This morning my parents left for M'sia and will only be back on Monday morning.. Three days not at home.. Sigh. It means more things for me to do.. -.-"
This day is to prepare mise en place for Monday.. As usual, we gather outside the culinary theatre for our roll call.. After that, we're divided into our groups.. I'm in the production team!
The skills kitchen which is now known as production kitchen, will be the place I'll be spending the next 3 weeks in. I'm quite excited about what I'll be doing.. The moment we step into the production kitchen, we're being brief of what to do..
Just like the real working industry, there's roster. However, this is slightly different.. This one shows who is the sous chef for the day.. Guess what? Actually no need to guess.. Its quite obvious.. I'm the first one on the list. I'm in charge on every Monday when there'e tons of things to do than normal days.. Sigh.
And you know what? Chef say "let's pretend today is Monday, so the sous chef for Monday will be the sous chef for today too".. My reactions are "!!!!!" and "-.-" After that, she told us what to do for the day.. For my group, the whole week we'll be doing stocks, soups and sauces.. You think is fun? Easy? You'll see.. I'll show you how fun it is. -.-"
Today we just have to cut mirepoix and cook chicken and beef stock. Sound easy right? Are you sure? They might be simple tasks, but its not easy if you are doing production. Which means doing things in bulk. Chef first demo how to cut all the things in production mode then we start on our "simple" tasks.
1st, she gave us the chicken bones and beef bones for the stocks. Total chicken bones: 30 for 30litres of chicken stock. Total beef bones:20kg for 20litres of beef brown stock. The mirepoix, we have to cut 2 giant inserts. And this is just the beginning..
So we have to remove all the fats from the chicken so that the stock won't be too oily. I must say, I really enjoying poking myself with the bones and exercising my arms and fingers by pulling the fats. 30 chickens? Wow. After removing the fats, we divide them into 2 giant pots and fill the water up to near the brim and boil. Note: This is step one.
Next, take 2 giant inserts, put all the beef bones inside and place into the "mother" oven for 1 hour. This is considered half done. Or maybe not even half..
Then we cut the mirepoix for picage? I forgot how to spell it.. Anway, its mirepoix plus tomato paste and red wine. For 20litres of stock, the mirepoix is not what you can imagine. So different from what we experienced during the skills camp. This had to be saute in a huge pot cause those normal ones can't fit. Yeah, we really exercising our arms alot. Its so hard to stir cause its very heavy. My whole arm cramp after the whole thing.. And yes, this is still the beginning. Oh ya, those who will be in production later on, I can teach you the art of removing fats from the chickie and the art of saute-ing mirepoix. -.-"
While one person is saute-ing, the others are cutting mirepoix. Note: Now is only cutting mirepoix. Mirepoix is for roast chicken, stockS, and some other things.. Then we went to wash the chicken bones at the stewarding area to remove impurities and blood so that on Monday, the stock will not turn sour.
1st step: Wash the sink with detergent.
2nd step: Rinse, ensure no soap remains.
3rd step: Take out the chickens and put into the sink.
4th step: Tilt the pot against the sink to pour the water with the help of 2 strong people.
5th step: Rinse the pot. Put back to trolley.
6th step: Wsh the chicken bones. Put back into pot.
7th step: Bring back to stove, add 3/4 water or more. Boil then simmer.
8th step: Add mirepoix plus sachet.. and keep skimming..
Now that I've told you how to do it, it should be easier for your.. But never underestimate the power of CHICKEN. Especially their bones.. My hands smell like chicken the whole day.. -.-"
OH ya, we're still cutting mirepoix. Haha. Then the beef bones are ready. After putting them all into a pot, yes, big one, picage is added to it. Then deglaze the tray with lots of red wine and pour them in. We used up 2 bottles of red wine! Wow. We practically use the wine like water.. Since we can't let the brown stock simmer over the weekend, we wrap and keep it for Monday.
Then, a giant basket of onions appear... I bet it is more than 30. I won't be surprised if there's 50 of them.. Well, we, have to, peel them all. So exciting eh? However, I didn't do it. Instead, I was blanching almost similar amount of tomatoes. And peeling them and cutting them. This is so fun. -.-" So now, my hands not only smell of chicken, there's also tomatoes. Tomato chicken.
We also help the other group to do mise en place as we thought we were supposed to do them. Haha. With a blur sous chef like me, this is not surprising.. Hehe. The above summaries the mise en place for Monday. Simple? Try it yourself.
I almost forgot to mention, there's a demo on tortilla espagnola today. Its the french national cuisine. Made of mainly potatoes. Looks great and taste great too! Especially for a potato lover like me :) The best thing is, we're allowed to finish every single thing cause we're the only one there.. Hehe. Just a little unhealthy cause large amount of oil. However, the oil is olive oil. So.. Healthy or not, you judge ^^
The pre-operation day is already so hectic, despite the fact that we move quite slowly, its hard to imagine what will happen during operation.. Anway, I'm just in charge of stocks all these, so there's isn't really any time limit.. As long as I completed all the tasks the day before..
My parents are away for the weekend. This means, nobody cooking.. Unless I'm cooking.. Luckily, my sister went to buy dinner which give me a break from the kitchen.. We had burger for dinner.. I have no idea but the burger is cold, fries are soggy. So I fried the fries again to eat while watching ghost whisperer.. But then.. I fry them a little too long that they become too hard -.-" Had a hard time eating.. Or even biting.. Sigh.
