Just what I needed

Today at work was interesting in a good and bad way.

My morning sucked, like totally blew chunks really hard everywhere. Aggravating co-worker and tedious/monotonous/completely disinteresting tasks.

Boring has been the theme of most of my days at the Palace of late. I like my job, but the boring monotony is really getting under my skin. I want something more active. I used to learn something new every time I walked into work, but lately I haven't done anything new or exciting in quite some time. No learning experiences, no adventures to write home about.

But today ended on a high note, thankfully. It was the sort of burst I needed to revitalize my desire to work at the Palace. I got to work with my bosses boss. The executive sous chef to be more accurate, Chef Jeff. He kept calling me General Patton, I guess it's a play on my last name. I liked it though.

Tomorrow night is the employee of the year recognition dinner and for it they are having braised short ribs=yummy. I had the pleasure of preparing the short ribs for their two hour hot bath. I seared four sheet trays worth of short ribs in a large tilt skillet with mireapoix (that's a 1:1:2 ratio of carrots, celery, and onion), garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Then I added tomato paste and deglazed with merlot and beef stock. Smelled fantastic.

It was the perfect ending, I got to something new and exciting with great product (not to mention I finally got a great hot cooking experience) and Chef Jeff taught me quite a few things about braising. Tis good.

I only wish I could taste those short ribs once their done.

I love scallops

Yet another notch on the culinary tour of things I used to hate or evade.

With a classically french herb butter it was superbly delicious.

Roasted Vegetable and Wine Sauce

A delightful but complicated sauce. Very complex and rich. I loved it.

The leftover stock has been used in such things as the monkfish from the previous post.

Trying New Things

It's fun, especially when you begin to understand how enlightening it feels to open up your palate to things once forbidden.

I'm still developing my taste for fish and shellfish, but tonight my dad made monkfish.

Since coming into my own palate-wise I have always wanted to try this poor man's lobster. Ugly though it may be, it tastes divine.

It was barded with bacon and seasoned with oregano salt and pepper. He also used a vegetable stock (I'll post the recipe, it was mighty tasty. We used it on a roast the next day) I had made for a Thanksgiving dish that we had extra of and froze. The monkfish was amazing, I'm a believer for sure.

The next experiment is scallops, never had one. Never wanted to have one. I'm dying to try one.