CULA-confidential

HB eggs

Roll hard boiled eggs in a pan of cold water before putting them on the stove and the yolks will be perfectly centered. Source: Jeff Robinson, Intro to Hospitality prof.

Post midterm merriment

Mid terms are over and basic food prep feels like a party. Everyone is relaxed, having fun, eating each others stuff and snapping towels. We’re still cooking – vegetables this week, starches next – but the class is collectively more relaxed. It’s a lot of fun.

This week we made vegetables. Brussels sprouts made edible by being boiled then sautéed in bacon, butter and pecans. We also braised fennel and celery and steamed artichokes that were served with a buerre blanc (butter and wine) sauce. The Brussels sprouts were about as bitter as expected, but we really Magoo’d the artichokes.

The quantity class poached pears in pomegranate juice for service in the El Centro restaurant. One of the guys, I don’t know his name, put the poaching liquid in a sorbet maker and turned out one of the best desserts I’ve ever tasted. It was tart, sweet, and had a hint of cinnamon. It was so refreshing and soooooo much better than the vegetables we made.
Boil green vegetables with the lid off to preserve color.

Lab assignments 3/31 & 4/1

We’ll never get certain members of the baking class to leave when we crank out the following:
3/31
½ recipe page 722 Duchess potatoes
1/3 recipe page 690 gratin Dauphinise (potatoes au gratin)
¼ recipe page 724 polenta with wild mushrooms
4/1
½ portion per student page 690 twice baked potatoes
½ recipe page 720 cheddar cheese rosti potatoes (omitt9ing the lard, subbing oil)
¼ recipe page 702 risotto Milanese, double stock.

Soup too thick?

I got a great tip last night. If your soup is too thick and it's close to service time, thin it with the ingredient that evaporated, water. I usually trying to thin soup with stock or cream -- big mistake -- stock has collagen which is a thickener and cream or milk will modify the flavor of the soup.
Thanks for the tip Tom.

How'd I do on the midterm practical?

The basic food prep midterm practical exam was this week; the hollandaise of nightmares, cream of broccoli soup and asparagus. I tested on Wednesday, with team member Melissa assisting. We switched roles on Thursday. Oops I almost wrote “we switched rolls.” You can tell where my mind is.
I did great, got a 95 out of 100. Problem was that the asparagus was cold. I told Chef (Matthew Melcher of Dessert Dreams) that it was supposed to be cold but he wasn’t buying it. “Then you should have chilled the hollandaise,” he replied. Chef has an answer for everything.
My soup was OK, a little salty (lesson: beware of kosher salt), the hollandaise was perfect and the asparagus was delish, chilled and all. I wish I’d taken a picture. I wrapped a long strip of lemon rind around one asparagus spear for garnish.
I also lost points for leaving spoons on the stove.
Melissa, who got a 100, (way to go!) garnished her hollandaise with stars cut out of rind. Her presentation got a wow out of Chef.

How do you get On Cooking recipes off the Master Cook disc?

The text book came with a CD ROM which contained Master Cook a completely annoying and not very user friendly recipe generation program. Both (cooking team member) Barbara and I had used it in the past and didn’t like it. Plus, none of the recipes we needed were included!
Alas, Brainy Barbara (who also got a 100 on her practicals) discovered the ‘Read Me’ file on the disc which details how to d/l the text book recipes from the disc to the program for easy printing and scaling (changing the proportions). I give her a 100 just for that juicy knowledge.

Lab assignments: Wed 3/24 & Thu 3/25

All assignments are from Labensky’s “On Cooking” noted in an earlier post.
Wednesday
½ recipe grilled vegetable skewers page 647
1 recipe baked butternut squash page 648
½ recipe stir fried asparagus with shitake mushrooms page 649. (Use half the amount of oyster sauce, sub water)
Thursday
½ recipe braised celery yuk & fennel yuk x 2 with basil page 656
4 servings Brussels sprouts with pecan butter and julienned 1/8x1/8x2 bacon. Page 653
¼ recipe steamed artichoke with Beurre Blanc pages 637, 654 and 222 for procedures and recipes. Can’t wait to make another whole butter sauce. Beurre blanc is reduced wine and vinegar plus butter. Sounds good to me.

Happy day Hollandaise

I made a damned fine hollandaise last night. My eggs set perfectly, the liquid wasn't too hot, the butter was a little cold but worked well when incorporated over the double boiler off the heat.
You really get a whisking work out -- when adding liquid to egg yolks you whisk until it's drippy, then again off the double boiler when adding the melted butter.
I'm still a little fuzzy on the amount of butter to use. I measured the hardened, clarified butter by volume, using water displacement. To measure six ounces of hardened, clarified butter, put 10 ounces of water in a clear measuring cup and add solid fat until it reaches 16 ounces. It was a little oily so I added it to a yolk beaten with a tablespoon of water.
I take the basic food prep written midterm today, the sanitation and safety midterm tomorrow (which is also the "Serve Safe" national certification exam), and probably do the basic food prep practical tomorrow evening.
Ciao,
Nancy
PS added on 3/19. The Serve safe exam isn't untill April 8. dummy moi.

Spring break

I returned from spring break this week. Three days in Tampa/St. Pete's Beach Fla to catch the Yankees in spring training; all I can say is A-Rod has a lot of work to do at third base.
Two days in Key West, and three days in Miami Beach.
We ate at this legendary steak house in Tampa called Bern's Steakhouse. Hub and I split a 30 ounce, dry aged porterhouse that was incredible. Robust, meaty, brothy, beefy, nutty -- I could go on for a week about that steak. If only the service had been up to par. Our server magoo'd the steaks, they were underdone, and couldn't seem to handle his three (yes three) table station. Yes, moi, who eats meat raw whenever possible had a too-rare steak.
My new favorite seafood/continental restaurant is Louie's Backyard in Key West. I had a lobster appetizer and Key West pink shrimp with mushrooms over polenta-like grits for dinner.
We had some good sushi in Miami Beach, at Sushi Rock, but nothing really knock-your-socks-off wonderful.
Terrific trip full of fun, sun, mojito's, rum runners, and lots of seafood.

Anxiety Dream

Last night I had a chef school night terroranxiety dream about making hollandaise. The basic food prep midterm practical is 3/17 & 3/18 and one of the things we have to make ia hollandaise. That and a soup and broccoli or asparagus. Chef is convinced it'll only take 90 minutes. Either u can make the sauce or u can't. (sorry about the word short cuts & &'s I'm using the PDA to write and upload in transit).
What if my holl breaks? What if my eggs scram? What if I 4get 2 wisk eggs in an "8" motion wisking in the butter in a circ motion?
I can't stand the thought of failing. Not me.