Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Monday, 5/3/10 – Level 3 Day 8 (Saucier)

Ok, this shiz is flying by. I cannot even believe I'm almost halfway through level 3, which is halfway through culinary school. When I started back in January I was afraid of whole chickens, didn't use nearly enough salt, there was snow on the ground and I would reserve Saturdays and Sundays for trying "hard" recipes. Now, I can truss and stuff a chicken in under 5 minutes, have a kosher salt holder next to me at all times, it is steaming hot in NYC and I make an average of nine "advanced" recipes per week. It's very exciting to think back to those days, and how far I've already come. I can't imagine how cool levels 4, 5 and 6 are going to be, and I just know my cooking will be on a completely different level as I near graduation.

Monday was our last day in Saucier, and our last day working through the kitchen in groups and with a clear progression through each section. Starting Wednesday, we will be working solo as we prepare for our midterm. Yikes. It's very comforting to have someone else working across from you toward the same goals and end result. My partner and I have really gotten to know how each other work, and we've become incredibly effective together considering we've been partners since the middle of Level 2. I trust him completely, and we cook and work in a way that complements each other. Every so often, he'll say, "Jackie, I'm tired tonight so you're going to need to boss me around," and naturally I take that opportunity to be a drill sergeant. Other nights, we're both making sauces and chopping vegetable paysanne, and it truly is a team effort. We take a lot of pride in our end dishes, something that has driven us to strive for perfection.

We had a really great Monday night. The second night of Saucier is a little bit easier, and I stress 'a little bit.' We made seared center-cut pork chops with a green peppercorn sauce and served with watercress and two Pommes Darphin (potato julienne fried into a large stringy patty) wedges. Our second dish was short ribs in a fortified veal broth, served with carrots, turnips, potatoes, celery and leeks. We got our short ribs going first, simmering them in veal stock for at least two hours. I threw in a few vegetable scraps to the stock, which created an end product that Chef called "incredibly rich." We then started the sauce, browning the pork bones with some mirepoix, and then adding some wine and stock and letting it cook down into a nice beautiful Sauce Espagnole. We added the Espagnole to our shallots and green peppercorns, flambéed with cognac, and let the whole thing cook down with some heavy cream. For the ribs, each of the vegetables were cooked in with the veal stock, removed separately when done. (A good way to do this is to wrap each type of vegetable in cheesecloth and just drop the packets in the liquid, removing a packet when ready.)

We seasoned and seared the chops in oil (with a tiny bit of butter for flavor) and finished them in the oven to bring them up to temperature and cook the insides. Chef thought our dish was great, although our sauce was the tiniest bit over-reduced. Our chops were beautiful, and the potatoes were great. Ok, on to the ribs. We heated our bowls, placed a nice little package of short ribs in the middle and filled the edge with the various vegetables. The empty stock got strained and reduced a small bit, and seasoned liberally. It got poured over the top, and the whole thing was served with a horseradish cream sauce (called Sauce Raifort) on the side. I had heard from past groups that Chef likes the spice, so I threw copious amounts of horseradish into our sauce. It made my eyes water and cleared out 25 years of mucus from my head, but he tasted it and absolutely loved it. To each his own!

Wednesday I'll be making Chicken Grand Mere, all by my little self. We're working towards being able to create these dishes without the use of notes or recipes, on which we'll be tested in a few short weeks. We were told that in exactly a week we'll be able to come into the class with our note cards, gather our mise en place for the night and then be required to turn all recipes in to Chef and work completely from intuition and memory. Like I need another thing to worry about, the thought of our impending midterm makes my internal temperature rise and I get all twitchy and fidgety. I can get away with denial for now, but in a few weeks I'll have to face my fate. Let's hope I can just distinguish Pâte Brisée from Pâte Sucrée and Sauce Americaine from Sauce Poivre Vert. Crap.

1 comment:

  1. My mouth is watering and I think you are brilliant! Oh....and I'm so envious of how you get to spend your evenings...off to the washing machine for me...wah!

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