Brittany Lobster, Bordeaux Rib Eye

As each practical goes by, we have been steadily moving through the 22 regions of France, using ingredients found locally in each region. For example, last week we had lobster, live imported from Brittany.

He had no idea what was coming for him

 

But he met a worthy end.

Today we had Ribeye “steaks”, I quote because they were more the size of cinder blocks, imported from Bordeaux. We cooked them with a red wine, and veal stock reduction, which was finished off with bone marrow to thicken. As sides there were candied baby shallots, wine braised shallots, spinach and these potato “Cannelonis”. Nobody got these right as we had to make the base (potato, egg yolk, cream, chopped herbs), roll it into a log with cling film, chill them to be solid, and cut cylinders and brown them in butter. They were very mushy and pretty much came out looking like slop all around. Oh well, can’t win em all’ right?

would have been a beautiful plate, if not for those stupid potatoes...

Tomorrow the recipe calls for HALF A KILO OF FOIE GRAS!!!!!! Will be interesting to see how it is prepared. It’s not really foie gras sort of weather as it has been over 40 C everyday, but life could be worse I guess hehehe. Here is a view from my 7th floor balcony.

I think that means it's dinner time.

Posted in Uncategorized

Breakfast Before Class

I had a little extra time on my hands before class today, so I wanted to use the sausages we made in class yesterday for a nice breakfast. The sausages are 33% each ground pork, veal, and pork fat, with breadcrumbs, french 4-spice, cream, egg and blanched orange zest. It was really cool learning to make sausages without the aid of special machinery (besides a food processor which wasn’t even necessary to achieve the result). We used real pig casings, and a piping bag with a special nozzle. Basically you roll up the intestines (hehe) on the nozzle as you would a sock on your foot, and with a bit of muscle it easily fills up the casing. Then you twist them at the desired length and voila, sausage!

I also made a poached egg with my favorite little method (favorite because it is impossible to screw up). Just get a small bowl and line it with a large square of cling film. pop the egg in with a bit of butter, salt, pepper, whatever you want. Wrap it up and simmer it until it is done to your liking. Also there is mangosteen which are about a dollar a kilo right now! They are god’s gift to fruit.

I’ve been having trouble plating in class because of the extreme rush we are usually under, so i took some time to make this one look “artsy”. let me know what you think in the comments!

The most important meal of the day, even though I rarely eat it.

Posted in Home Cooking Tagged ,

Thanks for all the views (1000th hit)!

Just thought I would make a quick post to commemorate a mild milestone. I just reached 1000 unique visitors! Thanks to all the people from places such as Serbia, Costa Rica, and South Korea for visiting! And of course, Thank you you to the random person from Finland (you know who you are). If nothing this supplies me with the impetus to continue sharing my love of food with y’all.

Thanks to all,

Jesse

Posted in Cordon Bleu

Dinner @ Home (Click here for recipe and pictures!)

Today was Thai Labor Day, so we had a holiday from school. I figured, not having anything better to do, I thought I would whip up dinner for myself. I’ve been working on perfecting pork chops for years, and I am getting closer and closer. Attached will be a (really simple) recipe for these pork chops.

Along with the pork chops I used the Flemish cabbage, which we made in school, and mashed potatoes with cheese and the remaining truffle I absconded with from school last week (hehehehe). The Flemish cabbage is basically chopped red cabbage that is slow cooked in reduced red wine, very yummy and healthy. I made a little sandwich of the cabbage and potatoes with my trusty ring mold. Everything came out great and I am absolutely stuffed now Smilie: :)

Well, morning class tomorrow, so off to bed. Hope to have more to share soon!

 

Posted in Home Cooking Tagged , ,

Phuket Trip Report (Earthquakes, Tsunami Scares & The Homicidal Taxi Driver)

Over the extended Songkran (Thai New Year’s) holiday, I took a trip with my good friend Jeremy down to Phuket to visit our former classmate, Steven, from Bangkok University. He was cool enough to let us bunk down at his place in the suburbs. We were looking forward to a relaxing and smogless time near the sea.

Earthquakes, and Tsunami Scares

About 3 hours after we arrived after the 12 hour busride, I was napping and had the strangest dream that the bed was shaking. “Wait, THE BED IS SHAKING!?!” I awoke to Jeremy calling me from the living room to get outside. We were in the midst of a full blown earthquake! I emerged into the living room to see the ceiling fan swaying, and my legs felt akin to jello.

We ran out into the street, as did many of the neighbors who were home at midday. We noticed that everyone was on their cellphones, and the word tsunami (Originally a Japanese word, spoken the same in Thai, English, and it’s native language) was being brought to the forefront of many conversations.

We were located far from the western side of the island, where any tsunami would have hit, but we still felt quite panicked and decided to retreat to, as we would soon call it, “Command Base Alpha”. This was an empty room on the second floor of Steven’s house, to which we transported our computers and the all important fan. We soon learned that an 8.7 earthquake had struck on the same fault, at nearly the same place as the devastating quake that caused the 2004 tsunami. At this point we were somewhat scared, not really for ourselves, but the beaches a few miles away that were now under a “tsunami warning”. I went downstairs and had a chat with a neighbor who said he had heard on the radio that tsunamis were expected in 45 minutes. I returned to Command Base Alpha with the news and we monitored our computer screens for any updates.

Luckily 45 minutes came and passed, and the beaches had been (for the most part) evacuated, before the “10 cm tsunami” came. Everyone was quite relieved, Steven especially, as he is assistant editor to the biggest newspaper in town. What could have been a tragedy turned into the talk of the town for the holiday, and a celebration of the good luck and fortune that seems to follow us around every once in a while.

The Homicidal Taxi Driver

After the tectonic hullaballoo the day before, it was high time to celebrate the holiday we had come for. Namely Songkran, April 13th (Did I mention it was Friday?), which is, if my intuition serves me correctly, the world’s largest drunken waterfight. Upon both Steven’s advice and my own prior experience we were avoiding taxis at all costs as they charge ridiculous amounts of money for a 15 minute trip, and can as we later came to realize, be piloted by completely and utterly batshit insane people.

Taking this into account we opted for the “bus” from Phuket Town to Patong, which is the main tourist beach in Phuket. This drive usually takes about 15 minutes, but, being Songkran, the “bus” which had probably 20 seats, had at least 80 people on it all headed for the water-soaked madness just over the hill. Now this hill is quite steep, and this bus was pretty much a 1970′s throwaway that was struggling on flatland with it’s load of water-soaked revelers. Jeremy and I, being tall, handsome Anglo Saxons were standing in the aisle, bent over like hunchbacks due to the approximately 4 foot ceiling, getting doused by bucket after bucket of water from the side of the road. We readied our pump action Chinese-made water guns (preloaded of course), and prepared for combat.

Soon enough we arrived at the hill. The “bus” began uttering strange mechanical groans as it lurched, somewhat unassuredly, up the steep pass. The driver fought with the gearstick as we made what seemed to be the world’s slowest ascent to 300 meters. Little Toyotas and Hondas whizzed by us filled with partygoers, and their ubiquitous Chinese squirt guns, every once in a while making a direct hit through the window of our “bus”.

As we finally summited the hill into Patong we hit traffic that would make us soon choose to take the ambulatory option. Off we headed into a melee of H2O (Hence my lack of pictures, Songkran=hell for cameras). Now, being about 40 degrees (~105 for us Americans) you would think this is a pleasant experience, and most of the time it is. That is, until you reach the inevitable “I am so funny! I put Ice in my water!” people. Imagine getting doused every few feet with buckets, waterguns, hoses, and getting the “surprise” ice cold gallon straight down your back. The usual response is a happy, high pressure Chinese water gun shot to the face of the offender, and much laughs are had.

We caroused and shot our guns for a few blocks and finally ended up at the main tourist drag of Phuket, Bangla Road. THIS WAS WAR! Thousands of people of all nationalities, shooting each other in merriment, not a frown to be seen, not a smile to be missed. We emptied our guns every few steps and were welcomed for free reloads at every 50 gallon barrel.

I was approached by a Thai man in the maelstrom,he was wearing Hawaiian shirt (the official uniform of Songkran). “Excuse me can I have a moment of your time?” he said in perfect English, “I am the Deputy Mayor of Patong.” Call me skeptical, but having been in Asia for a while I though it to be a scam. “Umm, OK” I replied. Just then the maelstrom cleared and a yellow trash bag covered TV camera was staring me in the face. “Did you feel the recent earthquake?”. ” I did” I replied. I was apparently being interviewed by local television. I told of how I had felt the earthquake while napping, and was fearful of another tsunami. He asked me if I was aware that Patong had been awarded by ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) for Tsunami Safety and preparedness. “Well done!” I congratulated him and his city, and really did not know what else to say. “I hope that we can all enjoy ourselves now that we are safe” or somesuch nonsense. Obligatory handshake, and we were on our way.

As fun as getting sprayed by water constantly can be, we decided to take a break and escape to a bar on the beach. It was soon to be dark and we were debating about transportation back to Steven’s place. All of the “bus”s had stopped at 4:00 and we were left with “party here and stay for the night” or “find a taxi and make a hasty retreat”. We opted for the latter, and began walking about town in search of a taxi.

We walked for quite a while before happening upon a generic honda with a propped up sign on the roof that said “TAXI”. Unfortunately there was no one attending the taxi so I asked the security guard at the adjacent building if he knew where the taxi driver was. He yelled “BPO!!” (the guy’s name apparently) and out emerged a clearly intoxicated man with beer in hand. “Where You Go?!” he asked. I replied in my politest Thai that we wished to go back to Phuket Town, where our friend would pick us up at the mall. “Fi Hundre Baht!” he half yelled at us. I bargained and got us down to four hundred for a trip that would be less than a hundred in Bangkok. But at this point we were wet and tired and didn’t much care about the odd buck or two.

I explained that we were soaking wet and did not want to get his seats wet as well. He smiled “No Prolem!” and fumblingly produced a towel from the trunk for us to sit on. We sat down, both us and our Chinese water guns tired from the days activities. We soon reached a main road and the traffic was still at full force. “Phuket traffic no good!” said Bpo. I replied in polite Thai (The difference between casual, formal, and polite Thai is massive. Him being drunk and driving us I was on my best behavior) “You should see Bangkok! It is like this everyday!”

“I no go! Traffic too bad!” he said more forcefully “Really?” I replied in Thai “Can you drop us somewhere to get a new taxi please?”. He kept replying “No! No go! Traffic!” Aside from the fact I found this minorly insulting to my linguistic ego (why not speak Thai with me when I clearly speak it fluently?) it was just a hassle as we were on a weird side of town with no hope for alternate transportation. We told him it was a holiday, we were just trying to have fun, and he should as well (bad move in retrospect). Me and Jeremy joked that he was a taxi driver, and therefore should get us to our destination on a pre determined fee. “Would a chef stop cooking your steak at medium well?” was one of the many analogies.

Meanwhile Bpo was on the phone and getting more and more aggravated. I shushed Jeremy and began to listen to what he was saying. Translated as best I can Bpo was saying “I am about to go on a gun shooting (could also mean hunting here) trip. I have two guests. Are you coming? I have the gun.” This made me stop. I instantly recalled the case of the French men who were stabbed to death by tuk tuk drivers a few years back. I resorted to the first sentence that came to mind in Thai “So will you go, or shall we stop here?”

“Why are you talking to me! can’t you see I am on the phone!!!!” he said to us. He then began to refer to us as we were not there calling us the most ugly names under the Thai sun to his phone friend. Referring to us basically as “falang (westerner) scum of the earth, these fu%@ing buffalos come here and think they can take our women! White men are a disgrace to the Thais, they are mother*$ckers (one of the few insults in Thai that translates directly to English).  At this point I gave Jeremy a look saying “We are going NOW!”

We were stopped behind about 5 cars at the main intersection out of town, and a man comes up to our window screaming at us in Thai. Bpo looks back and smiles “My friend” he says gloatingly waving his phone. “You can die in Thailand” he said in English. At this point I was honestly more scared than I had ever been in my life. We got out of that car faster than a cat out of water. He got out behind us and started screaming in the middle of the intersection “Pay Me NOW!” We were frozen, not knowing what to do. He began going back to his car and reaching under the driver’s seat for some unknown object. “OK OK OK, I ran back and gave him 100 baht (~3 dollars)

At this point we ran to the nearest open shophouse, and he peeled off, friend in tow.

What happened?

Honestly, I have no clue, it could be a scam, but I’m sure people would talk about this kind of thing more if it happened frequently. Something about the guy was off from the beginning and the look in his eye when he said “You can die in Thailand.” was most definitely not that of a sane human being.

In the end we walked about 3 kilometers to the nearest hotel we could find and asked them to call a taxi for us. They drove us back in the manager’s car, padding all the seats with clean hotel towels, so as not to get the car wet.

To experience that kind of hospitality after that kind of hostility was heartwarming, and reassuring. We made it home safe, and apart from the otherworldly incidents above it was a great trip, as you can see from the pictures below. Phewff

What it felt like after the taxi ride.

 

Usually I don’t stop at the “scenic outlooks”

"I swear, it just landed right there!"

He seemed happy

Me, our host Steven, and Jeremy. Bangkok University Pride! haha

Steven and his son Django.

Dim Sum breakfast, mmmm.

Homeward bound. Thank god for Xanax!

 

 

 

Posted in Street Eats, Travel Tagged , ,

(Not So) Intermediate Cuisine

I finally got back to school today after a long holiday. Noticed that we had lost quite a few students from the previous term. Some were only planning to do one term, but I was surprised to see the classroom with only about 3/4 the amount of people as compared to last term.

We had all heard that Intermediate Cuisine is by far the toughest term of the 3, and when I opened the textbook (cookbook?), I could see why. We were to be preparing Marechal style lamb chops, Argentuil asparagus puff pastry, and mushroom flan. Along with an asparagus and black truffle cream sauce. Oh and of course the ubiquitous jus from the lamb scraps (which we can do in our sleep at this point). Here is the chefs version.

 

The dish(es) of the day.

If that sounds like a lot of things to prepare from scratch in 2 1/2 hours, that’s because IT IS!!!! This was at least 2 times the work of the hardest practical in Basic Cuisine in the same amount of time.

First we had to french a whole rack of lamb, and cut it into chops, lightly sear it and set it aside, while browning the scraps for the jus. Then we chopped the mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and lemon for the Flan. Then we cut the asparagus (taking off all the little leaves on the stalk) separating the tips for decoration,, and the stalks for the sauce.

When the mushrooms were cooked we combined them with cream, and 1 egg, 2 egg yolks and blended it, to make the “batter” (sounds terrible but was quite good). Then cook the asparagus, while putting our flan in the convection oven. At this point we had to strain the fat from our lamb scraps and add them to a pot with veal stock to reduce them for the jus.

Then we cut our puff pastry into little cutesy things to hold the asparagus tips, bake our puff pastry in a separate oven, and bread our lamb chops (flour, egg, bread crumbs, egg, breadcrumbs). Sear the lamb chops and get them in the oven with the puff pastry.

At this point the kitchen looked like some rabid pack of animals had been unleashed to wreak havoc. breading stations were tipped over, I spilled a pot of (thankfully) cold water all over my leg, and people were fighting over sticks of butter. We had 10 minutes to plate!!! And I still had to make my asparagus and black truffle cream sauce!!! This was my first time even handling a truffle and I had always looked forward to it. Unfortunately, I had little time to savor it (but I did keep about 1/4 of a full truffle as a “keepsake” haha).

My sauce reduced quickly and I was ready to plate. Each minute you plate over 2 1/2 hours reduces your score by a point out of (I think) 30. I was the first to serve my dish to the chef, unfortunately it was pretty sloppy. I burnt 4 out of 5 of my lamb chops on the second fry, but one was still salvageable so that was ok, my flan was rather “goopy” and not solid as pictured above (I put too much cream I think), and my jus was too fatty as I didn’t properly trim my lamb scraps in the beginning to be as lean as possible.

That being said, I still plated and was the only one not marked down for plating late (punctuality over presentation, as the chef put it haha).

So that was the first day of Intermediate Cuisine. Tomorrow we are doing veal medallions with a chicken and rice puree, mushroom puree, mornay sauce, and pan fried potatoes. This is definitely a whole new level of cooking for me, and it is both exciting and stressful.

here is a bonus picture of the psychedelic dessert made in the demo. Frozen chocolate mousse with pistachio creme anglaise.

Very Cool. Even though the red is apparently edible plastic haha.

Posted in Cordon Bleu Tagged , ,

Onward, Upward, And Constantly Twirling!

 

So, I finally received my certificate for Basic Cuisine today! I’ll spare you a photo of the transcripts…. Due to my having to go to Malaysia to get the new Visa I missed quite a few practicals, and my grade dropped as a result. I also did a lot worse than I expected on the final. I got a 68/100 (a ‘C’Smilie: ;), OUCH.

I know exactly where I went wrong, and it is a bit of a testament to how easily one can screw up in a stressful kitchen. After making the base of my Beef Stroganoff (the dish I and 2 others in my group were assigned for the final) it was very light in color compared to the person cooking across from me. My brain automatically said “Not enough color? Add more Paprika!” I failed to take into account the fact that my classmate had been reducing her Stroganoff for 10 minutes or so, resulting in the richer color.

Result: Chef said “You used too much Paprika, it overpowers the flavors of the beef”… Well ok. I still had the best brunoise (finely chopped veggies for the rice pilaf side) in class. I figured I got at least a B. I was quite surprised to see my final grade.

I used to like Paprika, now it will always make me wary. Nonetheless, next week marks the beginning of Intermediate Cuisine, supposedly the toughest term out of the 3. I am fully amped to hit the kitchen again head on, and not miss any classes. I want an ‘A’ this time.

Me and the kitchen team of Basic Cuisine 4. Strangers in the beginning, good friends in the end.

 

 

Posted in Cordon Bleu

The Last (Practical) Supper

So today we had practical 29, officially the last practical of basic cuisine. The dish consisted of  chicken thighs stuffed with a mixture of ground chicken, ground bacon and a dash of cream. In order to stuff the thighs we had to perform a tricky procedure by removing the femur of the chicken, and pounding the resulting meat flat. We then stuffed it with the mixture, and wrapped it with caul fat. For those who don’t know caul fat is the lining of pig intestines and somewhat resembles a spiderweb.

weird stuff

We then bridered (tied it to hold it’s shape with butcher twine). This was cooked with Port and Madeira wine, chicken stock, celery and shallots in the oven. The resulting wine and juices were reduced to make the sauce.

The garnish was caramelized apples with Calvados (some fancy liquer). These were amazing, and tasted like a concentrated alcoholic apple pie.

Unfortunately all the sauce soaked into the mushrooms on the way home.

Well, I have a lot of studying to do before tomorrows final. Wish me luck!

Posted in Cordon Bleu Tagged , ,

Finals Arriving Soon!

So finals approach this Friday. It has been quite the buildup, and we have learned so much, and the time has absolutely flown by.

The finals are structured as such: We have cooked a total of 29 different dishes throughout the term in our “practicals” (We have observed 87, 3 each demo lesson). The school posted the following ten recipes out of our 29 on the notice board, of which we will be assigned one each for the final at random. The kicker is that we only get the ingredient list and measurements, NO NOTES ALLOWED. We have 30 minutes to study before entering the kitchen. Let’s just say I am quite pleased I went OCD with my notetaking in the demos.

The 10 dishes

I am really hoping against hope to not get the roast chicken au jus or duckling with turnip, this is not due to the fact that the recipes themselves are difficult, as much as I can’t seem to remember how the hell to truss a bird properly (~10 step process that is more akin to crocheting than actually cooking)

Everyone else is fretting over the Salmon Unilateral, which requires the salmon to be cooked perfectly skin side down to crisp the skin, and flipped for the last thirty seconds of cooking to achieve a perfect (insert French word I forgot here). That type of thing comes naturally to me though, whereas a needle and string are just too foreign.

Anyways, I am not fretting too hard, I had the written exam today, which I finished in about 4 minutes (French culinary vocab, multiple choice, and matching recipes to techniques). I am 98% percent sure I got 100% haha. It only accounts for 10% of the grade but it is nice to know I am up to speed in that department.

So all that aside I will do my best to bring you guys up to speed on what has been happening the past month or so. Some of the dishes have been absolutely beautiful, yet on the verge of inedible. Others the exact opposite. Technique trumps taste, while lack of aesthetics leaves lingering luxuriousness, or something alliterated.

First up duckling with turnips, one of the 10 dishes on the final. Amazingly, after browning in a pan, these bad boys only need 27 minutes in the oven@ 200 C or ~400 F (turning/basting 3 times in the process.)

The Chefs duckling

 

The ducks before we mangled them. These came straight from France unfrozen and go for about 80 bucks a pop.

 

And my duck for comparison

Next up, a cool demonstration on the properties of caramels (melted sugar at different temperatures). Chef dipped his fingers into ice water and plucked insanely hot globs of melted sugar out of the pan. On the right is 112 C, Middle 114 C, Left 116 C. Left is what we were aiming for. Definitely applicable in the “Modernist Cuisine” books I have been voraciously reading.

Excuse the terrible quality

Next is a chicken with tarragon jus. Basically a butchered chicken, roasted in the oven with a jus (sauce made from the drippings) infused with tarragon. Learning to butcher the chicken was a great learning experience, and I call  dibs on next Thanksgivings carving duties!

Chef's Chicken with Tarragon jus

 

And mine for comparison.

I call foul as chefs presentation plates are much larger than mine! haha. Also notice those funny shaped potatoes on the side? We have to make those for the final exam as the “knife skill element”, a lot more difficult than it looks!

Lastly we have the most beautiful, and by far worst tasting dish of the whole term. White Fish and Salmon terrine. This to me epitomized some of the few squabbles I have with French cuisine, as it involved

1. A stupid amount of work.

2. Much fuss about perfect technique, and

3. The result was not worth any of it.

Basically a mixture of filleted whitefish, which we filleted and skinned ourselves, blended with egg whites, then folded with cream and fresh herbs to make some kind of otherworldly fish/cake batter. Oiling the terrine mould, cling filming the terrine mould, brushing the film in the terrine with soft butter, and adhering blanched spiniched leaves to the terrine mould form (think paper maiche with the worlds most delicate paper). This took the better part of an hour and a half (We have 2 and a half hrs. to plate.) Then perfectly skinning and slicing a piece of salmon so as to be a long square “cylinder” the same length of the terrine mould. Finally piping the fish/cake mixture in  over the spinach maiche, and setting the salmon cylinder to be in the exact center of it all. Excuse my French but Fuck THAT. Pure unadulterated uselessness for the sake of presentation.

Chef's Fish Terrine.

 

Mine before the cut, looks awesome, tasted like vegan cat food.

 

Verry pretty vegan cat food.

That was the only time I have actually been unsatisfied, and it was really just because the end result was not at all worth the work invested. Oh well, I have been informed that terrines will not again be on the menu. Thank god!

I have to apologize for not keeping up with my blog as of late. As the course has progressed, so has bot the complexity and demandingness of the dishes. I come home pretty beat, and to top that off the internet is a complete nightmare.

Only two more days until the final, wish me luck, and I will be sure to make an update to let y’all know how it went!

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged , , , ,

Mushroom turning

 

 

 

This is an average button mushroom not much larger than a quarter…

One girl in our kitchen spent sooooo much time doing this design, that the chef had to re-start her sauce hahha. She did it perfect though.

Posted in Uncategorized