I’m currently taking a Chocolate, Confections and Sugar Showpiece class and a savory class called American regional – where we make various menus from the different sections of the US.

Hope you enjoy!

Salted Caramel, Chocolate + Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Hey guys!  Finally taking some time to write a quick post – wow, has it really been since May? YIKES.

Anywhoo….

I have been making a good amount of homemade ice cream lately.  A couple of months ago we had an entire day dedicated to making Ice Creams and Sorbets in my Intro to Baking + Pastry class.  Our chef gave out some pretty amazing recipes for us to try…here’s what my group did – Coffee Ice Cream and a Blackberry Sorbet – both were amazing.  We even made homemade waffle cones and had an ice cream social…nice way to end our quarter!

Coffee Ice Cream + Blackberry Sorbet

Handmade Waffle Cones

Ice Cream Social

I haven’t used my ice cream maker in many months, but my mom’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I decided to dust off our ice cream maker make 3 types of ice cream to go along with the Almond Cake she requested.   All 3 flavors – chocolate, cookies and cream and salted butter caramel –  were a hit with the fam.  But I must tell you that my favorite has been this recipe by David Lebovitz for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream – I even made it for the hubby’s office cook out last week…AMAZING STUFF!!  I haven’t been adding the extra caramel pieces, it’s just been easier to do without this additional step, but I have made it in the past with this addition and it’s really good!

Who doesn’t love ice cream, even if the weather IS getting cooler?!

We’ve been learning the basics and classics in this course and you can’t have classic without the mention of pasta and rice! Our first item in this category was Gnocchi.  And I guess you could really put it under the veggie heading since it’s mostly made from potatoes, but I felt it’s more of a pasta dish than a veggie dish.

I’ve always wanted to make Gnocchi and before we made it in class, but it always intimidated me.  After making it in class, I feel a lot more comfortable with out it’s supposed to turn out. We were originally going to pipe the mixture into a long rope and cut into sections, but our chef said the consistency was not suitable to handle that way.  So we made them into quarter-sized shaped discs and marked them with a fork, almost as if you were making a criss-cross pattern for peanut butter cookies.

Gnocchi – After we made our dough – consisting of potatoes that we ran through a food mill, AP flour, semolina flour, olive oil -  we refrigerated it over night and then prepared the discs, stuck them back into the fridge to cook later.

Gnocchi ready to be cooked

To cook: we brought a pot with salted water up to a boil and dropped all of the discs into the water at the same time; boiling for 2 minutes (or if they floated they were ready, but I think our Gnocchi were rather too large to float).  Then we spread them out on a #1 pan, added in a few ladles of homemade tomato sauce, a little grated cheese and parsley and popped them under the broiler, until the cheese browned.  This was amazing!  Probably one of my top favorite things we prepared in class.

Gnocchi in Tomato Sauce

I can’t wait to try my hand at these again!!!

Homemade Pasta – Look, our very own homemade pasta!  Ours came out a little thick, but it was awesome to make it from scratch, cook it and then turn it into an actual dish.  This is the only photo I snapped of our pasta.  Our dough was made out of AP flour, Semolina flour, eggs, salt and cold water.  We used the mixer and dough hook to knead it and then we rolled it out on a pastry sheeter to help get it to the proper thinness.

Homemade Pasta Noodles

We covered this with plastic wrap until we were ready to throw them into salted, boiling water so the noodles wouldn’t dry out.  Once the water was up to the boil we dropped it in and cooked until al dente – probably about 3-5 mins due to our thickness.  We then tossed this into a roasted chicken and mushroom sauce we cooked that day.

Bechamel Mac + Cheese-  Creaminess, Cheesiness! Yes, Indeed.  We made a bechamel sauce from scratch and once it had simmered for about 45 minutes and thickened to our liking we assembled a heavenly mac + cheese dish.  We used spiral noodles, 3 different cheeses – mascarpone, cheddar and Asiago, a few ladles of bechamel sauce and salt/pepper to taste.  We popped it into the oven covered and backed for about 25-30 mins.

Bechamel Mac + Cheese

Here’s my plate to sample our work.

Sample Please!

Now onto our rice dishes….

Rice Pilaf – I didn’t realize it, but pilaf is an actual cooking method and not just a type of rice

The Rice Pilaf Method: Long Grain White Rice – LGWR,Rice or Grains cooked in hot stock/broth – liquid. Ratio = 1 part Rice to 2 Parts liquid

1. Pre-measure + Pre-Season Liquid – salt & pepper – Bring to boil
2. In separate pot (depth/width even), Sweat “onions” or other veggies in fat + season – “onions” refers to any  member of the onion family – i.e. – garlic, shallots, onions
3. Toss rice in Fat + Onions + Season – coating rice w/ fat
4. Glug liquid in ! All liquid goes in at once
5. Cover the pot – Pilaf has to be covered – to trap moisture and properly soften rice
6. Bring to a low simmer – poke hole in foil to watch steam.  Choose – 6A. Continue on Stove Top or 6B. Into 325 – 350 degree F oven.
7. LGWR – 18-20 min Simmer – will vary based on variety of grain -Degree of doneness – “Al Dente” – which means to the tooth – not crunchy or mushy
8. Transferred to a #1 pan – if left in pot, it will continue to cook

Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms

Risotto – We also made a risotto that I didn’t capture – BOO!! I was really excited to learn to make this as well.  This is another intimidating dish to me, but it came together nicely for our team.  We used a fish stock as we were pairing it with our fish dish, but you can use any type of stock.

We started by sweating our shallots in fat and then we added our rice and stirred until all grains are coated in the fat. Add in the wine and allow rice to fully absorb. Then we will add in the stock. Stock used equals 3x the amount of rice used. The trick we learned is to add the stock in stages, stirring constantly until it’s almost all absorbed before adding the next round of stock.  After all of the stock has been added and absorbed and is al dente, remove from heat – add a little butter to finish and season with salt and pepper.

Amazing!!

So, I’ve been trying to take pictures of our completed dishes and a little of the prep along the way so that I can see how my journey is progressing and share a little bit of what I’m doing for 4 hours a day.  So, I’m starting at the beginning and then leading off with the vegetable dishes we’ve created thus far.  I have been familiar with most of the items we’ve prepared and have been introduced to new ones such as rutabaga, fennel and leeks.  Although I’ve seen these items in the market, I’ve never actually purchased and prepared them at home.  I’ve also really learned a lot of the “why” behind the things we do in preparation which is very cool.

Our first few classes were focused on the proper use of our knives and learning to cut veggies into various shapes like sticks, cubes and tournes.

Veggies ready to peel + cut

Potato in various sizes

Potato Slices

Attempting Tourne

Carrots - cut into various sticks

Blanching and Shocking Broccoli – using this techniques helps keep and even brighten up the green.  After blanching and shocking the broccoli, we set it aside and later sautéed them with clarified butter, seasoned and them plated.

Blanched + Shocked Broccoli

We learned how to chiffonade cabbage to make homemade coleslaw.

Chiffonade Cabbage

This is our Mise en Place (putting things in order) that was assembled to make our mayonnaise. Here we have egg yolks, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, water, lemon juice, vegetable oil. We also threw in a little cayenne pepper to make it a little interesting.

Mise en Place for Mayo

And here is what all of those ingredients above look like when brought together.  I’m not the biggest fan of mayonnaise, but loved learning how to make it from scratch.

Made from scratch mayo

Then we combined it all….

Homemade Coleslaw

From the slices we made above when learning our knife cuts, we made this delicious potato gratin.  In here we have sliced potatoes, a little cream sauce and cheese.  We covered and baked for about 20 mins.

Potato Gratin

Another potato item we made were these Duchesse potatoes – made with baked potatoes that we ran through a food mill and then added milk, butter and an egg yolk to the mixture and piped out to bake.  Each person in our team took turns piping them out onto our pan.

Piped Duchesse Potatoes

Before popping these into the oven we brushed them with clarified butter.  Then we baked them until golden brown. Yummmm! Very tasty indeed.

Duchesse Potatoes

Not to worry we do make dishes using vegetables besides potatoes! Like this beautiful tri-color pepper stir fry.

Tri-Color sautéed peppers

We cut these into sticks and sautéed in clarified butter.  Oh how we love our clarified butter in this class! I can’t even begin to tell you how much butter we use on a daily/weekly basis – it is ridiculous!

In addition to the pictured veggie dishes above, there are a few we’ve made that I apparently did not capture:

• Wilted Spinach
• Rutabaga + Potato Gratin – made with a rosemary infused bechamel sauce
• Duxelle stuffed tomatoes – finely chopped mushrooms reduced down, mixed with other ingredients and stuffed into Roma tomatoes that have been scored, cored, blanched, shocked and de-seeded.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the veggie dishes that we’ve made.  Most of the food that we cook is sampled/consumed in class.  I do try to save what we make and bring it home so that the hubby can sample our good work.  He’s not a big sweets person, so when I get into my main classes, I’ll have to share with others, but for now, I believe he’s enjoying what I make.

Stay tuned for more ….

But better late than never, so here’s where my new path has taken me….

Me, In partial uniform

On April 9, 2011 I began my first quarter at The Art Institute of Atlanta.  I’m currently enrolled in the Baking and Pastry Diploma program, although, honestly, I would love to take every class offered.

During the week of Orientation, we picked up our uniforms and supply kits that would carry us through our time at school.

Culinary Gear

The chef’s would be appalled to see me wearing my uniform this way, but this was before knowing the proper way of wearing it for either lecture class or when in the kitchen.  But,  I wanted to try everything on the day I got it.  You are supposed to wear your scarf around your neck, hair up and under the hat, an apron with side towels if you’re in the kitchen, calf-high black socks and pants should be hemmed and worn with black non-slip shoes.  I’m carrying my supply kit which houses all of my tools I’ll need for my classes and is something you should never be without when in the kitchen.

Currently, I’m taking 2 classes – Foundations of Culinary Techniques (Lecture Class) and Fundamentals of Classical Techniques (Lab/Production Class).  Our lecture class introduces us to items such as stocks, mother sauces, cooking techniques, vegetables, poultry, beef, and even fish then we get hands on experience 2 days a week in the lab. We are learning techniques from French classical cooking – which is very thorough and can be quite time-consuming.  Some days we use one entire class time to prep items and then actually cook them the following day.  So, a lot goes into the French style, but I’ve really enjoyed learning and getting to produce amazing food.

Both classes are pretty early, but I know that if I want to be a baker I must be up before dawn in order to produce the freshest products.  So, these days I no longer get to sleep in, but it’s such a small price to pay for reaching your dreams.  I iron my uniform every night before going to bed…well, Monday’s I usually iron that morning since that class is later.  My Tues/Wed class starts at 5:55am, so I do what I can the night before so I can sleep until the last possible moment and then get up and get ready for class.  The chefs are very strict on timeliness and professionalism, which most of the older students in the class understand, but many of the younger ones do not.

We have a few more weeks left in these 2 foundation classes and then I’ll move into Intro to Baking and Pastry which I’m so excited about and Latin Cuisine! Yum Yum!!

Love it!