Dazed and conFusioned

Monday starts my final week of classroom work.  We did our last day of group work today which included Chicken paprikash, Gorgras Gulas, Etli Biber Dolmasi and a Romesco sauce.  Lots of Paprika, both Hungarian for the Gulas (gulash) and the Chicken Paprikash.  Etli Biber Dolmasi are stuffed green bell peppers.  I wanted to make that dish, but made the gulash instead.  Our results were OK.  My Gulash was a bit runny, needed to reduce a bit more.

Tuesday:
We did Fusion Cuisine today. Fusion cooking is very popular today and started way back in the 1970's.  Wolgang Puk is a fusion chef with places like The Conga Room and CPK.  My fusion dish included the following; Seared Scallops with an aged dark Balsamic vinegar, Angel Hair Pasta sauted with a chili/garlic oil and Baby Artichoke Hearts with a Mango Salsa in a White Peach Balsamic.  It was really fun. The Chef gave me some good marks for my plating and scallops.  The mango wasn't very good, so the salsa was not very good.  He also told me that using the mango as a puree and adding it to a cream sauce for the pasta would have been more of a fusion cuisine.  But, for the first time doing this, I was happy with it.  I also made fresh pasta and my pasta cutter didn't quite cut the all the way through. So I had to reform the pasta dough and run it through again and then the pasta stuck together.  I was pulling pasta apart about 15 minutes before our window opened.  I got just enough to get a full portioned entree on the plate.

Tomorrow is our final written exam and our final prep for our final four course meal on Thursday.