the list, part 1

this is a quick list of lessons ive learned in the kitchen. some are practical for anyone. some fit only my situation. nevertheless, this list will cover techniques, recipies, and interpersonal relationship skills between chefs that ive picked up, and i hope it helps you. like i said, looking back trying to teach myself working the group home, i see now that i know nothing, and i still don't know much more. this list will probably help me more than it will you. but i hope it helps all the same.

i say part 1 because i know im going to forget a lot of things, and i am assured to learn more. here it goes...

- you have two hands. use them both. simultaneously. (it took me a while to even start this...still working on this one.)
- use a DRY towel to pick up hot things. WET towels will instantly steam and burn your hand worse than the hot pot or pan actually would if you were to bare-hand it. (learned this the hard way.)
- use the whole blade length. its there for a reason.

it barely hurt until they washed it to put on super glue

- your thumb and forefinger should be on the blade itself when holding a knife. chocking up gives better control and balance.
- you'll never get asbestos hands and be immune to burns and knife wounds...you'll just care less when it happens.
- a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one.
- if you feel like you look awkward or silly cutting something with the angles you're using or the pressure you're having to apply, you're probably right, and you're probably about to cut yourself in a bad way. (seen in picture.)
- carry band-aids. waterproof ones.
- never lose band-aids you put on. that will get you immediately fired if your restaurant survives an incident. (has never happened at glasshalfull.)
- basically, if you're not using this technique for cutting and holding your knife, you're doing it wrong. (day one, they laughed at me. for good reason.)
- crostini is the most difficult and annoying thing to make in the world. grilled bread...it't shouldn't be so bad.
- if you're not cooking something, you're cleaning something. always stay busy. (sorry tony).
- every second of a break you take in the kitchen directly converts to one minute of pure hell for you later. fact.
- have fun while working. (we have a game we play involving singing annoying songs for the expressed purpose of getting it stuck into other people's heads, but that's another post.)
- get good shoes.
- get a good hat that you can wash. (seen in picture...also see that crostini burning on the grill? damnit!)
- do what your superior says to do when he says to do it. no complaints or arguments.
- don't eat on the line.
- it needs more salt. everything does.
- keep your tongs next to you at all times. people steal those things so fast...
- every week when they bring fresh new towels, take a handful and hide them somewhere for when you get low in 6 days.
- paper will dull your knife faster than anything for some reason.
- bring your own sharpie. dating/labeling things helps a lot, and health inspectors love it.
- trim your fingernails. like, every day.
- don't lose bets and have to shave your arms. kinda sucks.

a lot has changed.

since my last post, i quit my job at the group home and hit the streets, looking for a professional cooking job. it took a while, then i found GlassHalFull. chef adam cobb took me in and let me work as many hours as i wanted for free, all to prove i could earn a job in the kitchen. after 5 weeks, being in the kitchen for 40+ hours a week, in the first week of march, i found myself as the garde manger of a restaurant. looking back, through those 5 weeks and the subsequent months, i found how much i DIDN'T know. and now, i still feel that way, but i have a bit of confidence in my new found abilities. i know now that i have a better foundation for learning that i ever had alone. and from there, there is no ceiling...just time. i have a shit ton more to learn before i could even consider myself a "chef". im just a cook that works a line at a nice restaurant. but my head chef sees things in me. we had a great talk today about how i need to show him my commitment to this career, and he's right. i thought just working the job would lead to great things, but it takes busting my ass WAY above and beyond anything i've ever done before to be great. i want to be great one day, and i have an inflated and exaggerated sense of what my own self improvement has been. yes, ive learned a ton, but its nothing yet. yes, i work a lot of hours, but its nowhere near enough. im a lot faster than i was before, but im nowhere close to fast enough to move on respectively. chef cobb said he wouldn't even be able to give me a good character reference at this point. it means i need to really live this life, and im not. i haven't ever LIVED a career. ive just worked one. i respect chef adam cobb more that ever after today. not only does he have a great menu, but he's been where i am. he knows. and he is where he is because at some point, he worked so hard that he forsake everything. and he's only 26, and come so far. i have a lot of work to do, and this is what this blog is going to be about from now on. im not teaching myself how to cook anymore. its about how im being taught, and the trials that come with it. i hope to regularly give an account of my status, and the things i learn in the kitchen. i will give credit where its due, and share revelations when i have them. in the coming posts, i'll have a lot of pictures, because in the past 8 months, ive taken a lot. this first post back is brief, but there will be more, and while this is kinda deep, i'll keep it more lighthearted.

i hope you guys stick with me as i wade through this fascinating new career of mine. im just a baby in all this, and you will see me grow. hopefully it will inspire you to come see me at GlassHalFull. we have fantastic food, and for what its worth, not too expensive. let me know when you come. i'll try to send something your way.

thank you for coming back to this blog. i plan on being more active. and once i get a new phone, there will be video!

next post will be a list of quick one liners of the things i learned since being in a real kitchen. ive been thinking about this for a while, and it should be funny and informative.

Bowl On Yays

When I saw the word Bolognese the first time, I thought "shit, its lunch meat spelled fancy." Later down the line I learned how to pronounce it correctly. It goes something like "bowl-on-yays". I like to say that word. And it is the most fun to use this word when you are correcting someone else saying it wrong. You look so goddamn cool.

And now that I'm actively looking for brand new recipes to try out, for eating and blogging purposes, when I first read a bare bones recipe for a Bolognese pasta sauce, I was really excited. I already had a pretty awesome spaghetti sauce, developing a lot of flavors in the short amount of time I usually get to cook at the group home. I thought a sausage Bolognese would blow my socks off with a new taste, and would humble my own pasta sauce.

When I finally made this, I was kinda disappointed. It wasn't as glamorous as I came to imagine it would be. I, however, think I know why, and I'll get to that as I explain how I made this sauce.

Dice skills +1

 In that bowl, there are diced green and red bell peppers, carrots, celery, white onion, and garlic. Pretty, isn't it? Set this bowl aside because there's still more mise en place to be done.

This was a recreation, because I forgot to take a picture

I had 10 roma tomatoes. I read about a technique, but have never seen it done before; what I did was score the top of the tomato with an X just skin deep with a knife. Not a big X, but big enough to cover the crown of the tomato. Then you throw those guys into boiling water for about 15 seconds. Pull them out, and the skin peels right off like a banana. I quartered them and removed the seeds, giving me perfect tomato meat petals. I diced these very fine and put them into a bowl, to be used later as the base of my sauce. No store-bought sauce for me. Well, I ended up using some canned tomato paste, but I don't know how to make my own paste.

I sauteed the veggies until they were soft, then browned the meat, only adding kosher salt and black pepper at this point. I used ground mild sausage instead of beef. I thought it'd be good. The sounds and smells of all this was enough to send one of the residents into a tantrum due to his lack of patience.

I added the diced tomatoes, the paste, and some chicken stock. Bring the temp up until you get a simmer, then lower it to simply maintain it. I think this is where I could have done better. I wish I could use wine instead of stock, giving the sauce a richer taste, but my hands are tied while cooking for minors. They won't allow alcohol in the house, even if its just for cooking. And understandably so. My guys are on a lot of meds.

When I had the sauce going at a simmer, I added some rosemary, thyme, sweet dried basil, ground oregano and marjoram, more salt and pepper, and a few bay leaves. Let this simmer for as long as you can stand. I could only let it go for about an hour. Most recipes say minimum of six hours, some for more. This is probably another reason why I wasn't blown away by this dish. I'll try making this at home one day when I have all the time in the world, and can use wine. I'll talk about the differences then, but that's another blog post.

ROLLING BOIL!

Yeah, after you've simmered all you can, get the pasta going. I only added salt, pepper, and some oil to the water. Nothing fancy. Not pictured was the other pot of rice noodles for my gluten free diet residents. I don't recommend using those for this dish.

Hhhwhipping cream.

Just before your pasta gets al dente, add a half cup of whipping cream to the sauce. Why? Because it tastes good. Don't skip this step. Take a damn lactaid if you must. Since we're not using a lot of cream, the sauce will be back up to temperature by the time your pasta has been drained.

I do so much...

While all this was going on, I took out a bit of the sauce to put with the rice noodles before I added the cream. I also had to make a vegetarian version, also with no cream, for one of my tree-hugging staff. Hard work is hard.

Add the pasta to the sauce and turn off the heat. Mix it well and let it set for five minutes or so, then serve.

It's not that this didn't taste good. It was marvelous. But I thought it was going to be something new and exciting. I found that I've tasted this before...It tastes like my regular spaghetti sauce, with a few differences. The two biggest factors have to be the time spent simmering, and the use of wine. If there was any left-overs, I'm sure I would have said it tasted better. The same is true for the curries I make. I'll try this again soon, and I'm really hoping to hear from you guys to figure this out. Any suggestions, comments or critiques? I want to hear it all.

Coconut Curry Basil Chicken

Sorry this has taken me so long to make another post. But I'm back, and with another offering for you tonight.

Sooooo creamy

This was my first, and if you ask me, my best try at this dish. I've made it several times since this picture, and while they all turned out good, I feel this one was extraordinary.

Start with trimming the chicken, removing fat, skin, and tendons etc. Then you make them bite sized. I put all the chicken in a big ziploc bag with salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin, coriander, fresh garlic, and chili powder. Shake it up, and let it sit for a good hour. More would be better.

In the mean time, I cut red onions to thin slices, and diced 4-5 jalapenos, removing the seeds first, cutting them down to batons, then dicing for equal size. I also get a little more fresh garlic to add, with some fresh black pepper. I sautee these veggies in butter until its soft, remove from the heat and set aside.

Then I added the chicken to the pan in batches so I could get a nice sear and some browning. If you crowd the pan, you'll be steaming your chicken instead of searing it. When cooking for the group home and having to make a dinner for 8, this takes a while. The house is filled with the smells of the curry, and my guys go pretty crazy in anticipation.

Towards the last couple batches of chicken, I start a pot of rice. The picture above is normal long grain rice, but I have since used basmati or jasmine rice.  I've been on a real jasmine rice kick lately, preferring it to all others, but that's another post.

Between batches of chicken, I get a bowl and pour in two cans of unsweetened coconut milk and add a couple teaspoons of flour, whisking it it a little at a time. This helps to thicken the finished sauce. Add a dash of salt here too.

Once all the chicken is done, I put it all back in the pan and add the milk. With the heat on high till it simmers, drop down the heat so the sauce can reduce some and cook off the taste of the flour. After a bit, I add the onion and peppers, letting it simmer a bit longer.

Five minutes before you want to take it off the heat, add a handful of fresh basil cut chiffonade and a tablespoon of diced fresh ginger. You'll know the dish is done when the sauce can coat the wooden spoon you're stirring with and drip down in ribbons, not drops.

As you can see, I serve it over rice. I like to cook the rice with chicken stock, seasoning it with salt, pepper, and whatever spices you wish. I think did mine in this picture with dried sweet basil, and maybe cheyenne. I have also done a turmeric and Chinese five spice rice that was most excellent.

It's got a creamy sweet heat that has both punctuated, bold flavors, as well as subtle undertones that leave lingering flavors on your tongue, as well as a smile on your face.

best evers

At the group home, some form of pork is on the menu at least once a week. Food Lion's pork selection is inconsistent at best, devoid at worst. We used to get the thin sliced pork chops, but these were fatty and too easy for people to overcook....if I were not to cook. Heh. They had pre-seasoned and sauced pork loins, but I found, while they're really easy to cook and require no thought, the texture was that of a dish sponge and were very off-putting. I could do better on my own.

I started buying a whole, plain pork loin, and since they are not trimmed or seasoned, they're usually on sale. Buying one can feed my guys and staff, including me, and then some, going for only $12 or so, give or take a few bucks. It is also intimidating to prep, and thus, makes it a high probability that I will be the one to cook it. My co-supervisor Jim has some cooking chops as well, and he does it sometimes.

Monday, it was pork loin night, and Jim wasn't there. It was my time. I had just gone shopping Sunday, so the kitchen had plenty of goodies. I was feeling it, and was in the mood to really experiment. I have tried to make sauces before. The first time I ever tried was when I made a mushroom demi-glace, and I was following strict instructions. Despite the instruction, it was still a difficult thing to make, and easy to mess up. The demi-glace came out great, along with everything else we cooked that night, but that's another episode.

From that one experience with that demi-glace, I learned a few techniques, and I've been experimenting with other forms with no help whatsoever other than trial and error. Every sauce I've made since hasn't really be satisfactory to me. Some people have liked them, but I always found them to be too chalky or bland or too soupy. As it were, this would not be the case on this night. I would have my triumph, and eat it too.

In plain detail, I'll tell you what was made, then break it down, step by step. I made a roasted pork loin with a stock reduction sauce. And I have some steamed cabbage and herb rice on the side.

Pork loin, trimmed down

To start, I grabbed the pork loin and trimmed the fat and cartilage. This is something I know I do wrong. Fat = flavor. But the loins at food lion, more often than not, have a big vein of cartilage through the middle; the main side is white meat, and the other is dark. Most of time when this sheet of cartilage is there, its right on the surface of the majority of the cut of meat. I like to get rid of most of that as I can. Usually, I throw all the trimmings in the trash. On this day, I saved them for an experiment.

Seasoned and ready to go

Before I could use the trimmings, I preheated the oven to 375 F and seasoned the pork loin. First and foremost, I liberally use kosher salt everywhere on the cut. Then with a tupperware container in hand, I start pouring in spices that I want to put on the loin. I'll try to remember everything I used Monday: black pepper, paprika, smoked paprika, ground thyme, ground mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, cheyenne pepper, and a little allspice for a note of sweetness. Do not ask me how much of each I used. It was a lot, and like I said, I rarely measure out anything. After mixing all the spices well in the tupperware, and after rubbing the pork loin down in extra virgin olive oil, I spread the spices all over. The second the oven was ready, I put the pork loin in with a thermometer.

The brown bits on the pan has flavor

Beginnings of the stock reduction

I then heated our one big sautee pan and threw in the trimmings after salting them a bit. I let the fat and bits of meat brown, creating some nice fond on the bottom of the pan. This is what I have learned to be a Maillard Reaction. That's the wiki page, but I learned it from Ruhlman's book. When it was getting sort of dark, I poured in the chicken stock, getting all that tasty fond to dissolve into the liquid. I added a dash of the leftover spices from the pork loin, a handful of fresh thyme, and a few dried bay leaves. I then grabbed some flour and sprinkled some into the liquid a little at a time. Each dash of flour was well mixed before I would add more. Then I added a big dollop of grain mustard, stirring well again. I let it come to a simmer before reducing the heat to a medium-low. I stirred it almost every 2 minutes for about 40 minutes, letting it reduce to half volume.

While this was going on, I prepped the rice. 4 cups rice, 6 cups chicken stock, 2 cups water, salt, pepper, olive oil, fresh basil, fresh thyme, dried oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder. Put it on high heat till you have a rolling boil. Cover the pot and put it on the lowest temp setting on your stove. 20 minutes later, you have perfect rice every time. You know its done when you stir it up and see no standing moisture, but it's not sticking to the bottom yet. When you get there, remove it from the heat and keep covered. It'll stay warm, I promise.

While the rice was cooking, and I was still keeping an eye on the sauce, I diced a small cabbage, making sure to get rid of the outer leaves and core. I dressed the diced cabbage in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a quick snap of water from the faucet. I added half of a white onion, diced to the same size as the cabbage, and added the rest of the fresh basil I had from the rice. Tossed it in the bowl well, wrapped several times over (the entire bowl!) in plastic wrap, then put it in the microwave on high for 20 minutes. I much prefer to sautee cabbage, but my one big pan was occupied at the moment.

It smelled so good

I felt good about my sauce at this point, and the pork loin was almost done, so I decided to pull the sauce and strain it through my sieve. I was really lucky my sieve was at the group home, and I can't remember why it was there in the first place. It was probably only the second time I've used it. In retrospect, I could have benefited from straining it twice, but I only did it once to keep from dirtying another bowl. What was left was a smooth, rich, and thick sauce that made my knees tremble. 

After it was strained, I gave it a taste. Despite being a bit too salty, I couldn't believe how successful this was. To cut the saltiness, I brainstormed for a moment. I thought some sort of cream would make this, but I stopped buying regular milk at the group home long ago. We had soy milk, but it was "very vanilla" flavored. I might be a newbie, but I don't think that soy milk would match well with my sauce. Then I saw some light sour cream, and immediately grabbed it, throwing in a few dollops and mixing well. I tasted again, and I almost wept. I'm serious.

omfg

When the pork hit 135 F internal, I took it out of the oven, put on a wrack, lightly covered it with tin foil and waited a good 10 minutes. By that time, even out of the oven, the carryover cooking took it to a perfect 145 F. I cut the pork loin into our standard serving sizes, then opened the buffet for everyone to serve themselves. I'm sorry, but I went first.

Best I've done with this dish, ever

 The concern was still there with the saltiness of the sauce, but once it was on the pork loin, it was in perfect harmony. The pork loin was tender and juicy from end to end. The rice was savory and cooked perfectly. The cabbage was al dente, but still soft, tasting fresh, letting the natural sweetness of the cabbage shine. I could eat the rice or cabbage alone, or I could get a bit of EVERYTHING at once...each bite got me high.

I was so aware of everything I was doing and putting out there, that I feel confident that I could replicate this entire dish at any time. It's Thursday now, and I'm still thinking about this dish, especially the sauce. It's what I am most proud of, and what tasted the best on the plate.

God, I wish you could have tried this.

Never the same twice...

One of the favorites at the group home, for staff and residents alike, is something the company's recipe book calls "Ranch House Fettuccine." I made it tonight and over the past 2 years, I have been unable to make this the same way twice. I've actually tried when a coworker paid me and supplied the ingredients for me to make this for him. There are so many variables in the dish that it's no wonder I've never made the same Ranch House Fettuccine twice. Look below to see a version I made a year ago and let me explain.

What the hell is that yellow thing at the bottom of the pan? Anyway...

I start this dish by prepping the chicken. I get a marinade going, which is a big variable. Since I never measure anything except rice, my marinade is different every time. Most of them have extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper; everything else is up to what I have in the group home at the time. I've compiled a fairly comprehensive spice rack, and I usually have at least fresh thyme and rosemary. I try to grill the chicken every time because I'm better at it than baking chicken, and I think that every protein is better grilled. One last note about the chicken is that 99.9% of the time at the group home, we buy the crappy food lion buy one/get one free bags of frozen chicken. I can't stress how sub-par this chicken is compared to buying nice, fresh chicken breast from the butcher section. When it thaws out, it seems to be pulverized beyond all recognition. But I seem to be making due (/end rant). Grilling the chicken, in my opinion helps the texture of sub-par chicken.

Next, while the chicken is grilling, I pare down a couple heads of broccoli to smaller than bite size pieces, finely dice two red bell peppers, and mince five to six cloves of garlic. Sometimes I have to use frozen broccoli, and if I do, I try to get the chopped broccoli. A few times, I've added a diced red onion. Keep in mind, these are the proportions for feeding eight people. I sauté these items till they're tender and fragrant. I then add some sun dried tomato that I had soaking in extra virgin olive oil and cut chiffonade. Keep cooking. Then originally, the recipe calls for you to use some diced ham. I've used everything from precooked and packaged diced ham, to lunch meat, to kielbasa, to pepperoni (which is what I use primarily now). Keep cooking. I then try to use fresh basil and cut it chiffonade. Offers a great depth of flavor and more color. Last, put in your grilled chicken that you've diced up. Keep cooking.

While this is happening, you should have had some pasta boiling on the stove right next to you. At the group home, I have to make two different kinds: one regular pasta of choice, one gluten free, due to a resident's diet. I always season water, no matter what, for every occasion, whether it be for pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. Choices of pasta have varied over the dozens of times I've made this. I'm kinda stuck on rotini noodles right now because they mix so well with all the other ingredients. As the title of the recipe suggests, fettuccine can be used, but I've found that it just makes a ball in the pan when you add it to the other stuff, and doesn't make a uniform dish. If I were to serve it to a resident, the serving spoon would more than likely take the ball of fettuccine,  leaving everything else, and no pasta for others. I especially like the tri-color rotini noodles for even more added color. Pull and drain the pasta and let it cool just before al dente, since there will be plenty of carry-over cooking, plus, you'll be adding it to the sauté pan, which will cook it further.

Put the pasta in with everything else and make sure you've mixed it well. Now comes the part that I feel is so cheap, and I can't wait to learn a better way. Take out a bottle of ranch dressing, and dump it in...**ahem**

In the group home,  three of my guys are lactose intolerant, so I would have taken out some of the dish and put it into another before using the ranch dressing. And also, some of the side dish would have gone to the gluten-free noodles (yes, I have to make this dish three ways: regular, lactose free, gluten/casein free). For the lactose free version, I've used everything from balsamic vinegar to catelina. The balsamic vinegar one isn't bad. The gluten free guy has his own dressing, and he likes it on everything.

I keep pouring the ranch until everything is well covered, put the stove on med-low, and cook until you can see other colors again. The white creamy color of the dressing seems to evaporate, and it turns out to give all the pretty colors in the pan a nice gloss. It is also really easy to burn the dish at this stage, so keep stirring. I burned it once, ruined the entire dish. I made eight PB&J's after trashing the pan. Big "face-palm" moment there.

If anyone can suggest a better, scratch-made sauce to replace the stupid ranch dressing, please comment.

Despite it all, the taste is amazing, especially with all the different textures. The ranch doesn't overpower, everything seems to be able to stand out. Tastes great as leftovers too. Try topping it with fresh parmesan. Let me know if you try this out.

A look back, part 1

This, I feel, was my first real success. It was also the first time I ever really tried to cook anything at home. And while the group home's kitchen doesn't have too much in the way of great tools, I had less tools and far less room to work in my apartment. I wasn't familiar with my own crappy frying pan, or if my oven ran hot or cool.

This is a bacon wrapped stuffed chicken in which I made a gravy from the bacon grease, heavy cream, and grain mustard. Sides were just steamed broccoli and herb rice.

I butterflied the chicken breast, pounded it out to make it more uniform, then sprinkled in toasted pecans, diced green onion and bleu cheese crumbles. I rolled the chicken up, gave it some kosher salt and cracked pepper, and wrapped 3-4 slices of bacon around it to completely cover the chicken. I pinned it all together with toothpics and cut down the toothpics so that they wouldn't touch the pan.

On medium heat and with a little olive oil, I cooked two wraps in a cheap frying pan. Somehow, I got the bacon crispy without burning the oil or the fond in the pan. Once the bacon was crispy, I put the chicken on another pan and put it into a preheated over at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

With the first pan, I added butter, heavy cream, grain mustard, salt, pepper, and a couple tablespoons of flour, putting the pan back on the medium heat. I had to mix it a lot to get the lumps out and to make sure the bacon grease was blending well.

I took the chicken out, let it rest for a few minutes as I put the gravy down on the plate. I contemplated putting the gravy over the chicken, but the redness from the bacon looked so sexy, I couldn't mess with that. I cut the chicken at a 45 degree angle and set the pieces on top of each other in the gravy. Rice and broccoli went down, then I took a picture with my phone. Sorry, it's kinda blurry.

My girlfriend loved it. For as much as I enjoyed this meal, I appreciated the accomplishment more. I did things in cooking that I have never done before, and it felt great.

This dish was the beginning. The tip of the iceberg. It was from this day forward that I felt that I could go far with cooking. I felt that I wanted to. I felt hungry to learn.