Beef Olive and Cous Cous

22 March 2011

Today I learned how to make beef olives and cous cous. It was my first time that I made cous cous and learned that it is part of the wheat family. It is a starch and it can be served as part of a main course or as a starter with other ingredients. 

Beef Olive

650 g topside beef

1 onion

1 green pepper

Cream to bind

Wine sauce

The topside had to be cut into small piece of steak. It must be flattened and tenderized with a meat mullet and kept to one side. Next you need to brunoise the onion and green pepper and shallow fry it in a sauté pan with a tablespoon of oil. After the brunoise vegetables are transparent add a little wine sauce to deglaze and cream to bind afterwards. Take it of the heat and put it into a mixing bowl. Take the meat and fill each piece with a little of the vegetables in the middle and roll it up. Pin the meat with toothpicks to keep it together and not let the filling fall out. Heat up a sauté pan with again more oil this time (1/3 cup). Make sure the oil is steaming and hot. Seal the meat on each end in the pan and pack neatly into serving dish to be grilled later in the oven.

Cous Cous

3 carrots

1 onion

½ green pepper

500 ml water for stock

250 g cous cous

Peel and cut all the vegetables to be brunoise later. Add cold water to a stockpot and put all the off cuts of the peeled vegetables in the water (except for the green pepper). Bring to the boil and let the fond blanc stock reduce to half. Brunoise the vegetables and sauté in a pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil until transparent. Strain the stock after it has halved and use bring to a simmer and add the cous cous. Let the cous cous steam for 5 minutes until cooked. Mix the cous cous and vegetables together and add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Bread Pudding

20 March 2011

Bread pudding

Today I had to make the pudding for the buffet. The recipe included:

3-4 breads

½ pack raisins

4 tbls vanilla

Butter and strawberry jam to spread on the bread

15 eggs

3 liters milk

First the bread had to be spread with butter and strawberry jam to make sandwiches from. They where cut into 9 little block and put into a serving dish. The eggs and milk where whisk together and vanilla essence where added. This mixture where added to the bread and the bread was pushed down to get completely covered by the mixture. The raisins where sprinkled on top of the dish and it was baked in the oven.

Poaching and frying eggs

19 March 2011

Poaching is a, moist method of cooking in which food is placed in liquid which is brought to, and maintained at, a temperature just under boiling point, the cooking liquor may be water, milk, stock, wine, syrup or aromatic.

Today I had to cook all the eggs that were required for the orders that came in from the restaurant. The different type of eggs included sunny side up (egg yolk just start to color), soft (egg yolk has a white layer on top), medium (egg yolk is half way cooked), well done (egg yolk is cooked through). I also had to make poached eggs by simmering water and adding vinegar and breaking the egg into it. The egg had to be swirled around gently to get a nice shape and to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pan.

Fruit Salad and Boiling Venison

18 March 2011

Fruit Salad

Today I learned how to make a fruit salad. The fruits that I used were grapes cut in half, pears, apples, melons and pineapples that were cut into macedoine blocks. They were all mixed into one bowl and fruit juice was added (fruit cocktail).

Venison

The chunks of venison were added to a big boiling pot and water was added to cover the meat. The venison cooked until it was tender and taken out. The liquid left behind in the pot was used to make a brown sauce. Celery carrots and potatoes were added to the pot and cooked until tender. The scum had to be removed while it was cooking. The meat was then put back into the sauce and spices where added to give it a rich flavor.

Poached eggs and Croûte

17 March 2011

Poaching Eggs

I learned the traditional french way to poach eggs. First you need to add water to a   relatively deep pan and fill it ¾ full. When the egg is dropped in it must be able to completely submerge in the water. When the water reach boiling point you must turn down the heat to let it simmer gently. Add vinegar to the water and taste it so that it is not to sour. Stir the water with the back of a spoon so that the water starts to swirl. Break the egg into the water and gently move it around while it is cooking. Leave it for 2 to 3 minutes and test the egg by cutting a piece of the white to see that it is cooked through. Cut off any stringy bits for a good presentation.

Croûte

I learned how to make a crust for a base of my poached eggs. Cooked potatoes where used and mashed up in a robocop. To this mustard seeds, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper (black and white), nutmeg, breadcrumbs, lemon and herb sauce (or lemon juice can be used), garlic, flour and eggs where added and mixed to taste. This mixture was then piped onto an enamel tray lined with silicone paper. It was baked in the oven until golden brown.

Cutting Tourner and deep fry birds nest potatoes

15 March 2011

Today I learned how to cut Tourner (vegetable cut) of potatoes using the turning knife.

Tourner - A method of cutting vegetables into a football or barrel-like shape that forms six or seven sides on the length of the item being cut. Most often used to enhance the presentation of various vegetables such as carrots or potatoes, the food item is typically cut into 2 to 3 inches in length, the sides are carved equal with 6 or seven tapered cuts from end to end so that each end almost comes to a point, and then the points on the ends are sliced off.

What is a potato in French?

Pomme de terre is French for potato (translates as earth apple)

We also used the mandolin to cut different shapes using a potato. A mandolin is a cooking utensil used for slicing and for cutting juliennes with suitable attachments; it can make crinkle-cuts. It consists of two parallel working surfaces, one of which can be adjusted in height.  A food item is slid along the adjustable surface until it reaches a blade mounted on the fixed surface, slicing it and letting it fall.

We had to use a bird’s nest to fry julienne potatoes. It is demonstrated on the picture below. The potato julienne is put into the birds nest and deep fried in oil until golden brown. The birds nest has to be sprayed with cook and spray to prevent the potato from sticking. Another chef tip is that you must not cut the potato julienne into to large pieces otherwise it will break apart after it has been deep fried.

Moselesele Tent Camp

11 March 2011

Today it was the first time that I worked at Moselesele tent camp. I started at 7 am till 11 am and cleaned the camp by raking, sweeping and wiping furniture. I also cleaned and disinfected the kitchen surfaces for the evening food preparation. Only started at 4:30 pm again and the first guests gave us their food to prepare for dinner. It included pork chops, pap and the ingredients for a Sheba sauce. The fire was started and the sauce was prepared in the kitchen by brunoise onions and tomatoes and frying it in a pan. I then cooked the pork chops on the fire. The table was set for the guests and the food was kept warm.

The next guest wanted to have a dish heated in the oven that was prepared. They gave us steak and sosaties to cook on the fire. They enjoyed their food with a salad. After the guest had eaten we cleaned up and washed all the dishes.

Batonnets, Macedoine and Soups

10 March 2011

Today we learned about 2 new vegetable cuts, batonnets and macedoine. We had to cuts butternuts and carrots in these shapes.

Batonnets – 6mm x 6mm x 5 cm

It is shaped in little sticks

It’s a bigger version of a julienne

Macedoine - are cut into small dice and used as a garnish to meats

Different vegetable cuts and how you can use them to get to the next type of cut.

1.            Macedoine

2.            Paysanne

3.            Baton’s/Jardiniere

4.            Julienne

5.            Brunoise

6.            Chiffonade

7.            Tourner

8.            Parisienne

9.            Mirepoix

We also learned that you could deep-fry the butternuts peels to use as a garnish. If you put carrot peel into ice water it will curl and can be used to garnish salads. The off cuts of the carrots and butternuts was used to make a butternut puree and can be used to make a classical French style soup using a chinua. A robocoop was used to puree the cooked butternuts and carrots.

Minestrone soup

Mirepoix celery

Grated carrots

Grated baby marrows

Grated patipans

Tomato paste

Mixed herbs

Fond Blanc stock

Butter

We learned to make it true Italian style you can add broken pieces of spaghetti when the soup is boiling. The vegetables must still be firm when switching off the heat after it has been cooked. Always the last thing you do with any soups and sauces check your seasoning by taste.

Making Chicken stock (Fond Blanc) and Chicken Tripe

9 March 2011

Stock

Today we learned how to make a basic chicken stock or Fond Blanc (white stock). We also learned a new vegetable cut called mirepoix, which is cutting the vegetables roughly into large chunks for the stock. We learned to deglaze a pan by using wine to remove any brown bits off the base of the pan. We also learned how to remove the skin from a raw chicken.

Ingredients	Quantity Required	Cost
Chicken Whole	1	R 38.85
Carrots	250g	R 2.50
Celery	½ pack	R 8.48
Onions	150g	R 0.85
White Wine	300 ml	R 18
Peppercorns	5g	R 0.30
Bay leafs	2g	R 0.11

Equipment Needed

Cutting Boards (Yellow, Green)

Mixing bowl

Chef’s knife

Paring knife

Solid serving spoon

Stockpot

Colander

Conical strainer

 Method of Preparation

1. Mise on Place - Prepare chopping boards for cutting. (Green and Yellow)

                                    Take out knives that will be used. (Paring and Chef’s knives)

                                    Put vegetables in one mixing bowl.

                                    Put raw chicken in another mixing bowl to prevent cross-

                                    contamination.

2. Put raw chicken on yellow cutting board and using paring knife remove the skin and excess fat and take out the giblets

3. Wash the vegetables in the sink using the colander

4.  Put vegetables on green cutting board and chop vegetables into mirepoix.

5. Stuff the chicken from the backside with chopped vegetables until full

6. Put the chicken in the pot.

7. Put the remaining vegetables on top of the chicken in the pot.

8. Add the bay leafs and peppercorns into the pot.

9. Fill the pot 3/4 with water.

10. Turn on the gas and light the gas stove.

11. Put the stock pot on the stove with the lid on and let it come to a boil

12. Add the wine to the stockpot until full

13. When it starts to boil take off lid and turn down heat to let the stock simmer for more or less 2 hours.

14. While simmering using a solid serving spoon skim off the scum and excess fat.

15. See that the stock reduces to half (demi)

16. Using a conical strainer, strain the stock into a large mixing bowl to remove any solid foods.

Chef Tips

Reduce the stock to half = demi

Mirepoix – roughly cut the vegetables into large chunks.

Simmer – to lightly boil

Fond Blanc – Traditionally a white stock.

Chicken Tripe

1.         Put oven on 180 degrees.

2.         Clean Chicken livers, necks, stomachs and hart in cold water and remove any excess fat

3.         In a Brasse pan add paprika, salt, curry powder, garlic, lemon and herb spice, soja sauce, turmeric, oil and bay leafs.

4.         Add the clean chicken giblets to the mixture and mix with hand.

5.         In a sauté pan add butter and oil and heat on gas stove.

6.         Sauté brunoise onions and concassè and add white wine to deglaze pan.

7.         Add a ladle of the prepared fond blanc to the pan and let simmer for a minute.

8.         Add the pan mixture into the Brasse pan with the giblets.   

9.         Put in oven for 30 minutes

We learned how to concassè tomatoes which is the skinned, seeded flesh of tomato, chopped into small dice. We also learned the name of a new type of cooking pan.

We had to find out on which color cutting board you will prepare crocodile, rabbit (furred game) and turtle (red meat)?

Crocodile – Red board because it is venison

Rabbit – Red board (venison)

Turtle – Blue (sea creature)

 

Making Basic Sponge

8 March 2011

 

Today we learned how to make a basic sponge and how to calculate the cost of each amount product used, using a cost sheet. We also learned a whisking technique. Prepare before hand (mise on place) all the ingredients that will be required for the recipe so that you can work faster and more efficiently when time is of the essence. Make sure all utensils equipment and hands are clean before starting. Always use a large mixing bowl when whisking so that you can work the eggs faster to whisk more air inside.

Food Products Needed

Ingredients	Quantity	Cost
Eggs	2 each	R 2.33
Caster Sugar	50g	R 0.38
Instant Coffee Powder	15g	R 0.59
Flour	35g	R 0.28

Equipment Needed

3 Ramekins

Mixing bowls

Shot glass for measurement

Teaspoon for measurement

Sieve

Balloon whisk

Bain Marie

Wooden spoon for folding

Method of Preparation

1.         Switch oven on 180 degrees

2.         Whisk (balloon whisk) the eggs and half of the sugar till it reached soft ribbon

3.         Add the remaining sugar and whisk until full ribbon stage is reached

4.         Fold in the flour little by little with a wooden spoon being careful not

to remove the air from the mixture.

5.            Dissolve the instant powder coffee in a little bit of warm water and fold into

mixture

6.         Coat the ramekins with butter and flour

7.         Pour mixture into ramekins until 3/4 full

8.         Bake until mixture pulls away from the edges of the ramekin

Chef Tips

• When using normal sugar only use 35g to get a lighter result.
• Always make sure the oven shelf is in the middle of the oven for even baking.
• Use butter and coat the butter with flower to form a layer on the outside and stop it from sticking to the ramekin.
• You do not need to dissolve the instant coffee powder before adding to the mixture. It just gives a more even texture.

Assignment, Log Book, POE and Restaurant Menu

7 March 2011

Today we spent the whole day in the recourse center getting our POE's in order. We also had to to finish our first assignment and print it out and file it into our POE. We also had to get our blogs up to date and print it out to put it into our POE. The log books also had to be finished so that the chef Edward can look if it is alright mark it. The junior management also had to see that everything is up to date. We also got the menu of the restaurant so that we know what is on the menu when we have to work in the main kitchen and prepare anything from the menu.

Washing Plates and Cutlery

6 March 2011

Today I washed plates and cutlery using the dishwasher. The steps that I followed to work more efficiently included the following:

1.   Put the dish rack over the sink basin.

2.   Scrape away all excess food in the plate into the dustbin.

3.   Pack the same type of plates in the rack so that more can be washed at a time.

4.   Using the water hose at the basin spray off remaining food particles.

5.   Move dish rack into dishwasher and close the lid so the machine can start.

6.   When finished open the dishwasher lid and move dish rack to other side of dishwasher.

7.   Take out clean plate dry off with rag and pack away neatly.

8.   With the cutlery you have to put it directly into the cutlery rack move it into the dishwasher and dry them off with a rag and pack them away neatly.

I log 7 hours of washing dishes.  

Breakfast and Student Lunch

5 March 2011

Started the day shallow frying bacon strips for breakfast. I learned how to make scrambled eggs by first melting the butter in a hot pan then whisking eggs in a mixing bowl and adding it to the butter. Slowly using a perforated spoon moving the egg around in the pan until it is cooked being careful not to overcook making it dry. 

Eggs

I learned how to cook different types of fried egg. When breaking the egg in the pan you have to break it as close as possible to the base of the pan so that the egg doesn’t run all over. There is sunny side up eggs where the egg yolk is still raw. A soft egg where you can see the egg yolk has just started to change color. An easy over egg which is basically the same as a soft egg but the egg is flipped once. A medium egg is where the egg is flipped over twice. A hard egg is where the egg yolk is completely cooked and turned over three times.

Cottage Pie

I had to prepare cottage pie for student lunch. I first filled a pot with cold water and added the potatoes. The pot was then put on the gas stove and the potatoes had to boil on a high heat until they were cooked. I tested the potatoes with a sharp knife to see if they are soft and cooked through. The potatoes where then taken off the stove and drained under cold water to stop them from cooking more. I took of the peels that came off easily. The potatoes where mashed, butter and thickener where mixed in to make it possible to spread the potatoes over the mince. The precooked and seasoned mince just had to be reheated in a pot until it was hot. The mince was put into a serving dish covered with potatoes and grated cheese where added on top. The dish was put into the oven until it was cooked golden brown on top.