Russia

Our final week of cooking showcased the culinary world of Russia. We made Borshch Moskovsky (Moscow style Beet Soup); Blini (Buckwheat Pancakes); Kulebiaka (salmon in pastry); Grechnevaya Kasha (Buckwheat Groats); Chahohbili (Georgian-style Chicken); Loby (String Beans in Sour Cream Sauce); Syrniki (Sweet Cheese Fritter with Berry Kissel)

This menu was very good...the Borshch is what most people know; a beet soup. This soup can be served cold or hot and is usually garnished with a dollop of sour cream. I thought it was really good; kind of reminds me of a potato vegetable soup. It's made by rendering bacon in a pot, sweating some garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Then add cabbage, potatoes, beets, red wine vinegar, stock (or water), sugar, tomatoes and simmer. Puree the soup or leave it chunky...

I made the Blini pancakes and the Kulebiaka; blini is a Russian pancake made with buckwheat flour. The batter is made with yeast and allowed to rest before pouring onto a hot buttered pan. Serve with caviar, meat, fish or even fruit. The kulebiaka is a puff pastry filled with a rice filling which consists of rice, onion, mushrooms and dill. The filling is placed on the puff pastry and then a salmon fillet is placed on top, then more filling on top of the fillet. Bake the pastry after decorating it and creating holes for steam. As you will see in these pictures I made a salmon head...

Kasha was made by Maria and it is basically buckwheat groats mixed with bow tie noodles. The desert was a savory desert; syrniki with berry kissel. Berry kissel is a sweet fruit topping kind of like a jelly...the syrnikis are sweet cheese fritters made with; cottage cheese, egg yolks, flour, sugar, salt and butter. Then they are fried in a pan with some oil...they are VERY VERY GOOD!

Overall great class and awesome menu...another great class with Chef Bill!

France - Week 1

Ok so after this week I am making a conscientious effort to get my posts in sooner; so you can see everything up to the minute (so to speak). This week we made cuisine traditional to the country of France...I know we have done a lot of French cuisine. Then again they are considered the fore-fathers of the modern kitchen/cuisine.

The menu consisted of: Soupe de Legumes aux Petits Coquillages (Vegetable Soup with Shellfish); Le Blanc de Poisson Belle Mouginoise (Fillet of Fish Bell Mouginoise); Filet de Porc Farci Lyonnaise (Stuffed Pork Tenderloin); Ratatouille; Salade de Poire (Pear Salad); and Mousse au Chocolat (Chocolate Mousse). Peggy made the vegetable shellfish soup and chocolate mousse, Kelsey (sp) made the pear salad and ratatouille, Maria made the white fish (fillet of fish), and I made the stuffed pork tenderloin.

The vegetable shellfish soup was really good; it included clams, mussels and scallops (which were added in at the last minute; just before serving so they do not get tough). The clams and mussels are steamed open in some clam juice and placed aside. You then sweat some vegetables, add some diced tomato, place the mussels back in bring to a boil with the clam juice, and then add the clams and scallops at the end. Viola, a great cup of shellfish soup; of course remember to taste and add salt and pepper to your liking. The fish was prepared by Maria and it was perfect...

Maria began by thinly slicing tomatoes, cucumbers and white mushrooms; she then arranged them nicely on top of the lightly seasoned fish fillets (any skinless, boneless, firm white fish will do in this recipe). You can see the pattern in the picture shown here. You then add the layered fish onto a buttered pan; large enough to hold the fillets. Almost forgot...make sure to also spread some minced shallots to the buttered pan; then place the fish on top of the shallots. Add some vermouth and white wine to the pan (approximately 4 1/2 oz)...place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F; the cooking should not take more than 4 -6 minutes or until cooked (do not overcook). Remove the fish from the cooking liquid and set aside to keep moist and warm. Add some fish stock (fume) and a little heavy cream to the cooking liquid, reduce the liquids to sauce consistency (coating the back of the spoon). After it is reduced you whisk in butter and chives vigorously; until shiny and creamy. Correct the seasoning in the sauce and then pour over the top of the finished fish layed out on a serving platter.

The stuffed pork tenderloin is made by the same method I have spoken about a few times now in this blog. Start by butterflying a pork tenderloin; pound it out with a meat clever; lightly season with salt, pepper and olive oil; then stuff with a prepared stuffing. In this case the stuffing consisted of sauteed onions and garlic, raw ground pork, salt, pepper, chopped herbs (oregano, chervil, sage, and parsley), breadcrumbs and one egg. Of course roll up the stuffed tenderloin tightly and secure closed by trussing it in twine. Pan sear the roll ups in a small amount of oil; place aside and drain off the fat. Deglaze the pan with red wine; add in a bay leaf or two, some herbs (sage, oregano, parsley stems, chervil); place back in the pork and fill halfway up the meat with brown stock and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and braise in the oven at 350 degrees for about 35 - 45 minutes. When finished take out the pork and keep warm in a covered plate...reduce the sauce and take out the leaves, stems, etc. Add a little dissolved arrowroot (or cornstarch) and finish off with a little melted butter. Slice the pork on the bias, thinly, and serve on a plate topped with the reduced sauce. This meal goes great with Ratatouille; which Kelsey made and it turned out great! Kelsey's ratatouille was also served by itself in a small bowl; accompanied with toasted french bread brushed with olive oil.

The chocolate mousse is made using the same recipe I have outlined before in past posts (use the search bar above to find recipe). The difference in this mousse was the presentation; I got creative and split an orange. I then carved out the fruit from the skin from half; and used a melon-baller to scoop out the rest of the fibers stuck to the rind. The other half of the orange I segmented and julienned some of the skin. Peggy piped the finished mousse into the empty half of orange and I topped it with julienned orange zest. We then surrounded the finished product with the segmented orange slices. Again a night of great food and awesome photos...

Latin week 2

¡SANTO MOLÈ!

Ok maybe not so holy, but it was Chicken Molè instead.
What a night…the menu consisted of Tortilla Soup, Chicken with Mole Poblano, Enslada de napoles (Cactus salad), Frijoles refritos (refried beans), Shrimp Guatape, Churros and White Rice.

The tortilla soup is very FAST to make! It could have been one of the last things I did…however, I went directly at it and I’m glad I did. The patilla chilies are very temperamental when you fry them. The first chili I fried it burned; the next one was perfect! It literally takes 3-4 seconds in HOT oil. What I noticed that I did differently than the other teams was the way I prepared the tomato, onion, garlic mix. Most roasted their tomatoes and then peeled them; I blanched/shocked them removed the skin and then roasted them with the onions/garlic. The flavor was perfect; and Chef George felt that it was the best Soup of the night. After I boiled the pureed tomato/onion mix I added the chicken stock and brought to a simmer. I then added the two sprigs of epazote and skimmed the fat lipids on the surface. When the soup was done we ladled it into a bowl with the epazote. I then served from the bowl into smaller bowls; which had tortilla strips at the bottom. I topped the soup with a dollop of crème fraiche, avocado & patilla chili rings. Of course we can not forget a slice of lime on the side and a spoon.

Everything else came out great! Our rice was the only thing we needed to add more salt too; otherwise everything was beautifully seasoned. I also made the refried beans and they came out good but I didn’t need to make them as concentrated. Loida’s Shrimp Guatape was very tasty and almost hinged on over cooked, but it was perfect. Henry made the Chicken Mole and it was very flavorful; however there was a little discrepancy about how to plate. Henry was very creative with the small 4oz cup portion, but the 9in. plate was a little too big. Instead we packed a soup cup to make a volcano topped with toasted sesame seeds and tortilla strips. It looked great! The Sauce for the Mole was a PROCESS!!! Henry sautéed ancho, pasilla, chipotle & mulatto peppers in 2Tbsp of oil. He then soaked the peppers in hot water for 20 minutes, drained the water and reserved it. Henry then roasted, peeled and seeded the tomatoes; blended the tomatoes along with the peppers. He used the oil where the peppers were sautéed to sauté the onion and garlic, and transferred the mix to a blender. Using the same oil again Henry sautéed almonds and peanuts; transferring the mix to the blender with the rest of the ingredients. With the same oil again he sautéed for 3 minutes cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, aniseed; transferring this mix to the same blender along with raisins. In a large saucepan with a cup of hot oil; Henry cooked all the purees for 5 minutes stirring and degreasing constantly! When the started to boil he added 1 qt of the chicken stock, covered the sauce and cooked for another 20 minutes. It never got too thick so we didn’t need to add any more stock; but we did have to degrease the sauce. We then added the shredded chicken, covered and cooked another 10 minutes... PHEW!!!



Maria made a very tasty cactus salad which tasted a lot like ceviche…and Mike made the rice along with the Churros. WOW, the churros were awesome; however, they were a little too doughy.

Overall the night was a big success with a few miscommunication missteps. Otherwise great night and great food! I have started a part time job at Mex Café in Sunrise and will contribute the Tortilla soup recipe to the kitchen. Hey I finally get something I make put on a menu!

Cream of Roasted Red Pepper

Last night Maria and I teamed up as part of our practical and created a Cream of Roasted Red Pepper soup...

Following the classic (idea) recipe of cream of mushroom soup; we browned 1 tbsp of diced bacon in a hot ban with clarified butter...we then added approx 8 oz (weight) of small diced mirepoix, with green leek and minced garlic.
After we glazed the veggies and made them nice and brown we added 1 tbsp of tomato paste, and 4 oz of diced tomato. We added 2 -3 oz of burgundy wine to deglaze the pan and then pinced the tomato products (1 tbsp of tomato paste & 4 oz diced tomato/concosse).
We then added approx 4 oz of flour to the mix and created a brown roux...after the mix was thick and brown we added 1 qt of cold veal stock to the mix and deglazed the pan. We then added one whole unseeded and diced roasted red pepper (which I roasted over an open flame with olive oil and salt) to the mix. I also dropped in a sachet we made of white & black peppercorns and bay leaf. We brought the soup to a boil and then simmered for approx 20 -30 min...

Maria and I then created some easy to make croutons (like popcorn) and some extra diced roasted red pepper for garnish.

When the soup was ready we pureed the soup with a blender (submersion blender was missing...lol). We poured the finished soup through a strainer into a large bowl; where we seasoned with salt & white pepper to taste. We then began to ladel out the goodness into individual bowls. We drizzled approx 1 tbsp of warm cream into the soup and added the croutons and roasted red pepper garnish...

WOW...this soup was awesome! I would totally make this again...in fact put it on the menu...!!!!
We got so caught up in making this soup (chef's choice on practical exam) along with the bechamel, espagnole (which we screwed up), fresh mayonnaise and all the knife cuts we had to do...that we forgot to take pictures...LOL...oops!

Tonight's dinner...

So for dinner tonight I'm going to cheat a little and use store bought kielbasa. I'm using it to make my sausage and kraut dinner...but here is the awesome part- I'm going to make homemade french onion soup to go with it. 
A yummy bowl of fresh french onion soup topped with a crispy french bread crouton and melted guyere cheese...
depending if there's time I may make a roasted pear salad with candied pecans...The one thing I will do with the sausage; leech out as much salt as I can by simmering it in a nice brown ale...