My Leetle Dumplings

Holy crap! Mulberry was wicked goooooood!!! I took some pics with my phone, but they're all crazy dark - guess I'll just have to go back and take good pics. I had the "Devils on Horseback" - mission figs stuffed with gorgonzola, wrapped in candied bacon, roasted, and served with a pink peppercorn and red wine gastrique - and the "FoieBerry Burger" - two parts ground beef, one part foie gras ground together and seared, with mixed berry and red wine compote, all served on super crispy, toasted white bread and sprinkled with black sea salt. Jeeeeeeez Louise! I really enjoyed this meal.

Friday was a pretty simple day in class. We continued "dumplings". We started with Feather Dumplings in a Lemon & Sage Chicken Broth - basically chicken and dumplings without chicken, but the lightest, airiest dumplings you've ever had. They were tasty (20), but not too visually appealing thus the lack of photo.

Then we made Pierogis -













basically that same Potato Gnocchi dough, but no parmesan, almost overworked, rolled out thin, stuffed with mushroom duxelle and pinched together like a ravioli. Boil it, then sear it in brown butter and serve with caramelized onions and sour cream sauce. It was really good. Almost a 20. At the last second, Chef Waggoner noticed that the bottom of ONE of the pierogis had got a little too brown. 19.

I rolled through a pretty beefy list at Uchi today: Ocha Zuke broth, San Bai Zu, leeks, Yuzu Kosho, avocados, Ebi for Maki, blanched asparagus, and orange supremes. I also got a demo on filleting skate (sting ray!!!) and how to properly scale a fish. It was a really great day. I feel like I'm starting to move up the ranks among the stages (like mirages). It's still a ton of fun and I learn something new every shift.

I may try some fun new stuff tomorrow, I'll let ya know. And next week is Potato and Egg week. WOO!