ACF Practical Exam

Today I had my practical exam so I could get certified by the American Culinary Federation. The test was in conjunction with my Garde Manger class, which in a previous post I explained my general dislike of. Now, I must say that while I'm still generally uninterested in the class topics, the class is teaching me some possibly useful things, so it's not all bad.

Last week our class had a practice week, which went well, and I tried to fine tune the things that needed work leading up to today. The whole exam required preparation of the following:

Batonnet & Julienne of carrots
Finely chopped parsley
Mirepoix
Chicken stock
Fabrication of a whole chicken into thighs, wings, skinless boneless breast, airline breast (chicken breast with the wing bone attached), drumsticks, and carcass free of usable meat
One entree of choice, preparing the airline breast, proper starch and vegetable

My batonnet & julienne of carrots turned out well, with the minor exception that they were a little short, but they were all the same size so I don't think that effected my score a great deal. Parsley was easy, but most people get impatient and don't chop it fine enough, so go me.
Mirepoix, easy. Chicken stock, easy.
I must say, I freakin rocked that chicken fabrication. My best go yet, plus I even got the stupid oyster muscle clean. Rock.

For my entree I did Indian spiced chicken, curried cauliflower and cardamom rice. My chicken was perfect during practice week, but I put too much salt in my spice mix this week so it ended up a little salty (damn it), but it was perfectly cooked so screw it. My chef complained that my cauliflower was a little undercooked during practice week, so I cooked it longer this time and to his standards it was perfect. Word. Rice is easy, the end.

All in all, I passed with an A/95 and am now certified by the ACF. Which means that I have something to make my resume look good and I don't have to go back over Thanksgiving break to retake the test. Yeah man.


Now I can relax.

Favorites

You know, whenever people ask me my favorite food, or my favorite thing to make, I get pretty pissed. I mean.. not really.. but I hate the question is what I'm sayin'.

I'm in culinary school, I have TONS of favorite foods. I also love making tons of different things, it all depends on what mood I'm in.

Now, I have my "fancy" favorite foods: Goat cheese, super dark chocolate, etc.. But I don't know that I could consider them favorite because I wouldn't want to eat them all the time. They would lose their specialness.

Then I have my comforting favorite foods: Plain cheerios, banana yogurt, oatmeal, cold cream of wheat, skim milk (I have a dairy obsession..). While looking at this list I notice that these are all, for the most part, extremely bland foods. But these are all foods I grew up on and came to adore. I could eat them every day.

As far as my favorite thing to make, I think I've made it obvious that I like to bake cakes, but it's not my favorite. I do love making chili, and I make a mean one at that, but still not my favorite.
I guess sometimes, I like doing the time/labor intensive thing - croissants, apple strudel, bread, etc.. but sometimes I just want to get baked goods into my tummy as quickly as possible - quick breads, cookies, muffins.. or I just want a quick healthy meal that will fill me up - wheat pasta with tuna and veggie sauce or some delicious turkey chili.


So if you ask me either of these questions, I most likely won't punch you in the face, but I might want to.

If someone says charcuterie - I say run.

What I want to know is who, in their right mind, thought that meat jell-o was a good idea. Ever see anything in aspic? That's what it is, kids, meat floating in meaty jell-o. bleghhgh. I need to go bake something...



Busy couple weeks in Ellie land. Hence why you haven't been seeing any new posts from me. I guess I've been busy with being an international lindy hop champion, attending SONH, and helping to host my exchange here in Albany. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Also new, school has officially started as of last week. Fully contributing to my busyness recently. I'm starting to realize that while taking five labs may not be a total death sentence, it'll still do a great job of kicking my butt.

Good news is that only one of my four professors is a total ass. Just because you have a masters in gastronomy doesn't mean you rule the world, you know. His class actually inspired the title of this blog post; Garde Manger.
The name Garde Manger comes from one of the stations in a classical brigade French kitchen; the Garde Manger chef works mainly with cold items: salads, sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres and charcuterie. Charcuterie is primarily the making of sausage, pate, terrines, mousseline, etc..

I already have the doom and gloom feeling that me, this chef, and this class are not going to get along. Keep in mind that I'm not really on the squeamish side of the food spectrum, and I'll try most things, but some of this stuff is disgusting. Flipping through my text book and seeing sausage confit (sausage preserved in ridiculous amounts of fat).. makes me kind of ready to run for the hills.
I'm a baker. Not a huge fan of animal fat. My body says it's not a good idea, and I happily oblige.

Speaking of baking, my two baking classes are going well and I think I'll learn a lot from them. Although the unfortunate aspect is that the heat of the 4th floor and something about my chef's voice makes me extremely sleepy. I do care about gluten development. I promise.


This blog post was sponsored by crepes. A nom x4 recipe.

Finally. A Cake.

I sometimes complain about how I never get to bake cakes. Now is one of those times.

I always love the process of baking and decorating cakes, but it gets dangerous to have a gazillion of them laying around the house as you can imagine. And for the record, usually even when I think I'm going to get to bake a cake, it doesn't happen. You know why? Because anytime anyone's birthday rolls around, they don't want cake, they want pie or something stupid. It's a birthday people. Birthday = Cake. Get with the program.

Anyway. I informed Jesse that when it came time for her going away party, I was making cake. The end. She tried in one mere attempt to veer me away to something less cake-y, but I stood my cake-y ground and won. Score Ellie: 1 Pie: 0

In the end I decided to go for a chocolate coconut cake. Now, I've never made this before, but usually when I think something will work in my head, it does, so I decided to go for it.
When I make chocolate cake I pretty much always stick with the same recipe. The one on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box. It's the shit, people. Just roll with it. Oh - and my chocolate frosting recipe? You guessed it, also on the back of the Hershey's box. De-freaking-licious.

For the filling I decided to take my standard pastry cream recipe and make it coconutty. For me that just meant substituting most of the milk for unsweetened coconut milk. I also toasted up the coconut and added that to the cooled cream. When it was finished I decided it a little too sweet and puddingy for my liking, so I whipped up some cream and folded that in. Much better.

I cut the cake in half, added the filling, and proceeded to frost with that yummy chocolate frosting. I toasted up some more coconut and put that one the sides and top. Then finally, I piped some frosting around the edge to give it a more finished look. I think it looked pretty pretty.

All in all, good times. It tasted super yummy, the coconut wasn't too overpowering and obviously who doesn't like chocolate. No one, that's right.


Anywho ..I love cake! And you should too. Nyam nyam nyam.


-E

p.s. Isn't it beautiful? I'm SO proud. :)

Hawt Shoes.

Jessekins surprised me today with an early birthday present. I am now the proud owner of the hottest shoes in the whole entire universe. I thought I had you beat with that fantastic scarf I gave you for Christmas, but you now hold the title for best present.


LOVE!!!

Talk About Muffins

As per Jesse face's request, I will now explain why I talk so much about muffins. I guess it started a few years ago when Albany people actually carpooled together, so we had a lot of time to kill with stupid conversati- I mean, really good times.

Anyway, when Shannon was still around, her, Jesse and I particularly liked to make fun of Josh. We thought a good nickname was in order, so we decided on "Joshy". I think he secretly loved it.

One day Joshy got the crazy idea that the rest of us should have nicknames too, so at the Philly exchange in.. '06? Josh said he came up with the perfect nickname for me. You guessed it. "Muffin". Because apparently I'm just so "cute and muffiny" according to Josh.

Unfortunately for me, it stuck. At one point we even decided my flavor. Peach spice.

So there you have it. I'm a peach spice muffin.

And because I always like to drag other people into things, Jesse's nickname is Toody! Because of her attitude of course. Bring it back, people! Bwahaha, I'm SUCH a good sister.



<3 Ellie

Schooly school school

"When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me... at the present I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins." - Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist and writer.



Have to say, even though I just ended my summer session, I'm really looking forward to the fall semester. I love learning, despite having to clean the labs everyday, despite working with the occasional irritating lab partner, I just love it.
I'm especially excited to get to take both of my baking classes from Paul Krebs, who I've heard is very talented and I expect to learn a lot from.

Just started ordering my books today, I can't wait to flip through both of my fancy new baking books that branch out of the basics into more of the advanced pastry work (sugar work, plated desserts). Fun fun fun. - Anyone know what method cards are?

One of my classes I'm not so excited about though. Classical cuisine. i.e cooking for the school restaurant. Run for the hills, kids, that means I serve the public. It's pretty much exactly what I don't want to do with my life, which is being on a line. Too high stress, big.. flaming things, ticket orders, people yelling.. bleeeeck. I'm not excited.


Although, being out of school does have its perks. Like I get to go to the Wednesday farmer's market instead of the Saturday one. i.e. A lot less crowded and more veggies to choose from. Yay! I could totally do a blog about how much I love veggies... eh, for another time. ;)



-El