Schmackofatz!

Grüß di!

2010-06-13T17:22:00.017+02:00

Greetings from beautiful Bavaria!

This is me biking along the Donau River on a gorgeous, sunny day. I've been in Germany for a little over a month, and I'm loving it! Despite it being really cold and dreadfully rainy for most of May, I've visited several sites and cities.

First off was Augsburg, Germany's second oldest city, dating back to Roman times over 2000 years ago. It is the third largest city in the state of Bavaria, with roughly 265,000 people. Like most European cities, it feels pretty small, and it has a pretty Altstadt and Innenstadt...There are great boutiques, restaurants, and bars all around, as well as a small, but good city market...Where I had a delicious bowl of fish soup and a glass of cold white wine!Augsburg also boasts a great zoo and a large botanical garden with a tropical house, rose garden, japanese garden, and music area...I went to the gardens with my friend Ulrike. Neither of us had ever seen baby pinecones on a pine tree that were bright pink!While in Augsburg, I went on an outing with Ulrike to Oberschönenfeld, just west of Augsburg in the Naturpark Augsburg-Westliche Wälder. There is a cloister with a beautiful church and grounds, and they bake and sell their own bread! We had a lovely time and picked up a few loaves for the week...Other highlights from Augsburg include traveling down the A8 at 240 km/hr (about 145 ml/hr), which made me cry because I was so scared! No kidding! I don't recommend it for sane people. A better memory was of a small local Volksfest that we went to before going to a late-night club in the city. This was my first good comparison of a real Bavarian beer tent to an American idea of a beer garden.....NO COMPARISON! Even in this tiny town, the tent was the size of half a football field and packed wall-to-wall inside. There was a stage at one end with a live band, and then row after row of Bierbänke, the German picnic tables. The real difference was that everyone was standing on the tables, dancing, drinking, and singing! Of course, this could never happen in America because the county fair would be sued by every drunk who fell off and broke his arm! The other major difference was that instead of being surrounded by rednecks in muscle tees and cut-offs, I was surrounded by cute, clean youths in traditional Bavarian outfits - embroidered dirndls and lederhosen with gingham checked shirts. Positively adorable! And I'm not talking about just a handful of people. Everyone was dressed this way, from all ages.Unfortunately, this picture doesn't do it justice, but my camera was being fussy, so I didn't get any good pics. I'll try to get better ones at the next fest I go to. Before signing out here's a shot of my friend Bonny from Augsburg...Tschüss! Bis später!

Holy Goat! Long time, no blog!

2010-03-25T00:14:00.000+01:00

Wow! I can't believe I've been in Tahoe for six months, but it's true. I apologize for no updates during these past months, but I'll sum it up here: Tahoe City is a very, very small town. It's also very expensive if you're not making that much dough. Therefore, there's not a lot to do in winter. I also have a schedule that is the opposite of everyone else I know here. I usually go to bed between 6 and 7 pm and get up around 3 am. My days off are different every week - sometimes Saturdays, sometimes Wednesdays.

I have learned a lot about baking and pastry during my time here. We make a lot of things from scratch in the resort bakery - focaccia bread, muffins, scones, creme anglaise, pastry cream, corn bread, chiffon cakes, pate a choux, petite fours, and many other yummies. Other items we simply thaw and bake, like croissants, pastries, cookies. That's just the way it is in big resorts. It's just not possible to make such a large quantity by scratch, I guess. The premade products we use are very good though.

My time at Resort at Squaw Creek is drawing to an end. My last day is March 30th, and then I head back to Bend. After a month in Bend and Portland, I'll be off to Germany! I'm moving to Bavaria, so I'll keep you posted from there!

Tschussi!

Bears Vacationing at the Resort at Squaw Creek!

2009-10-28T23:33:00.000+01:00

First Real Job Out of Culinary School!

2009-10-15T23:31:00.000+02:00

Thanks to a few connections, and the HR department at Sunriver Resort, I've landed my first job in the culinary industry at the Resort at Squaw Creek! I moved down from Bend with one Trooperful of belongings on October 4th. My first day was the 6th, and I start every day at 4 am. Though I did the Le Cordon Bleu culinary program, my new job is in the resort bakery. I help prepare all the breads, pastries, desserts, and baked goods for the entire resort: Sweet Potato Deli, banquets, room service, a la carte and buffets for the restaurants. I love my new job! It's great for a culinary chef to learn baking and pastry, so I'm very glad to get the experience at the resort. Chef Adrian is my direct supervisor, and he's great - very laid back, but definitely knows what he's doing. I'm learning a lot from him. Everyone is very friendly, and the first week has been great so far!

A shot of Lake Tahoe from Tahoe City

I'm currently living in the Tahoe City Inn in TC. It's your basic motel that hasn't been remodeled in several decades, but I'm only going to be here for the month of October. Then I'm renting a room/bath in a house on a big hill above TC. Another cook at work is living there, and we have a similar schedule. It will be nice to have a real kithcen and a real bathroom. There's a fireplace, too, and a big deck that looks toward the lake. If the snow is ever so bad my Trooper can't get up and down the hill, I can carpool with my new roommate, or stay at the resort the night before!

Tahoe City is tiny, but there are several decent looking restaurants and a few shops. It's about 15 minutes from the resort, and less than 30 minutes from Truckee, which I haven't explored yet. Reno is about 45 minutes away, and there are lots of little villages all around the lake that are pretty quaint. Mom is visiting this weekend, even though I have to work, so we'll try to explore a bit when I get off at 1 in the afternoons.

Stay tuned for tales of bears in the kitchen..........

Culinary Internship

2009-07-29T02:34:00.000+02:00

Right now, I'm working 40 hours a week at Zeppa Bistro in Caldera Springs, which is part of Sunriver Resort in Central Oregon. I'm living at home with mom and dad, and enjoying the summer. I really like working, and I'll tell you more about it when I feel like blogging and I'm not totally exhausted and creaky!

Me in Zeppa's open line!

At Zeppa, I learned to make brick-oven pizzas, grilled Italian panini, and great salads. That's about all we made here, but it was a great introduction into the resort culinary industry.

Culinary School: Week Twenty-Three

2009-06-14T20:01:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to cook on a line in a restaurant. Our class started in Restaurant Bleu this Tuesday, and they basically threw us in there and we had to figure it out. I was in charge of crew chow the first night, and Cindy and I made Greek baked chicken, caesar salad, and mashed potatoes. The next night, I was on the hot line making roasted beef tenderloin and jus lie. It was a bit hectic and crazy, but not terrible, as there weren't tons of people at the restaurant, and we have a lot of cooks in the kitchen. The chefs don't give us a ton of instruction though, whether that's good or bad.

WHAT I ATE: Delicious authentic Italian wood-oven pizza from Al Forno Ferruzza on Alberta Street. The pizza was wonderful, but the service was typical Portland hippy nonchalence.

WHAT I DID: Celebrated my birthday on Monday by having afternoon drinks at McMenamin's Chapel Pub on Killingsworth with Alex, and then having happy hour with Gilion and Tracey at two cool bars on Alberta Street. I'll have to get their names from G, because I can't remember either. They both had great outdoor patios and balconies. We had yummy snacks at the first one: beet salad, calamari, buffalo wings (believe it or not!), and margaritas. It was a fun birthday!

TITBIT: Alex ran into a cougar in the middle of the night, around the corner from my garrett. It was about 4 am, and he was out for a walk. The cougar was sitting in a neighbors yard, and it hissed at Alex, who through a rock at it, and it ran away. Scary! Guard all the chickens!

MISCELLANY: I spent all day on Sunday studying for my Black Box exam that is on Monday, June 15th. I am finally calm about the test, but I still want to do really well. We have two hours to cook an appetizer or soup, a salad, and an entree which includes a sauce, protein, vegetable, and starch. It all has to be perfect!

Culinary School: Week Twenty-Two

2009-06-07T19:59:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to carve an enormouse block of ice (40" x 20" x 10") into a squirrel sculpture. A team of four of us did this with a chainsaw, chisels, and other carving tools. It was pretty cool, I must say. We worked on it for about 3 hours, and it looked pretty good for none of us having ever done such a thing. It might still be in the school freezer....

WHAT I ATE: Crab from the Bell Buoy in Seaside. We picked some up on our way back to Portland, and I took it to Tracey's house for dinner. She made bass on the grill (that she caught in the ocean a few weeks ago!) and a delicious salad of shrimp, quinoa, israeli cous cous, and vegetables. I made the crab into a composed salad of crab stacked between fried potato slices. It was good, but not great.

WHAT I DID: Spent Saturday at the beach with Alex, Tammy, and a few other folks. Alex and I drove out Hwy. 30 through St. Helens and Scapoose and Astoria. We had a yummy breakfast in St. Helens on the way. We rambled through Fort Stevens State Park. There is a military museum there with battlements and guns and all kinds of cool stuff. We finished up with bumper cars and skeeball in Seaside. It was a lovely day!

TITBIT: Tallow is made from rendered beef fat. It has the consistency of beeswax, and isn't as yucky as it sounds. It is used in the Garde Manger kitchen for sculptures. I made a peacock sculpture out of tallow. The feathers were carved from a squash, carrot, and rutabaga. It looked pretty cool. The tallow will last for years with only a little discoloration.

MISCELLANY: I had my interview with the HR Manager from the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Bavaria. I was very excited to work there after my externships, but he is only hiring based on having restaurant experience already, so I probably won't be going there soon. You can ask me for more details...

Culinary School: Week Twenty-One

2009-05-31T19:55:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to make a pate en croute. This is a forcemeat product baked inside a crust, in a pullman loaf pan. When the meat cooks inside, it shrinks away from the crust, leaving a gap of about 1/2" on the top. When the whole thing is cool, you pour melted aspic into the crust (through a "chimney" that you make in the top crust) and let it cool and set before slicing.

WHAT I ATE: Fried chicken and chicken and dumplings from Tad's Chicken and Dumplings on the Sandy River. They have a great old-fashioned dining room that overlooks the river, and the weather was lovely. Cheap cocktails, too!

WHAT I DID: Plated 50 hors d'oeuvre that I made. It took a long time and looked and tasted great. I did bacon mousse BLT's, mushroom bouchee, crab and avocado profiteroles, scallop ceviche, and cured salmon potato blinis.

My hors d'oeuvre platter.

TITBIT: Recipe for Maple Vinegar - combine almost equal parts maple syrup and live vinegar, red wine or cider (use slightly more syrup than vinegar), with about half as much dark rum and water (slightly less water). Put everything into a large glass vessel and cover it with cheesecloth to allow for air flow to reach the vinegar. Store in an undisturbed, dark place for at least four weeks. After four weeks, test the vinegar's development. Once the alcohol has been fermented out of the stock, strain the vinegar and store it in sealed bottles or jars. It can be used immediately, and it will continue to improve with age.

MISCELLANY: Mock aspic and Mock Chaud-Froid sauce are used in Garde Mange to create platters and presentation bases. Both are very tough and rubbery, yet technically edible. Mock aspic is simply water and gelatin so it is clear, while Mock Chaud-Froid sauce is sour cream and gelatin mixed to form a solid white gelatin base. Both can be poured into platters, or onto mirrors, and can be tinted, painted, and cut into shapes. Items can be place under and within it to create pictures, like below. It's a weird concept, but apparently used a lot for large banquets and in classic cuisine presentations.

Robby's aspic seafood platter.

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-05-27T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Twenty

2009-05-24T23:26:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to make cheese! Fresh, young cheeses, that is. It's quite simple, but I'd just never done it. We made Ricotta, Mascarpone, and Lemon Cheese. Basically, you heat milk, heavy cream, or a combination of both and then add an acid, like lemon juice or tartaric acid. These "curdle" the dairy product, making the curds separate from the whey. Then each cheese is strained through cheesecloth and chinois. The Lemon Cheese and Mascarpone were exceptionally yummy. We also made fresh mozzarella from queso fresco curds.

WHAT I ATE: Tea-smoked duck breast. Very tasty and easy. We hung the brined duck breasts in a large stockpot, over a pan of the following mixture: dry black tea leaves, brown sugar, dry jasmine rice, Szechwan peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and orange zest. The pot is heated, and the mixture starts to smoke, with the breasts inside, and tented with foil. It takes about 15 to 30 minutes, and then they are cooked to rare perfectly. Very pretty sliced thin on a salad.

I served my duck with a mache and cabbage salad, on a woven mat of springroll wrapper.

WHAT I DID: Made a plated Nicoise Salad and an amuse bouche Nicoise Salad. The amuse bouche was really cool, and chef liked both presentations very much. We made our own tuna confit by poaching the tuna in infused oil. A very interesting method!

Nicoise amuse bouche

TITBIT: Mozzarella and Provolone cheeses are called "pasta filata," which means they are basically "spun" pastes. The curds are heated in salted water, and stretched and kneaded in order to remove some of the water from the curds and create the slightly rubbery texture we expect in these cheeses.

MISCELLANY: When you are smoking meats at home, the meats should be air-dried prior to smoking. This allows them to form a "pellicle." A pellicle is a tacky skin that forms on the surface of the fish, poultry, or meat. The pellicle acts as a protective barrier for the food, and also captures the smoke's flavor and color and adheres it to the meat.

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-05-20T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Nineteen

2009-05-17T21:03:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: That I tend to overthink a dish when I'm under pressure, and end up doing "one more thing" to it, that it doesn't need. We did a practice Black Box test this week, where we each had to produce a plated appetizer and a plated salad within about two hours. We had to utilize an orange, green beans, scallops, and shiitake mushrooms into both dishes in any way we wanted, along with any other ingredients we chose. Both of mine were great, until I thought it would be great to add a dash of lime to my appetizer sauce. Doh! The sauce didn't need the lime, and it ended up curdling the tiny amount of cream I had put it in! Ergh! I should have just stuck with the recipes I had planned at the beginning of the test and not questioned them. Oh well, it was a good lesson learned, and something for me to watch out for when I do my big Black Box for the end of school.

My curdled sauce!

WHAT I ATE: A delicious, crispy reuben sandwich that I made in class on Friday. It was gooey on the inside, and buttery and crispy on the outside. I made a yummy coleslaw to go with it, too!

WHAT I DID: I took Mom and Dad to the airport on Friday. They went to Florida for a week to visit some long-lost cousins of Mom. I also took Gilion and James to the airport on Saturday. They went to Boston for the weekend for Nicole's graduation from Med School. I stayed at their house in order to watch all the doggies.

TITBIT: I read the classic war novel of all time, "All Quiet on the Western Front," by Erich Maria Remarque. I really liked it, and I never knew it was written from the perspective of a German soldier in WWI.

MISCELLANY: I came down with a very nasty cold that some of my classmates had. Yuck! I have a very bad sore throat, and my nose hurts.

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-05-13T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Eighteen

2009-05-10T20:38:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to sear scallops and tuna properly. I've never been able to do this very well, but now I can. The key is to start with a very hot saute pan, with no fat (butter, oil). You can rub the pan with a tiny bit of oil, but that's it. When it's really hot, put the side of the scallop or tuna in and let it be for 30 seconds for the tuna, and about a minute for the scallop. Then turn then to the next side and do the same. The natural sugars in the meat will caramelize for the color, and they shouldn't stick to the pan. Let the tuna rest a few minutes before slicing it.

My seared tuna appetizer

WHAT I ATE: I had two delicious carnitas tacos from Por Que No? on N. Mississippi Street on Cinco de Mayo. They were really good, and $2.75 each.

WHAT I DID: I made consomme this week. It's not just clear broth for old ladies! First, you have to make a very flavorful stock. We used chicken carcasses, mirepoix, and a few extra aromatic herbs. We cooked it overnight. Second, you have to clarify the stock with a "raft." The raft is made from mirepoix (cut julienne, rather than diced), bouquet garni, egg whites, lean ground chicken meat, and chopped tomatoes. You mix this all up with the cold stock, and bring it up to a simmer on high heat. The mixture solidifies around 140 degrees, which is when you stop stirring and let the raft float to the top of the stock. The raft carries all the proteins and bits that are in the stock to the top and clarifies the liquid. It's really amazing. The third and last step is to gently ladle the consomme out from underneath the raft without breaking up the raft. We served ours chilled, and I garnished mine with cucumber brunoise and microthin celery slices. It was really pretty and tasted great!

My consomme

TITBIT: The word, Hors d'Oeuvre, means outside the kitchen, or outside the menu. It originated when the bussing staff put together little tasty treats in the bussing station, or outside the kitchen, rather than the cooking staff doing it in the kitchen.

MISCELLANY: I confirmed my externship for this summer, which is part of my school. I'll be at Sunrvier Resort in Bend, and it's going to be great. I'll be starting out at the new bistro in Caldera Springs, and then they will be moving around to different parts of the resort. I'm very excited!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-05-06T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Seventeen

2009-05-03T21:31:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I started a new class session this week - Intro to Garde Manger. Garde Manger is all about cold food preparation, and includes salads and dressings, appetizers, hors d'oeuvre, cold soups, pates and terrines, sandwiches, and other stuff like that. I really like it! We've made several salads and dressings, and I finally learned how to make homemade mayonnaise, not that I really like it, but I should know how to make it!

One of the first salads I made.

WHAT I ATE: Gilion and Tracey and I had a wonderful lunch at the school restaurant - Bleu. We had gone to the Portland Art Museum to the see La Volupte du Gout exhibit, and then had the 5 course prix fix lunch at Bleu. It was exceptionally good! We had pureed carrot/ginger soup, a halibut fish and chips starter (great chips!), a spring greens salad, a filet steak on horseradish mashed potatoes, and individual chocolate souffles. It was all really delicious, and the ambiance was wonderful! I highly recommend it, because all of that is also only $14.95 per person!!!

WHAT I DID: I volunteered at a school event all day on Friday. There were no regular classes that day (in-service), but there was a big Oregon Pro-Start event where 100 Oregon teachers and students visited and learned a variety of things from our chef professors. I helped in Chef DJ's section, and we made pot-stickers, flambeed brandy-soaked cherries, steamed and plated asparagus, served up a French lamb stew called Navarin and a bacon clam chowder, and fried pork cutlets. Wine and spirits were paired with the first stuff, and beers were paired with the chowder and pork. The chefs were demonstrating how different flavors work together, and how to pair alcoholic beverages with different foods. We worked from 7am to 5pm!

TITBIT: The word Salad is derived from the latin (Roman) word for salt. I think because they probably salted the various greens and herbs they ate with salt, which was very valuable at the time. Soldiers were paid in salt, too, hence the word "salary."

MISCELLANY: I also met with the Catering Club at school on Sunday morning. We made a huge batch of Bolognese sauce that we portioned into pints and froze. We are going to sell it later for a fundraiser. Daniel and I also made some farfalle pasta.

Me and the Bolognese!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-04-29T17:00:00.000+02:00

Because there is always room on this blog for another picture of cat chefs.

Culinary School: Week Sixteen

2009-04-26T21:32:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I really, really can't cook Chinese food! My final "test" for International Cuisine was to cook an entree, either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, using a piece of pork and 5 prawns. I got the flavors all right, but my methods were totally off. I won't bore you with the horrible details, but it was probably my worst offering at school yet. Yuck!

WHAT I ATE: The entire quiche I had made in Baking class and froze. I at one piece every morning, heated up in the oven, and it was yummy! I also had Burek, which I made for my class presentation. Burek is the favorite fast food of Montenegro and other Balkan countries. It is a pastry made of layers of phyllo dough, spicy ground beef, mashed up potatoes and onions, and goat cheese. It was pretty tasty.

WHAT I DID: I watched a marathon of the BBC's "Last Restaurant Standing" while I ironed a bunch of stuff for G. I've been house-sitting the whole week for Marcella - 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 birds, and a fish! She has great TV though!

TITBIT: The Balkan country of Montenegro has Adriatic beaches, as well as some of the most rugged and high mountains in Europe. It also has the deepest gorge in Europe - the Tara River Canyon.

MISCELLANY: Gilion and I went to the Portland Farmers Market on Saturday, and then to Martinotti's Italian Deli in downtown Portland. They have been around for over 30 years, and it looks exactly like it did when we went there in high school. They have great salamis and cheeses, and all kinds of Italian chocolates, candies, cookies, and other foods. It's a really great place!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-04-22T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Fifteen

2009-04-19T23:25:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: There is a full-sized tea house from Tajikistan in Boulder, CO. It was shipped over, piece by piece, and reconstructed downtown. It is all colorful tile on the outside, and beautiful painted wood on the inside. It is run as a cafe/restaurant/tea house, and was packed when we stopped by.

Outside the tea house

WHAT I ATE: Delicious borscht that I made in class, along with some pickled trout. This classic Russian borscht was made with cabbage, onions, carrots, beets, beef, duck, and sausage. It was really pretty, and delicious, and didn't just taste like beets.

WHAT I DID: I went to a Charcuterie Club meeting on Thursday, and we prepped a bunch of food for the following Monday. We are going to have a "Slider Sale." I sliced and sauteed onions, while others cooked off a bunch of bacon, ground beef and shaped it into sliders, sliced cheese, and prepared condiments. The sale is next Monday in the student lounge. I also went to a Catering Club meeting, and we are going to cook up a huge batch of Bolognese sauce to sell for a fund-raiser. We also talked about starting a Slow Food chapter at the school, which I think is a great idea, even if the international movement is a bit liberal for my tastes.

TITBIT: The island of Borneo is divided between two nations - Malaysia and Indonesia - almost equally down the center. Also, what most people order as "Fried Rice" in Chinese restaurants is actually an Indonesian dish called Nasi Goreng.

MISCELLANY: Korea used to be called Formosa, and the people there really love potato salad. They make it pretty much the way basic American potato salad is made, but they add apples and ham to it!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-04-15T17:00:00.000+02:00

Culinary School: Week Fourteen

2009-04-12T21:30:00.000+02:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to make rice! I know it doesn't sound like much, but for me, this is really big. I'd never made rice before coming to school, because I never eat it, and when I first tried it, it was a gluey blob. Now I can make perfect rice, and the secret is coating every grain with oil before adding the liquid. I also know the perfect ratios, cooking temperatures, and times.

WHAT I ATE: An okonomiyaki - Japanese hangover food! I made this for my day in Japan on Friday. It is a pancake or "pizza" made with a batter and any other kinds of toppings that you want. The batter is made with egg, flour, and shredded cabbage. I mixed shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, daikon radish, bacon, and green onions into my batter. Once it has cooked on the griddle on one side, you flip it, and finish cooking the other side. While it is cooking, you brush Katsu sauce on it, and then finish it with drizzled mayonnaise. It looks crazy, and it kind of tasted crazy, too. They serve it at restaurants where you grill your own.

WHAT I DID: I started week one of my International Cuisine class. My instructor is Chef Franz Popperl from Austria. He's great, and the class is phenomenal. Every day, we start out by cooking a five course meal from a different region in the world. We are in teams of three that stay the same all three weeks. Cindy and Chad are my teammates. The purpose is to learn and understand the different flavor profiles around the world. The second part of the class is a demonstration by chef, and then we sit around a world map and talk about different countries - their history, geography, climate, and food. Chef tells lots of crazy stories about places he's been.

TITBIT: Pasta Works is now open on N. Mississippi Street!

MISCELLANY: My friends, Teresa and Chris got married this Saturday at a little pioneer church in Mead, CO. They live down the street in a geodesic dome! I went to the wedding and had a fun time catching up with them. They moved to Colorado from Bend last September when they purchased the Gateway Fun Park in Boulder. It's a pretty cool place, so check it out!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-04-08T17:00:00.000+02:00

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-04-01T17:00:00.000+02:00

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-03-25T16:00:00.000+01:00

Happy Spring! May picnic time be here soon!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-03-17T16:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Ten

2009-03-15T21:34:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned how to make a proper roux, which is a sauce thickener made from equal parts by weight of flour and clarified butter. There is white roux, blond roux, brown roux, and black roux, all based on how long you cook it, and the resulting color. The longer the cooking time, and darker the color, the less thickening power it has. Black roux is not actually black, but very dark brown, and used in cajun cooking.

WHAT I ATE: Lots of potatoes! We're back in a culinary skills class - CSII - so we are practicing our knife skills again and learning about different starches. We've made boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, flavored mashed potatoes, pan-fried potatoes, oven roasted potatoes, and more. We're carving those 7-sided football shaped potatoes again, but even smaller in size!

WHAT I DID: I've cooked three of the five classic French "Mother" Sauces this week - Bechamel, Veloute, and Espagnole. These are sauces that you make "Small" sauces from. They are the bases for all classic sauces that you might make. Bechamel is made with milk, veloute is made with white stocks (fish, chicken, veal), and Espagnole is made with brown stock (beef). It was really great to learn these, and it reminded me of mom for some reason.

TIDBIT: I am officially changing my weekly "Tidbit" to the proper English term, "Titbit." A titbit is a small bit of interesting information, and is derived from the size of the tiny bit of food that a titmouse eats. A titmouse is a little bird, by the way, not a mouse. It was probably changed to "tidbit" by prudish Americans during the Victorian era, I don't really know, but it should be spelled with a "t" so that's how I'm spelling it!

MISCELLANY: Whole butter is how you buy butter in the store. We always use whole unsalted butter at school. It contains about 80-82% milk fat, about 5% water, and the rest is milk solids. To make clarified butter, you bring the whole butter to a boil, and then let it sit for at least 30 minutes. The water evaporates out, and the milk solids settle to the bottom and form a little foam at the top. If you scrape the foam off the top, and drain the clear milk fat off, you are left with the milk solids. The clear fat is what you are going for. It is used to make classic sauces and in many other things. Another easy way to separate them is to boil the whole butter, cool it and let it separate, then place it in the refrigerator so it solidifies again. Then you can separate the solid clarified butter fat easily from the solidified milk solids at the bottom. There isn't much use for the milk solids, except for flavoring. It has all the flavor of butter, but none of the fat, so my brother-in-law would probably love it!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-03-11T16:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Nine

2009-03-08T20:47:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned how to make Boudin Noir, blood sausage, and head cheese! The blood sausage didn't taste as awful as I thought it would, but it was still not super palatable, and had a very squishy texture. I haven't tried the head cheese yet, because I froze it for mom and dad's anniversary. They'll like it. We boiled pig heads in stock for several hours, and then picked them all apart. We separated out meat, fat, skin, bones, and "gross" bits. That way, we could put in the bits that we wanted, and I chose only meat, of course. I made mine with sage, brandied cherries, caramelized onions, and the pork meat. It gets solidified in a terrine with stock gelatin, which is the reason most people don't like it. They can't get past the jello texture. It was very pretty though!

WHAT I ATE: We ate fois gras in class. I had tasted miniscule bits of fois gras before, knowing that I didn't want to like it because it was liver, so I never really paid attention to what it tasted like. This time, we tried it raw, with a little salt and pepper, and then lightly pan-seared. It was delicious! The raw was better than the cooked, in my opinion. It tasted like butter, with the texture of avocado. Chef let me take the leftovers home, and 'sis and I ate it for a snack.

WHAT I DID: I cured and smoked my own ham, and boy was it good! I took a fresh ham leg, deboned it, injected it with brine with a big hypodermic needle, soaked it in brine overnight, and smoked it for 24 hours. We then cooked it over at 'sis' house, and it was so delicious - lightly smokey, perfectly dry, but moist at the same time. It didn't have that wet or slimey texture that cheap hams have. Yum!

TIDBIT: How to tell a rabbit carcass from a cat carcass. Really. A skinned and eviscerated cat would look just like a skinned and eviscerated rabbit, which is why they leave the kidneys inside the rabbit. A cat's kidney's are located near the spine, directly across the spine from each other. In a rabbit, they are also near the spine, but they are offset - one higher than the other. So the purveyor always leaves them in to prove you are getting rabbit and not cat. Who knew?

MISCELLANY: I got a perfect score on my Meat Fabrication & Identification class final exam. WooHoo!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-03-04T17:00:00.000+01:00

This one is difficult to explain.

Culinary School: Week Eight

2009-03-01T21:01:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned how to break down and debone a chicken or duck, which is pretty easy to do, actually. People would save a lot of money if they bought whole chickens and cut them up themselves. I also learned all the primary cuts that a side of beef is broken down to: chuck, rib, short loin, sirloin, round, tip, flank, short plate, brisket, and shank.

Chart courtesy of www.pgabeef.com

WHAT I ATE: I made risotto parmigiano, which I've never made before. Then, I made "arancini" with the risotto, by forming balls with the risotto, stuffing them with a piece of mozzarella, rolling them in egg and breadcrumbs, and frying them. I have to say, they were mighty tasty! I put some lemon zest in the risotto, and you could really taste it. Yummy and easy!

WHAT I DID: I went on a field trip, with Chef Russ and a few classmates, to the Fulton meat processing plant. We had to wear white overcoats, hairnets, and hardhats, and it was freezing cold inside. Fulton does not process carcasses, but receives "primal cuts" and then fabricates different cuts for restaurants and hotels. They process mostly beef, but do a very small amount of pork, too. They provide all the ground beef for Burgerville and Red Robin, and they are one of only a very small number of processors that are the highest rated by the FDA for cleanliness, safety, quality, and even their "greenness." Pretty impressive! They have some folks who have worked there for over 40 years!

TIDBIT: I volunteered to work at an Oscars Party at the Hollywood Theater, along with 4 other students, from 2pm to 10pm on that Sunday. I was the only one to show up, so I did all the table set-up, food prep and presentation, maintained buffets, plated desserts, bussed, and bossed the theater volunteers around and generally took charge. It was a long night, but everyone loved me!

MISCELLANY: I just finished reading MFK Fisher's Two Towns in Provence, which contains "Map of Another Town," all about Aix en Provence, and "A Considerable Town," all about Marseilles. It was great! The book about Aix was particularly interesting, as it chronicled her time there with her two young daughters in the '50's and early '60's. Even though both places have changed greatly since she was there, there are some things about Provence that will never change, and it was wonderful to revisit them! Now I want to go!!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-02-25T17:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Seven

2009-02-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: The difference between round fish and flat fish, and lean fish and fat fish. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish! I also learned all about mollusks, crustaceans, bivalves, cephalapods, univalves and more!

WHAT I ATE: Shrimp Etouffee, Carbonara with mussels, clams, and lobster, Fried Calamari, and Crab Cakes. We made all of these in class on Wednesday, after cleaning and cutting up all the seafood that went in everything.

WHAT I DID: Many things I've never done before, like shucked oysters, shucked clams, shucked mussels, cleaned squid, filleted a sole, a tilapia, a trout, and a salmon. It was really great to do all of this, and good practice for not being grossed out by slimy guts and stuff!

TIDBIT: Quantum of Solace is MUCH better the second time around!

MISCELLANY: On Saturday, I went with a group of WCI students to the Coeur de Terre winery in McMinnville. The chef/instructor who runs the WCI Wine Country Club makes his wine (La Bete) at this winery. He showed us around and explained the wine making process. Then we did a tasting of about 9 of his wines, which I liked quite a bit. He had several pinot noirs, and a few wines I'd never heard of before. They were all very "French" style - yeah!

All the stuff we made in class!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-02-18T17:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Six

2009-02-16T05:45:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: That I am a horrible cookie baker! Not really, but of all the things I made during my three weeks of baking, my cookies were the worst. We made chocolate chip (children can make these better than I did!), French macarons (different than coconut macaroons), lange du chat (also known as Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies), and chocolate truffles. Granted, I forgot the baking soda in my chocolate chip cookies, but I also think the C.C. and Milano batters were over beaten. Both spread out on the baking sheet, didn't hold their shape, and were rock hard. Yuck! The macarons came out well, but are very sweet. My truffles, infused with Earl Grey tea and lavender, were really yummy, even if my chocolate used for the coating didn't temper properly and had streaks in it. I think I made better cookies before I "learned" how to make them! :)

WHAT I ATE: Crunchy onion rings, caesar salad, steak bites, and whiskey sours at the bar at the Ringside on NW Burnside. They have a great late night Happy Hour - all the HH food items are $2.25 each, and it's really cozy.

WHAT I DID: On Saturday, I hung out with Alex (visiting for the weekend), Robby, Joel, and Erik from school. We went to the Edelweiss deli on SE Powell, and purchased Bavarian meat products, like veal loaf, landjaeger, leberwurst, etc. We also had lunch (I had a bierbrat with potato salad and sauerkraut) and German beers. After that we went to the Yukon Tavern in Sellwood and played pool. It was a fun day.

TIDBIT: It's really easy to make delicious bagels! You could even make them at home. It's a yeast dough that you shape in rings (obviously!) and poach in simmering water before baking. The poaching creates gelatinization of the starch in the dough, which is what gives the bagel the chewiness that is so yummy.

MISCELLANY: My sister's birthday was on Tuesday, and we went to Jo Bar on NW 23rd Avenue for lunch (Tracey came along, too). It was snowing big globs of fluffy snow!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-02-12T02:26:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Five

2009-02-09T02:20:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: That most people can't bake a bread with a crispy crust at home. Home ovens are made to automatically vent heat and steam, making it impossible to make a crisp crust. Crisp crusts are formed when steam is injected into the oven and trapped there during the entire baking time. The steam prevents the crust from forming too soon and splitting the bread. After the steam is released, the bread remains in the oven for another five minutes, allowing the crust to brown and crisp.

WHAT I ATE: The wonderful "torchio" macaroni and cheese with braised short ribs from 10 01 in the Pearl District - one of the best $5 happy hour items in town!

WHAT I DID: I baked bread! All kinds of bread! This week, I brought home 3 baguettes every day, 2 loaves of white pan bread, a pan of focaccia bread, a bunch of pitas, 3 fougasse (a football-shaped cheese bread), three pizzas, a braided challah loaf and tray of challah rolls. So much bread!

TIDBIT: Some classmates and I started our own out-of-class cooking group. Our goal is to get together at least once a week to cook together and try to make things we've never made before. We met twice this week and had a lot of fun. I made delicious apricot jam galettes.

MISCELLANY: I'm entering a recipe contest for a Texas grapefruit company. I created a delicious ceviche, so cross your fingers that they like it.

Confetti Ceviche that I created for the contest!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-02-04T17:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Four

2009-02-02T01:28:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: The difference between flaky dough, mealy dough, pate a choux, pate brisee, pate sucree, and puff pastry.

WHAT I ATE: A yummy bowl of French Onion Soup and a glass of Oregon Pinot Grigio at the bar in Jake's Grill in downtown Portland.

WHAT I DID: I brought home an apple pie, a cherry pie, a pile of eclairs and chocolate covered cream puffs, a chocolate tart, 3 cream pies, a bag of puff pastry shells, a cheesecake, and a quiche - all made by me!

TIDBIT: The French word "pate" means paste, and all doughs are called paste.

MISCELLANY: Unfortunately, I was not awarded money from either of the two scholarships I applied for. I was angry, disappointed, and bitter, but I'm over it now. I still think my submissions were superior, but there's nothing I can do about it! On to the next one.

My goofy classmates, Jeff and Cecilia

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-01-28T17:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week Three

2009-01-26T06:59:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: Umami is the 5th taste receptor. We all know salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. Umami is the Japanese word that describes a taste that is none of those. This idea has been in asian cultures for centuries. There is actual science behind this, and, chemically, umami is commonly known as monosodium glutamate - MSG. Learn more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

WHAT I ATE: Yummy bangers and mash at The Moon and Sixpence on NE 42nd; truffled mashed potatoes in class; Point Reyes blue cheese and Italian hard salami in class, from Cindy's Mold Presentation.

WHAT I DID: One homework assignment, two take-home quizzes, two food safety tests, one written exam, one knife skills test, one written research paper, one oral presentation, one product identification test. Whew!

TIDBIT: My friend Joel says we shouldn't use No. 3, 6, or 7 plastics in the microwave.

MISCELLANY: Fubonn Market (www.fubonn.com) is a very big asian market on 82nd Avenue and Powell in Portland. They have a great meat and seafood department, fun housewares, and lots of crazy unidentifiable dried, jellied, canned, and frozen items from around the world. I bought a tasteless, but pretty, pear there last Monday, and don't be fooled by the lichi nuts shrinkwrapped in the produce section - also tasteless.

My first chef instructors at WCI - Chef DJ and Chef Ron - they were great!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-01-21T17:00:00.000+01:00

Well, not a lot of cooking going on, but this man is wearing the kind of culinary student hat I have to wear every day at school. I don't know if he is wearing it because he is a cook, or if he just likes to wear it when he drinks with his little sailor man.

Culinary School: Week Two

2009-01-19T05:24:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: How to calculate the Total Yield (TY) of a recipe, and how to calculate the Conversion Rate (CR) of a recipe. Both numbers are needed in order to do a recipe conversion, basically being able to figure out how to make a recipe that will feed 200 from a recipe that will feed 12. To convert a recipe, take the number of original servings multiplied by the serving size (6 oz.). Next take the new number of servings multiplied by the new serving size. These numbers are the original and new Total Yields. Divide the new TY by the old TY to get the conversion rate. The final step is to multiply each ingredient in the old recipe by the CR to get the new quantities. Obviously, this is not really necessary for the home cook, who could simply double, or half, a recipe based on what is needed. In a commercial kitchen, however, conversions are used regularly, and now I know how to do it!

WHAT I ATE: A Scotch Egg from the Rose and Thistle on NE Broadway. I loved it, but others in my group weren't so thrilled. It's a hardboiled egg, surrounded by spicy sausage, breaded and fried. Yum! We had some pretty good "chips," too. Saturday night, my schoolmates Joel, Jason, and Robby, and his girlfriend, Cheryl, all went out on the town. I took them to some of my favorite Portland spots - Pal's Shanty, Thatch, the Rose and Thistle and the Alibi. Good stuff!

WHAT I DID: Finished reading my first "Nero Wolfe" mystery - A Family Affair. Written by Rex Stout, in the 60's and 70's, this extensive series of mysteries set in New York City features the "world's greatest detective" and gourmand, Nero Wolfe, and his sidekick and employee, Archie Goodwin. I loved it! It was oddball, full of weird characters, and witty narrative. Apparently, Stout wrote more than 40 culinary Nero Wolfe mysteries, so I can't wait to find some more.

TIDBIT: A chateau potato is a hand-carved, 7-sided, football-shaped potato, usually found only in very fine-dining establishments (see photo above). Each chateau should be the same size, about 2.5" long with a center diameter of 1.75" and ends about 1/2 that diameter. They aren't easy to make, but practice makes perfect!

MISCELLANY: I submitted a scholarship application featuring a story about my family tradition of making Pfannkuchen for Easter. I'll let you know if I get the dough!! Hee Hee!

My second or third attemp at Chateau Potatoes. Not bad!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-01-14T17:00:00.000+01:00

Culinary School: Week One

2009-01-11T17:00:00.000+01:00

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned to set up a proper "breading station." From left to right, first comes the pan for the product to be fried, second the pan for flour (put spices in the flour), third comes the pan for the egg mixture (straight egg, or a blend of egg and milk), fourth is a pan for the breading or crumb mix, and finally is a pan for the final product before it gets fried into crunchy deliciousness.

WHAT I DID: Chopped, sliced, and diced. I practiced my "knife skills" so that I could pass my "proficiencies" -- the 20 or so different shapes and sizes of cut vegetables that I have to master. For instance, I had to make 12 brunois of carrot, each exactly 1/8 by 1/8 by 1/8 inches! It took me two hours.

WHAT I ATE: Putting my breading station lesson to work, we made carrot/rutabaga cakes at my sister's house tonight. Using left over carrot/rutabaga puree, we set up an official breading station, followed the steps, and pan fried some mighty yummy, crunchy treats. Of course, anything fried in crunchy crumbs is going to taste good -- even a rutabaga.

TIDBIT: The first restaurants appeared shortly before the French Revolution, when a scofflaw decided to sell soup (ie: "restaurant" or restorative) at his inn. This led to the downfall of the enterprise-killing food guilds that had restricted dining choices until then. Viva la restaurant!

MISCELLANY: I moved into my garret on Tuesday. It is an adorable "mother-in-law" apartment above the garage of some family friends, close to the Max station, in a beautiful neighborhood. I love it.

Our first attempts with our new knives!

Cooking-Themed Picture of the Week

2009-01-08T02:16:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T17:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog!

2009-01-04T04:25:00.000+01:00

Thank you for checking out my first-ever blog! My first day of culinary school is Monday, January 5, 2009, and I anticipate being fairly busy from that point onward. Therefore, my goal is to have a weekly review, posted every Sunday and featuring a few of the highlights from my week. I hope you'll join me in this latest life adventure!

PS, be sure to check out my sister's awesome blog - Rose City Reader - for something new to read!