components from the past several days to design some dessert plates.

OH.. and we were told who our chef instructor is for Module 5........ Chef Chris! I'm really excited because he is an amazing chef! He's tough, but I'm so eager to learn from him (and hopefully toughen up a bit).