Sausage Fest

Today we finished up Meat ID & Fabrication. Over the last couple of days we covered pork, where we were shown how to break down an entire side of a hog:

And we also learned how to break down a lamb; basically imagine your family Labrador up on the counter and thats the size we were working with:

Yesterday we started the sausage making process. We seasoned chunks of meat overnight for the grinding we did today. After the grinder, the meat went into the casing machine. Almost ALL of the sausage you eat is cased with lamb, pig, or veal casing (intestine). They were DELICIOUS!

Ribs from the pig were brined overnight, and then thrown on the grill. Chef had a recipe up for an awesome BBQ sauce, just keep in mind it's 4 servings so scale it down a bit!:

It was pretty staggering to stand back and really take it all in. Seeing the animal in its primal form, before it ever comes close to a plate, is a strange experience. It hasn't made me want to be a vegetarian, but it has made me want to respect and honor the animal that gave it's life so we could enjoy things like breakfast sausage and baby back ribs smothered in Orange BBQ sauce. The fact of the matter is that we are blessed to live in a country that gives us choices.

There is a laundry list of effects that stress has on the meat of an animal. Having an animal live under stressful conditions before it is slaughtered can effect things texture, flavor, and moisture. Our chef instructor put it a good way, he said that "animals should be able to live a stress-free, humane life, with one really bad day." Holding pins, over populated cages, confined spaces all have serious impacts on the quality of food you're consuming; but there is a solution. Because we have the option to choose things like free-range, humane, and organic meats, we have the power to shift how our animals are processed. And I say "our animal" because it is yours! When you buy chicken, or steaks, you are buying that animal and you should have a say in how it's raised, fed, and slaughtered. Vote with your dollar, let the choices you make when buying meats dictate how our meat industry operates.

Holy Veal Leg Batman!

When the chef begins the class with, "if you've ever wrestled a midget into the trunk of a car, then you know what it's like to breakdown a veal leg", you know you're in for quite a day. Each of us received a leg that was about 40-50lbs, and it was a wrestling match the entire day! Hopefully you, as a home chef, will not be bringing home a 50lb hunk of veal to breakdown on the kitchen counter. But, if you should find yourself with some veal or pork cutlets, have I got a recipe for you!

Our chef used pork belly (where bacon comes from) and veal breast to make two roulades. In this pic, the veal is to the right of the chef, the pork belly is to the left. You can do this same

technique at home, but on a much smaller scale with cutlets or tenderloins that have been butterflied open. Here is the recipe he used for the rub in the center of the roulade:

Fresh Thyme (lots!)

Crushed bay leaves

Black Peppercorn

Garlic

Fennel seeds

Kosher salt

-Mix in a food processor with olive oil-

-lightly splash red wine vinegar on the meat before applying the rub-

Roll the meat tightly. We then trussed the meat, which is when you tie twine TIGHTLY around the roll to ensure the same thickness throughout for even cooking.

We skewered the roulades,

and roasted them on a spit for 6hrs...AMAZING! For the home kitchen, I would recommend

roasting your smaller roulade at 350 degrees and cook until 145 degrees internal temperature. Let the meat sit for about 5 min before slicing.

Where's The Beef!?!

This one's for all you steak lovers out there. I now know pretty much every cut of steak there is (or at least ones that are sold in restaurants), as well as where on the cow they came from. Now, I love a yummy NY strip, medium-rare, with a cracked peppercorn crust as much as the next guy, but there were some interesting things I learned about steaks.

The most surprising to me was the aging process all of our meats undergo before they ever reach your plate. There are two aging processes a cut of steak can go through; wet aging & dry aging. Wet aging is simply when the meat is sealed in a bag in its own juices, and is tenderized through that process. Most wet meat is aged for about 2 weeks. Dry aging, get ready for this, is when a large cut is simply set on a sheet pan in a moist cool storage room or refrigerator and rotated and pated every few days. It is usually aged this way 30 days or more! As you can see in this photo the meat will have a rind where all of the connective tissue juices (the things that make meat tough) seep out and dry on the surface:

Just below the rind of dried fat and juices is red, tender, delicious steak! The butcher or chef will simply cut away the rind to reveal the fruits of the aging process. Most fine dining restaurants either age their meat like this, or purchase meat that was aged in a similar fashion.

Here chef Almir is holding up an

aged rib eye:

It Put's The Lotion In The Basket

I think the last week and a half in the kitchen, dealing with seafood broke me in for what was to come with Day 1 of Meat Identification And Fabrication. I should have known I was in trouble when the chef pulled this out of the walk in:He started to take the skin off of the face because underneith, there was still valuble meat left on the animal. After getting over the fact that 1. there was a pig head sitting on the counter in front of me, 2. there was a chef with a funny accent cutting it's face off, 3. there are people who actually eat, nay, consider it a delecacy to eat the jowls and jaw; I actually appreciated that this animal gave it's life for us and the least we could do was use every part we could. It was about respecting the life of the animal, and not wasting a thing. It's pretty tuff to look at, but it's important for people to see where their food comes from, and that it wasn't meant to be treated like it was on an assembly line.

There was a VERY easy recpie for a brined chicken that I would highly recomend trying. Just split the uncooked chicken from the breast, keep skin on, and soak overnight in this brine mixture:

1.5 Gallons Water

1 Onion, Halved

1/3C Salt

1T Black Peppercorns

1 Sprig Rosemary

-Heat to boil, remove, let cool, chill. Place chicken in brine and refregerate overnight.

The next day remove chicken from brine and pat dry. Give a heavy dusting of salt and pepper. Place on a racked pan and cook at 350 for aprox 30 min. It is totally worth the extra effort! And you can use the leftover meat for salads and sandwhiches later!

Something's Fishy

The first 7 days in the kitchen have been Seafood Identification & Fabrication. Basically, the word "fabrication" is a fancy way to describe cutting up and de-gutting a fish. Flat cut, round cut, up & over, straight cut...most of these cuts will not be used by the home chef, but the one piece of advice I can give is keep your fish COLD while handling!

After filleting a 25 lb salmon, one soon realizes how fish can slowly transform to mush the warmer it gets. If you are prepairing a meal with fish, the less you can handle it and the colder you keep it, the more you qill preserve the fragile flesh.

I wouldn't exactly call myself a "seafood fanatic"...I mean, I like Filet-O-Fish sandwhiches as much as the next guy, but I'm not one of those people that can eat any kind of fish out there because they are so crazy about seafood. There was a day this week that kind of surprised me; caviar tasting day! I had never had caviar, and thought I would be repulsed by the taste, but I could see meyself quickly forming an expensive habit. We sampled about 11 different kinds of caviar. Actually, it is only called caviar if it is roe from a sturgeon (that's the really pricy stuff), all of the other 'caviar'are kind of wannabes. We had warm Blinis (mini silver dollar pancakes with salt instead of sugar), creme fraiche, and small dices red onions. The trick was to not load up the blini, take small servings to balance the flavor with the other ingredients.

I feel a bit guilty about liking the caviar, it's not exaclty a eco-friendly food =[ But I figured it's about the experence here while I'm at school, and the pact I made with myself to TRY EVERYTHING once. Even if my first reaction is to pass on taking a taste, it's for the enrichment of my education! Here is the recpie for the Blinis, even if you dont use one with caviar, they make a great 'plate' for many savory and sweet toppings:

2C Flour

1/2C Milk

1/2C Melter Butter

1/2 T Baking Soda
1t Salt

1/2t Black Pepper

2 Eggs, Separated

Mix flour, milk, baking soda, salt and pepper. Pour in melter butter and egg yolk. Wisk eggwhites until medium firm, fold in to batter. Make silver dollar pancakes. Great with creme fraiche and fruit preserves too!

Welcome To The Kitchen

Karma: Defined in Indian religions; is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.





I found the name The Karma Kitchen very fitting for this blog and what it's about. It's about paying it forward. It's about receiving a gift, and giving a gift in return. It's about sharing knowledge with those who are seekers, like myself. Seekers of growth, seekers of knowledge, seekers of creativity and passion for what they do.


I have been at the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone for the last 7 weeks. At 30 years old, I was given the opportunity to change my life, and that it did! I have 19 more months to go and I am SO looking forward to what this place has to offer. There are so many people I am taking on this journey with me, so many family members and friends who share the same passion for food, cooking, creating, and most of all learning!If there are ever any questions, please ask it here! Even if I don't know the answer, I am surrounded by world-class chefs who will have an answer for us. I will post recipes and techniques here, as well as little bits of culinary info that could be useful to the 'Food Enthusiast"...I have to say, I hate that phrase! It makes the "Food Enthusiast" sound like a cheesy catch phrase. I have met home chefs (people cooking for their families everyday) that are doing AMAZING things in their kitchen. It has been inspiring to me to see the love, effort, and passion that some friends and family put in to their cooking. I hope those people find this blog useful and a good resource for being a better home chef!

The last 7 weeks was mainly in the classroom. Introduction to Gastronomy, Culinary Math, Food Safety, and Product Knowledge. And one of the most important things I learned from those few weeks was to use LOCAL and SEASONAL products...and organic doesn't hurt either! If you are using products at the height of their flavor potential, you will find it difficult to make them taste bad. Think of it this way, imagine using a tomato in a salad during the winter. It is usually a bit flavorless, and pretty firm and mealy. But use that same variety during summer when they are in season and you are eating a little slice of heaven! So what's the key here? It's about knowing what is in season and when. It's about knowing that roasting squash in the fall will make a delicious flavorful side dish, whereas having some grilled asparagus this month will find it at its peak of flavor.
Your two biggest allies in this task will be your local farmers market and a seasonal fruit and vegetable calender. The farmers market will bring you what's most fresh and what is in season. And if you have to go a couple of times per week, that's ok! If it's fresh, it's worth it! Most grocery stores will carry produce that is not in season, and has been shipped in from all over the world. While it is convenient to have things like strawberries all year round, they don't often taste very good in the dead of winter. A seasonal fruit and vegetable calender is a quick and easy way to tell what kind of produce you should be looking for when you are planning meals. There are resources like these: http://cuesa.org/page/seasonal-foods with VERY easy to read charts and lists of what produce is in season. You can even subscribe to weekly newsletters which send you updates of the latest information. Check your local area for most accurate information.