Day ninety seven

Green Beans on the buffet

Can vegetarian food be good?

Today we cooked a new menu. We made:

• Wisconsin Cheddar and Beer Soup, 
• Iceberg salad with Thousand Island Dressing, 
• Grilled Flat Iron Steaks with compound butter, 
• Green Beans with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions, 
• Roasted potatoes, 
• Pan fried Pork Cutlets with Sauce Charcuterie, 
• Sautéed Swiss Chard, 
• Roasted Golden beets with Chives, and 
• Warm German Potato salad.

The menu was bigger than last week and also the big change on the menu is that we moved from a big protein items (turkey for example) to the portion size items (pork cutlets/grilled steak).

Our team was responsible for the
Roasted beats, Potato salad, and Green Beans. The last dish was my 'project' for a day.

Caramelized onion after 45 minutes

Green Beans were cleaned and cut on half, then boiled for approximately 90% of doneness. After that they were shocked in ice water, drained, and dried. Mushrooms were cleaned and cut in quarters, sautéed (I used method described by J. Child - do not overcrowd pan and do not put too much oil; mushrooms will absorb all oil in the pan, regardless of the amount, then they will release all oil, so at the beginning it seems there is no oil at all and you want to add more, but do not do this).
Onions were sliced thinly and caramelized very slowly (it took me around 50 minutes) till even golden colour. Just before service green beans were reheated in boiling water (and they cooked for the remaining 10%), mixed with melted butter and reheated with onions and mushrooms. The final dish was really good.

With beets there were a confuse. We reduced vinegar with orange juice for the glaze. It took more than an hour to make it balanced with a good flavor and consistency. After that somebody decided to place it in plastic bottle and keep warm. To keep it warm, the bottle was placed in a metall container, and that container was placed on the hot stove. Guess what? The bottom of the plastic bottle melted. So we have to make another glaze in 10 minutes.

So the food were good finally, somehow it's really difficult to work as a group. I do not know why, probably because everyone has huge ego, and we all wants to be the smartest in the group. Will see what we will get tomorrow.

Iceberg salad - very colourful