I have been stationed as a line cook for our fine dining restaurant in school. I got to experience now how to work in a small and crowded kitchen. We serve salads, different pastas everyday, sous vide chicken entree, pork fajitas, fish dish, burgers and special sandwiches.
It’s all about learning how to work in a station and practicing your senses, speed and accuracy. There’s also working with other people, where some just don’t get that you are a team, and if one just pushes and acts as a know it all, it just doesn’t meld right.
Enough about that and on to deliciousness.
So, I have been talking to a few people who’s a semester ahead of me. They keep telling me to push for a new menu, prepare an amuse bouche or make a special (whichever station you’re in).
I’m always up for pushing myself and showing my creativity and of course showcasing that I can create (or recreate) wonderful tasty treats.
At first I was just testing the waters and served ceviche. Just a simple white fish with shrimp.
Here’s the recipe.
Filet of sole and shrimp ceviche
1.5 lbs. of white fish, in this case filet of sole
Half a lb. of shrimp (shelled and deveigned).
1 cup of lemon juice and lime juice
1 tsp. cumin
1 tbsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. White pepper
1 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro
Half a cup finely diced tomato
Tortilla strips
2 medium sized jalapeno (if you can find a red jalapeno, much better. It’s just for effect anyway) seeded.
Directions
Finely chop the fish and the shrimp
Remember, this is an amuse bouche, so the servings is very small.
Mix all the ingredients except for the jalapeno and tortilla strips.
Fry the tortilla strips (this is for garnish) until crisp.
Cut the jalapenos in half, then slice half a millimeter biased. (For garnish as well and to remind the guest that this is spicy).
You can eat this right away or let the acid cook the fish and shrimp. 2 hours in the refrigerator would do the trick or even 24 hours. This way, the flavors will all meld.
Enjoy!!!
It was really successful, so I decided to keep on going.
I then planned three more amuse bouche and one special.
The second one we served was very simple and straight forward. It was housemate Braesola, wrapped over a cantaloupe, with a mint leaf.
Just in case you’re not familiar with Braesola, it just the beef version of proasciutto.
I want able to take a photo of that because my station was too busy. 9 covers all happening in the last 15 minutes.
The photo up there shows the Braesola. The one on the left is our housemade Cotto Salami.
The third amuse bouche that I was so proud of is my pumpkin soup. My original plan was to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin foam, topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. Plans don’t always go the way you want them to.
Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients
1 sugar pumpkin. About the size of your head. (Cant really find another appropriate analogy).
2 tbsp. curry powder
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp. fish sauce (you can sub mushrooms base to make it vegan, but use 1 tbsp. only)
4 celery stalks (remove the ribs and diced)
1 medium sized onion (diced)
A cup of fresh sweet Thai basil
3 pieces Thai pepper (diced)
1 tsp. white pepper
2 tbsp. salad oil (canola or vegetable)
2 pints of vegetable stock (I made the whole dish vegan)
Directions
Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds
Roast the gourd for 1-1.5 hours on low heat. 300℉
Toast the seeds until crunchy. You can use this for garnish.
Once the gourd is nice and soft, remove the meat and cut 1×1 inch cubes.
Sautee the celery and onions until translucent.
Add the pumpkin and sauteed for 1 minute.
Pour in the stock and the coconut milk
Season with the fish sauce and white pepper. (Adjust accordingly to your taste. I like really strong flavors but not too salty)
Let it reduce about 1/4 on simmer.
This activates the oils in the coconut milk.
After 15 minutes add the basil and the Thai pepper.
Keep it simmering for another 10 minutes.
At this point I used an immersion blender and blended it until it’s velvety. I thinned it out with additional veggie stock so I can serve it like this.
You can also not blend it and just add chicken or seafood. Maybe some mushrooms, eggplant, carrots or anything you like in a curry.
It’s fall in a shot glass.
The fourth amuse I thought of was inspired by my stay in Japan. I’ll post that tomorrow.
Reminder
When preparing seafood, always use a different cutting board, or wash and sanitize the one you used for vegetables/fruit/aromatics.
Please do not leave food especially raw food out in room temp. for more than 2 hours. Set aside a place in your fridge where it’s away from all other produce. Preferably the bottom. Always securely wrap the container to ensure no leakage.
Cross contamination is never good.
theoddcook 