Culinary School: Cooking Mexican and Mediterranean food
This week in culinary school we had fun cooking Mexican food, Mediterranean inspired food and plated some of the prettiest dishes.
We had guest chef Tiffany Friedman demonstrate plating “pretty dishes”. This main course was this Schnitzel w/ Spatzle and Snap peas. Here are some presentation pointers:
- The pretty flowers on top are edible hand-torn squash blossoms. BECAUSE WE CAN.
- And the multi-colored Sptazle are due to varying mix of Buckwheat and AP flour in different spatzle batters.
- There’s a base of horseradish creme fraiche on the bottom.
How to make Schnitzel? Butterfly chicken breast. Gently pound to 1cm height between two sheets of seran wrap or parchment paper. Flour (w/ garlic powder & paprika), Egg and breadcrumb (food processor breadcrumbs to fine consistency). Shallow fry until deep golden brown. Slice and stack.
This Mussels Saffron Soup is beautiful and super rich. Here’s what’s in it:
- Fennel stock (Fennel + mire poix 1h simmer) reduced and simmered with Cream and Saffron.
- Coined sauteed baby waxy potatoes.
- Roasted diced squash.
- Steamed cleaned mussels flesh.
- Sprinkle fennel pollen on top.
- Top with Borage edible flowers.
This beautiful Plated Green Salad was stunning in person. Assembly instructions:
- Dressing: Mayo + Buttermilk + Dill + Lemon juice in food processor.
- Half an avocado. WELCOME TO 2017 WHERE EVERYTHING NEEDS AN AVOCADO.
- Grilled vegs: palm hearts, radicchio 1/6s and squash 1/8s.
- Peeled long strips of cucumber rolled into cucumber spirals.
- Half radishes. They’re so tiny and pretty.
Moving on to Mediterranean inspired cuisine we had this Watermelon, Mint and Arugula Salad served on a bed of smoked feta cheese. The salad had tossed diced 1cm watermelon cubes, arugula and mint in a lemon vinaigrette.
How to smoke Feta cheese? Fuck man, you can smoke anything. Put some cheese in a smoker, smoke it for like 15m until it builds a nice brown exterior. Blend in food processor. Be blown away by the combination of feta and smokey flavours. I suspect you can also just blend feta cheese and liquid smoke for a similar effect.
This Meshed Eggplant w/ Black Olives might not be a looker, but it tasted amazing in freshly baked pita bread.
What’s in this meshed eggplant? Roast half eggplants with some water until tender (30m-45m) in 425°F. Combine tender eggplant flesh in food processor with diced tomatoes, red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, S&P. Finally combine with chopped black olives.
To round off our Mediterranean meal we Grilled White Sea Bass in Grape Leafs and topped with Ladolemono Sauce. Ladolemono is a greek sauce of 1:1 olive oil : lemon juice with grated carrot, mustard, parsley, oregano and garlic.
How to wrap stuff in grape leafs? Blanche canned grape leafs for 1–3m to get the salty flavour off them. Remove the thick veins by either shaving or cutting them off. Place a 40z piece of fish on them, trim so only two sides are exposed and fold over to cover the other four sides. Grill, cut and serve.
To start off our mexican cooking we made this beautiful Duck in Pumpkin Seed Mole Verde. The duck was pan seared on all sides until brown and then left to simmer in it’s own juices covered for an hour.
How to make Pumpkin Seed Mole Verde?
- Mole Verde base: Blend cooked tomatilos, diced white onion, epazote, cilantro, radish leaves and lettuce leaves.
- Pumpkin Blend: Grind an insane amount (4cups) of toasted pumpkin seeds, cumin and fennel. Combine with white onion duck stock.
- Make mole: combine pumpkin blend, mole base and fat drippings. Simmer super low for 20m. Add curved duck.
The time old question of what happens if you put custard in a Zucchini? These Corn Custard Zucchinis are the answer. I wonder what other vegetables can be used as serving dishes. Assembly instructions:
- Scoop all Zucchini flesh with a spoon.
- Make a corn custard from 2 cups corn kernels, 2 eggs, 2tbsp milk, 5oz cheese and pour into zucchinis.
- Top with more cheese.
- Bake covered for 45m on 350°F until custard set.
We made Drunken Beans. It’s called that because they’re simmered with beer. I wish I didn’t like them, but they’re great.
How to make drunken beans? Simmer pinto/black beans for 30m in water and drain. Simultaneously brown diced bacon, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes. Add beer, drained beans, dried oregano and bay leaf. Mesh a 1/3rd of the beans until you get to the desired consistency.
We made Biscotti! wOOt. It’s just a loaf of eggs, sugar & honey emulsified with oil and then mixed in with 1:1 AP flour : cake flour, nuts and flavouring.
It’s interesting that Biscottis are twice baked. First we bake off a 1.5" diameter loafs until they pass knife test (350°F 25m-30m). The second time we slice off 1cm pieces and dehydrate them individually until hard at 275°F for 25–30m.
I really liked these thumbprint jam-filled cookies. They look so pretty.
They’re basically shortbread cookies, rolled into 1.5cm balls, pressed with a thumb to make a deep imprint, filled with jam and baked at 325°F for 16–20m. The shortbread mixture is 1cup SALTED butter creamed with 0.5cup powdered sugar combined with 2tsp vanilla and 2cups ap flour. Done.
Read more about my experiences in culinary school by reading about last week’s classes:
