Rest assured, dear readers, I’ve been putting the pasta machine to good work. Our freezer is stuffed with batches and batches of tagliatelle and capellini…more than we want to eat, really. Anyway, here’s a quick little something on my last pasta project, some simple wild mushroom ravioli.

I’m a sucker for mushrooms, so I browsed the market for whatever types I could find. There’s just something intrinsically exciting to me about seeing that golden orange of the first chanterelles of the season, or taking in the meaty, earthy aroma of sauteing beech and oyster mushrooms. Anyway, I walked away from the market with about a pound each of oyster, beech, cremini, and baby shiitakes. A hard saute of each to drive out the moisture and amplify the flavor, some white wine, parsley and thyme, a rough chop and some ricotta, and you’ve got ravioli filling. Then a quick pasta dough of water, egg yolk, olive oil, and flour…laboriously kneaded and rested, then rolled into thin sheets of sfoglia.

It’s pretty simple from there, lay out the filling on the sheet, some egg white for binding, and then layer another sheet of pasta over the top, pressing to eliminate air holes. Punch em’ out with a cutter (shape of your choosing), dust with flour, and then you’re good to go.

Apologies for the photo quality…our kitchen lighting sucks.

I ended up serving these guys with a green garlic/asparagus soup…just in time for spring. And speaking seasonally…that’s part of the beauty of pasta…it’s versatility. For most of us, the idea of pasta can’t be seperated from ripe summer tomatoes. But with a little more thought, you can substitute any seasonal components you’d like to use. Butternut squash ravioli for the fall, artichokes for the spring…etc. And beyond that, you can dress em’ up or dress em’ down. Truffled lobster ravioli or a humble spaghetti pomodoro, both can be equally amazing.

My next pasta project…gonna try my hand at some cannelloni.

Ever notice how once life gets in a rhythm..time just seems to fly by? It seemed but only a few days ago that I first donned my PCI whites and strode, a fresh-faced greenhorn, into my first day of stocks and sauces. But after six months of  burns, cuts, cussing, pounding red bulls and messing up a hell of a lot…well…I’m still green. But I had the privelage to learn (and struggle) under some amazing instructors, and I can say I understand food a lot better than before. And from that knowledge comes greater admiration and respect for the craft.

But really, to write up my cumulative thoughts on my time in school would require more than a paltry paragraph. (Perhaps another entry.) Heh, but obviously it’s been awhile since we’ve written, so we’ll start out easy just to get the juices flowing. I guess we’ll begin with the end…my final menu.

So the premise of the final was pretty simple: prepare a three course tasting to be served to the judges, consisting of an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. Utilize only the specific ingredients named on a list, and nothing more. Three plates of each must be made, totaling nine dishes. The three courses must exhibit a unifying theme, and judging will be based on workflow, efficiency, timing, taste, appearence, creativity, technique and execution. You have three hours. You can almost see it in your head:

…the chairman takes a step back, eyes intent on the camera…a moment of silent tension…and then he flings his hand towards the heavens and screams:

Allez cuisine!

Star-Anise Poached Lobster, Avocado Puree, Citrus Supremes

Something about shelling out 25 bucks for little more than a pound of meat makes you a lot more cautious when cooking it. But for all its hype, taking a lobster from thrashing-on-the-board live to buttery goodness on a plate isn’t as intimidating as one would think. It all lies in the timing. Well…having no qualms about driving a knife through a live creature’s head helps too.

Shelling a lobster is something of an art…it takes a certain amount of finesse to get nice presentable pieces of meat. Generally, cooking it properly ensures that the meat pulls away from the shell. If not, it sticks to the shell, and you end up with lobster confetti. Anyway, we make a quick beurre monte (an emulsified butter sauce) and flavor it with whole star anise. The shelled lobster goes in the star anise beurre monte and infuses/cooks until service. A quick avocado puree made with olive oil, champagne vinegar and lemon juice, and then we supreme some beautiful orange/blood orange segments. Toss in some dressed frisee and that’s about it.

Lobster poached in butter? It’s hard to go wrong…but the star anise adds a little twist to the flavor. And while you’re soaking in the richness, the sweet and tangy citrus comes in and cuts it a bit. The fat in the avocado puree helps the flavors to meld together, while still remaining bright from the vinegar and lemon juice. A little dressed frisee for texture, and bam, there’s your app.

Sichuan Style Smoked Duck Breast, Duck Confit Soup Dumplings , Celeriac Puree, Baby Spring Vegetables, Ginger-Citrus Sauce

If the app was relatively simple…then this, in contrast, was probably most damned complicated dish I’ve ever made…but as I’m steadily coming to learn, complexity isn’t always a good thing.

First we take a whole duck (no, not live) and butcher it up. The legs and breasts get cured overnight in a mix of star anise, 5-spice and other assorted goodies. Once out of the cure, the breasts are cold smoked with a mix of black tea leaves. After the breast picks up the scent of tea leaves, it gets scored and thrown into a pan. Low heat for 15 minutes or so, and the fat should have rendered out, leaving that crispy duck skin everybody loves. Meanwhile the duck legs are used to make duck confit. This is a pretty traditional French preparation, intended to preserve meat for long periods of time. In order to get super-rich, fall-off-the-bone tender meat, the legs are submerged in duck fat, then cooked on super low heat overnight. 30 minute meals, this is not.

Convenient segway: this, to me, has definitely been something I’ve picked up in my time at school: Good things take time. I love slow food. For me, sometimes what distincts a good dish from a “I can die happy” dish is a matter of time. I mean, look at it…pork shoulder, lamb leg, short ribs, pork belly, these used to be considered “undesirable” cuts of meat. But mesquite smoke that pork shoulder for 14 hours, or red wine braise those short ribs for 4 hours, and what was once an unwanted cut of meat becomes the most delectable dish you’ve had this week. And that’s the beauty of cooking, taking something normal and mundane, and making it into something transcendental. I’ll take that braised pork belly over the filet mignon any day. (Maybe it’s Chinese in me.)

Anyway, back to the entree…

For the dumplings, I essentially tried to make xiao long bao. If you aren’t in the know, Xiao long bao are known as a Shanghai specialty, and are prized not only for their flavor, but for the unique quality of containing a bit of hot soup inside. The result is a sumptuous bite of…well…heaven. (And scalded taste buds if you aren’t careful.) Haha, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “That pretentious little bastard!” People spend their entire lives trying to master this technique and here I am trying to put it on my final. Obviously mine fell quite a bit short…if we can even call them xiao long bao. Anyway, instead of the traditional pork filling, I filled the dumplings with shredded duck confit along with a cube of gelatinized duck stock, which would melt upon steaming, thus mimicking the prized soup quality of xiao long bao.

A quick celery root puree, blanched sauteed spring vegetables, and a ginger-soy-citrus sauce later and we’re there.

Right, so, before you cry foul and scream “hypocrite!” I’ll beat you to the punch and admit that these aren’t really traditional Chinese dishes. Consider them my “take,” utilizing French technique, while still maintaining a distinctively Chinese flavor profile.

Dessert Trio

Longan Mousse with Sesame-Honey Tuile

Compressed Kaffir-Lime Mango with Blood Orange Syrup and Candied Kumquats

Macha Ice Cream

Ehhh…this isn’t really the best picture out there of the dessert course, but it’ll have to do.

Dessert. The dreaded downfall of many a cook. (Just ask the guys on Top Chef.) The less said about this course the better. There’s a reason there are pastry chefs and there are savory chefs…but more on that another time. Given the debacle that was my baking and pastry final, I steered clear of cakes…and tried to keep the individual components as simple as possible, while still maintaining some uniqueness.

The trio starts with a longan (dragon’s eye) mousse that is most delicate flavor-wise. If you’ve ever had lychee, the flavor is somewhat similar. The mousse has a bit of richness from the cream, but still maintains a light and fluffy texture and the whisper of longan flavor.

Next comes the compressed kaffir-lime mango. Ever see vacuum-packed meat with all the air removed from the bag? Yeah it’s like that. The mango takes on a deeper, darker hue, almost having a jewel-like quality from both the infusion of the syrup and the compression. So what you get is a deep, sweet mango flavor that ends with a hint of the kaffir lime to pick things up.

Lastly, the macha ice cream ends the trio as the richest of the three components. The sweetness of vanilla and sugar is tempered by the slight bitterness of the macha powder, while the sesame-honey tuile lends some nice, nutty crunch.

And that all points back to one of the key tenets of fine cooking…do the simple stuff, perfectly. All the truffle stuffed foie gras in the world won’t matter if you can’t cook a pork loin perfectly.  Or put another way, a perfectly cooked, tender chicken breast speaks volumes more about a cook’s ability than some fanciful-looking lobster dish.

So at the risk (or the assurance) of sounding cheesy…what has school taught me? That I still have much to learn. (In a good way.) That I’m still an infant cook, but all that I picked up in school has set me up to continue learning, relishing, and celebrating cuisine as long as I decide to walk this road.

…yeah that was pretty cheesy.

(By the way, I’ve a bunch of photos I’d like to eventually put on the blog…but for some reason they keep on de-saturating when viewed with Firefox vs. Safari. Anyone have any experience with this?)

Starting with our little salad, Nate prepared a little persimmon and pomegranate jewel salad. The fruits were sitting on a bed of arugula, drizzled with lemon-mustard vinaigrette, and topped with toasted pine nuts. We were thinking about splashing it with some tangerines and grapefruit to make it a bit more citrus-y, but we ran out of time. It was tasty, though. Haha, we still have a lot of dressing left.

Next up, the butternut squash risotto. Time for today’s dirty little cooking secret. Due to the fact that our oven is small and can only hold that blasted turkey, I didn’t actually get to roast the squash. I actually started out microwaving it. Sick, ew, I know, but surprisingly, the nuking didn’t kill it. I ended up roasting it for a bit after the turkey was done, but I was still amazed that the squash still retained its trademark sweetness. The arborio was splashed with some white wine and mixed with stock and Parmesan cheese. Nothing fancy, but the a very simple, savory rich side. I love butternut squash.

Nate and I were tossing around ideas for sides and of course, the truffled mashed potatoes came into play. Luckily we didn’t stop there, and instead, we decided to make a Shepherd’s Pie topped with the earthy delight. Ground lamb, basil chicken sausage, and a myriad of herbs made up the meaty base. It was quite an earthy delight and easily the best Shepherd’s Pie I’ve sunk my chompers into. Ohh and those deviled eggs in the background were quite yummy also. Didn’t have very many leftovers of that dish at all, haha.

Stuffing is always a must, so we went with a very basic focaccia and sage chicken sausage one. Nothing out of the ordinary, just mirepoix, fresh sage and rosemary, sausage, diced Fuji apples, and soaked in chicken stock. It wasn’t bad at all, but I was hoping for more flavor. I think it could have used a bit more aromatics, and possibly some pancetta or something. Yeah, oh well, we survived this one. Next year will be better, friends.

The main course was an 18-pound success, hands down. Our tiny little oven was completely stuffed with that fat bird, but surprisingly enough, we were able to make it all work. I brined the sucker overnight with vegetable stock, peppercorns, brown sugar, and allspice. We then stuffed him with stewed apples and cinnamon, along with mirepoix and pancetta cubes. We rubbed some vegetable oil and maple syrup on its skin to give a darker appearance and impart a little sweetness to the meat. Roasted it at 500F for 30 minutes and then gave it a slow roast at 300F for about 3 hours. Came out wonderfully, though. The skin was tasty, the meat was moist, and mmmm, that dark meat was tasty. Haha, success!

I saved my favorite dish for the end, though. Even though the turkey was good, this starter was the standout, hands down. Nate went buckwild with this one and it definitely showed. The carrots were boiled and then mixed with chicken stock, heavy cream, and honey. DAMN, it was heaven in a cup. We served it with a little crostini (sorry Nate, I know it was too thick and a little over-toasted, haha), and topped it off with crème fraîche. SO GOOD, seriously. The flavor of the carrot was evident and the cream definitely made it sinfully rich. Mark this one down as a new Nate special, haha.

Well, that’s our house’s mini-feast. Thanks to our friends for sharing it with us and have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Valrhona chocolate mousse topped with raspberries, mint, and whipped cream. Mmm, Valrhona… very simple, but the flavor was rich, just the way I like it. We had some trouble keeping it cold, so we ended up building it in the walk-in. Bad idea if you’re only wearing a t-shirt.

Lavender cupcakes finished with lemon frosting and candied lemon zest garnish. Tasty treats, even though the cupcake is becoming played out. Lavender in a pastry sounds weird, I know, but the combo was perfect. We also had red velvet cupcakes, but I don’t seem to have a picture of it. Darn. In the foreground are the mascarpone cheesecakes with pomegranate champagne mirror glaze; garnished with pomegranate seeds. The glaze kinda became a gelatin, but I love pomegranates, so no complaints from me.

Coconut tapioca topped red and yellow watermelon, drizzled with basil lime syrup. I’m not going to lie; I’m not the greatest fan of tapioca, but this was an interesting take. Risky, but surprisingly refreshing. The lime syrup was a good complement to the understated flavor of the tapioca. Liked the “plating,” haha.

My favorite! Well the one in the foreground. Lemon cream tartlets with candied nasturtium petals. Ah, these were spectacular. The crust was flaky and buttery, the cream was rich and tangy, delicious! Kathy even stole these petals from Golden Gate Park in the middle of the night, so there’s a lot of love and care in these puppies. In the background are the fruit tartlets with vanilla pastry cream and topped with a medley of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, baby kiwi, and pomegranate seeds. Good combo, but the lemon cream was killer!

Couple of truffles here. More Valrhona of course. Grand Marnier rolled in chopped hazelnuts, Coffee Liqueur rolled in cocoa powder, cinnamon and cardamom coated in chopped pistachios. Good ones, handrolled, I love chocolate.

This was cute; all of the desserts in a little “midnight snack” in a little basket for the newlyweds.

Here’s a shot of the full view of the dessert table. Not bad, not bad at all. Kathy did a wonderful job and I take no credit for this whatsoever. I might have rolled a truffle or topping a tart or two, but all props to Kathy and her magnificence. It was a fun Saturday for me and I relished an opportunity to help her make some scrumptious and creative desserts. If you’re looking for someone to cater your wedding (or anyone else you might know), I’ll put you in touch with her. Congrats to the newlyweds!