Since summer quarter has ended, I’ve been relaxing, canning, working, baking, and experimenting with a lot of gluten-free goodies (one of these days I’ll post up a day-by-day list of what I’ve made and done). Some of my daily cooking has been working with the materials I’m using for my COD. The lentil-flour pasta in my entree continues to be a thorn in my side – I’ve hit upon a recipe that I can roll to a good thinness, but the cooked texture isn’t quite right, especially if you’re expecting traditional wheat pasta on your plate. However, a week or so ago, I made a layered pasta and mornay sauce casserole (read: mac and cheese using flat pasta sheets instead of macaroni tubes) and the lentil-flour pasta seemed to work well in baking.

So moments ago, I had a vision: instead of ravioli or agnolotti, could I utilize the pate mold I made my chicken and leek terrine in earlier this summer and make a lentil-flour lasagna? Form, bake, slice, finish under the salamander for some lovely crispness. I’m very tempted to spend the $50 online right now to get a mold and play with it.

This change will likely mean a change in my dessert – I don’t want two mostly soft layered and molded dishes in row. Earlier today at work I made cardamom-pluot snickerdoodles and thought that the cardamom would also work nicely with pear. Could I do something like that with my gingered pear and hazelnut tian? I must go research gluten-free snickerdoodle recipes……

My lasagna vision followed a vision of my dolmas being much more like sushi: use the grape leaves like nori, roll it up in a mat, nice and tight (a problem with my dolmas was that they were loose and liquidy). Then I can slice on a severe angle and serve the way I had originally intended.

At La Conner Flats we had a lesson on harvesting and then applied our new theory to potatoes. There is nothing quite like a gaggle of cooks getting very giggly over pulling food things out of the ground. It’s a bit of a high. I also got somewhat obsessed with the lettuces and cabbages (and close-ups!). They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?

Yesterday’s rotation was smoking and curing. My team smoked off some ribs, made some North African-inspired sausage, and prepped coppa, pancetta, and bacon for curing.

I started making a Spanish-spiced bacon: smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, fresh thyme. I bet it’ll be yummy once it is cured and cooked:

Braised Shiitake Mu Shu

I’m particularly happy about the quick pickle:
farm cucumbers, mango, rice and apple cider vinegars, thai basil, mint, thai chilies, tamarind, aji limon chili. It was yummy.

I had thought that this week might be a somewhat relaxing one, or at least less stressful than Show Platter week: I ran my hiney off yesterday! I joked with my Chef that if he had told me in 1st quarter that I would be able to pull off everything that we managed yesterday, I would not have believed him.

It feels lovely to be able to produce so much food in a couple of hours. This quarter is turning into the “Self-Confidence Quarter” for me: I feel capable, I feel confident, I feel like I have come into my own and that I am pretty handy in a kitchen. My dishes are getting compliments, I can get more done than I ever thought possible, and my head is exploding with plans on how to improve even more. This is a lovely, lovely change from the grind and doubt of 4th quarter.

We are encouraged to push ourselves in the Garde Manger station and add some fruit or vegetable carving to our days. My lovely teammate created this watermelon whale while the other two of us were slicing and dicing for the fruit plates and the salads (that isn’t us in the background):

What you lookin' at?

Today’s rotation in school was “Entree”. My team had to make 60 portions of a seafood dish, 60 portions of a poultry dish, and 25 portions of a vegetarian dish. I got the fish dish…..so I asked if I could practice my COD water protein requirement: SARDINES!

I’m planning on a grilled Pacific sardine on a bed of fennel/grape slaw. The dish I did today was pretty much that, with the addition of some pickled beets (leftovers from yesterday that I turned into a quick pickle with the help of some vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and sumac, juniper, and lavender).

Marinated and Grilled Pacific Sardines with Fennel Slaw

The cheese plate is an extra I did to help out one of my chefs for a dinner she’s doing tonight. 3 northwest cheeses, dates, almonds, black currants, strawberries.

I got a “very good!” from one of my chefs, and 2 thumbs up on my sardines from the Dean. I’m fairly pleased with myself……(although Chef did say that my fennel slaw needs more acid to balance the oilyness of the sardine).

Tomorrow we’re responsible for a fruit tray (about 30 lbs of cut up fruit), a huge tossed salad (with 3 dressings), and a tableside salad (make in front of the guests) for 20.

Here’s my chicken and leek terrine just out of the mold:

It worked!

And slices of my chicken/leek and duck terrine laid out for aspicing:

My platter shortly before judging:

fatback on metal is slippery. Silly slices wouldn't stay put.

My sample plate:

Selling to the public:

I ended up selling all but one portion.

And some of my classmate’s plates:

I love the asparagus/carrot mix.

This classmate had major setbacks and managed to pull off a great platter.

Headcheese is a hard sell to the American public, but quite a classic.

I would have loved to have that extra 5 hours of prep that we missed out on, but in the end we didn’t absolutely need it: we got the job done. I made quite a few last minute decisions – I would have greatly appreciated the time to be able to work out the kinks and get things on the real platter more like my imaginary platter.

One of our required courses is a psychology class. We have had a class largely designed for our program: Psychology of Human Relations. Our professor is fantastic, and we are having a ball.

We are currently talking about self-concept and personality. As part of our homework, we took a modified Myers-Briggs assessment.

What absolutely fascinated me was our type breakdown in class. We very much don’t match up to the distribution of personality types in the United States as a whole. Below is a chart of the 16 Myers-Briggs types. The top number is prevalence in the US population. The bottom number is prevalence in our psychology class. Anything pop out at you?

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ
11.6 13.8 1.46 2.1
4.8 4.8 4.8 0.0

ISTP ISFP INFP INTP
5.4 8.8 4.4 3.3
0.0 9.5 9.5 0.0

ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP
4.3 8.5 8.1 3.2
0.0 4.8 9.5 0.0

ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ
8.7 12.3 2.5 1.8
0.0 23.8 23.8 4.8

Also of note is our E/I and other type pair breakdowns. According to MBTI Statistics (also where I pulled the US prevalence information), the type pair splits for the US population look like:

The E-I split is close to 50-50.
The S-N is close to 75-25.
The T-F is close to 40-60.
The J-P is close to 55-45.

E-I refers to Extraversion/Introversion, or where we draw energy. Do we recharge by being around people or being alone?

S-N is Sensing/Intuition, or how do we gather information. Sensing is gathering data through the senses and is more concrete; Intuition is gathering data through contemplation and is more theoretical.

T-F is Thinking/Feeling, or how we make decisions. Thinkers tend to be fact-based, while Feelers tend to be emotion or personal context based.

J-P is Judging/Perceiving, or roughly, how we like interact with others. Judging types tend towards wanting decisions to be made. Perceiving types tend towards liking decisions to be more open-ended (you can read more about the types at http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/).

In my class, we look like:

E-I is 67-33.
S-N is 48-52.
T-F is 9-91.
J-P is 67-33.

Wow. We are Feelers. We are also remarkably in the Extraversion and Judging camps. This makes a lot of sense to me, and also explains to me some of the reasons why I don’t like being on the line. Kitchens tend to be busy, loud, chaotic, and hectic, where a lot of things need to get done, and the end product needs to look a certain way, consistently.

Me, I’m an INFP, although I can test as an INFJ, and I use a lot of J in my daily life. I prefer a quieter atmosphere, and hard and fast rules feel stifling to me. I would rather be able to highlight the beauty of the specific items on each plate rather than make each plate look exactly the same. It doesn’t surprise me that I want to go into personal chefery at the individual and family level. I find the prospect of helping a small group of individuals live healthier lives through the food that I make them – changing on a daily basis – much more appealing than cranking out however many covers a night of the exact same dishes.

Info about each of the 16 types can be found at http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.asp#INFP. I’ve borrowed and copied below:

INFP
Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them. Want an external life that is congruent with their values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, can be catalysts for implementing ideas. Seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is threatened.

INFJ
Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision.

I am very much intrigued that the US population is about 14.8 percent ESFJs and ENFJs, while my class is almost half (47.6%) these two personality types:

ESFJ
Warmhearted, conscientious, and cooperative. Want harmony in their environment, work with determination to establish it. Like to work with others to complete tasks accurately and on time. Loyal, follow through even in small matters. Notice what others need in their day-by-day lives and try to provide it. Want to be appreciated for who they are and for what they contribute.

ENFJ
Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.

There is a second section of our class that is almost all pastry/baking students. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what their class breakdown is. My guess is that they will skew towards ISTJs (it may be of note that the single ISFJ in our class is a Pastry/Baking student):

ISTJ
Quiet, friendly, responsible, and conscientious. Committed and steady in meeting their obligations. Thorough, painstaking, and accurate. Loyal, considerate, notice and remember specifics about people who are important to them, concerned with how others feel. Strive to create an orderly and harmonious environment at work and at home.

I just realized that I would love to see the score values for each category in a splatter graph comparing the Culinary kids with the Pastry/Baking kids…..hmmm, maybe I can make this happen.

Task List

Tuesday 10:30 to 1:30

Make cards to count terrine slices
Measure interior dimensions of molds
Make salt dough
Make models
Reserve molds
Pull ingredients for terrines
Freeze milk
Soak cherries
Chop pistachios
Set up blanch and shock station
Set up kit
Clean and prep leeks
Clean and prep shallots
Glaze shallots
Cool and separate shallots
Blanch and shock leeks
Blanch and shock celeriac
Slice back fat
Line molds
Cut pork, duck, fat, and liver
Grind meats
Combine duck ingredients
Pull chicken breasts
Process other breasts
Build terrines, store

Wednesday 8:30 to 1:30

Cook terrines @ 300
Pull strawberries, rhubarb, onions, celeriac, zucchini, farro, lemon, sugar, honey, favas, oranges
Juice oranges
Cook farro
Prep strawberries, rhubarb, onions; cook chutney
Roast celeriac
Prep and roast favas
Make zuke pickles
Create and print good copy of menu
Cool jam
Weight and chill terrines
Cut ginger, candy

Thursday 8:30 – 11

Slice and poach lemons
Slice and pickle zukes
Whip cream, fold in jam
Prep herbs
Prep berries
Prep, roast onion tops
Shell, blanch, roast favas
Build composed salad
Build celeriac crisps
Unmold terrines, wipe
Weigh and slice portions
Prep aspic and aspic tray
Coat slices
Make it all pretty

SLICING AND COATING BY 10 AM!

My final menu is:

Duck, Cluck, Mousse

Country-Style Duck Terrine
wine-soaked shallots and cherries, pistachios

Chicken and Leek Mousseline
oil-poached lemon

Farro and Fava Salad
orange-ginger farro, roasted fava beans, blueberries, mint
zucchini quick pickle

Celeriac Crisp
strawberry-rhubarb and caramelized onion mousse