Graduation! Also, Duck Prosciutto...

it says proof because i'm too poor to order grad pics

Two years ago, I started this thing that people call culinary school. Last Tuesday, I finally Finished!

Looking back on the whole experience, there are a few things there are a few things that I have been thinking about.

A lot of people ask me: "Well Tim, You are finally done! Was it worth it?""do you think every aspiring chef should go to school?" My answer is always the more or less the same. "You get out of it what you put into it," and really, I couldn't be speaking more truthfully.

See, the thing about culinary school is that, well, it's pretty easy. There, The secret is out on how I passed all my classes. This may explain why there is such a wide variety of people that come to culinary school, Like the mom who wants to learn how to bake, the older lady who wants to open a cafe, or the GI thats looking to stretch his legs. There is also the line cook who has been working for ten years and decided that he needs a degree to move up, or me, who just loves cooking and wants to be a chef.

I'm not going to lie, anyone can do it. But what separates a chef-to-be and someone who will have a hard time finding a prep cook position is passion, drive, and commitment.

I am going to quote my Chef, Kevin Davis. Learning to cook is like standing in a fruit orchard. everything you could want to know or learn is right there in front of you. You just have to reach up and take it (He says a lot of things that blow my mind, by the way). Such is culinary school. I could have taken it easy, found a part-time job, and coasted through for two years until I was done, but that wasn't enough for me. Instead I worked 40 hours a week on top of school, practicing what I was learning.
Fortunately for me, I worked with some really great chefs who have cared about my success and have always pushed me to the next level.

Anyway, Thats a brief snippet of my opinion of culinary school. It has been a wild two years. Thank you Art Institute, and thanks to all the chefs who have helped me along the way.

I really couldn't have done it without you.

on a totally unrelated note, I am making duck prosciutto!

It wont be done for about two weeks though :(

Thanks for reading!

-TIM

Crispy Pork Belly Sandwhich with Balsamic Onion Jam and Pickled Cabbage.

This was a good one

I bought about 3 pounds of pork belly to play around with from Rainshadow meats (which is an awesome butcher shop in capitol hill), and kept it in my freezer for a while because I wasn't sure what to do with it. finally I was inspired by a couple of recipes that I had read recently. I took my favorite parts from each of them and came up with something different entirely.

Heres what I used

Pork Belly

Chinese 5-spice

Minced Garlic

Mire Poix (Carrots, Onion, Celery)

Salt (always)

Chicken Stock

I started by scoring the pork belly so that it could absorb the flavor of the seasoning. after that I rubbed it with an excessive amount of chinese 5-spice,  because in my opinion, It's a really great, complex array of flavors that is spicy, kind of sweet, nutty, and subtle, all at the same time.

After the 5-spice goodness and a little garlic was rubbed on the belly, I refrigerated it for 2 days to let all the flavor absorb into the pork. Afterwards, I turned on the oven to 200 degrees and covered the pork belly in chicken stock and some Mire Poix and slow braised it for about 9 hours over night to make sure that it not only got tender, but had enough time to combine with the other ingredients and take on their flavors.

It came out tender as tender can be, and it even tasted pretty good.

After it cooled down,  I heated up some oil until it was smoking and seared off a few slices. They turned out great! it was crispy on the outside, but super, ridiculously tender on the inside.

The balsamic onion jam was easy. It might sound a bit odd, but it was pretty tasty. all it takes is:

onions

Balsamic vingar

sugar

salt

butter or oil

I had seen the chef at Rover's make an onion jam while I interned there, but had never made one. What he did was take some caramelized onions and slowly stirred in rice wine vinegar. If done properly, the Vinegar will emulsify with the fat used to caramelize  the onions and will get really creamy. I did the same thing, but the onion jame he made was really acidic and simple, which was fine for what he used it for, but I wanted mine to be a little more complex. 

I started with the same basic premise and caramelized some onions. At the end though, I added a good amount of vinegar (enough to come about 3/4 of the way up onions), and let it reduce with a touch of sugar to take a little of the acidic edge off. Balsamic vinegar is really pungent and acidic, but when reduced, the sugars concentrate and it gets sweeter and thicker.  When it was all reduced with the onions, I seasoned it just a bit with salt. it looks sort of weird, but it was great!

The pickled cabbage was the easiest. All I did was mix white wine vinegar with sugar, salt,  touch of lemon, and let it soak. And then hey! it turned out like pickled cabbage.

Lastly, I toasted a whole wheat bun with some butter and garnished with a spicy dill pickle and whole grain mustard.

And here is the final product! It was really great! Although, I think that if I were to do it again, I would make pork belly sliders instead of a full sandwhich. 

Maybe it's because I am in a skinny guy, but it was a bit too much for me to eat. 

Either way, It was really good! 

Thanks for reading!

-Tim

P.S. As a side note, I'm going to be graduating on tuesday! expect pictures of me in a spiffy chef jacket.