amuse #4: southwestern pork puff pastry cups

After the third amuse I rotated into the main kitchen to produce mass quantities of soup (for both PCR and the cafeteria). But for my birthday my family was going to come eat in the PCR so I wanted to be there. So I switched with someone for the day and got to do amuse again!

This time my inspiration was simply what I felt like eating - and I thought of ground pork with grilled corn and roasted red bell peppers. And I wanted to put it in puff pastry, because I love puff pastry - one of my favorite creations was a Thanksgiving puff pastry dumpling I did years ago, where I basically wrapped leftover turkey, sweet potato and cranberry sauce in puff pastry and baked it.



So anyway, this was supposed to be an easy amuse - I would stir-fry the ground pork, and lay the corn and red bell peppers on the grill until they charred. Which is what I did, but first I made the sauce.



Since I pictured the pork puff pastry as a dumpling/samosa like thing, for the sauce I thought about the green sauce that accompanies samosas. But I didn't want all the Indian flavors so I just kept it simple, cilantro and yogurt and garlic, seasoned with lemon juice and cayenne. I put in too much garlic, so I tried to adjust by putting in more cilantro and yogurt, but that only made it slightly better.



While I was busy adjusting the sauce, Tishara stepped in and cut my corn kernels for me. Maybe she just wanted her grill back, but I was really glad to have some help.

The red bell peppers I put into a tin and covered with foil after they got all charred up - the trapped residual heat softens the peppers even more and allow for the charred skin to be easily peeled off (which I did, in some cold water).

The bell peppers and the grilled corn were added to the pork - which I stir-fried with red onion, ginger, vinegar and paprika (the seasonings were a product of googling "pork corn red bell pepper", finding a recipe for pork chop with bell pepper and corn relish, and stealing the idea).



Once the filling was done I got to wrapping the dumplings, and somehow I had gotten only a dozen in the oven when it came service time. And guests were being seated in the PCR and I had nothing ready. So I started freaking out and pulled the dumplings from the oven and deep-fried them instead. And they looked ugly and not what I wanted them to look like (hence no pictures of those).

Meanwhile I was also freaking out because my family didn't show up and I didn't have my phone and I had to get my phone and I had all these messages about meetup mishaps, and it really was too much stress.



In the end I bought myself some time with the deep-fried puffs, and decided to make my life easier by not making any more dumplings. Instead I just laid down puff pastry squares in muffin tins and spooned filling over that and baked - and what came out were more like pork puff pastry cups. And they actually looked much better. And I regained my ability to breathe.

amuse #3: chicken peanut satay & green papaya salad

My favorite cuisine is Thai, so I had to do a Thai-style amuse. This one was especially ambitious because besides trying new things without a recipe, I was also doing two things at once: chicken satay AND papaya salad. Thankfully each involved a marinade/sauce that I was able to make the day before so that cut down on prep time.



I love green papaya salad but have never worked with it before, so it was interesting to shred and taste it plain. It actually tastes like... not very much.



To the shredded papaya I added halved cherry tomatoes and chopped green beans (you can also substitute Chinese long beans). The salad dressing involved olive oil, shrimp paste, fish sauce, lime and honey. Although it tasted okay, I thought it could be better but wasn't sure how to make it better - it just didn't taste authentic. Maybe I need my grandma's nuoc mam (cooked fish sauce)...

For the chicken satay I used the leftover diced chicken cubes from the Chinese chicken lettuce cups and marinated them in peanut sauce (peanut butter + soy sauce + lemon juice + brown sugar + garlic + curry powder). But honestly this peanut dressing is far superior and I wish I would've used it instead. I sauteed the chicken cubes and browned them in the broiler to get a little char since the cubes were way too small for me to grill.



This amuse bite had no chance of being held together by a skewer, so I used Asian soup spoons for the presentation. The skewers for the chicken were unnecessary but I just liked how they looked, especially since the soup spoons were plain.



As you can see I made a lot! But they all got eaten, and that made me happy.

amuse #2: grilled peach salad bite

For my next amuse I wanted to do something Asian-inspired again, but I thought it would be better to take a break and do something fresh. Again I thought about things I had eaten recently and this grilled peach salad with goat cheese and arugula came to mind.



Because there's only two hours to prepare, getting all ingredients in one go was very important.



I cut the peaches in half and basted them with melted butter + brown sugar + cinnamon. They grilled until they got soft, and then I put them in a pan and covered them with foil to retain heat.



The goat cheese log was crumbled by hand, and the arugula was tossed in a simple vinaigrette (olive oil + balsamic vinegar + salt + pepper). Again I wanted a crunch element to offset the softness of everything, so I opted for toasted almond slivers.

To assemble, I scraped off the charred bits on the grilled peaches, cut them into cubes, sprinkled some brown sugar on, then topped with a pinch of arugula, some bits of goat cheese, then adhered some almond slivers to the cheese, and skewered the bite with a mini-skewer.



Excuse the poor lighting, but this is how it turned out. As my PCR teammate Dustin deadpan-ed: "It was like an orgasm in my mouth." I didn't believe him at first, but he really did mean it. It was that delicious.

amuse #1: chinese chicken lettuce cups

So in my stint as Student Chef of the PCR, I did the whole logistics/butchery thing, but when the restaurant opened for service I was the communication point between the front of the house (servers, food runners, etc.) and the back of the house (kitchen). I was also in charge of expediting, or otherwise keeping track of orders (in the form of tickets) and getting food out on time. Here was my view:



While that was fun and allowed me to feel self-important, I was itching to get in on some of the food action. When my time was up I was able to choose what station I went into, and I chose to go into amuse. Not only are little bite-sized portions of food cute (to eat, look at, and also make), I was also excited by the fact that every single guest would get a taste of my creation, not to mention all the samples I would be doling out to fellow students. To me this meant that whatever I made had to be good.

For inspiration I thought about appetizers I had eaten and liked, and also thought a bit about something I was culturally familiar with. One of the things that came to mind were Chinese Chicken Lettuce Cups, which I had remember eating perhaps first at a PF Changs, but also in legit banquet-style dinners. Usually you would wrap heaping spoonfuls of diced up chicken in a whole lettuce leaf and eat it like some kind of spring roll, but my version would have to be smaller.



So I used a cookie cutter to make small, perfectly round lettuce cups.

As for the chicken filling, I knew it was supposed to be a mixture of things. But unsure of what to include, I researched a bunch of recipes online and ended up doing what I always do, which is to write down the parts of each recipe/ingredient list that I like. This came out to diced chicken, onions, ginger, shiitake mushrooms and water chesnuts.

The chicken I marinated in a equal parts mixture of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and also minced garlic. After that was stir-fried and set aside, I stir-fried the diced vegetables (onions first to soften), then re-added the chicken and flavored with oyster sauce and red pepper flakes and mixed in scallions.



So far both the chicken and lettuce cups were rather soft-textured (since I chose to use butter lettuce for color instead of the usual iceberg), so I thought of crunchy toppings. Cashews came to mind (which I crushed), as did black sesame, but I also wanted the crispy fried noodles I had eaten in restaurants previous - the problem was just that I had no idea what kind of noodles they were and how they were fried. As a last-ditch experiment I grabbed some Chinese vermicelli and dunked them in the deep fryer. They poofed up immediately and were exactly what I wanted (disclaimer: experiments, especially last-ditch ones, almost never work out like this).



So this was the lettuce cup, all assembled and finished with a cilantro leaf for color. The prep time of two hours was just enough for me to turn this out, sans experience, and I think people liked it despite the spice!

samples!

The day before PCR opened we ran a mock service, in which all of the menu items were plated and photographed, then served to the third semester students (because they're running the front of the house - serving and bussing and otherwise interacting with the customers). The entrees came out looking rather professional and I couldn't help but be proud. So without further ado:



The Amuse Station's first creation: Mushroom Pate Crostini with Creme Fraiche and Chives. The amuse is served as a free appetizer to all PCR guests, and it changes on a daily basis. So for the first day of service it was this, but after that we had Thai Beef Salad in Wonton Cups, then Grilled Zucchini-Wrapped Prosciutto with Gruyere and Capers.



Sandwich Station: Oyster, Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Po-Boy with Remoulade Sauce and Side of Fries. The oysters and shrimp are battered with cornmeal with cajun seasoning and fried. The remoulade sauce is a fancy tartar sauce. And the fries I have since nixed because they were coming out stiff and hard to chew - we replaced them with potato wedges. So customers can chose from potato wedges, side salad, or fruit salad as their side, and sometimes we have specials like macaroni salad.



Also Sandwich Sandwich Station: Turkey Avocado Sandwich on Whole Grain Bread with Fruit Salad and Pickle Spear. Pretty straight forward. Someone remarked that the pickle spear looked somewhat phallic. That was my (unintentional) doing.



Also Sandwich Station: Roasted Vegetable Sandwich on Ciabatta Bread with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Side Salad. Also pretty straight forward. The roasted veggies are a mix: eggplant, zucchini/squash, tomatoes, onions, red bell peppers.



Salad Station: Poached Pear Salad with Black Forest Ham, Bleu Cheese, Roasted Figs, Glazed Walnuts and Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette. I contributed to this dish by poaching the pears, which I had experience with from pastry side last semester. These pears were slightly different though as they were poached whole, with less sugar and lemon + star anise + cinnamon + cloves for flavoring. Easily my favorite salad for all the sweet savoryness of it.



Also Salad Station: Shrimp Louis Salad with Bay Shrimp, Cucumber, Tomato, Hardboiled Egg, Asparagus, Poached Mushroom and Assorted Greens. The louis sauce involved brandy (or, alternatively, cognac), which was a little scandalous. Anyway, I thought this salad looked like a little "forest of delight", especially with the scalloping done on the mushroom and the lemon peel (can't wait to learn that type of detail work).



Also Salad Station: Heirloom Tomato Salad with Basil, Fresh Mozzerella and Mixed Herbs. You can't go wrong with this salad. I've done this salad at home many times with regular tomatoes, and it's not any inferior as long as the tomatoes are ripe. I want to try the parmesan chip next time though - can you believe it's made just by baking some shredded parmesan and olive oil? Crazy.



Entree Station: Sauteed Beef Medallions with Three Peppercorn Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Root Vegetable Batonnets. Here's where the beef medallions went! In the future we should shape the beef so it's more medallion-like, but the dish is so delicious that the non-medallion-ness of the beef is easily overlooked. The root vegetables we used were parsnips, carrots and kohlrabi (which taste like the insides of broccoli stems). Oh and the gravy is to die for.



Also Entree Station: Sautee of Lamb with Artichokes, Oven Dried Tomatoes, Mushroom Pilaf Croquette and Grilled Squash Medley. Here's where the lamb cubes went! The oven dried tomatoes are bomb with their concentrated tomato flavor, kind of a cross between fresh tomatoes and sundried tomatoes. And I made the mushroom pilaf croquette so there'll probably be an entry about that in the future. And the grilled squash medley is eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash.



Also Entree Station: Chicken Paillard with Mashed Potatoes, Ratatouille and Jus Lie. Here's where the chicken pieces went! The jus lie is a slightly thickened jus - I can't wait to make that and demi glace (gravies for the previous two entrees) - after all, I really wanted to get into sauces when I was thinking about culinary school, and that hasn't changed.



Also Entree Station: Grilled Portabella Steak with Whole Grains Pilaf and Roasted Baby Vegetables. For a while this dish was just vegetarian because there was butter in the pilaf, but it soon became vegan because we substituted olive oil. For baby vegetables we have carrot, zucchini, turnip, beet and pattypan squash.

And lastly there was a vegetarian entree: a Pasta Primavera - Fettucine with Bechamel and Broccoli, Asparagus, Red Bell Pepper and Portabella Mushroom. This entree changes out every week or so.

And besides all of this we also have specials that rotate daily (or really more like every two days). More on that later!