Day 3: CIA Boot Camp
9/26/2007
Woo-hoo! I got coffee today BEFORE class started and actually understood some of the first hour of lecture…
My job today was to make spaetzle (a german ‘pasta’) and a tomato herb sauce, both of which came out pretty darn good. I’ve been afraid to get into spaetzle at home because it seems like such a big project. In fact, it was the easiest item we constructed today and came out great. We worked on sautéing, pan frying and stir frying methods for meats along with a variety of soups. Our team made breaded pork, while the other teams banged out pan fried chicken, deep fried cod, chicken Provencal, and stir fried beef. Amazingly, when the oil is held at the right temperature for pan and deep-frying (about 350 F), very little oil is absorbed by the food. I normally don’t touch fried foods, and while that may not change, my previously closed mind is at least opened up a bit on the topic.
The stoves used in the school kitchens are commercial hulks that put out 80,000+ BTU per burner, and a setting of “low” is strictly relative. Keep in mind that a large burner on a gas home stove is only about 12,000 BTU. Put a cast iron pan on those 80,000 BTUs for a few minutes and the iron thermal mass is brought up to temperature. As our team learned today, if said pan is over 450 F and you pour in some oil, it catches fire and you have a major stir created in the kitchen. Best not to do that!
For soups, we made shrimp bisque, mushroom soup, onion soup, and chicken consommé. The consommé is basically a stock made with vegetables and ground meat. The meat and veggies form a “raft” that binds up the impurities that discolor the stock, and looks like an unappetizing meatloaf forming in the pot. After simmering for several hours, the stock is ladled off and is perfectly clear. Today’s consommé was made with ground chicken and it came out great!
We spent the afternoon discussing methods of presentation and how the standard for “classy” has changed over the last 40 years or so. These days, colors on the plate shouldn’t be too extreme and the elements on a plate should be overlapping and have vertical height. Looking at arrangements from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s showed how dramatically expectations have changed, from gaudy arrangements in the shape of fish or animals on metal or colored platters to today’s clean, served-on-a-white-plate vertical arrangements.
Friday is the big day where we create a two-course meal that we’ve been designing throughout the week. Our plan is an appetizer of smoked quail, stuffed with wild rice, cranberries and apples, served on a bed of arugula and red onion, tossed with balsamic and walnut oil. The entrée is planned to be roasted pork loin, served on a bed of risotto with parmesan and basil served with “crackers” made from melted parmesan. For color, we’re making heirloom cherry tomatoes, sautéed in olive oil, and wilted, glazed baby bok choy. Remember this paragraph and we’ll see how close Friday’s “creation” turns out to the “Wednesday plan”!
Dinner tonight is at Escoffier, the French restaurant on campus. I’m not even a little bit hungry, since in addition to eating the food we prepared ourselves, the baking and dessert classes crank out lots of dishes that we are compelled to try lest they go to waste or we hurt someone’s feelings. I can’t help but think of an interview I read ten or fifteen years ago where Burt Reynolds stated that eventually, you just can’t hold in your gut anymore. Dang.
More tomorrow …
– Chris
The result of our team’s efforts today: breaded, pan fried pork loin on spaetzle with tomato herb sauce!
