Externship week twenty one

Duck confit

How to make the perfect duck confit...

This week I was back to the HangOut one of my favorite cafe on campus. I was there in September 2013 and now when I had a choice where to spend my last two weeks I chose this place without doubts. The chef is the same (this was the main reason I came back), the food are really interesting. Some dishes we made this week are:  slow roasted leg of pork, crab Singapore style, leg of lamb, fresh pasta with mornay sauce with saffron.
Here is a recap of
the working week.

Monday

Pork leg served Monday

My first project in the kitchen was duck confit. To make a really good and tasty duck confit there are many steps involved. However, I have to say that the majority of these steps are not labor intensive, you should just wait patiently. So the first thing first, you need to cure duck legs. Cure is dry marinade (let put it this way). For the marinade I used garlic, rosemary, parsley, thyme, fennel seeds, coriander seeds,  black peppercorns, cloves, star anise, and salt. All spices except for the star anise and cloves, were minced in a processor. The amount of spices are approximate, depends on your taste. Keep in mind that star anise and cloves are very strong spices. Salt you can actually weight, it should be 2-3 % of the duck legs weight, depending on the time you are going to cure it. The best result is to cure legs for two days and go with 2% of salt.
After legs were cured, I helped salad station to prepare composed salad.
Also I had to cut two bags of potatoes. They asked me to do it 'bite size' and I did. The chef did not like it, he said too big, but I could bite it with no problems:-)

Tuesday

Pizza

Worked on pizza station. We had pizza with tomato sauce and burrata cheese, topped with fresh basil. Also we had flat bread with fromage blanc, fresh herbs, bacon, marinated persimmons, and mozzarella cheese. We formed dough (it was made a day before) for pizza and flat bread, partially baked it and then builded pizzas and flat bread. During the service we had to finish baking and serve it to the guests.
After the lunch I got two projects: to clean beef fillets and to cook wild rice. With the rice a mistake happened. The chef said to do it in a steamer with 1:2 ratio (one part of rice, two parts of water). What he did not mentioned is that I should cover the rice. For me it was not obvious, since it was a wild rice and to cook it as a boiling method you need 1:3 ratio. After cooking the rice for 1h15m in a steamer, it was cooked, but there were water on the bottom of each pan. So I had to drain the water...
Cleaning the fillets was a very relaxing job. I like working with meat. Should I try butchery?


Wednesday

Rice porridge with chicken and
'sous vide' egg

I was asked to work breakfast on the line. My responsibility was to serve individual portions of one dish. There was brown rice porridge with chicken, cilantro, and some ginger. It was served in a bowl with a sous vide egg on top. Sous vide eggs are very interesting. You cook them for about 45 minutes at 147 F. A properly cooked egg will have very soft yolk, almost runny, and quite undercooked white. To finish the dish I used cilantro leaves for garnish and maldon salt for the finishing touch.
After breakfast and my break I was sent to prepare pupusas for Thursday. A pupusa is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla that is usually filled with a blend of the following: cheese cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency refried beans, or queso con loroco. It soundseasy, but to make them is a pain the ass. The dough should be soft, otherwise when you fry it it will be rock hard. Since the dough is made from masa, there is no gluten and it is not elastic. If you put too much feeling the dough will tear. Will see Thursday how they come out.
My last project for the day was to prepare duck legs for confit. I had to rinse off salt and spices, place them single layer in hotel pans, and then add duck fat, just enough to cover them. Duck fat was not melted (I did not know that I should melt it), so I just eyeballed the right amount of fat to each pan. Then covered all of them with plastic wrap and foil on top.

Thursday

Pupusas - Salvadorian dish

In the morning I was working serving pupusas for breakfast. The first butch was a little bit dry, as it was fried and then hold in a hot box. During holding the masa (corn flour) absorbed all moisture. Then we started to cook them to order. This way pupusas were much better. I was plating them. There was like assembly line. First pupusas, then cabbage slaw, then scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa verde. The last was a touch of sour cream on top and a cilantro leaf for garnish.
For lunch I worked on pasta station. Suppose to be there by myself, but the chef had to help me. It was my first time working at this cafe on pasta station, in September I did not have a chance. Everything was kind of new. Yes, it was understandable, but to be efficient I needed to see once how to do it. The chef helped me to set up station and we cooked the first butch together. Then I was by myself. There were two different pasta dishes - one is traditional bolognese and the other was with sauce mornay with saffron. The first half an hour of service were hectic. The guests were in lane waiting to get food. There were enough food on the buffet, but people need some time to decide what they want and serve themselves. After lunch I cleaned station, help with the breakfast preparation and left.
Duck confit were cooked for six hours during the day at 275 F in these covered pans. These legs came out beautiful, very tasty.

Friday

Flat bread from pizza station

Was my last day at this cafe. The whole morning I worked with pizza guy helping him out. During the lunch I helped protein team to cut turkey breast for the service. Also had a discussion with the chef regarding my performance and some suggestion for the future.

One week left of my externship, these five months were really quick.