Exam Time!

I think it is time to take a few minutes and explain how my classes are organized. The culinary arts program is made up of six modules, each of which is divided into individual courses. At the end of each course we take a written exam and at the end of the module we take a practical exam. Friday was the last day of our first module. In the next module we will be covering:

Course 4- dry heat cooking methods

Course 5- moist heat cooking methods, vegetable preparations, grains, and legumes

Course 6- breakfast cookery, salads, and sandwiches.

The focus of module three is world cuisines, with an emphasis on France, Italy, and Asia. Module four is all about pastry, module five is about contemporary cooking and garde manger, and module six is the externship. Our class is assigned a different chef for each module (except for module six where we get to work in a restaurant kitchen of our choice).

So, as I said before, Friday was the last day of mod one, which means it was time for both a written and a practical exam. For the practical exam I had to medium dice potatoes, make mayonnaise, and make broccoli soup.

It turned out to be a really good day for knife skills because my medium dice potatoes have never been better. My mayonnaise turned out to have way too much vinegar so I ended up screwing the recipe and kept added oil until it tasted right. In addition, while I diced potatoes and made mayonnaise, I also had to blanch broccoli florets for the soup.

The key to making a successful broccoli soup is blanching your florets correctly. If they are undercooked, the soup will not purée properly. If they are overcooked, the soup will not be green enough. Remember, you should always blanch green vegetables in lots of salted, boiling water and be prepared to shock them in an ice bath once they reach the correct doneness.

Here is the recipe I used during the exam:

1 oz butter (which is about 2 tbs)

1.5 oz onions, diced

4 oz broccoli stems, peeled and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 oz flour (which is about 2 tbs)

1 3/4 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

Sachet (parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and whole black peppercorns tied into a cheesecloth)

8 oz broccoli florets, blanched and shocked (3-4 minutes)

Salt, to taste

• Melt the butter in a small sauce pan
• Add onion, broccoli stems, and a pinch of salt, cook 3-4 minutes without developing any color
• Add minced garlic, cook 30 seconds, stirring
• Add flour, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring (you're making a mini-roux)
• Whisk in 1/3 of the stock and bring it to a boil
• Add the rest of the stock and bring it back to a boil while whisking
• Add the cream and sachet
• Bring the soup to a boil again and simmer 25-30 minutes
• Heat broccoli florets in soup, 1 minute
• Remove sachet
• Transfer soup to blender and purée until completely smooth
• Taste and adjust seasoning
• Serve immediately

*Makes about 2 servings

Contemporary Sauces

I really enjoyed todays lesson. Our class was split up into 3 three groups and each group had to make five recipes to be presented at the end of the class. The contemporary sauces were also fun because they had fresh flavors that seem more applicable to the present food culture. We made Roasted Tomato Coulis, Corn and Red Pepper Relish, Rosemary and Basil Infused Oil, Mango Chutney, and Tomatillo Salsa. The last two were my favorite so I'm going to share the recipes with you.

Mango Chutney

-Makes 1 pint

10 oz sugar

4 fl oz white wine vinegar

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tbs peeled ginger, minced

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3 mangoes, peeled and diced into 1" cubes

2 oz dark raisins

3 oz slivered almonds

• Combine the first set of ingredients in a medium saucepan
• Bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer, stirring often to prevent burning
• Add the mango pieces and cook until the mango is translucent and the syrup is thick
• Remove the chutney from the heat
• Add the raisins and slivered almonds
• Cool before serving

The chutney is really sweet so either plan to eat it with something spicy (such as spicy black beans and rice) or add less sugar to the syrup.

Tomatillo Salsa

-Makes 1 pint

1 lb tomatillos

2 jalapeños

3 oz yellow onion in large pieces

3 tbs cilantro, minced

1 tbs cider vinegar

2 tbs EVOO

1/2 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper, to taste

• Roast tomatillos, jalapeños, and onions on a grill or in the oven
• Peel and chop tomatillos, jalapeños, and onions (alternatively you could just combine everything in the food processor)
• Mix with cilantro, cider vinegar, EVOO, and sugar
• Adjust seasoning

The Mother Sauces

These five sauces plus all of their derivative sauces make up the essence of French cooking. Understanding the techniques used to make them is important but in general, they take a lot of time and really, who has three hours to make dinner?

Brown veal stock is the base for Espagnole (aka brown sauce) and it is thickened with brown roux. In class, the Espagnole was reduced to make an old world demi-glace which was then used to make a fortified wine sauce. Unfortunately, I was out of town on the day we made derivative sauces but I tasted the final product and it was delicious.

The definition of Velouté is any white stock thickened with a blond roux. I would never serve velouté as is because it’s basically a bland gravy but I image the derivate sauces are pretty good.

Béchamel is the base sauce for Mornay, which makes an absolutely delicious macaroni and cheese. Here is the recipe we used in class:

*Most of the recipes we use in class will have ingredients measured out by weight because it is much more accurate. Starting next week I will be posting a lot of recipes so if you want to make any of them I suggest you invest in a scale.

3 oz butter

3 oz flour

1 quart milk

6-8 swipes nutmeg

Small piece onion

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1 cup cream

4 oz Gruyere, grated

4 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano

Salt and pepper, to taste

• Melt butter in a medium sized sauce pan
• Add flour and stir constantly over medium heat for 2-3 minutes (you just made a roux!)
• Add 1 cup of milk and bing it to a boil while whisking
• Add another cup of milk and bring it to a boil while whisking
• Add the rest of the milk and bring it to a boil (the last three steps are important to prevent the sauce from becoming clumpy)
• Tie the onion, bay leaf, and cloves into a piece of cheesecloth and add it to the sauce with the nutmeg and a pinch of salt
• Simmer the sauce about 20 minutes and then remove the cheesecloth
• Add the cream and bring the sauce back up to a boil
• Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the cheeses
• Season with salt and pepper
• Whisk the sauce until it is smooth
• Use immediately

The final sauce if very welcoming to other flavors so add your favorite herb, your favorite vegetable, and some pasta. I’m sure it will be delicious.

Tomato sauce and Hollandaise are the last two mother sauces. Making the hollandaise required a lot of whisking but having a sore arm was totally worth it. My favorite Chef Chris quote of the day was, “You can buy love! It comes in the form of eggs benedict with a perfect hollandaise .”

Understanding Roux

Starch is a very important molecule. Plants store the energy they generate by photosynthesis as starch and pass this energy on to humans thus contributing to about 75% of our caloric intake as a population. A molecule of starch is a chain of thousands of glucose molecules linked together as either long straight chains or highly branched polymers.

In hot water, starch granules absorb large amounts of water and swell up. Eventually, the granules lose their organized structure and form a mesh-like network which creates viscosity by slowing the movement of water. So in cooking, starch is important because it acts as a thickening agent. Starch can come from grains in the form of flour, cornstarch, or rice starch, and it can come from roots and tubers in the form of arrowroot, potato starch, or tapioca.

Let's say we are trying to thicken a sauce. If we add the starch directly to the hot liquid than the molecules will stick together and make our sauce lumpy. One way to avoid this problem is to form a slurry by mixing equal amounts (by weight) of starch and cold water to disperse the granules before they are heated and start to swell. In class we made two slurries; one with cornstarch and one with arrowroot. To thicken our sauce with a slurry we would bring the sauce to a boil and slowly drizzle in the slurry while stirring. The finished sauce should be used relatively quickly because a slurry is not very stable. Two tablespoons of slurry will thicken about one cup of liquid.

A more stable sauce can be produced by thickening with a roux. Roux is made by mixing equal amounts (by weight) of butter and flour, and then cooking it to get rid of the raw cereal taste. The word roux is derived from the French word for red because as the mixture cooks it develops color (although I personally would not call it red). There are three types of roux: white, blonde, and brown. If we wanted to thicken our sauce with roux, we would melt the butter in small pot and then add the flour before the butter became too hot. We would stir the roux constantly while cooking it over medium heat and add it to our sauce when it reached the appropriate color. As the color of a roux becomes darker it starts to lose some of its thickening power and it takes on nutty and toasted flavors. Four to six ounces of roux will thicken one quart of liquid.

There are three classic "mother sauces" that are thickened with roux: Béchamel, Espagnole, and Velouté. Guess what three sauces we're making in class tomorrow?