Regional Cuisine Final

Farm to Table Practical: Regional Cuisines

So tasty. I want some now... :'(

At the end of every block we have a practical, to prove to the chef that we paid attention to at least some of what they were going on about :D With each practical we are faced with a bit of a mystery, what will be the ingredients? Usually we have an idea of the protein, (in this case pork tenderloin) and have always been able to use celery, carrots, onions.

However the rest of the dish is a mystery. For this round we were given beets and acorn squash, two items I was on the fence about using (I usually just make the acorn squash as a butter, sugar syrup in the middle and bake it, not something I could do here).

For each practical we are to prepare an appetizer, and an entree. The last time I made a soup to go with my fish, a puree of celeriac and carrots. It wasn't quite cooked all the way and I started my mise en place to try it again (you can see the celeriac on the right side of my tray).

To accompany the main protein for the entree we need a starch and a sauce. I planned to make a rice and lentil pilaf. Above you can see my small diced carrot for the pilaf.

Celeste prepares her veggies for her dish.

Dylan (foreground), Mashke (left-side), Paige & Megan (center), and Keenan (behind Dylan) all at work!

As this is a timed practical I usually become horrible at taking photos; sometimes just on a normal day I completely forget and these days have a bit more stress to them. (Once I get the Top Secret Food Company up and running I think I will employ a photographer for these days to ensure each student gets some recognition.) 

I got to use my fancy new peeler on my carrots, it is fantastic!!!

I decided to make a salad for my appetizer. It might sound too easy, this is Chef Carlos Ruiz who is grading this! It has to have perfect seasoning on both the greens and in the dressing, no easy task!!!

Mitch shows off his dish. Lookin Gangsta as usual man!!!

This guy always performs well and lets me taste his creations, look at that pork! B. E. A-uitiful!

So I finally get everything planned out, prepped and cooking. I came up with my salad with a simple lemon vinaigrette dressing, planned my lentil and rice pilaf, and decided on making a curried pork tenderloin with caramelized beets and acorn squash. The week before this we had "been" in India and Thailand, two places that love curry, something I can absolutely get on board with. Curry is the bomb.

I'm just about to plate my dish, but as I'm getting my plates out of the warming oven, Chef tells me I have 35 minutes to service... Um?!?!?

WUUUT!!!

The last 3 practicals we had 1 hour-30 minutes to complete our meal. Today, unbeknownst to me, we had 2 hours.....

Slight panic time...

Okay, okay. So now I had to figure out how to hold my food properly for 30 minutes. My pork was perfect, just at the beginning of medium-heat, and my rice was just about out of broth in the pot. So I add a bit more broth, turn it down on low. As for the pork, I put a lid on the pan and moved it off center of the flame while it was also on low. 

On the plus side I now had 30 minutes to clean my station and make sure my seasonings were spot on.

30 minutes later...

Finally I get to serve and eat this! It looks incredible!

My veggies on the left and the rice pilaf on the right. I used a pastry cake pan to make a cool shape for the rice, it sort-of held..

The pork was still very juicy and not overcooked at all. REMEMBER: let any meats rest BEFORE cutting into them!

Chef and I prepare to dig in! My salad is in the ceramic ramekin. 

Overall it was a great dish! My lentils didn't cook all the way and because I had to hold it the rice was slightly overcooked. Not bad for having to figure out how to wait! Chef absolutely loved the curry, it wasn't too spicy and was full of flavor, I can't wait to make it again! 

No recipe for you! This was mostly as I went so it wasn't written out, I will however make it again and when I do not only will there be more photos but I will attach a recipe as well :D

EDIT: this took place December 19th, just before our Winter Break

It's 2017!!!

IT'S THE NEW YEAR?!?!?!
GOODBYE 2016!...
And good riddance... :P

So like Sampson here, I spent most of my winter break doing just the same. SLEEP! We had a three week vacation from just before the holidays until this week. It was incredible. I knew that as it was getting closer that I couldn't wait for it, but I didn't know just how much I needed it. It was the best. I'm not sure how it would have been possible to go into this next block without it.

WINTER HAS ARRIVED!!!

We finally got a good amount of snow! I'm super jealous of the mountains right now, they continue to get dumped on and I can't go enjoy it! :'(

So much happened over the break! I definitely should have posted at least an update a week but I was so happy doing nothing, nothing at all. The Holidays came and went, I spent them very happily with family and friends, it was a great time. I worked a bit here and there at Eureka! Boulder, but honestly I spent almost every day sleeping and playing Skyrim: Remastered. Oh well! Here are some tasty bits:

The Holidays!

 So way late happy Hannukah (or Chanukkah if you want that spelling)! Crazy that it started on Christmas Eve, two holidays at once!

Some info for the next set of photos. Shelby and I spent Christmas Eve at her grandparents house, it was so nice seeing the family, and we had apparently eaten her brother's cheesecake, (it's his birthday on Christmas). Naturally, now that everyone know's I am a "chef" I was tasked with making the replacement.

I'm not sure if you know this, literally everything is closed on this one night, save for Walgreens. So at 9pm on December 24th we went to Walgreens to buy ingredients to make a cheesecake from scratch: cream cheese, sour cream, butter, graham crackers. We were already on the way to my best friend Nick Beckett's house to hang out and call in the holiday, so we didn't get home until around 2am to START the prep for this.

Shelby preps the crust, we had to buy the whole cracker and smash it to bits for the crust. 

So... I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the mixer to work. I cleaned it and everything! This is a photo of the filling, mixed by hand 2lbs of cream cheese, impossible! 

The crust was incredible! 

So at just before 4am on Christmas Day, the cakes were done. They were sooooo good! I didn't have a very deep pan so that was a bit sad but by the 26th, all three of them were gone. I don't regret it at all!!!!!! 

Even Sammy helped, mostly by being a pain and ensuring we were awake.

Cheesecake:

     Filling:

• 2lbs Cream Cheese - softened
• 1lbs Sugar
• 1lbs Eggs (Large AA Eggs weigh approximately 2oz each)
• 1lbs Sour Cream

        Crust:

• 3c Graham Cracker Crumbs (about 3 sleeves)
• 1/2c Sugar
• 7oz Butter - melted

1. On the low speed of a mixer with the paddle attachment, mix cream cheese and sugar (or do it by hand! I used a spoon to get it going and then eventually switched to a whisk).
2. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl (I think we only used 5 eggs, the Pastry Gods are fickle and you never know how much you need!).
3. Add sour cream and continue to mix, it should be smooth without lumps.
4. Separately combine graham crumbs, sugar, butter for the crust. Press into the bottom of a pie pan, ensuring an even coating without any holes. Fill 3/4 of the way full with the filling.
5. Bake on low heat, 250F until done, it took these ones about 40 minutes to cook. (It depends on how thick the cake is, you can also use a water bath if you'd like, ensuring it can't burn)
6. Cheesecake is done when the filling is just set, it is like a hard Jell-o, without any browning.
7. Cool overnight, make sure there isn't any condensation that can ruin it. You never eat a cheesecake the same day!
8. Remove from pans and serve.

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

So making the cheesecake wasn't a planned thing, but I did plan on making a dumpling for the holiday dinner. I made a pear, bacon, potato dumpling with a red wine and raspberry sauce.

Sautéing the filling

Everyone pitched in at some point. Larry asked if this photo was going up, indeed it is! 

As per usual, my wonderful sous chef helps with the prep. The dough was definitely her creation, without it we would have just had hash. 

 Top: the raspberry sauce. Bottom: the oil fryer for the dumplings.

Mealtime!!!

This is the wine I used, I reduced it by 2/3rds, a trick I learned from the great Anthony Bourdain.

So many things, so little time. This post doesn't even come close to all of the things I did. I still have to tell you about how awesome my final was for Regional Cuisines, write about all of the class stuff I never mentioned, and many more things. I am going to be buying a Chromebook soon, I need something more portable than this ancient '08 Macbook to write with. Until tomorrow!

It's sleepy time... Sammy knows how to do it

Regional Cuisines Make-up Work

FOODS!!!

So, as I believe I mentioned before, I missed more days than I would have liked this block. On the plus side, one of the ways that we can make up for a missed day is to cook some dishes of the day. Two days I missed foods from the south of this beautiful country, Florida/Caribbean and the Southern States. They both have tasty food!!! Oh well, I got to make it all yesterday :-D

Florida/Caribbean

Key Lime Pie:

So this I already made, (it's been 2 weeks now!) but it is one of the dishes we had planned for that day. As I wrote in that original post, I needed some more lime flavor, I think next time I will make an almost Creme Anglaise while seeping the lime zest and then strain it out. I was going to add more juice but that is EXACTLY the cause of my thumb disaster...

Jerk Chicken:

I really enjoyed making this. It was sooooooo tasty! I had to do a bit of a twist on the recipe that we had, I wrote everything down but apparently just didn't read the list when I went to King Soopers.

Marinade:

• 4 Limes - juice of all, zest of 2
• 2T Blackening Seasoning
• 2T Ground Allspice 
• 2T Ginger Paste
• 4 Green Onions - small dice
• 1/2 Fresno Chile - small dice
• 2t Cinammon
• Salt & Pepper - to taste
• 2 Cloves Garlic - minced
• 4oz Canola Oil
• 1-1/2 T Dried Parsley*
• 1T Dried Oregano*
• 1 Sprig Fresh Rosemary

Chicken:

• 6 Skinless-boneless Chicken Thighs

*The recipe calls for fresh cilantro, I totally forgot it and had to improvise for similar flavor*

1. Rinse off and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, rosemary.
2. Mix all of the remaining marinade ingredients in a bowl.
3. Coat chicken in marinade, ensuring all sides have some of the sauce. Chill for at least 1 hour.
4. Heat some oil in a non-stick pan on medium-high heat, (I have a great cast iron from my grandmother) and sear the chicken on all sides. Make sure you don't burn it!!!
5. Reduce the heat and cover with a loose fitting lid or some foil. Cook until chicken is done, about 15 minutes (165F internal temp).
6. Serve and enjoy!!!

The South:

For this day, I made some cornbread and finished the meal off with my favorite, Pecan Pie. I also apparently forgot to take a photo of the cornbread like at all during the whole process... I will update this when I get home!

I absolutely LLLOOOVVVEEE Pecan Pie, it's the best pie!!!!!!!!

Cornbread:

• 8oz All Purpose Flour
• 8oz Yellow Cornmeal
• 1/2oz Baking Powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 Eggs - lightly beaten
• 8oz Heavy Whipping Cream*
• 4oz Unsalted Butter - melted*
• 2oz Honey
• 2oz Sugar

*The recipe called for half and half. I looked FOREVER at King Soopers and couldn't find ANY! Like any at all... So heavy cream it is! It also calls for half the butter, but I love it so oh well.

You can see my sifted flours in the bowl.

1. Heat the oven to 400F.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients, I use a dry whisk to ensure it is all properly mixed together.
3. Combine the wet ingredients. To make sure the honey gets incorporated I mixed it first with the hot butter and then added it to the eggs.
4. Combine all the ingredients until the flour is just incorporated. Immediately put into a greased baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean from the center of the bread. (I had to cook mine for closer to 40 minutes, my oven is hit or miss on baking)
5. Serve hot!

Pecan Pie:

Dough:

I'm not a fan of the traditional pie dough for pecan pies. I really like the graham cracker crust on dessert pies. This was the first time I used one for a pecan pie, it got a bit of the liquid in the dough and got a bit of the caramel chew to it. Next time I think I will make a thicker crust and see what happens, it's all a learning process in the end :)

Filling:

• 5T Unsalted Butter
• 8oz Packed Brown Sugar
• 6oz Light Corn Syrup
• 1/2t Salt
• 2c Chopped Pecans*
• 1oz Bourbon*
• 2t Pure Vanilla Extract
• 3 Eggs - lightly beaten

*The chopped pecans at the store were TWICE as much money as the halved ones. Yep, I wasn't about to pay extra money for that. I just smashed them, still in the bag, against my bannister in the kitchen. Chopped pecans folks!!! For my bourbon I used the slightly better Gentleman Jack, yes I also made a rosemary infused whiskey :-D

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Gently whisk the eggs in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In a a saucepan, combine the butter, corn syrup, salt and brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. DO NOT BURN!!! Remove from heat.
4. Stir in the bourbon and vanilla. Let cool for 5 minutes.
5. Whisk in the eggs until smooth. Fold in the pecans. Pour into the pie crust and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is almost there. Cool 10 minutes and serve wish fresh whipped cream!

This in-action shot of sautéing the carrots was so hard to do! 

Overall it was a really good meal! I made the sautéed veggies to add the balance to the meal, you need a proper one. They were carrots, onions, and red peppers sautéed with a bit of rosemary, garlic, and salt. I really loved cooking all of it, even if it was something I HAD to do! Can't wait to go home and eat it!