Offaly Good

Last Wednesday I had one of those moments when I knew I was doing the right thing - what I was supposed to be doing.

Las Wednesday was meat and poultry fabrication. Yep. We cut up raw meat and poultry. Most of the girls in the class were grossed out... and let everyone know about it. Not me! Lanna and I dove into that little chicken carcass like there was no tomorrow. I now know how to take a whole raw chicken and turn it into pieces that people might want to eat.

Justin and I made a whole roasted chicken and some smoked chicken breasts. They were delicious. One trick we learned, was that you don't have to roast an entire chicken on a rack. You can make your own rack from large-cut mirepoix (2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrots). Just put a pile underneath the chicken, and let it cook. That way, it gets all that flavor, and air can still get up into the chicken. I thought it was quite fascinating.

Why is this post "Offaly Good," you might ask? Well, offal are all of the little bits and pieces that are a little, well, awful. Offal refers to the hearts, kidneys, sweetbreads, intestines, etc. from animals. The halloween Iron Chef was on the other night and it was "Battle Offal" in kitchen stadium. I thought it was pretty cool. One guy even made calf liver truffles. Yummmm.... We didn't get to do anything with offal in class, but we did get to talk about it a bit. In the end, it might have been better the way it was...

Sadly, no pictures today. I would have taken pictures of our beautifully roasted chicken, but my camera was dead. I'll do better next time. We'll be doing sandwiches and salads this coming Wednesday, so that should allow for some pretty pictures.