Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Rack of Lamb, Zucchini, Arborio Rice


The first part of our Skills 2 practical took place this morning before everyone took off for Thanksgiving. We were given a mystery basket with a protein, starch, and vegetable, and had two hours to serve a complete plate to the chefs, cooking each item using any of the techniques we've learned in class. My basket included the ingredients of the plate above, in raw form: a rack of lamb, a zucchini, and a bag of arborio rice.

When Chef D. gave me the rack of lamb, she laughed. Yesterday, our groups worked with lamb for the first time and the chefs gave a quick demo on how to French a rack--i.e. make it look all pretty with clean bones sticking up. I asked her nervously if we'd have to break down the racks ourselves if we got lamb in the mystery basket, just picturing the hacked-up lamb I'd present if I was unlucky enough to be assigned it. All of the other possible proteins were items I'm much more comfortable working with: chicken, salmon, shrimp, veal, even pork--I'd pound that out and sauté it just like chicken or veal.

I've never cooked lamb before in my life (though I do like to eat it) and Chef's expert lamb-fabricating demo only intimidated me more. She said that there would be whole, untrimmed racks in the mystery baskets, but that we'd be able to get help from the chefs on cleaning them up. Besides that, there are no questions or recipes allowed during the practical. After that discussion, I should have known she'd give me the lamb!

Beforehand, the chefs stressed that this test was not about wowing them with elaborate dishes. They wanted us to keep it simple and show that we understood basic cooking techniques. However, we were allowed to use anything in the kitchen in addition to the items in our mystery basket (except, of course, another protein).

I decided to grill my zucchini, simply tossing it in olive oil and seasoning with salt, pepper, and herbs. For the arborio, there was pretty much one choice: risotto. This was something else I'd never made before starting culinary school, and another group member made it on the day we learned the technique in class, so I'd really only seen it demoed. The other night, I decided to make some risotto at home to practice, just in case it ended up in my basket. Good decision!

At home, I made a big pot of risotto following the recipe from class, then added cut-up sautéed asparagus and pulled chicken to make it a more complete meal. Anyone who follows this blog knows how much I love one-pot meals! For the practical, I went with straightforward parmesan risotto. My at-home version was healthier--I didn't finish with heavy cream and butter at the end--but I knew better than to leave these out on the test! Chefs looove butter.

As for the lamb...after Chef gave me a few pointers on trimming the rack, I got it to the point where it looked pretty decent. I seared it in a little bit of oil to brown on both sides and let it rest. Then, into the oven to roast. This is the part that worried me. I'd hoped for a protein that I could sauté, because it's a quick cooking method and you can pretty much tell if the food is done just by looking. With the ovens at school, people are constantly opening and closing them to check on/put in/take out their food and letting heat escape, so timing is never precise. You have to take temperature to check for doneness, and I just don't trust the little thermometers in our kit, no matter how many times I calibrate mine.

Lamb is supposed to be about 140 degrees for medium rare, and I took mine out when it had finally reached this temp. However, after letting it rest, it wasn't as rosy pink as I wanted when I cut the rack into two chops. I knew this wouldn't get past the chefs. Sure enough, in their evaluation of my dish, they noted that the lamb was a little overcooked. Still, they said it was tender and had good flavor. Sweet! To go with it, I made a port wine reduction with shallots, a sprig of rosemary, black peppercorns, and a couple of cloves. This is the easiest sauce ever: just throw all of this in a small pot, turn on the heat and let it reduce. Take it off the heat, swirl in some butter and you're done--and the chefs thought it was great.

I was too rushed to snap a picture of my plate before it went out to the chefs (I almost wrote judges...I am watching way too much Top Chef!) but I was able to get this shot after they'd tasted. They didn't eat much from each plate, since they had to grade about 20, so I just moved the picked-over food out of view! I tried the second chop and although I too like my lamb more rare, I thought it tasted quite delicious. Probably in part because I was so relieved and proud of myself for surviving my first mystery basket with no disasters.

Unfortunately, I won't be at home cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family tomorrow--hopefully next year, Mom! I'm off to Las Vegas for our unconventional Thanksgiving celebration in honor of my Grandma Lila's 75th birthday. It'll be kind of nice to have a break from the kitchen and to take advantage of one of Vegas's biggest draws, at least for me: the restaurants. We've got a star-studded lineup of meals planned, with visits to the Vegas outposts of Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, and Thomas Keller.

It seems that every celebrity chef has tapped into the Vegas scene--but more importantly, a couple have also set up shop here in Atlanta! Last week, I had the awesome opportunity to interview Jean-Georges Vongerichten for Atlanta Magazine. And I've got another cool one coming up, so stay tuned.

When I interview chefs now, I think of the aspiring chefs in my class. There are a few really talented kids who I know I'll have to watch out for as I continue with my food writing career. Who knows...one of my classmates could be up there with those guys one day.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Soup Day, Egg Day, Fry Day

I'm loving these themed days in our Skills 2 kitchen. Focusing on one cooking technique for the full five hours--lecture, demo, then production--helps you really start to get it.

It's getting cold here in Atlanta, especially at 6:30 am, when I crank up the heat in my car on the way to school. So, soup day on Wednesday was much anticipated. Our group had to turn out four different soups, and again I made the one I was craving the most: white bean soup.

Naturally, the recipe started with bacon, which I rendered in the soup pot. I then added onions, leeks, and garlic and sweated them in the fat from the bacon, along with the crispy bits. Then, in went the white beans (soaked overnight), a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme, and chicken stock. Now all I had to do was let it simmer until the beans were tender and (after removing the bay leaf and thyme sprigs) puree the whole pot with an immersion blender, which may just be my favorite kitchen tool ever. It's a stick blender that purees things right in the pot. I am dying to get one so I no longer have to transfer soups from the pot to the blender at home (alright, fine, I've only done this once, when I made tortilla soup...but I now plan on making many more soups after everything I learned on soup day!)

White Bean soup simmering

I am a huge fan of white beans, but I have to say, the bacon stole the show here. Just a couple of slices rendered in the pot really provided the foundation for this soup, infusing the whole pot with a great smoky flavor. The texture was awesome, just thick enough. It would be really pretty with a small garnish of crispy bacon bits on top.

The four soups that my group presented (clockwise from front): Potage Garbure (a hearty beef-and-potato soup), White Bean, Broccoli and Cheddar, and Consomme

Thursday morning, we arrived ready to make breakfast--lots and lots of it. Chef D. demoed how to cook eggs in every which way: scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, over medium, poached, American omelet, French omelet. Apparently, Americans like their eggs way overcooked. And since Le Cordon Bleu is a French program and we are learning French classical cuisine, we would be doing things the French way. That means NO color on the eggs, whatsoever. I personally favor a little golden brown on my omelets, but I got over it. The proper way to scramble eggs is also a lot creamier than most of us are used to. A French omelet is basically soft-scrambled eggs, folded into a football-ish shape.

We had to present each egg technique to the chefs as we made them, which was kind of fun-slash-chaotic. Sticking with the egg theme, we then worked on emulsion sauces. Emulsion= a uniform mixture of two unmixable liquids, like oil and vinegar. Egg yolks act as the emulsifier, binding the two together. We split into pairs and made Hollandaise, which we then turned into Bearnaise (adding a tarragon/white wine/black peppercorn reduction), and then turned that into Choron (adding a bit of tomato paste). Finally, I had to bite the bullet--I made Mayonnaise. And I didn't even get nauseous as I was beating vigorously for what seemed like an hour. AND it turned out well in both texture and taste--or so said Chef D., I still thought it tasted gross. But making homemade mayo is definitely a workout! I'm not lying when I say that my whisking arm hurt the next day.

The second Friday of Skills 2 is always Fry Day. In short, we loaded up the deep fryers with oil, as well as some pans for pan-frying. Then we fried everything in the walk-in coolers: chicken, veal, catfish, french fries, assorted vegetables. I took on the vegetables, which I breaded using standard breading procedure. First, dredge in seasoned flour. Second, dip in egg wash. Third, cover with bread crumbs (I used Japanese panko). I had a great time frying my mushrooms, asparagus, and eggplant and zucchini slices to a beautiful golden brown. I think I mastered the "official cooking method of the South."

My beautiful, no-longer-healthy vegetables

The buffet of fried goodness which we invited other classes to come and enjoy

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sauté Day (and my love of Pesto)

Before I get into my day of sautéing in Skills 2, I have to mention my newfound appreciation of pesto. I'm Italian at heart--I studied abroad there twice and minored in the language in college--and here in Atlanta I've rediscovered my love of this pungent, herby sauce.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered an adorable Italian gourmet shop called Bella Cucina in the Highlands, near our apartment. Like all of my favorite food stores, it boasts a generous array of samples. I hit the buffet of pestos, dabbing a bit of each onto the provided crostini, and immediately became obsessed with the artichoke lemon variety. I couldn't leave without buying a jar, which Zack and I enjoyed over whole-wheat rotini that evening. It inspired me to write this post over on Atlanta Magazine's blog.

Then, a few days later, pesto turned up on our list of production recipes at school. We rolled out our own fresh pasta that day and a classic basil-and-pine-nut pesto would be the sauce to accompany it. Already on a bit of a pesto kick, I immediately volunteered to make the pesto for my group. Probably due to the awesome quality of the fresh basil we used, it turned out fabulous. I'd like to think it was my skill at throwing all of the ingredients into a Robot Coupe (kitchen lingo for food processor--it's the brand that professional kitchens use).

I smuggled some of my awesome pesto home and we ate it last night when Andrea, The Kansan, and Dieter came over for dinner. I made a huge batch of that whole-wheat rotini (see, I learned something in Nutrition class!) and added chunks of chicken breast that I had sautéed, coating all of it with the pesto. It was a great and fufilling meal made with my current sauce of choice.

Alright, that's enough about pesto. Today was sauté day at school, and it may have been my favorite day yet. Sautéing is just such a fun cooking technique--it's quick, usually only dirties up one pan, and involves sizzling heat and tossing food in the air with a quick motion of the pan (I won't pretend that I've mastered this one...we're supposed to practice by throwing some ice around in a sauté pan at home).

There were a few recipes on our production list--veal marsala, chicken breast with dried cherries, and sauteéd shrimp with lemon sauce. When it comes time to volunteer, I always gravitate towards the recipe that I'd most want to eat if I saw it on a restaurant menu. So, I picked the shrimp. All of these recipes were pretty simple, intending to help us to practice the art of sauté.

My mise en place involved blanching tomatoes and dicing them concasse, mincing garlic, chopping chives, zesting and juicing a couple of lemons, and peeling and deveining shrimp. Then came the cooking process, which takes literally a minute and a half for this recipe. That's why it's so important to have all of your mise en place ready to go--when you're sautéing, there's no time to run off and grab something that you forgot.

I made several batches of this shrimp dish, improving each time. Starting with a really hot pan with a little bit of oil, I put down four shrimp at a time, letting them sizzle for about 30 seconds on each side. Then, off the heat, I hit the pan with some white wine, lemon juice, and a little bit of white wine vinegar to start my pan sauce. Once that reduced, I'd monter au beurre (of course!) and add my tomato concasse. Plate it and garnish with a sprinkle of chives and lemon zest, and voilà. My group-mate Joel took this lovely photo of the finished product:

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Eating Raw

As you all know, I've been learning how to make all kinds of rich French stuff in culinary school. So it was a nice change of pace to talk to Riccardo Ullio, who owns a handful of restaurants down here in Atlanta, about the new all-raw menu that he's implementing at his Latin-influenced spot, Beleza. Remember the episode of Sex and the City when Samantha meets Smith Jared for the first time and he's a waiter at that raw food restaurant? Well, Ullio is bringing that concept to Atlanta--except that his food sounds a whole lot more delicious than all the wheatgrass we saw in that episode. I'm pretty eager to try it...but Zack can't comprehend why someone would want to run a restaurant where nothing is cooked. In any event, here's my post about Beleza on Atlanta Magazine's blog.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sauce and More Sauce

Chef V. tasting from a buffet of sauces. Yummy.

Whew. The past three days of school have been a different experience entirely. On Monday morning, after the obligatory first day info session from the chefs, we were split into small groups and basically told to grab some bones from the walk-in cooler and make stock. Not just one stock: we had to produce a pot each of veal stock, chicken stock, fish stock, and vegetable stock. Needless to say, we were running around the kitchen clueless. I had certainly never made stock before in my life, and it soon became clear that most of my classmates hadn't either. It was a lesson in working as a team and figuring things out as we went, and amazingly, we produced all four simmering stockpots in time.

We've been working on sauces for the past two days following Day 1's chaotic stock-making, settling into what will be routine for the next three weeks. First thing, Chef D. and Chef V. give demos of all of the food that we're required to produce by 10:30 am. Yesterday, we started with two of the mother sauces: Bechamel (basic white sauce) and Espagnole (really unappetizing-looking brown sauce).

We then worked on derivatives of Bechamel--I made the Mornay for my group, which amps up the simple milk-and-roux Bechamel with gruyere and parmesan cheeses. While the mother sauces are rarely used anymore in modern cooking, restaurants constantly use their derivatives or "small sauces"--in fact, in my recent interview with James Beard award-winning Washington chef R.J. Cooper, he mentioned that he makes his awesome macaroni and cheese at Vidalia with Mornay. I was very proud when Chef V. praised my Mornay and gave our group a 5 out of 5 on it!

Today, we made demi-glace, which is half veal stock and half Espagnole, reduced by half. It's certainly a term I've seen on countless restaurant menus but never before knew its components. Our demi became the base for three new sauces. This time I made the Chasseur sauce, also sometimes called a Hunter sauce. I sauteed mushrooms and onions, added white wine and reduced it, then added diced tomatoes and some of our flavorful demi-glace.

Even though I'm learning a ton about saucework, I doubt I'd ever make these at home simply because they are pretty unhealthy (not to mention time-intensive). Most classical sauces are thickened with roux (equal parts flour and fat, usually clarified butter--remember?) and finished by "monter au beurre"--stirring in chunks of butter for richness and shine. Even the classical tomato sauce--another mother sauce that we made today--begins with diced salt pork. It does make a really flavorful roux--I loved the tomato sauce variation that I made for my group with tomato concasse, onions, garlic and parsley, called a Portuguese sauce. Sounds light and vegetarian, but that's just not how it works in classical French cookery. Surprise, surprise: delicious restaurant food = usually not so good for you.

I'm definitely honing my palate and learning a lot about flavor profiles--a term that chefs throw around a lot. Before culinary school, I'd only heard it (incessantly) on Top Chef--which premieres tonight! When our chefs demo a sauce, we taste it and talk about the flavors we should look for in our own versions. For example, Soubise, a variation of Bechamel made with sweated onions, should have a sweet taste but no pronounced onion flavor. We got called out for not sweating our onions long enough--we thought it tasted good, but giving the onions more time to sweat would have completely cooked out their raw onion flavor and drawn out more sweetness.

Now I'm off to watch Top Chef and then to bed...up early tomorrow for a third day of sauces. I'm sure I'll have a new appreciation for the "cheftestants" on the show, which I've watched religiously for the past four seasons. But now I've been quizzed on herbs and spices (albeit with my eyes open). I've frantically rushed to finish my sauces before the 10:30 buzzer when chefs armed with tasting spoons would arrive to taste and grade them. Sure, Top Chef's crazy Quickfire Challenges often allow something like five minutes to make an entree solely from food out of vending machines, but two hours for six sauces is Quickfire enough for me!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Aspiring To Be My Sister

Today is my friend Andrea's birthday--Happy Birthday, Andrea! Sadly, she has to spend most of her birthday studying for a test that all of the law kids have to take on Saturday, so I wanted to drop by her apartment with something yummy. I went decidedly non-gourmet and made what I most love on my own birthday (and any other occasion, really): Funfetti cupcakes! Yup, the Pillsbury mix. For some reason, even though it's just white cake with sprinkles in it, it just makes me happy and feels so birthday-ish.

In an effort to spruce up my Funfetti a little bit, I decided to experiment with the pastry bags in my culinary school tool kit instead of just slapping the frosting on with a butter knife like I usually do. I've never piped frosting before, but I've seen my little sister Hilary do it many times with beautiful results. She was a studio art major in college and is now applying her skills to baked goods as a decorator at Just Cakes in our hometown of Bethesda. Over the summer, she made these lovely cupcakes for my friends' wedding (coincidentally, the bride--who you see in the background--is another friend named Andrea):



I picked out a large round tip from the dozens of choices in my kit and (messily) spooned the purchased Funfetti frosting into my pastry bag. I tried to make marshmallowy-looking swirls of frosting to mimic Hilary's pretty little caps shown above. I definitely need some practice, but all in all, they turned out pretty well. A few of the caps were a little small because I ran out of frosting - piping uses WAY more frosting than simply spreading it on top of the cakes. I was able to hide some imperfections with a generous dusting of sprinkles. Ta-da!



Now I'm really looking forward to perfecting my piping skills in our Intro to Baking & Pastry class, a few rotations down the road.

p.s. Zack would like to point out that he helped to make these cupcakes for Andrea. He served as the all-important taster.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Georgia Cheese!

Today I have to write a report on E. coli for my Food Science class--FUN! One more week and my class will move to Skills 2, where we'll be cooking every day. I heard that on the first day you have to make all of the mother sauces, which totally freaked me out. Still, I can't wait.

In the meantime, here's my latest post for Atlanta Magazine's Bites & Flights blog. I picked up a bunch of these cheeses at the Buckhead Whole Foods and brought them home for a tasting. If you live in the Atlanta area and have not been to the Buckhead Whole Foods, you MUST go! It is huge and awesome, a million steps up from the cramped one in the Emory area near our apartment. There's a sprawling prepared foods section, tons of fantastic produce, a huge selection of beer and wine, and, most importantly, plenty of samples. It's nearly as great as the flagship store in Austin, which may be my favorite place on Earth. My mom and I went back three times during a three-day Texas trip a couple of years ago.

Of course, this mega-Whole Foods is the only one in the area that carries the local cheeses I was writing about. The manager at the Briarcliff store did tell me that they are hoping to stock them soon, however. Thank you to Zack and Andrea for being superb cheese-tasters!