Burning My Fingers in Boston

I'd Rather Have A Caesar Salad...

Elke tagged me and she's right, it's been far too long since I've blogged. And you know what they say about all study and no play...

Behold, the Caesar’s Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

1 - Passing up white wine. I will admit up front, I am still developing my palate for reds. But sometimes I think people act like white wine is wimpy, that it's just for fish and beginners. But I think white wines have a huge range of flavors. Delish. (Did I mention one of my new fave combos is the mango fried rice at Brown Sugar Cafe, with a glass of Gewurztraminer? Yum...)

2 - Red Sox. (Did I say that, while living in Boston? Should I ever even try to leave the house again?) I cheered for them in the playoffs, I love going to Fenway, the curse is broken, hurrah for the Sox. But this city doesn't have Red Sox fever -- fevers are usually broken. No, this is an addiction. A city obsessed. I thought Duke U. Cameron crazies were -- well, crazy. I've seen some wild stuff over football in the midwest, too. Being a Red Sox fan is universal across all segments of society -- white collar, blue collar, male, female, all ages, races, nationalities. Strangers will stop to ask you for the score on a game day. You simply can't live in Boston and not be a Red Sox fan. You don't have a choice. I believe it's a legal residency requirement.

3. Reality TV. I've had enough already, a lot of folks have, yet the networks keep coming up with more. Gimme a break! If there's anything good I can say about reality shows, they've made it easier for me to turn off the box. (And that takes care of 1997's New Year's resolution.)

4. Macaroni Grill. Say "Macaroni Grill" and I shudder. Same reaction to Cheesecake Factory. If there's a two-hour wait for a table, it must be good...?

5. Public Phone Conversation. We are in desperate need for a national champion of phone etiquette in this age of cellular technology. Me, I don't often carry my phone; I'm usually on my way to class or to the library, both I consider places inappropriate for phone ringing. When I do have my phone and it rings in public place, most often I tell the caller I'll get back to them. I just can't pretend that people aren't hearing my conversations. I just don't get how people won't even acknowledge your presence walking down the street or riding the T, yet they don't seem to mind divulging the icky details of their lives for everyone around to hear. I've (over?)heard everything from lover's spats to details of a woman's personal showering habits. Ew. And don't you just hate it when you're standing in line at the store and the customer in front of you at the counter is talking on their phone, too involved in conversation to finish their business with the salesperson (and hurry out of your way)?

So now, I have to tag someone... I will tag Kathy. And anyone else who'd like to play, consider yourself tagged!

Kitchen Separation Anxiety

The Boston Globe gave Burning My Fingers a mention in today's food section... the article is about food bloggers. Also mentioned were some great food bloggers, such as Chez Pim and Chocolate and Zucchini, both blogs I enjoy from time to time. Let me extend a hospitable southern welcome to visitors. I'm glad for the company.

...The kitchen's a little too quiet these days. I can't make a pot of French onion soup without getting teary-eyed. (Well, okay, not many people can make French onion soup without getting teary-eyed.) But it's not just crying in my soup. Rice with peanuts makes me laugh. I wonder why doing the dishes just isn't as fun as I remember. I've dropped by Serenade Chocolatier twice this week to catch up with a friend. (And eat chocolate.) And lobsters... lobsters. They stir up strong feelings.

Yep. I've got it. Culinary school separation anxiety.

At least I'm not alone out of the kitchen. Some of my classmates have emailed, wondering when we'll get together.

So, while we plan a reunion so we can catch up and reminisce about all the "good 'ol days", you can go back to the beginning of our four months in cooking school through the archives.

"I'm Just Happy to be Nominated..."

The Accidental Hedonist is hosting the 2004 Food Blog Awards, which I'm happy to see taking place. With the intense political issues of the past years being hashed and rehashed elsewhere in the blogosphere, you'd think more bloggers would take a break to enjoy a bite to eat some time-- whether virtual or around a real table. As for the folks serving up decent fare on their food blogs, I'm glad to see the "chefs" getting some credit.

Burning My Fingers has been nominated for the "best food blog by a chef" award. But I recently wrote Kate and told her to take me out of the running... one, I'm not a chef, and two, I've not been around long enough to qualify, according to the rules. 

Thank you for the nomination. It really means a lot to me, and I'm glad to have had someone else to share my culinary school experience with.

Now go vote for some good food blogs!

Graduation Day

Here are the members of my class with one of our instructors, Chef Jean-Jacques. I can't believe this day has come so quickly. The four months has flown by, yet I feel like the first day of class was so long ago. I'm both excited about my new future and sad to see this life-changing experience end.

When I was first accepted into the program, I foolishly thought, "finally! I get to learn everything there is to know about cooking!" (Any chef-instructor reading this is probably laughing his or her head off now...) I've learned a lot, but there is so much more to explore. I'm pretty certain cooking is one of those things you could spend a lifetime learning about.

Here are a few things I know for sure, though:
* the chef is always right.
* three different ways to chop garlic. All of them are "the" right way - depending on who the chef is.
* the best knife you can have is a sharp one.
* you can do a lot with 10 bucks. And a pantry.
* organization (mise en place) saves SO much time. Martha's really on to something!
* with the right know-how, foods that seem ordinary and boring can really be spectacular.
* you can never have enough kitchen towels around.
* it's just as fun cooking with friends as it is eating with friends. (Maybe more fun.)
* who you share a meal with is just as important as cooking the meal.

The Perfect Meal... Ends With a Drink!

This might have been the quietest day in the kitchen since the first week of our term. A bit of nervous tension in the room. We all could have used a drink afterward! But everyone did well.

I used a theme, "food of the gods," for my three courses. My first course was mushroom tortellini with walnut sauce. (An innkeeper shaped tortellini to resemble the navel of the goddess Venus, according to a myth.) Second course, pan roasted chicken and roasted root vegetables with chocolate vinegar. (Got the vinegar recipe from the book Real Chocolate by Chantal Coady.) Dessert was a banana pudding cream puff. Instead of a pudding, though -- the recipe I tried tasted too starchy to me -- I made a stirred creme brulee and put some bourbon in it. The 'legend' I found for bananas was that Hawaiian gods punished a boy for stealing bananas for their altar. I made a little "altar" out of sugar and put a slice of banana on it.

I did have a few mishaps along the way -- I ended up making the chocolate vinegar twice (I accidentally added salt when I meant to add sugar!), and I made the cream puffs twice because they didn't puff the first time. (Likely could have been the oven, according to the kitchen assistant.) I was really pleased with the feedback I got from the chefs, and to be honest, I'd do this again. I loved the experience.

The Perfect Meal: Part I

Today's the day: 3 courses, 3 hours to cook, and 3 chefs evaluating the final product. 10 bucks for ingredients, and 10 students anxious about what the chefs will say and do. Will they pull out rulers to measure our brunoise? Thermometers to make sure all the meat is cooked to the proper temperature? Scowl even when they like what they taste?

One of our chefs has a cold. Will he be able to taste and appreciate the ever-so-subtle hints and nuances of a dash of this or that?

Tuesday night I got a bit nervous... after hearing my classmates talk, it seems a lot of us are making some sort of custard for dessert. (Hey, eggs, cream, and sugar were all in the pantry.) For a flash moment Tuesday night, I thought about changing my dessert. Then I thought, nah, stick with what I know.

Dreamin'

Today Chef Stan joined us to prepare a New England winter dinner for a BU seminar, paired with wines by Bill Nesto, an instructor in BU's wine program. I love the chef's creativity... (And Bill's thoughtfulness to save a little wine for those of us in the back of the house...) So, today we made salmon cakes with remoulade sauce, served on mesclun with a lemon vinaigrette. (So delicious.) We also made a chicken breast ballotine, stuffed with forcemeat made from the chicken thigh. Very resourceful, and I liked the breast ballotine better than an entire chicken ballotine; much easier to manage when you're slicing and plating, easier to cook evenly, and I think it looks nicer on the plate. But that's just me.

We also made a roast lamb with a savory fig jam, (the jam was just awesome) -- and a bruléed rice pudding with cardamom, dried cherries and pistachios. Wow. Wow! I don't usually like rice pudding! So I asked the chef, "how do you come up with all these great ideas?" He said, "it's what I daydream about."

The Last Week

Monday was the first day of our last week together as culinary students. One student told me she's trying to look forward to each day more. Even with reunions (which I hope we'll begin planning soon!), things won't be the same... already people are leaving to pursue their dreams.

In the kitchen, Ana Sortun, chef and owner of Oleana, joined us to make Turkish foods. The menu included borek, red lentil kofte, some awesome fried mussels with tarator sauce, fistiki kebab, and kunufe for dessert. Everything came together pretty quickly, and she shared great information about the history and concepts of Arabic cuisine. It's really a shame that so much history in our country is Euro-centric... we miss so much fascinating stuff. (Of course, if all my history classes had been food history classes, I might have paid more attention...) For example, things such as elaborate sugarwork, or thickening sauces with ground nuts and breadcrumbs, are Arabic in origin.

una cioccolata calda

Thursday we started class with a visit from Matt Shaffer, restaurant critic for the Boston Herald. Then, the director of BU's culinary certificate and MLA-Gastronomy programs took us on a tour of the North End, my first trip to that part of the city. We ate lunch at Pizzeria Regina, which has been around since 1926. Great pizza. Our tour took us to Caffe Graffiti, where I had a picture-perfect cup of hot chocolate. We wandered in and out of shops, while our director told us a bit of history here and there, pointing out her favorite spots. We bought quite a bit of good balsamic at Salumeria Italiana after a brief lesson on tradizionale balsamic vinegars. I also bought a bottle of Agrumato, an olive oil pressed with lemons. Went into another store, and we found vanilla beans for two bucks each. They weren't quite as plump as we like, but still quite useable. Tell me that's not a deal in this day and age! We cleaned the store out of vanilla beans.

We ended up at Eastern Bakers Supply, and all of us drooled over all the kitchen equipment. I finally got a set of square cookie cutters. I've been looking for some off and on for over a year. Got 'em for a song, too -- less than 7 bucks. Deals like that make me giddy. My housemate thinks I'm a kitchen geek.

Oh well, I guess you have to be some kind of geek if you're going to be good at anything.

This weekend I'm practicing my perfect meal. We drew lots for slots, and I drew 1:30pm on Wednesday.

Beaujolais Nouveau

Today Chef Jean-Jacques joined us for a Beaujolais Nouveau meal. (Beaujolais Nouveau is a week celebrating the new Beaujolais wines. The thing is, according to our chef, the wine is too new to taste really great. It's more of a marketing thing than it is about a great wine. In his opinion, the reputation of Beaujolais Nouveau has hurt the reputation of Beaujolais wines, which can be better than the nouveau.) But about the meal: we made French onion soup -- and I have to say it was a great recipe. I first had French onion soup when I was a young girl, shortly after we moved to Germany. I've not had a French onion soup in any restaurant or recipe come close, until the soup we made today. We also made coq au vin, Swiss char, and apple tarts. After the cooking, we sat together to enjoy bottles of the 2004 Beaujolais Nouveau, our meal, and each other's company.

Asian Cuisine

Today we did some Asian cooking. Helen Chen gave our morning lecture on Chinese cuisine, and she gave us some of the history of Chinese cuisine and a little bit about regional Chinese cooking. Ms. Chen travels around the country teaching, so if you ever get a chance to hear her, I encourage it. Her time with us was packed with good information.

This afternoon we went into the kitchen, and Chef Stan continued our class in Asian cooking. (If you ever had the chance to eat at Salamander, or you've seen his cookbook The Occidental Tourist, you know he's taken a lot of inspiration from Asian cuisine.) He gave the class a handful of recipes, along with some words about differences between western and Asian dishes. The thing to strive for here is balanced contrast. If you're doing a sweet and sour dish, you want to taste both. Don't let one overpower the other.

So after quite a bit of cutting veggies, Mike and Leanne heated up their woks, and Mike encouraged Leanne to toss. (I'd be so proud of that picture if the salamander weren't blocking Mike's head.) Of course, someone got a little too enthusiastic about tossing.

So What are You Making for Thanksgiving?

A short school week because of Thanksgiving. I get to go visit my sister in Denver. I'll meet my parents there and see my little niece.

The question on everyone's lips in school is, of course, "what are you making for Thanksgiving?" Not just "what are you doing." It's not your usual Thanksgiving talk because now we all know more about cooking than we did four months ago. I think we've all had Thanksgiving in the backs of their minds as we've learned techniques and recipes, keeping mental notes of what we'd like to put on the menu. This is our first opportunity to really show our culinary stuff to the people we love on a major food day, and...

I'm so embarrassed by the truth. I'd like to make something up, really.

My family won't allow me to cook this year.

I mumble when I say it. Turn my head and mumble. My face sags in shame!

I had to beg to make potatoes and a dessert.

Is there a culinary school student anywhere in America that isn't cooking for Thanksgiving?

For the record, I'm making potatoes almondine and coconut cream pie, my mother's favorite. I don't even get to show off anything even moderately cool like tossing ingredients in a pan.

I think I'd be less humiliated if my chef-instructors sent me off to the corner to make Chex Mix for the staff.

Happy Thanksgiving!