Chicken Fricasse

Chicken Fricasse
1/2 cup butter
2 medium onions, small diced
3 medium carrots, small diced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup leftover cooked potatoes (mashed or small cubes)
liquid from 1 can of peas
3 chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 can peas
butter, as needed
milk, as needed
salt and pepper, to taste

 Heat the butter in a large frying pan or pot over medium heat.
Add the onion and carrot, reduce heat and sweat until vegetables are tender.
Stir in the flour to coat.

Pour in the milk and stir until thickened.
Stir in the pea liquid.

Allow stew to simmer and reduce.
Add in the chicken, heat through, then stir in the peas.
Adjust consistency and richness with additional butter and milk.
Season to taste.

Best served as vol-au-vent. See tomorrow's post. 

Upcoming Culinary Exchange Trips

I've got some very exciting news to share! I have only recently returned home after travelling to a few different countries for competitions, work, and vacation. Now I will be remaining in my home country for awhile, however; I will still be doing quite a bit of travelling within the nation. Of course every time I travel I am always taking in the local culinary scenes and cuisines but these trips are designed specifically around exploring and indulging in the culinary gems each has to offer. The first two trips came about during my break from blogging but the final trip was just offered to me today so here I will announce all three at once.

1. In 2 1/2 weeks I will be travelling to attend a National Annual Culinary Conference. Held in a different region each year, this conference brings together chefs and junior chefs who are members of the federation from all across the country. It involves workshops, demonstrations, product showcases, tours, outings, competitions, networking, plenty of delicious food, and much more! Last year I attended as a competitor in the junior competition. I enjoyed it so much I made the decision to return this year on my own, without the stress of competing.

 2. A week later I will be travelling a little further to be an Alumni Representative at the nation wide Skills Competition. Again, last year I attended this competition in a different region. This year, as a special celebratory initiative, four former competitors from each region have been asked to attend for the purposes of facilitating tours and workshops, educating visitors to the competition, assisting with set-up of competition areas, attending ceremonies, explaining the competition guidelines, and more. Of course I will be stationed in the 'cooking' competition area. The entire trip is all expenses included, without the stress of being a competitor. 

3. Finally, in 2 1/2 months time I will be attending a National Junior Culinary Exchange. This is an all-inclusive trip awarded to seven aspiring chefs from across the country, doled out based on an extensive application process. Again, this takes place in a different region each year and highlights the culinary gifts of the region. This year participants will be merited with active preparation of food at special events; chocolate, sugar and charcuterie hands-on workshops, tours of fruit and vegetable farms; tour of a goat cheese production plant and goat farm, and winery tours and tastings.

I cannot wait for these upcoming trips and I will be sure to blog all about my experiences during my journies! 

Potato Profiteroles

Potato Profiteroles
1/4 cup water
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 large egg
1/2 cup mashed potato
salt and pepper, to taste
filling of choice

Preheat oven to 400◦F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Bring the water and butter to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir immediately until the mixture comes together. Remove from heat and leave to cool for a few minutes until the bottom of the pot can be touched, but a hand cannot be held on it. Beat in the egg until dough is smooth and glossy. Beat in the potato and seasoning.
Use a small ice cream scoop (or tablespoon) to scoop the mixture and drop on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for about 30 minutes until puffs are slightly risen and golden on top.

To assemble potato profiteroles or 'cream puffs', you simply need a filling to sandwich two puffs together like macaroons. I suggest anything you like to eat with mashed or baked potatoes (although I do not recommend ketchup, sorry). Try a savory spreadable cream cheese (such as herb and garlic), sour cream, aioli or mayo, cheese, pesto, etc.

This recipe came about when I wanted to make a different kind of potato with mash, but was tired of making my typical 'pommes duchesse'. They are a cross between these duchess potatoes and a profiterole and are easy to make, especially if you happen to have leftover mash on hand.

Best Cream Cheese Frosting

I've just recently nailed a recipe for the best cream cheese frosting; and the best part is it is probably the easiest recipe too. It makes a cream cheese frosting that is not too heavy, not too sweet, the perfect consistency for frosting and filling a cake, and a great texture for coloring and piping. It requires just two ingredients and no measuring!

Best Cream Cheese Frosting
2 blocks cream cheese (500g) the blocks I used were each 250 grams, so this recipe requires a total of 500 g cream cheese, but I'm sure one pound would work the same. Be sure to use the 'brick' cream cheese and not the soft ones sold in tubs for spreading on bagels I actually used 'light' cream cheese (reduced fat) for this recipe with no issues
1 bag icing/confectioners' sugar (1 kg) I sifted my sugar directly into the bowl as I usually do with frosting as I like them as smooth as possible, but it may not be necessary depending on the brand of sugar. You can also presift it into a separate bag and then just pour into the bowl from that bag.

Cut the cream cheese into cubes and allow to soften to room temperature.
Using a stand or handheld electric mixer (or a lot of muscle) beat the cream cheese until it is smooth and creamy and no lumps remain, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

Gradually (about one cup at a time) add in the sifted icing sugar and mix until fully incorporated.

Alterations below will change the flavor and consistency of the frosting as desired. Please keep in mind the color may also change. Although cream cheese is not pure white, the frosting turns out quite white in color so adding vanilla extract or carrot juice will certainly modify the color!

To Flavor It Up
add any of the following at the end
Extract (vanilla, almond, lemon)
Zest (lemon, orange, lime)
Spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg)

To Thin It Out
if a thinner glaze is preferred to a thick frosting, simply add a liquid from the list below and mix to the desired consistency.
Juice (lemon, orange, lime)
Juice for color (cherry, carrot, beet)
Coffee
Milk or cream

Frosting can also be tinted any different color!

Carrot Carrot Cake

I've actually made quite a few carrot cakes in my time, but here is a classic one. The carrot cake is just a plain one - no additions of walnuts, raisins, coconut, pineapple, or anything else. It is moist and tasty. The cream cheese icing is the best one I've made yet. And I opted for a classic, four layer, modestly decorated version.

Carrot Carrot Cake
2 cups packed grated carrot
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup oil
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated (white) sugar 
3 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon(or your favorite spice, or omit)
1 batch best cream cheese frosting (see tomorrow's post)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch round pans.
Mix together the carrot, applesauce, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir in the sugar, then the remaining dry ingredients. Spread batter evenly in prepared pans.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until cake tests clean. Cool in pans ten minutes, then gently unmold onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Slice each cake in half horizontally. 

Place one layer down on a plate or cake board. Spread with an even layer of cream cheese frosting.*
Repeat layers until all are used. Then completely frost the top and sides of the cake.**
For the carrots and decorations, divide the remaining icing in three, keep one portion white, color one portion light green and the remaining portion light orange.

To decorate my carrot cake, I used an icing comb to create lines on the side of the cake.
I added a white shell border around the bottom using an open star tip.
I added alternating white rosettes around the top - big and small.
Then I piped carrots using a plain open round tip, and the greens using a leaf tip.
Just for a little more color and decoration I used a drop flower tip to pipe orange flowers on the side of the cake and a grass tip to add some green grass. 

* With a tall, heavy, rich cake like this I personally do not like to put a lot of icing in between layers. I think there is enough icing on the top and sides of the cake and with the decorations. Therefore I put enough frosting just to keep the layers together. However, some bakers recommend layers of 2:1 cake to filling or even 1:1 with lighter cakes.

**Depending on how good you are at frosting cakes you may need to do a layer of 'dirty icing' before frosting the final layer. 

Back Again!!!

Guess who's back? Back again! Yes, that would be me. I'm going to be back to publishing daily blog posts here beginning with this one. I've missed writing on this blog and I am very excited to be back contributing to what I consider my food journal, scrapbook, photo album, and recipe book that I began nearly six years ago now. I cannot promise I won't miss the odd day or two or that I will be able to keep this going for another six years but I will certainly try my best to contribute to this blog again!

I'd like to give my fellow and patient readers a little insight as to why I stopped blogging for awhile.
At the time I was away from home working. This job had me working 65+ hours a week which didn't leave a lot of time nor energy for blogging or even gathering material to blog about. I ended up becoming burnt out and a little drained and unmotivated. I couldn't even continue to write about my days at work because they seemed insignificant and I was no longer passionate about the work I was doing. I did turn to photography as a hobby during this time, but for once instead of photographing dishes I was proud of making, I photographed nature and landscapes on my walks. Here are a few photos of what I've been up to the past few months.

Typical Wednesday

In the bar. On pastry. Not busy. But not totally dead either. Enough prep to do. But not scrambling to get it done. Cleaning. But not a ridiculous amount of cleaning. Staffed. But not over-staffed. Long day. But not super long.

Good Day For Indoor Chores

It sucks when it rains on your days off, but today I caught up on a bunch of chores and other things I could do inside since it was a rainy, dreary day. I actually managed to get quite a bit done.

Taking Care Of Business

What business would that be? Your typical, it's-my-day-off business among other things. Resting, relaxing, laundry, walks on the beach, etc.

A Not Too Busy Sunday

Today was another busy Sunday, but not as busy, probably because it is the middle of January slow season. I was on bar pastry orders again, although I did have some help today. Everything went smoothly, but I was still the last to leave and a good half hour after all the others. That's the life of the pastry chef.

new rhubarb dessert

To The Grocery Store

The exciting voyage of the day was a trip into town to the grocery store as the entire house had the day off work today. Which did allow us to make a very nice dinner!

Pasta carbonara, glazed carrots, homemade garlic toast, and vanilla pudding for dessert.

Back To See The Pets

Today I was back to watching the pets, but only for two days. Here are some pictures from today!

Peeling Chestnuts

Today at work was also not very busy, however, I did have more tasks to keep me busy. I was also paying more attention to the other sections in the kitchen since we were in closer quarters in the restaurant here, so I learned how to make and plate most of the starter dishes and how to help out on the main course section, which is very beneficial to the other chefs when it gets busy. To end the evening, between waiting for orders, we peeled a big container of fresh chestnuts - a time-consuming and tedious job.

Slow, Slow, Very Slow

Today was an incredibly slow day. With less customers, it means less prep work to do, so even though you have extra time to get things done, you have no need to do them. So today we just all took our time and did our jobs slowly and precisely, and put more time and effort into staff meal.

Cloudy Day Walk

Today I had another day off so I went for a walk even though it was a cloudy day. Then I got some errands done at home.

Moving To The Restaurant

Today was kind of a big day because renovations in the bar began. That means that we had to begin the day by moving all our food, plates, equipment, and more from the bar kitchen to the restaurant kitchen, where we would be working for the next two weeks. The bar had to be emptied out for renovations. So now we will be serving the same bar menu, but from the restaurant kitchen; while the restaurant will be closed for the two weeks.

A Sunday Off

When you get a Sunday off work from a busy bar shift, you are lucky!

Beach Days and Sleep Days

Today was another relaxing day off where I slept in, went for a walk on the beach and caught up on some chores.

Finally Days Off!

My apologies for neglecting my blog for the past week, but working 95 hours in the past eight days with no days off, I barely had enough time to sleep than to blog! On top of that I was also still doing my petsitting job and had to move out of that house too. Luckily I have three days off now, and the busiest weekend days at that! I don't know if the trade off is worth it in the end, I'd be perfectly happy just have a Monday-Wednesday off, but bears can't be choosers. So what did I do today? Nothing that required much unnecessary physical exertion. 

one of the more minor battle scars from the week past

Six Orders All Day

Today was even quieter if you can believe that. I got some more able-to-do-ahead tasks done so the pastry section would be in good shape for the (optimistically busier) weekend; especially since I would be off and my usual fill-in would also be off on the busiest day, Sunday. I prepped, I cleaned, and I even had some fun as it was more relaxed and laid back today. The head bar chef was off too. It was easy to be productive today as I only received six dessert orders all day!

January Slump

Today was quiet with just three of us working in the bar. I did some pastry prep,some starter prep, some main curse prep, putting orders away, and cleaning. It' kind of funny but the quieter it seems to being the bar, the more rough service is. First of all, there are less servers around and they all seem to wander off somewhere else, so it takes longer to get their attention and get them to deliver our food! Next, the chef in charge in the bar was all over the place forgetting things just because he wasn't so focused!  I guess we are finally in those two weeks in January where it quiets down - but if the first week of January was any indication, I am very glad I will not be here in July! 

The Chef Is Back In Town

Today our head chef came back after being away for almost a month. We weren't sure exactly when he was planning to return, so when we heard him enter the kitchen, there was a lot of cleaning going on.He didn't stay long, as the restaurant was not in service today, so we just made sure everything was very clean and organized as it was very quiet today and we were mostly just prepping small batches of things. 

Early Start

Just to make an eight day work stretch worse, today I had to begin at 9am to help out with breakfast, but not o home any earlier! I made a bi batch of brown soda bread, peeled, cut and cooked chips, a bi batch of matched potatoes, took care of the petit fours, put away orders, cleaned up, and more. And that was all before the start of my usual sift.You can get a lot more down with only two chefs in the kitchen, Luckily the rest of the day was very quiet and I got home fairly early!

Sunday Desserts Alone

Today was your typical Sunday in the bar - busy. I made sure to set up right away and only try to get prep done between orders that was absolutely necessary, but other than that just stay on my section. It was very busy but I am proud to say I got all my orders done by myself with no complaints from chef and didn't ask for help at all!

Late Saturday Nights

I don't remember so much about today, except is was a lo, busy day where I worked my butt off and didn't get home until after midnight. But that's just typical.

2000 Posts!!!

I have reached 2000 posts on this blog now! There are some days where I debate quitting because I have no time and lately my blog entries have been very short and limited but it's still impressive I managed to have 2000 posts on here over the past 5 1/2 years!!!

An 'Early' Day

Today was very slow in both the bar and the restaurant. I was on pastry in the bar and got every little task I needed done so tomorrow I will really have nothing to do, even to prep for the busier weekend. I also did a lot of cleaning. At the end of my shift, I was told I was supposed to go home early today as three others did,but by then it was no longer early. Instead the chef in the bar skipped off early and stuck me with some of his jobs, which I was then told not to do, just to finish my last pastry orders and go home!

Work, Day Off, Work, Work, Work, Work

Seems to be a recurring pattern. Today was the single day off. Which means I don;t have much to report since days off usually consist of catching up on sleep, cleaning house, doing laundry, doing any necessary errands, and going for a walk if the weather is nice and I am not too tired.

Prepping, Prepping, Prepping

Today was not as busy as the past few days have been, so I was actually able to get quite a bit of prep done between orders and set the pastry section in better shape than it had been since Christmas. I made cheesecake cream, pear compote, vanilla panna cotta, plum tart, pie bases, cut chocolate tart, sliced cheese, prepped cheese garnishes, berry puddings, custard mix, kids' jelly, popcorn ice cream, butter cookies, petit four cakes, and more!

berry pudding

Resting My Feet

I have no idea why my feet and legs were so sore after working this week,but today I honestly just needed to rest them and catch up on some much needed sleep.

trouble makers

Into 2017

And what a busy, crazy way to begin the year. As every Sunday, it was very busy today in the bar, but especially so since it was a holiday. Lunch was busy enough that I was back and forth doing orders and barely getting any prep done, but for dinner we had 70 booked. Not sure on the final numbers, but we definitely did more than 70 covers and the tables just kept coming - even well past 9:00p.m. when the bar closes, we were getting starter orders coming in!

Ending 2016

Today was quite busy in the bar, being New Year's Eve and a Saturday and all, and we had a special New Year's Eve menu going on. This included some new starters, mains, and desserts in addition to some regular menu items, as well as an amuse bouche and a special petit four. Luckily we were finished service by midnight, so all of the front of house and back of house staff got to enjoy a glass of champagne before finishing clean-up and going home.

Restaurant Pastry Plates

Today I was in the bar just for one day, and am happy to report I got to do a lot of prep without needing to ask how it is done and getting it right! I also got to participate more in service, including doing the bread, cheese garnish, pear plate, chocolate plate, mignotties and learning the other plates.

the chocolate dessert in the restaurant

Pastry Prep and Such

Just another day on the bar pastry section trying to do as much pep as possible, filling orders, cleaning, and trying but still failing to please chef.

Another Day Off

It's a little odd to have 3.5 days off, one day of work, then another day off, but in this industry you take them when you can get them. Today I went on a long walk, here are some photos from it:

Frantic

Today was your typical, it's-after-Christmas-now-but-still-before-New-Year's-still-busy-holiday-season rush. We all worked extra long shifts today, for me, from 10a.m. until 12:30a.m. Since we had been closed the past few days, we had very little prep done. The bar needed to be ready for service by noon; the restaurant, 6p.m. There was a lot of running around trying to get as much done as quickly as possible. And to add to it, it is a busy week with a lot of reservations booked every night.

Warm Boxing Day

Today I was off again as the hotel was still closed so I went on a long hike again because it was a warm and sunny day!