thanksgiving junior

melissa moss is in town! melissa moss is pretty much on par with logan and ginger in terms of our cooking compatibility. we're just on the same page; we agree and we get each other and so many things can just go unspoken. things run smoothly and results are delicious when melissa and i spend a few hours together in the kitchen. it only sweetens the deal that she just got her certificate from le cordon bleu, and i have just started learning proper culinary fundamentals as well. we were flashing terms all over the place!

since sarah had never before had butternut squash soup (WTF), even though she loves butternut squash, and she loves soup, obviously that was the first thing i put on the menu. the buttermilk in my fridge begged to be made into biscuits, collards seemed appropriate for the necessary green-something, and melissa suggested a perfect centerpiece - whole roast chicken.

she brought over a nice bell&evans broiler, a gargantuan bunch of platter-sized collard leaves, and the supplemental squash. she set to work seasoning the bird with lots of butter, sea salt and cracked pepper, and chopped parsley, sage, and rosemary from my herb garden. after sticking half a lemon in the cavity, we lovingly placed our fowl in the oven.

meanwhile, i gathered my paltry harvest of petite squash from the garden and had to supplement it a bit with half of a store-bought squash. peeled, diced and roasted them with olive oil until they were melt-in-your-mouth-tender.

melissa chiffonade-sliced the collards as i set up my big dutch oven to blanch them. we shocked them in an ice bath, then closer to service time, she sauteed the greens with apple cider vinegar, garlic, butter, sea salt and cracked pepper.

we cranked up the heat in the oven as i made the biscuits. the chicken crisped up and came to temp, and we set it aside to rest as the biscuits baked. we suvee au blanc-ed onions for the soup, added the roasted squash, and pureed with veggie stock. i seasoned the soup with salt and pepper, cayenne, curry powder, cinnamon and coconut milk. what says autumn love better than that?

while i carved the bird, melissa whipped up an herbed pan gravy - blonde roux, roasting pan juices, stock, and more fresh herbs. absolute savory heaven.

i have so few excuses to use my silver and fancy stuff, and i was not about to pass this one up. i laid out the carved chicken on my biggest silver platter, piled up the biscuits on a frilly silver oval, poured the gravy into a floral ceramic pitcher, and served the soup in my little green vintage dutch oven with matching trivet. we sat around the candlelit table, pretty china plates on kittycat placemats, melissa and i facing each other at heads of table, grinning at this rare opportunity to revel in our mutual passion, and sunk our teeth into tender flesh, sipped our autumnal conconction, sopped up savory gravy with pillowy biscuit bits, and chomped on earthy, vinegary greens.

thanks must be given for such things, even if it's only the 30th of september.

more vegan delights

i spent three and a half years planning and executing vegetarian/mostly vegan menus and cowpie, and let me tell you, i was thoroughly sick of slaw and tempeh and the many variations of pretty much the same few dishes. but it's been a couple years since those days, and when called upon to present some vegan fare, i wasn't too reluctant to rise to the occasion.

i flaked a couple slab of tempeh and sauteed it with some cubanelle and habanero peppers from my garden, some onion and red bell pepper and garlic. whisked up a quick chili sauce and added that, let it simmer for awhile. voila, vegan sloppy joes! rebecca brought over perfect ciabatta rolls to slop the joes on. to accompany, of course i had to do the famous tahini slaw that cowpie patrons know so well. some tahini, some miso, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, red pepper flakes, and sesame seeds complement shredded green cabbage and fine julienne carrots quite well. and to round it all out, cajun potato wedges roasted in the oven until brown and crispy on the outside with a succulent, creamy interior.

rebecca surprised us with a vegan mac & cheese casserole. it was very surprising indeed. flecks of carrot provided the illusion of cheddar cheese and the flavor of, well, carrots. breadcrumbs browned nicely under the broiler. tender elbow noodles exploded with unexpected carrot, garlic and nut flavors. wow.

vegan dinners make me feel good!

and yet another brunch

three day weekends definitely call for brunch.

after checking the fridge, i decided on asparagus and red pepper fritatta with dill havarti. for a carb i was decided between potatoes and grits...chipotle cheese grits maybe? until flora said something about latkes, which are always a shoo-in in my book. homemade apple-sauce, anyone? i hadn't really nailed down the third dish until we were on the way to the store. i settled on mixed green salad with walnuts, sliced strawberries, orange supremes, and white wine vinaigrette.

it. was. divine. allison was an excellent sous chef, and despite the masses of flies that invited themselves to the table, we had a great time. everyone cleaned their plates and the only thing left over was a sliver of fritatta. my lovely guests did the dishes while i did my homework.

happy labor day!

first production: italian buffet

i was assigned to work on garde manger station 1 with my second-year commis erik. he gave me the recipes and petit sheets the day before so i could prepare a bit. we were making ricotta fritters, minestrone soup, and caponata. as soon as i got there, i started peeling and dicing eggplant. the chefs were just walking around the kitchen checking on everyone, so i got a few critiques pretty early on: "This dice is too large" "Your station looks sloppy" etc. but nothing too crucial.

erik and i were both skeptical of the caponata recipe as neither of us had made the dish before. it instructed to deep fry the diced, salted eggplant and the 1-inch chunks of celery. deep fried celery? huh? actually it wasn't half-bad, but we both agreed that, given the chance, we'd omit the hunks of celery altogether. the celery and eggplant was tossed with a reduction of concasse tomatoes, sliced onions, sugar and red wine vinegar. add to that capers and sliced manzanilla olives and voila. we also agreed that it would be far superior with some kalamata olives or perhaps nicoise, and i thought a generous addition of lemon zest would really make it great, but alas we only had so much time. and erik only requisitioned the items in the recipes. he thought the chefs were letting people crash and burn a bit with the requisition sheets to teach them a lesson in advance preparation.

our minestrone was irreparably mediocre. we followed the recipe, we weren't able to add pork which would have pumped it up, so it was just sort of bland in a way that couldn't be helped. but it sufficed.

the ricotta fritters were just weird. also very bland. some lemon zest and garlic salt would have helped. again, requisition was a problem because converting cups to oz does not always yield correct results, so we were short on ricotta and the dough came out rather stiff. we thought to resolve this by concocting a sauce of tomato and red wine vinegar. after pureeing and straining, it was sort of like tomato water, so we tried to thicken it with a roux, and thus discovered the recipe for spaghettio sauce. oh well.

all in all, though, everything went smoothly and we didn't have to work in a mad rush. the food-running was another story, however. entirely disorganized and frustrating. the best thing was, though, that my friend greg was assigned chef de cuisine that day, and being in cahoots with the boss always helps. it's been GREAT having him at school.

i don't get to cook again on production day for another month. this afternoon i have a lab on stocks. not so exciting. i'll let you know how my fish fumet turns out!

sorry i've been M.I.A.!

hey guys, i know it's been a few months, but guess who's in culinary school! i'm off to my first production day this morning, working in the main kitchen as garde manger. my second year supervisor and i are making ricotta fritters, caponata and minestrone soup. i promise i'll write more later!

Finger licken' good

Hamfest: A Festival of Lies

Logan and I were checking out the garage sales in small towns near Ithaca NY, when by fate we stumbled upon this little number.

 We whipped the car around to check out this festival celebrating one of the most prized meats... Ham.  As we pulled into the festival that would surely be full of prized princess pigs and wonderful ham sandwiches I noticed this second sign.

A Ham Radio!!  Wow, they really are going all out.  A whole radio show dedicated to hams.  This is my kind of town!!  But when we entered we didn't see any pigs...

... we just some older guys with electronics and rusty hardware peices.  Not my idea of a Hamfest.  HRRRMPPHH!