One Wild Day

Wednesday and today were both kind of random cooking days. I don't even remember what we made on Wednesday, and today Chef told us we were making pork roasts that had been cured, which could be done by two people, and then each one of us was to make a few tortillas and a vegetable saute. My vegetables turned out well. Of course Chef said I added too much garlic, but they weren't for a grade; they were for me to eat with my pork, so that was on purpose. I made carrots, leeks, fennel, and celeriac. I even did the carrots in little flower shapes. The cured pork roasts were delicious and juicy, and I love undercooked tortillas, so I made mine barely cooked on purpose. It's sitting in my stomach like a rock right now, unfortunately.

Yesterday was crazy, though. Here we go *deep breath*
Consomme with ravioli, julienne of celeriac and leek garnish
Mashed Potatoes
Creamed Spinach
Roasted Beef Loin
Horseradish Cream Sauce
Onion Rings
(3.5 out of 5, blah)
I got kinda stuck that day making boring stuff. Pico called the Consomme and then promptly boiled it, so it was completely messed up. I'm pretty sure one of the other teams turned our burner up, because I was watching it simmer for a good five minutes, and the next thing I knew it was boiling. Boiling a Consomme makes it cloudy, and on top of that, it was burned tasting. I really don't think it was Pico's fault, though.

The mashed potatoes and the garnish for the Consomme were my job. No, I'm not kidding, that is what I made in the course of two hours. I finished the mashed too early and we didn't heat them up enough for Chef, so I was grumpy about that. I did get to fill the ravioli, and come to think of it, I made the pasta dough, but that took all of five minutes once I got the hang of it. Jose had to help me because it was my first time actually making the dough. We filled the ravioli with a ricotta mixture, and they were delicious. I personally wouldn't want a plain ravioli in a Consomme, but that's what Chef asked for, so we did it. I wanted to make a sauce for the rest of them, but opted to start cleaning instead.

I had nothing to do with the creamed spinach, which turned out like spinach soup. The onion rings turned out well, and our beef was cooked so perfectly that the Chefs were really impressed. The horseradish sauce served with the beef was delicious, think about the sauce you get when you order prime rib. I love horseradish, which apparently is strange for a girl, I'm told.

What a wild day, though. Still, it wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be, and we were the first ones done. I enjoy my team and I hope we get to stick together, but Chef said he plans to shake the teams up a little next week, so we will have to wait and see.

By the way, I am now halfway through Foundations III. It is really flying by.