It's getting hot and saucy in the kitchen

No, no. Don't worry. The subject of my blog hasn't changed to something more x-rated. Although, it's been quite a saucy week. :-)

Let me explain; it is getting hot in the kitchen, because this week, week 3, we finally turned on the stove in class. We are actually starting to cook. Hurrah. Why saucy? Well, it's been all about sauces. We've been talking about and cooking the five leading sauces, also known as 'Mother Sauces', and some of the small sauces derived from them. What I mean by that, is that the leading sauces are rarely used as sauces by themselves but by are forming bases for other sauces. To give you an example, let me start with Tuesday night's dinner where I made a Bechemel sauce (leading sauce) and turned it into a Mornay sauce (small sauce) by adding grated Gruyere and Parmesan cheese. Finished product - a lovely cheese sauce for Mac&Cheese.

broken sauce Hollandaise

perfect sauce Hollandaise

There are obviously, as with everything, exceptions to this rule and one such exception is sauce Hollandaise. It's a lovely rich but light egg and butter based emulsion that is quite tricky to make but rewarding to eat. Hollandaise needs practice because timing and temperature are crucial to create a coherent emulsion out of two things which don't naturally want to combine egg & butter. I have to admit, that I broke the sauce in my first two attempts for Wednesday night's dinner and in the end gave up and defrosted something else out of the freezer to make it a complete meal. When I talk about 'breaking' the sauce, it means that the egg and the fat (in this case clarified butter) separate and do not form the desired emulsion to create the light fluffy sauce. I've added a couple of pictures to show the difference. We did a failure analysis Thursday morning in class and it indeed helped me to identify where I made the mistake the night before. And I am proud to say, last night, at first attempt, we enjoyed my home-made Hollandaise with steak. If you don't like the combination with steak, try it with cauliflower or asparagus, particularly white asparagus. That's how I remember it from my childhood in Germany.

The night before last, I prepared some tomato sauce and served it over pasta with seafood. Making my own tomato sauce is nothing new for me; I prefer it to the store bought ones. But what was new for me is that this time, I used a food mill to puree the sauce and, I must say I found the texture to be superior to anything I previously pureed in the food processor and/or with the stick blender. I am still learning to appropriately describing the texture and taste of food, so all I can say is the sauce was 'yummy'; rich & thick from the fiber of the tomatoes but smooth and velvety because it had been treated much more gently. I hope that explanation makes sense to you as you read it. If not, treat yourselves to a food mill and try it.


The timing to experiment with all those sauces could not have been more perfect for this week. The temperatures outside have been extremely cold, and having these rich comforting dinners all week long has been ideal for the weather and, of course, it didn't do us any harm to eat a few more calories than usual. I am sure we needed them just for walking the dogs.

A beautiful lemon cut - Dent de Loup (Wolves teeth)

In addition to cooking sauces, I have also been busy practicing my knife skills throughout the week to be fit for tomorrow's first practical knife skills test.
The biggest challenge for me has been and still is to judge the sizes of the cuts correctly, for example a standard Pont Neuf cut for potatoes is 1/2"x 1/2"x 2 1/2". By the way, for me and you, a Pont Neuf potato cut is usually called a potato steak fry cut. Posh French name for something very down to earth but very nice. I love potato fries, particularly with mayonnaise. Something the German in me treasures very much, unlike the English tradition of eating fries with vinegar. Sorry, but  I've never been able to understand that combination. Very lucky for me though that in addition to making sauces in class we also produced lovely homemade mayonnaise. And if you never had it before, believe me when I tell you it's worth the extra effort. It's so much nicer and flavorsome than the store bought version. And of course, you can season it to your taste. I, for example prefer more lemon juice than vinegar in mine.

I hate to sound repetitive, but I have to get back to practicing my vegetable cuts. Only practice makes perfect, right? And guess what we will be having for dinner tonight. Vegetable soup pureed through my lovely new food mill. I will let you know how it turned out next week.

a new year, a new beginning

It's 2013 and it is going to be an exciting year. I am finally realizing one of my dreams, going to Culinary School. Now I know a lot of you might think what a stupid idea. I am not 20 anymore or 30 for that matter and I have no illusion about the fact that I will never be a 5star chef or restaurateur. A) I am probably a little old for that to start off with and B) it is not my desire to chase any Michelin star. I want to cook, I want to cook extremely well, nutritious, comforting, soul food for my family and friends, catering clients and guests in our future B&B. I want to show people that cooking is simple and enjoyable, and that preparing home-cooked food does not need to be an arduous task.

But, as with all new adventures and before starting culinary school last Monday, nerves were starting to set in and I started to wonder whether my new blog should be called 'drawn to the flame'. Will I find myself drawn to the professional cooking stove as I've been imagining it over the last couple of years  or will I be flying to close to the flame and burn like a moth? Well, I've completed weeks 1 and 2 without running for the hills and all I can say is 'wow'. I am loving it and I know I am at the right place.

Me

It's been a fascinating two week and a total change of pace. Let's start with the 4 am wake-up call; the 5 am drive to school and the 6 am role-call and line-up at the beginning of each day. It's a military style boot camp routine, believe me. One minute too late and I lose points for my final course grade. If I am not wearing a perfectly starched, ironed and complete uniform I lose points for my final course grade. The complete uniform doesn't just include the famous chef jacket but also a cravat which I had to learn how to tie, a fully starched and clean apron, two kitchen towels, a beanie, which is the rather less flattering hat for culinary students, as well as the checkered pants. In addition to that one is not allowed to wear perfume, make-up or jewelry and has to have extremely short finger nails. Ouch, all of this is hard getting used to for a woman; but at 6 am in the morning it is extremely tough. At least for the first week. Week two was easier. And at the weekend I am overcompensating with extra perfume and lots of jewelry.

Having said all that, I totally understand it's purpose. Professionalism, discipline, hygiene and food safety as well as teamwork and respect for the kitchen hierarchy are all vital to make a busy professional kitchen successful and work like clockwork. By the way, today's typical kitchen hierarchy system was actually established by Georges-Auguste Escoffier, who is by most chefs considered one of the most important French chefs of the 20th century. He introduced the 'Brigade System' which was modeled on his military experience. Hence my daily 6 am line-up. And of course, all this is what every respectable culinary school should teach you first if you are to be successful in your job.

The rest of the days during week 1 at the school went by fast with much new knowledge needing to be being crammed into my head. Not an easy task, believe me. And since most of classic culinary prep & cooking foundation techniques come from France, the terminology is, of course, French. Now as some of you may know, I am not much of a French language speaker and never really aspired to be despite Germany and France being close neighbors and me working for a French company for years. I guess this time though there is no way to avoid it and I  don't think Rosetta Stone for aspiring chefs exists yet. Niche market opportunity? Anyway for me it will have to be the old and trusted method of index cards and phonetic pronunciation and the help of my husband. 
And then there is, of course as part of my first module, the all important Food Safety and Sanitation course teaching details of running a food-safe and clean kitchen such as appropriate temperature controlled food storage (hot or cold), staff hygiene, cleaning routines etc, which are defining the basic standard of any restaurant kitchen. ...Or so I thought. Boy, was I wrong. Last week and by chance, I caught a couple of episodes of Robert Irvine's program of 'Restaurant Impossible' on the Food Network and I have never been more disgusted and appalled by the ignorance of these restaurant owners profiled about our (the customer's) health and safety. And where are the Health & Safety Inspectors, who are supposed to be inspecting and perhaps shutting down those restaurants? It's beyond the scope of my blog to tell you the stories of the episodes I saw but all I can say is that it certainly will make me look more closely of where I will eat out in the future.

Week 2 got a lot more exiting at school. We received our knife kit and are allowed to chop. Anything and everything; edible that is! :-) Practise and more practise is what will make me perfect. I am chopping all sorts of vegetables, we are having mash potatoes twice a week and will be having a lot more vegetable soups in the near future. All in the name of evenly cut Juliennes, Batonnets, Brunoise, ....

Mise en place with various potato cuts

Onions - Ciseler cut

Onions - Emincer cut

I am even cutting dog treats with a ruler these days. The dogs never had so evenly cut pieces; no more preferential treatment between them anymore.
By the way, I've got to go. I need to cut vegetables for dinner. Watch this space, I am planning to write weekly to inform you about my progress. If I can get away from the kitchen, that is.