The Skinny Critic

Two more days of cooking school and then: the Real World

I can't believe the 6 months is already over...courses completed: Advanced Garde Manger, Advanced Baking and Pastry, Meat and Seafood Fabrication and International Cuisine just to name a few. I look back over what I have learned and am overwhelmed as I know that as my palate has developed and I've come to understand some of the basic principles of French cooking, I have also come to understand that cooking is not something that can be mastered in 6 months. Not even close.  I do however, have a great foundation, the foundation started with a passion and now is enhanced with a basic skill set that I picked up at school. What I do with it from this point on is up to me...

Our last class, International, has probably been my favorite.  Each day we study a different region of the world and cook the foods indigenous to that culture. The unfortunate thing is that we only have 1 day to study entire regions like Southeast Asia, which alone contain various countries: Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore just to name a few. 

Today was Japan day and I made naganegi no soba.  It was a cold soba salad with a sauce of mirin, soy, dashi and yuzu. It was garnished with diakon, leeks and wasabi that I made into the shape of a leaf.

 

The amount of food we made today was incredible. We made tempura vegetables, miso soup, pork paillard with green beans, agadashi dofu...We presented it as if we were in a restaurant. The chef would call an order and we were responsible for filling that order. It was fun and different from the usual class day.

At the end of it all we each had our own dish of everything...not that we were hungry as we'd been sampling while we were cooking.

Other great days were the Indian, Spanish and Greek.  I feel like I've gained a pound or two from this class alone! But only two more days. Tomorrow is our Chinese buffet and then Thursday we have our final.  It's been a wild ride and I am so glad that I decided to go to Culinary school.  Even if I don't end up working in food, I have a skill I will use for the rest of my life. 

The world's most incredible CINNAMON ROLLS

This recipe is quite large and will make you at least a couple dozen of the most amazing cinnamon rolls you will EVER try:

2lbs All purpose flour

.7 oz instant yeast

1lb milk

3.5 oz sugar

.75 oz salt

4oz egg (usually around 2 eggs)

4oz butter (1 stick) -room temperature

First combine the butter and sugar and mix until smooth. Then add the eggs and then the dry ingredients. Let dough rise overnight. Then roll out into long rectangle, until about 1/4 in thick. Spread a filling of equal parts brown sugar, white sugar and butter over top. Roll up and cut into 1 inch pieces.

Top with a frosting of cream cheese and powdered sugar! Delicious :)

Eggscelent at Le Cordon Bleu

Today was the start of a new class: Introduction to Garde Manger. So what is garde manger exactly? The term originated in pre-Revolutionary France where the "garde manger" was the household steward who would pickle, butcher, salt, cure or smoke food items in the fall as a way of preserving them for the coming months. Loosely translated it means "keeper of the food" and was always a tremendously important role.  Today it usually refers to the role of preparing and presenting cold food, such as salads, soups, hors d'oeuvres etc. This is one of the more important classes we take because most of us will leave school and enter into a kitchen doing exactly that...making and platting salads. 

But garde manger also includes such wonderful things as breakfast. Today we focused on the proper cookery of the egg, hard boiled, soft boiled and medium boiled. 

Despite the term "boiled egg", hardly do the eggs actually boil.  Instead its more of a simmer.  A very easy fail safe method to the perfect boiled eggs is as follows:

Put cool eggs in cool water and bring to a boil. IMMEDIATELY when the water starts to a boil remove from heat completely and cover.  For a soft boiled egg, let sit for 4 minutes. For a medium boiled egg let sit for 7 minutes and for a hard boiled egg let sit for 20 minutes.  Remove the egg and plunge into an ice bath to stop carry over cooking. 

We also made the classic eggs benedict. There are several people who want to claim the invention of eggs benedict, but my favorite is the story of Lemuel Benedict, a retired wall street stock broker who went to the Waldorf Hotel in New York in 1894 and trying to find a cure for his hangover ordered buttered toast, poached eggs, bacon and hollandaise. The dish was so impressive it wound up on the menu.

Our version was the classic: an english muffin with canadian bacon, poached egg and hollandaise. 

These aren't the only eggs we studied today. We were also given a presentation on caviar.  Caviar is non-fertilized sturgeon roe, or as more common vernacular will have it:  fish eggs. Traditionally the sturgeon comes from the Caspian sea and comes in 4 varities: Beluga, sterlet, osetra and sevruga.  Caviar is exceedingly hard to come by due to decreased allowance of harvesting of wild fish in an effort to protect the life of the sturgeon. Prices have soared and an ounce of Beluga caviar can range from $150 to over $400.

Le Cordon Bleu allowed us to sample some caviar in class today, following the presentation. Unfortunately there was no beluga caviar to be had.  I'm sure I've had it at some fancy restaurant at some point or another, but I didn't understand the meaning behind it. Today we were given samples of osetra and sevruga. The proper caviar presentation should be on a platter of ice with the caviar in it's original jar.  Accouterment's can and will include eggs, chives, onions, toast and creme fraiche. 

I had a taste, and while accompanied with all the fixings, it was rather smooth and salty, I cannot imagine putting a spoon full into my mouth.

Let the baking begin!!

I have officially started Baking 110 at Le Cordon Bleu.  I was so envious of those who were in baking in the previous weeks. I'd walk by and get whiffs of chocolate and sweet things, plus I love to bake at home and consider myself to be a pretty good baker.  I have never, however, made things like homemade bread - unless you consider banana bread, bread.  With in the first couple days we have made baguettes, epi, whole wheat rolls, pizza dough (yum), pain de mie (double yum) and brioche (triple yum). I've made more bread than I know what to do with and REALLY how much bread can one person eat?! 

Being in the baking lab has been slower and more boring than I anticipated. For whatever reason the minutes feel like hours and the few hours that I am there seem like days. Perhaps it's the fact that there is no air conditioning and we are in a room with over 8 ovens and too little ventilation. It get's so freaking hot that its hard to stand up straight.  

 

It hasn't been all bad. Some of the breads we have made are really quite superb. It's been really interesting to learn how much WORK goes into homemade bread. It's so meticulous. And using things like raw yeast is a first for me.  I was really surprised at how much kneading the typical bread requires.  I had to sit and knead my baguettes for like 20 minutes.  It's a lot of work...especially in an un-airconditioned kitchen. I was also rather surprised to see how flavorless my bread tasted without butter to lather on top. Wheat rolls brushed with honey and topped with oats or poppy seeds are rather bland without salted butter. 

 What do I do with all this bread I make, you ask? Well I don't really know. I gave my mom a few pieces and she acted like it was the most amazing bread in the world, which was nice and made me feel accomplished.  I stuck the rest of it in the freezer and am hoping I can use it a future dinner party or something. 

Today we got to make pizza. We made the dough yesterday so that it could ferment overnight. I was so excited about the pizza.  I even brought proscuitto from home to top it with.  With got our doughs out and rounded them off.  I topped mine with tomato, mushroom, caramelized onions and mozerella. I took it over to the deck oven and BAMMMM I DROPPED it!!! It landed face down on the floor.  The whole class let out a "NOOOO.....!!!" It was sooo disappointing!!! I still had one other dough to make but I wanted to take that dough home and make a pizza for dinner. It was so upsetting. Meanwhile everyone else is making there perfect pizzas.  I pulled it together and used my second piece of dough to make the pizza again.  It came out wonderfully. 

The pain de mie was also a success...I can't wait to make french toast and grilled cheese with it! 

 

Pork, pork and more pork

Today was fully of piggy!! We made a roasted pork tenderloin with Robert sauce and a grilled pork chop with sauce charcuterie.  Both were relatively simple to make. The tenderloin needed trussing and then went straight into a hot saute pan to be seared off before going into the oven.  The chop was grilled for a few moments on each side and then accompanied the tenderloin into the oven.   

The sides were a little more involved. Rosemary fingerling potatoes oven roasted with garlic and shallots were served along side the tenderloin and made a very nice, and very rich appetizer. 

 

The tenderloin was cooked to a nice medium rare and thus was a perfect pink in the middle and very tender. 

The chop was served with AMAZING braised red cabbage and a German warm potato salad. The cabbage was a bit temperamental and I almost burned it several times before finishing it. It was cut very thin and then mixed with thinly sliced purple onions. I sweated the cabbage and the onions, added 2 TBS of balsamic vinegar, enough water to cover the mixture and brought it to a simmer. Then I added 2 TBS of currant jam and reduced. It was a rich purple color and very tender when it was done. The warm potato salad had a dressing of onions, chicken stock and white wine vinegar that was reduced with mustard, sugar and a touch of flour.  This all covered boiled and sliced potatoes with bacons and chives. Yummy. It was all accompanied by sauce charcuterie: an onion and white wine base with a combo of veal and chicken stock and diced cornichon pickles.   

 

It was quite a beautiful dish when it was all complied and had so many different flavors.  The sauces really added to both of these dishes, but it's so easy to make a great sauce when you have access to homemade stock.  At school their are vats of stock made on a daily basis for our use but at home, recreating the same sauce with a can of broth would not be the same... I'll have to try out a few different methods to come up with a good substitute.  

Tomorrow we are making Scallops and butternut squash soup...ummmm.  Tonight I need to make a giant whoppie pie birthday cake for my friends Brian and James...Photos to come! 

 

Roulade and lamb

We finished off the chicken in caul fat today, first in the saute pan and next in the oven. When it came out it was beautiful. It was plated with tourned potatoes and browned butter and a great reduction of veal stock and port-I think the sauces really make these stand out dishes. 

 

 
 

The second dish was a rack of lamb that we seared in a saute pan and then covered in mustard and a panko crust with rosemary, parsley, oregano and mint.  The lamb was finished in the oven and had a burgundy sauce with it. It was served on garlic mashed potatoes and spinach. It was a beautiful dish when I was done with it...and to think it only took about 40 minutes to make!

 

Coq au Vin...so yummy!

Today we made the coq au vin that had been marinating in aromatics and red wine over night.  It's really important that you only use dark meat when making coq au vin as white meat will dry out during the braising process. We braised the chicken in stock and red wine and then reduced the liquid to serve with the chicken as sauce.

 Back in the day the sauce was made with REAL blood-supposedly this added flavor and also worked as a thickening agent.  We just reduced to thicken the sauce and then had the option of adding beurre manie (a mixture of flour and butter) to thicken.  I left the butter out...why add more fat if you don't need it? It was such a wonderfully rich and incredible dish. So many layers of flavor due to the marinating. Chef said my sauce was perfect, which I take as quite the compliment since I loveee sauce.  We also had to tourne potatoes and serve them in browned butter. 

 

The rest of the days was rather simple and spent making a roulade of paillard chicken, layered with duxelles (a mushroom, shallot mixture), spinach, red bell pepper and asparagus. This was wrapped in caul fat - a really disgusting looking web that comes from the internal organs of a pig...doesn't that just whet your appetite?? Just so you get the full effect I have a photo below...

 

This nice little package was sealed up and frozen over the long weekend...on Monday it was to be finished...

A very heavy day...

One of the chefs was offering a cheesecake demo and me with my sweet tooth, I couldn't resist! We made an Oreo crusted cheesecake filled with brownies and got to sample a Oreo cheesecake stuffed with Oreos that the chef had made a few days prior. It was incredibly rich, but heavenly smooth and creamy.

 

People ask how I stay so thin, and I must admit that being around food close to 8 hours a day now has made it a bit tougher.  But the truth is I'm really dedicated to staying in shape. I feel so much better when I get a good work out in so I make it a priority to go to work out EVERY day. I do 45 minutes of cardio, some sit ups and weights. Then I make the world's healthiest smoothie for lunch, chucked full of wild blueberries, strawberries, banana, almond butter, matcha green tea powder, flaxseed oil, nonfat greek yogurt and almond milk. No protien powder as I'm getting protien from the almond butter and how much protien does a girl really need?  That is my lunch...probably about 350 calories. Now there are days like cheesecake day where I'm eating more than normal, but typically I get to class, watch the demo, have a bite of whatever chef makes, cook my dish and if it's really wonderful, and sometimes it IS, I'll allow myself 3 or 4 bites. That's it. Then for dinner I eat pretty much whatever I want....now this doesn't mean I'm eating hamburgers and fries. I try to eat a lot of sushi and fish or lighter dishes. But I totally appreciate a great steak or wonderful pasta and eat those types of dishes for dinner at least a few times a week. Plus, I always have dessert!! So if you are careful, you can have your cake and eat it too!

After cheesecake I went into demo and we made gumbo and beef goulash. The gumbo was good enough- I've never really been the biggest fan myself. But the dish has a lot of history, being a part of Cajun culture, so it was interesting to hear how they got there ingredients and inspiration.

 

The goulash was incredible. A braised beef dish in red wine with so much flavor. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but i assure you it was delicious. Tender meat with tons of a rich sauce, all atop a bed of spaetzle. Perfect dish for a cold day. I ate a pretty good amount of this dish before making myself stop. It was just too damn good to resist!!

 

Ok so I might put on a pound or two while in school...what the hell! I'm gonna live a little!!

Gnocchi is soo easy to make!

Today was another fishy day...we made two different halibut dishes. Halibut en papillote and an asian style halibut with a soy, mirin broth. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of my halibut en papillote as I burned it. It is cooked in parchment paper, all folded up in a neat little package with vegetables and white wine. It's supposed to create a nice moist fish, which it did, but also a unique presentation as you take the fish to the guest in the paper and open in front of them.  Mine however turned a disgusting dark brown and looked as though it had been burned on a fire. So much for the great presentation. 

The other halibut was definitely more visually appealing. It was served over an asian style broth with steamed vegetables and the halibut was wrapped in cabbage. 

The flavors in this dish were pretty good-lots of salt, which I tried to omit by diluting it with water. I ended up diluting it a bit too much. Next time I would omit the fish sauce that the recipe called for- a sauce made of fermented fish that smells of fish ass-disgusting. I don't know why anyone would put this is anything they were going to eat unless they were trying to play a cruel joke on someone. No more fish sauce. Ever. 

Gnocchi was made as an appetizer and was so wonderful. I'm extremely particular about my gnocchi and usually find that restaurants make them too firm, like little bricks meant to be used as weapons towards your dinning companion, when in reality they are supposed to be smooth little pieces of heaven that nicely hold the delicate sauce they are served in. And they are so incredibly simple to make! 

Step 1: Bake your potato in the oven for approx. 20 min or until soft

Step 2: Remove skin from potato and run through food processor, or strainer 

Step 3: Add 1 whole egg and about 1/4 cup flour-and kneed together

Step 4: Season with salt and pepper and add any other herbs or cheese you would like, I added parmesan

Step 5: Boil for approx. 2-3 minutes, then top with sauce of your choice

My gnocchi was made with an herb butter sauce.  The butter was slightly browned and parsley, chives, shallots and lemon zest in it.  The lemon zest gave it the perfect little kick.  Then I added asparagus for an extra little crunch. 

 

Something's fishy...

More fish...and I wouldn't mind if it was fish I would actually eat, but all the fish at Le Cordon Bleu is cheap, which means farmed and not wild 90% of the time.  Something grosses me out about farmed fish, maybe it's the fact that I think of it swimming in it's own feces...or maybe it's the florescent orange color from the dye that's in their food that turns me off. Regardless today we made poached salmon and petral sole. 

The sole was the better of the two dishes. It was served with a mixed grain wild rice with flaxseed and tourned carrots.   It was topped with a vin blanc sauce that really livened things up, although mine was a bit too brown.  

 

The salmon was pretty mediocre.  It was served with steamed vegetables and hollandaise.  I don't think you could pay me to eat this, but I did make it quite well. My hollandaise could have used a bit more salt though.