It's almost been two weeks since I switched from savory to pastry and I have yet to put up a pastry post because I've been so busy.
I recently took a hostessing job at a popular, upscale kind of place, and it took took 7 out of my 10 spring break days, long continuous hours of being up on my feet, seating people, setting and resetting silverware, bussing tables, rearranging seats, fetching menus, wiping counters, taking calls, making reservations, checking statuses, quoting wait times, etc. etc. etc.
It's an interaction type of job, where people flow past you, an endless stream one hour and a trickle the next, but you're lucky if you can steal a moment to yourself. It's strange because in culinary school we're well-acquainted with the intensity of the "back of the house", in the kitchen where everything is time-sensitive and the interchange of ingredients and hands and heat oil and fire occur simultaneously and in a perilous blur. You can burn out easily working in such conditions, in the restaurant business, but I've found the "front of the house" no different, so far.
In the restaurant where I work, the front of the house is defined by a near constant + necessary vigilance in maintaining oneself presentable and courteous to all, whereas the back of the house is busy but there is music and conversation and food and camaraderie! And perhaps best of all, no interactions with customers ever.
Don't get me wrong, I do love connecting with people, and I do want a people-centered job, but the type of interaction matters completely. At my last job it was hard too, alternating between self-directed office tasks (mental freedom!) and brief but charged interchanges with (or should I say, disturbances from) the formerly homeless tenants I served. But looking back I would prefer that, if only just to be able to sit.
Ideally I would like a job where I am afforded mental freedom, stretches of productive time to myself, but also focused periods of meaningful exchange with people. So I know what I want, but I don't know where to find it. Story of my life, maybe. I just have to keep looking - front, back, inside, around, everywhere.
April 7, 2011
April 4, 2011
food for fifty!
On one of the free days I had during my spring break last week, I made a dinner for 50, the largest group I ever cooked for. So the reason this happened was because when I first moved (back) to California, I went to visit my sister Iris at UC Davis and experienced one of her multi-faith community's Wednesday Night Dinners. I enjoyed it so much that I offered to cook one of the dinners in the future, and my spring break was the first opportunity to do so.
I decided on a Thai-themed dinner because: 1) Thai is my favorite cuisine and yet I don't know how to make any of the dishes, so this was a good chance to try, and 2) Thai cuisine has many vegetarian options, which was one of the requirements of the dinner since the menu had to accommodate everyone's religious dietary restrictions.
To make it easier for me (since I only had a few hours to cook so much for so many people), for appetizer I simply did store-bought salad mix (with some carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes thrown in) with peanut dressing, and for dessert I simply did fruit cocktail with almond jello. (There was some anxiety over the kosher-ness of the jello, but thankfully I found that it was made from agar-agar, which is derived from seaweed, thereby kosher and vegan to boot.)
So the actual day-of involved me taking a train (almost two hours) to get to my dad's house to use his car, grocery shopping (almost two hours, despite using allrecipes.com to adjust the recipe to 50 servings, then the handy "add to shopping list" function), driving to Davis (two hours), prepping and cooking (four hours), etc. etc. Thank goodness Iris was able to find me two helpers (thanks Rose and Ashley!) to help me cut vegetables.
Although I planned on using this coconut curry tofu recipe, I found Thai curry packets in 99 Ranch (Asian grocery), so I ended up following the directions on there. It involved sauteeing the curry paste in some oil, then adding coconut milk and brown sugar to taste. Really easy considering the amount of flavor it yields, so it's surprising I've never tried to do it before.
At some point I figured out that all of the ingredients were not going to fit in the same pot, so I divided everything into two pots. From my experience in cooking I've found that it's really important what order you cook things in, even if they all end up together. In this case, the tofu and carrots went in first, because they would take the longest to get tender and absorb the curry flavor. Then I sauteed the mushrooms with onions and basil and scallions on the side (to soften them and develop their own flavors) and added those in. Then went the yellow bell peppers and snow peas and baby bok choy. And then I let everything just stew together.
Sadly, my one regret with the curry was that I stewed everything for so long. More specifically, I wish I had added the snow peas and bok choy last, because of the color element (stewing = loss of green color), and also because the snow peas could have retained their crunch and made the curry more palatable. Oh well! I'm just glad everything was done on time (ahead of time even) and was edible :)
And Iris was happy :)
And people got fed :)
My favorite part of the meal was actually dessert. Not only was it the easiest to make, I also thought it was the most delicious. The almond jello came powdered in packets (one brand looks like this) that I simply stirred into boiling water, then let cool and set in shallow pans, then cut into cubes. And then I opened some cans of fruit cocktail (and some cans of lychee, to stay Thai/Asian) and combined everything. So good. I ate two bowls myself and promptly passed out due to food coma and general exhaustion.
I think the best part of all this is that the experience has enabled me to cook more Asian in general, using ingredients like soy sauce and cornstarch and ginger and scallions (instead of my usual defaults of garlic and onion and Italians herbs). Finally I am living up to my heritage!
And I made curry again, this time with the snow peas crunchy.
I decided on a Thai-themed dinner because: 1) Thai is my favorite cuisine and yet I don't know how to make any of the dishes, so this was a good chance to try, and 2) Thai cuisine has many vegetarian options, which was one of the requirements of the dinner since the menu had to accommodate everyone's religious dietary restrictions.
To make it easier for me (since I only had a few hours to cook so much for so many people), for appetizer I simply did store-bought salad mix (with some carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes thrown in) with peanut dressing, and for dessert I simply did fruit cocktail with almond jello. (There was some anxiety over the kosher-ness of the jello, but thankfully I found that it was made from agar-agar, which is derived from seaweed, thereby kosher and vegan to boot.)
So the actual day-of involved me taking a train (almost two hours) to get to my dad's house to use his car, grocery shopping (almost two hours, despite using allrecipes.com to adjust the recipe to 50 servings, then the handy "add to shopping list" function), driving to Davis (two hours), prepping and cooking (four hours), etc. etc. Thank goodness Iris was able to find me two helpers (thanks Rose and Ashley!) to help me cut vegetables.
Although I planned on using this coconut curry tofu recipe, I found Thai curry packets in 99 Ranch (Asian grocery), so I ended up following the directions on there. It involved sauteeing the curry paste in some oil, then adding coconut milk and brown sugar to taste. Really easy considering the amount of flavor it yields, so it's surprising I've never tried to do it before.
At some point I figured out that all of the ingredients were not going to fit in the same pot, so I divided everything into two pots. From my experience in cooking I've found that it's really important what order you cook things in, even if they all end up together. In this case, the tofu and carrots went in first, because they would take the longest to get tender and absorb the curry flavor. Then I sauteed the mushrooms with onions and basil and scallions on the side (to soften them and develop their own flavors) and added those in. Then went the yellow bell peppers and snow peas and baby bok choy. And then I let everything just stew together.
Sadly, my one regret with the curry was that I stewed everything for so long. More specifically, I wish I had added the snow peas and bok choy last, because of the color element (stewing = loss of green color), and also because the snow peas could have retained their crunch and made the curry more palatable. Oh well! I'm just glad everything was done on time (ahead of time even) and was edible :)
And Iris was happy :)
And people got fed :)
My favorite part of the meal was actually dessert. Not only was it the easiest to make, I also thought it was the most delicious. The almond jello came powdered in packets (one brand looks like this) that I simply stirred into boiling water, then let cool and set in shallow pans, then cut into cubes. And then I opened some cans of fruit cocktail (and some cans of lychee, to stay Thai/Asian) and combined everything. So good. I ate two bowls myself and promptly passed out due to food coma and general exhaustion.
I think the best part of all this is that the experience has enabled me to cook more Asian in general, using ingredients like soy sauce and cornstarch and ginger and scallions (instead of my usual defaults of garlic and onion and Italians herbs). Finally I am living up to my heritage!
And I made curry again, this time with the snow peas crunchy.
March 29, 2011
and that's a wrap!
In my last days of sandwich station, some people from pastry side rotated over so they could be trained (and in turn, train their pastry cohorts). Del and I were sent two bite-sized Asian girls, whom I proceeded to call our "minions".
Besides training them in the art of sandwich-making (and the art of filling-making, such as egg salad and tuna salad, which I still don't know), we also showed them how to fry chips as a side accompaniment. Here they are frying beet chips, which is made the same way as any other root vegetable chip - sliced with a mandoline and dropped into hot hot oil. I suppose you could bake them too, but I haven't yet made chips that way, only fries.
Then there were things we didn't plan on teaching them but happened anyway - one day we wanted to make buffalo chicken sandwiches (shown in the last post) and it required the chicken breasts being pounded thin (the better to be fried!) and so we employed our minions as meat pounders. Small girl + big mallet = scary.
Then on my last day in sandwich, I coincidentally decided to make a wrap, thus concluding my rotation with how I began it. It was actually pretty slapdash of me. I hadn't felt like making anything that day so I was looking in the sandwich recipe binder for some inspiration, and I came across a chipotle chicken recipe, which was interesting because I'd never made anything with chipotles before. So I made chipotle chicken, and decided to put it in a wrap with some lettuce. But the wrap needed more, so I wanted to add rice, but it was too late to make rice, so Del found some already-made guacamole, and Chef suggested cheese, and I thought of sprouts, and ranch - and TA-DA, that's how something edible got made.
And that's a wrap of my half-semester in savory!
Besides training them in the art of sandwich-making (and the art of filling-making, such as egg salad and tuna salad, which I still don't know), we also showed them how to fry chips as a side accompaniment. Here they are frying beet chips, which is made the same way as any other root vegetable chip - sliced with a mandoline and dropped into hot hot oil. I suppose you could bake them too, but I haven't yet made chips that way, only fries.
Then there were things we didn't plan on teaching them but happened anyway - one day we wanted to make buffalo chicken sandwiches (shown in the last post) and it required the chicken breasts being pounded thin (the better to be fried!) and so we employed our minions as meat pounders. Small girl + big mallet = scary.
Then on my last day in sandwich, I coincidentally decided to make a wrap, thus concluding my rotation with how I began it. It was actually pretty slapdash of me. I hadn't felt like making anything that day so I was looking in the sandwich recipe binder for some inspiration, and I came across a chipotle chicken recipe, which was interesting because I'd never made anything with chipotles before. So I made chipotle chicken, and decided to put it in a wrap with some lettuce. But the wrap needed more, so I wanted to add rice, but it was too late to make rice, so Del found some already-made guacamole, and Chef suggested cheese, and I thought of sprouts, and ranch - and TA-DA, that's how something edible got made.
And that's a wrap of my half-semester in savory!
an homage to salad
So in sandwich station every morning we made a batch of 32 regular sandwiches (8 egg salad, 8 tuna salad, then two more combinations like 8 turkey & swiss and 8 ham & american). Then after that we make two sandwich specials, usually one veggie and another non-veggie. Del and I got in the habit of making the non-veggie specials but it was hard coming up with ideas, probably because I don't eat that many sandwiches, or maybe because I simply don't get excited by sandwiches.
One idea I came up with was the Cobb salad sandwich, which, as you know, isn't exactly a sandwich idea (guess which station I missed being in!). I toasted the ciabatta bread (brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian herbs) in the oven, Del grilled the chicken (with the addition of liquid smoke, some seriously potent stuff!), and we topped that off with the requisite lettuce/tomato/bacon/egg/avocado (so not kosher, as it has just occurred to me). I enjoyed doing all the arranging but also finishing with lines of ranch dressing from a squeeze bottle. Almost like painting!
A few days later Bernie, in salad station, made an actual Cobb salad. It turned out beautifully - just the kind of salad one would want to pay tribute to.
One idea I came up with was the Cobb salad sandwich, which, as you know, isn't exactly a sandwich idea (guess which station I missed being in!). I toasted the ciabatta bread (brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian herbs) in the oven, Del grilled the chicken (with the addition of liquid smoke, some seriously potent stuff!), and we topped that off with the requisite lettuce/tomato/bacon/egg/avocado (so not kosher, as it has just occurred to me). I enjoyed doing all the arranging but also finishing with lines of ranch dressing from a squeeze bottle. Almost like painting!
A few days later Bernie, in salad station, made an actual Cobb salad. It turned out beautifully - just the kind of salad one would want to pay tribute to.
sandwich me crazy
Having found my niche doing composed salads at salad station, it felt anti-climatic to be ending my half-semester on the savory side with sandwich station. As I rotated there, I expected to follow along with what the more experienced sandwich station people were making, and on my first day it was roast beef, arugula, and horseradish cream cheese wraps.
You lay down the wrap (an oversized tortilla), put down some spread, then lay out the ingredients like it's a pizza. You can roll it up burrito-style and cut it in half, but I chose to roll it up horizontally (without tucking the ends in) and then cutting the roll into slices, as you would to make hor d'œuvre-type tortilla spiral sandwiches. Except then I stuck them on kebab sticks! Which made them look like lollipops.
So once I figured out there were presentation possibilities in sandwich, I got to working. The next day I decided to fancy myself with a 3D fruit garnish. I had chosen pineapples and oranges to complement the shrimp salad sandwich my partner Del was making (partially for the flavor, partially to offset the green and red of the cucumbers and tomatoes he was using). Not content simply to cut the pineapples and oranges into slices, I built this, with the addition of celery, parsley, and dried apricot.
And together it looked like this.
Cole slaw was a common side dish to go along with the sandwiches we made because it pairs well with many cold sandwiches (we weren't allowed to make hot sandwiches because they wouldn't keep until lunch service). I got tired of making coleslaw pretty fast so a variation I made was asian coleslaw, where I added bell peppers and snow peas and used some sesame oil in the dressing.
Nom!
You lay down the wrap (an oversized tortilla), put down some spread, then lay out the ingredients like it's a pizza. You can roll it up burrito-style and cut it in half, but I chose to roll it up horizontally (without tucking the ends in) and then cutting the roll into slices, as you would to make hor d'œuvre-type tortilla spiral sandwiches. Except then I stuck them on kebab sticks! Which made them look like lollipops.
So once I figured out there were presentation possibilities in sandwich, I got to working. The next day I decided to fancy myself with a 3D fruit garnish. I had chosen pineapples and oranges to complement the shrimp salad sandwich my partner Del was making (partially for the flavor, partially to offset the green and red of the cucumbers and tomatoes he was using). Not content simply to cut the pineapples and oranges into slices, I built this, with the addition of celery, parsley, and dried apricot.
And together it looked like this.
Cole slaw was a common side dish to go along with the sandwiches we made because it pairs well with many cold sandwiches (we weren't allowed to make hot sandwiches because they wouldn't keep until lunch service). I got tired of making coleslaw pretty fast so a variation I made was asian coleslaw, where I added bell peppers and snow peas and used some sesame oil in the dressing.
Nom!
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