Recently in CAP Category
This was another -- hrmmm.. I know how to make all these desserts, where should I go. I had chosen the crepe suzette and strawberries with mousse station, and I ended up making churros. I'm not the greatest fan of fried food, so I immediatly grabbed the ingredients for one of our other dishes. I made the ginger cream anglaise for an apple gallet, while the other two started on the churro batter and apple gallet. I was done in a few minutes, the gallet was formed and in the oven a few minutes later, and the churro batter needed to cool before we could fry it. That's when the downtime started - I walked a round and checked out what the other groups were doing. then we were ready to start the churros. I cut the batter from the pastry bag (other guy was squeezing them out), and the third person made the chocolate dipping sauce. Well, at this point, we were pretty much done for the night. The gallet was baking, our sauces were done, and the churros were mindlessly repetitive. Squeeze, cut, fry, remove from oil, cool, dust with cinnamon sugar -- and repeat. The cooked for 3 minutes, and we had three people to watch them.
This is when I started doing the dishes -- the guy frying the churros seemed to be having a blast, so I let him do it as much as he wanted. I helped Julie clean the pots and pans from all the stations. I found this more productive then standing around and doing nothing. I'd hop back over when they needed to dust the churros, or snip them off into the oil, but for the most part, we were the least active team. The other three stations were making stuff up until the last moment.
I enjoyed the class, but it was a little unsatisfying. When everyone was done cooking and we started to taste, I realized that there needs to be some savory type of dish to help balance out the insulin coma that hit everyone after class. The only thing I could really come up with was a fruit and cheese plate with a cream cheese sauce to dip the fruit in. We would have enough time to make a fromage blanc, you could mix in some dried fruit at the end and serve it with some fresh fruit, honey nut bread, and other cheeses.
Ok, well, it wasn't intentional, but it still attacked our dish. We took the pear tart, set the oven, blind baked the crust, cooled it, filled it, and put them back in the oven. After 15 minutes I rotated the pans and they kept cooking. After 30 minutes of cooking we pulled the top tart out, and something wasn't quite right. We decided to let the larger tart cook for another 6 minutes. We were busy eating all the other dishes cooked in the class when Joe, the owner, came over and told us the oven was set to broil.
At this point I panicked, Alexia (Alexia Miles - the instructor) was concerned too. The tart is supposed to cool for 30 minutes, and the insides were not even close to being cooked. We were 15 minutes from the end of the class, so we got creative. I started scraping the burnt parts off the top of the smaller tart, and we let the larger one bake some more. TOTAL DISASTER! This was a sad looking dessert. especially since the pears were sliced at a bias and fanned out all prettily. Alexia and I started serving up tiny pieces of cooked tart. When we had everything plated, I had the bright idea to pull off the fanned pears and drape them over the petit fours. This improved the plating significantly, a little height, and some fruit. some of the cut pieces only had the filling.
They tasted pretty good, which was nice, since the baking was totally messed up.
When we were eating them I think I found out what happened. After we blind baked the crust, the other station needed to toast their bread. they asked em the temp of the oven, it matched theirs, I told them it was on bake, and they put their bread in. we left the oven on to keep it warm, my group was going to need it in a few minutes. The other group put the cheese on their croûtons and placed the pan back in the oven. We were coming close to overlapping oven usage - ours baked for 30 minutes, and theirs needed to broil for 2 minutes. Alexia said they should use the other oven so they could broil the bread. They opted to stay on our side, they said the baking would be fine. After the bread was in the oven for 5 minutes, the person working the oven said "maybe we should have used the broil on the other side, this is taking forever."
One minute later they were done.
Did you see what happened just there? I picked up on it on the way home. I kept running all the events in my head, then it hit me. The woman on the oven hopped it to broil right at the end, and didn't bother to tell anyone, or switch it back. Should I have triple checked the oven - yes, but I assumed that it would stay the same since they didn't need to change the settings. The oven has two knobs, one for temp, the other for bake setting. I had only checked the temperature.
On the plus side, the tart's flavor was good - so at least the class got to taste it.
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I went back and made the tart at home. I poached the pears in red wine. Everything went perfectly - and it looks gorgeous. Here are some more pics of the pear tart :D
The crabcakes were very good. The aioli was nice and thick, with a little added garlic. I have a knack at emulsifying. The second dish was a roasted red pepper salad. Yet another reason I want an exhaust hood at home. Two members in my group worked on the vinaigrette in the blender while I started on the third dish - Pasta with a tomato sauce.
I've come to the conclusion that I have really good cooking habits. Chef Martin was explaining how you fan the pasta into the water, thus keeping it from sticking together, I've been doing that for over 10 years, it just makes sense. The first night went off without a hitch.
The second night was very enjoyable. this was a similar format to the first night. About an hours worth of lecture/demonstration, then cooking. Chef Martin demonstrated how to butterfly and flatten a pork tenderloin. He also covered how to use a mandolin.
We made the pork first -- everything turned out very well. While the meat cooked in the oven, we started on the poached eggs. I got the poaching liquid ready and did the reduction for the hollandaise sauce. I managed the eggs while two of my team members made the first batch of sauce. The eggs were done about 20 seconds before the sauce *broke*, and about 2 minutes before the pork was done. This put my group into a panic. I started to direct traffic because the group started to fizzle, the failed sauce had knocked off the rhythm.
Five minutes for the meat to rest, two minutes for the vegetables to saute, and a hollandaise sauce needing to be remade. I asked one woman to work on the veggies, while the other two gathered the plates and got some wine for everyone. I cooled the reduction in another bowl, added the egg yolk, and started to whisk. I kept whisking while they sliced and served up the pork and shoestring vegetables. When the sauce was near it's consistency, I pulled it from the heat. I dropped the poached eggs in simmering water of the double boiler to reheat, and had everything plated before the first woman finished her pork. The eggs turned out really well, the two who had not eaten poached eggs said they liked them.
The last thing we made was roasted pineapple with macadamia nuts, drizzled with a caramel sauce, served with vanilla ice cream. No one wanted to make the caramel sauce, so I volunteered (I've done all this before, so I tried to let them take the lead if they hadn't done it). The pineapple cooks in very quickly when broiled. The nuts will burn and give your dish an off flavor. I started the sugar/water/corn syrup on the cook-top while the pineapple was prepared. When the sugar began to color, we added the pineapple to the oven. I pulled the sugar off heat when it had a nice medium brown color and added the heavy cream. Then more whisking! When the pineapple was out of the oven, I plated the desserts for everyone. Pineapple, ice-cream in the center, then I poured the caramel over the desserts. It was quite good.
That sums up the Chef Skills class. My wife will be taking the classes later this week. So that's it for this years installments of the CAP classes. There will be more next year, we both really enjoyed the classes we have completed.
I had my second CAP class. this one was much more enjoyable. We did some actual cooking, a little wine, and eating. Martin was the instructor again. We started with some lecture, then we watched a demo. Some pan seared cutlets with a white wine herb sauce. The demo was done very well, explaining as he went from step to step. The only thing I would add to the demo is a warm plate.
After the lecture, we broke into our groups and started cooking. I'll break the night up by recipe.
First, we roasted some chicken leg quarters. This was a straight forward roast, hi-temp oil, salt, and pepper. I observed some really interesting behaviors when the sheet pan came out. It was obvious to me who had been burned in the kitchen, and those who hadn't. When a blazing hot pan of chicken comes out of the oven, you move. Some people were pulled away from the pan, as the person who withdrew it had not cleared a landing pad for it. Maya and I cleared a spot on our cooktop to save the plastic cutting board it was about to land on. The chicken went in for a few more minutes to get some color. It was juicy and quite good.
Second was vegetable soup with chicken stock. Joe, the owner of Sabot Culinary, made the stock ahead of time with the carcasses of the deboned chicken. This was pretty straight forward, though a little unimaginative, we used the miripoix from the night before, added some diced red pepper, mushrooms, herbs, and a blond roux. I like my soups a little spicier, with a few strong flavors tossed in.
Third, we made the chicken cutlets we had seen Martin make earlier. It went well, but it was an ordeal in patience. One woman really wanted to eat shrimp, she was itching to bread the shrimp for our group. At the same time, she managed to cross contaminate our cutting boards and knives. The comment Maya and I had on the dish -- needed a dash of lemon. Back to the getting burned comment. When you walk with a hot pan, let people know you are coming, tap them on the shoulder and warn them, don't hover with a really hot pan. Even better, leave the pan till it cools down if you can.
Fourth was the shrimp, I just backed away, and reminded someone I was allergic.
I really enjoyed this class, I hope the others are more like this one. I have another in a week, then some more next semester. My wife will be taking this class this week, so she may have some input on the class.
I took my first Culinary Arts Program (CAP) class last night. Tools of the Trade, for me, the class was review. The instructor, Martin Gravely was very good. He is very well spoken, answered questions, and was humorous.
The first class was mostly lecture, he covered oils, spices, herbs, pots, pans, ovens, spoons, etc. The last hour of the class was basic knife skills. More review. Dice an onion, a stalk of celery, and a carrot; then de-bone a chicken... well, break down a chicken. We left the bones in the legs and wings. It was amusing to see Martin demo the chicken. The lecture seating is close quarters, and two seats are right near the cutting boards. As he was taking the chicken apart, he was slapping the parts on the cutting board, the two right near him were almost cringing. The class had 16 people, so there were 4 groups of 4. My group had two people with poor knife skills and bad habits.
One woman and I commented to each other about how nervous it was making us. It's weird, I've seen people use knives poorly before, but never has it made me so nervous. Even on the easy things, celery and carrots. There were some things that Martin did not cover, but I assumed they were common sense. If you are taking rotations at the cutting board, put the knife on the board when you are done. I saw many people attempting to figure out how to hand a knife to someone else --bad idea!
The chicken was entertaining. Some people were grossed out by it. The food service woman in my group had never taken a chicken apart, but she breezed through it. I passed (I think a few people have seen my flying duck impression) and let the other woman in our group take a stab at it. I don't think she had ever used a boning knife before, she tried to muscle her way through the chicken. I tried to help her with the deboning, but she mostly ignored me. After she started to saw through the ribs, I stopped her. I pulled the breast back and showed her what she was doing, I tried to point out the area she needed to cut. I offered to help pull the chicken away from the carcass, as I had seen Martin do, but when she almost stabbed me, I just pointed with my finger.
Some knife observations from the entire class..
1. If you are instructed to put the miripoix (celery, onion, carrots) in a central location, either pick up your cutting board and take it there, or bring the pan to your station. I saw so many people scooping some onions on their chef knives and walking past 4 to 6 people to the storage pan. Every time I saw this happen, I grabbed the pan and brought it to the person.
2. Many people hold a knife like a weapon. It's really hard to bone a chicken if the knife is held in a fist. Boning can be done fast and fluidly if you sweep with the knife, but you can't do that if your hand is in a fist.
3. Being put on the spot can make you nervous. I know how to use a chef's knife, but I found myself shaking just a tiny bit. 3 people staring made me a bit nervous. Especially when the knife feels SO foreign. I'm gonna be the idiot and cut myself. I quickly found my zone, and zipped through my produce
Check for more CAP posts as I progress through the program.
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