Wednesday, May 31, 2006

LEVEL II WRAPS UP AND LEVEL III BEGINS

Our first day of Level 3 was in the amphitheater, joined by the Level 4 students (who'd just moved on from Level 3). It's the amphitheater where we had our first class, signed in and were given duffel bags containing uniforms-- the same place where about a month ago I attended the filming of an interview of Thomas Keller by FCI founder, Dorothy Hamilton for a PBS series called, Chef's Story. Tonight we had a lecture and a cheese-tasting.

First we were given our new recipe book, the recipes for Level III dishes being served on the prix fixe menu in the school's restaurant, L'Ecole. Then we were given our midterm grades. My grade was an 87/100. In two categories, Instructor and Jury, I scored as follows:

  1. Written Examination Bon d'Economat: 20/20
  2. Chronological Organization & Cleanliness: 17/20
  3. Preparation & Cooking Methods: 17/20
  1. Presentation: 17/20
  2. Degustation: 16/20
Then we were lectured about the 'front of the house,' and the 'back of the house,' was given by Linda Mastrangelo (Mastco Restaurant Consulting Group and The FCI). Now I know that some of the other students know a lot of this stuff but it's all new to me. My restaurant experience to this point consists of working a few months at the long-defunct Cafe Amadeus on Sunrise Highway in Rockville Center, Long Island as a second job after doing groundskeeping and construction during the day. Mostly I made coffee drinks, from Irish to cappuccino, cut and served cakes, and didn't make very much money. There wasn't much back of the house at the cafe so I found the lecture interesting.

To recap, here are the things I came away with:
  • Customers should be referred to, thought of, and treated as guests
  • Waitstaffs have different methods of serving: pooled tips vs. stations
  • Roles: server, runner, busser, hostess, manager, expediter, sous chef, chef, bartender, captain
  • Employees should attend pre-meals to know what they're serving
  • Employees should know menu descriptions and kitchen descriptions depending on roles
  • Dining room appearances: table alignment and numbers, chair placement, silverware placement & serving methods
  • Guest perception and table etiquette
  • There's a lot of drama that often goes on between the front of the house and the back of the house including fighting, drinking and sex
  • The New York restaurant scene is very competitive and a restaurant cannot survive unless the back of the house and the front of the house get beyond the drama and work together
After lecture, we had family meal in the Level 1 kitchen because the graduating Level 4 students were having their finals. We returned to the amphitheater for the cheese lecture given by Amy Sisti, a representative of Murray's Cheese. We were given a plate of six cheeses to taste: Westfield Farm Capri, Fleur de Lis, Ardrahan, Amanteigado, Hoch Ybrig and Stilton. We were given a pamphlet which included some information about the different cheeses as well as a list of words to help describe the cheeses.

A few things we came away with:

  • In the US, unless cheese isn't going to be eaten until 60 days has passed, the milk needs to be pasteurized so that all potentially harmful bacteria are killed
  • There are organizations like Old Ways, fighting these restrictions
  • Older cheeses have less lactose
  • Aging is a process which involves drying out the cheese
  • For cheese plates, 3/4 - 1 oz slice of each cheese should be served per plate
  • When the cheese-making process is finished, the whey can be used as a fertilizer
  • If you eat the rind of some cheeses you'll find that they can have a gritty texture as chewed (as with the Ardrahan). This is because the cheese rind has been washed with a brine water from which the salt has recrystallized.
My favorites were the smooth, triple cream Fleur de Lis, the Ardrahan (I love that gritty rind) and the Amanteigado. I love blue cheese but for the Stilton I need some wine or fruit to fully enjoy it. After class we went out for drinks to celebrate at Toad Hall, the local watering hole, and then moved the party on to a Korean bar in Herald Square called Third Floor, a fun night.


FULL POST...

WEDNESDAY WASH-DOWN: SUMMER SALMON

Wednesday is food day, when most newpapers publish food sections, thus the Wednesday Wash-Down:

DAILY NEWS: Hoho's revamped, Summer Salmon
LAT: Raspberries rule, Aubergine 1*'d (oops), Chefs to the stars see prenup horizons
NYPOST: Strong on bread, Ferrand's Cognac Landy XO
NYSUN: Tigerland, Summer Draws
NYT: Cafe D'Alsace 2*'d, Ditch Plains, R.W.' on Texas Ice-cream, Fish-eating safety, Frankie's...again, Off The Menu
NYOBSERVER: Heat
WPOST: Iron Chef Adams Morgan, Salmon-time, Ardeo, Honey-Mustard Chicken, D.C. food news

FULL POST...

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

PIES AND THIGHS

Pies And Thighs, 351 Kent Ave., (South 5th St.), (347)282-6005. ?? to 9 p.m.

I was going to save this for Thursday The Long Way but I'll have to take a Southern route that way some other time-- I can't wait any longer.

I went to college in Washington D.C., but I wouldn't call that "the South." My first real experience with Southern food wasn't until 2003 when I did a road trip from Atlanta to Key West. The meal which began the two-week trip was at a place called Mary Mac's Tea Room. You're given a menu and a card on which to scratch off sides from Hoppin' John to Chicken and Dumplings, Pot Likker and Squash Souffle. In the interests of full disclosure, let's say that afterwards I bought the T-shirt, really. And when it comes to Southern food, I following its instructions, "Eat It All Up." I'm a dog left alone with a case of chocolate. I eat until something bad happens. I'm sure you can all tell me where this sets my standards for Southern food or whether I don't know my Cheese grits from my Chowchow.

Past Dumont Burger a little ways, near Dressler and Marlow & Sons, down by the river, there's a place under the Williamsburg Bridge on the corner of Kent and South 5th St., called Pies and Thighs. One block from the river, you wouldn't happen across it, practically under the bridge. On my first visit there wasn't a sign. The kitchen is smaller than mine and the outside dining room, complete with red and white checkered plastic tableclothes is a concrete yard behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. You can sit next to the smoking pork and listen to cars go over the bridge. New York Press and New York Magazine both recently noted it and my experience there did nothing to dissuade me from my fascination.

You order the food inside and sit at your table and look at the sky or grab a beer and look down the block at the light glimmering off the water. It's not long before someone brings the food. The Fried Chicken Box (far right)comes with a side and a biscuit ($8), the Carolina Pulled Pork Box comes with cole slaw, a pickle and a side ($8), and the Fried Catfish Box (right, middle) comes with Tartar sauce, cole slaw, a pickle and cornbread. The burger with fries ($8) is listed on the menu as having an option for bacon ($1) and a fried egg ($1).

The fried chicken was peppery and very salty, but in a good way (warning: if I ever own a restaurant it will likely be named 'SLV' for Salt, Lemon and Vinegar). The catfish wasn't the highlight of the evening but it was good, firm and nicely seasoned with the small cormeal bits that give it a pleasantly contrasting grit. Accompanied by a cole slaw so fine I'd say it was past a brunoise, and a thick wedge of buttered cornbread that was good even though it wasn't right out of the oven, the catfish (along with practically everything else) went well with a hot sauce kept in a jug by the kitchen door. I guess its standard issue, vinegary and tasting like buffalo wings, but it sure is tasty. So too, the sides ($3).

I'm not a huge fan of collared greens but these are served in a homey broth with equal portions of pulled pork. If there's anything my French chefs say makes things taste better besides butter, it's pork. Okay, the beans were forgettable, the iceberg lettuce with buttermilk dressing was a waste of belly-space and the biscuits were good and not quite Flying quality. Still, the potato salad's sauce was well vinegared and included a much-underutilized ingredient, small-chopped pickle, more than compensating. So did the hush puppies, good give with chopped onions inside as well as the spicy Mac-N-Cheese. I'd bet the tangy flavor of the Mac-N-Cheese comes from that jug of hot sauce, and it makes the cheese a little gritty, even a little curdled, but in the way I just kept spooning it down.

Rice Krispie treats (right) are served in healthy blocks, good and gooey, I've used them as a palate cleanser for the rest of the desserts. The Cookies aren't my style. They were a good size and soft from 1/3 of the cookie-width on up but a little too cooked on the bottom for my liking. That said, the double-crust strawberry-rhubarb pie made me understand why people make it, the key-lime pie was tart and refreshing.
The peanut-butter chocolate pie, an inch of peanut-butter under a thin chocolate layer of pudding sent me home where I was absolutely useless in a happy-coma wondering about the how what seemed like two employee/owners could possibly deliver from North 12th Street to South 8h Stree and Kent Avenue to Marcy Avenue and pondering how Saturday and Sunday brunch biscuits and gravy might taste (menu below left, pies can be bought for $24 with one day's advance notice).

Someone described Pies and Thighs as a friend's kitchen. To appropriate a word in good faith, I don't know who y'all are friends with but please, introduce me.

Perhaps Stephen Tanner or Sarah Buck are just from nearby Diner and not from the South. Frankly, I don't care if they're from Chappaqua.

You pay inside. My last visit cost $52 with a $10 tip for three entrees, three sides, and two desserts-- just $17 per person and I had to remind them (working backwards) what I ordered. And when you tell them the price is a steal you know they know and they're proud of it.

There's also the indoor bar (outside of bar, left), centered around a statue of a woman that looks like it came from a pirate ship. It's a large circular bar around which I've seen men whose faces make them look 60 but whose arms look like those of a Marvel superhero. My first time I got the feeling that I was treading on someone else's hallowed ground. Someone else's treasure-trove. On my second I was looking at others as though they'd found mine. Actually, it's the kind of place you want to share, and so far the kind of place where you won't be the only person gushing. Everyone at the tables around me were wearing their Thanksgiving faces. Did I mention they have air hockey? Also, I don't smoke anymore but ahem, they even carry my notoriously-difficult-to-find-on-road-trips brand (American Spirits) which I've never seen in a machine.

Oh, the burger? It's not a Dumont burger, but it's also not in the gourmet burger category. It's better stacked up against the Shack. I might have to give the edge to the Shack on taste but only slightly and the Pie-burger is a little bigger...I'd say it's a toss up but there isn't a line down the block to eat at Pies N Thighs, at least, not yet. I'd go now.

FULL POST...

Monday, May 29, 2006

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This week's New York Times Book Review is devoted to cookbooks and books about food.

I especially liked the symposium about famous foodies' favorite out-of-print books.

The books noted in the review which most intrigued me, the most interesting last, follow...

My Life In France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme seems like one of those books I think I'd like to read if I didn't have a few other obsessions I'm more willing to spend time with.

Two For The Road has gotten quite a bit of press. I won't hold that against it-- I may leaf through it in the book store.

The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain. I really enjoyed Kitchen Confidential but I'm kind of over Bourdain right now. I might read one or two of the essays in the book in the store but I'm not sure I'd buy it.

Insatiable, Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess,' by Gael Greene, the former New York magazine restaurant critic's look back at her life in food. The whole hidden face under the hat thing really bugs me but it might be good to round out my understanding of a critic's perspective. I'll probably buy it and put it on my shelf for a while.

Horsemen of The Esophagus, by Ryan Nerz. As a kid I laughed myself silly during the mass vomiting blueberry pie scene in Stand By Me. Then a few years ago when I watched a few programs about competitive eating and learned the names of some of the players on the competitive circuit, Takeru Kobayashi, Cookie Jarvis, Sonya Thomas (the Black Widow), and Eric Booker, ever since then I've been vaguely following their exploits. I could probably sit down and read a book about a year on the competitive eating circuit.

Heat, by Bill Buford, the former fiction editor of The New Yorker who worked in Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo.

FULL POST...

BROADWAY PANHANDLER CLOSEOUT


Since I started school in January I've gone to two stores to supplement the standard-issue tools we've been given. Both Sur La Table and Broadway Panhandler give students an xx% discount on xxx. Sur La Table is a Seattle-based company with stores across the country. It's full of toys and I like it but it's more shiny and my general impression is that it's a little more expensive. The Panhandler is rougher around the edges, a little more warren-like and a lot of fun. Unfortunately it seems as though the SoHo rents may be getting too high and the Panhandler is moving from it's location of the past 11 years at 477 Broome Street (conveniently near FCI) to 65 East Eighth Street (Broadway) in Greenwich Village and this Memorial Day Weekend the store held a moving sale.

Though I won't learn the grade on my midterm until Wednesday I'm fairly certain I've passed and to celebrate I went to the sale with two things in mind, a new knife and a Le Creuset tagine.

Some students at school have Global knives. They're the knives featured on Bravo's chef cook-off reality television show, Top Chef. They're light knives and they're all one piece, the metal handle extends into the blade with rubber-like raised bubbles on the handle for a good grip. The blades are super sharp and I was tempted to buy one but I've since been scared off because I've seen some of them chip. I went to the Panhandler thinking I would buy a Shun knife which Alton Brown endorses. But I came away (probably spending about $20 more than I would have online btw...) with a 9 1/2 inch Suisin Inox Wester Style Knife. The Shun Damascus knives have a beautiful rippling effect along the interestingly-shaped blade but in the end, when I held the two blades, the Suisin knife felt lighter and the edge seemed a little more impressive. I'm still learning about what makes these knives different. The Suisin website says the knife is made of INOX carbon steel, Chromium and molybdenum.

The Panhandler's knife salseperson, an FCI graduate suggested going to Korin, a Japanese knife store downtown for a more detailed explanation about how to sharpen a Japanese blade.

Aside from a new knife I've also been interested in buying an oval French oven, aka, a "Dutch Oven." The first thing that piqued my interest in getting a dutch oven was a Times article about tagines. The potential of $100 discount from the sale helped clinch the decision. In the grander scheme of things, my interest in Southern cooking also has something to do with the purchase. My recent trip to Pies and Thighs and getting a copy of the Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock wherein some of the recipes call for a dutch oven also clinched my decision.

FULL POST...

MARLOW & SONS

Marlow & Sons, 81 Broadway (South of the Williamsburg Bridge, next door to Diner), Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718) 384-1441

A wonderfully worn, wooden bar, a cozy backroom and a storefront with fun kitchen supplies from honeys and cheeses to jams and pickled watermelon, Marlow & Sons also happens to serve some good food.

We started with a charcuterie plate. With bread and a glass of wine it started us off well, though Sweetwater Cafe does one better with olive oil and roasted pistachios and red peppers. But Marlow serves something missing at Sweetwater, oysters.

Oysters, I hadn't dreamed of finding them in Williamsburg, assuming I needed to sate my fix in the city. There's even an "Oyster Happy Hour," Monday-Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m., where they're $1.25 each.

A meatball dish with salad and yogurt (left) skimped on the meatballs (only two), but the meatballs were tender, juicy and well-flavored and the yogurt, refreshing.

A lemon chicken dish (right) was tender and juicy-- dependable not exceptional.

That's the thing about Marlow-- nothing really jumped out as being exceptional save the surroundings themselves. Don't get me wrong, the food is good but it's the idea behind Marlow that would get me back. It's a place I can go for reliable, though not fantastic food, with a bar that feels as though you've sat at it time and again the first time, fun picket-plank tables, and a cozy back room that's a bit tight but fun in it's closeness and familiarity.

Most importantly, it's a place with fresh oysters nearby where I can grab a glass of wine or a refreshing beer and watch the world go by.

TOTAL SPENT: TK

20 WORDS OR LESS? For a cozy date, sidewalk-watching, reliable entrees or slurping beers, wine and oysters, you can't go wrong at Marlow.

FULL POST...

IS THERE A CURVE?

So the midterm is finally over and while I haven't been given my grade I'm confident I passed. In fact I think everyone did.

The midterm was upstairs in the Level 1 kitchen. The two combinations of dishes were the Potato Leek Soup (Potage Julienne D'Arblay) with the Chicken Grandmother-style (Poulet Roti Grandmere), and the Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons (Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise) with the Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes).

We picked numbers out of a bain-marie. The little post-it notes determined which dishes we would get. I'm confident that I could have cooked any of the 20 dishes we prepared for but I was lucky-- my Post-It note read A5, which meant I was to cook the same dishes for the midterm as I did for the mock midterm.

The written part of the test was first and I had to write down the ingredients and processes for the Skate dish. Again, I think I nailed the written but we'll see what the grade was. I'd created a set of color-coded shorthand notes to easily access the recipes during the five minutes we would be given to review them and write down what we had time to. I was able to write out all the ingredient amounts and the processes in shorthand with a minute and a half to spare but really the amounts were the only things I wasn't 100% on.

My Skate dish was due at 9:20 p.m. and my Apple Tart at 10:09 p.m. I began cooking at about 6:15 p.m. While it's determined by chance perhaps it's not the most fair system in the world. I had three hours until my first dish was due and almost another hour after that. That's fine for me but some people had to prepare dishes for a little after 8p.m. We should all be able to do what's needed in the time allowed, sure but some people had a lot more time than others. On the other hand, the problem I ran into was that I had too much time and didn't manage it perfectly.

I was stationed at the first counter area I'd been at in Level 1 so I was making dishes I was comfortable with at a station I was familiar with a student I'd shared that station with, all by chance. it so happened that with two students having not continued with us that there were two counters vacant. They happened to be at our station so we also had some extra space to use (I'm only about 1/16 Irish).

I made my apple tart dough first then began to fillet my fish. I had a half hour. This is where I hit my first snag. I filleted fish without a problem but then could not remove the white skin from the underside wing filet. A half hour later I was just finishing removing the skin. It should only have taken me about 10 minutes, tops. To wit, the wing was mangled and I was only able to portion one piece from it. I salvaged three portions from the filet from the top of the skate wing but had fallen behind on the dish's garniture and the tart prep work. I
rolled out the tart dough on the buttered ring, cooled it in the fridge, cleaned up and started my apple compote which I let brown a little more than I usually would. I caught it before it went too far, picked the brown parts out and let it cool.

During the test there were about four chefs in the room with us. Chef J. began calling out times as the minutes passed and directed students to putting their plates on a tray and carrying them down the hallway to the table of waiting judges in the amphitheater. She also called out students when they were late with their

Including Chef J. there were four to five chefs in the room with us. The other chefs walked around the room taking notes and admonishing students occasionaly. I was careful to keep my station clean and made certain when slicing the Golden Delicious Apples for the tart top to keep the slices together as our Chef instructed. At one point he came by (I'm convinced he was checking on this) and nodded when he saw the apples were sliced but not separated. We've learned some things at least!

When 8:45 p.m. rolled around, my tart was cooling above the oven, my potatoes were done (perhaps a little too early), and all my garniture was prepped. I'd even cleaned my station. There wasn't anything left for me to do really and it was too early to plate. I made a mistake here, I put my plates in the oven to warm them and it was too early. About 25 minutes later after cooking the dish when I was plating this would come back to haunt me, the sauce burnt a little on one of the plates and one of my garnitures, a lemon slice next to the fish, left brown marks on the plate where it's juice had been. When I slipped on water from the dishwasher area on the way to my tray everything on my plates moved from their perfectly spaced places and marks were not well hidden. Having been told I used too much sauce during the mock midterm, I overcompensated this time and didn't quite have enough. I used the rolled up wet towels soaking in a metal bowl by the door to clean up my plate the best I could and followed two other students down the hallway to the judges.

Chef M. only took three of the four dishes I'd prepared and unfortunately he chose the worst one, the salvaged filet from the underside of the wing on the plate that burned the sauce and had marks from the lemon slice. It's my fault that all four dishes weren't perfect but it made me wonder if he didn't hate me. Or it's just another life lesson about the pursuit of perfection.

And that was pretty much that. I had plenty of time to carefully cut my tart slices, make my whipped cream quenelles, and find some nice mint sprigs. Again, too much time, I was early and my quenelles were starting to melt. I'd had my plates in the fridge but the room was ungodly hot. We'd been told that the temperature would be high, they weren't kidding. Between the weather heating up and all the ovens going at 375 to 425 F and all the running around, I sweat through the t-shirt under my jacket. My neckerchief was soaked as well as my hat.

After cleaning up the judges met with us to give us a brief recap. They told me that my Skate was slightly overcooked and needed more sauce but that the taste was good. The apple tart tasted good and was not as caramelized as the judge said he would have liked but he also said it was one of the more caramelized tarts prepared that evening.

Final grade TK.

FULL POST...

Friday, May 26, 2006

WISH ME LUCK...

I've reorganized my toolbox, marked all my tools with red tape to differentiate them from everyone elses, color-coded my recipe notecards, studied them and practiced speed-writing for the five-minute grace period we'll have after the written to write down some notes before the actual test. I've pre-folded my parchment-paper lids (cartouches) and linings, packed my own baking beans for blind-baking pastry dough and had my last two go's at a Hollandaise sauce (the first one broke with too much butter but some new eggs and water mixed up over a double-boiler and mixed in have succeeded in a sauce that's been sitting without breaking for 23 minutes).

I've taken the test seriously, studied and I should prepared but I'm bringing a healthy case of nerves with me and trying to figure out if it's comforting or intimidating to know that that even Julia Child had problems with her final examination.

The midterm is a few hours away and I'm heading over to school to do some last minute cramming. More, of course, to come.

FULL POST...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

THURSDAY THE LONG WAY: SIZZLING PRAWNS

Thursday the long way is a new feature I intend to use to highlight food from out of the way places including important food memories that have had something to do with forming the way I look at food today, both cooking it and eating it. They may be inspired by recent meals, by the food-media, or by anything at all.

Many of my most significant food memories are from growing up in Hong Kong where my family lived from 1985-1990 because of my father's bank job. I'm sure more Hong Kong memories will make an appearance on "Thursday The Long Way," but the one that comes to mind today is from a restaurant in Causeway Bay (an area on Hong Kong Island between downtown, "Central," and Wan Chai areas and Jardine's Lookout where I attended L'Ecole Francaise Internationale), called the Red Pepper. Not all of my most formative food memories are spicy but the trend does continue this week.

I don't remember the Red Pepper being a fancy restaurant. Yellow tableclothes, linen napkins and a turning glass centerpiece on each table, but you found those things in most Chinese restaurants. When you sat down a waiter brought out two small, shallow, porcelein bowls, one filled with sweet pickles another with roasted, salted peanuts which we ate with chopsticks one at a time (which I became fairly adept at using). I can't recall the rest of the menu but the dish I do remember was my introduction to the magic of hot spices, sizzling prawns.

A waiter walked quickly out of the kitchen using several thick handtowels to carry a thick, black, cast-iron platter on which the prawns were sizzling, crackling and sending up what seemed to my 10-year-old mind to be a terrific cloud of hot and spicy steam. As the waiter placed the platter on the table another waiter instructed us to shield our faces with the linen napkins so the scalding liquid splattering off the platter wouldn't burn us. Slowly, the cooking prawns settled down and the sauce stopped spraying and we'd lower our napkins and dig in to the succulent prawns covered in a thin, spicy sauce that filled the restaurant and burned your mouth but didn't stop you from reaching out for prawn after prawn after prawn, while the beads of perspiration formed on your brow.

FULL POST...

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

WEDNESDAY WASH-DOWN: PIRATE PEARLS

Wednesday is food day, when most newpapers publish food sections, thus the Wednesday Wash-Down:

DAILY NEWS: Velvet ropes are bad, "Pirate Pearls" press release
LAT: Jer-ne 2.5*, herbal cocktails, The Find (Red Oak BBQ Co.)
NYPOST: East Hampton eats
NYSUN: "One to Watch" (Onera), Harlem Caviar Bar
NYT: Sascha 1*'d, fast-food nation, plus de Cirque, Jerk City
WPOST: Upstate NY Dog-fight, Lima 2*/4, tin-foil's 2-sided mystery

FULL POST...

Monday, May 22, 2006

OUT TO LUNCH: MIDTERM STUDYING

I won't be posting much this week because I'm studying for my midterm on Friday. I've taken off from work and plan to re-write my recipe notecards in shorthand, and study the processes and preparation-order of the two-dish combinations.

I may post the Wednesday and Thursday features, Wednesday Wash-Down and Thursday The Long Way, but won't be posting daily until next Monday.

FULL POST...

Sunday, May 21, 2006

SUNDAY FEAST

As part of my studying for next Friday's midterm I planned a six-course dinner for Sunday evening using recipes I wanted to go over in preparation for the midterm next Friday. I ordered most of the food from FreshDirect and bought the rest from Tops, the Williamsburg grocery store that I'm embarassed to admit I didn't know was as extensive as it is (though I couldn't get unfilleted sole there). I was cooking for five and the food completely filled the fridge. I started cooking at 2:20 p.m.

While I've cooked large meals before I've never cooked such complicated dishes at once. The practical difficulties in such an undertaking are the size of my kitchen, the little available counterspace and only three working burners. If three stocks are simmering, my dining room table is covered with mise en place, and I'm cutting on my movable counter-island I'm not left with much room to plate. There was some juggling. Did I mention I was my own dishwasher (no machine!).

Though the goal was to practice for the midterm I did not have the luxury of time so I used my mandoline to slice the separately dressed carrots, celery root and turnips for the first course, Assiete De Crudités, Plate of Cut Raw Vegetables.

From left to right, starting from the top center of the plate: mushrooms marinated in tarragon and oil, cucumers in cream with chopped mint, carrots in a lemon and oil dressing (citronette), tomato wedges with vinaigrette and chopped chives, celery root in mustard-mayonnaise and last, in the center, finely chopped red cabbage in a vinaigrette dressing.

The second course was the Potage Julienne D'Arblay, a Potato Leek Soup. The toughest thing about making this soup was freeing up burners. I put aside the stocks. After slicing and sweating the leeks then adding the potatos and waiting for them to soften, I sweat the vegetable garnish and sauteed the croutons. Then I pulled down the food processor, pulsed then strained the soup and put it back on the stove top, added cream and got back to cleaning. My company could hear all of the action and see some of it, and started discussing how we might make money by having an open kitchen for the public at a reasonable price, a 'chef's table' in Greenpoint so to speak. '

The soup tasted good but I made two significant mistakes, 1) I overheated the bowls and the soup was crusting a little along the sides as I served it; and 2) I must have used a little too much of the leek green because as you can see, there was a a green tint to the soup. No public meals quite yet, Sam I am.

The next dish was the Poulet Sauté À l'Estragon, Sauteed Tarragon Chicken, a crowd-pleaser. Again, the biggest problem here was freeing up a burner to sautee the chicken and reduced the sauce. I plated the dishes and served them, realizing after putting down two dishes that I'd forgotten to throw the fresh, chopped tarragon into the sauce at the last second. Despite the name of the dish, Tarragon Chicken, in the heat of things it's something I've forgotten once before. I tossed tarragon into the remaining sauce and on top of the dishes already served-- not ideal.

It was late and I was flagging. I'd overlooked buying watercress and hadn't found canned, brine-soaked green peppercorns. I soaked hard peppercorns overnight but they hadn't completely softened and seemed to have lost flavor to the soaking water as they weren't as flavorful as I was used to. That may be because they were dried.

I pushed onwards, using the mandoline to cut the potatos for the potato pancake, but made the mistake of soaking them in water. By doing this the starch needed to make the strands sitck together while they are sauteed leeched into the water and I had a tough time keeping the strands together.

While the dish was tasty it wasn't excellent. The green peppercorns though cooked weren't soft enough and didn't flavor the sauce as well as the canned ones do. Also, the chops weren't butchered correctly- they were too thick and some came two bones thick. Now that I've learned how to butcher meat and filet fish it's irritating to buy poorly butchered chops and to not find whole fish locally.

It was 9:30 p.m., I'd been cooking for over seven hours and it was time to regroup. I had planned to serve one last entree, Filet De Sole Marguery, a Filet of Sole in White Wine Sauce with Mussels and Shrimp, but I was beat and my guests proclaimed they only had room for dessert. I decided to practice the Marguery the next day and moved on to dessert. I rolled out the tart shells, baked them, and a little shakily but separately whipped up the yolks and whites. No coulis with which to garnish the plate so I cut up a strawberry, served the plates, washed up the last few dishes, took a deep breath and sat down on the couch.

I'd planned a six-dish tasting menu and from 2:20 p.m. to 10:40 p.m. served a five-dish, full-entree dinner. Six dishes made in 8 hours for a dinner served from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. As this was my first time at a several courses and the midterm is two dishes over three hours and this was almost three times the number of dishes, I'm not disappointed. Hopefully, this will make the midterm seem easy.

FULL POST...

TARRAGON SCRIMMAGE AT MEG'S

Saturday afternoon was spent at Meg's house (a friend from class) practicing the Sauteed Tarragon Chicken, Poulet Sauté À l'Estragon. Working with other students is helpful-- we make sure we haven't missed any important steps.

My biggest concern with the Tarragon Chicken is that in the rush to plate I keep forgetting to throw the freshly-chopped tarragon into the wine-vinegar reduction! I did it again today but was caught by Meg and Tim just in time.

FULL POST...

Saturday, May 20, 2006

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Tonight we decided to practice two dishes we're still not completely comfortable with, Beef Bourguignon (Boeuf Bourguignon) and Tartelette Soufflee Au Citron (Lemon Souffle Tartlet). We still don't quite have the timing down for the beef or the amounts memorized for the lemon tart. We really shouldn't have trouble with the beef as most work is done in the beginning and then it sits, braising, for an hour and a half. But we haven't timed the pasta perfectly and we've cracked the tart dough after removing it from the oven.

DISH: Boeuf Bourguignon, Beef Bourguignon

DUE: 10:05 p.m. SERVED: 10:05 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: While we may not have felt completely comfortable with this dish going into it we were pretty confident with the processes all the way through. Instead of using the pasta machine to make the noodles we made them freehand like Chef M. showed us in previous classes.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: Chef M. tasted the dish and immediately asked us if we had tasted it too, and if we'd added stock. My partner and I both said we had but we looked at each other and knew we'd completely forgotten it. The beef had braised only in the wine marinade. As a result it was a little tough and tasted overhwelmingly like red wine. Also, a little uneveness with the noodles is one thing, it can be rustic, charming, but these were a little too uneven to the point that they cooked at different times. Not a perfect situation at the last moment when the noodles are the last things needed to finish the dish. Overall, good effort but not terrific results on the beef.

DISH: Tartelette Soufflee Au Citron, Lemon Souffle Tartlet

DUE: 10:15 p.m. SERVED: 10:14 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: No real problems here with the process of the tart. It's actually a pretty simple dish now that we've broken it down and struggled with it several times. Yolks whisked over the double boiler with sugar and whites whisked off the stove with sugar and a pinch of salt. Reduced lemon juice is mixed with the yolks then folded into the whites and portioned out. The only hitch was that there wasn't any raspberry coulis for the garnish on the plate. I made some simple syrup, added lemon juice and rind and used it for garnish on the plate. It looked good for the first few minutes but was reduced too far and froze up on the plate. It would be too hard to serve a customer.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The tart was cooked about two minutes too long. Chef M. preferred that the top wasn't quite so brown.

OVERALL: Regarding the mistakes on the beef, at this point, these last mistakes are the ones that nail down the final things we need memorized about the dish. Perhaps the top was slightly too brown but it still looked pretty. I think we've got these dishes down.

FULL POST...

Thursday, May 18, 2006

THURSDAY THE LONG WAY: CHICO'S


Thursday the long way is a new feature I intend to use to highlight food from out of the way places including important food memories that have had something to do with forming the way I look at food today, both cooking it and eating it. They may be inspired by recent meals, by the food-media, or by anything at all.

I've recently been doing a little research into American fast-food which reminded me of food I ate in El Paso, Texas, during the summer of 1999 when I visited my good college friend, a musician and poet, Fabian Saucedo. For a little longer than a month I lived with Fabian and his kind and very generous parents not far from downtown El Paso or the border over which lies Juarez, Mexico.

I won't go into too much detail about how I spent my time in El Paso. I did some renovation at the Alternative Ark, which I believe no longer exists but at the time it was the grand vision of a leaf-artist, "Chewy" (Chewy, if you're reading this, get in touch, I have something for you) an artist-owned and run gallery in a deserted bank in downtown El Paso. I worked the floor a little bit but mostly I was very productive at seeing some beautiful places (above, White Sands, Texas), writing passable poetry, meeting a pretty girl and making some wonderful memories. Between Mrs. Saucedo's dishes and salsa and Mr. Saucedo's guacamole it's easy to note that some of the best Mexican food I've ever eaten, I ate at their dinner table and hours later out of the fridge. But there are two specific meals that have come to mind.

After finally arriving in El Paso on the longest bus ride in my life starting from New York's Port Authority, before even taking me to drop off my things and meet his folks, Fabian took me to the first place he said he went to whenever he came home, "Chico's Tacos." I can't vouch for anything else on the menu beyond what I got several orders of, something I remember looking pretty unappetizing and being called 'taquitos' or 'flautas,' three rolled meat tacos swimming in a delicious tomato broth and smothered in cheese with green chili sauce. Crunchy yet soggy like the best way you like your breakfast cereal only a few moments before it's not fun to eat, in a clear yet full-bodied broth you want to drink out of the cardboard container when you're finished eating, it's one of the best fast-food memories I've ever had.

The second memory is from Juarez, Mexico. Returning to El Paso from a few of our Friday night excursions at the elaborate Juarez dance clubs and cheap bars, we'd inevitably end up hungry, in a car on a long line waiting for U.S. Government inspection. The first time, Fabian told me to follow him as he jumped out and quickly walked a block to a local sandwich street vendor where for little more than a dollar or two we bought a torta-- grilled pork or ham between two pieces of well-oiled bread with a touch of sauce and cheese and most memorably, a whole, hot jalapeno chile pepper which Fabian encouraged me to eat whole. The sandwhich was a little smaller than my fist which I wanted to bite as soon as I followed my friend's advice. Though somewhat painful, it was also one of the most exciting meals I've ever eaten.

My next time in El Paso I'll be at Chico's and stopping for torta in Juarez. Meanwhile, Fabian says he's found a good place for tortas downtown...

FULL POST...

FADA

Fada, 530 Driggs Ave (N. 8th St.), Williamsburg, (718)388-6607

I've walked past Fada on the way home from the subway more times than I can remember. Each time it seemed inviting; on fall days the small tables by the windows seemed the perfect place to watch people on their way to and from the L train, and on rainy April afternoons the perfect place to watch the downpour, perhaps with a glass of wine or coffee. I've always been happy to know that Williamsburg has a French restaurant to add to it's diversity of culinary choices. But honestly, in a pinch I'd rather stop for sushi or tacos and for one reason or another I'd never been inside. It was finally time to visit.

Worn wood floors, tables and short bar are all cozy and there's additional outside seating. The many windows along the walls of the restaurant allow a lot of light in and the servers were friendly and eager enough to please. A native French speaker sitting at a table near the windows spoke to the man behind the bar in French and lending some authenticity to the restaurant but looking over the menu I felt comfortable yet disappointed-- it was filled with many of the recipes I've seen in Level 1 and Level 2. To start, I ordered the Homemade Pate ($5.50) which was served with bread, cornichon picles and mustard. While it was tasty enough and tide me over to the entree it wasn't anything very special.

I followed the pate with the Coq Au Vin ($15) and a special, the Filet Mignon with Peppercorn Sauce ($25). The Coq Au Vin was dry and tough and the sauce was flat and needed salt. The filet mignon was cooked well but the sauce was thick, the mashed potatoes were uneventful and the parsley garnish was so large that it seemed like someone put a small tree on the plate. These have to be the first dishes I've had since beginning school that I felt with confidence I could cook better than they were served to me.

New York Magazine called Fada's menu, 'crowd-pleasing.' Well, I don't know which crowd they're hanging out with, but me, while I still might stop in for a coffee or a glass of wine about the only reasons I'd take advantage of the somewhat reasonable prices again would be to test my initial judgement or to see what someone else thinks classic French dishes should taste like.

TOTAL SPENT: $49.31 (1 appetizer and 2 entrees, no beverages).

20 WORDS OR LESS: With so many other decent Williamsburg eateries why give Fada more than one or two chances to dissapoint?

FULL POST...

THE MAY CAKE MASSACRE

I'd been feeling pretty good overall coming into my last week before the midterm until, duh, duh, DUH...yesterday's May Cake Massacre. We decided to do a possible midterm combination, a fish (poissonier) and pastry (patisserie) pairing of Filet of Sole in White Wine Sauce with Mussels and Shrimp (Filet De Sole Marguery) followed by a white French cake (Genoise) with apricot brandy. While I've disapproved of the fish stock based cream sauce, it's (ahem) starting to actually sound tasty.

DISH: Filet De Sole Marguery, Filet of Sole in White Wine Sauce with Mussels and Shrimp

DUE: 8:00 p.m. SERVED: 8:04 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: It's one of our more complicated dishes. Sole, filleted in four pieces, is kept chilled while the fish bones are used to make a stock. Shrimp shells, shallots, butter, wine and mussles are cooked, the sand removed (decanted) the broth reserved. The fish is then cooked in a mix of fish broth (fumet), mussel broth, and wine with shrimp. The fish is put on a plate with some mussels and halved shrimp (butterflied). The liquid in which the fish was cooked is reduced, some heavy cream is reduced and added to it and finally, some whipped heavy cream is mixed in. The final liquid covers the mussels, shrimp and fish and browned under a salamander (broiler).

Not completely memorized yet, but the dish turned out very well and would have been on time had there not been a backlog at the salamander where another groups four plates were being browned. The rice was a disaster, unseasoned and overmoistened. I forgot to use chicken stock instead of water and tried adding the chicken stock after the rice was already half-done in the oven. The result? A clumpy mess--something you'd use for rice pudding not dinner.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The rice was horrible. If your rice ends up like that don't serve it. Chef B. asked us to do the rice again. I did but my first Genoise went in the oven at the same time and I misstimed things and couldn't open the oven lest the cake fall and the rice was overcooked and chewy. I also forgot to season it again. SEASON THE RICE!

DISH: Genoise Abricotine A La Creme Anglaise, White Sponge Cake with Apricot Brandy and Vanilla Custard Sauce

DUE: 9:30 p.m. SERVED: UNFINISHED

COOKING NOTES: I'd made the genoise in Level 1 and it was lovely-- tall and light. I'd made the genoise once in Level 2, no problem. I'd made the genoise at home, twice, as part of a four layer peanut butter and chocolate cake with peanut frosting and chocolate liqueu, no problem. Those three successes were down-payments for the misery I experienced Wednesday night when I made this cake three times in an hour and had two failures before finally achieving a very late, but very tall and beautiful cake.

The most discouraging thing is I'm not sure what the problem was. I used cake flour each time (though I'd used regular flour without any problems before), and twice whisked the three eggs and 75g of sugar over a bain-marie until the temperature was over 120 degrees and my arm felt like it was going to fall off. I was ready to give up when Chef B. suggested I try one more time, this time using the full five eggs suggested in the book (the 3 egg version is Chef M.'s). Now everyone else in my group used three eggs and their cakes didn't fall. That's fine but from here on out, I'm a five-egg genoise kind of guy. The cake was two inches tall. I didn't have time to slice it, brush it with syrup and jam, cover it with toasted almond slices and place it on the vanilla custard sauce (creme anglaise) but it was a relief to have made the cake. I'd show it to you but I left it family station to pick up on my way out after changing but someone had grabbed it before I got down there!

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The creme anglaise shouldn't be cooked on a bain-marie when it's returned to the heat. I won't do it again but I'm still not sure what the difference is in this case between using the direct heat or the removed heat and the removed heat (the double-boiler, a pot with a little boiling water below a metal bowl with the sauce being mixed in it) but my reasoning was that it would have been a slower heat which would have given me a little leeway while finishing up the fish dish.

Go slowly, do the genoise right and give it a little love.

OVERALL: It was dispiriting to have such trouble with the cake and a relief that the third one worked out. I was pretty quiet for the second half of the night and I could tell my teammates were pulling for me. At one point, they thought the second failed cake which I abandoned in the oven was the third one and decided not to say anything about it. What do I take away from this? While it's a worst-case scenario, you can in fact get at least two go-rounds with this cake in a short amount of time if you're in a jam. If I get it on the midterm I'll be giving it a little love, and saying a little prayer.

WINE TASTING: We tasted A Pascal Jolibot Sancerre 2003 and 2004 which I wasn't crazy about until I tasted the Cambria 2003 Chardonnay. I'm not crazy about the oakiness of Chardonnay. One of the students suggested it would be paired well with a cream sauce so I'll have to give that a shot but for now the Chardonnay has me running back to the Sancerre and Pinot Grigio.


FULL POST...

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

VEGAS DOES SUBURBIA


Grand Lux Cafe, Roosevelt Field, 630 Old Country Road, Garden City, NY 11530, (516) 741-0096

This isn't a full review by any means, I stopped in for a burger at the bar-- but a few observations about this relatively new addition to the mall at Roosevelt Field, Long Island. Looking at the menu, and the bigger-than-life attitude with which it is presented, the Grand Lux Cafe immediately brings to mind the Ventian Resort, Hotel and Casino in Vegas and the Cheesecake Factory. It should, the Grand Lux Cafe was designed for the Venetian by the Factory's founder, David Overton. But the Grand Lux does the Cheescake Factory and local Long Island diners several better. The menu is more eclectic, while all-encompassing-- anything you could possibly imagine and more is on it and chances are it's going to be three times as good, three times the portion-size and twice as expensive.

In fact, everything's grand here, the two hostesses in the cavernous entrance and dining room, the marble floors, the some 20-foot tall ceilings, the liquor shelves behind the bar so high as to redefine 'top shelf' as 'out-of-reach,' and the general feeling of opulence and well, Vegas. Except for the fact that the servers have a little Long Island twang you almost feel as though you could walk out of the restaurant and into a clockless, clanging room filled with slot machines and the magical hope and desperation of big bills, cocktail waitresses and dreams of hitting the jackpot. There's even a courtesy phone by the bathroom.

I ordered a Max Burger ($12.95) and an iced tea ($2.50). It was about 2 p.m. but there were a fair amount of people in the dining room but the food arrived quickly-- an Angus beef burger topped with cheddar cheese, applewood smoked bacon, sauteed mushrooms, onions and roasted short ribs, served with fries. The burger was huge and thick, the bun fresh and the burger itself was cooked well, moist and flavorful. But the flavor-stars of this burger were the bacon, the mushrooms, onions and short rib tips which overwhelmed the actual beef and me. I ate the fries which were thick-cut and well-salted but the dish was too much-- it wasn't so good that I had to finish it and while I love Vegas I don't have a full-time, buffet-appetite.

My server was friendly, the food was good and it will probably outlast some of the upscale restaurants that have struggled to survive along the outside perimeter of the Roosevelt Field Mall, but I don't know if I'd be able to return-- I was too disappointed when walking out that I was so far away from the blackjack tables and an In-N-Out.

TOTAL SPENT: $22 (including $5 tip)

20 WORDS OR LESS? What happens in Vegas apparently, most definitely doesn't stay in Vegas.


FULL POST...

VENTO

Vento, 675 Hudson St., Manhattan (at 14th St.), (212)699-2400

In a mini-Flatiron, on the cobblestone streets of the Meatpacking District where I'd love to have an expense account is the exposed-brick, neon and black-light lit, wooden-beam ceiling restaurant, Vento Trattoria. Vento is tapas, Italian-style. The tall windows allowed us to watch all the 'pretty people,' walk by outside and the indirect neon lights flattered them similarly inside and at the bar all while the brick and ceiling beams made us feel cozy enough.
To settle in even further, we started out with a few cocktails, the Paradiso ($10) and the Limonata ($10), a glass Maddelene Nero, and an iced tea ($3). They were sweet and tangy but nothing so special as those I've read about or that I've had at WD-50's bar. While looking over the 10 different categories on the menu: Formaggi, Salumi, Spuntini Freddi, Spuntini Caldi, Insalata, Crudo, Pesce, Pasta, Pizza and Carne. Where to begin? The cocktails were good but beyond being very sweet they weren't memorable. We needed some salt and ordered up some salumi and cheese, prosciutto ($6), soppressata ($6), salame picante ($6), asiago ($4), pecorino ($4), gorgonzola ($4), all good.

Next the 'peperonicini,' tuna-stuffed peppers ($7); 'crispy fried calamari' ($7); and the 'polpette,' sicilian meatballs ($6). Of these the sicillian meatballs were the best but small, and too few. Similarly, the calamari was good but there wasn't very much of it. Then a mozzarella, tomato and pesto, caprese salad ($6). The mozzarella was soft and creamy, excellent. A carpaccio, raw, sliced beef with parmigiano and celery ($8), thin and tangy. We also ordered the 'casarecci,' a pasta dish with peas, prosciutto and truffle butter ($12), the 'milanese,' a crispy chicken dish with peperonata ($14) and the 'vitello,' a grilled skirt steak with salsa verde ($14). The skirt steak was by far the best dish we'd been served all evening even though a Texan at my table made it a point to ask it was so difficult for the East Coast to produce good salsa verde. Overall, the dishes were good but even though we'd ordered meat and cheese plates, followed by 8 other dishes, the four of us were still hungry. An order of parmesan fries ($4) helped remedy that-- thin, crisp fries covered with sharp shredded parmesan (that said, if I were serving the fries, I might toss them in the parmesan instead of topping them.

For dessert we ordered the panini ($4), crostatelle ($4), zeppole ($4), and the tortino ($4). The zeppole and its dipping sauce were a highlight but the simplest of desserts reigned; the panini, lightly toasted bread with spread chocolate, light, crisp and sweet was the perfect.

Tapas is perfectly suited to my tastes right now-- many small plates, lots of flavors, sharp, and salty and Vento, part of the B.R. Guest Restaurant empire, is a hip, comfortable, calibrated place to eat it. But we had to eat too much bread to leave sated for Vento (wind) to be whistling through pockets svuotato (emptied) of $224.

TOTAL SPENT: $224 (including 3 alcoholic drinks)

20 WORDS OR LESS? Good, but nothing demanding replication. It could all be made at home for twice the guests and half the cost.

FULL POST...

WEDNESDAY WASH-DOWN: LE CIRQUE BUZZ

Whether wire stories, freelancers or staff writers, in the newsprint world, Wednesday is food day, when most newpapers publish food sections. I'm looking for back-up on this but anecdotally, Wednesday is when newspapers traditionally printed the "women's pages" dealing with clothes, shopping and...food. Those subjects mean advertising dollars (at least the first two!) and are now individual sections but date with food has remained mid-week, thus the Wednesday Wash-Down:

NYT: DuMont Burger, Crema 1*'d, Falai's Peeled Peas!
Le Cirque-- le retour, Amandino Batali's Cured Meats
DAILY NEWS: Le Cirque-- le troisieme, Red Hook's Fairway
NEWSDAY: Aghan Grill Kabab House in Hyde Park, A Voce
NYSUN: Le Cirque-- mai 31st, E.Village Argentine Steak @ Buenos Aires
NYPOST: Mystery kitchen (no pix?), Cuozzo: Stop savory Desserts!
Del Posto Trial on Friday
LAT: Shrillembling's Pudding Cake, Transparent Toasters,
Cookbook Watch, Review, The Find
WPOST: Critic loves Mom, D.C. picnicking, Heirloom Cookbook

FULL POST...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

LEARNING, THE HARD WAY

I've been having trouble trussing chickens. I'm very comfortable breaking them down from the whole bird but tying them up with butcher's twine is another story. I think I may have it down now but it's taken while. I learn kinesthetically, if I do something, I learn it. Watching someone else do something and listening to someone explain how to do something is well and good but it just doesn't sink in as well. There haven't been that many occassions when I've had to truss chickens and now, nearing the end of Level 2 the chefs expect us to know.

So, you ask the chef how to do then, right? I mean, that's why you're in school after all. Yes, but which chef do you ask? Chefs have different personalities, patience levels and styles of teaching. Some are more able to impart knowledge without brow-beating you with your incompetence than others. Sure you may have other distractions and committments in life, a job, an ailing family member, but you're in the kitchen to cook and cook well. Forgetful-Freds and slow-Susan's beware: you may think you're trying but chef may tell you you're not and hey, step to. But maybe the repeated-reprimands are self-inflicted. Maybe it's a matter of trying to get into the school of hard knocks. I suppose sometimes it's better to be beaten over the head-- if you're not knocked out you usually remember not to make the same mistake next time.

To venture precipitously near the realm of kitchen psycho-babble, do we do things the wrong way on purpose to get caught and clearly instructed. It's like the badass acting out for attention in high school.

You decide to go to culinary school (restaurants being a low-stress environment and all, you know) and probably you're already pretty confident in your culinary skills. You think there are some "pointers" you might be able to pick up or maybe you're certain you have a lot to learn but you think, "I've got a lot of this down, this'll be okay" and then you've got to truss a chicken for the first time.

Or you've trussed one once, two months ago but this is the first time since then and you tie it and you know it's not right but the chef is busy helping someone else and you're supposed to already know how to tie the chicken up so you don't want to get reprimanded but you've got to get the dish going or you'll be late serving it and you'll then get reprimanded anyway. It's sometimes feels as if you do things the wrong way just so that you can try to hide them unsuccessfully from the chef so that he'll catch you and get angry and then drill the correct procedure into your mind.

Is that kind of sick? And is it just me or everyone in school?

FULL POST...

HELP IS ON THE WAY

I've officially been spoiled. For my 30th birthday my folks gave me a Nickel Pearl, KitchenAid, Professional 600 Series Mixer. It has a 575 watt motor, can manage 14 cups of flour, has "direct drive all-steel gear transmission," a six-quart capacity wide-bowl with contoured handle, a "powerknead spiral dough hook," and has commercial-style motor protection. A mail-in, proof of purchase deal gives you a choice of one free attachment. I was torn between the ice-cream attachment and the pasta attachment but went with pasta as I already splurged on the ice-cream machine a few years ago.

Now, if I only had a place to put it. I'm almost ready to open a restaurant in my Greenpoint railroad apartment. As excited as I am about testing this baby out, I'm not going to open the box until I've created a corner in the kitchen where it can live. More KitchenAid fun to come!

FULL POST...

Monday, May 15, 2006

WHEN GIVEN LEMONS...

Today's turn in the rotation brought us back to Patisserie but as we're nearing the midterm and we've been through the rotation, we're now allowed to mix dishes to prepare ourselves for the test. We've chosen to do dishes we're the most intimated by. Tonight we paired the Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise, a Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons and the Tartelette Soufflee Au Citron, a Lemon Souffle Tartlet. We also chose our own times with which we tried to challenge ourselves.

DISH: Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise, a Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons

DUE: 8:10 p.m. SERVED: 8:10 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: I felt confident with the dish, not cocky, but confident. Unfortunately even though we served on time, the chef tore the dish down. Truth be told, we missed a few details and made a few mistakes. The fish gets floured on one side, the one the customer will see. It's then sauteed in clarified butter (butter from which the solids have been removed). Capers, lemons and croutons top the skate on the dish and then it's all napped with a beurre noisette (a browned butter). We made sure we seasoned the croutons while they browned in the pan. We were also certain to have lemon supremes that would be visible on top of the fish on the plate. We threw some in the pan and then tried to cheat by scattering a few, uncooked on top of the fish.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The butter needed to be browned more and there was too much of it on the plate around the fish. The parsley wasn't fried in the butter and the lemon supremes needed to be diced. When doing the beurre noisette, the butter needs to be browned, the capers added on the low heat, turned off when bubbling, then the chopped parsley should be added and finally, the lemon supremes, salt and pepper. After the sauce naps the skate, some uncooked chopped parsley should be sprinkled on top. The dish should also be served with a sprig of parsley. The chef said the supremes needed to be diced smaller. The fish, he said, was well seasoned and cooked perfectly.

DISH: Tartelette Soufflee Au Citron, Lemon Souffle Tartlet

DUE: 9:30 p.m. SERVED: 9:35 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: While we'd done this dessert once before and we'd seen a demonstration by the chef, neither my partner nor myself were confident with this dish. Between the sabayon and the custard, the egg whites and the egg yolks, the whisking over heat and the whisking in the different bowls, we were a bit lost. With some further instruction from Chef M. we learned that the dish wasn't as complicated as it seemed.

- After reducing 90g of lemon juice by half, 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon zest is added and it is removed from the heat.
- Meanwhile, 3 egg yolks and 1 egg white are whisked over a bain-marie over low-heat with 25g sugar
- The reduced lemon juice is whisked into the custard.
- Three egg whites are whisked with a double-pinch of salt and 40 g of sugar OFF HEAT until stiff peaks form
- The custard is folded into the stiff white peaked egg whites, it's dolloped out into the pastry shell and cooked at 400 for 6-8 minutes until the top is a little brown.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The presentation was attractive, the tart tasted good but it was a bit too moist inside and Chef M. was unhappy with our lack of familiarity with the process.

OVERALL: We're nailing down the last dishes we're unfamiliar with to try to get ready for the test. We'll have another crack at the lemon tart before the test. I'll need to go buy some small tart rings for the lemon tartlet to practice them at home before the midterm. Next up, the French white cake, Genoise, another crack at Chicken Grandmother-style and Sole Marguery. I need to re-write up the ingredients, processes and dish combinations and make sure they all jibe with what the chef has told us. We're all a little on edge.

FULL POST...

Saturday, May 13, 2006

MOTHER'S DAY BISCOTTI

Two weeks ago, my folks returned from Italy bearing culinary gifts. One of them, as previously noted, was Deos Marcato's " Macchina Per Biscotti." For Mother's day, I made different flavored cookies, testing several of the 20 aluminum discs which accompanied the macchina. The macchina is accompanied by a pamphlet which includes directions and a recipe.

BISCOTTI RECIPE
500g flour
250g sugar
250g butter
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
2-3 oz. milk
2 teaspoons cocoa (optional)

While melting the 250g of butter, I sieved 500g flour, 250g sugar and salt in a bowl. In went egg yolks, milk and butter and then the dough was mixed with a spatula. When finished, I made the recipe again so as to have enough dough for different flavored cookies. For a quarter of the total dough, I added the optional cocoa (though I used the full 2 teaspoons for a reduced amount of dough). The flavors were:

- Plain with Turbinado Sugar sprinkled on top
- Starbucks Coffee Liqueur (above, right, glass bowl)
- Starbucks Mocha
- Mocha w/Frangelico Liqueur (above, right, metal bowl)
- Xiame Mexican Vanilla w/Red Finnish Licorice
- Mexican Vanilla w/ Black Australian Liquorice
- Lemon w/Maraschino Cherry (zest from five small lemons)

I used 7 aluminum disc settings to make different shapes for each flavored cookie. It was hard to get the cookies to drop out of the macchina. The pamphlet advises, "the raised part of the die-plate must be facing downwards," which I took to mean the raised sides of the discs should face the tray. Next time I'll reverse the discs but I may try cooling the dough in the fridge. It might make it easier to separate the dough from the machine. The shapes were often surrounded by a circle of cookie dough.

The first batch of cookies went in the preheated 350 oven for 20 minutes as the pamphlet dictated. I found that the cookies browned a bit too much on the bottom and on the sides and only cooked them for 15 minutes on subsequent batches. While I love shortbread cookies, for the most part I like cookies to have a little give and not to fall into a dry, crumbly mess.

In the end, I don't think there was enough Frangelico or Coffee liqueur in the cookies to give them distinctive enough flavors. There was a vague, "essence of..." flavor for the cocoa, frangelico and coffee. I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of frangelico and coffee and would reduce the amount of milk next time and increase the liqueurs. I would do the same for the cocoa. I compensated for this with the lemon and the vanilla cookies using about 3 tablespoons vanilla and the zest of five small lemons for the lemon/maraschino cookies. I'd also sprinkle the Turbinado sugar on after cooking so the sugar stays visible. The results were all still tasty, but in the end, the lemon cookies were my favorites. We'll see what Mom thinks! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

5/14 UPDATE



FULL POST...