Sweet Southern Comfort

I dont even know where to start - per usual, life got crazy and updating the blog became one of the last priorities. Therefore, a history-of-the-world-in-thirty-seconds style breakdown of my last 3 months:

After cuisines of asia was lunch cookery - teams of three made 50 portions of bistro lunch-worthy entrees and sides and prepared them a la carte (to order) for the masses. It was the most restaurant-life like class so far, and kicked my butt. But it was awesome.

After lunch cookery, BREAKFAST COOKERY. At school by 3:30 AM, yes AM, to make breakfast for the whole school and any special guests chef wong had invited (local wine makers, etc). Teams of two rotated thru stations like omelet station, eggs any style station, quick breads and cereals station, meat and potato station, poached egg station, etc.

After lunch cookery, garde manger! The class other chefs refer to as arts and crafts. We made cheeses, sausages, and cured meats like pancetta and BACON! Spent a lot of time discussing presentation.

Had our end of semester practical, can you say INTENSE?! Individually drew a random menu and had 3 hours to prepare it without using any recipes, then presented it for judging. I drew grilled mahi mahi with pineapple salsa, rice pilaf, oblique glazed carrots, buttered green beans, and chicken consomme. I did quite well, but lost points for things as little as putting large vegetable scraps in the compost (I should have used all the product, etc) and wiping my hands on my apron! After we had to answer ten oral questions - for example, what are the five mother sauces? (Tomato, hollandaise, bechamel, espagnole, veloute). We had to pass that in order to go on externship. Done and DONE!

Ran into the Deen Brothers (Jamie and Bobby, paulas sons!) at Beringer and invited them to school, did a photo shoot with them, look for me in the next Deen Brothers Magazine!

Am currently back in the south (THANK GOD!) working at Magnolia Grill in Durham, NC for my externship. Ill be here til Sept - last night was my first shift and i loved it!. Check out this great article that came out last week: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/04/27/1401809/from-two-chefs-many.html

EAT WELL! <3 coco

"Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I'll understand."

What a better way to kick of Cuisines of Asia than with a field trip to Chinatown? We ventured to the city on Tuesday to walk around China town, tour a sake factory, and of course – EAT! We stuffed ourselves with every possible kind of dim sum (Chinese tapas), and then chowed on Phô - delicious hot broth poured over meat, tendons, tripe, and rice noodles, and then garnished with bean sprouts, soy sauce, lime juice, and hot chili sauce. Somehow we managed to get our Chef Professor to take us to Berkeley Bowl, a HUGE marketplace with every imaginable type of produce, the freshest of seafood, and gourmet international foods. Basically we did what culinary students to best – we ate ALL day, and went home happy.

As Cuisines of America came to an end last Thursday, today began Asia with Chef Toni Sakaguchi. This is the one class I have been hesitant about simply because I have very little experience with Asian cuisine, other than a random but oh-so-Americanized sushi night or perhaps a little pad thai here and there. It will be great though, because there is so much to learn! Every day we start class with a tasting – every student has a tray with 20 different samples of Asian ingredients we might not be familiar with. Hoison sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce varieties (who knew there were so many kinds?), dehydrated lily roots, Szechuan peppercorns, etc. I can’t promise that I’ll be using these ingredients when I get my own place, but learning to understand them and appreciate them, and thus expand my knowledge of Asian cuisine, has endless value. Something I try to remind myself here every day – do not put up doors. Open yourself up to everything, get everything out of the whole experience, and walk away a better chef.

The course is divided by country: Days 2 and 3 are China, Days 4 and 5 are Korea, then Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Indian. Alas, a sample menu from day 6: Team One: Miso Soup
Arame Seaweed Salad with edamame
Teriyaki Beef
Tempura Vegetables
Seasoned broth with tofu dumplings
Savory Egg Custard

Team Two: Korean Green Onion Pancake with Shrimp
Braised Beef Short Ribs
Stir-fried sweet potato glass noodles
Kimbap
Kimchee Soup
Shredded Potato pancakes

Team Three: Buckwheat noodles with dipping sauce
Sake-simmered flounder
Grilled Shitake mushrooms with Ponzu sauce
Tonkatsu
Vegetable and shrimp clusters
Stuffed cabbage
Sushi Nigiri

Team Four: Spinach salad
Fried oyster hotpot
garlic pork and asparagus pancakes
Korean grilled beef in sesame leaves
Grilled eggplant rounds with sweet chili sauce
Korean roasted fish

Now it might not sound like it, but these menus are pretty light compared to the pace we are used to, but that just means we will have more time to walk around to other teams and get our hands in their preparations! Not to mention while we are preparing all this, Chef Toni is calling us over a couple times a class to do a demo on a certain technique – today she demoed the Wok station and proper stir-fry…so fun!
Hmm, most of my friends are getting up to go work in an office or cramming for law or med school. I’m getting up to work in a kitchen and I’m cramming food. Did I mention I love culinary school?
Eat well yall! <3 COCO

The perfect southern biscuit: NOT mission impossible

Chef Ken assigned us a project: a demo. As we go through the different cuisines of the Americas, we have been talking a lot about authenticity. Authenticity, just as cuisines, changes, so what makes a dish authentic? Therefore, each person in my class has to present a dish that is authentic to them - a traditional family dish. We have 5-10 minutes to introduce the dish and do a quick food network style demo on how to prepare it, and then have a sample of the final product for the whole class and the chef. It might come as a shock to you but I wanted to prepare something very southern, and something that we did not cover in the class section on the south. After much debate, I decided to make biscuits and gravy - the ultimate comfort meal.

Now everyone is very aware of where I come from, so if I present biscuits they better be DARN good biscuits. Thats why i have spent all of yesterday and today baking biscuits, tweaking recipes til I get the perfect southern biscuit. After baking a few dozen, I can now say with 100% confidence that I have mastered it! Because I love yall, i decided to share. Many people fear biscuit making - they are sensitive and delicate but man are homemade biscuits impressive, and if you follow all these steps, i guarantee you will put that Pillsbury can to shame!

The two most important things in making the perfect biscuit:
1 - the fats must be ICECOLD. If the fat, whether it be shortening or butter, is not cold when you work it in you will not have lite and fluffy biscuits. Little pieces of fat dispersed throughout your dough will melt in the oven, and the steam that the little pieces create assists with the rise.
2 - DO NOT OVERWORK YOUR DOUGH. Mix it until it is JUST combined, or it will be dense and chewy - a bunch of mixing will just activate the gluten in the flour and thats not a good thing.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup cold shortening (like crisco)
1 cup cold buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter

* Preheat oven to 450.
* Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
* Add the crisco and using your fingers, work it into the dry ingredients. Try to do this quickly as to not melt the shortening. Break up the shortening, rubbing it into the flour, til the pieces are about rice size, no bigger than a pea.
* Pour in the cold buttermilk, and gently combine. As soon as the dough comes together, STOP - literally just a few seconds of mixing or it will be overmixed.
* Plop the dough onto a floured surface and roll it or pat it to about 1 inch thick. Then fold the dough in half and even it up. (This fold will create an air pocket which will result in flaky layers!)
* Cut the dough into squares or circles - squares will have no scraps; circles will - you can reform the scraps to make more circular biscuits, but this dough will be overworked and result in tougher denser biscuits. Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet so that they are just touching.
* Using a pastry brush, brush a little melted butter on each biscuit.
* Bake for 12-15 minutes at 450 - baking times can vary so keep an eye on the biscuits! Pull them when they are a little golden brown on top.

That's it yall! Now you have glorious buttermilk biscuits. Spread a little butter on em, smother em in gravy, sandwich them with country ham n eggs, whatever you do be proud and enjoy!

"Dixie isn't just a geographical area...its an entire way of life, state of mind, an emotional attachment that endures wherever one may find oneself"

Well yall, the past two days of the southern menu have been everything and so much more than i dreamed they ever would! Our chef professor actually told me that, and i quote: "i don't know what i would have done without you here". Do you know how good it felt to hear that from someone as esteemed as a chef professor?? Especially Chef Ken! He recognized my passion and knowledge of southern food, so he took my suggestions and directed all questions from classmates to me - all day long i had people running up to me asking for suggestions and to try things, and at the end of the day i actually got a round of applause. That on top of some real southern food - talk about a feel good day! If anything, these past two days told me exactly where my niche is - southern food. People always ask what kind of food i like to cook and as a chef where i want to be, and now i know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Southern food is more than just butter and fried chicken - its love, its comfort, and it runs in my blood. Yes i enjoy Mediterranean cooking, yes i love Moroccan food, but nothing gets me giddy like soul food. Without further delay, pictures of our southern buffet.
To steal one from the Queen herself..."until next time, im sendin yall best love and dishes from my kitchen to yours!"

The south has risen

Hey Yall!
I know it has been WAY too long since my last post! To be fair, I was off for three weeks for the holidays and since I have returned, I have not had internet access at home. I should be getting it tomorrow, but decided to hit the computer lab up because too many good things are happening that I have to post about!
Since we last spoke, I have completed all skills classes! Skills three wtih Chef Patrick Clark was a blast - hard, stressful, but fun! It was our production class - basically, we made the same things we had made in skills 2, but we improved them and made 20 servings of everything instead of just 2 for chef to taste. After chefs plate, the rest was for plated lunch service! We set up lines like in restaurants, chef was the expediter - as the other students and staff came to lunch, he would tell them their options and call out their orders, which we would then prepare a la minute (to order). "Fire 2 poached salmon, thats 4 all day!" he would yell. SO MUCH FUN. Intense, hard, stressful - but i loved it, which is what really told me that i am IN THE RIGHT PLACE. I feel like every day im falling more and more in love with what Im doing. Anyway, yesterday we started Cuisines of Americas with chef ken, which is the class i have been looking forward to the most! I must admit I dont like the setup, but i understand why they have to do it that way: ill explain. There are four groups, and every two days there are four menus. Group 1 completes menu one, and they do it the next day as well. Then on day 3, the menus change. However, we get all new menus - this means that during the two days, groups 2-4 have menus that I will never get to cook. They do it this way beacuse there is SO MUCH to go through, and if we make some of this time once and it doesnt come out right, we never get the chance to figure it out. So we can feel confident with our dishes, and at least see a variety of other things that other groups work on. We dont get to pick our menus - they are randomly assigned.
So, what made me so eager to post? TOMORROWS MENU! Thats right yall, its SOUTHERN DAY! Its technically called "The american south and louisiana", and the menus are divided as such: Louisiana, Texas, South, and TexMex. Why texas gets two and the WHOLE SOUTH only gets one is beyond me. And wouldnt you know, I got TEXMEX?! Bad luck. Dont get me wrong, texmex food is great, but louisiana and southern is what really butters my biscuits. But at least ill get to see it going on, offer critiques and assistance, and best of all...eat! Without further delay, here are the dishes the class is preparing tomorrow:
LOUISIANA: Shrimp and Okra Gumbo, Blackened Redfish with Crawfish Etoufee, Green Beans with Tasso and creole candied carrots, chicken and shrimp jambalaya.
TEXAS: Red pepper and grilled corn chowder, country fried steak with white gravy and whipped potatoes, stewed okra and tomatoes, red beans and rice, texas beef brisket chili and cornbread, baked beans.
THE SOUTH: Buttermilk Fried Chicken with braised greens and country chicken gravy, hoppin johns, fried green tomatoes, pulled pork butt bbq with onion rings, cole slaw, and hushpuppies.
TEXMEX: Tortilla Soup, beef fajitas with pico de gallo, guacamole, lime cream, flour tortillas, texmex rice, and refried beans, chile verde, jalapeno smoked shrimp with tamale spoon-bread sticks and pinto bean ranchero sauce, cheesy grit casserole.
Dont you wish you were me right about now?
Every team gets to prepare a different bbq sauce from various recipes we were given, but when I told chef where i was from he gave me permission to make my own, so of course ill be making my mustard based vinegar carolina sauce.
Thankfully, this chef professor unlike the last few allows pictures to be taken in the kitchen, and encourages it...so look out for pics galore!
Until next time (which will be sooner i promise)...EAT WELL!