Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A Truly Elevated Relationship

   
     This entry is not about food.  But another four letter word, love.  We celebrated our 8 year anniver-sary yesterday.  Don surprised me with a gorgeous pair of Paul Green leather platform peep toe booties in Rosewood Metal.  Not only are they beautiful, they are buttery soft and super comfortable.  He spent way too much money.  I would never buy them for myself.  
     I'm not sure if I deserve the shoes, but I wonder if I deserve such a thoughtful and generous husband.  We are not spend thrifts but he does tend to lavish gifts upon me.  Although I am grateful for these gestures, I am most appreciative of the daily gifts of love and affirmation he has shown me these 8 years.  He makes me feel cherished every day.  And for that I am eternally grateful.  I hope that everyone can experience this kind of love. 


Monday, June 23, 2014

Restaurant Review: Wine and Cheese Restaurant and Wine Bar at the Orchard Center

     On the recommendation of my classmate, Jordan, who works at the Wine and Cheese Restaurant and Wine Bar at the Orchard Town Center in Westminster, Don and I gave it a whirl last week.  We were thoroughly impressed.  I'm not one to frequent shopping malls, open air or not, so it was with some hesitancy to drive out of our way to this suburban giant.  Located near REI, the Wine and Cheese has two lovely and spacious outdoor patios.  We elected to sit indoors so we can enjoy the Thursday evening live music: the requisite lone guy with guitar.  The indoor space was cavernous with large floor to ceiling windows the better for people watching.  The decor was elegant and inviting with a faux European appeal.
     We ordered the cheese and meat platter since that is the house specialty.  Since it was still happy hour (4-6pm), we also ordered the bruschetta.  At $5, it was a steal!  Generously portioned with 5 baguettes topped with a creamy and flavorful Prima Donna Red cheese with heaps of chopped tomatoes, basil, red onions, and capers, ad finished with a balsamic reduction, it is sure to be a favorite.  We selected the porter cheddar cheese which was gorgeously marbled with Guiness and the spicy Italian Copocollo which is cured pork meat between the neck and shoulder that is aged for four months.  It was beautifully presented as a "meat flower".  The meat and cheese complemented each other superbly and there were plenty of accompaniments: more chewy baguettes with Black Mission figs, Granny Smith apple slivers, candied walnuts, three different kinds of olives, spicy mustard, and a sweet fruit jam.  It was plenty for the two of us.  We washed it all down with a glass of prosecco for me and a red Zinfandel for Don, both at the happy hour rate of $5 a glass.  
     For dessert, we went with Jordan's recommendation of the delicious Ghiradelli chocolate fondue for two.   She designed a lovely dark chocolate fondue with white chocolate swirls.  It came with a melange of apples, strawberries, pound cake and a cinnamon crisp.  Much to our delight, they have French press coffee! 
    Overall, the Wine and Cheese is a serendipitous finding in an unexpected locale and a great place to enjoy a romantic and leisurely evening with excellent live entertainment.  
Tomato and Basil Bruschetta


Duo Cheese Platter

Spicy Italian "collo" flower

Guiness Porter Cheddar

Ghiradelli Chocolate Fondue

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Drain Pain

     The worst part of cooking school is cleaning up at the end of the day.  From noon to 1pm, we are scrubbing the floors, stove tops, ovens, tables, etc.  This is in addition to the dishes that have accumulated through five hours of cooking.  We rotate through the dish room in 15 minute increments.  Somehow I lucked out this block with 8:30 and 11:30 dish times which is usually during lecture or eating respectively.  I was, however, assigned to cleaning the hot line which includes 14 burners, 4 conventional ovens, 2 convection ovens, the grill, and the fryer.  This was originally a three person job, but through attrition, I am the last person standing.  I have to make sure the stove tops are free of grease and debris.  This was challenging during pastry week with daily burnt caramel sauce.  The drip pans must be clean as well as all the ovens and fryer.  Sometimes we pull the ranges out and clean behind them.  Never the less, this job is still an improvement to the floors.  Especially when the drains over flow, such was what happened yesterday, our last day of cooking.
    We were all looking forward to a relaxing last day when, without warning, the prep sink started back flowing.  We were ordered to stop using the sink.  This is rather difficult when you are cooking.  Luckily we were mostly done.  Then the drains started to back up in the adjacent kitchen 1.  Now two classes had nowhere to wash dishes except in the pastry kitchen which had one tiny dishwasher.  We basically washed all the dishes piecemeal by hand.  It made for a very long day.  We looked forward to our two week hiatus from the kitchen, mostly for the cleaning part.  
    Today begins our two weeks of entrepreneurship during which we will develop a business plan and present it to the class.  We have guest entrepreneur speakers to inspire/frighten us almost daily.  I am not particularly interested in starting a business, but the research should prove an interesting experience.  
     Back to food, on Friday, we had an hors d'oeuvre buffet, and yesterday we concluded our last day of cooking with a garde manger buffet which included pate, terrines, and forced meats.  It was not the most glamorous part of cooking but surprisingly tasty.  (My productions are in bold).
making sausage

Chinese chicken and pork sausage dumplings

Scotch Eggs Benedict

Roasted Red Pepper and Sausage

Profiteroles

Crab Salad with quail egg

Pate Platter

Sausage meatball with pasta sheet

Roasted red pepper soup

Hot dog sliders on poppy seed buns

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Art Versus Science

    After two weeks of pastry, I am convinced cooking is more of an art versus science.  Sure there is scientific basis in cooking and baking such as the Maillard reaction whereby sugar breaks down in the presence of protein and heat to create the golden brown appearance of cooked food.  And everyone knows leavening agents create the rise in bread.  But, it takes many years of cooking to pin point the nuances of excellent versus adequate cooking.
     There is no right way to do any one thing.  Each chef does what they feel works best based on their experience and who they trained with.  This can seem somewhat contradictory to a student.  For instance, we learned from one chef that the best way to clean a mushroom is to use a pastry brush and gently brush off any dirt.  For more stubborn dirt, you may use a wet paper towel.  Rinsing under the water would be a last resort as it may break off the delicate tissue of the mushroom.  Another chef dumps the mushrooms into a cambro of water stating that you do not have time to clean each mushroom individually in a busy restaurant; it would take days.  This also makes sense.
     One chef berates us for not putting a towel under a hot sauce pan, the other says it doesn't matter, it's metal on metal.  One stresses the importance of mise en place before beginning cooking, the other doesn't measure out ingredients.  You quickly learn that the chef you are with is always right.  There is no point in arguing.
     We concluded this week with the "diabetic" pastry buffet, so called due to the amount of sugar involved.  My husband was the guest this week and was thoroughly impressed with the amount and caliber of our production.  He would not have expected us to execute at this level after only 9 weeks of school.  
French Macaroons


Baguettes

Chocolate mousse in Tuille cups

Chocolate covered puff pastry

Lemon cheese cake

Chocolate mousse pyramid 

Fruit Tort

Red Wine Poached Pears

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Meringue Kisses

Caramel Cheesecake

Flourless Chocolate cake


Flourless Chocolate Cake with plate painting

     

Monday, June 2, 2014

Restaurant Review: Pho Duy, Broomfield, CO

     Somedays, nothing beats a steaming bowl of noodles.   
When my craving hits, we head for Pho Duy in Broomfield by the Pacific Ocean Marketplace.  Sure, there are plenty of other Pho establishments a few doors down, but Pho Duy does it the best.  If you can ignore the blinking neon disco lights decorating the walls and the permanent dish cart in the dining area, you cannot go wrong at Pho Duy.  
     There are well crafted flavorful traditional pho noodles with various ingredients of your choosing including: beef, meatball, chicken, seafood, vegetarian, beef tripe, etc.  But I prefer the spicy vegetarian noodle soup (#V15 on the menu).  We discovered this dish several years ago and I have not been able to order anything else.  I find the depth of flavor with this noodle broth so much more enticing than the traditional pho.  And I can tell the server respects our selection as not many people are aware of this spicy treat. 
     The bowl comes full to the rim with tofu four ways.  There are plentiful strips of traditional fried tofu as well as a tofu fritter with vegetables, tofu crisps, and what I call tofu ribbons/knots.  You'll just have to see it for yourself.  The noodles are thick vermicelli, although they have been accommodating in the past when I request egg noodles.  Additionally, there are large florets of crisp broccoli, straw mushrooms, carrots, snow peas, and of course the ubiquitous basil, bean sprout, lime and jalepeno garnishes.    It is a vegetarian's dream but any carnivore's delight.

Flour, Sugar, Butter, and Eggs, Oh My!

    This past week we made baguettes, the beloved French staple.  A well made baguette is golden brown, crisp on the outside but soft and tender on the inside.  It will not be flat, because it was over or under proofed (fermented).  It will be straight, uniform in width from top to bottom, 80 cm in length, and with even, concise, and deep enough slits so the steam can be evenly released in the cooking process.  It's definitely harder to make a baguette than to eat it.  After 3 days of eating bread, some not very good, I thought this must be what prison is like.  

    Since we are in our pastry block, things did not progress much beyond another white food: sugar.  
We made so many sweet treats, I have since gained back the weight I lost from Foundations.  After consuming all this sugar, we were all craving the veal stock they were making next door.  There was creme brûlée, three kinds of ice cream (the richest I have ever tasted), lemon curd tort with swiss meringue (which I personally torched and it was fun), rustic French cherry gallettes, chocolate chip cookies, hazelnut biscotti, cream puffs with pastry cream, and we made an Italian buttercream sponge cake and decorated with piping today.  This is the most fun I have had since starting culinary school.  I am tempted to enroll in the pastry program after I'm done with the culinary program, but that will be another 8 months.   The hubby does not seem to be opposed.  We shall see.  I would love to be a perpetual student.
Lemon curd tort with brule swiss meringue

Cherry Gallettes

Creme Brûlée

Chocolate Eclair Swan

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Cream puffs with pastry cream

Chocolate dipped cream puffs
Alice and Brandon of Team Bones and Bows