Personal Observations:
After a week off from snow it’s back to the kitchen. This week was Vegetables! On the first day we made beer battered onion rings, Brussels sprouts in pecan butter noisette, Broccoli Almondine, and Parsnip Purée. We were supposed to do the Pan-fried eggplant, but it was spoiled so Chef said we could wait until the next day and he might have fresh ones.
To go with the onion rings DJ made this amazing sauce, I’m not sure what was in it, but man was it good. The parsnip purée was surprisingly very sweet, much sweeter than mashed sweet potatoes. The Brussels sprouts were very good as well. It only had a hint of the bitter taste that I associate with them. They were cooked a little too long and so the outer leaves wilted a little, but still very tasty. For a garnish I candied some lemon rind for that extra pop of color. The Broccoli Almondine was good as well, but not all that notable.
The next day it was just me and Mike. We made the grilled vegetable skewers, baked butternut squash, the pan-fried Zucchini with tomato sauce, stir-fried asparagus and the white bean salad. Pretty impressive for just the two of us. We didn’t get to the braised celery, because we ran out of time. The grilled vegetables were good and we were able to get nice grill marks on the vegetables. The butternut squash was very good and very sweet. The sugars caramelized very well. The asparagus turned out extremely well. I added some water to the oyster sauce so that once the sauce cooked and reduced a bit it wouldn’t be overpoweringly salty. Instead of pan-frying the zucchini we baked it instead. To get the bread crumbs nice as crispy, I brushed some olive oil on each side. All in all everything turned out very well.
Chef comments:
For both days, Chef said that our productions were very flavorful and had good texture. Nothing was over or underdone. The Zucchini was a little cold, but amazingly crispy.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Week 4: Chicken
Personal Observations:
At the beginning of class, Chef did a quick demo on the various ways of breaking down, or fabricating, a chicken. Since chicken is a high risk food, we did all the fabrication for the week on the first day. Each person in our group had a whole chicken to break down into 8 parts. Two wings, two thighs, two legs, and two breast halves. The left over bones we put into a pot to make chicken stock. It seems to me like we are always using various stocks in all our productions.
One of the first things my group did was make the marinade for the chicken breast, and let the chicken marinade over night. We didn’t add the wine or lemon juice until first thing then next day, since we didn’t want the acids to denature the chicken. We also started on our red pepper butter so that it had time to rest and get solid before we used it the next day.
So on day one our production assignments were to do the Poached Breast of Chicken with Tarragon sauce, Chicken Fricassee, Mashed Potatoes, and Glazed Pearl Onions. The Pan-Fried Chicken was by far my favorite dish. The mashed potatoes were very good, and the pearl onions were very sweet and not what I expected.
The next day we pan-fried chicken w/ pan gravy, grilled the marinated chicken breast, sautéed the chicken with garlic and basil, made the Duchesse potatoes and the glazed carrots.
Chef comments:
On day one Chef said that all the chicken we cook very nicely and was very moist and tender. The sauces had nice flavor, and the mashed potatoes and glazed onions were very good.
On day two Chef said that the grill chicken and duchesse potatoes were a little dry, and the carrots were wilted, but everything else was good. Also that the pan gravy could have been seasoned more. It should stand out on its own too.
At the beginning of class, Chef did a quick demo on the various ways of breaking down, or fabricating, a chicken. Since chicken is a high risk food, we did all the fabrication for the week on the first day. Each person in our group had a whole chicken to break down into 8 parts. Two wings, two thighs, two legs, and two breast halves. The left over bones we put into a pot to make chicken stock. It seems to me like we are always using various stocks in all our productions.
One of the first things my group did was make the marinade for the chicken breast, and let the chicken marinade over night. We didn’t add the wine or lemon juice until first thing then next day, since we didn’t want the acids to denature the chicken. We also started on our red pepper butter so that it had time to rest and get solid before we used it the next day.
So on day one our production assignments were to do the Poached Breast of Chicken with Tarragon sauce, Chicken Fricassee, Mashed Potatoes, and Glazed Pearl Onions. The Pan-Fried Chicken was by far my favorite dish. The mashed potatoes were very good, and the pearl onions were very sweet and not what I expected.
The next day we pan-fried chicken w/ pan gravy, grilled the marinated chicken breast, sautéed the chicken with garlic and basil, made the Duchesse potatoes and the glazed carrots.
Chef comments:
On day one Chef said that all the chicken we cook very nicely and was very moist and tender. The sauces had nice flavor, and the mashed potatoes and glazed onions were very good.
On day two Chef said that the grill chicken and duchesse potatoes were a little dry, and the carrots were wilted, but everything else was good. Also that the pan gravy could have been seasoned more. It should stand out on its own too.
Week 3: Soups - Personal Observations
This week was the first week we actually were able to eat something after production. The first day we did New England Clam Chowder, Split Pea, and Beef Vegetable with Barley. Since we had three people in our group, we each concentrated on one recipe each and then helped each other out as needed. This seemed to work out really well.
The New England Clam Chowder was the one that had my main focus. I thought it was really good. While I was babysitting the Beef Vegetable soup my roux turned into a dark blonde roux instead of a blonde roux, but even still. The soup turned out really well. It was very rich and creamy
The Split Pea soup gave us a little bit concern that day because we weren’t exactly sure what the consistency was supposed to be like, but it turned out very well. We made croutons as a garnish and they were very delicious. I did cut the bread a little too big though and were slightly soggy in the middle.
We were all fine with the Beef Vegetable Soup up until the addition of the barley. None of us had made barley before, so we weren’t sure how or how long to cook it for. So we ended up treating it like rice, and used brown stock instead of water for that extra flavor. It ended up working out for us in the end.
The next class we did the Beef Consommé, Cream of Broccoli, and the Shrimp Bisque. The only hiccup in production was that we didn’t have enough shrimp to go around and Chef had to go searching for some more. So another group and I improvised by adding some shrimp to the shrimp shells to supplement the flavor a little.
Chef comments:
All of our soups had the right amount of seasoning and consistency with the only exception of the shrimp bisque, and Chef said that it was too thick.
The New England Clam Chowder was the one that had my main focus. I thought it was really good. While I was babysitting the Beef Vegetable soup my roux turned into a dark blonde roux instead of a blonde roux, but even still. The soup turned out really well. It was very rich and creamy
The Split Pea soup gave us a little bit concern that day because we weren’t exactly sure what the consistency was supposed to be like, but it turned out very well. We made croutons as a garnish and they were very delicious. I did cut the bread a little too big though and were slightly soggy in the middle.
We were all fine with the Beef Vegetable Soup up until the addition of the barley. None of us had made barley before, so we weren’t sure how or how long to cook it for. So we ended up treating it like rice, and used brown stock instead of water for that extra flavor. It ended up working out for us in the end.
The next class we did the Beef Consommé, Cream of Broccoli, and the Shrimp Bisque. The only hiccup in production was that we didn’t have enough shrimp to go around and Chef had to go searching for some more. So another group and I improvised by adding some shrimp to the shrimp shells to supplement the flavor a little.
Chef comments:
All of our soups had the right amount of seasoning and consistency with the only exception of the shrimp bisque, and Chef said that it was too thick.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Week 2: Mother Sauces and Small Sauces
Week 2 was the week of sauce production. It was also a short week due to the MLK holiday, so we only had class Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually we will have lecture on Mondays; Tuesdays and Wednesdays are production days. So we had a very short lecture on Tuesday and the Wednesday before to make up for missing on Monday.
In those two days we learned how to make Hollandaise, Béarnaise, Velouté, Allemande, Béchamel, Tomato, and Espagnole sauces. Hollandaise is the “Mother” sauce for the Béarnaise, and the Velouté is the “Mother” sauce for the Allemande.
I learned something very important about the Hollandaise sauce….. I don’t like it. It’s disgusting. YUCK! It tastes a lot like mayonnaise. The velouté is very similar to a gravy and it was by far my favorite sauce. The béchamel is very much like an incredibly bland Alfredo sauce. It’s white and creamy. It’s ok, better than the hollandaise, but nowhere close to my favorite.
The tomato sauce was much more complicated than I was expecting. It was infused with ham and took on that flavor a bit, so it was bit like a Bolognese sauce. SO GOOD! Chef got us some pasta so we could have some dinner. It was really good.
So now on to what I learned about sauces….
There are 3 components to every sauce: the liquid, the thickening agent, and the seasoning.
The liquid of the sauce is typically a good quality stock. However, there are other types of sauces that don’t use a stock, and these are coulis, beurre blanc, beurre rouge, flavored butters, flavored oils, salsas, relishes, and pan gravies.
There are many different types of thickening agents. The most commonly used are: roux (to which there are three types, white, blond, and brown), cornstarch (used as a slurry), arrowroot, beurre manié (kinda like a cold roux), liaison, and emulsification.
A roux is equal parts, by weight, of flour and any fat, cooked together to form a paste. The different types of roux depends on how long it is cooked. Also, it is important to remember that the darker the roux the more it breaks down as a thickening agent, so more is need to thicken a given quantity of liquid. Another thing to remember is to always add cold to hot, so add cold stock to a hot roux, or a cold roux to a hot stock. Both will need to be cooked together for about 20 min to get rid of the raw flour flavor that might remain. A good roux will be stiff, not runny or pourable.
When using cornstarch as your thickening agent, it is important to remember that your sauce (or soup) cannot be reheated because it will break down and won’t taste good. Typically when cornstarch is used, it is incorporated with the slurry (a mixture of the raw starch with a cold liquid) method to reduce lumps.
Arrowroot is very similar to cornstarch, but it is MUCH more expensive and had a cleaner finish.
Beurre manié is equal amounts, by weight of flour and soft whole butter. This is incorporated at the end.
There are 5 types of seasonings: Salt, Sweet, Acid, Bitter, and now Umami.
The purpose of a sauce is to compliment the food. A sauce is supposed to add flavor, moisture, texture, and increase the appeal to the visual taste of the food.
The criteria for judging a sauce are texture, color, body, shine, opacity, and ,most importantly, taste.
So that's just a little bit of info on sauces.
In those two days we learned how to make Hollandaise, Béarnaise, Velouté, Allemande, Béchamel, Tomato, and Espagnole sauces. Hollandaise is the “Mother” sauce for the Béarnaise, and the Velouté is the “Mother” sauce for the Allemande.
I learned something very important about the Hollandaise sauce….. I don’t like it. It’s disgusting. YUCK! It tastes a lot like mayonnaise. The velouté is very similar to a gravy and it was by far my favorite sauce. The béchamel is very much like an incredibly bland Alfredo sauce. It’s white and creamy. It’s ok, better than the hollandaise, but nowhere close to my favorite.
The tomato sauce was much more complicated than I was expecting. It was infused with ham and took on that flavor a bit, so it was bit like a Bolognese sauce. SO GOOD! Chef got us some pasta so we could have some dinner. It was really good.
So now on to what I learned about sauces….
There are 3 components to every sauce: the liquid, the thickening agent, and the seasoning.
The liquid of the sauce is typically a good quality stock. However, there are other types of sauces that don’t use a stock, and these are coulis, beurre blanc, beurre rouge, flavored butters, flavored oils, salsas, relishes, and pan gravies.
There are many different types of thickening agents. The most commonly used are: roux (to which there are three types, white, blond, and brown), cornstarch (used as a slurry), arrowroot, beurre manié (kinda like a cold roux), liaison, and emulsification.
A roux is equal parts, by weight, of flour and any fat, cooked together to form a paste. The different types of roux depends on how long it is cooked. Also, it is important to remember that the darker the roux the more it breaks down as a thickening agent, so more is need to thicken a given quantity of liquid. Another thing to remember is to always add cold to hot, so add cold stock to a hot roux, or a cold roux to a hot stock. Both will need to be cooked together for about 20 min to get rid of the raw flour flavor that might remain. A good roux will be stiff, not runny or pourable.
When using cornstarch as your thickening agent, it is important to remember that your sauce (or soup) cannot be reheated because it will break down and won’t taste good. Typically when cornstarch is used, it is incorporated with the slurry (a mixture of the raw starch with a cold liquid) method to reduce lumps.
Arrowroot is very similar to cornstarch, but it is MUCH more expensive and had a cleaner finish.
Beurre manié is equal amounts, by weight of flour and soft whole butter. This is incorporated at the end.
There are 5 types of seasonings: Salt, Sweet, Acid, Bitter, and now Umami.
The purpose of a sauce is to compliment the food. A sauce is supposed to add flavor, moisture, texture, and increase the appeal to the visual taste of the food.
The criteria for judging a sauce are texture, color, body, shine, opacity, and ,most importantly, taste.
So that's just a little bit of info on sauces.
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