Wine and Cheese Night

This week has been intense week in the kitchen… this week I dealt with filleting fish, killing a lobster the hard way, learning how to quarter a duck. I think the lobster story is the best one so I’ll share that one. The live lobster that was placed on my cutting board was crawling around and I had to lift the thing back to the center of my board so I could hack it before it crawled away again. I killed the lobster wrong I know because after I chopped the tail off, the lobster tail curled into a ball and the claws kept flailing. I felt like I did a terrible magic trick because the lobster tail and torso were a good 4 inches apart and everything was still flailing wildly. Ah poor lobster. Then as I had watched the chef do during his demo, I started to quarter the lobster… but the lobster would not stay still for me. Then the sous chef walked to my table and goes “Hmm… you should cut the head off first so it dies straightaway.” Ohh oops then I proceeded to chop off the head after I tortured the poor lobster. Then I cooked it and ate it. The End.

After classes this week, I brought home leftover such as chicken, duck, and whatever we had cooked up that day. So, needless to say, I have had a lot of tacos this week with my leftover meat… but tonight my leftover supply ran out so I threw a little something together. I made a Honey, Gorgonzola and Walnut Open Faced Sandwich. This dish is mainly just about using good ingredients. I bought the Gorgonzola from a cheese shop. The nice thing about these cheese shops is that you can get a relatively small amount and I could get a ¼ pound of cheese so I didn’t have to have a big hunk of cheese hanging out in the fridge. I bought a nice mini walnut loaf of bread from a bread bakery in the city. It’s so nice to live in a big city, because anything you possibly can want is out there. This was the perfect light supper with a glass (or two) of wine. I loved the combined flavor of the strong cheese, crunchy walnuts, hearty bread, all topped with a bit of sweet honey.

Honey, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Open Faced Sandwiches

Ingredients:
-Loaf of hearty bread
-Gorgonzola Dolce cheese
-Honey
-Cayenne Spiced Candied Walnuts (recipe below)

Toast the bread on a grill or in an oven until golden. Spread some gorgonzola on the toasted bread. Drizzle a small amount of honey on top of the gorgonzola. Top with the candied walnuts.

Cayenne Spiced Candied Walnuts

Set aside a well greased piece of foil or parchment paper. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine ½ cup sugar with ¼ cup water. Add a couple sprinkles of cayenne. Let the sugar get slightly golden (may take 4-5 min), add about a cup of walnuts. Toss the walnuts in the sugar and make sure the nuts are well covered. Pour out onto the greased foil. When cool cut into pieces.

Oh and I can’t forgot about the most important recipe of them all. Granddad thought my previous hamburger recipe looked a bit too complicated so he decided to help me out and send me his own recipe (and I included his message too cause I thought it was delightful)

I am really enjoying your blog. I notice that most of your recipes are pretty fancy. My theory is that perhaps you should get recipes for simple, everyday things. Here is my recipe for hamburgers:

Good quality ground beef
Add about 20% fairly loose mashed potatoes
Add ranch dressing style mix ( just a small amount)
Make patties fairly thin-1/2 to 2/3 inch thick
Cook medium well done. Delicious!

Always put patties in toasted buns with mayonnaise, onions,
yellow mustard, tomatoes and lettuce.

Thanks Granddad! And HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO YOU! Thanks for being the BEST Granddad EVER! (And I’m sorry if I posted yet another fancy recipe, I will work on going simpler).

Goat Cheese Burgers with Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Date Sauce

This week has flown by in such a blur! Earlier this week in class we learned preservation methods (think duck confit, salt cod, pickling vegetables, gavlox, preserved lemons). On Thursday in class we spent the day on potatoes, and I learned how to make pomme frites (I had never fried French fries before!) and gratins, and various other delicious potato preparations. Needless to say, everyone was too full from class to eat dinner that night. However, the most exciting day of the week was Friday, I got to fillet fish! I had never fillets fish before, I was always too intimidated or afraid I’d screw up royally. Anyone going on a fishing trip soon??

After class there are often many fun events the school offers. On Tuesday after class there was a beer and cheese tasting (what… beer and cheese?!) But I had a blast, I got to taste six different beers (or should I say I sipped each of the beers, I’m still not a beer girl) with six different cheeses that paired well with each beer. I learned that beers are graded by their bitterness levels and alcoholic levels… I could be completely off base… but that is what I gathered from the lecture. Some beers were incredibly bitter and the taste lasted for minutes in my mouth, I’ve never experienced such a thing before. Needless to say, I dislike most mainstream beers and these beers were much nicer (and more expensive).

After class on Tuesday, there was a demonstration by a chef from Arizona that worked at the Ritz Carlton and he made two dishes for us. The first dish was raw tuna topped with watermelon pop rocks (yes, I typed that right) mixed with ancho chili powder and picked radish. The second dish was steak with a spicy chile maple glaze with a poblano sauce and fried avocado wedges on the side. They were both amazingly delicious and fun dishes to try. On Thursday, there was a hotdog eating contest along with a condiment and beverage contest. I decided to join the condiment contest at the last minute with a Spicy Red Pepper and Date Sauce (somewhat similar to the sauce 2 blogs ago). I won second place!! I had never experienced the feeling of that adrenaline rush, when you are with the other contestant with the hopes you will win… but I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t win. My classmates and chef instructor gave me wonderful support and all congratulated me so that was a great feeling.

I haven't gotten to cook too much this week at home so I will go ahead and post my second place condiment recipe.

Spicy Red Pepper Date Sauce

10 dried dates, pitted, cut into chunks

2 roasted bell peppers (jarred roasted peppers don’t do this justice)

7 oz pickled chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 big clove garlic

1/4 cup honey
¼ cup water (or as much is needed to blend)
½ cup Greek yogurt (I used the Fage brand)
1/3 cups mint, minced

1 tsp. course sea salt

First, roast the red bell peppers on the gas stove until the skin is blackened (or broiled in oven till skin is blackened). Put in plastic bag for 5 minutes. Under cold water, peel the skin off the peppers. Take the seeds and stem out of the peppers. Pat dry the peppers with layers of paper towels.

In a blender or processor, combine the first 6 ingredients and blend until it makes a thick paste. Once the pepper puree is smooth add the yogurt and blend. Add the minced mint to the sauce. Add a generous sprinkle of salt. Taste to see if needs more salt.

For this recipe, this tastes great on a gourmet hotdog (this was a condiment for the hotdog contest), but hamburgers or chicken would all work equally as well. This would be a great condiment for the grilled meats this summer. For the burgers, I used lean beef and made a well in the patty and stuffed it with goat cheese (season the goat cheese!) and then covered it up with the meat. Cook or grill as normal and when you eat your burger you will have a goat cheese suprise in the middle!

Pasta with Peas, Sausage, and Mint

Today I made five different stocks in class today, which included veal stock, beef stock, fish fumet stock, chicken stock and vegetable stock. Today was 90 degrees in New York which made for a very hot kitchen with all the pots and pans simmering away. Imagine that! But I am learning so much each day and that’s all that matters.

My school has library with several cookbooks so I will often go there after class and look up fun recipes to try at home. I only have 6 months at the French Culinary Institute so I might as well milk it while I can. I have copied some recipes I want to try out of the cookbooks (Beats buying a cookbook). Anytime I see a recipe with mint, it excites me because I have a mint plant growing on my balcony. I guess I will have to cook many more recipes with mint, but that's okay because I LOVE fresh mint. I only have a mint and basil plant, but I feel like such a gardener because I water it first thing every morning and have already had to use my tweezers (the same ones I use to tweeze my eyebrows mind you) to pick off these worms that were eating my mint leaves. I was happy to kill those buggers with my tweezers. I’m going to tell you about the very first recipe I got to try, it’s very light and refreshing, which is perfect for this summer heat. This is so delicious, peas and mint make such a great combination!

Pasta with Peas, Sausage, and Mint

-1 TB olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
-1 garlic clove, minced
-4 cups frozen green peas
-zest and juice of a lemon
-3/4 cup chicken stock
-1 cup chopped fresh mint
-1 pound linguine (I used whole wheat pasta)
-1 cup very thinly sliced chicken sausage (I used the roasted garlic flavored chicken sausage)
-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until softened about 3-4 minutes. Add 3 cups of peas to the mixture. Zest the lemon and add the zest and lemon juice to the mixture. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken stock to the pea mixture. Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree (add a bit more chicken stock if needed). Add the mint and puree. Return the puree to the saucepan and keep warm over low hear. Add the remaining 1 cup of peas.

Add the pasta and cook until al dente. In a separate saucepan, sauté the sausage until golden brown. Mix together the pasta, sausage, and sauce in a large serving bowl. Top with the cheese. Bon apetit!

Here is a pic I snapped of my roomie serving herself!