Culinary School Chronicles - Stewing

In today`s class we focused on a few traditional dishes from Eastern Europe and Russia.  It was a pretty quick class with a pretty hearty mid-class snack.  Chef`s demo today consisted of making a truly outstanding Veal Goulash served on a bed of Spätzle.  I have always wanted to try Spätzle but I don`t know anyone who makes it so I was pretty stoked to learn how.

And I just love saying Spätzle... Spätzle, Spätzle, Spätzle, Spätzle, Spätzle!!

Spätzle is somewhere between a boiled dumpling and an egg pasta, and is basically comprised of egg, flour and milk with a grating of nutmeg.  The batter itself is much thicker than pancake batter and I`d say even a bit thick and pliable looking.  The Spätzle is formed either by machine in the commercial application or using a Spätzle cutter creating what is called a Knöpfle Spätzle (homemade or handmade).

Spätzle are formed by placing the batter in the cup of a contraption called a "Spätzlehobel", and then running it back and forth over an extremely coarse grater attachment.  You can also use a coarse grater or potato ricer to make the dumplings.  The Spätzle are then cooked in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes so they float to the top of the water, then are drained and crisped up in a lot of butter.  Tasty but certainly heavy and fattening.

You can vary your Spätzle by adding cheese or spinach, porcinni mushroom dust, herbs, etc.  Spread out on a cookie sheet to be dried, they can be frozen and cooked a là minute as a sidedish or added to soups or stews.

Then we did our lab today which was a Beef Stroganoff unlike any I`ve ever eat before, mostly because the meat they gave us was tenderloin.  Guess there was an excess somewhere in the College, because I find the cuts of meat we get vary greatly from what we see in our manuals, which is fine with me especially when we get better cuts than the recipe calls for.  It just means adjusting your cooking times really and treating the particular cut with the appropriate manner of love.

Also, today was a small class, so we got an extra half a portion of meat each, which meant my meal for 3 could be stretched to lunch for 6 tomorrow when my parents are here.  Whew!  I hadn`t even started thinking about tomorrow yet.  Whoops.

Beef Stroganoff

1 pound beef tenderloin tips or medallions
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup Beef Demi Glace
1 to 1/2 cups Beef or Veal Stock

1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

3-4 Gherkin pickles, very thinly sliced

Heat oil and butter in a sauté pan over medium high heat.  Add beef medallions and cook for 2 minutes per side or until browned.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Add onions and sauté until golden brown.  Add mushrooms, gherkins and cook for 2-3 minutes longer.  Add demiglace and stock to sauce.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Right before serving add sour cream and mustard back into the sauce and combine.  Add meat back in to sauce to warm slightly, but do not boil as the sour cream may separate.

Serve on top of a bed of buttered egg noodles, sprinkled with parlsey.

Cheese Tasting #3

For this cheese tasting I decided to pick up cheeses I had never seen or heard of before, well except for the Burrata.  I picked it up because it was on special at Schefflers at the market for $5.99 instead of its usual $11.99.  Quite a deal.  And the day I wrote this, everyone went out and just left me to my own doings so I cut up some nice Calabrese bread, got out some blueberry preserves, greek olive puree and my Rhubarb Chutney to mix and match and pair.  With a lovely glass of wine of course.....not such a bad thing being left alone over lunch apparently.

Bel Gioioso Burrata - Ontario

I have talked about Burrata before as it is definitely one of my favourite kinds of cheese. Burrata is a kind of fresh mozzarella cheese but is different from the kinds you normally buy in that it is silkly and smooth on the oustide and the inside is filled with mozzarella shreds and cream. When you cut into a burrata, the centre oozes out gently as the cream and mozzarella shreds spill from the belly of the cheese ball.

Rating:  For an Ontario product, I am impressed.  Beautiful with just a splash of olive oil, some salt and freshly ground pepper and an outstanding olive pureé we bought from a vendor at the St. Lawrence Market (their product is extremely good whether it is their olive oil, olive puree or the vac-sealed olives themselves - all great).  Buy again if I cannot get Italian!


Fourme d'Ambert - Semi-soft Blue - France

This cheese is an ancient French blue from Auvergne that was being made far before the English started making the Stilton which it resembles (try finding white Stilton one time....soooo good with a glass of Bordeaux).

This is a raw cow milk blue, which has a grey-brown rind that is edible.  It is ivory in colour with a blue-green vein running throughout.  The blue vein is not terribly prominent or as strong as in some cheeses

Rating: Stood up well to a Blueberry compote I was gifted a few weeks ago.  The sweet earthiness of the blueberries nicely accentuated the earthy blue veins and the creaminess of the cheese (it being a semi-soft blue) really became prevalent.  It also worked nicely with the chutney and the olive puree.  I even mixed a bit of the blueberry with the olive and WOW that was a nice combo.  Sweet meets salty and tangy.  Wonderful.  Buy again if I want a gentle blue - maybe if I need two on a tray.

Bonnechere - Raw Ewe Milk - Ontario

This cheese comes from the burgeoning Ontario cheese mecca in Picton, Ontario and is made by Back Forty Artisan Cheese.  The cheese is named after the Ottawa Valley's Bonnechere River.

It is a semi-firm sheep milk cheese but what makes it unique is that the Cheesemaker has toasted the exterior to give the cheese a smokey flavoured rind.  The cheese has a subtle caramel flavour with a bit of wood, but does not taste like a typical smoked cheese - the flavours are subtle.

I like stories like the one for this operation, where the Cheesemakers left their jobs as teachers to pursue their passion in cheesemaking full force.

Rating:  Pairs quite nicely with the Rhubarb Chutney I made a few weeks ago (the chutney is also awesome with plain white chevre).  Worth another purchase.

English Hollow Cheddar - Wisconsin

This cheese is produced by the Maple Leaf Cheese Cooperative in Twin Grove, Wisconsin.  This particular one was aged 1 year and was crowned 2008 World Cheese Champion Winner in the Cheddar category.

This is a beautiful example of a short aged cheddar.  Wisconsin is known for producing cheeses in the Swiss style, so it is quite interesting that this cheese is produced in the style of the English town of Cheddar (you knew there was a place called Cheddar right...) smack dam in the middle of an area run by the Swiss Mafia (or at least is rumored to be).

Rating:  The cheddar is one of the most pleasing and complex ones I have eaten.  It doesn`t have the sharpness that some cheddars aged 5 and 7 years do but it has enough going on all by itself that it doesn`t need that age to be wonderful and distinctive.  And my kids inhaled what I left.  Totally buy again!

Cheese Fresh Bags

I also wanted to tell you all about these incredible bags that I actually got at my dollar store!  They work in a similar way to those green bags for vegetables that you see advertised on TV.  As you know, cheese is a living thing so it needs to breathe or else it will become overly-moist and bad bacteria and mould will develop.    

It says to only put one kind of cheese in each bag, but I cheat and put different kinds together.  These things work wonders and keep your cheese fresh waaaaay longer than if they were kept in a plastic bag alone.  Not that cheese has much time to go bad in my house living with a 15 year old and a 10 year old who eat anything besides blues (they will come back to me on this one one day I know!)

Restaurant Visit - Father's Day Brunch at Luma

Luma is one of the newer restaurants launched by Toronto food scenesters Oliver Bonacini in September 2010. O&B were the first to bring creative high end dining to the business district in Toronto back in the early 1990s first with Jump, then Canoe on the 54th Floor of the TD Centre, and then Biff's Bistro on Front. They've since expaned their empire to more moderate priced offerings such as the O&B Café Grills that are now in Blue Mountain, downtown and in several higher end malls, and they just keep on going.

Luma is located in one of Toronto's newest entertainment destinations - the TIFF Bell Lightbox.  For the un-initiated, TIFF is short for the Toronto International Film Festival by the way - we all just call it TIFF. In addition to being the new home of TIFF, Lightbox also has theatres, exhibition galleries O&B Cantee (kind of a higher end cafeteria space with a patio fronting onto King and John Streets) and a huge roof top rental space called Malaparte (also run by O&B).

Luma follows the current mantra of using as much locally produced artisinal ingredients as possible, creating menu items that showcase Canadian cuisine in an imaginative way. I would have love to have gone to Luma when the Tim Burton exhibit was on and they had a menu built around his films, with dishes such as Big Fish - a great movie.

Today we are there for Father's Day Brunch. The interior is modern and simple with lots of clean lines, sparkling glasses and dark wood.  The patio runs around the outside of the space and corners looking right out into the heart of Toronto's Entertainment District at King and John Streets.

The Brunch menu at Luma is fairly small but offers something for everyone, including me who is not a huge fan of brunchy egg dishes. I ordered the Croque Madame (French-style ham and Gruyère cheese sandwich with Mornay sauce and a fried egg on top) and was pleasantly surprised. While I do like a Croque Monsieur (same sandwich less the fried egg) Mornay sauce can be heavy at times and overbearing.  Luma's was not.  Brenden had their Eggs Benedict, which is served on croissant halves with ham and lemony Hollandaise sauce, Glen the Spinach and Cheese Omlette with a side of house-made Berkshire sausage, and our favourite Junior Chef had the Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon with Sour Cream. All very good dishes - not a miss at the table at all.

Watching what was coming out of the kitchen, the Eggs Benedict is definitely their top seller, and no wonder with it being served on beautiful, pillowy croissants that are made in-house.

Service was pleasant but "leisurely" so it was a good thing we were not in a rush.  One server to the entire balcony area was probably the reason for it, but she was great with the kids.

Luma also offers some incredibly creative cocktails and martinis ($10-$13) including the "Fruit of the Luma" (martini with fruit-infused vodka, Lychee and sour cherry) and the "Beetlejuiced" (gin, cucumber, lime, pink peppercorns and soda). I really enjoy the savoury and herbal elements that are making themselves known on the Toronto cocktail scene.

While not a cheap meal, it was pretty reasonable for four and we have a hard time getting out of Boston Pizza or Moxie's for less than $75.  Four dishes, one cocktail each and Apple Cider and Coffee for the boys, bill was just shy of $100 after tax but before tip.

I have always been a fan of O&B because, simply, they know what Toronto wants to eat and also because they have been long-time supporters of the Ride for Research in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a charity near and dear to my heart since my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 5 years ago. Peter Oliver has a daughter who is now well into her 20s who was diagnosed as a child and he brings a passion and commitment (and great food) to his efforts to coordinate the financial services, real estate and restaurant communities together to raise funds to find a cure. Last year we raised over $3 million in Toronto alone.

Culinary School Chronicles - Chicken

Our class today was one of the classes that I thought to myself, if I have to miss a class, this is one of the ones to miss. I bet there is nothing terribly interesting or new to learn about roasting a basic chicken, right?  Well once again I was wrong and I am actually glad I went.

I find that while the content of Culinary I seems limited at times, there is so much that can be learned going back to square one and that I come away every week with new knowledge, better technique or just a better understanding of basic culinary principles.

As usual, Chef was a wealth of information and tips - things learned from years in the food service industry producing massive dinners for 600 diners at a time, so he has lots to share with us. We made a nice simple but perfect roast chicken, Zucchini Provencal and the best damn gravy I have ever turned out. I probably will never go back to my old way of making gravy again, because this was just so delicious, and simple.

Chef also made us a bread dressing to serve with the chicken which I think I will try next time I do a turkey or chicken like this. The new thing for me was that it contained chicken livers. Normally I do not eat anything that contains organs or glands but given where I was, I figured I had to try it. And amazingly, I liked it. I would never have thought that blanched and chopped chicken liver could add such depth to a stuffing, but it did.

Incidentally I learned that the difference between a dressing and a stuffing is just that one goes in a pan and is baked alongside the protein, while the other is, well....stuffed inside the protein. Go figure.

We also learned how to properly truss a chicken and then at the end of class after we were all done, Chef did a demo on how to bone a chicken. That inspired me so much to try myself, that I just got back from Costco with a bag of 3 chickens to experiment on! Once I get good at it, I will maybe even film it for you...photos at a minimum.

As usual, my directions are not as written in my class manual but based on my notes as how Chef told us to execute the dishes instead. The two are not the same. I guess it is the difference between cooking and following a recipe. One is step by step and attentive, while the other is fluid and intuitive.

Roast Chicken with Gravy

1 roasting chicken
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 small cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, washed and diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup dry white wine

2 cups rich chicken stock or brown stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and dry your chicken well.  Sprinkle generously inside and out with salt and pepper.  Truss with a piece of butcher twine.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a roasting pan or large oven safe sauté pan, and heat.  Add chicken, breast side down and brown for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Turn chicken back over and place in preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, chop your mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot) if you have not done so.  Remove chicken from oven, lift, and layer the mirepoix under the chicken.  Return to cook for about a further 30 minutes or until the temperature reads 175 degrees.  Remove chicken from the pan and cover with a dish cloth or return to the oven in a different pan to keep warm.

Meanwhile place your roasting pan over medium heat.  You will notice that the pan drippings, comprised of chicken fat and juice will appear cloudy.  Cook the mixture of vegetables and pan drippings over medium heat until the oil clears and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes.  Once this happens, sprinkle flour over the vegetables and combine.  

Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any nice brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Slowly add in the stock a bit at at time being sure to incorporate.  The gravy will thicken nicely and should be able to coat the back of a spoon.

Zucchini Provencal

2 large zucchini, cut in large dice

3 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly

2 small or 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Herbs to garnish (parsley, rosemary, thyme and basil)

Directions:

Cut zucchini in half and then dice.  Heat oil in a sauté pan and add onions.  Sauté about 5 minutes until starting to soften.  Add garlic and cook 5 minutes longer.  Add tomato paste and combine.  Add zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and herbs and cook for about 2-3 more minutes.  Adjust seasonings and serve immediately.

Looking forward to next week....in addition to Beef Stroganaff we will be learning Spätzle!