Chew On This

Re: Chef MTM's Original Recipe

2011-08-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

So...in my last post, I explained how there are a few items that I've never made, only because of the fear of totally bombing the taste factor. Well...after searching for a good meatball recipe, I decided to develop my own. I also doctored up a recipe for some sauce to accompany the meatballs.

Here's both recipes as well as some pics to walk you through..

Chef MTM’s Meatball Recipe

Ingredients

1lb 4oz ground beef

5-6oz Mirepoix (minced)
½ and ¼ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 ½ oz Plain Bread Crumbs (fine)
1 egg
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons water

Instructions

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix by hand until all ingredients have been fully incorporated. Make sure to not have any breadcrumb lumps. Roll into 1 inch diameter balls. Spray broiler pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place meatballs onto broiler pan, making sure that they are not touching. Place in oven and cook for 40-50 minutes.

Chef MTM’s Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

1 15.5 oz can Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce

1 15 oz can Hunts Tomato Sauce
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
5 oz Onion (Julienne)
1 tbsp butter
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon Lea and Perrins The Original Worcestershire Sauce

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan, stir and simmer for 30 minutes.

Combining Meatballs with Sauce

Place meatballs (single layer) in an oven-safe dish.

Pour sauce over meatballs. Place dish in oven and cook for 35-40 minutes.

Remove and serve.

These meatballs can be served alone (as you see in the pics below, or ,with your favorite pasta.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my first set of meatballs. They were moist and didn't fall apart and I could taste the hint of flavors from the mirepoix (onions, carrots, and celery) as well. As for the sauce, well, it wasn't completely from scratch due to the fact that I used to canned products, but, the end product was far from a sloppy joe taste and it was too tangy to even be considered your typical tomato sauce. I'll leave it up for you to decide. Cook it, and let me know how it turns out.

Happy Eating.

Re: Carrot Cake with a Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-08-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

Carrot cake has to be the ultimate cake. Reason being, it has vegetables, fat, protein, grain, milk, nuts...need I say more ;-) Usually there are things that I really enjoy eating, but I haven't even tried to make due to the fact that I just never wanted to mess up. Being the cook, and one day chef, I know that I have to get over my slight fear of messing up on things I love to eat. Carrot Cake is one such item.

So it all started with me wanting to bake something. Even though I've never made one, I searched the web as well as a few of the apps on my phone and decided on this one recipe which came from All Recipes (link is below). After I found the perfect recipe (great reviews and ingredients located in my cupboard and refrigerator), I got to work. I shredded the 2-3 cups of carrots, of course, after I peeled them, got all of my other ingredients together and followed the directions. As simple as it was, I would've likely kept purchasing carrot cakes by the slice, but now that I know a recipe that works...I'm sure I'll begin making miniature cakes, cupcakes, etc.

Here's a few pics that I took of the finished product.

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake with 1/8 slice cut out.

Carrot Cake Slice (1/8)

You're probably wondering what type of icing/frosting I made. Well, the truth is, I don't really know. I didn't use the recipe from All Recipes due to a flub on my part...I didn't have enough confectionery sugar. Indeed, I'm still shaking my head. At any rate, as I've been told, a chef needs to be able to adapt to whatever situation. I adapted and it turns out, that I made a sort of buttercream cheese frosting. The taste is good. It has the taste of a buttercream and cream cheese frosting, without too much of either. It's also extremely soft, and just sweet enough.

I've been enjoying this cake since I made it while making sure to not overindulge, but hey...as long as I work off the extra calories, I should be good :-) Until next time...keep chewing.

Although I modified both recipes quite a bit, here are the links to the two recipes (cake and frosting) that I used as a base for my creation: Carrot Cake III and Buttercream Frosting (American Buttercream)

By the way...if you have any recipes that you think are great, send them to me. I'll try them out and maybe you'll find it as a post on my blog.

Re: Simple Soup (Mirepoix and Sliced Turkey)

2011-08-14T15:41:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick soup I made within a few minutes. My wife was the taster and she said that the soup was full of flavor..:-)
So here's what I did. I thawed my chicken stock in a saucepan. While the stock was thawing, I put my mirepoix in a sauté pan and sautéed until tender but not too soft. I poured my boiling stock into the sauté pan with my mirepoix. Added some salt, white pepper, garlic powder, sliced turkey, and a tad bit of oregano.

Re: Bread Making Day

2011-08-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

So we were getting low on bread and I decided to make one loaf, and a few clover rolls instead of two loaves. Again, I've found that it's a tad healthier to make wheat sandwhich bread as opposed to white, so I used half the dough for the loaf and half portioned out to make about five clover rolls. Here's a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf proofed in pan and and ready for the oven.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf after baking.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf cooling on rack.

Whole Wheat Clover Rolls in cupcake pan, proofed and ready for oven.

Whole Wheat Clover Roll cooling on rack after baking.

Whole Wheat Products (loaf of bread and clover rolls) cooling on rack after being baked.

One day I'm sure they'll come up with a way for you to smell via the web ;-) Until next time...which may be sooner than later. Keep on chewing.

Re: Overdose on Chocolate (Chocolate Mousse and Chocolate Molten Cake

2011-08-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, I'm back again. So, I have to get ready for work, but I just had to make this entry about the two extremely tasty chocolate treats I made.

First up is the Chocolate Lava Cake. It was quick and painless actually. Just had to get all your mise en place together and start to making.

Chocolate Molten Cake inside a ramekin just after baking...only baked for about 13 minutes.

Here it is on a saucer (I have to get better plates) topped with fresh whipped cream.

This Chocolate Molten Cake tasted really good. I did tweak this recipe a little by adding just a bit more sugar (for sweetness) and butter (for a moister cake).

Next up is the velvety Chocolate Mousse. Now this one, I've actually made before. The second to last week of my Baking and Pastry I course, we were able to make this and I have to admit, it was good in class, but it was much better here at home. This recipe was from one of my culinary textbooks (On Baking...or you can also find it in On Cooking) that we use in some of my courses.

Just melting the chocolate bars (Bakers Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bars) with some unsalted butter.

Whipping the Egg Whites to firm peaks.

Finished product.

Most people probably chill their mousse prior to serving, but I didn't bother because I had to taste it prior to leaving for work. I did infact put some in the refridgerator for chilling. :-) This chocolate mousse came out extremely light and velvety...just like I wanted. Being able to use your own judgement to increase, or decrease the amount of an ingredient is crucial to understanding how your taste and texture will turn out. I aimed for a tad sweeter and lighter mousse by adding more whipped cream, more egg whites and just a tad bit more butter and sugar.

Our chocolate loving house will have to do a few more exercises to work of these two treats. Who cares...it's all well worth it in the end ;-) Keep chewing...

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Strawberry scratch cake for my daughter's 1st birthday)

2011-08-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's been a while. See, I've mainly been using this site for coursework, uploading pictures of food items that I prepare in class. I remember making a few posts about things I've done outside of class (which tends to be much more food items) yet, I didn't continue that. Well, I've decided to start back on that path as well as anything I produce in class. Hopefully I can keep up.

So for this post, we have a nice strawberry cake, with a strawberry filling, and strawberry icing. Yeah, so you've heard of Death by Chocolate...I'd have to call this one Death by Strawberry. I enjoyed making it. I searched for a few days for the perfect recipe to use as my daughters first birthday cake. I came upon a few and I eventually saw one that stuck out, tried it (made 6 cupcakes with the batter) and my wife and I both agreed that it was a keeper. I did tweak the recipe a little. I used a little more strawberry puree in the cake batter as well as the icing. Little butter here and there, little more egg yolk, etc. Overall, I think the cake came out wonderful. I was even able to practice my piping skills on this one...which made it even more fun. I'd have to admit, it's not the most beautiful work in the world, but for my first cake, I believe it turned out pretty darn good.

Here are a few pictures of the process (after baking to finished).

Cake Cooling

Cake top cut for for flat surface.

Strawberry filling applied to bottom cake.

Top cake put in place and circle on top to press cake down. I then put the cake into the refrigerator so that the filling could set.

Strawberry butter cream frosting applied after filling finished setting.

I made a white/vanilla butter cream frosting to use on the base and top edge piping using a # 224 drop flower tip.

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA applied with a #5 plain tip.

Strawberry filling close-up.

I really can't wait until the next time I make a cake and practice my piping skills. As I said before, it's not the best, but it's pretty darn good and I'm feeling on top of the world. :-) Did I mention...the taste was absolutely WONDERFUL!

FYI

Recipe's that I tweaked came from: Cake, Strawberry Feeling, Frosting: I can make butter cream on my own :-)

July 7, 2011 - PAELLA

2011-07-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Finally!!! So this is the first seafood dish that we've been able to make. Yes, it may not be totally seafood, but it's not chicken, or beef. Seeing as I love seafood, and really enjoyed making this dish because of it, I'm happy to say that the first time I saw Paella was on the Food Network and it was AWESOME...well, I hope it at least tasted as good as it looked. The one we made (pictured below) not only looks good, but it also tasted good.

Paella - Long Grain Rice, Onions, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, Green Peas, Sausage, Scallops, Mussels, Calamari, and Saffron

Moving on, here's the nice little salad that I'm sure would cost around $12-$15 at some high end restaurants...smh. It's spinach, with a few wedges of tomato, green beans and a bit of bleu cheese and topped with a simple vinaigrette. Really good salad...and my eyes are opening up to the differences and easiness of salad making and salad dressing making.

Spinach, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Bleu Cheese Salad with Vinaigrete

Overall nice meal. I would like to add, that scallops (when prepared the correct way...as those in this dish were) are extremely tasty. As a future chef, I won't put out there the two seafood restaurants that I've tried scallops and they both seemed to cook them to an unfinished state...which in my opinion was gross in texture and taste. The scallops in this dish was fully cooked, texture was the same throughout. Until Baking...keep chewing.

June 30 , 2011 - Quantity Food Production 1

2011-07-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so as you saw, in our previous class, we didn't really have an entree. In this class, we only had an entree. Believe me when I say, this was one of the tastiest dishes that we've produced. I'm still weighing in on that myself, but hey, it may not look too good (it is a peasants dish), but the taste and textures from the vegetables and protein (chicken) were nicely matched.

Coq Au Vin with Duchess Potatoes and Cauliflower with Mornay Sauce.

This dish comprised of different vegetables like garlic, pearl onions, carrots, and a few herbs as well as mushrooms(fresh) and BACON. If you haven't noticed...I really love bacon. The chicken braised with all of the yummy goodness that you see in the picture. The cauliflower was simply boiled (no, not steamed this week) and the potatoes were first cooked (boiled) and added a few ingredients and actually used a pastry bag and star tip to get that nice look.

I reproduced this dish from memory the other day, and as picky of an eater my wife is, she actually enjoyed it...or maybe it's just because I made it (she did go back for seconds). I suppose I'll never know. ;-)

Until next time, keep smelling, tasting and chewing.

June 23, 2011 - Quantity Food Production I

2011-07-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Going into this class, I just knew that it would be a drag. Little did I know that Salads and Soups would almost be one of the best classes to date. During this class, we got to showcase some of our cutting skills from dicing, chopping and mencing various vegetables and even bacon ;-).

Panzanella (Tuscan Bread Salad)

This salad was AWESOME. The fresh vegetables (Red Onions, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, etc. with the toasted Bread (cubed) and and tossed in a vinaigrette dressing.

If any of you know me, Clam chowder is without a doubt MY favorite soup (yeah it's a chowder). I really enjoyed making this one. I had no idea how easy it is to make and am certain to make this one often when the weather get's lower than 65 degrees ;-)

New England Clam Chowder

Overall I really didn't think a salad and soup would be pleasing to eat without an entree, but, sence we made enough for everyone to sample, all of the different salads and soups were placed where each of us got to taste it. I'll admit now that the chowder (for obvious reasons) stood out to me as well as the Panzanella.

Back Left: German Potato Salad (Taste was AWESOME)

Front Left: Panzanella

Right Side: Grilled Vegetable Salad with Aioli

Middle: Clam Chowder and I believe the Cheddar Lentil Soup

That's all I have for this post. Stay tuned for more...

June 20 , 2011 - Baking and Pastry I

2011-06-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Okay...so it's COOKIE DAY!!! We were able to pick between three types of cookies (Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter). As you may see below, We chose peanut butter to start off. Making these cookies really took me back to my childhood. One of my aunts is a baker. She used to give us (children) of the family coupons for free cakes (personal size) and cookies. She always forked (made the checkered marks using a fork) her cookies. At any rate, she made some AWESOME COOKIES...and still does. These were great but I'd say that her cookies tasted more peanut buttery :). All in all, I enjoyed making my first batch of scratch peanut butter cookies. Maybe one day I'll make the actual peanut butter and use that for the cookies. ;-)

Giant (approx. 3-4 inch diameter)Peanut Butter Cookies

The second batch of cookies we made were a little more elegant. As a kid, we always called them a fancier sugar cookie, but today I found that the actual name is a Spritz Cookie. Spritz cookies are made from a softer dough. We actually used a pastry bag and star to put them on the cookie sheet. I've seen my aunt (the same one mentioned above) use a pastry bag all while growing up, and, I've seen television shows where the Chef used pastry bags with the greatest of ease. Little did I know that they obviously practiced a whole lot to get that part down. Just as with everything else, with practice comes a better product. So these spritz cookies aren't so round, but they were as tasty, if not tastier than those that I've eaten before. Maybe eating them just a few minutes from pulling them from the oven made the BIG difference. :)

Spritz Cookie with Raspberry Preserve

All in all, these are just a few more items that I've added to my baking and pastry repertoire.

June 6-16, 2011 - Baking & Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I

2011-06-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

I really do apologize for those of you that have been supporting my blog. I didn't post last weeks class projects and am posting those (Baking and Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I) pictures with descriptions along with this weeks Quantity Food Production I dishes.

First up is an Apple and Blueberry Tart. Although you may see two different tarts, each are the same, with the top just having a streusel topping. Both of them tasted extremely well, and I would eat both at any given moment. I would have to lean toward the one with streusel, mainly due to the added texture that it gives you while enjoying it.

Apple and Blueberry Tarts: Hand made sweet dough pressed firmly in tart shells and filled with a cooked chopped apple and blueberry with light sugar feeling. These can be enjoyed fresh out of the oven(of course allowing them to cool enough to eat) as well as cooled completely. The top two pictures have a simple crumble that was cooked along with the tarts in the oven while the bottom two pictures have no topping.

Second up is the Quantity Food Production Meal from last week which was a stuffed Pork Chop (boneless) with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine and a small Salad.

Braised Stuffed Pork Chop with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine

Small Salad with shredded carrot and quartered tomato and a poppy seed vinaigrette.

This meal was full of tasts that would satisfy my ongoing craving for some stuffing. Although I have to admit, I've eaten my share of Stove Top...but now, I know for certain that I dont think I'll ever need to make that purchase again. Stuffings in general are extremely easy to make, and can be made within minutes. The almonds added a different texture to the brocolli that I would've never thought of putting together. The braised pork chop was tender and the potato pancakes were crispy on the outside while staying soft on the inside.

The last meal is the one we compelted yesterday (June 16, 2011). It consisted of a Beef Roulade, Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce and Classic Rice Pilaf topped with Dill. This was probably the most involved meal thus far. We had to chop each of the vegetables (onions, celery, green beans, zuccchinni, carrots, etc.) into half inch cubes for the soup, pound the beef thin enough to make the roulade and shred a load of parmesan cheese for the roulade and soup. The list of things to do for this creation goes on much further, but, I'll let you get to the pics. :)

Beef Roulade with Asparagus and a Classic Rice Pilaf

Ministrone Soup topped with shredded Parmesan Cheese

I really enjoy the fact that we get to eat everything we make :) Although weight gained should be reduced with exercise, the many different dishes and tastes that I've been able to make and discover have increased my palate and overall awareness of things that I wouldn't otherwise use in the kitchen. I'm still enjoying this process and am continueing to drive forward in learning and creating mouth watering and tasteful foods. Until next week...keep chewing.

June 2, 2011 - Day 4 of Quantity Food Production I

2011-06-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Very interesting meal. I can certainly say, I've never seen my mom, any of my aunts, or anyone for that matter put stew in the oven to cook, but hey, I learn something new every single time I attend class. The meal was really good actually, Stew with Pasta (who would've every known that they went together...never in our household growing up), with slices of cantaloupe and prosciutto.

Cantaloupe and Vinaigrette with thinly sliced Prosciutto.

Beef Bourguingnonne and Basic Pasta (cut into the size of Fettuccine): Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Chopped Parsley, Fresh Thyme (from the herb garden), Dry red wine, Beef Chuck, Vegetable Oil, Flour, Tomato paste, Tomatoes, Brown Stock, Mushrooms, Unsalted butter, Salt and Pepper, Fresh Oregano (from the herb garden).

Again, a really nice and filling meal that you could make with a little bit of prep work. The pasta is what will take the longest. We made the dough, then had to cover and chill it in the refrigerator for two hours before stretching and cutting our pasta.

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

2011-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm back again...already. So this was nice task. I've made pound cakes in bundt pans before, but never one in a loaf pan. I've also never made one from scratch. So here's the run down. The pound cake came out perfect, and tastes great

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

I can see this new career and hobby can be detrimental to me not keeping those 20lbs off. I'm already in need of some type of help, lol.

Honey Wheat Bread (2 Loaves)

2011-05-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

I just felt like trying my skills at baking some bread. Feels good to say that I didn't pay half the amount for these loaves as I would have going to the grocery store.

Honey Wheat Bread Loaves

Honey Wheat Bread Loaf (Two Slices)

Honey Wheat Bread (Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches)

The perk: Making your own bread costs a bit less overall, and tastes great. Also, you can make the slices as thick or thin as you want. I made french toast (with thick slices) a few hours ago and they came out GREAT!!!

The drawback: It is a bit time consuming. As someone who bakes, you must know that bread takes time to rise, etc...that adds on to the time. You can obviously get other things done while waiting, so it's not that big of a problem for me.

All in all...I think I'll be bread more often. We shall see how the dinner rolls, hot dog and hamburger buns come out next. :-)

May 26, 2011 - Day 3 (2 was cancelled) of Quantity Food Production I

2011-05-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Today's class was fun. I got to see first hand how to break down and debone an entire chicken as well as make a great stuffing to go inside of each of the pieces (breast and leg/thigh). Also we made a wonderful salad that's said to cost around $15 at some of the upscale hotels and restaurants in the are. I'm still shaking my head at that. I totally forgot to take a picture of some extremely tasty walnut vinaigrette that we made to top off our salad.

Fresh Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with a Toasted Walnut Vinaigrette: Walnut pieces, rice wine vinegar, honey, minced shallots, walnut oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, mixed spring lettuces, fresh ripe pears, blue cheese crumbled, and chopped parsley.

As stated above, this salad was AWESOME. The massage amounts of blue cheese was complemented with the sweetness of the vinaigrette and pear slices. Although this was an extremely tasty salad, that I will make again...I highly doubt that I would've paid $15 for it. I mean, come on people, $15 for a salad just seems mad...but hey, blue cheese and walnuts aren't cheap I suppose ;-)

Chicken Stuffed with Mushrooms and Prosciutto with Potatoes (mushroom shaped) and Sauteed Red Bell Pepper and Zucchini: Chicken, whole butter, green onions, prosciutto, mushrooms, leek, heavy cream, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, Suppreme Sauce, Sauteed vegetables.

This was a fun dish to make. Breaking down the chicken and minimizing waste by keeping cuts closed to bones meant more meat to eat :-). After breaking the chicken down, we deboned it, then stuffed it with our prosciutto and mushroom stuffing. We wrapped the chicken around the stuffing and tied it to keep it together while cooking. Then we browned the skin in a pan with oil and popped it in the oven to finish. While our chicken was cooking, we finished up our potatoes (making them look like mushrooms by using a small biscuit cutter and a paring knife) by boiling them first to cook and soften, then deep frying to give them a crisp outside texture. We made our Supreme sauce for our base and finished the dish by sauteeing the zucchini and red bell peppers.

All in all, I really enjoyed this day. As many of my friends and family know, I was pretty upset that I didn't get to take this class last week because of a water main break. Doubt I was every upset at missing a class before this one.

May 23, 2011 - Day 3 of Baking and Pastry I

2011-05-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

So the third day and we were able to discuss different types of doughs. We used the straight dough mixing method in producing the items that you'll see below.

Personal Pizza

At first sight, one would think that this is just an ordinary pizza with tomatoe. If you know me, you know good and well that I am absolutely not a vegeterian, but if you thought thought, my plan was a success. The first ingrediant on the pizza is actually small cubed pancetta, followed by fresh grated parmessan cheese and a bit of salt. I then placed the nicely sliced tomatoes (6 slices) on the crust and finished it off with a few nice sized slices (yes, not grated) of mozerella cheese.

Cinnamon Roll

This right here isn't your typical cinnaman roll. It's decked out with not only the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, but raisens and chopped wallnuts. When I say, Cinnabon better watch out...I'm being serious. Most people know that I LOVE Cinnabon's Cinnamon Rolls. This was much richer, totally fresh, and straight up AWESOME! I didn't even want to think of the calories in it...oh yeah, the light icing on top was an added bonus. That was made with just a few ingrediants (little butter, confectionary sugar, etc.).

We also made something else but I didn't like the taste. Many of my classmates didn't really care for it either. So I'll just leave it at that, lol. All in all...these items seemingly daunting, are fairly easy to produce in any kitchen (even the one we had in South Korea).

Until the next class...keep chewing...and exercising :-\

May 16, 2011 - Day 2 of Baking and Pastry I

2011-05-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today went really well. We began in the classroom by going over our weekly words and then a short video on different types of breads. We moved on by discussing the day's menu which consisted of us producing a flat bread bread sticks, pretzels and pizza dough (frozen for our production with other items next week.

Here's a few pictures that I took of the finished products.

Flat bread: This bread dough was made with chopped onions inside. The left half has crushed rosemary, finely grated Parmesan and salt and the right side has finely grated Parmesan cheese and salt.

Twisted bread sticks: This dough was hand kneaded by yours truly :).

Pretzels topped with sesame seeds.

I enjoyed learning the recipes and producing these items. I've found that making certain to follow recipes, especially when to add what, is the most important thing a person can do. Also, if you're thinking of adding in something to a recipe, make sure to change other items, i.e. is the item dry or does it have liquid? Berries and vegetables can add much more liquid to your mix than necessary so don't always add the actual amount of water. Of course this isn't for everything, you have to know how the dough should look prior to resting and proofing it.

May 12, 2011 - Day 1 of Quantity Food Production I

2011-05-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

My first day in Quantity Food Production I went pretty well. We covered everything from our introduction, to a few chapters in our book, to learning about the various foods that we'll be preparing and cooking this term. I've taken the liberty to give you a few snapshots of the first entree' that we cooked on Day 1.

This entree is a Roasted Chicken (cooked hole, but in this plating you have the leg and thigh quarter) lightly seasoned with salt and corse black pepper atop a red and white wine pan sauce made from the fond (the small bits and pieces of flavering at the bottom of the pan) from the chicken , with a side of Pammes Anna (sliced potatoes and clarified butter started off on the stovetop and finished in the oven for that great color and crispy texture) and green beans topped with hollandaise sauce (made with the youlks of and egg, a tad of water, and clarified butter) and garnished with a sprig of rosemary.

The Good: I was able to learn the different terms that are used in creating a dish. Think about it...who knew that fond (the foundation) was the actual term for the dark bits of flavoring on the bottom of a pan that you've used when cooking something (usually from a protein). Mirepoix is basically an aromatic vegetabl medly (usually 50% onion, 25% carrots, and 25% celery) and is used for various things, we used it as the base for our chicken to sit on for the oven, at work we use a variation for our wedding soup. Knowing the different types of thickeners (/flour + water (or other liquid), cornstarch + water (or other liquid), or even making a Roux, which is parts fat (clarified butter) + flour to use and how or when to use them will help anyone in their kitchen whether it be at home or on the job.

The Bad: Wisking for the hollandaise sauce is pure torture. Well...for a first timer, it was. My arm's got a complete workout. My chef instructor didn't seem to bothered by it, but hey, even though he's almost sixty, muscle memory was obviously on his side.

The Ugly: There really wasn't any ugly...I don't think. you decide, check out the pics again and tell me if anything was ugly...;-)

All in all, learning about different side dishes like the Pammes Anna, and hot to properly clarify butter, make thickeners and roux, different knife techniques, tieing the chicken, and simply taking in all of the knowledge that the chef is trying to get you to the next level.

As you can probably see; I am certainly digging this new direction that I've taken. By the way, I'm currently reproducing this meal (with the exception of the hollandaise sauce due to not having the proper equipment) so that my wife, daughter and maybe even the pup pup can have a taste.

May 9, 2011 - Day 1 of Baking and Pastry I

2011-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

So this is my first entry. I plan on typing on this page at least once or twice a week, or maybe even after each of my classes. This blog is meant to be a journal of the things that I've learned, or have done during my courses in Culinary and Baking & Pastry Programs.

Up first, Baking and Pastry Day 1 assignments:

1. Blueberry Muffins

2. Country Biscuits

Simple, yet a bit of work went into making these. If this is/was day 1, I can't wait for days 2, 3, 4....and beyond in this course and the other courses.

By the way...I did have a homework assignment. Each week in this course, I'll be given one word that I'll have to define and discuss in class the following week. My word is Galaktobureko. Don't ask me to pronounce it, but I do know that by the Greek definition, galakto means milk, and bureko means pie. It is in fact a traditional Greek milk and butter pie made with filo pastry (paper thin type of pastry). I do hope to make this one day just to see how it tastes.

Until next time... keep chewing