Piggly Wiggly

Our second night in the new kitchen still feels awkward. We are so used to coming into class with a set of recipes and a game plan that it throws me off not knowing exactly what we are trying to make for that night.

Our first big buffet is on Wednesday and everything needs to be presented no later than 8:30 pm so we won’t have a lot of time to prep that night. Our goal last night was to get as much as we could done in advance.

I am in charge of all the pork dishes. I’m doing a stuffed roasted boneless pork loin that will be stuffed with sweet Italian sausage, a pork forcemeat, dried apricots, sweet breads, bread crumbs, and herbs. There’s also a rack of Pork that I frenched and will use a dry savory herb rub when I roast it. I made the pork rillette and cooked the pork pâté last night in a bain-marie at 350 degrees until the internal temperature was about 145 degrees.

I started the evening by preparing two potato gratins, one with thinly sliced potatoes, with a layer of dried plums in the center all bathed in heavy cream. The other gratin I made was a potato fennel gratin with parmesan and crème fraiche between layers of potatoes. The gratins were baked, bubbly and set aside to cool so that on Wednesday they will have melded flavors and we only have to heat them up.

Other menu items include: Arancini (risotto rice balls), a roasted beet salad with goat cheese, stuffed quail, salmon with spinach and mushroom duxelles wrapped in puff pastry, veal roast, glazed ham, rice salad, black beans, fresh fruit and a blueberry cobbler.

I’m hoping all the dishes will be a success, we make our “customers” happy and "Th-th-th-that's all folks!"