Culinary lab

So this week we made soup and salad, yum.  Athena made French Onion Soup, Alex and Liz made Corn Chowder, Nick and Irisa made Cream of Celery, Julie and Jasmine made Pea soup, and Patrick and I made Shrimp Bisk.  All the soup was very good, although I did not particularly like the Shrimp Bisk.  When I made it I forgot to burn the shery and it tasted a little funny.  We also made homemade mayonase, with warm egg you wip it off heat with a thittle vinegar to help eith emulsification, and you slowly add vinegar and oil.

The flat fish we used for this lab was Fluke.  The differnce between a flat fish and a round fish is that a flat fish had 4 fillets while a round fish has only 2.  We made Poached Popiette with scalop and fluke force meat, and you put the stuffing in the skin side so that it will curk naturaly around the stuffing, and you shallow poach it in fish stock.  The second item we made was a popiotte ( the two words for these separate procedures is slitghly different, however i am a bad speller and i am unsure of the correct way to spell them).  We also did scallops, pan searing them until they were only slighty squishy, and for the sauce i believe most of us used the same ingredients which was: bacon, onions, and cream.  One of the rules of seafood preparation is to make sure that they are still alive, or they will be either mushy or completely liquidfied.  I think my dad already ate all that i brought home and he said that it was all very tasty.

This week Chef Behr and Chef Brown instructed our class.  We fabricated a round fish, which has two fillays.  First we gutted the fish(the guts smelled really bad!), then deboned and skined the fillays.  It was a little wierd at first, cutting through the bone.  Chef Behr showed us two ways to bread and fry, and he also sauted half a fillay.  It was all really yummy and we got done a little early.

This week we did chicken agian, but with the moist heat cooking method.  First we fabricated a chicken to get our individual cuts: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 breasts, 2 wings, and 2 fingers.

The legs and thighs we braised (wihch is a dry and moist heat, also know as a combination method), you do this by first , dredging in flour, and brown the meat, skin side down,in oil, flip the meat, and take out when both sides are browned, drain off some of the oil if necassary, and and spices and a cold liquid(cream, wine), so that the fond will be released, and finish in the oven.

One breast we poached and one we diced and stewed, i did not particularly care for the stew, but the chicken was still good.  The poaching is simmering a piece of meat in an acid, seasoning, and a liquid(cream or wine), and you nedd enough liquid to cover the meat. cook temp. is 160-185.

The wings we deep fried and doused in hot sause. they were really yummy.

The tenders we steamed en papiot (in paper).  I think every one did theirs basically the same: onions on bottom, apples layered next, s&p, then the fingers, some more s&p, and then i put cream over top.  And a lesson: do not grab a hot pan with your bare hand.

So, this week we fabricated a chicken.  I won’t descibe the whole process, because I am not sure how i would do that and it would take up alot of words, and room.  After we fabricated the chicken we had 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 breasts, 2 legs, and 2 chicken fingers.  We breaded and fries the fingers(YUM), and we made hot sauce for the wings, i don’t know how they tasted i didn’t get any.  With the legs we lolipoped them( although I forgot to do that), seasoned them with lemon pepper, and baked them.  The thighs we pounded out, wraped around stuffing, breaded, and fried( I think ?), and then baked( I’m nto sure about the last 2 stepps, i was doing something else).  With the breasts, first of all there was part of the wings bone still on it(perposefully), we deskined and deboned one, and grilled it; with the other one, with the wing bone still connected, we sauted it, and finished it in the oven, and Athena made the sauce, it looks so good. When you saute you start with the presentation side down first(the skin side) and pour the hot oil over the top of the breast to get an even cook, and turn it when the skin side is browned. Chef Bakus-Foster showed us Velute sauce(a mothe rsauce) and we used it in the saute sauce.

This week in lab we had our veg cut practical, i havent gotten my grade back yet, but i think i did pretty good. Then Chef Backus-Foster showed us what asidulated water and a basic solution can do do various veggitables. Asidulated water makes green veggies an olive drab and very hard, a basic solution makes them a bright green and very mushy. As i said different things happent to different vegitables and if you leave them in the water to long the nutrience and color will leach out. After that we made some onion rings(breaded and battered) and Jullie anad Jasmine made soup.

Roux: equal parts of fat and flour, by weight.

Napee: coat the spoon.

Thurday morning lab we made pasta, home made pasts that is. And some Barley Pilof, and Pilof is a method not a recipe, as is the Risotto that we made with rice. And we made three other pasta or rice related items that i cant remember the names of because im really tired right now and have a head ache. But we got to use the paste flatener/cutter and we didint have to do that part of it by hand, the other by hand part being making the pasta. Back to the Pilof and the Risotto, one of the main differances is that for the Pilof after you sauted the onion in the butter,  coated the grain in the fat, and put 2 cups of water in the pan, you covered it and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes, and for the Risotto after the onions and grain coating, you slowly add the 2 cups of water( adding when the grain has soaced up all the moisture from the previous adding) and you continue to do that until the grain is no longer crunchy, but has a sauce like quality. And the word from last week that i could not remember is Au Sec.

This wek we did our breakfast lab. we did pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs benadict, fried eggs, and omletts, we also had some bacon and sausage(yum). It all tasted pretty good, including the eggs benadict which i had never  had before, although i aver cooked the sauce a little. and Chef Backus-Foster told us to write something in our journals and i didnt do it and know i dont know what it is. my apologies.

This week in lab we did potatoes, cut a lot of  Tournes and some Batonnets(which made very good fries). We learned how to use the Mandaline(not the instrument). We learned what a Dauphinoise is( a nice browned cheese), doesn’t that sound delicious? we made some Dueches, which were a little bland because we didn’t have any sauce with them. And we oiled and S. P. G.ed the Tournes and baked them like home friese. We also made  a dish much like scalloped potatoes( that may have been the Dauphinoise) and that was deliciou, although I believe I used to much cream.

The first day went well, I think. The lab kitchen is professional and open. Mrs. Backus-Foster is a very good instructor. And I learned many different cutting techniques(?).