Short Chef is back again, with some thought-points, even though my brain is a bit fuzzy right now.
One: it looks like I goofed on the spice section at the grocery store. One of the other chefs who works with me has let me know that what I find there is probably not all the real deal, and an Alton Brown special on spices has revealed that the cinnamon is probably cassia, which is a cinnamon-like tree bark that is usually sold as cinnamon in the states. Gir. I can at least take comfort in knowing that it's serving me well, though, and that I can get some neat flavors from what I have.
Two: My summer "training" has come to a screeching halt. Jaw surgery has gotten in the way. It was a pretty invasive process to fix my underbite, involving breaking my lower jaw and pushing it back to get the bottom teeth where they should be. It's a good thing they decided to only operate on the one jaw... having both halves of my mouth out of commission would be a disaster! I'm essentially on a liquid diet until I feel able to take on soft foods, which should be (according to me, but I'm no doctor) in a week or so. I heal quickly, the entire family does, so my goal is to get my recovery time down so that I can get back to work ASAP. I guess I'll be researching national soups... mmm, gazpacho.
I look a bit like a chipmunk/pufferfish right now, and how we've decided to keep the ice packs on my face is pretty comical. Giant socks, one ice pack in each, tied on the top of my head and under my jaw. It works, though, so I'm happy with it. I've been pretty lucky, no serious pain except for when I first got out and the anesthetics were initially wearing off... I'm on a pretty regular schedule of ibuprofin and antibiotics, but I think I'm going to cut back on the ibuprofin since I don't need it. As usual, I only had to take the hydrocodiene once.
This idea of soups has gotten me thinking, as right now, with 48 hours being past already from being discharged from surgery, I'm bored of sitting around, a little bored of protein shakes, and looking for some better sources of nutrients (blended PBJ be damned). I think I'll try and take my theme back up again, looking for chilled soups, as I don't think I'm technically supposed to have hot hot stuff yet.
Wish me luck,
Puffer-fishy chef signing out!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Summertiiiiiime..... Livin's Eeeasyyy
I've been on summer vacation for a little over a week (officially) and about three weeks unofficially and I am OFFICIALLY bored to tears (Yes, let's see how many times I can use the word "officially" or its derivatives in a sentence). At least, during the week.
I am in an interesting situation during the week. I have no car, and I am one of the few who has forgotten how to ride a bike after learning it once and not picking it up again for over 10 years. What this means is that I am essentially stuck housesitting/ cleaning/ plotting world domination dinner, as the grocery store, post office, drugstore, and any other useful place is at least a half-hour's walk/jog away with icky catcalling truckdrivers and general idiots making annoying noises as I go down the main road. There is a bus, but it only goes through during the two rush hours.
I got surgical hooks put in to my mouth yesterday. For me, general jaw discomfort for one or two days is no problem, as after almost 2 years of braces I've gotten used to it. To my annoyance, however, one of these hooks (basically a little wire jutting out of my braces that looks like a noose) manages to catch itself on my inner mouth continuously, making it pretty difficult to communicate like a normal person without causing a sharp, stabbing pain at the most inoportune moments.
My current quandry is that I need to pick up a can of lychees and a mango/ some mango puree from the grocery store, if they have it. I was hoping to have this dessert for tonight, but as it is already mid-afternoon, I doubt it would be ready in time. I found an absolutely wonderful food/recipe blog ( here) while trying to find out what Lebanese pepper was. It turns out that it's allspice. Woo!
This search for the definition of Lebanese pepper had been sparked by a recipe for Kebbeh that I found in the "Madame" section of www.lefigaro.com while searching for world cuisine. I'm off to Johnson and Wales in the fall to start my official culinary school training, and I want to expand my food awareness, cooking skills and flavor palate before I head off. To do this, I have a dastardly plan of tackling one world-region's cuisine per week over the next 9 to 10 weeks. This week was initially Asia week, comprising Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Southeast Asian, but I have some ground beef I need to use and Kebbeh just seems perfect for it. I realised with a great big Homer-of-the-Simpsons-esque "D'OH!" that I could easily spend a week on each of these cuisines alone, since each region of the country has its own specialty, but like my current German/Spanish studies, I just want a crash course. I think at this rate I'll just pick one dish from each country that I have the time and supplies to make per day, and then just take notes on the rest of the regions.
Now, last week was before theme-week started, but I made a dish that I think was absolutely incredible:
Roasted chicken with saffron rice and sauteed mixed vegetables. You can't see it, but there are green peppers and red onion mixed in with the orange bell peppers. I tried using a similar seasoning for all of the components of the dishes, so I ground some saffron with kosher salt, cayenne, and paprika as a rub for the chicken, a seasoning for the veggies, and I cut back on the salt and added a LOT more saffron for the rice.
One thing I've learned as I familiarize myself more with the different sections of the grocery store: deals are in the most unexpected places. I used to shy away from the "Mexican" section of the store, thinking that it was all the untrustworthy stuff, since it was all marketed at low prices. Now I see it as a goldmine for inexpensive lovely things. Take, for example, saffron. In the normal spice section, it is rare to find and usually is one of the more costly items. In this section, it is possible to get a big bag of "zaffron" for 99 cents. As I have learned from my attempts to relearn Spanish, zaffron IS saffron, as in Latin American countries "z" may be pronounced as "s". Woohoo! They also have a five-pack of whole cinnamon sticks for 99 cents, among other things, and a 10-ounce bottle (or thereabouts, I just have glanced at it and seen that it's quite sizeable) of vanilla extract for under $5. This all means that I get to have lots of fun on a low budget, which is what I'm aiming to do.
SHORT CHEF OUT!! ... for now...
I am in an interesting situation during the week. I have no car, and I am one of the few who has forgotten how to ride a bike after learning it once and not picking it up again for over 10 years. What this means is that I am essentially stuck housesitting/ cleaning/ plotting world domination dinner, as the grocery store, post office, drugstore, and any other useful place is at least a half-hour's walk/jog away with icky catcalling truckdrivers and general idiots making annoying noises as I go down the main road. There is a bus, but it only goes through during the two rush hours.
I got surgical hooks put in to my mouth yesterday. For me, general jaw discomfort for one or two days is no problem, as after almost 2 years of braces I've gotten used to it. To my annoyance, however, one of these hooks (basically a little wire jutting out of my braces that looks like a noose) manages to catch itself on my inner mouth continuously, making it pretty difficult to communicate like a normal person without causing a sharp, stabbing pain at the most inoportune moments.
My current quandry is that I need to pick up a can of lychees and a mango/ some mango puree from the grocery store, if they have it. I was hoping to have this dessert for tonight, but as it is already mid-afternoon, I doubt it would be ready in time. I found an absolutely wonderful food/recipe blog ( here) while trying to find out what Lebanese pepper was. It turns out that it's allspice. Woo!
This search for the definition of Lebanese pepper had been sparked by a recipe for Kebbeh that I found in the "Madame" section of www.lefigaro.com while searching for world cuisine. I'm off to Johnson and Wales in the fall to start my official culinary school training, and I want to expand my food awareness, cooking skills and flavor palate before I head off. To do this, I have a dastardly plan of tackling one world-region's cuisine per week over the next 9 to 10 weeks. This week was initially Asia week, comprising Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Southeast Asian, but I have some ground beef I need to use and Kebbeh just seems perfect for it. I realised with a great big Homer-of-the-Simpsons-esque "D'OH!" that I could easily spend a week on each of these cuisines alone, since each region of the country has its own specialty, but like my current German/Spanish studies, I just want a crash course. I think at this rate I'll just pick one dish from each country that I have the time and supplies to make per day, and then just take notes on the rest of the regions.
Now, last week was before theme-week started, but I made a dish that I think was absolutely incredible:
Roasted chicken with saffron rice and sauteed mixed vegetables. You can't see it, but there are green peppers and red onion mixed in with the orange bell peppers. I tried using a similar seasoning for all of the components of the dishes, so I ground some saffron with kosher salt, cayenne, and paprika as a rub for the chicken, a seasoning for the veggies, and I cut back on the salt and added a LOT more saffron for the rice.
One thing I've learned as I familiarize myself more with the different sections of the grocery store: deals are in the most unexpected places. I used to shy away from the "Mexican" section of the store, thinking that it was all the untrustworthy stuff, since it was all marketed at low prices. Now I see it as a goldmine for inexpensive lovely things. Take, for example, saffron. In the normal spice section, it is rare to find and usually is one of the more costly items. In this section, it is possible to get a big bag of "zaffron" for 99 cents. As I have learned from my attempts to relearn Spanish, zaffron IS saffron, as in Latin American countries "z" may be pronounced as "s". Woohoo! They also have a five-pack of whole cinnamon sticks for 99 cents, among other things, and a 10-ounce bottle (or thereabouts, I just have glanced at it and seen that it's quite sizeable) of vanilla extract for under $5. This all means that I get to have lots of fun on a low budget, which is what I'm aiming to do.
SHORT CHEF OUT!! ... for now...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
End of the school year
High school has FINALLY come to a close, and with it my career at East Meck's lunch restaurant. Gold Feathers was a success, with Luis and I going full working-chef mode and scaring people (and confusing them) by shouting out kitchen slang for the orders, i.e. "3 beef, 2 chicken, 1 salmon all day" or whatever our tally was, and completely dominating on the orders. Our poor front of the house staff didn't know that we absolutely under any circumstances didn't want the people to change their orders on food, so we had a sliiight insanity mode, plus they kept crowding us to get the food, but we all knocked it out, the seven of us, and had 2 successful services. The "gold" or competition staff was me, Luis, Jaimie, Danielle, Candace (CeCe) (our ever lovely Maîtresse D'Hôte), Asha (key lime patissiere and Maîtresse D'Hôte for the 2nd service), Brandon, and Tommy. We got significant amounts of help from the first and second year students as well.
Work at Santé has taught me quite a bit about life as a chef, even though I only work there part-time. I've had to do the incredibly fun task of working out of a refrigerator when my station's cooler was broken! The plus side was that my cleanup was insanely easy since I didn't have as much to wrap and clean. We've stopped brunch service for the summer, though I don't doubt we'll have some early Saturday jobs or parties now and again.
I graduated from High School yesterday, and it was a nice, not-too-long ceremony. My maternal grandpa and my paternal grandma and aunt were able to make it from NJ, which has made the weekend all the more fun. I had to work Friday night, so to make up for my not being with them I told them to all come to Santé for dinner.
I GOT AN ICE CREAM MACHINE!! So I made a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is INSANE. On that note, I need to go serve my ice-cream cake with STUFFS.
Matta ne~
Work at Santé has taught me quite a bit about life as a chef, even though I only work there part-time. I've had to do the incredibly fun task of working out of a refrigerator when my station's cooler was broken! The plus side was that my cleanup was insanely easy since I didn't have as much to wrap and clean. We've stopped brunch service for the summer, though I don't doubt we'll have some early Saturday jobs or parties now and again.
I graduated from High School yesterday, and it was a nice, not-too-long ceremony. My maternal grandpa and my paternal grandma and aunt were able to make it from NJ, which has made the weekend all the more fun. I had to work Friday night, so to make up for my not being with them I told them to all come to Santé for dinner.
I GOT AN ICE CREAM MACHINE!! So I made a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is INSANE. On that note, I need to go serve my ice-cream cake with STUFFS.
Matta ne~
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Lotsa News!
Ho-kay! Updatings!
It's been a looong time since I've written anything, I've just been busy~ (gomenasai!)
Sante has started doing brunch on Sundays... it's been variably busy. Sometimes 20 people, sometimes close to 70. The food, as always, is INCREDIBLE. For the past two weeks for family meal I've had eggs benedict... mmmmmm.... and I took my family out to brunch two weeks ago so that they could try it, and had the beef tenderloin tips with a poached egg and home fries. *Collapse* the beef was buttery and tender and just (really really)^infinity good.
My dessert didn't get into the JWU Nat'l High School Chef of the Year competition finals, but one of my classmates did and he WON THE ENTIRE COMPETITION! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! He's getting a full ride to any of the campuses, for 4 years. O_O. He totally deserves it though, his dessert kicks butt and he practiced a LOT.
I've gotten substantial scholarships from JWU myself, but there's still a bit to pay. I'll make it manage. I AM NOT living at home, I refuse. At least for the first year. I need my freedom, if only briefly. Depending on my financial situation over the next few years, I might be able to maintain living in a dorm or in the right-next-to-campus apartments which are actually cheaper than the dorms. The drawback is no meal plan if I do that, but I'll figure everything out when I arrange a meeting with my financial planner. The key is for ME to make the final decisions and not have my parents choose. It's time they let me make my own decisions about my money. I will research options and make the most logical and practical choice. That's just how I roll... my sushi... or tuile-cigars... riiiight.
At any rate, we're having another Gold Feathers at school to feature the culinary team/ advanced Culinary students. There's 7 or 8 of us, so if we can work it out so that we have two four-course meal options with everybody working on a dish, that'd be tops. Hopefully we can have Luis and Asha on desserts, as that's their forte. I would like to do a good beef dish. Or fish. If I can do Asian food, then I'll be very very happy. I have a stepped-up "spaghetti and meatballs" dish that would be really good if I could get the flavors right on the bean thread vermicelli.
Passover is approaching! We're having anywhere from 5 to 8 people total for Seder dinner, so mom and I will be making a substantial amount of food. I won a bet at work and won some fresh chicken stock, but mom won't let me use it. Alas. I'll have to use it for making sauces! On the Passover note though, my grandpa is visiting and he had bought the 5-pound box of matzo that Manischewitz is selling for their 120-year anniversary... we're getting 2 boxes. The only issue is that I bought a box this week. This means LOTS of matzo bry. Woohoo! I'll eat that for breakfast any day!
After that, I have the competition results on Wednesday from States. If we go to nationals that will KICK ASS! Let's hope I have a functional jaw by then. I would be devastated if I could not compete because I was getting my jaw fixed. Aaaah the waiting!
It's been a looong time since I've written anything, I've just been busy~ (gomenasai!)
Sante has started doing brunch on Sundays... it's been variably busy. Sometimes 20 people, sometimes close to 70. The food, as always, is INCREDIBLE. For the past two weeks for family meal I've had eggs benedict... mmmmmm.... and I took my family out to brunch two weeks ago so that they could try it, and had the beef tenderloin tips with a poached egg and home fries. *Collapse* the beef was buttery and tender and just (really really)^infinity good.
My dessert didn't get into the JWU Nat'l High School Chef of the Year competition finals, but one of my classmates did and he WON THE ENTIRE COMPETITION! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! He's getting a full ride to any of the campuses, for 4 years. O_O. He totally deserves it though, his dessert kicks butt and he practiced a LOT.
I've gotten substantial scholarships from JWU myself, but there's still a bit to pay. I'll make it manage. I AM NOT living at home, I refuse. At least for the first year. I need my freedom, if only briefly. Depending on my financial situation over the next few years, I might be able to maintain living in a dorm or in the right-next-to-campus apartments which are actually cheaper than the dorms. The drawback is no meal plan if I do that, but I'll figure everything out when I arrange a meeting with my financial planner. The key is for ME to make the final decisions and not have my parents choose. It's time they let me make my own decisions about my money. I will research options and make the most logical and practical choice. That's just how I roll... my sushi... or tuile-cigars... riiiight.
At any rate, we're having another Gold Feathers at school to feature the culinary team/ advanced Culinary students. There's 7 or 8 of us, so if we can work it out so that we have two four-course meal options with everybody working on a dish, that'd be tops. Hopefully we can have Luis and Asha on desserts, as that's their forte. I would like to do a good beef dish. Or fish. If I can do Asian food, then I'll be very very happy. I have a stepped-up "spaghetti and meatballs" dish that would be really good if I could get the flavors right on the bean thread vermicelli.
Passover is approaching! We're having anywhere from 5 to 8 people total for Seder dinner, so mom and I will be making a substantial amount of food. I won a bet at work and won some fresh chicken stock, but mom won't let me use it. Alas. I'll have to use it for making sauces! On the Passover note though, my grandpa is visiting and he had bought the 5-pound box of matzo that Manischewitz is selling for their 120-year anniversary... we're getting 2 boxes. The only issue is that I bought a box this week. This means LOTS of matzo bry. Woohoo! I'll eat that for breakfast any day!
After that, I have the competition results on Wednesday from States. If we go to nationals that will KICK ASS! Let's hope I have a functional jaw by then. I would be devastated if I could not compete because I was getting my jaw fixed. Aaaah the waiting!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Snow Day
Snow in the South gets pretty interesting. The roads didn't ice at all and there was all of 5 (maybe less) inches of snow on the ground and school got canceled. Snow days at work, however, are a whole different ballgame.
Saturday, it snowed again for a few hours. We didn't have any reservations until 6:30, and we were all finished setting up our stations by about 4:00. So... once there was enough snow on the cars out back, the kitchen staff went to the tiny parking lot out back in our chef coats and aprons (who needs a jacket, hat, or gloves or any of that mess?) and threw snowballs at each other for 10 or 15 minutes or so!! I think that's the most fun I've had in a while. It was quite a sight, seeing my boss and my coworker running around in chef coats and white aprons and chef pants lobbing snowballs and ducking behind cars for cover. I even tripped once and fell on my bum >.> but it was fun. In the end we brought one tiny snowball in and got the dishwasher/prep cook with it! At the end of the shift, after we had all eaten family meal and I was about to walk out the door, Chef grabs my shoulder like he's going to say something important and all of a sudden WHAM! I get a snowball to the back of the neck. Needless to say, I ran him down, got the Maitre D' to pin him, and got him back. As an extra bonus, the Maitre D' had to walk me to my car b/c of some security issues that got Chef worried about any of us walking to our cars alone, and then he made a huge snowmass out of what was on top of the other chef's car and I think he got Chef back for me. Goooood times.
Best of all, I'm barely sick anymore so I can actually enjoy this! I got food poisoning Sunday so I was DEATHLY ill Monday; my school's mid-term exams started Tuesday but I was feeling wickedly congested throughout the entire day; Wednesday the same effects but lessened: there was a battle of sinuses as my body kept switching between a stuffed nose and a congested throat; Thursday no school, but I walked two miles to the grocery in 3-inch heel boots because I had no vehicle and the buses weren't running my street at that hour and my mom INSISTED that I wear boots and not my work shoes... fortunately I didn't have to go in to work that day as the congestion battle was still in full swing; Friday I only had one exam and my congestion was mostly faded and work was pretty good; and then yesterday (Saturday) was just awesome.
I'm having issues co-ordinating a food plan for a CON (Unitarian Universalist High School Religious Ed. convention of win) as there's some conflict of leadership between myself/the other co-leaders of the group and some members of other groups who want to muscle into our group even though we would be very well prepared and have everything covered that we needed to if they left us alone. Plus, my plan for a vegan/vegetarian weekend was shot down... It wasn't going to be entirely veg-friendly in my original plan, but I wasn't able to make that message clear when explaining it to the class b/c I kept getting interrupted. Alas. These bums will not get the benefit of the incredible black-bean patties that I got to make at work. Only those who sign up to help with food-prep will, so nyah. *shudder* One of the meals is SANDWICHES. Ugh. I can't bring myself to stoop to the level of cold-cut platters if I'm in charge of food... but that's a whole different beast that I'm going to stop ranting about now. I'm going to take the advice of my dad and make a Facebook group for this CON so that we can get some effective planning done before the CON happens. And it happens in 2 weeks. So we need to get everything together.
On another extremely awesome note, my culinary team won regionals so now we're headed to State competition in March along with two of our teams plus a team from a different school competing for cash in a competition THREE DAYS BEFORE STATES.
Saturday, it snowed again for a few hours. We didn't have any reservations until 6:30, and we were all finished setting up our stations by about 4:00. So... once there was enough snow on the cars out back, the kitchen staff went to the tiny parking lot out back in our chef coats and aprons (who needs a jacket, hat, or gloves or any of that mess?) and threw snowballs at each other for 10 or 15 minutes or so!! I think that's the most fun I've had in a while. It was quite a sight, seeing my boss and my coworker running around in chef coats and white aprons and chef pants lobbing snowballs and ducking behind cars for cover. I even tripped once and fell on my bum >.> but it was fun. In the end we brought one tiny snowball in and got the dishwasher/prep cook with it! At the end of the shift, after we had all eaten family meal and I was about to walk out the door, Chef grabs my shoulder like he's going to say something important and all of a sudden WHAM! I get a snowball to the back of the neck. Needless to say, I ran him down, got the Maitre D' to pin him, and got him back. As an extra bonus, the Maitre D' had to walk me to my car b/c of some security issues that got Chef worried about any of us walking to our cars alone, and then he made a huge snowmass out of what was on top of the other chef's car and I think he got Chef back for me. Goooood times.
Best of all, I'm barely sick anymore so I can actually enjoy this! I got food poisoning Sunday so I was DEATHLY ill Monday; my school's mid-term exams started Tuesday but I was feeling wickedly congested throughout the entire day; Wednesday the same effects but lessened: there was a battle of sinuses as my body kept switching between a stuffed nose and a congested throat; Thursday no school, but I walked two miles to the grocery in 3-inch heel boots because I had no vehicle and the buses weren't running my street at that hour and my mom INSISTED that I wear boots and not my work shoes... fortunately I didn't have to go in to work that day as the congestion battle was still in full swing; Friday I only had one exam and my congestion was mostly faded and work was pretty good; and then yesterday (Saturday) was just awesome.
I'm having issues co-ordinating a food plan for a CON (Unitarian Universalist High School Religious Ed. convention of win) as there's some conflict of leadership between myself/the other co-leaders of the group and some members of other groups who want to muscle into our group even though we would be very well prepared and have everything covered that we needed to if they left us alone. Plus, my plan for a vegan/vegetarian weekend was shot down... It wasn't going to be entirely veg-friendly in my original plan, but I wasn't able to make that message clear when explaining it to the class b/c I kept getting interrupted. Alas. These bums will not get the benefit of the incredible black-bean patties that I got to make at work. Only those who sign up to help with food-prep will, so nyah. *shudder* One of the meals is SANDWICHES. Ugh. I can't bring myself to stoop to the level of cold-cut platters if I'm in charge of food... but that's a whole different beast that I'm going to stop ranting about now. I'm going to take the advice of my dad and make a Facebook group for this CON so that we can get some effective planning done before the CON happens. And it happens in 2 weeks. So we need to get everything together.
On another extremely awesome note, my culinary team won regionals so now we're headed to State competition in March along with two of our teams plus a team from a different school competing for cash in a competition THREE DAYS BEFORE STATES.
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