Culinary Class: Penne Pasta with Tomato Sauce

We have finally gotten around to actually cooking something in my culinary class. We discussed boiling, simmering, and blanching, and got to try our hands at it. I must admit, I didn't think that the basic class would be quite this, well, basic.

We diced some onion, carrot, and celery to make a mirepoix. We turned one small head of broccoli into florets, and blanched them. We blanched, peeled, and diced two tomatoes. We also blanched a half pound of penne pasta. Finally, we minced five cloves of garlic and some parsley, thyme, and oregano.

With our mise en place done, we made the sauce. We browned some ground beef, then added the mirepoix, garlic, tomatoes, some tomato paste, some tomato juice, and the herbs. This simmered a bit (but not nearly long enough). We then added in the broccoli and pasta, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

To be perfectly honest, I've made better. The carrots added too much sweetness for my taste, and there was too much parsley and too little thyme and oregano. Not a fan of broccoli in a red sauce, either.

The focus for this class, though, is supposed to be on technique. I guess we get to talk about flavor in the intermediate class.

Pastry Class: Puff Pastry and Pate a Choux

I was really excited about today's class. I've always been intrigued by the idea of making my own puff pastry. I'm glad to get the opportunity to understand laminated doughs. So far, it seems easier than expected. We'll find out for sure in a week, when we get to make things with the pastry.

Making puff pastry is more about patience. The pastry needs to be returned to the refrigerator between each step. The butter in the dough needs to be kept cold, so that it remains distinct from the dough.

The other thing we learned to do is pate a choux. Pate a choux is a slightly sticky, fluid batter that can be piped, and is used to make cream puffs, eclairs, crullers, beignets, and other things. We used it to make cream puffs, with a mocha whipped cream filling, and dipped in a dark chocolate ganache.

Both recipes are easier than I expected, though both require patience and attention to detail.

As always for the pastry class, are recipes are courtesy of Chef James Foran.

Recipes

Classic Puff Pastry

9 1/2 oz by wt. butter at room temperature
16 oz by wt. bread flour
3/10 oz by wt. salt
2 1/2 oz by wt. butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
8 oz by vol. cold water

Roll the 9 1/2 oz butter between two sheets of parchment paper into a 8" by 14" rectangle. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In a stand mixer with a paddle, combine flour and salt. Add water and melted butter all at once. Mix on low speed 8 to 10 revolutions until dough is just combined. Do not over mix.

Knead just until combined. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll dough on a floured surface into a 10" by 20" rectangle. Place chilled butter sheet on bottom 2/3 of the dough. Fold top 1/3 of dough down to cover half the butter. Fold bottom third of dough up, sot that butter is now enclosed in dough.

Roll dough into a 10" by 22" rectangle. Along long axis, fold both ends of dough into the middle, then fold in half to form four layers. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Repeat three more times. Wrap dough thoroughly, and freeze.

Pate a Choux

4 oz by vol. water
4 oz by vol. milk
4 oz by wt. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz by wt. bread flour
9 oz by wt. eggs

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine water, milk, and butter. Bring just to a boil. Add flour and salt all at once. Cook for one minute, stirring with a wooden spoon, over medium-low heat. Batter will turn into a ball almost immediately.

Remove from heat, transfer dough to the bowl of a stand mixer. Process with a paddle on low speed for 30 seconds to cool. Add eggs in four stages. At each stage, blend at high speed. Batter should be a shiny, thick paste.

To make cream puffs:

Place pate a choux in a pastry bag with a large round tip. While still warm, pipe onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Pipe quarter sized rounds of dough. Leave space for expansion between rounds.

Bake in a 375 F oven for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F, and prop door of oven slightly open to allow venting. Bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, and allow to cool completely.

When cool, pipe filling into shells. Dip into ganache. Sprinkle with chopped almonds. Refrigerate to allow chocolate to harden.

Mocha Whipped Cream Filling

20 oz. by wt. cream
5 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. mocha concentrate
pinch salt

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk. Whip to medium stiff peaks.

Chocolate Ganache

6 oz by vol. cream
6 oz by weight chocolate

Heat cream to just boiling. Pour over chocolate. Let stand for a couple of minutes. Whisk together chocolate and cream.

Happy Eating!

Pan Asian Dinner

I have a couple of dear friends that have been very enthusiastically supporting my decision to go pro as a cook. Back in September I had the opportunity to cook for them, and they wanted to have me cook for them again this spring.

Since I did Middle Eastern last time, I wanted to go in a different direction. I decided to go Asian. There is so much variety to Asian cuisines. I ended up going Pan-Asian, with a Vietnamese style appetizer, Chinese inspired main dish, and a combination Thai/Chinese dessert.

For the appetizer, I made Vietnamese style spring rolls. These are great, as they are not fried, and are all about fresh greens. There were two dipping sauces to go with the rolls. One was hoisin with peanuts, and the other was a complex combination of fish sauce, lime, garlic, and sweet chili sauce. I think these were a great appetizer. The wrappers were rice paper, and in them I put shrimp, rice vermicelli, butter lettuce, mint, and basil. I worked from this recipe at allrecipes.com.

For the main dish, I made a beef stir fry with carrots, crimini mushrooms, and red, yellow, and orange peppers. My stir fry sauce is not traditional, as far as I know. I make a sauce of date vinegar and sweet soy sauce, with a little ginger and black pepper. I use a little corn starch to help the sauce thicken.

Somehow rice got left off my packing list, and my friends didn't have rice, either. I ended up using some Israeli couscous. It worked just fine. Not surprising, as it was created as a rice substitute.

For dessert, I really wanted to make something special. I wanted to have lots of contrasts; taste, texture, and temperature. I made a cold Thai jelly, with layers of coconut and coffee flavors. The jelly is based on this recipe. The jellies use agar agar as the jelling agent. Agar agar is a derivative of red seaweed.

To contrast, I made a Chinese eight treasures rice pudding, served warm. It consists of glutinous rice, coated with a mix of chestnuts, almonds walnuts, dried pineapple, dried papaya, and dried mango There is a thin layer of sweet red bean paste in the middle. I adapted this recipe for my pudding. The original called for lard. I substituted vegetable shortening, which worked just fine.

To tie everything together, I made a mango - lime sauce.As it turned out, the dessert is vegan.

I don't think the photo does it justice. I think it came out really pretty. I was really proud of the whole thing.

Recipes

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Rolls
6 6.25 inch rice wrappers
6 large cooked shrimp, halved lengthwise
2 oz. rice vermicelli
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of basil
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of mint
1/2 cup chopped butter lettuce

Dipping Sauces
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. finely chopped peanuts

1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. minced garlic

Whisk together hoisin sauce and peanuts. Set aside. Whisk together fish sauce, lime juice, chili sauce, sugar, water, and garlic. Set aside.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add rice noodles, turn down to a simmer. Cook until al dente, then drain and rinse.

To construct a roll, dip a wrapper in a bowl of warm water for about 1 second. Place a small bundle of vermicelli in the center of the wrapper. Place two halves of shrimp on top of noodles. Sprinkle liberally with mint and basil. Add shredded lettuce. Fold ends of wrapper in. Fold one side of wrapper over top of shrimp, then roll tightly over other side.

Serve with dipping sauces.

Beef, Mushroom, and Peppers Stir Fry

1 lb. London broil, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups diagonally sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups mixed pepper strips
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced crimini mushrooms
1/4 cup date vinegar
1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2Tbsp. sesame oil

In a bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy, ginger, pepper, and cornstarch. Set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add oil, swirl to coat. Add beef strips, stirring constantly. Cook until about 3/4 the way to medium rare. Remove beef. Add carrots. Cook, stirring rapidly, for about two minutes. Add peppers. Cook, stirring constantly, for another two minutes. Add mushrooms and return beef to pan. Cook until mushrooms are done. Add sauce, stirring to coat all other ingredients. Once sauce starts to thicken, remove from heat. Serve over rice or noodles.

Layered Coconut and Coffee Jellies

Coffee Jelly
1 Tbsp. instant espresso
2 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. agar agar powder
3 cups water
7 oz by wt.  sugar

Coconut Jelly
1 Tbsp. agar agar powder
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups coconut cream
2 oz by wt. sugar
1 tsp. salt

To make coffee jelly
In a small bowl, dissolve espresso powder in warm water. Set aside.

Place water and agar agar powder in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Heat until agar agar completely dissolves. Add sugar, cook until dissolved. Remove from heat, stir in coffee. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.

To make coconut jelly
In a small saucepan over medium low heat, dissolve agar agar powder in water. Add coconut cream, sugar, and salt, cook until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.



To make jellies
Into silicon cupcake molds, place 2 tablespoons of coconut liquid in eight molds, and 2 tablespoons of coffee liquid into eight molds. Let cool and harden, about 5 minutes.

Alternate coffee and coconut layers, allowing to firm up after each new layer. Molds should hold about 6 tablespoons (3 layers).

Refrigerate until needed, unmold to serve.

Eight Treasures Pudding

8 oz by wt. glutinous rice
1 oz by wt. vegetable shortening
1 oz by wt. sugar
2 Tbsp. finely diced chestnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced blanched almonds
2 Tbsp. finely diced walnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried papaya
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried mango
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried pineapple
1/3 cup sweet red bean paste

In a small bowl, mix together fruits and nuts. Set aside.

Under running water, rinse rice. Place in a small saucepan, and add twice the volume of water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook for twelve minutes. Rice will absorb the water, and become thick and sticky. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 oz. shortening and sugar.

Take six ramekins. Using remaining shortening, apply a thick layer of shortening to the insides of the ramekins. Press fruit and nut mixture into the shortening, making sure inner surface is covered. Shake out any excess fruit and nut mixture.

Fill each ramekin half full with rice. Spread a thin layer of bean paste on top. If bean paste is too thick to spread easily, heat in microwave ten to twenty seconds.

Finish filling each ramekin. Cover ramekins with aluminum foil. Refrigerate until ready to steam.

To steam, place a couple of inches of water in the bottom of a steamer. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. place rack containing ramekins into steamer, cover. Let steam for thirty minutes.

Remove from steamer. Remove foil. Loosen puddings by running a butter knife or small spatula around inside of ramekin. Turn upside down onto plate to unmold.

Mango - Lime Sauce

1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch kosher salt

In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer diced mango and water until mango is tender. Using an immersion blender, puree mango. Stir in spices, sugar, and salt.  Cook until sugar is dissolved.

Happy Eating!

Pastry Class: Pizza and Dinner Rolls

In my most recent pastry class, we made our first excursion into the world of yeast breads. Up to now, we've only done products using chemical and mechanical leaveners.

Yeast is a wonderful micro-organism that consumes sugars, and releases carbon dioxide and  alcohol as waste products. When brewing, we keep want to keep the alcohol and release (mostly) the CO2.In baking, we keep the CO2 to lighten the product, and cook out the alcohol.

The thing that makes yeast breads work is a protein called gluten. Of all the grains, wheat has the highest concentration of gluten, so are by far the best for raised breads. Gluten is elastic, and can cross-link between molecules to form a web.

Up to now, we have done our best to avoid developing the gluten in bread. In cakes, pie crust, or scones, we want a soft, tender texture. For raised breads, we want the chewy texture, so want to develop the gluten.

The process to develop the gluten is called 'kneading'. It can be done by hand, or by various machines, like a bread machine, a mixer with a dough hook, or a food processor. When done by hand, the procedure involves repeatedly pressing, stretching, and folding the dough. This can take up to ten minutes. I love the moment when you can feel it go from a slightly lumpy and reluctant mass, to a smooth and fluid dough. One way to check to see if the dough has been kneaded enough is called 'the windowpane test'. To do this, cut off a small bit of the dough, and gently stretch it. If you can stretch it to a thin enough membrane to see through, the dough is ready.

At this point the dough needs to sit and allow the yeast to do their thing. If everything is working the way it is suppose to, the yeast will inflate the dough to double it's original size. This is best done in a warm, moist environment. Commercial kitchens frequently have proofing cabinets, boxes that allow for precise control of temperature and humidity. At home this can be done in an oven which is turned off. Place a bowl of hot water in the oven with the bread to provide heat and moisture.

Once the dough has doubled in size, it needs to be 'punched down'. This just involves letting the trapped gas bubbles escape. At this point, the dough can be divided into the appropriate portions. The dough should be cut, not torn. Let the dough rest, covered, for a few minutes, then shape as desired.

The bread is then allowed to rise a second time. Once it doubles in size, it gets baked.

For our first foray into yeast breads, we made pizza and dinner rolls. The pizza dough was shaped into two approximately eighteen inch diameter rounds. We were provided with various toppings, which included tomato sauce, cheese, cooked sausage, mushrooms, black olives, and fresh basil. Once assembled, the pizza was baked in a screaming hot oven. Our oven was set to 600 F. If you have a pizza stone to cook on, that will make the crispest crust. You can, however, use a well greased sheet pan.

We made three shapes of rolls; round, knotted, and cloverleaf. These were given an egg wash, and baked in a moderate oven. As always for the pastry class, all recipes provided by Chef James Foran.

 

 

 

 

Recipes

Pizza Dough

Dry Ingredients
13 1/2 oz by wt. bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. instant dry yeast

Wet Ingredients
8 1/2 oz by vol. water (at 110 F)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in water, let stand five minutes. Stir together yeast mixture, flour, and olive oil. When combined, mix in salt. Knead 5 to 8 minutes, until smooth, and passes the window pane test. Place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover, let rise until double in size, approximately 45 minutes. Punch down, divide into two equal pieces.Cover, let rest 10 minutes. Shape into flat rounds. Use cornmeal to prevent dough sticking to stone or pan. Add sauce and desired toppings. Bake in a 550 F oven until brown and cheese is melted.

Dinner Rolls

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs by bread flour
4 oz by wt. sugar
3/4 oz by wt. yeast
3/4 oz by wt. salt

Wet Ingredients
20 oz by vol milk(at 110 F)
4 oz by wt. butter melted, at room temperature.
4 oz by wt. eggs


Egg Wash Ingredients
1 egg
2 Tbsp. water
pinch salt

Dissolve yeast in milk, let stand 5 minutes. Mix together all wet ingredients. Sift together all dry ingredients except salt. Add wet ingredients to dry all at once. Once all are combined, stir in salt. Knead 5 to 8 minutes, until smooth, and passes the window pane test. Place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover, let rise until double in size, approximately 45 minutes. Punch down, divide into 2 ounce pieces. Cover, let rest 10 minutes. Shape as desired, place on parchment covered cookie sheets. Cover, let rise until doubled in size. Brush with egg wash, bake in a 375 F oven until golden brown, approximately 15 - 20 minutes.

Happy eating!

Culinary Class: Poultry Processing

In this week's culinary class, we learned how to reduce a chicken into its component parts. A really useful class. This is definitely a skill I need to practice at. It's not terribly difficult, just a little fiddly here and there, to get the cleanest possible cuts, and not waste any good meat.

We discussed the classification of chickens by age. The youngest, and most tender, broiler/fryers. Next are roasters. Last are stewing hens. Honestly, I haven't seen a stewing hen in a supermarket for decades. I remember seeing them as a kid. Then there are capons, which are castrated roosters. Capons tend to be very large.

Chiffon Cake Reprise

The most challenging thing for me that we have made so far in my pastry class was the chiffon cake. My icing and piping skills still need work. I thought it would be a good idea to practice making one by myself. The cake itself is unchanged from the recipe in the previous post.

I did want to play with the flavors a bit, however. Since I did not have any of the commercial raspberry filling we used in class, I needed to do something different. I had some strawberries left over from Valentine's Day. I mashed those, and made a quick strawberry jam.  Instead of the lemon syrup, I made a mandarin orange syrup to soak the cake with. I also added the zest of a mandarin orange to the Swiss butter cream frosting.

To decorate the cake, I dipped blanched almonds in dark chocolate melted in a double boiler.

Recipes

Quick Strawberry Jam

1 cup mashed strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
pinch kosher salt

In a sauce pan over medium  heat, combine all ingredients. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook until mix reaches 220 F. Transfer to a metal bowl in an ice bath.

Mandarin Orange Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
juice of one mandarin orange

In a sauce pan over medium heat, combine all ingredients. Bring just to a simmer, making sure all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Strain.

Happy Eating!

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

In practicing knife cuts for my culinary class, I destroyed most of a bag of carrots. A lot of it went into carrot sticks for snacking, but there were a lot of roundels and diagonal cut pieces that needed used up as well. I thought an appetizer soup would be a good use. I also had part of a squash that needed used, as well. I wanted to bring a little more flavor to the table, so added some canned roasted red pepper.

The soup is flavored with some ginger and cumin, and garnished with sour cream and finely diced carrot and fresh onion sprouts. I found that just a touch of honey really brought out the flavor of the carrots.

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

4 cups chicken stock
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup diced butternut squash
2/3 cup diced roasted red peppers
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey

finely diced carrots, onion sprouts, and sour cream to garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, simmer carrots, squash, and peppers in stock until tender. With an immersion blender, puree soup. Add spices, salt, and honey, and simmer for a few minutes.

Ladle into bowls. Place a tablespoon of sour cream in the middle, and sprinkle diced carrots and a pinch of onion sprouts on top.

Happy Eating!