What I've been up to...

I haven't posted in a while because I've been ridiculously busy and have used all my spare time to catch up on much needed sleep! But I wanted to tell you all about what I've been spending my time doing. I'll start with class. I'm now just over halfway through culinary school (jeepers!), but after volunteering to assist chefs at events and spending a few weekend shifts in a small nyc restaurant kitchen, I realize just how far away from truly being a chef I am. But back to school...In class, we cooked our way rather quickly through France and have now moved on to Italy for la dolce vita. While in Italy, we're making homemade pasta every night. I love it. There is truly something about working with dough that I just love. Its meditative and just relaxes me for some reason. I try to take a good number of pictures of the final product of all our hard work in class and I wanted to share a few of these masterpieces. Plus, I figured it would be easier for me to just let the pictures speak for themselves rather than having to describe it. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure...

Normandy Day - Pork Chops with Apples in a Calvados & Cream Sauce

Alsace - Choucroute Garni - it was just screaming for a good beer

Alsace - Tarte Flambe (another day of loving dough - very similar to a pizza dough topped with a mixture of ricotta, cream cheese, bacon and caramelized onions - yes I do believe they serve this in heaven)

Plating Lessons - Scallops with cauliflower puree and braised cabbage - We practiced plating for a few lessons focusing on multiple colors on the plate, unity, and balance.

Italy - Hand-rolled lamb and mushroom ravioli with a tomato cream sauce

Italy - Hand-rolled fettuccine with tomato sauce

Now for the restaurant work. It's been hard. There's a lot to learn and get used to. First of all, it's hotter than Cabo on the line. Seriously hot. Second of all, you have to move quickly in all your tasks. Before the dinner rush, you're working hard to make sure you have all your prep work done so you don't have any worries during dinner. And during the dinner rush, you're trying to move quickly enough to avoid the tickets from amassing at an alarming rate. The speed is something I haven't quite mastered. And in my various attempts to speed up, I've managed to waste a lot more time by cutting myself more severly than I would like with anything sharp I can find, including a harmless looking peeler. The thing is though, I still keep going back and I love how much I'm learning about what goes into a dish. You'd be amazed how much has to happen for your order to come together at your favorite restaurant. I've been pretty awestruck by it. The last thing I've learned from my view into kitchen life is how young the people that cook for the city are. I mean early twenties. I'm practically a grandma in the kitchen!

Well that's the update from me! I wanted to make sure you all didn't worry...I'm still cooking and loving it!

What else did I eat in Seattle???

I love doughnuts...I'm not sure why. Well, I mean, I guess it makes sense...I am absolutely nuts about dough. When I was checking out bakeries in Seattle before my trip, I found that there was a fabulous looking doughnut spot conveniently located on our walk from the hotel to the space needle. As if we needed more motivation to go get a donut!

We each ordered two (hey we were on vacation). My choices were raspberry glazed old fashioned and frosted cake with sprinkles. Jackie had the apple fritter and blueberry cake with cinnamon sugar. I think the raspberry one was my favorite. The sweet, crunchy raspberry glaze reminded me that I don't treat myself to donuts enough! The frosted cake was good but just sat in the shadows of the other three. I really liked the blueberry cake one. It had the same flavor of the blueberry cake donut at krispy kreme but the cinnamon sugar coating elevated it far behind the competition. The apple fritter was also very good and the glaze was lovely. But trust me...have one of the glazed old fashioned. It'll make the view from the space needle ten times sweeter.

Your favorite dough-nut

I'm Crushed that this Restaurant isn't in NYC...Review of Crush Seattle

I went to Seattle this past weekend for the first time ever. I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that one of the first things I do when planning a vacation is plan where and what to eat. If I'm not familiar with the city's food scene, I check out the James Beard winners, Food & Wine recommendations, and the Best Thing I Ever Ate episode guide (which I have converted to a handy spreadsheet by location! Oh yeah and that had me at Serious Pie for lunch while I was in Seattle...a great place to stop in for lunch).

The Seattle trip was partly a celebration of a good friend from college's 30th birthday. She put her full confidence in me for our dinner out, so I wanted to make it great...you only turn 30 once despite pretending to be 30 for at least 10 years. As a result, I opted for the 2010 James Beard award winner for Best Chef in the Northwest, none other than Chef Jason Wilson of Crush.

Not knowing how jet-lagged we'd be, we decided to err on the safe side and make an earlier reservation for 6:30. Umm...I don't like being the first at a restaurant...It's just a rather awkward all the servers are staring at you feeling. But oh well, someone's got to do it right?!

Crush is in an old tudor style home and the dining room is juxtaposed in white with a modern design feel that is apparently meant to be a blank slate so the food is the main feature. It's not very cozy with no one else in it (it didn't help that the night we dined they were trying out a new playlist that sounded like a cirque de soliel soundtrack mixed in with drum & bass). But, as it filled in and the food began arriving, it became quite comfortable and inviting.

My dear friend had never done a tasting menu before (I know...basically a cardinal sin to me), and having heard me speak so lovingly about them, she was easily convinced that this was 100% the way to go. Thank goodness! We ordered and settled in for the 6 course meal with wine pairing.

It began with the arrival of a glass of Veuve Cliquot (not too shabby a start...cheers to 30!) and shortly thereafter the paired amuse bouche - A parsnip flan topped with maple syrup reduction and bacon infused creme fraiche. It was a delightful little mix of thanksgiving and breakfast that had me beyond thankful that I chose this spot. The sweet, earthy parsnip flavor and the maple were the strongest components. I loved this dish!

Some chive and cheese gougeres arrived next. I was pretty underwhelmed by these but sometimes I'm not a huge gougere fan, because I find them a bit eggy. Shortly after, the bread arrived, but I paid zero attention because our next wine, a Rose, also appeared. This is another problem with being the first...it often results in the food coming incredibly quickly. For the first three courses at Crush, it felt like a race between us and our servers to see if we could finish our food and wine before they came by with the next. Thank goodness this slowed down after three courses. The rose was paired with a small piece of fresh salmon with morels and radishes and mustard horseradish-like sauce. A good, fresh dish, but nothing that will stand out in my mind compared to the rest of the courses.

Next up was a lovely white burgundy that was just shy of being memorable, because the dish paired with it was revelatory. Hand-rolled potato gnocchi that had a semolina crunch to it with peas and corn in a wonderful light buttery sauce with fresh herbs that let the corn and peas speak for themselves. What did they say? That they were straight from the garden just picked mere minutes earlier. I would work tirelessly on a garden if it meant having this pasta dish even once a week!

I'm not entirely sure I have the words to describe what came next. It was BY FAR my favorite dish of the night and it even ranks with some of my favorite plates ever. Largely it stands out because I'm shocked at how well all the flavors worked so together. But more than anything, I'll remember it simply because it was amazing. Beautifully seared scallops atop a cauliflower puree with brown-butter currants and curry sauce topped with thin slices of fried cauliflower that added a nice texture. I took one bite of the dish and knew I was in love. The tender scallops with a nice crisp exterior, the puree of cauliflower with a very mild curry hint, and the sweet buttery-rich currants had me reminding myself to slow down and enjoy every last morsel of food on the plate. When they came to clear our plates, we had been so meticulous about savoring it that it looked like no food had ever touched either plate. Oh and it was paired with this fabulous red wine that I liked so much that I had them write the name down for me (Dobbes Griffins 2007 pinot noir).

Full, so full. Thank goodness our waiter took pity on us and gave us a nice long break before the next dish. After our break, we began with a plum and magnolia sorbet atop a sprinkling of this magical sweet green dust. I begged the waiter to tell me what it was...basil dust (fresh basil ground up with sugar). Brilliant. And I would like to take this moment to say how much I like the mid meal sorbet thing. I am a firm believer that more places should start doing it again.

Our final savory dish was a braised short rib in a red wine sauce with pureed potatoes and buttered baby carrots with a parsley pistou. I swear that there was truffle oil somewhere on this dish but I couldn't pinpoint where exactly. Regardless, this was very good but a tad too generic and wintery for me after some of the other plates. This was also paired with a red wine that was very nice and bold with the short rib.

After another very much needed reprieve from eating, we were brought our final wines - a sparkling dessert wine and a sherry. You know what that means?! Instead of us getting two of the same desserts they brought us each a different dessert! As if I didn't love this place already. The one they placed in front of me was PB&J - a creamy rectangle of peanut butter with crunchy brittle and a thin layer of chocolate with strawberry jam sauce and a housemade strawberry soda with a white chocolate straw. Beautiful plating and really nice flavors. The other dessert was a blueberry torte with a pastry cream. The blueberries tasted as if they had just been picked that day, the crust was light, and the cream was light and airy.

All in all, this was a fabulous meal and an excellent introduction into the tasting menu world. You can't dine here without leaving with a huge crush on chef wilson.

Chocolate Pop Tart Pie...

I am totally embracing this new pie trend that is growing at an exponential rate. I mean how can you not? Now I realize that given the time of year I should be embracing fruit pies, but how can I resist a chocolate pie. HOW? And in all fairness, I did make that strawberry pie not too long ago. But I blame this chocolate thing 100% on the slice of Mississippi Mud Pie from the Little Pie Company (I also had the Sour Cream Apple pie - both were amazing and I would totally recommend them if you're in that neighborhood). In my absolute need to make things that I've had and loved, I made the Mississippi Mud Pie from Cooking Light. I knew there wasn't a chance that this would be as indulgent as the little pie co, but I knew it would make a nice lighter substitute.

It's a pretty easy pie to make. The crust comes together in the food processor in a few minutes and then rests for about 30 minutes. It's also really easy to work with/roll out.

Once you get that in the pie plate, the filling is also a piece of cake (okay pie). The hardest part about the filling is beating the egg whites to soft peaks and well your trusty kitchenaid can handle that task!

So how was it? Well the first bite reminded me of something very familar. Finally, by bite 3, I knew...this pie tasted exactly like a chocolate frosted pop tart. How could I not love it? In homage to my beloved pop tarts, I've stuck this in the toaster oven before having it as my lunch dessert. What absolute bliss - I get a pie and a pop-tart in one!



I hope this pops up on your table sometime soon.

From the ashes did rise - Review of Annisa

Since Anita Lo reopened Annisa in the West Village after a fire closed it for quite a while, I've been dying to go try it out. Mostly because I'm a huge admirer of the cooking style that combines classic french techniques with asian cuisine. I finally had the opportunity to dine at Annisa this past week. The decor of the restaurant is very clean, earth-toned walls with a more modern design feel. I personally really loved the vibe, as did my dining companion. The only problem that we had was that the majority of two tops were side by side seats (we were very thankful we got there early enough to select an across the table two top). I'm not and don't think I ever will be a fan of sitting next to the person I'm eating with...it's just very awkward feeling for me. But, otherwise, the dining room has a very nice layout. It strikes that lovely balance of feeling fancy without making you feel like you're not fancy enough. The service was present when necessary without being overbearing.

Now for the important stuff - food & drink. Annisa's wine list features wines by wineries that are owned by women (Annisa means woman in arabic). I deferred the wine selection to my friend, who has been very into roses this summer and as such opted for the Mas da la dame, a rose from provence. It was a very excellent, crisp/refreshing choice.

The amuse bouche was a little tart shell filled with duck liver mousse and topped with a currant. As a huge fan of duck liver, I couldn't resist this rich little bite to start things off. The mousse was so smooth and the sweetness of the currant contrasted nicely. I love how delightful amuse bouches do two things simultaneously for me - they immediately put me at ease that I selected a good restaurant while making my heart race with excitement that there is so much good food to still come! The roll that was brought to the table was nothing special, but the butter was beautifully molded into the shape of a flower. But, take my advice and leave the butter looking pretty and untouched and save your room for the rest of the meal. Seriously, leave the carbs...I promise there will be plenty of far more delicious food - it'll be okay.

In a rare change for me, I didn't order the tasting menu. To start, I had the Tuna hot & cold and my friend had the duo of lobster and corn. The tuna cold was a little too much like your general run of the mill tuna tartare. Not that it wasn't delicious, but rather it's just that I've been there done that. The tuna hot on the other hand was magnificent. I have no idea what Chef Lo cooked this tuna in, but the flavor was beyond compare and the tuna was perfectly cooked. My friend exclaimed that she so rarely has properly cooked tuna that this piece was a pleasant reminder of how good tuna can be when it's made right. That said, I think that the duo of lobster and corn was the better choice. On one side of the plate there was a little bowl that tasted like a corn custard crossed with cream of corn that was topped with lobster. On the other side, there was a corn pastry with caramelized onions and lobster. Both were phenominal, but I far preferred the lobster claw on the corn pastry. The claw was tender and just delightful paired with the corn-tinged biscuit and caramelized onions.

The entree options are predominantly fish, but neither of us were in the mood for fish. I ordered the pan roasted farm chicken with sherry, white truffle, pig feet and asparagus and my friend opted for the duck with mousse and a consumme sauce. The duck was very good but I wasn't blown away by the flavor combinations. The chicken on the other hand was outrageously good. It was cooked perfectly with a nice crispy skin and moist inside. The sauce with the pig trotters and white truffle was sinfully rich and the asparagus lightened this nicely. I couldn't have been happier.

Well, okay you know I could be happier...I can end this nice meal with a good sweet. I admire Chef Lo for a number of reasons. But, the most important to me is that she is also in charge of her dessert menu at Annisa. As a lover of all things sweet and a die-hard multi-tasker, this is just really bad a** in the best of ways to me! So, of course I had to see how her desserts stacked up. I would have certainly gone with the beignets, but my friend thought that was a bit heavy sounding. To settle the debate, we asked the waitress's opinion and she said the Millefeuille of strawberries, ricotta, and balsamic was the way to go (by another name this is a napoleon...I agree millefeuille sounds so much better!). The strawberries are marinated in whiskey and lime and have a wonderful sweet pop. I loved this dessert, and the waitress was 100% right this was the best option for a summer dessert! Hooray for multi-taskers.

After our dessert was done, a trio of petit fours were placed on our table. Love petit fours! The first was a strawberry pineapple pop that was the very definition of refreshing. The next was a nice sliver of candied ginger. And the final was a mint chocolate - the perfect way to end a fabulous meal.

All in all, I loved Annisa in that way that you just know despite the never ending list of places to try in Manhattan you'll still end up back here.

An answer to my Salty Friends

I love my friends. But sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could change them a little bit. The thing that bothers me the most about a lot of my friends is that they don't have the same love (okay obsession) as I do with all things sugar. I try my best to sway them over to the sweet side...sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. But no matter what, I keep trying to beat out the more salty snacks. So when I was debating what I should make to bring for my first weekend at my Newport summer house, I knew I hit gold when I came across a recipe for caramel popcorn in the style of cracker jacks. A lot of recipes I saw for caramel corn used corn syrup, which I wanted to avoid. I really liked that this recipe used a real caramel with sugar, water, and butter.

I tweaked the recipe a little bit, because I wanted a sweeter rather than spicy caramel corn. My tweaking involved adding just a bit over 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and decreasing the cayenne to a little pinch with the baking soda. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. A half cup of popcorn pops up to a good volume, so make sure the pot you make it in is large enough to accomodate it (mine was just barely big enough and the lid was lifted up by the popped corn!). I mixed in the peanuts to the popcorn and began the caramel.

So exciting that it popped right over the sides of the pot!

Once the caramel was an amber color, I mixed in the baking soda and spices, poured it over the corn and peanuts, and then gave it a good mix before spreading it on silpats that I had set up in two sheet pans. I like using my silpat for this type of work, because its a good non-stick surface.

The caramel popcorn cooling on the silpat

Let's hope that this combo salty-sweet snack has my friends leaning towards the sweet side! Well that is if the popcorn makes it up to the house. Since it popped, I haven't been able to stop popping bites!

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks!

Maybe my friends aren't so bad after all!

My New Science Project

The last time I went with my parents to Costco I was browsing the aisles and came across the most amazing deal. Two huge test tubes of vanilla beans with 6 beans in each (yes, I'm such a huge nerd that vanilla beans make me pause and think everything is right in the world). Right there, in the middle of Costco I had an epiphany...it was a sign from the baking gods. I had to start making my own homemade vanilla extract. I had heard about it from various chefs that I've met who never use any commercially made extract and have always meant to give it a whirl myself. Since that fateful Costco trip, I've been dragging my feet and for no reason didn't immediately make my precious extract. So when I noted that the amount of vanilla extract I had left in my pantry was only enough for a few more baked goods, I decided it was far past time to get this vanilla flavor extracting.

You're not going to believe how easy it is when I tell you how to make your own vanilla. Here's what you need:

-2 cups rum, brandy, or vodka (I used dark rum because I always have dark rum on hand and I like Mexican vanilla extract, which is rum-based)

-6 vanilla beans

-a mason jar with a tight fitting lid (I used a ball mason jar that I picked up at my local hardware store)

All you have to do is put the clean mason jar in boiling water for about 10 minutes to sterilize it. Then completely dry the jar. Split each vanilla bean open and leave the seeds inside. Place the alcohol of your choice in your mason jar, place your vanilla beans inside making sure they're completely submerged, and seal the jar. Shake up the jar and store in a dark place. Shake a couple times a week or whenever it occurs to you. The extract will be ready to use in 8 weeks time. I'm counting down the days. I have to say though...It definitely looks like one of those creepy filled jars you see at a haunted house.

I wasn't kidding - It really does look like some crazy science experiment!

It's a very easy project and I can't help but imagine that it'll be more than worth the effort. Don't worry...in 8 weeks time I'll tell you all about the maiden voyage of my homemade vanilla. I'll also try and remember to post pictures of the process.

I know, I know...vanilla and rum! I can't believe that I didn't make this sooner. I believe allfofood just got a bit more flavorful!

Strawberry Almond Cream Pie

I'm 100% convinced that pies are the next big thing. Seriously, I am sure they're going to be the new cupcake. That coupled with the fantastic looking strawberries at my grocery store this weekend led me to make this recipe for Strawberry Almond Cream pie for the baked good of the week.

This pie was easy to make and came together pretty quickly. I substituted cinnamon graham crackers in the crust...do I even have to explain why?! While I baked the crust, I made the strawberry puree (I made the puree before the cream cheese mixture so it would have more time to cool down before I put the pie together). The recipe makes more puree then needed for the pie. So, I've been eating it with my yogurt this week.

Strawberry puree sauce

The almond cream cheese mixture was a piece of cake (okay a slice of pie) to mix together. I loved the combination of the cinnamon graham crackers, strawberries, and almond cream cheese. This pie made for a really nice summery dessert. The only thing I will say is that the crust gets a little soggy after a few days. So, its best to eat the pie within a few days. I know, I know...that's so tough.

Yum...Summer

See for yourself if I'm right...I promise you you'll be proclaiming pie the new cupcake after trying this Strawberry Almond Cream Pie.

Leave with a big grin after dining at the Breslin...

Summer in New York City is almost too hot...especially this year. Hence the massive exodus each weekend to beaches and anywhere that provides an escape from the heat. But, there is absolutely something to be said about staying put a few weekends in the summer. Chief among them is the fact that you can walk into almost any restaurant without a reservation and get yourself a table. My sister and I found ourselves in just this lucky spot on Saturday. We walked into the Breslin, April Bloomfield's new spot in the Ace Hotel. The lines for a table at The Breslin have been talked about almost as much as the food. So when we walked in there this past Saturday, it was a pleasant surprise that we found no line.

A hot summer day calls for a nice cold cocktail. I chose the Lust for Life that was gin with lavender syrup, mint, lemon juice and soda water. It did indeed make you love life but the mint was the strongest flavor and I wanted a little more lavender to shine through. My sister's favorite drink from childhood was Ribena (a blackcurrant syrup that you mix with water) that we used to have our grandparents smuggle over everytime they visited from London. Since one of her favorite adult drinks is prosecco, it was no small wonder that she choose the London Calling, which is vodka, ribena, lemon juice and prosecco. Both cocktails were excellent and made us conclude that we'd definitely come back for cocktails another night, lines be damned.

After reviewing the menu, we decided that given our heat-reduced appetites our best course of action was to split lots of smaller plates. We began with the salt & vinegar potato chips that arrived in a plastic bag. A bit of a waste of a plastic bag in our mind...why not just serve them in a bowl? But forget about presentation, these were amazing. They had the perfect balance of salt & vinegar flavor, they were crisp and slightly warm, and the flavoring on them had somehow clung itself to each and every chip in an almost powdery-like way. In other words, I'd have a hard time eating at the Breslin without ordering them.

Our next dish was the Shibumi oysters with dill pickle juice. The briny pickles and dill coupled with the oysters was something that just made so much sense that I couldn't believe I'd never thought of them as something to pair before. Now, I'll think about oysters with dill pickles just as much as I imagine them with black pepper mignonette. The pickles chopped into small dice with dill strewn throughout on top of the ridiculously fresh oysters melt in your mouth with briny deliciousness. Trust me and order these.

As a side dish, we got the pole beans with a basil pesto. I love when a simple sounding vegetable side dish blows everything else out of the water. The pesto on the beans was basil and olive oil love that I wanted to bottle up and put on everything. The beans themselves were cooked to the perfect crunchy texture. We finished our veggies mom!

Next up was the seafood sausage with buerre blanc. I love the buttery richness of beurre blanc and this was one of the best beurre blancs I've had. If you think I'm kidding about how good the sauce was, you'd have been amazed to see the vigor with which Karen and I were dipping our puff pastry from our final dish into it not wanting to waste a single drop of heaven. The seafood sausage had a lovely shellfish flavor, as if it had been poached in a shellfish broth before it was grilled. The texture was also smooth and not at all chewy, which is often the problem with a seafood sausage. I personally liked the sauce more than the sausage and could have sacrificed the sausage for just a side of the sauce, but Karen loved the seafood sausage and said if we returned she'd want it again.

Our final dish was the Speck and crescenza tart with spring onions. The puff pastry was buttery and warm and the melted cheese and speck were very delicious. A nice, simple dish that was executed perfectly.

Well since we only had small plates, we most certainly had room for dessert! A fruit dessert is a really nice way to finish an evening out in the summer, so we ordered the trifle with peaches, raspberries, and ginger bread pudding. This is not your mother's trifle. The gingerbread cake is not soaked in pudding for hours, so it's solid cake with custard and fresh fruit layered with it and a sorbet on top. I really liked this take on trifle, because I'm not a fan of soggy cake and the combination of textures was far more satisfying and interesting.

As Karen and I left the Breslin, we heard London calling and had a new lust for life. If only we could walk in there any night and get a table!

Soups and the Top Chef-like practical exam...

Our final chapter of Module 1 was soups. One thing that I never really thought about before starting culinary school is that all hot foods need to be served on hot plates (150 or so degrees) and cold foods need to be served on cold plates. Obviously, this means that we had to heat our bowls before serving our soups. There are a lot of different types of soups, but most start with sweating some vegetables for the base. I've made a lot of soups that started with sweating an onion, etc but I realized after this class that I didn't sweat them for long enough or on low enough heat. The key here is you don't want to brown the veggies because that caramelizes them and tends to overwhelm the other flavors in the soup (although there are exceptions to this like some onion soups).

The most important soup we made was the Cream of Broccoli soup. I know it sounds weird that this would be the case...what's so gosh darn important about broccoli?! Well, it's the soup we had to make for our final practical exam for Module 1 of culinary school. The first time we'd be graded on what we cooked. So rest assured we all paid really close attention to this one. The soup began with sweating diced onions, celery, leeks, and broccoli stems in butter (remember broc stems have an enormous amount of flavor so they're perfect for a soup base). While these sweat, we made a veloute by making a roux and then adding in chicken stock and a good amount of salt and a pinch of nutmeg and cayenne. Once this was done, we added the veggies to the veloute along with some chicken stock and cooked this until the veggies were tender. At that time, we pureed the soup and returned it to the pot to heat it to a serving temperature. Then we served it with some broccoli florets.

Beautiful Broccoli Soup - I'm ready for the Test!

That same class we also made a puree of carrot soup that I really, really liked. We began the soup by sauteing ground ginger, cumin, and fennel in some clarified butter than caramelizing some onions in this. After the onions were caramelized, we added some celery and carrots and sweated all the veggies. Next up was the liquid - some white wine and vegetable stock, which we simmered with the veggies until they were tender. Then, we pureed the soup and garnished it with some toasted pine nuts and fennel fronds. You know a soup is good when you don't mind eating it on an 80 degree day and I finished my bowl!

Puree on a hot day!

The final soup of the night was a consomme, which is a clarified stock. It's pretty gross to make because you mix together egg whites, a lean ground meat, veggies, and tomato and put this in a broth. You then bring this to barely a simmer and wait until all this floats to the top and forms what is called a raft. Then you make a whole in the raft and cook this at a simmer until the broth is clear. I'm not going to lie, its pretty wild to see how clear the broth becomes. See for yourself...

Let me clarify something - making consomme is a pretty gross process!

Our next soup class was hearty soups, bisques, and cold soups. There is something about cold soup that creeps me out...it just seems so wrong. I mean its not as low on my list as processed food but I'm about as likely to eat both. So, I'll write about the gazpacho we made first and get it over with. It was pretty easy to make - blanch, peel, seed, and chop some tomato. Then, add pepper, cucumber, onion, jalapeno, garlic, and some white bread and pureed this. Put in some tomato juice to thin it and some chopped cilantro, salt and pepper for seasoning. It just doesn't seem right to me to eat this with a spoon...I feel like it should be on a tortilla chip!

And now for the good stuff from this class...Lobster bisque and onion soup. In traditional bisques, the shells are actually cooked and pureed with the soup, but because shells are tough on blenders/processors we didn't puree these with the soup (I'm pretty glad about this because the idea of eating pureed shells is a bit disturbing). For the lobster bisque, I took on the lobster cooking...I am terrified of cooking lobsters because of the whole its still alive when you toss it in boiling stock to kill it thing and I want to overcome this fear because I really enjoy lobster. I killed 5 lobsters this class and now I feel a lot better about being responsible for murdering lobsters. While we removed the meat from the shells, we sweated some mirepoix in a pot. We put the lobster shells into the fish stock we were going to use and simmered this to add more flavor. When the mirepoix had sweated sufficiently, we added tomato paste and strained the shells from the fish stock and added this to the pot. We simmered this mixture with some rice and pureed it when everything was softened. Separately, we sauted the lobster meat in some butter and then flambed it with brandy (yes...yum!). We added some cream to the soup base and some seasonings (our group opted for some tarragon) and then ladled some soup over lobster meat in a bowl with some croutons. This bisque was every bit as delicious as it looks...

Lobster Bisque with lobster meat slaughtered by yours truly!

The onion soup we made was pretty sweet (in a sugar content way not in the slang for excellent way). I love onion soup, but this one was not rich enough for me. Although, we served it with a toast with melted cheese on top, which just brings a big goofy grin to my face regardless. We caramelized the onion until it was an amber brown, then we deglazed the pan with some apple brandy (which was a bit over-powering) and added veal stock. This was simmered for about 40 minutes. We seasoned it with salt and pepper and then ladled it into gratin bowls which we topped with toasts and cheese. This went under the broiler to melt.

Onion Soup that'll bring a smile to your face

The next night was our practical exam for all of module 1. We had to medium dice a potato, cook a cream of broccoli soup, and make a mayonaisse. To ensure that we would all finish in a staggered time line, we each picked a number from a hat to decide when we would start cooking. The first person began immediately and then each subsequent person started 5 minutes apart. I picked number three, which I thought was ideal. I have to admit I was very nervous. So when I got into the kitchen and began to chop veggies for my cream of broccoli soup, I decided that I should maybe do something else first, because my hands were shaking enough to make any activities with knives an ill-advised idea. Once I calmed down, I was able to finish my soup, make my mayo, and dice my potatoes without too many problems. When I was within 5 minutes of finishing, I had to announce that I was ready to the chef. Then, I had to present each of the three items to him for my grade. The soup portion included requiring that the bowl was heated. The only part that I didn't do very well was the dicing of the potato. Everything else was A-okay! When I finished this exam, I couldn't believe that I was already done with a fifth of culinary school. I feel like I have so much more to learn and I really can't wait to learn it!

One Module down, four more plus an externship to go!

Scotcheroo...Woohoo...

I've been making these scotcheroos since last year when I first saw them...I'm sorry, there's no excuse for my not telling you about them before. They are possibly one of the most delightful, sweet snacks I make. Let's call a spade a spade...these are basically grown up rice crispie treats. They make a fabulous summer snack that I love to make and bring to my shore house (it sort of makes us all act even more like we're kids...as if we need any help). Everyone loves them...even my friends that are not huge sweets people delve into them.

Bar #1

These are a very easy treat to make (N.B. I go the light corn syrup route) and don't require any oven time, which is a huge relief in the hot summer months. Plus, who doesn't love nutella, cocoa crispies, peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch chips? I usually mix up a quick batch put them in the pan and let them cool in the fridge for an hour before I cut them into bars. Honest to goodness, make these...you will be hopscotching all over the place.

OMG Omakase at SUteiShi

One of my favorite things about eating out in NYC are those random nights when you go out without a game plan and end up having one of your all-time favorite meals. Last night, I had one of those delightful evenings.

I met Karen for a leisurely outdoor happy hour cocktail down by the seaport. We quickly decided that sushi was the only option either of us wanted to entertain for dinner. Karen, having been to SUteiShi previously, insisted that we dine there. I will forever be glad we did.

We were seated just by the open windows with a scenic view of the brooklyn bridge. I wasn't feeling much like choosing my own adventure and I was elated to find that Karen was equally into ordering the omakase. The very reasonably priced ($85 for two people) omakase is generous - 1 appetizer, 20 pieces of 10 different sushis, and 2 different rolls. It's so generous in fact that our waiter expressed his amazement that we were able to finish the entire thing and order a dessert to top it all off.

I personally think that beer is the best pairing for sushi and opted for one of my favorites - Hitachino, which is an excellent japanese white beer. Our adventure began with a grilled calamari and seaweed salad over glass noodles with a ginger citrus dressing. The squid was the perfect texture and had a really nice flavor, but the rest of the salad was a bit too seaweedy for me...Karen disagreed completely and finished the plate.

But enough about all that, what I really want to talk to you all about is the sushi at SUteiShi. Our plate of 10 different sushi pieces for each of us arrived and our waiter enthusiastically walked us through each piece. He was genuinely excited about each one and clearly has had and loved each (seriously, I almost thought he might pull up a chair and join us). We ate them in the order he presented, which proved to be the right decision. Each and every piece of sushi was the most tender melt in your mouth sushi that I think I've ever had. My favorite pieces from the dish were salmon with a onion sauce, tuna with garlic chips, red snapper with a vinegar jelly, and the super white tuna with a thin slice of ripe mango. The salmon with the onion sauce sort of rocked my world a bit. I want that onion sauce on all my sandwiches from now on and was amazed how well it went on a piece of sushi. The super white tuna with mango was a nice, sweet buttery bite that I wish I had had two of. I have listed my favorites, but there wasn't one sushi on my plate that I didn't love. After we finished the sushi, we moved on to the rolls. They gave us two of their most popular - Spicy tuna with tuna and spicy mayo on top and spicy salmon with salmon and spicy mayo on top. These were excellent...the fish on top of both rolls was equally as good as each piece of sushi we had on our other plate.

To finish our meal, we ordered a scoop of the green tea ice cream. A great sweet way to finish one of the sweetest meals I've had in a while.

I can't wait to go back to this spot. I have to say that we spyed some people at other tables doing the hot stone grill dishes in which you get a hot stone and grill your own meal and I was a bit jealous. I just don't know if I can go back and not order the omakase.

Even if you're not down by the seaport, find yourself there. It's more than worth a trip to have this sushi.

Feeling Saucy...

After our butchering lessons, we moved on to sauces. But before sauce, we had a random class in which we learned how to clarify butter, roast peppers, make croutons, and prepare tomatoes. It was a very random mish-mash. My favorite part was roasting the peppers!

Hot Pepper!

In our first sauce class (of 4), we made three of the classic French "mother" sauces. They're called mother sauces because they're used to make a multitude of other derivative sauces. We made bechamel, veloute, and sauce espangole. To make each of these sauces we had to make rouxs by cooking equal parts flour and butter. The rouxs are used to bind and thicken each of the sauces and are added in the beginning of the sauce making process. There are three types of roux, each of which is described by the color: white, blond, and brown. The brown one was my favorite by a long shot because it has a nutty, bready smell and flavor. The longer a roux cooks, the less binding power it has (so much for my lovely brown roux!). The type of roux used depends on the color and depth of your sauce. So, for the bechamel we used a white roux, for the veloute we used a blond, and for the sauce espangole we used a brown.

For the bechamel we scalded some milk with nutmeg, cayenne, salt & white pepper and an onion. Then we strained the milk into the white roux pot and cooked it until thickened. Bechamel is the base for all sorts of great sauces including the base for mac & cheese! The Sauce Espagnole is a rich sauce with caramelized vegetables, tomato paste, veal stock and brown roux. Veloute is rather plain sounding but somehow delicious with chicken stock, blond roux, and salt & pepper.


We saved all the sauces from this class to make derivative sauces in the next class. It was really interesting to see how each of these sauces were used to make other, more flavorful sauces.

The mothers of all sauces (front = Bechamel, back right = veloute, back left = espagnole)

In sauces part 2, we made another mother sauce, tomato and then a bunch of derivative sauces. From the veloute mother sauce, we made a sauce supreme, which is with cream and butter, and allemande sauce, which was my favorite of the night with shallots, mushrooms, and cream. From the espagnole, we made . And from the bechamel we made a mornay, which is with cheese and is used as the base of mac n' cheese, and a tomato soubise sauce. In addition, we made a few sauces from a veal stock reduction.

Our third sauce night was emulsion sauces. This night we made hollandaise, Mayonnaise, beurre blanc, and vinaigrette. Mayo and vinaigrette are simple emulsions, so we began with them. Emulsions are a mixture of 2 or more liquids, one of which is a fat, suspended. The suspension can be temporary, semi-permanent or permanent. In many emulsions, different stabilizers are used to hold the suspension. In the case of mayo, these are the dijon and egg yolk. Mayo is actually really easy to make at home and well worth it because home-made mayo is delicious. All you need is an egg yolk, some dijon, a little lemon juice, and salt, and then slowly whisk in canola oil. Viola...better than Hellmans.

For our vinaigrette, we used canola oil and whisked this slowly into shallots, vinegar, and dijon. Again, this salad dressing is one of those things that people should make at home instead of buying in the grocery store (not that I don't love a good bottle of Newman's own dressing).

The next sauce was heavenly, but very much so in a fallen angel gluttonous side of heaven's gates. Beurre blanc begins with a shallot, white wine, wine vinegar, bay leaf and peppercorn reduction. Then, cubes and cubes of cold butter are whisked in. This is a wonderful sauce for lobster. If you know how I feel about lobster rolls, then you know I was thinking of nixing the mayo lobster roll and going with a warm lobster roll with this sauce!

The remaining emulsions were a bit more challenging - For Hollandaise and Bearnaise, you have to heat egg yolks over a hot water bath constantly whisking to thicken. In the case of bearnaise, thee egg is combined with a shallot, tarragon, vinegar, black peppercorn reduction and tarragon leaves and butter are added...Delicious! For Hollandaise, lemon juice, clarified butter, and seasonings are added.

Our final night of sauces was contemporary sauces. We made coulis, salsa, relish, infused oils, jus de veau lie, and citrus juice sauce. I wasn't a huge fan of this night. It was a very random mix of sauces that I didn't really like. Maybe I'm just more into the classics!

I ended this week of classes with a serious liquid belly having only consumed sauces for three straight nights!

Stock, Beef, Veal, Pork, Lamb, & Rabbit...The end of butchering

Okay...I know I'm a bit behind on updating you all about my various cooking and eating adventures. Rest assured, I am still in culinary school and still cooking at home every chance I get! So, here's the start of my updating you all on what I've been learning in class and cooking at home...

In the next few classes after I last posted, we finished up the butchering portion of our class. Again, I can't stress how much I LOVED butchering. I know it sounds gross, but your hands are as soft as can be afterwards, and there's something really satisfying about breaking down a large cut of meat into the proper portions to cook. You get a whole new appreciation for what you pick up at your grocery's butcher.

In between our various butchering, we made stocks from the different animal bones. We made a white chicken stock, a brown duck stock, and a veal stock. Here's a picture of us straining the huge pot of brown duck stock (theres a quart of it in my freezer that I can't wait to chef up something with):

Brown duck stock...I can't begin to tell you how heavy this pot was (I might need to start lifting weights)

First up for the next chapter of butchering was beef. Before we butchered some beef, we had a brief lecture on the various grades of beef and how it's raised. The bulk of American beef is corn fed, which results in a sweeter flavored beef (I, having a mild sugar addiction, really like this but its probably not the "chef" way to think). If you've never tried it before, grass-fed beef definitely has a much different taste and is worth trying. In class that night, we butchered a flank steak, which is the girdle area that is used for london broil. Next up was butchering a whole tenderloin. This was pretty labor intensive, because we removed a lot of fat and unusable meat to arrive at a tenderloin and two petit filets. If you happen to be cooking tenderloin anytime soon, remember that it should be cooked rare to medium rare otherwise it's texture is stringy and it lacks all flavor.

The tenderloin mid-fabrication

After the labor intensive tenderloin, we cut a whole strip loin into individual steaks. We took home some strip steaks and made the rest for dinner with some of our now famous medium diced potatoes and "green wind" parsley.

A whole sirloin just begging to be fabricated into steaks

The steaks - 1.5 inch thick marbled, marvels!

Dinner is served...How can you not love Steak & Potatoes (note the labor intensive green wind)?

In our next class we moved on to veal, which is a calf that is under 6 months old. We butchered half of the lower quarter of the loin, which included fabricating the kidneys. We started by removing the kidneys and all the fat surrounding them. Chef informed us that this veal fat is often used to make pastry dough, because it results in some of the flakiest dough (the beef fat is similar to lard but its called suet). When I heard this, I knew I had to take some home and try it out. I ended up making jamaican beef patties that were heavenly!

Chef cooked the kidneys in a mustard sauce for us to try. I didn't mind a bite of kidneys, but they're very rich and the texture isn't something I want to have all the time. I guess the best way to put it is that they're interesting. After we removed some of the excess fat from the loin, we removed the flank steak of veal from the bones. This meat is only suited for stew, because it has so much fat and connective tissue that it needs a long cooking time. I took some home and its taken up residence in my freezer ready to be made into julia child's white veal stew sometime soon! Finally, we removed the tenderloin and cut some loin chops, which we fried up for a lovely little dinner.

The flank separated from the loin

Veal filet and loin

Frying up some veal for dinner

Veal in a deglazed pan sauce

Our next class was rabbit and pork fabrication. If you haven't seen the trend yet, we pretty much fabricated a loin of everything. Pork night was no different. We started by removing the baby back ribs from the loin and then trimming the pork loin from the remaining bones. Most people have been raised to believe that pork shouldn't be served pink, but in truth the pork loin should be served medium otherwise it will be to dry. For part of our dinner that night, we had a generously seasoned roasted pork loin with mashed potatoes.

Our roasted pork loin dinner

Before we had the pork loin though, we went hunting wrabbits. Okay, so they're really little (see how large my fingers looked in this picture in comparison).

Bugs Bunny

Now, I know you might be thinking gross rabbit. But, let me tell you rabbit is ridiculously delicious. Imagine the best chicken you've ever had and thats what it tastes like but better...moist, white meat. Trust me and try it next time you have the chance before it hops away! The fabrication of rabbit is very similar to chicken, but we cut the thigh and leg portion into two separate servings. Chef cooked the rabbit for us in a fabulous white wine sauce.

Our Fabricated Rabbit

See...doesn't it look delicious?!

Okay...I think I've made my hatred of lamb known throughout all the posts I've ever made. So, you can only imagine how disappointed I was that we were having a whole class devoted to lamb butchery. Boooo...I mean baaaaa. Although, as much as I hate lamb, I have to admit that I didn't mind butchering it. I guess that goes to show how much I really like this stuff!

We fabricated a whole leg of lamb and then frenched a rack of lamb. Chef roasted the racks of lamb for the class dinner. To french the rack of lamb we cleaned the meat from between the bones and then tied a knot really tightly around one bone at a time and pulled hard to remove all the extra stuff on the bone. Viola a rack of lamb.

I felt very Flintstone-ish hefting this leg of lamb onto my cutting board

My frenched lamb chops

Our roasted lamb chop dinner

We're now in the midst of the sauce and soup chapter, which hopefully I'll tell you all about by the end of this week! I hope you didn't miss me too much!