SharpKnifeShortSkirt

When a friend of mine invited me to breakfast at Molly Moon’s, I thought he might have been confused. So I sent him a text: “Molly Moon’s is an ice cream shop, they don’t open ’till noon, are you sure this is the right place?” He responded, “Haha, ya it’s the right place. They serve a killer oatmeal with ice cream on the weekends throughout the winter, you’ll love it!” Hmm, oatmeal and ice cream? This could be weird I thought, but what the hell…

Molly Moon’s was quiet upon arrival but it didn’t surprise me as it was only nine in the morning. The shop smelled of fresh pressed waffle cones, which is one of my favorite foods. I was tempted to skip the oatmeal and get a giant waffle cone filled with ice cream. Instead, I maintained self control and ordered the steel cut oatmeal with a scoop of maple walnut ice cream.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had never had steel cut oatmeal, let alone oatmeal with ice cream. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. The steel cuts oats were chewy, not mushy like rolled oats. The ice cream slowly melted into the oatmeal adding a creamy, velvety, smoothness to it. The maple walnut ice cream was a perfect choice, it added just the right sweetness and reminded me of the oatmeal I grew up with. My friend decided to order the oatmeal with a scoop maple bacon ice cream. Yes, maple bacon. It seems that bacon is all the rage these days and Molly Moon’s doesn’t want to be left out. And while I am not a big bacon fan, my dear friend is. He loved the ice cream and plans to return next winter for more maple bacon oatmeal goodness. I, however, plan to return for more maple walnut goodness. So thank you Molly Moon’s for being different, for waking up early on the weekends to serve us a warm bowl of oatmeal with a delicious scoop of ice cream. We appreciate it!

Since the beginning of this blog one of my dear friends has been begging me to teach her how to dice an onion. If she lived nearby this would be a much simpler task. However, she lives in a little town called Forsyth which is about 14 hours east of Seattle, WA, and 5 hours east of Helena, MT. Yea, that’s a bit of a drive just for an onion dicing lesson. That said, I suggested that she watch a youtube video, but she insisted that seeing pictures on my blog was what she wanted.

So, here you go Mandi, this one’s for you!

To dice an onion:

1. Select your onion, cutting board, and a good sharp knife… Preferably a chef’s knife, I use my Wusthof 8″ Chef’s Knife, I love that thing!

2. Place the onion on your cutting board with the root end facing toward your left. Then hold the onion with your fingers tucked in, forming a “claw.” This claw will prevent you from slicing your fingers! Now cut off the top of the onion (not the root end!)

3. Now stand the onion upright on it’s flat edge and cut it into half… being sure to cut straight through the root.

4. Peel the skin off of the onion.

5. Place onion half flat side down with the root facing toward the left. Make vertical cuts in the onion being sure to not cut through the root. By leaving the root attached, it will help keep the onion together while slicing. Also, these vertical cuts can be as narrow or wide as you want them to be, it all depends on the size of the dice you want.

6. Next make horizontal cuts in the onion, be sure to not cut through the root. Make anywhere from 2-4 horizontal cuts. Again, it depends on the size of dice you want to achieve.

7. Now cut across the onion from right to left, repeat this until you are approximately 1/4″ away from the root end.

8. Dispose of the root of the onion and clean up your work station.

Voila! Now you have successfully diced an onion.

I knew I wanted to make steak and potatoes but I could not decide what vegetable would accompany the main course. I wanted something green but I was tired of the typical grilled asparagus, and I already had my fair share of spinach for the week. While at work I was telling a co-worker about my dinner dilemma and she suggested that I try roasted brussels sprouts. I always enjoyed braised brussels sprouts but I had never thought about roasting them. Feeling curious and ready for something new I browsed the internet for a roasted brussels sprout recipe and decided that I would take from these recipes what I liked and create my own version…

Karissa’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts Recipe:
Ingredients:

• Brussels sprouts
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Minced garlic
• Kosher Salt (or your preferred choice of salt)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Balsamic vinegar

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
• Trim the ends of the brussels sprouts and pull off any discolored or damaged leaves. Then slice the brussels sprouts in half, from top to bottom.
• Place brussels sprouts on a sheet pan, drizzle olive oil over the sprouts.
• With your hands toss them lightly to evenly disperse olive oil.
• Sprinkle the minced garlic, salt, and a little black pepper over the sprouts.
• Place sheet pan in preheated oven and roast for 30 to 35 minutes
• After 15 minutes of cooking, give the pan a good shake to move the sprouts around for even browning.
• When done cooking brussels sprouts should be crisp and browned on the outside but tender on the inside
• Just before serving drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over the sprouts for added flavor

Enjoy!

Here are the sites that inspired my dish:

Ina Garten’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Mark Bittman’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Garlic
White on Rice Couple’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts Recipe

What a week! Four days of finals, 7 days of work, minimal hours of sleep and here I am, alive and kicking. All of this going to school in the morning has kept me from making waffles, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches and all that good morning food. So this week I plan to overindulge on all the goodies I’ve been missing.

I awoke this morning craving something carb heavy and sweet. I thought I wanted waffles, but after a few hours of work at Starbucks I opted for something savory instead. I quickly became indecisive. In an attempt to solve my dilemma I went to Joy the Baker, in hopes of finding a photo that would sway my hunger pangs. I was browsing through the recipe index and was surprised when I found her recipe for dutch babies with orange sugar. My grandmother used to make dutch babies all the time! How had I forgotten about this delicious treat? After reading Joy’s recipe and reminiscing about my grandmothers version I knew that I had to make it for the boyfriend and I.

While whipping up the batter, I had an “Aha!” moment…”If one can make a savory crepe why couldn’t I make a savory dutch baby?” Next thing you know I was dicing up some Kurobuta ham, Gruyere cheese, and cherry tomatoes in hopes of making a delicious savory dutch baby. Sure enough it worked! I just mixed the ham and cheese in with the batter, poured the mixture into a lightly buttered cast iron skillet and popped it in the oven. Twenty minutes later I had one sweet dutch baby and one savory dutch baby ready for consumption.

*Adapted from Joy the Baker, who adapted it from Gourmet April 2009

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature (I used 2% and was happy)
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (do not add this for the savory dutch baby)
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest

To Make:

• Put skillet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.
• Beat eggs with in a blender at at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).
• Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.
• Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.
• Serve immediately, topped with orange sugar.

*I added sliced strawberries on top of the orange sugar, it was fabulous!

While on vacation in Corfu, greek yogurt seemed to be a staple with every meal. When served with breakfast it was topped with fresh fruit, for dinner it was turned into tzatziki sauce, and for dessert it was topped with honey and walnuts. I liked it every way I tried it and after my trip I tried to incorporate it into my diet at home. However, I noticed that buying greek yogurt at home was pricey. So I looked for an alternative and this is what I found: if you strain regular yogurt over the course of a few hours, you end up with a very thick, creamy yogurt and it tastes just like greek yogurt. Perfect!

Ingredients:

• Your choice of yogurt
• A few layers of cheesecloth (coffee filters also work)
• Strainer

To Make:

• Place strainer over a bowl or container to catch the liquid
• Line the strainer with the cheesecloth.
• Place yogurt into the cheesecloth lined strainer
• Cover then place in refrigerator.
• After a few hours check the consistency of the yogurt. If it is to your liking place the thickened yogurt in a storage container, and discard the liquid that was strained from the yogurt.
• Use/consume as desired.

“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?”

- Joe Namath

This past Sunday my mother, boyfriend and I decided to participate in our local St. Patrick’s Day Dash. The dash was a 3.7 mile run that began at 8:30am, half of which was uphill. To some this might not seem like much of a challenge, but for me it certainly was. Upon successful completion of the run, I decided that we all deserved a treat to celebrate our victory! In an attempt to keep with our St. Patty’s Day theme I decided to make these delicious Chocolate Stout cupcakes, with a Jameson chocolate ganache, and Bailey’s buttercream frosting.

I must say the recipe comes courtesy of Smitten Kitchen and boy am I glad I found it! The cupcakes were a little time consuming but easy to make and they are certainly worth the time it takes to make them!!

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1 cup Guinness Stout
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar (I used only 1 1/2 cups and the cakes still tasted delicious!)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream (I didn’t have sour cream so I substituted 1 cup of yogurt + 1 teaspoon baking soda)

*I used the entire 1 cup of yogurt instead of 2/3 cup, I think this contributed to the awesome moistness of the cupcake.

To Make the Cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

• Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
• Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.

• Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. *I found that 3/4 of the way worked best.
• Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

For the Jameson Ganache Filling:

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons Jameson Irish whiskey (or your favorite Irish whiskey)
• 2 cups sugar (I used only 1 1/2 cups and the cakes still tasted delicious!)

To Make the Ganache Filling:

• Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl.
• In a double boiler heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate.
• Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains.
• Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.

All right, now it’s time to fill the cupcakes!

To Fill the cupcakes:

• Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes).
• Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”.
• Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

For the Bailey’s Frosting:

• 3 to 4 cups confections sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

To Make the Bailey’s Frosting:

• Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. (This makes for a creamier smoother frosting.)
• When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

These cupcakes are absolutely amazing and would be perfect for any occasion, not just St. Patrick’s Day!

After a long week of school and work, all I wanted was a delicious meal. While I’d rather put my feet up and let someone else cook for me, I decided that I would rather have a delicious and bacteria free meal at home rather than take my chances at a restaurant (Thanks Chef Kim!). So last night I made spinach salad, cherry tomato crostini, lemon chicken kabobs, and white rice for dinner. The crostini was my favorite part of the meal. I was lucky enough to stumble upon this recipe while shopping at the Metropolitan Market. I have changed it a little to fit my own needs….

Ingredients:

• Macrina’s Fresh Herb Baguette
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pre-shredded mozzarella
• Ripe cherry tomatoes
• Balsamic vinaigrette.

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
• Slice herb baguette on a bias.
• Brush each slice with a extra virgin olive oil, then place on a baking sheet.
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the bread or place fresh buffalo mozzarella on top of each slice.
• Then place three slices of cherry tomato on top of every piece of bread.
• Place the baking sheet in the oven for 6-8 minutes.
• Remove from oven, and sprinkle each slice with approximately 1/4 tsp. of balsamic vinaigrette and a sprinkle of black pepper.
• Serve and enjoy!

I hope you will give this a try and tell me how it is! Cheers!

I may have been a little too ambitious when thinking I could blog about my studies at Le Cordon Bleu every day. I was able to write about day one, but it is now day thirteen and I’ve realized that posting every day, is probably not going to happen.

So let me try to catch you up on the past week and a half…

Day Two: Chef Knaup reviewed the Master Course Outline (MCO), daily points, dress code, the history of Le Cordon Bleu, and the definition of mis en place. At the end of class we were awarded our books and knife kits. I had no idea the kit was going to be so big and full of other utensils… When I came home from school I spent a good hour going through the knife kit and my books. I was so excited!

Day Three: Today we began class with a lesson on culinary arts history, we discussed Marie-Antoine Careme and Auguste Escoffier’s influence on the culinary arts. Then Chef asked us to take out our knife kits and he familiarized the class with each tool inside the kit. Also today was our first day of production! Chef Knaup did a demonstration (demo) in which he showed us how set up our station, peel, and cut a potato into a batonnet and small dice. Luckily everyone in the class knew how to peel a potato, but for some the batonnet and small dice were new terms.

Day Four: Started with a power point presentation, Chef Knaup went over the anatomy of an official Le Cordon Bleu demonstration and we learned about recipes, procedure, and technique. Then we went into production, today’s task was to learn and practice our knife skills. We did a fine julienne and fine brunoise with a carrot, minced an onion, concasse, chopped garlic, garlic paste, and finely chopped parsley. We did all of our cuts, placed them on a sheet tray and awaited our grade. Luckily for me, I did quite well, I have my mother to thank for that! After production, we put our tools away, did the dishes, swept and mopped the kitchen and waited to be dismissed. Today was a good day!

Day Five: Friday. We’re coming to the end of our first week, I can’t believe it’s already the weekend.Today was pretty easy. Chef gave a quick lecture at the beginning of class, he showed us how to caramelize onions, make tomato sauce, as well as mashed potatoes. While he was cooking a few different faculty members came into class for a short lecture. When the lecture was over, it was time for a tasting. Chef Knaup taught us the basic principles for a “professional tasting” and then we did just that… taste! All of the students grabbed a plate and soon we were all eating caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, and tomato sauce on the side… yum!

Day Six: Quiz One! Despite all of my studying I was a little nervous for our quiz today. All of my fears were put to rest upon completion of the quiz as it turned out to be easier than I had anticipated. After the quiz was finished we were presented with another power point presentation and lecture, followed by a quick production session. Today we were learning tourne cuts. To make a tourne cut is NOT easy. I tried and tried, cut after cut, and still I felt defeated by that damned potato. Then we were to practice the tourne cut on a zucchini, it didn’t get any easier. So I decided to practice at home. I took some extra carrots out of my refrigerator got my tourne knife and attempted to tourne the hell out of those carrots. Ugh, no improvement. I kept getting 5 sided tourne’s or 8 sided tourne’s, help was needed.

Day Seven: Mathematics! Have you ever needed to decrease a recipe from 30 servings to 6 servings? Or how about change a recipe from 4 servings to 120 servings? Today I learned how to do that and luckily math is not much of a challenge for me… New Yield / Old Yield = Conversion Factor. Once you have found the conversion factor, multiply each ingredient amount by that number, and then re-assess your ingredient amounts. If something says 8 teaspoons change it to 6 Tablespoons, and so on. Got it? We did a handful of examples and then Chef Knaup did an introduction to kitchen equipment. Pretty straight forward lecture and lesson today.

Day Eight: Stock! Veal Stock to be exact. Today Chef Knaup demonstrated how to make veal stock. I was quite intrigued by this demo because I have never made veal stock before so I did my best to take detailed mental and written notes.

Day Nine: Roll call and line up! At 10:30am Chef Knaup instructed the class to head upstairs and form a single file line in front of the big mirror. The purpose of this was to get all of us thinking about professionalism. Look in the mirror, how do you look, are you clean, are you in uniform, do you look like a professional? Yes and yes, I certainly do! After line up, we went downstairs to “take down” our veal stock from day eight. After taking down our stock and storing it appropriately Chef Knaup led the class in making chicken stock. Making the chicken stock was pretty easy especially after watching veal stock be made the day prior.

Day Ten: Quiz 2! I’ll be honest, I did not study for today’s quiz. I wanted to, really I did, but I was exhausted! I went to Vancouver, BC on Sunday to cheer on Team USA in the men’s gold medal hockey game and to participate in the excitement of the Olympics. It was fun, but at the end of the day, I had no energy, and I had to be at work at 4:30am on Monday morning. Despite my lack of studying I think I did quite well on the quiz. After we finished our quiz, Chef Knaup handed out our student profile which included our grade report! “Congratulations,” said Chef Knaup, turns out I am doing quite well in my studies. I couldn’t be happier!

Day Eleven: Mother Sauces! Today Chef Knaup demoed Veloute sauce, this is the first of the 5 “Mother Sauces” we are going to learn about. Veloute = white stock + white or blond roux. Veloute is a very basic sauce, easy to make, and is the base for a number of other sauces. I’m can’t wait to experiment with it!

Day Twelve: Espagnole sauce, Demi-glaze, and Sauce Robert. Chef Knaup seemed to be speaking very quickly today, lots of work and little time to get it done. So I scribbled away in my notes, hoping to remember which ingredients went with each sauce. We tasted all three sauces and I have to say the demi-glace was my favorite! Tonight’s homework is to read about Béchamel as we will be making it tomorrow…

Day Thirteen: Bechamel! Today Chef Knaup gave a short lecture, then jumped right into a demo of Bechamel sauce. After watching his demo we were instructed to find a teammate and get to work on making cheese sauce, or Mornay sauce, which is a derivative of the Bechamel sauce. We did not have very much time and teamwork was definitely required if we wanted to receive a good grade. Here is the recipe we used in making our Mornay sauce…

Ingredients:

• 1oz. clarified butter
• 1oz. all purpose flour
• 2 C. whole milk,
• 1 oz. small diced onion
• 2 oz. Gruyere cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• a tiny flick of nutmeg

To Make:

• Heat 1 oz. of clarified butter in a small sauce pan
• Add 1 oz. small diced onion to the butter, cook on low heat until onions are translucent, but not browned
• Once onion is translucent, add 1 oz. flour to the sauce pan, with a wire whip (whisk) mix the mixture until it forms a soft paste.
• While stirring, slowly add the 2 cups of whole milk.
• Continue to stir the mixture and bring it to a boil. Once the sauce boils, reduce the heat and bring to a slow simmer.
• Now combine the 2 oz. of Gruyere cheese with the sauce.
• Once the cheese has melted, give the sauce a taste, then add salt, pepper, and flick of nutmeg.
• Give the sauce a stir, taste the sauce again, and add more salt or pepper as needed.
• Let sauce simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally for a better tasting sauce.

Alright, well that’s the quick review of the past 12 days. I apologize for my lack of food and recipe posts lately. Sadly, I have barely been able to cook in the past week. I did not think life would get this busy, but it has, so now I must figure out a way to work with it. I promise to get some food posts up within the next few days. Thank you all for your patience!

Bon Appetit!

In what little free time I have, between work (ColdTrackDays), school, homework, and more work (Starbucks) I do try to fit in a good book. Currently that book is The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America by Michael Ruhlman. This book was given to me as a Christmas gift this year and after reading just the first two pages I was knew I had to attend culinary school. As it turns out the gift giver’s goal was to do just that, inspire me to pursue my passion for the culinary arts.

Michael Ruhlman is a journalist and food writer who makes his way into the Culinary Institute of America and chronicles his experiences as a student. Ruhlman provides detailed descriptions about his experiences in Skills One at the CIA. He explains what a mirepoix is and the process for making veal stock. I am only a few chapters into the book, but I have already learned quite a bit.

One reason I am enjoying the book so much is that I feel like it is keeping pace with my current studies at Le Cordon Bleu. If you are an aspiring chef, or just curious about the life of a culinary student then you should definitely read this book!