Culinary Lab

So today was the final! And I am soooo glad it’s over. I have been freaking out all week. I am pretty proud of myself, everything was hot and almost everything was cooked well. My potatoes were a little under done, but other then that it was all good. I had a great time this year and can’t wait to do baking next semester.

Today was horrifying and amazing all at the same time. Today was practice and I had help, which only makes me even more nervous for next week. I was excited about using fish, not only because they cook like 20 times faster, but they are wayyy easier to fabricate then chicken.

Alex and I made Pan cooked brook trout with a lemon sauce. All it was, was butter, lemon, onion, garlic, and i deglazed with dry sherry. Alex made glazed carrots. They were really good, but had a dash too much pepper in them. We also made marinated zeuccni and Alex grilled it. It was the best thing we made. And we put the fish on top of the white rice.

Hopefully next week i can produce the same thing but keep everything nice and hot.

Today we did pork chops, hanger steaks, spare ribs, meatloaf, and hamburgers. All of it tasted great. I think the pork that was breaded and cooked in the saute pan was the best. Alex and I made mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes. They were awesome.

chef wants us to write on thanksgiving but since my mom and aunt cook dinner I will not be cooking. Our kitchen is to small for 2 of us, let alone three of us who don’t know how to get out of eachothers way. hahaha

Today was great. We fabricated a flat fish, ate a HUGE salmon, and made shrimp, scallops, and muscles.

I feel like i did a really good job on my fillets, much better then on the round fish. With the fluke we did an en poppilote, and we also did a popiette? I don’t know how to spell it, but the difference is one you steam and the other you shallow poach. They were both good. Athena and I poached our salmon in heavy cream, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, red pepper flakes, and one bay leaf. It was alright, I just don’t like poaching things I guess.

We made shrimp scampi, which is one of my favorites. When I worked in this Mexican restaurant I would make the sauce, add the shrimp, and some steak that was in their marinade and put it all over rice…. it was amazing!! We also pan fried scallops, and made a cream bacon sauce, that was also really good.  And of course we made shrimp cocktail. I love seafood, a lot. I could live off it. We also made muscles, but they over cooked and shrank.

Over all today was great, then again every day we have lab is great.

Cant wait to see what were making next week!

Today was great. We made fish! Now I have never gutted and cleaned one before so it was interesting. I do love to fish but every time I try and help clean the fish I can’t do it when they are still twitching, so it was easier that they didn’t move.

I was pretty embarrassed because Sargent Bahr asked to use my fillet knife and it was dull.

Sargent’s Brown and Bahr showed us a few different ways to make our fish. Half were ways to deep fry and the other half was searing and making a sauce with the fond. I seasoned my fish with garlic, pepper, lemon pepper, sage, thyme. Melted some butter and cooked the fish through. took it out and de glazed with white wine, lemon, and a little more butter. Alex and I also made some rice to go with our fish. Mine was pretty lemony, but I liked it anyway.

I really love working with and eating fish. I’m excited for next week with moist heat. and then for the shell fish and flat fish.

Today was fun! I thought that the braised chicken was really good, but I think it needed a bit more flavor. The poached chicken was alright. I think next time Id like to make it in a different solution. The stew was also really good. My mom’s already asking whats for dinner this weekend.

Id have to say that chicken is one of my favorite things to work with. You can do so many different things and it goes with mostly anything. I have never fabricated a chicken the way chef told us to, but I find it a lot easier.

My favorite thing we made was the pounded thighs with the stuffing. And the Chicken wings. I love wings a lot so making them in class was great. I know that this week we are making Chicken again, but I’m pretty excited that we are doing fish and shell fish soon. Chicken is my favorite to cook but seafood is my favorite to eat!

Thursday we did our vegetable test. I think I did pretty well, except when I small dices the squash instead of medium dice. I think I did pretty well in my tournes as well.

I really loved the deep fired zucchini that was breaded. I ate so much of that i couldn’t try many other things.  we also made a bechamel sauce and mornay sauce which is bechamel with gryear cheese and Parmesan cheese and the ratio for that is 2:1.

I am really loving lab and cooking.

I love pasta and rice and grains! So this weeks lad was great. It was the first time I made pasta from scratch. It was depressing at first because it all stuck to your hands and wasn’t going anywhere. At the end thought it was really good dough.

The risotto was really good cheese and all.

Next weeks practical will be interesting.

Today we made breakfast! I think because I’ve been cooking it for so long that it’s my favorite to cook. I never had eggs Benedict before… it was pretty goo. I just wish it didn’t taste like so much butter.

I am now really excited for making home made pasta next week!