Friday, March 18, 2011

Thailand, Days 10 + 11

EVERY ONE - REMEMBER TO ASSIST STATION 6 WITH VIET-THAI TASTING

Sous Chefs-

Hot and sour soup for Day 10- watch demo on how to cook shrimp in broth, make soup in a wok, hot hold. Day 11 is Coconut Chicken soup - easy, just follow the recipe and taste for fish sauce and lime with me when it's done.
Salad - Green papaya, watch demo on papaya fabrication
Jasmine rice only on Tuesday, Sticky rice AND Steamed Jasmine rice on Wednesday.
Set up Street food station - similar to Vietnamese set-up, chaffing dish on Station 5 with 1/3 pans for hot food, cool food, plates, sweet chili sauce, etc. should all be set up near the chaffing dish. Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram. Sweet Thai Chili sauce comes from store room - bottles labeled "Mai Ploy". This goes in ramekins in center of plate. Peanut sauce for Satay DOES NOT go in a ramekin - hold it in a small plastic cup on the side and put a dab on top of each satay as it goes out.

I have a couple of extra street food items we can add on - the lemon grass beef skewers and some BBQ pork - no recipes for either, just talk to me before 7:30 and I'll tell/show you what to do. If anyone else is interested in picking one of these items up, call out in the "comment" section.

The Steam table will need to be used to hold the Curries, the pad thai, the squid, and the jasmine rice. Put each curry in a 1/3 pan, the Pad Thai and Squid in 1/2 pans and the Jasmine rice in a full hotel pan. Draw a diagram- make it complete. Plates: Curry Sampler in a 12" shallow bowl, Pad Thai in a deep noodle bowl, Chicken Rice - chicken and sauce in a casserole dish sitting on an oval plate with rice and their own cucumber/tomato salad, Squid in an oval casserole on an oval plate, rice on the side of the oval plate.



Station #2 -

Chicken Rice is served room temp in summer, plated at room temp and reheated in a wok steamer across from Table #2 in the cooler months, so it's cold- set up the wok steamer. Entire plate is picked up from your station. You need to make your own rice, make it pilaf style and use rendered duck fat to parch the rice. Pandan leaf is usually available - order it on supplemental if you don't see it on the invoice in the morning. For Service you will need:
- Chaffing dish to hold rice
- Shallow "gratin" dishes to hold chicken and sauce, gratin dish sits on large oval plate with rice and cucumber/tomato/cilantro garnish (this is like and undressed salad tossed together).
- Service utensils to plate. Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram.

Yellow Shrimp Curry - use the curry paste to make the yellow curry sauce. Make the sauce completely except for the shrimp. Hold sauce for service and gently poach the shrimp in 1/3 batches in 1/3 of the sauce - this keeps the shrimp from over-cooking on the steam table.

Station 3-
The squid is stir fried, divide the MEP into 4 batches as usual, you can mix the Oyster Sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and chicken stock together before service. Watch the video, it's pretty easy. I want to do the first batch with you. Squid will be served from the steam table in a 1/2 hotel pan in an oval casserole on an oval plate with Jasmine rice on the side.

The satay - trim off external fat and collagen from Flank steak and let me show you how to cut it for satay. You will trim and cut the meat, then put it on skewers, THEN marinate it. Talk to me or one of the people from Station 5 Day 8+9 about how to set up the Satay grill, you'll need to fire up charcoal and keep feeding the grill with more charcoal as it burns down. When service is over, place hot charcoal in a hotel pan of water before putting in the compost. You need to gently re-heat 1/2 the peanut sauce that was made on Day 8. This sauce breaks easily when heated, if it breaks on you, fix it the same way that you would fix a broken mayonnaise. Watch the video on how to pound meat - I'll have a meat mallet for you to use. Make 2x the cucumber salad - this will go with satay and fish cake on every street food plate.

Station #4 -
Make 2x each curry recipe. It's important to start them early, so hustle. Use small rondos or large sauce pots with covers, remember to keep them covered until the meat is tender to avoid drying out and burning by evaporation. Also remember that you can braise in the oven - the range will get crowded later in the morning, if you don't have room on top of the stove, you can finish in the oven. The braises should go to the steam table in 1/3 hotel pans

Start the lamb broth by roasting the bones - that's all for Day 10 - just roast the lamb bones and the lamb shoulder, cool and store. On Day 11 you should start a stock with the roasted bones as soon as you arrive.

Station #5-

Duck Curry - recipe is pretty self explanatory. Ask for clarification on the blog if you need it. Served from a 1/3 pan on the steam table.

Fish cakes - important that you have a VERY sharp knife to hand mince the fish. Also very important that the long beans are sliced into PAPER thin rounds, if you slice them thicker, the cakes fall apart. Please ask for a demo on slicing the beans before you start. Cakes should be fired in a 325 fryer in small batches as needed for service and put on the street food station in 1/3 pans.

Station #6
Pad Thai- Stir fried dish, divide MEP into 4 batches, it's ok to combine ingredients for sauce ahead. Make sure to have lime and peanuts for garnish. Served from 1/2 hotel pan in steam table into deep noodle bowls. Be sure NOT TO OVER SOAK THE NOODLES - about 5 minutes in very hot tap water(NOT BOILING WATER). The idea is for them to be pliable, not ready to eat. In the wok you will add more liquid and heat and they will become done at that point. I believe that the embedded video may not be exactly the same recipe as the one you have, if it looks different, the technique is the same. Remind me if it's different and we can shoot a new video.
Seafood "yam" is the seafood salad. Easy to make, hold at room temp in a 1/3 or 1/6 pan for use on the street food station.
Pork Vindaloo - follow recipe for 1st stage of the paste - this is important, DON'T forget to do it.

Questions?

7 comments:

  1. Dear Chef Pardus,

    I am on team 5 which involves the Fish Cakes. While the tracking schedule calls for 60 portions of Fish Cakes, the recipe on your website yields 40. Should I convert the recipe to be prepared to make 60 Fish Cakes?

    Sincerely,
    Jake

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Chef Pardus,
    I am on station 4 and I have two questions about our dish.

    1. The blog says to make double the curry so does that mean we need to make all new batches of curry paste for day 11?
    2. Our recipe calls for palm sugar I was just wondering if we are going to be getting that in or if we are just going to use the same sugar we always use.

    Thank you very much
    Jessica Hargrove

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jake - just make them a little smaller, you'll get 60 out of the same recipe.

    Jessica- sorry about the confusion on that, I should change the tracking schedule. Make one 2# batch of pork, beef, and jungle curry for each day. That should give you enough paste so you don;'t have to repeat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Chef Pardus,

    I am on station 3 and we have 2 questions:

    -For the marinade for the Beef Satay, would you like us to make a paste of the lemongrass, garlic, and ginger to stick better to the meat or leave it minced?

    -We were wondering for our timeline and planning, at what time would be good to get the charcoal going for the grill? Right after family meal?

    Thank you Chef
    Frank Cotroneo

    PS Jessica, Jake and our team need palm sugar as well. Jake said he saw a few bottles of palm sugar in the cabinet on Friday. Jake and I discussed just now that I can heat up the bottle of palm sugar and we can all take what we need. We only need a few tablespoons.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Frank make a paste - mince fine with your knife and finish in a spice grinder. Start the fist layer of charcoal at about 10:15 and add another layer just BEFORE family meal. Please talk to me about using the grill before you put the meat on the skewers - it's easier to grill if yo have an idea of how the meat fits on the skewer and the skewer fits on the grill - it all works together. Put both containers of palm sugar in a pot of hot (not boiling) water as soon as you come in (open the top and check for and remove wax first). If it's still difficult to get out after a short time, let me know...I have a few tricks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Chef Pardus,

    In regards to marinating the tandoori chicken as part of team 5's prep list, I would like to clarify the process. Will we be using the yogurt created by team 3 and the red chili chutney created by team 2 as part of our marinade?

    Sincerely,
    Jake

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jake - Good analysis and questions. The yogurt made tomorrow will not be ready until Day 12, I have some coming in from the store room for you on Day 11. The Chili Chutni SHOULD be made by team 2 on Day 11. Double check with them to make sure they know you need it and have it ready for you. They should be making enough for all needs for both days.

    ReplyDelete