Am I a chef yet?

Call me Neil.

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 05:58:00 +0000

I haven't posted on here in a long time, and I think that's for a lot of reasons. But first, I want to get back to the main question here; Am I a chef yet?

I have been called a chef on numerous occasions, (here's a good one!) but I don't feel like one. Whenever someone calls me 'chef' I will very quickly correct them, asking them to call me Neil. I didn't really realize it as it was happening, but over the past year and a half, I think that has become one of my legacies. I'm a cook, and I always will be.

No matter what anyone says, i'm still an archaeologist, i'm still a trombone player, i'm still a kid that grew up in Connecticut and spent his summers on a cattle ranch in Oregon. I'm still all these things, and I always will be. What will I be in the future? I don't know exactly, but I have a few things that I know I would like to be. One thing for sure that I would like to be is a person that supports the people around me, whether it be friends, family, coworkers, or strangers. Basically, if someone has a question or needs help, I want to do everything I can to help.

Ad Hoc has been incredible, and now I am in the process of moving on to the next adventure. A lot of people have been asking me what I'm doing next, and the answer is; I am going to cook.

I love to cook. Some people tell you that if you love to cook, don't do it professionally because you won't like it anymore. This didn't happen to me. All i've been doing for the last two years is cooking. When I wasn't at work (Ad Hoc) I was cooking four course dinners with beer pairings with a friend at Mission Gastroclub. All I've wanted to do is cook, and try new things, and just make really good food that hopefully people will enjoy, because I enjoy making it.

This all feels really weird, telling everyone what's on my mind, but a lot of people are asking, and I guess that's what a blog is for: telling. So right now I'm looking for a cooking job somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area. Of the ten places i've lived and numerous places i've visited in the 28 years of my life, this is definitely one of my favorite, and the environment is incredible. I am so happy here, and i'm making a living here.

Ad Hoc

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:28:00 +0000

This blog has taken a back seat in my life for the past few months beacuse I feel like I have finally achieved my goal.

I finished my three months at The French Laundry on the last day of February, and on the first day of March, I started working at Ad Hoc. In some ways, ad hoc is exactly the same as The French Laundry. Every day we do a different menu. At ad hoc we have a set menu, but ours is four courses, whereas at The French Laundry the menu is anywhere from 9-20 courses. Ad hoc is different because everyone eats the same thing, which is so incredible. It's like home; we serve all four courses family style, so everyone at the table can serve each other. But we still put every bit of detail into producing the best tasting food that every chef at The French Laundry will put into their food.

I am so happy to be a part of ad hoc. On my first day, I was pushed harder than I ever was at The French Laundry. This was partly because I had more responsibilites at ad hoc, but this was also because I felt like I was part of something, finally.

I will continue to talk about this place over and over again (ad hoc) because it means so much to me. I am so incredibly happy that I work at this restaurant. We do such incredible things every day. We push ourselves harder than we did the day before, making every day the best ever. My chef has a phrase, "Be better than history today". It's simple, but it means so much.

When I decided I wanted to cook, I wanted to cook the best food possible; I wanted to create something incredible every day; something completely new and awesome yet completely approachable. I dreamed that I would someday be able to create history, and now i'm doing it, and i'm so happy because of it.

For the first month, I was in charge of plating the cheese course and the dessert course. This was really hard for me, I was not used to serving people wish such urgency, and I was not very good in the beginning. I knew I had to push myself really hard every day, but only in the last few weeks have I really understood what that meant. I'm starting to understand, and it's still really hard work, but so incredibly rewarding. To be able to say that I create something people can sit back and look at in awe is so incredible. I'm using the word 'incredible' so much because that's what it feels like to me.

Before we open the doors to let customers in, everyone in the kitchen makes a tester plate so the whole restaurant can taste the menu of the night. The whole kitchen staff and the whole dining room staff stand around and talk about the menu. We in the kitchen talk about why we made things the way we made them, and the dining room staff can ask any questions they want about the menu. We embrace it so the customers can feel how important everything is to everyone in the restaurant.

Today, for the first time ever, I was involved with the main course. I was given the chance to cook the steaks. Tonight we did a steakhouse theme. For the first course we did a baby iceberg and watercress salad with easter egg radishes sliced very thing, baby red beets, brioche crutons and bacon with a herb cream dressing on the side. A very simple, bright, sweet, crunchy salad. The main course was an 18oz bone-in ribeye steak. It was a beautiful piece of meat. When I served it, I told the chef that if my grandpa saw that steak he would be proud. The steak was served with sauteed red potatoes, oyster, beech and maitake mushrooms, and asparagus with an tomato confit vinaigrette. The cheese course was a tasting of three different cheeses; local camembert, as well as cow and sheep's milk cheese with a side of endive sald with pickled haricots verts and toasted almonds. The dessert was strawberry shortcake with local macerated straweberries and chantilly cream.

No one should leave ad hoc hungry, and this is for a lot of reasons. If a customer came in tonight and told us they didn't eat red meat, that wouldn't be a problem. We are here to serve you! No one should ever come to ad hoc and accomodate themself for us. It is my purpose to accomodate you! We had fresh ivory salmon cooked to perfection to order. Say you are vegetarian, or even vegan; we will accomodate you! We can give you a special plate just for you. We will even give you a substitute for the cheese and dessert. Ad hoc is more than just the food; it's an experience. We will do everything in our power to give you the best experience you will not forget. I mean it.

Courses 8-11

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:53:00 +0000

1969 Sercial d'Olivera
A madiera, a sweet wine that has notes of vanilla, oak and caramel.

Course 8: Chestnut maple souffle with truffle sauce poured over the top. For this, it is a simple souffle, with a base of chestnuts, flour, sugar, maple syrup and egg yolks. Then, egg whites are whipped with sugar and folded into the the base. The truffle sauce is made with truffle stock and veal sauce.

This was so delicious. A light, slightly sweet fluffy souffle topped with a luxurious truffle sauce. Perfect pairing with the madiera.

Vina Godeval
The grape varietal is godello, a Spainish grape slightly like Chardonnay.

Veal heart with pistachios, romaine, sour cherries and cocoa pudding.
The veal heart brined for 24 hours and then vacuum packed and cooked in a 174.9 degree water bath for another 24 hours. This makes the heart extremely tender. It is sliced very thin and reheated in duck fat. The romaine is lightly dressed with olive oil, and the cocoa pudding is made with chocolate, cream and egg yolk.

Next, I was served a butter roll from the Bouchon Bakery down the street with two different butters. On the left is the Andante dairy butter, locally made. This was cut into 36 gram portions and then hand shaped in cheesecloth. On the right is Diane St. Clair butter, which is from Vermont. This butter is slightly tart, like a buttermilk flavor.

Salad: Sunchoke, compressed apple, toasted marcona almonds with a spicy mustard gastrique. The sunchoke is the root of the sunflower. These are turned (meaning carved by hand with a knife) and blanched. The apple is compressed in a vacuum bag. The gastrique is a blend of sugar, vinegar and mustard seed.

A very nice salad to cool down the palate.

Gargamelli, gidori duck egg, iberico ham, asparagus, and shaved black truffle from Provence.
Gargamelli is a type of pasta that is made in house. The ham is from Spain, where the pig's diet is primarily acorns. The asparagus is blanched in salted water.

When I received the plate, there was no truffle on it, but then a server came with a small black box with a lock on it, and pulled out a black truffle and shaved about 10 slices on top of my plate. Truffles have a very powerful aroma, earthy and funky; so incredible.

Courses 3-7

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:08:00 +0000

"Clam Chowder"
Geoduck clams with house made bacon, potato balls, spring onions and micro parsley in a toasted corn consomme.
If you don't know what a geoduck is, look it up, they're crazy clams, with a great flavor.
The clams are broken down and the meat is blanched. The potatoes are scooped with a parisenne scoop and cooked slowly in clarified butter.
The toasted corn consomme was one of the highlights of this dish. Amazing sweet, toasty corn flavor in a perfectly clear broth. The corn is toasted and cooked in a vegetable stock (which is something I used to make at 5:30 in the morning!). This vegetable stock has carrots, leeks, celery, onion and turnip in it, with garlic, button mushrooms and whole peeled tomatoes as the aromatics. After the corn is cooked in this stock, it is clarified with a egg white raft, which collects all the proteins in the liquid, making it perfectly clear.

I didn't think of it when I was eating it, but one of the chefs came by and asked me what I thought, and he said, "clam chowder", and I thought, "of course!"

At many fine restaurants they give you a spoon that is only used for the caviar, and this is one of them; made entirely of mother of pearl. Mother of pearl has a completely neutral flavor, whereas steel does not, which would take away from the flavor of the caviar.

Pig's head with nusturtium flowers, creme fraiche sauce and California white sturgeon caviar.

Pig's head is such a great thing. Here, all the meat from the head of the pig is carved off (cheeks and such), wrapped in cheesecloth in a cylinder and cooked sous vide for 8-12 hours. It is then sliced, battered and fried, giving it a crunchy texture on the outside and meltingly tender on the inside. So incredible. The creme fraiche is a very simple sauce, maybe whipped with a little bit of agar or gelatin to make it a little thicker and seasoned.
The tartness of the creme fraiche was a perfect complement to the sweet meat from the pig. And then the caviar! For all of the dishes, every individual component is incredible, and then when you taste them all together, also incredible. I made a point to taste every single component as well as all the components together, and it was awesome.

Uni with seawater snow, cucumber, and sesame sorbet and micro green garnish.
Uni is sea urchin. The French Laundry gets this from Japan, where it is a very sought after product. It has a very tender texture, and cannot be cooked. The cucumber is cooked sous vide and cut into perfect small dice. The sesame sorbet is made with sesame paste, a little bit of sugar and milk, then put through the ice cream machine. The seawater snow, I believe is made by putting salted water through the paco jet, which is a machine that will quickly freeze any liquid while whipping it at the same time. It was a great way to salt the dish.

The uni was salty and sweet, it was great. The sorbet was incredible, such pure sesame flavor and creamy.

Halibut wing with cured trout roe and microparsley.
This was like no other fish i've ever tasted, so perfect. It was so meltingly tender, I believe it had to be oil poached, at a very low temperature. The trout roe were cured, so they were very salty, little explosions of flavor in your mouth.

This dish was incredible. The halibut was so tender, so flavorful, I love fish, but I didn't know fish could be this good. The roe was such a perfect complement. The eggs would be in my mouth and I wanted to explode every single one of them just so I could taste them. I remember thinking, "I don't want these to just go through my digestive system without tasting them in my mouth!"

Fried Japanese squid with watercress, pine nuts, rice and a ponzuri sauce.

I've seen the chefs process the squid, and it's incredible. The tube is flattened out and scored on a diagonal to create the markings that you see on it in this picture. When it is fried, it curls up. Watercress; the most perfect leaves, picked by hand so there are no blemishes. Rice is cooked in a rice cooker and ponzu sauce is added to it. Ponzu is soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, kumquat and dashi, a japanese paste.

Awesome looking plate, great texture on the squid and such a flavorful rice. The little bits of kumquat in the rice were awesome; the little citrus bits in there with such intense flavor.

My Foray Into Fine Dining.

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:22:00 +0000

My three months at The French Laundry have come to a close. I am both sad and ecstatic about this. Ecstatic because I will now begin my career in the restaurant industry, sad because it was one of the greatest experiences a person could have. Every single person at The French Laundry was so passionate about their career and so incredibly welcoming to me. This is such a great environment to learn in. I was pushed so hard by every single person in so many different ways. The things I have learned will stay with me for a very long time, and those things are so pervasive they have permeated every aspect of my life; effecting how I do every task in my life.

To finish my time at The French Laundry, I received the privilege of dining at The French Laundry, but not just in the dining room, but in "The Box", which is Thomas Keller's tiny office walled with windows looking right into the kitchen. And i'm not saying I can just see the kitchen, I can see every plate that is made and what every person in the kitchen is doing at all times. It was an incredible experience. Dining here was such an incredible feeling, with all the chefs and waiters coming by and saying hello to me and checking in on me.

Coming into the front of the restaurant (instead of the back door to the kitchen) was definitely different, but it felt right, and everyone does everything in their power to make you feel like the most special person in the world, and this feeling lasted the entire five and one-half hours I spent dining at The French Laundry.

Because my meal consisted of 20 courses, it's going to be impossible for me to do this in one post, so stay tuned, this will all come out in the next few days.

As you can see, my view of the kitchen is quite spectacular, here with my Ployez-Jacquement champagne, bottled specially for The French Laundry.

My first course was a Gruyere Cheese gougere. To prepare this, one must made pate a choux dough, which involves cooking butter, water, salt, sugar and flour in a pan until it becomes sticky. Eggs are then added to the dough, then it is piped onto a pan, covered with grated cheese and baked for 7 to 8 minutes at 350. They poof up when baked, so they are slightly hollow in the middle.

Next course is a Thomas Keller classic; a dish imagined before Thomas Keller's French Laundry was even born. This "cornet" is topped with salmon tartare and filled with red onion creme fraiche. To produce this dish, the commis make the dough for the cones at 5:30 in the morning. This is a simple batter of flour, sugar, salt and butter. It is rolled on a cone when still hot to make that shape.

For the salmon tartare, the salmon fillets are minced very finely by hand with a very sharp knife. Then olive oil, lemon oil, minced chives, minced shallots, salt and pepper are added.

To make the red onion creme fraiche, the red onions are finely minced and dried. The creme fraiche is whipped to soft peaks, and then the onions, salt and pepper are added.

To finish, the creme fraiche is piped into the bottom of the cone, and the salmon is scooped with a small spoon and placed on top. Then a chive tip is placed right on top of the salmon.

Courses to come: "Clam Chowder", Pig's Head, Uni, Halibut, Squid

A Night of Service

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Five stars means a lot of effort, a lot of time, a lot of passion, and a lot of hard work.

I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I’m still alive. My time at The French Laundry has been very intense, and I have learned so much in the process. My time is almost over, and I have a big surprise to show everyone here after I am done, so don’t give up hope on me yet.

In a given day, the tasks that I am asked to complete are extremely varied. I could be doing anything from picking through pounds and pounds of lettuce greens to find the most perfect leaves to making tomato compote, a sauce that tastes like pure tomatoes. I haven’t had a chance to finish plates, but I have been in the kitchen during service many times, and it is a very awesome experience.

Every person that dines at The French Laundry gets at least nine courses, and for each plate, there are four or five items on each plate, each cooked to perfection. There is a main item (meat, seafood, cheese or vegetable), two or three secondary items (usually starches, vegetables, fruits, and nuts) and a sauce. To make all this happen, there is a head chef, a sous chef, and five chef de parties. There is a chef de partie for the canapés, or the first course, a chef de partie for the salads, a chef de partie for the three seafood courses, a chef de partie for the meat courses, a chef de partie for the cheese course, and two pastry chefs. Every diner can get anywhere from nine to 13+ courses. I say 13+ because if you are considered a VIP, there are special courses that aren’t listed on the menu. And there are two different tasting menus! This means there are 26+ different plates that come out of the kitchen, all cooked to perfection.

I just went through the menu, and I counted about 121+ different items on the menu that are prepared for the entire menu. This is a lot of work, and it takes a very large crew to make it all happen, and happen to perfection.

This is "The Pass" where the chef does most of the plating.

It is a very busy place; hurried, but also very deliberate and intense.

Here, the chef is working on the lobster plates.

The finesse shown by every person in this kitchen is extraordinary.

The small silver plates are for the Black Truffle Custard, a VIP only item.

Here's a picture of the stove on the Canape and Fish stations.

And, a little bit of food: Brined veal tongue with brussels sprout leaves, black trumpet mushrooms on a bed of Tuscan Lentils.

Living in wine country

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Some of you may know, and some of you may not, but I have finished my classes at culinary school, and now I am on my externship at The French Laundry. Culinary school finished well, and I learned so much. It was a lot of work, but 100% worth it.

The externship is a requirement of most culinary schools. Basically, what you have to do is find a job at a restaurant and work there for three months, to get real experience. Some externships are paid, many are not. In my case, it is not, but I am working at The French Laundry, in the Napa Valley in California, and learning so much.

This is an incredible restaurant. The standards we follow are probably some of the highest in the industry, and it is an intense place to work. After working here for three weeks, the best word to describe it is intense. It is a beautiful restaurant, from top to bottom; showing the hard work and attention to detail that has been put into this place. The detail that I have to put into everything I do is so incredible, and I can imagine that it shows when one comes to dine here.

I have a lot of things to say about this place, and hopefully in the next few weeks I can shed some light on what it's like to work here, because being here is an incredible experience. The people I am working with are some top notch people. Everyone in the kitchen is so knowledgeable and intelligent, especially when it comes to food and working in the kitchen.

Here are some examples of the atmosphere I am working in:

Under every clock there is a small plaque that says "Sense of Urgency"
There is a live video feed of the kitchen in the sister restaurant, per se in New York
There is a plaque in the back prep kitchen that says, "When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy. That's what cooking is all about."

This last quote is from Thomas Keller's "The French Laundry Cookbook." This is the motto of the restaurant. It gives purpose as to why I am picking through five pounds of arugula to find the 100 most perfect leaves. It gives purpose as to why every egg shell I trim has to be perfectly smooth where it is cut. It gives purpose when I am straining stock at least three times. It gives purpose when I am cleaning mushrooms that every single speck of dirt is gone.

Everything is in incredible detail, and it is a very intense atmosphere to be in. Every day I am being pushed to produce the best product possible, pushed to do my best, by the people around me and myself.

I don't have any more pictures of the restaurant, or the food yet, but here are some pictures of Napa Valley in December, around 62 degrees.

Tarts

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:49:00 +0000

Wow, it's almost been two months. I hope you haven't been holding your breath.

It is September 4th, and next week I start International Cuisine; the last class (three weeks long) before the six weeks of Restaurant Practical. If you're in the Portland area, I recommend you come by the school restaurant, because I will either be cooking or serving.

But right now, I'm practicing my desserts for my final practical test for the school (which is in the first week of the Restaurant Practical).

So here's a tart I made.

When it comes to baking, I have learned that a scale is the most important thing. Measuring flour cannot be done perfectly without it. Flour can clump together, so you could essentially fit a lot more into a cup, but the scale will not lie to you. Also, with baking, having the perfect amount of some of these ingredients is essential. These recipes aren't thrown together, they have been perfected over centuries, so please get a scale.

So, the essential ingredients are pastry flour, sugar, chilled butter, salt, lemon zest, eggs, and a little water.

Here, I am going to make pâte brisée (translation: broken dough), which is a short dough, meaning it is high in shortening, or fat, or butter.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt together.

Now, take the butter (make sure it's cold), and break it up into small, pea-sized bits. Using a cheese grater helps a lot. My hands are quite warm, so if I broke it up with my fingers, it would melt, which I don't want to happen.

Add the cut butter to the flour, and mix with your fingertips, making sure to 'cut' the butter into the flour. This is basically making sure the butter is still in small, pea-sized bits, and not completely mixed with the dry ingredients.

It should look like oatmeal, and there should be no big (bigger than a peanut) butter bits.

Now, mix the eggs, water, vanilla and lemon zest.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet.

Mix lightly to make a soft dough. You don't need to completely mix it yet.

Lay out the dough on a lightly floured surface, and knead a few times until it's completely mixed and holds its shape well.

When it gets to the point that the ball feels greasy, stop, because that means you are melting the butter.

Now, wrap in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for at least a half hour.

... a half hour later ...

Lay your dough ball out on a floured surface. Let it sit for a few minutes to kind of warm up, so it's pliable, or mash it around in your hands for a few seconds.

Pound it out and roll it out.

Pâte brisée should be rolled out to about 1/8 inch thick.

If you're having a hard time picking up the dough without breaking it, roll it around the rolling pin, and lay it on top of the tart pan.

Don't stretch the dough, because it will shrink when you bake it. Lightly press the dough into the corners, and push it down over the edge of the pan to cut off the extra.

Now, line it with a layer of cookie crumbs to absorb the liquid that will come out of the fruit.

Here i've got some really nice peaches and apricots from the Portland Farmer's Market, which are delicious and in perfect season right now.

Slice the peaches and apricots around the pit to de-pit them.

Slice them up!

Lay the slices in the tart shell as decoratively as you can. The peaches here are the focus here, so it's ok if it looks a little 'rustic'.

I put a few layers down, sprinkled some sugar over the top, put another layer in, and sprinkled some more sugar on top.

At this point, the tart makes itself.

Put it in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. The fruit should get very tender and the dough should brown slightly.

While it's baking, you can make the apricot glaze that goes on top, to make it more appealing and shiny.

You can use whole apricots, but i just bought some apricot preserves and melted them in a pan with some water.

Bring it up to a boil, and when everything dissolves . . .

Strain it.

And it's baked!

Just brush the apricot glaze on top.

Candy

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:16:00 +0000

I made some candy in class.

We had to temper chocolate, heat sugar to different temperatures to create different textures, fill truffles and make marzipan fruit. It was al very interesting and fun.

Oh yeah, it was tasty too.

We made French truffles, Swiss truffles, kiwi jellies, nougat, caramels coated in chocolate, French macaroons, coconut macaroons, almond florentines, pecan brittle, and marzipan flavored fruit shapes.

Some of my Creations

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:09:00 +0000

I don't have any demos to give you, but here are a few things I made at school in the last few weeks.

Right now i'm in the Advanced Pattiserie and Baking class, and for the first week we made some cakes.

This is a chocolate ganache cake with hazelnut japonais, which is a meringue disk.

This is a lemon cake with lemon custard in the middle and lemon buttercream frosting.

Here is an ice sculpture a few of us made in class.

And my melon carving. This whole thing was done with a paring knife.

Blinis

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Here's another recipe I got from the French Laundry cookbook.

I've tried to make potato pancakes from scratch before, and I haven't been too successful, but this recipe is excellent. The final product has a great mouth feel and is a great vehicle for other things on top.

You can serve these as an appetizer with savory toppings. You can serve them as a side dish, or you can make them big and serve them for breakfast! (I think that's what Crystal wants the most.)

Ingredients:
1 lb Yukon gold potatoes
2 Eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons creme fraiche (or sour cream)
Kosher salt to taste
White pepper to taste

You want to keep two eggs whole and separate out the yolk from the third.

Put the potatoes in a pan with cold water and make sure there is at least two inches of water on top of the potatoes. If you start with cold water, the final texture of the cooked potato is more creamy and consistent, not gummy.

Bring to a boil and when it boils, turn down to a simmer. Cook the potatoes until the potatoes are throughly cooked and tender. The whole process, from cold water to finish took me about a half hour, but if you get to a boil quicker, it will take less time. Once the water boils, turn it down!! If you continue to boil the potatoes, the starch granules will explode, and the final product won't be as nice!

Here's a nice simmer.

When the potatoes are done, peel them. They will be hot, but it is important to keep them warm, because if the potatoes cool down too much they won't absorb the liquids later.

I mashed them with a hand masher and ran them through the food processor to get all the lumps out. A food mill would be nice, a potato ricer, or a tamis.

A tamis is nice because it makes the potato very fine and consistent.

Weigh out 9 ounces of potato (a little more than half of your original product. Whisk in the flour and two tablespoons of the cream.

Add one egg, whisk until the batter is smooth and the egg is well incorporated, add another egg, whisk until smooth and incorporated, and add the yolk last.

Here's the consistency you want. It holds a thick "V" when you pour it, but it isn't too thick or too runny.

If it's too thick, add some sour cream.

If it's too runny, add a pinch of flour.

Cook the blinis in a non stick pan. You can fry them in butter, but if you want a more even browning, just right in the pan is great.

You can do whatever size you want. Here, I'm making them for hors d'oeuvre, but if I were making them for breakfast, I would do a five inch diameter circle.

Here they are topped with smoked salmon and a touch of cream cheese on the left and bacon on the right.

Citrus Marinated Salmon with Navel Orange Confit and a Coulis of Sugar snap peas and Caviar

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:07:00 +0000

Right now I am in the Advanced Garde Manger class. So far we have made mascarpone cheese, lemon cheese, ricotta cheese, creme fraiche, mozzarella, smoked duck breast, tuna confit, gravlax, horseradish-beet cured salmon and a whole bunch of hors d'oeuvre.

The day we made the tuna confit, we took a fillet of ahi tuna, coated it in a citrus zest cure (containing a lot of salt and a little bit of sugar), cleaned it off and poached it in oil; it was really tasty. When I was making the gravlax, I had a little bit of salmon trim left over, so I coated it in this cure, and poached it in oil. It was incredible. All I had was one, tiny bite, but I liked it a lot.

I remembered that in the French Laundry cookbook there is a recipe for salmon like this.

So, last Thursday I went to my farmer's market looking for some salmon. I remembered that there is usually an American Indian selling some fresh, locally caught salmon. And I got some.

Here are the ingredients. Besides the salmon, there is caviar, navel oranges, grapefruit, lemon, lime, sugar snap peas, olive oil for poaching, vinegar for the navel orange confit, salt, pepper, sugar and chives for garnish.

The focus of this dish is definitely the salmon. This is Coho salmon from the Klickitat River in Washington.

Wild salmon has a very distinctive color. Farmed salmon is a more dull pink because the color is injected. This is about as good as the color can get.

I cut the fillets off this section, just like I did ages ago with the bass.

I cut the filet into sections that are relatively uniform thickness.

Here's the ingredients in the cure:
Zest of 1/2 orange, 1/2 lemon, 1 lime, 1/4 grapefruit.
1/3 cup kosher salt,
2 tablespoons sugar,
1 tablespoon white pepper.

Mix it up.

Lay the cure out on a piece of aluminum foil about the size of the fish.

Lay the salmon on the cure, and coat with the remaining cure.

Wrap the aluminum foil around the salmon and put on a sheet pan.

Cover with another sheet pan to weigh it down a bit. You want to keep it in the cure for an hour for every 1/4 inch of the fish's thickness. For this, it should be around four hours.

Navel Orange Confit:

Cut up the orange into the segments just like for orange supremes.

I then made a simple syrup, which is equal parts sugar and water. 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, put it on heat, dissolve the sugar and just bring to a boil.

Pour the syrup over the oranges, and let cool before you refrigerate. They can be kept for up to a week in the syrup.

It is a confit because the oranges have been immersed in this liquid for flavor and preservation.

Coulis of Sugar Snap Peas

Rinse off the sugar snap peas and pull off the ends.

I blanched them in boiling water for about a minute and shocked in cold water to preserve the color.

A coulis is defined as a fruit or vegetable pureed to a sauce-like consistency.

So, puree the peas. A blender is best for this, if you have one.

Add a little bit of water (no more than a 1/4 cup) so it blends.

You don't have to strain it, but since i'm going to a Classical French cooking school, it's what I do.

Straining it gives it a really nice consistency and mouthfeel.

So that's pretty much it for the plate besides finishing everything off.

Before I get to that, I want to show another garnish. This is going to be citrus dust.

I took the zest of 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime.

I took the zest and put it in a small pan and covered with water. When the water came to a boil, I drained off the hot water and put in fresh cold water and boiled it again. I boiled the zest of each fruit 3 times.

I then laid them out on paper towels to dry, and then on parchment to go in the microwave.

I microwaved them until they were dry. You can tell they're dry when they get brittle and don't hold the heat from the moisture.

After this, I just chopped them up with a knife until they were very fine.

Now, let's finish the plate.

Take the salmon out, rinse off the cure and completely dry with paper towels.

I cut the salmon into a small, two inch by three inch square.

I put enough extra light olive oil in a sauce pan to cover the salmon by at least an inch and heated it to 110 degrees.

My saucepan held the heat nicely, so I took it off the heat. Leave the salmon in for about 14 minutes.

You can see the thinner pieces here turning brighter, meaning they are cooked through. The salmon is done when it just flakes apart.

For the oranges, I just reheated them in a pan.

I did the same for the coulis, just reheated it and melted a few tablespoons butter into it.

And here it is.

I like this preparation because it maintains the great color of the wild salmon.

Poaching it in oil is so nice because it just melts in your mouth.

I wanted to pair a few different beverages with this to see how they did.

Here is a Pouilly-Fuisse Burgundian Chardonnay from Joseph Drouhin and Fred, a Belgian Style Golden from Hair of the Dog.

Something i've learned about food and beverage pairing is that if the food and the drink come from the same region, they probably go together.

I thought Hair of the Dog would be better for this dish because it's local. The fish came from just a few miles away, and the beer came from even fewer miles away, but this "Belgian style Golden" was a little strong. The color is a dark reddish orange, not something I would expect from a Belgian Golden (e.g. Duvel).

The Chardonnay was nice. It wasn't extremely complex, but it let the salmon stay as the dominant flavor, whereas the Fred has some strong yeastiness that overwhelms the flavor of the fish.

So that's it, Wild Coho Salmon poached with a citrus marinade.

Pies & Quiche

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:54:00 +0000

So I am finished with baking, and it was great!

I've done a little bit of bread baking in the past, and I really enjoy it. It was great to really get into it; spending five hours a day baking.

Here is a quiche I made, and I promise to do another post about making pie crust, which is super easy, fun, and the final product is always excellent.

Here is a banana cream pie with cookie crumb crust and chantilly cream on top.

It was super easy to make: Mix the cookie crumbs with butter, pack into the pie crust and bake that off.

When that's done and cooled, you mix a banana with pastry cream (which i'll demo at some point too), fill it into the pie crust, and then pipe in chantilly cream (also really easy to make) in a decorative manner.

Baking

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:13:00 +0000

I'm in the Intro to Baking class, and I had some nice pictures, so I figured I would give an update on my schooling.

When it comes to bread, there are lean doughs and rich doughs. Lean dough is low in fat and sugar. The bread is crisp and crusty. The perfect example of this is French Baguettes.

There is a lot to learn when it comes to bread. Baking is an art that has stayed so constant for a very long time. These baguettes have four ingredients: bread flour, water, salt and yeast. What makes them so distinctive is how they are formed.

True baguettes can only be made by hand. You scale the ingredients, mix them by hand, hydrate (hydrating is resting the dough so the water and flour come together), knead, ferment, punch and fold, ferment again, scale and pre-shape, bench, final shape, proof, score, and finish by baking.
Now, I could make this bread at home, doing all the shaping, and I could bake it in a regular oven, but the crust would not be as attractive. What makes French bread so distinctive is that there is steam in the oven when it is baked.
There is nothing better than a perfect baguette; crispy, lean, and flavorful. I believe that French bread has the perfect balance of crust and crumb.

The first week of class I made baguettes four times to practice the method. I think I will probably make them a few more times in the last week of class because for the final exam we have to make baguettes.

We also made pita bread, which was a lot of fun. They are baked for just a few minutes; until they blow up in the oven.

We made some white bread dough, and we had to form hamburger and hot dog buns. The pre-shapes were rounds and squares.

When it comes to baking, shaping is one of the most important parts.

Gluten (the starches in bread) is a very complex thing, and there is a lot left to chance in baking (or the yeast) and it is important to know how these things work.

When I'm baking bread, I really feel like I am doing what medieval bakers of Europe were doing, It's a lot of fun.

Garde Manger

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:57:00 +0000

I just finished the Garde Manger class. In the classical brigade kitchen, "Garde Manger" is the cold food storage area. The person in charge of Garde Manger prepares salads, cold appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. This may not seem too exciting, but there are some really valuable things to learn about cold food. We prepared some really great appetizers, salads and hors d'oeuvres. We also learned a lot about plating, and how to create an attractive plate.

Here's some seared ahi tuna, shiitake mushroom salad with wasabi cream and sweet soy sauce.

This is a crab and avocado salad with sour cream.

Here's a green salad I made at home. It's mixed baby greens with a lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Every salad plate and appetizer plate needs four things: a main component, side component, sauce and garnish. Here, the main component is the greens, side component is the crostini, sauce is the vinaigrette and the garnish is the cheese and the tomato wedges.

Soba Noodle salad

Hors d'oeuvres:

Pesto deviled eggs

Prosciutto and melon ball canapes

Blue cheese mousse in Belgian Endive leaves

We made a cold soup as well. This is a chicken consomme. A consomme is a clear soup. To make this, you take regular chicken stock, and clarify it with white chicken meat, julienne of mirepoix, egg whites and simmer until clear. The ingredients will create a raft at the top of the pot. After simmering for 45 minutes, drain the liquid off and chill. You can add gelatin to thicken, and finish by seasoning and garnish. This may not be everyone's favorite dish, but it's really attractive; completely clear.
(Photo credit: Chris Grebner)

For one of the tests in this class, we were given a handful of ingredients and had to make a dish from it. My ingredients were: scallops, fennel, frisse, orange, red bell pepper and asiago cheese. I made pan seared scallops with a fennel and frisse salad, a garnish of orange supremes and a red bell pepper coulis.

American Regional

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:25:00 +0000

It's been a while, I know, and i'm afraid it's going to be intermittent for a while. My camera took a beating on the last day of this class.

So the class was American Regional, and we learned the different cuisines of the United States. It was a very intense class. We had lecture, demo and kitchen time every day. We had pretty much an hour and a half in the kitchen every day, which definitely made things frantic. Things started tough, but by the end I feel a lot more comfortable in the kitchen.

Here are some of the dishes I made.

Here I have stuffed Chayote squash, sauteed cauliflower and broccoli with rice pilaf. This was the Floribbean region (Florida and the Caribbean).

These next three are the Pacific Northwest.

Sauteed trout almondine (toasted almond butter sauce) with sauteed asparagus and a rice pilaf.

Poached Halibut with an apple cherry compote and sauteed asparagus with a rice pilaf.

Sauteed duck breast with an orange gastrique sauce and sauteed swiss chard with golden raisins.

Central Plains:
Grilled Steak with mushroom sauce, sauteed green beans and tomatoes with potato celeriac mash.

Hawaii:

Pan fried macadamia nut crusted Mahimahi with a wasabi cream sauce and sauteed julienne bell pepper.

Sauteed salmon with a lemongrass beurre blanc sauce.

On the last day of class each group made a big buffet. We had 12 duck breasts, a couple pounds of chard, about a pound and a half of polenta, a port wine reduction sauce and a flourless chocolate cake. We were the Pacific Northwest, so I made a little Chinook Tribe display.

A New (old) Dish

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:46:00 +0000

A while back I made rabbit chassuer. Well, it's really good (maybe even a little better) with chicken leg & thigh.

One thing that's really good is dredging the protein in flour. When I do this, I like to season the flour with salt and white pepper (you can use black pepper too).

After you add the seasonings, taste the flour. It's really important to know what your product is going to taste like. Yes, flour is hard to eat, but just a little fingertip full is all you need to taste. If you can taste the salt and pepper, that's good.

Also, I got some new dishes for my birthday from my mom and sister.

Here's the straight-sided saute pan. It's a heavy, thick stainless steel, it's really great. I can start it on the stove, and throw the whole thing in the oven.

The Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:36:00 +0000

Let's break down a chicken. If you're a little squeamish, this might be a little hard to see, but if you want to save some money when you buy chicken at the store, you can save a dollar or more per pound if you cut it up yourself.

A boning knife is good for this one, but you don't necessarily need it.

To take off the leg & thigh first, grab the bone, and cut the skin where the leg and breast meet.

Once you start to cut away the skin, it should be really clear where the muscles separate. (You might even be able to pull it apart without cutting it.)

Once you get down to the backbone, make sure you get the oyster meat out. It's in those notches right along the spine. You can slide your thumb under that meat and push it out. To separate the leg and thigh, dislocate the leg bone from the hip, and cut right between those two bones, and then follow the backbone with your knife, separating it from the rest of the carcass.

To cut the breast meat off, run your knife along the keel, and it should naturally go to one side or the other.

Lightly pull the breast muscle with one hand, and cut away the meat from the bone.

Cut right through where the wing bone meets the top of the spine to separate it from the carcass, leaving it on the breast.

Here's the leftover carcass. There is a little bit of usable meat, but just a lot of tiny bits. If you make stock, then this is very useful, but you could probably only make about a quart of stock with this carcass.

To cut off the lower wing, cut through this stretchy piece of skin, in between the bones.

This is a nice presentation piece; when you cut the breasts up this way it's called Airline Chicken breast (because the wing is still on).

I'm going to make a chicken roulade, so cut off the wing and skin it.

Because the breast is thicker in some parts than others, cut it in half through the thickest part, but leaving it as one piece (this is called butterflying).

Put the breast in plastic wrap, and use a meat mallet until it is about 1/4" thick all the way around.

I'm going to stuff it with sausage, sauteed garlic and shallots, and some greated cheese.

Spread out the sausage so it is half as thick as the chicken breast and add the other ingredients.

Roll it up.

You could tie it up as is, but chicken breast is very lean meat, so it gets dry pretty fast, so it's probably best to bard (wrap) with bacon.

Use a slip knot and continue to wrap it up so it stays in one piece.

Sear it over very high heat, browning the outside.

Put it in an oven (350-400) until it reads an internal temperature of 165, pull it out and let it sit for a few minutes, and it will cook through to around 170.

Cut off the string, and slice it up.

Side Note

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:04:00 +0000

No dishes this week (so far). There's something I read today that I want to comment about.

In Gastronomica; Winter 2008; Jessica Bagdonis wrote a note entitled, "Growing Food Citizens in Russia." The focus of this piece was about a new term that's been popping up a lot lately, food citizen. Basically a food citizen is a person who engages "in food related behaviors that support, rather than threaten, the development of a democratic, socially and economically just, and environmentally sustainable food system." I could break down this phrase for its subjectivity, but that's inevitable, and I do not want to bore you all since you came here to see pretty pictures. This description is from Jennifer Wilkins, who is the president of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society. Basically, this society's goal is to educate people (at a higher academic level) on food and culture.
I guess I just wanted to say something about the dichotomy that exists between a 'well-rounded' education and the 'stay local' movement. To me, education's purpose, in a very broad sense is to broaden one's understanding of the world. We live in a very global environment, and this is because of education. The average level of education continues to go higher and higher, as does globalization. Now, people want us to think locally, yet the bright minds at work that are trying to change the legislation are usually so far removed from those on the ground actually sowing the crops that I would not trust their policies.
In my 'higher education' I encountered a lot of very bright people, yet I found that a low level understanding of what is going on in the world at large was slightly lacking. My question then, is how do we bridge this gap between a 'worldly education' and 'local thinking' as well as upper-level theory and ground-level understanding?

Ok, fine, I'll throw in one pretty picture:

Here's some sausages we made in the charcuterie class I just finished. There is spicy Italian, sweet Italian, jalapeno cheddar bratwurst, breakfast sausage, andouille and chorizo.

Striped Bass

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:47:00 +0000

For all of you who like to fish, this will probably be useful, but then again, if you fish, you probably already know how to prepare a fish. This is obviously cheaper than buying prepared filets as well, so if you can find whole fish, then I guess you can save some money.

Whole fish means fish right out of the water. Drawn = gutted, scaled, dressed = gutted, scaled and filleted, pan-dressed = gutted, scaled, filleted and skinned (i.e. ready for the pan).

Here we go.

You want to use a boning knife for this one. It is very thin with a good point.

Make an incision just up from the tail and cut up to right behind the lower jaw.

Then pull out all the guts. They should be really easy to get out; if you can't pull them out, you can cut them out.

Then grab the fin on the side, and make an incision angled forward down towards the spine. Cut halfway through the body.

Flip the fish over and do the same thing again, this time cutting through the spine.

This should separate the head from the rest of the body.

To cut a fillet off, start just up from the spine, and keep the knife against the spine, and move the knife towards the tail.

You don't want to cut through the rib bones, so keep your knife above the ribs.

When you get halfway to the tail, the ribs end, so cut through the rest of the body, and then cut all the way down to the tail.

Now separate the fillet from the ribs. Gently pull the meat away as you cut it away from the ribs.

And here's the fillet.

Do the same thing with the other side of the fish.

Here's the leftovers. You can make stock with everything but the head.

To skin the fillets, start near the tail, just through the flesh just to the skin.

Lay the knife flat, just above the skin. Then hold the skin near the tail and slide your knife gently the whole length of the fillet.

Do the same thing with the other side.

And there's the skin separated from the fillets.

Here's a good dish: Ginger miso crusted Striped Bass with Shiitake Mushroom Broth.

I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Hello everyone. It's been a while since the last post. I haven't been cooking in school at all until just last week, so I haven't been incredibly inspired. Right now, i'm in Meat and Seafood Identification and Fabrication, so i'm finally cooking real stuff every day. The first week we did all sorts of seafood breakdown, and now we're on poultry. Pig, lamb and beef have yet to come. This class definitely promises some interesting stuff.

In other news, I have another blog, this one with my own personal restaurant reviews. It's not exactly reviews per se; i'm doing it as a record of the aspects that I like and don't like about restaurants. It will be kind of opinionated, and not horribly exciting, but I guess if you want to know what a chef-to-be thinks about a certain place, then you're right on.

Check it out:
http://therestaurantspectrum.blogspot.com/

I've got some good food items coming up. Right below you'll see a few things with shellfish, and I have striped bass I'll break down in the next few days, so check in every now and then!

Shellfish

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:13:00 +0000

Here we go with some shellfish breakdown.

I've got oysters, clams, and mussels. The shrimp were already de-veined, so i'll do that another time. Basically what you're doing is cutting the adductor muscles on these little creatures; which releases the pressure on the shell; letting you get in there.

An oyster shucker is quite necessary for the oysters, because these guys are kind of like rocks, so you don't want to use a regular knife; as it might break.

Oyster knives are super cheap. Here we go $7.95!

Oyster knife

Take a towel, put it underneath the oyster, and wrap it on the side you're going to hold it with to protect your hand. Put the flatter side of the oyster up.

Get the point of the knife lodged in at the hinge. This might be quite difficult; I had to use some serious strength to get it in there well.

Once it's in there, rotate the knife any way possible to open up the oyster.

Then slide your knife along the top of the shell and cut the muscle from the top shell. The muscle is on the opposite side of the hinge.

When that muscle is cut, you can pull off the top shell.

Now, scrape the meat out, cutting the muscle off the bottom as well.

Turn the whole thing over in the shell as this is your presentation side.

Here's a really little one that was attached to one of the big ones.

Again, putting the flat side of the oyster up, wrap it in a towel, lodge the point of the oyster shucker in there, and rotate the knife to open it. Slide the knife along the top, cutting the muscle, opening the shell. Scrape the meat out from the shell, cutting the bottom muscle and flipping the meat over.

Now, clams. A paring knife is all you need.

The clams are very tightly closed, but you should be able to find a small hole near one side. Get the knife in there, and cut toward the hinge, cutting the muscle.

Once one muscle is cut, it's pretty easy getting your knife to the other side cutting the other muscle.

Now, scrape the meat out from one side, scraping the muscles away, plopping the meat on one side, and scraping the rest out.

Mussels.

That stringy stuff that hangs out is called the beard. Pull on the beard; removing it.

Right where the beard was should be a small hole where you can insert your knife.

Then, turn the mussel on the side opposite the hinge, slide your knife along the long side (not too deep, you don't want to cut flesh yet!), rotate the whole thing, cutting the muscle. The muscle on this is opposite the hinge, on the long side.

Right here is the point when you cut the adductor muscle.

At this point, you can open it up. Scrape the flesh out from one side, cutting the muscle, plopping the meat into the other shell, and then scraping out again.

So that's oysters, clams and mussels.

Here I dipped oysters, shrimp, bell pepper and large onion slices in tempura batter, and deep fried them.

Here's a spicy shrimp, mussel, clam and scallop fra diavolo sauce with pasta.

Rabbit Chasseur

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Here's rabbit braised; hunter style (chasseur is French for hunter). It's hunter style because the hunter catches the animal, and on their way back from hunting they gathered mushrooms.

Here we have rabbit hindquarters, fresh parsley, two roma tomatoes, 1/4 cup white wine (I prefer dry white vermouth, it gives it a bolder flavor), about 1/4 cup clarified butter, one shallot, 8 oz assorted mushrooms, 8 oz beef stock and 8 oz demi glace.

First, start the water boiling to blanch and shock the tomatoes so you can chop them up. Also, set the oven to 300 degrees.

Here's the rabbit hindquarters. This recipe works really well (almost better, I would say) with chicken leg and thigh (which you can buy in any store).

With the shallot, you want to finely mince it, and since it's a relative of the onion, you cut it up just the same way.

Slice off the blossom first . . .

then slice off the root end.

Slice it in half lengthwise . . .

And mince (1/16" squares).

I bought about a half pound of assorted mushrooms. On the left are shiitake, crimini in the middle and white button on the right.

Slice them up evenly; about 1/4" thick.

Season the rabbit with salt and pepper. Dredge (coat lightly) in flour if you prefer.

With the parsley, you want to remove the stems and just mince up the leaves.

Now, melt the butter in a heavy pan large enough to fit your meat product.

When the butter is melted and the pan is hot, add the rabbit.

You want to brown evenly on all sides.

You might want to stand them up on their sides so you can brown the sides.

When they are nicely browned, remove from the heat and cover so they stay warm.

The pan should still be hot, with quite a bit of fat in there, so add the minced shallot and mushrooms.

Toss to coat with the fat.

When the shallot is soft and has released its juices, add the wine.

Reduce this liquid by half over medium-high heat.

Next, add the demi glace and the beef stock.

Stir it all together well so it doesn't burn.

Add the meat product back in and bring up to a boil.

Once it boils, bring it down to a simmer . . .

cover,

And put it in the oven.

Now is a good time to do the tomato concasse.

You want to cook it until it's fork tender. For the rabbit; this took about an hour. If you were using chicken, it should take 30-45 minutes, but be careful, you don't want it to fall apart when you serve it.

Remove the meat from the pan.

And bring the sauce up to a boil so you can reduce it.

Add the parsley and tomato concasse.

Reduce the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon, and serve.

Brown Sauce (the French call it Espagnole)

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:56:00 +0000

As Dave said in the last post, I could go to the store and buy some bouillon cubes. And be very disappointed in myself; because am not going to culinary school to go to the store and buy bouillon cubes.

Regardless, here's one use of the brown stock.

Here's the beef stock, after cooling.

You don't want that orange stuff; it's all fat.

If it's cold, it's solid, so just chunk it out.

And here's the ingredients for the brown sauce.
Beef stock, bread flour, clarified butter, sachet (bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems), tomato puree and mirepoix (50% onion, 25% carrot, 25% celery)

I still need to get some cheesecloth, so I used the tea infuser again.

Here's the mirepoix; I cut it up into medium dice (1/2" on a side)

You want to use a heavy pan for this; it retains the heat better and it's way easier to cook anything.

Melt the butter.

Make sure you get the pan hot before you add the vegetables; they cook much more evenly.

You want to cook them on medium heat, because you want to lightly brown them. Also, spread them out so you can brown them evenly.

When they're well browned (and not burnt!) add the flour and stir so the vegetables are coated.

Once again, you want to brown this combination, for this is the brown roux.

A roux is a mixture of equal parts clarified butter and bread flour. There is white roux, blond roux and brown roux. The brown roux is cooked the longest, and it gives off a popcorn aroma; meaning the glutens in the flour start to carmelize.

When the roux is browned, and gives off that popcorn aroma, add the beef stock.

Stir well so there are no lumps.

Add the tomato puree and stir with a whip to get the best mixing.

Now, continuously stir until it boils. If you don't stir, the flour will stick to the bottom and burn.

When it boils, bring the heat down low so the sauce is simmering.

Add the sachet, and simmer for about an hour or so until it thickens.

As you can see, a skin will form as it reduces. You do not want to stir the skin back into the sauce, it will give the sauce off flavors, so skim it with some kind of strainer, or just spoon it off.

The sauce should reduce quite a bit, and it should be thick enough so that it coats the back of a spoon.

Pour the sauce through a strainer when it reaches the right consistency.

Press the vegetables lightly with a spoon to release their juices.

And you have a brown sauce.

Here I am combining equal parts brown sauce and brown stock to make a demi glace. You combine the two, put in a pot and recuce by half.

Next time, i'll use the demi glace in a braised rabbit dish.

Beef Stock

noreply@blogger.com (Neil Davidson) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:50:00 +0000

I made beef stock the other day at home. Stock is one of the major foundations for any sort of cooking, especially anything in a restaurant. Stock is mostly made from scraps of other products. The thing is, these days most places get all their food already processed; no one cuts up their own meat most of the time. So, in this case you can buy your beef bones already cut up at the store or from your purveyor if you want to make your own stock (like me).

Making stock is easy because the ingredients are percentages (by weight) of a whole. The breakdown is 100% water, 50% bones, 10% mirepoix. One gallon of water weighs eight pounds, so for one gallon of stock you use one gallon water, four pounds bones, and 12 oz of mirepoix (onions, carrot and celery chopped).

Other ingredients are:
Sachet (parsley stems, bay leaf, sprig of thyme, peppercorns)
Tomato paste
Red wine

You will also need a large stockpot and a roasting pan.

Here's the beef bones, just over 4 lbs.

And the sachet.

Wrapped in cheesecloth, with a string or something tied on the end so you can connect it to the handle of the stockpot for easy removal.

I roughly chopped the mirepoix. Also, for stock, you want your mirepoix to be 50% onion, 25% carrot and 25% celery.

Roast the beef bones at 400 degrees . . .

until they are well browned.

Then, slather on the tomato paste with a spatula.

And throw them back in the oven . . .

for just a short time and the paste is melted into the bones.

Remove the bones from the pan and put them in the stockpot, and drain the fat off, discard.

Then take the red wine and deglaze the pan to get all the bits of meat and fat off the pan and pour it into the stockpot with the bones.

Then put the mirepoix in the roasting pan and throw it in the oven.

While the mirepoix is roasting, add the water (cold) to the stockpot. You want cold water because then more of the impurities in the bones are removed if the water goes through the full range of temperatures. Some impurities are removed with cold water only.

The mirepox shouldn't take long to brown slightly, only a few minutes.

Add the mirepoix and sachet; bring up to a boil

Skim the impurities off the top right when it gets to boiling point, and turn the heat down to a simmer.

A beef stock is usually ready in 6-8 hours of simmering.

I left mine on overnight (about 10 hours).

Remove the sachet.

Line a strainer with cheesecloth . . .

Remove the bones with tongs . . .

And pour the liquid through the strainer.

At this point, you want to cool it down quickly so harmful bacteria have a lesser chance to grow, so you want to vent it in an ice water bath.

The sanitation rules say that the product must be down to 70 degrees within two hours, and down to 40 within four hours after taking off the heat.

Here are the bones after simmering all night.

Also, you don't want to put a hot product in your refrigerator because it will heat everything else in there up. I made sure i got it down to about 60 before i put it in the refrigerator.

Next time, i'll use the stock in a sauce