Duxelles Stuffed Chicken Breast

We first started on the mushroom mixture. I roughly chopped crimini mushrooms into approximately brunoise size and minced some shallots. Other ingredients included heavy cream, parsley, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.

Mise en place

I melted some butter in a saute pan and cooked the shallots until translucent.

Cooking the shallots

I then added the mushrooms, with salt and pepper to taste.

Adding the mushrooms

 When cooked, I combined the heavy cream, parsley, and breadcrumbs to complete the duxelles mixture.

Ready for the chicken

We used a mallet to pound out the chicken breast until it was evenly flat. We took the duxelles and placed it on the chicken, then rolled it up. I used a toothpick to bind the two open "seams" of the bottom part of the chicken.

Ready to roll

Ready for the oven

We placed the chicken in a 375 F oven for approximately 30 minutes. After taking the chicken out, we tested it to make sure the internal temperature was 165 F.

Cooked and ready to slice

I sliced the chicken into 3/8" pieces slightly on the bias and placed it in a fan pattern.

Final plating

Prep: No problems with prep.

Presentation: I went with a simple presentation, fanning the different slices out with a sprig of parsley in the middle. Some sauce would help to add some additional color and visual appeal.

Taste: The chicken was well cooked and tender with a good amount of seasoning. The mushrooms went well with the chicken and added some earthy flavor to contrast with the meat. I would add some sauce to the dish for an additional element if I were to make this next time.

Overall: This was a fairly easy dish to make and tasted great. I'd make it again.

Baba Ganoush

We cut an eggplant in half lengthwise and roasted it in the oven at 450 for 45 minutes.

Roasted eggplant

The eggplant flesh was scooped out with a spoon.

Eggplant flesh scooped out

Mise en place

Ingredients all blended together

Final plating

Hummus

The recipe was pretty simple. We used canned chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and tahini. Put it all in the food processor. Voila. Hummus.

Seafood Strudel

Our next dish using phyllo dough was seafood strudel. We first ground cleaned and deveined shrimp into a paste, then pulsed egg into the mixture. Heavy cream was then added to the food processor. The end result was a light whipped looking filling for the strudel.

Mise en place

Shrimp ready to grind

Shrimp in the food processor

Ready for the egg

After egg was pulsed in

Adding the cream

Filling ready for next step

Green onions were cut on the bias, cooked until soft in butter, and combined with beef Italian sausage, and canned crab meat.

Green onions, crab, and sausage

The mixture was cooled in the fridge and then folded into the shrimp paste along with the scallops, crayfish tails, and mustards. The mixture was placed in the fridge until the phyllo dough was ready.

We added melted butter and breadcrumbs to phyllo dough sheets, for 3 layers. The fourth layer only had butter on it. The filling mixture was placed lengthwise along the sheet and rolled.

Buttered phyllo dough

Seafood mixture added

Rolled up, ready for the oven

The dough was placed in a 400 F oven for 15 minutes. We checked the temperature with a thermometer to ensure the seafood was cooked. It was cooled for 5 minutes then sliced into 1/2" pieces on the bias.

Golden brown, ready to slice

Final plating

Prep: The biggest difficulty with prep was keeping the phyllo dough from breaking. We needed to handle the thin sheets quickly, carefully, and cover them as much as possible to prevent the dough from drying out.

Presentation: I chose a simple presentation with the slices placed in a fan pattern and parsley garnish below for color.

Taste: I liked the taste of the seafood filling overall, but I felt that the beef sausage tasted out of place with the rest of the ingredients. If I were to make this dish again I might use a lighter tasting sausage like chicken or turkey, or use a small amount ham for some smoky salty flavor instead. The phyllo dough browned up nicely in the oven and provided a delicate, crisp texture to contrast with the softer textures of the filling.

Overall: Despite the difficulties with handling the phyllo dough, this was an enjoyable dish to make and eat. I'd definitely make it again.

Buttermilk Biscuits

I had a lot of buttermilk in the fridge to use, and some chorizo and breakfast sausage to cook up. I figured I'll make some buttermilk biscuits and eat them with the sausage and fry some eggs too. I used this recipe, cutting up the butter into small pieces and placing them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.

http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-buttermilk-biscuits-26110

I think they turned out pretty well! I got to use my newly purchased round cutters too.

Cucumber and Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

Tiny little sandwiches to go with your afternoon tea. We made a set of wheat and white bread sandwiches. Thinly sliced cucumber (On setting 2 using the slicer) was layered on top of whipped cream cheese spread.

Cream cheese spread

Added cucumber slices

The crusts were cut off, then sliced into smaller pieces. I sliced the white bread sandwiches into triangles, and the wheat bread into rectangles.

Triangular sandwich plating

Rectangular sandwich plating

Prep: The most difficulty in prep was learning to cut with the bread knife for a clean cut through the soft bread and harder cucumber layer.

Presentation: After slicing the sandwiches into smaller pieces I used the leftover cucumber pieces as a garnish.

Taste: The taste is cool and refreshing.

Overall: It was a good experience to know how to slice these. With more practice I'll be able to slice the sandwiches more evenly and with more ease.

Mayonnaise

Simple recipe, that is a bit technique sensitive. The eggs we used were not pasteurized so this exercise was making mayonnaise more for the experience rather than to eat it. The egg yolks were first mixed with the hand blender, then oil was added in a stream until the mayo was thickened and spreadable.

Side view

Top view

Vichyssoise

Ah, the cold soup with the funny name. This soup was simple to make. Instead of leeks we used yellow onion though.

I chopped yellow onion into a brunoise, and potatoes into small dice.

Potatoes and onion

The onions were placed in a pan to sweat until they were translucent. Vegetable stock and potatoes were added, brought to a boil, then simmered until the potatoes started to fall apart.

Ingredients simmering

We pureed the mixture in the Vitamix then let the soup chill in the fridge. Some chopped chives were folded in right before plating.

Final plating

Prep: No problems with prep. We made our own vegetable stock with celery, carrot, and onion.

Presentation: Plating was simple. The soup is clear enough that you can see the folded in bits of chives and two chive ends were placed for visual interest.

Taste: The soup had an overwhelming onion flavor. Some leeks would tone down the flavor since it has a milder taste. The texture was similar to applesauce and was a bit grainy from the potatoes. Some cream would add more smooth texture and enrich the flavor.

Overall: I would make this soup again but with leeks and I'd also add some cream for more richness.

Compound Butter

This was simple to make. We mixed softened butter with finely chopped leeks and parsley. The butter was shaped into a log and sealed with plastic wrap.

Reserved butter

Chopping the leeks

Minced parsley

Combining the leeks and parsley

Ready to roll into a log

Ready for the fridge

Duck and Ham Terrine

I had terrine once several years ago. I thought it was pretty good when I had it so I was eager to try this recipe.

We were given a whole duck to butcher. We reserved the breasts, cutting them in half length-wise. The thighs and legs were deboned and skinned with the meat reserved for grinding. We ground the duck meat with pork fatback through the coarse plate then the fine plate.

Fatback and duck meat, coarse grind

Reserved duck breasts

We also cubed some ham to mix with the duck and fatback.

Cubed ham

Flour, salt, and black pepper were added to the meat mixture, then heavy cream and egg.

Black pepper, flour, Kosher salt

Adding cream and egg

Combined ground meat

The duck breasts were seasoned, then pan fried in butter until medium done. The ham was then browned in the pan.

Cooking the duck breasts

Browning the ham

The same pan was also used to cook shallots and port wine.

Cooked shallots and wine

The meat mixture was combined with the ham and shallot/wine.

Mix mixin' away...

We lined a terrine pan with plastic wrap, then sliced ham.

Ham liner

Half the meat mixture was added, then the duck breasts in the center. The final layer of ground meat was placed on top, then the ham liner folded over to seal everything up.

Ready for duck

Duck midsection

Final layer

Ready for the oven

The terrine was fully sealed with plastic before the lid was placed on it and it was put in a 170 F water bath then into a 300 F oven until the internal temperature was 165 F. This took a little over an hour. The terrine was cooled to an internal temperature of 90-100 F, the lid was removed, weight placed on it, and it was allowed to set overnight in the fridge.

The next day, we removed the plastic wrap and sliced the loaf for plating.

Ready to slice

Cross section

Side view

Front view

Prep: A good chunk of time was spent butchering the duck. Other than that prep was straightforward.

Presentation: I sliced the loaf into 3/8" pieces and layered them on top of each other. Some parsley served as garnish for the ends. I'd limit the sliced to one piece for next time and add more garnish or condiments for presentation for a more realistic presentation of terrine at a restaurant.

Taste: The smokiness and salty nature of the ham goes well with the earthy flavor of the duck. The terrine itself was moist and went well with some spicy mustard.

Overall: I'd definitely like to make this again, maybe with some different ingredients, such as a roasted vegetable terrine.