Licorice root syrup

3 oz licorice root
8c water
8 oz fennel
1 oz star anise
4 cups sugar

Shred root with blender. Before and after pictured.

Boil 30 min. Strain, return to boil add fennel.
Boil fennel 20 min, strain add star anise boil 5 min. Add sugar bring to a boil, cool. Should be around 4 cups of syrup.

Work

A lot of stuff has been going on with work and school, I had to be chef for our luncheon a couple of weeks ago and it went of fairly well. I need to learn how to delegate better and be more organized. I don't think the customers knew of the hiccup in the prep line but we got it out.
This past week we had advanced pastry class, all week we worked on different items that led to making a wedding cake. my team mate Heather and I are quite pleased with how it turned out.

We also made lovely poached pears. I brought some prickly pears and made a simple sugar with it as you can see in the picture it really made it stand out.

Chef Sandy was in charge of this week and I think we wore him out.

On Saturday we had a huge catering gig at the Grace with over 500 people, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked but here is a few of us prepping.

The onion gang.

North African cuisine

Today we made:
Harisa
Rash al Hanut
Preserved lemons
Chermoula
Harira
Carrot salad
Tunisiam Couscous
Hummis bill hanad murazzad
Chicken Taqine
Morocan fish stew

Learning to be a self sustaining chef

This is my new AP project, it is a 1200 liter "tote" which used to hold Hawaiian Punch concentrate. As you see here I paused to show that I am cutting the top of it off. The image below you can see where I had to add a support to hold the bottom up since the organization I acquired these tanks from cut a huge hole the full length of one side. probably to empty it quicker. I had to measure it just right so I could fit the fish tank done the narrow cellar stairwell.
I was able to bend the tank enough to get it in the cellar.
I then had to cut the top rung off of the top of the cage to house the main grow bed and then cut another row out so I could fit the metal cage down the stairs.

My metal stand left over from my homebrew store (we used to use this stand hold the barrels of malt extract) and it was almost the right size and I am happy with the construction. Thanks again Nick!

I did have to add a couple more supports as it wasn't wide enough.
I had to buy a pond liner for the grow bed and after sizing and cutting the plumbing screwed right down to the liner and sealed with silicone.

The next few images are of the lid and the plumbing I added.




You can see the plumbing coming up through the pond liner. At this point the lid is screwed tight to the bottom of the grow bed.


I now need to stop posting AP stuff and go back to studying for my test tomorrow. Here is a good site and found it while researching recipes.

time, research, school

I haven't had much time lately to post, we had a huge storm here a couple of weeks ago and I've been spending most of my time cleaning up, thank goodness the insurance has allotted us money to get a huge dumpster. I also have been researching for one part of my capstone project. I only have 6 months left to get it/them ready and I am sure it is going to take that long to complete. Math is still my biggest obstacle and I need to finish it up so I can focus my time on the capstones.

This week we are still in Europe and on Thursday we are going to take our test with a mystery basket. Should be interesting.

Ah Briton

There is something to be said about the food from that area, You will like it if you like your food cooked in some kind of fluid. It seems that most of the foods in the area you are either boiling or poaching. Yesterday we made Scotch eggs, Scones, Crumpets, Fish and Chips, Lemon Curd, Yorkshire pudding, and Chicken Tikka Masala. Of course it was all pretty tasty. I undercooked the eggs but I meant to do that and I am not a huge fan of a lot of sausage so I made it real thin. I will be making them for when family gets together. I can't wait to try it with quail eggs. Scones were right on, Lemon curd was perfect, crumpets were a bit thick due to the batter, Fish and Chips the batter was too salty so we added some sugar to the batter which in turn made it brown too much. Sugar can't change the salt, remember that. lol Chicken Tikka Masala was a little more spicy than I thought it would be but I do like the heat. Oh yeah we also made Shepard's pie. I think it is the first time I had an actual Shepherds pie without adding American flavors to it. It is still good comfort food and I had the left overs for Dinner. Today we are doing Espania, the sofrito is ready and waiting and EM is bringing some of her sofrito so it will be interesting to taste the difference. Today unlike yesterday I will try to remember to take pictures.

13 Cooking methods

1. BAKING-Cook w/dry heat.
2. BOILING-Cook in rapidly bubbling liquid.
3. BRAISING- Food is first browned, and then cooked tightly covered in small amount of liquid for a lengthy time. Combination of steam and simmer.
4. BROILING- Cook food with an overhead heat source.
5. DEEP FRYING- Cook food submerged in hot liquid fat.
6. PAN FRYING- Cook w/moderate amount of oil/fat over med to high heat.
7. GRILLING- Cook with heat source beneath food.
8. POACHING-Cook food gently in flavored liquid @ about 160-180 degrees.
9. ROASTING- Surrounding a food with dry, heated air in a closed environment.
10. SAUTE- Cook food quickly in small amount of oil/fat in pan over direct heat.
11. SIMMER- Cook food gently in liquid @ about 185 degrees.
12. STEAM-Cook food on rack over boiling or simmering liquid in covered pan.
13. STEW-Cook food barely covered in liquid and simmered long time, covered pan.