Cooking School Confidential: My Inner Hermionie and Thor the Chef

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All my life I have been the shy and quiet student. I’ve never had that “you raised your hand too much” moment , but I had it last week. It all started when my new professor/Chef generally asked if anyone had made a soufflé?

hermonie

Sigh. I stopped raising my hand after 3 questions and just pretended I hadn’t cooked, or eaten, or was excited about X, Y, and Z. Because guess what? I am excited and I love to cook and I love to eat and it’s obvious.

This is Professional Cooking 101, so we are starting  as basic as you can get: stock, chopping, sauces, scrambled eggs, etc, so I should know a thing or two about a thing or two…right?

Wrong– Do I know why I dice my veg when chopping? No. Do I even dice my veg? No. Do I heat up my saute pan before putting the oil in? No. And that is just the tip of the giant KitchenAid Mixer.

Our Chef is focused on thinking well to create well (he also loves hip-hop and England) so he’s coming from a good, “food is love” place, which is important to me since it’s the foundation of who I am as a home cook.

This week we watched these fantastic videos from the MAD (A community of chefs, cooks and farmers with an appetite for knowledge) that I had never heard of before. They are all on-line and free http://www.madfood.co/videos/ . With so many interesting food people and topics I’ve never really thought about  (like foraging) on the symposium list, I know I’ll have a lot to watch on my lunch breaks for a while. So check it out.

The one by Mangus Nelson, a Swedish Chef, who grows all his own food at in an arctic climate was fascinating if you garden (and he reminded me of “Thor” the Chef if there was a Thor the Chef). Wiley Dufresne (Top Chef guest judge) talked about the how and why  cooking and it made me want to eat at his restaurant in New York.

I’ve only been to two cooking classes so far and I am so excited to be in a room with sincere, liked-minded food people, that I can’t go to sleep when I get home.

I know once the actual cooking starts next week, I’ll be so exhausted that going to sleep won’t be a problem, but until then it’s a little like Christmas.

vegan macaroni pie….hey it’s a recipe

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when i lived in knoxville, there was a great scottish pub. little did i know that the scots like everything ala pie, my kind of people. one of the more decadent pies to select from was a macaroni pie. now with various allergies, the real shabang is out of the question so i created a vegan version. dudes enjoy……and raise a pint to the macaroni pie!

how can you go wrong when there is pie crust involved

how can you go wrong when there is pie crust involved

RECIPE: VEGAN MACARONI PIE

serves 4

DOUGH

2.5 cups flour

1/2 cup ice cold water

1 cup vegan butter or all vegetable shortening

1/8 cup applesauce

1 TBSP vodka

MACARONI AND CHEESE

4 cups macaroni noodles

3 cups shredded diaya cheddar cheese

1/2 cup dairy free sour cream or plain yogurt

1 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 TBSP ground mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 TBSP soy or almond milk

olive oil for coating

*set oven to 375 F

* cook macaroni according to package directions, while macaroni noodles are cooking start on your pie dough

*in a large mixing bowl combine flour and butter, the butter needs to be cut into the flour, you do this by using a pastry cutter or forks, cut the butter into the flour until it forms crumbles. mix in applesauce and vodka, use a wooden spoon to mix till dough becomes moist. gradually add in ice cold water, you may not need it all, only add enough till the dough is slightly sticky and is not dry and crumbly. pie dough works best when it’s at room temp!

* when noodles are cooked and drained mix in the rest of the mac & cheese ingredients together with the noodles. stir till nice and creamy, helps to get this effect if the noodles are still nice and hot when you start mixing them.

* oil 4 pot pie pans with a small amount of olive oil, don’t want nothing stickin! roll your dough as if you were making a full size pie. about 18 inches in circumference and 1/4 in thick. cut the rolled dough into four equal squares.

* scoop 1 cup of mac & cheese into each of the pot pie pans. next place one dough square on top of the pie pans filled with mac & cheese. sculpt the extra dough around the edges inward to form the pie crust edge. brush on olive oil on top of pie crust to help it brown

*bake for 25 minutes until crust becomes golden

Favorite meal from last week

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For over 2 years now I’ve posted my favorite meal from yesterday on Facebook and I thought the meal of the week should be posted here.

Last week was a tie…
I had the epiphany to eat my leftover guiltless French Toast with my apple butternut squash soup (topped with almond slivers).

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The combination of the egg and the butternut squash was awesome. I used a baggette so my pieces were small enough for dipping into the soup (no syrup necessary!)
To make the French toast “guiltless” you use 6 egg whites, a tsp of vanilla, and 1/2 cup of orange juice (with a pinch of cinnamon) – no milk!
I cut 8 inch wide rounds of bread. Dip and soak them with the eggs and cook then like regular French toast. The recipe recommends pouring the leftover egg mixture over the bread while it cooks…and so do I.

The other favorite meal was something I ate at lunch and dinner- sautéed garlic tofu with canniloni beans, 2 diced garlic cloves, 6 cherry tomatoes, 6 fresh basil leaves, and a sprinkle of fresh pecorino Romano cheese (garlic salt and pepper to taste)

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Um yeah, I had it with roasted potatoes then ate it again as a hot topping to fresh spinach with a little olive oil dressing.

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I kind of wish I had it now. So maybe there isn’t a tie after all…

Cooking School Confidential: School Supplies

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It’s been a bit since I posted anything. I’ve been writing a food novel and testing new recipes (mostly Mexican). This experience made me realize I really need to learn the professional fundamentals…so TA-DA, professional cooking class here I come!

Our community college had an excellent culinary program, so I signed right up. First I had to pass my Serve Safe exam which took a whole semester. It was hard, but I passed and now know how high sneeze guards should be at buffets (and that I will never eat at a buffet again).

Professional Cooking 101 started this week and I plan sharing highlights, cool tips, and challenges during the 17 classes….BUT first, let’s talk school supplies because who doesn’t love them.

My white chefs jacket. My professor insists on a white jacket, black pants, and black, closed toe shoes. He says if he ever sees us in anything but a white jacket, he will mock us publicly.

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I can’t decide which shoes to wear yet…steel-toed Doc Martins I already own or get the dishwasher safe Birkenstocks he recommended. I have a week to make a decision.

My textbook, which is a crazy detailed cookbook. It has great photos and was reviewed by chefs like Thomas Keller, so it seems like a good resource.

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My thermometer

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My chef beanie…because I am just a lowly bean.

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My notebook with cherries on top!

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And of course, my school bag- appropriately themed.

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meatless monday: vegan pumpkin ravioli

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pasta please!

pasta please!

for christmas presents this year i made up a batch of homemade vegan pumpkin ravioli, the beauty of making ravioli you get all the leftovers and funky looking ravs for yourself. belated merry christmas to me on this meatless monday. to top those ravs i made up a little dairy-free garlic cream sauce, some olive oil, flour and garlic. i know, i just made you hungry didn’t i?

a new year’s eve feast

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now that is a lot of yummy comfort to end the year

now that is a lot of yummy comfort to end the year

last year i decided to take back new year’s eve for myself. no more going out and not having fun freezing my butt off, dealing with drunks, and being out way too late. last year consisted of chinese take out and season 2 of downtown abbey…aka the best night at home ever! needless to say i became pretty excited in about october coming up with my plans for this stay-in new year’s eve. on the menu!…….vegan macaroni pie, baked potatoes topped with beans & sausage and one dairy free oreo cheesecake. and to accompany it all season 1 of northern exposure, there is just something so satisfying about hitting play all. oh to plot my stay-in for next year so many choices for just one night!

god bless the invention of dairy-free sour cream and cream cheese

god bless the invention of dairy-free sour cream and cream cheese