Thursday, July 15, 2010

First thing this morning I finished off my Estoufade Remi, by reheating it, straining it twice and then shocking it (cooling it off quickly so you can refrigerate it). Chef Pete came in and told us he wanted us to make soup in addition to the sausage we are to serve for lunch (our Boudin Blanc). After some discussion, we all elected to make Curried Carrot Soup. No recipe, but we took carrots and cut them into 1 inch pieces, then sweated them with onions and butter under a "cartouche" (a parchment paper circle cut to fit over the opening of the saute pan). When those were cooked, we added curry powder and toasted the spices with the carrots and onions. After a minute or so, we added orange juice (it enhances the flavor of curry) and Fond du Carnard (which is???? duck stock, class, lol) and left it to simmer for a time so the curry could flavor the stock. Once that was done, we put it in a blender and pureed it, strained it (we do that a lot) and then flavored it. Alta had the idea to garnish it with coconut milk so we gave it a try and it was wonderful! So that is how we served it!

We had a major lecture today on cooking methods. Chef Dale also covered the 4 parts of a recipe again, reiterating that all recipes can be altered and emphasizing the need to be able to adjust recipes for the number of people being fed.

In the "olden days" there was only two cooking methods, direct (stovetop) and indirect (in the oven). Now we have NINE cooking methods:

1. Boiling-simmering, poaching and blanching
2. Steaming-pressure cooker, en papillote (paper) and etuvee (sweating)
3. Braising-marinate, sear, deglaze, simmer, thicken, garnish and season
4. Stewing-same as braising but with smaller pieces of meat
5. Frying-deep fat frying, shallow, saute
6. Grilling-over bar grills and broiling heat sources
7. Griddling-ideal for flapjacks and grilled cheese sandwiches
8. Baking-generally reserved for breads and pastries
9. Roasting-split, slow (250 deg), medium (350) and high (400-450)

We also had a "chef for the day" potential student. She and her husband are thinking of moving to Denver. She seemed to have fun. As she sat next to me for the lecture and during lunch, we talked a lot.

Well, you know what "Garde Mo" (as Chef Pete calls it) made for lunch as I covered that already. Hot plate grilled ribeye steaks and served them with Green Peppercorn Sauce and served it with a Sweet Onion Tart. Pastry made Madeleines (with a chestnut honey and orange water), then served them with roasted apricots and Frozen Ricotta Mousse. We had FOUR kinds of bread today, baguettes, herb rolls, herb and cheese rolls and Brioche. The wine was a 2007 California Zinfandel.

I didn't get home til 5:30pm but need to study tonight as tomorrow we have another test. We will also be tested on timed practical knife skills. We have to zest and supreme an orange in less than 8 minutes, cut one onion into half small dice, half emincee in less than 6 minutes, julienne one rib of celery in less than six minutes and Brunoise one carrot in 10 minutes. We'll see how that goes.......

We did get our tests back at the end of the day. I got a 90.5, an improvement from my wine segment tests! And we'll see soon enough how I do on tomorrow's test!