Blogging Over Thyme

Day 81: Brandade, Lamb Tenderloin, & Tart Florentin

2012-05-30T02:03:14Z

Our first day back this week was long! But also very informative. We started our first course with a salad (it’s been a while!) served with a brandade croquette. Brandade is an emulsion made with salted cod and olive oil. We also used some cream if ours as well. It was my first time working with (and possibly eating…can’t remember) salted cod. It has a very strong flavor, but I didn’t mind it!

Essentially our croquettes were a combination of cooked potato, salted cod (poached in milk and water), olive oil, cream, and garlic. We combined all of this to almost the consistency of thick mashed potatoes, shaped it into quenelles, chilled them, and finally breaded and fried them to serve.

Our main course involved another new potato dish! I am still amazed that there are still so many new potato dishes out there for us to learn, especially considering we have already made probably more than 25 different dishes with them. I’m sure there are a bazillion more! These potatoes, known as pommes roesti (at top of picture), were baked potatoes that were then peeled, grated, and combined with some gruyere cheese, butter, rendered bacon, and sweated onion.

This mixture got molded and then chilled, before finally being dusted lightly in flour and seared in a non-stick pan. These were quite tasty and probably one of my more favorite potato dishes we have learned in a while.

This was served with pan-roasted Brussels sprouts, lamb jus, and lamb tenderloin. I don’t know if I’ve ever had lamb tenderloin before, but it was really good. Very tender and not too strong of a flavor, which I liked. Lamb tenderloins are obviously very small, so we used four pieces and pressed them together, wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap to mold into a large log. We then sliced the log and seared the pieces with the plastic wrap on—which helps keep its shape. Don’t worry—the plastic wrap at school can withstand the heat and doesn’t melt.

And finally, our dessert was another new tart called Tarte Florentin (without an “e”). Although I can’t remember why it is called this!

It was a very sweet dessert, but better than I expected it to be! To describe this, I would say it is similar to a caramel tart, but with the addition of sliced almonds and candied fruit. The crust got blind-baked, we then filled in with a caramel (soft-ball) made with cream, sugar, and honey. To this, we added flour, sliced almonds, and the candied fruit.

This then got baked for barely any time at all, before we set it in the fridge. Unlike our fellow pastry students, we don’t use candy thermometers, but instead dip our hands in ice water and then grab a bit caramel to test it with our fingers. And yes, it sounded insanely crazy to me the first time I was told to do that too. Voluntarily put your fingers into boiling sugar, umm…no thanks. Luckily, it has worked out, but it still makes me nervous each time! I’m a bigger fan of thermometers, even if this other method is really accurate as well.

After lunch, we had to eat really quickly, before heading into the classroom to start making terrine—which is a sophisticated pate—and also have a demonstration on how to make croissants au beurre (classic butter croissants), pain au chocolat, & filled croissants. We are baking some off tomorrow morning for breakfast!

I have to say, I have been wanting to known how to make homemade croissants for years! They are probably my favorite pastry ever (the good ones…), so I was really excited to learn how to do this finally. I can’t say I will be whipping up homemade croissant every day now, but I definitely want to try to make these for a special occasion at some point soon. I think the hardest part of shaping them nicely, which I thought would be the easiest part going into it. Well worth the effort, though!

And now, I am officially off to head! Hoping my headache (probably from dehydration, which is something I really need to work on getting better at before starting my externship) is gone by the morning.

Here’s hoping I dream of delicious, fresh-baked croissants!

Day 79 & 80: Tuna Tartare, Frog Legs, Veal Cheeks, & Apple Tart

2012-05-27T15:44:54Z

Thursday’s class was packed with dishes! Usually we are responsible for making a three-course lunch every day. However, on this day, we upped it to four courses, which meant we had even more to get ready in the same amount of production time (which is roughly 2 hours).

I was particularly excited about our first course of the day, which was tuna tartare. I think I’ve only tried tuna tartare once before, but I’ve always loved raw tuna. It is buttery and delicious. Our whole class divided up amongst ourselves an entire center-cut of #1 Sushi-grade tuna tenderloin—which was about 7 lbs in weight and approximately $140 dollars worth of fish!

We made our tartare at the last minute (besides prepping all the ingredients and finely dicing up the tuna and keeping it in a bowl on ice) by combining it with cucumber, capers, red onion, and a small amount of wasabi powder, lemon juice, and sesame oil for a slight Asian preparation. We also mixed it with a classic Dijonnaise sauce, which is simply Dijon mustard, olive oil, and Worcestershire sauce emulsified to add a bit of kick and add some acidity to the tuna. The drizzles on the plate were more Dijonnaise sauce, as well as a few drizzles of Thai basil oil, which Chef Patrice prepared that morning during demonstration.

For a fun, Asian-inspired garnish, we made “paper fans”—prepared with feuille de brick--Middle-Eastern paper-thin pastry sheets (similar in a way to phyllo dough, but slightly less delicate), which we cut into rectangles and folded to create a fan shape. We held the end together with a small piece of foil, brushed them with egg wash, and sprinkled on a mixture of white and black sesame seeds for color. These then got baked in the oven under they were golden brown. It was a cool product to work with!

Our second-course of the day was another new experience for me! We prepared fried frog legs, which we served with a gribiche sauce (mayonnaise based sauce with capers, cornichon, hard-boiled egg, parsley, and lemon juice) and a small pickled carrot & fennel salad.

Though people associate the French with frog legs, our Chef said that he rarely ever encountered them in France, while growing up. So, I think it might be more of an American-French preparation, which I found interesting. I have always heard from people that they are delicious, but the thought of eating frog legs always grossed me out a bit in the past. However, in honesty, compared to some of the other weird foods I’ve eaten during this experience (calf’s liver, sweetbreads, caul fat, etc.), it seems relatively normal now. I was actually secretly kinda excited to try them!

This is how they are packaged and delivered! I have to admit, I did get a little sad seeing these little guys during production. They must get these super-strong muscles from all the leaping and jumping!

To prepare the frog legs, we removed the calf meet and frenched the bones to come up with the following—Frog Leg lollipops.

I’m not sure if I would want to eat a lot of these in a row, but they were pretty good (we coated them in a batter made of semolina, whole wheat flour, baking powder, etc.). They had a similar texture to rabbit, sort-of. Hard to describe! But they don’t have an incredibly distinctive flavor at all.

Our main course of the day was braised veal cheeks, which were so tender they were able to be cut with a plastic spoon, and served with orzo pasta, which we prepared like risotto. This dish was good, but I couldn’t decide if I was a fan of veal cheeks—they were a bit gelatinous in texture and pretty fatty, believe it or not, despite a lot trimming we did before preparing them.

Last, but not least, we served a classic apple tart (Tarte aux Pommes) for dessert. For some reason or other, we’ve been making a lot of apple desserts lately, which I have no problem with at all! I love fruit-based desserts. Especially rustic tarts like this.

This tart, unlike most of the ones we have made in the past, was prepared not by blind-baking the crust, because it is classically made in a deck oven (or it can be prepared on a pizza stone at home) and baked for almost 2-2 1/2 hours, which sounds like an insanely long baking time, but that is exactly how we prepared ours! The filling is simply Granny-Smith apples, cored, peeled, and sliced very thinly, some tabs of butter, generous sprinkling of sugar, and ground cinnamon (not a classic French ingredient, but we added it for more flavor).

After baking for such a long time, the apples got very soft and tender. It was really delicious! I could have eaten several slices of this…

After a fast, productive day, we spent the afternoon learning about our ingredients for the following day’s Market Basket challenge. Our ingredients were veal and shrimp. Since we had an early dismissal on Friday for Memorial Day weekend, we were only responsible for making two courses (an appetizer and main) and were allowed to use the ingredients in whichever order we preferred. I wasn’t particularly excited about either ingredient, but after a lot of brainstorming, Kevin and I came up with the following:

Our visiting judge was, Jason Maddens, the Executive Chef at Central, a very popular and well-regarded Michel Richard restaurant in DC. Chef Maddens is actually a L’Academie graduate as well. So we had extra pressure to make some good dishes. In addition to Chef Maddens, the director of our program, Francois Dionot, and our instructor, Chef Patrice, taste everything as well.

Considering we only had 2 1/2 hours to make everything—minus about 20 minutes of discussion time with Chef Patrice the morning of—I felt like our menu was pretty ambitious. About 20 minutes prior to needing to be in the classroom to start everything, we were both getting very worried about even finishing on time! Even though I am not that familiar with Southern/New Orleans cuisine, I actually suggested the Po Boy (I can’t really believe it either!). The trickiest part then was to come up with an appetizer/main that incorporated veal and had a similar theme/flavor profile. Kevin came up with the idea of making a veal sausage seasoned with Cajun spices. Somehow we were able to get it all done in time…

To make the po boy a bit more interesting, we served it on a brioche bun, with a French-inspired remoulade sauce, and instead of dipping the shrimp in a basic batter, we actually wrapped them in Kataifi (shredded phyllo dough)—which added a lot more texture and crunch. On the side, we served a simple vinegar-based coleslaw made with red cabbage, carrot, shallot, & jalapeno. We served the veal sausage, with smoked gouda grits, a veal jus, and a side of asparagus tips. I wish I could have gotten pictures, but it almost impossible during the whole process, since we are plating them in the room, serving them, and needing to describe them to the class.

Our main criticisms were that the veal sausage could have used a bit more fat (it was a tiny bit dry) and that they could have used more sauce on the po boy! In the end, Chef Maddens ended up picking our two dishes as his favorite appetizer and main course of the day. It was a great way to end the day, especially since I felt like I had majorly gone out of my comfort zone with our menu, even though it was definitely fun to make something a bit more out of the box and risky.

Day 78: Braised Endive, Papillottes, & Chocolate

2012-05-26T19:39:31Z

This week went by so quickly! For some reason, I was exhausted and ended up taking an unintended nap almost every day after school. But I’m back to share all the details with you.

Our first course on Wednesday was an interesting dish made with braised endive, wrapped in smoked ham, and covered with bechamel sauce. This is very rustic, French café food and, as you can probably tell from the pictures, pretty rich. We’ve made braised endive several times by now and I’m enjoying it a bit more each time, however, it is definitely an acquired taste, I would say. Very bitter, but similar to the texture of buttery cooked leeks.

We topped ours with gruyere and parmesan cheese. Look at all that melted, goeey cheese!

I was particularly excited about our main course, which was cod, cooked in a parchment parcel (known as a papillotte), along with sauteed vegetables, carrot, celery, & leek. We served this on top of, believe it or not, roasted spaghetti squash! I think this was probably the healthiest dish we have made in the past 2 months, let alone the entire time I’ve been in school. Not a drop of butter in it at all!!

The key to making a papillotte is shaping parchment paper in a heart shape. To seal it, you simply crease the edges, overlapping, and fold and tuck under the last piece, so that no steam or liquid escapes during the cooking process.

We par-cooked all the julienned vegetables prior to putting them in the parchment, as well as added in some fresh herbs, including thyme, tarragon, and chives, and poured in a very small amount of dry vermouth to help add some steaming liquid.

We then placed them in the oven at 350 degrees to steam! Once we removed them from the oven, we actually opened them out, carefully removing the liquid, which we used to make a quick hot vinaigrette with some olive oil, dijon mustard, sherry vinegar, and lemon juice. We also added some chopped chives for garnish.

Here was the final dish!

It was very good—however, I must say, I’m not a fan of the texture or taste of cod—and I really enjoyed the roasted spaghetti squash underneath. I’ve been meaning to buy spaghetti squash for years now to have at home, I still can’t believe this was my first time eating it.

Our dessert of the day was a very special chocolate mousse (although that word doesn’t give it justice), which we served with a coffee ganache cream, as well as peanut butter crisp. The trickiest part of the dessert was the peanut butter crisp, because it involved shaping them immediately once them came out of the oven. They were very thin, fragile, and unfortunately, the humidity didn’t help one bit.

The mousse needed to set for a lot time over ice (it had a small amount of gelatin added to it) in order to quenelle it perfectly. We also used an unusual pastry tip, known as a chibousse, to pipe the coffee ganache, which was made with cream (infused with ground coffee), a small amount of white chocolate, and a small amount of gelatin.

We served it also with a small amount of raspberry coulis on the side, which Chef Patrice added some edible gold dust to, for a special touch! He loves breaking out the edible gold whenever he can

Overall, it was a fun day in the kitchen!

Back soon with a post on Thursday’s class (we served a four-course lunch that day!), as well as a brief recap on Friday’s Market Basket Challenge.

Day 78: Beef Carpaccio, Spatzle, & Crepe Cake

2012-05-23T02:12:54Z

Today marked our 21st week at school! It also marked the beginning of our last month at L’Academie, which meant that we were assigned new partners (I'll be working with Kevin), new tables, and we’ll be continuing to make new dishes on a daily basis.

The last month at school is really about focusing even more on speed, efficiency and fine-tuning our skills before we start our externships in restaurants and join the real (scary) world of professional cooking. Don’t worry—I’ll be writing a post all the externship within the next week, I promise.

The first dish of the day was beef carpaccio, served with a Dijon dressing, capers, red onions, alongside argulua salad in a parmesan tuile. For those of you not familiar with this dish, it is raw beef (tenderloin, in our case) pounded extremely thin. It is almost always served with acidic, salty components (ie. capers, dressing, etc) to round out, balance the strong flavors of the raw beef. Not my favorite thing in the world, but pretty good.

Obviously, this dish needed to be served very cold and we needed to protect our meat from oxidizing (and turning brown). We pounded it ahead of service, placed each piece between plastic wrap, and kept it in the fridge up until the last minute.

Our main course was seared salmon served with a cucumber cream sauce (made by sweating shallots, mushrooms, and reducing fumet—fish stock—adding cream, and eventually straining it and adding in cooked, tourneed cucumber).

The sauce was good, but we all thought the cooked cucumber was weird!

To go alongside it, we served a classic German dish of spatzle—which essentially are egg noodles. The dough is a very simple mixture of eggs and flour (8 ounces all-purpose flour, 5 eggs, nutmeg, salt), combined in a stand mixer. To form the shapes, we literally just pressed the dough against a perforated hotel tray right into boiling water. The dough goes through the holes and forms little rustic noodles. We cooked the spatzle, then shocked it in ice water, before sautéing it in butter during service.

Anything remotely similar to pasta is always a winner in my book…so I was a fan.

This is actually the salmon that we used today for our main courses! And I actually helped learn how to break it down this morning, before class started, with the help of Chef Michel. It is not as intimidating as it looks, but it is tricky to remove the skin and bones without getting rid of too much flesh.

Definitely need to practice a lot more to become even remotely good at this!

And, finally, for dessert we made a very unique cake made of crepes. However, the crepe batter was much different than a traditional batter, because it involved folding in egg whites and cooking them to almost the thickness of pancakes. This dish is bizarre to describe, but actually requires a fair amount of technique and careful attention to detail.

Crepe Cake – mid-way through the process

Essentially, you assemble it by cooking the “crepes” one at a time and carefully stacking them on top of each other (each layer gets sprinkled with sugar). However, unlike a normal pancake, which you would flip on each side, these were only cooked on one side and to the point where they were basically black and burned. Sounds weird? Yes--it did to me too. But the darkness really is caramelization and adds a lot of flavor to the final dish, as well as cuts the sweetness. You also have to stack it just right in order for it not to quickly become the leaning Tower of Pisa and topple over completely…

Then the layers (we made 9) were covered with one final—and significantly larger—“crepe”-- to envelop them all. Then it went into the fridge to chill and set a bit…

The final layer went cooked-side up! See what I mean about how far we cooked these?? Trust me, the final product was delicious.

Once the cake was set, we dusted it with powdered sugar, sliced it and served it with coffee crème anglaise (yum!) and a simple strawberry coulis. See all the layers?

Basically, this cake tasted like an incredibly moist pancake (in cake form) and with the combination of coffee and strawberry, almost resembled a delicious breakfast. Several of us thought it almost tasted like a jelly donut! It was really good, one of my favorite desserts in a while.

Simple in flavor, but delicious.

Overall, the day went well and it was a nice way to kick off our last month… I still cannot believe it!! Phase II has really zoomed by, despite being difficult and a bit overwhelming at times, I have learned so much.

Looking forward to continuing to share the rest of this journey with you all!

Day 76: Day in the Life

2012-05-21T15:42:29Z

5:30 AM : My alarm goes off. I snooze for another 5 minutes—despite my cat meowing in the distance to be fed—and finally get up. I get dressed and turn on the hot water kettle to make coffee for the road. Despite not being hungry at all (too early), I usually grab a sad breakfast of either a banana, yogurt, or anything easy to take in the car with me.

5:50 AM : Grab my knife bag, bulky uniform bag, and notebook and head out the door!

6:20 AM: One positive about waking up so early? No traffic. It only takes me about 30 minutes to get to school, despite the 20 mile commute. I grab my stuff from the car, go to the locker room, get dressed, and head to the kitchen…

6:35 AM: Despite the fact that class doesn’t start for another hour and a half, I have lots to do. My fellow early-risers and I check the list for ingredients to grab from the commissary, and start getting our tables set up. I take out my knives, grab a utility bucket for equipment (ladles, spoons, spatulas, etc.), and grab some cutting boards, bowls, and deli cups.

I grab a pound of butter and start to clarify it on the stovetop. We also grab our venison bones, which we had started marinating two days prior from the fridge, drain the marinade, and start to dry them out to sear during production…

I also am put in charge of making a large amount of vinaigrette in the Vitamix.

7:00 AM – 7:45: We organize all of Chef’s mise en place for the day’s demonstration, including scaling out ingredients for desserts, getting mirepoix and other ingredients together, and making sure the classroom is stocked with the regular equipment. I start peeling (and de-germing) Chef’s daily head of garlic, as well as shallots, which are a daily requirement. My hands constantly smell like garlic.

7:45: Grab coffee, water, & and my notebook and head into the classroom!

8:00: We greet the following menu on the whiteboard and all start copying it down in our notebooks.

L’OEUF DE CAILLE EN GELEE

LA SALADE EN COURONNE DE PAIN

LE MEDAILLON DE CHEVREUIL POELE

LA SAUCE GRAND VENEUR

LES TROIS PUREES

LA POMME DECOREE

LA TARTE CHAUDE AUX POMMES

We are responsible for taking notes throughout the demonstration and typing up each of the recipes for our notebook—essentially a massive 5-inch binder that gets turned in for grading on exam days. A menu this long would have petrified me during Phase I, but now it’s the norm…

8:00 – 10:30 AM: Chef Patrice, with the help of our assistant Allyson & Chef Michel, demonstrates the day’s menu, while we are all scribbling down notes in our notebook. I grab a piece of scrap paper to write out a vague idea of how I should organize myself during production…

Each dish has multiple “baby recipes”—our made up term for a dish that has multiple recipes and components. Those are the worst! I try desperately to keep my brand new notebook organized.

We are using two new-to-us ingredients today: venison tenderloin and aspic—which is consommé with gelatin. It basically is a meat-flavored jello. It is accompanied by a beautiful salad of mache, endive, lolla rosa lettuce, and arugula perched in a bread basket, essentially a large crouton, which is shaped into a ring.

10:50 AM: We end demonstration a bit later than usual and service gets pushed back to 1 pm. Chef Patrice wraps up the day’s menu, plates the dishes, and we all stand up to take pictures of the final dishes and taste everything. I am intrigued to try our first course, which essentially is a poached quail egg encased in aspic and garnished with a flower, which we assemble with carrots, chervil, and chive “stems”. We then head in the classroom quickly to get started on our dishes, since we need to start service in just two hours…

10:50 – 1:00 PM: Service is usually a blur. My partner, Blanca, and I come up with a vague system of how to split up some of the day’s tasks. We both quickly jump on the main course’s sauce—Grand Veneur—a classic currant jelly sauce served with game--which involves a complicated process that includes searing the marinated bones, and eventually having the sauce thicken and reduce in the oven—the pot sealed with dough to prevent steam from escaping.

I also decide to take on the aspic dish. Luckily, we are provided with aspic, which I need to chill (without setting) so it is in liquid form. I start assembling the molds, which I need to slowly assemble and chill between steps. I also put on a pot of water for poaching quail eggs—and crack them (with a paring knife) into small cups.

I also start getting together the “flower” garnish, which is made by making channel cuts into a carrot, slicing it very thinly, and cooking. I also cut chives for “stems” and get together the chervil (which acts as the flower leaf).

We also start rolling out puff pastry for our dessert, as well as peeling apples. Our main course is served with three purees (1) chestnut, 2) carrot, 3) celery root)—to help get everything done in time, we are dividing the purees amongst teams. We got assigned to do the carrot puree, so Blanca and I also start putting that together to start cooking on the stove

1:00– 1:45 PM: Somehow, it is already time for service and the rush begins. We are waiting to “fire” the Venison tenderloin per Chef Patrice’s orders, as well as waiting to put the apple tarts in the oven so they can get hot for service. We start plating together our first course, putting them on trays, and delivering them to our front of the house guests…

Our team is serving four people, as well as a guest today—who sits at our station as we are putting together the dishes during service—which means we need to quickly grab silverware, a stool, and organize our table. We also learn that our table is serving Chef Francois—the director of the school—today, which means we have extra pressure to put out great dishes (otherwise, he will come back and let you know about it…).

After delivering the first course, we quickly head back to the kitchen to start plating and firing our second course. We need to put our dessert in the oven, as well as start searing our venison steaks, and finishing the last touches on our sauce…

We also need to put together our garnish for the venison, which were puff pastry small cups (which we had to make during production) to which we added in red currant jelly + horseradish mixture and garnished with toasted pine nuts.

Usually, by the time our main course is out the door, I breathe a sigh of relief. We quickly plate the desserts and service is over.

1:50– 2:10 PM: Service is done. I grab a plate and throw myself together a quick lunch of leftover salad and some venison (depending on the day, I’ll eat different things). Honestly, I usually am craving water more than food at this point. I also grab a piece of our apple dessert, which is quite delicious. I head outside to the picnic tables behind school, with the rest of my classmates, where we relax a bit and get some fresh air.

We also quiz each other a bit for our upcoming theory exam in the afternoon. We then quickly head back in to clean up the classroom, which usually takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes. My team is responsible for the commissary, which means I quickly start rounding up any leftover mise en place ingredients and bring them back to the walk-in, as well as take a quick inventory of the fridge.

I then head back to the classroom to help finish up sweeping, mopping, and taking out all the trash…Not a fun part of the day, but at least we’ve gotten more efficient at it since Phase I. Plus—we have the added bonus of not having to trim chicken bones for stock!

3:15 PM: Somehow it is 3:15 and we are just sitting down to take our 5th theory exam, which consists of about 50 questions, as well as some costing exercises (our 3:30 “dismissal” time clearly isn’t happening..a norm). Luckily, the theory exam goes well and I’m done in 20-25 minutes, and I’m back at the locker room, ready to head home for the day to get mentally prepared for our 5th (and most difficult) practical exam!

The End.

Practical Exam Update:

Friday, we had our fifth practical exam of the program. It is known for being the most difficult exam of the program, because the menu involves a lot of dishes and is difficult to finish in time. We arrived in the morning at 7:45 am and were given the exam day’s menu, which involved three dishes:

Fresh Pasta with Scallop Cream Sauce & Seared Salmon (cooked a la minute)

Pan Seared Duck Breast, served with an orange gastrique, sauteed potatoes, broccoli, & tomato provencale

Strawberry Tart (flash back to week two!)

Somehow, I was just able to make it on time. I was definitely going full speed the whole time and almost had two near disasters (1: I burned caramel for my gastrique—which meant I had to start a new batch; 2: I almost wiped out on some slippery floor). For the most part, I am happy with how I did—but mostly, I was just relieved to have it behind me!

Day 75: Pigeon, Steak Poele, & Pecan Tart

2012-05-18T23:35:20Z

This week was full of time-intensive menus to get us geared up for our difficult practical exam at the end of the week! Everyday we were hustling to get all of our dishes out on time…

Wednesday’s first course was particularly time-consuming! It was essentially a timbale (basically a mold) of squab. The entire thing was wrapped in braised endive leaves—and there were a bunch of other stuffing components as well! It was our first time working with squab—which in less fancy terms means pigeon meat. I took a bunch of photos of the butchery process, so if you are squeamish you might want to scroll on down if you would prefer not to see them!

The entire process started with breaking down pigeons. Unlike other poultry we’ve broken down in the past, we received the entire pigeon—head, feet, organs, everything!—and had to clean it all up. Sounds a bit gross, but I found it really interesting actually. A culinary school dissection, if you will! I have to say, they were a bit sad to look at though…

It started with cutting off the head, legs, and then using your hands to remove the lungs from the rib cage! It was a messy, dirty process. Once we did this, we were able to literally pull out all of the organs in one go.

We then trussed the pigeons and seared the legs and back over the stovetop, before roasting the whole pigeon in the oven.

While we were roasting the pigeon, we assembled the rest of our timbale ingredients (we started braising the endive right when we arrived at school in the morning), which included sautéed mushrooms, as well as searing a small amount of foie gras (duck liver) and the livers of the pigeon.

We also were given veal mousse—which Chef Patrice had prepared during the morning lecture—to use as binding to hold everything today. Once our pigeon was cooked, we removed the breasts and legs and sliced the meat. Then we lined ramekins with endive leaves and filled it up with everything. This got baked in a water bath at a low temperature for about 30 minutes until it was all set…

To go with our timbale, we also prepared an orange gastrique (gastrique is simply caramel mixed with acid, usually red wine vinegar), which we added to a jus we prepared using the pigeon bones. To accompany this, we also prepared a simple shallot cream sauce.

Can you tell that this dish was a bit time-consuming??? It tasted good though!

Luckily, to balance out the more labor intensive first course, we made a simpler main course of steak poele (pan seared steak), served with a bordelaise sauce. To go with it, we cooked snap peas and also made pommes rissolees, a potato dish from Phase I, which involves tourneeing potatoes, quickly blanching them, before sautéing them in clarified butter. We were quickly running out of time, so I had to tournee the potatoes extremely quickly during service!!

And lastly, we served a pecan tart for dessert, with whipped cream quenelle on the side. The pecan pie was made with a pate brisee crust (flaky, sugar-free dough). The filling was a simple mixture of melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, toasted pecans, and an egg. Right when it got out of the oven, we poured on a mixture of Kentucky bourbon and vanilla extract. Yum!

We ended the exhausting day with our third (and last) wine class of the program! We talked a little bit about food pairing, and got to taste a wide selection of wines, as well as Champagne (Perrier-Jouet—the good stuff!) and a very good quality Madeira and Port.

I think we all didn’t eat enough lunch, because we were all acting a bit goofy by the end of it Our spit cups were also suspiciously on the empty side…

I then headed home to try to concentrate (difficult after a wine class, I might add) on studying for our theory exam the following day!

Back soon with an update on Thursday’s class, as well as today’s 5th practical exam.

I thought it might be fun to write my next school update as a “Day in the Life” type post and looked for feedback on my Facebook page. I have had a lot of positive feedback so far—so I’m leaning in that direction! Any more readers interested in this??

Day 74: Rockfish, Rabbit Saddle, & Clafoutis

2012-05-16T02:04:48Z

Woops—the weekend zoomed by and I didn’t ever end up writing a quick weekend update! Before I knew it, I was heading back to school to start Week 20, which is going to end with our fifth (and notoriously difficult) practical exam on Friday, as well as another theory exam.

Overall, the menu was quite delicious! Much better than last week’s sweetbreads…if I do say so myself. Our first course was a potato encrusted rockfish served with a green olive sauce. We started by breaking down rockfish (I still need to practice breaking down round fish, but I’m slowly getting better at it). We then sliced potatoes extremely thinly, until they were almost translucent, with a deli slicer, coated them with melted clarified butter, and carefully wrapped them around the rockfish filets. We also added in some herbs (chives) for a bit of color. Right before service, we seared these on both sides in a saute pan to cook through. The potatoes ended up getting crispy and delicious and it kept the fish very moist.

The green olive sauce involved blending olives (which we blanched to remove some of the saltiness), onions (sweated), garlic, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice, and a bit of Pernod. I really liked this dish!

Our main course involved quite a bit of work. The main component was a boneless rabbit saddle, stuffed with sautéed spinach, sautéed mushrooms, cooked quinoa, and sundried tomatoes. The trickiest part was removing the spine from the saddle without puncturing the skin. To hold it together, we wrapped them in caul fat.

The rabbit saddles ended up getting braised in a liquid made by searing mirepoix, rabbit bones and deglazing with white wine and veal stock. This liquid ended up being reduced at the end and turned into a sauce.

To go along with our rabbit, we also made homemade pasta (which at this point, we all know will probably be part of our fifth exam this Friday…). To add a little interest and flavor, we actually added some chopped chives to the dough while we were rolling it. It added a fun color variation too!

And some plain asparagus on the side! Peeled, of course

Our dessert was another winner! We made a blueberry clafoutis. Traditonally, clafoutis are made with cherries, which still contain their pits (which prevents the juice from spilling and adds flavor). However, they can really be made with any type of fruit. Since cherries are not in season, we used fresh blueberries (ironically, they are also not in season—haha) and also a bit of griottes, which are dried cherries soaked in alcohol.

The batter is very simple to make and quite similar to a crepe batter—simply a combination of all-purpose and almond flour, sugar, cream, milk, and eggs. It is very moist and custard like in flavor. I liked it a lot! And it really was so simple to make…

I see more of these in my future!

We ended the day by getting together our marinade for a venison dish we will be making this Thursday!

And now I am off to study for my upcoming test—which will most likely translate into going to bed early, as I am tired! Posting this week might be a bit sporadic, but I will do my best to keep you all updated…

Boxwood Winery

2012-05-13T20:11:55Z

This Thursday, we took a break from school and headed out to Boxwood Winery in Middleburg, VA for a private tour and field trip! Since we have now had two wine classes at school so far, it was exciting to visit a winery and learn a little bit more about the wine making process. It was a beautiful property and, luckily, the weather was great!

We started off the day with a quick tour of the grounds given by Boxwood’s head wine maker, who explained a little bit about the wine making process. Though the winery is not certified organic, he explained that they practice organic and sustainable growing practices, which includes planting a wide variety of ground cover to prevent a monoculture, which inevitably ends up limiting the productivity of the vineyard.

They winery is run by a very small team, to maximize quality, and despite the vineyard’s relatively small size, they have the facilities and equipment to oversee the entire wine making process, including bottling—which apparently many wineries have to outsource.

Right now, Boxwood produces 5 varieties of grapes: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, & Malbec. We ended up tasting three of their blends, as well as a rose.

The vineyard had just finished bottling the last year’s grapes within the last month or two! And many of the grapes are just beginning to grow for the upcoming season…

Check out the bottling equipment and lab!

After we had a tour of the grounds, cave (where the wine is aged in oak barrels) and the facility, which was absolutely spotless, we had a short tasting, during which we tried three reds, as well as their rose blend. It was a lot of fun!

We ended the day by heading into downtown Middleburg, where we had a very casual lunch—which our assistant, Allyson made and brought from school that morning--at their tasting room store.

Turkey sandwiches, cornichon pickles, Cheeto puffs, and Coke Zero. Classy!

At the end of lunch, a bunch of us walked around town before heading home! Overall, it was a really fun, relaxing day and a nice break from the daily grind of school.

Still can’t believe we only have about 5 more weeks of school left before we start our restaurant externship… I will miss these guys so much!

From Left to Right: Me, Lyndsay, Hadley, Blanca, & Tasha

Market Basket #5 Update!

Friday, we all headed back to school for our 5th Market Basket challenge. We were given sea scallops, flank steak, and nuts as our primary ingredients and had to come up with another three-course menu. Blanca, my partner, and I ended up coming up with:

Pan Seared Scallops with Romesco Sauce

Pan Seared Flank Steak with Fresh Olive & Oregano Salsa, Roasted Blue Potatoes & Asparagus

Chocolate-Caramel Macadamia Nut Tart

Overall, we got pretty good feedback and the Chef, Barry Koslow, ended up choosing our flank steak as his favorite main course.

Back soon with another quick weekend update!

Day 71: Cheese Souffle, Curry, & Baklava

2012-05-12T17:21:28Z

Wednesday was our regular day of production this week! We started off the day by learning how to make another soufflé, in this case, a cheese soufflé which was twice-baked. Essentially, we poured soufflé batter into spring-form tart shells and baked them in the oven.

Once they were fully puffed, we inverted them into gratin dishes and poured over reduced cream and baked it once again in the oven to brown. This was too rich for me, but an interesting technique to learn! Never seen it before…

For our main course, we served a “Indian” chicken curry. I say “Indian” in quotes, because it was a French interpretation of an Indian curry. It included ground up green apples, a banana (this part made me a bit uneasy), celery, onion, and tomato. The first step was flouring the chicken pieces (to which we added some curry powder) and searing them. These ended up braising slowly in the sauce until they were tender.

We used almond meal to thicken the sauce up at the end—which was pretty bizarre. I wasn’t sure if I was going to end up liking this, but it was pretty good—although it definitely needed more heat, at least, in my opinion.

Served over a simple basmati rice pilaf. Pretty simple!

For dessert, we made the classic Turkish dish, baklava, which is made with ground nuts (we used pistachios and walnuts), lots of phyllo dough layers, and simple syrup, which we flavored with lemon and orange zest, orange blossom water (yum), and cardamom pods.

Baklava has always been a favorite dessert of mine, as long as it isn’t overly sweet, so I was excited to learn how to make it! Although phyllo can be a pain to work with, it was relatively easy to put together, but a bit time consuming.

It involved layering 6 pieces of phyllo—which were each individually brushed with clarified butter—and then topping it with a layer of ground nuts, which we added cinnamon, ground clove, cardamom, and some other spices to, topping it with another 6 sheets of phyllo, another layer of nuts, and finally one last layer of phyllo dough. This gets refrigerated until it’s a bit more firm and then sliced into diamonds. To help the layers stay together, we pierced each piece with a whole clove—which we later removed. This then gets baked in the oven for about 30 minutes.

The last step is to pour the hot simple syrup over it and let it sit, ideally for several days in the fridge. We only had about an hour to let it sit, so it could have been firmer, but it was still good! Although I think an additional couple of layers would have made it even better!

Overall, it was a relatively laid-back week at school, which was a nice break from the previous week’s Restaurant Challenge and next week’s upcoming exam week. Once we finished production, we had our second wine lecture—where we got to taste three more red/white wines and discuss the difference between old vs. new world (essentially any non-European) wine.

The next day we got to sleep in a bit later than usual, before we headed off to Boxwood Winery for our field trip!

Back soon with pictures and a short update on Friday’s market basket challenge!

P.S. Check out the adorable ducklings that hatched recently behind our school!

Day 70: Sweetbreads, Spinach Gnocchi & Soufflés

2012-05-09T23:45:36Z

Week 19 (!) is a bit different than usual. Chef Patrice is out of town doing several cooking demonstrations in Texas, which means Chef Michel and assistant, Allyson, are in charge. Not to mention, we only have two production days this week, followed by our wine field trip tomorrow, and another Market Basket challenge on Friday.

Our first course of the day was a seafood chowder, of sorts, served in a vol au vent (large puff pastry cup). The seafood included fresh scallops, shrimp, and salmon, which we cut into small pieces and poached quickly in reduce fumet (fish stock) flavored with some finely diced shallots and vermouth. One the seafood was cooked, we made a veloute by adding roux (flour + butter) and some cream. It was very rich, but good.

Tuesday also involved cooking another (new to me) protein: sweetbreads. Don’t let the name fool you, it is not anything of the sort. I have to be honest, I wasn’t super excited to see these on the syllabus. I realize that there are many people out there who love it, but I didn’t expect myself to be one of them. Then again, I also had never tried it…but similar to the calf’s liver experience in Phase I, I had a feeling I wouldn’t enjoy it…

I’m sure many of you are familiar with sweetbread, but for those of you who aren’t, sweetbreads are the thymus gland of veal/lamb. It is generally pan-fried and cooked pretty simply, perhaps with some lemon juice or another acidic sauce. Sweetbread can also be the pancreas, but in our case, we worked with the thymus—however, in a culinary standpoint, it is taken from young calfs/lambs, because as they age, the gland shrinks significantly in size. This is probably way more detail than you cared to read, but there you go!

Also—it is not a pretty thing to look at. It basically resembles brain in texture. To prepare it, you generally soak the glands in water to remove the blood and poach it, before using in other preparations. We made a braise out of ours and served it alongside spinach gnocchi.

We have made a couple other variations of gnocchi in Phase I, but this was our first classical preparation of the dish with riced potato. We used pureed spinach to color and flavor the dough. I thought it was ok—but definitely not the best gnocchi I’ve had.

To try a more classical version of the dish, our Chef also put together a simple pan-fried variation with some lemon juice. Again—I have told myself that I will try everything that we make in culinary school—but I definitely approached this with some trepidation.

Honest opinion?? It was not as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, the texture was sort of like chicken. However, about 30 seconds after I took a bite, I did detect a weird sort of after-taste that was a bit iron-y. Let’s just say, I didn’t end up eating more of it for lunch…

Last, but not least, we prepared a raspberry souffle for dessert. This soufflé was made a bit differently than our usual soufflés, because we used a simple combination of egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch (the distinguishing characteristic), raspberry puree, and a small amount of lemon juice as our base. To this,we added whisked and folded in egg whites (stabilized with a small amount of cream of tartar and pinch of salt).

At this point, we filled our ramekins and placed them in the fridge until service. This method of soufflé, as opposed to the other methods we have learned, is super convenient because it can be made the morning of and held perfectly until placing in the oven. No last minute whisking of egg whites and folding! A great dinner party idea, but equally as impressive as a regular soufflé.

Overall, it was an interesting menu to prepare, but I left school hungry. Luckily, I was able to get home in time to have a quick snack, before heading out the door to my fourth (and most likely, last) stage at a restaurant in downtown DC. I ended up staying there from about 6 pm to 9:15, before heading back home to get ready for the next day at school. I will be sharing more about the upcoming externship over the next week or two, as I make my final decision—and will finally disclose where I have been going on all these stages!

Tomorrow, we have a break from school and are heading to our field trip at Boxwood Winery in Middleburg, VA! I’ll be bringing my nice camera to take lots of pictures!