Week 9 : Instructions, instructions, instructions

This week was the last one on dry heat cooking methods, Saturday was all about grilling and Sunday all about roasting – just in time for Thanksgiving.

I don’t like to follow instructions, I like figuring things out by myself , sometimes it works and sometimes it’s a disaster, take for example building any type of furniture from IKEA, there is no way in hell that I can do that. All the instructions make no sense to me, I refuse to follow them and end up with something not even remotely similar to what I bought. Also when I was in college – I think- they gave us a test that said please read the instructions below, of course I didn’t and started answering the questions, of course I failed – the instructions said to not answer the questions and that your signature was worth a point, you had to sign the test 20 times and give it back for a perfect grade.

So on Saturday we started by doing different marinades, we were grilling vegetables, chicken, salmon, veal, pork, etc. A few times the Chef had mentioned that we should use gloves when working with chilies, he had already told us the story of this guy who cooked with a ghost chili, and then went to the bathroom, he did not return for 40 minutes, he came back and explained to the chef what had happened and asked if he should soak it in milk.

But of course I couldn’t be bothered.  I don’t like working with gloves, I already have trouble with my hands as is to add the slipperiness effect of the gloves. So, here I am cooking my chilies over the stove waiting for them to get black, so I can remove the skin, the seeds, and use them in my marinade.  Finally there done, I take of the skin, the seeds, chop them and put them into the marinade. Done. I continued working for a while and then had to scratch my nose; I did, washed my hands and continued. OH MY GOD! It started slowly, but the burning sensation started getting worse and worse, I wanted to put my face under water, but couldn’t I had so much to do! And also I was not about to confess to that and have to explain why I didn’t use gloves as instructed!!  So I soaked it up, didn’t say a word, it subsided like 20 minutes after, which literally felt like hell.

Again with the instructions, until we have more practice and become more seasoned cooks we are “instructed” to use our thermometers to assess the doneness of the protein. And here I go again, I have been told that there are tricks to make sure your meat is done to the desired temp, something about how your palm feels, when touching different fingers, or making a fist, whatever, I trust my judgment, which apparently is not good. We had too grill flank steak – the same one I cut wrong last time. I put it in the grill, wait a few minutes to get the marks, turn it 90 degrees to get the cross marks, a few minutes and flip to get the marks on the other side. I like my steak bloody, so I wait a few more minutes let’s say 15 in total and declare to myself and others this is done, so I put it to rest on the rack.

My partner has an instant read thermometer, you just pinch the meat and voilà you get the temp, the one we got from school has the needle that takes a while to show you the actual temp. So I am doing my sauce, and waiting to cut my meat, however I start noticing that no one else has taken their meat of the grill, so I start getting paranoid. I ask my friend for the thermometer and check, I was NOT even close! So back it goes again with only 6 minutes left to present our plates. I am like praying to the gods of grilling so it gets done fast, of course I knew it would not have time to rest, and all the juices would spill on the white plate. You are supposed to let any meat rest for 10 minutes or so to avoid all the juices spilling out. I cut it and it’s perfectly cooked but the blood is spilling, I paper towel like there is no tomorrow, rush to put in the plate with the sauce and present. But of course you cannot fool a Chef, she compliments me on my seasoning and doneness (perfect medium rare), but she points at the plate and I say: “yes I know it needed to rest more”, I am a bit disappointed but have no one to blame but myself.

You thought I would have learned my lesson right? No. This weekend I undercooked chicken (just a bit), pork was just border line, and I had to put my vegetables in the oven twice. But my partner overcooked the salmon- so there. It’s better to have it undercooked and put back in than overcooked where there is nothing you can do to fix it. Needless to say I want the high tech thermometer.

We also had a test and I did good, got an A on my paper, B on potatoes -precision cutting – and damn proud of it and an A on cutting vegetables.  The Chef told me I had remarkably improved on my knife skills – hey I have not cut myself in weeks, however we all know I am way overdue.

Overall it was a great weekend, and as always I can’t wait until next actually next next Saturday, we get a break for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving every one!

 

 

Week 8: Back in Business!

Hurricane Sandy hit New York pretty good, so my school was closed last weekend and I didn’t have class, therefore I had nothing to report but the fact that staying in the house for a whole week made me gain 100 pounds, become an alcoholic and watch too many cooking shows for my own good. Thank God I was ok and didn’t need anything, some people were not that fortunate.

After a major school clean up (just imagine how much food went bad without proper refrigeration for 5 days), finally we were back in business, class was on for this weekend. I was so excited to be back in the kitchen especially after my disastrous start of Mod 2. I came in ready:  recipes on index cards check! Read material before class check! I’m not gone a burn anything attitude …sort of check!

I had a good start in the morning, but it started getting stressful as the day progressed (I guess that’s Mod 2). There were tons of recipes we needed to that day it was the last class on sautéing so we had to get our sh...  together. We got to work in groups of 2 which made it better, and the Chef realized we absolutely could multitask but we needed more time to make sure we were doing things right instead of rushing. We sautéed away: lamb, beef, scallops, spinach, salmon, sole (we made the famous dish that Julia Child tried in France for the first time Sole Meuniere) – I can proudly say I can filet a flat fish no problem!  We didn’t burn anything, but some of our seasoning was still of – pinch of salt, pinch of salt, pinch of salt!

On Sunday sautéing was over, come on in pan frying and deep frying! – A diet nightmare or a hangover paradise- . Again groups of 2, good! We started with knife drills- which basically means chopping potatoes in different shapes so we can practice – I swear there is no way I can make a straight line! Even with the angle tip, but I am getting better so yey for me! Then it was time to set up the breading stations which are as follows: flour-egg-breadcrumbs or panko, and you season the meat not the egg mixture – something new. We cooked veal Milanese, chicken Supreme, crab cakes, potato pancakes, and guess what: tostones! And this was just in the first half of the day. I remembered the first classes when I was so hungry, now I was so stuffed! We had to try everything and of course you’re picking at the food here and there, I could feel I was gaining a pound a minute! Then came deep frying!!!!  We were getting ready to cut the potatoes into fries when out came the scariest tool: The Mandolin. Let me explain, I have cut myself at least one time, my mom has cut he self like 3 times, a friend of mine who is a chef  lost the tip of his finger, so I absolutely did not want to cut with that. I kept watching as all the other students were setting up their mandolins, moving the blades, and securing the level. Me? I kept looking away and then going to the bin to find a mandolin for me which thank God was not there, so we had to share and I had to wait my turn. I swear it was like magic: 2 minutes into the cutting session I heard the first aghh! (one down) Darn it! Ouch (two down) jkdhf hef – Hebrew (three down) @$%^# (four down). Ha I knew it! Stay away from the mandolin! There was a quite a bit of blood, and the finger gloves went flying from the first aid kit. However I know the chef was waiting for me to tackle it, but since it was a bloody mess, she taught how to do it with a side towel – which was may better, but I swear half the potato went to the trash.

We cooked French fries, fish (fish and chips), broccoli tempura, fried oysters, and fried chicken southern style.  Everything was delicious, but at the end of the day it was too much frying for me, I think we are done with dry cooking techniques and we are moving on.

Finally that day I had signed up for a Turduken demonstration.  Let me explain what a Turduken is. Are you ready? It is a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. I will give you a minute to get it. Ok, I just want to understand who was the “fatty” person that invented it? Seriously how hungry can you be that you thought of putting a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, I swear that is why there is an obesity crisis in the U.S. I didn’t go to the class because I was disgustingly full and couldn’t stand more any more food least of all a TURDUCKEN!

I can say it was a very good weekend, and I had missed it tremendously, and as always I can’t wait until next Saturday.

PS: Oh and we found a little crab inside an oyster!