There are several cooking labs that must be completed for
this portion of my catering course. Tonight I completed the first one: seared
beef on arugula.
I took some liberties with the cooking lab as I don’t care
for a few of the ingredients. The recipe called for pine nuts and walnut oil. I’m
not a fan of pine nuts and I have a reaction to oils made from nuts. I’m not
sure why, but I break out in hives. Another change I made was the arugula.
Since the cost of that particular green is so high right now, I used the greens
I had on hand. I would’ve loved to use all of the ingredients the recipe called
for but I can’t afford to pay $35 for one meal. It’s just not practical. In my
mother’s words, I “made do.”
The picture of the completed recipe looked a bit different
from my finished product, but it still looked beautiful. I seared my beef then
sliced it very thin. I placed it on a bed of mixed greens then topped it with
mandarin oranges and sesame ginger salad dressing. A quick garnish of crispy
wanton noodles turned a very basic salad into something beautiful. The flavor
of the beef mixed with the oranges, sesame dressing and wantons blended
beautifully.
Though I didn’t follow the directions to a tee, I did do the
basics and in the end I came up with something I’d be proud to put on any menu.