Picture of the Day: Why You Don't Use High

I hate using the High setting on a stove and it should be off limits.  Look at the photo above.  1/2 were cooked on High.   1/2 were cooked on Medium High.  Can you guess which ones?

 Bonus Picture for the 1st PotD post:  sugar cookie bowl filled with strawberry jam, ice cream, strawberry, and rimmed with chocolate and walnuts.

Bonus number 2:  my personal idiots guide to the grill

Bonus number 3: the best pot stickers and won-tons ever made

Bonus number 4:  Terriyaki chicken sandwich, with thai slaw, and sesame french fries

Welcome to African Cuisine

World Cuisine today was all about African cuisine.  We explored the food from the cradle of civilization, including some of the foods that have influenced the entire world as well as some of the influences the rest of the world had on Africa.  The results were amazingly delicious.

Y

 Yellow Rice with Raisins; Eggplant Curry; African Hot Sauce
Almost every Middle East, North African, and even some European Mediterranean  countries have a variation of this rice dish.  And the curry influence is from everywhere, extending from India to Southeast Asia all the way to Eastern Africa.  The African Hot sauce was, umm, well okay.

Chicken Peanut Soup
Despite Jimmy Carter's best wishes, the truth is, the peanut is entirely African.  This delicious soup brings out some delicious African spices, flavors, meats, vegetables, and of course PEANUT BUTTER.

Lamb and Lentil Soup
DELICIOUS.  That is all I have to say about that.

The Epitomy of Epicurean Sadness

The end of a jar of Nutella.  Sadness. 

On the bright side, I HAVE ANOTHER JAR.

Mmmm... Toasty

For my delicious dinner tonight and blog entry with sexy food photo, I had... Quiznos.... crap.  A glass of ole Charles Shaw will make me feel better.

I Love Wine

Seriously, I love wine.  All kinds of wine.  I love deep red Syrahs.  I love light white voigners.  I love wine.  And because I don't know anything about wine, I am surprisingly not much of a wine snob.  I love my Two Buck Chuck.  I ain't no snob.  Zinfandel, Merlot, Syrah, Shiraz, CABERNET SAUVIGNON, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Voigner... I want it all. 

My current bottle of wine I bought strictly off the label.  That is how I do most of my wine shopping.  I enjoy browsing the wine section looking for some sort of new bottle that has a funny name or design.  Seriously, I go into Trader Joes to pick up my Chuck and I randomly see that question mark there.  They had me at hello.

There is nothing better than sitting down and enjoying a nice bottle of wine to end the day.  To be cooking at home with a glass right next to me is joyous.  To be able to dump some wine in the pan to deglaze it, then take a quick sip... heavenly.  I drink wine when I do homework to "focus me."  That's just an excuse.  I drink wine because it is delicious. 

The only wine I am morally opposed to is Franzia Box wine.  Seriously, it is shit.  I hate it.  And we are forced to cook with it at school.  If you won't drink it, DON'T COOK WITH IT.  To bad the school does not agree.  Oh well.  To fight the frustration, maybe tonight after class, I'll go home, pop open a bottle of Merlot and I'll enjoy washing away my cares.  Cheers.

Veal Scallopini with Vodka Sauce

I felt the vodka sauce was a little too much cream and not quite enough tomato sauce.  But YUM anyways.  I pan seared the veal after coating it with some flour, salt, and pepper.  The vodka sauce was just a basic tomato sauce simmered with vodka then finished with cream.  Served with spaghetti.  Next time, I'll top it with some parsley and parmesan.  This plate needed some green.

Here are some photos.

I feel like my plating is improving.  12 weeks ago, Chef Todd at school described my plating as "a 3 compartment sink."  Chef Becky described it as many things including "heaped," "rustic," and "homestyle."  Well, I'm not going for homestyle.  I want to make quality food and present it in a quality manner, not thrown on a plate.  This dish, seeing as there were very few elements and was a home cooked meal, I could easily have tossed on the plate and called good but I'm trying to work on these things.  Build up, stack the food, show off the elements, and for the love of God, do not apologize for my entree by burying it in sauce.  Hopefully soon, I will be putting up better and better plates.  Stay tuned.

Catering

Helped the school cater a fashion show at the Tucson Museum of Art.  Working 8:30 am to 8:30 pm was exhausting but damn it was fun.   Here is a taste of what we dished up for the VIP guests at the show.

Poached Salmon with Cream Cheese and Cucumber

Sweet Tarts Filled with Pastry Cream, Topped with Fresh Fruit and Apricot Glaze

Whole Wheat Crostinis with Tapenade, Grilled Onions, and Parmesan Cheese

 Cucumbers filled with Shrimp Salad

Green Pea Risotto in a Filo Dough Bowl

This isn't all the food and some of the photos suck due to horrible lighting and facilities.  We also made pork skewers with pineapple and bell pepper, cookies,  brownies, pot stickers, and chipotle beef tenderloin sandwiches

Pork Loin and Risotto

I need to post FOOD. What I do is FOOD. So here is a bunch of FOOD.

GF and I went to Yuma to visit my parents and grandparents and while we were there I made dinner. Pepper pork loin, roasted red bell pepper risotto, and sauteed asparagus and mushrooms with a mushroom cream sauce.

Black Pepper Pork Loin
Roasted and delicious. Cooked to perfection, being able to be cut with a fork because it was so tender. Amazingly delicious.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Risotto
HOLY SHIT THAT IS AWESOME. At this point, I'm becoming a risotto pro. This risotto was made by toasting the rice with shallots, garlic, and roasted bell peppers. Oh my goodness, I LOVE IT.

Sauteed Asparagus and Mushrooms
Asparagus (blanched of course) and mushrooms sauteed with garlic and shallots. Its was good. Great color. It was asparagus and mushrooms. Not much to tell.

Mushroom Cream Sauce
The one negative point in the meal. I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, then reduced some chicken stock. After that I added some heavy cream and began reducing again. This is where I went wrong. I salted and peppered the sauce to perfection. Then I was dumb and kept reducing. The sauce was really too salty.

Plating
I loved the plating. The pork loin was a little bland in color but the explosive green of the asparagus and the beautiful red of the risotto was bomb. The sauce wasn't perfectly plated but overall, I feel my plating is improving.

The Sexy Photo of the Food

3 Days of Service Done

Finished the first week of service at the ai Bistro as the pantry chef and then my first day of service as the steward. I loved working pantry, calling out orders, trying to keep straight how many salads and how many appetizers I needed to be making. It was amazing. Some notes...

Pantry
I like pantry. I quickly worked out a simple method to keep my orders straight. "Ordering two salads, 1 appetizer, 2 salads to go," and BOOM I'm pulling out two salad plates, one app plate, and two to-go boxes. Simple enough. But then I still had to keep a general idea of what was going out when. Otherwise if I just worked on salads then all the salads would be up to speed but no appetizers. I enjoyed that, trying to keep all the orders straights, knowing the order of when the 8 salads, 5 appetizers, and 6 to go boxes needed to be ready. FUN.

Steward
Fuck steward. Dishes suck. Fuck dishes.

I can't wait for next week (Sous Chef and Expediter) and then week 4, FINALLY moving to the hotline.

Pantry Cook

Herb Crusted Goat Cheese with Toasted French Baguette, Roasted Garlic Puree and Tomato Concasse
Bistro Garden Salad- Mixed Greens, Tomato, Carrot, Cucumber, Herbed Croutons, with Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette

These are my first week assignments as the Pantry cook. All of this is homemade (even the croutons) and though I will be preparing much ahead of time (cutting vegetables, breading (but not cooking) the goat cheese, make the dressings, etc., it will all be built and plated to order. Also, based on time, at some point, I will likely be jumping from my cold appetizer line to either the hot line to help cook or over to the dessert station to build dessert plates for the servers to take out.

The first day of service is little over 12 hours away and I'm understandably nervous. This will be fun, interesting, and likely terrifying. Pictures, stories, experiences, and observations are sure to follow. Lets get it started.

Amrutha Cuisine of India

I don't even know what to say about this restaurant. Me and my best friend, the Ginger, and I decided to get away from the normal Tucson fare. We debated between Ganhi's Indian food, Amrutha, and Zemams Ethiopian. We settled on Amrutha. Now the Ginger spent 3 months last summer in India helping with AIDS research and prevention and is going back again this summer. I defer to him on Indian cuisine. We went expecting something good. Not quite.

Service and Experience
Well, I have to say something about this place so I feel it should be said that the dining experience was HORRIBLE! TWO HOURS TO EAT A REGULAR MEAL!!!! The sole waiter (who I feel was also the manager) did little to keep us enlightened as to the status of our food. The cook (I'm assuming he was the only one back there, dishwashers included) was obviously overwhelmed, only turning out one dish at a time (every table received orders one at a time).

Typically restaurants you spend less at, you are in and out faster for table turnover. Restaurants that are more high end, more of an experience, you stay longer but pay a premium for the experience. This restaurant had a $20 tab and a 2 hour dining time. And that was not by choice. PROFESSIONALISM PEOPLE. IF THERE IS A PROBLEM, LET US KNOW SO WE ARE NOT AFFECTED. Anywho, onto the food.

Appetizer
I deferred to the Ginger and we ordered a pair of Somosas. This was by far the most delicious part of my dining experience. Hot, flaky, and filled with tender delicious vegetables, coming with a green chile sauce and a coconut curry sauce. This was brilliant. Good constrasting, flavors, served hot with delicious sauces and a perfect blend of textures. I can't say enough about the somosas.

Entree
At the suggestion of the Ginger, I ordered the Lamb Baryani with a side of Garlic Naan and the Ginger ordered Paneer Masala. After waiting an hour, we finally got our food. The Lamb Baryani, basically an Indian version of Jambalaya, featuring rice, spices, and meat, was alright. The spices were good and it was a good blending of flavors. The lamb however, WOW that was tough, probably from the shoulder. Next time, cut it smaller so it simmers in the sauce more, don't cook it as much, or use a different cut. It was beyond chewy. The naan (served 20 minutes after the Baryani) was good, but nothing spectacular.

Summation
Overall, this was a bizarre dining experience. I had previously heard nothing but good things about Amrutha and looked forward to it being my introduction to "authentic" Indian cuisine. All during the eating, I found so much potential in the food. I could sense that a more experienced or less overwhelmed cook could really have taken the food to a much higher level. But, despite the potential, I was continually underwhelmed. And mediocre food combined with horrible service equals a horrible restaurant experience. Next time, I'll go with Gandhi's.

PS. Tomorrow I start my time either serving or cooking in ai Bistro so I'll get to start critiquing myself and finding things wrong with my cooking. Reality check coming very soon.

Easter Dinner: Chef Sullivan's Braised Short Ribs

There is no better way to celebrate Easter Sunday than a nice, delicious dinner. Now, this Easter, I would only be cooking for me and the girlfriend, a whole ham seemed like overkill. But it being a holiday, I still wanted to enjoy a cut of meat I would not normally splurge on (I'm a $0.67/lb chicken guy normally). Well it just so happened that Basha's had some Managers Special (re: about to expire and less desirable pieces of that particular cut) beef short ribs. BOOM!!! Braised short ribs for dinner. For me, this is a revisit to a delicious recipe from Chef Sullivan's Basic Skills kitchen. I did a decent job back then, lets see what I can do now.

Components
-Short Ribs, floured and seasoned
-Mirepoix
-Dry White Sherry
-Beef Stock
-Roux

Preparation and Service
-Sear each of the 4 sides of the short ribs that had been floured
-Remove and saute mirepoix
-Deglaze with some dry white sherry
-Add back the short ribs and enough beef stock (though chicken will suffice) to cover the ribs
-Oven at 300*F until cooked through and TENDER (after all, that is why we are braising this shitty cut of meat). They can stay in forever and as long as there is liquid they will be moist
-Remove from oven and pan. Strain sauce
-Add a roux (I went between blond and brown) to the sauce to thicken.
-Add ribs back and simmer for a couple minutes.
-I served the ribs with a side of seasoned roasted potatoes and broccoli and carrots with a little sauce on top.
-Cabernet Sauvignon to drink

Impressions
These were definitely some good ribs considering what we started with. When I say this meat was cheap, I mean it. Gristle, a little too much marbling, and cut thin (about 1/2 inch as opposed to a typical short rib of 1"-1 1/2"). It was by no means perfect. Not much meat on the thin ribs. A couple thin gristle veins. But man that meat was moist as hell (that's what she said). The sauce from the braising was good but I should have checked the seasoning before hand, as it was a smidge short on pepper. But honestly, other than the starting quality of the meat, there were no flaws with this dish.

Next Time
-If you start with bad ingredients, you end up with a bad dish. So next time, better, thicker pieces of meat (that's also what she said).
-At school I almost obsessively check everything I make for seasoning. At home, for some reason I don't. I need to start doing that more often (though my British gf enjoys it when I'm a little light on the seasoning... but that is for another post).
-Seriously, I loved this dish. Even the sides accompanied it perfectly.

Final Thoughts
Final score on this dish is a 7.8 out of 10. A point lost for not being a snob and getting the best cut of meat I could. A true foodie will always use the best ingredients, and since I did not, negative points. Also a lost point for the lack of seasoning. But seriously, I can't think of anything I would do differently with preparation or service. Chef Sullivan's short rib recipe is a winner in flavor.