Living through Culinary Skills once is bad enough, that I have a hard time forcing myself to relive it again to blog about it. I will try and do my best. Only two more weeks right? The fact that I have breads in two weeks makes me think that convincing myself to enjoy Skills while it lasts is virtually impossible. Okay, I do not HATE it, once again I say it, but I would rather be playing with dough.
Let me try and remember what I did yesterday, because yesterday seems like 923498127 million years ago. I AM CONNECTED WITH THE REAL WORLD AGAIN BECAUSE MY PHONE FINALLY ARRIVED on Monday but I could not actually go and get it until yesterday morning. (If you want me to have your number, seeing as I lost all of my contacts, which is annoying, then message me. :)) So, my day started out lovely! And, it probably does not help the Skills situation that my new phone is so fun to play with, when I should be studying and/or practicing how to hold a knife properly.
Class started around 1:45, as usual. Chef Klug started the day by showing us what knife cuts he wanted us to make: julienne potatoes, brunoise potatoes, batonnet potatoes, small dice potatoes, minced onion, sliced onion, chopped parsley, and chopped garlic. Knife skills are probably the most frustrating/ fun thing to do. It takes a good hour to actually do the cuts and have them evaluated by the chef. Brunoises are 1/8 inch cubes, and they should be perfect cubes. Small dice are the same thing but they are 1/4 inch cubes. Julienne are 1/8 inch strips, and batonnets are 1/4 inch strips. Yesterday, my eval was not the greatest; I need to work on my size and shape. You know it cannot be good when the chef asks if you own a ruler. Oops. It is a good thing that he is not too intimidating and that I will probably never have to do this again when I finish his class.
The main objectives we were to learn yesterday were how to prepare a mixed salad, make vinaigrette, make mayonnaise (your fav, Kristy), and different means of plating. There are several ways of preparing a salad, a tossed, simple salad and a composite salad. When prepping a salad, different greens should be used with different flavor profiles to form a more harmonious dish. For example, in our salad, we added arugula (spicy), frisee and radicchio (bitter), and Boston and red leaf lettuce (mild). A garnish should always accompany a salad, in an odd number, such as tomato slices. We were taught how to properly seer a chicken breast and how to roast it in the oven. Young chickens, not hens, are best for dry heat applications, such as seering and roasting. The chicken and the salad, with vinaigrette and garnish, made our composite salad, a salad with different elements positioned in a certain way on the plate. A composite salad can be a main dish or an appetizer.
After demo, as a team, we were required to make our own mayonnaise. After making the mayonnaise, our team had to taste it, to ensure it was properly seasoned. I do not mind mayo but I definitely do not enjoy eating spoonfuls of it. Once we were satisfied, the chef tasted our mayo. He approved. (If the emulsion begins to break when making homemade mayo, add water.)
Next, the chef showed us how to use the slicer (like the one you see in the Publix deli) to slice our swiss and ham. From there, Chef Klug sliced bread and made six sandwiches, five with ham, swiss, and mustard and one with just cheese and mustard. He then put butter on the outside, to allow them to take some color in the pan on the stove, before he put them in the oven. Once they were done, he showed us different ways to plate the sandwiches, to be pleasing to the eyes. Because you know, we eat with our eyes, first! The class was then welcome to eat the sandwiches before going to dinner.
I ordered Salmon with Celery Root Mash and Watercress Puree for din din. I did not like the celery root and therefore was not a big fan of the dish. The mash looked like potato but definitely did not taste like potato; it through me off a bit. I just took it to the dish room and went back to my room to play with my phone before we had to report back to class at 6:45.
My job in class was equipment steward, which meant I went to the dish room to get everything we needed for tasting before class and returned them after class. I also was required to clean the stove after dinner. I really like Chef Klug, but he is by far the messiest chef ever when he cooks. He will just pour stuff on the floor or slosh things around on the stove. Basically, cleaning the stove is not number one on my list of fun activities. It is a messy job and a hot job, as you can imagine. Yesterday was my only day with that job. PTL.
I did practice my knife skills last night and tried to do my homework. Practice does make perfect, or practice make for acceptable around here. (Seriously, my knife skills who pass anywhere except the CIA at this point in time.) I take potatoes home to cut them for homework. What do/did you do for homework? My college is better than your college. :) Just kidding of course, but just wait until I get to cookie class!
Today was busy in class. Baking students only have one culinary skills class for three weeks, but culinary students have three separate skills classes over a nine week period. We go much faster and into less detail. It is funny to know how to do some things ahead of the culinary students who are in the first skills class. For example, I made french onion soup two days ago, but the culinary students learned how today. Now granted, they will know more, but for now, bakers are holding their own.
We began the day with the same knife cuts as yesterday (see above). Chef Klug commented that I had improved much since yesterday but to still work on my size and shape. Slowly, slowly, I am learning. He thinks I get the technique but that I need to refine it. I will do these same cuts every day until Day 13 of the block, which is two weeks from today. I will be brunoising up a storm by then. Get excited for sticks of carrots when I come home as a side dish!
Chef demoed how to make a consomme first today, and after his demo, each team was required to make their own consomme. A consomme is a perfectly clear soup, made with an onion brule (an optional charred half of an onion), stock/broth, egg whites, lean ground meat, tomatoes (or other acidic ingredients), mirepoix, and herbs and spices. Consomme is clarified. The ingredients are heated until about 120*, the temperature at which the egg white proteins begin to coagulate. It is then brought to a boil and allowed to simmer. As it boils, the soup forms a raft, and the egg whites attract the impurities in the liquid to the top of the pot. The soup is strained to leave a clear soup, with pungency and flavor. We garnished our soup with parsnip and carrot brunoises. The consomme is named based on the garnish, and therefore, we made consomme brunoise. Chef Klug tasted ours and gave us a thumbs up (not literally).
Tomato sauce was the next item to be demoed and then made by each team. Tomato sauce is rather basic, with there being many, many different ways to make this "mother" sauce. What tomatoes are best to use in tomato sauce? Fresh, vine-ripened plum tomatoes are the best, as they have a high ratio of flesh and are low moisture; they bring a natural sweetness to the sauce. After the sauce simmered, fresh basil was added. The chef again approved our sauce.
A slurry is a mixture of a pure starch, such as cornstarch, and a liquid, most of the time water, used to thicken. Chef Klug demonstrated this, but we will not make one on our own until later in the course. He did show us how to make a roux, using flour and a fat, such as butter. There are different roux, based on color, white, pale (or blond), and brown roux. The lighter the roux, the more thickening power. The longer the roux is cooked, the darker the color, and the less thickening power it has, because the starch begins to break down with continued cooking. Team four made each color roux, and we succeeded except that our white looked exactly like our pale.
I ate a salad at dinner. I wanted to clean as quickly as possible to get out of class after dinner. (Seven hours is a long time to be in a tiny kitchen. No, it will not be like this when I get to the bake shops.) My job today was sanitation steward. I had to check temperatures of the refrigerators, fill out paperwork, wipe down the tables and sanitize the sinks, and take out the trash. Granted, I did not do all of this by myself; I had help from the other sani stewards. After reviewing our homework, our class was dismissed around 8.
Tonight has consisted basically of going to Target, Price Choppers, and more potatoes and more knife skills practice. I really can tell that I am improving, which is exciting. I bet I will not even mind this after a few more days, once I know what I am doing for reals. :) Oh, and I should mention that I have not cut myself, not once. Haley 4 (I am going by days). Knives 1. (This is a reference to a previous blog, if you do not understand me keeping score.)
Sorry this is such a long post. You know you love it.
In exactly a week, football season starts. Yippee, Skippy!
CALL ME NOW! :)
Haley
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