Food of the Gods

There is nothing better than great barbecue, except maybe barbecue smothered in melted cheese. This was my chosen mode of disposal for the pint of Carolina barbecue sauce that I took home last week. Served atop a toasted pretzel roll (thank you Trader Joe's!), this gooey mess of a sandwich was nothing short of sublime.

Lobster Brain Bisque

If sauce making is a labor of love, then soup making is a simmering pot of love. What is more comforting that a bowl of soul warming soup on a cold rainy day? Day one of soup making was spent over steamy pots of black bean soup and unctuous cream of mushroom soup. While both of these soups were tasty, I had some issues with the preparation/plating of both. The black bean soup had all the makings of a great soup, but unfortunately the end product was pretty dumbed down. We simmered black beans with lots of great ingredients, but when the soup was ready to go we filtered off the cooking liquid, and pureed the solids with just enough of the cooking liquid to get the desired constancy. While texturally this method worked great, the remainder of all those yummy spices went down the drain, leaving us with a soup that only had faint chili notes and a vague smokiness from the cumin. Even the chipotle crème fraîche we used as a garnish fizzled, when it should have packed an extra punch. So sad.

On the other hand, the cream of mushroom soup was everything it should have been; it was mushroomy, oh so creamy, and a little sweet from a touch of marsala. The only thing that irked me was the garnish- julienned button mushrooms. Really? First of all, I think button mushrooms are the lamest mushroom out there, the black sheep of the mushroom family. Compared to the meaty portobello or the sublime shiitake, button mushrooms are pretty watered down. Second, other than color - the whiteness of the mushrooms was a nice contrast against the soup - and the nice height they brought to the plate, the mushrooms didn't add to the taste of the dish. I think that there are other garnishes out there that could have both heighted the flavor of the dish as well as made it visually appealing. But, I am but a student, and I do as I'm told.

Day two of soups was, if possible, sadder than the day before. To be fair, the New England clam chowder was quite good; it was creamy, slightly salty from the bacon and the briny goodness of the clams, offset with a kick of heat from some tabasco, topped with some fried clams that were so good I could have eaten hand full’s of them.

On the other had there was the shrimp bisque... dom dom dom. Oh the horror! Let me preface this by saying that when we were making stocks a couple of weeks back we made a lobster stock which smelled so God awful that it turns my stomach just thinking of it. That stock was destined to be the base of this soup. I should have know it would be nasty, but I kept holding out hope that it would turn into something great, that it would be greater than the sum of its parts. It started out fairly benign, sautéing some shrimp shells with some mire poix (onion, carrot, and celery) and tomato paste, but then chef had us throw in a couple of lobster heads for "added flavor". To this ill fated concoction was added some brandy and white wine (which should help, right?), flambéed (how cool is that!), doused with lobster stock (the beginning of the end), and allowed to simmer (because we need to meld and concentrate the flavors, right?...NOT!). While my nose kept telling me "this is going to be bad, this is going to be bad", I still hoped that in the end all would be well. How delusional was I! After simmering, we then pureed the contents of the pot- shells and heads too, we've got to extract as much flavor out of the ingredients as possible - and then strained. To this we were suppose to add a touch of cream and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Unfortunately/fortunately I accidentally added my milk and cream destined for the clam chowder to my bisque. Even diluted, the soup was probably one of the most vile things I have ever eaten. Imagine what a big pot of fish brains would taste like and you have the essence of this soup- Lobster Brain Bisque. Even the addition of all that milk and cream couldn't have saved it. But, being the good culinary student that I am, I seasoned that sludge to the best of my ability, fished it with some shrimp (what a waste of perfectly good shrimp) and plated it so that it at least looked like it tasted good. So the lesson of the day: lobster stock is not your friend.

No more butter!

I never thought I would say this, but after last nights' class there really is such as thing as too much butter. Last night was spent on, you guessed it...butter sauces! The rich hollandaise (which when making it by hand is so not worth the effort- whip out the blender baby!), the tarragony goodness of the béarnaise and it's tomato kissed cousin the choron, followed by a beurre blanc and a beurre rouge. While all these sauces are probably delicious in their own right, by the end of the night we were all grimacing as we were forced to taste our sauces. Can you say "Butter overload!”

Queen of Leftovers

Yes, I am the self proclaimed Queen of Leftovers. Presented with a refrigerator full of seemingly random ingredients I am able to pull together tasty meals (if I do say so myself). This weekend I looked into my refrigerator full of this weeks' sauces and went to work on concocting a variety of tasty dishes. First up to bat was the cheese sauce, and let me say, I hit a home run with this one. Already chocked full of yummy cheddar cheese, this sauce was destined for homemade mac and cheese. No blue box here! To this already sublime cheese sauce I added a couple of chopped chipotle chile peppers, some ground cumin, and minced cilantro (tell me, how good does that sound?!), and then poured over some cooked shell pasta. Let me tell you, this was some kind of wonderful.

Not to be outdone by the chipotle mac and cheese, I had to pull out all the stops to make the Hungarian sauce into something equally yummy. Since the base for the Hungarian sauce was a mushroom sauce I decided to add, you guessed it, mushrooms! I first caramelized up some onions and mixed mushroom, sauteed some shrimp, deglazed the pan with some lemon juice, slathered on the Hungarian sauce, and voila...dinner!

But what to do with the Creole sauce? In general I am not a big fan of creole food, but I am a fan of andouille sausage, which is a common sausage used in creole cooking. So I crisped up some andouille, threw in some peppers, onions, and the creole sauce. Served over some cheesy mashed potatoes (because you can NEVER have too much cheese) this turned out to be pretty darn good and very satisfying on a blustery winter day.

As for the Mornay sauce, well I ate that heated up with some toasted bread for dunking (classy, I know). Not a culinary masterpiece, but still good enough that when I reached the bottom of the bowl I was kinda sad.

Labor of Love

Another week of culinary adventures has passed, and I must say I'm not all that sorry to see it go. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed each and every class, but this weeks' lessons of stocks and sauces was akin to getting a facial in chicken essence and watching grass grow. Monday was spent making large vats of white chicken stock (beauty shot above) and brown veal stock, and Tuesday filled with the fishy goodness of fish stock, fish fumet (just a boozier version of the fish stock), lobster stock, and the wonderfully stink-free vegetable stock. While Monday's lesson left me with a serious hankering for chicken soup, Tuesday class left me tired (that's a lot of stock to make in one class) and reeking of fish.

After all that toil and trouble, and yes, the cauldron did bubble, it was time to utilize our finished stocks to make yummy sauces! Brown veal stock became espagnole (a brown gravy like sauce), demi-glace (even more tasty), and a bordelaise (so good I could have eaten it with a spoon). The white chicken stock was the base of a veloute, which is just a fancy way of saying thickened meat stock, and a yummy tomato sauce, which would then go on to be the base of a Creole sauce. While the veloute was nothing special, it was then used to make a supreme sauce, which is just a mushroom infused sauce- why they call it supreme I have no idea. The supreme sauce was perfectly yummy just the way it was, but we then used it to make yet another sauce-the paprika tinted Hungarian sauce. In addition to this bounty of sauces, we also made a thickened milk sauce called a béchamel, which was used as a base for two types of cheese sauces.

So after this week of simmering and stirring- and quite a lot of dishes- I am left with a new appreciation for the sauce at the bottom of my place, as well as a refrigerator stocked full of my weeks' hard work. Bon appetit!

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

What is this you see? A bribe, and not a fair one at that. This plate of chocolaty goodness was our reward, so to speak, for tasting a tray full of not so pleasant items. While the majority of the items were fairly benign (cantaloupe, bacon, yogurt, prosciutto, etc.), some were so icky that I wish I had a tounge scraper so that I could purge my mouth of that flavor as quickly as possible. What could be so bad? Ever try eating a whole salted anchiove? What about bitters? Papaya? Yuck! While I don't mind anchovies in things (as long as they are chopped into tiny pieces that are only visible by microscope), I feel quite strongly that papaya is probably the most disgusting fruit out there, and that bitters has no place in a cocktail (it tasted like the nasty stuff in cough syrup). You may ask, was the chocolate worth all that pain and suffering? I don't know, but it sure was good.

Kitchen Bound

Once apon a time, in a land of sunhine and palm trees, there lived a girl. And on this day the girls' dreams were about to come true- she would finally be allowed in the kitchen. That's right folks, the first day of kitchen instruction begins! Now don't get too excited, I didn't actually do any cooking, but at 6pm I stood in kitchen one, decked out in my chef's coat, pants, a black beanie (which thank God didn't look to silly), and my shiny new kitchen shoes, with my knives at the ready. Although we didn't get to cook - or touch any food for that matter - yesterday's session was still pretty interesting. We were introduced to the kitchen we'll be learning in for the next eight months, got tours of the rest of the facility, and were shown the set-up/break-down procedures for each session. Tomorrow's session: beginning of Building Blocks of Flavor!

Yuck

All I can say about this week's lessons is that people are filthy animals! This week we had our Food Safety and Sanitation section and boy was it stomach churning. You would not believe (and really don't want to know) some of the things that stupid people are doing in food operations. What it boils down to is that there are idiots out there that have no problem serving you their poo and charging you for it. Ick, ick, ICK! So the lesson of the day, wash your hands people. Please!

So yesterday was Resume writing and intro to Intro to Business Management. What really had an impact on me was all the non-cooking technical aspects that go into being an executive chef. You not only have to be a great cook, but you also have to "make your numbers." When you design a menu of course it has to taste great, but also for each menu item you have to do a cost analysis and ensure that meets your goal for percent food cost. At the end of the day it's a money making business. While I don't have any clue how to figure this all out yet, I'm confident that my mad math skills will be up to the challenge.

Side note- some of the competitive team was practicing again yesterday and we got to try one of the finished plates. It was a cornish hen saltimbocca with ratatouille, mini meatballs, fresh spinach pappardelle, sautes chanterelles, and this bangin' smoked tomato butter sauce. The ratatouille lent a brightness to the dish, and the chanterelles were mushroomy goodness, but it was the smoked tomato butter sauce that knocked my socks off- it was so good, I could have licked the plate (but that would have been rude, yes?).

On your marks, get set, GO!

While last night's class was a bit of a repeat of day one, although with the unique style of Chef Kai, we did get a peak into the world of professional cooking competitions. Little did I know, the San Diego Culinary Institute is somewhat of a bad ass in the world of competitive cooking, with an 86% medaling rate. And these are not just students competing against students, no- they are going up against professionals in the field. Last night the current team happened to be practicing in the kitchen adjacent to ours and Chef Kai took us over to observe their progress. Wow! These students have an hour to cook and produce four plates showcasing their skills, and let me say, these guys have got mad skills. It was almost like a dance, they moved with a rhythm, every step timed. In the end their plates not only looked great, but they tasted great as well!

"Tastes like it died screaming."

Biggest take away from day one of culinary school- meat needs to be aged before it is cooked (even eggs) or it will taste nasty. Who knew? Apparently when an animal is killed it takes a while for the muscles in the animal to relax. How this applies to eggs I have no idea. So next time you eat a tough piece of meat, please crack the joke that it "tastes like it died screaming," I know I will. To be continued....

Let Them Eat Cake!

I know it has been forever since my last post, but time flies when you're having fun! The past few months have gone by in the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that I have been in San Diego for four months already! Life has been crazy but wonderful. Work keeps me busy during the week, and the weekends have been jam packed with gardening, failed surfing attempts, cooking, whiling away the hours in my hammock with a good book, cruising the dog beach with Kairi, and exploring my new city.

But enough about me and back to the purpose of this post...cakes! A birthday is not a birthday without cake, am I right? So far this year we've celebrated two birthdays at work, and I've baked cakes for both. I need to preface this by saying, I am challenged in the baking department, but what I lack in skills, I make-up with a healthy since of adventure, guile, and the ability to google yummy cake recipes. I must admit, my first attempt at cake baking was a fake-a-bake (don't tell anyone). I found a yummy cake recipe, chocolate cake with raspberry filling and dark chocolate frosting, and took the semi-homemade approach to it- I bought boxed cake mix and frosting mix, and made my own raspberry filling. I don't think it was total cheating, since all boxed mixes are is measured out dry ingredients, I was just being efficient with my time and letting the store work for me...or at least that is what I keep telling myself. Despite, or rather because of, cheating the cake turned out well and was gobbled up by my co-workers. This initial success gave me the confidence I need to finally attempt to make a cake entirely from scratch, gasp!

For my first 100% homemade cake I found a scrumptious looking chocolate peanut butter cake on one of my favorite food blogs. Let me elaborate, this was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a chocolate peanut butter ganache, OMG! Could I have picked a more complicated cake for my first attempt!?! In my mind, the appeal of this cake was the chocolate peanut butter ganache, which you pour over the cake and allow to ooze down it, thereby hiding any frosting mistakes that were bound to occur. Armed with cake making suggestions courtesy of Momma, I was ready to bake! Despite its fancy pants name, this was actually a very easy cake to make. Once the cake layers we baked and cooled, they were brushed liberally with simple syrup and layered with the very yummy peanut butter cream cheese frosting- I know it sounds nasty, but cream cheese and peanut butter actually worked well together, who knew? Once the cake was stacked, and slightly resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I suffered through application of the crumb coat of frosting, a thin layer of frosting meant to trap crumbs on the surface, let it chill, and then put the final coat of frosting on that bad boy. After a final chilling, copious amounts of ganache was poured over the top, and I called it a day.

And how did it turn out? Perfection (if I do say so myself)!

My New City

It's hard to believe that I've been in San Diego only a week, so much has happened. The craziest by far has been starting my new job, which has been fraught with uncertainty, hectic, challenging, and exiting all rolled into one. That, and having to change my sleep schedule to wake-up at the crack of dawn, has left me exhausted at the end of the day. But instead of going home to fall into a sleep coma, I had to first scour the city for potential places to live. But at long last, or rather a week later, I have found me and Kairi a new home.

Many factors had to be taken into account when selecting the proper home for me and my pooch, something that would be a good fit for the both of us. And let me tell you my friends, I couldn't have chosen better. I am proud to say that Kairi and I will soon be residents of the neighborhood of Normal Heights. I think one of my favorite parts of San Diego is the small communities within the city of San Diego itself: Hillcrest, North Park, Normal Heights, University Heights. They are little clusters of culture that have some much character that they just beg to be explored. As for my new place, the real selling point for me is that it will have a courtyard area/fenced in yard that is all mine! Mine to do with as I will- a dog run for Kairi, a garden of potted plants and veggies for me, and a big outdoor table for friends and family, it's the trifecta! Add in the large bathroom and kitchen, washer/dryer hook-up, proximity to dog parks/ dog beaches (oh my God Kairi is gonna freak!), and a designated parking spot, you have my own little paradise. Until next time friends...