Dinner on Wednesday

I love my mother’s Tuna Cassarole and the last time I went home to see here I got to have some. She makes it the same way since I was a wee lad. Although it tastes fantastic, I felt a need to raise the bar. Again, not that it was not good, but the magnitude of canned foods was breaking my heart. And I had to do something about it.

So I made Tuna Casserole for dinner for me and my special someone.

Mom’s Home Recipe

Bag of Egg Noodles
1 Can Tuna
1 Can Green Beans
1 Can Mushroom Condensed Soup
1 # Shredded Cheese
2 Cups Crushed Potato Chips
Margarine

Add all ingredients except chips and 1/2 of the cheese in a bowl and pour into a baking dish.
With the rest of the cheese and the chips coat the top of the poured ingredients to create a crust.
Add blots of margarine or butter along top and bake.
400 degrees about 30 mins

Scott’s Version

8 oz. Pasta (dried)*
12 oz. Grilled Tuna
8 oz. cut asparagas
2 Cups Mushroom Bechamel**
1 Cup Shredded Cheese
1 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
Margarine or Butter

*Pasta
Make your own!
or… buy a multi colored Fuccilli

**Mushroom Bechamel
2 T Fat (Butter, Margarine or even Bacon Fat)
1/4 Cup (more or less) AP Flour
- Make a blonde Roux
1 Pint Half and Half
- Add to Roux when done, cold to hot roux and whisk until combined
Season with Salt, Pepper, 2 T finely chopped Garlic
- Simmer until most of the flour flavor is out of the bechamel
Add 1/2 chopped while onion
Add 4 caps chopped crimini mushroom caps
- combine in Bechamel and cook
Combine Pasta, Tuna (broken up), 3/4 Cup shredded cheese and bechamel in a bowl and pour into baking dish.
Combine bread crumbs with 1/4 Cup of cheese and some chopped onion and coat the top of the poured ingredients to create a crust.
Add blots of margarine or butter along top and bake.
400 degrees about 30 mins

The article first couple points were on pastry:

1. Miniature or single-serving desserts. As operators sought ways to make their desserts unique and customizable, but also more healthful, they sought out single-serving items and miniature portions. Suppliers said slightly unusual flavors, such as ginger, pomegranate-berry or English butter toffee caught restaurateurs’ attention.

2. Indulgent desserts. Sheet cakes, premium ice cream and big cookies also garnered interest, suppliers said. They also noted a dessert dichotomy, with both the richest desserts available and better-for-you options such as multigrain, low-sugar cookies catching operators’ eyes.

Read more: http://nrn.com/article/10-trends-2012-nra-show?utm_source=MagnetMail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=jeff@digitalindustri.es&utm_content=NRN-News-NRNam%20Weekly%20Wrap-05-11-12#ixzz1v5HvFp4T

This is really helpful and I have some new resources for reference going forward. I love these ideas and will see where the future takes me.

I just worked at a restaurant as a “stage” where they don’t keep almost any kind of food in storage more than 2 days. I also live in a city where a lot of people have a lot of delusions about food, but many try and keep organic and local, but a lack of real food knowledge makes me a little crazy.

Apparently that food shown is 2 years old. Seems like there are a lot of such experiment out there. Can’t verify the information but I did find that there are a lot of similar stories out there including a 12 year old Happy Meal. Yikes!

I, personally, avoid fast food places but I have to admit there are a couple weaknesses. I might eat fast food a couple times a year. It helps to have taken meat out of my diet almost a year ago.

Here are some links to similar stories:

• 12 year old Happy Meal
• 1 year old Happy Meal

Again, they seem to be focusing on Mccy D’s a lot. Easy target, but still not something I can see as verified. None the less… I don’t recommend eating this crap.

I looked at breads. Naturally I am thinking we will be making bread for the restaurant and I looked at sour dough prep and other kinds of breads; artisan and peasant stuff. I ate at a German place here in the city and got some ideas from the breads there. Can we say fennel?

Of course my main focus is on pastry so I have been looking at some ideas in that  area too. I am NOT the chef of the restaurant… I am a cook. I am a pastry cook and the level of my responsibility and other issues is not really all that clear at this time.

• Louisiana Syrup Cake
  I have the classic cake recipe which is a spicy, seasoned cake that is somewhat sense. I see it baked in a full sheet and soaked in a sugar-bourbon syrup until it is time for serving.
  * Use a round cutter to draw a piece out and plate.
  * Add syrup over the top to pool slightly around the base.
  * Add a canelle of maple ice cream on the top edge
  * Sprinkle with candied black walnuts
  * I am also debating about adding a sugar stick with crystal salt
• Red Velvet Cake with Italian Butter Cream
  I have my mom’s recipe which is naturally the best recipe on the planet. The key is to make this perfect for the high quality of this fine restaurant.
  * Make red sugar flakes from pomegranate sugar made in-house

Well, there is more and I am holding back until I can see what lie ahead. I am so anxious for what can happen! This kitchen is beautiful.

I did stage at Prospect this weekend. The pastry chef, Jessica, is also the pastry chef for Boulevard. Both of them are top level restaurants in the city. Before that I did a stage at Salt; another great place.

I feel so blessed and yet so broke… so I am hoping to get on the gravy train soon and work.

The food will be largely influenced by American Southern Cuisine and my role is pastry. I will be doing production through the day and working the lunch service. This is exactly what I wanted and needed right now. Although my forte will be pastry, I made a nice spin last night on a macaroni & cheese I wanted to share.

Mac&Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is a classic and comes from classic roots. I have trouble in my head adding it to the recipe section (but will) because these are just natural steps to making it. I made it on the fly, grabbing what I needed along the way and making no measurements at all. So here is a rendition: (4 Servings)

• prepare a baking dish that you will serve in by setting it aside and heating the over to 400 degrees
• 5 strips of bacon chopped and cooked til the bits are crunchy and you have a nice amount of fat
• Strain bacon into a bowl and set aside; throw nothing away
• Add about a 1/4 cup (4 oz) of bacon fat in a sauce pan; add flour over the heat til you have a light paste. Do not let it get brown because you should end up with something called a blonde-roux.
• In the sauce pan, with a hot roux, gradually add up to a pint of whole milk, or half and half or (for heart attack level flavor) heavy cream until you have a thickish white basic sauce (bechamel).
• To become a cheese sauce start adding about 16 oz mild or sharp cheddar cheese and lightly whisk until cheese is combined with bechamel. Season with salt, white pepper and about a tablespoon of freshly chopped garlic.
• Slice a jalapeno and add it to the sauce.
• Meanwhile, you have to get your macaroni elbows cooked in a separate sauce pan; about 2 cups; 32 oz.
• If one is finished before the other set aside til the sauce and the macaroni is ready to move on; both should be cooked at this point.
• In a mixing bowl add your completely strained macaroni elbows; then your cheese sauce; the reminder of the cooked bacon; a good time to add up to a whole chopped jalapeno; combine thoroughly.
• Pour into baking dish and do not fill all the way to the top edge; leave about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top.
• In another bowl combine about 1 cup bread crumbs with about the same of grated cheese. Add over the top of the mac and cheese in the baking dish.
• Layer the top with pats of butter; about 1/2 a stick = 4 oz or 1/2 cup
• Place in center of oven rack (if baking dish is kinda full you might put a cookie sheet under it in case there is spillage).
• Reduce heat to 35o and bake for 30 minute til crush is browned and cheese sauce looks like it is lightly boiling.

Classics

Immediately certain things about southern sweets come to mind. Many are quite sweet and decadent! People all over go crazy for red velvet cake for example. But there are other classics such as pecan pies and pralines, beignets, and key lime pie! Buttermilk pie, Louisiana syrup cake and pretty much peach anything.

Modernizing

There is nothing like mom’s home made version of any of the above treats. It was not long ago I was asked to come up with a twist on the beignet recipe for Mardi Gras week. It was going to be served at the bar. I did find a few recipes but settled on a lighter friend product and when it was being added to the menu I added a lemon curd center and a light sugar glaze on the outside of it.

Imagine getting a small plate of warm beignets with a little dipping sauce. It’s no holy trinity but can taste pretty darn good.

Red Velvet Cake

Why mess with something good. For a posh place with a Southern Spin going with something really clean and evenly layered might be the best course. After all, a lovely slice of that red cake can make the eyes float right out of your head. If I had to make something different what might I do?

• red velvet cake balls like a lollipop with a light white chocolate glaze and red sugar sprinkles.
• there is the classic cup cake too!

What’s important is to maintain the dignity of the desert as well as whomever or whatever is serving it.

Louisiana Syrup cake

This creole recipe is another sweet pallet teaser. Though normally served frosted it has the potential to offer us something with a slight shift in combination of the ingredients. By making the cake a little lighter with a cake flour instead of an all-purpose flour we can take the syrup and let it drench the cake much like a Tres Leches cake might. But in this one, let’s add some bourbon for that extra kick. We serve it surrounded by its own syrup with a light crispy sugar tuille for that touch of crunch.

Other deserts

The ways to bring Southern treats to the table can titillate the imagination. These were just some simple imaginings based on a conversation earlier today.

My time at ROE has come to an end but I have a legacy of some items I leave proud to have created. As you read this you missed out on the panna cotta I made with the blackberry jelee that tasted so good and was just decadent.

[Show as slideshow]

Then there was this series of deserts that loomed with a large amount of lemon curd I made that ended up in a lot of dishes that followed. The donuts went through a couple phases and then the beignets were a setup for the upcoming Mardi Gras party.

Alas since I will not be making them and am actively looking for a pastry position or a position that includes pastry elsewhere all I can do is relish how well they came out. I had to change the recipe for my own needs and will post that in the menu page. I was out of a couple key items and had to be able to deliver.

In my time here I have been paying attention to service, cleanliness and customer service which are all extremely import when it comes to hosting guests in your establishment.

La Tortilla is one of many typical Mexican places in the city offering good food at reasonable prices. On this day I ordered my usual Super Burrito with chicken. Normally, especially after going to the gym, it is savory goodness. The black beans in the burrito were so salty I was blown away.

I brought it to the attention of the young woman at the counter who about threw a fit. Since she was speaking to her co-workers in Spanish I was not quite sure what was going on. He ire seemed to be directed at a man from the back kitchen.

Asking for another burrito with different beans got an eye-roll, but somewhere in there I think it was a lack of communication.

Dinner with a View at La Tortilla on the Castro

Maybe this guy was screwing up a lot lately and maybe she was having a bad day, but the eye roll and the attitude was not something the customer should endure.

Customer service is pivotal in keeping your establishment on the map where people want to go back.

Sliders has been a San Francisco staple for me since I first visited the city many years back. They are half way up the block from the Castro BART station and offer some really nice specials. For seven bucks I got this meal and got to choose what I wanted to put on the sandwich from a salad bar of choices.

I do wish the salmon burger was not pulled frozen from a package in the freezer, but fresh might be a stretch.

In this case I also had sweet potato fries instead of regular french fries. This place is definitely worth a quick lunch and a good value.

When I arrived there was a young woman ordering and she, like me, was looking for something reasonably healthy and not beef. She ordered the Fish Burger which caught my attention and I asked if it was fried. Since it was I went with the Salmon and so did she! It’s all about people helping people.

Although the outside suggests shabby, the inside is chic and modern with a great contemporary feel that pays honor to the history of the building itself as it must have been around a very long time. Unfortunately I did not ask about the lineage of the place while there and their web site give virtually nothing about the place except to celebrate the same happy hour that we enjoyed.

The interior was smart and stoic, with bits of art that were interesting and brought just the right amount of color. For some reason, while sitting here writing this, I seem to have the memory of a light projected around us that was something like the beaded light of a disco ball. My companions enjoyed their featured cocktails (seen here) while to had a draft beer. It was an Amber of unknown origin but it was delicious.

Another thing I have neglected altogether in this story is the menu is the menu. It had some nice treats on it but it was a little disconnected from the identity of the place and offered a few strange things that sounded absolutely uninteresting. But, the things that were went right along with their Happy Hour beat. We ordered snacky food. Item number one was fried calamari that was good and nothing to make special note of, but the chipotle aole that came with it was a nice touch. Item two was french fries and they were something to note! It was a mixture of very fresh cut potatoes fried perfectly and a Japanese sweet potato also server with the same chipotle aole.

The empty plates and empty glasses should say it all. The Olive was a treasure on Larkin. Apparently a lot of other people agree on Yelp which is nice to see. There is no way to go wrong with happy hour at The Olive.