Soups, stews and Friday night dinner

Thursday, October 12

Thursday was all about the different kinds of soups and stews, how they are made and served (main, palate cleansers or intermezzos, desserts), and how the traditional recipes can be adapted to be vegan or vegetarian and more healthful.... broths, consommes, bouillons, clear soups, thick blended and pureed soups, chowders, chilled soups, etc.

Our teacher said that some well known nutrionists like Sally Fallon think that broths are so important to our health as they are full of nutrients that we should be opening "brotheries" like corner stores. http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/brothisbeautiful.html

We went to the kitchen to prepare an amazing range of stocks, stews, soups and accompanients in a few hours. In just over four weeks, we are becoming quite good chefs and more confident and relaxed daily. Our collective dishes today included: mushroom ragout, cassoulet, borscht with tofu sour cream, black bean soup, herbed vegetable stew, lemon lentil soup, onion soup, watercress potato soup, navy bean soup, golden vegetable stew, shitake mushroom stock, curried split pea soup, sesame broth with snow peas and lotus root, porcini mushroom stock, and mushroom barley soup.

The interesting thing they are bringing in now is more and more complex recipes, and ingredients that are interdependent on other teams to complete. So if they don't finish their dish/ingredient or are late or ruin it, then it a affects us. For example, I was making a mushroom barley soup that was dependent on another team for one kind of mushroom stock (porcini) and one of my team members for another kind (shitake). So, besides getting this dish ready, I had to keep this in mind and check in frequently with them and be patient. This is what happens in a kitchen and is important we are told... the interdependence on one another and good communications... so I find it interesting that they are slowly trying to build this capability. Also, often the instructors will put us in new teams so that we are forced to work with a variety of personalities and styles. One of my teachers said that this is what's expected in professional kitchens... you go in, focus, do your job, and don't let things distract you, including annoying personalities. This is why cetain teachers are very strict about no talking except for about our dishes and are constantly reminding us to focus and be mindful. Not being mindful has caused people to get burnt, cut or ___(fill in other mishap). But, the most common daily injury lately is related to burns through your own cooking or because of people leaving out things and not telling you. For example, if a pot is hot and requires cleaning you are supposed to yell out "hot pot" around you and put something on it to indicate it's hot like a towel.

This I what I love about culinary school and cooking, the focus on mindfulness and being in the moment. I think that my years of meditation, yoga and inward training has really helped in this regard. I also know I am only one breath away when I become unfocused.

Thursday dinner prep - We worked with the chef from right after school, from 4:30 until 10 pm, to prep for Friday's night dinner, which has a Spanish theme and is quite complex and extensive. We were assigned different tasks and three of us prepared and chopped piles and piles of vegetables for the Spanish Garbure stock and stew, including: carrots, onions, garlic, celery, parsnip, potatoes, celery roots, plum tomatoes, squash, leeks, haricot verts, yellow and green patty pans (type of squash, each very small like the size of a large mushroom), pearl onions, cabbage, etc.

Friday, October 13

On Friday, we learned healthful techniques to thicken soups and create creamy soups, including through grains, vegetables such as corn or potato, in addition to the the traditional thickener roux of butter and flour and dairy.

Our soups included: asparagus root vegetable soup, celery vichyssoise, and creamy carrot, using a variety of thickening ingredients and techniques so we could see and taste the differences.

Friday dinner prep - We worked from right after class at 1:30 pm until 11 pm, and with so many things on the list to do and very complicated and extensive procedures, we all thought they wouldn't get them all done or we would do some things properly. For example, I made the Garbure stew with another student and we had to start with a stock, strain it, roast each vegetable separately, blanche and shock the haricot verts, sweat the other vegetables, prepare the white beans, and then put everything together except for the haricots verts and patty pans which were put on separately on top. Besides this, I made the cherry reduction sauce for the dessert, helped with making small chiffondes cuts of the dandelion greens for the salad, baked the brown rice in the oven (that's how many chefs like to prepare rice in large quantities), and prepared the garnishes.

The good thing about Friday night dinners is that the student chefs really prepare the dinner with only the basic recipes as rough guides so this is good experience and the head chef directs and supports the students. When we start in restaurants, we will mostly like be at the bottom of the ladder and will be probably working to wash vegetables and fruit and chop them at the very most.

So, we were relaxed for the most part starting except some of the students started getting nervous and one said "wow, we're really going to serve this to people who are paying and this makes me really nervous". But, as the time passed, the pressure was on to get things done in time for the 6:30 dinner start deadline, and we all started to feel the pressure building as we had less and less time to prepare things, and some things went wrong and had to be redone or changed, and some things were prepared at the very last minute for the plates and there was a lot of pressure on these people to make sure they were perfect and on time. For example, I was calmly making the stew and then got called in to help with the dessert sausc as they dessert people were falling behind. Also, someone forgot the rice so I had to take care of that. And I was also helping with the salad and working on garnish, and at the same time watching everything to ensure they wouldn't be ruined or burned as well. My years of multitasking at work and working under pressure really helped me with this.

When the clock hit around 6 pm, the chef said that we had to ensure all of our stations were super clean and tat most of our dishes were complete, and and she wanted to explain the procedure for us to plate the food. While it seemed that the meals lacked lustre while we were preparing them, the way they came together and were plated made them take on a whole new dimension and beauty. This chef seemed to like vertical presentations. The beginning appetizer was beautiful with different colours, textures and tastes. The Garbure stew was on top of the rice and had a bright red spicy Biscayne sauce accompanying it in a small bowl on the plate. The salad was delightful with the asaparagus and endive all vertical and infront of the salad and the vinagrette sprinkled lightly on top of everything with sliced almonds, roasted shallots, oven dried tomatoes (low heat for over 12 hours). The dessert was amazing with tuille cookies made into a cone type shape when they were formed and filled with an almond cream, just before serving. They were placed on a cherry reduction that was put on the plate using a funnel-like dispenser to make a beautiful design on the plate, and the Valencia orange sections added colour and a nice complement to the dish. Wow!

So, just before 6:30 and the first dish, the chef asked us to form a line, put on gloves (you will be happy to know that we are very sanitary conscious at the school) and showed us how to plate the first dish. We worked in the line on different elements of the dish, which we had to add carefully, quickly and exactly like it had been presented. I was at the end to add sauce, garnish, etc. and ensure that the plates were perfect before they went out. This was rushed and stressful with waiters coming in to grab the plates as soon as they were ready and some ingredients for dishes ready just in time, but the time flew and I loved this part of it. Some people on the line just froze for periods as they were so nervous and stressed by this all. We would take a few minutes to breathe, and then would come the plating for the second dish, and so on. It was like a soccer huddle with the coach/chef at the beginning of each dish, and then we would go out in our different directions, and then come back again to huddle for the next round.

At the end of the meal, the host introduces the head chef and all the chefs in training to the guests. This is quite the embarassing procedure but nice at the same time as there is clapping as we stand before the guests. Then, the guests have the opportunity to ask questions. At this dinner, there were numerous questions about the cuisine and many compliments on how much they enjoyed it and they were impressed with the complexity of ingredients and tastes, and how beautiful the plates looked. Also, they couldn't believe that we made everything from scratch.

After the guests had left, the chef poured some Spanish sparkling wine and we toasted to a successful dinner. After, we had the opportunity to eat and were all totally and completed exhausted, whether young around their early 20s or an older gal like me. In particular, our feet were aching from standing so much over the past two days, our bodies, in particular upper backs were tense and hurting from hunching over sinks to wash vegetables, or cutting boards to chop, or stoves and ovens to cook, and we all just generally wiped out. But, we felt good about what we had each and collectively accomplished and this allowed us to take our tired old bodies home to bed. Yeah!!

Here's the Friday night dinner menu:

- "Pinxtos" - stuffed mushrom, roasted red pepper, fried olives, saffron and poppyseed marinated fennel, Machego cheese

- "Garbure" - white beans and autumn vegetable stew on a bed of long grain rice, haricots verets, patty pan squash, Biscayne sauce

- "Ensalada Mixta" - dandelion greens and butter lettuce, roasted shallots, oven dried tomatoes, asparagus, slivered almonds, sherry vinaigrette

- "Canutilos de Bilbao a la Crema" - almond cream filled tuille, Valencia oranges, cherry reduction.