dan's birthday bash

Today was my friend Dan's birthday so we embarrassed him by singing every chance we got. Here he is with the biggest rondeau (pot) of collard greens on campus.

Our kitchen (and Amber posing):

Today we made creole/Louisiana cuisine and finally having the courage to bring in my camera, I snapped a few shots. Though personally I have been distracted lately, we put out delicious food. On the menu today was: shrimp & alligator gumbo, sweet potato & peanut soup, mixed greens with peanut dressing, fried chicken & mashed potatoes & collard greens, crayfish etouffee, grilled vegetable jambalaya, beef brisket with hush puppies and fried onions, and the dish Taylor and I made, stuffed quail with sauteed spinach and red beans and rice. Pretty impressive menu for 14 students, I'd say.

Here is a goat head.. we cooked the meat in a curry sauce for tomorrow:

Here are the boys on the fried chicken station plating up during lunch service. Each station had 2 people and 3 or 4 plate components that they are responsible for. Our menu changes every other day:

Here is the crayfish etouffee being plated during service:

And the vegetable jambalaya:

Here are the quail I made stuffing for and fried:

They were so small, even when they were stuffed they fit into the palm of my baby hands:

Here was our completed dish:

After we sell out of our food we make platter for "family meal," a term used to describe food we eat as staff. Here is my partner Taylor with our platter for family meal:

Everyone enjoying each others cooking:

new hatred for cuisines of americas

What a week. We completed our first week in cuisines of americas, and I have to say, all the warnings about our chef were true. Up to now, though we have had strict chefs or precise ones, we've never quite had one like our current chef. It makes me sad that for the first time since starting school here, I don't want to go to class. I can't even really be myself because I am afraid of the possible backlash from the chef.  So far, I haven't been told that "I won't make it in this industry," (though she did tell someone that). I'm sure it's coming.

Without time to breathe, much less take pictures, my blog will probably be missing in action for a while, but hopefully will return soon. After this class we are onto cuisines of asia, which should be a lot more interesting and fun. Other than the tense classes, my life is filled with trying to get some sleep, finding an externship and getting time to talk to my friends. Have a great weekend everyone.

onto american cuisine?

I admit I sort of failed at posting during skills 3, mostly because it was our first production class and I didn't want to waste time taking pictures, and I figured blogging without pictures wouldn't be exciting enough.

So skills 3 has come to an end, next week we start Cuisines of the Americas, with a Chef who we have heard is very strict. Though personally I wasn't at my best, skills 3 went great, with Chef Zifchak seeing the potential in me that I have been looking for in a Chef.

We worked through various cooking competencies, roasting & grilling to braising and poaching, each day making 30-40 portions to sell to students for lunch. It was invigorating and we learned a little bit about how the future kitchens will be. 

I only got to take pictures on the last day so here is a random selection

Our vegetarian plate of risotto cakes, smoked tomato sauce and vegetable medley

Making pierogis

Sauteed chicken with fines herbes sauce and fresh pasta:

Shallow poached flounder with my fresh tomato linguine and vegetables:

 

and another set of skills

I haven't had time to write in a while, though there hasn't been a shortage of exciting things happening. This week we started back at the Culinary and my third skills class, which is the first production kitchen we start in. While in the other two skills classes we learned the foundations of cooking and made 1-2 portions of each recipe, this is the first kitchen where we make around 40 portions of all the menu items in teams of 4-5 for lunch service at 11am. This means my day starts at 5 when I wake up and have tons of coffee, and am in the kitchen by 6:15 prepping for the day. 

We just finished up day 3, and I finally faced my fear today. While I am a good enough cook, I have never worked for a long period of time on the hot line of a kitchen. These are the stations that cook the dishes to order, typically having 5 or 6 saute pans cooking at once, making plates. The speed of this has always scared me and prevented me from trying it. I got thrown on the saute today and while the beginning was a little rough, once I got going it was such a rush. Before I knew it, I looked up and lunch service was over. For a long time, I sort of idolized the cooks on the saute station for their sheer speed and never thought I could do it. It is very stressful but rewarding at the end of service.

It was hard to get back into the school mindset after such a relaxing and fun break, but I think I am at full steam ahead. Though our chef takes the cooking and everything else quite seriously, he doesn't rule by intimidation and seems to enjoy teaching us. I can tell I will learn a lot from him. Some of my skills 2 classmates got split up into the other skills 3 class which doesn't have as much foot traffic as our kitchen (we usually sell out in 20-30 mins). And we lost 3 members on our team so we were down to 4 people doing the same amount as the groups with 7. I think both of these restrictions will only help me learn to be more efficient and be able to see more in each of the stations. 

Tomorrow we're making sauteed chicken supreme breasts with fresh pasta, veggies, and fines herbes sauce. It should be a good day. :-D

persian parties

As I have been on vacation, nothing quite newsworthy has happened, though maybe since I am home, I just have less time to take pictures of it all. 

Last night, one of my aunts from Iran finally got a visa to come to the US. It was great news after years of trying (its impossible for anyone to visit from there) so we had a huge party to celebrate, and had tons of family and food. I had a great time playing with some adorable kids and watching my aunt reunite with family that she hadnt seen (in some case for over 20 years.)

Just a few light appetizers since we were having an early dinner (8 is early for us...)

A staple at any mehmooni (party) is lots of tea:

One of my aunts is superstitious, so we burned some esfand, the smoke is said to ward off bad spirits:

I guess it had been a long day, my cousins daughter Skyler got a bit tired:

Some of the dishes at dinner, whole salmon (as I was cutting it I was teaching one of my friends about the adipose fin that lets you identify it as salmon/trout family :)

Koobideh Chicken Kabob:

This is an Iranian rice that is sweet with orange peel, carrots, and currants which is eaten with chicken kabob:

White rice is a must, with some of it mixed with saffron on top:

Here is the whole table:

And onto dessert, I made a few fruit platters:

Persians love their fruit cake, so my sister picked this one up:

Some type of mocha cake:

I made this traditional Iranian ice cream with rosewater, saffron, and pistachios

Bon appetit! 

monkey bread

Last night my mom and I made banana chocolate chip monkey bread. our baker counterparts made this dough by hand, but since I'm not baking inclined, I bought the mix for my mom as a souvenir. So here we are making the dough, rolling the balls in sugar, and baking it off.

We needed a comforting breakfast today, so I made a garden omelet/frittata, filled with tons of herbs & veggies.

Here's the monkey bread dough mix:

Making tablespoon sized balls and rolling it in brown sugar:

Press all the sugar coated balls into a baking dish

Baked and ready to go

And the eggs from today:

free and easy down the road i go

I woke up around 5 this morning, not with an alarm, but because I have become so accustomed to that wake up call. I got packed and headed out for my 6 hour drive back to virginia for a week or so for part of my summer break. It won't really be a break as I will spend it prepping for externship, the practical exam, and skills 3, but I will focus more on those during the last 2 weeks. I'm going back to NY early so I can focus my energy on the future. 

The drive was supposed to be very congested and lengthy since it was the day before fourth of july, and though it was fairly crowded, everything went according to schedule and I was back home before I knew it.

This is the pretty scenery of the drive through upstate New York:

The first state I drove through was New Jersey... a loong drive:

Then I went through Delaware from the Delaware Memorial Bridge:

Then through the tunnel and into Baltimore, Maryland:

And finally Virginia!! (aww I miss that Great Falls Village sign):