Day ninety five

Minestrone soup on the buffet

What is Minestrone soup (with a recipe)?

We have cooked a new menu today in a class. The menu was: Turkey stew; Biscuits; Warm Cabbage Salad; Rosti Potatoes; Seasonal Vegetables; Minestrone Soup; Pork Loin; and Sauteed Apples.

I was responsible for a Minestrone Soup. I like this soup, it's Italian vegetable soup with small pasta and  beans. What I did not realize yesterday is that a lot of cutting and chopping involved. We made a big batch (five gallons) and also we did not have chicken stock on hand, so we had to make vegetable stock for the soup (even more chopping and cutting). At some point

Day ninety four

Root vegetables for Yankee Pot Roast

What is brine? Will it help to keep turkey moist?

Today we had the same menu we cooked yesterday, but with different assignment. I was responsible for vegetables for Yankee Pot Roast. Our roast was good, but not great. There were a number of reasons: the meat we got probably was not the best choice for roast; due to mistake at the beginning we had too much tomato paste (and I noticed, that tomato does not help to tenderize meat, I think it because of acidity). At the end pot roast was close to 'fork tender' but a bit dry. By the way, when we speak about doneness and use term 'fork tender', it means that we are able to insert fork into meat easily and more important easily remove it.

Vegetables for garnish we used an assortment  of different root vegetables. We used carrots, turnips (yellow and white), parsnip, peas, and pearl onion. We pre-cooked them in boiling water and then, just before service, reheated in a glaze (mixture of chicken stock, lemon juice, butter, salt, pepper, and sugar).

Day ninety three

Roasted turkey on the buffet

The secret of roasting a turkey.

Today we have started a new class - Modern Banquet and Catering. This is our first class where our goal is to cook food for the real customers - students at the school. All classes we have had before were designed to build our knowledge and practical skills in cooking. Now we are moving to the production.

Our menu for today was: green salad, New-England clam chowder, Yankee pot roast, root vegetables, roasted turkey, stuffing, Mariera sauce, whipped potatoes, cranberry relish, and seasonal vegetables. As my friend said this is banquet for the poor people.

All these dishes were distributed between class and everyone was responsible for something. I was responsible for a turkey. It was not so difficult. What I found out is that the best way to cook turkey is to separate legs from the carcass and cook them separately as they tend to cook longer and the breast will be overcooked by the time the legs are cooked properly. So I have them cooked separate. The turkey was simply roasted. Season it with

Day ninety two

What do you know about sea urchin?

It was Thursday and it was final day for Seafood identification and fabrication course. Also we had the mid-term exam for the College Writing.

Final for the Seafood was three parts. We had theory exam, practical part, and product identification test. Theory was alright, I think I did ok. Fabrication was good, however the Instructor said that I missed small piece of fillet and reduced grade by whole point (completely unfair). Product ID was also good, probably missed a couple out of a dozen.

As a part of the last day we had sea urchin and caviar tasting. Before yesterday I have no idea about that creature. Yes, I knew that they are exist and even saw them in Egypt. I know they can be dangerous, people stepped on them

Day ninety one

Fabricated lean cod

 Where scallops came from...


This was a day for review and preparation for our practical for Seafood identification and fabrication.

We had flounder, lean cod, and trout. Also, quite by a chance, we received scallops in shell, soft shell crabs, and whole anchovies.

To take fillets from anchovies is a messy job. They are small, they are not gutted, so the cutting board was really dirty. The good thing is that we handled them at the end, so I just brought my cutting board to dishwasher pit.

Soft shell crab was an interesting creature. It had really soft

Day ninety

An assortment of shrimps for today. The
first one with long legs is funny

Shrimps, are they safe to eat?

Today we had final for our management and seafood class.

Management started from the final quiz and then two more teams were giving their presentations. I was in the very last group to present. We had quite a serious issue within our group. One of the member hold all material and basically was making powerpoint as he would like to see it, all our efforts to do something were rejected. Yesterday evening we had no powerpoint and we made another one as a contingency plan. Today he brought the powerpoint, unfortunately not exactly what we were looking for. So it was 10 minutes of shame and it's over. Our instructor is aware about this and unfortunately, the trouble maker is a guy with learning issues. Will be waiting for the results.

For seafood class we had a shrimp day. To be more precise we had shrimps, scallops, and squid (they are all my favorite). Also we smoked salmon today, after four days of curing. In the beginning  of the class we watched a short documentary about shrimp farming in Bangladesh. The people (in the movie) were complaining

Day eighty nine

Our crab

What is the meat/shell ratio in a crab?

Today was a Crustaceans day. Each of us had lobster and crab. We had crayfish for the group and one guy cooked it in Louisiana style (with tomatoes, onion, garlic, paprica, a touch of cayenne). It was really tasty.

Lobster was easy. It has just two claws and a tail where meat is located. What I did not do is to skewer live lobster, so when you cook it the tail is not curve. May be it was my first lobster... I can imagine to put it in a boiling water (what I did), or stub it with my knife... But to skewer it first is not what I want to do. There is another way to avoid curving,