Technically, just FYI, this is my second post of the day. The post from yesterday, August 23, was posted this morning early! (For some faithful bloggers, you might be thinking that it was not in fact posted, as y'all have been checking all day today. My apologies for the minor error in posting.)
It is only 11:23, and yes, I woke up around 10:30. However, I feel like I have been awake doing manual labor for ten days straight. Culinary and the kitchen are killing me. AAHHHHH. This morning, I finished my homework and went to the library to print it off. I checked my mail multiple times before class, praying my package would come with my phone. Then, before I knew it, it was 1:45.
In Skills, we continued talking about stocks and broths. Ingredients in both stocks and broths include meat/bones, aromatics (such as mirepoix, with 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, one part celery), and water. There are white stocks and brown stocks, with the bones for the brown being roasted before simmering to make the stock. Yesterday, as you may recall, we made a chicken stock with washed chicken bones. Today, Chef Klug placed a whole hen into water to simmer, to make a broth. After starting the broth, the chef demonstrated how to make clarified butter, or butter with the milk solids and water removed, leaving pure milk fat. Next, Chef Klug demoed our knife skills for the day. To start, you must know how to use a steel and a whetstone, to hone and sharpen your knives. Next, you have to properly hold a knife. From there, after demo, we had to slice two onions, mince half an onion, and brunoise parsnip and carrot. A brunoise cut is a 1/8 by 1/8 by 1/8 inch cube. Look it up, and then try to do it (yeah, you do not want to, do you?). After finishing, we had to take our tray of cuts to the chef for evaluation. I did okay, besides my brunoises being a little un-uniform.
After this, the chef demonstrated how to make onion soup. You start by caramelizing the onions in clarified butter. To the sauteed onions, white wine is added to deglaze the pan, aka scrape the bottom of all the oniony goodness. Chicken stock and a sachet (of herbs and spices) are added, and the soup is allowed to come to a boil, before simmering at a lower temperature for fifteen minutes. Apple Jack Brandy is the last ingredient added to the soup after simmering. To go with our soup, we made Gruyere croutons. The slices of baguette are placed in a hot pan with clarified butter to toast one side. Then, cheese is grated and placed on top of the toasted side, before putting the croutons in the oven to melt the cheese and toast the remaining side.
This is culinary school, and you cannot simply learn by just watching a seasoned (haha) chef cook in front of you, though that is important for technique. So, after the chef made soup, we made soup in our teams of four. Pete, Jon, Emily, and I are on the same team. I was in charge of measuring the onions and caramelizing them. After all the groups finished, we sampled the chef's soup, after he seasoned it properly with salt and pepper. We then were responsible for seasoning our own soup, as a team, before asking the chef to taste/ evaluate our soup. Chef Klug liked our soup but thought the color was a little light and our croutons were a little soft. Success. I thought it was delicious.
By the time dinner rolled around, I was full of onion soup. Therefore, I just chilled and had a glass of chocolate milk for dessert?! :) Each person in the class has a respective job each day. For the past two days, I have been an extra, responsible for doing anything extra the chef needs to be done. Basically, I have strained the stock and broth each day, cooled them down in an ice bath, covered them, labeled them, and put them away for the next day. When we come back from dinner, we clean and review our homework. Then, we are free. (Of course, we did not have a break before dinner today, and I did not check the mail room again until it was closed. My package did come between me checking before class and me checking after they closed. Darn it.)
Since 8:15, I have done nothing productive. I watched last night's episode of Bachelor Pad (so good). I visited with Melissa in her room because I have not seen her in 39472983741 years. It has been a low key night, and with how I feel (exhausted), I am okay with that!
IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN
Hay Reh
So, if you can dice, slice, anything as fast as they do on tv, I'll be impressed! I saw somewhere on the google blogging pages that you can get your blog made into a little book to keep forever! I think you need to do that when you are finished with your school and internship.
ReplyDeleteKeep that knife sharp!
carla