Gumbo

I am making a small post just for Gumbo.Why? Because Gumbo is worth it. We made some at school  as well as corn chowder and some cream sauce and I just have to talk about it. My husband LOVES gumbo and has waited 17 years before  I cooked it for him. I wasn't very pleased  with the final product at school, so that same weekend I made some. I had my husband running around looking for the gumbo file seasoning. No one in Utah county has it , so we got it  from a Harmons in Cottonwoods. First picture is my chicken being browned with cajun seasoning, then it is the final product after simmering for a while.Thank you to Chef John for teaching me this!

                                                            final product.

                 Red lobster biscuits because I needed more than what I already had at school.

                             

The Finger.

 Right after taking this picture, I started cutting my chiffonade of basil for my tomato sauce. Sauce day was supposed to be my favorite but I cut my finger while cutting this basil. I ran to the sink and washed my finger. It bled so much that I realized that i had only a few seconds to call my Chef before I pass out. So I passed out. 3 times in arrow. I am very grateful for all those that helped me. I felt so embarrased. A student told me that i kept saying:'' I dont want to be behind on my sauces!". I'm so not surprised ahah!

                                    Clean cut. from top to bottom and part of my nail.

I cannot believe how such a small  injured part of my body made me feel so miserable for 2 long weeks. I am glad its all over. I am proud of myself for going back in the kitchen and finishing my sauces.

Stocks and Mother Sauces

I was so looking forward to sauce day. My favorite of all is making sauces.  But first I learned to make Stocks properly because Stocks are the base of sauces.So here are the 5 mother sauces with pictures. Bechamel, Veloute, Espagnole sauce, Tomato sauce and Hollandaise. All recipes will  be included in a post  named Recipes from school.

                                   This is a stock that I help building. Chicken Stock.

                                             This is the tomato sauce(smelled heavenly)

                                                                         The veloute(stock plus roux)

         Clean station before the cooking begins and my classmate Ashley looking quite serious!

                                                     Espagnole in the making

                                         Bechamel in the making with an onion pique.

                                                           my sachet d'epice(parsley stem, thyme,bay leaves, peppercorns and garlic).I must of deleted my hollandaise sauce picture by mistake because its missing.Next time i make some I will post it:)

Cooking

I have talked about knife skills a lot  but no I would like to show you a few recipes I have practiced, there are several but I will start with saying that I love a good polenta with parmesan. Actually.. I love everything with a good parmesan cheese. I also love a good Pilaf rice with a mushroom garnish too. Below is just a basic pilaf that I remade at home to practice. Risotto is also one of my favorite.But first is a picture of my chicken. I have never eaten so much chicken in my life so far. 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 tenderloins, 2 breasts with drummet and frenched bone.

 below is a picture of Coq au Vin.... but more like chicken au vin that day. It was my first time making it and I enjoyed it. Braising method was used. In the picture the asparagus are roasted witha splash of oil, salt pepper and parmesan cheese.

 Our Chef also  made some mash potatoes. This is a pretty big tool for mashing potatoes but it gets the job done really nicely. Warm milk and melted butter  added to the potatoes   with salt and pepper was delicious.

 This is Quinoa aka bird seeds( not really but sure looks like it) I cooked it on a chicken stock   then added a garnish of garlic,onions,red bell peppers and carrots.  The humans ate it... so I guess its a good  thing. It was really tasty, one of the best my Chef had he said.

 Barley. It tasted really good, I'm not the one that cooked it but I watched  and learned.Right below is my Pilaf rice(the last picture).

more cooking and skills

We keep practicing our skills with our knife. Here is some pictures of my knife skills beginning with a small dice . I hope i can look back at those picture and laugh a little and compare them with my future skills:)

                                               followed by Brunoise(very small dice)

                                                                         Paysanne cut

                                                                         Rondelle cut

                                                                         Oblique cut

                                                                 concasse tomatoes

                                                                     Julienne cut

                                             the famous or infamous Tourne

                                                                            batonnet

                                                            medium dice onion

Second week and Dean's day!

 The picture above is one taken during a catering event for Dean's day at UVU, some of the chefs taking a break in the shade.

 Got chef Todd while he was a bit busier, he is always smiling.

 Here is my station that I worked with on Dean's day,  great team.

 This kid is Ryan and we are teammates for this block, I could be his mother ahah!

 Down to business... This week we were taught to fabricate a chicken into half, quarter, 10 pieces, and I had a hard time. So I decided to make chicken for dinner and to practice at home. I feel much more confident. Chicken... I will win.

 We also learned several different recipes such as clarified butter, beurre blanc, vinaigrette and mayonnaise. So I went home and decided to make some sriracha mayo (picture above is just plain mayo) to practice and also I decided to make some chicken croquettes. On Dean's day those croquettes were served and I thought it would be real nice for dinner. So the picture below is my croquettes. I had chicken left over, I diced some onion, garlic, bell pepper and shredded some carrots, I also had a few Yukon potatoes that were already cooked so I added those too. I had made a stock with my chicken carcass so I had some real good flavor going in there. Panko crumbs were added and to pan frying the croquettes went. Delicious with this spicy mayo.

I still enjoy my journey and  I try my best to soak up every bit of information that is given to me. Juggling my family while going to school is still hard but I am hoping to get a grip soon. Did I mention I received a scholarship this week?? a $1000!!! I will take it, work hard and hopefully my grades will keep on paying!