I had to miss last week’s class because of a keynote speech I was hired to give. The class was all about buying and cooking fresh, local foods. My friend, Cathy, told me all about it. You can read her version of the class at http://www.cathyarkle.com/shepaused4thought/farmer-market-treasures/. Chef Carol had everyone meet at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and they got a tour of all the local farmer stalls and some info about the local produce. Meanwhile, Chef Carol and her assistant, Beth, bought a ton of goodies that they cooked after going back to the classroom.
This week is an extension of that lesson. Carol is all about expanding our creativity. As we get to be a better, more confident cooks, the less we’ll need “recipes.” When one has a good foundation of cooking techniques, knowledge about spices, cuisines, etc., and a true point of view, the world (of imaginative cookery) is your oyster. This class was about putting it all together.
She started by showing us how to create a menu that made sense. “The menu,” she explained, “is the artistic expression of your food.” While buffets are visually nice and can showcase a lot of dishes, you as the chef have no control over HOW the food is eaten-It’s impossible to regulate the balance of flavors and textures for your diners.
Carol suggests writing EVERYTHING down first. Jot down ideas for dishes and courses, then make a large circle on paper and divide it into as many courses as you’re going to serve. When you write a singular item into a menu dish, it becomes part of the WHOLE menu. It becomes more exciting as a starting point and it’s important not to overdo that single item. If you have garlic in the main dish, don’t use it for the appetizer. Using orange in the dessert? Change your side dish to something without citrus. Menu planning is more about the position of the ingredients and dishes. The textures, tastes and flavors need to make sense. You don’t want a super-powerful appetizer that will overshadow the main course or a dessert with such sweetness that it literally sours the dining experience altogether.
You can tell the age and experience of a chef by the number of ingredients and simplicity of the menu. If someone can create a fabulous menu using simple, fresh ingredients without relying on a ton of fat, salt and sugar and you know you’ve found someone very special. Not to say the one can’t have a phenomenal dish that’s a bit more complicated, but even those type of menu items need the correct balance of flavors. Ever have a chicken dish that just screamed “THERE’S LEMON IN HERE!” then you get the idea. Harmony is the key ingredient in any menu.
So, our assignment for this week was to keep that in mind while we came up with a menu based on trays of food. On one of our prep tables was a huge line of trays, each one with different ingredients. Just like on Top Chef or Chopped (but without the one or two weird “twist” ingredients), we had to create an appetizer, main with side and a dessert. There was a pantry with herbs, spices and some basics-onions, garlic, some cheeses, etc. The one rule was that we HAD to use everything on our trays. Of course Chef Carol and her assistant Beth were there to help us and give us ideas.
We picked numbers from a hat and walked to the corresponding tray. On mine: pork tenderloin, 2 oz goat cheese, heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes and beets. My mind started working like crazy-should I make a napoleon of roasted beets and goat cheese? Then what do I do with the tomatoes? Should I make a side dish with tomatoes and the potatoes? What the HECK do I do for a dessert?!
I started to write down my ingredients and looking at the pantry. Pork loin goes so well with fruit, I thought of making a nice sauce to go with it, but didn’t see any that worked. So, I opted for pork loin medallions with balsamic caramelized onions. That took care of the main course. I love roasted fingerling potatoes with salt, pepper and fresh I thought of sliced heirloom tomatoes with goat cheese and basil to start. I can make champagne vinaigrette. This will work for an appetizer. It won’t overpower the main course and I won’t be re-using ingredients. That left beets. What the heck do I do with these?
My big conundrum was dessert. I’m not a big baker. If I bake, I eat it, so I just don’t. Because of that, there’s no way I can whip up pastry dough without a recipe. CAROL….HELP!
After approving my written menu so far, we stared at the beets. She said,”Well, beets are sweet and even sweeter after roasting. So what can you do with soft, roasted beets?” I thought pudding. How do I do that? Then she said the magic words, “What about ice cream?” My eyes lit up. YES! That would be awesome! So that’s what I did. I’ve included the recipe for you. The school, of course, has a top of the line ice cream maker, so all you have to do is throw the ingredients in and 17 minutes later you have ice cream, but you if you have a basic ice cream maker, you should be able to do this easily. It’s not too sweet and if you like ginger, throw it in. It adds a little zing to it. The color is really cool, too!
Beet Ice Cream
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Cooking by Design-Chef School Deux Week 8
Ingredients
- 2 medium sized beets
- 1C heavy cream
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4C sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ C milk
- 1 tsp grated ginger (or candied ginger)-Optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425. Wrap beets in foil and roast until soft, about an hour. While cooling, heat heavy cream until just boiling and take off heat. Whisk sugar into egg yolk. Then, slowly so the egg doesn’t cook, whisk the cream into the yolk mixture until smooth. Set aside.
- In a blender, puree the peeled beets with ½C milk until smooth. Add puree and vanilla to the cream mixture. Add ginger if desired. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and let it do it’s thing. When the ice cream is the consistency of thick soft-serve, take it out and place in the freezer until ready to serve.
.
