After an enforced week off with nothing to do but watch the snow fall and then shove it around with a shovel we were all ready to get back in the kitchen.
Baking III kicked off with puff pastry. Pastry is one of those things I just assume that I'm never going to get right. Delicate is not thy name.
Chef Deb gave us our lecture on good old 1459, that's the layers of dough and butter when you are finished your six roll and fold, chill, roll and fold, chill, roll and fold, chill, fo...
For each class I try to make myself choose a recipe that will challenge me. It is either something I have never made before or something with multiple steps required to achieve the final product. I always hope to both pick up a new technique as well as learn to execute the recipe with the most efficiency. Have I planned it well, did I do the things that need to chill and rest early enough, is the oven ready, can I make it to the table before everyone is sampled out? Not always an easy task.
Couple that with stopping every now and then to wash dishes, load the sanitizer, dry and put things away. I try to be sure I am pulling my fair share of the tasks in the kitchen. It seems sometimes that the same few people always end up with the boatload of the pot scrubbing and sweaty work. At home I would never toss anything in the sink without rinsing the bulk of the crap off of it first and if I know I can't wash it right away at least filling it with hot water, this just makes things easier in the end. Nothing was worse than two weeks of eggs in Basics I and II and everybody letting the egg dishes sit on the pots and whisks, creme anglaise, whipped yolks and scalded milk just tossed into the sink to get crusty and dry on. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to break out my momma lecture on the young'ens.
And don't even get me going on your tasting dishes. Get one, covet it, rinse it, reuse it. Not a NEW one EVERY TIME. Hello people! Help us out here.
Phew, was I ranting?
For baking this week I chose to make Feuilletes of Pears Bourdaloue.
Pears are peeled and cooked in wine with cinnamon sticks, cloves and lemon zest. They are then cooled, removed from the braising liquid and sliced thinly. The liquid is then reduced by at least half and Cointreau and currant jelly are added. This went in a squeeze bottle for plating and serving.
Then a standard pastry cream is made and flavoured with vanilla and more Cointreau.
While this was being prepped my puff pastry was being rolled and turned every 30 minutes and retuned to the walk in to chill.
I made a parchment paper cutout shaped like a pear and sharpened my paring knife. A sharp knife is key to ensuring the layers don't get crushed because it won't rise properly then. When the puff pastry was ready it was rolled out to approx 1/4 inch thickness and then using a very sharp knife the pear cutouts were made and placed on a sheet pan. A dorure (egg wash) was applied. With trepidation I placed them in the convection oven and stood there biting my nails waiting. It didn't take long! Within minutes I could see them beginning to puff. And puff they did! Some got well over an inch high. I was so excited.
Each one of these was slit in half, the bottom filled with pastry cream and then the pears were laid on, the sauce drizzled over and the top of the pastry placed back on. A lot of work, but I had fun.
Since it was getting late, my plating wasn't as great as it could have been. I would have liked to somehow show the pears with their beautiful ruby red colour a bit better.
Tuesday was Basics III and on to my favourite stuff, stocks and soups. I adore the smell of bones roasting in the oven and stock simmering on the stove and knowing that I have yummy goodness in the freezer just waiting to be used. We chose our recipes and if your recipe used veal stock, you made both your recipe as well as a batch of veal stock. Same for chicken and fish. The recipe you made used stock that had already been created, but the stock you made was portioned out and labelled and went into deep freeze for the future classes.
Since I had made fumet (fish stock) before Brian took off right away with that task since we were the two who chose dishes that required fumet. Also, since fumet can be made in about 40 minutes from start to finish, we used our own for the recipes.
My dish was a Mussel Zucchini Veloute so this was my chance to make the new mother sauce that was introduced in this lesson. Veloute. As you might gather from the name it needs to be very smooth. It starts off with a roux to which stock is added and then it is simmered and skimmed to remove the scum that forms on the top for at least 30 minutes or until the scum stops forming. Then a liaison of eggs and cream is added. This version used both the fumet as well as the cooking liquid from steaming the mussels in wine, onions, garlic and a bouquet garni. The key to this sauce is a bare simmer and then strain it, strain it again if required and for good measure, strain it a third time. It should feel like glass on the tongue, no starch, no flour, no lumps, no pepper flecks, nothing to mar the sensation.
This was a very rich soup and just a small cup, much like a bisque is really all you could really eat.
My favourite though was the one made by Sharon our classmate. He's from Israel and has been having a tough time with the language barrier and getting comfortable in the kitchen. He shone this week though. He baked a rustic Tuscan bread from scratch and then made the pappa al pomodoro, one of my favourite soups. It was topped with a nice peppery olive oil. It was fab-u-lous.
First quiz next week. Yikes!
I remember this basics class VERY well. I did the Pappa al Pomodoro. In one of the previous classes Roberta demonstrated the wonderful and magic things a few drops of lemon juice do to cream sauces or soups...just points up the flavor a bit. Well, seems Sean misunderstood and thought this was for everything. So there I was making the pappa al pomodoro, adding and adding lemon juice...hell, if a few drops is good, isn't a lot better. I remember Roberta's comments exactly. She said, "You've completely changed the nature of this soup!" It wasn't a compliment!
Have I mentioned I love reliving my time at CSCA with you two! Keep up the good work!
Posted by: sean | February 04, 2005 at 11:34 AM