iphoneography

Here you'll find delicious recipes for any occasion. The perfect recipe is just minutes away!

Olive Oil Tasting, iPhonetography Friday

home to what I consider a real gem of Riverside County, California. Temecula Olive Oil Company produces their olive oils and vinegars out on their secluded Olive View Ranch.

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School, Fourth Course

One of the most fun things we did in culinary school was make chaud froid (show-frwah) platters. Chaud froid is a simple white sauce to which gelatin is added. The gelatin is added in varying amounts for varying purposes. Some are edible, and some, like the platters, are so thick and heavy on the gelatin that they are not edible. I guess technically they are edible, but they would not be pleasant. It comes out like the consistency of a very thick jello jiggler. After the white surface is dried, you decorate it by painting it with food-dyed water, cutting out shapes and filling with dyed gelatin, or creating an in-lay with edible items like herbs. After decorating, you pour a layer of clear aspic over the platter to seal it and create a flat, shiny surface. The platters are traditionally used to display cold foods. The three photos above are of my first chaud froid platter. 

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School, Third Course

Look at that beautifully tall souffle!

My baking class was one of my favorite classes in school, probably because I did so well in it, that I decided to give it it’s own iPhonetography post instead of lumping it together with other posts. I grew up helping my mom in the kitchen, but my earliest, and most clear, kitchen memories involve baking. My mother is a fantastic baker and I am pretty good, too, if I do say so myself. I already knew many baking basics and recipes, but I also learned a lot in this class. I earned the title “Number One” from my table group in baking because they always came to me with questions (for some reason they wouldn’t call me “captain” or “your majesty”). That worked out quite well since I had to ask them for help in our other classes.

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School, Second Course

Braised Rabbit Leg with Carrot Pasta - This dish became Easter dinner that year.

Warning: This post is not for the faint of heart or for those that only enjoy viewing photos of live animals.

You see, after learning how to properly use and care for knives in the beginning of culinary school the classes move on to further the knife skills of the students on ingredients other than potatoes. Not only are there many other vegetables, tubers and fruits to slice and dice in all manner of shapes and sizes, there are also the animals! Meats of all kinds are deconstructed with just the sharp knife and whetted appetite of the crazed culinary student who has been waiting weeks, weeks I tell ya, to cut into and cook something other than potatoes and lemons.

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School Beginnings

practicing knife cuts at home

I will be graduating from culinary school in five weeks! Yay! So, for the next five weeks I thought it would be fun to take you through my culinary school career for iPhonetography Fridays. Here are photos from my first class. We didn’t get to actually cook anything until we passed that first class. What we did all day every day was learn all about sanitation, how our taste buds work and are affected by various flavors, we made mayonnaise, and the thing we spent most of our time on was classic knife cuts.