Chef Hasni Ghazali - Executive Chef/Owner, Bentara / MISC

           Today I was able to see an interesting cooking demonstration by the above mentioned. Chef Hasni Ghazali is a Malaysian chef who has opened a restaurant in New Haven,Connecticut. His food was definitely interesting. If I had to describe it I would lean towards saying it is Indian flavors with a cleaner finish with Thai influences. I tasted some of the dishes he prepares at the restaurant and they were definitely worth checking out if you are in the New Haven area. I haven't been to the restaurant myself but I plan on it.

Not much else to report on today, but I will say this. I recently switched to a gas range, which is by far a must for any serious home cook. I have had a set of pans which I thought were relatively decent, until late. Heat energy from gas  is pushed in differing ways than electric.Rather than simply conducting the heat there is radiation and convection and without proper cookware it is quite easy to create hot spots in subpar cooking vessels. Now, different metals have different specific heats, meaning it takes different amounts of energy to increase their temperature. There is a whole science behind it but it gets quite specific and boring. In reality, all you need to know is that a good quality pan, say a 10 inch saute, will heat evenly on the bottom and will conduct heat around the sides of the pan evenly as well. A lesser quality pan, as exampled below, allows the temperature on the side of the pan to increase well beyond that of the bottom. This is because the heat transfered from the bottom of the panis going directly into the oil and pork cutlet. The heat on the side of the pan is being absorbed into the bare metal which is creating a hotspot. If you look at the picture you  can see how the flour in the bottom of the pan is brown while at the far edge it has burnt and become black. This is simply due to an inferior quality saute pan heating unevenly over a gas flame. Now technically, you don't have to run out and buy new pans, you can cook on lower flames but now you have to be aware that it will take longer for your pan to heat as well as rebound when cold items are added. I say, when you are saving to buy a pan, you might as well save as long as you can and buy something decent. It will last a lifetime and if you cook regularly it will more than pay for itself in time of use and quality. Good pans last seemingly forever and only get better with age.

                            

Six Points Brewery...Ridiculous.

So, today I had my first micro-brew tour experience. With nothing to expect I can only say that Craig and Dan from Six Points when far above and beyond what I could have imagined. Being the same age as these guys it almost makes me feel like I've been wasting my life watching TV. These guys were a plethora of knowledge above beer and beer like things. Not in the sense of the idiotic college student who likes to get drunk on bud light. (notice the lower case letters) However, they were true artisans. These guys knew every aspect of their personal art and were obviously deeply passionate in learning what others around them were doing and how they can incorporate it into their own product. Craig was clearly on his way to being quite business savvy and Dan was an obvious beer connoisseur. Anyways, on to the good stuff!

The tour start up in the "greenhouse" with Craig. The large bags seen in the bottom left of the picture (above) were one of the various types of barley used in the process. While explaining the history of brewing, the company, and himself we were able to taste various types of barley, both raw and malted. Malt basically means that the barley has been allowed to germinate for a very short period of time. Generally the malted barley or "malt" is roasted or dried in various ways to produce many different flavor profiles. I equate this to coffee beens at different temperature roasts. We tasted six varietals ranging in flavor from a light cereal to a smokey burnt barley which I promptly cringed at and shouted that it tasted like cigarette water.There are many types of barley, many types of malting methods, many types of roasts, or raw, etc. etc. etc. The flavor combinations are seamingly endless.

After determining the combination of various types of barley for your desired flavor profile, the barley is dumped into this vessel. It is then combined with very hot water and stirred (see below picture for a full view) by hand. This process is continued for a predetermined length of time. I might add, each step in the process effects the final flavor. Everything from the type of ingredients to how long they sit at different stages changes how your beer will taste.

After this inital period it is piped into another tank where it is heated or boiled at which time the hops are added. At this point the mixture is called a wort. The wort is held at a temperature that will produce the desired flavor.

The wort goes through some slight processing to adjust temperature and it is now introduced to the yeast. In case you didn't know, yeast is a single celled organism whose sole purpose in life is to create alcohol. They literally eat sugar and crap CO2 and alcohol. They also are an integral part of the flavor of beer. The beer is than allowed to ferment before it is bottled or forced into a pressurized (or pressurised if your British) keg. Chloe and I were there for a little over three hours. These two artists went into great detail about the process and I only wish I could convey it all to you because it was incredibly interesting. I will leave you with this, if you ever have a chance to either track down the Six Point Brewery guys and ask for a tour, totally worth it, if you ever have a chance to take a tour at an artisinal brewery I'm sure it will be worth your while. Amazing experience.

Nothing like some beers to make you miss the ones you love :) Get home safe babe.

Please Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGpm2YKrdDA for a quick video clip about Six Point Craft Stein Beer - Dr. Klankenstein.

Day Three

            So today was pretty interesting. We went over some basic food identification. Most of it wasn't rocket science but two parts were particularly interesting. Herbs and Spices. Everyone, well everyone I converse with pretty much, knows what say cilantro or parsley might smell and taste like. At times I think we may take it for granted though. In class the chef spread an array of herbs, some common, some not. We sat and smelt, tasted, felt each one individually and I must say, When you really sit down and distinguish ever nuance of an herb you might discover some things you never noticed before. Same with spices. I definitelly recommend going to a good spice shop and literally taking a minute at each spice to smell and taste them. Common or not, you may find something you've never found before.

So anyways, after doing some identificationwe made two seperate recipes. Both are very simple and both tasted pretty good I have to say. Nothing that couldnt be made at home with a few cheap ingredients either. We made ratatuille and a nice beet and goat cheese salad with an apple vinaigrette. Above is the ratatuille. Below is the goat cheese and beet salad. The presentation still needs some work but hey, it'smy third day. The ratatuille speaks for itself. The beet salad was tossed in a simple white wine and olive oil vinaigrette with chervil, tarragon and parsley. Quite delicious. If you would like the recipes let me know and I will be more than happy to post it.

                                                 

Good night all.

Start Menu - Shutdown - Restart

So, despite the fact that I have made a few posts on this blog, albeit quite some time ago, I have decided to start fresh. Why? ...Glad you asked.

After spending two years at SUNY Stony Brook studying business management, I finally realized I wasn't happy. It was the same daily grind 4 days a week. Miserable classes, annoying little college students asking annoying little college student questions, redundant and boring curiculum, THE WORKS. Well, about 6 months ago I finally pulled my head out of my ass long enough to hear the warnings of my predecessers. I have exposed to people who, on a regular basis, complained about what they do, their boss, how much money they make, etc. etc. etc. The more people I met the more one thing became obvious. We only live once, unless your Hindu than maybe you're lucky enough to come back as a Kobe Beef Cow (Courtesy of Tim Schay), and you better damn well spend most of time doing what you love and loving what you do. I think it's quite ironic how such a commonly known addage of, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life" is so frequently dismissed and we put our heads down and tunnel through misery. Anyways... the moral of the story is, after tunneling through 2 years of my misery, I decided Stony Brook was a waste of my time. I had an epiphany and it led me to the French Culinary Institute at 462 Broadway in Manhattan. So my system restart is referring to the new endeavor I have ventured down. I am currently about 10 hours into a 600 hour program. I have been taught many new french words that wouldn't have shocked my soul if I never heard or spoke of them and in about 20 minutes I can manage to perfectly, and I mean damn perfectly, macedoine a turnip. The rest of this blog will be my outpouring of experiences throughout the next few months. The classes look great, the staff is superb, thus far, and I am definitely looking forward to being able to make a mean pork belly.

I am going to forego filling you in on the first two days of my experiences but I will leave you with this. After completing the first portion of a sanitation and safety course, including food supply and emerging pathogens of food borne illness, I STRONGLY URGE YOU to NEVER EAT A FROZEN HAMBURGER PATTY EVER. and when I say NEVER EVER. I mean NEVER AGAIN. ....EVER. No bubba burgers, no whitecastle burgers. None. Unless you ground ribeye and froze it yourself, don't eat it; For the love of God.

Goodnight!