Lesson 80: Bread & Pizza Dough

Yesterday was a wonderful day for many reasons-- it was another sunny, warm day, it was Friday, it was going to be an easy bread making day in the kitchen, and it's going to be a gorgeous weekend!

We started out the class by making 2 types of dough: soft bread dough and semolina bread dough. After these were done, they had to ferment and rise for about an hour. While our bread was rising, we got to work on our pizza dough (that we're going to use on Monday). Instead of working in pairs, we made huge batches in our table groups.

We had to use the extra large mixers:

We gradually mixed in the flour (very carefully so that it didn't get all over--one group had a little mishap with the flour and it showered all over them and the walls haha)

My favorite girls acting silly trying to scrape out the dough:

By the time the pizza dough was done, our bread doughs were ready to work with. For the soft roll dough, we made a variety of shapes. I made a simple 2-strand twist and a knot roll. I also made a bunch of "onion pockets", but most of them opened up in the oven :(

We formed loaves out of the semolina dough. Here is my loaf that I sprinkled with cornmeal:

After class I took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk around the city. I sat in the park for a while and read/people watched.. it was wonderful. At 7:00 I headed to wine class to try some West coast wines! Here were my favorites:

Willamette Valley, Pinos Gris, Benton Lane 2008. $15; A great summer wine. Very light & fresh. I tasted fruity apple and green pear. It was a bit acidic, but very pleasant.

Chalk Hill (Russian River), Sauvignon Blanc 2006. $33; A heavier white; rich with a calm acidity

Columbia Valley, Riesling, 'Eroica', Dr. Loosen, Chateau Ste. Michelle 2008. $23; light, sweet, and acidic. This wine goes great with spicy foods.

Napa, Zinfandel, Chateau Montelena 2006. $30; Very round and juicy wine. I tasted wild berries with a hint of earthiness. This was my favorite wine of the night!

Napa, Cabernet Sauvignon, 'Georges de Latour Private Reserve', Beaulieu Vineyard 2006. (I left before he gave the price for this one); Very complex with vanilla and mocha flavors. There were hints of very dark berries and oak.

Time to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Lesson 75: Fruit Tarts & Wine Essentials Day 4

Wow what a day yesterday was! I wasn't feeling good yesterday morning and was up at 3 in the morning with stomach pains. I didn't know how I was going to make it through class and then wine class later on. While I was on the train to NY, I challenged myself to work hard in class to hopefully distract myself from the pain I was in and then make the decision after class whether I should skip wine class or keep on going.

I am sure glad I didn't miss yesterday's pastry class because Chef Chad told us if you don't know how to make pastry cream, then you're a punk! I definitely don't want to be a punk!!!!! So, I got to work right away mis en place'ing a medium batch of pastry cream that I made with Allison H. This pastry cream reminded me of the custard my mom makes for my grandpa's special Italian cake. She always saves a bowl of it for me to eat plain. It took all of my power to not grab a spoon and dig in! We spread the cream on a sheet pan and covered it with plastic wrap so it could cool before we use it later for our fruit tarts.

After Chef demonstrated how to roll out the doughs for our tarts, we all worked individually to make 3 mini fruit tarts and one regular tart. I rolled out the pate brisee (from yesterday) and pressed it into the mini tart shells. We blind baked these mini tarts (without any filling) before filling them. When it was time to fill the tarts, we first brushed the bottoms with reduced apricot jelly, then added in some pastry cream (that we brightened up with some raspberry liquor and fresh whipped cream). We assembled some fresh fruit on top and dotted the fruit with more apricot jelly for shine.

I couldn't help myself from digging into one on my train ride home :)

While the mini tarts were blind baking, we got to work on our larger tart. We had a lot more flexibility with these tarts, since we had a variety of frangipanes and poached fruits to choose from. We started out by rolling out pate sucree (from yesterday) and fitting it into the larger tart pan. I decided to use the pistachio frangipane that Allison and I made yesterday. The pistachio flavor is not overpowering in this filling and I thought the color would look really nice in the tart. I also used the caramel poached pears that I made on Wednesday and some poached figs that another group made.

When my tart came out of the oven, I glazed the top with more apricot jelly and added some toasted crushed almonds and powdered sugar around the edge (to frame the tart):

Isn't it pretty???

It was fun to see everyone's tarts because they were all so different! Here is Aaron's tart.. looks like he used red wine poached pears and maybe a walnut frangipane?

Even the mini fruit tarts were assembled in all different ways. Here are Asli's beautiful tarts:

After class I made the decision to stick it through the rest of the day and stay for wine class. I was feeling a lot better and I didn't want to have to make up another wine class (I still have to make up day 2 bc of the snow storm!)

Today's wines were from warm weather climate areas (Spain, France, Australia). It was interesting to try these wines because I am so used to Italian or California wines. We started out by sipping on a dry sherry. I was surprised that I didn't mind the extra dry finish on this wine, but it was very different from the sherry that we ended with. But, before I get to that, let me tell you about the wines!

First up, we tried 4 white wines. I didn't LOVE any of them, but they weren't bad. The first one reminded me of a nice wine to sip on a hot summer night. It was very light and refreshing:
Rias Baixas, Albarino, Legado del Conde 2008. This bottle retails at $18 a bottle.

My favorites of the white was the Rioja, Vina Tondonia Blanco Reserva, R. Lopez de Heredia 1990. This was an aged wine that tasted a bit more oaky than the others. It had a rich, ripe apple flavor. This bottle retails at $40.

Next, we tried a rose that I thought was very refreshing. It had a light strawberry flavor. This bottle is from South France: Les Baux de Provence, Rose, Mas de La Dame 2008. Retailing at $15.

We tried four reds after the rose. One of them was from Australia! Sipping it brought back memories of my 4 months studying abroad in Perth. It had a very deep fruity flavor (blackberries and dark plums). Barossa Valley, Shiraz. 'Entity', J. Duval Wines 2006. This bottle retails at $40.

My favorite wine of the night was the Ribera del Duero, Pesquera 2006, which retails at $50 (it was the most expensive of the night.. why do I always like the most expensive wines???!)
This wine also had a very intense fruity flavor. It was one of the heavier wines of the night.

We ended the night with another sherry..this time a very sweet sherry! Everybody in the class looked at the color of this wine and thought "ugh" because it was brown and, well, ugly. However, as soon as I smelled it I knew it would be dessert in a glass. I smelled caramel, coffee, and a rich, dark syrup. It was the perfect ending to the spread of wines.

Well, I made it through the day despite the rocky start and I'm so glad I did! Thankfully, I am feeling A LOT better today, especially after a good night's sleep. Have a wonderful weekend!! Coming up on Monday: Puff Pastry!!

Wine Essentials: Day 3

I easily killed a couple of hours walking around the city after class before my Wine Essentials Class. I was really excited for this class because the focus was Italilan wines. As soon as I entered the room (and grabbed a plate of assorted cheese, crackers, and grapes), I noticed there was a martini glass along with 10 wine glasses at my seat. I was really curious what they would be pouring into that martini glass. Once class began, I learned it was for our first Italian cocktail, Campari. I actually do not care for campari. My sister really likes it and ordered it a few times when we were in Italy but I just couldn't get used to the bitterness. It is definitely an acquired taste. I had a couple small sips and set it aside and waited for the wines!

We started out with 3 white wines. I was not impressed with any of them (I'm more of a red wine drinker anyway). Richard confirmed my thoughts on the white wines and told us that most Italian white wines aren't spectacular because Italians like to focus more on the reds. My favorite of the 3 was:
Orvieto Classico, 'Poggio Calvelli', La Carraia 2008.
This wine is from Umbria and retails at $20 per bottle. I tasted sweet apple and a crisp, refreshing flavor. It would pair very nicely with a light fish dish. It also paired well with the goat cheese from my cheese platter!

Out of the next grouping of wines (2 red wines), my favorite was:
Taurasi, 'Radici', Mastroberardino 2004.
This wine retails at $60. My tasting notes say: "dried cherry, rich, heavy, prune". It would pair nicely with a rich meal, like braised meat or game.

Next, we tried 2 wines that I really enjoyed. The first one was a Chianti Classico, that is a very easy-drinking red. My sister and I drank this a few times in Italy with dinner. The second wine brought back memories from a specific night in Sorrento with my sister. It was a Brunello di Montalcino. The bottle we had last night was a 2003 bottle. Here is the bottle my sister and I shared in Italy (a 2000 bottle):It was AMAZING! So amazing, we thought it was a fabulous idea to order another bottle (with some convincing from our cute Italian waiters that I apparantly had to get a picture with before I left..)
Needless to say, I was not feeling very good on the rocky boatride to Capri the next day. Lesson learned.

This 2003 bottle retails at $50 per bottle.

Alright, next up was my FAVORITE wine of the night. I tasted it and just was in awe of how wonderful it was. The color was dark and dense and even the aroma was very rich and earthy. Recently I have really been enjoying heavier, full-bodied earthy wines. This wine came full-circle and hit every note on my palate. Richard also described it as a very "round" wine. It had some fruity flavors (dried plum and older fruits) and was very smooth. What is the name of this wine you ask?

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, Vaio Armaron, Sergo Alighieri, Masi 2001.
(From the Veneto region)
The bottle retails at $70 (apparantly I have very expensive taste-- coming from the girl who enjoys jugs of "Little Penguin" wines).

The last wine was also amazing and the perfect grand finale of the tasting. Unfortunately we were told that you can't get this wine anymore and we were the last class to taste it:

Barolo, Azienda Agricola Falleto (Bruno Giacosa) 1999. (From the Piemonte Region)

This was another complex, smooth wine that tasted like dried plum, fig, and earthy flavors.

What a wonderful way to end the week!

Lesson 60: Pasta Heaven!!

Yesterday's class began with a written exam on the recipes we have made the past couple of weeks.  I actually don't mind test-taking, especially when it's just on memorizing the methods/procedures of recipes (much better than taking any business exams in college).  I think I did well, so the day was off to a good start!

This class was probably my favorite class so far in culinary school.  We spent the day making fresh pasta with classic sauces.  Pasta is comfort food to me since my mom's homemade pasta with tomato sauce was always my favorite as a child (and still is!).  I was all smiles today while kneading my very own pasta dough and rolling it out into thin sheets.

Every student made their own batch of pasta dough (even though we only used one batch per table).  The dough is made from 3 simple ingredients: flour, salt, and eggs.  We each had a mound of flour with a pinch of salt and made a well in the center.  We cracked 3 eggs into the well and gradually incorporated it into the flour with a fork.  Once it started forming a dough, we brought it together with our hands and kneaded it until it was firm.  We let our balls of dough rest while we prepared the sauces and other components to our dishes.

Here is an example of creativity in the kitchen:

After the dough rested, it was time to roll it out using the pasta machine:

Along with the pasta, we also made gnocchi.  Gnocchi is also super easy to make, and soo delicious!  We baked potatoes and scooped out the filling into a ricer.  We riced the potatoes on a sheet pan in a single layer so they would cool quickly.  After they cooled, we mixed the potatoes with a few handfuls of flour (one handful for every potato used), egg yolks (one yolk for every potato), salt, and nutmeg.  Once the dough was formed into a log, we let it cool in the refrigerator.

We formed out gnocchi by rolling out the dough into a very thin log, cutting small pieces, and rolling each piece on the back of a fork.  The gnocchi take only a couple of minutes to cook and are done when they come to the surface of the boiling water.  I made a cherry tomato sauce to top the gnocchi by sauteing cherry tomatoes and onions in some melted butter and olive oil.

We used our pasta dough to make 2 types of pasta: ravioli and trenette.  For the ravioli, we made a filling with roasted butternut squash, Italian amaretti cookies, mostarda di frutta, parmesan, and nutmeg.  Making the ravioli brought back memories of making homemade ravioli in Italy with my sister back in September :)

The ravioli was served with a browned butter sage sauce MMMM!

The trenette was served with potatoes, haricot vert, and a pesto sauce made with garlic, pine nuts, basil, olive oil, and parmesan.

We even had a few different types of prosciutto to taste with our pasta feast!  

After class, I dusted the flour off my face and walked around the city to kill a couple of hours before my first night of wine class.  

Wine class was absolutely wonderful!  Richard Vayda is the instructor and he is just full of information about wine.  I learned so much!  The room was set up very impressively (I wish I got a picture..maybe next week) with 9 wine glasses, a spit bucket, and a binder of information at each seat.  There was a beautiful cheese spread with cheeses that were paired with the wines we tasted.  Here are the 9 wines I tasted last night and my notes on them:

1. Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, Zonin 2008: $10   Light, citrus, grapefruit, slightly acidic, bright, pleasant, fresh

2.  Hawke's Bay, Chardonnay, Babich Wines 2007: $18   Clean, Sweet, fruity, apple/pear, heavier than the Pinot Grigio

3.  Alsace, Pinot Gris, 'Reserve Personnelle', Trimbach 2001: $38 Heavy, rich, thick, smooth, the flavor lingers, ripe apple, honey  **My favorite white wine of the night

4.  Champagne, Brut, Nicolas Feuillatte NV: $32  Light, apple, vanilla, wood, slightly acidic, dry

5.  Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, J. Vidal-Fleury 2005: $32  SWEET, honey, apricot, dry

6.  Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir, Benton-Lane 2007: $18  Light, sour, cherry, young, nice acidity

7.  Medoc, Cru Bourgeois, Chateau Greysac 2004: $20  Heavy, dark, dense, tannins, blackberry, cedar

8.  Valle de Uco, 'Numina', 'Gran Corte', Salentein 2004: $43 Fruity, ripe, blackberries, dark in color ** My favorite red wine of the night

9.  Porto, 'Six Grapes Reserve', Graham's, NV: $30  Heavy, thick, sour cherry, very alcoholic, dark purple in color

I really enjoyed the class and learned so much.  Can't wait to try more wines and learn more about the different wine-making regions in the next class!