Culinary School Update: Vegetables, Jelly Rolls, and Potatoes

Okay kids, its that time again. I've been trying to do longer culinary school updates, spaced farther apart so as not to bore you to death.  Do you readers out there think its better that way?  I know you're out there! Based on the comments I've been getting however, I'm beginning to believe that only my mom and my sister read this blog ;)

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Soooo, onwards.  We're still kinda hooked on veggies in Food Production class.  Two weeks ago, we made a pan-fried eggplant Parmesan.  We used the tomato sauce that we made and immediately froze few weeks ago, which we thawed out and spruced up a bit with some fresh herbs.  This dish was an exercise in the standard breading procedure (flour, eggwash, breadcrumbs).

We also made a vegetable strudel: puff pastry layered with mushroom duxelles, blanched asparagus, toasted pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese.  For the sauce, we made a simple red pepper coulis.

 

The duxelles were really rich so I didn't really want more than a couple bites.  Plus, I like mushrooms, but I don't absolutely love them.  Regardless, I thought the flavor was right on.  This was very filling for a vegetarian dish.

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Two weeks ago in Bakeshop Production, we made jelly rolls. Although these tasted great, they seemed like such a strange, rather outdated desert to me.  To make them, we baked spongecakes in a sheet pan.  Then, we spread whipped cream on the cake, and lined the whipped cream with cherries, blueberries, and mandarin oranges. The cakes were carefully rolled up, then decorated with buttercream frosting or chocolate ganache. 

chocolate buttercream on the left, chocolate ganache on the right

My ganache covered jelly roll looked kind of like doo-doo because I didnt heat the ganache enough and it got kind of separated.  So don't look at it any more because its ugly :(

Here's a picture of my friend Allie's ganache jelly roll instead:

Allie's ganache turned out smooth and pretty, like it was supposed to.

Here's a cross-section of my buttercream jelly roll:

  See all the fruit? I ate so much whipped cream and frosting during this class. Ech.

That's about it for jelly rolls.

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This week in Food Production, it was potato day. First, we made Potatoes Duchesse, which is kind of like mashed potatoes that are piped into little mounds and baked.  Again, this seemed like kind of a weird recipe, but they tasted delicious.

 My partner, Mo, and I added some chopped parsley and cream in ours for a little extra flavor.

We also made Rosemary Roasted new potatoes:

I pretty much nibbled on these the whole class.

We made candied sweet potatoes that were roasted and basted with a syrup made from brown sugar and a hint of vanilla.

 

We also made scalloped potatoes, which were delicous, but I kind of forgot to take a picture of them.

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In baking class this week, we each made a chiffon sponge cake and a walnut genoise cake.  I didn't take pictures, because next class we're going to frost them, so I thought I'd save it for next time.