CULINARY FOUNDATIONS, WEEK THREE

January 28, 2013

There was a lot of crying in the kitchen today as we were dicing onions.  We learned how to slice and classically dice the onion with the Chef knife as well as dicing for a production kitchen. If we were dicing properly, the onions gas release would have been minimal. Obviously that was not the case and the room definitely need to be aired out.  I had to walk to the door a couple times to stop from tearing up.

Bird's Beak Paring Knife

After the onion cry fest, we moved on to potatoes where we learned to Tournée (toor-nay) using a paring knife referred to as a bird's beak knife. The cutting technique has a football shape with seven equal sides and blunt ends. The knife used is curved upward on both the cutting edge and the upper edge.  Surprisingly this knife is very comfortable to me even though your fingers are on the blade as you are cutting. This is unlike the 8" Chef knife for me which is uncomfortable because it feels too big in my hand.  I will definitely need to practice more with the Chef knife for it to become comfortable



     

January 29, 2013

Tasting was the topic of today's class.  We closed our eyes and tried to determine the taste of a Jelly Bean without seeing it so we would have no clue as to what it might be. I did not guess my flavor properly (Dr. Pepper or Cappuccino, they were unclear on which one they gave me), but I was right in guessing the color was brown.   It tasted of an earthly brown flavor.  I think some of the Jelly Belly flavors are off just a bit. We also plugged our noses and tried to taste 2 different items.  It wasn't until we unplugged our noses that we actually identified the products (potatoes and apples) which was of course demonstrated that smell is the key to taste.  We also tasted sugar water, salt water, and lemon water to determine what areas of the tongue identify different taste.

January 30, 2013

We made progress on the centerpiece for the Boy-scout's charity event.  I like to call it "Bread Mountain."  A structure was made out of wood, Styrofoam, Great Stuff, chicken wire and aluminium foil, and then covered in a bread dough type mixture.  I made 10 pounds of dough mixture and used a sheeter to flatten. Then I helped add the dough to the structure.  Once the dough is completely covering the structure, we will torch the outside to add color and texture to resemble a mountain.  It will have a wolf cub at the bottom and an eagle at the top (both made of bread as well) representing the Cub Scouts and Eagle Scouts. Next week we will be making 6 or 7 different desserts for the event.  I think the Chef said 1500 desserts are needed for the event.   

Base Structure

Dough Progress

Torched  Top Structure

January 31, 2013

Potatoes

We were in the kitchen for most of class working with potatoes. We used 4 different types of potatoes (Idaho, Red Bliss, Yukon Gold and Purple) and we made four different types of dishes using each potato (French Fries, Mashed, Lyonnaise, and Duchess).  

Duchess Potatoes

My team was assigned to make Duchess Potatoes.  This is basically a twice baked potato.  You boil and mash the potatoes and then add egg as a binder and pipe them into a shape, brush with clarified butter, sprinkle with spice, and bake in the oven.  Some were made with nutmeg and others with cayenne pepper.  The ones with cayenne were good.  I think these potatoes would taste better with sour cream and cheese mixed and baked.  I might have to give it a try and see if it works.  

While we were waiting for the potatoes to cook, we learned to blanch tomatoes to remove the skins (I was told the skin just passes through the body when you eat them) and we learned to make clarified butter.  Finally I know what clarified butter is and why you use it (it has a higher smoke point). I learned butter is made of 80% butterfat, 10% milk solid and 10% other. When clarifying, you are removing the 20% to get to the 80% pure butterfat.  You melt butter in a sauce pan on low, do not stir or mix. Once melted you skim off the top and use the middle portion of the butter (the pure butterfat).  

After everyone was finished making their assigned potato dish, we got to taste the different potatoes and learned that all potatoes cannot be used for just any dish. Well they can but they don't necessary look or taste good (purple potatoes mashed or french fried was not good).    

Idaho Mashed Potatoes 

Purple Mashed Potato

Lyonaisse Potatoes

It was quite interesting to see how the different potatoes felt and tasted in each of the dishes. The Lyonaisse (potatoes with onions) were the most flavorful. 

French Fries

Many of students thought that potatoes came from Europe or France because of "French Fries", but they actually originated in Peru. I love potatoes so I was also surprised to find that in all dishes, I did not like the Purple potato or the Yukon Gold, which was sweet due to a higher sugar content in the potato.