Lovely example of a mirror presentation - we did these in class but this is not mine!

I have been extremely busy and apologize for my unexplained hiatus. I have a job now! Yay! I’ve been working at Freebird World Burritos since about the middle of January and I’m still in school at Texas Culinary Academy.

We finished up Proteins class then we had Bake Shop for 3 weeks in February with Valentines day falling right in the middle of it. So Brian got a chocolate box with chocolate truffles inside as a Valentines day gift. Unfortunately, I had food poisoning the week before that, so I didn’t really get to enjoy Valentines day or much of Bake Shop for that matter. We are now finishing up Garde Manger which is a class about cold foods such as salads, dressings, and sandwiches as well as the old techniques of  charcuterie or food preservation of the pre-refrigeration era.

Yesterday in Garde Manger, we did a skills assessment exam or speed drill. This exam was identical to the ACF’s Certified Culiarian exam. The exam consists of:

• fabricating a chicken and presenting one bone in, skin on, airline chicken breast, one skinless, boneless chicken breast, one wing, two thighs, two drumsticks (I presented the two tender loins but I don’t think it’s necessary)
• presenting batonnet of carrot and julienne of carrot
• presenting one pound mirepoix
• using the mirepoix and carcass to make chicken stock,
• presenting a composed plate of sauteed airline chicken breast, rice pilaf, and carrots au beurre.
• The exam must be completed in 2.5 hours.

poultry cuts

I really enjoyed this challenge and using Chef Banks’ method of fabricating a chicken, which he refers to as the “Quart of Blood” method, made this exam very easy. I’m incredibly happy to have learned this method I think it will help me tremendously in my future. It was nice to take an assessment that matches the ACF exam and see that I can do all of that and not feel flustered at all. The only problem that I ran into was the physical space we had to work in was very limited, but that’s pretty representative of industry kitchens from what I hear.

Unfortunately, we have recently learned that because our class is a certificate program and not an associates program we will not be eligible to take the ACF exam. We will be lacking a nutrition class and a management class as well as a specified number of hours of college credit as well as the exam which is not included in our curriculum as it is for the associates degree students. So in order to become Certified Culinarians we will need to take the two classes and the exam on our own (and pay for them ourselves), hopefully my bachelor’s degree will count for the hours of college credit even though they aren’t related to food. The news was pretty discouraging to several of my class mates, but I see it as just one more hurdle that I will get over.

In other news I now have a new job which I haven’t started yet. I will be doing prep cooking at AMF bowling. It sounds a little silly, but it’s a very large bowling alley that hosts large corporate parties as well as public play. Their patrons are taken care of by servers just like at a restaurant, but they get to bowl as well. I will hopefully begin work there this week, and I’m planning to keep my job at Freebird because I enjoy working there tremendously. Hopefully working two jobs and going to night school won’t be too crushingly demanding. I only have two and a half more months of labs at school then we start our externships in May. It’s almost over! I think I can make it!

Sauteed Chicken Breast with Rice Pilaff and
Carrots au Beurre

For Chicken:

• 1 skin on, air line chicken breast (wing up to first joint still attached and frenched)
• 3 oz canola oil
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper

For Rice Pilaf:

• 4 oz long grain white rice
• 2 oz onion small dice
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 oz butter
• 8 oz. Chicken Stock (or pipe stock…err…water)
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig thyme

For Carrots au Beurre:

• 4 oz carrot batonnet (1/4″ X 1/4″ X 2.5-3″)
• as needed – flat leaf parsley finely minced
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper
• 2 oz butter

1. In a medium sauce pan sweat onion in butter with salt. Do not saute, you don’t want any color on the onions. Sweat until translucent, add garlic and rice. Coat rice in fat and stir until rice becomes translucent. add bay leaf, thyme sprig, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid or aluminum foil. cook on low heat or in 350 degree oven for 13-15 minutes. I cooked mine on the stove top because I would forget about it in the oven, but the French guys insist you do it in the over because it’s gentler, surrounding heat. after about 13 minutes check for doneness and seasoning, adjust if needed.
2. While your rice cooks on low on the back burner, heat the canola oil on medium in a medium size saute pan with sloped sides. Season skin side of breast with salt and pepper. When fat is hot saute the airline chicken breast skin side down, season skinless side with a pinch of salt, baste the skinless side using a large spoon. The technique works well if you put your chicken on the side of the pan opposite from the handle; this way you can tilt the handle side toward you to make the oil pool, scoop it up with the spoon and pour evenly over the breast. Remember though that as you poor the fat over you have to set the pan back down so the skin side cooks as well. It becomes a constant fluid motion. Also, with a bone in chicken breast try to focus your pouring around the bone side because it’s thicker and will cook slower. you don’t want enough oil to completely cover the small side of the breast; if it is covered in fat when the pan is flat the small side will over cook. continue this technique until breast is fully cooked but not over done. If you have doubts use a meat thermometer to measure; after carry over cooking the breast should read at 165 degrees, so take it out of the pan and allow to rest on a rack around 160 or so.
3. When breast is about half way cooked, cook carrots in a small saute pan just covered with water and about 1 tsp salt on medium heat. Cook the carrots until aldente (tender with a slight crunch) when they’ve reach the proper doneness, if the water hasn’t evaporated completely strain and return to the pan. Check for seasoning. Add butter, a pinch of pepper and salt if needed. this part can be done on low heat, the butter should just melt and coat the carrots, you don’t want the carrots to fry, they will become rubbery. once melted and coated remove from heat and toss in a pinch of parsley, if there is an excess of butter dry slightly on paper towel. you don’t want butter to run out on the plate.
4. For plating build a little mound of rice pilaff (minus bay leaf and thyme stem), I used a ramekin as a mold. pile carrots to the side of the rice all going in the same direction, not criss-crossing. Slice chicken breast on a bias starting with small side and working toward the wing bone, position in the same order as sliced in front of rice and carrots on plate, skin side up bone in the back (away from the diner). They should see the chicken first, the rice behind it then the carrots to one side.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures; I hope you can visualize my description.