Cuisine of Americas week one

Our first buffet after
externship

Back to school!

After five months of externship it's great to be back to school. We got another five jackets with the name on it. Strange that we did not get pants, only jackets. After four days of classes I would say that our group is different as to compare to the first year. People have changed during the externship. We also lost a couple of individuals, probably not the most cooperative ones. The group now is really a team, not a bunch of individuals on their own agenda. As a result it is much easier in the kitchen and we are more productive.

Jonnycakes with mushroom sauce
and acorn squash

Tuesday - the first day of the class
Our team menu for Tuesday was:
new England clam chowder
old fashioned crab cakes with coleslaw and remoulade sauce
Jonnycakes with  mushroom sauce and seasonal vegetables.

I was working on Jonnycakes, mushroom sauce, and seasonal vegetables. After my externship at Google I found prep work for the class very easy. To cut six onions sounds like nothing, after cutting five gallons of onions. The sauce took the most time for cooking, however I decided to prepare the sauce and then reheat and finish with cheese for the service. That step allowed me to avoid holding the sauce in double boiler.
Vegetables in season that day was acorn squash. I cut them in half, cleaned seed, and cut into wedges. After that these wedges were seasoned with maple sugar and melted butter and roasted at 350 oven for about 15 minutes.
About 30 minutes before service time started making Jonnycakes in cast iron skillets (this is important, as cast iron is much heavier and distributes heat more evenly).
Here is the link for the recipe for Jonnycakes.

Salt cod cakes ready
for service

Wednesday
We had the same menu with a slight deviation from Tuesday - instead crab cakes we made cod cakes and I got this project. I thought it would be easier, but there were so many steps, so it took me almost the whole class to make these cakes. I only once was distracted when I had to help with breaking down chickens for the Thursday.
Cod cakes were actually fun to make. You have to soak salt cod in a water overnight (at least). Then you simmer it in milk for about 20 minutes and rinse under cold water. The next step is to cook potatoes and mash them. Sweat onions with garlic. When everything is cooled down you can mix all ingredients together with addition of eggs and seasoning. Then you form cakes in a shape of small patties. Bread them with breadcrumbs (actually full breading process - flour, eggs, breadcrumbs), wrap them in the bacon, fry in the oil till golden in colour and finish cooking in the oven.
Here is the recipe for Salt cod cakes.

Shrimps and grits

Thursday
There was a different menu. This class we have every menu for two days. So if we made mistakes on a day one, we can fix them and do a better job on day two.
For our team the menu was:
Seasonal greens with peanut dressing
Buttermilk fried chicken
Whipped potatoes
Braised greens
Country Chicken gravy
Barbecued shrimps with white cheddar grits
Dirty rice
The menu became definitely bigger than in days one and two.
On Thursday I cooked shrimps with grits. Shrimps were easy - prepare dry rub (salt, black, white, and cayenne peppers, onion and garlic powder, paprika, sugar), clean shrimps and apply dry rub. Shortly before service, pan fry shrimps (I know it said BBQ, but for the 30 shrimps start real BBQ is not efficient, and there is not much flavor from a gas one). Then deglaze pan with beer and chicken stock, add Worcestershire sauce and tabasco, reduce, add butter and scallions. It's ready.
Grits were even easier. It's like polenta but made from white corn (actually white corn cooked, then dried completely, and then ground).
I was watching the preparation for the dirty rice and helped a little bit. That dish was really tasty (if you like liver). Here is the recipe for the Dirty rice.

Braised greens

Friday
The second day of the menu.
I cooked whipped potatoes and braised greens. The whipped potatoes was nothing new. The same classical recipe we were making in Fundamental class.
Braised greens we used  were collard greens. I started with cleaning grens, removing stalks, and chopping for bite size pieces. Then they were blanched. After that I sweat onion and garlic, add greens, covered, and place into oven for about an hour. Meanwhile I had ham hocks simmering for a while. By the time greens were ready, my ham hock was also cooked and I was able to remove meat and cut it in small pieces. The last part was just to combine all ingredients and adjust seasoning.