Food Prep 1 Lab: Salads and Sandwiches

Geez, I really have been slacking, haven’t I? The semester is almost over and not one post about this class is up! So I really should change that now. Last night in Food Prep we covered salads and sandwiches. My team had to make tabbouleh, spinach salad with bacon vinagrette, and club sandwiches. Should be easy, right? Don't worry, it wasn't bad. None of the bean fiasco like last class.

 

My station. I got to class early because I wanted to get things moving so we could leave early. Yeah, shouldn't hurry... but it's a night class. If I can help speed things along I will. With the help of one of my classmates I sharpened my chef knife on the stone and got my station in order. I grabbed a pot and filled it with enough water for the bulgur. Set that on medium heat like I grabbed a cutting board, bowls, and containers for my ingredients. Mise en place people!

 

After helping check in the foodstuffs, my partner and I grabbed what ingredients we needed for our recipes. I weighed out 12 ounces of bulgur and set that aside. My partner cut out the stem and scored the bottom of a tomato and set that aside to be blanched and peeled later. Tomato concasse... we have to do that for the final. Peeled and diced the cucumbers, washed and finely chopped the parsley. Poured the boiling water over the bulgur and covered it, and kept it in the oven to get out of the way. Partner cooked up the bacon and set it aside, washed and cut up the mushrooms. Another team was boiling eggs for their salad, so we threw a few in there as well. After prepping everything, making the actual dishes was quick. As it should be since it's just salads and sandwiches.

 

 

This was supposed to be a traditional spinach salad with hard boiled egg, bacon crumbles, and mushrooms. Topped with a bacon vinagrette which chef was supposed to demo. Well, didn't happen. The spinach was old and it was hard to pick through and find enough good leaves. So I added arugula and watercress. Chef did not realize there was a dressing demo and someone threw out the bacon fat I had been saving for it. Oh well. Made a vinagrette with some dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil and a little salt and white pepper. Washed and spun dry the greens and tossed with just a bit of the dressing... enough to coat the leaves. Added the bacon, eggs and mushrooms and gave it a quick toss.

 

I thought the dressing went well with the salad. Slightly acidic which worked with the peppery arugula. Most people that tried the salad liked it, including chef.



 

I've made tabbouleh so many times before (and I'm sure I've written about it) that I don't think I have to say too much about this dish. I let the bulur sit for about 30 minutes before I dumped it into a china cap and let it drain for another 30 minutes or so. I mixed the olive oil and lemon juice in a seperate bowl and set it aside. After draining, I mixed the bulur with the diced tomatoes, cucumber and parsley. Poured the dressing and gave it a good toss to help evenly distribute. Seasoned with salt and white pepper. Kept it on ice while waiting for serving. For presentation, I took two raddichio leaves to make a bowl and placed a scoop of tabbouleh in the center

 



My partner did almost all the work for the club sandwich. I helped with slicing some tomatoes and getting the bread ready for toasting. There is no toaster in the kitchen, so we had to use the broiler. She even used the slicer to cut the turkey. I made a few slices, but I'm squeemish with a fast moving round blade near me. I'm not really a big sandwich person, so I had no idea a club sandwich is a turkey sandwich and blt put together. It was pretty good! I'll have to make these for myself. Or order it.

 

Next week is our written final, followed by our lab final. Wish me luck!



Perks of the Job

The place where I work is an island of sorts – I can’t leave to get something to eat, which is fine since there aren’t places in walking distance. Sure, there is stuff a few blocks away on the main road, but I only get thirty minutes. I have been known to kill at least half of that in the cafeteria waiting for my food or just circling the cafeteria to find something worth eating.

So yes, I am jealous of places somewhat similar to where I work that have shops right outside their doors – Starbucks, restaurants, and ahhhhhh… Panera! Free wi-fi and bottomless cups of coffee and all the hilarious conversations that go on there.

I had to drop M off in Albany for some work training Sunday, and hit up Panera for lunch before going to my volunteer gig. It’s the first time I’ve been to the one over by Albany Med, and it’s nice. The place wasn’t too busy for a late Sunday morning. There was a spattering of law/med students, with the random hospital employee picking up a meal before heading back across the street. I’m pretty sure this place is crazy during the week.




I kept seeing all these signs for their “power” meals, which may be stuff from their hidden menu that is no longer hidden? Who knows… but they seemed to all have meat so I passed on that. Ended up going YP2, with a Mediterranean salad with Salmon and French Onion soup. I can’t remember if I’ve had it before, but it was actually pretty good. Lightly dressed, if dressed at all. Didn’t really taste the mandarin orange, the olives dominated the flavor outside of the salmon. Stilled liked it, though.





The FOS had tons of onion (which I love), and just the right amount of cheese. Their soup was thicker than other places I’ve been to… which is surprising, because I thought most of their stuff was made elsewhere and then shipped to the stores. Which would make you think they would all be uniform. Maybe they just didn’t add more liquid?

And then there was the coffee. Black gold, half & half, sugar in the raw. Can’t even tell you how many cups I downed.

Thin Eats

So far garden 2.0 has been going well. I have some seeds in peat pots, and seeds in the ground. And they have been growing! And really well, I might add. They’ve grown enough that I needed to start thinning out the beds. The books I’ve been reading say that you should eat the thinnings, thereby not wasting anything. These are young radish plants. Threw them in with some spring mix for lunch.

Salted Egg and Tomato Salad

Of course, for every fried food there must be a salty accompaniment. And while it may not be all that salty, it is salty nonetheless. You can purchase salted eggs at the Asian market, or you can make them yourself. Normally my dad makes them, but the ones here are store bought.

It's kind of weird - the sweetness of the tomato mingled with the salty egg and then you get that creamy yet grainy texture from the egg yolk. I swear I can taste shrimp paste, but my dad usually says it's "all in my head."

Making this salad is simple enough, dice the tomato and cooked salted eggs. Toss. Eat with any fried food you may have laying around, or on its own... it is a salad, after all.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Fresh Market’s Seafood Bar

boo. hiss. bad fresh market. what was sacrificed for your space? jewish deli, peter wong’s, antique mall, barber shop.

for what? what? a store that sells items you can buy half a mile down the street. and for cheaper!

what do you have to say for yourself… huh?

oh. a seafood bar? well, I suppose that’s okay.

smoked salmon salad. flaked smoked salmon, mayo, scallions, some other things. tasted weird. ended up giving this one away it was that unappealing.

tuna seaweed salad. the closest I’ll get to poke out here on the east coast. good. really good. I hope they sell this at the latham fresh market, otherwise, I’ll have to go back to fm next time I’m home.

the seafood bar is a little pricey, I think 7.99 a pound. I paid a little over 4 bucks for the two.

Simple Salad

Here's a simple, healthy, quick and delicious lunch for all you guys on the go. I just can't get enough of the stuff. Just mix together the following:

• Washed Spinach
• Fresh Crumbled Feta
• Shredded Moliterno
• Any of your favorite Balsamic Vinigarettes

Garden Meal

Only half of this came from the backyard. And I’m sure you can guess which half that is.

Repeater

This HTCE recipe is on standard rotation. I seem to be making tabbouleh at least once a week now, and I am not even close to tiring from it.

AOA2 Birthday Party & Recovery Room (Troy, NY)

Happy belated birthday All Over Albany!

On Thursday, AOA threw a party to celebrate the big OH TWO. And I was there! Really! Unfortunately, M and I arrived pretty late. Okay, okay... really late. The weather downstate sucked and the drive was not the best. But I made it in one piece!

I have no pictures, but I did try the much talked about cupcakes- and I have nothing but praise for the bakers. They were good and helped melt away what was left of my winter driving stress. Our late arrival cut into the people talking, but I did get to meet Kevin Marshall and the Profussor. Albany Jane spotted us out by the bar, and it was good to see a familiar face. I'm sure I could have made my way through the rest of the crowd, but I am way too shy to go up to people and start talking.

After the party we made plans with one of M's friends to meet up at the Recovery Room for a quick bite. And as usual with M's friends, he bailed last minute. Not really in the mood to go anywhere else, we decided to stick with the RR.

From the outside, it looks like the restaurant doesn't take up that much space in the hotel. But the whole "looks can be deceiving" saying... so true. It's a large space, which unfortunately is pretty cluttered with seating. In the back of the restaurant the seating is more reasonably spaced and the walls are adorned with televisions and the usual shtick.

Honestly, there wasn't much on their menu that appealed to me. So I played it safe and did the girl order- Caesar salad and their soup of the day, Tomato Bisque. The salad was edible, but barely. The dressing clearly tasted like mayo and it looked like something you'd expect from a bag. The Tomato bisque was good, and surprisingly had chunks of tomato. I was thinking about throwing my croutons into the soup, but it was coated in that mayo disaster. M ordered a vegetable pizza, which was pretty good. It was topped with portabella mushrooms, artichokes, red onions, and spinach. I should have dropped the girlish act and ordered a pizza as well.

If we do come back to the Recovery Room, it will probably be pizza and wings. Apparently the RR serves some of the best wings in the area. And their beer specials don't sound too bad, either.

The Saloon (Pearl River, NY)

Mags and I hit up The Saloon after my first exam. It was not the best experience, and I was in a state of shock from it. It was still pretty early, but the weather wasn't the best, so we decided to eat quick and do some wait and see.

Mags wanted something light, and apparently that means a cheese quesadilla. It looked to be a good sized portion for a meal, and good for a few people as an appetizer (after all, it is listed under appetizers). She also asked for guacamole, which looked o k a y, but you really got the feeling it was the pre-made stuff. And considering what happened to Mags after dinner, ordering it may have not been the best decision (maybe... we don't know the true culprit).

As of late, it seems when I feel mopey all I want is salads and beer. Not the best combination, but what you crave is what you crave... right? Their spinach salad sounded good, and it's what I went with- minus the egg. I'm not really an egg fan, so the thought of sliced hard boiled egg in a salad is just vomit inducing. Baby spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and bacon in a vinaigrette. The picture uglies it up, but rest assured, the taste was great. And they didn't skimp on the bacon- there was a generous helping of crumbled bacon on top.

Mags originally wanted to have the Toll House pie, but sadly they were out. She settled on the Chocolate Mousse pie. It was o k a y, but I'm not really a mousse fan.

Tasty Mess

Grilled wedge salad from Chevy's

Stove Free Sunday

Asian noodle salad. M's SIL had to help us out with making this.

Originally I wanted to make something similar to a Mallomar. So I figured shortbread cookies, fluff, and chocolate. M insisted it had to be a graham cracker. Well you can see who won that. Smore's breakfast = pretty darn good.

Salad Days

I love the pre-made salads from Costco. I got the huge Cesar salad for dinner... and I ate the whole thing. And loved every bite of it.

Perhaps not the best thing to eat before going out to the bar with classmates, but food is food... right?

Big Apple Pizza - Antipasti Salad

I work the night shift, which means that food options are limited. This place is down the road from work (and in walking distance from M's apartment). Their food is okay... it's hard to get worked up over iceberg lettuce.