CULA-confidential

Me vs. the #5 star tip

We took the final practical exams in Fun Baking today. Unfortunately when I was washing the #5 curved star tip (used with a bag to pipe cookies), I got the tip stuck on my finger with the tines digging into my skin. Alison Hodges (the instructor) had to get a needle nosed plyers to pry the stainless steel points from my finger. It was so stupid, and so funny, I just had to share it, no matter how idiotic it makes me look.
I did really well, got a 'great' on my spritz cookies, and ten bonus points for finishing early. My turnovers were slightly underdone but looked fantastic. I'd take a pic but everything got smooshed when I had to make a dash for the car in the rain carrying a backpack, tool box, umbrella, cookies and turnovers.

Career in flux

I will soon have to give up my restaurant reviewing jobs to work in a restaurant. I can’t ethically do both. As I told my editor at the Fort Worth Weeklyfeel like I’m stepping off a cliff. Writing is safe and familiar. I could hide behind my anonymity. Now, I have to walk into a professional kitchen and make an executive sous chef want to hire me for my knife skills, my ability to take direction, and talent in the kitchen. But, oops, I have no experience.
Ideally, I’d do prep work in a large hotel kitchen. I’d love to work at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, one of the best kitchens in the Southwest, maybe in the country.
I went to my last press event this evening, the kickoff to the AIWF (American Institute of Wine and Food) Caesar salad completion. I went right from class and didn’t have a chance to change so I worked both roles, working journalist and culinary arts student.
It’s not all bad. I met some chefs who may need help this fall, hooked up with a chef who I greatly admire -- Jon Bonnell (who is, I’m sure, glad to see that I don’t really have horns and a forked tail even though I am/was a critic). Jon is cooking at Beard house this fall as part of the young chefs program. It’s a great honor, one he really deserves. It’s so nice to be able to enthusiastically discuss a person’s work. I don’t have to be dispassionate or reserved. Maybe it is time to change careers.

Fun Baking final Blitz and Spritz

The fun baking final is on Wednesday. I have to make turnovers from blitz puff pastry dough and fancy sugar cookies called spritz cookies.
The puff pastry comes together like pie dough, large chunks of butter incorporated into flour, wetted with salt water. I haven’t had a chance to practice, but I’m surprisingly relaxed about it.
The cookies are just ordinary sugar cookies that are piped (using a number 5 star tip) onto parchment paper, decorated, then frozen and baked. I’m so glad Chef Melcher made us pipe potatoes over and over and over. I’m quite good with a pastry bag.

Sugar cookies

We made sugar cookies last night. This is a sample of my groups work. They are more difficult to decorate that you'd imagine. The icing sticks and hardens very fast. Anyway, we had fun.

Soul Food + the two Barbaras

This week we do a sit down meal of meatloaf with a soul food theme. My group, Barbara 1, Barbara 2 (Tom keeps calling me Barbara so I’m now Barbara 2 instead of Nancy), and Daniel is making cornbread, and a fresh tomato, onion, and cucumber salad.

Salt in marinade

If you are going to marinate a piece of meat for more than two hours, don’t put salt in the marinade, it’ll just pull moisture from the meat. Chef/instructor Tom Nixon said to season the meat with salt before grilling, but not the marinade. Tom is an absolute font of knowledge.

Meat, meat, meat

For the past two weeks we’ve studied meat. The instructors butchered a beef strip loin, a tenderloin, and a pork loin. That’s about $250, wholesale, worth of meat. We made a dish from the classic French repertoire, Tournedos Rossini. Tournedos of beef (medallions) over a crouton, topped with foie gras, (we used paté), and black truffle slices (we used canned bits). The pan is deglazed with Madera wine and demi glace, with the sauce barely moistening the meat. The French really know how to eat, it tasted fabulous. School is good, especially when we butcher meat and eat well.

Happy Independence Day

This was not the best holiday I’ve ever celebrated. It started with a little party for my husband’s last day of work. I felt horribly sick to my stomach and barely made it home – actually I made it as far as the back yard – before vomiting. Food poisioning. Probably shigellosis from the mayo on a torta from my formerly favorite Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth. The symptoms and time frame fit. Bloody you-know-what, convulsive stomach cramps, vomiting, and an overwhelming desire to die.
Great weekend. My husband is now officially unemployed and I spent half the holiday hugging the toilet.
Oh the hazards of food writing.
This marks the third time I’ve had a food borne illness. The first was years ago, from something I ate in Lajitas, Texas (or maybe the tacos I had across the Rio Grande). The second time, both my husband Jamie and I got sick from pasta salad made by my step sister for my father’s wake. This event makes three.

Baking under pressure

Did I ever fall on my cookie face (cookie being a way of saying cook ie: I hate going to the grocery store in my cookie clothing) during the Fun Baking midterm practicals.
My soft rolls were over proofed and not particularly flavorful.
The pie crust was overworked and tough; I had to jump out in the middle of mixing it to deal with the rolls so the gluten strands over developed.
My lemon custard filling tasted metallic because I used a wire whisk instead of a rubber spatula to stir it but my meringue was perfect.
Even though the rolls didn’t taste great, I still did OK. The chef/instructor, Alison Hodges, said she knows I know how to do this stuff but I’m not at my best working under pressure.
I can say that I learned an awful lot about baking while taking this exam. I should have tossed the pie crust when I saw the gluten strands developing and started over. As a cook person (as opposed to a baking person) I know I should have checked the taste of the filling. I could have ditched it and started it over again. School is for learning -- not knowing -- so I can say that I learned a lot about pressure baking and myself.