We took a day trip to San Gimignano, a well preserved mostly brick medieval town. It was declared a UN World Heritage Site, but I have no idea what that denotes. The town is predominately a tourist destination although the prices for goods there were much cheaper than what I saw in Siena, for nearly all goods I compared, for as much as 10 euro less.
I purchased a set of olive wood handled cocktail spears and a holder and a t-shirt for my hubbie there. At another store in San Gimignano, I purchased a leather bag less than Siena. I got my obligatory cinghiale sausage, which I have yet to try. I need a knife.
From there we went to a Chianti Classico winery. The host had won numerous awards around the world for his wines. He also spoke good English and was quite charming. His wines were delicious too! as was his olive oil. First we tried a white. I don't recall the name. The rest were Chianti Classico reds. Initially a 2008 and then a 2007, followed by a reserve 2007. Each taste improved with succession.
I tried some grappa there and because of the fact that I could actually stomach it I decided to purchase a bottle for Chef Luna at home. I know he likes grappa (and Calvados). If I hadn't already purchased olive oil I would have purchased some there. It was quite delicious too.
Next we visited another Chianti Classico winery in a small town with a population of only 52. We toured the facilities there while a woman spoke English with added emphasis at the end, like "reservo" instead of reserve and "the wine-a" instead of the wine, etc. This was a more commercial approach than the previous tour. We ended our tour again with some tastings. First with a white, which was tasty and then the reds. First of the reds was a 75% Sangiovese grape. This could not be labeled Chianti Classico because the Chianti wines must be a minimum of 80% Sangiovese. The last red was a 100% Sangiovese. I could tell the difference. These wines however were not as good as our fist stop and they didn't appear to have earned the accolades the first winery had. Possibly our inclusion with over thirty 70+ aged tourists tainted my opinion. It was not as inviting and intimate as our first stop and more like cattle-herding.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Siena- Day 1
We arrived in the late afternoon and walked around town some. There is lots of shopping here, but only for those with large wallets. Mine isn't.
We had one day of cooking class and made the following: tomato and bread soup, bigi (hand rolled spaghetti, typical of this region), a spicy garlic tomato sauce, a stewed beef with a potato souffle and a rice pudding cake. I found all dishes to be delicious, although the rice cake wasn't really my thing. Some in the class said the pasta was the best they'd had on the trip, but we had a clam and mussel spaghetti the first night that was really spectacular. I'd rank that one and today's two.
Next class we'll be making an egg pasta, a pork roast and I'm not sure what else. I'm sure it will be dalliscious though!
Gotta sign off- there's a wine tasting in the lobby. Ciao!
We had one day of cooking class and made the following: tomato and bread soup, bigi (hand rolled spaghetti, typical of this region), a spicy garlic tomato sauce, a stewed beef with a potato souffle and a rice pudding cake. I found all dishes to be delicious, although the rice cake wasn't really my thing. Some in the class said the pasta was the best they'd had on the trip, but we had a clam and mussel spaghetti the first night that was really spectacular. I'd rank that one and today's two.
Next class we'll be making an egg pasta, a pork roast and I'm not sure what else. I'm sure it will be dalliscious though!
Gotta sign off- there's a wine tasting in the lobby. Ciao!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sorrento- Last Day
Today we went to the market with Chef Biagio. First stop was a wholesale produce market. They had the largest squash I have ever seen. Imagine the largest zucchini you've ever seen, the kind from which you can make jack-o-lanterns, and triple that. I saw one cut in half and it appeared to have no seeds in the middle, pure orange flesh. We purchased zucchini blossoms which we stuffed in class for dinner.
Next stop was the fish market. This smelled like the ocean, not the stinky smell of fish markets in the States, even with the half sawed swordfish with a hacksaw laying next to it. Chef bought some sardines there.
Last stop was an Italian market. While most of the items there were familiar, I was interested in a particular pasta. Each box came with four pieces, shaped like large flowers. One was a gift pack in which each flower was presented in a clay bowl for baking. The pasta is cooked, similar to precooking lasagne noodles, and then stuffed to make up the flower pedals. This is then baked in the oven in individual clay dishes. If the boxes hadn't been so large and fragile I would have purchased one.
Unable to tour the limoncello factory, I decided to walk the shops in town. I was able to pick up a ravioli cutter, but no gnocchi board.
Upon return, we had our last class. We made stuffed zucchini blossoms- way better than any I've had in the States. The blossoms are larger than I've seen. We were told to remove the stamen, something very bitter that I've tasted in other versions of this dish. We also made braciole (pronounced brigole in old Sicilian), a rolled meat dish stuffed with cheese, parsley, pine nuts, garlic and raisins. This is then browned and braised in tomato sauce. DALLISCIOUS! (Finally something on this trip worthy of the exclamation, although the octopus was worthy. I haven't had my dalliscious hat ready. No one here knows of it, or gets it.) To go with the braciole, we made bucotini (buco means hole in Italian) pasta. This is not the known version that is like long spaghetti with a hole through the center like a drinking straw. Instead the dough is rolled into a long rope and chopped like traditional gnocchi. Each piece is then wrapped around what looked like a piece of coat hanger or some type of thin skewer and rolled until smooth. When removed from the coat hanger the pasta has a hole through the center. It looked more like castellane. Some people in class had problems making these. I think they, two sisters from Manitoba, just had too much wine at lunch as they were also particularly giggly.
We didn't make dessert this class. Apparently there was an afternoon class that made gelato and that was dessert. I'm pleased that my last class here in Sorrento was a particularly tasty one!
Next stop was the fish market. This smelled like the ocean, not the stinky smell of fish markets in the States, even with the half sawed swordfish with a hacksaw laying next to it. Chef bought some sardines there.
Last stop was an Italian market. While most of the items there were familiar, I was interested in a particular pasta. Each box came with four pieces, shaped like large flowers. One was a gift pack in which each flower was presented in a clay bowl for baking. The pasta is cooked, similar to precooking lasagne noodles, and then stuffed to make up the flower pedals. This is then baked in the oven in individual clay dishes. If the boxes hadn't been so large and fragile I would have purchased one.
Unable to tour the limoncello factory, I decided to walk the shops in town. I was able to pick up a ravioli cutter, but no gnocchi board.
Upon return, we had our last class. We made stuffed zucchini blossoms- way better than any I've had in the States. The blossoms are larger than I've seen. We were told to remove the stamen, something very bitter that I've tasted in other versions of this dish. We also made braciole (pronounced brigole in old Sicilian), a rolled meat dish stuffed with cheese, parsley, pine nuts, garlic and raisins. This is then browned and braised in tomato sauce. DALLISCIOUS! (Finally something on this trip worthy of the exclamation, although the octopus was worthy. I haven't had my dalliscious hat ready. No one here knows of it, or gets it.) To go with the braciole, we made bucotini (buco means hole in Italian) pasta. This is not the known version that is like long spaghetti with a hole through the center like a drinking straw. Instead the dough is rolled into a long rope and chopped like traditional gnocchi. Each piece is then wrapped around what looked like a piece of coat hanger or some type of thin skewer and rolled until smooth. When removed from the coat hanger the pasta has a hole through the center. It looked more like castellane. Some people in class had problems making these. I think they, two sisters from Manitoba, just had too much wine at lunch as they were also particularly giggly.
We didn't make dessert this class. Apparently there was an afternoon class that made gelato and that was dessert. I'm pleased that my last class here in Sorrento was a particularly tasty one!
Monday, September 20, 2010
More Sorrento
On our next day of classes there were just the three of us. I noted there is much fried food here, but according to the locals "it's not fried in animal fat and no proteins are fried." I guess that makes it okay. We made eggplant parmesan, first frying the eggplant in sunflower oil. This is stacked in a layer, with parmesan and mozzarella, a few speckles of tomato sauce and the layers repeated three times. This is then baked in the oven. It was the highlight of the meal.
We also made two types of gnocchi, each with two parts riced potato and one part flour. First was a traditional means in small dough balls cut from a line of dough and served in a tomato sauce. The second was more interesting and I thought more tasty. The same dough was rolled out like a pie crust and cut into small circles with a biscuit/cookie cutter. These were filled with mozzarella, folded over and served in a pesto sauce.
We also made lamb chops. These were seasoned, coated in dijon mustard and then in bread crumbs, parmesan and parsley. Last they were "sprinkled" in olive oil and then baked. These were delicious, but had they been thicker the lamb flavor would have been more prominent. As an avid lamb lover, this would have been better. (However, who am I to criticize the Italian way??)
For dessert we made chocolate lava cakes. While these provide a spectacular presentation, every time I've eaten them the flavor is lacking. The same rang true here.
Tomorrow we go to market with the chef. I think this will be a fun trip!
My main problem here is I cannot eat this much food. Every meal I am not hungry, but have to taste and eat something. Skipping breakfast doesn't quite cut out enough food either. I'm tired of feeling stuffed.
We also made two types of gnocchi, each with two parts riced potato and one part flour. First was a traditional means in small dough balls cut from a line of dough and served in a tomato sauce. The second was more interesting and I thought more tasty. The same dough was rolled out like a pie crust and cut into small circles with a biscuit/cookie cutter. These were filled with mozzarella, folded over and served in a pesto sauce.
We also made lamb chops. These were seasoned, coated in dijon mustard and then in bread crumbs, parmesan and parsley. Last they were "sprinkled" in olive oil and then baked. These were delicious, but had they been thicker the lamb flavor would have been more prominent. As an avid lamb lover, this would have been better. (However, who am I to criticize the Italian way??)
For dessert we made chocolate lava cakes. While these provide a spectacular presentation, every time I've eaten them the flavor is lacking. The same rang true here.
Tomorrow we go to market with the chef. I think this will be a fun trip!
My main problem here is I cannot eat this much food. Every meal I am not hungry, but have to taste and eat something. Skipping breakfast doesn't quite cut out enough food either. I'm tired of feeling stuffed.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sorrento- Stop 1
Here's the first of several updates on my culinary trip to Italy. This is a school function, but I'd hardly call it that now. What was advertised as ten to fifteen students was booked with four students, a teacher and a tour guide. It's now three students and a tour guide. This is actually quite nice in that there are less people providing input (and complaints) and I don't find myself waiting around on people. It's also nice that everyone on the trip is above the age of 40 and no one is itching to get to the closest bar and check out the local dating scene. (I know, if you're single and/or young you are reading this thinking... BORING!)
After an average flight over, we arrived in Italy. In route to Sorrento, the group stopped at Pompeii. I'm not one typically into ruins and ancient artifacts. I find they all look the same. This was mildly interesting however. The entire city is from so long ago yet despite volcanoes and earthquakes remains largely intact and extremely modern for its time. I've seen current day disasters with modern engineering that didn't fare as well and modern communities not nearly as advanced as this one apparently was. (There was even an engraved sketch of a penis in the sidewalk pointing the direction to the town's bordello, which upon arrival still has drawings of the positions available for request. Customers could point and order.)
In Sorrento, where I've been for a few days, I'm taking some cooking classes. These are taught in English and cater more technically to the home cook. We had a woman from Vancover in our class yesterday, plus my group's three students. Of course we were required to bring and dress in our uniforms even though this is not a requirement of the kitchen here. I'm sure pictures taken during class will reveal certain gaps in my uniform that would forbid my entry in class back in Atlanta. I suppose, that's the result of an absent teacher. From my perspective, Italy in general is much more laid back than the States and I'm only blending into the culture by relaxing other aspects of my daily routine.
I find wearing the uniform in general labels me as overly enthusiastic and as having a superior attitude, particularly when we are wearing chef hats and no one else in the kitchen has anything on their hair. Wouldn't a self-selected cap work in this situation just as well? (I should note that there was a hair pulled from the ravioli we made that day. The chef stated it wasn't his because he has no hair. I blame it on the Vancover woman since she had no hat and the rest of us did.)
There are several culinary students here longer term and I've seen no uniforms to date, other than an extremely worn jacket the actual chef wears. A girl from Kentucky was the sous chef in our class. She literally had on four pieces of clothes as follows: a tank top, no undergarment-- leggings, no undergarment-- shoes and an apron. To the men in my life back at home, you would have really liked this girl! When she bent over to pick up things my classmate and I wondered if that's why she was selected by the chef for longer term placement. I certainly won't be selected for such a position in my chef's jacket! What a disadvantage! (I'm not sure that outfit on me would help me out however. That might be a greater disadvantage than the chef's jacket.)
In class we chopped veggies for an antipasta plate. This included julienned red peppers cooked with capers (rinsed), olives and bread crumbs. I think the dish would have been better without the crumbs, but some others seemed to like them. There was also a zucchini dish, disks fried in sunflower oil, salted and dusted with white wine vinegar and chopped mint leaves. I liked this combo, but think less vinegar would have been better. This was one of Miss Kentucky's favorites dishes. There were carrots cooked the same as the zucchini. There was blanched cauliflower which was then sauteed in garlic butter. This surprisingly was one of my favorites.
We also made ravioli. This was interesting because it was made from only flour and water, no egg. The filling was ricotta, parmesan, smoked and nonsmoked mozzarella, plus oregano. It was tasty, but not as tasty as my lunch ravioli with ricotta and lemon.
Last there was a grilled swordfish. We made the topping, a tomato salsa, but class was over for grilling. Good thing because I couldn't be blamed for the overcooked dry fish.
After an average flight over, we arrived in Italy. In route to Sorrento, the group stopped at Pompeii. I'm not one typically into ruins and ancient artifacts. I find they all look the same. This was mildly interesting however. The entire city is from so long ago yet despite volcanoes and earthquakes remains largely intact and extremely modern for its time. I've seen current day disasters with modern engineering that didn't fare as well and modern communities not nearly as advanced as this one apparently was. (There was even an engraved sketch of a penis in the sidewalk pointing the direction to the town's bordello, which upon arrival still has drawings of the positions available for request. Customers could point and order.)
In Sorrento, where I've been for a few days, I'm taking some cooking classes. These are taught in English and cater more technically to the home cook. We had a woman from Vancover in our class yesterday, plus my group's three students. Of course we were required to bring and dress in our uniforms even though this is not a requirement of the kitchen here. I'm sure pictures taken during class will reveal certain gaps in my uniform that would forbid my entry in class back in Atlanta. I suppose, that's the result of an absent teacher. From my perspective, Italy in general is much more laid back than the States and I'm only blending into the culture by relaxing other aspects of my daily routine.
I find wearing the uniform in general labels me as overly enthusiastic and as having a superior attitude, particularly when we are wearing chef hats and no one else in the kitchen has anything on their hair. Wouldn't a self-selected cap work in this situation just as well? (I should note that there was a hair pulled from the ravioli we made that day. The chef stated it wasn't his because he has no hair. I blame it on the Vancover woman since she had no hat and the rest of us did.)
There are several culinary students here longer term and I've seen no uniforms to date, other than an extremely worn jacket the actual chef wears. A girl from Kentucky was the sous chef in our class. She literally had on four pieces of clothes as follows: a tank top, no undergarment-- leggings, no undergarment-- shoes and an apron. To the men in my life back at home, you would have really liked this girl! When she bent over to pick up things my classmate and I wondered if that's why she was selected by the chef for longer term placement. I certainly won't be selected for such a position in my chef's jacket! What a disadvantage! (I'm not sure that outfit on me would help me out however. That might be a greater disadvantage than the chef's jacket.)
In class we chopped veggies for an antipasta plate. This included julienned red peppers cooked with capers (rinsed), olives and bread crumbs. I think the dish would have been better without the crumbs, but some others seemed to like them. There was also a zucchini dish, disks fried in sunflower oil, salted and dusted with white wine vinegar and chopped mint leaves. I liked this combo, but think less vinegar would have been better. This was one of Miss Kentucky's favorites dishes. There were carrots cooked the same as the zucchini. There was blanched cauliflower which was then sauteed in garlic butter. This surprisingly was one of my favorites.
We also made ravioli. This was interesting because it was made from only flour and water, no egg. The filling was ricotta, parmesan, smoked and nonsmoked mozzarella, plus oregano. It was tasty, but not as tasty as my lunch ravioli with ricotta and lemon.
Last there was a grilled swordfish. We made the topping, a tomato salsa, but class was over for grilling. Good thing because I couldn't be blamed for the overcooked dry fish.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Flipping Eggs in Pantry
My Pantry class started the quarter with demonstrations on fried eggs, omelets, crepes, waffles, pancakes and all kinds of breakfast foods. We all enjoyed it and the tastings that went along with it.
I hit a snag on fried egg day. We all were shown how to flip fried eggs into the air to land on the opposite side for over easy, over medium, etc. We were then given our own opportunity to practice the "over" part.
When it was my time to practice, I walked over with my fried eggs in the pan and wanted to practice flipping over the trash can. I'd rather have a mess there than over an open flame with broken egg yolk running and sizzling on the cast iron-- a mess to clean. Only I didn't make it to the trash can. Chef started chastizing me "Dallas! Act like a Professional! You come over here to the burner and do that!" She obviously had more faith in me than I had in myself.
Sure enough she was right. I gave it my best effort and egg flipped right on over. The trick I learned after my successful attempt is to get them to land flat and not folded under. Eventually for the practical my yolks broke. My luck was poorly timed.
I hit a snag on fried egg day. We all were shown how to flip fried eggs into the air to land on the opposite side for over easy, over medium, etc. We were then given our own opportunity to practice the "over" part.
When it was my time to practice, I walked over with my fried eggs in the pan and wanted to practice flipping over the trash can. I'd rather have a mess there than over an open flame with broken egg yolk running and sizzling on the cast iron-- a mess to clean. Only I didn't make it to the trash can. Chef started chastizing me "Dallas! Act like a Professional! You come over here to the burner and do that!" She obviously had more faith in me than I had in myself.
Sure enough she was right. I gave it my best effort and egg flipped right on over. The trick I learned after my successful attempt is to get them to land flat and not folded under. Eventually for the practical my yolks broke. My luck was poorly timed.
Friday, July 16, 2010
New Quarter
This quarter I'm taking three classes, compared with my usual two. It will be a challenging time. We always start the quarter with practicals and this one was no exception except there were more of them.
Pantry was my first class. We were told to make a beurre blanc sauce and hollandaise sauce. For those of you following this blog, you know I practiced and practiced my hollandaise and I felt very confident that this would not be difficult. Thankfully, I was correct.
However the beurre blanc sauce was not as familiar to me. My fellow classmates had the same mystified look on their faces. We all had some idea from analyzing it's literal translation, white butter, but were lost on the details. We also knew that beurre blanc is often a general term suggesting that a sauce has been finished with butter. Luckily we were provided ingredient lists and could see exactly what was in the sauce, but no method.
As the name suggests, I noted there was tons of butter included, similar to the hollandaise, but it was not marked as melted. Thus I continued to make the sauce but was puzzled at the end. I thought these sauces were likely following a theme and were both emulsified sauces. I tried whipping the butter at the end with the sauce in a mixing bowl, but the sauce wasn't very hot and the butter just turned into mush and stuck to my whisk. I returned the sauce to a pan and tried stirring it in as it melted over the stove. The sauce didn't break thankfully, but it certainly didn't whip either. I tasted the sauce and it had flavor. So I plated up both sauces and brought them up for review.
I was prepared for ill remarks since I really wasn't sure what the sauce was to be, but I knew I put forth my best guess and with that felt I've given all I could. Sure enough as soon as I walked up the chef asked "what's that?" Of course she couldn't use the process of elimination and see that the other was my hollandaise sauce so of course this had to be my beurre blanc. (Sometimes I wonder if I replied with the same caddy sarcasism with which I am constantly provided, what would happen. I've seen others try and it usually doesn't end well.)
Others handed in their sauces, which looked very similar to mine in color and consistency. They however were not asked to identify their submissions. I guess I started the trend and there was no need. In the chef's eyes, all of these were a run of bad beurre blancs.
She communicated just that to the class once everyone was finished with the practical. "Beurre blanc sauce is not supposed to be soupy, rather it should be whipped up over a water bath like the hollandaise." I still have difficulties imagining this. With hollandaise, the butter is melted and thus it easily blends and the sauce stays a consistent temperature. Whipping in cold blocks of butter seems much harder. The warm sauce would be made cold by the cold butter. I'll have to test this at home where I'm not critiqued like an elementary child.
At the end of class we received grading sheets and feedback was provided for both of our sauces. Of course, nothing is ever perfect; my hollandaise was too thick.
Banquet was my second class and the practicals took a new twist, no recipes or methods provided. We were told to braise a chicken, make a sauce and serve a carrot custard with it. We could only use salt, pepper and garlic as seasoning. Similar to the reaction to the beurre blanc, many of us were blank-faced when the custard was mentioned. We made a leek timbale during a class, but not everyone made it and it was not anything on which we were ever tested.
I felt somewhat lucky because I recently twice made lobster quiches for two family events. I remembered the cream to egg ratio I'd used in those so I decided to follow a similar method. I knew the vegetables had to be cooked before use in the custard and pureed, but I missed a few other key points (to be detailed shortly). I was also excited because I cut several nice lozenges, otherwise known as diamonds, out of carrot to use as a garnish on the top of the custard. These went on the bottom of the custard tin so that when the custard was flipped over for serving the lozenge would be displayed nicely on top, signaling to the diner that carrot was an ingredient in the custard. I mixed all this together and got the custards into a water bath in the oven.
Meanwhile, I'd browned my chicken and started it braising. Once done, I had a nice tasting sauce, but very little of it. It was also very greasy because I'd left the skin on my chicken during braising. I'd floured the chicken hoping to create somewhat of an in-pan roux, but there wasn't enough flour to soak up that amount of oil. I ladled some off and had to use paper towels to soak off more. I'd planned to add some cream to thicken the sauce, but Chef told me not too. (I'd earlier seeked advice on how to handle my over abundance of oil.) So I added more stock hoping to stretch the sauce; that made it too runny. Since time was running out I added a starch slurry at the end to thicken the sauce.
The last requirement for my plate was a jasmine rice pilaf. Pilafs are easy and I'd done well serving these before so I wasn't too worried about this dish. However, people were taking forever to plate and chef wasn't quick on critiquing them. Any student plating near the end had to hold their food a long time. This mean my rice was cooking and cooking.
When it was finally my turn for critique, I pulled all my items out and started plating. The students before me made their plates but then sat waiting and their food was served to the chef cold, a BIG no-no. At least I knew to keep my dishes warm.
I started plating. The carrot custard was first. I turned over the first one onto a plate. Where was my lozenge? It had disappeared somewhere in the middle of the custard. I turned over another one, hoping that one was just a fluke. Wrong! They had all lost their garnish. My elegant display was foiled. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now. The custards were also multi-layered. All the pureed carrot had filtered to the bottom of the tin while cooking. Thus on the plate, the custard's top was a nice orange color and the bottom a pale yellow custard color. I hoped this would be seen as creative.
I added the chicken, a breast and a leg, and sauced it. I knew the sauce was icky, but again there wasn't much I could do. I'd tried to increase the volume and basically ruined the sauce.
Last, I spooned out some rice on the plate and carried it up for critique. Chef went straight for the custard. She told me it was nicely cooked, had no seasoning. About when she got there, the lozenge popped out of the middle. "What's that?" Her well liked phrase for the day reappeared. I explained that this was supposed to be a garnish but unfortunately it disappeared into the middle of the custard. Another chef happened to pass by during our exchange and he made a face that looked like a worm had popped out of the custard. I prepared myself for some custard brow beating. "I like the idea, but yeah it doesn't work like that," Chef said. Phew! That wasn't too bad.
Just when I was feeling relieved, it was on to the chicken and sauce critique. The sauce was as expected, bad. The chicken was overcooked and everything including my rice was under-seasoned. I'm going to have to revisit my earlier approach of seasoning to taste and then adding more salt. This seemed to work well, but I thought my own salt pallet had caught up with the chefs. Obviously not.
At least I was half way through my practicals. I could look forward to a baking practical and another banquet practical in the next few days.
Pantry was my first class. We were told to make a beurre blanc sauce and hollandaise sauce. For those of you following this blog, you know I practiced and practiced my hollandaise and I felt very confident that this would not be difficult. Thankfully, I was correct.
However the beurre blanc sauce was not as familiar to me. My fellow classmates had the same mystified look on their faces. We all had some idea from analyzing it's literal translation, white butter, but were lost on the details. We also knew that beurre blanc is often a general term suggesting that a sauce has been finished with butter. Luckily we were provided ingredient lists and could see exactly what was in the sauce, but no method.
As the name suggests, I noted there was tons of butter included, similar to the hollandaise, but it was not marked as melted. Thus I continued to make the sauce but was puzzled at the end. I thought these sauces were likely following a theme and were both emulsified sauces. I tried whipping the butter at the end with the sauce in a mixing bowl, but the sauce wasn't very hot and the butter just turned into mush and stuck to my whisk. I returned the sauce to a pan and tried stirring it in as it melted over the stove. The sauce didn't break thankfully, but it certainly didn't whip either. I tasted the sauce and it had flavor. So I plated up both sauces and brought them up for review.
I was prepared for ill remarks since I really wasn't sure what the sauce was to be, but I knew I put forth my best guess and with that felt I've given all I could. Sure enough as soon as I walked up the chef asked "what's that?" Of course she couldn't use the process of elimination and see that the other was my hollandaise sauce so of course this had to be my beurre blanc. (Sometimes I wonder if I replied with the same caddy sarcasism with which I am constantly provided, what would happen. I've seen others try and it usually doesn't end well.)
Others handed in their sauces, which looked very similar to mine in color and consistency. They however were not asked to identify their submissions. I guess I started the trend and there was no need. In the chef's eyes, all of these were a run of bad beurre blancs.
She communicated just that to the class once everyone was finished with the practical. "Beurre blanc sauce is not supposed to be soupy, rather it should be whipped up over a water bath like the hollandaise." I still have difficulties imagining this. With hollandaise, the butter is melted and thus it easily blends and the sauce stays a consistent temperature. Whipping in cold blocks of butter seems much harder. The warm sauce would be made cold by the cold butter. I'll have to test this at home where I'm not critiqued like an elementary child.
At the end of class we received grading sheets and feedback was provided for both of our sauces. Of course, nothing is ever perfect; my hollandaise was too thick.
Banquet was my second class and the practicals took a new twist, no recipes or methods provided. We were told to braise a chicken, make a sauce and serve a carrot custard with it. We could only use salt, pepper and garlic as seasoning. Similar to the reaction to the beurre blanc, many of us were blank-faced when the custard was mentioned. We made a leek timbale during a class, but not everyone made it and it was not anything on which we were ever tested.
I felt somewhat lucky because I recently twice made lobster quiches for two family events. I remembered the cream to egg ratio I'd used in those so I decided to follow a similar method. I knew the vegetables had to be cooked before use in the custard and pureed, but I missed a few other key points (to be detailed shortly). I was also excited because I cut several nice lozenges, otherwise known as diamonds, out of carrot to use as a garnish on the top of the custard. These went on the bottom of the custard tin so that when the custard was flipped over for serving the lozenge would be displayed nicely on top, signaling to the diner that carrot was an ingredient in the custard. I mixed all this together and got the custards into a water bath in the oven.
Meanwhile, I'd browned my chicken and started it braising. Once done, I had a nice tasting sauce, but very little of it. It was also very greasy because I'd left the skin on my chicken during braising. I'd floured the chicken hoping to create somewhat of an in-pan roux, but there wasn't enough flour to soak up that amount of oil. I ladled some off and had to use paper towels to soak off more. I'd planned to add some cream to thicken the sauce, but Chef told me not too. (I'd earlier seeked advice on how to handle my over abundance of oil.) So I added more stock hoping to stretch the sauce; that made it too runny. Since time was running out I added a starch slurry at the end to thicken the sauce.
The last requirement for my plate was a jasmine rice pilaf. Pilafs are easy and I'd done well serving these before so I wasn't too worried about this dish. However, people were taking forever to plate and chef wasn't quick on critiquing them. Any student plating near the end had to hold their food a long time. This mean my rice was cooking and cooking.
When it was finally my turn for critique, I pulled all my items out and started plating. The students before me made their plates but then sat waiting and their food was served to the chef cold, a BIG no-no. At least I knew to keep my dishes warm.
I started plating. The carrot custard was first. I turned over the first one onto a plate. Where was my lozenge? It had disappeared somewhere in the middle of the custard. I turned over another one, hoping that one was just a fluke. Wrong! They had all lost their garnish. My elegant display was foiled. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now. The custards were also multi-layered. All the pureed carrot had filtered to the bottom of the tin while cooking. Thus on the plate, the custard's top was a nice orange color and the bottom a pale yellow custard color. I hoped this would be seen as creative.
I added the chicken, a breast and a leg, and sauced it. I knew the sauce was icky, but again there wasn't much I could do. I'd tried to increase the volume and basically ruined the sauce.
Last, I spooned out some rice on the plate and carried it up for critique. Chef went straight for the custard. She told me it was nicely cooked, had no seasoning. About when she got there, the lozenge popped out of the middle. "What's that?" Her well liked phrase for the day reappeared. I explained that this was supposed to be a garnish but unfortunately it disappeared into the middle of the custard. Another chef happened to pass by during our exchange and he made a face that looked like a worm had popped out of the custard. I prepared myself for some custard brow beating. "I like the idea, but yeah it doesn't work like that," Chef said. Phew! That wasn't too bad.
Just when I was feeling relieved, it was on to the chicken and sauce critique. The sauce was as expected, bad. The chicken was overcooked and everything including my rice was under-seasoned. I'm going to have to revisit my earlier approach of seasoning to taste and then adding more salt. This seemed to work well, but I thought my own salt pallet had caught up with the chefs. Obviously not.
At least I was half way through my practicals. I could look forward to a baking practical and another banquet practical in the next few days.
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