6/10/10
6/8/10
International class in underway
Day one of International, same big honking class, same chef instructors. Very cool vibe in this class. Each night we'll cover cuisine of a different region, and we make a handful of dishes, then we all sit down together and have a huge family style meal. So last night while most people are watching Daily Show or Jay Leno, me and my homeys were sharing a meal in the style of mother Russia: prune perogies, borscht soup, salmon roe blinis, Hungarian potatoes, and cabbage rolls.
My team made the prune perogies, the pasta dough practice was valuable.
So after prunes, beets, and cabbage at 10pm last night, I just hope I don't shit myself today. Oh - also got news that for the final we're doing a mystery basket. Each student'll get something slightly different and we have to bang out a 3 course meal. Gonna rock.
6/6/10
6/5/10
Garde Manger final sucked
I was in a crap mood last night, which didn't help my focus for the final. I had a what am I doing with my life moment right before we had to make the mayonnaise - if you're going to have a minor existential crisis, don't do it right as you're whipping up an emulsion; whisking oil is an existential crisis in its own respect.
Anyhoo I got over it and did good on my mayo, one of my friends who is an amazing cook could not get her's to form and she turned in an oil slick that smelled like lemon.
He let us loose after the goddamn mayonnaise, and we built caesar dressing, french style croutons, red pepper coulis, and a vicchysoise (sp?). The coulis and the vicchyssoise have a similar process, kinda - in that garde manger classroom the tables aren't right by the burners, which also merits a little angst because you're running back and forth further than normal. In the other kitchens, burners are only a pivot away.
Basically I'm just trying to create an excuse for burning my croutons the first time - which I totally did.
In the end I got great grades on my vishyschwaze and my caesar (19s), a good grade (17) on my mayo, and a 15 on my coulis - docked me 5 points because there were a couple black flecks of blistered red pepper skin in my coulis, and he said that can bitter it up.
The written final was gnarly. Just gnarly. 2/3 of the class finished in 10 minutes - they gave up and bailed. Me and three others stayed and grinded that damn thing out. Probably not going to get me a scholarship to CIA based on that performance, but at least I didn't give up. And I know they gave up because they were turning in some blank-ass pieces of paper, probably ready to hit the bar.
Hell yeah its the weekend. I cleaned out the garage this morning and put all Marcel's stuff front and center so he and his homeboys can have air hockey tournaments this summer.
6/4/10
Our canapes
We made
* a puff pastry curried chicken
* a wild mushroom tartlet
* a puff whiskey shrimp
* a goat cheese peppers
* a tuna confit
* a proscuitto mascarpone melon
* a deviled quail egg
* a salmon mousse
Overall, pretty yummy stuff! We did well. Tonight is the garde manger final. He has us doing basics, like mayonnaise, red pepper coulis, caesar salad.
Our canape presentation
Sent from my iPhone
6/2/10
Last Week Livin Large
Monday through Thursday last week were all about spreads and forcemeats. We made a chicken liver pate that was honestly real yummy. i was not sure at all whether I'd like it, but yep it was good. We also made a vegetable terrine using thin grilled vegetable pieces and gelatin.
Since making pates and terrine, I've read a couple references to vegan pate. Honestly I have no clue how to make these, but I think they'd be more complex and flavorful than the gelatin-based ones. I have no problem with the flavor of gelatin, other than the fact that it is limited.
Another forcemeat we made, the country style pork pate. This pate was shaped in a mold and contained a rabbit tenderloin running down its center. We then wrapped the molded pork with a pate dough and baked the sumbitch.
The fourth big forcemeat from last week, the chicken gallantine. This one was gnarly: fabricate a whole chicken, separating the bird from its skin, leaving the skin 100% intact. Process the meat; reserve the breasts and isolate the legs and thighs. Pate up the dark meat, along with gelatin, chicken livers, and seasonings. Hammer the breasts into one thin rectangle o' flesh and slap it on the chicken skin. Spread the pate onto the breastmeat, then roll it up nice and tight so that the outside is like a a big thick cylinder of chicken skin, like a skin football. Wrap the gallantine in cheesecloth, then wrap that in plastic wrap, then either roast or poach. We roasted, due to volume, but poaching is more traditional.
Once the gallantine is cooked, unwrap it and then it gets three thick coats of a 'chaud froid', a Bechamel-based gelatin outer coating.
So then on Thursday we took these forcemeats and arranged them on a massive oval mirror. Each one required eight identical slices and a thick solid base. We had to display the slices in a fancy, curved order, and we also had to show our rabbit rillette, the rabbit forcemeat we had done earlier on and packed in a rammekin and topped with a layer of duck fat.
My friend L took a few pictures of my group around our mirror; I need to plunder her facebook and get the pictures of our display. It's rad.
Then on Friday, we got to 'relax' with some old school cooking, only this evening was timed. We had a couple hours to fabricate a chicken, execute batonnet and and julienne cuts on some carrots, do a bunch more shit, baste an airline chicken breast, serve a pilaf and carrots au buerre, and then once it's all done drink beer in the parking lot with your friends. We're actually not graded on the parking lot part, but if I were to grade us, I'd say we execute it like pros.
****
And on to the next one! This week we are doing another mirror display on Thursday, and we're having our garde manger final on Friday. This week's mirror is for canapes and tartlets.
Since making pates and terrine, I've read a couple references to vegan pate. Honestly I have no clue how to make these, but I think they'd be more complex and flavorful than the gelatin-based ones. I have no problem with the flavor of gelatin, other than the fact that it is limited.
Another forcemeat we made, the country style pork pate. This pate was shaped in a mold and contained a rabbit tenderloin running down its center. We then wrapped the molded pork with a pate dough and baked the sumbitch.
The fourth big forcemeat from last week, the chicken gallantine. This one was gnarly: fabricate a whole chicken, separating the bird from its skin, leaving the skin 100% intact. Process the meat; reserve the breasts and isolate the legs and thighs. Pate up the dark meat, along with gelatin, chicken livers, and seasonings. Hammer the breasts into one thin rectangle o' flesh and slap it on the chicken skin. Spread the pate onto the breastmeat, then roll it up nice and tight so that the outside is like a a big thick cylinder of chicken skin, like a skin football. Wrap the gallantine in cheesecloth, then wrap that in plastic wrap, then either roast or poach. We roasted, due to volume, but poaching is more traditional.
Once the gallantine is cooked, unwrap it and then it gets three thick coats of a 'chaud froid', a Bechamel-based gelatin outer coating.
So then on Thursday we took these forcemeats and arranged them on a massive oval mirror. Each one required eight identical slices and a thick solid base. We had to display the slices in a fancy, curved order, and we also had to show our rabbit rillette, the rabbit forcemeat we had done earlier on and packed in a rammekin and topped with a layer of duck fat.
My friend L took a few pictures of my group around our mirror; I need to plunder her facebook and get the pictures of our display. It's rad.
Then on Friday, we got to 'relax' with some old school cooking, only this evening was timed. We had a couple hours to fabricate a chicken, execute batonnet and and julienne cuts on some carrots, do a bunch more shit, baste an airline chicken breast, serve a pilaf and carrots au buerre, and then once it's all done drink beer in the parking lot with your friends. We're actually not graded on the parking lot part, but if I were to grade us, I'd say we execute it like pros.
****
And on to the next one! This week we are doing another mirror display on Thursday, and we're having our garde manger final on Friday. This week's mirror is for canapes and tartlets.
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