the pork-gasm

saturday was the big day. i finally had my epic pork feastness that has now lovingly been called "pork-gasm" in which i reassembled a piggy. (or at least a lot of bits of him) in the wonderful was he should be. this included bo ssam, a bone in shoulder that i first cured in sugar and salt for 24 hours and then roasted slowly for 7 before hitting it in an ultra hot oven for a few minutes to carmaliver the sugars and make a nice crust. this was then pulled and served with the traditional korean condiments of kim chee, chili paste and ginger scallion sauce rolled in a lettuce leaf. very tasty. i will be making this again soon. i also butterflied a loin and stuffed it with a garlic and rosemary compound butter. this got a little overdone, but only just and was still very tasty and only a little dried out. i briased some smoked pork hocks in chicken stock, wine and a bit of herbs and it was very amazing. i also made jerk bbq chicken wings, and roasted a chicken for my jewish friend who keeps kosher, and grilled artichokes which i served with an aioli. there was also prosciutto and plenty of crusty french bread.

ive been neglecting my blog lately, that is true, but i have been working on culinary ventures. ive been hard cooking eggs, and roasting potatoes, no pictures because my camera's broken, but really, how exciting are pictures of hard boiled eggs? not very.
starting to gear up for the big pig feed. lots of pork to buy, and plenty of things to gather.

seeking liberty

went to dinner with the fam tonight. we went to the liberty tavern at the omaha downtown hilton, and it is exactly what you would expect from a hotel restaurant. it wasnt bad, but it wastnt amazing for sure. i had the grilled pork chop, the cheese grits were decent, the pork chop was maybe a little dry, but well seasoned and the sauce was good. my brother had the flat iron steak and it was nothing special. dad had the waygu strip steak. it was good as waygu beef tends to be, but the potatoes were pretty generic and the asparagus was way overdone and held for too long. limp and withered. the deserts were good. creme brule and chocolate pot de creme
so here's the honest moment. the only reason we went here was because my mom works for the hotel and she had received some restaurant gift certificates. had it not been for that we would have been looking at a 160 ticket plus tip. and it was not to that level of quality. period.

the journey to cook(ing)

the start was when i was around 8 and whenever someone asked me what i wanted to do when i grew up it was always"go to culinary school and become a chef" then, life set in, and i went along for the ride, not really looking towards culinary school much, but always being passionate about food and loving to cook. so five years of collegiate stupor later i finally have found myself here learning the ways of the professional cook. as far as inspiration, i cant really think back to any young influences no one in my family had any real skill in the kitchen. onward to now. the chef that best fits my approach to cooking and food, and really life in general would have to be Martin Picard the chef and owner of au pied de cochon. reactionary fine dining with a focus on pork, duck and pois gras, be still my heart.

procrastination

plated
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hot out of the oven
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ready for the oven. ewww so much tasty potential.
so, i made this chicken on tuesday, so it is horrible that i am just now posting it. roasted on a bed of yukon gold potatoes and red onion. it was fantastic. because everything i do is fantastic. anyways photos

makin' waffles!

tried the waffle recipe from the betty crocker cookbook, for a change from my standard light and amazing buttermilk recipe, and it was... no good. way to dense and did not crisp up the way i like it, it was dense and heavy instead of light a crispy on the outside with some fluffy deliciousness on the inside. but it's important to try new recipes even for your everyday standards, you never know when you'll find something amazing.

gastronomic adventuring

saturday afternoon I went with some of my culinary classmates to gold mountain for dim sum, and it was AMAZING! we had... Shredded pork congee with century egg, five spice beef, roast duck, salt and pepper shrimp, steamed pork dumplings, deep fried bean curd wrapped pork and shrimp, pork ears, and... CHICKEN FEET!!!!!!!! it was all really really good, but my classmates had a bit of an issue with the texture of the ears and feet, but the sauce and flavor of both of them was very good. I took pictures, but i've been having trouble getting pictures off my phone.
after that we headed next door to tanners for a couple of drinks, and then it was off to Mt. fuji for some japanese and mai-tai's the food was not overly impressive, acceptable, but not something that i would necessarily come back for. but the cocktails were wonderful. and really powerful. so all in all an acceptable afternoon.