Time for Tennis

I exchanged my Sketchers that were losing their soles for a new pair today. If this pair falls apart, I am going to buy some Crocs next. I also bought sweatbands for your wrists to help with the burning my wrists issues that I have. Sexy!

Vindictive Vinegar

Foiled by vinegar again! This time it was a braised celery recipe. The recipe called for white wine and I put white wine vinegar into it. DAMMIT! The product looked fine, actually the color turned out better than it would have if it was in white wine, but it smelled and tasted terrible!

I also tried making the parsnip puree which turned out much much better, especially topped with bacon. Yum. Chef Lipford said it needed more salt and pepper and it was too cold. My taste buds were shot at that point that I didn't trust them, but I added more salt, I should have warmed it under the salamander. Otherwise it tasted like mashed potatoes, but a little bit sweeter.

Clawson made kebabs and Stephanie and Tiny worked on the butternut squash. The kebabs looked good, but i didn't get to try them.

The butternut squash needed a little more sugar and the cuts were uneven, so they cooked unevenly.

Took my cupcake from yesterday to Chef Fleckenstein's class. One girl recommended the Georgetown Cupcake's recipe and Chef Fleck recommended the chocolate cake recipe off of Hershey's website. Both are listed below.

Georgetown Cupcake
Georgetown Cupcake's Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes
The Washington Post, November 5, 2008
Course: Dessert
Summary:

Here's the winning combination: moist and chocolaty cake with just the right amount of rich ganache frosting on top.

Valrhona cocoa powder and Callebaut chocolate are sold at Sur La Table stores; call for availability.

The cupcakes are best when served on the same day they are made. If the cupcakes are dipped once, you'll have about 1/2 cup of ganache left over.

Makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes
1 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) European-style unsalted butter, such as Plugra brand, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, preferably Madagascar bourbon
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder, sifted (see headnote; may substitute another good-quality cocoa powder)
For the ganache frosting
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup Callebaut semisweet chocolate chips (6.4 ounces; see headnote; may substitute other good-quality semisweet chocolate chips)
Directions:

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard cupcake pan with 12 baking cups, and a second pan with 6 baking cups.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt on a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Stop to add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

Combine the vanilla extract and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

Reduce the speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.

Add the cocoa powder, beating (on low speed) just until incorporated.

Use a standard-size ice cream scoop to fill each cupcake paper with batter, so that the wells are two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the ganache frosting: Lay a large piece of wax paper on the work surface.

Combine the heavy cream and chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Fill a medium saucepan with an inch or two of water and place over medium-low heat. Place the bowl over the saucepan and let the mixture melt, stirring until it is shiny and smooth.

Remove the bowl of chocolate ganache from the saucepan; let it cool slightly, for 2 to 3 minutes. Working with 1 cupcake at a time, carefully dip each cupcake top in the warm ganache, twisting your wrist as needed to make sure the cupcake top gets completely coated. To prevent drips, quickly turn the cupcake right side up and place on the wax paper. Allow the ganache to set for 5 minutes before serving.

HERSHEY'S Kitchen's
Black & White Cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*
2 eggs
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
VANILLA FROSTING(recipe follows)
"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with
paper bake cups.

2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add buttermilk, eggs, water, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.

3. Bake 15 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan. Cool completely. Frost with VANILLA FROSTING or "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 30 cupcakes.

*To sour milk: Use 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup,

VANILLA FROSTING: Beat 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 1/4 cup shortening and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Add 1 cup powdered sugar; beat until creamy. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, beating to spreading consistency. About 2-1/3 cups.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING: Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine; stir in 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 1/3 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract beating to spreading consistency. About 2 cups frosting.

Salty Chocolate Attempt: Take 2

Went to Marta's house to do a trial run of recipes for the Ultimate Cupcake Challenge. I wanted to make fleur de sel cupcakes, but was unable to locate fleur de sel in Whole Foods. Fast forward to 7 PM I was running out of time, so I ended up using a recipe from Martha Stewart's cupcake book, omitted the caramel filling and salt topping. I ended up making classic chocolate cupcakes, which looked prettier than they tasted. The cupcake was a little doughy, so next time I'm going to use half AP flour, half cake flour.

Here's the frosting, that was supposed to be pipable, but turned out too watery:

The cupcakes before they were frosted:

The finished cupcakes:

Economy of Motion

Chef Justin worked up in the Terrace with us this morning. He has a lot of great tips on how to save time on prep work as well as everything else. When I was downstairs, he went though how to brule a fois gras and other items. Today's tips included how to chop Romaine lettuce five heads at a time (helps if you have large hands). Line up the heads, lop off the green tips, slice down the heads twice and start chopping own the head by 1".

His message today was do as much work as you can with one movement. It was a little bit difficult for me to stabilize multiple items for one chop, but I'm glad he was upstairs today. I think I can prep a little bit quicker than I've been doing. Chef Greg made fun of my dull chef's knife today. Arg! I should have known when I couldn't slice any of the heirloom tomatoes without having to score them first with a paring knife.

Mollusk or Cephalopod?

Apparently for the last two weeks I've been making fried calamari that is the TGIFriday's trashy version as opposed to the more posh and refined POV Lounge version. Chef Greg came to visit us and showed me how to make calamari the "right" way. Apparently you have to use tons of flour otherwise it becomes too viscous in the final product and tons of batter. I was using half the amount of batter he was using and I did not know I was supposed to "deflate" the batter after I dispensed it from the siphon (whip cream machine). The batter should also be at room temperature. I kept it refrigerated. Oops!

That's his hand mixing the calamari in plenty of batter to make sure that the batter is nice and fluffy.
My calamari is on the right and his was on the left (nice and lacy).

Here's the finished dish (we also switched from using pea shoots to using daikon sprouts):

Serrated for Melons

Al let me in on a secret yesterday. Using a serrated knife makes slicing a watermelon must less painful. I think I am actually getting better at slicing the watermelon. Of course, I still have a long way to go to make my watermelon pieces perfect cubes.

Brain Dead

I feel pretty brain dead. Like my brain has been filled to capacity on culinary information and it has not had a chance to digest it. So, to help with that, Chef Matt brought two books for me to read about how science and culinary arts are intertwined. I can't wait to read them! I am going to start with Molecular Gastronomy first.

Vinegar Duck + Salty Chocolate Pudding = Disgusting

Today Chef Lipford asked us to bring in a duck recipe. I grabbed a really simply one for Duck with chocolate: Anatra al Ciccolato off of the Food Network because we have all the ingredients on hand. I've copied and pasted the recipe at the end of this post. Chef broke us into new groups and at first the recipe seemed to be promising, the duck looked good, the mirepoix looked good and then...we added 3/4 quart of vinegar instead of 3/4 cup of vinegar. It was all downhill from there. In the attempts to fix the duck, I found that vinegar can be leached out of the duck by cooking it in a stock. I also found that after three hours of boiling a duck and trying to fix it, it becomes really dry and tough. In trying to fix the sauce, I ended up creating a salty chocolate pudding that was completely unpalatable. Better luck (or should I say duck) next time.

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
1 (3-pound) duck, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon pine nuts, un-toasted
3 cloves
1 tablespoon golden raisins
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
Chopped parsley leaves, red pepper flakes, extra-virgin olive oil, for garnish
Directions
Heat a 12 to 14-inch saucepan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the duck pieces, skin side down. The duck skin will provide more than enough fat for browning without adding excess oil. Cook, occasionally pouring excess fat off carefully, until golden brown, about 8 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in medium-sized saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, celery, and carrot, and saute over medium heat until softened, about 12 minutes. Add the fennel seeds, pine nuts, cloves, raisins, bay leaves, flour and 1/2 cup vinegar and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add duck pieces and 1/4 cup vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Braise over low heat until the sauce is thick, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the cloves.

Remove the duck to a large plate and spoon vegetables over.

Stir the chocolate and sugar into the cooking liquid. Serve sauce with the duck and garnish with chopped parsley, red pepper flakes and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

CHICKEN! BWAK BWAK!

I learned how to debone (read mutilate) a chicken today. After I hacked up the breast and leg, I let the other people in my group give it a go. The key point that was reinforced today was LET THE KNIFE DO THE WORK. Just let the knife coast around the bone and the joints and then cut into the soft joint. Kevin and I also made the chicken fricasse and unfortunately our sauce separated. Chef Lipford reminded me that the cream has to be heated before adding it to a mixture.

Since Marta and I cleaned the spice rack yesterday, I had a pretty good idea of the ingredients and spices we have available for experimenting. Koren and I came up with an idea of slicing eggplant really thin and threading julienned peppers through it. It worked for the most part until I realized I could have saved myself so much time by using a mandolin. We coated the duo in a batter made from pancake mix, panko crumbs, wasabi powder and some garlic and onion powder. Then we fried it in canola oil. It was delicious! I usually don't like eggplant, but my this was divine. MMM!

Chop't

Inspired by a customer's request to make his salad chopped up like baby food (or he requested like Chop't), I decided to go to Chop't today after a study session at school. Ahh the evilness of Cosi and Chop't right across the street, just waiting to take my money away from me. So, I got in line and paid almost $9.00 for a "chop't po'boy," which included home-fried chicken, tomato, red onions and white cheddar cheese chop’t with romaine lettuce. So apparently, they just take all the ingredients of a salad and chop them together, similar to Cold Stone Creamery, but for salads. I probably won't go back unless it's with a group of people.

After spending the last couple of weeks in confusion about how to properly sharpen a knife, I woke up this morning and watched a video on About.com on how to sharpen a knife with a whetstone. So, I did and my knife was so sharp that I was able to cut through a blueberry without squishing it. The use of the butterfly clip really helped.

This is the end of week two at the W Hotel and my first week at the Terrace. I like working up there infinitely better. I feel like I am learning and inspired to get better and faster. I cut another watermelon today with a bit more luck and I got to try the seabass coated in a mint-basil batter today. Delicious! There were a couple of times that I got overwhelmed today, but I think I kept up alright.

I went (rushed) to the culinary club today after work. Since I was one of four students in the room, I am now the co-president of the culinary club. We will be hosting a cup cake competition to raise money and awareness for the club. I'll be looking into nearby butchers to help set up a field trip.

Floor R

This morning, I started my first day on the roof. I did a quick tour of the upstairs and got to see The White House and waved to the snipers. Working upstairs and during the day seems far less intense than downstairs in the steakhouse. I now cook for POV Roof Terrace. Here's a link to a review of the place: Washington Post Review.
In addition to garde manger, I also cook hot appetizers (Read: Ding. Fries are done).

Martha's Vineyard, I mean Marta's Garden

We went to Marta's garden today and her husband talked to us about The Growing Connection. It is a global network of a type of garden that uses minimal resources and can be grown just about anywhere. Their particular garden was organic. Here's some cherry tomatoes on the vine. Beautiful color:

Here's some of the loot:

The results? A mozzarella basil tomato salad, pasta with pesto and pasta with stir fried vegetables. It was fresh, wholesome and delicious!