Day 29: Stocks and Soups

The week begins with a huge veal stock. Chef has us working on browning veal bones in the oven and cutting up the mire poix of onions, carrots, and celery and left over leeks from one of her night classes. After the veal bones were browned, they were put in the stock pot. The mire poix was sauteed in the pans over the stove and then also put in to the stock pot. A sachet was made of leeks and thyme then put in to the stock pot. We poured cold water in the stock pot about three to four inches below the top of the pot and put the heat on for it to cook for at least six to eight hours. We are going to simmer the stock over night which should give us a great tasting stock.
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Our first soup was a minestrone. To prepare the ingredients for the soup, we practiced our dice cuts. We were asked to mince about a quarter of an onion, small dice red and green pepper, zucchini, carrots, and chiffonade some nappa cabbage, and par boil some pasta.

To begin making the soup, I started with defrosting a litre of chicken stock for the soup. To a saute pan, I started building the flavours for the soup first with adding some butter and then sauteing the onions and seasoning with salt and pepper. To this I added the green and red peppers next and then the carrots and zucchini, canned plum tomato, kidney beans and chickpeas. I added some seasoning of thyme and more salt and pepper as needed. For more flavour building, I added bahmi (a siracha sauce), Worcestershire, and honey and then added the chicken stock. With all the ingredients simmering together, I checked for balance of flavour and added salt, pepper, honey or more bahmi. I tasted Chefs' soup to compare with mine until I got my soup to the same flavour match. Just before plating my soup in a heated bowl, I added the nappa cabbage and presented it to Chef to taste. A cold soup does not taste the same as a hot soup. A cold soup (or cold food) will not provide the true taste of a dish. Heat brings out the flavour and the salt in foods. You should never season a cold plate that is mean to be served hot because you may over salt it. Chef said that it was a pretty good soup, but needed a little more salt.

After taking a break and having a bowl of our soup, we made spanakopita. Spanakopita is a phyllo pastry made with a savoury or sweet filling. We made a savoury spanakopita with an Indian influence. I made a vegetarian pastry by combining onions, carrots, green and red peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, chickpeas, curry powder, turmeric, honey, salt and pepper to taste. I found the phyllo dough hard to work with as it can break easily if handled too much. Each thin layer must be brushed with butter. The filling was wrapped in phyllo in the shape of a triangle then baked in the oven at 425 F.

I am no longer the sous chef and very happy that I have already done my week. At the end of clean up we were sent to the classroom to write out the recipe for the veal stock and the minestrone soup.

I am taking the day off from homework.