The Second Quarter Begins!

So it is a little after midnight and I can't sleep.  I have two assumptions as to why, one being my mind can't rest the other being my snoring love of my life (love you dear!).  So I am hoping that getting some thoughts (and a shopping list for tomorrow) down may help my problem.

The second quarter of school has begun and I am taking Baking Basics, Soups and Sauces and as a Gen Ed class Human Relations.  All classes that I really enjoy going to after only two weeks.  I have only had two classes of my Culinary ones and already feel like I have learned a lot.  I have spent most of my life in kitchens of some sort and have always felt pretty comfortable in them. Most of the things I made would come out pretty good but I never really understood why a recipe works, I guess for baking anyway, how the magic happens.  Class number one of Baking taught me what I never fully understood, why baking soda or baking powder was used in some recipes but not in others.  We did not make anything that first day but a big mess.  It was like being in 6th grade science again.  We used different ingredients to see how they reacted to each other, baking soda and powder in both hot and then cold water, buttermilk, lemon juice.  It taught me that that is the difference between a bread and a quick bread.  The powders and sodas when mixed with other ingredients makes the fizzing or bubbling that gives volume to your baked goods.  These do not contain yeast to give you that rise.  For me it was an Ah-ha moment.  We also learned about weighing our ingredients to make them more exact.  A cup of water and a cup of flour do not weigh the same.  All of our baking recipes at school are measured in ounces.  That was a big change for me since most of my books at home are in standard measurement.

By class number two we were baking.  We started pretty easy, one muffin recipe one cookie.  I made Morning Glory muffins that had a lot of great stuff in it.  Coconut, walnuts, shredded carrots, and shredded apples (really looked like applesauce).  The only spice added was cinnamon.  I really liked them and made them again at home on Saturday and they were a big hit.  Next time I will sneak in some wheat germ and flax seed to get more nutrients in them.  The kids will never be the wiser.  The cookies I made were Sugar Cookies.  I hadn't ever really made them so I chose them.  My dough at the first go came out a little dry.  Added a little water and we were in business.  The only thing that struck me a little weird was there was nutmeg in them that made them taste more like a Snickerdoodle.  Anyway, coming out of the oven they had good shape, not burned and were stamped with the approval of Chef that they could be sold pile not the trash pile.  This week we are moving on to pies.  Yummy...

Now on to Soups and Sauces.  For me this class is one of my electives.  I took this one purely for my own personal benefit.  I make a lot of soups at home and have always wanted to learn more about sauces.  I am honest when I say I feel more comfortable in the bakery than I do in this kitchen.  Class number one we focused on stocks, and not the ones from the Ameritrade baby.  I didn't really know the difference between a stock and a broth.  A broth is seasoned to be eaten by itself, a stock is not.  A stock is made from simmering down bones to extract some of the flavor and gelatin from the bones.  The gelatin helps to give the stock some texture and silkiness to it. A mirepoix is added later and in the last 30 minutes of simmering some herbs.  The most important part of stock making is skimming the top when you are simmering the bones.  This helps to remove the unwanted impurities that are in the bones and leaves you with a near clear stock.  In the end you strain it all and have (hopefully) something better than you can buy in the store.  A broth has more meat in it as well as being seasoned with salt.  These two reasons is why it can be eaten as a soup.  There is more flavor to it.  Both are great to use, they key is knowing your ingredients that you will be in your dish and deciding if you need the extra flavor from a broth of if you just want the foundation from a stock to help make your other ingredients shine.

Class number two was on sauces, learning the five mother sauces, and focusing on the white sauce.  Here we made a few things.  The first a Be'chamel, this is made by starting with a roux.  The roux can be used in other sauces too, depending on the color of the sauce you just cook it a little longer.  It is a mixture of butter and flour.  The flour, as it cooks, will start to get a nice nutty smell to it.  It almost reminds me of a Shortbread cookie.  When you begin to smell it you know that it is done.  Then to make it into a sauce you add in milk or cream.  This makes a great cheese sauce, after you have the milk in and the roux blended add cheese in and then season with salt and pepper.  It is considered a "mother sauce" because it is the root of many other sauces.  I can't wait to play with this one and see what I can come up with.  Next we made a Mushroom Veloute'. I am seeing more and more that I should have taken French as my Humanities over Comparative Religion.  The Veloute' is also a mother sauce.  It has some of the same principals as the Be'chamel but here we made a clear soup base with stock, sherry, and some onions that had been sweat.  Blended mushrooms with a cup of the soup and then added it to the soup mixture.  Finishing with some cream, straining, and then letting it reduce.  The reduction was the part I didn't do long enough and mine was more like cream of mushroom soup than a sauce.  We will just put that in the compartment labled "lessons learned".  Finally, the last thing we made was a cheese souffle'.  I was a little nervous about making this dish because I had never tried one before but knew that they can be a little temperamental.  Again, we made our Be'chamel as our base and then added some shredded Gruyere cheese to it and spiced it with some salt, pepper, nutmeg and paprika as a garnish.  We baked them in little individual portioned ramekins.  Rubbed the inside down with a good amount of butter and then shook some planko breadcrumbs on the butter to cover it.  Filled 3/4ths of the way and baked at 375 for about 15 minutes.  Boy were my partner and I lucky that Chef just happened to be walking buy as we were taking them out of the oven and they were nice and fluffy.  Seeing them come out right made my day!

All and all I am very excited to see what the next eight weeks of classes bring.  I am so ready to learn more and feel invigorated at having a passion again.  I am really excited to share what I am doing with you all.  I will have much more to share.  In some of my future blogs we will go for try number two (or is it three) of the Hollandaise sauce, we will bake some cupcake ideas I have been working on, we will throw in some jell-o shots (not a class assignment just for fun) and much much more!

If you read my blog please "follow" it for me, I'd really like to see who is reading it.  I also really enjoy getting your feedback!  Well I think I can finally go and try to get some sleep...so glad tomorrow is my day of no classes.  Tomorrow will be Tropical Cupcakes, Yellow cake with rum, filled with a pineapple cream filling, topped with a coconut butter cream frosting, toasted coconut and a wedge of rum soaked fresh pineapple.  Oh yeah, and Aquarium Jell-o shots.  If you are curious you will just have to read my next post and I promise, I will post pictures!

End of one quarter, beginning of another!

Hello all, I know long time no post.  Let me take the time to catch up a little bit.  My first quarter has ended and it ended great!  I finished with all A's in all four of my classes.  I learned so much in this short period of time.  I am so much more cautious of my temperatures of food and on getting everything ready to go before I get started.  Habits I will keep up for as long as I own a kitchen.

My practice salmon at home.

Our final in my Foundations class was making a Salmon Nicoisse Salad.  I know you are thinking, a salad, but this us no ordinary salad.  It has many components to it.  It is warm and cold at the same time.  You have to wash and dry your greens, make your vinaigrette, cook and blanch your green beans, parboil you potato and hard boil your egg, cook and season your salmon, then cook your scallions with the potato. The salad should be cold but your salmon and potato's should be warm.  The real test is about the timing.  It was basically a medley of all the skills we have learned.  I did well and was very proud of myself.

Now that finals are over, DJ and I went on our cruise that he had won on the radio.  Our destination, Grand Turk Island!  We were on a chartered cruise with the band 311!  Talk about a great and crazy time!  Cruise food was pretty good.  I was surprised at how well the food was cooked and by the choices that were available.  Having a lot of it being buffet style I was a little afraid that it was going to be like going to The Golden Corral but it was anything but.  Had lobster tails that were cooked perfectly!  DJ was happy to get salmon at almost every meal.

Conch Chowder

DJ's grouper sandwich

DJ with our beers!

On our day off the boat and on the island I had to try some true Caribbean food from a place that was off the beaten path.  So we ended up at a little place off the beach.  We sampled some of the local brew, pretty good for not seeing any wheat or hops being grown anywhere around, and some conch.  We tried conch fritters as an appetizer, and some conch chowder, or chowdah as we would say in Boston.  I had as my main dish she cracked conch and DJ had a grouper sandwich.  All was soooooooo good!  The view was amazing, the breeze was nice and the food was delicious!  Too bad I found out too late that I have an allergy to it like I do with the scallops that I love.  That was a bummer but at least I got to try ( and momentarily) enjoy something I had never tried before.

My Cracked Conch

Later that night we tried out the one of the fine dining dining rooms on the boat.  I was super excited that the book in our cabin said there was a Master Chef that ran the kitchen.  There are not too many of those around.  I was a little disappointed at what we got.  DJ's salmon (yes he has a love of the fish) was over cooked and really dry, and my Baked Alaska was a little on the plain side.  My short ribs were cooked pretty well.  Most dishes looked pretty good but all in all it was a little less than I had expected.  I guess I have to keep in mind that it is being mass produced on a boat.  

Caprese Salad

My short ribs

DJ's Salmon (nothing on here looks great) Bummer.

My Baked Alaska, the top looks really pretty but that was the best thing about it.

So now that we are caught up the new quarter has begun.  I am taking the Baking Basic's class and one on Soups and Sauces.  I am really excited about both of these classes.  So far I have had one class of both of these.  The first day of baking we toured the kitchen and learned where everything was located and how to work some of the equipment.  We also did some experiments on how ingredients react with each other, like baking soda, water, lemon juice, etc so we can learn some of those basics.  We also felt different flours and learned about how they best serve their purpose. 

 

In Soups and Sauces, we made our own stock's and learned how important a good stock is.  We made a chicken stock and started making a veal stock.  All the stock that is made is then transfered throughout the school and is used other classes or the production kitchen.  Nothing is wasted.  We also made a chicken broth and then produced a chicken soup out of it.  The fun thing was choosing what starch to put in it.  My partner and I choose to make Gnocchi, the Italian potato dumplings.  I thought they were so yummy and can't wait to make them at home.  

Tomorrow it is back to Baking Basics where I will me making a Morning Glory Muffin and Sugar Cookies.  The muffin has many ingredients in it like shaved coconut, and sounded really good.  I think I will try them out today so I am better prepared for tomorrow. 

Until next time...