Catering Day...

Today is the day! ...

   I got up this morning quite early as I couldn't sleep (the problem of being a baker is that you can NEVER sleep in). I started off my morning with baking my tart shells. I was feeling really good at this point as I had a lot of time to prep everything. As it was only like 6:30 am and I had to be at my destination at 2:30 pm. So I thought that I had a lot of time... Well it turns out that tart shells take about 25 minutes to bake and I only was using 3 tart tins. So if you add that up it equals 3 hours and 48 minutes. Which took a lot longer than I expected. The only problem was that I also needed my oven to bake my strawberry meringues, which equals 3 hours. So that is already 7 hours, and that wasn't even with the walnut streusel that I also had to bake off. So my day consisted of stressing out cause my oven wouldn't bake fast enough as everything had to be at different temperatures, some had to have high heat and other cool. So I ending up pulling the last tart shells out of the oven right as I was headed out the door.

  So as I was stressing out all morning wanting my oven to bake faster, I was also making lots of the other components for the dessert. Which included:

~Lemon Curd
~Tart Shells
~Strawberry Puree
~Lemon Whipped Cream
~Walnut Streusel
~Sweet Lemon Salad
~Balsamic Reduction Strawberry Salad
~Baked Strawberry Meringues


After I started with the tart shells I decided it would be a good idea to make the meringues as they took quite a long time and they needed to get done. So I made the meringue and pipped them onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper into small circles. Baked those off in about 3 hours and then started baking the walnut streusel. During that time I thought I should make the whipped cream, so I made that and got everything ready for the walnut streusel so I could bake that off as soon as the meringues were done. After that was done I started peeling my lemons! If you have ever peeled a lemon, you will know that it takes a long time and you don't get very much lemon. Good thing I didn't need that much. I decided that it was taking far to long, so I thought I would save it for the Falk's house as I had some time there to do prepping as well. It was really nice to have that thought in the back of my head as I was prepping. If I didn't have time... I could always do it there. That took a lot of stress off me, which was nice. Then I started the strawberry puree, this was an easy component to make... strawberries, sugar blend it up really nice and smooth, then heat it up again and add a little bit of cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken it up a bit.

   So once everything was done, which was from 6:30 till I had to be there... I was like 10 minutes late! But that was fine, cause Hiro (Yoshi, the chef) originally wanted my there at 3. So it was okay.

   Once I got there I unloaded all my stuff, put on my chef's jacket and started transferring all my baked goods into deli containers. Which are very handy by the way. Once the other chef got there and all the servers and dish washers we got the run down of things, and it turned out that I was going to be cooking with Jill (the other chef). I did not know this. So it was a bit surprising but I was excited for this challenge. We were to make the risotto and heat up the vegetables and get the Turducken ready as well. Well also helping plate and clean up at the same time. Jill and I had everything down to perfect timing! Everything ran so smoothly it was simply amazing! It couldn't have gone any better, I was sure that something was going to go wrong. But nothing did! It was a fantastic night. Full of good times, wonderful people, AMAZING food and a great atmosphere. It couldn't have gone any better! And once the dessert rolled around it got even better! The plating was absolutely perfect, there was attention to detail and it was simply perfection. The one thing I love about food is that it can be so plan... but once you add a chef, the whole dynamic changes. It goes from being a simple dish into an extravagant masterpiece. I was so proud. This is definitely something that brings joy into my life. Besides the stressfulness of everything, it is just amazing to see how everyone can work together so well to make something so amazing. When everything works out, that is what brings me joy! It is simply amazing what we can do when we set out mind to it. So now that the day is done, and everything was amazing. I am off to bed. For a wonderful sleep. There will be pictures to come soon... hopefully. If I can get them from the photographer. Also check out all the recipes as well.

Here is the menu:

Yarrow Alliance Church Leadership Dinner

October 29^th, 2011

23 guests

Cheese Reception:

Bleubry, Le Saint-Raymond, Le Cendrillon,

Le Triple Creme DuVillage, Sir Laurier D’Arthabaska, Cantonnier

Cobs Fruit Bread Crisps,

Walnuts, Grapes, Cranberry

~

Frisee and Chive Salad

Egg, Bacon, 

Pickled Shallot, Radish,

Burnt Lemon Vinaigrette

~

“Turducken”

Braised Turkey, Chicken, and Duck Leg

Orzo “Risotto,” Cauliflower Puree,

Roasted Baby Vegetables,

Natural Jus

~

“Lemon and Strawberry”

Lemon Curd Tart, Strawberry Meringue,

Walnut Streusel, Mint

Chef: Hiro “Yoshi” Takeda

Sous Chef: Jill Teerink

Pastry Chef: Tessa Isaak

*please check out my blog: yoshifood.wordpress.com

RECIPES:

Sweet Lemon Salad

Lemon segments, cut up

Simple Syrup

Black Pepper

Mix altogether, should taste a little bit acidic but not to over powering. :)

Walnut Streusel 

1/2 c. flour

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 pinch salt

1/4 c. butter, cubed

1/2 c. walnuts, coarsely chopped

Stir flour, sugar, and salt to blend. Cut in butter with a pastry blender and stir in walnuts. Bake in oven until a bit crispy, about 8 minutes at 350*F. 

Baked Strawberry Meringues 

2 pkg. Strawberry koolaid

12 egg whites

3 c. sugar

3/4 t. cream of tartar

2 fresh strawberries, almost minced 

Beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar together until white and foamy. Slowly add the sugar and the koolaid, beat until stiff. Fold in the strawberries and pipe small circles onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 225*F until crispy. About an hour. Maybe and hour and a half. 

Tart Pastry

I box tender-flake lard

5 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 t. salt

1 T. vinegar

1 egg, lightly beaten

Ice cold water

Mix together flour and salt. Cut tender-flake lard with knife into small chunks, and cut into flour mixture with a pastry blender, until it resembles coarse oatmeal.  

In a one cup measuring cup, combine egg and vinegar. Add water until it reaches the 1 cup line. Add only enough water to make dough cling together* 

Gather into ball and divided into 6 portions. If desired you can wrap it and refrigerate or freeze it at this point. Otherwise use it for what you would like. If it is really sticky then refrigerate  for an hour or two. 

Lemon Whipped Cream

1/2 c. whipping cream

1 T. icing sugar

1/2 t. lemon zest (finely chopped)

1 t lemon juice

Place all ingredients into a bowl and whip until medium peaks form. 

Lemon Curd

Zest of 2 lemons, in wide stripes

Juice of 2 lemons, strained

2 eggs, 3 egg yolks

6 T. sugar

1/4 c. butter

Whisk together lemon zest, juice, eggs, sugar and butter into a pot over a pot with lightly simmering water. Stirring consistently until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts. Once this happens keep stirring for about 3 minutes until the curd coats the back of a spoon. Do not let the curd boil* 

Remove from heat. With a rubber saptula, push the curd through a medium-mesh sieve, into a clean dry bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto the curd so taht is doesn’t form a skin. Poke a few holes in teh plastic wrap with the tip of a knife so that steam can escape. Refrigerate until well chilled. About 3 hours, or up to 5 days. 

Makes about 1 cup. 

enjoy!