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My Walk on the Wild Side

January 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

As we all know, I’m a huge Pastry Arts connoisseur. I could quite possibly live off of cupcakes and raspberry pie for the rest of my life if I needed to. I’ve taken the Intro and Intermediate Pastry Arts classes at the local Restaurant School, as well as a few other classes. And they were all dessert/pastry related. What can I say? I have a sweet tooth. I’d take a cupcake over potato chips any day.

But let me get to my point here. I signed up for the Intro to Culinary Arts class at the Restaurant School. I know how to cook. I love cooking. But I want to learn more. I want to be an expert. I want to be more confident in the kitchen with a knife. I also want to try some new foods that I otherwise would shy away from.

It’s a 6 week Curriculum, and here’s how it looks…

Week 1: Knife Skills and Safety
Week 2: Classic & Contemporary Sauces
Week 3: Grains, Potatoes and Vegetables
Week 4: Homemade Pastas and Sauces
Week 5: Dry Methods of Cooking
Week 6: Moist Methods of Cooking

Some of the recipes include: Braised Chicken Legs with Tart Green Apples, Mussels Steamed in Beer, Zucchini Bread, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Pan-fried Eggplant with Tomato Concasse, Pesto Sauce, Fresh Egg Pasta, Cheese Filled Peppers with Pesto Sauce, and Wild Rice Pilaf.

As I did with the Pastry Arts course, I’ll share with all of you what I learn in class and the dishes that we make.

Tonight is Week 1. Knife skills and safety. I’ll get to use that lovely new chef knife I got for Christmas. And here’s hoping that you don’t hear any ambulance sirens between 7pm and 9:30pm.  My goal is to keep all of my fingers!

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Week 2 – Cinnamon Rolls, Scones and Buttermilk Biscuits

November 11, 2010 by 1 Comment

Last week was the second class of my 6 week Intermediate Pastry Arts course. The first thing we made was Cinnamon Rolls – yum! We got recipes for both a yeast sweet dough and a quick sweet dough. We just don’t have enough time in class to mess around with yeast, let it rise, make the rolls, bake, etc. We barely had enough time to bake the quick dough! But the recipe was so easy to follow, and they tasted  pretty good. I apologize that I didn’t get a picture. I was a little annoyed that when the Chef took them out of the oven that he iced the BOTTOM of the cinnamon rolls. What?! Why would you do that?? Even Pillsbury taught me to put the icing ON TOP! But he did it that way so that it was easier to transport them home – but I thought it was quite stupid. But it wasn’t a big deal – I will just make a batch at home (maybe this weekend?!) and I’ll definitely take a picture once I’m done.

Next we made Blueberry Lemon Scones – these were delicious. These scones were so easy to make! I’ve always avoided making scones since I didn’t have one of those scone pans – you know what I’m talking about, right? Well we didn’t use one of those. We just shaped the dough into a circle, and cut it like a pizza – into 8 slices. Then we baked them on a baking sheet. Please excuse the horrible picture, it was taken with my crappy Blackberry.

And finally – the Buttermilk Biscuits. We only went as far as to making the dough in class. The biscuits taste so much better freshly baked, so when I got home I put the dough in the fridge. This worked out well since I was making the Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup for Souper Bowl Sunday. They were the perfect addition. I’ll never buy Pillsbury Biscuits again – sorry dough boy!

Here is a picture before they went into the oven: (again, stupid Blackberry)

And here is a picture right after they came out of the oven:

I learned a lot in the Week 2 class – making Cinnamon Rolls and Buttermilk Biscuits from scratch are definitely so much better than buying that roll of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls or Biscuits!! And you can make scones without one of those expensive scone pans — even though they are super cute!

All recipes are available upon request.

Next up – We’re decorating a cake! Mmmm, icing!

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Week 1 – Bread

November 4, 2010 by 1 Comment

Last week was the first class of my 6 week Intermediate Pastry Arts course. It was a lot of fun. The Chef teaching the class wanted to start off with something easier the first week, so we made bread. Since the class is only 2 ½ hours long, we couldn’t make, shape and bake the same bread in class. The Chef prepared some Garlic & Herb dough so that we could shape it and then bake it in class.

First we shaped some dinner rolls and knots:

We learned how to shape a Boule and a regular loaf. We could pick how we wanted to shape our own bread. I chose to do a loaf.

While they were baking, we started making our own dough. The dough that I made was a honey wheat dough. Once we were done we wrapped it up and I ended up baking it the next day – delicious!!! Sorry that I didn’t get to take any pictures of that.

The Garlic & Herb recipe is definitely a keeper – I’ll be making that quite a few times I’m sure. I served the Garlic & Herb bread with the Broccoli and Cheese Soup I posted earlier this week.

Next up – Breakfast foods!!

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First Class

October 28, 2010 by 1 Comment

So you probably remember me talking about the Intermediate Pastry Arts class I signed up for through the Restaurant School here in the city. Well tonight is my first class! I’m super excited! I’m ready for this work day to be over so I can go and learn about enriched breads and all of that fun stuff!

Tune in tomorrow to see what all went down!

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Pastry Arts Course

October 4, 2010 by 2 Comments

So. I just signed up for an Intermediate Pastry Arts course at a Restaurant School.

It’s a 6 week course. Here’s the Curriculum:

Week 1 Enriched Breads: Challah Bread, Honey Wheat Bread
Week 2 Breakfast Pastry: Biscuits, Scones and Cinnamon Buns
Week 3 Plated Desserts: Crepes and Dessert Sauces
Week 4 Decorating Cakes
Week 5 French Desserts: Soufflés and Crème Brulee
Week 6 Chocolate: Ganache, Mousse, Cognac Tart, and Soufflé

I took the Beginner’s course a few years ago and I’m super excited to take this Intermediate course!

Yum.

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