A Second Course

Poaching, simmering, roasting, grilling, frying – you name the method we’ve covered it these last two weeks. I certainly have not perfected all these methods of cooking just yet, so I’m gonna have a ton of fun practicing over the next few months.

Once you check out my pictures below, it shouldn’t surprise you why I didn’t eat dinner all week at home. Here’s just a sampling of some of my creations and 4 pm “snacks” in class.  For all of you wanting to live vicariously through me, here’s your chance. Now if there was only  a way for you to taste everything…..  hmmm….i’ll have to get on that with Apple. If anyone can invent smelloputers or computasters, its the geniuses behind the new iPad.

Fear not, when I’m on break in a couple weeks I will post lots of these recipes for you to try at home. And in the meantime, summer is finally here – fire up the Weber and get on grilling!  If you live in the North like me, there are only a few months we can grill. Don’t stay inside. Marinate some lamb chops in olive oil, crushed garlic gloves, rosemary. Season with salt just before cooking.  Squeeze a little lemon. Perfection.

Slow Braised Beef

Braised Endive

Mixed Grill (lamb chop, beef tenderloin, pork sausage & shoestring friesVeal Fricasse

Onion Rings

I survived intro to sauces, stocks and soups!  My hollandaise on the other hand had a painful curdling death. Will need to practice this more, but on the bright side my arm muscles are getting an unbelievable workout. 15 minutes of brisk whisking everyday, I’ll look like Madonna in a few short weeks. I attempted to re-create my bearnaise which you can see to the left. Not a bad first at-home attempt, but I was glad I made a backup bordelaise sauce for my guest.

This week we started to learn all about the different methods of cooking which include poaching, braising, pan fry, deep fry, grill, simmer.  Oh what deliciousness from glazed carrots, to New England boiled corned beef and poached salmon.  We made stir fry and veal with white wine and lemon, culminating with my favorite steak au poivre and lyonnaise potatoes.  I look very professional below lighting the sherry on fire, don’t I? And yes that is my arm! What you don’t see is my fear stricken eyes.  Please DO NOT attempt this at home.  Admittedly, it was scary but I take comfort knowing a professional chef is watching by unfazed.

Fire Burning

Steak au Poivre

Aside from cooking, I’m taking some other fascinating classes. One being Product Identity where we learn all about different categories of food from produce to meat. This past week was dairy week and we got to sample eight different kinds of domestic cheeses including a ridiculous 4 year old aged cheddar and mascarpone with raspberry to fresh mozzarella. I’m going to attempt to make homemade mozzarella in the next couple of weeks – I will keep you updated so keep on reading! Stay tuned this week for tips on buying spices, browning meats and eating out!

Say Cheese

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than consomme…..Butter, Bechamel & Bacon!

From hollandaise...

We are in the thick of sauce making and learning the 5 mother sauces: Bechamel, Veloute, Espagnole/Brown, Tomato and Hollandaise. Classically French, although not used as often as they once were, these sauces are the base for hundreds of other sauces.  We turned a bechamel into a mornay (gruyere/parmesan), a veloute into chicken pot pie and brown into bordelaise.  And man oh man does hollandaise turn into an incredibly silky and delicious bearnaise (once I stopped scrambling the eggs).

...to bearnaise

Feeling very motivated to try out these recipes, so this past weekend I made my sister’s family the tomato sauce with meatballs and my tasty vinaigrette from The Daily Dish. Unfortunately I left my SLR camera at her house so I can’t upload the pictures just yet!  I will be trying out more recipes on unsuspecting victims this week and most definitely plan on documenting my home adventure.

Can I eat this way everyday? Gosh I hope so!   So far my hemline is not extending, probably due to the sheer physical demands of this culinary school program….let’s hope it continues since I’m running around on my feet 5 hours daily in a kitchen. Eating butter everyday and losing weight – what could be better!??

Week 3 already, the start of stocks, sauces and soups. Time is flying by in culinary school and I sure am having food fun!!!

We started learning the basics of Escoffier’s Mother Sauces: Bechamel, Veloute, Brown, Tomato and Hollandaise. Or as I would sum up: butter, cream, yolks, roux & more butter! Most of that will be covered next week, as we first needed to learn how to make roux. Contrary to what many American’s believe, roux is not just used for making gumbo or creole soups. Roux is a thickener made by cooking equal parts (by weight) of fat and flour. As a rule of thumb, 1 pound of roux thickens 1 gallon of liquid. The benefits of using a roux is that it thickens soups and sauces without lumps or raw starchy taste. It can be a little time consuming to prepare (about 2o minutes) but it lasts for weeks/months. From now on I’m going to make a batch of roux and keep it in the fridge for instant thickening!

the start of roux

Most of us are used to adding cornstarch or raw flour to thicken up a sauce or soup. Two things I learned this week worth sharing: 1) Cornstarch is quick and easy to prepare, but it clouds clear liquids and can break down if held at hot temperatures for an extended period of time.  2) Flour is also quick and easy to add, but it can form lumps and leave an unpleasant raw flour or pasty taste. Arrowroot is a good alternative to roux, but it can be expensive. Learn how to make roux in upcoming editions of The Daily Dish!

We also made beef stock and beef consomme. Now if any of you are like me, I have always associated beef consomme with bland hospital food. I quickly learned how wrong I was!! My beef consomme  was one of the most delicately delicious, flavorful soups I have ever tasted. And I’m not biased – the chef instructor even gave me an “excellent” comment after he tasted it!  Not to mention that this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever cooked, from a purely scientific standpoint.  I took beef stock, added what is called “clearmeat” (a mixture of lean protein, egg whites, aromats and acid) which traps impurities as it coagulates and brought the mixture to a high simmer. The clearmeat rose to the top of the liquid, producing a “raft.” After 1-2 hours of simmering to extract as much flavor as possible, I ladled the consomme into my bowl. Crystal clear broth – you won’t believe it until you see it below. I want to know who thought of this!  Can’t wait to see what we make next week. Stay tuned!

1) Beef stock mixes with clear meet

2) The raft forms

3) Crystal clear consomme

3) Crepe "noodle" garnish....mmm good!

Some of you may be surprised to learn what my biggest fear was prior to entering culinary school. No, it wasn’t the thought of no income for the next year. Although (gasp) I am having heart palpitations just thinking about it.  No worries, it will probably be another year before I have a financial crisis because right now I’m having too much fun.  So back to my biggest fear – Butchery!

Hello Fish

Admittedly, I thought there was a very strong chance of becoming a vegetarian during my cooking courses.  Despite the fact that I’m a huge foodie, love to cook and entertain for crowds throwing gluttonous affairs, I have avoided preparing the whole animal my entire life. I’m talking heads and legs. The skeleton. Am I the only one who would get creeped out when my lobster’s eyes were staring at me from a plate?  ”Please please don’t eat me” the little voice would say…they were dead, but my appetite was gone.

That all ended this week with Donald Duck and Nemo. It was me against the protein, and I won! The initial dread of blood and guts (well, I’m not gonna lie, there were blood and guts) was quelled quickly. The chef instructor seemed to carve the duck in one beautiful fluid motion, he made it look so easy. Cleaning the fish in a matter of seconds.  Not so easy for us novices, that is if you want to end up with as much serve-able meat as possible.

It took 4 days, but at the end of Week 2 knife skills I presented the following: an eight piece carved chicken (4 breast pieces, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks), 4 pieces of duck (2 breasts, 2 legs partially deboned), a cornish hen deboned from the inside out (kinda gross), 8 flounder (flat) fish fillets and 2 striped bass (round) fish fillets.

Duck Before

Duck After

One Fish, Two Fish

More Fish

As you can see from the pictures, I definitely need more practice; not quite ready to be carving up chickens at Boston Market. However, I felt such a sense of accomplishment and pride for my poor pieces of protein that the opposite of vegetarianism (is this a word?) has happened. I CANNOT wait to carve more, cook more, eat more!  At the end of the week all I wanted was to turn up the flame and make myself something delicious. And indeed I did……

A La Meuniere = Ooh La La

Flounder a la meuniere (dredged in flour) – brown butter, capers, parsley….perfection! I will be starting a recipe section shortly for those of you salivating.

Stay tuned for next week’s Weekly Specials where I learn how to clarify butter – the start of any good roux – as well as intro to stocks, sauces and soups.  Gosh, my days are filled with so much food fun, it just doesn’t seem fair!

Week 2 Summary:

Cuts = 3

Fingers = 10

Check!