Gambas!

I made this dish with another classmate. I needed the help peeling all those shrimp which was murder for my fingers since the package they came in was frozen. they were simple to make, sauted in olive oil, chili flakes, and a spanish paprika. We had a little lecture about spain afterward with a whole break-down of the way they eat their meals. Actually, they eat a lot like me. they have a light breakfast or sometimes no real breakfast because they like to wake up late (like me). then they have a light lunch around 2, followed by a nap. then a little tea break around 4 or 5pm. then a little light dinner around 7 pm (like tapas and little appetizer sized portions) and then a real full course grand meal around 9 or 10pm. It seems like they must eat so much that they must face some obesity problem but not that what they do it is wholesome and fresh. They have wonderful local produce, wines, olive oils, seafood, etc. I've been to most of Europe but not Spain so i really hope to visit sometime in the near future. I'd also love to see more Spanish resturants. i only know of two "semi-decent" ones in LA and i know of a few in New York, but i think its a very tasty cuisine thats a bit underrated.

Paella!

We did a whole spanish buffet/banquet spread on tuesday. This reminded me a lot of my Garde Manger class because it was everyone in class kind of working together towards a big buffet, its not like individual plated dishes. However, the banquet was supposed to be for 16 people and we henceforth needed to make little tapas plates that all look indetical. The paella was the exception (because no one eats an individual paella, its meant to be a communal dish). Its gorgeous (and yummy!) but sadly i cant take credit for it because other people in the class made it. I did make the shrimp "gambas" which will be in the next post...

Aww, poor thumper!

ok so this is the rabbit. Its actually a rabbit roullade (with the leg/thigh meat) and rabbit loin which was crusted with bread crumbs (i know its a bit hard to tell). After the frogs legs, i was hesitant about try anymore out of the ordinary proteins, but i was pleasantly surprised. i actually am not to keen on duck, but i actually really enjoyed this, i am ashamed to admit. I fabricated poor bugs or thumper on Tuesday and it just looked so much like a rabbit, that it freaked me out a bit. But oddly enough, and not to sound too cliche, its a lot like chicken, maybe a little "meatier" perhaps leaner although i am not sure. Actually, i think its maybe more comparable to pork, hmm maybe a cross between the too. There is a fava and mushroom ragu with i think came out nicely beside it, with fried sage as a garnish, because anything fried is better, right?
Anyhows, I am really digging this class. Since there are little to no cooking demos we (the students) are really getting our chance to execute creative control and as the chef said "we're letting you fly". Garde Manger and baking were ok and the lessons were invaluable, but i really enjoyed my intro II class and i feel like this is like a big, grown-up, up-grade from that class. Next week we do Spanish, German, Belgian (my dad's Belgian, we'll see what HE has to say about the authenticity), Swiss, and Italian cuisine. I am lucky to have visited most the countries so we'll see how "authentic" they really are.

Frogs legs!

bleh, apparently a delicacy right? i know some people who actually like them, but they look too much like human muscles, and they taste like overcooked fish (or maybe i just overcooked mine?). We needed to serve it with a starch and veggie (like most entrees) so i chose polenta and baby carrots, still, I couldn't manage to make this look appetizing....

Bouillanbaise

Here's my Bouillabaisse, a provincial south of France fish stew. I've actually had some in Cannes and it was way better. Our recipe was a bit different because the end result did not have a lot of vegtables left and i remember the loads of stewed veggies in the Bouillabaisse i had in France. My Chef said it needed more salt, i am not going to argue, the truth is, i made a big batch so didn't realize i might need a lot more salt for the individual bowl to taste ok. I could have done better but i don't think it was a total disaster.

Welcome to International!

I apologize for not updating daily, its been a jam packed week. Anyhow, Garde Manger is over and on to the last formal cooking class because after this class i start to do a rotation where i work at the school's cafe, res truant, receiving, etc. I must say though, this was the class i was most physicked about when i heard about the whole program. Of course, every class gets harder and harder, and yes, this class is challenging and a lot of work (besides cooking) but its interesting to learn about different cuisines and we cover about 30 countries! Everyday is usually a different country, with this week being the except. This week was a lot about French food although some days we primarily focused on classical dishes and while other were provincial. I have loads of pics to share so with each picture of the dishes i made this week, I'll share some info about the class and the feelings that brewed in me. This was the first dish we had to make, nothing fancy but this was actually a practical quiz, we needed to make steak au poive with three tourneed potatoes with beans. I am not sure how i did. my sauce could have been darker but i think i did ok on the doneness which was supposed to be medium rare. I freaked out a bit because i thought initially it was overdone because i got a very thin piece compared to the others around me, but i think it turned out ok, i saw the color inside and it look medium.

my final buffet!

so i ditched my Dr. Seuss idea (sorry leslie, i know you were into that after the whole Horton who pancake fiasco) and went with "garden of eden". That tree there in the background is the tree of life made out of salt dough. Its not my proudest achievement but at least i made it through and it looks decent. I did the best i could, given the circumstances. My next class, International cuisines. This should be fun since i love to travel and have been almost everywhere. let see how authentic a french culinary school can be....

Final Freakout!!

You may have noticed how i haven't been posting lately here or over at Nutritious Junk, but that's because I've been super stressed with finals!!! I can finally breathe a little now that i get an hour and a half break while my buffet is being graded (btw, my chef knows about this blog so if he's reading, please be gentle, this was a tough one). For those of you who aren't in my class (because since now the word is out about my blog, i suspect people check it to see if i wrote any nasty things about them), let me break it down how the Garde Manger finals work. We had a written final on Monday, then we have to prep for a buffet of our very own (individual, NO TEAMS like before) with 3 different canapes with 12 of each and a chicken galantine. With four and a half days of prep, you'd think this is easy, right? well thats not all. On tuesday, we drew out of a hat two assinged salads and needed to present two appetizer portions of each at the alloted time. On Wednsday, we drew a sandwich and needed to present 12 tea sandwiches of our choice (i went with egg salad, i felt if i went for something too simple like cucumber or watercress, i'd be graded more harshly). I am sure you guys think sandwiches are super simpel and they are! but not when you have to make your own mayo, grill/roast your veggies, cook your bacon, make you spread etc. and today (thursday) we need to be clean and present our themed buffet at 8:30. I chose my theme to be "The Garden of Eden". I had the tree of life (sans apples, i guess eve ate them all) made out of salt dough (which is the culinary term for play dough, now i know why play dough tastes so salty, and yes, i was the adventuerous child who actually tried play-dough). O yes, and of course we need to present 10 vegtable carvings and a melon carving. I feel like i am about to collapse. tomorrow i also am just loaded with personal stuff i need to take care of (two doctors appointments, 1 job interview, laundry, groceries, etc) and i still need to go to school to help clean the lab before the next term and recieve my final grade. Gahh! i will take a picture when i can get back into the lab in about an hour and you guys can give me feed back. Not my best work, but lord knows i tried the best i could and given the circumstances, i am not completely dissatisfied, at least all my components are there (i hope?). anyhow, i am going to get some grub, strange this is all really about food and i forget to feed i have a growling stomach.

All about my mother

Happy mothers day, Ive had a terrible/stressful weekend but I'll carve (haha no pun intended) out a little non culinary face time to talk about my mother. I haven't celebrated mother's day with her in for nearly a decade. She died in 2000 when i was just entering my teen years, a fragile time to loose a mother. She had cancer since i was in her womb. Her doctors told her once i came out, she should start chemo on her breast and forgo breast feeding. but my mom was no match, she was like, "no way will me daughter grow up on formula! I'll breast feed her until she's ready to eat on her own!". And so she did, and completed a round of chemo successfully after she breast fed me for nine months. My mother was a bit of an astronaut, as my dad called her. Loving to explore new places and meeting new people. Its amazing how many friends she knew! very different from my dad who was a bit of an extrovert and less social. She told me she always wanted to be a flight attendant, she loved flying (i totally didn't get THAT gene, i hate flights!) and loved traveling. But she actually had a masters in urban planning although never really did that. She bounced around doing marketing for various companies. She was in no way a housewife, she always worked even when she had chemo again when i was in their grade when her breast cancer came back. She lost her hair completely the second time around. In that time, cancer wasn't very chic like it is today with Melissa Ethridge proudly shaking her bald head at the Grammy's. So she was very shy and upset about being bald. But it was fun going with her to the wig shop (note, i should NEVER be platinum blond!) and trying on crazy wigs. she was very healthy about it though, she ate well and exercised every morning. and I honestly never remember her in pain of i bed a lot. she wasn't "sick" to me. She was so cool in that as healthy as she was, she would take me every so often McDonald's and order a Big Mac, one of her prized foods. she knew this wasn't healthy, and mind you, she did take off the third bun on it (which is perfectly good to do, who needs three buns!). Anyhow, she did have a great appetite. she never restricted junk food at all, but she also wasn't inclined to buy unhealthy snacks like sugary cereals and those kiddie fruit by the foot stuff. That's why my lunches in school were so odd. I had stuff like pita with hummus or a tuna and corn salad (a very good salad, mind you!) with literally a hunk of chocolate for dessert! how weird, right? Its strange though because i found all these diet books on her book case (old diet books, like "fit or fat" and Susan powder books) but i never remember her following them. Anyhow, fast forward to when i was about 12 when the cancer came back again. This time it was breast cancer cells in the lung. This time, it took her life about a year and half later. She was only bed ridden about a month before she died, and i don't even think she thought she was dying. So when she did die, it was a bit of a shock to everyone, despite the fact that people knew breast cancer and her were on a on/off relationship for a while. I cried i a lot before she died, but no so much after, strangely enough. It was like a weight was lifted. We buried her near where she grew up in Israel. Its actually a lovely cemetery with only about 20 graves, not like a death row most cemetery's resemble. Its in the outskirt hills of Jerusalem, and it looks more like a hidden cove than a cemetery. I hated the funeral, simply because i didn't want to see people cry and get all sappy because i find that contagious and it made me that way too. My mother's absence has unfortunately stirred up some problems with my mental health. For a while, i was so scarred for my dad's life because i was afraid to be an orphan. I think loosing a mother before you enter high school can be daunting. I didn't have a mother primp me for prom or "lunch" with, or go bra shopping. I dragged my dad, poor thing, but he's been awesome, he's had women around him all his life so he's in the know with female issues as opposed to most fathers. I actually usually give my dad a gift on mother's day because i think he's been great at trying to be mom. This is getting long and i to be honest, i am beginning to tear up writing this so I'll wrap this up. Have a wonderful mothers day everybody!

Galantines, Pates, and Terrines: french Jell-O

so this week was fairly easy going (although still for me, pretty harsh, i think there must be some hex that the classmates put upon me). we made chicken galantines which is a chicken forcemeat mixture that covers a carrot, spinach, and mushroom inlay, wraped boned chicken breast, wraped in its own casing (as in, chicken skin), and the THAT is covered in edible chaud froid, which is basically a bechemel sauce with gelatin so it hardens up. sounds delicious, doesn't it!? well no, even the chef told us he'd pay to NOT eat it. This is very classical french and really for the sake of presentation. Its like taking meatloaf and giving it a Jell-O coat (scarry thought). Needless to say, mine was horrible. My inlays were alll different sizes and got all mushed when i poached them. Finals are next week so I am a bit stressed, but i must get this gallantine right for th final (i did terribly on the last quiz, i think my lowest grade in my whole culinary school career). Finals are crazy hard, and i thought the baking II finals were stressful! I have to make my own buffet (no more groups) and have 10 vegtable carvings plus a melon carving. the thing is, i suck (i'd use a nicer word but, i plainly just "suck") at carving. maybe my fingers are deformed. Its weird cause i thought i might be good at it cause i knit a lot but i suppose being "handy" has nothing to do with your veggie carving skills. I still think i cook veggies, as opposed to making them look like roses. I wonder which lasts longer? anyhow, yesterday we had a test run for next week cause we had a little mini buffet (with only three items though)and my theme was my mother, for mothers day. speaking of which, my next post will be about my mother, she was such an amazing person, i would love to share with you her story.

In the Grinder

here is the picture of our "sausage buffet" since we made a whole batch of different sausages. Our theme was Las Vegas which actually suited us well since we made use of the "wienies" which is sort of like poker food. On top of the whole fiasco in class (which, and to be honest, i am scarred to come back too because i feel so hated by nearly everyone)i got my rejection later from the theater program at ucla. I felt it coming, i didn't think my audition went well, but this was the wrong time, i feel like along with the sausage meat, I've been processed in the grinder. My future is so unclear, i am not sure what i want to do once i finish school. I definitely do NOT want to go back to UC Santa Barbara and i never really wanted to do restaurant work. Like most twenty-somethings, i feel like i am heading in direction. Anyhow, class aside because just thinking about school right now makes me uneasy, I've picked up the new Madonna CD, hard candy. I have been a die hard Madonna fan since i was little and obsessing over knowing all the lyrics to "Vogue". I love that Madonna is aging gracefully, but this is not my favorite album of hers. Its very "hip hop" and although i love the "4 minuets" song, the rest of the album is not as work-out worthy. I know she's been into electronic beats and what not since Ray of Light (which is definitely one of my favorite albums of hers), and although the songs from her last album, "confessions of a dance floor" were mediocre, i thought it was a great work-out album. some of the beats to "hard candy" are a little strange to run or bike too and its not a very good "chill" soundtrack like the one from "Juno" was (GREAT soundtrack, by the way, GET IT!!!). Speaking of Juno, did you see the Barbara Walters interview with Ellen Page? she was telling Ellen she doesn't really understand the song and was wondering why anyone would listen to it. whoa, babs, chill, its a cool song and clearly, you need to let some other young journalists take the spotlight every once and a while. I am all for seniors giving up retirement for later, but is this was kind of a sign that maybe its time she gave it a rest?