Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

So I'm back again...already.  So this was nice task.  I've made pound cakes in bundt pans before, but never one in a loaf pan.  I've also never made one from scratch.  So here's the run down.  The pound cake came out perfect, and tastes great

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

I can see this new career and hobby can be detrimental to me not keeping those 20lbs off.  I'm already in need of some type of help, lol.

Honey Wheat Bread (2 Loaves)

I just felt like trying my skills at baking some bread.  Feels good to say that I didn't pay half the amount for these loaves as I would have going to the grocery store. 



Honey Wheat Bread Loaves 

Honey Wheat Bread Loaf (Two Slices) 

Honey Wheat Bread (Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches)

The perk:  Making your own bread costs a bit less overall, and tastes great.  Also, you can make the slices as thick or thin as you want.  I made french toast (with thick slices) a few hours ago and they came out GREAT!!!

The drawback:  It is a bit time consuming.  As someone who bakes, you must know that bread takes time to rise, etc...that adds on to the time.  You can obviously get other things done while waiting, so it's not that big of a problem for me.

All in all...I think I'll be bread more often.  We shall see how the dinner rolls, hot dog and hamburger buns come out next. :-)

May 26, 2011 - Day 3 (2 was cancelled) of Quantity Food Production I

Today's class was fun.  I got to see first hand how to break down and debone an entire chicken as well as make a great stuffing to go inside of each of the pieces (breast and leg/thigh).  Also we made a wonderful salad that's said to cost around $15 at some of the upscale hotels and restaurants in the are.  I'm still shaking my head at that.  I totally forgot to take a picture of some extremely tasty walnut vinaigrette that we made to top off our salad.



Fresh Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with a Toasted Walnut Vinaigrette:  Walnut pieces, rice wine vinegar, honey, minced shallots, walnut oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, mixed spring lettuces, fresh ripe pears, blue cheese crumbled, and chopped parsley.

As stated above, this salad was AWESOME.  The massage amounts of blue cheese was complemented with the sweetness of the vinaigrette and pear slices.  Although this was an extremely tasty salad, that I will make again...I highly doubt that I would've paid $15 for it.  I mean, come on people, $15 for a salad just seems mad...but hey, blue cheese and walnuts aren't cheap I suppose ;-)

Chicken Stuffed with Mushrooms and Prosciutto with  Potatoes (mushroom shaped) and Sauteed Red Bell Pepper and Zucchini:  Chicken, whole butter, green onions, prosciutto, mushrooms, leek, heavy cream, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, Suppreme Sauce, Sauteed vegetables.

This was a fun dish to make.  Breaking down the chicken and minimizing waste by keeping cuts closed to bones meant more meat to eat :-).  After breaking the chicken down, we deboned it, then stuffed it with our prosciutto and mushroom stuffing.  We wrapped the chicken around the stuffing and tied it to keep it together while cooking.  Then we browned the skin in a pan with oil and popped it in the oven to finish.  While our chicken was cooking, we finished up our potatoes (making them look like mushrooms by using a small biscuit cutter and a paring knife) by boiling them first to cook and soften, then deep frying to give them a crisp outside texture.  We made our Supreme sauce for our base and finished the dish by sauteeing the zucchini and red bell peppers.

All in all, I really enjoyed this day.  As many of my friends and family know, I was pretty upset that I didn't get to take this class last week because of a water main break.  Doubt I was every upset at missing a class before this one.





May 23, 2011 - Day 3 of Baking and Pastry I

So the third day and we were able to discuss different types of doughs.  We used the straight dough mixing method in producing the items that you'll see below.

 Personal Pizza

At first sight, one would think that this is just an ordinary pizza with tomatoe.  If you know me, you know good and well that I am absolutely not a vegeterian, but if you thought thought, my plan was a success.  The first ingrediant on the pizza is actually small cubed pancetta, followed by fresh grated parmessan cheese and a bit of salt.  I then placed the nicely sliced tomatoes (6 slices) on the crust and finished it off with  a few nice sized slices (yes, not grated) of mozerella cheese.

Cinnamon Roll

This right here isn't your typical cinnaman roll.  It's decked out with not only the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, but raisens and chopped wallnuts.  When I say, Cinnabon better watch out...I'm being serious.  Most people know that I LOVE Cinnabon's Cinnamon Rolls.  This was much richer, totally fresh, and straight up AWESOME!  I didn't even want to think of the calories in it...oh yeah, the light icing on top was an added bonus.  That was made with just a few ingrediants (little butter, confectionary sugar, etc.).

We also made something else but I didn't like the taste.  Many of my classmates didn't really care for it either.  So I'll just leave it at that, lol.  All in all...these items seemingly daunting, are fairly easy to produce in any kitchen (even the one we had in South Korea).

Until the next class...keep chewing...and exercising :-\

May 16, 2011 - Day 2 of Baking and Pastry I

Today went really well.  We began in the classroom by going over our weekly words and then a short video on different types of breads.  We moved on by discussing the day's menu which consisted of us producing a flat bread  bread sticks, pretzels and pizza dough (frozen for our production with other items next week.

Here's a few pictures that I took of the finished products.

Flat bread:  This bread dough was made with chopped onions inside. The left half has crushed rosemary, finely grated Parmesan and salt and the right side has finely grated Parmesan cheese and salt.

Twisted bread sticks:  This dough was hand kneaded by yours truly :).

Pretzels topped with sesame seeds.

I enjoyed learning the recipes and producing these items.  I've found that making certain to follow recipes, especially when to add what, is the most important thing a person can do.  Also, if you're thinking of adding in something to a recipe, make sure to change other items, i.e. is the item dry or does it have liquid?  Berries and vegetables can add much more liquid to your mix than necessary so don't always add the actual amount of water.  Of course this isn't for everything, you have to know how the dough should look prior to resting and proofing it.

May 12, 2011 - Day 1 of Quantity Food Production I

My first day in Quantity Food Production I went pretty well.  We covered everything from our introduction, to a few chapters in our book, to learning about the various foods that we'll be preparing and cooking this term.  I've taken the liberty to give you a few snapshots of the first entree' that we cooked on Day 1.
 

 

 

 

This entree is a Roasted Chicken (cooked hole, but in this plating you have the leg and thigh quarter) lightly seasoned with salt and corse black pepper atop a red and white wine pan sauce made from the fond (the small bits and pieces of flavering at the bottom of the pan) from the chicken , with a side of Pammes Anna (sliced potatoes and clarified butter started off on the stovetop and finished in the oven for that great color and crispy texture) and green beans topped with hollandaise sauce (made with the youlks of and egg, a tad of water, and clarified butter) and garnished with a sprig of rosemary.

The Good:  I was able to learn the different terms that are used in creating a dish.  Think about it...who knew that fond (the foundation) was the actual term for the dark bits of flavoring on the bottom of a pan that you've used when cooking something (usually from a protein).  Mirepoix is basically an aromatic vegetabl medly (usually 50% onion, 25% carrots, and 25% celery) and is used for various things, we used it as the base for our chicken to sit on for the oven, at work we use a variation for our wedding soup.  Knowing the different types of thickeners (/flour + water (or other liquid), cornstarch + water (or other liquid), or even making a Roux, which is parts fat (clarified butter) + flour to use and how or when to use them will help anyone in their kitchen whether it be at home or on the job.

The Bad:  Wisking for the hollandaise sauce is pure torture.  Well...for a first timer, it was.  My arm's got a complete workout.  My chef instructor didn't seem to bothered by it, but hey, even though he's almost sixty, muscle memory was obviously on his side.

The Ugly:  There really wasn't any ugly...I don't think.  you decide, check out the pics again and tell me if anything was ugly...;-)

All in all, learning about different side dishes like the Pammes Anna, and hot to properly clarify butter, make thickeners and roux, different knife techniques, tieing the chicken, and simply taking in all of the knowledge that the chef is trying to get you to the next level.

As you can probably see; I am certainly digging this new direction that I've taken.  By the way, I'm currently reproducing this meal (with the exception of the hollandaise sauce due to not having the proper equipment) so that my wife, daughter and maybe even the pup pup can have a taste.

May 9, 2011 - Day 1 of Baking and Pastry I

So this is my first entry.  I plan on typing on this page at least once or twice a week, or maybe even after each of my classes.  This blog is meant to be a journal of the things that I've learned, or have done during my courses in Culinary and Baking & Pastry Programs.

Up first, Baking and Pastry Day 1 assignments:

1.  Blueberry Muffins

 

2.  Country Biscuits

Simple, yet a bit of work went into making these.  If this is/was day 1, I can't wait for days 2, 3, 4....and beyond in this course and the other courses.

By the way...I did have a homework assignment.  Each week in this course, I'll be given one word that I'll have to define and discuss in class the following week.  My word is Galaktobureko.  Don't ask me to pronounce it, but I do know that by the Greek definition, galakto means milk, and bureko means pie.  It is in fact a traditional Greek milk and butter pie made with filo pastry (paper thin type of pastry).  I do hope to make this one day just to see how it tastes.

Until next time... keep chewing