Index, Soups, and Polenta Cakes

One day we only had enough time to do one dish of the anticipated 2, the next day we banged out 2 soups with no advanced warning. It helps to be adaptive and flexible.

Index cards:
A big new step in our set up this week was the requirement of index cards. Organize and convert recipes to appropriate ratios, know the procedure, and write it all down on index cards. More than anything else, good mental mise en place is how one can set the tone for production.

Soups Demo:
Consomme is a transformation of nutritious stock to fortified, crystal clear potion via the careful trapping of impurities. To extract out impurities, one creates a mixture of lean proteins and aromatics that first dissolves in cold water, unfurls, then as the mixture warms, the unfurled protein molecules rearranges into a fine mesh “fish net” that gradually rises upwards, catching all undesirable particles, and leaving behind the liquid gold.

To me, all these bits that get discarded at the end actually look good enough to eat.

to mix with ground beef & egg whites

Cream of Carrot Soup is the perfect use of scraps from all those knife cuts.

is there a julienne in there?

French Onion Soup — too bad there was no time to do the whole gratinee. Love French onion soup!

a little burnt, chef?

Polenta Cakes:
A polenta is not a polenta until it’s cooked. Before cooking, it’s simply cornmeal.
The polenta was chilled and cut into little cakes. Grilled, pan-fried, or deep-fried, these little cakes are addictive.
I see polenta cakes in my future…

Grains & Beans Demo

Setting up for the next two days’ production schedule was a 4-component demo on grains and beans: Polenta, Cannellini beans, Farro, and Quinoa.

Chef Barrett’s mise en place looks photo shoot ready.

Tasty results –

Farro didn’t quite make it in time and Quinoa here isn’t exactly vegetarian (sneaky pancetta) but on some days, it feels good to eat relatively animal-free foods.

Guess who’s bringing tupperwares to school tomorrow?

Rice Cookery

I grew up on my grandfather’s rice paddy. Rice was life. In fact, in Chinese, eating a meal literally translates to “eating rice.”

So do I have rice-cooking mastery in my blood? Definitely not! OMG. Today was a mad scramble of trying to salvage my almost-botched rice pilaf and guesstimating undercooked from al dente for the risotto, all the while trying not to burn myself on the pot handle or the hot oven. Oh, not to mention that my towel almost caught on fire. Luckily, I was able to breath a sign of relief at hitting the perfect consistency on that risotto. Phew. Love the choatic energy in the kitchen!

Pilaf turned out alright, however a little on the wet side.

First risotto attempt ever! Success! But that whole al dente business is a bit tricky for me since I love my rice soft.

Really cool part about today was that we tasted each other’s food. People were feeding each other and making a point to visit other groups and working as a big team. Still missed some people, though. Will try harder next time.

5 different people reminded me to take pictures. =)

There is a picture of me taking this picture above.
I shall hunt it down and post it here.