There was this mollusk...
(and he walks up to a sea cucumber, normally they don't talk sea cucumbers, but in a joke, everyone talks...)
We made a multiple kinds of shellfish. Shrimps, mussels, oysters...
Today (September 21st) is the LAST full day of Culinary Foundations! Crazy!!! Tomorrow we start our final for the block. I can't believe it has come. What a whirlwind it has been! Just 8 weeks ago I had no idea, none at all, that I would be here today. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't gone at this full throttle. Probably would be in my blue shirt, selling a television... :-P
Anyways...
Today we prepared shellfish and a few mollusks, no sea cucumbers though... Again, it was a tasty day! Shrimp is very good, nothing beats a good shrimp cocktail!
Chef Marcus teaches us how to shuck an oyster
It isn't a super easy thing to do, but over time we will become masters! The key is to slowly pry in your knife, then turn it gently but firmly. Don't break the shell!
Braxton tries his hand at it!
Laurice has it! Slowly take your knife down the seam and "crack" it open!
A lot of people in the class didn't like the oysters. I admit it is a bit of a strange thing, to just eat it raw out of the shell with a little bit of lemon and maybe some Tabasco sauce. It is an interesting texture thing, but hell, taking a shot isn't the best thing either...
Anges a Cheval (Angels on Horseback)
The best way we had for oysters today was the Anges a Cheval. I would love to know why in the world that is the name, who came up with that?!? Probably had a bit too much honeyed wine in the kitchen! It is a really good dish though; as I've said before, bacon is the BEST!
- 16 Oysters - shelled
- 1 Baguette - sliced
- 1 lb. Bacon - thin sliced
- 8 oz. Breadcrumbs - fried
- 1 Sprig Rosemary - leaves removed from stem
- Wooden Skewers - as needed
- Cayenne Powder - to taste
- Salt & Pepper - to taste
- Toast baguette pieces.
- Roll each oyster with 1 rosemary leaf in bacon. Impale on skewer and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook oysters on a grill until fully cooked, 3 minutes on the first side, 1-2 on the second side.
- Remove from grill and place one oyster on each piece of toast. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and a pinch of cayenne.
- Serve and enjoy!!!
Our little Anges before grilling
Knife Skillz!
Today we also had a practical test on knife skillz (yeah, that is a Z!). Chef Marcus cut an equal piece of celery for each of us and cut it extremely thin, into 165 pieces to be exact! Of course he did it in about 30 seconds, no one here has the skill and especially the guts to do that! His knife flew through that thing!
For the practical we had to prove that we could be almost as precise as him. It wasn't a test of speed, we all took our sweet time, I spent like 30 minutes on it. Chef told us that if we could surpass his count, we would get an A+ in the WHOLE block... I was for sure not going to pass up that opportunity!
I took my time on it, being as precise as possible. I'm still working on my skill with the knife but I'm getting better. You can see I did make a few terrible cuts, there is a small mess-up pile on the left of my cutting board. I came close, closer than anyone else did :-D with 152 pieces. Ugh I was almost there! The perfect grade was in my grasp! Oh well, it was fun cutting the tiny pieces, amazing how you can get a whole piece that is as thin as a strand of hair!
Only 14 more to win... :'(
Those shrimp kabobs look tasty!
Braxton made a really good vegetable puree that he placed in the oyster shells. I thought it was a really creative presentation. We didn't have enough oysters for him to include them in this dish, but I bet if we did it would have been even better.
Aston (left) and Jakob (right) prepare their dishes. Ashton made a nice garlic buttered shrimp, while Jakob utilized spinach in his!
A great action shot of the class! From left to right: Kurtis, Megan, Dylan, Celeste, Ashton.
Food Responsibility and Safety
As we move along this journey, one of the most important things we constantly address is safety. Not just kitchen safety; how to safely handle knives and other sharp equipment, how to ensure there is no cross-contamination of foods. But that also includes safe food, food that is free from contaminants, physical, biological, or chemical that can harm us.
Today we ran into an extremely rare food safety hazard. One that Chef Marcus, with his 20+ years of culinary experience, had never encountered until today.
Raw Crude Oil
The above photo, (although I didn't get the mussels in this photo) is of raw crude oil that was found in a batch of our mussels. Mashke was plating her dish and found a black, oily substance coming out of a few of the bivalves. Chef Carlos from K1 came in and took one for the team, tasted it to confirm that it was indeed oil.
This is a stark reminder of the challenges we will face once we go out into the wild. As a society we are just now beginning to realize the damage we have caused to our planet. This is an example of how an oil spill really does leech into everything it touches. Again, Chef Marcus has NEVER seen this before; who knows how many mussels and other mollusks he has prepared in his career without running into this. Crazy, absolutely crazy odds!
On the plus side, thanks to requirements set by the government, we keep the harvesting information on all shellfish. This means we know where and when these mussels were farmed and are able to inform that supplier so they can check on the size of the damage. I really hope this is kind of a freak thing and that none of the other beds around this particular creature were effected, definitely not a good thing for them as creatures!
Back to the food :-D
This was a super tasty orange crusted shrimp. It was my favorite dish of the day!
We used a sprig of rosemary as a skewer and then grilled the shrimp.
As a HUGE fan of rosemary, this is definitely a dish I will make
in the future!
Another amazing buffet about to be devoured!!!
Gravlox
The last thing we prepared today was Chef's special Gravlox. I'm not going to give away this secret recipe (Ha it's mine now!) but it isn't a secret to make lox. We prepared this today and got ready to let it rest and season for the next 48 hours to eat on Friday. OUR LAST DAY IN FOUNDATIONS!!!!
Overall this was a great day. Preparing and then eating all the shellfish was fantastic! And although it was a bit of a dark spot, pun intended, finding the oil in the mussels was a very interesting and crazy experience. You really can't script all of this!
A very interesting and informative post!
ReplyDeleteLove raw oysters!
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