The class I’m in now is called Food service production, where we focus largely on the three cooking methods listed in the title. It is so nice getting back to cooking compared to being in a freezing lab cutting raw meat.
Day 1 my group was in charge of the pumpkin pancakes, tourné potatoes, and salad. I worked on the citrus salad and potatoes. For the salad we made a citrus vinaigrette with fresh ginger, white wine vinegar, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, and honey. The first time we tried it, me and the chef both didn’t like it so instead of using sesame oil which was really strong, we added the honey and white wine vinegar. It was then topped with oranges, cucumbers, thinly sliced(julienne) carrots, and feta cheese.
Day 2 I worked on the chicken sauté, which is part of our practical. Luckily I got to practice! Chicken sauté starts with dredging(coating the chicken in flour) and placing them on a hot pan with a little oil. Once it is browned on both sides, finely chopped shallots, garlic and mushrooms are added. It is then deglazed (using an acid to remove particles from the pan) with a white wine ( I used marsala), and chicken stock is added and then reduced. Then you monter au buerre (finish with butter) and the chicken with the sauce is complete! (as long as the temperature of the chicken is 165ºF)
I had a little incident with the alcohol. When I added it, I was supposed to flambe it (light the alcohol on fire) and something happened where I either put too much alcohol or let the flame over it too much where the flame almost went to the ceiling! One of my classmate’s face was so close and I felt bad! Luckily mine and his face weren’t burnt. It was a lot of fun though!!
Day 3 I was very excited for. Me and Laura worked together on the baked stuffed chicken with supreme sauce. Both day 2 and day 3 we had to break down whole chickens. After meatcutting class, I thought I was done with all of that for awhile…apparently the fun has only begun! haha. But at least I know how to do that fairly quickly now. After we deboned our chicken legs for the recipe and gave other groups the different parts of the chicken, we started on our stuffing.
The stuffing consisted of basic ingredients: onions, carrots, celery, garlic, sage, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, eggs, and chicken stock. We sautéd off the vegetables and then added the rest of the ingredients together and stuffed the chicken legs. They went into the oven for about 30 minutes. (Remember, stuffed products such as this chicken must reach an internal temperature of 165°F!)
While that was cooking, we made a supreme sauce. A roux is made (butter and flour), chicken stock is whisked in, and then it is finished with heavy cream, salt, and white pepper. Once it was glazed over the finished chicken, we garnished with parsley. So shout out to all of you back in Willow Springs, I’ll be making this so you better have an appetite .
Day 4 was a lot of fun. I love learning new things! I was in charge of the appetizer, which was bourekas served with a red pepper coulis dipping sauce. The filling of this was onions, spinach, fresh dill, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and lemon juice.
The dish was made with 8 sheets of phyllo dough, oiling every 2nd sheet of dough to produce a flaky end product and also so the sheets don’t end up all sticking together when being baked! The sheets are very very thin and break easily. This process of oiling ever second sheet is time consuming but very worth it!
Then it is rolled with the stuffing and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes.
And here is the finished product with the red pepper coulis!
Day 5 Kryslin and I worked on veal cordon bleu! I learned a lot today, because I never made this dish let alone ate it! I learned cordon bleu with any kind of meat is wrapped in ham and cheese. We pounded out the veal cutlets, I cut the ham and cheese on a meat slicer (I was happy to learn how to use that) and layered the ham and cheese on the cutlets and rolled them up. Kryslin shallow-fried them and stuck them in the oven while I worked on the allemande sauce. That is a veal stock with a roux, eggs, cream, lemon juice, salt and white pepper. It wasn’t thick enough so I made a slurry with cornstarch and water. That is a thickener, which I had to make a few times because it still wouldn’t come to the right consistency. Here is the final product that Kryslin plated!
Day 6 I did my practical which was an over-easy egg, an omelette, and chicken marsala (sauté). It all turned out really well! One more day of class and off to Chicago! I’ll get back at ya later! Good Eats and Merry Christmas :D
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