How do you slow down time??

So I skipped a week blogging- aka I have a lot of food to talk about. I can't believe it, but we are almost HALF WAY done with our culinary program! In this second module, everyday we're up and moving the entire class time making the weeks go by way too quickly. The past two weeks were strictly focused on moist-heat cooking and advanced vegetable preparations. 

The moist-heat styles we learned included braising, stewing, steaming, poaching, and simmering. It is so interesting how minimal variations in a stock amount or in the pot used can be the determining factor between two techniques. My personal favorite from the list is braising, exactly like stewing, but the liquid only covers the protein half way up. Everything we braised from lamb shanks to beef cheeks came out flavorful and tender, and we were able to use the extra liquid to make perfectly matched sauces for each braised item. The dish I enjoyed eating the most was the braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and balsamic vinegar. It called for everything delicious: 5 different kinds of mushrooms, butter, vegetables, and cream. It came out beautifully, as did most of the dishes.

The other techniques we learned were advanced vegetable preparations. In this section we made simplistic dishes such as mashed potatoes and rice pilaf, to absurd things that only a show-off French chef would create, such as carrot flan and broccoli souffle. I naturally volunteered to make the carrot flan (they call it a "timbale") because I was so intrigued at its preparation method. Once out of the oven, it literally tasted like flan with carrots. The strange combination of the eggy texture with the punch of carrot was so weird that I probably won't ever make it again with carrots (or any type of vegetable probably). One of my favorite things that we made was risotto. My dad and I love making this together and experiment with all different flavors. The one we made it class was a simple recipe using onion, white wine, arborio rice, and parmesan cheese. It was creamy, delicate, and a wonderful staple that can be paired with anything!

 *Whole Fish braised with Olives and Capers

 *Osso Buco

*Steamed Chinese Strip Bass with Vegetables and Sticky Rice

For other interesting news:

1) An episode of Celebrity Apprentice was filmed in my school yesterday. Yes, that means was Donald Trump was 6 floors above me....

2) I passed my Serv Safe exam so I basically know everything about food safetly and sanitation (at least for the next week or so before I forget)

3) I get a new chef instructor on Monday named Chef Chris. He is a large, intimating man who loves to make his own salami. The rumor is that he is like a drill sargent in comparison to Chef Sobrina. This should be interesting.

4) I met the deputy editor from Everyday Cooking with Martha Stewart magazine this past Monday! She was awesome and I made sure I personally introduced myself to her. 

That's all I have for the week! I am definitely going to be preparing myself for this coming week. Stay tuned to see if my class and I survive the salami lover...

Happy Eating!!!