Finally Friday..

It's a bit (or very) gross to be deep frying potatoes and grilling beef at 8:15am in the morning, but that's what I found myself doing for Practical #018 (Cote de Boeuf Grillee) with Chef Benoit.  It was actually a very busy lab, and we had to be very careful to get everything done.  You had to de-bone the beef, including properly tying it up, and and then prepare Tomatoes provencale, and cut up potatoes for pommes mignottes (basically perfectly cut French fries).  Oh yeah, and the super messy Beurre Marchand du vin, which is a red wine butter which is really just a ploy to force students to have to buy new jackets because they got stains on it.  And those Chef Jackets are $50 each!!!

The end result was pretty good, even though I was told to prepare my meat as "Bleu", which is even less cooked than rare.  Basically warm in the middle, but not cooked.  Yikes.  I went back to the grill after he graded it and cooked it for another 15 minutes or so.  I did struggle a bit with finding the articulation when de-boning, but I think I understand it now.  I had no problem tying the meat, which was good.

Lesson #019 demonstration was by Chef Benoit as well.  It focused on Pocher, to poach / cook something in a large amount of liquid.  You can pocher "A Froid", from cold water, such as potatoes, proteins, dry vegetables.. this is EXPANSION cooking.  If you pocher "A Chaud, from boiling water for things such as eggs, green vegetables (A l'anglaise), rice, fruits.. that is CONCENTRATION cooking.

Reminder:  Court Bouillon is cooking in a liquid + Acid + Garniture Aromatique for approximately 20-25 mins.  Marmite is also a consomme simple.

The dishes were Petite Marmitte Henry IV (soup with poached chicken in chicken stock, veal, beef and veg - Practical #19), Blanquette de Veau a L'ancienne, Riz Creole (Veal with white sauce, a French classic - DO NOT DEVIATE FROM RECIPE!) and Truite Pochee au Court Bouillon, Beurre Fondu (trout in .. you guessed it: BUTTER!).  None of the dishes were particularly appealing to me.

The demonstration was a bit off because we had a fire drill in the middle of the class, which really sucked because that meant we didn't finish until later (15 mins before the next class), and I had to go directly from the demonstration to the practical, since I was helping the Sous-Chef bring the ingredients up.  Pain in the ass.  And tomorrow I am the Sous-Chef.. what a great way to end Hell Week..

Practical #019 went VERY smoothly.  Despite poaching 3 different kinds of meats, the class pretty much all finished on time. Everything turned out well for me, although my soup was slightly under seasoned.  My veg was perfectly cooked, my meat was tender, broth was clear, and my accompanying sauce was the perfect consistency (a la Nappe)!  Good way to end a Friday... although it's not over yet.. tomorrow is HELL lab.  Turning 70 turnips for the duck.  Yikes!