Culinary Class: Basic Knife Cuts

In my last culinary class, we finally got to do some actual lab time. No real cooking yet, though we got to destroy some carrots, onions, and parsley. We learned proper techniques for honing the knife, as well as cutting, slicing, and mincing.

We also covered basic shapes for cutting. These included rondelle and diagonal slices,  oblique cuts, and 3 sizes of julienne (batonette, alumette, and fine) and four sizes of dice (large, medium, small, and brunoise).

The somewhat random switching from English to French names does not help clarity.

Next class we disassemble poultry.

Pastry Class: Apple Pie and Dried Cranberry Almond Scones

Update(2/15):

Picture of the pie added!

Bacon Flavored Caramel Corn

Friends of mine wanted to give me a food related present for Christmas. But, they didn't want to give me just anything, they wanted it to be the weirdest thing they could find. What they found was Torani Bacon Flavored Syrup. Now, not sure that was all that weird, but it is a bit unusual. (Maybe I should have a poll to name the weirdest thing in my pantry). I was thrilled. One thing that I thought it would be spectacular in was caramel corn. Go for that sweet, salty, crunchy combo.

I looked for the best method for popping corn I could find. I found this recipe on the Simply Recipes  website. I was really pleased with this approach. It leaves very few unpopped kernels. I made four batches, each recipe makes about two quarts. Wipe out the pot carefully with a paper towel between batches.

The caramel corn is adapted from this recipe by Paula Deen. I replace the light corn syrup with the bacon syrup.

Recipes

Perfect Popcorn

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels

Heat oil in a three quart sauce pan over medium-high heat. Place 3 or 4 kernels in pot, and cover. When kernels pop, remove pan from heat, add rest of popcorn kernels, cover pan. Let stand 30 seconds. Return to heat. When popcorn just finishes popping, remove from heat, pour into a bowl. Makes about two quarts.

Bacon Flavored Caramel Corn

8 quarts popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup bacon flavored syrup
1 tsp. baking soda

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees
Place popcorn in a large roasting pan.

In a three quart sauce pan over medium heat, combine butter, sugar, salt, and syrup. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer. Let boil for five minutes. Remove from heat, add baking soda. Caramel will foam up. Pour caramel over popcorn. Stir thoroughly. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread out on wax paper to cool. Store in air tight container. If caramel corn softens, re-heat in 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Happy Eating!

 

Pastry Class: Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

In my pastry class, we are starting to get into technique. Most of the class is focused on labs, rather than lecture. We've picked groups, and I ended up with a good one, I think. Three of the other guys have industry experience. I've done large scale cooking in the SCA, at science fiction conventions, and catered some LARPs. Everyone takes initiative, and just get things done. We communicate well. Just by random draw, I ended up being sous chef for our group for this lab. We seem to be fast and efficient, so may find ourselves doing Chef's mise en place, as well as our own. Sometimes there is a price to pay for being teacher's pets.

Our first recipe was a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. This was a very moist cake, and I loved the tanginess of the frosting. We were focused on professional methods, so much of the ingredients are measured in weight, not volume. The way we cut the cake, there was a row for each person in the group, so we each got to decorate our own. I just followed Chef's scheme. Others in my group came up with their own designs. My row is the second from the left.
The point of this exercise was to illustrate the Mix Method. This is the simplest of methods for combining ingredients. Dry ingredients are sifted together, wet ingredients are mixed together, then wet are added to dry and combined quickly. A lot of cakes and quick breads are done this way.

The other recipe we did was chocolate chunk cookies. Like chocolate chip cookies, but bigger pieces of chocolate. This recipe produces a moist, chewy cookie. We used a bittersweet chocolate, with 58% cocoa liqueur. That was fine with me, as I prefer darker chocolates. This recipe was to illustrate the Cream Method. In the cream method, the fats and sugars are beaten together to add air and provide leavening.

Both these recipes are provided by my instructor, Chef James Foran. As these are professional recipes, much of the measurements are by weight rather than volume.

Recipes

Banana Cake

Wet Ingredients
9 fl oz vegetable oil
6 oz by wt eggs
12 oz by wt peeled bananas
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 fl oz cream
5 oz by wt brown sugar

Dry Ingredients
10 oz by wt sugar
10 oz by wt cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Prepare  a half sheet pan, oiled and lined with parchment or wax paper.
Preheat oven, 325 degrees for a convection oven, 350 degrees for a conventional oven

Using an immersion blender, blend together wet ingredients. Sift together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients all at once to dry ingredients. Whisk together until just combined. Pour batter into half sheet pan, and smooth. Bake 12 - 15 minutes, or until cake is browned and springy.

When cake is completely cooled, invert onto cutting board, and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz by wt cream cheese
3 oz by wt room  temperature butter
6 1/2 oz by wt powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a stand mixer. Cream with a paddle until smooth.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

fats/sugars ingredients
5 oz by wt butter
4 oz by wt sugar
5 oz by wt brown sugar
3/4 tsp. kosher salt

wet ingredients
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

dry ingredients
8 1/2 oz by wt all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder

garnish ingredients
9 oz by wt semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Preheat oven, 325 degrees for a convection oven, 350 degrees for a conventional oven

Using a paddle in a stand mixer, cream together fats and sugars for at least five minutes, until smooth.
Add egg and vanilla, cream until smooth.
Add dry ingredients in two stages, remembering to scrape down the bowl periodically.
Stir in chocolate.

Scoop out dough in approximately 2 tbsp. balls onto sheet pan. Top each cookie with a few grains of sea salt.

Bake about 5 minutes, or until flattened and brown.

School Uniform

My school uniforms arrived today. The fit is good. I have always liked the double breasted look, so chef's coats are cool. The hat, well, I've worn muffin caps with renaissance costumes before. But, what is up with the pants?  Baggy plaid pants. We are not golfing, people.

I tried to get a decent shot of myself with my cell phone. Here's the best of a bad lot.

Piping Practice

Today was my first lab in my pastry class. We melted a little chocolate, then made piping bags from parchment paper. We practiced piping filigree, borders, and letters. I seem to be able to make the bags fairly reliably. Really need to work on hand steadiness for the borders and letters. It's calligraphy in chocolate, and I have really lousy handwriting.

We also practiced piping frosting, using this nasty artificial stuff with a sticky consistency somewhere between twinkie filling and drywall spackle. This stuff doesn't spoil, ever, and is temperature stable. It can be recycled and re-piped endlessly. Worked on rosettes and shells. I did better with the shells than the rosettes. I need to practice, a lot.

Knives and Tools

I picked up my knives and pastry tools yesterday from The Knife Merchant. A very dear friend had promised to buy them as my Christmas present. She is very supportive of this career change. She came with me to pick them up, as she wanted to actually see her present.

There were a couple of choices available for the knife set. Of course, I liked the feel of the more expensive set better. I preferred the balance, and they seemed to be better quality. That kit came with a steel, a 10 inch chef's knife, a 6 inch boning knife, and a 3 1/2 inch paring knife. It also came with a thermometer, peeler, knife guards, thermometer, and carrying bag.

The pastry kit came with a variety of tools. It has a pastry bag and tips, spatulas, pastry brush, pizza cutter, bench knife, bowl scraper, microplane, measuring spoons, and digital thermometer. When I went through it this morning, it was missing the zester and one pastry tip. When I called the Knife Merchant to let them know, they were very polite, and promised to ship them to me one day UPS, so I would have them for class Monday.   I bought a tool box at Wal-mart to keep everything in.

We hit the ground running next week. Looking forward to it.