February love.

And breath! With Valentine's day over I can finally take a little break. The bakery was going crazy getting ready for the busy holiday and so was the restaurant.
My French chef Jacky gave all of us a box of chocolates, and I got so excited. He looked at me and say's "don't get to excited Inna, I got one for everyone."I look at him and say" Hey! don't ruin it for me!" He started laughing and says  "well I got you one because I know no one else will give you one .... because you talk to much." Hahaha! Oh what a guy. Funny thing is, he talks more then I do! But then again I guess that makes me competition. My 3 am shifts are very chatty in the morning.
The rest of the day we worked hard and talk about who got dumped the lamest. And of course I take the gold metal for that one.  But at least when  I got "let go" he gave me words of encouragement.. "don't worry Inna, you will find someone."
Haha, no shit.
SO! Iv been learning a LOT.  I was planning to go back to school and do the savory side but...with the new chef we got at my restaurant I am just going to stick by his side and learn everything. Jacky is also giving me more responsibility at the bakery! Things are looking up for me:)
I made a very yummy sauce last friday it tastes like honey mustard BUT there is no honey in there!
It's a very easy sauce you can just go ahead and bake some potato wedges or fries and just go to town with this sauce!

 INGREDIENTS ARE:
70z Quince paste
2c Cider
2/3 c Whole grain mustard (Inglehoffer)

Now it is VERY IMPORTANT that you buy a cider that is a very thick cider, as if you took apples and squeezed them yourself. The cider has to be a cloudy cider not the TREETOP brand.
Quince paste you can get in the cheese isle. It goes very well with cheese as well, in spain it is used quite a bit.

METHOD:
Bring the quince and the cider to a simmer and melt the paste.
When fully melted, stir in mustard and cool.
This yields about 3 1/2c.
This is what I did.

I made some Jasmine rice with sauteed onion, steamed baby carrots and chicken breast. Very delicious.

I hope you enjoy it, because I surely did!

Oh! The other night at the restaurant I did a pretty darn good cannel. 

(for those who don't know what I do at the restaurant, I am the pantry chef. I do a lot of the appetizers and all the desserts! )

( A chocolate flowerless cake, with orange oil, rock salt and orange mascarpone creme, with a candied orange.)

I am happy with myself. From here it will just get even better.

Alright, im out.  

Happy black history month everyone! Don't forget to do your taxes!

I am.....alive!

I know, I know, I have been absent for quite some time....but in my defense culinary school makes you work, work, makes you work!  No time for anything but study, learn, and work! Or at least in my case. I made some really good friends and became a favorite with some of my chefs! Even chefs who were not my chefs! I just wanted to learn everything! Even though I was a pastry student I hung around those savory chefs trying to learn their tricks too.
Now that I am done with school I have a crazy amount of free time! like 30 minuets!!!! That I get almost everyday in between my two jobs!! Talk about spoiled right!?
But yesterday I had the day all to myself, and I decided to do something I am good at; baking.
To be honest I had a hard time picking one thing to bake! I just wanted to bake everything!
So here I was sitting, thinking, looking through my books, sipping on my coffee, and wishing I had something to go along with this brilliant cup of Joe. Then it hit me. Scones.
So I made Blood orange, cranberry, with candied ginger scones! Lately I have been putting ginger into everything!!  I candied the ginger so it wouldn't be so rough in the scone, and that was fun! The whole house smelled like sweet ginger! Mmmm.

Slice the ginger as thin as possible, (having a really sharp knife helps) then, I boiled the ginger for 10 min. Next I drained the ginger and repeated it once more. Then (depending on how much ginger you sliced) mix the sliced ginger with 2c of water and 2c of sugar and a pinch of salt, and cook to 225F. To those who don't own a candy thermometer, just keep an eye on the pot and when the liquid is the consistency of thin honey its done and ready to go! 

Drain the slices and they will form a sugar coating. You can always add more sugar while they are hot. Then add them to anything and everything!

I really like to do the drop method instead of shaping them, because they look more like a real scone with this fun method. Here is my recipe; it makes about 10 scones, depending on how large you shape them!

3oz Butter

2.5 Sugar

1/8ts Salt

1 Egg yolk

12oz All purpose flour

1 1/4Tbs Baking powder

7oz Milk

2oz Cranberry's

1 blood orange zest

Candied ginger.

We are going to use the creaming method. 

Combine butter, sugar, salt in a mixer with the paddle attachment. 

Blend to a smooth paste. Add the yolk and blend in thoroughly.

Add the milk and mix it in. SIFT together the baking powder and flour and add to the bowl and mix to a smooth paste. Bake at 400F for 15-20 mins and enjoy.

I was in such a cooking frenzy I started to make lunch/dinner!!!

I have been craving this Japanese/Korean stir fry with yakisoba noodles! I made a quick trip to Uwajimaya which is a cooooool Asian market. I got some baby bok choy, I found some MILD and MSG free kimchi. So good. Got my yakisoba noodles and some yakisoba sauce. 

So pretty much I just put every vegetable I liked in the stir fry. Onion, zucchini, carrot, mushroom. Salt and pepper to taste and whatever other spices you would like, and you get a whole bunch of yum!

It was so relaxing baking and cooking part of the day, listening to my favorite bands and just enjoying my day. There will be more to come. I'm on to something here:)  Ill be back, love you guys.

xoxo Gossip gir..... I mean Innka.

<3