Last Day of Class: Pound Cake & Cookies

It's my last class of the semester :-( I planned a trip to Europe with some friends and the way the curriculum changed due to the school's closing and other issues, I am having to miss a few classes and the final buffet. I will dearly miss the daily laughs, teamwork, and new foods. I will miss you all!!

We made a few recipes today: Lemon Pound Cake, Chocolate Chunk Chip Cookies, Lengue Du Chat (Cat's Tongues), Royal Icing, and Raspberry Coulis.

 Ingredient set up for the pound cake

 Mini pound cakes, coated in sugar!

These are the cookie parts for Langue Du Chat - basically a very thin ladyfinger (soft wafer-like vanilla cookie). I piped them out with a star tip on a piping bag... 

 But you can see that after they baked, they flattened out. For these cookies, you can use any (or no) piping tip, or you can just fill a gallon-size plastic bag and trim off a corner if you don't have a pastry bag.

Here's my loaf pound cake! 

Filling the Langue Du Chat with raspberry jelly: 

 Cookies of similar size and shape are sandwiched together and then dipped in chocolate.

You can add any garnish you'd like on the chocolate, just make sure to do it before the chocolate hardens. They can be placed in the fridge to chill after you're finished garnishing.

Chef also demonstrated how to make coulis, which is a blended fruit sauce. It's typically made with fresh or frozen fruit and simple syrup, which is 1 part sugar to 1 part water. Used for plate garnishes, coulis adds a pop of flavor and color to a dish.

This is the mixture for royal icing - powdered sugar and water. You can make this icing thicker or thinner depending on the ratios of sugar to water that you add. 

We used the royal icing to glaze some pound cakes: 

 Josh and I whipped up some chocolate chunk chip cookies at the end of class. We opted for large cookies, and they were delicious!

 The plate of dessert from today:

 Since it was my final class, I wanted to get a picture with the chef. I realized that I had been taking the photos all semester but I hadn't gotten in too many. Here we are!

Well, that's that. :-( Stay tuned for photos from the rest of the class (sent to me by classmates), as well as photos from my European road trip!

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Langues De Chat (Cat's Tongues)

7 oz butter or margarine
3.5 oz extra fine confectioners sugar
3.5 oz granulated sugar
5 oz egg whites (about 4.25 large eggs)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz cake flour
2 oz bread flour

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until the batter looks smooth and not grainy.
Mix the wet ingredients (egg whites and vanilla) in one bowl and sift the flours into another.
Alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients until just combined.
When just blended, transfer the batter to a pastry bag or gallon-size plastic bag.
Pipe the batter onto a parchment paper-covered baking sheet. You want to aim for cookies the size of fingers.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes, rotating the pans if your oven is not convection or bake unevenly.
Fill with a fruit jelly and dip in melted chocolate.
Dip in a garnish (sprinkles, coarsely chopped nuts, toasted coconut) and serve!

Enjoy!

A Day of Asian Cooking

Time to travel through Asia for a day! One of the ingredients we used for a lo mein recipe are dried lily buds, as seen below. They are air-dried lily buds and are typically used in Chinese cuisine. They work nicely in a lo mein recipe because they have the same shape and color as noodles.

 Starting to fill potstickers with ground turkey, veggies, and cabbage.

 To make these potstickers, circles are cut from homemade dough (or you can use store-bought), about a tablespoon of filling is spooned onto one half of the circle, and the edges are crimped.

Here's mine! 

 The potstickers are fried in a wok in oil, then covered with a bowl and a few drops of water and steamed for a few minutes.

Chef's potstickers plank 

Bracha's potstickers plate:

 Josh and I worked on the filling for egg rolls, shredding cabbage, carrots, scallions, etc. To prepare the egg roll filling, put all the ingredients in a colander because water from the veggies may drip out while you're rolling. 

 Josh rolling:

They see me rollin', they hatin'....

 We fried the egg rolls in the deep fryer and then let them rest on a roasting rack. 

The rolls were cut on a diagonal so they would stand up and served with duck sauce for dipping. 

Bonnie frying a batch of egg rolls. 

Chef starting on the lo mein:

Marinated steak for Szechuan Beef: 

Back: Szechuan Beef  /  Front: Vegetable Lo Mein 

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Potstickers
Filling:
8 oz Napa cabbage
3 tsp kosher salt
1 lb ground turkey thigh
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
1 TB white wine
1 tsp cornstarch
4 TB sesame oil
4 TB vegetable oil
1 tsp sugar
dash of white pepper

Dipping Sauce:1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

Dough:
2 cups flour1 cup boiling water

Cut the cabbage into thin strips, mix with 2 tsp of salt and set aside. The salt will draw out the moisture so the filling won't be soggy. After 5 minutes, squeeze out the excess water.
Mix the cabbage, turkey, scallions, wine, cornstarch, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper.

For the dough, mix the flour and boiling water until a soft dough forms. Knead and roll sections into 12-inch logs. Cut dough into sections and roll flat. Use a circle cutter to cut 2.5-3" rounds.

Spoon 1 TB of filling onto one half of the potsticker. 
Brush a tiny amount of water around the edges to serve as glue.
Fold the round in half, and tug and crimp the edges to seal. See this video, and skip to 3:26.
Heat a wok or heavy-bottomed pan with oil. Place the dumplings into the  oil and brown on each side, and the bottom. After they are golden brown, lower the fire.
Take a small amount of water and carefully pour the water into the wok, covering quickly with a lid or bowl.
Let the dumplings steam for 4-5 minutes to cook the meat.
Remove the bowl or lid carefully (it's hot!) and remove the potstickers from the wok.
Serve with the dipping sauce and some fresh scallions as garnish.

Enjoy!

Fish Cookery Part II

Time to use the fish we cut up the previous day! We had packed the fillets in the fridge and we pulled them out for recipes.

This is the setup for celeriac and potato mash, which would be one of the sides for a Striped Bass Veracruz (see later).

Slivered snow peas

One of chef's serrano peppers that he brought in from his garden. I used it in my ceviche recipe.

Just a small piece of fish that was laying on the table. Looks like a seahorse?

The class working on their recipes:

Making the potato mash:

This is my bass fillet that I will be putting on the grill; it's been dredged in flour.

Grilled! Now it's into the oven to finish for 7 minutes.

My finished striped bass Veracruz:

Here is the gravlax we made:

It had been sitting in the fridge for 2 days, weighed down. You can see all the oil that came out of the fillets in the pint container above.

Chef sliced one of the fillets for us to try on crackers.

My ceviche! If you remember on Hors D'Ouevres and Canape day, I made ceviche in cucumber cups. This time, we served it differently.

We started with bass fillets and diced them. The fish chilled in the fridge for 2 hours in lime juice so it could cold-cook.

All done! The ceviche is made with serrano peppers, salt, lime juice, tomatoes, cilantro (ew), and cumin.

Below, my set up for Salmon En Papillote (steamed salmon packets)

Brush the parchment paper with oil and top one half of the paper with fish, vegetables, and sauce or herbs if you'd like.

Since the packet is steamed, it is an extremely healthy way to cook. The packet was sealed with egg white and crimped to prevent air from escaping.

My Papillote!

This recipe for fish strudel called for phyllo dough. We unwrapped several layers of dough, piled fish, veggies, herbs, and sauce on one side and rolled the whole thing into a log. 

It was baked in the oven and then sliced. Chef made a quick fish veloute (cream sauce with fish stock) with mushrooms for plating.

Grilling up some fennel and scallions.

Teryiaki Salmon

Cedar Plank Salmon

All smoked up good!

Yum!

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Striped Bass Veracruz
1 striped bass or white fish fillet
1/2 medium onion, small dice
2 minced garlic clove
juice of half a lemon
4 oz fish stock or water
3 TB soy sauce
1/2 jalapeno
seeds and membrane removed, diced
2 canned whole tomatoes, rinsed and diced
5 stuffed green olives
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 tsp capers
1/2 cup seasoned flour
1 TB chopped cilantro (ew)
3 sprigs fresh parsley for garnish
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Dredge the fish fillet in the seasoned flour and pat off the excess.
Heat a skillet with oil and lay the fish into the hot oil. Brown on each side and remove from pan.
Discard excess oil from pan and add the onoins, garlic, thyme, and cinnamon to the same pan. Sweat over low heat. 
Add all other ingredients except cilantro and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the cilantro and stir.
If you made celeriac/potato mash, smear on the plate, place the fish on top of the mash, and spoon the sauce over the fish. Top with fresh parsley.

Enjoy!