Week 4 - Vegetables

Objective

To familiarize ourselves with the selection and preparation of vegetables to be used in a variety of cooking methods. This includes the appropriate cutting and portioning of those vegetables and presentation for service.

Sanitation and Safety

Certain vegetables arrive in the kitchen very dirty, for various reasons. In terms of leeks, they are a bulb vegetable which grows underground and has tight layers within which dirt is easily trapped, and must be washed away before preparation. In terms of some leafy vegetables such as spinach, which are difficult to cultivate without the use of fertilizers or pesticides, they must be cleaned to ensure none of these are passed through to the consumer of the dish in which the vegetables are used.

Information

During week 4 we prepare many different vegetable dishes while exploring the different cooking methods, which can generally be broken down into three categories:

• Dry heat - Broiling, Grilling, Roasting, Baking, Sautéing, Pan-Frying, and Deep-Fat Frying
• Moist heat - Poaching, Simmering, Boiling, Steaming
• Combination - Braising, Stewing

Vegetables can be broken down into the following categories as well (some examples included):

• Flowers/Buds - Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower
• Fruit-Vegetables - Avocados, Eggplants, Peppers, Tomatoes
  
• Leafy Greens - Mustard greens, Spinach, Swiss Chard
• Fungi - Mushrooms, Truffles
• Bulbs - Bulb onions, Fennel, Garlic
• Pods and Seeds - Corn, Legumes, Okra
• Roots and Tubers - Beets, Carrots, Parsnips
• Stalks and Shoots - Artichokes, Asparagus, Celery
• Baby Vegetables - A vegetable which has been harvested prematurely or purposely bred hybrids to form true miniatures.

A consideration when cooking vegetables is the effect of acid or alkali in the cooking liquid. These effects vary from vegetable, but can be broken down based on the pigment family contained within the vegetable.

• Chlorophyll - gives vegetables a green colour, found in spinach, broccoli, and many more. When cooked with an acid, vegetables with this pigment will turn from bright fresh green to a drab olive green, but will maintain a firm texture. When cooked with an alkali, the colour will stay bright green, but the texture will turn mushy.
• Carotenoid - gives vegetables an orange or yellow colour, found in carrots and tomatoes. When cooking with an acid or alkali, the colour of a carotenoid will not be affected, however acid will keep the vegetable firm while alkali will make the vegetable mushy.
• Flavonoid - are broken down into two further categories, flavonoid anthoxanthin and flavonoid anthocyanins. Anthoxanthin is found in white vegetables such as cauliflower and will turn yellow when cooked in alkali, while maintaining its colour in acid. Anthocyanins are found in red vegetables such as red cabbage, and will turn blue in an alkali while maintaining colour an acid. As usual, acid will keep the vegetable firm, alkali will turn it mushy.

With this information in hand, we proceed to the recipes.

Practical

Partly due to the low cooking time required for vegetables, and general low prep time, we are able to get quite a few dishes in this week. We prepared:

• Broccoli Hollandaise
• Cauliflower au Gratin
• Buttered Green Beans
• Spinach Sauté
• Summer Squash Fettuccine
• Grilled Vegetables
• Vegetable Tempura
• Baked Butternut Squash
• Maple Glazed Carrots
• Pan Fried Zucchini with Aioli
• Glazed (Harvard) Beets
• Ratatouille

Broccoli Hollandaise is prepared by cutting broccoli florets of equal size, and pointing the stems for appearance. The stalks can have the green skin removed and the inner white cut in a tourner to be cooked with the florets. The broccoli is then blanched and refreshed (or shocked), then warmed and dried. Hollandaise is prepared per our previous lessons experience and drizzled over the broccoli, and served.

Cauliflower au Gratin is prepared by cutting cauliflower into florets of equal size, blanching in salt water and refreshing. Once well drained, this is then tossed in a béchamel sauce prepared per our previous experience, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and then placed under a broiler to brown. Once the sauce has an appropriate brown colour and before it burns, it is served.

Buttered green beans are prepared by blanching and shocking the beans, which are then reheated and tossed in butter seasoned with salt. They are served immediately to maintain temperature.

Spinach sauté is prepared by properly cleaning and washing spinach. Sweat minced garlic and shallot in olive oil over medium heat. The spinach is added and sautéed until hot. It should then be seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, and served.

While summer squash fettuccine sounds like pasta is involved, we are in fact preparing the vegetables to appear as a noodle in this dish. The zucchini and squash have their peel trimmed but not wholly removed to leave some colour, and are cut into thin lengths as long as possible to resemble a thin noodle. Butter is melted over medium heat and we then sweat julienne leeks, then add the squash and zucchini. The combination is cooked until thoroughly heated and tender, with frequent tossing. It is seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon to taste, and garnished with chopped herbs for service.

Grilled vegetables are prepared by cutting to uniform size around medium to large dice while skewers (if wooden) are soaked in water. A marinade is prepared of rice wine vinegar, vegetable oil, garlic, herbs and spices. Vegetables excepting the mushrooms are blanched and shocked. The vegetables are soaked in the marinade for 30-45 minutes and are then placed onto the skewers in an even pattern and grilled until done, indicated by slight browning and some charring.

The vegetable tempura is started with a batter of eggs, water, baking soda and flour. The ingredients are combined and kept as cold as possible to keep the quality of the batter high, either kept on an ice bath or in the fridge while vegetables are being prepared. We prepare a dipping sauce of soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, and wasabi powder. The vegetables are cut into uniform sizes, placed in a flour bath for dusting to help the batter cling to them, then are battered and placed in a deep fryer. They should be cooked through but not overcooked, removed from the deep fryer and patted down on a paper towel to remove excess oil. They are then served with the dip.

Baked butternut squash is prepared by first peeling the squash and then cutting it into a medium dice. It is placed in a buttered pan, seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, and brown sugar. Lemon juice is drizzled over top along with some additional butter, and the pan is then placed in an oven at 350°F to cook until tender, around 50 minutes.

The maple glazed carrots are peeled and cut into a tourner shape. They are then parboiled in salt water and refreshed, maintaining firmness. They are then sautéed in butter until tender. They are seasoned with salt, pepper, and maple syrup, then garnished with parsley and served.

Our pan fried zucchini is prepared by peeling the zucchini while leaving some skin for colour. It is then cut with a bias to lengthen the cuts, while ensuring pieces are equal size. The pieces are powdered with flour, dipped in an egg bath, and then coated with bread crumbs. They are then pan-fried in vegetable oil until the crumbs have browned and the zucchini is tender. The aioli is prepared similar to a mayonnaise with the addition of tarragon. Once the zucchini is cooked they are served with the aioli as a dipping sauce.

Harvard beets are started by cooking the beets until tender for easy removal of the skins, as well as preparing them for their glaze. The glaze is a combination of sugar, vinegar, salt, and pepper which is brought to a boil and stirred until the glaze is thick and clear. The beets are added and stirred gently to coat completely, then served while warm.

The ratatouille is made by first preparing eggplant, onion, green and red pepper, zucchini, in a medium dice. Mushrooms have their stems removed and are quartered. We then prepare tomato concassée (tomatoes skinned, seeded, and roughly diced). Once the eggplant is cut, it must be purged - this is the process of removing water from a vegetable that contains excessive water. It is lightly salted and placed in a colander or on paper tower to allow water to drain away for around 45 minutes. We then sauté the onion along with some chopped garlic in olive oil. The peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms are added and sautéed until tender. We then add the tomato, along with some tomato purée or paste as needed, and stew for about 5 minutes. The ratatouille is then served hot.

Personal Observations

I was very excited about this week as we began to prepare actual dishes rather than simply the bases for dishes. Although mostly simple in preparation, none of the dishes disappointed in flavour, aroma, and general enjoyment of preparation or tasting.

While the broccoli hollandaise was not a complex recipe, it was nice to have something to taste our fresh hollandaise with. Along with hollandaise, I am becoming a big fan of béchamel sauce - it's light and creamy flavour went very well with the cauliflower, and using the salimander to give it a glaze added extra visual and flavour appeal.

Getting into coating and battering vegetables for frying was interesting as well. I don't know what you can fry that comes out tasting bad (assuming you do it right), so this was going to be a good flavour experience as well. I was surprised at how simple the tempura batter was to make, and it turned out very well. I'll be doing this many times for myself.

For the most part the cooking turned out well this week. The major folly came in our baked butternut squash. Unfortunately when preparing the spice mixture for tossing with the squash, I added too much salt. I knew it, the others in my group knew it, and we sat there hoping that we could cook it away by adding more cinnamon or believing that after cooking the flavour would not be as prevalent. While it's our responsibility to be food conscious in the kitchen and not throw food away on a whim, I look back and should have made that decision on this one. The squash came out salty rather than the buttery-sweet it should have, and this would easily have been rectified with a new spice mixture. Apart from this, we had some minor timing issues getting the correct tenderness with some vegetables in a few dishes, all cases of having undercooked them, but otherwise I was happy with our work.

Chef's Observations

In general, Chef's observations were positive this week and we didn't get too much feedback that we weren't already expecting. I take this as a good sign that we at least recognize what we're doing wrong - the next step is correcting it and making sure things are right before service next time.

Our broccoli hollandaise turned out well, with our turned stems being a little more al dente than Chef would have liked, but otherwise the hollandaise was fine, and the broccoli was drained of water well enough so that it wasn't pooling on the plate. Our cauliflower au gratin turned out well, along with our buttered green beans and spinach saute. Chef was happy with our squash fettuccine, saying we had a good texture and flavour to the dish. Our grilled vegetables were good as well.

The vegetable tempura turned out very well, Chef did not have any negative comments on this.

As expected, the immediate comment on the butternut squash was the saltiness. We knew this was coming and couldn't do much about it at this point. Otherwise, the dish was presented well and the texture of the squash was fine, it had not been overcooked. However, the saltiness simply overpowered the sweetness we were trying to capture in this dish, so it did not turn out well.

Our maple glazed carrots turned out well, although some of our cuts were irregular leaving some of the pieces firmer than others. The pan-fried zucchini turned out nicely as well.

Our Harvard beets was another dish where the vegetable had been undercooked. We tried to rectify this by cooking it longer in the glaze, but had to be careful not to heat the glaze too high otherwise it would burn and the entire dish would be ruined. After getting the beets slightly more tender, we served the dish, but it was not enough. Beyond this, we couldn't decide on an attractive presentation and ended up giving Chef just a pile of beets, on a plate which was not spotless.

Our ratatouille, one of the more difficult dishes to get a proper consistency from, we did very well. It turned out very stewy, as it should have, rather than too soupy or saucy. Chef commended us on a job well done for this dish.

Blog Notes

Not much to say this week, it's midterms coming up so I'm studying. Good times. See you next week!

Dining with DMD - Monday, Oct 22, 2007

Dining with DMD will be my segment on things I've cooked at home which I feel are worthy of note. They may or may not be related to recipes I've done at school.

Tonight I had planned to prepare BBQ steaks with broccoli and hollandaise sauce for myself and my cousin. I planned this before reading todays kitchen work list, which happened to include... broccoli and hollandaise! So, I got to make this twice today, and I must say that without having to work in a group and being in control of all variables makes for a result which I am much happier with - whether or not the same would happen in class would be a good subject to debate.

Anyway, short and sweet - some pre-marinated steaks from Save-On-Foods (not the greatest cut of meat, hence the marinade, but flavourful and fits well into my poor student budget), along with a stalk of broccoli, the florets cut into bite size pieces and the stalk peeled and turned to make bite size pieces as well. All of this was steamed to readiness and then shocked to stop the cooking process there. A fresh hollandaise without reduction, just a basic egg yolk/clarified butter/lemon juice mixture. Very smooth, fantastic texture and body. The broccoli and steaks were plated, and hollandaise was liberally applied. Tasty!

So, what did you eat tonight?

Week 3 - Sauces

Objective

To familiarize ourselves with the preparation of the different mother sauces (Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomato, and Hollandaise) and some of their derivative sauces.

Sanitation and Safety

When preparing certain sauces such as fresh Hollandaise, where the primary ingredients are butter and egg yolks, and those sauces must be held at a temperature within the Temperature Danger Zone to maintain their form, it is pertinent that these sauces are either used within 1.5 hours from preparation or discarded. They should not be held for any longer than this, nor should they be stored and used as leftovers at a future time.

Information

During week 3 classes, we prepared the following sauces:

• Béchamel
• Mayonnaise
• Hollandaise
• Beurre Blanc
• Tomato Coulis
• Green Pepper Coulis

A Béchamel sauce was traditionally made by adding heavy cream to a thick veal velouté. The most common preparation method now is to thicken scalded milk with a white roux and add seasonings. Béchamel is used for vegetable, egg, gratin, and pasta dishes. It should be rich, creamy and absolutely smooth with no hint of graininess. An oignon piqué (studded onion - onion studded with cloves) is used to flavour the sauce during preparation, but these flavours should remain complimentary and not overpower the clean milky taste of the sauce. The sauce should be the colour of heavy cream with a deep lustre and coat foods lightly without tasting of the roux used to thicken it.

Mayonnaise, while not prepared from one of the mother sauces, is an emulsified sauce which has a similar preparation method to Hollandaise and Beurre Blanc (other emulsifications) and so is included here.

Hollandaise sauce is an emulsification of egg yolk and butter, generally seasoned with an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice. While these ingredients cover the sauce in its most basic form, for more flavour a reduction of wine, vinegar, and shallots can be used to give the sauce more zest. To prepare the emulsification, clarified butter is whisked into egg yolks. Egg yolk contains lecithin, a natural emulsifier which allows the sauce to form without breaking. The butter must be added slowly to allow the emulsification to occur. The egg yolks are warmed over a baine marie (double boiler) to the appropriate temperature and then removed for the butter to be added. Temperature plays a critical roll in the creation of this sauce, as letting the eggs get too hot will result in cooked eggs, while letting it cool too far will allow the butter and thus the sauce to solidify. The final sauce should be smooth, buttery, with a pale lemon-yellow colour. It is very rich but light in texture, completely lump free, and should not exhibit any signs of separation. It should be frothy and light, not heavy like a mayonnaise, and should withstand glazing under a salamander or broiler without breaking.

Beurre Blanc is an emulsified sauce which is made without egg yolk. In this sauce the small amounts of lecithin and other emulsifiers found naturally in butter are used to form the sauce. They are thinner and lighter than hollandaise or bérnaise sauces, ending up smooth and slightly thicker than heavy cream. Made from three ingredients - shallots, wine, and butter - the shallots and wine are reduced to provide flavour while the butter becomes the sauce. The end result should be rich and buttery, with a light, acidic flavour that responds well to other seasonings.

A coulis is a sauce made from a purée of vegetables or fruit thinned down to sauce consistency. It is often made from a single vegetable base which is cooked with flavouring ingredients and then puréed. A coulis is generally cooked with very little fat and can be offered as a healthful alternative to heavier classic sauces. The tomato coulis we are serving is merely the appropriate vegetables and seasonings prepared and blended, without cooking. The green pepper coulis is cooked first, prepared with a stock and flavouring ingredients before being blended and strained for service.

Practical

Along with the sauces we are preparing this week, we are also making a vegetable stock and learning how to prepare clarified butter. The vegetable stock is a straight forward procedure of sweating vegetables in oil, adding cold water and seasonings, and boiling for 30-40 minutes. This is a useful stock for vegetarian dishes or dishes which don't require a strong flavoured stock base. Clarified butter is made by melting whole butter over low heat - if the heat is too high the butter will boil or burn, neither of which are conducive to clarification. As the butter melts, there will be solids which float to the surface - these are skimmed off. After the solids have been skimmed away, there are two layers of liquids left in the bowl, a top layer of butterfat and lower of milky water. The top layer is ladled off into a clean pan and kept as the clarified butter, the lower layer is discarded. If the butter is not clear enough at this point, the clean pan can be warmed and the process repeated.

Our Béchamel is prepared by adding the oignon piqué to the milk and bringing to a light simmer - milk will very easily boil over or burn, so heat control is important here. This is simmered for approximately 20 minutes, while in a separate pan a white roux is prepared. The oignon piqué is removed from the milk and the hot milk is then slowly added to the roux while stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Once the two are wholly combined, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, add seasoning and cook for 20-30 minutes. The sauce is strained through a conical strainer lined with cheesecloth, and the sauce is ready for service.

The mayonnaise is made by placing egg yolks into a bowl and whipping until frothy. We add salt, white pepper, mustard, and some wine vinegar and whisk to combine. We then add vegetable oil at a very slow rate, practically a drop at a time, while constantly whisking to allow the mixture to emulsify. If the mixture gets too thick we can thin it with some of the remaining vinegar from the recipe or by adding a few drops of hot water. Once all the ingredients are combined, the seasoning is adjusted and some lemon juice is added to taste. The mayonnaise is now ready for service.

The hollandaise sauce we make is a two step process. First we prepare the acidic reduction which will flavour our sauce. We combine peppercorns, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, shallots, and water in a pan and reduce by a little more than half. This reduction can be prepared ahead of time and stored chilled for use later. The hollandaise itself is prepared by placing egg yolks in a metal bowl and adding the reduction; these are thoroughly whisked together over a baine maire until the mixture thickens up enough that the whisk will leave a trail. The mixture is removed from the heat while continuing to mix to stabilize the temperature. The butter is then added a little at a time while the sauce is being mixed continuously. After incorporating all of the butter, the sauce should be seasoned and served - cayenne pepper optional for some extra zing!

Beurre Blanc is started by ensuring the butter being used is cut into large dice cubes, and kept chilled. We use the freezer to ensure adequate chilling in a short period of time, but the butter should not be frozen, just cold enough so that it will not instantly melt in a hot pan and ruin the emulsion we are creating. Once this is done, we combine white wine, white wine vinegar, seasoning and shallots in a saucepan and reduce. Over low heat the butter is then slowly added to the pan piece by piece while continually whisking. The cold butter can be used to keep the temperature down while the pan is over heat. Once all butter has been incorporated, the sauce is strained to remove shallot pieces and any other lumps. The sauce is then ready for service.

The tomato coulis was a simple procedure of preparing the ingredients and then blending them. The tomatoes have a cross cut through the skin and are blanched briefly then put in an ice bath to ease the removal of the skin. Once skinned, the tomatoes are seeded and ready to use. Cilantro is chopped, along with green onions and salt and pepper are added to taste. The mixture is blended together and strained to create an even consistency. It is then ready for service.

Our green pepper coulis was made based on a red pepper coulis recipe - obviously quite similar, but the green pepper producing a slightly tarter and not as sweet result. We heat oil and saute garlic and onion until translucent without browning - the browning will add a bitter flavour to the sauce. The peppers are then added and sautéed until soft. The pan is deglazed with white wine and chicken stock is added. The mixture is brought to a simmer and then cooked for approximately 15 minutes. It is blended and strained for consistency, seasonings are adjusted and the sauce is then ready for service.

Personal Observations

While the preparation of emulsions seemed like a difficult task, our group got through all of the emulsions without having one break. Patience and a sore whisking arm are the sign of a job well done while working on these sauces. With very few and very similar ingredients, it is wonderful to find the variety of sauces we can produce.

I had concerns about the tomato coulis as we were using cilantro in it which is not one of my favorite herbs. However, as part of my work in the course I am trying to open my palate to any and all flavours we produce, and in the end I really didn't have any problem with it.

All other sauces had a wonderful flavour and I was continually thinking of how I was going to incorporate them into my meals over the next week.

Chef's Observations

For our vegetable stock, Chef said our colour and aroma was good, but that the stock likely could have used a little longer simmering.

Chef was generally happy with our béchamel - it had good flavour and aroma. The thickness was perhaps a little off but could easily be adjusted. A good effort.

Our mayonnaise turned out well - a good thickness, good flavour and texture. Chef didn't have any issues to point out with it.

Our hollandaise and beurre blanc were both very good. Chef was happy with the colour, texture, thickness, and flavour of these sauces - a very good job by our table.

The tomato coulis was blended with the rest of the classes, and Chef said the result was good. Our pepper coulis had a good colour while some others had browned their vegetables or caused other discolourations. However, we did not simmer for long enough to get the sauce to an appropriate thickness. The flavour was good, but it needed to be a little thicker.

Blog Comments

Again, my group-mates for these sauces were taking pictures during our preparation - I'm just waiting to receive them before posting them. Hopefully they'll be in soon. Next week is vegetables - SOLID FOOD! Along with incorporating some of the sauces we've made, so I'm excited to see (and more importantly, taste) what we're going to produce.

The Temperature Danger Zone

Zoli asked for more details on the Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ), so here it is - A primary focus in food safety is the control of bacteria. Foods become potentially dangerous when they are allowed to meet the criteria for breeding bacteria. Bacteria need the following to thrive:

F - food
A - acidity (appropriate pH levels, between 4.5 and 7)
T - temperature

T - time
O - oxygen
M - moisture

Bacteria love FAT TOM, so we try to eliminate as many factors as possible when storing foods. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about their food source, as they're on food. Acidity depends on the product you're cooking. Oxygen is generally present, as is moisture. That leaves us with time and temperature.

Most bacteria grow best between 41 degrees Farenheit and 140 degrees Farenheit (some are resistent to cold and heat so these numbers do not apply, but they are a good general rule). They need approximately 20 minutes to replicate. Bacteria are practically always present, but letting them replicate to the point where their numbers become dangerous can be avoided. 2 hours of bacteria growth is considered the limit for keeping food safe.

So, when we put this all together, we end up with the Temperature Danger Zone - you cannot have foods in the unsafe temperature range for more than 2 hours. When you chill a cooked product, it should not take more than 2 hours to go from 140 to 41. The same is true for warming a food up. Also, a food should not pass through the TDZ more than 3 times, including initial preparation.

This might bring up more questions, but I hope it at least gives you some answers.

Week 2 - Soups (Thickened only)

Objective

The familiarization with the preparation of clear soups including broths and consommés, thick soups including cream soups and purée soups, and other soups such as bisques and cold soups.

Sanitation and Safety

When using leeks as an ingredient, ensure they are thoroughly washed as they are typically a very dirty vegetable. While preparing cold soups, be aware of the temperature danger zone while chilling them and ensure they pass from 140°F to 41°F within 2 hours.

Information

All soups will be prepared per the textbook recipes. Garnishing and plating will be up to us. Ensure proper temperature of the serving bowls - warmed for hot soups, chilled for cold soups.

Cream of mushroom soup - The cream of mushroom soup uses flour as a thickening agent. To ensure flour blends well with the chicken stock, warm the stock before adding it to the mirepoix and flour blend. Also, add the stock in 3 stages to facilitate mixing of the ingredients. We will purée the soup after cooking with mushrooms to get a maximum flavour blending.

Split pea soup - Split pea soup is a purée which is thickened by the starch in its own ingredients, primarily the peas. After cooking, the ham bones or ham hock will be removed so the meat can be cut from it and cubed to be re-used in the soup. With the ham out, the soup will be puréed to an appropriate consistency. After puréeing and placing the meat back in, ensure the soup is warmed to appropriate temperature for serving.

Vichyssoise (cold potato-leek soup) - This cold soup is thickened with cream just before service. As it is a chilled soup we will pay attention to the temperature danger zone and ensure it is chilled quickly enough. The soup is puréed once the potatoes are cooked, and then strained to ensure appropriate consistency. As the soup is thick, use a utensil to push the soup through the strainer to retain maximum flavour and ingredients.

Practical

As the Vichyssoise would require chilling, we decided to get to work on this immediately to give us enough time to get it cool enough. We sweat the leeks in butter ensuring not to brown them. The potatoes and chicken stock are added and simmered for approximately 45 minutes before being puréed and strained. We then place this in the fridge in an ice bath to chill.

Due to limited availability of ham hocks, we are sharing with another group. While the recipe calls for bacon as well, we rely only on the ham for meat flavouring. The ham hock is slowly cooked to release some fat and flavouring. The stock is added with split peas, and brought to a boil. It then simmers for 1-1.5 hours before removing the ham hock and puréeing the soup. The meat is cut off the bone and cut medium dice and put back into the soup. It is brought back to a simmer and ready for service after seasoning.

The cream of mushroom soup starts with us sweating the mirepoix along with mushroom stems, making sure they are not browned. Once done, the mixture comes off the heat and flour is added. This is then briefly cooked for about a minute while stirring continuously. We then add in the warmed chicken stock in 3 stages, mixing the whole time. The soup is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer to cook for 45 minutes. The soup is then strained and put back on the stove with the mushroom caps and cooked for another 10 minutes. It is then puréed, cream is added, and it is seasoned and ready for service.

We prepare croutons for the garnish of the split pea soup - sautéed in a pan with some oil to ensure the croutons hold their shape in the liquid soup, we then spread some garlic butter on them and place them in the oven to melt the butter.

We plate the cream of mushroom soup first, with 5 sliced mushrooms on the surface in a circle.

Next, we present the Vichyssoise, with a garnish of chopped green onions.

Finally, we present the split pea soup with croutons.

Personal Observations

Unfortunately having to share the ham hock really cut into our experience with the split pea soup, although working with another team was fine. In this case, too many cooks did not spoil the broth, and it turned out quite well.

While cooking the cream of mushroom soup, I could see the colouring of the herbs and spices coming from the sachet. This should have been an indicator early on that we were a little heavy on pepper. Tasting before service revealed that the soup was a tad peppery - not a problem for my personal taste, but not what we were aiming for unfortunately. Otherwise, a fantastic aroma and texture to this soup, very tasty.

Previous encounters with chilled soups have always been a mixed bag, so I was excited and concerned at the same time to try my own hand at making one. The sweating leeks in butter created such a wonderful aroma that you really couldn't imagine anything which tasted bad coming from this creation. I was happy to get this in the fridge right away to ensure proper chilling and then concentrate on garnish and our other soups. Once seasoned and plated, a very enjoyable soup.

Chef's Observations

For our cream of mushroom, Chef would have preferred the raw mushroom slices we used as garnish be blanched first, otherwise the appearance was fine. He showed us how the soup coated the back of the spoon indicated a good consistency and thickness of the soup. On tasting, he mentioned that the flavour was good although overpowered by the pepper as I had noticed. Unfortunately at this point there wasn't anything to be done about it, but be aware in future creations to take it easy on the pepper.

For the Vichyssoise, Chef was happy with the colour, texture, and plating - our attention to chilling the bowl was noted. The flavour was good, although when he asked us if we had added cream we realized we had missed this final step. The soup was still quite good, but would have benefit from adding cream.

The collaborative split pea soup ended up being our best showing. The consistency and thickness were good, as well as the texture. Flavour was good and appropriately seasoned. One point Chef made was our extra crouton garnish placed on the edge of the plate may take attention away from the soup itself, and suggested avoiding that in the future. Otherwise, a very good soup.

Blog comments:

This might be (maybe?) a little shorter than last week's entry because we only had one day of class this week due to holiday yesterday. Also, one of my teammates on this prep was taking pictures so I'll post them as soon as he e-mails them to me.

Week 1 - Knife skills and Stocks

Objective

The introduction of basic knife techniques, as well as sanitation and safety. To understand the preparation of stocks, the base of all things soupy and saucy.

Sanitation and Safety

Basic sanitation - wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. Any time your hands touch a surface which has not been sanitized or a food product other than the one you're working on, wash your hands. Chef says we can never wash our hands too much.

Knife safety - be aware of your knives at all times. When moving about with your knives, keep them at your side, no swinging or pointing with them. When cutting, keep the fingers of your off hand curled over such that your knuckles are a guide. This allows safe and efficient use of your knife without any danger of cutting your fingers.

Information

Knife skills (sharpening) - To sharpen your knife using a steel, hold the steel upright in front of your body in your off hand. Place the heel of the knife at the tip of the close side of the steel with the blade at an approximate 20 degree angle to the steel. Rotate your wrist so that the length of the blade passes over the steel, all the way to the tip. Repeat the steps with the opposite side of the blade on the far side of the steel.

Knife skills (cutting) - Place your off hand fingers on what you intend to cut with the fingertips folded towards the palm of your hand. Use your knuckles as a guide for the knife while moving the knife back and forth in a rocking motion to achieve the cuts.

Knife skills (dimensions) - Review the different dimensions of vegetable cuts, which are:

• Julienne
• Matchstick
• Batonet
• Pommes Frites
• Pommes Pont Neuf
• Brunoise
• Small, medium, large dice
• Paysanne
• Turned (tourner)
  

Stocks - The base for all soups and sauces, we start with bones, mirepoix, and herbs (generally in a boquet garni or sachet d'épices) to produce one of the five "mother" stocks:

• White Stock (Veal)
  
• Brown Stock (Beef)
• Chicken Stock
• Game Stock
• Fish Stock

A good stock is characterized by its clarity, lack of grease, and flavour, although a stock will not be seasoned until used in a future recipe.

A Mirepoix is a mixture of onions, carrots, and celery, large diced, used to flavour stocks, stews, and other dishes.

Practical

We started knife skills by practicing sharpening our knives before getting some carrots and onions to practice cuts on. It is important to square vegetables as appropriate for cuts to come out right. After practicing julienne, matchstick, batonet, and brunoise, we started working on turned vegetables (tourner). The most difficult vegetable cut to master, you shape the vegetable into a 7-sided football shape which will be approximately 5-6cm long and 2cm across in the middle.

We begin stock preparation with our brown stock as it will take the longest. We rinse the bones under cold running water and then place them in a roasting pan with vegetable oil in an oven to brown. Once browned, the bones go into the stock pot with cold water. The roasting pan is then de-glazed. This process involves heating the pan and pouring some water in, mixing with the juices as well as working to scrape the pan free of any pieces of flavour adding bits left behind during the browning. This mixture is then poured in to the stock pot as the pot is brought up to a simmer. Regularly the pot would simmer with the bones for quite some time before adding the mirepoix and sachet, but due to time constraints in the class, we proceed with this immediately. We also forgo skimming and de-greasing due to time constraints on this stock. The mirepoix is caramelized in the roasting pan, again picking up flavours from the browning of the bones. Tomato paste is added and once well mixed, this combination goes into the stock pot as well. The stock simmers as long as it can before we remove it from the stock pot. This is done through a "china" (chinois) strainer lined with cheese cloth. The stock is ladled out of the pot and poured through the chinois, rather than direct pouring, to prevent sediment or other small particles resting at the bottom of the pot from passing through the cheese cloth. At this point the stock is evaluated.

A similar process is followed for a chicken stock. As the chicken bones are much smaller the stock does not take as much time to make, therefor we can follow the regular process more closely. The bones are rinsed under cold running water before being placed in a stock pot and brought up to a simmer. While simmering, the stock is skimmed to remove floating matter, which will help keep the stock clear. The stock is also de-greased as much as possible, although further de-greasing will occur once the stock has cooled. The stock should simmer for 4-5 hours before adding the mirepoix and sachet, but again time constraints move us to this a little earlier than normal. The mirepoix and sachet go right in to the stock. We leave this in as time permits (normally this should be an hour of simmering) before using a chinois lined with cheese cloth to filter the stock as it is ladled into another container. The stock is now ready for evaluation.

Personal Observations

Knife work is obviously going to be a very important part of the work we do here. However, I felt fairly comfortable making the cuts we were instructed to do, and believe that I need to concentrate on consistency of cuts to have them all coming out the same size. The "motion of the ocean" exercise was an interesting way to measure skills, I will practice this further. This involves using flower as your cutting subject and practicing cuts through it - as you "cut" the flour away from the main mass, it rolls over creating "waves" - hence the name of the drill. It's also very easy to see consistency of cut sizes, or rather, my total lack thereof. It's obvious that the tourner is the hardest cut, and while I thought I was getting the hang of it with carrots, potatoes present a whole different problem. The cut has to be modified for the texture of each vegetable you're handling. Chef demonstrated a method for cutting onions which has solved one of my long-standing issues with them - having them fall apart while cutting. While skinning the onion, leaving the bottom intact enough such that the "root" is in place will hold the onion together. Then cut the onion in half through the root to make it more manageable. From here, you can slice off widths of the onion as necessary, or you can make horizontal and vertical slits in the onion to produce diced or brunoise cuts.

While we didn't get to skim or de-grease the brown stock, we did plenty on the chicken stock and I think it's going to be similar procedure across the board, especially after watching Chef working on his white veal stock. The flavour of the stocks was what I expected - very subtle tastes with nothing overpowering. Flavour enhancement will come with the use of the stocks in recipes further down the line.

Chef's Observations

My brunoise turned out ok, my julienne cuts were a little inconsistent in size. The batonet cuts were good. My multiple attempts at the tourner got better, but were not just right. Either too long, too large, or incorrectly shaped.

Our groups' chicken stock was good, it had nice clarity and was fairly well de-greased. Chef said the flavour and aroma were good, overall a good effort. The brown stock would not be clear due to the addition of the tomato paste, so we couldn't judge on that factor. Also, due to our time constraints we were unable to degrease during cooking so there was extra grease. However, the aroma and flavour were good, so a good end result.

Blog notes:

No pictures or recipes this week, everything was pretty basic. If you've gotten this far, you must really be interested in stock!

Welcome to my blog!

Greetings!

For those who have arrived here and do not know me, my name is Mark Douglas, and I am a student at the Art Institute of Vancouver's Dubrulle Culinary Arts program. A part of our homework for our kitchen classes is to keep a culinary journal of the work we do on a week to week basis. As we're allowed to type out our journals and hand them in that way, I figured I would take it a step further - type out my journal and post it online for my friends and family to see what I'm up to, as well as hand the same journal in to my instructor.

This is just a quick introductory post to get the blog going, I'll be posting my journal for my first weeks class in the next couple of days - it is due next Tuesday as we have a long weekend, but that would normally be Monday.

A few notes about what you'll see - I'll be breaking down the journal entries into a few categories:

1) Objective - the objective (duh) of classes for the week
2) Sanitation and Safety - any specific sanitation and safety rules to follow during the week
3) Information - Theory and general information about our tasks
4) Practical - Execution of the tasks
5) Personal / Chef's observations - Personal observations regarding the classes, and chef's critique of our work.

On occasions where our results warrant so, I may also take pictures and include recipes.

Lastly, information about the school can be found here:

http://www.artinstitutes.edu/vancouver/culinary/

By the way, I'm not anywhere near being an actual chef yet, but that's the end goal, hence the title of the blog. For the purists out there, please don't come down on me too hard about this :P

Thanks for checking in,

Mark