day 75: souffles, tuiles and nut lace cookies

Chef Pastore would say I've got a case of the 1980s, my plates are so cheesy. I aimed high, but I executed kinda meh. This "Plan B" plate looked a bit nicer than my original one below, but my ice cream totally needs a base before it starts flopping around that plate.

This is my original plate, sans the crowning acheivment. I made a wheel out of the nut lace dough, but I didn't bake it long enough so it wasn't sturdy enough to hold its shape. I just didn't have the time to redo it.  Without it, the circles on the plate don't really build to anything. I also should have started with a larger base so that the top of the chocolate base layer could be seen. It was a great idea to put that chocolate nut lace cookie in the freezer to make a nice cold base for the ice cream and slow its melt.

The frozen souffle, we made yesterday out of raspberry puree and an Italian meringue. Quenelles are the tournees of spoonery...very hard to pull off without a lot of practice. I think I should have pulled the acetate off from frozen for a cleaner edge.

The hot souffle was our first project today, which we flavored with chocolate and served with a creme anglaise. These are absolutely delicious, and that's all I have to say about that.

day 74: bananas foster

Delicious? Yes. Baking? No.

day 73: chocolate mousse cake and charlotte royale

It's nice to be in the baking lab again even if (1) Chef True is missing and (2) 82 new students have joined us and it seems like we have nowhere to work. But it is fun to be making cute little desserts, and this chocolate mousse cake we made sorta wowed me since it was completely flourless...the rise was all in whipping the eggs.

The chocolate mouuse cake was made by layering little rounds of chocolate cake with mousse. I ate mine from frozen yesterday, and although the cake was light, the mousse really gave it a lot of richness. You would not miss chocolate cake at all, eating this thing...you would also never know it was flour and gluten free.

The Charlotte Royale is a sponge cake rolled with raspberry jam and filled with Bavarian cream. I don't think it was anything really special, but I do like the colors, so I made a little Valentine's plate.

day 70: canape buffet; duck confit spring rolls and chicken cordon bleu bites

We've been working on, oh, 92 or so different canapes, amuse bouche, hors d'oeuvres and whatnot this week and today we put on a little buffet. Originality, attention to detail, and creative garnishes were the key to successful dishes...which, I think is where we fell flat on our ass.

Sohl and James did a great job on this platter. James made a smoked trout and cream cheese mousse which tasted great and really refreshing with the cucumber. Sohl made the cajun shrimp over guacamole and a deep fried tortilla chip.

James and I worked on this platter. I baked a pecan shortbread cookie and he topped it with prosciutto-wrapped pears. The sauce is a cilantro pistachio pesto that Sohl worked on. I made a sun dried tomato and smoked chicken salad that James wrapped up in phyllo purses and tied with a chive.

God, what a boring platter. Sohl cut out bouches, or little cups, out of puff pastry which we filled with James's mushroom duxelle and topped with parmesan and a garlic chip. The toothpicks are little chicken cordon bleu bites that I made by pounding out some chicken breasts, rolling them with ham and swiss cheese, skewering them with toothpicks, breading them in panko and then baking them off. Chef really liked the cheesiness of it all, and it had pretty good flavor.

Sohl made the empanadas and salsa, and I worked on the crabcakes and celery seed aioli. Crabcakes are my favorite, and I've always wanted to make them. Never having made them though, I had no idea the wet consistency I had the other day would give me such a headache today. I clarified a bunch of butter yesterday specifically so that I could fry them today...but they were so wet, they just fell apart. I was able to save them by breading them, re-freezing them and then quickly deep frying them at the last minute. Honestly, I think they came out better that way than my original plan. I also made a celery seed aioli that I ripped off from a delicious restaurant in Seattle called Anchovies and Olives. I whipped up a regular mayonnaise and seasoned it with celery seeds, a bunch of garlic powder, and a bunch of lemon. It was delicious!

James made the chorizo and cabbage strudel, which is wrapped in the phyllo, and I made the duck confit spring rolls, which are wrapped in rice paper. It's one of my favorite dishes to make, mostly because it's something I've been making since I was a kid...only usually with chicken, not duck confit...and not wrapped in a spring roll, just eaten over rice. Chef Pastore really liked it, and that meant a lot to me since he's pretty well versed in asian cuisine. And the recipe was dead simple. I just thinly sliced some onions, scallions, cilantro, mixed that with the shredded duck confit, and tossed it with some fish sauce, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and lemon. Delicious. Chef suggested the orange supreme, and I have to say it added a really nice touch. It really woke up the citrus flavor in that duck and made it quite refreshing, along with the cucumber. Next week: back to baking.

day 68: avocado-crabmeat soup

Today, we made nobody's favorite, cold avocado and crab soup. It tasted decent, but I don't think anyone rushed home to call mom about this. We also continued prepping all of our hors d'oeuvres for our buffet, and chose what we would make for our signature dish. Ours: Chicken Cordon Bleu.

day 66: reubens, philly cheesesteaks, monte cristos and portabellos

More sandwiches...wooo.

day 65: subs, clubs and tea sandwiches

Today was kind of a boring day production-wise (who hasn't made a sandwich?), but probably one of the best for taking food home. Taking home a nice piece of crispy skinned fish is really never quite that rewarding. I started getting in the bad habit of eating everything I made in class that "didn't keep." I did get to taste a couple of new cold cuts today that I haven't had before...mortadella, which tasted just like bologna, and capicola, which was a delicious spicy pork shoulder. Both of those went into my Italian sub above, along with smoked turkey and provlone. I toasted the bread in some garlic olive oil that I made yesterday (the roasted garlic went into my potato salad).

My club sandwich got the traditional turkey and avocado, and bacon, lettuce and tomato. I served it with the baked potato salad I made yesterday, which I refreshed with some apple cider vinegar.

The tea sandwiches seem to be the fussiest of the bunch, but they were really the most simple. I made egg salad, which I just tossed with mayo, smoked salmon, which I tossed with mayo, cream cheese and capers, and lastly, cucumber and cream cheese.

day 64: cobb salad and nicoise salad

Bleu cheese kind of makes me barf, although I did the best I could with our Cobb salad today. From the rendered bacon fat, I also made a made a mayo for my "baked potato" salad that we'll be serving tomorrow, which I tossed with sour cream, cheddar and chives.

The Nicoise salad got mixed greens, new potatoes, anchovies, haricots vert, Nicoise olives, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and seared tuna. The dressing was a simple vinaigrette I made with mashed garlic, sherry vinegar and olive oil. Overall, what a strange combination. Stranger that someone actually took the time to write down this random list of ingredients. Sohl said I was "making love to my salad" when I was plating this up. Hope it got satisfied.

day 63: caesar salad and warm spinach salad

Today, we made Caesar salads with things that make people squirm, but that they know taste delicious: anchovies and raw egg yolks. I also made a tuile out of parmesan for a bowl. Next, we made a warm spinach salad in a ton of bacon fat and apple cider vinegar.

day 62: "seared scallops" with orange beurre blanc

Fruit salad was the theme of the day, so I did a little play on the seared scallops with that we did in 130...see below. I carmelized my bananas over a bed of julienned mango, cantaloupe and honeydew, and made a sweet orange beurre blanc to go with it.

day 61: breakfast buffet; apple latkes

I'm not sure how today went. On the one hand, James and I got to do a creative spin on the latkes that we learned in 110, only with potatoes, apples and cinnamon. On the other hand, I specifically did the exact opposite of what Chef Pastore told me to do. Probably not the smartest move when he's in charge of my grade. I wasn't completely crazy...I did make a tester and bring it to him and Chef True first. Chef Pastore was concerned we might burn the apples because they have a higher sugar content than potatoes, so I upped the ratio to about 1.5 potatoes to 1 apple. He also recommended I add a bit more salt since there were so many sweet flavors on my plate. I made a dessert sauce by reducing cream, sugar, brown sugar and apple brandy which I think Chef Pastore really liked because he sprayed it all over everything. That's gotta be a good sign.

Chef True and Chef Pastore head our buffet.

day 60: waffles, pancakes, crepes and french toast

Today, I made waffles, pancakes, Crepes Suzette, and cinnamon french toast with carmelized bananas and Nutella sauce. Chef Pastore said it was a plate of all his favorite things, then grabbed Chef True to show him. Has someone replaced him with Chef Brown?

My waffles and pancakes came out pretty standard fare.

The Crepes Suzette were delicious with the Grand Marnier sauce.

For all the good food that we made today, it took quite a bit of time to get all the different batters together. The french toast dish is the one one where I feel I really got remotely creative. I carmelized my bananas with some cinnamon and clarified butter in a pan, after seeing how much work the blowtorch was with such little payoff. The french toast batter also got hit with some cinnamon and brandy. I whipped up some chantilly cream and piped it out with a star tip to make it look nice...to bad it started melting when it hit the hot bananas. Then, instead of just spreading some Nutella on it, I lightly whipped it with some cream to make a sauce out of it. It paid off...no negative critique from Chef Pastore for one of my dishes the second day in a row.

day 59: quiches, stratas and frittatas

Day 3 of egg cookery, we made quiches stuffed with bacon and onions, and topped with gruyere cheese; breakfast stratas with Italian sausage, mushroom, onions, and topped with fontina cheese; and frittatas with leeks, squash, zucchini, tomatoes and pesto sauce. My quiche here had good texture and flavor, but excessive browning due to the fan being on in the oven.

The strata here suffered the same fate: excessive browning. Both the quiche and the strata should be a pale yellow and uniform in color throughout. The strata also could have used a little more soak time as the bread layers should not be visible.

For the first time I can remember, Chef Pastore had absolutely no negative critique about one of my dishes! He said the frittata had nice texture, seasoning, and the plate looked great. I love tomatoes with my eggs...it's how my grandmother would always make eggs when I was a kid. Shrimp would have been nice, too.

day 58: huevos rancheros

Today was the Bubba Gump of eggs-day. We prepared eggs over easy, over medium, sunny side up, scrambled, in a french omelet with fine herbs, in a fluffy omelet with whipped egg whites, in a denver omelet with onions, peppers and ham, and huevos rancheros. I must have cooked over 3 dozen eggs.....ridonkulous. And it's no easy feat to cook an egg just right. Bad flip? Trash. Too runny? Trash? Color? Trash. I was getting to a point where I was cracking eggs just to put them in the trash 15 seconds later. Today also could have been called "appreciate your breakfast cooks" day.

day 57: eggs benedict

SAT question: 110 is to potatoes as 140 is to _____. We're about to do some serious egg cookery this week, and poaching eggs isn't as easy as it looks. It's not hard, but getting a beautiful poached egg takes some finesse and I'm sure plenty of experience. Good thing I made a nice hollandaise to cover it up. Speaking of hollandaise, this is my first successful one since I started culinary school!  The trick is water. It just clicked today when Chef True said it...even though Chef Pastore has probably repeated it to me about 117 times.  Thank you, Chefs!