pan-sauce chicken

For this portion of the semester, our advanced class is focused on sauces, both classic and modern. We started out with a pan-sauce for chicken.

First you take some oil and sear the chicken breast (salt & peppered, presentation side down) until it's golden.



Turn over and sear the other side, then throw the chicken in the oven so the inside can cook.



While the chicken is roasting, take the pan you just used for searing and pour any excess oil out, leaving just the chicken fond (bits left over from searing). Throw in a little butter, then sautee mushrooms and shallots.



After they've cooked for a bit, deglaze with white wine and sherry vinegar (preferably this kind if you can get your hands on it), then add demiglace (or reduced/thickened brown stock).



Let the sauce simmer for a bit, then add some roasted garlic puree and a little more butter if needed.



Lastly, turn the heat off and stir in some chopped chives.



By the time your sauce is done, the chicken should be done too. Cut into the non-presentation side and check to see if the juices run clear. If not, put it back into the oven for another few minutes. Otherwise, pour the sauce over and serve!



The sauce is rich but savory with a tang, and even better with creamy mashed potatoes. Mmm.

tarte tatin

One of the food blogs I follow, Gilt Taste, recently put out a recipe for Tarte Tatin. I'd never heard of it before, but it's like an upside down apple pie (and plus it's French) so I jumped at the chance to make it for a dinner party.

The hardest part was finding an oven-safe pan. There are hundreds of them at school, but at home all the pans had plastic handles. And the cast iron was too big, so I resorted to unscrewing the handle off of one of the existing pans.



After that was the dilemma of making dough without a food processor (well, I have one but it's tiny). Thankfully, at one of my summer stages I'd learned to cut butter into dough by using a cheese grater, because they didn't have a food processor either.



Between the cheese grater and breaking up the butter curls by hand, I got the butter mixed in pretty well.



With some cold water and kneading, the dough was shaped into a round, wrapped in plastic and put in the fridge to chill.



Next came the apples. Golden delicious from the farmer's market by work.



Once cut and quartered, I was able to fit five in the 9" pan.



Then I cooked the combination of butter, sugar and cinnamon stick.



Took it off the heat once it started turning brown.



On top I repositioned the apple quarters, now cored (but not peeled, since I didn't have a good peeler at home).



While the apples were cooking I took the dough out and rolled it to the dimensions of the pan. I don't own a rolling pin so I used a bottle of PAM. It works pretty well (although in my previous post you'll see PVC pipe, that works even better).



The apples cooking in the cinnamon caramel is one of the best smells that can fill your kitchen. I turned rotated each slice 180º for even cooking, but you don't have to.



Once the apples were done I covered the pan and put it in the oven. When it finished baking I wrapped it in towels and took it to the dinner party.



There, I had to pop the tarte back into the oven, so the caramel could soften a bit in order for the all-important flipping of the tarte to happen.



I was nervous, but with the plate on the pan, I flipped in one motion and the tarte came out. It would probably have been prettier with the apples peeled, but it tasted pretty good (with vanilla ice cream!).



Not a bad way to make use of some apples (or other fruit) you have lying around. Although I'd still prefer apple pie :)

pastillage

In my culinary program, everyone has to do an 240-hour internship in their last (typically 4th) semester. I decided to do my internship in a hotel pastry department, since I've never had experience in a hotel environment.

So far it's been quite different from working at local or even chain bakeries. Although I've been making doughs, batters, shaping/piping product, occasionally I get to help out with sculptural pieces that a small bakery would simply not have the resources to do.

One piece I've been working on requires a lot of pastillage, which is similar to gum paste and fondant. Made out of sugar, gelatin, water and vinegar, it hardens as it dries, making it very useful for sculptural pieces.



Before the dough can be used it has to be kneaded until smooth (on a cornstarch-covered surface) and then rolled out flat to the approximate size of the surface it is meant to cover. In this case, it's castle gates made of foam-core board that I had a great time cutting because it utilized some long-lost drafting skills.



Once the pastillage has covered the piece and is trimmed to the exact dimensions, designs can be etched on it. In this case I used the triangle tool to indent parallel lines for bricks.



Then I took this handy plastic tool and indented individual bricks. A very hands-on process. I think there are brick stencils/rollers made for this exact purpose, but Chef likes the inexactness of this.



To actually adhere the pastillage to the foam-core board, I used royal icing (meringue + powdered sugar). It's literally like edible glue.



Then there's some more trimming and detail cut-outs like the crenellations and windows.



After that Chef demonstrated using the airbrush machine to spray food-grade airbrush coloring onto the pieces.



Here are all the pieces I cut, airbrushed with color.



Once the spray color has dried, we dabbed a side towel with water and wiped the surfaces, blending the colors together.



I hope that these things I learned will one day come in handy, like the drafting skills I had from the one architecture studio class I took in college. I guess you just never know.

sous vide: short ribs

For our last Sous Vide class we did short ribs. 48 hours at 139F! Each team prepared their short ribs a different way before they went in to cook. We did a barbecue-style dry rub, other teams did different flavored marinades. I really liked the team that used coffee and the team that used Guinness.

Anyway, while the short ribs were cooking we got to making side dishes. I had recently this recipe for Baked Ricotta, Mushrooms & Balsamic Brown Butter and I really wanted to try it so I thought this was the perfect opportunity, even though it's not a traditional barbecue side dish.

Also I made some modifications to the recipe. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

So I made the brown butter first. And then instead of sauteeing with olive oil, I reused the brown butter pan for sauteeing the garlic and red pepper flakes, to which I added onion to because I thought the onions would go really well with the mushrooms.



After the onions were almost caramelized I added mushrooms (brown and white) and white wine, sauteeing until the wine had evaporated and the mushrooms were almost dry.



I couldn't find any ricotta cheese, so I crumbled goat cheese over and broiled everything until the cheese developed toasted spots.



Lastly, I poured the balsamic brown butter over (balsamic vinegar, brown butter, salt and pepper), which really took things to the next level.



The great thing about this mushroom side dish is you can use it for so many things - to mix with pasta, to top pizza, to sautee with additional vegetables, as a side with steak, as a stuffing for veggie tacos, etc. etc. It's creamy and tangy and spicy and mushroom-meaty and just delicious.

As a plus the short ribs came out amazing as well. Sous vide made the meat so tender and juicy, like brisket cooked really well. Besides the mushrooms we also had roasted baby brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes. Can't go wrong with all that.

mama tran's beef noodle soup

It's funny, the things one does not know how to cook. For me, it was the food I grew up with, that I took for granted. When I started to cook I turned to pasta and italian seasonings. Even now, Asian ingredients still aren't familiar.

But so many years living away from home means I don't take the food I grew up with for granted. Living in the Bay Area again has meant that last year and this year, I was able to request my mom's beef noodle soup for my birthday. And this time I finally captured the process in photo so now I can make it for myself.

(As a side note, my mom wasn't always Mama Tran. For years my friends didn't have anything to call her. Mrs didn't accurately reflect her marital status, Ms made her seem like a stranger, and using her first name wasn't respectful enough. My sister Iris coined the term last summer and it stuck - very ingenious.)

Here's what you would need to recreate the dish for yourself (serves 4):

1 lb boneless beef shank
4 cloves garlic, minced
the equivalent amount of ginger, minced
9 cups water
2 star anise
1.5 tablespoons Por Kwan beef base
1 small daikon
2 large carrots
1/2 lb chinese wheat noodle
handful of cilantro, scallion & jalapeño for garnish



First sautee the beef shank (USA!) with garlic and ginger until the outside is brown.



Then add water, star anise and beef base (stir to dissolve). Turn the heat up until the broth is almost boiling, then turn the heat down to simmer.



In the meantime, cut the daikon and carrot into chunks. Usually we do roll cut, but my mom bought this handy tool in Vietnam that imparts wave patterned cuts, so we did that.



Also cook the dry noodle in boiling water. You want them a little softer than al dente, but be careful because they cook faster than Italian hard pasta. Once they're done, drain and set aside in a covered bowl.



After the broth has been simmering for about 45 minutes, add the daikon and carrots. Keep simmering for another 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.



Chop up the garnishes. Besides cilantro/scallion and jalapeño, we also had Chinese fermented mustard greens (sour and crunchy) as well as toasted peanuts.



Portion the noodles into bowls and ladle broth over it. Then top with beef, daikon and carrot pieces. Lastly, garnish to your heart's content!



Hopefully, eating this will be as satisfying for you as it is for me. Thank you Mama Tran!