Thursday, December 15, 2011

Days 10+11 Thailand

Thailand

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
Sticky rice AND Steamed Jasmine rice on Friday, Jasmine rice only on Monday.
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.

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?

3 comments:

  1. Chef,
    Station 2 has a few questions about the Hainan Chicken. First, would 8 o'clock be too early to begin cooking the chickens, and will the sauce be placed in the casserole dish just before it's fired in the steamer? We were also wondering what kind of tomato we were using for our garnish and how thick the slices should be. Finally, the blog post says to set up a wok steamer across from station #2, do we have wok steamers that fit into the small woks, or should we set up in the largest wok closest to your desk? Thanks.

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  2. Chef,
    This is From Station 6 Shrimp Pad Thai Team,

    Shrimp Pad Thai:
    The recipe calls for Cilantro Sprigs. How exactly do literally throw in whole sprigs of Cilantro or is there any fabrication to them prior?

    Thank you chef

    ReplyDelete
  3. Justin - you may cook the chicken any time. Sauce may be put into casserole just prior to re-heating.Tomato - not sure, what ever the store room sends us. Closest large wok to you.

    Bret - Small sprigs,not individual leaves and not entire stalks.

    ReplyDelete