Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, but We Make It.

Since I no longer have a real job (other than baking for Firefly), I’m working a bit more at my Mom’s inn. Since all I really want to do is cook I’ve decided that I’m going to go through some of my cookbooks, and attempt some recipes that I’ve always wanted to try. The first on my list was the Quiche recipe from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon cookbook, mostly because I could justify the time, if I served it for breakfast.

Now I hate rolling dough…that is to say, I totally suck at it. That’s why I served Apple cake at Firefly rather that apple pie, and why if I do make a pie, it usually has a crust I can just press into the pan (like the Bouchon nut crusts, which are insanely good). The crust for the quiche though was incredibly easy to make and even easier to roll, so it was no problem making two of them. That’s when things started to go wrong

My mother didn’t have enough beans to fill both pans for the blind baking, and I didn’t have a lot of rice on hand, so instead of baking them one at a time I split them among the two pans, and wished for the best. Well both kind of puffed on the sides creating some cracks. No problem I thought I’ll just use some of the extra dough to patch it up. Then I realized that in my over-zealous cleaning, I had thrown all of I away. The way Keller does Quiche, and apparently how quiche should be done, is making the quiche in a two inch high pan, so it’s quite thick. With this being the case any cracks could cause a large amount of filling to leak out. And that’s exactly what happened with one of them. Filling all over the place. Luckily I had put both pans on a larger sheet pan just in case, so it was more a pain to clean then anything. So one worked out well, and the other was about half the volume it should have been. Everything else though went pretty well, although cleaning cutting and sautéing 4lbs of mushrooms was a bit of a pain.

The taste though made it all worth it, and changed the very idea of a quiche for me. The filling was like a custard and cooked slowly to keep it some and silky. The crust was also pretty thick, so the egg didn’t soak through and turn it soggy. The guests seemed to rave about it as well, and my Mother said it was the best quiche she ever had. So over all I think it went quite well, and definitely something I would do again (and better). So far every recipe I make from this cookbook turns out incredibly. The recipes are finiky, but the extra steps really do make a difference in the refinement of the dish and really elevates the dishes to a different level.

Take This Job and Shove it...

So my hours at Firefly are nearly non existent, so it was time to find another kitchen job. After visiting a few to some local restaurants, as well as some not so local, I realized that finding a new job isn’t so easy when it’s winter in the Berkshires, and the tourists are few and far between. I had a cook friend that worked at a local ski resort though, so I phoned him up and tried to see if they were hiring. He wasn’t there, but they did say they were hiring, so one Monday I had an interview, and I started on Tuesday. Wednesday I quit.

The place just wasn’t for me. I knew the tavern would be serving simple food, but I figured it would be at least a good place to get some basic cooking skills. Boy was I wrong. All they served was pre-packed frozen SYSCO food (purveyors of fine cafeterias everywhere). All I did was reach into a freezer pull out some food, and throw it into the three huge deep fryers we had. The fries were frozen, the fish was frozen, the chicken was that preformed patty crap with the grill marks already there, and the burgers were those burgers you buy for huge BBQ. I just couldn’t cook that stuff. It’s just everything I find wrong about restaurants. You could do almost every single dish on that menu, abut make it fresh, and it would be great. I’m not trying to be a food snob, I mean I love that type of food, but come on….make something! That combined with the fact that I had to wear gloves all the time, I just knew it wasn’t for me.

The place wasn’t actually a bad place to work. The people were nice, and it was well run, but it just wasn’t for me. Not the type of food I want to make. The entire time I was there I was trying to figure out when to quit. I even left the place on Wednesday night thinking of quitting the next day, but when I got to my car I found my car had been broken in to, and my iPod was stolen (although the robbers in return left me their huge flashlight). This pissed me off enough that I walked back to the restaurant and quit.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Working 65 hours a week that’s how. So sorry I haven’t updated lately (Ok, in like forever!), but the summer was pretty crazy, and then I just got lazy. But I swear I’ll be better from now on.

So I spent the summer working my ass off at Firefly Restaurant, working my ass off on the cold side (or as Garde Manger, if it was a fancier restaurant). This basically involved making all the salads as well as a few of the hot appetizers. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life, essentially I was on my feet for 7-12 hours a day, but it was also the best job I’ve ever had. Sure I’ve worked 12 hours in the lab (or 36 hours that one time), but with all the coffee and internet breaks, that number drops considerably. But now it’s the winter, and we’ve done from doing 200-300 covers a day to somewhere in the 20-50 range (or less some nights). I guess that’s the fun of living in a seasonal area. I have gotten to work the line some nights, which is pretty fun. My hands have huge cuts and burns on them from grabbing hot sauté pans, but it’s still pretty fun. I’ve also been made the pastry cook, which means that I’m responsible for coming up with and making the dessert menu. Laura’s been pretty good about letting me have the freedom to do what I want, so it’s been pretty fun. Sure, she nixed my crème brulee napoleon since it was a little outside the norm, but over all it’s been good. The weird thing is, is that I’ve always considered baking to be my weakest cooking skill. Luckily my Mom is an insane baker so any questions usually go through her. I even stole her Apple Cake recipe, which was one of our best selling desserts (and according to one her guests, mine was a bit better).

Now that winter is here though, my hours are drying up, and it’s time to find another job. Unfortunately most of the restaurants here (or at least the ones that I would want to work at), aren’t hiring. I’m thinking of going to culinary school in the fall, but I think I need to get a bit more experience before I can seriously consider it. Stay tuned and we’ll see how it works out.

Firefly

So for those of you haven’t heard I’ve had a bit of a career change. The whole science thing is on hold for a bit (forever?), and I’ve taken a job in Lenox working in the kitchen of Firefly . Most of you know I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I was never sure if it was something I wanted to do as a job, or if it was even something I could do as a job. There is a big difference between making dinner for friends and working the line at a restaurant. Luckily, even though I had zero experience the owner Laura decided to give me a shot and gave me a job.

So far it’s been going pretty well, it’s definitely a change, but it’s kind of fun. It’s a pretty mellow kitchen for the most part, no yelling or screaming for the most part. Right now I’m working the cold side which means that I make all the salads, and some of the cold and hot appetizers. So technically the food is easy to prepare, it’s just the volume and the timing that I’m trying to get a handle of. You can’t believe the amount of lettuce I go through a night. Luckily everyone’s been pretty nice about everything while I get my bearings. Still not sure if this is something I want to do forever, but its been a great experience so far, and definitely a learning experience. Plus, I usually don’t have to work until 11am, so the no early morning things are great. Sure I usually don’t finish until 10-11pm, but late nights never bugged me. Plus after work the bar is just right there. I think one of the first things I leaned was to always be nice to the bartender, and they’ll take care of you at the end of the night.

I think the weirdest thing is just being in Lenox. This wasn’t really a place I ever thought I’d live in, and I still haven’t resigned myself to the fact that I’m living here now. Currently I’m staying at my Mom’s inn, but once the summer picks up I’m either going to have to find my own place or move to the couch in my Mom’s apartment. The town is pretty nice though…at least I believe it is, all I seem to do is work, and it’s raining constantly, so I really don’t get out much.

I AM Just Here For The Food

So I figured if eating Lao food was great, well then why not try cooking it. A restaurant down the street was offering cooking classes, so I signed up, and got hungry. Now I haven't cooked anything since I left my Mom's inn, so I was a little nervous about the class. I ended up taking it with this older French couple, and they were a lot of fun. The women, Sylvie, had been to Lao before and knew a few dishes, but Jean-Pierre hadn't really cooked South-East Asian food though, but you could tell they were both really into food.

The class started with us gathering around the recipe book choosing dishes to make and drinking tea. After we had chosen, one of the cooks took us to Phousi Market, and gave us a tour. It was really fascinating. I mean I had been to markets before, but with a guide you got to really learn what all these weird things were, and man were there some weird things (the oddest being big blocks of solidified blood). If your at all into proper food hygiene though, then don't go to the market, the amount of flies that were on the meat, probably would had turned you vegetarian (unless you are vegetarian already, Hey Lisa!). So after wandering around the market it was back to the restaurant to learn about Lao food.

First the chef sat us down and showed us the basic ingredients in Lao cooking. If you don't have these she said, then you can't cook Lao. She then showed us a few other ingredients that we probably wouldn't ever find at home, since they usually are only found in the jungle. Me being the smart guy that I am had chosen a recipe that will be impossible to replicate at home since it contained quite a few jungle ingredients including this special kind of wood, which you soak and then throw into the stew. Where the hell am I going to find spicy wood in Canada? I just don't think Maple will cut it. She then told us the proper way to make sticky rice and sticky rice powder, which was really interesting. So after the lesson, we went to our cutting boards and the chef taught us how to properly chop garlic, shallots, lemon grass, and Galangal (which was really tough to cut). After that it was off to the kitchen.

The cooking part was really fun, except, again I chose the wrong damn dish, and spent most of the time stirring the stew, and breaking up sticky rice while the other two were stir-frying their asses off. We did eventually switch though, so all was good. The smells coming out of the kitchen were amazing, and we were just getting hungrier and hungrier. Finally we finished everything and sat down to eat. Below is a description of each dish along with a picture.

Mok This dish, which is a little different than the Cambodian Amok, is a coconut milk/curry based dish which is then steamed in Banana Leaves. It was pretty tasty, but not my favourite. The steaming of the coconut milk gives it an almost custardy texture which I wasn't a fan of. It was good though, and fun to fold into the leaves. Ours was made with chicken, but you could easily substitute fish. I think I like the Cambodian Amok better, as that is more of a stew served in a coconut, and while the taste is the same, I prefer the texture of Amok.


Fried Rice Salad This was probably my favourite dish. You take left-over steamed rice and mix it with beef and herbs, and seasoning, then roll it into balls, coat it in egg, and then fry it up until its a dark brown. Once that done you then break up the balls into little bits, and mix in more herbs and a fish sauce based sauce. It's darn tasty. It has soft bits and crunchy bits, and the flavour was incredible. This is one recipe I'm definitely trying at home, so if you want some come on over. Most south east Asian cuisine is a balance between Hot, Salty, Sweet, and Sour, and this dish does it really well, throwing the change in textures in there for good measure.


Luang Prabang Stew This was the dish I chose, and the reason I chose it was because the original dish I picked was coconut milk based and we already had two of those. This one had a long list of ingredients, so I thought it might be fun. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a pain in the ass, and I can't make it at home, but it was pretty tasty. The pain in the ass part was that after slightly roasting a ball of sticky rice you then have to break up the ball into little bits, since that's what thickens the stew. Well sticky rice is well...sticky, and it was hard to break it into little bits. Plus then I had to stir it for 30 minutes which was quite exciting let me tell you. It did use a bunch of jungle leaves, spicy wood, and jelly mushrooms so that was kind of neat. The taste was good, and it had a kind of earthy taste to it. So I'm glad I picked it, but there were better dishes to be had.


Ginger Chicken If you like Ginger, you'll love this dish. It starts by caramelizing sugar and water until it's a dark caramel colour, you then stir-fry the aromatics, and then add the fish. If I was making this at home I would have added more fish, but I could see them not wanting to give you a lot of fish for the class. It had a really sweet taste along with a strong ginger taste which kind of balanced out both. The sauce it pretty sticky, and coats everything really well. If you don't like ginger, well then move along. This one was a great one to watch being made since at each step you had to add the ingredients at the right time. The sauce had to be just the right colour, you had to stir-fry the onions, garlic, and ginger just the right amount before adding the fish so that the former wasn't burned and the latter wasn't under or over cooked. I'd say this was my third favourite dish of the day.



Coconut Milk SoupThis was probably my second favourite dish, and I think it's because it actually reminded me of the amok I was talking about earlier. It was basically a chicken soup (although you could add fish or tofu) in a coconut based soup. It smelled amazing and tasted even better. The chicken which is stir-fried first with aromatics like onion, galangal and garlic, was really tender, and the consistency was great. If I was making it at home I would probably cut some of the tings into smaller pieces. The jelly mushrooms were a bit big, and the odd texture made it a bit weird to eat, but it was a tasty soup.


So fun was had, food was eaten and I learned a lot about Lao cuisine which is something I knew zero about before coming here. Sure I had made Lap before, but I thought it was Thai. At the end of class they gave us a cookbook full or recipes, so if anyone wants some Lao food when I get home let me know.