Week 3 at San Francisco Cooking School!

As many of you know this was the week that I finally got burned.  So, I still have all my fingers, but I can no longer say I didn't get burnt.  The good news is it was the tiniest of tiny, miniscule some might say, burn.  I burnt myself on a gigantic roasting pan while browning chicken bones for stock.  I was a super trooper and didn't even make a noise when it happened.  I kicked that pans ass by remaining calm and collected.

So, what did we do this week you ask?  EGGS!  We played with eggs.  I feel like I excelled awesomely this week with all our great recipes, mostly because I bake so much at home.  We kicked off the week by poaching eggs.  I'm pleased to say I can poach a mean egg.  And of course we whipped up hollandaise sauce because as everyone knows you can't eat a poached egg with out a sexy egg sauce on top.

 Our amazing lunch on Friday. (Grilled veggies, tempura shrimp, fried scallops, garlic custard, goat cheese souffle, spinach souffle, and salmon souffle.)

We also made custards, and souffles!  I'd never made a souffle before, but it was easier than I had anticipated.  We made a salmon souffle, a spinach souffle, and a goat cheese souffle.  We made spinach custard, mushroom custard and garlic custard - garlic was obviously my favorite.

On Thursday Barb Stuckey came in and taught us about taste.  That's right, I said taste.  The whole presentation blew my mind!  For instance, did you know that butter doesn't have a taste?  It has a a smell that leads us to believe it's a taste.  If you plug your nose and eat unsalted butter all you get is the texture of butter in your mouth, there's no actual taste!  It's crazy!  You can read all about the awesome things I learned in Barb's book: Taste What You're Missing: The Passionate Eater's Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good  I highly recommend it.

I've also made excellent headway with the Curiosity Crawl by visiting:

 

 Saigon Sandwich with Sam, Tracy and Mandy! (Thanks Jen for taking the picture!)

 Craftsman & Wolves - Eating "The Rebel Within."

Four Barrel Coffee - Eating a "laminated" pastry. (aka chocolate croissant)

You'll all also be happy to know that my awesome nurse friend, Hazel, gave me great tips on keeping my hands from turning into little husks and keeping them hydrated.  I now own a pair of white cotton gloves that I wear to bed.  But wait, the fun doesn't end there!  First I slather on really thick awesome hand cream.  Next think you know I'll be wearing curlers and cold cream.  

 My sexy gloves.

It was a great week, as you can tell, but man am I happy it's the weekend!

:)M

 

Week 2 of SFCooking School!

Good news, week two is over and I still have all my fingers!  (I also managed not to burn my face off.)

Week two saw my classmates and me delirious and forgetful.  We've been cooking so much we can barely remember what we're cooking.  We made vegetarian onion soup (made with vegetable stock, in place of chicken stock) on Monday, and when we completed it on Wednesday no one could remember when we'd made it - thank goodness we label everything.

On Tuesday Galen Garretson who owns TownCutler came to class for a knife sharpening demo.  We learned about wet stones and how to properly sharpen our knives so we can take better care of them.  A sharp knife is a good knife!  I ended up buying a stone so I can sharpen all my knives at home and take care of my knife kit for school.

 My awesome new sharpening and polishing stones from TownCutler.

My class also got an awesome surprise on Thursday.  There's a friendly little competition going on with our class, the part-time culinary class, and the pastry class.  The instructors are calling it the Curiosity Crawl.  It's a list of restaurants in the Bay Area with specific dishes to try, as well as a list of places to visit, and a little recipe scavenger hunt.  So if you see pictures on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram tagged #CuriosityCrawl you'll know I'm taking names and kicking ass!  Check out the list:

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Where	What
Locanda	Fried Artichoke
Terzo	Hummus
Zuni Cafe	Bloody Mary
Saigon Sandwich	Bahn Mi
Roli Roti	Porchetta Sandwich
Camino	Brunch
Nopalita	Carnitas
Mission Bowl	Burger
Spices II	Fried Fish in Chile Pepper
Old Mandarin Islamic	Onion Pancake
Marlowe	Brussel sprout chips
La Ciccia	Octopus Stew
b. patisserie	Kougin Amann
Craftsman & Wolves	Rebel Within
Z & Y	Chicken w/ Explosive Chili Pepper
Bi-Rite	Ice cream
Turtle Tower	Pho
4505 Meats	Burger
Plow	Breakfast Potatoes
Tacolicious	Tuna Tostadas
Delfina	Spaghetti
Golden Boy	Pizza slice
Primavera	Chilaquiles
Swan Oyster Depot	Oysters
Fatted Calf	Charcuterie
Insalata's	Fattoush Salad
Liguria Bakery	Focaccia
Shanghai Dumpling King	Lion's Head
Acme at the Ferry Building	Baguette
Four Barrel Coffee	Laminated pastry
20th Century Cafe	Honey Cake
Mandalay	Tea Salad
Bake Sale Betty's	Fried Chicken Sandwich

We finished up the week with a plated and coursed meal.  Everyone in the class made braised artichokes, sautéd chicken with a velouté sauce served with glazed carrots and chateau potatoes, and we ended with a blood orange, date, and pistachios in an orange flower, and honey syrup.  My team was also tasked with putting together a veal stock.  It was a hectic but fun end to the week.

I've cut so many carrots, and my hands are so dry from constantly washing them that the carrot juice has soaked into my hands.  I constantly look like my hands are filthy and my nail beds are atrocious.  Oh well, I wasn't going to be a hand model anyway.

:)Margaret