I've now finished the first day of the last station in L'Ecole – the fish station, or Poissonnier. If you'll remember, I was actually in Poissonnier for one night back when I was stationed in Canapé, filling in for a fellow classmate. I'd hate to say this, knock on wood, but our recipes are actually kind of easy (gasp!). We have a salmon with a fennel/mascarpone salad, sweet potato puree and a port wine sauce, and also a bass with roasted fingerling potatoes, sea urchin sauce with cuttlefish caviar and pickled cherry tomatoes. They're both delicious, and I'm grateful to be finishing out culinary school in what might very well be my favorite station.
Poissonnier appeals to me because there is a lot of skill and care required to cook the delicate and fickle fish fillets, and there's a thrilling feeling that the ship could sink at any moment during service. For pick-up, we have all of the sides and sauces ready, so we take the fish, season it, and then throw it in a searing pan skin-side down. The skin crisps, then the whole thing is thrown in the oven to continue to cook the flesh almost entirely. After a few short minutes, we flip the fillet so it's skin-up and baste it with butter and thyme. Incredibly decadent, and it yields a buttery, flakey, crispy fillet, which is then placed delicately on the plate with the various other components. We had a pretty uneventful night, even though it was almost a full house. My partner and I work very well together, and she handled the fish while I handled the heating and plating of the other components. I hesitate saying this, but I might want a fish dish on the final, even if it means having a pastry as my second dish….then again, maybe not. Crap.
I had my first "Final Exam Fear Countdown" dream last night, in which I was tasked with making a dish from memory and I completely failed with flying colors. In my dream, the dish included chicken breasts and mixed vegetables (most likely the easiest thing my subconscious could come up with), yet I couldn't remember if I had to bake or pan-fry the chicken so I ended up baking them, which was apparently completely wrong. I was frantically trying to bribe my classmates to help me while the proctor took off points for everything, and somehow I ended up with a 55% - meaning that I had failed miserably. I'm (obviously) terrified for the final, and I think the reason is that I haven't had nearly enough time to practice these recipes than I'd like. Theoretically, I could practice at home, but I can't exactly afford to spend hundreds of dollars on duck breasts, kefir leaves, Port wine, bass fillets and veal stock, among MANY other things. I'm just counting on my memory and the five minutes I have before the test to write down as many notes as possible. I'll get through it, but I foresee many more sleepless nights in the coming week…
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