Being slow is a good thing. French Onion Soup

I was a little slow on getting this next posting out but in the culinary world that is a great thing!  You never want to rush to the finish on many dishes. Such is the case of  French Onion Soup.  If you just give this dish the time required you will be rewarded, I promise!  And if you already have no issues with waiting games, good for you!  But if you are like me, you want it. Now.  And learning to wait is something that needs to be learned and practiced.

French Onion soup needs the slow process of caramelization but its not so bad because you can walk away from it while it does it's thing.

I am not so much concerned with recipes as I am with technique.  I will give you what I have been taught and if you have a recipe you want to try, consider the method here when you are making that.

For French Onion soup there is one main thing that has to be done right.  The Onion!
Clean off the outter skin of the onions. Cutting the onion correctly makes a huge difference. You want to julienne cut the onion, not slice. The julienne cut follows the ribs of the onion where a slice cuts across the rib.  To do this cut it in half from pole to pole and trim off the ends  then start cutting in the same direction as the ribs-parallel to them.  If you cut across them you will get half circles and they won't break down as well and be soft in the mouth.  With the julienne cut they will become softer, more delicate.  It made a big difference in the end product and it doesn't take any more time to do it this way.

Sweat the onions in butter (or oil if the recipe calls for it, but we like butter at LCB)  Sweating is a slow and low cooking process. Cover it to keep the heat in and assist in the caramelization.  It took about 30 minutes for one onion.  Check on it occasionally and give it a stir, make sure your heat is low enough so it doesn't burn or caramelize to fast or you have to start over. You don't need to season until the end because the flavors will concentrate and you don't want it overly salty when you are done.

When your onions have a caramel color to them add about 1 ounces of brandy, some fresh herbs and reduce to au sec. Au sec means until almost dry.  There should be a little bit of the liquid left in the pan after evaporation to where it is almost like a syrup.  If you tilt the pan there should be very little to no liquid collecting in the corner. This should just take a minute or two.  Now you can add about 2 cups of beef stock (for one onion) and let cook for a while to develop the flavors.

At this point you can toast some bread rounds in a pan or oven and prepare a little gruyere or swiss cheese.

When ready to serve, place 2 toast rounds on top of the soup and sprinkle with cheese.  Remember it is Onion soup, not bread and cheese soup so don't over do it on both.

Place under a broiler for a few moments to melt the cheese and top with some fresh herbs and you are set!

If you get a chance to try this simple method out, please let me know you liked it!

Culinary Foundations 1 is finished-now here are a few easy tips for you at home!

I learned alot in my first 6 weeks of school and while most of it relates to cooking in a restaurant environment, quite a bit of it serves as practical tips for the home cook.  Here are a few of those tips....

1.   When boiling pasta or green beans or potatoes but sure to salt your water well.   This may shock you but it should taste "salty like the sea".  I know that sounds a bit extreme but I have tried it and it works so much better!  Most of it gets poured away when you drain the items and if you try to salt it after you cook it, it isn't absorbed, it just sits on top.  The purpose of salt is to enhance the flavor of what you are cooking. In the end you don't want your green beans to taste like salted beans. You just want green beans that taste really good.  If you are cooking rice, couscous or other boiled grain that will absorb all the water, do the same thing but maybe not as salty as it will all be absorbed.  But with these its the same idea, you don't want the salt to sit on top and be tasted as salt on rice.  You just want flavorful rice. 
2. Have a hard time remembering how many pints in a quart and quarts in a gallon?  Get out a large piece of paper and do this exercise.  This visual aid will help you remember it anytime you need.
1. Take an 8x10 piece of scratch paper and draw a big letter "G" on it.  Make it take up the size of the paper. This represents a gallon. 
2.   Then inside the "G" draw 4 large letter "Q"s.  Two in the upper part side by side and 2 in the lower part side by side. Basically one in each corner of the inside of the G. The Q represents quarts. There are 4 quarts in a gallon.
3. Now, inside each of the Q's draw two large letter "P"s.  That is for pints. There are 2 pints in each quart.  If you do this in each Q,  many pints in a gallon?  If you got 8, you are correct.
4. Then inside of each P, you should now draw 2 large letter "C"s. The C stands for cup.  There are 2 cups in each pint.  2 pints in each quart.  4 quarts in each gallon.  This has really been handy for me. 
3. Do not feel bad for using canned tomatoes in recipes that call for them. There is a good reason for that, even in professional kitchens.  They provide consistent color, flavor and texture and it's cost effective. Go for it. 
4.  Ever try to make your own sweet potato fries or regular fries from scratch in the oven but you just get a mushy baked potato texture with no crisp?  If you blanch your potato pieces first in hot water until almost done, then drain, let them dry, cool and then bake them,  in most cases will give a crisp to your fries without having to actually "fry".  It does work if you choose to fry in oil also. You may need to experiment but this is why the Ore-ida's from the freezer are crispy in the oven. They are pre-boiled just waiting for a nice oven to crisp them up!
5.  When you make couscous, just before serving be sure to serve it by scraping the it from the top.  If you stir it from the bottom it can make it lumpy, not fluffy.  So take a fork or spoon, and start from the top and gently scrap away the layers.  Also couscous is a pasta, not a grain. I did not know this. 
6.  Sweat the onions (or celery or whatever).  How many times have you heard that on a cooking show but think to yourself, "What the heck does that mean?"  To sweat simply means to cook slowly with low heat, in a little oil, without giving color until slightly translucent and softened. 
7.  If you are making any dishes with dried beans like a split pea or navy bean soup, salt your dish at the end only.  If you add salt at the beginning there is a reaction with the outter shell of the bean that makes it a little harder and the water won't penetrate as easy when cooking the dried beans and it will extend your cooking time.  
8. Get a food thermometer.  I bought a digital one at a commercial cooking store for 10 bucks.  I find that since I started to cook proteins with this, it has never come out overcooked.  It really helps to know when your meat is done especially for large items like roasted chicken.  I can never gauge when a whole chicken is really done all the way through unless I check the temp.  And as an added bonus you can also follow the minimum internal cooking temperatures required to reduce pathogens in your meats.  Not a bad idea to be aware of. Poultry is 165 degrees. Ground meats 155 degrees. Seafood, steaks and chops 145 degrees.
9. Use acid.  That is either lemon, a vinegar, some wine, etc. at the end of your cooking time.  Its amazing how simple it is to just add a splash of balsamic or lemon juice at the end of the cooking, just before serving. It enhances the flavor like salt does so if you are watching your sodium, this will still work with the flavors in a similar way.  Wine needs to be cooked a little at the end, vinegar not as long and lemon can be added to the dish just as its placed on the serving dish or to the plate.
10.  Remember, recipes are just a guideline.  You always need to taste, analyse, adjust and taste again, even if it's a recipe from Food and Wine magazine or a well known cookbook.  Everyone's palate is different so the recipes are not expected to work for everyone exactly as they are published. Have fun, be creative and don't be afraid to substitute if you think it will work. This is how you learn.

And here is a bonus tip.  Add flavor whenever you can.  Avoid loosing flavor whenever possible.  If it calls for water, would broth, stock or wine work in its place?  Instead of leaving all the delicious bits in the bottom of the pan after cooking something could you add a little wine or broth to deglaze it and cook those bits into the liquid and add that to the dish?  That is flavor there!  Keep it or add it where you can.

So I hope you found something here you can try. If you did, let me know how it worked out for you. And feel free to leave comments about any helpful tips you might have.

Broadway Farmer's Market, also known as mecca. My trip and the resulting week's menu

For many people going to the local Farmer's Market is a pretty common occurrance, maybe even passe' for some.  But for me I always seem to have a work schedule that is exactly opposite any of my local market's schedules.  It is very rare that I find one that I can attend.  But I took today, Sunday, off work and was smart enough to remember that I had not been to one in ages and I should definately find one to go to today.  And go I did!  With chico bags and a backpack I decided to hit the Broadway Market on Capitol Hill.  Let me just say that it has been a very long time since I have enjoyed a day as much as I have enjoyed today. I found so many great things and talked to some wonderful vendors and have designed a menu for the week inspired entirely from my purchases today.

Here is my haul from the day...

Purslane-a succulent, small-leaf plant with a citrus flavor. Often found in gardens and considered a weed.
Zucchini- you know what these are. I got green ones.
Princess eggplant-miniature versions of regular eggplants, about 2-3" long
Thai eggplant-squat, round and small variety of eggplant.
White eggplant- a medium size, beige colored eggplant. Looks like the teenage version of the baby eggplant but white.

Cranberry beans-a shelling bean that has a white and deep pink-spotted shell. The beans inside are white with pale pink specs. A local chef I met says the pink does not stay through cooking. Bummer.
Fortex green beans-very long and thin and extremely tender.


I was immediately inspired by the demo by Chef Olaiya Land of Loaiya Land Catering. She created a simple but flavorful tomato and green been salad with homemade pesto.  Blanched fortex green beans, fresh pesto made on the spot, tossed together with cherry tomatoes, cut in half.  I knew I was going to make this so I ran to get my fortex beans.

But as I continued to cruise the market, on my 6th lap around I believe, I noticed I kept seeing something called purslane. I asked about it, tasted the citrus leaves and immediately thought this would be an excellent alternative for the basil in the pesto and the extra citrus flavor would probably enhance the green beans even more.  I was going to do a 50/50 mix of basil and purslane but after finding a Greek purslane pesto recipe online, I decided to go all the way with it. Afterall, I had a big bunch to work with and if it's good, I will freeze the rest like you would do with pesto.  I will serve the pesto two ways: once with the green beans as described and once on linguini. It will also be used as a finishing garnish instead of parsley.

The zucchini will be used in some zucchini fritters, inspiration compliments of a client I was talking to on the phone at work. She said she was cooking so I had to ask, "Whatcha makin?"  She gave me her recipe for the zucchini fritters, a family recipe.  How generous of her to share that with a total stranger like me!!

The cranberry beans will become part hummus experiment and part side dish.  After I've sheledl the beans and boiled them until tender in salted water  I will saute them in olive oil, butter and maybe some shallots. Perhaps the purslane will add a nice final touch, minced and sprinked on top.  For the hummus, I will blend them with some tahini, lemon, parsley, etc and see how that goes. To bad the color fades with cooking, pink hummus would have competely rocked!

The eggplants will just be cut and sauteed in olive oil because I want to taste the 3 varieties and see what the differences are.  I think they will all look pretty in one dish.

So here is the final menu for the week, not necessarily in this order:

Grilled Chicken Sausage with purslane pesto linguini

Grilled tri-tip with the purslane pesto green bean/tomato salad dish from the demo

Pork chops marinated in my classmate's own BBQ sauce served with zucchini fritters. Thanks Lamonte' for the sauce

Roasted chicken with mushroom ragu and sauteed cranberry beans

Lamb chop with baby eggplant medley and cranberry bean hummus.

I have got A LOT of cooking to do this week. On top of  a 40 hours work week and 17 hours of school.  But this is what its all about for me. For some people this sounds like a nightmare but for me, it's totally heaven on earth. All this cooking is my form of relaxation and entertainment. It feeds me in so many more ways that just the one.  Thanks for reading and if you have any interesting uses or ideas for any of these ingredients, please let me know!

1 month down, 8 more to go! Why does it have to go so fast??

The 2 weeks since my last post have been incredible, I can't believe how fast it is all going and I wish I would slow down because I am having an awesome experience.

We have explored everything about sauces over the last 10 days. You know when people say "that's gravy" when something is really easy? Mmmmmyeah. Sauce is NOT gravy.  Once you know what you are doing sauce is not that difficult, but it can be time consuming, at least in the early stage of production.  There are 5 leading or "mother sauces" from which every other sauce, called small sauces, are made from by adding additional flavorings.  For example, Hollandaise sauce is a mother sauce emulsion of eggs yolk and clarified butter. But add a vinegar/shallot reduction and some tarragon and you get Bernaise sauce. 

Take milk, thicken with a roux (fat and flour) and a few other flavorings and you get Bechamel sauce.  But throw in some shredded cheddar cheese, dry mustard and Worcestershire and you get an awesome homemade mac and cheese sauce!

Sauces are time consuming because some of them start with a stock made after several hours of simmering bones with mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot) and some herbs.  The collagen in the bones of veal or chicken creates a gelatinous, mild flavored base called stock (not to be confused with broth).  Take the stock, thicken it with a roux and you get another mother sauce-Veloute sauce.  Then with the addition of other flavorings that can become Allemande, Mornay, Curry, Normandy, Bercy, Mushroom, Lyonnaise or Madeira sauce, just to name a few!!  I tell ya, I have not looked at a chicken carcass or vegetable trimming in quite the same way!  In fact, right now I have a small pot of chicken bones and mirepoix on a slow simmer so that I can have chicken stock on hand for practice over the next few weeks.  It freezes great so its easy to keep around. 

For those who want to know, the five mother sauces are Bechamel (milk), Veloute (stock), Espagnole or brown sauce (stock), Tomato and Hollandaise (egg).

Gravy is a beautiful thing too and has its place. Gravy is called an integral sauce because it is made from the juices released during the cooking of the meat.  For example, turkey gravy is made from the juice given from the turkey while roasting and it is served together.  The basic technique for this starts with the caramelized liquid in the pan that was given off from roasted meat and any vegetables cooked with it. I add mirepoix in the bottom of my roasting pan when I roast chicken so that my liquid will have additional flavor from the onion and carrot. I make sure that gets good and brown with some caramelization.   You deglaze this with a flavorful liquid like wine or broth to get it to release from the pan and lift up the yummy bits that add flavor.  You can then thicken with a slurry of water and cornstarch or a roux and sometimes cream or milk. Serve as-is or strain to get out any lumps.  And you got gravy!

I also learned how to make mayonnaise by hand.  It's great at a BBQs when you can put out a dish of homemade mayo, which is also what aoli is. This base can be flavored in many ways to compliment many sandwiches or burgers.

In addition to all of this we also learned how to truss and roast a chicken, learned about various families of vegetables, talked about herbs and had demos and tastings for Chicken Princessa and Chicken Fricassee-part of roasting and poaching demos.

If you have any questions about stocks or sauces, feel free to ask.  I am certainly no expert but have some good basics to share. My over all grade is an A right now, I am doing well on my tests and other assignments and my hands-on production has been going OK but it takes time to learn what something is supposed to taste like so you can duplicate it.  It my case, my sauces looks 100% correct but tastes about 80% correct, so that will be my mission for the next month. Taste, analyze, adjust and taste until I it tastes as accurate at it looks.

Weeks 1 and 2

WOW!!  I have made it through 2 full weeks of culinary school and I cannot believe the amount of information we have already covered.  Our days are mostly the same format. You always arrive early, at least by 15 minutes because there is often some amount of set up that needs to be done, especially if we are in "production" which means the students do hands-on work. Basically, if you are on time, you are late. End of story.

Every day there are 3 people assigned as Sous Chef, Sanitation Steward and Food Steward. They are in charge of attending to the Chef's needs, making sure sanitation tasks are taken care of and that all food items are retrieved and stored properly. I was Sanitation Steward for today!

So upon arrival, we read what is going on for that day and we set up our our work areas if needed (cutting boards, sanitation buckets, knives and peelers, etc).  Then the Chef comes in and takes attendence and sometimes does an inspection. We must be in proper uniform that is pressed and clean, nails short, hat and cravat on, thermometer and black sharpie are in our uniform pocket and of course the black shoes and socks. Inspection happens about 3 times a week. 

We might go into lecture for a while first and then the Chef might do the demo.  If appropriate, we will then duplicate what he just did on our own.  During these 2 weeks we did knife cuts on potatoes, carrots, tomato, zuchini and onion.  At the end of each week, Chef cooks up whatever we cut for that week for a tasting demo on Friday. (On Friday of week one, Chef made mashed potatoes that were to die for. Literally. He used about tons of real butter and not half-and-half but WHOLE cream.  I think I had a tiny stroke after the tasting.)

Then at end of the day we do our clean up of the entire kitchen and then the last hour is all about sanitation and food safety with a different Chef instructor. It's what we call "The Nasty Class" because it is all about the disgusting things that go on with food-borne illness, safety and allergy, contamination and all the other disgusting things that can happen (and do happen) in the food service business.

So, weeks 1 and 2 consisted of knife cuts, weights and measures, history of food service and learning the kitchen positions called The Brigade. We also did recipe conversions (converting to yield a larger or smaller number of servings) and learned all about brown and white stock preparation.

Working with the knives and learning our cuts was really fun.  We did have a few people give themselves pretty bad cuts, but I was not one of them. I am sure my time will come.

Here are the knife cuts we learned during week 1 and 2:

• Batonnet cut
• Small dice
• Julienne and Fine Julienne
• Brunoise and Fine Brunoise
• Concasse
• Cisseler
• Mince
• Tourne
• Oblique

The stock making process was also a very interesting one.  We worked with very large volumes like it would be done in a professional kitchen so there were huge stock pots filled with simmering bones and mirepoix (celery, onion, carrot mix).  For the brown stock we used 2 huge trays of roasted veal bones, mostly joints because those have the most cartilige and create the best stocks.  The mirepoix is browned on the stove (or roasted in the oven) and tomato paste is added to that and browned slightly, then we deglaze with red wine.  This is what gives the brown stock the deep, dark color.  Some herbs are added as well, but no salt.  All of this simmered overnight and in the morning we "dropped" the stock to seperate the broth from the solids and quickly cooled it in an ice bath so it was ready for storage and out of the tempurature danger zone for pathogen growth.   A white stock is essentially the same process except we used a huge tray of chicken bones, did not brown the bones or mirepoix, no tomato paste and after it simmered overnight, we got a beautiful, butter colored stock.  Both stocks were reduced down to glazes that were combined with the vegetables we cut up that week and we all did a tasting. Yummmm.  The stocks will be used as flavoring in other recipes such as in the 5 leading "mother" sauces and demi-glaces we will learn about next week!!

This weekend I will be practicing my knife cuts on potatoes and carrots.  I guess I will be eating a lot of mashed potato and carrot soup for the next few months!

First day of school. I feel like a girl of 13 again!

Today was my first day of  culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Seattle.  For the last week leading up to today, I felt confused, scared and suddenly unsure about my decision. I worried about all sorts of things: What if I hated it? What if I sucked?  What if it was just not what I expected it to be?  I guess this is why they give you a 5 day grace period after you start class to backout with a full refund.  I didn't understand how I could be so sure one day and not the next but when I went to bed last night all of that was gone!  I felt renewed and had the same feeling of excitement and joy that I felt when I enrolled a month ago. Phew!

Today's agenda included getting our uniforms, being fitted for our shoes and reviewing the syllabus for the first of the 2 classes we will be in for the next 6 weeks: Culinary Foundations 1 with Chef Knaup (hilarious guy) and Food Safety and Sanitation with Chef Brian Kim. 

Our uniform consists of a chef jacket with Le Cordon Bleu logo on it, those funky black and white checkered pants you sometimes see on cooks, a neckerchief or cravat, a skull cap/beenie hat, towels, non-slip black leather shoes (steel-toed) and all this it neatly tied together with a long white apron!  I have NEVER felt more attractive in my life.

The shoe experience was different.  There was actually a big "shoe truck" out back where we all walked up into, two at a time like we were being loaded onto an ark, and we tried on and walked out with our shoes.  I asked for something in Gucci but that was not offered under this tuition level.

Our grade will be based on things such as quizzes and final exams like in a regular school but we also get graded on professionalism, organization, safety, culinary skills, etc. 

Some of you may wonder if we are required to respond to your instructors with a "Yes, Chef!"  Yes, you do.  It is the respectful way to respond when asked a question and it shows the instructor that you understand the request.  You can give a "No, Chef" or "Maybe, Chef" or "Not sure, Chef"  if that response makes sense too.

The people in my class seem pretty nice, all ranging in age from just graduated from high school to others in their 40's like me.  There were some like me who seemed really enthusiastic and immediately took their place on the first row of seats.  And there were some that have already worked in the business. And there was one guy who had even already been yelled at by Chef Ramsey!  He said it was not fun, but I can't understand why.  I realize I am going to have to work with many different types of people, personalities, maturity and industry experience levels. But I know I have something I can learn from each person and maybe they will learn a few things from me.

So that was about it for day one, the rest of the week will include getting our books, reviewing more "housekeeping" related items like policies and proceedures and I think on Wednesday we get our took kit including our knives!!  Stay tuned!

What made me finally enroll in culinary school?

Honestly, I don't know why it happened on that day. It was July 15, 2010, and I think I saw one too many of those commercials encouraging me to "get my career cooking" and to "call now for a free brochure".  Since I left my beauty industry job about 2 years ago, I have been working in a call center for a vacation resort company as a customer service agent.  I was helping wonderful customers get on vacations, I had a great supervisor, health benefits and vacation time. Sounds pretty good, right? But, as I told my friend Steven  11 years ago, I wondered if I would ever find my greatness. Your "greatness" is that one thing you are destined to be, that you are really good at and enjoy working toward everyday. I see it happening to others, but wondered if that would ever happen to me. How do I find that?? 

I had no idea where to start and I honestly thought it would eventually find me instead.  I figured it was a matter of destiny and I would fall into something fabulous that I would have a secret talent for, people would love me and my life would become effortless!  Mmmmmkaaaay.  Not exactly.  18 months and 3 internal job interviews later, I am still in the same place.  I am well liked there, have recieved awards for performance and I am happy doing it about 50% of the time (is anyone really happy with their job more than that?)  But I am still just---there. Thank you for calling.

So why culinary school? I love food. I love cooking. I love eating and feeding people. I finish cooking one dish and I am already on to thinking about the next thing I can make. I don't shop with a grocery list, I wait till I get there, see whats on sale, really fresh or catches my eye and pull up Big Oven on my  iphone for ways to prepare it. This means I will sometimes be preparing 2 or 3 dishes at the same time. I can't help myself. This is either my destiny or an eating disorder.

I am not unique in my love for cooking and food.  Lots of people love it but some people love it just a little more.  Or a lot more.  I think it started for me when I was a child. It was in the late 70's and my father and I used to watch the earlier cooking shows on public television waaaaayyy before they had any food networks.  We would watch Great Chefs of New Orleans, Chicago and France, among others.  I still remember the sight of the chef placing water-bathed ramikins of eggs and cream in the oven for shirred eggs, one of my favorite breakfast indulgences. I think I was about 10. We also watched other shows like Yan Can Cook and The Frugel Gourmet.  Julia Child was naturally a staple.  But my father was really the one to credit with exposing me to cooking. He would often be home from work first and would begin preparing dinner and he would share his knowledge with me. He taught me alot of things but this is what I remember learning from him more than anything else.

I think this journey will mean alot more to me than just a career. In this way I will continue to remember my father and the things that I think made him special to me.  And I know that through this I will finally find my greatness.  And perhaps as a bonus I will learn to do a proper dice.