Buh Bye Purple People Eater Toilet



It's day 3 of construction and the ugly toilet is GONE! YEAH! They have also framed the wall for the stove in the kitchen. Looks minor but great progress for week one. A bunch of electrical work has started as well.

The Ultimate Mess

After carefully selecting a contractor, designing the kitchen and getting board approval it was finally time to start construction! I stopped by the first day to see how the demolition of the kitchen wall was going. I have never seen a mess that made me happier than this one! As you can see the kitchen wall is GONE! The bathroom tiles are slowly being chipped off, much to the dismay of the neighbor living below me. Thankfully this is the most noise that will occur throughout the life of the project. They got a ton done for day 1 and I'm getting really excited for the final product.

NYC Construction

It's been a while! Since culinary school ended, I bought an apartment in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan. The space was great but the kitchen and bathroom were dreadful. After my fair share of Wall Street job drama, I've started the ultimate project... Renovations! My horrific kitchen and bath will be renovated from ugly and dreary to open and beautiful. The kitchen will be opened up into the living room and slightly reconfigured. The stove will move to the opposite wall and grow from 20" to 30"! New stainless steel appliances all around and some pretty granite and slate tile. The bathroom will simply be replaced with non-maroon fixtures and some beautiful tile. Here are the before pictures.

The Other White Meat

Pork! This lesson was high on the usefulness scale. We started by discussing the different parts of the pig and the different cuts of meat you can buy at the store. I think I've been prone to buying the wrong cut for the intended cooking method so I'll be sure to reference my notes going forward. No more quick grilling on meat that should be cooked low and slow!

We tied 1/4 of a pork loin using chef's "tie the horse to the tree" method and seared it on each side. Then we placed the loin on some pork bones in a pan with butter on top of the pork. The whole thing went into the oven covered. About half way through the cooking process we added onions, carrots and a bouquet garni and returned the pork to the oven. This prevented the vegetables from burning. When the pork was 140 degrees F we removed it from the oven and set aside to rest covered in foil.

To make a sauce, we deglazed the pan with white wine and fond de veau lie and simmered with the vegetables and bones for added flavor. After straining, we seasoned and served with the pork and garniture.

While the pork was cooking we made the garniture of stuffed cabbage. We sweated finely diced carrots, onions and bacon in butter until tender and blanched the cabbage leaves. Once the vegetables were tender and the cabbage leaves softened, we stuffed the leaves with the mixture and steamed in white stock. Additionally, we made pommes chateau to go with the pork and cabbage.

After eating the pork for dinner, we made a simple escalopes de volaille Viennoise or "chicken cutlet." We pounded 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and breaded by dredging in flour, egg and breadcrumbs. We cooked the chicken in clarified butter until just done and garnished with a traditional Viennoise garniture of boiled eggs, capers and anchovies.

Mixte Cooking

With recent market conditions and a week off from class, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from the regular posts. However, it looks like the market might have finally hit bottom and class resumes tomorrow so I'm going to catch up on last class and gear up for some action packed cooking this week.

Last class we learned the "mixte" technique which combines elements of both concentration and extraction of flavor. We made two dishes - the first was "Navarin printantier" or "Lamb with Spring Vegetables." Not only was this relatively easy but utilized only a few ingredients making it ideal for home cooking. We started with a hot pot and coated the bottom with olive oil. Once the oil gave off a light smoke, we seared cubed lamb shoulder and mirapoix (separately). After adding flour and tomato paste we deglazed the pan with water and stock. We covered the meat and vegetables in cooking liquid and let simmer with a bouquet garni that included a bit of orange zest. Chef taught us a little trick about making stews to ensure you have nice, properly cooked vegetables instead of overdone soggy mush. Cook the vegetables separately! So while the stew cooked we turned a ton of vegetables into little footballs and cooked them separately. Then when the stew was done, we removed the meat, strained the cooking liquid (and soggy vegetables) and added the meat and freshly cooked vegetables back into the sauce. The result was a lovely, flavorful stew with perfectly cooked vegetables.

After the lamb stew we quartered a chicken for "Fricassee de volaille printaniere" or "Chicken Fricasse." Since my partner missed the chicken lesson, we both got a repeat demonstration of the process which was great because there are so many little tricks. We started by searing the chicken in butter without allowing the chicken to brown. We removed the chicken from the pan and added chopped onions. The onions cooked until translucent and we added flour to act as the thickening agent for the sauce. After cooking the flour for about 2 minutes we added chicken stock while whisking to prevent lumps. At this point the sauce is called a veloute. We put the chicken back in the sauce and simmered for about 30 minutes until the chicken was cooked. To serve, we strained the sauce, added heavy cream and reduced. At the last minute, we added vegetables (turned into footballs at the same time as the vegetables for the lamb) and the chicken back into the sauce. The final addition of lemon juice and parsley made this dish really amazing. I could see this covered in puff pastry as a "chicken pot pie."

Meat and Potatoes

Regrettably, I arrived about an hour and a half late to class after squeezing in a doctor's appointment. My partner is back at class but seeing as I was late - teamed up with another partner-less victim for the night. We worked as a three-some to create some excellent dishes. When I arrived they had already started the veal stew so I got to work on prepping potatoes to make frites for our Steak & Frites dinner. Ken seasoned and grilled the steaks while I cranked up the frier and Leah made an amazing sauce choron. The sauce consisted of a hollondaise sauce made with bernaise reduction and tomato fondue. It created a balance of acid and butter perfect for the steak.

After recovering from a minor food coma, we started the rice pilaf to go with the "Blanquette de veau a l'ancienne" (veal stew in white sauce) and the mushroom and pearl onion garniture. I got the rice pilaf going by sweating onions in butter and mixing in 1 part rice to 1.5 parts chicken stock. The rice was then covered and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Talk about hands off cooking! After the mushrooms and onions had been cooked, Ken started the sauce for the veal stew. This was the poaching liquid thickened with a roux and heavy cream and seasoned to taste. At the end we mixed the veal, mushrooms and onions into the sauce and plated with the rice pilaf for a lovely, rich winter dish.

Poultry

We're almost halfway through the semester and for me, this class marks the point where we get into some serious cooking. We started the class by learning to french and truss a chicken. Not terribly difficult, but not the easiest thing either. The first thing you do is remove the wish bone in one piece. (easier said than done as you have to wiggle it out with your fingers) This will allow you to remove the breast with great ease either before or after cooking. We also removed the wings and cleaned the end of the chicken's feet by removing some tendons and pushing back the skin.

Each team started with 2 chickens, one we trussed and one we quartered. Trussing results in a chicken shaped neatly like a football which will ensure even cooking and easy handling. Quartering requires one to locate and pop joints before using a boning knife to cut through cartilage. Not the prettiest process but the results are great and maximizes the use of the chicken.

The first dish we made was poulet roti grandmere which to put simply was roast chicken. This was dinner for the evening. We also made a garniture of potatoes, pearl onions and mushrooms and a simple jus de roti. The dish started by searing each side of the chicken on the stove top and then finishing in the oven on a bed of carrot, onion and chicken bones (left over from the quartered chicken we prepped). While the chicken cooked in the oven we made the garniture - all of which were things we had made in the first two classes. The only trick was remembering how we did it! When the chicken came out of the oven, we set it aside to rest and used the vegetables and chicken bones to make an enriched stock for the jus de roti. Once each element was done we flashed it in the oven and ate for dinner!

The second dish was my favorite. We seared the quartered chicken (skin side down) on the stove and finished in the oven. While the chicken cooked, we made sauce chasseur which is one of the sauces we made on sauce day. It is a pretty simple sauce of mushrooms, shallots, brandy, wine, stock and tomato. We finished the dish on a plate and I took it home for lunch the next day. This is one of the most valuable dishes we have learned as I feel like I can make this over and over again at home.

At the end of class the chef quizzed us on a lot of material we have learned throughout the class. I think we were all pretty impressed to realize how much material we have covered and retained.