day 26: roasted butternut squash potage, seared scallops, and weiner schnitzel

Today was our last day of production before our final, and one of the dishes I drew for my final was this butternut squash soup. I don't really care for butternut squash, but Chef Brown said I did great. The first thing he asked me when I presented was who taught me this plating design to which I have Chef Shalchian to thank. I just took some sour cream, thinned it out with some manufacturing cream, squirted a pinwheel around the soup with my squeeze bottle, and then fanned it out with a skewering stick. When I do this for my final on Friday, I will do concentric circles instead of a pinwheel so it closes better, and be sure I have enough cream in my bottle so it doesn't go splat...you can totally see where that happened. Chef Brown also said it would be more elegant if it was a lot smaller, and I agree. As for the soup, Chef Brown said I had a ton of butternut squash flavor. He said my soup was really dark, and I told him the chicken stock was pretty dark to start with...he liked the flavor though.  I also put a fair amount of nutmeg into my soup, as I already knew he was a fan of that.  We had pumpkin seeds to garnish with, to which I also added my butternut squash seeds when I toasted them. I left out the apple, which was an optional garnish, as apples in savory dishes tend to make me barf.

Here, I've seared some scallops and served them with an orange beurre blanc sauce. Chef Brown said this was a harder sauce to get than Hollandaise...I beg to differ. This sauce is easily broken with too much heat.  Duh, so just don't put it over too much heat.  That's sort of the same problem with Hollandaise.  However, I think my problem with Hollandaise isn't that I don't understand how to make it.  It's that I don't have three hands. Sure...I just lack the human appendages is all. Anyhow, Chef Brown said I seared my scallops beautifully and that my sauce was great, but that I'd let too much color get onto my vegetables, which can overpower scallops and beurre blanc, both very delicate flavors. I agree with him on the veg, but I wasn't quite as satisfied with my scallop. It was perfectly medium and still translucent in the center.  But it would have been nice if I got a good golden crust all along the top, like I did when we made filet mignon. Maybe if I just hit the scallops with some flour right before I sear them...I'll have to try that next time I make scallops.  Also, I could have kicked myself. I saved three perfect supremes of orange I wanted to garnish with, and when I went to present, they were still sitting on my cutting board. Now I know how those guys on Chopped feel when they forget to plate something.

So I never knew that this was a true Weiner Schnitzel. I always thought they were those godawful hot dogs from that place of the same name. I've ate at that place exactly twice in my life...and the second time, I asked myself if I just forgot how disgusting it was the first time. This schnitzel though...delicious. We pan fried a veal cutlet that was pounded out, then breaded in panko. We used panko for our rack of lamb the other day, but today it was really delicious when we fried something in it! We have a similar beurre blanc sauce from before...only this time it wasn't strained so you can see the shallots, lemon zest and lemon bits in it. Once again, I didn't plate any of my lemon supremes, but this time it was because I'd thrown them all in my sauce and they sort of disintegrated. Other than that, Chef Brown said I did a great job seasoning and frying my cutlet, and made a good sauce. Tomorrow, we prep for our final dishes and Friday is fire day!

day 25: roasted pork tenderloin and grilled pork chop

Today, we roasted a pork tenderloin which was served with our roasted fingerling potatoes. I've never had fingerling potatoes before, but I've sure seen a bunch of them on Food Network. So it was nice to try a new ingredient. I also learned an easy way to truss the tenderloin and still be professional (I normally would just cut a bunch of small segments of twine and tie them around separately). My mom does it the professional way, yet I never learned that from her for some reason. So the pork is a bit overcooked, and my potatoes are way overcooked. Chef Brown did like how I laid my potatoes on the fresh rosemary while they were warm so they would open up the oils from the herb and infuse them with more rosemary aroma. Two things. First, I like that Chef Brown was able to appreciate that professionally, as he is not a lover of rosemary. And second, I was just trying to add something aesthetic to my plate...I never even thought of the potatoes having done that. In fact, what I was thinking when I was plating was, should I?..Chef Brown doesn't like rosemary. I should. And I did.

The pork chop. The money item. I love pork chops. And I don't care if I am in culinary school and made this Sauce Charcutiere or whatever. I love my pork chops with Heinz 57 Sauce, and that's how I'm going to have it later, when Lost comes on. I can't imagine a better Tuesday night dinner and a show. I'll call it wild boar chop and have one of my Hawaiian rolls with it, in honor of the island. So the pork chop is served with a Deutscher Kartoffelsalat, which is a warm German potato salad. I just love calling it the first thing. On top are braised cabbages and red onion in balsamic vinegar and currant jelly. My cabbage turned out fantastic. My potatoes were a bit acidic...I knew I'd used way too much white wine vinegar, and Chef Lora helped me balance it out with more sugar, which made it palatable...but, I should have started over. Chef Brown said my pork chop was perfectly well done...which is to say, overdone, as we were shooting for medium rare to medium. Today, we also drew menus for our final, and someone can shoot me now. I have to make that crispy skinned fish again, which I mangled the first time. However, I'm going to thank my lucky stars I don't have to make any Hollandaise sauce.

day 24: chicken roulade and rack of lamb

Today, we finished our chicken roulade that we started at the end of last week, and one my favorites, roasted rack of lamb. I wish I'd have snapped a picture of the chicken before I seared it. I loved using that caul fat that I've only ever seen used on Top Chef, and Iron Chef. When I went to cook the chicken today, I'd honestly forgotten that we pounded it out thin and stuffed with spinach, mushroom duxelle (minced cremini and shallots sauteed, then reduced in white wine), roasted peppers, and asparagus...I guess I was mesmerized by the caul fat. When I went to pull it out...which was much, much later...I knew I'd overcooked the chicken as it was pretty firm. Chef Brown said it was the perfect appetizer portion he was looking for, my tournes rocked, and the chicken would have been overcooked had I left it in there for just one more minute. I'll take that. He also said my sauce was good, but that I'd reduced it a bit far (into syrup land) which can happen as the port wine we used has a pretty high sugar content. My thoughts: pretty dish, blah on taste.

Not so blah...my rack of lamb! I hope I get this dish for my final, because I know I can do a better job plating than that. Chef Brown, on the other hand, said my plating was high. Towering! I should take a moment to thank Chef Shalchian for that nugget of advice...always plate in the center and as high as you can. I purposely stole a full 12 inch sprig of rosemary at the beginning of class in hopes that I could get it that high, a la Hash House in San Diego. Unfortunately, I had to cut it in half and only used 6 inches in the end. But I have some ideas. Next time, I will build my potatoes into a pyramid and stick as much of the 12 inches into the center of the pyramid. I need something more structural than stupid sauteed spinach though. That was no help, obviously. Back to the food...Chef Brown gave me one of the best compliments yet on the doneness of my lamb.  He said he would be proud to serve that piece of meat, I'm assuming in his restaurant. When I cut into it, I knew I'd struck gold. Unfortunately, what I didn't know how to deal with was the blood that is obviously dripping into the mashed potatoes. I did let the lamb rest a good bit before I cut into it, so I'm not sure what's up. I thought I'd done a good job hiding it when I poured my sauce around it, but I can still see it and it's driving me nuts. Chef Brown said my potatoes were really creamy...they were. I'd barely even used any cream or butter...I wanted my potatoes to hold up better.  Next time, maybe I will start with just the butter and try not to use any cream at all.  They already come out pretty creamy when you run them through the food mill.  We put roasted garlic into our pommes puree today, which I did not remember until I wrote that just now, and I think I will go grab my tupperware.  I also sauteed my spinach with some garlic, which Chef Brown said I may not want to do because once you taste that fresh garlic on the spinach, the roasted garlic in the potatoes dull. Which is true...I need to practice a little more restraint in my cooking.  Not everything I like has to go into every dish I make...my pearl of wisdom for today.

day 23: coq au vin

I was pretty excited to make this dish today after seeing it on Good Eats...but I now think it's a bit overhyped. Sure, it's delicious and all, but it's not something I think I would crave and have to have. I do think my tournes on my potatoes are getting a lot better...I'm looking forward to the day I can get them to Chef Pastore's level. Chef Brown said my chicken was perfectly fall-off-the-bone tender, although my plate wasn't hot enough and my sauce got cold. I think I may have been a bit shy about heating my plate after I burned him with my fish en papillote plate the other day. I also used a bit more butter than I needed on my potatoes, and it started to separate with the sauce on the plate. I do hope I get one of these braised dishes we've been making the past two days for my final...it's a lot less stressful than dishes you have to constantly babysit.

day 22: shrimp gumbo and hungarian goulash

 

I definitely took the most liberty with my food today, straying quite a bit from Chef Brown's demo. Come on...we had gumbo! And I'm from New Orleans. Chef Brown made it probably the more traditional way, but I hate to see both shrimp and sausage just cooked in some boiling liquid when everyone knows they taste better when you brown them. So I sauteed both to give them some color, and a whole lot of flavor. While I was at it, I also pan fried my okra with a little dusting of flour on it, so I used the gumbo file and the roux as my thickening agent. My actual gumbo itself was probably pretty plain. It just had the roux, the trinity and the spices basically. Chef Brown asked if I darkened my gumbo with something at the end, but I told him I just took the roux really dark at the beginning. He said he was surprised I was able to get it that dark without a burnt flavor, but I know that a true gumbo should have a dark roux, beyond brown. He did say that the gumbo could use a little salt, and to coat my shrimp with the gumbo next time, but I don't know...I didn't sautee beautiful shrimp just to cover it up in sauce!

Next we have the Hungarian Goulash served over spaetzle. I've never had any of these things before, but braising the beef reminded me of how my mom taught me to do ribs...long and slow. Chef Brown said the spatezle was nice and that he noticed the amount of nutmeg I used in it...he liked that. I've always heard that once you taste the nutmeg...you have eggnog. But I prefer hearing it his way. The amount of butter I finished the spaetzle in though, well, you can see for yourself.  He also said the meat came out perfectly tender, and the sauce tasted delicious. However, I didn't find the same paprika flavor in mine as he had in his...which I really liked. Next time, I'll have to up the amount of paprika I used. Not having ever used paprika before substantially, maybe I just need a bit more of a push. I sure wasn't shy when it came to those caraway seeds though, when I dumped a ton of them in. I still don't know what they taste like though, on their own. I'll have to remember to try those tomorrow. Also tomorrow, we finish our Coq au Vin!

day 21: gnocchi with asparagus and maitre d'hotel butter, and mahi mahi two ways

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!

day 20: sole vin blanc with mixed grain pilaf and sauce supreme, and poached salmon with steamed vegetables and hollandaise sauce

Today was a bit of a mixed bag. My sole vin blanc came out great, but my poached salmon suffered a bit from overcooking. The sole plate had a lot more elements, but the salmon had a few twists that made it a bit more difficult. More on that later. The sole was wrapped with some salmon mousse and poached in a court bouillon. I started the court bouillon first, along with my wild rice as I knew those would take some time to cook/develop flavors. My rice pilaf came out great, and I just re-added the wild rice and some toasted flax seeds to it. Chef Brown asked me if I just plated the sauce supreme he made...he said it tasted identical. That's a great compliment, but I definitely took a few different steps making it than he showed in demo...mostly, because I was scurrying to get it done. I'd added way too much liquid, and it was taking forever to reduce down. I just added a bunch of cold butter to it to thicken it up, and actually, it did taste great. The fish was perfectly cooked, and Chef Brown also complimented my tourne cuts on the carrots. Of course, I did use three carrots until I found my most beautiful cuts to plate. However, as I found it was easiest to cut from the root end, it was a bit woody and undercooked. Chef Brown said it would be easier to tourne the carrot in its round form, but I just couldn't get on board with that. I needed the edges for a point of reference, and I don't have time to test new things on the clock! I might give it a try when we're not being timed.

Now this plate was just a disaster. Overcooked vegetables. Overcooked fish. Hollandaise was too thick and too acidic. Potato gaufrette (waffle-cut) never made it to the plate. Chef Brown was definitely trying to make me feel better by saying it looked like I had the execution down, but I just needed work on the timing. I say if the timing isn't right, you haven't properly executed your dish. Over the past week, I've been flying by with executing my second or third dishes after our first plate went in. I hate having food sit, and that's something I need to work on. I'm sure in a restaurant, you don't cook everything to order, and I need to start thinking about parcooking, or letting things sit in the oven rather than doing 50 things at the last minute. Aside from timing issues, my other Achilles' heel was the Hollandaise sauce. I've yet to properly make that damned sauced, and that's just something I'm going to have to practice repeatedly until I get it. Tomorrow, more steaming food (ugh).