Days 87-92: Menu Project, The Restaurant: poisonnier to saucier, and Chef Udo

Last week we moved downstairs to the restaurant kitchen and changed instructors from Chef Tim to Chef Udo. Bobby and I finished on poisonnier (fish station) on Thursday, which was our first day actually serving customers, and then everyone changed stations when Chef Udo came in on Friday. Friday I played sous chef which meant making bread, making the “scoobie snack” as Chef Udo calls the amuse bouche, prepping mise en place for an osso bucco terrine, and helping out wherever someone looked like they may need it. Today was my first day on saucier (meat station) and I made rabbit. Man those little suckers take so long to butcher and it’s hard to make intricate and nice looking crowns quickly. Tomorrow, I’ll be on osso buco, which I think will be easier (I’m hoping).

Last week was a bit of a blur as we all worked hard to finish our menu projects by the deadline on Thursday. One of the dishes I made – steamed branzino – is the feature blog picture. I entitled my project, “The Frog and the Ham”, after the way Carnet and I like to eat.

The assignment was to come up with a theme for a menu, to make at least 4 dishes each of which would feed 8 people, and to document the process, along with food costing and an essay. My menu consisted of 5 courses, all of which were fish, except that the amuse bouche had fish and pork in it (it was a dumpling). My theme was how I, Carnet and many of our friends like to eat, especially in Hawaii: fresh fish, lots of herbs, a little bit of an Asian flare with citrus elements. I haven’t posted many recipes lately, so I’m going to post 3 of my favorites from my menu project: 1) the prawn and pork dumpling in a lemongrass, shaoxing wine broth, 2) the 3 citrus ceviche, and 3) the crab, apple, avocado, radish and mint salad.

First, the dumpling:

prawn-and-pork-dumpling-recipe

Next, the ceviche:

Three Citrus Ceviche recipe

Finally, the salad:

Crab and apple salad

Happy Eating!