Japanese Menu January 9+10

Everyone -

Since we are short the person assigned to make Dashi - a necessary component of several dishes - if any one has time, please let me know ans look at the recipe for Dashi on Moodle. It's fairly simple. If no one volunteers, I'll assign it to someone.  ALSO - we will be receiving some Hamachi Kama for family meal on Day 6. The station usually assigned to prepare this is vacant this block. Anyone want a simple Grilled fish item? There's no recipe, talk to me in the AM.

The things coming off of the steam table today will be the Steamed White Rice, Braised beef,Yakisoba Noodles, Skewer Sampler Plate (Three1/3 pans - 1 each for Chicken Yakatori, Squid with Ginger-Soy marinade, Salt Cured Salmon Skewers), Sake Steamed Flounder, Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura, Pork Belly Gyoza.

All cold station people will assist in setting up sushi stations - Lynn will be coordinator of this. 

  For the Sushi Plates:

Station #2 will provide the sunomono, pickled ginger, wasabe, edamame, and fill 1 oz ramekins with soy sauce. 

Lynn will set up stations for Sushi Nigiri, Sushi Maki, and Sushi Inari as shown below:

Sushi Plate:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Sushi Station Set ups

Maki Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Nigiri Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Inari Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

 
There is a Change to the plan for preparing rice:
KAYLA will Prepare the Sushi Rice (and NOT prepare Long Grained White Rice) - 10 cups for Day 6 and 15 cups for Day 7. Talk to me about dividing it into batches for cooking so that you don't crowd the hangiri while cooling it. See details of the procedure below.

Making Sushi Rice is key. Watch the video and be prepared to start the process as soon as you come in at 7:00 am.
- Rinse and drain rice until water is clear - the more clear the water, the better the rice. Anticipate spending 15 minutes or so washing rice.
- Soak rice for 1 hour in fresh, cool water
- Drain and Air Dry rice on lined sheet tray from 30 minutes
- prepare vinegar solution while rice dries
- Steam rice - while rice is steaming, fill hangiri with cool water, when rice is finished cooking and while it's resting, dump water from hangiri, towel excess water out and then put rested rice into hangiri and add vinegar solution while "cutting" and fanning. Ask me for additional demo on this - I want to bring everyone in on it to watch.

- When rice is cool to the point that it's no longer steaming, stop "cutting" and divide rice into 3 1/3 hotel pans - one pan for each type of sushi. Cover rice with damp towels to keep from forming a crust and hold at room temp - don't refrigerate it.

Once the sushi stations are set up, I'll demo each type of sushi to get you started - if you're set up for demos by 10:00 am you can make all of the sushi slightly ahead hold it. It works best to set up all 3 sushi stations on the same table so you can share ingredients. I usually use stations closest to the Chef's Desk.

Station #1:
Pork Cutlet is  self explanatory. You should anticipate plating directly from the fry station, so draw a detailed diagram of how the station will look. You can fry in the fryer, turn around to the table behind you and slice the pork, plate it with the salad and a ramekin of sauce and then pass to the steam table for rice. The sauce should be in 1 oz. ramekins, the cabbage salad should be dressed just before service, and the cutlets fried to order - if they are pounded thin enough they take less than 1 minute to fry. You'll need a cutting board and knife on your station to slice pork before plating - everything in Japanese service is cut to "bite size" before plating because there are typically no knives at the table.

Station 2:
Make Cucumber and Wakame Sunomon Salad - but you BIG job is getting all of the sushi garnishes prepped and collected. Each sushi plate will need, see the photo at the top of this page.
- 1 oz ramekin soy sauce
- 1 shiso leaf
- small amount of drained pickled ginger - house made on Day 6 for service on Day 7(from Student #2)
- wasabi for the plate and wasabi for the sushi production - see below (on Day 6 we will use freshly grated wasabi for the class, on Day 7 we will use wasabi made from powder)
- blanched soy beans  - also from Student #2(make sure you get the ones IN the pods - the store room usually messes up the order and sends the ones out of the pods)

Get all of this stuff together early. The soy sauce in ramekins - about 80 ramekins on Day 7 - and all of the other stuff together on a sheet tray so you can bring it to the sushi production area when they need it (hopefully by 10:00 am). Communication with the other teams and sous is important. You can see a picture of the finished plate with all of the garnishes at the top of this page.

For grating fresh wasabi on Day 6, speak to the chef for a class demo and tasting. When you make the wasabi paste on Day 7, follow the recipe, but add the water slowly while stirring. When it gets to the consistency of play dough, good for shaping into balls or cubes for garnish, take half out of the bowl and set it aside. Continue adding cool water and stirring until it reaches a smooth, spreadable consistency - like toothpaste. This should go into a brown plastic cup for the sushi production stations.

Student #3 -  Your primary task - as listed on the tracking schedule, will be to prep and cook the vegetable accompaniments for beef teriyaki - be sure to remove the "strings" from the snow peas and the thin, brown ends from the bean sprouts. The Beef Teriyaki is very popular, so on Day 7 have 1/3 of your vegetables already sauteed and in the steam table at 11:30 ready to go, saute the remaining vegetables in batches one after the other once we open the doors. Your second dish will be the Yakisoba Pork Noodles - make 1/2 recipe for Day 6 and 1 full recipe for Say 7. this can be made slightly ahead of service and served from the steam table. this will allow you to then assist during service and saute your remaining vegetables from the saute station.

Student #4 - Beef Teriyaki - Make sure you watch the demo on cleaning skirt steak. Cut and portion into 150g portions, 5 portions for Day 6 and 12 portions for Day 7. Marinate steaks and set up the grill station for maximum efficiency.  You will cook and plate from your station, so Draw a detailed diagram of how the grill station will be set up - Grill cloth, oil, grill brush, resting pan with rack, cutting board to slice meat, slicing knife, tongs. Set your station up so that you are "self contained". Again - if you draw a detailed diagram of your entire station and label all of the items you'll need, setting up will be much easier and you'll look like a rock star. Hint - Beef teriyaki is very popular. On Day 7 you're going to get hit hard as soon as the doors open. Have 5 steaks grilled and resting(not cold,just resting) at 11:30. As you get an order for one steak, fire another. Skirt steak should be cooked to medium doneness, medium rare is too chewy; as with other items in Japan, the steaks will be sliced just prior to plating - ask Chef for demo on slicing and plating.In addition to the teriyaki,  the Pork Butts for the Vietnamese Menu need to be brined on Day 6 and marinated on Day 7. The recipe for this is embedded in the Bahn Mi recipe in the Vietnamese section.Once you think the grill is properly set up - with EVERY THING - talk to me about fine tuning it. I'll work with you. Remember - the stations producing skewers will be using a portion of the grill, we should discuss early how that will work - it would help if you had a plan to talk about.

Student #5: 
As described above, you will be making the sushi rice - 10 cups on day 6 and 15 cups on Day 7 - watch the videos, read the instructions above and in the recipe, and ask questions so you can start early. In addition - We should  receive several whole flounder,  I only want to prepare the flesh from 1 whole flounder (4 filets, 2 portions) for Day 6. If we get more fish than that, ice it and hold for Day 7. On Day 7 we will prepare 10 or more portions - see chef for exact count. The fish is rolled around  cabbage/spinach rolls,  watch the video on the web site for making them and check out the plate presentation for the fish. On Day 7 You may be able to get the fish early - try picking it up around 7:30. I can show you how to fabricate it and set up the plates, you will cook them as needed in a wok steamer and serve them in shallow casserole dishes set on oval plates with white rice and miso pickles miso pickles are made by Station 8 and should be in the cooler- the miso pickles can be VERY salty right out of the container, so taste them and talk to the chef, we may soak them in cool water for a while before service if needed. 

Student #6:
The braise is pretty self explanatory. Choose a small rondo - you don't want too much surface area or your braise will burn, if we don't have a proper size rondo, consult the chef.. When finished, hold it hot in a deep 1/2 hotel pan in the steam table.See that it is garnished with scallions,sesame seeds, and Miso Pickles.  Read the miso pickle recipe so you understand what you are using, even though it will be made by someone else. These pickles can be VERY salty, sometimes they need to be soaked ion cool water to remove some salt before serving, so taste and check with chef early in the day to see if this is necessary. The Miso is fairly expensive but it can be used over and over again, so don't discard it when preparing the pickles for service.Also - prepare the broth for Pho for the Vietnamese menu. The recipe for the broth can be found in the Vietnamese section of Moodle.

Student #7:
Producing tempura shrimp and vegetables using a wok set up as a deep fryer. Use the large wok closest to the service area. On Day 6 make only 3 portions, on Day 7 make 10+ (ask chef for exact amount ) The technique for coating the shrimp and vegetables takes some practice, make sure to work with the chef on Day 6. The tempura should be served immediately after it's cooked, so yo will be making it almost ala minute, have a station set up on a tray stand near the wok so that you are self sufficient.

Student #8
Make  miso pickles today. Plan to work with Lynn and Nelissa to set up sushi stations and make the bulk of the sushi - make sure to look at the station set ups above and watch the videos in the web site. The Daikon and Carrot pickles for the Vietnamese menu are embedded in the Bahn Mi recipe in the Vietnamese Section of Moodle. 

Student #9:
Plan with other Grill Stations a traffic schedule for the grill and talk to me  first thing in the morning about it. Ask me about the possibility of using the charcoal grill - Satay Grill - as well. Chicken Yakatori Skewers - make 15 skewers on Day 6, but make the sauce ahead for a full recipe to be used both Day 6 and Day 7, it requires making a stock and a reduction which will take some time; on Day 7 you will prepare 45 skewers. Also, look ahead to the Vietnamese menu and prep and marinate the Lemon Grass Ribs and Lemon Grass Pork Belly -  See chef for exact amount to prep.

Stations #9 + 10 - We have a recipe for Grilled Salt Cured  Salmon Skewers which I typically put on the same plate with your skewers to form a "Trio". This block we are short the position that usually makes these, if you would like more practice grilling things, check out that recipe on Moodle and talk to me in the morning.

Student #10:
Make as many squid skewers as you can, it would be good to have 45 whole ones. Read my comments about setting up the grill for station #9 for details and discuss with him and me. How many Grilled squid skewers you prepare will depend on how large or small the squid are. Generally we should get about 20 skewers from 1 kilo of small squid. On Day 6 make only 1/4 of a recipe of sauce/marinade and talk to Chef about how many skewers to make - probably between 6-8. Save the rest of the squid on ice in the cooler for Day 7. Don't forget to bake pate!!!You will also prepare the forcemeat for the pate from the Bahn Mi Recipe in the Vietnamese menu - look ahead for that. The forcemeat should be made on Day 6, allowed to absorb flavors over night, be baked in a water bath on Day 7, chilled and sliced for use on the Bahn Mi on Days 8 + 9.The Pate recipe is embedded in the Bahn Mi recipe in the Vietnamese Section.

Student #11:  For Day 6 steam 10 cups long grained white rice and for day 7, steam 20. This is the same rice that we used in the Chinese section, review the video on this before coming to class. You will also be setting up the Udon noodle station using the 4 burners on the right side of the range. The 2 left burners will be for another person to saute vegetables.  Have one large pot of boiling water with a china cap in it to refresh your noodles ala minute and then have 3 small pots with lids that you can use to make small 1-2 portion batches as needed throughout service. There should be a video for making the "spinach/cabbage" rolls embedded in the Sake Steamed Flounder recipe, that's what you want to use. I prefer to cook this dish a few at a time during service so that everything is fresh. It's best to make a demo portion starting at 11:15 , just for practice. Just prior to service start 2 portions for the first order. When they are done, hold for the first orders and then start another one. It takes about 7-10 minutes for each batch, so if you fire the portions about 5 minutes apart, no one has to wait more than a few minutes. If you get hit with a lot of orders all at once you can fire 2-3 in the same pot and have the expediter explain that there's a short wait.

Student #12: CANCELED  The tracking schedule has you assigned to make two soups - Miso and Scallop; I would prefer to make only miso this block, but severel different variations.  On Day 6 make 2 liters of Miso Soup using the Golden Millet Miso paste and on Day 7 make 8 liters using the Barley Miso and 4 liters using the Sweet White Miso paste - it will be interesting for us to all taste the differences. Be aware that you need to make dashi to use as a base for the Miso soups, the dashi recipe is embedded in the original Miso Soup recipe. Save the solids from the Day 6 dashi when you strain it, it can be used again to fortify the dashi on Day 7.

Student #13:  Plan to make 2x the filling recipe for the Gyoza on Day 6. You will make only 1x the sauce and fill only 25 dumplings on Day 6, but save the filling and make 2x the sauce on Day 7 for service. Ask chef to order pre-made dumpling wrappers from the store room, we will experiment to see if they are as good as, or better, than the ones we make ourselves - but also be prepared to make the dough from the Chinese Pan fried Dumplings 1x the recipe. If you have extra time on Day 6 you may help Student #15 set up sushi stations.

Student #14: Cold Soba Noodles - not exactly the type of dish for January in new York, but I'd like to test this resipe and photograph the MEP and the finished plate. Please discuss setting this up with me on Day 6. It's a fairly simple dish, so you are also coordinating the set up of the sushi stations. See the photos above and discuss with me any questions early on Day 6. You will need to be familiar with the garnishes brought to the table by Station 2 and make sure they are all brought together for
the finishing and plating of the sushi. We should have fresh wasabe for family meal, demo and tasting...we will use this AND wasbe powder to compare and contrast.

Student #15:  For the Onigiri you will use the same sushi rice as the others, so preparation of the condiments will be the primary focus. This will be the first test of this recipe in this course, read through the Kombu Relish recipe and discuss the options with me in the morning.