Mama would be proud

My first job in a restaurant was at an awesome Italian restaurant where some of our pastas were fresh. I distinctly remember the first bowl of home made pasta I had from our kitchen. It was pappardelle with chicken and pesto. Pappardelle are long, wide noodles with a crinkly edge. I made them tonight in class and thought of my boss's mom, Mama. She would have appreciated the 4 large platters of pasta with 4 different sauces (Spinach Pesto, Tomato, Garlic Cream Reduction, and Spicy Meat) we made tonight and then ate family style because she loved feeding people in the restaurant. Each team in the kitchen was assigned a different sauce and then we all made 1 lb of pasta dough. We presented two ravioli, with mushroom ricotta filling, and 2 oz of fettuccine to chef but the rest of the dough was our's for "playing"-- which meant we could shape it however we wanted. We made mezze luna, tortellini (2 ways: from a round piece of dough and a square piece of dough), farfalle, linguine, and papparedelle.

rice, rice, rice

Rice Pilaf, Boiled Rice, and Parmesan Risotto. Yum yum and yum.

I had another awesome lunch today. For meals, students can choose from any of the kitchens which include Cuisines of the Mediterranean, Cuisines of Asia, Cuisines of the Americas, Skills III, or K-16 which is large scale food production and in terms of cuisine, its a good mix of everything. The kitchens are all operated by students who are currently in that class. My favorite kitchen so far is the upstairs (each kitchen besides K-16 has an upstairs and downstairs equivalent) Mediterranean kitchen for lunch because the food there is always on point. There is this yogurt sauce that has appeared on lamb dumplings, pita sandwiches, and casseroles that just makes me melt. It is so good and I don't even know why. I don't want to know why because I like the sense of mystery. It is pure white but outrageously packed with flavor, garlic and fresh tangy herbs dance around in your mouth and then send their magic all the way down to your toes. I just don't know what it is besides pure deliciousness.

p.s. I drank Coffee Milk a couple weeks ago and loved it so much I have wanted to re-create it since. I'm not a coffee drinker but today I mixed a small amount of hot coffee with French Vanilla coffee creamer, ice, and a lot of whole milk, and it reminded me of Coffee Milk... yum :)

"good people of earth"

My chef addresses us as such occasionally and I just love hearing him say that. It makes me feel so good about myself. I am a good person of earth, I like it.

Today was Day 1 of Skills II which meant purple/red vegetables and potato day! Glazed beets, braised red cabbage, Duchesse Potatoes, and Cocotte Potatoes were prepared today in the wonderful world of Skills II. We are still in the same kitchen with the same chef that we had for Skills I.

The Cocotte potatoes were definitely my favorite because they reminded me of really good french fries. For the Cocotte potatoes, we shaped potatoes into 7 sided tournes and then pan fried them in butter. They developed a crunchy exterior and a decadently soft interior, just like the best french fries. The Duchesse potatoes are simply a mixture of pureed potatoes, egg yolks, butter, and nutmeg, seasoned with salt and pepper. The smooth mixture is then piped into a small mound and browned in the oven until it is golden in color. They're pretty nice but they get kind of dry in the oven and I don't really like that, but they are beautiful. The glazed beets were a delicious combination of boiled beets with a reduction of fresh orange juice, honey, and red wine vinegar. Right at the end butter was added, which is so Classic French. The braised cabbage was sweet and sour and wonderfully fragrant. It retained its beautiful purple color because we cooked it in a combination of red wine and red wine vinegar, giving it a very acidic environment which is good for the purple pigment, anthocyanin.

my best friend my knife kit

As I stirred the tomato sauce in class tonight I realized that this same wooden spoon would stir a lot of things over the course of my time here at CIA. This spoon would stir the vegetables in a pot of boiling (well salted!) water, it would scrape out the burnt food that will inevitably occur in one of my pans, and it will stir the food I will serve for a final exam. It was just a cool thought I had. Maybe its not really that cool, but it made me look at all the tools in my knife kit in a different, more loving, light. They were mine and they would see everything I saw over these next four years.

For our final day in Skills I, we made a vinaigrette (you could choose what vinegar and herbs), pasta, and tomato sauce. I chose to use a mixture of balsamic and a fruity pear vinegar with chervil, tarragon, and basil for my vinaigrette. It was very sweet and light. I don't usually like vinaigrette but I liked this. Then the tomato sauce was just onions, oregano, and garlic sweated out in a pan with olive oil. Canned tomatoes were added and then tomato paste to thicken the sauce. It was simmered for 25 minutes and then run through a food mill. It turned out lovely.

I have been really proud of myself since becoming a student here because I've been expanding my palate (trying things I decided to hate like foie gras, caviar, and beets) and refining my tastes without becoming a snob about things. I still eat Doritos, egg rolls at the all you can eat Oriental Buffet, loaded french fries at Applebee's, ice cream from Dairy Queen, a cheeseburger from McDonald's, or any fried/processed/preservative laden foods I feel like. But tonight and I took one bite of the dried pasta I had cooked and I didn't want anymore. It made me really sad because pasta is one of the things I love to cook at home. It's one of the reasons I started cooking. My little sister and I love Alfredo sauce, being the determined person I am, I realized when I was younger that if I wanted Alfredo pasta I was going to have to make it myself because I couldn't go to Olive Garden every night for dinner. Mushroom sauce, tomato sauce, cream sauce, cheese, whatever we put it on it, I loved dried pasta. But I don't like it anymore. Maybe this will change. I hope it does before I go home again.

another magical day in the kitchen

A friend of mine from high school asked me what my favorite thing was about cooking. I couldn't answer him at the time but after some thought I realized there was one thing I really loved: the transformation. The way onions go from snow white, firm, and bitter to golden brown, limp, and sweet never ceases to impress me. I love transformations.

Tonight was one of those nights where the transformations were just beautiful to behold. We made Espagnole sauce and Jus de Veau Lie. Espagnole sauce started by heating clarified butter and then browning carrots, onions, and celery. Once the mirepoix was browned, tomato paste was added and cooked so that it would turn from bright red to brick red. Then brown veal stock was added and the mixture was thickened with a brown roux. Now let me tell you something about this brown roux, it was just a combination of flour (60%) and clarified butter (40%) that had been cooked until it turned dark, dark brown and smelled like toffee. It smelled sooooooooooo good. It was just like my mom's toffee. I had another one of those crazy smiles on my face as I scooped out globs of this thick brown paste into a cup because it smelled like our annual Cousins' Christmas Cookie Baking Day when we get so lost in conversation that we forget about the cookies and let one tray go too long in the oven. Flour and butter make lovely smells together! So then the Espagnole sauce is simmered to let the roux come to its full potential. At the same time I was also making a Jus de Veau Lie which started with hot clarified butter and chunks of veal meat. The meat was browned in the pan and then removed. Carrots, onions, and celery were added to the pan and browned and then tomato paste was added just like with the Espagnole sauce. But then the pan was heated up really hot and red wine was poured in to deglaze the pan and get all the little pieces of meat/veg/tomato paste that were sticking to the bottom and sides off and into the liquid. Not only did the wine smell amazing-- like fresh picked berries-- but the messy brown pieces of food that were stuck all over the pan were now sliding effortlessly into a beautiful rich purple red sauce. Brown veal stock was then added and the sauce was simmered until the meat was tender (and delicious!) and then a slurry of cold water, arrowroot, and potato starch was added to thicken the sauce. Finally, the sauces were strained to remove the vegetables and meat.

baking brownies in chinese take out containers

So tonight when I got home I asked my room mate if I could have one of the brownies that had been sitting in a plastic container in the dark corner of her desk for the past week. When I pulled the container into the light I was surprised to find that she had actually baked the brownies IN the plastic container. I hadn't realized you could BAKE in plastic Chinese take-out containers! I remember eating Moo Shu Pork out this thing, and now it had been used to bake brownies. These little containers are AMAZING!

Another amazing thing happened today... I made mayonnaise! Now most things I prefer home made, except mayonnaise I like to leave up to Hellman's. But today, my mayonnaise was pretty good, I wanted to spread it right onto a toast sandwich. We also made hollandaise sauce (which might be my favorite sauce) and poured it over beautifully cooked broccoli. Both sauces start with egg yolk, water, and acid that is whipped like crazy with a whisk. Fat is slowly poured in while you continue to whip like its your job. Oil is added to the yolk mixture for mayonnaise and clarified butter for hollandaise. Its honestly pretty easy, just whip, whip, whip, whip! And FAST.

cauliflower, tomato, mushroom, and spinach

My two vegetarian sisters would have been pleased with today's class because it was the first day we did not use meat or any form of it (i.e. bones for stock). We made Bechamel sauce, Mornay sauce, creamed spinach, cauliflower gratin, and stuffed tomatoes. It was a bit of challenge after having days where we only made one dish, but it was fun as always.

The bechamel sauce is one of the Grand Sauces-- Espagnole, Veloute, Hollandaise, and Bechamel. We made veloute yesterday which is just white stock thickend with a pale roux. Bechamel sauce is milk thickened with a white roux. The creamed spinach was fresh baby spinach that was cooked in boiling, VERY salty water (imagine the ocean) and then tossed in a pan with butter and shallots, and then finished with heavy cream and bechamel sauce. The cauliflower gratin which means "brown on top" was cooked cauliflower (in salty acidic water...lemon juice was added to retain the whiteness of the cauliflower), Mornay Sauce (bechamel+Gruyere and Parmesan cheese), and grated Gruyere and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and then browned in the oven, or salamander. The stuffed tomatoes were filled with Duxelle which is the name for really any variation of chopped mushrooms filling. We sauteed shallots in butter, added the mushrooms and white wine, and cooked it until all the liquid had evaporated and we were left with a dry Duxelle. We took halved, peeled and seeded tomatoes, stuffed them with Duxelle and topped them with Persillade. Persillade is fresh bread crumbs (white bread pulsed in the food processor), minced garlic, chopped parsley, and clarified butter. Everything was very delicious.

In total I ate: 1 tomato, 1 pint of spinach, and 8 mushrooms. I would have eaten a 1/4 head of cauliflower but I ran out of time because it was so darn hot I decided burning my tongue once was enough.