Center of the Plate- Thursday 08/27/2009

Hey ya'll! Well tonight we had a potato lab! A lab is when we cook. Some nights we will not be in the kitchen, it will just be lecture. But most nights we will be cooking! Tonight was kinda hard. I agreed to be the partner of a girl that didn't do much. That was quite a mistake. I did ALL of the cooking while she leaned on the prep table and took 5 minutes to slowly peel a potato. If you can't work quickly, or at least TRY, then why are you going to school for culinary? Just wondering! Anyway, we started to make scalloped potatoes, but we had to evacuate the building because of a possible electrical fire while they were in the oven. Everything was ok though. Didn't get to finish the scalloped potatoes, so I will try and finish them on Tuesday. But, I can tell you how we did it!

First I peeled 6 potatoes russet while she peeled one. Then I clarified butter. At the same time started the Bechamel Sauce. I put a half gallon of milk to simmer with an onion pique (half an onion with a bay leaf tacked to it with about 5 cloves) in it. While that simmered for about 20 mins, I clarified the butter. I set the butter aside while I tried to speed up the milk/onion pique process. I weighed 4 ounces of flour. I set the butter down and my partner started putting the flour in it. Mind you, the plan was to make a roux for the sauce. So luckily I saw her and took the pot to the stove and put it on the heat and saved the roux! Chasity to the rescue! I made the roux with the clarified butter and flour, then added the hot milk to it (took the onion pique out first, of course!) while whisking profusely (did I even use that correctly?). Then I brought it to a boil and them simmered it for about 20 mins (it said 30, but working pretty much alone, I had to speed it up a bit.) While I was doing all this, my partner managed to slice the potatoes. Not using a mandoline, but a knife (a mandoline looks like a grater, it buts the potatoes evenly.) So, I had to work with botched potatoes. But they were potatoes none the less lol! After the sauce was done, I poured about half of it into a bowl and mixed the potatoes in it, then spreaded them out in a buttered hotel pan. I poured the rest of the sauce on top of the potatoes and put em in the oven. It said cover it for 30 mins at 350, then uncover and cook for 30 to 40 mins. Well, again, we did not have an abundance of time, so I put them in at 400. After about 25 mins, I took the parchment paper off (that's what I covered it with) and re-set the timer for another 25 mins. That was when we had to evacuate the building. So, that's the end of THAT one. 

We also made a potato hash with purple potatoes. 

 We peeled some purple potatoes. I had never had them before, but they were pretty darn good. I chopped up a half of a large onion, and the sous chef (we have a sous chef in each class. Just a classmate helping out for the day, instead of actually cooking) She chopped up a green bell pepper. My partner again chopped, and by "chopped" I mean botched, the purples. I heated some oil in a frying pan and put the potatoes, onions, bell pepper and salt and pepper TT. Sauteed them for about 20 mins until the taters were tender. They turned out really well. And the best part is, after my partner was supposed to be watching them (but wasn't) and it stuck to the bottom of the pan, she watched them for a few mins until "oh look a puppy!" There was not really a puppy, but I'm trying to get a point across lol! 

Some of the other people did some really cool stuff. One group made sweet potato fries. Another group made mashed potatoes with the purple potatoes. That was COOL! It was just purple mashed potatoes! It was neat! One group made french fries, I think, and maybe waffle fries or potato chips?? They were small, so maybe tater chips. Not sure. 

Anyway folks, I'm tired. Gonna be off to bed soon! Tune back in on Tuesday night. I figure a set schedule for a couple of night per week would be better than periodically, here and there, never knowing when! Good night!