Yom al-Idhnayn 2/22/10 – Braising and the Mixte Method

So, your very own little Jackie is almost ready to move up to Level 2 of The French Culinary Institute’s Classic Culinary Arts program! That will make me a step closer to and a pound heavier for October’s glorious graduation.

We have our big scary practical exam on Wednesday, and used half of Monday’s class quartering chickens and filleting flatfish in preparation. Surprisingly, no one wanted to take home any of the four small fillets rendered from their fish…so, in my classic no-shame style, I collected them all and brought home about 3 pounds of flounder. I even woke Steve up from a deep slumber when I got home from class to show him the loot I collected (PS he was only slightly impressed; an hour earlier and he would have been MEGA impressed).

In between butchering, we braised a lamb shank in wine, reduced the liquid into a glaze and served it all on a bed of currant/pine nut/curry couscous. Ma-atakallam Arabi. Wait, that’s not French…… L'esprit de l'escalier! That’s better. After dinner, we abandoned our Moroccan theme to make a braised chicken dish with a cream sauce and some vegetables. It was once said that a good chef can take the same few ingredients and make multiple different dishes, or something to that effect, and if this were true I would choose chicken, carrots, onions and celery, heavy cream and salt. Voila! I just planned Le Cirque’s menu for a year.

Anyone who knows me even remotely well knows that I have a vice; an addiction from which I find it hard to abstain, one that consumes my thoughts and often my actions to the point of alienating my loved ones. My name is Jacqueline Lindsey and I love fast food. I am proud to make this public declaration, for all four of you to see, to prove that it’s OK for a budding chef to eat crap…semi-often. I made a discovery today, one that will forever shape the final days of my temporary position with the bank - I found a Chipotle in lower Manhattan. Walking down Maiden Lane toward my final destination, the only street in the neighborhood I had not yet explored, reminded me of the first time I visited Times Square. The store fronts, with their elaborate displays and colorful artwork; the signs, shining through the sky like a midday sun; the employees, beckoning passersby with a free sample here, a brochure there. Hello McDonald’s, Maiden Lane _iner (the “D” bulb is out), Dunkin Donuts, Burger King and…Chipotle. I chose a stool in the front window, and I couldn’t help but feel that I was placed there solely to be judged every time I took a mouthful of my burrito by the healthy eaters walking by with their JustSalad! bags and Subway 6-inch vegetable subs. Newsflash: I don’t care… Maybe I should go into corporate development for Burger King or something…nevermind, that’s trouble.

I'd rather laugh with the sinners
Than cry with the saints
The sinners are much more fun
You know that only the good die young …

-Billy Joel “Only the Good Die Young”