Hello Food Diary and Hungry Bloggers!
I burned myself today...not to bad but a little blister did show up. I have my first official Chef wound! It hurts...but I am proud of it! :)
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| Roasting my pepper straight on the stove! |
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| My Carrot Vichy |
Anyways....I hope you all are having a fabulous day! Today has been a great day for me!!! I had a blast in class this morning and I got off work early!! Wooohooo! The wheaether is beautiful outside too, so I think that just puts me in an especially good mood! Anyways....Lets get down to the meat and potatoes of my day...or should I say the veggies and rice! We have moved on from soups to side dishes! Today in class we made four dishes: Carrots Vichy (Glazed Carrots), Green beans with roasted peppers and bacon, Rice pilaf, and Risotto Milanese (Risotto with saffron and Parmesan!).
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My Green Beans with Roasted
Peppers and Bacon |
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| My Rice Pilaf |
Like usual class started out with a demo from the Chefs. Then we were off on our own - like a baby taking its first steps (haha, you all know the drill by now!) I started with my rice pilaf. I threw my butter and onions in my sauce pot, sweated them (Sweat = to cook until soft but not brown), then threw in my long grain rice stirred for a minute. Next I poured in water, covered my pot and put it in the oven. Once that was in the oven I started on my carrots. I got them cut up all fancy, put them in the sauté pan with butter, sugar, salt and water and set them to simmer. Ok good...Rice pilaf....Check....Carrots...Check....now time for green beans. I prepped my green beans - They needed to be blanched - Blanching is a prepping method used quite often in the kitchen. To blanch something you toss it into a pot of boiling water for 10-20 seconds, then throw them in to an ice water bath to stop the cooking. You hold whatever it is you are blanching to the side until it needs to be used in your dish. Anyways, I blanched my green beans, put them aside and threw my pepper straight onto the fire of my stove to roast it (pretty cool!). Once the pepper was completely black I placed it in a bowl and covered it so it could steam - when it was ready I peeled off all the skin and cut it up into little strips. Then I threw my bacon on the stove and sautéed it till crispy (I made mine a little too crispy). I added my peppers, and green beans to the bacon, heated everything up, seasoned it with salt, plated it and served! Chef said "My green beans were the best she had tasted all day." YAY!!! After 20 minutes had gone by I took my rice pilaf out of the oven....OUCH!!! I burned my self through my pot holder on the handle of the pot! Even though it hurt like heck, I was kind of happy! I had received my first "chef battle wound (everyone keeps saying a good chef had scares to talk about...so now I'm offical haha!) I plated my rice pilaf and turned it in. "Perfect," Chef said. By the time I was done showing off my "perfect" rice pilaf my carrots were done. I plated them and turned them in. Another "perfect, great flavor," from chef! Yes that is 3 for 3 so far! On to my last dish...."7 Minutes left," yelled chef. Oh great...and I was doing so well. :( Risotto takes 20 mins to cook. There was no way I was getting this finished. I tried anyway...I was able to get it most of the way done. It needed about 10 more minutes to soften all the way up. Chef did say that it had perfect flavor though! I guess it wasn't too bad!
Like I said earlier, today has been a great day for me! The results I have been receiving are boosting my confidence and making me more comfortable in the kitchen. Things are starting to fall into place! Lets hope tomorrow gets even better!
Until next time my hungry friends!!
- Chef Kass In Training
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