A day in the life of a Chef - Part 5

Last addition I left you after commencing the salad of the day, a Roast Zucchini and haloumi cheese salad. To get on with the salad I would first of all dice up a couple of flat trays worth of zucchini and 800 grams of haloumi cheese. For those of you unfamiliar with Haloumi, it is a grillable, I think Greek cheese, which is a fantastic addition to your next nibble's platter. It comes in 200 to 250 gram blocks, similar to Feta cheese. Slice into half centimetre slices and pan fry over medium heat until nicely browned on each side. At medium heat this is not a pan to walk away from as you will end up with burnt Haloumi in no time at all. Cooking time <5 minutes.
Anyhow, back to my salad. As I am in most aspects of the job looking to save hands on time I will dice up the Haloumi into rough 1 cm dice and place on a flat tray covered with greaseproof paper and sprayed with canola spray to help browning. The cheese would go into a 170 oven for 10 minutes and the Zucchini a 200 oven for 10 minutes also. Base salad ingredients are washed and drained the put into a large stainless steel bowl. Tomatoes are diced, cucumbers are diced both in approximately 1 cm dice. Remember this is not fine dining so when I say 1 cm dice I mean a rough dice that is dependant on my mood and the size of the tomato and cucumber. Capsicums are cut and sliced by removing the 4 sides and then removing the white membrane from the inside. the base and the bit of capsicum around the stem is also used so that we waste almost nothing. The Spanish or red onion is peeled and either finely sliced or finely diced. I am not a fan of chewing on large chunks of raw onion so my customers shouldn't have to be either. When the Zucchini and Haloumi have both cooled at least partially they are tossed in with the rest of the salad. I then mix together a quick vinaigrette by adding 210 ml of olive oil with either 70 ml of Balsamic or red wine vinegar and some Dijon mustard to emulsify the dressing. I season the salad with salt and vinegar and toss the salad together by hand whilst wearing food safe gloves. The salad is displayed for service in an old ceramic white baking dish and should serve close to 20 customers. One thing I will say here is that I feel that it is vital to the salad presentation that I transfer the salad in double handfuls from the bowl to the serving platter by hand as this gives the finished product greater height than basically tipping it out onto the tray. Also, a little thing I have noticed as a benefit of tossing salad in a bowl before serving on another platter is that the heavier foods generally fall to the bottom of the bowl. In turn this means than when you plate them they then naturally end up on top and enhance the presentation. Give it a try next time you make a salad at home.

Next step, I move onto the Chicken Vindaloo. I really don't know how close to a real life curry this one is to be completely honest. I make the curry using 15 kg of diced chicken thigh and usually commence cooking after 9 am which means even if the curry is unlikely to spend too much time in the food temperature danger zone. If I start cooking at around 9 am with service completed at 1.30 pm I will have reduced the time the food will spend in the temperature danger zone to a minimum. So on to the cooking. First up I turn on the brat pan which is a standalone giant cooking vessel. Our one at work uses gas to operate but they do also come in electric too. A brat pan is a God send in a commercial kitchen like mine as it allows me to cook all my wet dishes and I also utilise it for large stir fries. When I say wet dishes I mean things like curries and braised dishes like stews and casseroles.

Okay, enough waffling, lets get down to the business of cooking the main dish of the day, Chicken Vindaloo. First thing, turn on the brat-pan to high heat. Dice roughly about 4 large brown onions. Add canola oil, generous amount and then the onions. Then grab the 15 kg of diced thigh from the cool room and tip it into the brat-pan. Spread the chicken with my 2 large spatulas evenly across the base of the pan. This if I have left enough time for the pan to heat sufficiently and if I then don't try to stir the food too soon with allow at least some browning which won't as once suspected seal the meat but is still an essential part of searing the meat which should add flavour. Having said that, I have observed that in many Asian countries it is common practice to add the meat after a sauce has been created so that the browning is not part of the cooking process. There are also examples of European braised dishes which also do not include browning of meat so one should be careful in making wholesale generalisations. After I have added the chicken I will then use a Jar of Vindaloo paste which saves time and effort and probably money too. The entire jar which is just over a kilogram in weight is added to the chicken and onion and mixed in to incorporate. My approach from here may be as simple as loosely following the recipe on the side of the packet and often boosting the important flavours of the curry by adding extra Garam Masala (an Indian spice blend) or some ginger, garlic and other Indian spice regulars like cumin, cinnamon, coriander and chilli.

This particular curry is known for being a hot curry so I think it is essential to give the customer a hot spicy curry when that is what they expect. The other option I have often tried to implement is giving a small bowl of chilli to the front of house so that the spice lovers can add chilli to fire up their curry whilst leaving the curry less fiery for the rest of the crowd.

From memory the side of the packet asks for tinned tomato and stock to round out our curry. After adding a couple of kilos of tomato and around 4 litres of water with stock powder added I will reduce the heat and allow the curry to simmer away in it's own time.

So at this point of the day it is hopefully around 10 am and time to finish the cooking and transfer our completed dishes to the Baine Marie for lunch service which commences at 11.30 am. First thing to do is get the rice which has been cooling, into the oven for steaming for 10 minutes. Prior to putting into the oven I will run my gloved hands through the rice to help separate the rice which whilst cooling will have clumped together. After 10 minutes steaming I will test the rice's temperature with a probe in 3 different parts of the tray to test that it has reheated to the correct temperature (>75C). If achieved I will take the tray to the Baine Marie and cover with a lid to stop drying out the top layer of rice. If not quite hot enough I will rotate the tray and steam for an extra 5 minutes and retest.

Whilst the rice is cooking I will continue to stir the curry to prevent it catching on the base of the pan and also stir the pasta sauce if it is still simmering away. Speaking of the pasta, it is now time to fill a pot with water so that the ravioli can be cooked. To reduce time I will half fill the pot with boiling water from the Zippo water heater in the corner of the wash-up room and top up with cold water from the tap. To this add a generous amount of salt and top with a lid to speed things along. Next into the oven on this day is steamed vegetables. The vegetable mix is a base of fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and zucchini with additions of frozen peas, beans, corn on cob and bok choy. I rotate between the additions so that hopefully the mix doesn't get too predictable. The first batch of the day is generally steamed for 7 minutes and later batches boiled on the stove-top to prevent a build up of items wanting oven time during service.

Time is up for today, as I am currently on Easter break and taking a little extra leave due to the Corona virus Pandemic I am only at work for 2 of the next 10 days so hopefully I will be finally knocking over this day in the life series and am thinking of putting up a couple of recipes as well. For now though, Happy cooking!!! Where else would you prefer to spend your isolation than in the kitchen???