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.

Ive still got this stupid cold. grrrr. BUT, Chef liked my tart crust. he said so with real live words that the whole class heard.

being sick is yucky

i've been dealing with a rather miserable cold for the past couple days, and while this has been hard on my social life, and i had to cancel on cooking for a couple of my friends this weekend, i have on the other hand had plenty of time to sit around and julienne sweet potatoes and work on my knife skills. i did make a big batch of pasta but after finishing it, i went to take a nap, and when i got up the family had gobbled it all up. none for me.

"easter" dinner

cooking for the fam today. mac and cheese casserole, deviled eggs, and brats. nom nom nom. the trick is to not let the grill get too hot so that the brats dont explode due to the high fat content. sorry no pictures or anything. i cant seem to find my camera.

growing?!?

this post is a rather large deviation from my normal post, but is far more... important? change inducing? reflective maybe?
anyways, here it is. my life is a bit of a mess. i have had little to no organization throughout my 'adult' life. i'm not going to go into details, this isnt the place for it, but, im working on changing that. i'm trying to make sense of what is going on, where i've been, and where it's all heading. and the one constant throughout it all has been my love/passion/ down right obsession with food. cooking, eating, serving, pleasing people, it's what i live for. and now, through this culinary school experience it has forced me (in a VERY good way) to get some semblance of order in my life. I know it has only been a few weeks, but i have been working hard at it. and people in my life, (friends, family and the like) have already started to notice. It's going to be hard, it's going to take time, but i'm certain that my passion will keep me going through the tough times. lets see. I'm trying, we'll make this thing happen.

lots of happenings this past week

ive been reading eric ripert; on the line by christine Muhlke, and it has been a very informativ e look into the height of fine dining. from the front of house to the operations of the kitchen, and the intricacies of running a fine dining establishment. and the recipies it has included are very facinating even if i will not get the chance to cook a good many of the. (where does one get fois gras in omaha anyways?) but it amazing how both simple in their overall nature, yet complex in their sauce the thought that goes into their creation.
i spent friday evening making ravioli with the 5 year old daughter of my special lady friend, and we had a blast, i'll post pictures as soon as i get them from my friend. she really liked mixing the green spinach pasta dough, and turning the crank on the pasta machine, but aparently stuffing ravioli is harder for others than it is for me. we then finished it with a sauce of unsalted butter and black olive paste, and pared it with a rather light pinot noir.
the planning for the great pork adventure taking place at the start of may is starting to come together. still looking for a pig head and some boudin noir.
knife skills are coming together, havent started on my Julienned sweet potatoes yet, but have been slicing other things.

learning

in class yesterday i had a revelation forced upon me by the great Chef O'Donnell. our kitchen was a MESS. and that limited our performance... a lot. so, what do i take away from this.
1)know the recipe. I had glanced over it, but didnt have a full grasp on what it was going to involve.
2)teamwork, let's establish one person as the team leader, and have the tasks evenly broken down.
3) plan for things to go wrong. it seems that where we really got off track the greatest was when the boiled potatoes for the pommes duchesse were not fully dont and i had to really struggle to get them riced.
4) I can focus a lot better when i'm not exhausted. no more parting until 3 when i have to be up for class by 630.

here's my morning breakfast of awesome
corned beef hash using leftovers. I like my has using home frys and medium diced beef, it feels more substantial, and the texture is more interesting, plus i can still get a good crust. my fried egg technique is really improving as well.

check out my huevos

homework was to practice french omelets. easy... except, well i didnt have any nonstick pans. so, i went and got one. now i can cook the eggs. here our delightful eggs were ever so delicately prepared with a touch of crumbled cheddar and colby cheese, and a bit of chopped bacon. i say delicately because we only want these flavors to enhance the flavor of the eggs, not become the focus of the dish. the rye toast and blackberry jam worked to cut the salty richness of the omelet, and it paired nicely with a fairly respectable cabernet. this may at first seem an odd choice to go with a light egg dish, but i did not find the eggs to be overwhelmed by it, and the jam and toast really highlighted those notes in the wine. but, of course the focus was the eggs. which i still dont really care for, especially now after having to eat several over the course of my practice.

chicken bits

so, here's a bit of my weekend in review. I made some homemade chicken nugget-y bits for my good friend and his family. sorry the picture is so bad, I blame poor lighting, crappy cell phone camera and user error. they are not really that dark, and I don't have a plated pic because they never made it that far. a pack of hungry kids gobbled them up.