Food Finales!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. It's been a rough couple weeks for little cakegrrl.

So today, I thought I would post some pics of some of the things my class made for our cooking final at school. To recap, I attend Le Cordon Bleu in Natomas.

For the final, our chef instructor asked us to incorporate one of the five mother sauces (bechamel, veloute, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato) into our dish. We had one day of prep (1.5 hours) and one day to finish (2 hours) The dishes below are what we served her:


I actually got to try this one. This pizza dish (of course) incorporates a tomato sauce. I really liked the crust. Some might say it was too thick, but I likey that way.















Hmmm... I do not see a sauce on this plate. Do you? :(




I wanted to try the sauce on this one, but I got stuck doing dishes for about an hour. Doh!!






Chicken soup with carmelized onions that my teammate Parris made from our veloute base.



Mise en place for the veloute we made.



The chicken galette we decided to make, before it went into the oven.



My team made a chicken galette (open pot pie) with a veloute sauce. We also used carrots, peas, potatoes, parsnips, onion, garlic, & tarragon.

I made the crust with rosemary infused butter. To do this, I heated the butter in a saucepot with the rosemary stems and then strained the rosemary out. Then I let the butter solidify again and chopped it up into little pieces and allowed it to chill in the freezer before I made the pastry. I guess I could have rolled the crust a little thinner, but I like thick crust. Oops. :)

Hoping to blog a little more in the next coming week. Merry Christmas to everyone out there!! xoxo

Eggnog Cake, Buttercream, & Ice Cream

Tomorrow I am bringing in some eggnog treats to my class for a report on food science. I guess you could say I am reporting on both eggs and ice cream making.



In addition to the basic ways eggs can be prepared, they also perform in other ways for the knowledgeable cook. Their cooking properties are so varied that eggs have been called the "cement that holds together the castle of cuisine."

Eggs are used as EMULSIFIERS. They stabilize mixtures so they don’t separate. One common way that eggs are used as an emulsifier is in making mayonnaise. Eggs keep the fat (oil) and the liquid (vinegar or lemon juice) of the mayonnaise evenly blended together.

Eggs are used to COAGULATE. Coagulation occurs when a substance changes from a liquid to a semi-solid or solid. In a quiche or custard, the ability of eggs to coagulate when heated turns an egg-and-milk mixture from a liquid into a semi-solid. Eggs also turn from a liquid to a semi-solid when you scramble them and, because heat is used for a longer time, change all the way from a liquid to a solid when you hard cook them.

Eggs are used to LEAVEN. Many recipes count on the ability of eggs to leaven. When eggs are beaten, a foam of tiny air bubbles is formed. The foam lightens the mixture and increases its volume. When beaten, egg whites will form more foam than egg yolks, so the whites are often beaten separately. Up to a point, the longer the whites are beaten, the more they will foam. If egg-white foam is put into a recipe that’s heated, the air bubbles will expand and the egg white’s protein will coagulate around the air bubbles. The coagulated egg-white protein will trap the air bubbles in the cooked or baked dish and make it light and airy. This process is called leavening.

I used a pasteurized egg product (Eggbeaters) in the ice cream recipe. I bought an ice cream maker two and a half years ago and hardly ever use it. I thought since it is the holidays I ould break it out along with some 'nog.

Also, my chef instructor doesn't like eggnog in a liquid form (as we have discussed this in class) but I thought maybe she would enjoy it in a solid form (in the ice cream) or baked into a cake. Or even in the buttercream I made for the cupcakes.

Finally, there is ANOTHER reason I made the ice cream. I discovered my boyfriend's fondness for it. So, I made extra for him.



Eggnog Ice Cream
1/2 cup pasteurized egg product
3/4 cup sugar or Splenda
1 cup egg nog (the light kind does fine)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp rum
1 tsp Davinci Eggnog Syrup (I decided I would use this because I already had it in the cupboard. If you don't have it, you can use brandy or brandy extract. Be careful of too much alcohol, or your mixture will not freeze.)
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Combine the egg product and sugar in a mixer and beat until thickened and pale yellow in appearance (a few minutes). Use low speed and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Turn on your ice cream maker and mix until thickened (25-30 mins). After thickening, transfer ice cream to a freezable (airtight) container. I already had made the eggnog cake to layer in between the ice cream. If you do this, you will want to also make the cake in advance and make sure it is completely cooled before you layer it with the ice cream. Place the ice cream in the freezer until firm.



I won't give away my buttercream recipe here, but I will tell you that I made the frosting eggnog flavored by using eggnog in place of the cream I normally use, and a little of the eggnog syrup to flavor it.

Here is the eggnog cake recipe I used. I will tell you what it is because I ripped it off from someplace else and then changed it to suit my needs. I wanted to achieve a slight contrast to the eggnog ice cream with the ginger and molasses.

Eggnog & Ginger Cake
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature (3 sticks, 12 ounces)
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 Tbs molasses
1/4 cup dark rum (optional) or brandy (optional)
3 1/2 cups cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups eggnog or light cream

Preheat oven to 325ish.
Butter and sugar together in mixer, cream it, add your eggs one by one, then you are going to combine all the dry ingredients (sift together). Combine the nog, the rum, and the molasses and add the mixture to the sugar/butter/egg combo alternately with the dry mix. Mix thoroughly but do not overbeat. Pour into a prepared pan or cupcake liners and bake until the cake rises and springs back when touched. 20 minutes maybe?

Let the cake cool completely before you try to layer ice cream or frosting on it.
Ta-da!!

Le Cordon Bleu Sacramento on the News…

Here's the link to the video of my school News 10 shot on Monday during my class. Yes, I am in it. No, I am not responsible for the overutilization of food puns. :( That's all for now. I am exhausted.

Schoolhouse Cooks! Series

As many of you know, I am now enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu (formerly Kitchen Academy) Sacramento.

Still hopelessly on the job search, I decided to enroll in culinary school a few weeks ago. I was walking by the school on my way home from a meeting with someone at Panera Bread. I have been really trying to find work in the field in which I have worked for nearly 15 years: publishing, graphics, printing, or would also love to work in marketing or sales (have 3-5 years experience in each of these areas). There's just nothing out there right now that is biting back. I am a little scared because I am near the end of my bank account...

So, because I really didn't know what else to do, and cooking is about the only thing I can do right... I finally became a culinary student. I know how to make things taste good--I would say I am very talented in menu planning, wine pairing, recipe building, flavor profiling--I just feel I lack technical skills and real kitchen experience to go with it. If I ever want to go into business for myself, I want to have a stronger background and be more confident in the kitchen.



Ideally, even though I began classes this week, I will land a day job soon in marketing, sales, advertising, publishing, et cetera. I have been jobless since June, and my self worth has taken a real beating no matter how many times I tell myself not to take the job rejection personally. If a career miracle rolls my way, I plan on switching to night courses.

I like school so far. Most of my classmates are new to the culinary world altogether and are full of enthusiasm. I have two really nice tablemates at my station. My chef instructor has a lot of experience and great stories to tell.

I am trying to be more outgoing this time in school. I remember how shy I used to be in high school and in college before, and it really didn't serve me well.

So, I will be blogging about my experience in school...not everyday, but definitely every week.

We are working on the ServSafe courses this week--which I already passed in October, so there is less pressure for me there. I don't like the way my uniform is fitting...I need about 3 inches chopped off the length of the pants and the jacket looks ridiculously long on my freakishly short torso. Sigh. Oh well, I will work it out. On the plus side: I am happy with my toque/wig arrangement.

Tuesday, we learned to julianne, and today it was batons, and a dice cut. I need practice. :(

I am very envious of the pastry students that come in when our class leaves. But, I know I need to take the full curriculum to be more employable.

I usually don't get this stream of consciousness or personal in my writing anymore, but I am thinking that might be the turn this series takes, since it is indeed my personal journey through culinary school. Bear with me on that! :) OK, it's late. Cakegrrl out!