Thailand Days 10+11

Hi Every one - It's 6:15 on Sunday and I checked n to find that evreything I posted on Friday (for Monday) was gone!

Sorry if this caused any confusion, but now I'm typing really fast to get SOMETHING up for you. Most of it is a ut + paste from last block, nut there may be minor discrepancies with the tracking schedule. If you see any, just drop me a note here or see me first thing in the morning.


Sous Chefs-

Plating: 
Street food similar to VN menu, sauce in the center as mentioned below.

 Curries are served in 12" rimmed bowl with Jasmine Rice - a small portion of each curry in every bowl - it's a "sampler plate". Red Duck Curry, Green Pork Curry, Jungle Curry

Pad Thai is stir fried in batches, as needed, and served from the steam table in a deep bowl, garnishes are roasted peanuts and a lime wedge.

Stir fried Squid with Thai Basil - Squid is served in a round or oval casserole dish which sits on a large oval plate with Jasmine rice.

Hot and sour soup for Day 10- watch demo on how to cook shrimp in broth, make soup in a wok, hot hold. Scale to 1/2 gallon on Day 10.

 Day 11 is Coconut Chicken soup, make 1 full recipe , 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 - 1/2 recipe on Day 10 and 1 full recipe on Day 11

Jasmine rice - 8 cups Day 10 +  12 cups Day 11 - rinse and cook in Rice Cooker

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. On Day 10 we only need enough sauce for 11 people. Day 11 - enough to serve about 65.

The Steam table will need to be used to hold the curries, the pad thai, stir fried squid and the jasmine rice. Put each curry in separate, deep 1/3 pans, same with the squid.  Pad Thai should be in a deep 1/2 hotel pan, and the Jasmine rice in a full hotel pan. Draw a diagram of the line set up and make it complete. Plates: Currys in a 12" shallow bowl with Jasmine rice, Pad Thai in a deep noodle bowl with roasted peanuts and a lime wedge on top of each. Stir fried Squid in deep 1/2 pan, the squid itself is served in a round casserole dish sitting on an ovel platter with jasmine rice sitting on the side - similar to presentation of steamed fish from Japanese menu.

Station #2 -

Pad Thai- 1x recipe on Day 10 and 4x recipe on Day 11. This is a  Stir fried dish and will be cooked "ala minute" in batches for Day 11 service, 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. Make 1x recipe for Day 10 and 1.5x for Day 11. It's 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 to do on Day 10 and follow through on Day 11, DON'T forget to do it.

Station 3-
Make sure you find the satay grills and charcoal before the supplemental goes in. I'll show you how to set it up, but it must be done early, you'll need to fire up charcoal and keep feeding the grill with more charcoal as it burns down.


The Beef Satay - 20 pieces  for Day 10 and 80 pieces  for Day 11. 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 pound it thin and finally marinate it. Talk to me or one of the people from Station 5 Days 8+9 about how to set up the Satay grill,the Satay grill needs charcoal and it needs to be lit far enough ahead to be hot when needed but not so far ahead that it's run out of heat by the time you're ready to cook. Speak to chef about how to light coals, Be sure to feed fresh coals to the grill before you leave for family meal so you'll have a hot fire when you return. Also be sure to check that we have some charcoal when you place your supplemental order in the morning When service is over, place hot charcoal in a hotel pan of water before putting in the compost.

Peanut Sauce - Was made on Day 10, and should be enough used both days. When cooled to use the following day, it needs to be reheated gently, and it may break - it's an emulsion. If it DOES break, fix it the same way you would fix a hollandaise or mayonnaise (and if you think I mean "use an egg", you need to do more research)

Cucumber Salad - follow recipe. Day 10 use only 1 cucumber, Day 11 use 3 and scale other ingredients accordingly. 

Stir Fried Squid -  We will receive frozen squid early and POSSIBY some fresh at 9:00, thaw/prep and clean it. 1x recipe for Day 10 and 2x recipe for Day 11.

Nam Prik Pow - If we have time, I'd like to make another batch of this, if not - we have some already but it's a bit spicier than normal.  Organize the MEP for this and we'll get the rest of the class involved with the actual making of it. It's very good and very unique.

Station #4
Make 1x of the Green Pork and Jungle curry recipes for Day 10 and 2x for Day 11. It's important to start them early, so hustle. Use a small rondo or large sauce pot with a cover, remember to keep covered until the meat is tender to avoid drying out and burning by evaporation. Also remember that you can braise in the oven if the range gets 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 deep 1/3 hotel pans - -covered.

When your curries are on, assist Station #3 with their MEP - they have many components to work on.

Station #5-

Duck Curry, the duck should have been marinated on Day 9, we'll use 1/4 of the marinated duck on Day 10 and the rest on Day 11 - recipe is pretty self explanatory. Pan Roast Duck, while duck is roasting, prepare sauce. When both duck and sauce are finished, hold both separately. Near service, gently heat sauce, add duck and gently heat duck in sauce. Ask for clarification on the blog if you need it. Served from a deep 1/3 hotel pan on the steam table as part of the Curry Sampler Plate described above.

Fish cakes - We need to make 1# of fish on Day 10 (1/2 recipe) and double on Day 11. It's 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 325F fryer in small batches as needed for service and put on the street food station in 1/3 pans. I will show you how to form them. They will be served on the street food plate - talk to the sous chefs ahead of service so they can direct you on where to put them when they are cooked, fry them as close to service as possible.