A Juicy Porterhouse Steak!

For my non-Christmas/Holiday dinner this year I was craving a porterhouse steak.  I found a good one that was calling out my name, "yo Kitchen Bitch, I'm a real heart stopper" so naturally I fell for that line.  I knew it was way too much for just me but I had a plan for what I couldn't finish.

When I'm in a meat eating mode basically that's all I really want to eat.  When I eat steaks I do like tomato wedges sprinkled with minced garlic, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and a few sticks of green onions that I rub in salt as I'm eating.  I'm a salt freak with no high-blood pressure problems so I just go for it.  I plug my steak with garlic slices and douse with more salt and pepper then I grilled it.  Here's the before and after...

 

When I ate all I could I wrapped up the remainder and saved it for the next day.  After a huge steak I'm not too hungry the next day and a little soup does me good.  I go for my favorite quickie soup that I call Oasis Soup after the Inn I stayed at in San Francisco while attending the Culinary Academy.  All I had to cook on was an electric burner and a small pot or pan.  My tiny refrigerator didn't hold much so I would take whatever vegetables I had on hand and chop them up to add to my canned chicken stock.  Usually I would put sliced carrots, broccoli, a brussel sprout or two, maybe a few sliced mushrooms and cook them in the stock/broth then add Ramen noodles, minced garlic and sliced green onions.  If I had leftover chicken I'd throw that in too.  I used the leftover steak from my Christmas dinner as the protein in this soup.  Its so easy, flavorful and inexpensive.  I'm sure a lot of people have cooked this soup when getting themselves through school.  Here's what the steak looked like the next day.  Yum.

I really enjoy this soup!

Back to the Kitchen Bitch!

Christmas time came and went and now its time to squeeze in more kitchen time at the Chronicle. I'll be working this next week on some new recipe testing and more writing. Fun! Here's a photo of the Chron Kitchen where I spend my days.

There are two stoves, one electric and the other gas. Naturally, I play on the gas stove. I love the overhanging pots and pans. They're so easy to find and no bending over. The natural light is great coming from that window. It really brightens up the kitchen so I can actually see when I'm cutting off my fingernails with a cleaver.

We also have two refrigerators, one for the staff and the other for the testing. The big long counter top is a must. I love that it is so long. There's plenty of room for 3-4 cooks to squeeze in, which sometimes happens. We also have a dishwasher just for the glassware (wine glasses) and the other normal one.

Its a fun playroom. I'm looking forward to working there tomorrow. I am really learning so much from working with the Chronicle Food and Wine Department staff. They are a great, intelligent bunch of hard workers.

Gratitude is a wonderful attitude.

Cooking for the Chronicle

Today was my first day at the San Francisco Chronicle's Food and Wine Department. It was a cool morning but well past my usual 5:30am wake up. I boarded the Muni bus in nice weather for my short ride to Market Street and 5th then proceeded to walk the remaining few blocks to the Chronicle.

I have come to find out that the F&W dept. don't get in on Monday's until around 10ish (insert smile here). My regular hours are 9:30 till 5pm (ditto the smile here). Once everyone was in and settled I got to my first assignment of cooking turkey legs and breast's confit; meaning cooking the legs submerged in duck fat for 3 hours and the breasts to 135 internal temp then letting it sit in the confit another 20 minutes. I cleaned and prepped the turkey, cut it up, took out the wishbone and got things going.

Well, it turned out the breast recipe didn't cook well enough at 135 degrees so next time it should be about 150ish then let it sit. We need to follow directions explictly at first then make our notations for any changes after.

Next on the list was Cardamom Ice Cream. I love the smell of cardamom seed pods. They are so aromatic. The ice cream was a slice of heaven when it was done. Tomorrow I'll be making pumpkin pies to go with it. Yummm.

There were a lot of dishes, pots, pans and cleanup but it was so pleasant working in a kitchen that is more like a home style kitchen than the big monsters I was used to at school. There is another student from the CCA there too. I know her from our Newspaper Club at CCA so that was nice to see a familar face. The gal who oversees me is also a CCA grad. The three of us were sharing the kitchen today cooking up individual recipes the writers are doing articles on. When we are done cooking we all taste test them, make any corrections and possibly re-do the recipe tomorrow.

I got my security pass and internet access late today so tomorrow I'm set to go. The ride home on the muni was fine and quick. It's a bit crowded but it sure saves on parking. Since this is an internship there is no pay so I must find ways to save, save, save. Gotta make it through the end of January at this gig to get my Cordon Bleu certificate. In the meantime, I need to get started on trying to find a "real" job. Yikes...

I feel like I'm stuck on Disneyland's "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". Scary.