Pastry, part deux!
Pastry, we meet again. I promise you sophisticated desserts that are insanely easy to make. Your dinner guests will be impressed! Friends will rave about your talent for days! One of my favorite classes. Everything was exceptionally delicious and simple to make, i.e. easy to replicate at home.
On the menu: Flourless chocolate cake (rejoice my gluten free friends!)
Wild blueberry souffle, sans flour (yes, it’s possible)
Gateau de crepes (crepes cake aka heaven on earth)
Ingredients:
8 oz. bitter sweet good quality chocolate
1/2 oz. espresso coffee (dissolve instant coffee w/ a little water)
1/4 oz. rum or amaretto
3 eggs
1.7 oz. sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
melted butter
Eggs and sugar are whisked together over a bain-marie (water bath). Make sure the water is not boiling or you’ll cook your eggs. Your eggs are done when they’re mixed to a ribbon or you see the bottom of the bowl. Seperately, also over a bain-marie, start melting your chocolate. Do not use less than 58%! Whip your (cold) cream. Add your amaretto/rum, coffee and melted chocolate to the eggs. Now add the whipped cream and mix gently, careful not to over mix. Butter the bottom of a pan, then place parchment paper down or else you’ll never get your cake out. (trust me on this one) Butter the whole mold, pour in your batter and bake in a bain-marie at 300 degrees for an hour. Dust with powdered sugar, maybe garnish with fruit and serve semi-warm because chocolate and sugar always taste better at room temperature. Gooey, rich, decadent. Your gluten free friends will love you.
Don't let the flatness fool you
Ingredients:
1 cup blueberry or raspberry puree
1/2 oz. corn starch
4 oz. sugar
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
juice of one lemon
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
melted butter & sugar for molds
Not quite as grand, but just as tasty
There are so many practical things I’ve learned in this class. For instance, if you have berries that are starting to go bad (I threw out half a pint of strawberries earlier this week) blend them with sugar and lemon juice and you have fruit puree. Genius! You can freeze your puree too. For this berry souffle you can use any kind of berries but try to stay away from strawberries because they have a little too much water. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, lingonberries…you get the point. We used blueberries. You might have to adjust the sugar depending on the type of berries you’re using and the ripeness. So, just taste. Whisk egg whites on a low setting so you’re not creating big bubbles – you know the drill. (remember you’re making a souffle, you don’t want it to collapse in the oven) Throw in a pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Butter and sugar your molds, then refrigerate until just before use. Mix your egg yolks and sugar well, then add cornstarch and blueberry puree. Fold in your egg whites gently. Incorporate into mixture so you have a nice even color, purple or pink or whatever. Pour into molds and bake at 375 degrees for exactly 12 minutes. Yes, 12, not 11 or 13. Because there is no flour in the souffle you can make and refrigerate beforehand (for about an hour or two) then pop in the oven before you’re ready to serve dessert. Your guests will be impressed - how often do people bother to make souffle? Light and delicious. Perfect for summer. Deeeelish.
I can dedicate a whole post to crepes because I.love.them.so.much. Easy and versatile, you can stuff these babies with anything. I have a new favorite cake and you guessed it, it involves crepes. However, this version of crepes cake is different because you’re making a fluffy batter and only cooking them on one side. You will be fooled! You will think there is something creamy in between the layers but, there’s not. Are you intrigued? Excited? Here we go.
Ingredients:
2.5 oz. butter
3 oz. sugar
3 oz. flour
vanilla
pinch of salt
When the top of the crepe is cooked as well (but no color here), flip over your stack of crepes. Quickly, with a clean kitchen towel move the crepes around to make a nice dome. Just feel around, making sure it has a nice shape. Powdered sugar on top, some creme Anglaise or fruit puree or whatever you want to serve with and you’re done. AMAZING. It’s so easy to make, with so few ingredients and so very tasty. Why wouldn’t you make this?
Layers and layers of goodness
Faux filling
Let them eat cake!
Aaah pastry. Pastry as in all things sweet, not just Danishes and apple turnovers. But perhaps I’m the only one who thinks of these when I hear the word. In the one semester culinary program pastry is split into two nights, a rather ambitious undertaking considering there is so much you can do with butter, sugar, flour and eggs.
On the menu: Gateau de Savoie with mocha butter cream frosting
Pate sucree – tartlet with wild blueberries
Pastry cream
Chocolate souffle
Gateau de Savoie
Gateau de Savoie is a classic, light sponge cake you can have plain or frosted. The recipe is necessary for any of it to make sense.
Ingredients:
7 oz. flour
2.5 oz. corn starch
8 whole eggs (room temperature)
zest of lime
1 tsp. grated ginger (or more, I like more)
11 1/2 oz. sugar
2 oz. melted butter
2 oz. soft butter for your mold
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
Traditionally Gateau de Savoie is made with potato starch but since it’s impossible to get away from corn in this country, corn starch makes sense. Whisk egg whites on a low setting with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is an acid and is a sediment produced when making wine, did you know that? I didn’t, but fascinating nonetheless. It’s important that the whites are whisked slowly in order to form little bubbles that will hold the cake together. Big bubbles will cause the cake to collapse in the oven. This little piece of information is very important when making a souffle. Moving on. Seperately whisk yolks with the 7 oz. of sugar. Add lime zest and ginger. Start adding 4.5 oz. of sugar to your whites, slowly. Mix flour and corn starch together, then add half to your yolks and mix (sifted please!). Add melted butter. Add half of your whites and mix some more, then add your remaining flour and corn starch and finish by folding in the rest of your whites. Careful not to over fold. Butter your mold with the soft butter and coat with sugar. (Aha! Thought you were going to have to add 11 1/2 oz. of sugar to the whites, didn’t you?) Pour your batter in a mold, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake for about 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees and when it’s done, cool. You can dust some powdered sugar on top and eat plain, or with butter cream frosting!! 
(ok, I’m not really a fan of butter cream but I try, I try to love it)
Butter + cream = butter cream, right?
Ingriedents:
1 # sugar
water
6 oz. egg whites (keep the yolks for pate scree)
20 oz. butter
flavoring
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
Add enough water to the sugar to make a slurry. Cover so the steam automatically cleans the side of your pot or you can wipe the sides with a wet hand. A clean pot is important. The sugar has to cook to a softball stage, about 240 degrees. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar on low. With a bowl of ice water nearby, dip you your hand in the ice first, then in the hot, boiling sugar, grab a little and dip your hand back in the ice. Try to form a little soft ball. You have softballed sugar! If you are too much of a wuss to do this (ahem) you can do this with a spoon. Add your softballed sugar to your whites slowly, in between the whisk and the side of the bowl so it doesn’t go crazy or splatter you in the face. Let mix until cool, then start adding butter that is cool but starting to soften a little at a time. Flavor with whatever you want, in our case it was coffee flavoring. Plan to use right away because it needs some love and attention if you have to bring it back from the dead. (if it’s cold)
It’s time to frost your cake and it’s best if you let it rest for a day first. Slice however many layers you want, brush the layers with a syrup so it stays nice and moist. We used a mixture of sugar, water and vanilla I think. Frost, layer, frost, decorate. Taste. Close your eyes. Imagine you’re at a little cafe in Paris, because that is what it will taste like, a light, flavorful European pastry. Love.
Lauren and le Gateau
12 oz. flour
8 oz. soft butter
4 oz. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon zest (I always like more)
pinch of salt
In the mixer (with a paddle) goes your butter, sugar and zest. Add vanilla and pinch of salt. Add your egg and flour and mix for only a few seconds more, until it gets nice and crumbly. As soon as it comes together you can finish by hand. Knead a few times then form into a disc shape, wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a few minutes but not too long or else the butter will come apart. Divide dough into small balls and roll thinly, then gently lay into molds. Bake with beans/pie weights at 315 degrees until the crust is fully cooked and has a nice color. It’s important that the bottom is cooked. Nothing worse than soggy undercooked bottoms according to Chef Patrice. Let cool.
Creme patissiere
Creme patissiere or pastry cream is very similar to creme Anglaise but with flour. 1 3/4 cup of milk, 3 yolks, 2.6 oz. of sugar, 1.3 oz. of AP flour, vanilla. (I strongly suggest you invest in a scale by the way) Bring milk to a boil. Whisk your yolks with the sugar and vanilla, then add your sifted flour. When the milk is hot, start adding to egg/flour mixture slowly. Put back on the stove, stirring continiously while the flour thickens and cooks. When you’re done decide what you’re going to do with it – if you’re making a tart you’ll need some cooled, if you’re making a souffle it’s ok if it’s warm.
Unless you plan to eat your tartlet right away, brush the inside with melted white chocolate and then add a little pastry cream. To get that nice shiny glaze on fruit you see at bakeries heat some apricot perserves (making sure to remove the apricots) and toss the blueberries with the glaze. If you’re using strawberries or less delicate fruit, you can brush it on. Admire, take a picture, devour. Best dessert I have ever made.
Beauties
The amount of egg whites you need depends on how much souffle you want to make. We used about 4 egg whites for 3 medium sized souffle molds. Whisk your eggs slowly with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Into your pastry cream (can’t make souffle without pastry cream, not the sweet kind anyways) whisk in chocolate powder. You want it a little dark because once you add the whites it will lighten a bit. Mix and set aside. Now, the souffle mold is quite important. It has to have some texture on the outside to help radiate heat inside the dish. Butter and sugar your molds and refrigerate. Back to your whites. They should be nice and fluffy. Throw in some sugar, I don’t know how much just grab a handful and throw into the mixer. Fold egg whites into pastry cream/chocolate mixture. Pour into molds and with your thumb go around the edges to make sure everything is nice and clean. Pop into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes and for God’s sake, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. Hopefully your oven has a light so you can take a peek and see how they’re doing. If your souffle has a hat, meaning one side is rising but the other is not, cut into the side that is not rising – it will thank you! You have freed it from whatever was holding it back and it will now rise nice and high just like the other side. When done, sprinkle powdered sugar on top and enjoy. So so good, and not too terribly difficult to make.
Chef Patrice with our masterpieces
Pastry class was amazing, and worth the 4 hours of ingesting butter and sugar and the stomach ache that came later. Although I love desserts, I am really intimidated when it comes to baking because there are so many things that can go wrong that you can’t fix by adjusting the seasoning or adding more stock. Last night helped me overcome some of this fear because I realized that if you follow all the rules when baking/preparing desserts, you can be successful.
Please don’t fear the carbohydrates
There are many things you can make with dough but I’m not going to try naming all of them. Bread, pastries, crusts, etc. You can have fun with dough too - you can take your frustrations out while kneading. And kneading. And…kneading. Yes dough is the foundation for many things but like pasta and other carb family members, it’s so needy. Don’t start baking bread if you’re hungry. Because you will be one arm short by the time you’re ready for your first slice.
On the menu: Brioche , southern France style
Pate Brisee or ‘broken dough’ -
Quiche with leeks & sundried tomatoes
Pita bread w/ hummus
Pate a choux
Brioche
Light, fluffy brioche. Only THE best kind of bread for bread pudding (my favorite dessert ever). Brioche includes butter, flour, eggs, yeast, and a little sugar and salt. The southern France version includes orange blossom. It’s best to look up exact measurements for all the recipes since we halved and quartered ours until we weren’t sure how many ounces of what we were putting in our mixers.
First up, you have to take care of your yeast. A little warm water, sprinkle of flour and sugar. Let it come alive. In a mixer add your flour, pinch of salt and room temperature eggs. Your orange blossom if you have it should go in too. Add the yeast and let the ferminatation begin! Mix mix mix, your dough. It should be sicky. The gluten needs to develop and pretty soon, the dough will look very elastic-y. Now you can add your soft butter slowly while the mixer is running. Pretty soon the dough will start to turn into a ball and/or wrap itself around the mixer paddle. It’s ready to proof. Proof in a proofer if you have one (which you probably won’t) or anywhere warm. I just put it on my stove. After a few hours take your dough out and slap it around a bit to redistribute the yeast. Now it has to proof in the fridge. The dough must rise. Ready for your third proof? Cut your dough into several pieces depending on how you want the brioche to look. I recommend at least three little humps in your loaf. Roll into little balls and place in a greased loaf pan, one after the other. Cover and, you guessed it – let proof. When you’re finally ready to bake brush with egg wash and pop in a 350-375 degree oven until nice and golden brown. Because this whole process takes quite a while I literally left class with a hot loaf in my hands. I enjoyed it the next day for breakfast, toasted with peanut butter and jam since I figured there was already enough butter in it. It was out of this world. So soft and light and warm and aromatic. Oh it was good. I actually look forward to making several loafs of this soon, so I can save one for bread pudding. 
Broken dough
Why do people steer clear of quiche? Because they’ve never had it the Chef Patrice right way . Soggy crust. Overwhelming egginess – blach. Pate brisee is starts by mixing flour with very cold butter and cold water - you can do this with the blade attachment or by hand. The dough should be crumbly at first. Then form into a disc shape, wrap and refrigerate. Don’t overmix or you’ll melt the buttah. It needs to rest for at least 45 minutes, then you can roll into a thin cirlce type shape and place in whatever you plan to bake it – whether it’s small individual dishes or a pie dish. You have to ‘blind bake’ it as Chef Patrice says, or pre-bake it. In the middle weigh down with either beans or pie weights and Chef Patrice actually had us put these in plastic wrap. Yes plastic wrap. I will not replicate this at home since well, baking thin plastic freaks me out just a little. Bake 10-15 minutes at 300 degrees until the bottom is fully cooked. Then, you can fill your quiche. Sauteed leeks and sundried tomatoes is what we used but I’m pretty sure you can use just about anything. Add a little custard (cream, eggs [2 eggs per cup of cream], salt and pepper and nutmeg, because all custards must have nutmeg), sprinkle some cheese on top and back in the oven until cheese is browned. The verdict? I really liked the filling but the crust had a weird consistency and reminded me of cardboard. Chef Patrice said it was because I didn’t roll my dough thin enough. Doh! 
Easiest bread you’ll ever make
Yeast (same process like the brioche but without the sugar), flour, olive oil, salt and warm water get mixed together. The dough must be very sticky because if it has no moisture, it won’t puff. So, add more moisture if you need to. Cover and let rise/rest and when you’re ready, roll. Roll into a circle, making sure you roll it pretty thin or else it will not be nice and fluffy and hollow in the middle. Place on hot pan in a very hot 500 degree oven. Once it starts puffing and has a nice color, it’s done. Cut into wedges and serve with hummus or whatever your heart desires. I didn’t roll my dough thin enough and ended up with a very dense, but still warm and delicious, pita. 
Then there was shoe
Pate a choux is the dough used when making eclairs or other French pastries. My favorite is creme a la choux, mmm. What’s great about this dough is that it doesn’t have to rise or rest or anything like that. Bring milk, butter and pinch of salt to a boil. Once butter is melted and your milk is boiling but not burning, take off the heat and add flour, stirring vigorously. Put back on the heat and stir until you see a film on the bottom of the pan, then take off the heat. Start adding your eggs one by one, stirring before adding another. Stir to make sure all eggs are incorporated and fill pastry bag. Pipe little balls (easier said than done, trust me) and with a brush dipped in eggwash, flatten the little ‘tail’ they will all have. Sprinkle some sugar on top or just bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes until they puff. Then turn down the heat to 325 and bake until they’re done on the inside. How do you know they’re done? You eat one. You can fill these with whipped cream for a nice dessert. I have made pate a choux before but somehow the batch we made in class turned out pretty bad. They were too small, heavy and… angry. However, here is a nice artistic representation of swans by Chef Patrice. 
Well?
Dough class was really fun, although I assumed we’d be covering some basics like, regular old bread. Either way I left feeling confidant that I would at least be making home made pita to go along with my home made hummus.
Molto pasta!
It’s amazing how some of the best loved food is usually the cheapest to make, like pasta. How many people enthusiastically say ”I loooove pasta!”? A lot. Flour, egg, splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt and you have dough you can make into all sorts of pretty shapes. Personally I’m a big fan of pappardelle and not just because I like the way it sounds. It’s ribbony and flowy and kind of dances around on your plate. A little sauce here, a little sauce there and you can ‘mmmm’ your way for hours. Ok minutes but still, there is something about noodles that makes people happy. I’m sure restaurants and food companies are happy too since the ingredients are few and cheap.
On the menu: Vegetable lasagna
Carbonara noodles two colors
Shrimp ravioli with basil, tomato jus
With such a simple menu I thought last night’s class was going to be molto easy. What I forgot is that dough needs to rest, needs to be kneaded, whispered to. The recipe we worked of off is 3/4 of a cup of all purpose flour (not semolina), 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. You can work together by hand – and this is how I remember my grandmother doing it – by making a little well in the flour , cracking your egg in the middle and incorporating it with a fork. We threw everything into the food processor last night to skip this rather messy step. Do this only with the blade because you are still ‘cutting’ every thing – if you use the paddle or any other kind of dough attachment you will make it too tough. After everything is incorporated you finish by hand. Your dough should be crumbly and dry – work it into a disc or ball shape, wrap it in plastic and set it aside to rest.
Coloring your dough
Isn’t colored pasta fun? (I think it’s exciting) To make green pasta add parsley juice, yes parsley not spinach. Blend parsley then throw in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out all the juice. You have your green! To make red add tomato paste, orange or yellow add saffron, but heat it up in water first to get the color. Black? Squid ink! How many of you have that in the freezer? Black colored pasta kind of freaks me out and squid ink smells awful but hey, at least you know it’s out there. For other colors use your imagination. Just keep in mind that adding anything besides the basic ingredients will make your dough wet and what you want when making pasta is dry dry dry. You might have to adjust the flour a little.
Let the kneading begin
Once you let your dough rest, it’s time to pull out your machine and knead. If you don’t have a machine I would seriously reconsider making pasta. I’m not sure what my grandmother did but my only guess is that she used her hands and a rolling pin. Maybe that’s why we didn’t have noodles that often… It is important to flatten out your dough a little so it fits through the largest hole/slot. I didn’t do this and only God and Chef Patrice were able to save my pasta. It started to crumble and harden and ‘frustrated’ is an understatment of how I felt. Start running your dough through the machine, folding in between runs and progressively turning down (or up based on the machine) the number so you end up with very thin pasta. If you’re making lasagna cut into the shape of the dish you plan on cooking it in and place on a sheet pan with a little corn meal to dry. If you’re cutting your dough into shapes run through whatever shape attachment you want and let noodles dry the same way or else they will stick together when cooking.
Last night we also made colored pasta, as in one noodle two colors. Take green dough (or whatever color) and white and run through the machine. Remove excessive flour and wet one dough a little, then take the other and place on top. Press together, let dry a little then run through the cutter and you have one color on one side and another color on the other. Nice.
Lasagna with roasted vegetables and goat cheeseTo assemble your lasagna cook noodles first (always do this, even when store bought) and shock in ice water. In a pan saute onion, garlic, fennel, and tomato paste. Deglaze with Ricard, an anise liqueur that you can live without if you don’t have any. Add tomatoes and veal (or chicken at home) stock and simmer. Season and pass through a strainer and you have tomato jus, because it should be on the thin side. In an oiled baking dish add a lasagna noodle, roasted vegetables and goat cheese. Press another noodle on top, add some jus and maybe parmasan. Repeat until you either run out of noodles or filling, ending with a noodle, jus and lots of parmesan on top. Pop in a 350 degree oven for color. The lasagna was absolutely delicious. The thin layers of pasta and the jus made it so light compared to the regular lasagna I’m used to. For the first time I think, I felt healthy after eating pasta. 
Carbonara
I can’t remember the last time I ate carbonara. Traditional carbonara has eggs but the French Chef Patrice version did not. Render bacon in a little olive oil then add finely chopped onion and garlic. Add chopped ham and cream and bring to a boil. Finish with lots of parmesan or pecorino and taste. Add your boiled pasta, mix and serve. Last night I kept thinking “something is missing, something is missing”. This morning I remembered what – pepper! Didn’t add any pepper and to me at least, it made a BIG difference.
Ravi-failure
The ravioli had so much potential. Finely chopped shrimp with butter, salt and basil. Chop chop chop into a paste like constistency. When you have your dough ready brush with a little egg, place a little of the mixture in the middle, place other dough on top, cut in a circle or square or whatever and seal the edges and boil. When the outside of the pasta is soft your ravioli is done and ready to serve with tomato jus or pesto. In theory it should have been fairly easy but we had to get fancy with our ravioli dough. Different colors and stripes too. We were supposed to take little pieces of black and white dough, bind together with water and run through the machine making stripes. Can you see it? We did for a second before it turned into a big sheet of gray. Our raviolis looked like…whale skin. Very unappetizing and certainly not blog worthy.
Well?
I learned a lot about pasta last night. One, unless you have a lot of counter space in your kitchen you probably shouldn’t make it. Two, unless you enjoy working with flour and cursing, you probably shouldn’t make it. And three, I will enjoy it at restaurants known for their ‘homemade pasta’.
Under the Sea
I can vividly remember the first time I had mussels because I ordered them by accident. During Spring break my senior year I went to fabulous (sarcastic) Lloret de Mar, Spain on a frowned-upon-by-the-school ‘senior trip’. Two girlfriends and I wandered the streets for a place to eat where we could be as sophisticated as one can be at 17 and sat down at a little restaurant over looking the water. I ordered the ‘mejillones’ thinking I ordered some kind of fish. Surprise! When the waiter brought our food I was struck with terror. What had I ordered? I closed my eyes for a second, let out a big sigh and forged ahead, tackling the plate of mussels. And oh they were good! I haven’t had mussels that delicious since.
On the menu: Lobster bisque, demo only
Mussels mariniere
Mussels soup with saffron
Seafood casserole
Shrimp sauteed Louis XVI
On the other hand, the first time I had lobster was pretty uninspiring (in a nut shell: went out to dinner with ex and his family friends and I didn’t know how to tackle the tail and claws and no one showed me how so I said I didn’t like lobster (who doesn’t like lobster!!!??!) and ate bread and butter instead). Like most people, I do love lobster, especially lobster bisque. Until last night.
I knew there would be killing involved but as a little girl I had seen plenty of that – my grandparents killed chickens on the regular and we slaughtered a pig every winter. For some reason that never bothered me. But when Chef Patrice took out two massive lobsters for us to experiment our culinary skills on, my heart started beating a little faster. The poor ugly things were wiggling around until Chef grabbed one by the middle of its body and twisted it – crunch, snap, black blood and guts every where, including Chef’s face. Loud gasp from the audience. I tried to be brave but an “Oh my God” escaped. By the time he killed the other one I was crying. 
Chef chopped up the body and threw the good parts (tail, claws) in a pot simmering with chicken, fish & veal stock. He removed the guts and eggs and placed in a bowl – we would use it later. What? Eeeww. The part of the lobster that looks like the aliens from “Aliens” was seared and splashed with cognac for flavor, then set aside. In the same pan went the mire poix (onions, garlic, carrots & celery), bay leaves, tarragon and tomato paste. Cooked then combined with weird alien looking body parts and thrown in mixer, yes mixer. Next the brains, guts & eggs. Try not to gag and mix. Careful, shell fragments could fly out and hurt you. The color was vile – imagine an Army green but brighter. Whisk the mixture in the boullion and let simmer for about 35-40 minutes.
Once done, pass through a strainer and chinois (extremely fine meshed sieve), and thicken with roux (remember, it has to be cold if you’re adding it to hot liquid) and reduced cream. Taste, season, throw in some cayenne and cognac. Serve. It was good but the only thing I could think of was “there’s brains and guts and eggs in here!!!”. So clever to sell something that only really has the flavor of lobster as ‘lobster bisque’.
Mussels mariniereMussels need to be cleaned and de-bearded and checked to see if they are alive. If one is open, squeeze it and see if it shuts. If it doesn’t, smell it and use it anyways. Yes that’s what Chef Patrice advised and that’s what most restaurants do, I’m sure. Saute diced shallots, celery and bay leaves in butter first, then add mussels and a few glugs of white wine. Cover and cook for a few minutes until they open. Ta-da! Remove mussels and pour juice all over and you’re done. You can also reduce the juice with cream and butter and you have a poulette with cream.
Or you can make soup
Once you remove the mussels from their shells, pull off the other little beard they have and set aside. If you’re making a soup or sauce with mussels this little beard gets rubbery and not fun to chew on. To the jus add some saffron and check seasoning. Add roux and cream and reduce. Pass through chinois and serve over the mussels and there’s your soup. Some thinly sliced sauteed fennel would be a nice garnish too. It was good but I think I prefer mussels straight out of the shell. 
Ah, casserole
I love cooking casseroles because you can throw anything and everything in a dish and bake it and call it a “_ casserole”. If you’re making individual dishes of seafood casserole limit your ingredients to 3 so as not to inundate the palate. In a hot pan saute shallots, add raw scallops (or shrimp or whatever raw ingredient you’re using), season, add splash of cognac and take out and place in a strainer or colander so juice can drain. Do the same with the remaining ingredients, keeping in mind that if they’re cooked (like the crab and lobster we used last night) you don’t really need to cook them but just add flavor. Toss together and add some sauteed mushrooms or vegetable of choice and set aside. Pour the leftover juice in a pan and add some of the bouillion you used for your lobster bisque, or if you don’t have any left, then just skip ahead and reduce with roux and reduced cream. Season and add the sauce to your seafood medley, then pour into buttered bakind dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Pop under the broiler until you get a nice color on top. Ours got a little too much color. But it was good, very good. With a salad or grain it would have been perfect.
Louis XVI
Louis XVI was the king of France (and the only one to be executed) and also the way we sauteed our shrimp last night. No explanation from Chef Patrice on the name but the dish was simple and good. Shrimp sauteed Louis XVI includes cleaned shrimp, (tail on) extremely finely chopped onions, extremely finely chopped garlic, crushed peppercorns, dried thyme, and chopped parsley. Salt shrimp and throw in a hot pan with olive oil. Sear shrimp, get a nice color. Add peppercorns and dried thyme. Add a little more oil if needed and a few pats of butter, then throw in onion and garlic. A splash of cognac and parsley and you have your Louis. These were good, really gooooood.
Well?
Last night I learned that it will take me a long time to start ordering lobster bisque at restaurants again (because there’s no way in hell I’m killing a lobster). The class just wasn’t my favorite – not because of the lobster massacre - but because it just didn’t really do it for me, taste wise. I kept thinking ‘something is missing’. A vegetable? A grain? Maybe the flavors were too soft, too delicate. I’m not sure what it was but either way, I still remain a shellfish fan.
Swimming with the fishes
Fish. Some love it, some hate it, but I think it is absolutely fantastic. If I had to choose just one protein to eat for the rest of my life I would choose fish. There are so many varieties, flavors and textures. You can fry, bake, poach, grill it – the possibilities are endless. And, it doesn’t take very long to cook.
On the menu: Salmon with beurre rouge & ginger crisps
Blue fish chablisienne
Rockfish en papillote
Trout meuniere
There are two type of fish categories in the culinary world: round and flat. Round fish, like salmon, are typically oily fish but not always (cod, haddock) and have a round body (obviously). Flat fish like flounder are um, flat, and usually have both eyes on one side of their head. There is obviously more to fish than that but I’ll leave it to Wikipedia. Regardless of what type of fish you plan on cooking, it should never smell fishy. It should smell of the sea or preferably nothing at all. Eyeballs should be clear and bulging out and gills should be a pink or red color. If it’s not then, well I advise you not to eat it.
To fillet salmon (or any other fish) make an incision behind the gills, then fillet down into the body cutting along the spine nice and even, all the way to the tail. Remove rib cage and pin bones with a ‘boner’, a tweezer like contraption. If you don’t have a boner, you can gently cut out the little bones, very carefully.
The chicken of fish
Salmon is probably the most common fish offered at restaurants and most of the time it’s cooked incorrectly, grilled or pan fried to death. It ends up tasting bitter. Cut your salmon into smaller chunks – trapezoids or parallelograms, make them pretty. Salt and pepper, drizzle some oil on your parallelogram and throw on a hot grill pan. Cook until almost done then pop in a 325-350 oven to finish. Serve with beurre rouge, a red wine reduction. Red wine, thyme, shallots, garlic, pepper corns reduced with some cream and buttah. Place on a bed of sauteed leeks and spinach, pour a little beurre rouge and add ginger crisps on top. Easiest and most amazing little trick! Heat up lots of canola oil, about a cup (you’re flash frying here), and fry julienned ginger for about a minute or so until golden brown. The aroma and taste is amazing and it’s an easy way to impress your guests. Try it with leeks, or sage, get creative. Take that Rachel Ray, dinner in less than 30 minutes!
Bluefish…
Is not very sophisticated and is really not pretty to look at. When raw it’s dark…blueish? When cooked it’s…grey. Talk about appetizing. I like the taste of bluefish but it’s not my favorite. Last night we cooked it cartouche style, and you can use this method with any fish. Butter the bottom of a cold pan and add shallots. Season your fillets and add to the pan, then a few splashes of white wine but not drowning the fish. Add some fish stock (or vegetable or chicken stock since 90% of people don’t have fish stock on hand) and bring to a simmer. Then smother with buttered parchment paper (this is your cartouche) and finish in a 325 degree oven. Remove fish and cover. In your pan make your chablisienne by reducing leftover liquid with cream, butter, lemon and a splash of vermouth if you feel like it. Pour sauce over fish and you’re done. I like bluefish but will probably not pay $18 for it at a restaurant.
The Maryland state fish
Rockfish, also known as striped bass, has been the Maryland state fish since 1965. Impressive! We cooked our rockfish en papillote, essentially steaming it in parchment paper. Cut out a paper heart (half a sheet of parchment paper) for each serving of fish. Butter your heart and place seasoned fillet in the middle. On top add some thyme, julienned carrots and thin slice of lemon. Fold little creases starting at the top of your heart. Fold all the way around as close to your fish as possible. Cook in a 350 degree oven until it’s done. Just keep poking it and you’ll know. Delicate and delicious.
Meuniere
If you haven’t read “My Life in France” or seen Julie & Julia, you might not know that sole meuniere was what changed Julia Child’s life. I completely understand why! We used trout instead of sole last night and it was just beautiful, one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. And so ridiculously simple! Meuniere is a brown butter sauce with lemon and parsley. Yes, that’s it. Do you like capers? Because I love capers and adding a few of these little balls of brine just took the dish to another level. Season fish and dredge in flour, then pan fry in clarified butter until golden. Remove and cover. Add a generous amount of butter, parsley, lemon juice and capers to the pan and cook, not too long or you’ll burn the butter. Pour over fish and sprinkle a few mini croutons (dice white bread and brown in butter) on top and you will be happy, I promise. 
Well?
Fish class was one of my favorites, not only because I love fish but also because of how insightful it was on how to make these ‘fancy’ dishes you see on restaurant menus and pay way way too much for. What’s there not to like about fish? It’s healthy, light, delicious and so easy to cook. There will be a lot of fish on the menu for me this summer!
Lamb, I love you
I think I can count the number of times I’ve eaten veal or lamb on my hand. I thought I didn’t enjoy either and the whole veal-crate thing didn’t help this animal lover. Wrong. I LOVE lamb. And like veal.
On the menu: Moussaka
Blanquette de veau
Veal tenderloin stuffed with apples (demo only)
Merguez (demo only)
Chef Patrice was not sure why veal & lamb were paired together into one class so my only guess is that both are baby animals. They couldn’t be any more different. Veal is delicate and has a mild, smooth flavor and lamb, lamb is earthy and aromatic. It makes me think of villages, Morocco, and…the Bible. :) I never order veal because of you know, the (inhumane in my opinion) way it’s ’raised’, and lamb, well I don’t order lamb because I have bad memories of lamb. Pungent memories of my grandmother’s stuffed leg of lamb at Easter that makes my nostrils flare. Well now I know why: unless you sear it, will taste like mutton. Just the word makes me shiver. Searing meat brings out all the flavor.
Moussaka
Moussaka is the Greek version of lasagna, but with eggplant. There are many variations to the recipe and Chef Patrice includes mire poix and sauteed tomatoes in his, which I like. Sear ground lamb in a little fat and season with salt and pepper and cumin, lots and lots of cumin. A ton of cumin actually. Drain as many times as necessary and return to hot pan because you don’t want to boil the meat. Remove and add your mire poix. Return lamb to pan and add a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. Cook, then deglaze with white wine. Add some stock, check your seasoning (you can’t have enough cumin) and add some thyme. Cook on low heat for a while, set aside and cover.
Slice eggplant and tomato. Not too thick or they won’t cook, not too thin or you’ll end up with mush. Dredge in a little flour to cut down on some of the fat the eggplant will absorb because trust me, you will use a lot of olive oil. If you’re trying to cut back bake the slices but be prepared to lose some flavor. In a hot hot pan add olive oil and throw in your eggplant slices. Season, flip, look for a nice color. Go ahead and add some more olive oil. When nice and golden remove and saute your tomatoes but without the flour. Remove and set aside on paper towels to drain off some of the fat. it’s time to make bechamel! If you’re starting out with cold roux heat up some milk first. If you don’t have roux already made then start with cold milk because for bechamel the ingredients can’t both be hot or both be cold. Add some salt, nutmeg and stir in your roux. Set aside and get ready to assemble! You can assemble in whatever dish you want, last night we used souffle molds. There really is no right way to layer as long as you start with sliced eggplant at the bottom of your dish and finish with lamb and bechamel and cheese on top. Eggplant, lamb, bechamel, cheese, tomato, lamb, etc. Before your last layer of cheese sprinkle some corn meal first for a nice crunch. Bake at 325 for about half an hour or until your cheese has a nice color. Was it delicious? Ooooh yes. Better than my aunt’s, better than any I’ve had at a Greek restaurant. Yes, I did just write that. 
Blanquette de veau
Onto veal. Blanquette de veau, or veal blanket like I kept calling it last night (NOT the correct translation FYI), starts by poaching veal in a little water first with a bouquet garni of carrot, onion with a clove inserted, celery, bay leaf and parsley. Start with cold water and poach on low heat. Cover half way through, then strain once all the impurities foam up at the top. Remove bouquet garni and set meat aside, covering it to retain moisture. To your remaining liquid add a little roux, some cream or creme fraiche and check the seasoning. Throw in some butter and finish off with lemon juice. Combine with meat and add garnish of choice, sauteed mushrooms and caramelized pearl onions go nicely. Decorate with a carrot, some chopped parsley and you’ve got yourself a veal blanket, I mean blanquette de veau. VERY very good. The meat so tender and lovely, for a second I almost forgot that I’m not supposed to enjoy veal. Oops. 
The demos
The veal tenderloin with stuffed apples and merquez, a lamb sausage, were for demo only. Saute diced Granny Smith apples with a little lemon juice, sugar, and salt in clarified butter. Deglaze with apple brandy and let cool then roll into a skinny cylindrical shape in plastic wrap and freeze. Make an incision in the tenderloin and cut through all the way to the other end and stuff with your frozen apple cylinder. Tie, season, sear on all sides and pop in 325 degree oven. For how long? Not too long, 20 minutes? Veal should be pink in the middle but it’s hard to tell when it’s done because if it’s too firm, you’ve overcooked it. Trial and error, a pricey one though. Served with jus it was very nice but I could settle for (cheaper) pork tenderloin.
Merquez is a spicey north African lamb sausage and wow is it good. The ingredient list is quite long, including hard(er) to find ingredients like Harissa, the north African version of ketchup, and Raz el Hanout, blend of spices like cardamon, clove, cinnamon, ground chilli peppers, coriander, nutmeg, peppercorn, tumeric and cumin. Whole Foods has a spice mix called “Moroccan Road” or something like that resembles Raz el Hanout and it goes nicely with a lot of meat and veggie dishes. But I digress. If anyone is interested in making this amazingly delicious sausage, I have the recipe. Don’t have casings on hand? No problem. Form into a patty, ball, whatever shape you desire and grill. Slather some Dijon on a baguette, add your merquez and feast. I grew up making sausage but it was never this good. 
Well?
I used to belong to the “I don’t like lamb” camp but I obviously had no idea what I was talking about. Lamb is delicious, as long as you cook it the right way, and as a recent convert I can’t wait to incorporate it into my weekly menu rotation. Veal is tasty too but for personal reasons I have a hard time enjoying it. I know lamb is also a young animal but I’m pretty sure it is allowed to move around more than a couple of feet.
Hello Bovine
Beef. My experience in handling, cooking, and eating beef is very limited. I don’t understand people who say they can eat steak all day every day (gag) because I have the occasional burger every quarter and eat a filet mignon once a year, on my birthday. I am ashamed to admit that I also request it well done. Yes go ahead and gasp, shake your head, tsk, judge me. I just can’t handle the rawness, the texture of the uncooked meat, chewing it and chewing and wondering when the heck it’s going to finally disintegrate in my mouth. Did I also mention the blood? Anyways, I digress. As a food lover I’m an equal opportunity cook so bring it on beef.
On the menu: Beef Bourguignon with spaetzle
Braised stuffed vegetables (tomatoes & peppers)
Roast beef w/ jus
Steak tartare
I don’t know much about cuts of meat but I do know that marbling is tres bon. Tender cuts like filet mignon don’t have too much flavor – you need the fat. For last night’s dishes we used sirloin.
Beef Bourguignon
Beef Bourguignon is a stew prepared with braised beef in red wine, traditionally Burgundy. Will Merlot do? Sure. For best flavor marinate beef (cut up in not too small pieces or it will cook too fast and become nice and tough) and your mire poix, as well as: thyme, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, a splash of vinegar and olive oil and slice of orange if you feel like it, overnight. When you’re ready to cook drain mixture and pick out your meat. It’s time to sear. Sear over very high heat. If you lose temperature, which you will because the meat will be cold, remove meat, drain and repeat. You don’t want to boil your meat! In a seperate pot clarify your marinade sans mire poix. Blood will coagulate and foam up, which you get to skim! Not clarifying your marinade will result in gritty sauce. Blach.
Got a nice color on your meat? Add some tomato paste and cook (~ a tablespoon depending on how much you’re making) then toasted flour. (toast the same way you would nuts) Not too little, not too much. Let it cook then add mire poix , give it a stir and add marinade. Bring to a boil and add a little veal stock to cover the meat completely. If you have no veal stock you can use chicken stock or beef boullion. Cover, turn heat on low and finish in the oven, starting at 325 and turning it down from there. How long do you cook it? A long time. Check for doneness by 1.) tasting the meat or 2.) squeezing it together – if it seperates it’s done. Remove meat and mix up with whatever garnish you’d like – caramelized pearl onions, sauteed mushrooms, bacon – and cover. Strain your sauce, then mix with meat and garnish. Ready to serve with boiled potatoes, pasta, rice or….spaetzle!!!
In Germany we’d have spaetzle cooked in butter with bacon, cheese, onions, etc. Yummy! I never realized how easy they are to make though. Nine ounces of flour, 5 eggs, a little nutmeg, salt, love, and if the dough needs moisture, a splash of water or cream. In the mixer it goes – you want a firm dough. In a pan bring water to a low boil and place whatever perforated contraption (colander is the only thing I can think of in my kitchen) you can find on top. With a spatula type tool press the dough through the holes by a back and forth motion across the surface so you’ll end up with little dough raindrops in your water. Cook for a minute or two but not longer and throw in a hot pan with butter. Get a nice color, season and serve with your Beef Bourguignon. Your mouth will be happy, I promise. 
Let’s stuff some vegetables
I’m a huge fan of stuffed anything because it makes for a nice presentation and is great for individual servings, especially at a party. Take whatever vegetable you want to stuff, making sure to think about the cooking time. If you want to stuff potatoes pre-cook them since they take a while to cook; if you cook everything at once they won’t be done but your stuffing will be. Hollow out your vegetables of choice (tomatoes and peppers in our case). Mix ground meat, chopped onion, garlic and parsley. You need fat for flavor and to bind it all together so mix leftover crusty bread with cream to make a nice paste. Add to meat and season, then dig in and start mixing with your hands. Need more fat? Some shredded cheese can go in too. Take a nice amount and stuff your vegetables and sprinkle with cheese on top. In the pan add some fortified chicken stock (chicken stock and tomato paste) and cook until done, starting at 400 and dropping the temperature until it’s done. Cooked rice should go in your stuffing too but last night we forgot to add it. I liked it without the rice but my friend observed that it was very ‘meatbally’ this way, and it kind of was.
Roast beef au jus
Never been a fan. If your cut of meat has no fat, wrap it in pork back fat. Yes, back fat. Good luck finding it. In France the butcher will gladly wrap your cut of meat in back fat, and make a pretty pattern while he’s at it. Since you’ll probably have a hard time locating back fat you can buy a cut of meat with fat on it. Insert small cloves of garlic into the meat, add sprigs of thyme on top and tie it nice and tight. Tying the meat is crucial because it helps perserve moisture and all that lovely juice. Season well and sear on all sides in clarified butter. Pan goes into the oven on low heat for a long time. Remember to baste baste baste! When it’s done (and that means medium rare), let it rest for 1/3 of the time you cook it. Slice thinly and serve with jus. I’m glad I had it but I don’t foresee many roast beef sandwiches in my future.
And then there’s tartare
I can’t help but picture Genghis Khan sliding a big steak under his saddle and riding around for hours before deciding it’s tender enough to break for lunch. You know the myth, right? Like tuna tartare, steak tartare is raw. Cut lean meat into small little cubes – or if you happen to own a meat grinder, throw it in there – but NEVER ever use ground meat from the store. Yuck. Last night Chef Patrice mixed ground meat, 2 egg yolks, chopped parsley, capers, cornichons (little spicy French gherkins), chopped red onion, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, salt & pepper and a dash of Tabasco. Serve on top of toasted French bread. In France it’s served with fries, yes, FRENCH fries! Apparently the hot-cold contrast creates an unbevlievably delicious flavor explosion in your mouth. Uh-huh. None of that happened in my mouth last night and the first thing my mind registered was capers, followed by mustard, followed by “oh my God I’m eating raw meat, raw ground meat”!!! 
Well?
Last night’s class was very informative and a little challenging because for once I was not thrilled about the ingredient we were going to be cooking and eating. But if I am to follow my own rule (rule: taste everything before declaring whether you hate it or not), I have to at least know what something tastes like before making up my mind on whether I like it or not. Even if it’s raw, even if it’s not aesthetically pleasing. I learned that I still will never enjoy eating a massive, bleeding steak. I also learned that I do in fact love beef, when it’s cooked.
Fun with Poultry
The first thing I think of when I hear ‘poultry’ is chicken. Followed by ’boring’, ‘generic’, ‘unadventurous’, ’safe’, ’yaaaawwwn’. I know, I’m terrible. With all the chicken breast/white meat propaganda out there, it’s easy to forget the many other cousins in the poultry category. There is turkey of course, duck, goose, quail, and squab. Squab? The French call it pigeon. But don’t worry, it’s farm raised!
On the menue: Perfectly roasted chicken
Chicken roulade stuffed with roasted bell pepper
Leg of chicken – poached – with ‘sauce supreme’ (veloute)
Braised stuffed boneless quail
Roasted squab
Chicken parts
Cutting a whole chicken into pieces is not as hard as you’d think. I was a little intimidated since the last time I can remember doing this is well, never. Damn you convenience! So easy though, and kind of fun too. Grab your chicken, turn it on the side for easier handling. Make incision on the top of the leg, cut skin, then just kind of maneuver your way all the way down to the bone, cutting through. To cut the breast remove the skin first, it’s easier to see what you’re doing this way. Find the wishbone and make two slits on both sides. Now just cut out the breast by following the natural curve of the chicken’s body. Nice and neat. Remove fat, cartilage and other nasty little bits and ta-da! You now have your $7.99 a pound chicken breast for a dollar or so.
What to do with the chicken parts you just cut up? The legs are removed of skin, deboned (it doesn’t have to be pretty for what they’ll be turned into) and ground up for a mousse. The breast will be pounded thinly for easy rolling (roulade=roll) that will be stuffed with the aforementioned mousse, roasted bell peppers and spinach. The caracass? Cut up for jus for your roulade or stock.
Dark meat is your friend
Since a chicken only has two legs, grab another chicken and practice cutting it up so you have two legs to poach. Submerge legs in cold stock so it cooks slowly. Add thyme, celery, grilled onions, bay leaves - whatever you want to season with – and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Chicken breasts don’t have enough fat for poaching so stick to legs/thighs/drumsticks. Once legs are done cooking remove skin. In hot stock add cold roux and whisk, adding cream, salt and pepper and if something doesn’t taste right – a little butter always helps. You have your veloute. Throw your legs back in let the flavors meld together, then serve over riz pilaf. 
Mousse
And not the dessert kind. I always get weirded out a little when I think of mousse made out of chicken or veal, or any animal period. Especially when it looks so pretty and pink thanks to lots and lots of cream. The ‘traditional’ i.e. excrutiantingly painful long process of making a mousse involves lots of arm action and passing it through a gadget called a ‘tieme’ (no idea on spelling, try saying it in a French accent and decipher the spelling that way) that is large and looks like a sieve used for panning gold. The other more modern option is a food processor. Whatever method you choose keeping it cold cold cold is crucial so when you finally add your cream (after salt, pepper, truffle oil, porcini dust or whatever you choose to season with) the protein and cream can emulsify. Add cream slowly and just how much depends on the temperature of your mixture. If it’s too warm it will be soft and runny and will not withstand too much liquid so add just enough so that your mousse ends up firm.
After pounding breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap (with the flat part of the meat tenderizer, you’re not tenderizing the breast, just creating more surface area), season with salt and pepper and spread a layer of mousse first so it binds whatever else you decide to put on top. Last night we went with roasted red bell pepper and sauteed spinach (cooled). Use your imagination, get creative with how you want it to look when you cut up your roulade. Roll tightly in plastic wrap. You can go crazy with the plastic wrap to make it as tight as possible so it ends up looking like a little sausage. Tie at the ends and submerge in simmering water for about 20 minutes. You know it’s done when it’s firm and you can see the butter seperating from the cream.
To serve with your roulade make a simple jus from the carcass. Chop it up first, sear bones in some fat and caramelize your pan. Add a drop of water, scrub your pan with a wooden spoon to get some more of that burnt deliciousness and re-caramelize. Deglaze with white wine, throw in your mire poix, a little tomato paste, stock. Cook and strain and pour over roulade. Delicious, I promise. 
Let’s roast a chicken
Season the inside of the chicken with lots of salt, pepper, and stuff in as many things as possible including: garlic, thyme, celery, rosemary, onions, shallots, carrots. If that won’t flavor your chicken nothing will. Tie the chicken up because it actually does make a difference in the way it cooks. It forces the breasts upward retaining moisture and flavor. I suggest googling the process because it is a little difficult to explain without a proper demonstration. Sear your chicken in a hot pan, first on each side then the back. Salt the outside and pop in a 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your chicken. Start turning down the heat basting along the way and finishing at around 325. No need to mutilate your chicken with a thermometer to see if it’s done – just stab it instead, right under the wing where you are less likely to do any cosmetic damage and hold over a plate and see if the juices run clear. You’ve got yourself a roasted chicken. Was it good? Yes. Was it missing anything? Butter.
Quail is so good, so delicate and has barely any bones to deal with. It is very little, and pretty cute so you might feel a little weird about handling quail. We stuffed ours with a duck pate that was conveniently prepared for us (just like on t.v.), seasoned it and seared it the same way as the chicken. Stuck it in the oven for about 12 minutes and it was done. Next time I might stuff it with something other than duck pate because at 10 pm it was a little heavy. My quail looked like it got stuck doing some kind of cheerleading move but was still very good. 
The other birds
We call it squab, the French call it what it is - pigeon. You can treat it like duck and since it has no salmonella it should be served medium rare to medium. Unlike chicken and quail squab comes with all its insides and feet, so get ready to clean and mutilate. Remove all organs, cut its neck, wash the inside and cut the foot so only the middle ‘toe’ is left, making for a nice presentation. Season, sear like the other birds and pop in the oven. Check for doneness, but this time the liquid should look like cooked blood. Make a jus and serve. Am I fan of squab? No. It wasn’t gamy necessarily but it just looked so gamy. A cross between duck and beef.
Well?
Our team cooked everything but the squab. We were so busy having fun with poultry that come 10:30 we were still at school eating and complimenting ourselves on a job well done. 
Feeling saucy!
I’m not going to lie. Last night’s class on sauces required a lot of concentration. So many sauces to cover, so little time. Sauce, from the Latin word salsus, means salted because sauces were used to cover up rancid food, especially meat. (mmm, yummy) Since we don’t consume rotten food anymore there’s no need to disguise anything and sauces today are used for flavor and moisture, and are there to complement a dish.
There are five traditional mother sauces (and a variety of offspring):
- Hollandaise (shiver) – yolks, clarified butter
- Tomato sauce – self-explanatory
- Veloute – stock thickened or bound by a roux to make gravy
- Bechamel – roux with milk
- Brown sauce – made from roasted veal bones
On the menu: Mornay sauce - mac & cheese
Bernaise & steak
Bordelaise
Chablisienne – fish w/ cream sauce
Gastrique – duck a l’orange
Apple tart w/ caramel sauce & creme Anglaise
Let’s get saucy
Perhaps a course in French would serve me well. We had made mornay before, which is bechamel with cheese. Delicious. Can’t go wrong with mac and cheese, especially when the pasta shape is orecchiette, cute little ears. Tomato sauce was also easy but I did learn a new term: concasse, meaning roughly chopped. Concasse is what your tomato ‘sauce’ is until you refine it. (with a food mill or food processor) My excuse that I like my sauce chunky won’t work anymore, I better start refining it.
Brown sauce is veal stock (or any other meat stock but it’s usually veal) and sauce espagnole, which involves tomato paste, maybe a roux, and vegetables depending on who is making it. I think demi-glace belongs in there somewhere too but it got really confusing really fast and the best I can do is Wikipedia’s “a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces.” Feel free to correct me, I won’t be offended.
Next up were the two Bs, bearnaise and bordelaise. Bearnaise I could care less for, bordelaise I love. Bearnaise’s mother is Hollandaise. Bearnaise is yolks, clarified butter, and a vinegar and fresh tarragon reduction instead of the lemon found in Hollandaise. It does taste better than Hollandaise, but it’s still part of the same overwhelmingly eggy family. Bordelaise on the other hand, made with Bordeaux wine (my favorite) is deeeelicious. Wine, onion, carrot, garlic, bacon, thyme reduction that is so flavorful and aromatic you can drink it on it’s own. Chef Brian seared a little of the steak he was going to serve it with and added it to the sauce for even more flavor. A little tomato product, some stock and you’re done. If you’re going to eat steak, this is what you want to eat it with. It does not overwhelm, it only enhances.
Chablisienne sauce accompanied the fish. In a buttered sautee pan went slices of delicate shallot, white flaky fish, more butter and white wine. Simmer for a bit, then add fish fume (fish stock) or skip it since you most likely won’t have it and just stick with the wine. Smother fish with a buttered cartouche (parchment paper circle) and pop in a 300-325 degree oven. When it’s almost done take it out the fisth but leave your liquid in the pan. You have braised your fish. The difference between braising and poaching is that when you braise something, you use the left over liquid whereas with poaching you do not. Reduce liquid, add cream, season, add some butter just because and a fresh herb for color. Pour over fish and serve. Very delicate and subtle.
Gastrique for the duck a l’orange is slightly more complicated. It’s a baby of brown sauce, sweet and sour and served with fatty meat like pork or duck to cut the fat. First boil your orange zest twice to get rid of the bitterness. You can use any tart fruit for a gastrique but orange just works so well so why would you? Please no peaches or strawberries. Boil a little water with sugar until brown but not burnt and add some sherry vinegar. You need acid and balsamic is just too sweet. Add orange juice and zest and reduce. Add a little brown sauce/brown stock slowly, count to ten and serve with duck confit. What is confit you ask? A fatty piece of meat like duck leg rubbed with Kosher salt, fresh thyme, pepper corns, garlic, bay leaves and soaked in rendered duck fat overnight. Then cooked in the mixture at 250 until it falls off the bone.
Onto the sweet stuff
Apple tart is the easiest dessert to make. Take some puff pastry (my friend Stephanie can make it for you and save you the anguish of turning, folding, turning, folding dough for hours), slice apples and arrange in a pretty pattern and bake ‘until it’s done’. How done? Is the crust golden, are the apples cooked? Then it’s done! To accompany the apple tart – caramel sauce and creme Anglaise, or English cream, i.e. custard!!!!!!
You might have heard of food shortages under Communism which I can assure you from a firsthand experience, were all true. Things like eggs, milk, everything really, were rationed. Vanilla, cinnamon, and ingredients we take for granted, I’m pretty sure could only be found on the black market. So we Romanians had to get resourceful. While most culture have some kind of caramel dessert based on cooked sugar, I’m pretty sure no one calls it “economic cake”. Use your imagination, the ingredient list is short. Well last night I had no problem when it came to the caramel sauce because I was familiar with making caramel for the aforementioned cake. A little water, lots of sugar, bring to boil until it starts to cook and turn brown. Swirl around and you have caramel. Add cream, stir, and you have caramel sauce. Orange zest for some flavor? Sure!
I am familiar with creme Anglaise because I ate a lot of it (and I mean a lot) when I went to college in England. We were actually best friends. Poured over any dessert, creme Anglaise, or custard, is decadent, silky, smooth. Four egg yolks get whipped with about a 1/3 of a cup of sugar. Whip whip whip. In a pot bring a cup of half & half to temperature and throw in some orange zest and split vanilla bean. Temper your eggs with the mixture and cook custard over a double boiler until it starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. (wooden of course!!) Love.
Well?
We were in the mood for dessert and made the apple tart with caramel sauce and creme Anglaise. The apple tart was in the oven while my friend Beth started on the creme Anglaise. I was busy chatting away and eating apples while my caramel was cooking and threw in milk instead of cream. Oops, start all over. Chef Brian looked at me wondering why I wasn’t able to distinguish milk from cream. (this girl is used to skim, anything that doesn’t look watery is cream to me) Second attempt was a success and the creme sauce was really good. Better than Chef Brian’s, who couldn’t find his cream in time and let his cramel cook a second too long. Dessert was served and it was goooood. Rich complex flavors but still very light. You know how apple pie a la mode can be a little stodgy sometimes? Make apple tart with creme Anglaise instead. 
