Archive for the ‘Lessons From Cooking School’ Category
brunch, culinary school recipe, island vittles, shrimp bisque, soup, spot prawns, Sunday Lunch
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes, Sunday Lunch on May 23, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Classic bisques are thickened with rice, but all of my culinary instructors used roux to thicken their bisques. Rice, no matter how finely you puree it, will always be grainy.
A roux is a combination of equal parts, by weight, of flour and fat that are cooked together to form a paste. The cooking eliminates the raw flour taste, and the fat-coated starch particles are prevented from congregating together in lumps when added to liquid — making roux the front runner to thicken anything you want smooth and creamy — like a bisque.
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bite sized, dessert, island vittles, lemon meringue, sable breton
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on May 17, 2010 at 5:27 pm
This recipe draws upon techniques I learned at not 1, not 2, but 3 professional culinary schools. That’s 6 1/2 months of instruction from professional chefs, bakers and pastry chefs — nine hundred and thirty-eight hours of training to be exact.
Better not dwell on that though. Howard will inevitably begin to add up the tuition in his head — which would normally be ok on its own, but as you’re about to see, this recipe contains 7 egg yolks, almost a cup of butter, and a whole lot of sugar.
After the number of these little cutie pies we scarfed back, it’s best not to put any more stress on his heart.
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baking, breton, foncer, island vittles, pastry, pate sucree, sfbi
In Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on April 29, 2010 at 5:01 am
Friday may have been the last day of class, but there’s never any slacking off at the San Francisco Baking Institute. (seriously.)
On the calendar for Day 5: Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart, Quiche, Strawberry Breton Tart and Tarte Bourdaloue.
Yes, that’s 4 “tarts” from 3 doughs — no time for dilly-dallying.
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apple butter, baking, island vittles, napoleans, palmiers, puff pastry, sfbi, turnovers
In Lessons From Cooking School on April 24, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Day 4 at the San Francisco Baking Institute had us rolling out (or sheeting for those in the bakery biz) our puff pastry. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the big sheeting machine we used, so just imagine that I rolled out a 6 foot long, 3 mm thick layer of partially frozen dough using only the strength of my forearms.
Yeah, right. Read the rest of this entry »
baking, island vittles, pastry, pie, sfbi
In Lessons From Cooking School on April 21, 2010 at 7:57 am
On Tuesday, everybody in class at the San Francisco Baking Institutemade 2 pies: the classic American apple deep dish pie, and a beautiful lattice topped blueberry. Then we took them “home.”
Two pies alone with me in a hotel room is simply not a good idea…
I hope the concierge liked the blueberry….that just leaves the apple to deal with!
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baking, choux, eclairs, island vittles, pastry, sfbi
In Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on April 20, 2010 at 5:01 am
This little fella is a Paris-Brest, named after the predecessor to the Tour de France. It`s a pastry made from choux, a classic french dough used to make eclairs, gougeres, cream puffs, Parisian Gnocchi and another few dozen other good things…
Today was my first day in a week-long course at the San Francisco Baking Institute. A gift I planned long ago to soften the blow of a milestone birthday hitting me later this week. (I`ll let you guess the number.) Read the rest of this entry »
cheesecake, coffee, dessert, glaze, island vittles, ladyfingers, recipe, rum, tiramisu
In Island Life, Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on April 10, 2010 at 7:35 am
Very few people will refuse a piece of cheesecake. I have found this to be a universal truth — except when it’s not — like last week, when I hosted my first ever CHEESECAKE GIVEAWAY.
The long and short of it is that no one showed up. And it was almost time for me to go home for the day — and I couldn’t take it with me. No, no, no. Howard and I had quite enough of this indulgent full-fat homemade mascarpone cheese filling, rum, ladyfinger crumb crust and coffee (espresso) extract glaze.
Next time, I won’t require the winner to tell me that “Island Vittles Rocks!” I guess I found the limit of what Penderites will do for a free piece of cheesecake.
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culinary school, dressing, homemade, island vittles, mayonnaise, recipe
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on April 4, 2010 at 11:45 am
We`ve made mayonnaise around here before — stinging nettle mayo. But in my excitement to share the wonderful world of foraged nettles with all of you, I skipped over the basic hows and whys of mayonnaise — this is how we learned to make it in culinary school. Read the rest of this entry »
candy, failures, island vittles, lollipops, nettles
In Island Life, Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on March 19, 2010 at 7:17 am
In my brain, it sounded like an inspired, natural way to colour candy green. (The beets worked, after all.)
In practice, it results in Disgusto-Pops.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
One of the chef tips we learned at culinary school was how to use pureed spinach as a green colour enhancer. You put some spinach in the blender with a little water, blend away, and eventually, you have a vibrant colourant that makes broccoli soup a little greener.
I got a green colourant out of the nettles, but it was more olive than vibrant. And once the heat of the molten candy got it, it was so drabbed down that I had to use A LOT to turn the lollipops green — so much that the lollipops tasted strongly of nettles, and nothing of the peppermint extract I also used.
A lollipop that tastes of nettles is not A Good Thing. You’re going to have to trust me on this.
coffee, dessert, espresso extract, ice cream, island vittles
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on March 15, 2010 at 5:01 am
Ice cream is basically just a frozen custard. Once you know how to make the custard, you can flavour it anyway your inspiration takes you. This is The Lesson as taught to me by Chef P.
So let it be written. So let it be done.
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buttermilk, creme fraiche, dairy, island vittles, recipe, whipping cream
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on March 13, 2010 at 7:29 am
My culinary school instructor, Chef P, used the following ratio to create his crème fraiche: 2 tablespoons-1/3 cup buttermilk for every 1 cup of whipping cream. I can still hear him muttering “Sour cream? What is this sour cream?” in his heavy french accent as he mixed together the cream and buttermilk.
Combine in a glass jar or bowl, cover, and let stand at room temperature for 24-36 hours, until thickened. Keep in the fridge for up to 10 days.
I’ve found that 3 tablespoons of buttermilk in 1 cup of whipping cream yields a thick, luscious, tangy cream perfect on top of berries, whipped into buttercream icing, or spiked with dill & lemon and served with potato pancakes.
chicken, culinary school, island vittles, method, recipe, white stock
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on March 11, 2010 at 3:59 am
I was going to make a joke about the fine looking cock in the photo above, but I think I’ll skip the silliness today and get right to the point: Read the rest of this entry »
culinary school, island vittles, pizza sauce, recipe, tomato sauce
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on March 2, 2010 at 4:51 am
Tomato Sauce is one of the 5 Basic, or Mother, Sauces as classified by Escoffier.
A good tomato sauce is thick, rich and full of flavour. This recipe fulfills all 3 criteria in just over 30 minutes – contrary to what you may have been told, you don’t have to simmer a tomato sauce for 3 hours to get maximum taste.
(I know. I was surprised too.)
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culinary school, island vittles, pastry, pie dough, recipe, short crust
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on February 26, 2010 at 5:01 am
My culinary skills instructor, Chef P., was the son of a Parisian bakery owner — multiple bakeries, actually. He told us stories of working in the bakery as a child — how the master bakers stood outside the back door, cigarettes in hand, feeling the early morning air before returning inside to mix the day’s bread doughs according to the current temperature and humidity.
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beef stock, consomme, culinary school, island vittles, recipe, soup
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on February 12, 2010 at 5:01 am
Garbage in, garbage out — in some cases, it works. Kraft Dinner, Hot Rods and Sapporo Ichiban Ramen are all examples of trashy foods that I enjoy in the weaker moments. (Shocked? No, I didn’t think so.)
Garbage in is not an option when you’re talking about consomme, though, so before we go any further, you should know that packaged stock isn’t going to cut it here. It has to be strong, rich, homemade stock, or nothing at all.
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culinary school, island vittles, meyer lemons, preserved, recipe, salt cured
In Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on February 8, 2010 at 5:03 am
Organic Meyer lemons, sweet limes and tangerines all in our little island grocery store, and all at once! The universe was sending me a message, and it’s going to help me find a use for some of those cute jars I bought in a homemade gift container panic at London Drugs before Christmas.
And if you’re going to preserve some citrus, why not push a few boundaries and go exotic?
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culinary school, island vittles, preserved, recipe, salted, star anise, tangerines
In Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on February 8, 2010 at 5:02 am
Preserved tangerines are not as common as lemons and limes. For that reason I’m the most curious and excited to discover what they’ll taste like. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ambivalent about the Meyer lemons with juniper or the sweet limes with bay leaf & peppercorns by any means! I will be doing a lot of preserved citrus experimenting in the next few months… Read the rest of this entry »
culinary school, island vittles, moroccan, preserved, recipe, salt, sweet limes
In Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on February 8, 2010 at 5:01 am
Preserved lemons and limes are a common condiment in Moroccan and North African cuisine. Their use spread to France and then beyond…The flavour is mildly tart but intensely lemony and is often paired with olives, artichokes, seafood, veal, chicken and rice.
The pulp of the fruit can be used in stews and sauces, but the biggest prize is the peel… Read the rest of this entry »
caesar, culinary school, food, island vittles, recipe, salad
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on January 25, 2010 at 5:02 am
Caesar salad has nothing to do with Julius Caesar, Italy, or, for that matter, Europe at large. There are a number of different stories about its “invention,” almost all of which take place in California. Its first recorded appearance is on a LA restaurant menu from 1946.
Which is why I was a bit surprised to see it on our French Culinary School curriculum, Week 1. But by the time we were back at our desks, chomping on the most substantial food we had made as of yet, I had made a few key discoveries related to Caesar salad:
- Read the rest of this entry »
beef stock, demi glace, food, glace de viande, island vittles, recipe
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on January 20, 2010 at 5:01 am
Warning: this method may upset some sauce purists. But this is the way I learned it, and a subsequent taste testing with a classically prepared version decided what I thought instinctively when I saw the classic method as laid out by the master, Escoffier: Read the rest of this entry »
beef, food, island vittles, stock, veal
In Did You Know, Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on January 16, 2010 at 5:01 am
Be they vegetable or veal, brown or white, all stocks share four common indicators of quality. They are:
Body
Body is created when the collagen in the connective tissue of the bones dissolves and converts to gelatin during the cooking process. Vegetable stocks have less body than protein-based stocks. To increase the body of a vegetable stock, add umami-rich vegetables like shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and tomatoes. (Be aware that tomatoes will also darken the stock.)
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beef, culinary school, food, island vittles, method, recipe, stock
In Lessons From Cooking School, Recipes on January 15, 2010 at 5:02 am
So after that big discussion over beef vs veal bones for stock, for me it all comes down to one simple truth. There are no veal bones — free-range or not — available on this Island.
I guess that means I’m going with beef.
May Chef P forgive me…
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beef, cooking school, food, island vittles, recipe, stock, veal
In Did You Know, Kitchen Tips, Lessons From Cooking School on January 15, 2010 at 5:01 am
We never made beef stock in culinary school. Not once. Instead, we made veal stock. A lot of it, almost everyday.
Prior to that, veal wasn’t on my culinary radar. As a born and bred west coaster, I simply saw too many animal cruelty videos in my pasty-faced-I’m-a-vegetarian-anti-Gordon-Gecko teenage years. (In the 80′s — very short lived.)
When I asked Chef P, my culinary skills instructor, if one could use beef stock in place of veal, I got a very French Chef answer: “Non.” No elaboration, no nothing. Not for a couple of minutes, anyway. Chef P never said anything before its time.
“Why can’t you use veal? Are you scared for the little baby cows?”
That’s Chef P. Let’s just say animal cruelty concerns are not on his culinary radar. Read the rest of this entry »
