…and an online coupon code too!

Several weeks ago, I received an email from Andy Kutcher of FSC Interactive introducing me to Sucré, in New Orleans, Louisiana, a confectionary, and on their web site for online orders: www.shopsucre.com. It is so nice that New Orleans now has a gourmet artisan chocolatier to call it’s own, since opening in April of 2007.

From breakfast to a midnight snack, Sucré is available to satisfy your sweet tooth. Sucré (French for sugared) is an emporium of “artisan” sweets. Unlike a traditional bakery, Sucré serves plated desserts with custom garnishes in addition to boxed treats.

Andy had a few samples of their confections shipped to our address and after opening the UPS box; we were delighted with two chocolate treats, the Pistachio & Rose Petal Chocolate Bar, and the Sucré Sugar & Spice Holiday Collection of truffles.

Everything Sucré creates is handcrafted in small batches and inspired from local, homegrown flavors. This holiday season they have teamed up with the Louisiana SPCA and a portion of every online sale will go directly to benefit the animals of the LA/SPCA.

Sucré offers breakfast pastries, cakes and desserts, artesian chocolates, chocolate collections, French macaroons, confections, nuts, gelato and sorbets, beverages, seasonal and featured items, wedding and specialty cakes. The Pistachio & Rose Petal Chocolate Bar, which sells individually for $6.50 or $35.00 for a six bar gift bundle. Other chocolate bars available include Swirled Caramel & Salted Peanut Chocolate Bar, Maracaibo 65 Chocolate Bar, Candied Violet Chocolate Bar and Salted Pretzel Chocolate Bar.

The Pistachio & Rose Petal chocolate bar consists of a smooth creamy milk chocolate that is embedded with toasted whole shelled Sicilian pistachios and candied rose petals on the one side and break-apart sections on the other side. A definite artisan chocolate bar here, the candied rose petals are delicate and lend a crunchy appeal to the smooth chocolate.

The holiday truffle collection with 15 pieces, which are named the Sucré Sugar & Spice Holiday Collection, sells for $30.00. This collection includes fives pieces each of the Eggnog Dark Chocolate Truffle, Candy Cane White Chocolate Truffle, and Gingerbread Milk Chocolate Truffle. Each of these elegant truffles is special in their own way. The Gingerbread truffle has a bit of spiciness reminiscent of a ginger snap cookie, while the Eggnog truffle is very smooth and creamy, and the Candy Cane truffle has hints of the holiday treat.  All of these truffles are a superior product and worthy of praise.

Other confections that Sucré offers include the Peppermint Stick Drinking Chocolate, the Vanilla Marshmallows, and the Eggnog Dark Chocolate Truffle is also featured in the images below.

For more images of the holiday collection: Seasonal Featured Items

$10.00 off online orders over $70.00

Andy asked me to pass on a special offer for anyone who orders from their site by December 23, 2009, and the offer code is applied prior to final checkout and is for $10.00 off orders over $70.
Code: SUCRE

Company Info:

Sucré
3025 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA 70115
Internet Orders: 504.708.4366
Tel: 504.520.8311
Fax: 504.520.8312
info@shopsucre.com
www.shopsucre.com

A wonderful way to enjoy wild mushrooms and soothing for the body, mind, and soul soup, the barley makes this a hearty meal also. The recipe can be halved if necessary, as this batch will yield over one and a half gallons of hearty soup, or 16 really hefty servings. (Note: Click on images for a larger view.)

Any dried mushrooms will do, but for this time around, I used a combination of porcini, morel, and chanterelle that gives a blend of deep earthly flavor to the soup. The mushrooms are first re-hydrated in warm water for 15 minutes or so, and then they are rinsed in several changes of cool water to remove any sand or grit from the tasty fungi. Once the excess water is gently squeezed out of the re-hydrated mushrooms, they are then soaked in brandy for at least an hour. The mushrooms absorb and take on a wonderful flavor of the brandy, and the brandy takes on a woody aroma too. The combination of the two is amazingly appealing, also wonderful for making a wild mushroom cream sauce, as in the Wild Mushrooms a la Crème appetizer recipe.

Harris Teeter grocery store sells several of Melissa’s brand of wild mushrooms, and that is where I found these, but there are several other sources for dried and fresh wild mushrooms. The wild mushroom water is strained and then incorporated to the soup for additional liquid, but more importantly for the taste, and brings this soup to the next level with a bold essence of wild mushroom woody earthly zest. No flavor is wasted in this recipe; every drop of mushroom flavor is extracted and integrated into the soup. Moreover, along with additional fresh cremini or button mushrooms, carrots, onions, and pearled barley rounding out this hearty soup, perfect for fall and winter days.

And for true vegans a good vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock would make this a complete vegetarian dish too.

Procedure Steps
1.	Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with the warm water. Let stand for 15 minutes or so to re-hydrate. When hydrated, squeeze out any excess water and place mushrooms in another bowl, rinse them under several changes of cool water to remove any grit. Toss the mushrooms with the brandy and allow to soak for 1 hour. Gently turn and mix the mushrooms and brandy several times to evenly soak. Once the dried mushrooms are hydrated, line a sieve with a coffee filter or paper towel. Strain the mushroom water into another bowl to separate any grit.
2.	While the dried mushrooms are soaking, add the chicken stock to a large stockpot and then add the Worcestershire Sauce and bring to a boil covered. Then add the barley and continue to boil for 30 minutes over medium heat covered.
3.	Add the strained mushroom water to the soup. Then add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, oregano, and basil, bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat, and continue to simmer for 20 minutes over medium heat covered. Then add the sliced fresh mushrooms, stir well, and continue to simmer for 15 minutes covered.
4.	Chop the wild mushrooms, add them to the soup with the brandy, and then simmer another 5 minutes.
5.	Season to taste with salt and white pepper, then garnish with the chopped parsley.

Cold food displays and presentations take on many forms from fruits, vegetables, salads, cold deli meats, cheeses, aspics, chaud froid, caviar, canapés, cold hors d’oeuvres, charcuterie, garnish and garniture, and edible centerpiece carvings such as ice, vegetable, fruit, cheese, salt, dough, and tallow.  Typically, these preparations are relegated duty of the Garde Manger (GM) station of traditionally organized brigade style kitchens, or the pantry for smaller facilities. The GM station of the kitchen has the most opportunity to shine with artistic talents and can be one of the more tedious stations with respect to patience, time, and talent. For more detail on the derivation and definition of the term Garde Manger, click the hyperlink to learn additional information. Also, if you want to see some examples of the various types of edible carvings, click on the hyperlinks for those too. (NOTE: Click on images for a larger view.)

This started out as a simple post about fresh fruit displays, but knowing it would only touch on a small portion of the larger GM picture, it has thus incorporated the broader scope with this writing. Having taught three classes in Garde Manger at the Delgado Community College Culinary Arts Department, I felt more needed to be said about the bigger picture.

Cold food displays, including trays, and mirrors have been a part of my catering and banquet repertoire since going back to the apprentice days at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans, LA. When working the Garde Manger station it was not unusual to spend the entire day peeling, seeding and slicing or dicing fruit, cases of fresh watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, Crenshaw, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, kiwi, star fruit, and washing pounds of grapes, strawberries and blueberries. Filling up rolling carts with sheet pans of sliced fruit protected with layers of parchment paper and then wrapped within plastic wrap for storage until ready to plate up or tray them onto lettuce leaf lined platters, trays or mirror displays for buffets, banquets and special functions.

The images below represent several stages of learning during the apprenticeship years while working the Garde Manger station at the Hyatt, and one from culinary class at Delgado. These images are taken from my Culinary Apprentice Log Book, signed weekly by the property chef and which was a requirement for certification.

Charcuterie Display	Fruit Tray Display
Cheese Tray Displays	Canapé Displays
Canapé & Deli Displays

Fresh Fruit Display

On Saturday, November 7, 2009 our little Ben become confirmed into the Catholic Church and we threw a party in his honor with about 30 or so friends and family in attendance I decided to throw down a bit and show off my Garde Manger talents. With an apple bird in the plans, turns out that three other fruit centerpieces took center stage, the apple bird never appeared, but maybe next time. However, found this instructional video, which is quite similar to the technique I have utilized and taught over the years, click on the hyperlink to view the apple bird demonstration.

With some newly purchased white platters from Pampered Chef, I created three fruit displays of the assorted fresh delights. Some skill is involved with the fruit centerpiece carving skills, and with a very minimum of making simple baskets and at the other option of making intricate carvings …which takes time and patience…both of which I was without late Saturday afternoon. Presentation depends on if the fruit is on platters, plates, or mirrors, with more room for scattered effect from lettuce-lined trays, but mirrors take more skill. For example, once an item is placed on a cleaned mirror, it should not be lifted due to food residue leaving marks on the reflections.

Artistry and Creativity

Creativity plays a large part in putting together fruit displays. The same can be said for cheese trays, canapés, and any cold food presentations on buffets, banquets or party tables and spreads. The plethora of colors, shapes, and combinations of various fruits, cheeses, and edible decorations combine to form a flowing presentation that typically is accentuated by multiple levels. Building levels on presentations with the higher level toward the back and flowing downward toward the front of the service line besides giving the perception of height and copious amounts, but aids in the guests when reaching for food items toward the back.

A few more tips, when making cold food presentations include a balance of colors, shapes, textures, and flavors. Portion size is not a real concern as it is for plating, since most cold food displays and presentations are in the buffet style, diners will pick their own portions. Just make sure you have enough quantity for the number of expected guests.

This is something that I threw together one Sunday morning brunch because we had some oysters on hand, creamed spinach and fresh salsa. It is a baked whole-wheat wrap shell with a bed of creamed spinach topped with stewed oysters and then delicately poached eggs, then topped with a Beurre blanc sauce and a side of fresh chunky salsa with home fried new potatoes and garnished with chopped green onions. I named this dish after a small town in New Mexico that sits just north of Santa Fe and below Taos, nothing special there, just a small town with a great name…hence the salsa. This first image on the left shows the shell with creamed spinach and oysters, and with the side potatoes. Click on the image(s) for a larger view.

I suppose that a formal recipe could be written here, but this is just a variation on a theme. Poached eggs being the main event here, and really are quite easy to prepare, with a few tricks of the trade…that I will be happy to share.

A shallow sided saucepan works well for poaching eggs, or one that has a large broad flat surface area and at least a 3-inch wall straight up. Fill the pan about ½ way with cool filtered tap water. Then add about 1 ½ cups of white vinegar, this is the little trick I was telling you about, the vinegar helps the eggs to stay together and coagulate quickly. Otherwise, the eggs would spread out and be hard to stay together. The image on the right shows the poached eggs, salsa, sauce and garnish added to the base Florentine, oysters and shell.

Over a medium-high heat bring the liquid to a very slow simmer, you want tiny little air bubbles to form on the bottom surface of the pan. When the water is hot enough gently crack up to 6 or 8 eggs into the warm water, then using a slotted spoon gently push the eggs a slight bit to ensure they will not stick together or to the bottom or sides of the pan.

Continue to poach the eggs until the desired doneness, timing varies here so be sure to use the slotted spoon and lift one of the first ones out and gently press it with your thumb or forefinger to check. If you like the yolks runny then less time is required, on the other hand if you like your yolks hard then more poaching is required. Practice makes for perfect poached eggs; I cannot remember how many I have poached in my day.

In most major production kitchens there will a piece of equipment called a tilt skillet. These are massive gas heated skillets that can be tilted from a hand crank, or from the push of a button to pour out the finished product. In the case of mass egg poaching for banquet or buffets at hotels, the tilt skillet would be utilized to produce hundreds of them at a time. I can remember poaching four or more cases of eggs for Sunday brunch, do you know that each case contains 12-dozen eggs, which is 144 eggs per case. That is a lot of poached eggs, for buffet items such as Eggs Benedict, Eggs Rockefeller, Eggs Florentine, the list goes on…