Mis en Place is the technical term for your work area while cooking. In cooking school I am marked for how well my mis en place is organized before I start preparing any dish. If I maintain a clean and orderly mis en place during my cooking process.....a better grade for me. The importance of this concept hit home , literally, last night as I was preparing for company to arrive.
I had spent the afternoon shopping for clothes with my four children. It was hot , 40° hot, and my car is not air conditioned. Nevertheless we had experienced a successful trip, until my son,... for the first time, started to try on dress shirts by himself. Watching his bare feet twist and dance under the change room stall, as he tried to navigate the small buttons by himself, I started to panic. This was a new step of independence for him and I wanted to support him. However I only had a certain amount of time, because I was expecting company that evening. I had a carrot cake at home I still needed to make icing for. I started to remind myself that I had picked an easy dessert and it would not take long to finish. I have decorated so many cakes I could.... almost..... make the icing in my sleep.
So leaving the store with my son and his three new shirts, I successfully convinced myself it would be OK...."I'll be fine....I'll be fine...no problem...I can do this."
One and a half hours before company was to arrive I started to clear a work area on my counter. Bowls .....check, recipe.......check, mixer......check. I had enough time to make the cake twice over if I wanted, lots of time! I pulled the cream cheese out of the fridge and the icing sugar out from under the counter. This would be a breeze! In went the icing sugar and cream cheese and butter, .....oops I should have creamed the fats first. Ah well, I told myself confidently, if a chef in training can't handle a little recipe adjustment then I hadn't learned much! ...On went the mixer,.... so a little too much icing sugar flew out of the bowl...no problem!
The mixer whirled, the icing looked....well......a little grainy....I applied the mixer some more.....still grainy. But heck, what could go wrong? It was icing! The easiest thing in the world to make. My daughter walked by and asked for "a finger full" of the icing. She excitedly dipped her 9 year old finger into the white mass to taste Mommy's latest yummy thing. I watched her face with confidence...ignoring my personal confusion over the graininess. Her surprised stare as she tasted the icing was followed by a polite, reassuring "It's nice mommy, really..............what is it? It isn't very sweet".
Nice?..... What is it?.....These were not the words of someone who had just had "a finger full" of her favourite thing! I decided to taste it myself.....it was horrible! It wasn't just lacking sweetness, it tasted foul! Again I told myself........ if I was in class, I would be expected to fix the icing ......so by jove..., I was going to fix it! In went more icing sugar and vanilla,..... vanilla solves everything.
Mixer on, I tasted it...... GROSS! I stared at the icing in amazement. I have literally made and decorated cakes for years! What the heck was wrong with it? I pulled out a second bowl and added a small scoop of the first icing to it with more sugar and vanilla. Mixer on........tasted again.......AWFUL!
By now I was beginning to feel like I was dreaming. I stared at the white mass in my bowl in total confusion. You can't mess up icing! Icing sugar and fat, that's all you need! It has to work....there is no way it can't work! I added more sugar and vanilla and water to the bowl,.... my icing was beginning to look like play dough. On went the mixer....this time I tried it frustratedly, it had to work! There was nothing that could go wrong!...Still gross....all that sugar and still gross.....I had added almost twice as much sugar as needed and I still couldn't taste it!
I stepped back from the counter in a stalemate. I had no idea what to do.
Slowly I left the kitchen and walked downstairs to my husband. I sat on the stairs with my head in my hands in confused defeat. " I can't make icing....I have no idea what's happening...I feel like I going insane!" My wonderful husband stared at me as if I had two heads. I may as well have told him I had forgotten how to walk. " What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
"I mean I can't make the #**$# icing," I snapped confusedly, "and I have no idea why!" I looked at him helplessly, apologized, and asked him to taste it. I think I was vainly hoping that during my absence the icing would have magically righted itself. He went into the kitchen, looked silently at the collection of bowls on the counter and the sprayed icing sugar covering everything from the coffee maker to the stove. Tasting the contents of the bowl, he looked at the partially emptied bag of icing sugar, sitting on my counter. The bag of icing sugar from our local bulk food store.
You know the kind....
....clear
.....no markings
......the contents, identified by a tag the customer writes on and attaches themselves.......
I always lose those tags
I always lose those tags
"Is that icing sugar?" he asked
Nope, it was cornstarch..... I had been trying to make icing with corn starch and no sugar, not good. My wonderful husband went out and bought more ingredients. Everyone loved the cake, extra carrots, raisins, with a brown sugar walnut crumble on top of the icing....my kids are having it for breakfast.
This chef in training gets the point of mis en place now...
and not losing those little tags from the bulk food stores!
Cheers,
Christine
