"Flounder Your Way"

I just have to say that I think my classmates are frakking talented!

Here are the results of "Flounder Your Way."

By the way, mine's number 8.

Revision for Level 2's 3rd exam (Part 1)

Lesson 10

Blind baking - it usually applies to tart shells. A two-step method requires that the tart shell be partially or completely baked and then cooled before any filling is added. Blind baking is required for tarts in which the filling is not to be baked, or for tarts with fillings that bake quickly or require a low temperature. When the raw shell is simply filled, and the tart shell and filling are baked together, it's a one-step method. This method usually requires a long baking time.

Fraisage - it's a step/process in making a pate. To ensure that a tart dough is homogeneous, walnut-sized pieces are removed from the dough and crushed against the work surface with the heel of the hand or with a metal bench scraper. If it's not done quickly, the fat will melt, and the extra working of the dough will develop gluten. 

Gluten - it is an elastic network of proteins that is formed when glutenin and gliaden molecules in the flour are moistened with liquid and the dough is worked. 

Pâte - it is a dough that is used as a container for filling, like a tart or a quiche. There are several types of pâte. Brisée, sucrée, sablée, feuilletée, and à choux are a few examples. 

Sabler - to sabler a dough means to cut fat, usually cold butter, into the starch, usually flour, until it is evenly distributed and reaches a cornmeal-like consistency and roughly the size of dried lentils. 

Pâte Brisée - literally translated, it means "broken dough." It's a flaky pastry dough that usually has little flavoring other than salt. It is made of a low-protein flour, or cake flour, fat (cold butter, usually), salt, and liquid (usually water or egg, other liquids may be substituted for flavor and appearance). To make it, we begin by "cutting" or sabléing in the fat into the dry ingredients (flour & salt), until we get a cornmeal-like consistency, the size of dried lentils. Then the liquid is added. The cut-in method can also be done in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. To make sure the dough is homogeneous, we fraisage small walnut-sized pieces from the dough and then form a pâton that is chilled and rested.

Pâte Sucrée/Pâte Sablée - Sugared or sweet dough/sandy dough contain sugar. The latter has more. They have a crumbly texture, rather than a flaky texture found in the brisée, because the high sugar content sweetens and tenderizes the dough. They can be made by hand using the same cut-in method as described for pâte brisée.  When using a machine, the creaming method can be used. The fat (butter) and the sugar (usually powdered sugar) are worked together in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and airy. After, the liquid (usually eggs) is added, and finally the flour is added.


Lesson 11

Génoise - It is a classic cake. It has a light, airy texture developed without the aid of leavening agents. It's also known as a whole egg foam cake. For a genoise batter, whole eggs and sugar are mixed and warmed together until the mixture reaches a temperature of 110°F. Then it is whipped until it increases in volume by three times. Then flour, melted butter, and flavoring agent are folded in. The batter is poured into a cake mold and baked in a preheated oven. However, in class our chef instructor showed us a different way to make a genoise. We whipped whole eggs and sugar together in a mixer until the volume had tripled. We added in softened butter, then the flour, while the mixer was still going. We then baked it until (1) the top of the cake had risen, like a souffle, and browned. (2) The side had pulled away from the sides. (3) The center of the cake sprung back when touched. (4) And the skewer came out clean.

Biscuit -  It is the second most frequently used foundation cake. It is also an egg foam cake, but this time the eggs are separated. A classic example of a biscuit is ladyfingers. In a mixer, the egg whites and sugar are whisked to make a French meringue. In another mixer, the yolk, flavoring agent, like vanilla extract, and flour, sifted in a little at a time, are whisked to blanchir. If butter is used, add the softened/melted butter to the yolk mixture. The meringue is gently folded in to the yolk mixture, making sure not to lose the volume. The batter is then piped or spreaded onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. It is then baked.

Buttercream - it is a smooth mixture of sugar, fat, flavorings, and egg yolks or egg whites. It is used to frost cakes, or fill various pastry preparations. There are three types: (1) pate a bombe buttercream, which is egg yolks whisked together with hot sugar syrup. Then butter is mixed in with the paddle attachment. (2) Italian meringue buttercream, which uses egg whites instead of yolks. And (3) creme mousseline buttercream, which incorporates pastry cream into the butter.

Sugar syrup - it is used for poaching fruit, making icings, buttercreams, meringues, pate a bombe mixtures, glazes, fondants, and caramels. It's made with sugar and water, heated until the sugar dissolves, or cooked longer to concentrate the syrup. For class, we made simple syrup, which is made by boiling together in equal parts sugar and water. It can then be flavored, frequently with liqueur. We used it to moisten the genoise cake. One thing to note is that sugar syrup, or sugar, can be cooked to several subsequent stages. The sugar gets darker and behaves differently when dropped into cold water. When making Italian meringue, we want the syrup in the soft ball stage.

Turns/Tourage -

Happy New Year!

I kinda don't know where to start.
Apparently, it's been a month since I blogged.
Oops!
So, let me give a quick recap.
I passed level 1.
I was dreading the practical, because I figured I'm still a bit slow with my knife work, but I passed! In fact, I did quite well! *Brushing my shoulder*
I'm already several lessons in for level 2.
I have a trail tomorrow at a Michelin starred restaurant I'm hoping to land an internship with.
So, wish me luck!

And Happy New Year!

Shellfish

This is the third part of my revision for my test today. Yikes!

What is a shellfish? They are not really fish. Rather they are invertebrate animals. They are grouped into three distinct categories:

1. Crustaceans - a class of arthropod. They are noted for having an exoskeleton, a segmented body (the cephalothorax and the abdomen), and jointed appendages. Examples are lobsters, crabs, prawns, langoustines, crayfish, and shrimp; or decapods--5 pairs of legs
2. Mollusks - Their anatomy contains three parts--a muscular foot, an assembly of circulatory, digestive, and sexual organs, and then mantle; They are divided into three categories
• bivalves - creatures with two shells, such as oysters, scallops, and clams; saltwater creatures; they have adductor muscle that is used to close the shells
• univalves - creatures with one shell, such as snails and winkles; can be either saltwater or land inhabitants; they have an operculum, or the sole of the foot to move around
• cephalopods - creatures with bilateral symmetry and somewhat inverted--they have a muscular exterior mantle (the sheet-like muscle) on the outside of their shell. They have a siphon under their heads for movement, well-developed eyes, arms or tentacles, an ink sac. Examples are squid, cuttlefish, and octopus
3. Echinoderms - a group of sea invertebrates that are found at every measurable ocean depth. Sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

There's a relationship between cooking time and the amount and type of connective tissue a protein source has.  Crustaceans and bivalve- & univalve- mollusks have very delicate connective tissues, so they generally require very brief cooking. Whereas cephalopods have more connective tissues. For optimal flavor and texture, they can be either cooked briefly, or for a long time to soften the collagen. Echinoderms are used for their creamy, flavorful reproductive organs and eggs.

In regards to handling and preparing…

… Lobsters: Live ones can be kept refrigerated for up to 48 hours. Anesthetize them in iced salt water for 30 min or in a freezer for about 2 hours before boiling, grilling, or roasting them. Their tomalley (liver) and coral (ovary) can be added to sauces. As a general rule, the cooking time is 8 mins per pound, and for every additional pound, we add 2 mins to the cooking time.  When boiling, the cooking time starts when the water or court bouillon comes back to a boil.

… Langoustines: Like lobsters, can be chilled then cooked.

… Prawns: Their exoskeleton can be peeled with the fingers

… Crayfish: Live ones should be placed in the freezer, for about an hour, before boiling them.  Their tails can be peeled.

… Shrimps: They can be peeled with the fingers. The dark vein along the outside curve of shrimp is the end of the digestive tract.  It should be pulled away from the surrounding muscle

… Crabs:  Live ones can be kept refrigerated for up to 48 hours. Kill them right before cooking. Pierce the body at one of two points: the ventral nerve center or the head, going in through the mouth. Their large digestive gland, or mustard/butter is prized for a rich, intense flavor and creamy texture

… Clams: Can be immersed in salted water for about 20min. Scrub the shells to clean. Do not open until they are needed

… Oysters: They are the most tender bivalves. Do not open until they are needed

… Mussels: They have byssus, or beard, that need debearding. They may be soaked in salted cold water for about 20min.  Flour may be added to to the salt water.

… Scallops: Remove the band of nerves surrounding the muscle.  Briefly soak the shucked scallop in cold water or milk.

… And so many more… ARGHHHHHH!!!!!

What is Court Bouillon? It means "short broth." It's called a short broth because it is cooked for a relatively short time. It's made up of water and an acid (wine/vinegar/lemon juice), aromatics (mirepoix) and bouquet garni. A court bouillon is used for poaching seafood mainly. A fish served à la nave (swimming) is presented in the court bouillon in which it was cooked.

What is à l'américaine or armoricaine?  The terms can refer either to a method of preparation (such as lobster à l'américaine/armoricaine), or to a sauce served to accompany shellfish (lobster with sauce américaine/armoricaine). 

• To make the sauce, the meat of the shellfish is removed and prepared separately. The shells are used to make the sauce. The shells are broken apart and sautéed.  Miropoix is then added.  Next comes flambéing it with brandy and adding white wine/white vermouth, and then simmering with fish fumet and tomatoes (purée and paste). The mixture is then puréed and strained.
• To prepare a sauté en sauce, the shellfish is cleaned, sectioned, and sautéed in the shell. The meat is then flambéed and the sauce is prepared in the same manner as about. The way we did it in class wasn't a sauté en sauce. Rather the protein was prepared separately: we either roasted the whole lobster or boiled it. The sauce was made separately with shells.
• Bisque is basically a sauce américaine base with the addition of rice and cream.

Although we made several shellfish dishes, unfortunately I did not take any pictures. :o(

Flat Fish

The bottom dwelling flatfish are an ugly bunch of fish. We apply the same dressing rules with flatfish. Unlike a round fish, we can get 4 fillets with a flatfish, instead of 2.

Oh, by the way, I think I finally remember the word I was looking for in my prior post! "Revise!" The Brits revise for an exam. Yay! I finally remembered! Senility ain't gonna get me and do me in!

And here's a quick note regarding filleting: it don't come naturally for me. Not just yet. I pretty much butchered and ruined a good half of all the fish I have been given. At one point, my arms were criss-crossed causing my chef instructor to declare his worry for me and my classmates. But you learn from your mistakes, right? I need more practice.

Now, let's go over a few other methods of cooking fish.  Last time, we learned the en papillote method, which involved baking, braising, and steaming, and the à la meunière method, which involved sautéing the fish with butter.

1. Deep-frying/Frying
We can deep-fry a fish that are either whole or cut into darnes, fillets, or tronçons. A goujon, a miniature fish, like a smelt or a minnow, are almost always served deep-fried. So, when larger fish fillets are cut into strips the same size as a goujon, the strips are called goujonettes. The method of preparation is identical for all fish. We use the paner à l'anglaise method. Apparently, the French love the English manner in all their cookery. Although this English manner is different from what we did with vegetables.

1. Prepare the fish in the à l'anglaise way: The fish are dredged in flour, dipped in an egg mixture, and coated in bread crumbs. They can be dredged in only flour or batter.  
2. Fish are then deep-fried in 350ºF oil until golden brown.
3. Fried fish is traditionally served with fried parsley.

Here's an example of what we did: Goujonettes de limande aux deux sauces (bread crumb-coated flounder with two sauces)

2&3. Roasting & Grilling
We didn't do either of them in class.
For roasting a fish, it's important to rub it with oil. It can be roasted on its own or with vegetables. No need to turn the fish. Also the tail should be covered to prevent it from burning/charring.
For grilling a fish, make sure to dry it, and clean and oil the grill properly to prevent the fish from sticking. Place the presentation side first to the grill. Mark the fish with a quadrillage, the criss-cross mark from grilling. (Aside: we can do a quadrillage with breaded fish before it is fried. Mark the fish with the dull edge of the knife.)

4. Braising
It is a mixed cooking method in which the protein is partially immersed in liquid.
(1) For braising fish, the fish is placed on a bed of aromatic garniture (fond de braisage). The fond de braisage provides different aromatic elements to the dish and often determines the name. For the dish we did in class, filet de limande bonne femme, the "Bonne Femme" is shallots, parsley, and mushrooms. (2) The moistening liquid is made with fish fumet and wine. (3) After the fish is cooked, the garniture and cooking liquid is reduced to make the sauce. They are often bound with a beurre manié or with a reduction of cream. For Bonne Femme, it was with cream. (4) Then we can glaze the dish under a salamander. It's advisable to add a sabayon to the finished sauce; this highlights the color and stabilizes the sauce. For our case, we used whipped cream, instead of a sabayon.

5. Poisson au Plat vs. Poisson en Sauce
The two are pretty much the same. We utilize the braising technique. I'll highlight the differences between the two.

1. In au plat, we use a serving dish, whereas for en sauce, we use a sautoir.
2. The bottom contains the fond de braisage, then the fish, and the braising liquid (fumet and alcohol) is added. We cover and bring to a boil and we finish cooking in the oven or on stove top. For au plat, we finish cooking the fish before removing it to set aside. For en sauce, the fish is almost cooked before it is set aside.
3. For au plat, the cooking juice is reduced and monter au beurre. For en sauce, the cooking juice is reduced and heavy cream is added. and then it is further reduced until the sauce is nappant. The sauce can be bound with a velouté or beurre manié.
4. For au plat, the fish is returned to the serving dish. It's returned to the oven and basted several times until we get a perfect glaze. The fish is served in the dish it was cooked in. For en sauce, we can mount with butter off heat and the sauce is poured over the braised fish. It can then be glazed under a salamander.

Our Filet de limande bonne femme is an example of poisson en sauce method.

Round Fish

What is the common British English word that the Brits use to talk about reviewing for a test? I guess it's not important, but I've been thinking about that word only because I have a test this Monday. It'll be my third test, yet I feel a bit unprepared and unsure of myself with this one.  Anyways, I'm going to use this blog post to "review" for my test.

On the Fifth Day, God Made Fish... And all of mankind said, YUM.

In this lesson, we focused on heat and how it affects food:
How does it affect food? One important aspect of heat on protein is that proteins denature, or break down, and they coagulate, or knit new bonds with each other and with sugars. The food may change in texture, appearance, or even taste, depending on how much heat is applied. So another principle that we are revisiting is Maillard reactions. This time, it's important to note that 250ºF is an important number. At 250ºF, sugars and amino acids start bonding, forming new unstable molecules that continue to change with more heat. We see surface caramelization, or browning, and find flavors intensifying as proteins denature and coagulate. As for starches, when they are heated between 150ºF~212ºF, they absorb nearby water, soften, and become a less opaque, or they gelatinize. That's why starches are a good way to thicken a soup or to bound a sauce. Heating food with a lot of water in them will find its texture and flavor to change due to water evaporation. And heat allows fats to be a good cooking medium for browning foods, and retaining moisture during cooking.

• Heat denatures proteins and helps with coagulation.
• Heat facilitates the Maillard reactions between protein and carbs, starting at 250ºF, causing browning and enhancing flavor.
• Heat causes gelatinization of starches at 150ºF~212ºF.
• Heat evaporates the water in food, leading to texture and flavor changes
• Heat allows fats to be a great cooking medium for browning foods, and retaining moisture.

There are three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction requires direct contact. Convection sees the transfer of heat from one place to another by the movement of fluids. Radiation is energy emitted by matter as electromagnetic waves.

Various combination of heat transfer is used to cook. There are three cooking technique categories: dry, moist, and mixed. Dry will brown the food, whereas moist will heat food quicker, while supplying flavors from other ingredients.

• Dry technique: grilling, frying, baking, and broiling
• Moist technique: boiling, simmering, and poaching

There are many different ways to categorize fish. One way is by their fat content. Lean (demersal), medium, and fatty (pelagic). Another way, and for the purpose of this course, we classify fish based on their skeletal structure: round fish or flatfish.

When choosing a fish, check the following: (F.AGES)

• Firm flesh? a firm and intact stomach; a tightly closed anal cavity; firm and resistant to the touch
• Appearance? Shiny and brilliant, scales in place
• Gills? Bright red, moist and full of blood
• Eyes? Bright, shiny, and convex eyes
• Smell? a clean, fresh odor; fish that smells of the water it came from; should not be "fishy"

Then process the fish by dressing it (or scaling, plucking, or otherwise cleaning fish, poultry, or game):

• Remove fins (Fins)
• Scale the fish (Scales)
• Open the belly from the anus to the gills (INnards)
• Remove the gills and the entire intestinal tract (Gills)
• Thoroughly rinse the belly cavity with cold water (Rinse)

Remember to S.IN.G F(orward)/R(everse). In class, everything was pretty much done for us. We only had to remove the fins and the gills.

Round fish are cut into fillets (boneless sides), darnes (steaks, a cross section cut with the vertebra intact), and tronçons (multiple steaks).  To be honest, I still don't get what a tronçon cut would be. I googled it, but I'm not clear.

And we cooked fish in two different methods.  One method was en papillote. A fillet of lean, white fish, like a bass, which had been skinned, was used. On a piece of parchment paper, we placed tomato fondue and mushroom duxelles. We then placed the fillet, which had been in refrigerated with vegetable oil, salt, and thyme sprig, on top. Then on top of that a vegetable garniture, consisting of julienne of carrots, leeks, and celery cooked à l'étuvée, was place. A bit of white wine and garniture juice was splashed on top. The parchment paper was folded over the fish and sealed with the beaten egg whites.  The papillote was then placed in the preheated (450ºF) oven for about 7 to 8 minutes. The papillote should be completely puffed up. The techniques involved in this are baking, braising, and steaming.

The other method was a variation of the à la meunière, or the miller's wife's style. Here, we pan-fried a fillet of trout, skin intact and lightly floured only on the skin side, in butter. Once the fish has been cooked, a whole lot of butter is added to the pan and browned to the noisette (hazelnut) stage. That butter is called beurre noisette. We then added lemon juice and capers to the beurre noisette, to make this dish a poisson à la grenobloise. We sauced up the fish and topped it with diced lemon flesh and croutons.

Week 4 in Review

So, I have not been very good at updating this blog. Hmm... something has to change here. But because I do want to keep a record of my culinary education, I'm going to press on and provide a highlight of my week 4.

1. I Still Can't Define What a Salad is.
Salads are so obvious, yet if someone would ask me now, "What is a salad?," I won't seem to be able to put it in words. I mean I did memorize it for my test. But after I took the test, the definition provided by my textbook has gone out my brain window. Okay, so I'm looking it up now. Quoting verbatim from my textbook: "The definition of a salad is expansive and continues to grow even today: The Prentice Hall Essentials Dictionary of Culinary Arts (Prentice Hall, 2008) defines," and this is the most important point, "a salad as 'a single food or a mix of different foods, accompanied or bound by a dressing.'" Okay, do we now have it in our brains? I hope so.

An important element in a salad is the dressing. The two big components of which are oil and vinegar. Of the oils used for a salad, olive oil is the most commonly used oil. The grade of olive oil depends on the degree of acidity.  Extra virgin olive oil has an acidity level of less than 1 percent; virgin olive oil has in between 1 and 3 percent; and pure olive oil has 3~4 percent and up to 10 percent of virgin olive oil. For vinegars, the quality is dependent on the quality of the wine or alcohol used to make it. Vinegars are a result of fermentation of alcohol. The usage of "mother," or bacteria starter, to produce vinegar is important. We can start our own vinegar using a jelly-like layer found in the bottom of vinegar. That, apparently, is the mother.

Lastly, there are three categories of salad: Simple, Mixed, and Composed. An example of simple salads (salades simples), would be something like a lettuce only salad with a simple dressing.  So, in a word, it's a salad made with only one ingredient and it's dressed very simply.  A mixed salad (salade mixte) is a salad with a mixture of ingredients that have been combined and dressed together.  A garden salad, or in our example, a salad of sweet and bitter greens with tomato and herbs, would be good examples of mixed salads.  Lastly, in class we made Salade Niçoise, which is a great example of what a composed salad (salade composée) is, a salad with a mixture of several ingredients that have been dressed separately, but put together and presented on a single plate or a platter.

One last thing to note is that a classmate of mine and I had a brief discussion on what category a cooked vegetable salad (macedoine de legumes) belongs to. We finally settled on this: overall it is a composed salad, but the four main components: the cucumbers is a simple salad, the macedoine is a mixed salad, the fondue de tomate is also a mixed salad, and the frisee is a simple salad.

2. Spuds and then more spuds!
Potatoes are so freakin' versatile. Here, we sliced, deep fried, boiled, sautéed, baked, piped, puréed around 15 potatoes per each student to make 9 dishes. They were pommes gaufrette: waffle-like slices of potato that are deep fried in the 1-Step method, the food is fried at one temperate (350ºF~375ºF), or in class at 300ºF but fried a bit longer. Pommes pont-neuf: deep fried potato sticks that are 7cm x 1cm x 1cm. We use the 2-Step method, where the potatoes are partially cooked or poached at 300ºF until somewhat tender but haven't colored, then before service they are finished at 375ªF to brown the outside quickly.

In the next two dishes, pommes purée and pommes duchesse, the potatoes are passed through a food mill after they have been cooked and dried. The potatoes can be cooked by boiling them in salted water, as in the case of pommes purée and pommes duchesse, or by baking them in the oven, as in the case of pommes duchesse. Yes, for duchesse, either way of cooking the potatoes is okay. But make sure to dry the potatoes in the oven before passing them through a food mill! For the purée, we add milk and butter. We season with a bit of nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. And voila, we have a purée, or what we know as mashed potatoes. For the duchesse, we add egg yolk and butter. We then place the puréed mixture in a pastry bag and pipe it out to make fun shapes and then bake in the oven.

The next two dishes, pommes darphin and pommes Anna, we use the sautéing technique. For the darphin, we get julienne sticks of potatoes, then place the sticks on the sauté pan in a lattice-like fashion. We brown and crisp the bottom, then we flip! And we finish it in the oven. For Anna, we get thin oval slices of potatoes, and we layer them in a circle.  Using the same technique, we crisp and brown the bottom, we flip it, then we finish the dish in the oven.

In a gratin dauphinois, sliced potatoes are simmered for a few minutes in cream and milk. We pour the potato/milk/cream into a casserole, top it up with grated Gruyère cheese and baked in the oven until potatoes are tender.

Lastly, for pommes croquettes, we start with pommes duchesse. We pipe out long logs and chill in the refrigerator until the mixture hardens somewhat. We cut the log into short cylinders. We then use the technique called paner à l'anglaise, which is we dredge the cylinders in flour, dip them in beaten eggs, and then roll them in bread crumbs.  We then deep fry in the 1-Step technique. Voila, we have our croquettes. We can add cut up ham or whatever into the duchesse mixture before we pipe out the logs.

Final note regarding potatoes: there are two types--starchy and waxy.  When it comes to deep frying, we need to understand what smoke point, flash point, and fire point are.