I have moved past my first intro culinary course into my...wait for it...SECOND intro culinary course. Movin' at the speed of light here, people!
Actually, literally, it feels like the speed of light. A month ago I was learning how to heat a pan hot enough to saute a vegetable. Now I'm learning how to roast, pan-fry, grill and poach meats PLUS make sauces for them PLUS make side dishes to go with them. And we make multiple versions of these meats in one day. In less than two hours. My head is spinning. Constantly.
One of my favorite things - every time we finish a sauce, we are to "mount" it with butter. As if we didn't already have enough fat in or dishes, we finish sauces off with butter to give them texture and shine. Gotta love it.
Wanna see pictures?? Okay!!
DUCK!
Okay, stop ducking. I mean, I COOKED duck! I don't even know if I've eaten duck before, but I cooked it! And it was positively delicious. Pictured above, you see Sauteed Duck Breast with Dried Cherry Pan Sauce along with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be.
For this, you saute your duck breast in its own luscious fat until it's cooked medium rare (duck is a red meat). Use that duck fat to make a beautiful red wine and dried cherry sauce. Meanwhile, roast some red bliss potatoes in the oven and coat with rosemary and desired spices. Piece of cake, right?
BEEF!
Yup, beef tenderloin, my friends. The beauty of meat. Lovingly coated with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled to perfection. Alongside it, a twice baked potato. One bake: in the oven and whole. Scoop everything out of the potato and combine with sour cream, regular cream, cheese and salt & pepper. Place back in potato skin. Two bake: top with cheese and bacon and place her in the oven. Twice baked and twice as delicious!
Another twice baked potato! And some Marinated & Grilled Flank Steak. (I cut them the wrong way which is why they look like pruney meat lady fingers). But it tasted delicious.
The beautiful thing about the class I'm in now: we make amazing things. Behold, fish and chips. (Homemade tartar sauce not pictured). Yeah, we made tartar sauce from scratch. NOT an easy task. Mainly because tartar sauce has a mayonnaise base...and we MADE our mayonnaise. Mine didn't come out totally perfect. But how many mayonnaises have you made today??
This next dish is not for the faint of heart. Or for anyone who dislikes seafood...
Trout Almondine. The prettiest of the pretty fish. Look, she's mugging for you! This lovely fish is covered in brown butter sauce with almonds. Underneath the fish is braised chard and pommes parisienne (potato balls). Can't say it was one of my favorites...but technique-wise, good to learn.
**Just to give you an idea of how crazy these classes can be**
One day we had to make Chicken Marsala, Crispy Snapper, Grilled Salmon, Grilled Vegetables & Lentils. In two hours. I nearly lost my mind. AAAAND we had to have them in between certain times.
From 9:15-9:30 we had to turn in our chicken marsala. Great. Good. I got straight to work on it because it was first up. So there I am diligently working away on my chicken to get it turned in by 9:15. So I turn it in at 9:15 and realize I haven't done ANYTHING to further my other dishes. I manically start pan-frying my striped bass and COMPLETELY burn the poor thing. Once I saw that sad, charred bass sitting there, I just lost hope for everything else I was doing. The bass was due between 9:30 and 9:45 and there was just no hope for it or its cream sauce. Our salmon and lentils were due from 9:45 and 10:00 (yes, in the A.M. We get there early). My salmon was undercooked and my spirit was crushed.
I was so pissed that day that I swore the food would no longer be the boss of me. The next day, I took down the duck, beef tenderloin AND flank steak all within two hours. TAKE THAT!!
It is awesome to be working with meats and learning all of these neat techniques. So far I haven't blown myself up or cut a finger off. Knock on wood. Now on to more complicated French cookery!
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