Butta'

We're practicing our sauces. The most troublesome are the butter sauces. It's not that they are the most taxing, or that using butter, egg yokes and cream is all bad. I gotta tell you, the toughest ingredient to get off pots, pans, tools, cutting boards or anything is butter. We all have kitchen duties and we rotate each day. One day sweeping, next day picking up the pantry area. Yesterday, I was on sink detail. Cleaning 30 pots of butter sauce, I was in a grease nightmare.

Where's Olivia Newton John when you need her?

Culinary and Coach Wooden

Monday, we had four sauces demo' for us and then we had to go and make them. That's four sauces simultaneously. We had to mize en place for each sauce, ingredients and equipment. Moving quickly to acquire everything you need, dealing with 20 other students who were on the same mission and not sure where everything was meant one thing, "stress". That night, we had to prepare for our first written test, put together our time lines and prep sheets for sauces we were going to make in preparation for our sauce practical final on Wednesday and outline everything we had learned in our first 5 days. Again, more STRESS!

So I'm driving home from Smart and Final, because I bought my own prep bowls, so I won't have to go looking for them at school and I pass a sign at one our neighborhood churches going down Wardlow Rd. It simply read;

"Be quick, but don't hurry" J. Wooden.

Now I am not a religious person, but that was the best sign at a church I have ever read.

This early AM, I wrote my outline. At the same time, that was studying for the test. Actually, it was one in the same.

Be quick, but don't hurry.

Thank you Coach Wooden!

Making Sauce by Can

Friday we made tomato sauce. One of the five leading sauces. This isn't like the tomato sauce my mom made. She browned a 7 bone roast and threw in pork chop or two. My mom was Italian and always said, "you browned the meat until there was no more liquid in the pot." And, to the best I can remember, maybe used canned tomato paste, just a spoonful, plus canned tomatoes and tomato sauce from Hunt's, usually. And, cooked it for an eternity. People raved about my moms tomato sauce. We called it spaghetti sauce.

The classic Tomato Sauce is a bit different. We render some salt pork, add a mira poix of onion and carrot, dice up canned tomatoes, add canned tomato puree, add pork neck bones, sachet of garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf and thyme, bring it to a simmer and stir it once in a while for 1 to 2 hours. Put it through a food mill, then season with salt and sugar. We only had an hour, so that's where it ended. Mine needed more sugar. The salt was good.

So you might be asking yourself, what's the difference between the two? Well, it's not what's different so much, Le Cordon Bleu uses canned tomatoes!

Who knew my mom was so classical in her tomato sauce making?

I get questions

I got a question today, from my sister, about stock. If stock is made from bones and broth is made from meat, how is vegetable stock made?

So I went to explain that broth is just a seasoned stock and that bones could have nothing and everything to do with making stock. But you don't have to have bones to make a stock. Vegetables, a sachet of herbs and spices in water make a stock.

Then she questioned me again.

Well on cooking.com they said that broth is made from meats.

So I again explained that in the classical sense, broth is a seasoned stock. And it doesn't matter if it's made from meat or bones or whatever.

Then she said she didn't want to 'steer' me wrong. Just wanted to know what bones were in vegetables?

I'm glad she lives in Yakima!

Day 2 Roux

So yesterday, I was in the weeds. Today, not so much. Although we get enough homework to choke a sous chef, it felt good to be back into a groove. We got to "make" chicken stock and the three types of Roux. Roux, you have all heard of it. Fat and flour. Two nutrious ingredients that every growing person needs. Equal parts of each to thicken a sauce. There are actually three kinds of roux. White; not cooked too long but has the best thickening power. Used in Bechamel.
Then there is blond; nutty in flavor and color, used in a Veloute sauce. And then brown, used in gumbo. So there you have the three roux's and what they're used for. We got to make them and tomorrow we get to use them in sauces we're making.

This just keeps getting better and better.

Foundations II (mise en place)

After 10 days off we were back at it on Tuesday. This time it's different. I have to admit, there was a comfort in just listening, observing and taking notes. There is an expression in a kitchen when your are lost and not organized. It's called "in the weeds". First day back and I felt in the weeds. The only way to get out is to be organized, listen and not be running around like a stewing chicken without a head. How is that done? It's called Mise en place, or everthing in place. From our uniform to our tools, anything out of place and you're in the weeds. A small bit not organized snowballs exponentially until you're completely lost.

The good news, every Chef has felt this. It's about the learning to get us out of the weeds and back to mise en place.

Grillin' for the Fourth or Not!

During the cooking techniques in Les Cussions discussed last month by our Chef Brown, he talked about the difference between Grilling and BBQ. I didn't know this difference and maybe some you don't either. So I'll explain.

Grilling is a direct heat cooking method in an open environment. BBQ is an in-direct cooking method in a closed environment. We grill hot dogs, burgers and steaks. But we BBQ ribs, chicken and brisket. Sometimes we do a combination of the two methods.

So you may be asking yourself, why would I now discuss this after the Fourth of July? Well, as I have found out, it's never too late to learn something new. Besides, there is a lot more of both to be done this summer and, if you're invited over for a BBQ and the host is doing steaks, you can now enlighten them on your expert knowledge.

Just make sure it's after he has grilled your steak. Nobody likes a know-it-all!

Viva la difference!