Soups

Explain the two soup categories. What types of soups are in each category? What is the difference between a puree soup and cream soup? What is the basis for all for all clear soups?

There are two basic categories of soups. These include clear soups and thick soups. Clear soups include flavored stocks, broths, and consommes. With stock or broth being the basic ingriedent for clear soups there are many ways to create a special broth to your liking. This includes boiling hot water with meats, vegetables, and spices. Unlike clear soups thick soups are more of a cream based product. Different soups you can make in this category includes bisque, chowders, and split pea soup. Pureed soup is a type of thick soup that is thickened by a starch such as a potato. Cream soup is another type of thickened soup that gets its consistency from different dairy products mixed with pureed products. 

         

Citrus Shrimp Stuffed Mushroom

For the recent cooking lab with appetizers I created the citrus shrimp stuffed mushroom. This appetizer included a sauteed portebello mushroom with seasoned rice ( chicken broth, onions, and green pepper) topped with shrimp. Our appetizer is unique because of all the different flavors that were added to it. To improve this dish next time i could add more seasonings into the rice to give it more of a zing. For the shrimp i could of grilled it and added a little bit of lemon zest and cilantro to it.

Ideal Restraunt for Stevens Point

           After researching the different restraunts across the stevens point area I came to one conclusion, we need more variety of fine dining restraunts. Around this town there are plenty of fast food and quick dining services. But who would want to go to a quick dining service for a special night out?!

           To solve this solution I came up with the ideal restraunt that will surely please this town. First the restraunt needs to feature a bar. Living in Wisconsin this can be a big deal with having a fine dining restraunt. The bar will includes various wines and special drinks that will please a variety of people. Secondly the restraunt should be a spacious atmosphere. Reason behind this is going into a restraunt that is super crowded is never pleasent. The person at the other end of the table always has a hard time hearing and its not a fun situation to be in.

            Looking at the small amount of fine dining restraunts we have in stevens point it offers over the top prices and unsual titles that arent well known to people not experienced in the culinary field. To change this the fine dining restraunt will still offer a classy menu but with names that are well known to the public. Also the prices will be economicaly friendly. People want to experience fine dining but dont want to break their wallets having this experience.

      

                                                   

Burger Lab and Marketing

For our lab my partner and I made a burger that featured fresh salmon, sauteed red, green and yellow peppers along with mushrooms. Once when everything was sauteed we mixed red ripe tomatoes with seasonings in the mixture. With a touch of tarter sauce our burger was wrapped in flat bread. This burger is unique to other burgers because it had salmon and flat bread instead of the usual beef and hamburger buns.








Marketing Strategy

To market this dish i feel like it would be best served in a ocean themed family resturaunt. These days not that many families have time to sit done and enjoy a meal so the resturaunt will include a take out service for families on the go. The decor in the resturaunt will include more tan colors for the furniture. A pattern of sea waves will be on the walls. To get this resturaunt idea out I will have local newspaper ads along with ads on the radio.

Eclairs Lab

        Alot of steps are needed in order to make the perfect Eclair. The three steps needed to make the Eclairs include the dough, ganache, and of course the pastry cream. Making the dough is one of the challenging processes because it takes many steps and heat management to make sure the dough turns out perfect.
        Cooking the dough it is important to NOT open the oven door. Doing this causes the dough to fall flat making it a bit of a challenge to stuff the pastry cream in when its done.
        For this lab what i would do differently is making the ganache mixture boil more before adding it to the chocolate. Secondly i would make sure to keep the oven closed while checking on the finished product.

Sauces

What tips would you give someone making the sauce you made in lab?

        In my cooking lab me and my lab partner made a fruit syrup sauce. At first we thought this was going to be easy but we were welcomed to a rude awakening. First off we made the fruit syrup with just cranberries which took forever to heat up. Second we tried to make the sauce thing by having it go through a strainer.... it didn't work too well. Next time when i make this i will be sticking to a food processor to make the sauce.
        Also in cooking other labs made sauces. These sauces included caramel sauce and coulis sauce. Caramel included more of the high sugar ingredients  where the coulis included more fruit



                                     

Syneresis vs Curdling

- What is the difference between synersis and curdling??
        Well synersis is caused when water leaks from the gel structure. This is caused when custard is cut, served, or aged. Even though this happens, it is still safe to eat .
        Curdling happens when a mixture gets clumps in it. This is most likely caused by over heating.

- What dessert sauces and creams could experience synersis or curdling?
  This includes foods such as custards, melting chocolate sauce, and egg products used for cremes

- Steps used to prevent synersis/ curdling?
     For synersis the easy way to prevent is to change the starches or add more starch. Cooling a product too fast or too slow can also caused synersis
     Curdling can be prevented by heating the product at a low heat and having patience

  example of curdling


 example of synersis

Dessert

Now its time i talk about desserts. Without desserts the world would not be the same.....plus who doesn't like dessert?! For me my favorite dessert is vanilla ice cream. This may sound boring , but i take that ice cream and jazz it up with different sauces and toppings. Some sauces that can be used to top off vanilla ice cream is caramel, chocolate, and sometimes cherry pie filling...yum!

Communication Quiz Results

Recently in my advanced professional cooking class, i had to take a communication quiz to see what type of person i am with working with others. After the quiz i found out im more of the buddy type. For those who do not know what that is, here's the description

Buddy Type
People often mention how nice you are. It makes you feel good when you hear that and you like helping the people with whom you work. You always try to do your best and you’re willing to put in extra time on a project and pitch in wherever it is needed. After all, it’s important you all work together to get the job done. You work with some great people and you like to do things for them such as bringing in donuts on Fridays or starting a collection to buy a birthday cake. You know people appreciate little things like that. Your group feels like old friends who look out for one another. Even when things are difficult, you can get through it if you all work together.

Reading through this, there are some parts that i would agree with that describe me. Reading the other options i would consider myself to be the more bubbly type. 

Bubbly Type
You’re enthusiastic and you like to work with other fun people! You do your best work when you’re talking to other people. Ideas just seem to tumble out of your mouth when you talk to others. Typically, you’re quick to jump in with ideas and you enjoy bantering with others. You like multitasking and are good at doing several things at once.

I think working in groups its always fun to be with many people that are the bubbly type. It makes group work more fun and its also easier to get the work done. 

Poached Pear Lab

Recently I had to do a lab with poaching pears. In this lab I simmered pomegranate juice with some spices and sugar. When the juice was simmering I put the pears in the juice. The pears sat in the juice for 15 minutes before I took them out and sliced them for plating. To go with the poached pears I added a spoonful of vanilla ice cream!