Sanitation Class final grade

Finished the one credit sanitation class with an A. Other than memorizing specific temperatures for specific foods, it was really just a matter of common sense and be aware of what you are doing.

Roots and Greens

We got our second box from Farm Fresh to You today. This was a good haul this week. It was heavy on the root vegetables and greens. For greens, we got lettuce, green cabbage, kale, and frisee. I see a lot of salad in the near future. I haven't worked with frisee before. From what I can find, it seems to be best eaten raw, with an acidic vinaigrette.

For roots, we were given beets, fennel, carrots, and radishes. I kept the greens from all of these as well. The spouse is not a huge fan of fennel, but I enjoy it in small amounts. I have a couple of beets left from the last box, so am planning on pickling and canning all of them.

We also got some fruit. An avocado, a pint of strawberries, four blood oranges, and a couple of navel oranges. Need to do something cool with orange and strawberries.

Looking forward to playing with everything.

Healthy Lifestyles Class: First Cooking Lab

We finally got around to actually cooking in my healthy lifestyles class. It is interesting to note the significant difference in how Chef Kim organizes his labs vs. how Chef Joe does. Chef Joe is a very rigid authoritarian. He requires everyone to wait to do anything until he authorizes the specific action. He also allows only limited variation from his recipes for the session.

In  contrast, Chef Kim gave us a pile of material, six techniques to demonstrate, and freedom to decide which vegetables to use for which techniques, how to cut the vegetables, and who was to do what. It was an interesting experience.

We were given some zucchini and yellow squash, carrots, tomatoes, and broccoli. We were to demonstrate six techniques: sauteing, stir frying, steaming, poaching, braising, and en papillote (in parchment). The other members of my team quickly claimed various methods, leaving sauteing and braising for me. I was the only one to do two techniques.

I thin sliced some carrots, yellow, and green squash for sauteing. I was happy that I was able to saute the vegetables just by flipping them in the pan. I did not use a spoon or spatula at all. I cooked the carrots for about a minute before adding the squash. It went quickly, as it should.

I then went back and thick cut some of each squash for braising, and cut up some chunks of tomato. I seasoned some water with salt and pepper. Once it was up to a simmer, I added the squash and covered the pan. I let it cook for a bit, then added the tomatoes. Once the squash was cooked, I removed it from the water.

I felt I did a good job. My team thought the braised veggies were the best, and the sauteed the second best. Chef liked both as well, and thought I had properly cut the vegetables for both. The only criticism was that I had been a tad aggressive with the pepper in the sauteed veggies, and I think that was a fair cop.

We also were to create two flavored vinegars and a flavored oil for doing salads next week. We made a red wine vinegar with blueberries and lemon, and a white wine vinegar with thyme and lemon. For the oil, we went with a classic, garlic and rosemary. Apparently so did all the other tables, independently.

Should be an interesting semester.

Slow Baked Pork Chili and Kirschwasser Strawberry Shortcake

Serendipity is a wonderful thing. The day before yesterday, I had pulled out a pork roast to defrost for dinner, and I had the strawberries from my CSA that I planned to make into strawberry shortcake. I did not have a plan for the roast. Then, I saw a post from a foodie friend on Facebook announcing that it was National Strawberry Day, and National Chili Day. I thought, OK, I have half of that covered. And, as the day was cold and rainy (by San Diego standards), it was a perfect day for chili.

I have fallen in love with doing my chili by slow baking it in an enameled cast iron dutch oven. I think it gets the best texture that way, and there is no danger of scorching the bottom. It also gets the flavors to meld  to perfection.

I had a two pound pork sirloin roast, It was very lean. I cut it into 3/4" cubes. I dredged it in flour seasoned with berbere (an Ethiopian spice mix) cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and salt. I seared the pork pieces in small batches in a little vegetable oil in the bottom of my dutch oven.

After pulling out all the seared pork pieces,  I added diced onion and green and red bell peppers to the oil, and sweated them.  To that I added diced fresh tomatoes, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a little pinot noir. I brought that to a simmer, and let it cook for about 45 minutes, to reduce the liquid some.

I seasoned the chili with oregano, rosemary, dried cilantro, thyme, cumin, bay leaf, chili powder, pepper, and salt. I returned the pork to the pot, then put on the lid. I placed it into a 280 F oven, where it cooked slowly for three hours.

After three hours, the pork was tender, and just starting to fall apart. The flavors had melded beautifully.

Strawberry shortcake has always been a major comfort food for me. And, I mean real strawberry shortcake, not stale store bought sponge cake rounds. Proper shortcakes are scones or biscuits, maybe lightly sweetened.

It was a summer favorite my grandmother made. Sliced strawberries are macerated in a little sugar, to get them to release their own juices. The biscuits are soaked with lightly sweetened cream or half and half. It's a simple dessert, but one I adore.

In this case, I tried to elevate the dessert by adding a little kirschwasser to the strawberries and sugar as they macerated. I also added a little of the kirschwasser to the heavy cream, with a little sugar. I used a whisk to whip it until moderately thick, but stopped well before it reached even soft peaks.

For the biscuits, I used my basic scone recipe. The spouse had made them to take to work, and had more than she needed. She rolled them and cut them out, to the stage where they were ready to go into the oven. She then froze about half the batch. I pulled the frozen scones out, and placed them on an ungreased baking sheet. I baked them for 20 minutes in a 375 F oven, and they turned out just as nice as if they hadn't been frozen. This is actually good news for the business.

I thought the kirschwasser added a nice touch. We both enjoyed the dessert very much.

Slow Baked Pork Chili

Coating Flour:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 Tbsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. berbere powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

Chili:

2 lbs. pork sirloin roast, cut into 3/4" cubes

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

7 ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced

1 28 oz. can peeled crushed tomatoes

1 cup pinot noir

1 Tbsp. dried oregano

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp. dried cilantro

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together all ingredients for coating flour.

Heat oil in a large enameled cast iron dutch oven over medium to medium high heat. Toss pork pieces in coating flour, shaking off excess. Sear pork pieces in the oil until brown on all sides. Remove from dutch oven, set aside.

Add onion and bell peppers to oil, cook until softened. Add fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, and wine. bring to a simmer, let cook for about 45 minutes, until somewhat reduced. Add herbs and spices, and return pork to the pot. Cover, place in a 280 F oven. Bake for three hours, until pork is tender.

Happy Eating!

Trying a New CSA

Last year we subscribed to Suzie's Farm. Now, we had absolutely no issues with them. The quality of the produce, and the value for the money was excellent. The problem for us was simply that it was difficult to come up with the advance all at once.

The spouse found a Groupon for Farm Fresh to You. They allow you to buy one box at a time, rather than requiring a seasonal subscription. They offer a wide variety of boxes, in a number of sizes. We chose the regular Valley box for our first delivery. The valley box is mostly vegetables, some fruit, and focused on local seasonal produce. Another advantage, they deliver to you, rather than having to go to a pickup point.

We got our first box today. It contained 2 navel oranges, 4 blood oranges, 3 beets, a bunch of broccoli, a large head of lettuce, a pint of strawberries, a bunch of carrots, and a large bunch of kale.

I'm looking forward to having fresh produce again to inspire experimentation.

That will, hopefully, lead to more blog posts.

Valentine's Day Food Fest

The spouse and I both had yesterday off in celebration of Lincoln's birthday (which was on Wednesday, but I guess school admins would rather have a four day weekend than be temporally correct.) This year that also happened to coincide with Valentine's Day. We don't usually do much about this holiday, but since we did have the opportunity to spend it together, I decided to make it all about the food.

I started by making breakfast in bed for the spouse. I made an omelet with caramelized onions and sauteed fresh mushrooms. It also had cheddar and Parmesan cheese. When I caramelized the onions, I added a little hot smoked paprika, as well as salt and pepper. I sauteed the mushrooms in olive oil, and added a little garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I'm finding that if I make a dish with multiple components, I like to season the components separately. When spices are added subtly changes their flavor, and adding them into the components seems to provide more subtly and complexity of flavor.

To go with the omelets, I had some mixed red, white, and purple fingerling potatoes that I sliced on my mandolin and shallow fried until crispy.

After breakfast, we went to an early showing of The Lego Movie. We enjoyed it. I found it one of the most entertaining flicks I've seen  in a long time. Also, the more pages you've read at TV Tropes, the more jokes you will get. 

For lunch, I made club style BLT's. We had picked up some thick cut maple glazed bacon at Costco. We had some nice ripe cluster tomatoes, and bronze leaf lettuce. 

I slow cooked the bacon on a broiler pan in a 350 F oven. It took about half an hour, but this helped the bacon remain flat. This was a good quality bacon, as there was little shrinkage, and less grease run off than you would normally expect. 

I toasted whole wheat bread, and used just a little mayo on each section.

Dinner, however, was the star of the day. We went by the store, and found a nice rib eye (my favorite steak). They also had a nice deal on Maine lobster tails, just $4 each. We both love lobster, so We grabbed a couple. We had already picked up some lovely asparagus. 

If this seems a little deja vu-ish, that's because last year's Valentine's Day menu was also grilled steak and asparagus. I used the same rub (cocoa powder, cumin, salt, onion powder, and chili powder) as last year. 

I also grilled the lobster tails. I snipped off the little palps (legs), and used kitchen shears to split the underside of the shell. The lobster tails took about 3/4's as long to cook as the steak took to reach medium rare. I also grilled the asparagus, and finished it with a little fresh lemon juice and some smoked Serrano sea salt. For the starch, I made quinoa in the rice cooker with some garlic and kosher salt.

For dessert, I also sort of repeated myself from last year. I made a sabayon, though this year's was a spiced rum sabayon. 

To go with it, I made apple pumpkin butter galettes. Traditionally, galettes use frangipane or marzapane (almond paste) for the base. I did not have any, but I had a jar of maple pumpkin butter. The galette is a round of puff pastry, with a layer of the pumpkin butter in the center, and slices of pink lady apples. It came out really nice, and matched well with the sabayon.

To accompany the meal, I had a bottle of 2012 Bella Bolle' Moscato D'Asti. It is an Italian sparkling Muscato. It was sweet, with crisp green apple and citron notes, with a bold attack and a clean finish. It went surprisingly well with the meal. If you are every looking for a sparkling wine that is not brut(ally) dry champagne, I can heartily recommend this one.

Recipes

Spiced Rum Sabayon

6 egg yolks
 1/3 cup spiced rum
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar

Whip cream to medium stiff peaks. Set aside.

In a double boiler over barely simmering water, whisk together egg yolks. sugar, and rum until thick and smooth. Place bowl with egg mixture in an ice bath, continue to whisk until room temperature. Fold cream into egg mixture. Pour or spoon into serving containers. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Apple and Pumpkin Butter Galettes

1 pink lady apple, sliced

4 3" rounds puff pastry

4 Tbsp. pumpkin butter

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. simple syrup

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Spread a tablespoon of pumpkin butter in the center of each round of puff pastry, leaving a rim of  1/4" clear. arrange apple slices to cover pumpkin butter. Brush pastries with butter. Sprinkle liberally with sugar.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until pastry is brown and crisp. Remove to a cooling rack.

Let cool to room temperature. Brush with simple syrup.

Happy Eating!

First Week of Classes

January was a bust for blogging, sorry. Between breaking my laptop, and dealing with a resurgence of my clinical depression, I didn't get a lot done.

Last week Spring semester started. I am taking three classes this semester. I have a class on sanitation, which should be fairly simple. I also have a class on cooking for healthy living. Finally, I have a class on cake decorating, which won't begin until April.

I'm a little bit concerned about the healthy living class. I'm afraid I will be the lone skeptic. I'm picking up a major anti-GMO vibe, and am afraid there will be some very pro-woo moments. I hope I am wrong.