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.
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| 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.
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| Conch Chowder |
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| DJ's grouper sandwich |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Caprese Salad |
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| My short ribs |
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| DJ's Salmon (nothing on here looks great) Bummer. |
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| 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...
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