A new day in Hot Plate.....This morning before lecture, the five of us fabricated ducks! We had duck breast for lunch so had to work on preparing those before we started anything else. At least Chef Dale did not say today that he was doing 2-3 birds to our one bird! Once that was done, we sat down to another lecture about sauces.
Today Chef Dale talked about Brown Sauce and it's derivatives, Demi-Glace, Glace de Viande and Beurre Blanc. Espagnole or Brown Sauce is made from brown stock (Estouffade-stock made from roasted veal bones), brown roux (cooked roux that is half butter and half flour) and matignon. Matignon translated is "enrichment" and is made up of mirepoix, bouguet garni and pork parts (proscuitto or pancetta or sarano ham). Demi-Glace is a mix of 50% Estouffade and 50% Espagnole reduced by 50% or half, hence Demi- or "half" glace. Glace de Viande is 100% Estouffade reduced by 90%(which becomes quite gelatinous and firm at that point). The Glace de Viande can add a lot of flavor to a dish.
There are many sauces you can make using Espagnole or Brown Sauce: if you add duck stock, gastric (which is the French equivalent of sweet and sour, i.e. orange juice and vinegar) and orange zest, you get Sauce Bigarade. If you add thyme, white wine and Dijon mustard, you get Sauce Robert (row-bear). If you add red wine and bone marrow, you get Sauce Bordelaise. If you add mushrooms, creme fraiche and brandy, you get sauce Diane (one of my favorites). So many sauces, so little time!
Then Chef Dale covered a little vocabulary. Au Jus means "with juice". Jus Roti means "juice of the roast". Salpicon is a sauce that is used as a binder (to hold something together). Corolary (not to be confused with coronary!) sauces are sauces made independent from the cooking process. Intregal sauces are sauces as part of the cooking process. Duxelles are minced (Brunoise) mushrooms with minced shallots or onions all sauteed in butter, then flambed with madeira. Duxelles are found in Beef Wellington.
Chef Lexie made the Buerre Blanc Sauce, which is a butter sauce. It contains shallots, white wine, white wine and BUTTER! Season to taste. You can add herbs or citrus. Acid (vinegar or citrus) plus salt prevents the sauce from being too fatty. The sauces containing eggs and butter (with the exception of mayonnaise) do not always keep well so if you don't use all of it, you must throw it away. Most unfortunate! Chef Lexie says you can hold Buerre Blanc Sauce in a Thermos to keep it warm (never hot) or in a covered bowl sitting on a heating pad. Adding cream at the end will also help stabilize Buerre Blanc.
For lunch today our first course was Seared Scallops with Tuna Tartare and Beurre Blanc. Our entree was Duck Bigarade with Pommes Parisienne (little nuggets of potato removed with a melon baller, then shallow fried in butter-although we used duck fat to go with our duck breast!) and Spaghetti Squash Nests (finished off with cubes of rendered pancetta and diced tomatoes). Dessert was Lemon Lavender Tarts-a nice refreshing, tart (no pun intended, lol) finish to a rather heavy meal! We had two wines, a white and a red from Spain. Our breads today were Challah and French baguettes.
Chef Lexie gave me a round loaf of bread left over from yesterday that didn't get wrapped. I brought it home and made Peach Bread Pudding for the B&B. Of course, I also made Coconut Macaroons and Mini Bran Muffins with Cream Cheese filling (batter left over from Monday). Then it was on to a little studying. Doing this blog has been a very nice study tool for me, so it helps me and hopefully helps you!
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