Promoted

Oh, yeah. Forgot to tell everyone who is checking this out. I got promoted about 6 weeks ago. So now I am an associate kitchen manager at Lazlo's Brewery and Grill. Not bad for leaving my job and jumping back into the food world with work and school after 6 months. Just thought I'd let you guys know!!!

Osso? Osso what? Oh, so good!!

We made osso buco today. Now, I'm not going to argue with anybody about whether or not people should eat veal. I understand the argument against it. Sometimes I agree with it. But then again, that little guy doesn't know any better and he thinks his life is pretty good being fed that milk composition all the time. Plus, as I found out with this day, it's pretty darn tasty!!! This really wasn't a hard dish to make. Just a lot of time spent in the oven braising the meat. Our menu today called for us to pair it with french lentils and swiss chard. We also decided to make a sauce for it from by reducing some of the braising liquid. We weren't quite sure how to serve it as none of us had really had it before. The result was a lot of brown. The osso buco tasted great. The sauce was good. Not a real big fan of lentils but it did taste good. However, it just looked like a great mass of brown on the plate. Oh well. But once again, that osso buco tasted great. We also made a spinach souffle. Pretty easy to accomplish and very tasty.

Winging It

This class just proved what I had already learned at Lazlo's. When things aren't right, you figure it out quick and you fix it. My group was responsible for the grilled leg of lamb gyros, pita bread, mango chutney, and quinoa tabbouleh. Class did not start well. After grabbing our supplies for the day, we opened the lamb because it was the most time sensitive item we had in terms of plating our dishes. Unfortunately, it was not a 4-5 lb. boneless leg. Instead, it was 5 lbs. of lamb that had been cut up into chunks the size of stew meat. We all stood there for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what was up. Finally, knowing that we still had to make the gyros, we ran the meat down to the protein fabrication lab and ran it through the grinder. The only thing different that we did from the recipe was to add more spices because we had now sort of made sausage. After combining it all, we formed it into some logs, skewered it, and put it into the tandoor oven. While this was cooking, I made the mango chutney and quinoa tabbouleh. One of the other guys in my group made the pita bread as I had made it a couple of classes before. This time we decided to grill the pitas. In the end, the quinoa was excellent. I had never had it before. The most important thing to know about quinoa is that it contains a healthy dose of protein and amino acids. It is not a grain as it is not a member of the grass family. The mango chutney was good as well, and most importantly, the gyros turned out great. Nothing like adapting to what you have been given to make the most of what is going on. Plus, it's good to hear Chef say good things about what we did. I actually kind of preferred the pita bread on the grill. Maybe that's just the Nebraskan in me. Not really sure about that but I am sure that today was a good day. The last picture is the majority of the quinoa tabbouleh with some tomato and tzatziki. The other pictures are of the grilled pita and the plates that were served.

First Recipe Post

Ok, so here's the recipe for the Asparagus Pesto with Gnocchi:
Pesto:
1 bunch asparagus spears(about 1 pound) trimmed of tough ends and halved crosswise. Lightly peel tough skin off with peeler
3 bunches baby spinach, trimmed
2 cloves garlic, peeled,
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp salt
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and have a dish with ice water in it to shock the asparagus.
1. Toast pine nuts in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir occasionally until fragrant and lightly browned(do NOT burn them!!) Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Salt the asparagus water and drop the spears into the pan. Cook for only 2 or 3 minutes until spears are bright green and just barely tender. Remove and shock in ice water. Cut tips off several of the spears(diagonal cut about an inch from the end) and set aside to use for garnish.
3. add assparagus, spinach, garlic, parmesan, and 3/4 C of the pine nuts to a food processor. Puree and drizzle in the olive oil until a paste forms. If too thick, you can thin it with a bit of the pasta water. Add lemon juice and salt. Adjust seasoning to taste.
Gnocchi
2 lbs. baking potatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg white
1 1/2 C AP flour
1.Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake at 400 for 45 minutes to 1 hour(until fork tender). Peel while hot and press them through a potato ricer.
2. Put potatoes in a bowl with salt, baking powder, and egg white. Add flour a little at a time and mix with your hands until the mixture forms a rough dough-don't over work it.
3. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until smooth. Add more flour if necessary to keep it from sticking.
4. Break off a piece of dough and roll it back and forth into a rope about the thickness of your index finger-check out picture on last post. Cut rope into 1 inch pieces and roll over back of fork while pressing a small dimple with your finger. the gnocchi should be slightly curved and marked with ridges.
5. Boil in small batches in plenty of salted water. The gnocchi will sink to the bottom. Boil 2-3 minutes after it rises to the top. Do not overcook as it will become a mushy mess.
6. Toss immediately with warm pesto sauce. Serve sprinkled with remaining toasted pine nuts, a dusting of olive oil, and asparagus tips.

Gnocchi

This day was about making gnocchi for my group. I had never had gnocchi before today. Always wanted to, but never saw a restaurant here in Lincoln that served it. And it's definitely hard to find in stores. I think I've only seen it once where there is a vacuum sealed package of it. Anyways, it was actually pretty easy to do. We baked some potatoes, ran the insides of it through a ricer, added some flour and a couple other things, then rolled it out and cooked. It was really good. I made an asparagus pesto to go with it. Never made a pesto before that didn't contain basil, but this one was excellent. Toasted some pine nuts, blanched the asparagus, added oil, garlic, and parmesan and let the robot coupe do it's thing. Put it all together and added a parmesan crisp. Yes, this was a very good day for our group.

Good

So this class was a little bit all over the board. We covered everything from a New Orleans BBQ Shrimp with Maque Choux and Andouille Corn Pudding to a squash curry to spaghetti squash with spinach and a french lentil stew. My group was directly responsible for a chickpea, eggplant and tomato tart, falafels, and pita bread. Good thing that we did a test run of the falafel as it completely disintegrated when put in the fryer. Turns out their was no flour in the recipe to bind it together. We quickly remedied that and it turned out great. The pita bread was a good experience as I used the tandoori oven for the first time. It is rather hot and I am amazed at when I see shows on t.v that shows guys in India and such that just reach into those darn things. I ended up doing the tart as well. It was my first time working with phyllo. What a pain in the ass. It dried out a little too much(it was crumbly even when I got it). Maybe a little more oil on it next time will help out. The tart itself might not have looked the greatest, but it was nice when Chef tasted it, did a little bit of a double take, and stated, "That's actually really good"! All in all, it was a good class and my group is coming along really well in terms of working together.

next class

So this weeks class dealt with rice and eggplant. After having the recipes before class and kind of understanding what was going on, this weeks class seemed to go much better. I even mentioned to Chef that I was angry after I got home last week and he seemed to understand where I was coming from.
So after we started getting our recipes together(and I would gladly trade a person in my group), we started things off being much more organized. My group was responsible for the paella, and although one pan was not good, and one pan(mine) was close, the paellas was very good. This dish built upon some that we learned in foundations. There are people in this class that have had other classes that would help them with this lab. I have had nothing but foundations and I feel that I am a leader in my group. Whether I have had other classes or not, my take on this is to understand the recipees that we are given and then to kick some ass. I mean, when someone in my group doesn't know how to dice an onion, I think we have problems. I do that all day long at work. I think I can dice with the best of them!!
The dish that James and I cooked turned out well. We maybe didn't get the soccaret on the bottom, and I will need to practice that, but it was better than the burnt part on the other half of my group.
This is post number 2 for this class. Can't wait for post 3.