Culinary Improvisation, February 18th Week 3
GAME 3: Technique Trio was the theme for this day’s class. We did not have a specific menu to follow for this day. We started our day by drawing coupons from a fabulous chef’s hat. When we pulled our hand out of the hat, instead of bunny or flower we got a culinary technique. Each coupon listed a culinary technique and we had to use that technique to make our improvised dish for the day. Those techniques we learned from our previous culinary classes. This was a very good idea from our Professor to give us a chance to use our knowledge and show how well we could improvise. In the beginning of our class professor gave us some quick quizzes on culinary cooking techniques which we learned in previous culinary classes. This quiz helped us to warm up before we started our cooking techniques for the day. We had 5 teams. Each team had drawn 3 cooking techniques for their dish they were making. Each team did a good job to show their cooking improvisation skills. We did not have a menu, but every team had one raw whole chicken, and a mystery basket consisting of poultry, green and yellow vegetables, starch, and some grain to begin our journey.
These pictures above are evidence of our suggested Mystery Basket for each team. It consists of poultry, green and yellow vegetables, onions, garlic, ginger, parsley, rosemary leaves, starch, grains, and raw and dry spices.
Stock pot We make vegetables, beef, and chicken stock. Do not be intimidated by its size. We have pots that are much bigger than this size. Today we made chicken vegetable stock.
Team 1 Dah-wei and Ling.
Out of the hat they drew culinary techniques: sauté, cold emulsified sauce, and chiffonade
Team 1 Sautéing their chicken. This picture says that sometimes fingers work better than a spatula. The technique of sautéing is tossing or bouncing an item while cooking it over high heat briefly in a pan slightly oiled or greased. Team 1 also used the technique to make cold emulsified sauce which combines two liquids which do not mix unless you know the trick. Chiffonade was the third technique for the team which is the technique of cutting into thin strips herbs and vegetables. The picture below is the plate team 1 presented
Team 2 Monica, Matthew, and Faith.
Out of the hat they drew culinary techniques: pan fried, compound butter, and tourner
Team 2 is pan frying their tourner
Pan fried is to use just enough oil to lubricate the pan and uses a lower heat than sautéing or stir frying. Compound butter is a mixture of butter and other ingredients like garlic, oregano, chives, and rosemary leaves to create a sauce-like mixture. Team 2 also had tourner which is derived from the French word to turn. It is cutting vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnips, and squash into small oval shaped ingredients for a dish to be cooked.
Team 2 presented their pan fried chicken with compound butter. Pan fried tourner with a pinch of brown sugar, accompanied with cream of butternut squash, garnished with parsley reduction.
Team 3 Andralee and David.
Out of the hat they drew culinary techniques: steam, stuff, and reduction sauce
Team 3 prepared chicken roulade with steamed wild rice, and apple chutney with red sauce. The team used steam, stuff, and reduction sauce for their cooking techniques. Steam is a gentle way to cook where the food is not submerged in boiling water, but instead placed in a boiler or in a covered pot. Stuffed food is a mixture used to fill another food item in this case mixed vegetables is stuffed in chicken. The reduction sauce is boiled or simmered to thicken it.
Team 4 Marilyn and Shawn.
Out of the hat they drew techniques: grill, Baked En Croute, and Warm Emulsified Sauce
Team 4 made grilled chicken presented on a bed of creamed spinach and included baked En Croute which has ingredients of Swiss cheese, butternut squash, and apple. The grilled technique uses dry radiant heat to cook items rather than the wet heat of steaming. Meats are grilled, but also seafood and vegetables can be grilled. The team also had warm emulsified sauce. The well known types of this sauce are hollandaise sauce and béarnaise sauce.
Team 5 Ferdinand and Abul.
Out of the hat they drew culinary techniques: Roast, Puree Starch Thickened Sauce
The cuisine techniques for Team 5 were: roast, puree, and starch. The meat was roasted which uses dry heat to cook it while browning the exterior. Puree is made by placing a cooked food into a blender or food processor o make a creamy paste or thick liquid such as mashed potatoes or apple sauce.
Team 5 Presented their improvised dish of seared then herbs roasted chicken accompanied by angel hair pasta, and butternut squash and spinach sauce, garnished with fresh rosemary stick.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
All mystery techniques and advice and also feedback come from the owner of this portable office. This is the “hat” that holds all of our mystery coupons. If you touch this paper mill or anything signed with a checkers pattern you had better put it back, otherwise there will be no next time, because you might lose it. I feel lucky to be on this excellent team.
