TALES & TRAILS.

Heyoooo. Can someone please tell me how these weeks have been zipping by at lightning speed? Since we last talked, I’ve been swimming in flour as we dove into the art of yeasted breads, pizza, and fresh pasta.

I can hardly believe it, but we’re coming to the final months of our program, which means we are all in the midst of securing an externship (like an internship, but shorter). My goal (and hopefully writing it out will make it happen) is to find two externships before graduation: one in a restaurant kitchen, and one with a recipe developer. I’ll tell you why in a second, but first, let’s talk bread!

This was my first foray into bread baking. I love quickbreads, and I have made yeasted cinnamon rolls, but never savory loaves. I must say, kneading the dough is quite therapeutic. Also, when a recipe says to “punch” the dough down, I always literally punch it, because why not? That is wrong.

Obviously, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to hone my sweet roll skills, and these whole wheat sticky buns did not disappoint. They were packed with walnuts, raisins, maple, and zero refined sugar.

I also whipped up a whole grain poppy seed loaf that I added walnuts to for a little crunch. This was a fairly dense bread, but had a great chew. I served it for dinner the next night, and it was the perfect accompaniment for shakshuka, as it soaked up the juices beautifully.

We all worked on our pizza dough toss, and I think our class could open up shop selling a variety of delicious traditional, vegan, and gluten free pies. My two creations included a truffled mushroom and caramelized onion white pizza, and a simple red sauce and mozz pizza with tomatoes and onions. We took care of these babies pretty quickly.

Next up, pasta! Such a fun couple of days. We had creative liberty over our flavors, shapes and sauces, so the final dishes had a lot of character.

I had a vision of making bumble bee pasta, so I made two doughs, one black pepper turmeric pasta, and one squid ink pasta. I turned some of the turmeric pasta into rigatoni, then used the rest for this bee-utiful fettuccine.

If you’re one of those people who registered for the pasta attachment for your Kitchen Aid mixer at your wedding, please do me a favor and use it. Just the process itself is so gratifying, not to mention, helllooo, homemade pasta!

I wish I had pictures of everyone else’s masterpieces, but we were all heads down, buried in noodles. I did snap one of Jess’s immaculate paprika farfalle.

So, in addition to school, we’ve all been starting the search for our externship. This involves going on “trails",” which basically means you go to the site and work a 6-10 hour shift. They are partially testing/interviewing you, and you also get a feel for the work environment. While I originally wasn’t interested in pursuing an externship in a restaurant kitchen, one of our chefs really encouraged me to go that route for the experience and opportunity to sharpen my skills and learn in that atmosphere.

I’m still in the process of trailing, but I’ve been to a few restaurants so far, including the iconic Gramercy Tavern. During my two shifts, I got to taste nearly everything on the menu (holy yum), chop approximately 100,000 veggies/herbs/beef/you name it, and even work the line at dinner plating appetizers and soups. While I was working, they served dinner to three big celebs. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Also outside of my program, I recently took a recreational class on Modern Vegetarian Cooking with Chef Barry Tonkinson. This class was brilliant, as Chef Barry showed us modern techniques that turned ordinary ingredients into phenomenal, five-star dishes.

Not only did we learn new-to-me techniques like vacuum pickling, and turning carrots into “carrot air", we took non-culinary tools, like paper craft punches, to punch out kohlrabi leaves. My card-making, former scrapbook loving heart was so overjoyed.

Vacuum pickled kohlrabi.

The final dishes included this gorgeous Vadouvan Spice Carrot dish with Sheep’s Milk Panna Cotta, Mission Fig Jam, Pickled Carrot and Fennel Pollen with Carrot Air.

…and this Roasted Delicata Squash with Tamari-Roasted Omega Seeds, Goat Cheese Cream and Pickled Kohlrabi. Both were divine.

After all that’s been going on the past few weeks with school and work and trails, I was definitely ready for a much needed day off, and luckily, my classmate planned a weekend getaway to The Hamptons! The sun came out for us, and we spent the weekend hanging out in the coziest beach house, exploring the town, going on chilly beach walks and, of course, cooking.

Until next time…ta ta for now, and happy cooking!

xx,

J