After yesterday's poaching debacle, I can't say I was looking forward to steaming foods today. But I got my execution down today and had a pretty successful day. First, we made one of my favorites: gnocchi. I think I'm finding my baker's touch...I'm not manhandling foods as much, and the gnocchi were pretty delicate to work with. I don't quite have the shape down yet...Chef Brown said they were a little flat looking. But I think that will come with practice. Chef Brown said they more potatoy than doughy, which is exactly what you want. I also had fun making the herb butter I used to saute the asparagus and cooked gnocchi.
Next, we made mahi mahi steamed in a cabbage leaf, with more steamed vegetables, and service with jasmine rice and the broth that was the steaming liquid (soy sauce, fish sauce, mirin, scallions, cilantro, garlic, ginger and lime juice. My fish came out beautifully moist, and Chef Brown said I'd made a great broth, although he didn't taste soy...he said he tasted vegetables instead. I'd really only let the broth sit in those steamed vegetables for a couple of minutes while I was waiting to present, so I'm not sure why. But I think I've found Chef Brown likes food saltier than Chef Pastore so I'll just up the soy sauce/fish sauce if I do this again for my final.
Now this was the one that had me nervous as hell, becuase I couldn't look at it before presenting. It's always scary to present food you haven't seen/tasted so there's really no correcting yourself if you didn't get it right. Obviously, I got it right. Look at that thing! That is super moist, and I was pretty proud of my Mahi Mahi en Papillote. I also used the compound butter here, and I set the fish over some leeks and shallots I'd sweated before. I also had some tomatoes I'd julienned, and poured in some white wine to cook it in. Delicious. Tomorrow...shrimp gumbo!
No comments:
Post a Comment