Knife Skills Class - Basic Cuts

Every Chef needs to have their knife skills well honed - daily practice on the basics until they become second nature. Today's class practiced basic slicing and dicing as well as measured julienne and battonet cuts. then these cut vegetables were cooked to practice basic cooking principles as they apply to vegetables as well.

Garde Manger Today

Cold Food Preparations

Sliced Fruit Platter
Fresh Mozzarella
Assorted Vegetable Chips
Sliced Duck and Wild Rice Salad

Baking Test Number One

Chef Jennifers Pro Class

Pumpkin Muffins
Ciabatta
Golden Raisin Scones
Regular and Chocolate Croissants
Apple, Cinnamon Danish Pinwheels
Apple Spiced Muffins
Challah

Scandinavian Cuisine

Clockwise from top left: Roast Pork with prune and apple stuffing, Yellow Split Pea Soup w/ Sherry, Stuffed Pork Loin with tourneed carrots and pan fried potatoes, Swedish Meatballs

Scandinavian Cuisine

"Land of the Midnight Sun"

Food from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland

Common ingredients:

• Plenty of seafood, especially cod, salmon and herring
• Forest game: elk, rabbits, reindeer
• Cheese, cream, sour cream, butter
• Flavorings: dill, horseradish, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, anise, fennel, nutmeg, caraway
• Cold climate vegetables: cabbages, winter squash, beets, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers
• Apples and berries; rye bread

Smorrebrod: type of canape, thin bread or cracker, topped with assorted meats, cheese or seafood

Smorgasbord: buffet style service with a large amount of meats, seafood, vegetables, salads, cheeses and breads

Aquavit: "water of life" a strong liquor made from potatoes or grains; flavoring comes from caraway, anise, fennel, coriander, star anise

Gravlax: salmon cured with salt, sugar, and dill

Frikadeller: ground meat mixture that is made into meatballs, patties, or used as forcemeat

Kosher Style

Clockwise from top left: Braised Beef Brisket, Chicken Matzoh Ball Soup, Chicken Liver Pate, Noole Kugel, Potato Latkes, Latkes and Spiced Apple Compote



Kosher Style Dining

Today's Menu:

Potato Latkes

Noodle Kugel

Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Soup

Matzoh Balls

Braised Beef Brisket

Jewish dietary laws are drawn from Biblical references; instituted to help keep Israel a holy nation, seperate from idol-worshipping neighbors. Keeping Kosher provides a strong sense of identity from one generatiion to the next.

Kosher (Hebrew: Kasher) literally means "ritually correct or ritually fit"

Certain animals are designated as allowable for food, others as prohibited (Allowed - must have genuine split hooves and it must chew its cud)

No birds of prey, no animal not ritually slaughtered, no consumption of blood in any form

Meat and dairy foods are not to be mixed or served together: seperate dishes, silverware, pots and pans, etc are kept for each type

Foods considered neither dairy or meat are called pareve (Yiddish word for neutral)

Foods that are manufactured under rabbinic supervision and certified as kosher have an identifying symbol, either a circled U or a "K"

"prosim k stolu" - Russia Day I

Clockwise from top left: Borscht, Blini and Caviar I, Blilni and Caviar II, Slavic Chocolate Pie, and Kasha

"prosim k stolu" - Russian for "Please to the table"

Long tradition of hospitality and comaraderie.

Common foods: bulgur, yogurt, grilled meats, river and lake fish, sheeps cheeses, sumak, pomegranates, fenugreek, beets, cabbage, potatoes, pork, sausages

Influences:

• Profound French influence from late 17th to early/mid 18th century
• In Caucasus: Chinese and Indian
• Scandinavian in Baltic states
• Commonalities with Polish, Hungarian, and Romainian cooking
• Large populations of Jews and gypsies

Zakuska - "little bites" - Russian hors d'oeuvres

Culturally isolated from Western Europe till 17th century (Peter the Great)

Marie-Antoine Careme worked in St. Petersburg: time of Charlotte Russe, Beef Stroganoff, Beef Shish Kebob, Salmon Coulibiac, Chicken Kiev, Chicken Crouquettes Pozharsky

Austrian Cuisine

Clockwise from top left: Poached Pear Salad, Goulash Soup,
Chicken Paprikash, Schnitzel

Austrian and Central European Cuisine

Today's Menu

Goulash Soup with small dumplings

Pear Salad

Rosti Potatoes

Assorted Schnitzels, traditional garnishes

Apple Streudel