Ok... so I'll keep you updated then.

So none are you are awake when I'm not working, which makes keeping everyone informed of my daily experiences in New Orleans(New/Oar-lins)


Having finished my Garde Manger class at the CIA, I went on a two day long road trip down to New Orleans after a brief 6 day break in Queens.

The first day involved a wonderful 16 hour drive, starting at 4 AM and ending in Birmingham Alabama. Surprisingly less backward and racist as I would have imagined... Had good bbq in Wytheville Tennessee (Smokey's Hickory BBQ), and forgettable bbq in Birmingham. Virginia has way too much money to spend on their roads...

Second day was a much shorter, but mind numbing 5.5 hour drive into New Orleans from Alabama, having passed by 4 signs for GAME DAY FOOTBALL STADIUM locations... I got the feeling that football might be a big deal around here. I've come to the conclusion that all roads in Mississippi are straight, boring, and need to be repaved. I also believe that the first state to get "Sky-Highways", a-la back to the future 3, should be Louisiana... Maybe this would prevent large trucks, buses and pickup trucks from shaking houses, setting off car alarms and digging massive potholes anytime they passed...

So anyway. In the past three weeks, I've served several famous football players, governors, pundits, movie stars, and regular people searching for good food in NoLa. Works fun, hard, and rewarding.

-Me

2 Months in...

Brief update of Culinary School (In no particular order):

• 3.75 GPA
• Met Eric Ripert
• Met Jehangir Mehta
• Made Sauce Hollandaise/Bearnaise/Mornay/Demi-Glace
• Butchered Cow/Pork/Lamb/Fowl/Fish
• Ate more fish than I have previously in my life
• Ate $150 worth of Caviar, and probably the same of Foie Gras
• Fed 1000 people for charity
• Can cut faster, and more precise then previously imagined!

But that's about it so far... still trying to see where I should do my externship... Safety, prestige and family/friends in NYC, warm sunny weather of Florida, or harsh cold of Chi-town?

Ok... so I've neglected you.

So I started Culinary School about 6 months earlier than I thought I would. In short... they offered me a lot of money, and I'm a sucker for free money.

I have a few menus that I haven't posted yet, so I'll try to add those over the next few days. But in case you randomly stumbled on here and are curious about what I'm doing at college:

• Required to attend a daily 3 course served meal
• Mathematics (Yeah... They're making a kid with a Bachelors in Math and 1/2 a degree in Finance to go to this)
• Food Safety (Wash your hands/don't sneeze on the product)
• Intro to Gastronomy (What, How and Why do we taste, and where does food come from)
• Product Knowledge (Here is a , how do I know when its ripe, and how do I cook it?)

Other than that, I'm living the life. My dorm room has a view of the Hudson River, and when I walk to class I walk past Lake Pollute` (Its French!) 

Attack of the Franken-Apple-Muffins!

What started as a simple quest to use my extra, about-to-be-too-ripe, apples, ended with an abundance of tasty baked goods and an interesting recipe for Apple-streudal type muffins. Originally starting with Cook’s Illustrated Apple Crumble recipe, I quickly discovered I had too many apples and not enough ‘crumble-type dishware’, so I found that combining the extra crumble ingredients with Mark Ruhlman’s Basic Quick Bread ratio yielded not only a quick fix but a moist, light, and delicious muffin. I expect that you could swap in a different types of fruit, with relevant seasonings, to get your preferred franken-muffin experience.

Here's the franken-muffins, pre-pan dissection. See more details after the jump.

Valentines Day Chocolates

I was recently tasked with making Chocolates for my former-roommates girlfriend. (In case she reads this... He got the materials, and helped with most of the pieces!)

This explains why this post is being released AFTER Valentines Day.

Only brief 1930's recipe style instructions on this one folks, but first I'll give a menu/list to make you all jealous.

• Muddy Bears (Chocolate Covered Gummy Bears)
• Raisin Clusters
• Marshmallow Dipped Chocolates
• Hazelnut Truffles
• Coconut Bourbon Truffles
• Blackberry Truffles
• Fudge... Dipped in Fudge

The fun part of doing the huge varitey of chocolates was scaling down recipes to fit. Most make 24-36 chocolates... I made 4 of each.

Basic Instructions after the Jump

Mushroom Risotto

From Mushroom Risotto

A good risotto can be pretty hard to come by in a restaurant. At your local Olive Garden the consistency ranges from that of rice pilaf to glue, and the flavor can usually be described as "cardboardy" or like a dense ball of cheese.

Only have 31 minutes to make dinner for the family? Tired of Smashed Potatoes? A risotto should be that recipe you have tucked away for just this occasion!

Butternut Squash Ravioli

From Ravioli

Who likes pasta? We like pasta!

In the Fall and Winter months you can find great squashes at even the tiniest bodega in New York... Well maybe not bodegas, but they're really easy to find, and usually pretty darn cheap.

YAADC (Yet Another Article on Duck Confit)

So I've wanted to make Duck Confit ever since I purposely picked Les Chefs de France at Epcot in Disney World 6 years ago... Amazingly everybody else in the world decided to write an article about making in the months of December/January. (I'm looking at you Cooks Illustrated and The New York Times).

In spite of that, I'm using my recently obtained copy of Charcuterie and am going to create a truer version of duck confit. Following that... I'm going to make some cassoulet, Salad and any other things I can find.

Teaser

 Soon to come, ChefsChoice Model 632 Food Slicer Review, along with "Quick Pancetta" Recipe

First Live Recipe!

Currently making "Henri's French Onion Soup", live!


Pre-tasting, the soup's flavor is solely from the amount of caramelization you get from cooking the onions. Since there's no stock or bouillon involved, this is pretty heart healthy, and low salt. (Only 3 tbs of butter, and only as much salt that you need to shake in the beginning, though you will want to season with KCl later on if that's your thing) AND it's easy enough that you can actually create a blog and update while stirring the pot)