Kitchen Day 25

The Incredible Egg
I stole that from Chef Suzanne!

I cheated on this photo, I took it at home! :-/

Before we get into the amazing creations that this one ingredient creates, I need to introduce you to our new Chefs!

Chef Suzanne Rudolph

So far I'm really enjoying Chef Suzanne. She really knows her stuff! I'm really glad we have her for baking, it is something she really loves! Even in this short time, I have learned so much from her. I have never been able to poach an egg before (something we did today); and now it's so easy! I can't believe it was so difficult before!

She will only be our Chef for 3 short weeks... She will be going on vacation to Portugal. That jerk!
:-D
I am really excited about the next few weeks; Culinary Arts will let us refine the skills we learned in the last block. And the last days we get to make a restaurant and come up with everything we would need to create it. So cool!!!

Since Chef Suzanne will be going on vacation we also have another amazing Chef to show us the ropes:

Chef Mark Kalix

I haven't worked with Chef Mark as much as Chef Suzanne yet, he is new to Escoffier Culinary School (Chef Suzanne graduated from a school that was once called Culinary School of the Rockies...). He has definitely showed me some very important tips, I have been holding my knife wrong for years!

Back to the eggs...

 Chef Suzanne shows us how to properly fry an egg.

I wasn't the first to say it in class, but I will be the first one here, it is very difficult to fry an egg on our pans. They have seen a few years go by... To ensure they are wonderful and non-stick, we have to properly season pans. Again, I thought I knew how to do this, I wasn't really spot on.

How to season a pan (make a pan non-stick)

1. Make sure the pan is clean and flat. You can use a salt/oil mixture to clean the pan and fill in any tiny perforations.
2. Put enough high-heat oil in the pan to coat the bottom. As the oil heats up it can cover more surface.
3. Once the oil is at it's smoking point, remove pan from heat.
4. Wipe out pan with paper towel, cool the pan.
5. Add in more oil to cook with and have fun!!!

This is key to cooking eggs. If the pan isn't seasoned properly, the eggs will stick and you won't get a lovely fried or over easy egg. It will instead lead to a very heated, pun :-D, disaster as you yell profusely at the pan.

Poached Eggs

I was never able to do this before. Knowing the keys now, it is VERY simple, and anyone can do it perfectly!

• ADD A SMALL AMOUNT OF VINEGAR TO THE POACHING LIQUID!!!!!
• This helps bind the egg white to the yolk and help keep the yolk together during poaching

A lot of videos and tip sites online will tell you to make a kind of vortex in the water by stirring your spoon and then adding the egg to the swirling mixture. That is not only INCREDIBLY difficult, but entirely pointless. The best way we learned to cook was to drop a cookie cutting mold into the water. This will keep the egg together during the cooking process, it is also 99% foolproof (if the water is at a rapid boil, which you don't want, then some of the egg will escape. It will not ruin your egg though). 

Chef Suzanne demonstrates poaching. She showed us that making a vortex doesn't really do much.

My eggs. We made over easy, sunny side up, fritatta, and two kinds of omelets!

 My egg in the cookie cutter mold!

 Ugh!!!!!! I accidentally broke the yolk as I plated it! SOOOOO FRUSTRATING!!!

French Eggs

I didn't get a good action photo, but Chef Mark showed us how to make French Eggs. The French style of scrambled eggs and omelets vary from the American style by being more fluffy. If you constantly whisk the eggs while they cook they become much creamier.

You can see that they are a much lighter color, it's just the cooking method that makes them different. Super cool!

This was a fairly straight forward, but not easy day! I love eggs so I was quite happy making multiple kinds and getting to eat them :-D. Tomorrow we get to make crepes! Who doesn't love crepes!!!!!!