Chopped!

     This last block has been less formal in that we do not have assigned recipes.  So far we have compared grass fed versus corn fed beef, anti-biotic free chicken versus mass produced chicken, and my favorite exercise thus far, a competition similar to Food Network's Chopped.  

     Chef divided us into teams of two with a mystery farm to table produce such as purple cauliflower and butternut squash.  We have to come up with a tasty small plate either an appetizer or entree in an hour.   I liked this exercise because it allowed us to be creative and work with our partners.  I learned that I work well with most people, even ones I don't like.  The most challenging partners are the ones with so many ideas that they loose focus.  It's like working with Sybil.  I prefer to make dishes that less complicated but well executed and delicious.  One dish smelled like wet dog and tasted worse.  I left school hungry on a couple days because the food was simply inedible.  That has never happened before.

     We also had a couple days of restaurant style quick fire drills.  I have always prided myself on my ability to multi task and looked forward to this semi realistic challenge.  I was quickly humbled.  It was a train wreck.  The person calling out orders was unclear and condescending.   We only cooked for 35 minutes but it felt like an eternity in purgatory.  I was on the sauté  station and in charge of risotto, mushrooms, tuna, and lava beans.  Someone else was on the grill and another making a mussel dish.  We ended up with some doubled orders and delays in service.  It was so demoralizing that only six of us came to class the next day.

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient: beets

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Squash

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient: Kale

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient: Butternut Squash

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient: Leeks

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Acorn squash

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Heirloom Tomatoes

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Cherry Tomatoes

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Cabbage

Chopped!  Mystery Ingredient:  Beets

Restaurant Quick Fire, Polenta with Grilled Asparagus

Mussels

Seared Tuna with Coconut Rice

Lemon Risotto with Fennel and Fava Beans

Quail with Salsa and Basil oil

Caesar Salad with Parmesan Tuile

Bourbon Pork Loin with Grilled Peaches and Watercress Salad

Blueberry Coffee Cake with Strawberry Coulis

Peach Cobbler with Chantilly Cream

Restaurant Review: Acorn

      Acorn is the seedling of Oak on Fourteen, so to speak.  I was excited to try Acorn because I love Oak, and Acorn is on the cover of 5280's Best Restaurants.  
     Acorn is located in The Source, a converted warehouse artisanal market in River North.   One of two restaurants in the Source, Acorn is open for lunch and dinner M-F and dinner only on Sunday.  It is an industrial space, high ceilings, exposed brick with a large graffiti mural on one wall.  Everything is cooked in an oak oven.  The menu offers mostly shared plates and suggests one to two per person.  They also offer a couple of larger plates for carnivores, a half roasted chicken and a 38 oz ribeye.  We opted for four shared plates.
     One caveat, Acorn is not a place for wine connoisseurs; their selection is rather limited.  Although, the glass of nebbiolo I ordered was full bodied and complemented all the plates we ordered.  All of the cocktails are well crafted.  Don ordered Across the Atlantic which is akin to a Manhattan with their signature spherical ice ball.
     We started with the oak grilled octopus.  I love cephalopods, but Don had some trepidation.  The octopus tasted sea fresh with a great chewy texture.  The gnocchi were golden clouds of creaminess.  Spice was provided by the in house chorizo which was complimented by the salsa verde.  All the texture and flavor contrasts created a party in your mouth.  It was probably our favorite dish.
     Next came the kale salad.  Kale is a brassica and can be tough and bitter.  At Oak and Acorn, they are shredded thinly and massaged.  The sweet dressing and togarashi (Japanese chili pepper flakes) help balance out the natural bitterness of the kale.  The candied almonds and julienned apples added additional sweetness and and crunch.  The generous portion takes a while to eat.  I found myself feeling slightly bovine.
     The pork belly arrived next.  After a week of whole hog cookery, I was anxious to see how Acorn prepares their pork.
Pork belly has a lot of fat, but if cooked properly, the fat is deliciously edible, and this was the case with Acorn's.  Two hefty cubes of pork belly on a gruyere and Crooked Stave beer fondue prevented us from fighting.  The meat was tender and full of umami flavor.  The skin and fat melts in your mouth.  The brussels sprouts were perfectly charred and caramelized.  Another brassica, their mild bitterness balanced the otherwise rich dish.
     Our last plate was the Key West "Shrimp and Grits" which is made from Anson Mills (organic heirloom grain purveyor) grits and Royal red shrimp which are very tender and flavorful albeit smallish shrimp.  The grits sat on a moat of soffrito wine broth which kept it from drying up.   
     Even though the desserts that we glimpsed looked amazing, we were stuffed to the gills after four shared plates.  But we vowed to return as there were many other plates we wanted to try.  

Across the Atlantic, Nebbiolo

The upstairs

Oak Grilled Octopus

Apple Kale Salad

Oak Grilled Pork Belly

Key West "Shrimp and Grits"

The Source in Brighton

     

Awful Offal

      Last week was whole animal cookery.  We had an 88 pound pig, small for most whole hogs, which we butchered into primal cuts and cooked with varying techniques.  
     We severed the pig head and made head cheese.  We brined the pig ears and deep fried them.  Were they delicious!  The pig skin was also removed and dried in the oven for two days, after which they were deep fried into the crunchiest, most flavorful chicharrones I have ever tasted.  
     I cured half of a ham for 24 hours, then cooked it in pig fat for three hours 'til fork tender and shredded it for a rillette, which is a very French meat paste spread on baguettes.  Talk about porky goodness.  My teammates turned the other half of the ham into a pepper fennel sausage that we are drying for 3 weeks.
      From the shoulder, we made a pork ragout and homemade pasta for our family meal one day.  One jowl has been removed to make guanciale, or what we affectionately call face bacon.  The ribs were smoked and covered with home-made barbecue sauce.  And the belly we are saving for the culmination dinner.
     What to do with the liver, heart, tail, and brains?  We scrambled the brains with some farm fresh eggs from Carrie's Clucks in Windsor, CO.  The brains tasted like eggs, soft and creamy.  The liver was breaded and pan fried but proved inedible for most folks.  Luckily someone salvaged it for their dog so it was not wasted.  I've never had pig heart tartar until now.  It was not terrible but I prefer the organ sautéed.  The tail was cut up, breaded and fried.  It was flavorful and very gelatinous.
     All in all, the pig is one versatile and tasty animal from nose to tail.

Our Piggy, Willie

Drying Sausage

The Pig's Tail

Chicharrones!

Sauteed Heart Appetizer

Pig Heart Tartar

Barbecue Pork and Ribs

Escoffier Day

     Boulder declared October 9th as "Escoffier Day".  Michel Escoffier, the great grandson of Auguste Escoffier was the guest of honor.  Our school and faculty provided a banquet representing five regions of France:  Provence, Burgundy, Loire, Rhone, and Languedoc.  I volunteered to help my chef with his station, which was Provence.  Our dish was bouillabaisse, or fisherman's stew, made of lobster stock, clams, mussels, and shrimp.  Additionally, we served toast points with rouille, a spread made of day old bread soaked in milk and pulverized with roasted red pepper and garlic.  It is very traditional and delicious with the bouillabaisse.  Our refreshing beverage was a lavender sour blended with effervescent Pellegrino.  Other stations included one which served cassoulet, another had Burgundy stew and pasta, one served caramelized onion flat bread, and one served apple cider and potatoes with prosciutto.
    There were members from all sectors of the food industry.  One actively recruiting Escoffier students to work for the company.  There were chefs from prestigious restaurants in Boulder and Denver such as the Black Cat and the Warwick Hotel.  Several chefs were inducted into the Disciples of Escoffier, an exclusive club where one is nominated by one's peers.  This included a couple chef instructors from school.  
     Michel Escoffier is an elegant French gentleman who spoke excellent English.  I was most impressed with his warmth and willingness to oblige me with a photo, which I promptly sent to my envious classmates.  I also got a signed copy of one of Auguste Escoffier's historic menus.  It was a long day but well worth it.

Farm to Table

     Today begins the first day of our last block, Farm to Table also known as Ethical and Sustainable.   Six more weeks of classes, and we're off to our externships!  This adventure has certainly flown by.  It was questionable whether I would get to this point, but here I am.  
    We started our day by meeting our new chef in our new kitchen, which used to be the Broker Inn in Boulder.  Then we headed to Waste Farmers in Arvada.  We have a farm day each week which is usually Monday and scheduled from 7:30am to 5:30pm.  We arrived at the farm around 9am and had an hour tour of the farm operations.  Their focus is on permaculture and reduced carbon footprint.  Nothing is done with a tractor, all man power.  After an hour and a half of informative but sedentary lecture, we were ready to get our hands dirty.
    It had threatened rain all day, but never produced.  As soon as we started clearing out the beds, the skies opened up and dumped rain on us and did not let up.  Apparently it was not meant to be a farm day for us.  
     On non farm days, we will be cooking without recipes using what ever farm to table produce/ingredients we get.  We will be butchering a whole pig and using it from head to tail.  At the end of this block, we will produce a culmination dinner for our family and friends with seasonal produce, a budget, and our own menu designs.  This is the block that sets Escoffier apart from other culinary schools.