Back on to part two of this blog post series.
The next item I want to talk about is a great cut that is definitively under used and I feel makes for great stews and braises is oxtail. Oxtail is exactly what it sounds like, its cows tail. Now don't get me wrong you yield much off of oxtail to start out with but its something when done right, can be one of the best things leaving you with a great food memory.
Something that I recently found out while reading another blog I like to read called Ideas in Food (link is here: http://blog.ideasinfood.com/) they were talking about how some people have managed to figure out a few new cuts of beef from the chuck (the shoulder). There has always been the classic Delmonico Steak (the tail end of the ribeye) but they've coined a cut called the "Denver Steak" which resembles that of a striploin steak and a "Sierra Steak" which resembles that of a flank steak. Now I think this is great! The chuck is typically used all for grind but now that they have gone forth to give more to chuck than making it just grind. It allows the market to open up and since these are relatively new and probably cheaper cuts (for now until they gain popularity) this could for sure make an operation unique.
I want to move to pork, nothing is more delicious than pork. It's one of my favorite protein items but is also a guilty pleasure in our world because as most cooks know best, bacon makes alot of things taste good. What's so great about pork is that its the most utilized out of most four legged animals. So much can be used and for so many things, leftover fat can be turned into lardo (cured pork fat), you can cure, smoke, preserve just about any part of a pig let alone turn it into tasty sausage. Its endless with pork. But you get left with a head and though crispy pig ears are mighty tasty theres alot more you can do. You can cook the whole head and make a treat called headcheese. Theres no dairy what so ever, but cooking a pigs head in a super flavorful stock or broth, picking all the meat from the heat and because a pigs head is full of cartilage, natural based gelatin forms that all together. Take all your meat and broth/stock and press it in a terrine mold and magic, you've got head cheese. Another thing to do is take the pork jowl (cheek) cure it into guancile and have a cured product suitable for eating on a cure meats platter or as a substitute for bacon.
Its all what you can do, but taking the time and having the space. Next blog we'll move into some seafood and poultry.
-Garrett
Monday, February 6, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Little, Simple, Forgotten Things - Meat and Fish
I'm in midst of cleaning my room and doing important career stuff (cover letters, resumes, college applications oh my!) so I'm throwing up a blog series I wrote up last weekend. Enjoy!
I'm writing this post to talk about a much confessed love for under utilized cuts of meat and fish. Also a really dumb cut of meat I found that was brought up while reading the school's newspaper the other day.
I consider meat and fish to be two of the best things on earth and its even better when properly cooked and served. A mouthwatering ribeye steak can be just as tasty as a beautifully cooked piece of salmon (wild, Pacific salmon) or a sea scallop. Its the idea of marrying both worlds of land and sea (or really should be body of water) together and learning how to work with them, especially in a seasonal aspect. Poultry, beef, lamb, fish, game, they can all be beautiful and delicious things.
The 1st cut I want to talk about is the cut that was written about in the school paper. A new cut of pork was talked about is "secerto", I guess its popular in Spain but its the meat cut out of pork belly and is to resemble that of a hanger steak. When I had a talk about this with my friend Jesse, we kinda got outraged. Its just the sheer fact its kinda of a really dumb cut. The belly of a pig doesn't contain that much meat anyways so your wasting all that great fat but thats while pork belly is either braised, confit, fried because its tough meat. But personally I like my pork belly the way it is and it seems to much of a waste (and a shame in my opinion) to remove that meat from such a delicious part of the pig.
The 2nd cut I'll talk about is beef cheek. Now most people turn their head had that thought, a cows cheek, you can eat that? Its much like eating pork jowl (similar to another version of pork belly). Of course cows do alot of smackin on grass all day so they use the muscles in their cheeks alot. But once again its all in knowing how to use your product and making it delicious and beautiful. Beef cheek is really suitable for one thing and thats braising. In my opinion making braising is one of the best things, I love braises and a reason one is if you take the time and love, it will be one amazing product in the end. The end result of a great beef cheek braise is a fork tender, moist, melt in your mouth piece of meat. So next time you hit up your local butcher, skip the beef short ribs (though very tasty, beef short ribs have made a huge resurgence in the last couple years) and try beef cheek.
Next blog post we'll keep discussing about beef and move into pork!
-Garrett
I'm writing this post to talk about a much confessed love for under utilized cuts of meat and fish. Also a really dumb cut of meat I found that was brought up while reading the school's newspaper the other day.
I consider meat and fish to be two of the best things on earth and its even better when properly cooked and served. A mouthwatering ribeye steak can be just as tasty as a beautifully cooked piece of salmon (wild, Pacific salmon) or a sea scallop. Its the idea of marrying both worlds of land and sea (or really should be body of water) together and learning how to work with them, especially in a seasonal aspect. Poultry, beef, lamb, fish, game, they can all be beautiful and delicious things.
The 1st cut I want to talk about is the cut that was written about in the school paper. A new cut of pork was talked about is "secerto", I guess its popular in Spain but its the meat cut out of pork belly and is to resemble that of a hanger steak. When I had a talk about this with my friend Jesse, we kinda got outraged. Its just the sheer fact its kinda of a really dumb cut. The belly of a pig doesn't contain that much meat anyways so your wasting all that great fat but thats while pork belly is either braised, confit, fried because its tough meat. But personally I like my pork belly the way it is and it seems to much of a waste (and a shame in my opinion) to remove that meat from such a delicious part of the pig.
The 2nd cut I'll talk about is beef cheek. Now most people turn their head had that thought, a cows cheek, you can eat that? Its much like eating pork jowl (similar to another version of pork belly). Of course cows do alot of smackin on grass all day so they use the muscles in their cheeks alot. But once again its all in knowing how to use your product and making it delicious and beautiful. Beef cheek is really suitable for one thing and thats braising. In my opinion making braising is one of the best things, I love braises and a reason one is if you take the time and love, it will be one amazing product in the end. The end result of a great beef cheek braise is a fork tender, moist, melt in your mouth piece of meat. So next time you hit up your local butcher, skip the beef short ribs (though very tasty, beef short ribs have made a huge resurgence in the last couple years) and try beef cheek.
Next blog post we'll keep discussing about beef and move into pork!
-Garrett
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Top 5 Tools to Have in Your Knife Kit
Besides the basics that should already be in your knife kit such as a Chef's Knife, Steel, Pearing Knife, etc. Some of us decided what about a few others things that are overlooked and something you should really, honestly have. So here's the Top 5:
1 - Y Peeler
Now, peelers come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes but Y Peelers are pretty efficient, have a great shape for peeling and though you might go through them quite fast, they cost all of two dollars so to have a stash of 4 peelers laying around your apartment, locker, dorm room, kitchen, etc, isn't all that bad of an idea.
2 - Fish Spatula
They are super useful especially for FISH! If there is one thing I've learned its don't manhandle a beautiful thing such as fish. So go out, by yourself a nice fish spat for 18 or so bucks and you'll be set for quite sometime.
3 - Plating Spoons
I'm a fan of spoons, I love cooking with spoons, it just makes alot of sense (I've got to give alot of street credit to the Europeans for coming up with such a fine idea) It makes sense to have at least a good sized regular spoon and a larger one. You can do this by going to GoodWill and buying spoons to buying yourself a nice set of Gray Kunz Spoons from J.B. Prince.
4 - Mini Off-Set Spatula OR 6 inch Palette Knife
Great for flipping small delicate items, spreading, plating, scraping items out of 9th pans (especially the mini off-set spatula) just make sure the handles are wooden so they don't melt on you while on the line.
5 - A Can Opener or The Standard Military Issued P-38 Can Opener
Now something my Dad gave me that made so much sense. On all those competition shows, the one thing no one has is a can opener, so they end up jacking up their knives opening a can. Or those industrial #10 openers just destroy your can instead of opening it or theres only one of those in house and its always lost. So the P-38 can opener fits nicely on a key ring for use.
-Garrett
1 - Y Peeler
Now, peelers come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes but Y Peelers are pretty efficient, have a great shape for peeling and though you might go through them quite fast, they cost all of two dollars so to have a stash of 4 peelers laying around your apartment, locker, dorm room, kitchen, etc, isn't all that bad of an idea.
2 - Fish Spatula
They are super useful especially for FISH! If there is one thing I've learned its don't manhandle a beautiful thing such as fish. So go out, by yourself a nice fish spat for 18 or so bucks and you'll be set for quite sometime.
3 - Plating Spoons
I'm a fan of spoons, I love cooking with spoons, it just makes alot of sense (I've got to give alot of street credit to the Europeans for coming up with such a fine idea) It makes sense to have at least a good sized regular spoon and a larger one. You can do this by going to GoodWill and buying spoons to buying yourself a nice set of Gray Kunz Spoons from J.B. Prince.
4 - Mini Off-Set Spatula OR 6 inch Palette Knife
Great for flipping small delicate items, spreading, plating, scraping items out of 9th pans (especially the mini off-set spatula) just make sure the handles are wooden so they don't melt on you while on the line.
5 - A Can Opener or The Standard Military Issued P-38 Can Opener
Now something my Dad gave me that made so much sense. On all those competition shows, the one thing no one has is a can opener, so they end up jacking up their knives opening a can. Or those industrial #10 openers just destroy your can instead of opening it or theres only one of those in house and its always lost. So the P-38 can opener fits nicely on a key ring for use.
-Garrett
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Day Trip: NYC
Sitting last Saturday night, my friends Jesse, Matt and I were talking about what we would the next day. It was a Sunday, we kinda wanted to get out and we hadn't gone out much because most of our time had been spent sleeping, relaxing, studying for class. Jesse and I were in Back of House St. Andrew's and Matt was in Back of House Caterina. We all needed a break, so we said why don't we go to New York City for the day. Waking up the next morning, the weather was nice, we were feeling good so we hopped in the car and drove an hour and forty five into the big apple. Armed with 30 dollars in my pocket, it was going to be a day of fantastic eating. Ten dollars went towards the much needed Metro card to get around the city with some ease.
Now to our 1st stop - 72nd and Columbia Ave.
For a Tasty Hamburger and some delicious Thin Mint Custard....
Also Faces of Tasty Approval
We went to one of five Shake Shack Locations, we had a 15 minute wait, this was an amazing hamburger that hit the spot. A side note, we spent a great deal of the day discussing food cost and how all the places we ate at were literally making bank off of their restaurants. This also brought up discussions of restaurant types an food we like to cook and so on and so forth.
Look at that crepe....this brings us to our next stop right outside of NYU and Washington Square Park
Crepeaway, a place to pick up a warming crepe (either savory or sweet) and for a great price. It took the edge off the cold weather with a hot crepe filled with nutella.
Look....Steamed and Fried Pork Dumplings with Cool Monster Sauce (A yogurt and wasabi based sauce). Legit those were amazing dough filled bundles of heven.
Our last stop of the day was Dumpling Man in East Village, for 80 cents a dumpling, I highly recommend you go. They make the dumplings right in front of you so you see the process from start to finish.
We spent like 5 or 6 hours in Manhattan and were also able to get in a trip to Chelsea Market, hit up the lower West Side an swing by Morandi's where Matt externed at, walk around Chinatown and Little Italy and check out a restaurant supply store walking in Bowery. Overall it was a great and much needed day off full of food and great times.
-Garrett
Weekend Eatings
So every once in awhile we take the time on campus my group of friends and I to make dinner on the weekend. It is really nice to make a meal and get to enjoy something we all help make. Its that sense of being home an being part of my school family.
So last Saturday we went out to lunch at one of our favorite local eateries. Rossi and Sons is an Italian Deli full of so many good things. If your up in the area, go and thats it, just go and grab a sandwich, I normally get a roast pork sandwich but I switched it up last time.
The was the sandwich special of the day, it was porchetta with arugala, roasted peppers, pecorino toscana and I got basil pesto all pressed on a focaccia.
So last Saturday we went out to lunch at one of our favorite local eateries. Rossi and Sons is an Italian Deli full of so many good things. If your up in the area, go and thats it, just go and grab a sandwich, I normally get a roast pork sandwich but I switched it up last time.
The was the sandwich special of the day, it was porchetta with arugala, roasted peppers, pecorino toscana and I got basil pesto all pressed on a focaccia.
This soda was super it, it was a bitter and sweet lemon soda.
After eating a lunch we took a trip across the river to by far the coolest butcher shop in the world. Fleischer's in Kingston, NY.
Where we proceeded to get a house made guancoile (cured pork jowl) for free...
And this beautiful Tri-Tip Chuck Roast....
Which after two hours of roasting, came out looking like one sexy roast....
And was then eaten with braised cabbage and spatzle. I'll say that was quite a delicious meal enjoyed with great friends.
Now something that got done two weekends ago was Jesse, Matt and I were really wanting pizza. So we did exactly that, we made pizza an it turned out to be really, really good.
So that is all for this tasty blog post!
-Garrett
The Super Late Holiday Special!
Welcome to The Culinarian's Super Late Holiday Special!
Where I'll talk about all the food made and eaten and all the wine enjoyed while I was home for winter break. I understand that this post is a month late so....on with the post!
First I have a meal I made a couple days after I got back home.
Roasted Prime Rib, Brown Butter Roasted Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Pommes Puree and Jus Lie (Which I bridged with the wine we were drinking with the meal)
Wine: Zinfandel, Pezzi King Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County 2009
A good wine, very fruit forward, mild tannins but very high acidity which was somewhat of a turnoff of the wine so to speak. It paired well with the prime rib and was great when bridged with the sauce but it just had an unpleasant acidity. I was trying to find the Old Vine Zinfandel from Dry Creek Vineyards that we had in class.
I really enjoyed making Christmas Dinner, I got to spend a nice solid day prepping for this really great meal. I got to make a very nice batch of brown stock to make a beautiful sauce. My friend Jesse likes to comment on how French I am in my cooking and its very much the truth.
Where I'll talk about all the food made and eaten and all the wine enjoyed while I was home for winter break. I understand that this post is a month late so....on with the post!
First I have a meal I made a couple days after I got back home.
Braised Rabbit and Chicken Spanish Style, Winter Root Vegetables, Pearl Onions with Sauteed Swiss Chard and Pan y Tomato (Bread and Tomato)
Wine: Lan Rioja, Crianza, Bodegas Lan S.A. Fuenmayor, Espana 2006 - Had a nice full body, long finish, balance of acidity and tannins, translucent black cherry color, nose had black and red fruits. This went really well with the braise, would probably go really well with fattier cuts of red meat. Retail price was $14.99.
Wine: Lan Rioja, Crianza, Bodegas Lan S.A. Fuenmayor, Espana 2006 - Had a nice full body, long finish, balance of acidity and tannins, translucent black cherry color, nose had black and red fruits. This went really well with the braise, would probably go really well with fattier cuts of red meat. Retail price was $14.99.
Now I was lucky enough to be able to come home with some Hudson Valley Grade A Foie Gras. This is what was awesome, retail this Foie Gras cost 85 to 95 dollars a pound. I got the foie through the school for 37 dollars for alittle over a pound and a half. So when I spent my day doing lots of prep I made some delicious accompaniments for my foie gras. I made some onion marmalade, just caramelized onions deglaze with Grand Mariner, also some balsamic and port soaked black mission figs, and orange glazed apricots. Along with that I did some nice toast and a co-worker of my dad's has raised some bees and we had some of his late harvest honey along with the plate.
Wine: Zinfandel, Pezzi King Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County 2009
A good wine, very fruit forward, mild tannins but very high acidity which was somewhat of a turnoff of the wine so to speak. It paired well with the prime rib and was great when bridged with the sauce but it just had an unpleasant acidity. I was trying to find the Old Vine Zinfandel from Dry Creek Vineyards that we had in class.
I really enjoyed making Christmas Dinner, I got to spend a nice solid day prepping for this really great meal. I got to make a very nice batch of brown stock to make a beautiful sauce. My friend Jesse likes to comment on how French I am in my cooking and its very much the truth.
Dessert was made by mom, she made cherry cobbler and we got to enjoy it with some Jeni's Ice Cream that my sister got me for Christmas, its was the Bourbon Pecan Ice Cream which really made the cherry cobbler better than just eating it with vanilla ice cream.
The day after Christmas we took a lovely trip down to Cincy and got to get some favorites I don't get often at all. Pictured above is a plate of cheese coneys from the one and only Gold Star Chili. I can't forget the picture just above of the beautiful, most tasty Steak Sandwich from Richard's in Hamilton, Ohio and it would have been better with root beer from Jolly's but they are closed for the season. Other than eating some of my favorites, we also got to make a stop at Jungle Jims where we picked up a bottle of Francis Ford Copplas Director's Cut Chardonnay which is currently unopened in Ohio but will be enjoyed in time.
This bottle of Macon - Village is a unoaked Chardonnay that was enjoyed with a nice bowl of my Dad's New England Clam Chowder.
On New Year's Day I went traditional for our meal and made a Pork Roast with pommes puree, sauerkraut with green beans. I'm really drawling a blank on the green vegetable unless I made glazed carrots. Pardon me on that.
Something I do feel bad about is how I think I didn't take photos of the food I made on New Year's Eve. We ended up going to Whole Foods and I created a nice seafood tasting for dinner. We had shrimp cocktail followed by lobster poached in court bullion with garlic butter, pan roasted Coho Salmon with lemon brown butter and pan roasted sea scallops with linguine, spinach and Parmesan Reggiano.
Overall, I was super happy that I spent alot of time cooking at home. It made me happy getting to take it easy and have a break, spending time with my family and letting me get to cook for them.
But that concludes the Culinarian's Super Late Holiday Special!
-Garrett
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Let's Play the Catch Up Game
Hello Everyone,
The title does alot to sum it up, I'm going to play the catch up game with my blog. I just finished my three week stint in Back of House in my first restaurant on campus. The first set of restaurants we are in is more geared towards Contemporary Restaurant Cuisine. I ended up working in St. Andrew's for my first round of restaurants and at St. Andrew's the are more geared towards staying local to the Hudson Valley and trying to be sustainable. On top of that all because the school has changed around the AOS program, all the cuisines classes are getting moved to post externship. So the school has had a major loss in meals and the school needed to find a way to provide more meals to the student body. Part of that plan was to open up St. Andrew's to do more student covers. So our average cover count for the past 14 days has been between 120 and 140 covers. Currently St. Andrew's is doing the highest amount of covers than any other restaurant on campus (most likely with the except of Apple Pie). So last block I spent ten hours in class working my butt off with my group and we pulled it off with success. This current block the PM block opened up and so we had a triple work load to prep our class, the next AM and PM class. It was quite the ride but we did it, pulled it off and Chef was very very pleased with our hard work that we put it.
Now my class and I have moved into AM Front of House at St. Andrew's and honestly its such a huge change. The front is a totally different world than the back, its quite the adjustment but our day one went really smooth and we were able to have worked it all out with a success though we only did 103 covers that day.
As to catching up, I'll include several posts in the next few days about everything that has happened, food thats been cooked, adventures that have been made, topics that have been discussed, concepts that have been though of. So much to catch up on. Which leads me to say that I plan on writing more and hopefully getting to do more photography. I haven't had much time for it and its something I need to plan out some more time for. So I'm off to start on another post!
-Garrett
The title does alot to sum it up, I'm going to play the catch up game with my blog. I just finished my three week stint in Back of House in my first restaurant on campus. The first set of restaurants we are in is more geared towards Contemporary Restaurant Cuisine. I ended up working in St. Andrew's for my first round of restaurants and at St. Andrew's the are more geared towards staying local to the Hudson Valley and trying to be sustainable. On top of that all because the school has changed around the AOS program, all the cuisines classes are getting moved to post externship. So the school has had a major loss in meals and the school needed to find a way to provide more meals to the student body. Part of that plan was to open up St. Andrew's to do more student covers. So our average cover count for the past 14 days has been between 120 and 140 covers. Currently St. Andrew's is doing the highest amount of covers than any other restaurant on campus (most likely with the except of Apple Pie). So last block I spent ten hours in class working my butt off with my group and we pulled it off with success. This current block the PM block opened up and so we had a triple work load to prep our class, the next AM and PM class. It was quite the ride but we did it, pulled it off and Chef was very very pleased with our hard work that we put it.
Now my class and I have moved into AM Front of House at St. Andrew's and honestly its such a huge change. The front is a totally different world than the back, its quite the adjustment but our day one went really smooth and we were able to have worked it all out with a success though we only did 103 covers that day.
As to catching up, I'll include several posts in the next few days about everything that has happened, food thats been cooked, adventures that have been made, topics that have been discussed, concepts that have been though of. So much to catch up on. Which leads me to say that I plan on writing more and hopefully getting to do more photography. I haven't had much time for it and its something I need to plan out some more time for. So I'm off to start on another post!
-Garrett
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