Culinary School Confidential

Culinary School Confidential

In my latest post I will explain two lesser known styles of cooking techniques. Lacquering and Oven poaching along with images of many of my dishes from these past semester.

Pork Sate with Asian noodle salad is a simple dish using skewered pork loin and a spicy ginger peanut marinade. To achieve a nice glaze the cooking technique of lacquering is used.

In a broad sense it takes three ways to cook great food either at home or in restaurants. One– use the best possible ingredients. Two– learn and apply good culinary techniques and Three– combine foods, spices and herbs to make the meal exciting. Here are some dishes from this semesters classes that use these principles to achieve the best results. In this post I will also discuss two not so well known techniques that can be easily done at home.

• Lacquering – This technique is used in the pork sate dish with Asian noodle salad. It is achieved by first marinating the meat and then repeatedly basting the skewered meat with the marinade and then using some re-served clean marinade (not used on the raw meat) to brush on the sates after grilling. This is a technique used in Japanese cooking on skewered grilled chicken- Yakitori.
• Thai Sate Glaze
  Use for chicken, Pork, Beef or Salmon
  Yield 1 quart 
  Ingredients:
  1 Tbl Fresh chopped ginger
  1 Tbl Minced Garlic
  2 Tbl Sesame oil
  2 cups Thai style Sweet Chili Sauce (Mae Ploy Brand)
  ½ cup Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
  1 cup Peanut butter
  ½ cup lime juice
  ½ cup soy sauce
  ½ cup coarse chopped cilantro
   
  Sweat the ginger, and garlic in the sesame oil.
  Add the rest of the ingredients except the cilantro and simmer for 5 minutes
  Remove from the heat and add the cilantro
  Coat the meat raw and grill until cooked on skewers
  Coat again and garnish with chopped unsalted peanuts (optional)



Oven Poaching- This is categorized as a type of moist heat cookery, more precisely as sub-style of poaching. It is often used in both volume batch cooking and ala carte applications. Simple to do, and a great way to build a simple sauce with the poaching liquid and the addition of either heavy cream or butter. When the fish is served in the strained flavorful liquid it is often called A La Nage in classical French cooking terms. Which translates to “in the swim”. To do it butter a baking dish and sprinkle with chopped shallots (add some herbs if desired Tarragon, Chives, Dill or Basil). Next place in the fish fillets, season and add a small amount of white wine, about 25% up the fish. Cover with foil and place in a 350F degree oven and oven poach until the fish is done. Strain out the cooking liquid, reduce by half or more if needed and add heavy cream and thicken with a cornstarch slurry, or emulsify with cold butter, add some more chopped herbs a splash of lemon and serve. Here is a link to a video for Shallow poaching which is a similar technique https://youtu.be/-nqX5qoBd8M?si=pP0nSZ-w0_Bp9O2N this video comes from Arcane Chest a non-formal education group on You Tube.

These top three dishes are stuffed leg of lamb with spinach, dried apricots and feta cheese. Grilled lamb chops with a olive, tomato and caper relish in the first image. This image was from my Fabrication class (butchering). Learning how to break down, portion and marinate large roasts and fish can help you to save time and money. By using a home vacuum sealer you can store the food for longer times in the freezer. Start with breaking down whole pork loins, chickens and sides of salmon and later move to more complicated procedures.

The second is from Culinary 101 class and is a oven poached salmon, crispy skin trout and garlic shrimp. Oven poaching is a simple yet delicious way to cook thin fillets of fish. After cooking, strain out the cooking liquid and prepare a sauce to go over the fish. Beurre Blanc or Vin Blanc are the two best sauces to make. Use herbs like Tarragon, Dill, Chives, Basil and Parsley for the best results.

The last image is a vegetarian dish with crispy potato disks layered with mashed potatoes, grilled portabella mushrooms and asparagus on a bed of spinach with a light tomato sauce. This dish came from one of my Soup and Sauces class. The sauce is made from roasted tomatoes and vegetables that were cooked and pureed prior to straining. This can be done simply with a hand held immersion blender and then straining and thickening with a cornstarch slurry to attain the correct consistency.

The photos below are some other dishes from this semester’s cooking classes. Top down are Pan fried fluke (a type of sole) in a egg batter with curry scented tomato sauce and pine nuts. The next two shots are from my Soup and Sauces class: two fish dishes served in a lobster cream sauce (Américaine Sauce) and Sea Food Market Chowder and Airline chicken breast with a pan sauce made from a highly reduced chicken stock (Glace de Volaille). The last image is three shell fish dishes and came from my Fabrication class where I teach how to break down and cook all common types of meat and seafood.

Cooking at home and in a commercial kitchen has many things in common and once you learn about classic techniques and applications of how to apply heat then some great dishes can be achieved. Until next time Bon Appetit!