Wow, it's been a while...
So some of you think I may have dropped off the face of the Earth, but I haven't just been busy the last little while. Mostly with having a job and such. So far worked two weeks, got paid for one, s'all going well!
More about the job:
It is Garde Manger (cold appetizers) at Taverne Sur Le Sqaure which is a pretty well known and nice restaurant. I work nights, and people can see me. The Garde Manger station is in the dining room, sorta...it is like the buffer between the dinning room and the kitchen. Behind us is the pass, and behind that are the rest of the cooks and the kitchen. So far my co-workers are pretty amazing and awesome. Heck, a girl who I used to know works there, she's an ex of an old-co-worker! She's totally cool but works days, so all we do is the "Hi, how are ya?" type deal. Oh and I work about 8 and a half hours each night so I get my hours plus I am making 11$/hour, so I am making some decent cash. Same wage as the Embassy before I quit! Monday night will be my first night doing Garde Manger alone though...Sorta nervous and scared. :s More worried about some of the mis-en-place (my prep for my station) than anything else. I know I can do most of the apps well enough, aside from the Salmon Tartar, essentially it is saw salmon with some spices and stuff added to it (yeah, we know how much I love fish, now I have to try some each time I prep the plate!) which I still have to get tasted by someone else before I serve it. But all in all it is going well. I have Wednesdays and Sundays off, Sundays the restaurant is closed so yeah...Shift is from 3pm until close. Service stops at 11pm though there are a few desserts that appear usually. Mondays they will stop at 10:30pm if it is really dead, or even 10pm in some cases. That means by the time I am done cleaning up, since garde manger has a lot to do cleaning wise, it is well past 11:30pm, not to mention by the time I get home it is way past midnight depending on how late I stay to hang out with my co-workers. Oh and one staff drink and staff meal. We get the drinks while we clean and the meals are pretty fucking tasty~ :D
That aside, I bought a KitchenAid Artisan hand mixer today off of Amazon.ca cuz it was on sale for 50$ and it is normally like 80$. Oddly enough, only the Black/Onyx one was on sale, none of the other colours. From my research KitchenAid does make one of the best hand mixer so it is a win all around. I also decided that today I was gonna make a Devil's Food Cake, but I woke up too late so I couldn't go to Zellers and get some baking supplies (most of the stuff was Roxanne's and she packed it away). So I think I will make it Wednesday, my mixer should be in then or Thursday anyways! :D So it will be Devil's Food Cake with either a chocolate ganache which I'd have to make the night before (it needs 8 to 10 hours to set before I can use it) or Orange Sabayon. Ganache is classic and tasty and delicious and dead simple but requires a long set period. The Sabayon requires Marsala (a fortified Italian white wine), though it can be substituted with dessert wine or champaign even liquors if you compensate for their high alcohol levels properly, though you have to double broil it which is sorta annoying. The Orange Sabayon would be more classy and something completely new for me to do but the Ganache is dead simple. Choices :/
Oh and the recipe called for Dutch-processed cocoa and I was freaking out at the local grocery store trying to figure out if they have any. For future reference Fry's is Dutch-Processed, at least that's what my research found. The generic brand was natural. Basically, Dutch-processed means it was processed with an alkali to take away the acidity from the cocoa and results in a darker colour of cocoa (it was a Dutch invention, the process was, go figure~). Natural is more acidity and lighter. Normally, when a recipe calls for baking powder as your leaven then you use Dutch-processed, baking soda you use natural. Mostly interchangeable but in large amounts it can drastically change your recipe. If you are curious about the differences more between Dutch-processed and natural cocoa go here.
So I leave you all with this: Orange Sabayon or Chocolate Ganache?
I am leaning towards ganache since it is a classic, easier and cheaper/less searching around in the end.
EDIT: To be copyright friendly and just give you guys an idea where this is coming from, the recipes in question come from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. I think I mentioned the book before, or at least about buying it. It is pretty, and informative. :D It has some pretty awesome pictures (though I am of the thought you can't have enough pictures in cookbooks) and tons of tips and explanations. It talks about how certain ingredients are made, the differences of different types, storage, history, tips, substitutions, etc...IT IS AWESOME. Though sadly this cake adventure will be my first time trying a recipe from it. I will tell you how it goes, and maybe take a picture if it turns out well enough! :D
More about the job:
It is Garde Manger (cold appetizers) at Taverne Sur Le Sqaure which is a pretty well known and nice restaurant. I work nights, and people can see me. The Garde Manger station is in the dining room, sorta...it is like the buffer between the dinning room and the kitchen. Behind us is the pass, and behind that are the rest of the cooks and the kitchen. So far my co-workers are pretty amazing and awesome. Heck, a girl who I used to know works there, she's an ex of an old-co-worker! She's totally cool but works days, so all we do is the "Hi, how are ya?" type deal. Oh and I work about 8 and a half hours each night so I get my hours plus I am making 11$/hour, so I am making some decent cash. Same wage as the Embassy before I quit! Monday night will be my first night doing Garde Manger alone though...Sorta nervous and scared. :s More worried about some of the mis-en-place (my prep for my station) than anything else. I know I can do most of the apps well enough, aside from the Salmon Tartar, essentially it is saw salmon with some spices and stuff added to it (yeah, we know how much I love fish, now I have to try some each time I prep the plate!) which I still have to get tasted by someone else before I serve it. But all in all it is going well. I have Wednesdays and Sundays off, Sundays the restaurant is closed so yeah...Shift is from 3pm until close. Service stops at 11pm though there are a few desserts that appear usually. Mondays they will stop at 10:30pm if it is really dead, or even 10pm in some cases. That means by the time I am done cleaning up, since garde manger has a lot to do cleaning wise, it is well past 11:30pm, not to mention by the time I get home it is way past midnight depending on how late I stay to hang out with my co-workers. Oh and one staff drink and staff meal. We get the drinks while we clean and the meals are pretty fucking tasty~ :D
That aside, I bought a KitchenAid Artisan hand mixer today off of Amazon.ca cuz it was on sale for 50$ and it is normally like 80$. Oddly enough, only the Black/Onyx one was on sale, none of the other colours. From my research KitchenAid does make one of the best hand mixer so it is a win all around. I also decided that today I was gonna make a Devil's Food Cake, but I woke up too late so I couldn't go to Zellers and get some baking supplies (most of the stuff was Roxanne's and she packed it away). So I think I will make it Wednesday, my mixer should be in then or Thursday anyways! :D So it will be Devil's Food Cake with either a chocolate ganache which I'd have to make the night before (it needs 8 to 10 hours to set before I can use it) or Orange Sabayon. Ganache is classic and tasty and delicious and dead simple but requires a long set period. The Sabayon requires Marsala (a fortified Italian white wine), though it can be substituted with dessert wine or champaign even liquors if you compensate for their high alcohol levels properly, though you have to double broil it which is sorta annoying. The Orange Sabayon would be more classy and something completely new for me to do but the Ganache is dead simple. Choices :/
Oh and the recipe called for Dutch-processed cocoa and I was freaking out at the local grocery store trying to figure out if they have any. For future reference Fry's is Dutch-Processed, at least that's what my research found. The generic brand was natural. Basically, Dutch-processed means it was processed with an alkali to take away the acidity from the cocoa and results in a darker colour of cocoa (it was a Dutch invention, the process was, go figure~). Natural is more acidity and lighter. Normally, when a recipe calls for baking powder as your leaven then you use Dutch-processed, baking soda you use natural. Mostly interchangeable but in large amounts it can drastically change your recipe. If you are curious about the differences more between Dutch-processed and natural cocoa go here.
So I leave you all with this: Orange Sabayon or Chocolate Ganache?
I am leaning towards ganache since it is a classic, easier and cheaper/less searching around in the end.
EDIT: To be copyright friendly and just give you guys an idea where this is coming from, the recipes in question come from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. I think I mentioned the book before, or at least about buying it. It is pretty, and informative. :D It has some pretty awesome pictures (though I am of the thought you can't have enough pictures in cookbooks) and tons of tips and explanations. It talks about how certain ingredients are made, the differences of different types, storage, history, tips, substitutions, etc...IT IS AWESOME. Though sadly this cake adventure will be my first time trying a recipe from it. I will tell you how it goes, and maybe take a picture if it turns out well enough! :D