mystery basket

Last night's class was Mystery Basket class.  Yes, it was much like a Food Network reality show.  But it was so much fun.

Let me back up a bit to Sunday (the day before class).  I worked Sunday Brunch this past weekend.  There are lots of great reasons to work Sunday Brunch (you learn a TON, you meet new people, it's fun), but one of the perks to working Sunday Brunch this particular weekend is that I got to chat with the Saturday CP1 students about their Mystery Basket class.  You see, Saturday is the start of our school week...so whatever happens in their class, we do the same thing on Monday.  So I got the skinny on Mystery Basket class.

I admit that what I heard about the class initially freaked me out, but that's the advantage to hearing about it ahead of time...I had plenty of time to freak out, get a grip and calm down.  I learned that Chef was looking for some creativity and playing it safe was not a good idea (one of the tables on Saturday made meringue - thanks for setting the bar really high!!!).  I knew we wouldn't be able to use recipes, but in the past we have been able to consult this amazing book called The Flavor Bible which lists every ingredient you can think of along with what flavors compliment that ingredient.  But Chef confirmed that The Flavor Bible, our phones and any other resource would be off limits.  No phoning a friend or texting a friend either (though, that would have been cool!).

I spent Monday morning reviewing cooking techniques and browsing cookbooks and food websites for inspiration.  I looked up recipes for unfamiliar vegetables just to get my head around different ways to cook them.  I also decided that I wanted to have fun with this class.  My focus wasn't going to be my grade.  Yes, I wanted to do a good job, but I felt the best way for me to accomplish that was to stay calm, trust my instincts and have fun with it.  Nervous butterflies crept in while driving to class, but thankfully gabbing with a friend on the phone got my mind off my nerves.

We didn't have a lecture Monday night, which meant we had more time to plan, prep and cook.  Chef explained the rules of the night (you know, the ones that had freaked me out), we drew numbers to determine which basket we got and then the fun began.

Our basket contained: Chicken breast, chicken leg, steak, tuna, pork chop, yellow squash, cauliflower, mushrooms, green bell pepper, sweet potato, israeli couscous, freekah (just for you, TCB) and Pernod (anise liquor). We had to use each ingredient in some capacity, but we didn't have to use the entire piece of food.  We could also use any other ingredients in the school (we even had access to the staff walk-in, which is where the good stuff lives).  We had to present at least 5 dishes.  Our dishes could be entrees, appetizers, side dishes...it was up to us.

I suggested (more like insisted) that my table take our basket back to the lecture room to plan.  We had a ton of time and I knew that planning what we were going to cook would help us in the long run.  We bounced around ideas for a bit and then we got serious and started claiming products and deciding on dishes.  D took the chicken leg, cauliflower, pork, israeli couscous and Pernod.  He prefers to plan while he cooks so no one of us were sure what he had in mind (but I knew it would be great).  S took the tuna and planned to make something similar to an Ahi tower.  She also decided to do an additional pork dish because K and I were mad for this sauce idea we came up with and S was open to giving it a go.  K took the chicken breast to prepare a chicken roulade.  She also took the bell pepper, squash, mushrooms, steak and couscous to make a stuffed bell pepper.   No one was jumping on the freekah and I'd actually rather cook grains than proteins, so I took the freekah (plus, I just wanted to be able to type that word a lot today).  I also took the sweet potato because I was really ambitious and wanted to make a sweet potato souffle (not that goopy stuff topped with marshmallows...I'm talking about a real souffle).  And then we were off to the kitchen to cook.

If you've read my post from grain class, then you know that freekah is the "up and coming it grain".  Rumor has it that freekah is going to take all the love away from quinoa.  It is brown, earthy, nutty...total tree-hugger food.  I decided to make freekah two ways: sweet and savory.  For the sweet route, I approached it like oatmeal.  I cooked it in milk with beautifully diced apples, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and cinnamon.  I added a bit of brown sugar.  I served it topped with slivers of roasted almonds (and I put two slices of bacon on the side for plate presentation).  For the savory version, I went the latin route.  I cooked the freekah in chicken stock with cumin and salt.  When it was almost finished cooking I added corn and black beans.  I stirred in fresh cilantro at the end.  I served this with fresh backed tortilla chips.  I really liked them both.  Chef had nice things to say about both dishes as well.  Yay!

Now for the souffle.  I had already baked the sweet potato while I was making the freekah dishes.  To my sweet potato mash I added cinnamon, honey, heavy cream, and orange juice.  I pureed all of this together.  I prepared my souffle dish and prepped my egg white bowl.  I prayed to the Goddess of Egg Whites and started whipping.  I folded the egg whites into my sweet potato goodness, poured it into the ramekin, wiped the edge of the dish clean and put it in the oven.  I watched the clock, I cleaned, I paced, I prayed.  I made a stellar chocolate souffle about a month ago.  That has a lighter base than the sweet potatoes so I knew this souffle would take a bit longer to rise and cook.  While it was in the oven I started to think I should have added more egg whites.  I followed the ratio for egg whites to base, but I just had a feeling that this heavier souffle needed a bit more umph to get a good rise.  My instincts were correct.  My souffle didn't rise.  Chef was kind.  He topped it with sugar and torched the top of it creme brulee style.  He really liked the taste of it.  We talked about why I thought it didn't rise.  He agreed with my assessment.  He appreciated that I took on a souffle.

I would have loved for my souffle to rise, but I don't regret trying it.  In fact, even though it didn't turn out I'm really glad I tried to make a souffle.  I didn't play it safe and I had a blast.

My table team made some incredible dishes with our other mystery basket ingredients.  I can't speak in detail about how they built their dishes (we are all too busy with our own dishes to really know the ins and outs of our teammates dishes), but they were all delicious.  My table turned in a total of 9 dishes.  I believe we each had a hiccup to overcome during the course of the night, but really those hiccups provided the most learning.  Mystery Basket class wasn't perfect, but it was a blast!