KITCHEN ORGANIZATION & DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES

VEGETABLES

Any herbaceous plant or part of a plant that can be eaten either raw or cooked is termed as vegetable. Vegetable contain more starch than sugar unlike fruits and hence, they are extensively used in savoury dishes. Vegetables can be used in various forms such as fresh, frozen, cooked, mashed, dried, and dehydrated. Vegetables have water soluble vitamins such as B and C, and fat soluble vitamins such as A,D,E, and K also contain minerals and carbohydrates. Vegetables have high content of water ranging from 70%-95%.

Classification:

Vegetables can be broadly classified into two categories such as

1) Below ground and 2) Above ground

Which can be further classified –

1) Below ground:

a.      Roots: carrots, radish, beetroot.

b.      Tubers: potato, sweet potato, colocasia.

c.       Bulbs: onion, garlic, shallots, leeks.

                                                    

  2) Above ground:

a)      Stems/shoots: celery, rhubarb, seakale, asparagus, bamboo.

b)      Leaves: lettuce, spinach, cabbage.

c)      Flowers: cauliflower, broccoli.

d)      Fruits: cucumber, eggplant, pumpkin.

e)      Seeds/pods: green peas, snow peas.

f)       Fungus/fungi: button mushrooms, shiitake, porcini. (technically not a vegetable)

Pigments and colour changes:

Pigment is the colouring matter within the cells and tissues of the plant. It is important for chefs to know the various kinds of pigments present in food and how they react to heat and various acidic and alkaline medium, as this would largely impact the style of cooking them. The various types of pigments are affected differently by heat, acid, alkali and other elements involved in cooking.

Effects on the pigments of vegetables

Name of the pigment	colour	Vegetable example	Effect of acid	Effect of alkali	Effect of prolong  cooking
Flavones	White	Radish	White bright	Dirty white	Greyish
Anthocyanins	Red/purple	Beetroot	Bright red	Blue	Greenish
Chlorophyll	Green	Spinach	Olive/fade	Bright	Faded
Carotene	Yellow/orange	Carrot	No change	No change	faded

salads

SALADS:

Salad is a composition of ingredients that can be eaten raw, cooked, or cold usually served with a dressing and can be eaten as a salad, side dish, appetizer, or as a main course. Salads should be cold, crisp, piquant, colourful, moderately seasoned and attractive. They supply nutrients to the dish.

Types of salad:

Salads are of two types:-

1. Simple    2. Compound/composite

1. Simple salad:  Those salads which consist of one ingredient as body and one or two ingredients can be used as garnish in small quantities. For example-

Name of salad	Ingredients	Garnish	Dressings
Tomato	Tomato	Parsley	Vinaigrette
Beetroot	Beetroot	Onion, parsley	Vinaigrette
Potato	Potato	onion, parsley	Vinaigrette, mayonnaise
Lettuce	Lettuce leaves		Vinaigrette
Cucumber	Cucumber	Parsley	Vinaigrette, sour/hung curd

2. Compound/composite salad:  they are more elaborate salads and consist of more than one ingredient. They are divided into five groups:

1)      Fruit salad

2)      Vegetable salad

3)      Meat/poultry salad

4)      Fish/seafood salad

5)      Miscellaneous salad

              The salad has four basic parts:

A.     Base :

Base or under liner is usually a leafy vegetable such as lettuce, cabbage. The main purpose is to keep the plate or bowl from looking bare and to provide contrast colour to the other parts of the salad.

      

      B.  Body:

                  This is the most important part of the salad. Main ingredients of salad is called                    

                   Body. The ingredients used have a balance of flavours and taste.

             C. Garnish:

                  The main purpose of the garnish is to add an eye appeal to the finished product

                  But in some cases it improves the taste and form. It may be a part of the body or it           can be an additional item that will blend and complement.

             D. Dressing:

 A dressing is usually served with all types of salads. It adds flavour, provides food value, helps digestion, and improves palatability and appearance. Dressing is in a liquid or semi liquid form, a mixture of oil-vinegar, seasonings or eggs or cream etc.

The basic dressings are:

Mayonnaise: it is also known as a basic cold sauce and has numerous derivatives. It is used for cold dishes, the coating of fish, meat, eggs, etc.

Vinaigrette: it is an emulsion of oil and vinegar, oil and vinegar can be emulsified in different ratios, based on ratios, vinaigrettes are of different types:

·         French: 3 parts oil + 1 part vinegar + French mustard + seasoning.

·         English: 1 part oil + 2 parts vinegar + mustard + sugar + seasoning.

·         American: equal quantities of oil and vinegar + seasoning.

·         Italian: 4 parts oil+ 1 part vinegar + mustard powder + seasoning.

·         Lemon dressing: same as vinaigrette using lemon juice instead of vinegar.

·         Acidulated cream: 3 parts cream + 1 part vinegar/lemon juice + seasoning.

·         Curd/yoghurt: sour/hung curd also used as a dressing.

Vegetable based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Coleslaw	Cabbage, capsicum, carrots	Vinaigrette, mayonnaise
Orientale	Rice, tomato, chopped garlic, green beans, pimentos, fillets of anchovies	vinaigrette
Aida	Curly chicory, tomatoes, artichoke, hard boiled eggs, sweet pimentos	Vinaigrette, mustard
Andalouse	Tomato, sweet pimento, boiled rice, garlic, onions, parsley	vinaigrette
Grande duchesse	French beans, potato,celery	mayonnaise

Meat based salads:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Carmen	Rice, red pimento, cold chicken, g. peas	French dressing
Hongroise	Bacon, cabbage, potato, radish, lettuce, paprika	Lemon dressing
Laperouse	Tomato, ham, French beans, artichoke, onions	Mayonnaise
Bagration	Celery, chicken, artichoke, macaroni, tomato, truffles, eggs, parsley	Mayonnaise
Chatelaine	Eggs, truffles, artichoke, potato, tarragon	vinaigrette

Fish based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Parisienne	Fish aspic, vegetable salad macedoine, lobster, truffles, herbs, lettuce	Mayonnaise with aspic
Fish mayonnaise	Fish mayonnaise, tomato, parsley	Mayonnaise
Belles de nuit	Truffles, crayfish	vinaigrette
Favourite	Crayfish, truffle, asparagus,
Hollandaise	Smoked salmon, potato, caviar, onions	Lemon dressing

Fruit based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Creole	Small melons, salt, ginger, cooked rice	Acidulated cream
Japonnaise	Tomatoes, pineapple, orange, lettuce	Lemon or cream dressing
Dalila	Bananas, apples, celery	Mayonnaise
Eve	Apple, banana, pineapple	Acidulated cream
Waldorf	Celery, apples, walnuts	Thin mayonnaise

WHAT IS A FRUIT?

The scientific definition of a fruit is any structure that develops from a fertilized ovary and contains seeds of the plant. All fruits come from the ovaries of a flower. Therefore, many things that we consider to be “vegetables” are actually fruits1 . For example tomatoes, cucumbers, beans (green beans as well as all other beans), peas, peppers, corn, eggplant and squash are all fruits.

Fruits can be simple, aggregate or multiple:

 Simple fruits = one fruit that has developed from one single flower. Most fruits are simple fruits, for example apples, pears, tomatoes, peaches, and cherries.

Aggregate fruits = one flower that produces many tiny fruits clustered tightly together, like raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. (NOTE: in strawberries, the fruits are actually the seed-like things on the outside of the flesh, the flesh itself is not the ovary but swollen receptacle tissue).

Multiple fruits = fruits from many different flowers which develop closely together to form one bigger fruit, like pineapples, breadfruit and mulberries.

Here are some major fruit types that we eat: Fruit Type Description Examples Picture Example

ACHENE 

A small, dry fruit with a thin, close-fitting wall around a single seed. Sunflower seeds and strawberries (remember, the seedlike thing on the outside of the strawberry is the actual fruit!).

BERRY

 A fleshy fruit with many seeds inside. The outside of the berry fruit may be soft or hard and leathery. (NOTE: a lot of fruits we call “berries” are not true berries – i.e. raspberries). Tomatoes, oranges, kiwi, watermelon, cucumbers, grapes, blueberries, cranberries, passion fruit, papaya, peppers, even bananas! Caryopisis

GRAIN

 A small dry fruit with a thin wall that is fused to a single seed. Corn, rice, wheat, oats, barley, rye and most other grasses.

DRUPE 

 A fleshy fruit with a hard pit inside which contains the seed. The outside of the drupe is usually soft. Peach, cherry, coconut, plum, olive, mango, blackberries/ raspberries (aggregate drupes), mulberries (multiple drupes).

LEGUME

 A dry fruit that is long and thin and has several seeds inside lined up in a row when opened. All beans, also peas, peanuts, and tamarind.

NUT

 A dry fruit with a thick often wood-like shell surrounding a single seed. (NOTE: a lot of things we call “nuts” are not true nuts –some, like Brazil nuts, are actually seeds and some, like almonds, are the pit of a dry drupe) Chestnuts, hazelnuts, acorns and beechnuts.

In addition to almonds - walnuts, pecans, dates, macadamia nuts, pistachio nuts, coconuts and kukui nuts are considered drupes because they have an outer, green, fleshy husk (which has usually been removed when you buy them in the store) and hard, seed-bearing endocarp or pit (which is the part we eat).

 POME

 A fleshy fruit with a thin skin and papery cartilaginous structures enclosing the seeds in the center, often in a star shape. The fleshy part is actually swollen receptacle tissue and not an ovary. The ovary is the “core” which contains the seeds. Apples, pears, quince and loquat

 CAPSULE

 A dry woody fruit with many seeds. Capsules open at maturity to release the seeds. We do not normally eat capsules, but Brazil nuts are seeds from a capsule. Mahogany trees, poppies (pictured), lilies and irises all have fruits that are capsules.

The vegetables cuts are the medium by which you can show your skills of cutting also to cook the vegetable at the same time for example if you cut the vegetable in rough way the pieces will not cook on same time the small chunks cook first and the big chunks cooks late and also when the big chunks cook the small chunks will burn.

In this article of Wlaitfoodie.com, you can get a good knowledge of professional vegetable cuts, types, size and use. The vegetable can cut into a wide variety of shapes and size to match particular dishes and style of cookery.

Paysanne vegetable cut:

The plays Anne thinly cut vegetables, which is 1-2mm in thickness. The paysanne sometimes refers to the “peasant style”. The paysanne cut is used to avoid wastage of vegetables, for cutting the correct shape the vegetable shape to be determined the best, such as round, triangle, circles and half rounds.

Mirepoix Vegetable cut:

The mirepoix cut is roughly chopped vegetable cut which is used to adding flavor to dishes or used as a base for cooking other foods. The vegetable used in mirepoix cuts are celery, carrots and onion.

Matignon vegetable cuts:

The roughly cut vegetable cooked in the ham and butter plus thyme and bay leaf and in the last deglazed with little madeira. This may use to add flavor mostly base of braised dishes, the vegetable used in matignon are celery, onion, and carrot.

Macedoine Vegetable Cuts:

This is the cubes of vegetables which are ½ cm square.

Julienne Vegetable Cuts:

The julienne cuts are primarily used as a garnish, this type of cuts are long, thin like a matchstick strip 4cm in length.

Brunoise Vegetable Cuts:

The brunoise is a good challenge for beginners. It’s a really small deiced cubes between 1-3mm, the cut brunoise is often used to describe fine diced onion. The brunoise cuts are used for garnish as well.

Jardiniere vegetable cuts:

The size of jardiniere cuts are vary depending on use in a particular dish. The jardiniere are short batons or sticks mainly 2 ½ cm in length and ½ cm thick.

Chiffonade vegetable cuts:

The finely shredded green leafy vegetables. The chiffonade cut is used for mainly salads or garnish. The spinach and lettuce are often used for these cuts.