Week Ten - The End is in Sight!

Yesterday it occurred to me that I've never made a Hollandaise sauce from scratch. And that doing so is part of the practical final. And that I would probably end up being the person assigned to do it for my group. So, I decided it would be a good idea to see if I can do it. The answer, for your enquiring minds, is yes, yes I can! I busted out my double boiler, which I hardly ever get to use (excitement in the Plan B household let me tell you) and got to work on Hollandaiseing. Above is a not very good picture of a very good sauce. Near perfection on Try 1 (more excitement in the PBh), just a tad too vinegary, but otherwise great. Perfect silken texture, ribbony, bright and crisp. Yay!

Tonight we were tested on our knife cuts, the seven I've mentioned (julienne, batonnet, brunoise, small dice, med dice, large dice, and paysanne) and two new ones thrown in for fun - the fine julienne (which is near paperthin - 1/16 x 1/16 x 2") and the formidable TOURNER. A tourner "is a cutting technique that results in a football-shaped finished product with seven equal sides and flat ends." Yeah. It's exactly as difficult as it sounds. Thankfully, I once again had near perfection on my first try (double yay!) and he let me pass. Phew! I think it helped I was first done with all the cuts and my other 8 were spot on...other than my paysanne which was just a smidge too thick.

After we completed our knife cuts, we were allowed to take a copy of the final and head home with it. Thank God, because it is a beast. A BEAST I SAY. 200 questions, some multiple choice, some T/F, some fill-in, some essay, a lot of matching. To give you an idea of the level of difficulty of the questions:

Ideally, the (fill in the blank) should serve as the chef's guide in choosing what vegetables to purchase in any given season.

(My favorite question): Please describe at what point a chef knows everything. When he can stop opening his eyes and see what is going on around him, and what else he can learn to make his job easier and be a better chef. (I KNOW.)

Place the steps in order of preparation when Braising:

• Sauce Preparation
• Seasoning
• Caramelize the Mirepoix
• Meat Preparation
• Braising
• Serving
• Trussing
• Remove Meat
• Searing
• Deglazing
• Pince tomato paste

There were four of those place in order questions.

There were also 20 "define this term" questions. I'm exhausted just talking about it. I'm glad it's work though. If I'm having to put this much effort into it, the slackers are really going to struggle, which will show in their grades. I don't wish them ill, I just think people who don't do a lot in class shouldn't get the same grades.

Okay, off to go through my test for a second go (while watching the antics of Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote) before I try to sleep some.

Week Nine - More Eggs, More Breakfast

Friday it was discovered that we, the evening class, had gotten the day class' cart by mistake, which is why we had so much product to work with (we have 11 students, they have 24).  Thankfully, that meant we only had to use up two loaves of bread...which was still somewhat of a challenge.  Air Force made a french toast casserole and Island Kid (who is transferring down to Atlanta after this quarter) and Old Gross Guy (as I'm now calling him) made normal french toast.  Uppity worked on making tortillas, which I teasingly pointed out turned out more like arepas.  Slightly oversalted, but tasty.  She, of course, finished like 40 minutes after we all were done with our stuff, so once again we were all waiting around for her to be done.

The Young Gentleman in my group and I took the ground pork and made a couple batches of "sausage" patties.  I put it in quotes because, while really good, they tasted more like seasoned pork than breakfast sausage.  We kinda just threw a bunch of stuff in and pan fried up the patties.  The pork ended up having minced fresh garlic, onion powder, marjoram, thyme, crushed red peppers, salt, and pepper in it.  Delicious!

For some reason, we had a bottle of banana liquer on our cart, so I brought in some bananas Friday and made a non-brandy containing version of Bananas Foster.  I always thought it was some intricate, fancy dessert until I figured out a couple years ago, it's really just melted sugar, butter and some booze with sauteed bananas.  We ended up using it as a topping for Air Force's casserole.  SO GOOD.  

At some point in the evening, GMC came in and pulled me over to him.  He handed me a sashimi knife that he's used for 25 years, telling me it was from the heart and that he wanted me to have it, as my birthday present.  I was pretty speechless.  Now I just need to learn how to use it...

Saturday was just the final for our Safety and Sanitation class, which was actually a certification test for Serve Safe.  It was 90 questions, and I know I missed one for sure, but feel really good about it overall.  And then I proceeded to be social two nights in a row.  I'm really not quite sure what to do with myself now...except crank out a PowerPoint presentation for Saturday and do some review for my finals this week.  Thursday is the written and I'm sure knife cuts, then Friday and Saturday we will be broken up into two groups to do the practical.  After that I get about two weeks off, which I plan to spend doing some pre-reading for Baking and Pastry since I discovered from Chef F (the instructor) that we cover the first 6 chapters in the first 3 weeks...it's a really front-loaded class.

Week Nine - Eggs and Breakfast

Last night we took on the ever delicious breakfast. We chatted about eggs for a bit, went over some variations on things, talked about what happens to people who die while on a submarine (they get zipped into a body bag and put on deep freeze until the next resurfacing). Then Chef broke us up into five groups of two (Cake Lady got put on fruit platter alone) and off we went. I got put on Team Frittata, which turned out to be the most delicious one Chef has ever had. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking this is one of 7,000 that he's eaten, but I also know it's not the only. Frittatas, to me, have always been the everything but the kitchen sink of brunch items, so that's the plan of attack we took. I had to run downstairs and turn in my four page questionnaire on why I think I am capable of taking an on-line class (which had to be signed by an instructor vouching for me) so that I could register for the nutrition class Fall Quarter. Yes, everything this school makes its students do is ridiculous to a certain degree. So while I did that my partner in frittata set about gathering what ingredients we had per the recipe. When I got back she let me know we didn't have cilantro (yay since I really can't stand it) or chicken. Since we *did* have about 17 lbs of bacon (only a slight exaggeration) we decided to go with that and added more vegetables. This is what I ended up putting together (with slicing and shredding done by my partner):

I diced up the bacon and put that on the stove. While that was rendering, she worked on chopping up garlic, jalapeno, slicing mushrooms, and grating cheddar. I julienned some red bell peppers and got the salt, pepper, and cumin ready. Using some of the bacon fat, I sauteed the vegetables, jalapeno, and garlic, oh! and some green onions and then scrambled in the seasoned eggs until they were just set. Topped it all with some shredded cheddar and put it in the salamander. I want one. Those things are really just amazing and so incredibly useful. So, we were done within an hour, including cleanup. That left us plenty of time to wander about from team to team helping as they needed.

I ended up helping Cake Lady with the fruit. She was staring at the pineapple wondering how to core it. I suggested we slice it and then use the ring sets that came with the baking and pastry peoples' kits to core the slices and then use a larger one to make rings. She didn't have hers with her, so we got someone else's. About 45 minutes later, I was over at the stoves working with Team Crepe when she called over to me asking who I had gotten the rings from. Assuming she was asking so that she could give them back, I let her know and didn't think anything more of it. Turns out Uppity had asked CL earlier in the evening for her ring set and CL had let her know she didn't have hers with her. (Uppity wanted to use the large one to form her pancakes. I know...just...sigh.) So when Uppity saw that CL had rings, she walked over and said "You didn't have to lie to me about the ring sets. You could have just told me you didn't want me using them." That's when CL yelled out to me asking from whom I had gotten the rings. I just. Wow. But Uppity was in rare form people. She did not stop talking all night, except when I would catch her just staring at me, which I must say was a bit disconcerting. She went to every single student, except yours truly, to comment on how they were doing whatever it was they were doing wrong. She was like a drill instructor from hell. Absolutely out of line and ridiculous. At one point, Chef asked me to make him a shrimp and avocado omelette. I started prepping for it, but after literally one minute at the stoves listening to her, I had to walk away. Which is exactly what I told him when he asked about his omelette twenty minutes later. I also pointed out that I really didn't want to have to deal with her bitching about being in a room with shrimp yet again (she's allergic). He agreed.

Let me say, I get that people have food allergies and I fully understand that they can be very serious, to the point of life threatening. I am incredibly careful when working with shellfish in the class because we have three people who are allergic. However, two of those people choose to work in another kitchen when we're working with shellfish. She does not. She stays and then complains and bitches and wheezes the entire time. Look - we get that you're allergic. STOP BEING SUCH A DRAMA QUEEN. Either it's a bad allergy and you shouldn't be around it, or it's a manageable one and you can. You can't have it both ways. Okay. Sorry for the rant but man she was Out. Of. Control. last night. Sigh.

I was really hoping she wouldn't be in Baking and Pastry next quarter, but she is. I continue to hold out hope that Chef F will not stand for her tomfoolery. I need to track him down tomorrow and see if he's putting a team together for a competition that was just announced by the Research Chefs Association. He's the only faculty member, that I know of, who is a member and I am the only student I'm aware of who is a member, so I'm really hoping to get in early with him on this. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tonight we do more of the same. Cook bacon. Use up the four loaves of white bread and 10 tons of fruit and 8 dozen eggs on the cart. It's going to be a madhouse.

Week Eight - Les Poissons

Thursday we spent a bit of time reading aloud from the chapter again. LOUD SIGH. Air Force and I voiced our displeasure to Chef and hopefully we will not be doing this again. We spent time identifying different types of oysters and clams, talking about the difference in opening them (oysters through the hinge, clams through the front), going over the recipes, etc. The usual Thursday night activities. We went down to GMC's class where they were working on pates, which...ew.

Friday we had GMC in our class most of the evening because he sent his class home within five minutes due to them not being prepared. Mark my words people. If that happens when I'm there I will be VERY angry and every one of my classmates will know it. So their lack of preparation was our gain as we went through making crab cakes, baking red snapper, and sauteing halibut. I love Chef, he's awesome, but there is a marked difference between him, who is teaching his first class, and GMC, who knows everything. Seriously everything.

At the end of class Friday, after we'd cleaned up everything, we busted out five huge salmon and broke them down into 3-5 ounce portions. I do believe my years of handing the fish over to my dad for cleaning after catching them is now catching up to me. I managed to get it done, but it was not the prettiest filet of salmon ever seen, that's for sure. It did, however, taste delicious (see above. Note: that is an omelette pan, so those are two 3 oz pieces of salmon. Also, I didn't take the time to clarify the butter, which is why it's puffed up like that. Please don't think I have my salmon swimming in butter.) Since there was no way we were going to be able to use all the salmon on Saturday, whoever wanted to took some home. I came home with a bunch and have been feasting on Omega-3s all week.

Saturday we grilled some salmon, boiled some lobsters (we ended up with 9), but spent the majority of class (which was short) shucking oysters and clams. Do you shuck clams? Well, doing whatever the proper term is for opening clams. Oysters are much more difficult, at least the Blue Point ones we were working with, than the Littleneck clams we had. I was the master of the clams. Hold on. The Master of The Clams. I'd love to let you think it was a feat to obtain that title, but it's really not that hard once you get the hang of it. That said, I still don't enjoy clams or oysters. We prepared Clams Casino and Oysters Rockefeller. Very similar, both something you would serve if you were Joan Holloway having your husband's Chief of Staff and his wife over for dinner. The oysters used fennel and Pernod, both of which have a distinct anise flavor. Being a non-fan of black licorice you can guess my opinion of the dish. The clams were much more popular - I'm basing this on the fact that bacon was one of the ingredients. I

am still not loving oysters and clams, well really bi-valves of any sort. I'm now finding this odd since I generally have an issue with eating anything that still looks like it did when it had eyes...and since bi-valves don't I would think I'd be all over them. Hrm. I will disclose that I had nothing to do with the lobsters. Once I saw them move I just couldn't.

We were out of class and on the road by 9:15 (yay!) which was great because Cake Lady and the Moroccan and I had made plans to go to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant by my house. Yay ride home!

This coming week we have Eggs and Breakfast - Lecture and lab Thursday and lab Friday, no class Saturday (Chef was told he's being thrown a surprise retirement party that night). Saturday day is my final for Sanitation, so I have pretty much a free weekend. Which is a bit ridiculous to say since I have free weeks as well, but it will be nice to actually socialize outside of school people.

Week Seven - Lab Nights

Friday night we collectively decided we didn't need to do the fried or mashed potatoes because all of us have made them in class at some point, not to mention all the Thanksgivings at home.  We were able to bust through all the recipes that night so we could then just work with our pasta dough Saturday.  My group went three of four for best of Friday night.  Island Kid put too much nutmeg in our Gratin Dauphinois, but our risotto, rice pilaf, and Potatoes Lyonaise were excellent.  Yay!  

Chef and I went down to GMC's kitchen to get some arborio rice (the guy who does our cart only gave us enough for one group, not three).  Almost immediately after the door shut behind us he turned to me and said "Man, Uppity just gets on my very last nerve.  She drives me crazy."  So we had a nice conversation about her.  I should say now, she's really a lovely person conversationally, very intelligent.  But, as is the case with a number of highly intelligent people, she has issues with anyone who doesn't agree with her or who knows something she doesn't.  She really likes knowing something no one else does and unfortunately for her, I'm pretty well versed in international cuisines and products.  She actually glared at me when I knew what tostones were.  Sigh.  I can't wait until she gives her attitude to the baking and pastry chef.  He does not stand for any disrespect.

Speaking of Baking Chef, I ran into him Saturday before my early class and was able to talk to him a bit about what it is I want to do after graduation.  He's a member of the Research Chefs Association (I'm a student member) and is very much into melding baking & pastry and culinary fields, whereas a lot of chefs just do one or the other.  I am really looking forward to his classes next quarter.  I think he's going to be a great resource.  He's also reading the same book I am right now, which is Ratio by Michael Ruhlman.  Basically, it's a book that details out culinary ratios.  Once you know the ratio, it's like having thousands of recipes.  Very interesting and yes, just as geeky as it sounds.  But this is coming from the girl who really enjoyed reading The Secret Life of Lobsters so...

Saturday was pasta day.  My team only had three people that night so we each took a portion of the pasta dough we'd made and made our own dishes.  Most everyone made some sort of ravioli since we had ground chicken and pork on the cart.  I kept mine simple, as I tend to do.  I sauteed some garlic and onions in a bit of olive oil, deglazed with white wine, wilted in some fresh spinach and then seared up some shrimp and added in some crushed red pepper flakes.  Once my pasta was done cooking (about a minute) I added that to the pan and served it up.  Chef loved it and kept coming back for more.  He actually used some of it to top his fried polenta cake.  Yay!  I recreated it the next night (Sunday) at home and added in some halved grape tomatoes, which is the picture above.  You all can thank Tony for that - he's requested more pictures, so more pictures you will get!  Oh, and that isn't a fancy table setting...I had just laundered my apron and it was on the table.  

Off to re-read about the 90 different kinds of fish we need to be able to identify.