2nd Week in the New Kitchens

On Tuesday I had my first Asian cuisine class. I was pretty excited to see what we would be doing in here! Last week and this week they did the region of India. This week we are in South India and we made Kheere ka raita - Yogurt with Cucumber and Mint; Basmati Chaaval - Plain Basmati Rice; Chai Masala - Spice Tea (I didn't get pictures of those 3 things) but the rest is below!

Puris (Poori) - Deep-Fried Puffed Bread

Tomato Chutney

Banana Erccherry

Eratchi Ularthiyathu - Kerala-Style Lamb

Gobhi Pakode - Cauliflower Fritters

Jhinga Kari - Shrimp Curry

Dosal - Fermented Lentil Crepes with Potato Masala Stuffing and Tamarind Sauce

Chef Levey tasting our foods

Then on Thursday night we had to make platters of finger foods for a tea tasting in our restaurant. We had from left to right: chicken salad with a mango chutney on wheat (I made these), cucumber and watercress with pickled onions on white (hiding behind the smoked trout), smoked trout salad on wheat, smoked salmon with a dill butter on rye, egg salad, chicken salad, roast beef (we cured our self and smoked it on Tuesday...and my personal favorite) with a horseradish mayonnaise on french bread, egg salad and salmon.

We did a second platter of more of the sandwiches and you can see the cucumber sandwiches now!

Then our third platter had brie cheese and sliced grapes on a buttered cracker and ham salad on french bread.

Last week we took several meats and put them into brines and cures so we could smoke or cook them this week. Like Chicken, Duck and Turkey we put into a brine and let it soak for a week. We took pork belly and rubbed it with a cure to eventually create bacon. We took brisket and soaked it in a brine to make corned beef. We took more beef and rubbed it down with a spice curing mix and it will be smoked to make roast beef. Then there was salmon that we rubbed down with a cure so we can smoke it. So on Thursday we took all these meats out and rinsed them so we could cook them today! We'll use these in other recipes next week!