Rice in a nice warm bath = Risotto !!

Well, it is that time in the course when a variety of skills and techniques need to be consolidated. Last week we made stock ... white and brown, from veg, veal and chicken. Everyone knows what 'mirpois'

means now (no excuses!), and how to make two kinds of stock. This was done to prepare the way for ...

RISOTTO !!!

Rice, bathing in nice warm liquids, with a bit of outside flavour added, = risotto.

Yesterday everyone got a demonstration lesson from Chef ... today it was time to put that demo into personal practice. Did everyone pay attention? What flavours will you and your partner choose for your particular effort?

Are the results saleable? (always the big question)

We start by making 'bitter butter', with melted butter receiving some flattened (but not pulverised) garlic and onion, which are sweated only, for about 10 minutes, then strained. This butter is reserved and the garlic and onion sautéed a bit more, at higher heat, to gently tease out their natural sugars through caramelization. These are then quite finely diced and reserved for final garnish, if desired.

While the butter is being made, the stock is heated to a good simmer, and held there.

We measure the rice and get ready for toasting it. Arborio rice is used in our MPC kitchen, although Chef prefers Carnaroli (if available). Arborio is easily available at Loblaws ... and remember, if you want to do this at home, do NOT substitute any other rice varieties ... no long-grain, no Basmati, no Pearl, no sticky. Just use Arborio or Carnaroli.

In a wicked-hot dry pan, we toast the rice. 65 grams per person for an app, about 100 grams for a main. My students were working in pairs today, and each pair prepared a 200 gram product.

After the rice shows good toasting, we drop the heat at the same time as the wine goes in, and quickly stir so nothing sticks. When the wine is all absorbed or driven off, the hot stock is ladled in. We start with sufficient to cover the rice entirely to about double its depth, and as this cooks off we maintain the stock level just a tad above the surface of the gently-cooking rice. We keep this up for about 19 or 20 minutes.

While the rice is gently cooking, shred the chosen cheese.

If you want to present 'risotto al funghi', prepare the mushrooms now and hold hot.

Heat your plates. Don't serve risotto onto cold plates ... ever!

At about the 21 minute mark (ALWAYS watch your time, my students are taught), test the rice by taking a grain or two out of the pot and putting them into your mouth and gently biting through the grains as you hold them across your big front teeth. If you bite down and still feel the nerve at the centre of the rice not wanting to give way, cook for a few minutes (3 or 4) more and test again. When the rice is ALMOST done (i.e., al dente), turn off the heat and move the pan off the hob.

Stir in the reserved bitter butter and the mushrooms (if desired) and the shredded cheese(s). If a slightly runnier consistency is needed, add a few small dabs of butter and stir through to melt. Correct the flavours with S/P and serve onto a HEATED plate then smack down as taught. Add a top garnish of a few dried celery leaves or a bit of fresh thyme or rosemary, and serve. At this time you may also garnish with the caramelised garlic and onion from the bitter butter preparetion, if you choose.

A fine glass of the Italian beverage of your choice and ...

You have a delicious dinner!

Many thanks to Sabrina, my kitchen helper this semester, for taking all the pictures today.

(And Sabrina won't tell anyone, but today was her birthday, so two of her friends in our chef school chose to step away from their risotto and make her a delicious birthday treat ... a crumble base and top in a brownie pan, between which nestled two layers of Meyer lemon semifreddo

separated by a layer of decadent chocolate. Yum!)

Happy Birthday, Sabrina!

Make Me Cookies ... Again!

Every semester starts the same way ... after a brief introduction, Chef organizes everyone in some random way (today it was by shoe-size) and gives the order; "Make Me Cookies"! A recipe out of a cookbook from 1945 (seriously) is used. It is a wonderful recipe.

The results this semester (like most semesters) were ... um ... mixed. Some were inedible, some perfect, and one group had theirs all flow into one enormous lava-like mess.

Every week has one student designated to be the Sous-Chef, and develop leadership and observational skills.

This first week it is Noah, and he is doing an excellent job. (Noah is the tallest in the photo, assisting on the hot line.)

Every group has the same challenge ... work together for the first time, try to follow a recipe they have never seen, make a product thay have only the vaguest idea of and learn to communicate effectively with each other while they try to read for content, implication and sequence. This is a crash-course in cooperation, and the groups worked very well. Here are a few shots:

Aaaaand ... the process:

Here we are ... the very first products. Mostly edible.

Stay tuned for more next week!

Many Abilities = No Disabilities = Kitchen Fun, and Lunch (and cookies)

Each one of us, dear reader(s), sees the world through our own glasses ... our peculiar perspective. We interpret what is around us, and the people we see (or, sometimes, not see). Part of everyone's growth in Monarch Park Collegiate is the complete inclusion of every student into every opportunity, as best fits their abilities, interests and needs.

The person behind much of this inclusion is Monarch Park's wonderful Jay Arrington. He encourages, cajoles, pushes, demands, explains, organizes, arranges and includes everyone in his expansive and generous view of the world. The talented cadre of teaching assistants, personal support workers and programming assistants who make up his sub-set of staff work every single day to ensure that no kid is left out.

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Well, sometimes life gets in the way of an outrageous idea. Sometimes there just is no time in the school daily calendar to go and play in the kitchen. For all those students whose schedules were just too darn busy throughout the rest of the semester, today was their special day. Jay said YES, and so it was.

YOUR TIME HAS COME! thundered Chef at 10 after 9 in the morning to a group of slightly startled students. NOW it is UP TO YOU!! Go and get your hands clean and then come and see me here in the centre of the kitchen. Today you will make your own lunch, and it will not be a wretched sandwich. NO! Today you will make your own spanakopita and tzatziki for lunch, and then cookies to take home. You will use all your talents and you will rely on each other. Now GO and wash those paws!

Everyone scurried ... some people could reach into the sink, some needed help with a wash-cloth and soap. Mr Arrington borrowed a hideous blue T-shirt from chef's stash of really ugly shirts so he could wash dishes. Jenn and Lorna (who have been working in the kitchen all semester with particular students) helped the rest of the support staff figure out what was going on. Jenn made Chef more espresso. And more again. This was going to get fairly manic, fairly quickly.

There was a quick demo on how to treat phylo pastry ... how to hold it, and investigate its fragility.

Everyone had a chance to just eat some raw dough (yuck!), and understand how the pastry brushed with butter would make a strong, pliable pillow.

Jackson Brabander, a Culinary Arts program graduate, had come into the school to assist Chef and the students for the day (Thank You, Jackson!!), and he managed to work with Jenn and Lorna to keep Chef organized and supplied with equipment.

He also put away a huge pile of washed dishes, and generally keep the place able to rock along fast and furiously.

Carry the pastry on the back of your hands!

Brush out to the edges, not across and edge, with the butter!

Crumble the feta cheese finely!

Squeeze the living daylights out of that spinach!

Zest those lemons!

Fold those spanakopita pillows tight!

There is so much to do ... so much that everyone had a chance to get involved. We had four slightly-competitive teams form up. The people who can reach the counters and trays get to brush the pastry. The ones who can squeeze out towels full of gooey spinach wring their hardest. Everyone gets involved in learning the proper words for movements, for knives, for asking for help usefully, for memorizing what comes from where in the pantries and chillers.

Everyone learns how useful and carefully-written a professional recipe is. The learning and movement became a wheel-chair ballet, a happy / crazy / joyful work of living art...which was edible!

Somehow Jackson had time to make some pizzas in all this chaos. And some hummus (which was later forgot in the fridge ... that was Chef's fault). AND Jackson also made time to re-decorate the cold pantry as well (just to get it done, you know ... ). Jackson is a real hero today!

Finally ... time to stop for lunch. And slightly collapse!

We had a few leftover spanakopita pillows and tzatziki, and offered them to some rather hungry Gr 12 science students who were studying for their very last exam. They all came as a group to thank the students for their talent and great generosity. Bravo, everyone!

In the afternoon we started with a "Dirty Dishes Dance" for 10 frantic, loud and crazy minutes. Every single thing got cleaned and put away in less than 10 minutes flat. Impressive? You bet!

The afternoon was just for making cookies to take home. Jackson did the mis-en-place for everyone, and two teams got together. Wets were prepared, drys were measured. A lesson in particular use of a micro-wave to melt butter for baking (DON'T DO IT!!!) was shared by Chef. Wooden spoons were wielded, and then the ball-rollers got into business.


Every single cookie came out perfectly. Every single one. Wow!! No splattered cookies, no melted messes.

And the cookies were bagged (with great help from Shelley) and every student got a bag of cookies to take home (or gnaw on in the bus on the way!). Chef is convinced that not a single cookie will actually roll into anyone's house or apartment today, but that does not matter in the great scheme of things.

And in perfect time everything was done. The kitchen was spotless, and knives were all put away, the equipment sparkled, Josh did a last spray-and-wash dance around the steel counter-tops and Mr Wyse took the last bag of laundry up the stairs.

Thanks, everyone, for coming to the kitchen to play. Thanks particularly to Jackson, Lorna, Jenn, Jay and the DD/PH staff ... you made magic happen, and that is truly a beautiful and loving thing.

Here ... more shots of a Happy Day.