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What I Learned at Culinary School Today

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GQgeek

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Originally Posted by Manton
Ahem, my class is 110 hours.

Jesus. I'm jealous. I don't even have the option for something like that here. Maybe in toronto...
 

Manton

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Every class is supposed to have a theme, but sometimes the theme is not so apparent. This was one of those times.

The first thing we learned was the poêlÃ
00a9.png
method. This is not to be confused with a poêle, which is a slope sided sautÃ
00a9.png
pan (i.e., a skillet or frying pan). No, they have nothing to do with one another. The poêlÃ
00a9.png
method is a way to cook large pieces of meat, game in particular. I had never heard of it, but it is apparently a big deal in France.

We were to use pork, rib racks. Chef had two long racks which he cut into three or four rib sections for us. He said at the outset that the true poêlÃ
00a9.png
method was for cooking very large pieces of meat, which we didn’t have (that is, we didn’t have after he cut it) and also used lots of bones and trimmings, which we also didn’t have. But we would do our best and nonetheless get the general idea of the method.

PoêlÃ
00a9.png
cooks in the oven like a roast, but unlike a roast it is covered in some sort of fat. The traditional way is to wrap it in a thin layer of fat, but we didn’t have that so we used butter. The other difference is that poêlÃ
00a9.png
method uses a cover, whereas roasts are cooked uncovered.

Chef said that a typical large piece of meat cooked poêlÃ
00a9.png
will brown nicely by the time it is done. The problem with using this method on small pieces is that they don’t brown so nicely. As a fix you can sear it in a pan first – this is in fact what our text says to do – but we didn’t. I am not sure why not.

The other hallmark of this method is that the meat is cooked over a bed of mirepoix, trimmings and bones (if you have them). It just rests right on top of them, unlike a roast, which is typically on a rack.

First we had to manchonnez our mini-roasts. This is like what we had to do with chicken wings and legs: clean and scrape the bones. You see this in fancy butcher shops sometimes, on racks of lamp most likely, and it is called “Frenched.” Well, the French call it manchonnez. It’s not so difficult. You trim the later on top of the bones off on a long strip. Then you work your boning knife between the bones and remove the meat stuck there. Then scrape, scrape, scrape. Then you take some twine and tie the roast between the bones (so three ribs = two ties) to round out the shape and make it cook more evenly, and also be more presentable when served.

Into the pan goes two (!) heads of garlic cut in half, and one carrot and one onion, coarsely chopped (really large pieces). Plus a bouquet garni and whatever trimmings you took from your roast when you did the manchonnez. Season the roast (S&P only) and then really lather it with butter. This is not a little rubbing; you really want to see panels of butter sticking to the sides.

Cover the pot (we used our small sautoirs, so had to cover with doubled up aluminum foil), and into the oven (350) it goes. It cooks for a good while. I think mine was in there for 90 minutes. We would take it out occasionally and baste. It really did look white, or off white, after a short time. It got no color at all. Then after about an hour, Chef said to put it back without the foil. It cooked that way for about 30 minutes, and got a nice light golden. Not like a roast, but it was a decent color.

Meanwhile, for our sides, we did a potato dish whose name I forget. The shape, he said, was Pommes Chateau, but the cooking method was different. Pommes Chateau is just a really large tournÃ
00a9.png
, and either we cheated or the technique is a cheat, because we did not make the potatoes into perfect torpedoes. Rather we peeled them, cut them in half lengthwise, and then turned them but left the flat side mostly intact. Since the flat side is always the hardest to turn, this made it a lot easier.

Other than that, the dish involved bacon lardon, raidier (I think that was the word; sweated but not browned), then onion emincer in the bacon fat. Then put in the potatoes flat side down, and fill the sautoir with veal stock about halfway up the potatoes. Season, add some thyme, bring to a boil, then put in the oven. The liquid reduces down and the surface of the potatoes dries out and takes on a nice color. These take about 30 minutes to cook, but the only way to know is to test them with a paring knife. They need to be tender all the way through.

p1060239s.jpg


The other side was called Choisy Garniture. It was a little lettuce wrapped roll. The filling was called matingnon: bacon, onion and carrot, all cut very small (brunoise) and sweated until well cooked. Then Boston lettuce leaves cooked a l’anglaise, very fast, then laid out and dried. Spoon in the filling and roll. Grease a small sauteuse with butter and lay the rolls out in the pan. Add veal stock about 1/3 to half way up. When it’s close to service, bring to a boil, then put in the oven for a few minutes.

p1060238v.jpg


The roast is ready when the temp is 140. As it happens, I recently made a rack of pork roast at home and had a devil of a time getting it up to temp. This one was much smaller (and used a different cooking method) and it cooked up fine. Chef said to put the thermometer (first time we have used it, I think!) in as close to the bone as possible without touching. Then put it on a rack to let it rest (always rest on a rack to let air circulate all around the meat) and put the foil back on top as a tent to trap the evaporating moisture and help the meat finish cooking (it should rise another 5-10 degrees).

p1060240l.jpg


Save your mirepoix. Take that pan, put it on the flame, and add some white wine. Reduce by half. Then add veal stock (I used two cups). Let that simmer for a while. You could also add the remain liquid from the potatoes and the lettuce wraps. When the sauce is getting thick, strain through a fine chinois. Then degrease. Long ago – when I first started to learn to cook more seriously – I remember reading in Julia Child that one way to defat was to drag strips of paper towel across the top of a sauce. It sounded preposterous but I tried it anyway, and was unhappy with the result, to say the least. I had never done it again, until this class.

Chef said, that’s what we were to do with our pork sauce. You take a piece of paper towel and drag it over the surface of the sauce, quickly. You have to do it fast because the longer it sits there, the more chance it will absorb good sauce and not just bad fat. You can tell if you are doing it correctly. The towel will glisten with the fat, and the fat will cling to the paper and not drip. If there is a lot of dripping, that means you soaked up sauce. Do this three or four times, or until the surface of your sauce no longer looks like an oil slick. I must have done OK, because Chef said he liked my sauce, but he complained that a few others were too greasy.

Plating. We were to plate two potatoes, four lettuce wraps and three slices of mean (thin, not thick like prime rib), one with a bone, the other two without. Here is Chef's:

p1060241.jpg


I thought this time I had it right the first time. Veggies at the top (6 o’clock) position, meat near the customer, bone facing away. But, alas, no. Chef wanted my meat to stand up higher. I had everything spread out to be more visible, but this was WRONG! You want to make a pile of sorts, for dramatic effect. So I tried again, and got a passing grade this time.

p1060243g.jpg


This dish was absolutely delicious. Once again, I give myself no credit. All honor to the recipe, and to Chef for keeping us on track. But man, it tasted good. The little lettuce wraps in particular were scrumptious.

The second dish was Escallopes de volaille Viennoise. That is, boneless chicken breasts, pounded out, breaded, and then pan fried.

We had to butcher our own chicken breasts. We each got a chicken, which we had to truss as a “quiz.” I passed on the first try. Then break down. All the parts were saved for family meal and/or stock making. This was not much different from quartering a chicken, except you pull the skin off the breast first, and instead of cutting through the joint and leaving the wing bone attached, you around it. We left the tenderloin on. You can remove it for other uses, such as an appetizer – this is what restaurants often do – but you don’t have to.

When you pound it out, open up the flap. Don’t try to pound the tenderloin into the breast. Put between two sheets of plastic wrap (or wax paper) and pound lightly. The thin end of the breast hardly needs to be pounded at all. Pound the thick end into the same thinness as the thin.

The preparation is called, once again, a l’anglaise. Different than the many other meanings of this phrase in French cooking. First you season the breast very lightly. Then you dust with flour, making sure to beat it like a hanging rug a few times to shake the excess off. Then you dip it in a mixture of beaten egg and oil, seasoned with salt. Then let the excess drip off. Then dredge in bread crumbs.

p1060244.jpg


Oh, and we made our own bread crumbs. Actually, I made them. I recall this from Knife Skills. The teacher said that they never use pre-made bread crumbs at FCI, and almost shuddered at the thought. They take loaves of sliced bread, lay all the slices out on a baking sheet, then cook in a convection oven until the bread is dry. Let cool, then run through a Robot Coupe (essentially a Cuisinart on steroids; nobody ever says “food processer” in cooking school; it’s always “Robot Coupe”). Then pass through a tamis, or drum sieve, and discard the larger pieces (these are like unpopped popcorns; if they didn’t break down into bread crumbs at the first try, you don’t want them). I had to do all this because I had gotten the elements of my pork dish into the oven first.

These get lightly fried in clarified butter. “Lightly” means exactly that. You want a light golden. I overcooked my first one because I had the flame too high. Medium was apparently too high. You have to listen to the sizzle and watch. It should crackle a little and bubble at the edges, but the edges should just barely turn brown. Then flip. Lower heat when you flip, because that side will cook faster. If you are doing more than, say, two breasts, you will have to change the butter. The butter can be reused IF you strain it, but the breadcrumbs in the pan will burn even if the heat is very low if they are in there long enough.

Garnish for this one consisted of eggs, potatoes, a little decorative thingy. The potatoes were pommes darphin, the shredded potato cake. I made this at home and puzzled at why it did not turn out right. Well, I was using one potato per cake, when it seems that you have to use two. Lesson learned.

p1060245z.jpg


The eggs were hard boiled, then separated, then each part was passed through a tamis, separately. The result is sprinkled on the plate in a V arrangement (for Viennoise, get it?) along with chopped parsley and chervil. In the center of the chicken breast we put the thingy. This was a lemon slice (with pith and rind removed), an olive with an anchovy wrapped around it, and a parsley sprig. Then a small salad of watercress, tossed in S&P and olive oil – “at the last minute, otherwise the watercress will die” – and rest a wedge of the potato cake on that.

For a sauce, we reduced a small amount of veal stock, seasoned it, then beat in some butter to thicken. The sauce is not supposed to come into contact with the chicken, because liquid makes breaded meat soggy.

Chef's plate:

p1060247.jpg


My plate:

p1060248u.jpg


The cut is where he checked the doneness of the chicken. It had to be cooked through -- no pink -- but still moist. I passed.

However, you are supposed to trim off the dark edges because they are "not presentable." This I deliberately did not do because it seemed like a foolish waste. Chef called me on it, and I stood my ground. He maintained that it was incorrect, but if I wanted to eat it, I was welcome. I did.

The dish sounds incredibly simple. And it was. But it was also delicious. Really great. Surprisingly so.
 

otc

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your last plate looks better
 

kwilkinson

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Good stuff. When we made the Viennoise, I thought the egg was just a worthless extra step. The texture that the microplaned/tamis'ed egg adds to the dish is really interesting.
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by otc
your last plate looks better
I disagree. The first plate manton did looks great. The second strikes me as too symmetrical. Still, it all looks very, very good.
 

kwilkinson

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Out of curiosity, do you guys generally get relatively mediocre quality produce? Or is that watercress just bruised. We usually get pretty crappy produce, but very nice meat.
 

Manton

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Originally Posted by kwilkinson
Out of curiosity, do you guys generally get relatively mediocre quality produce? Or is that watercress just bruised. We usually get pretty crappy produce, but very nice meat.

I don't think I am such a great judge. I thought the watercress was fine. It sure tasted good.

The carrots are huge and rather bland compared to the organic ones I get at my local yuppie market.
 

otc

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Originally Posted by iammatt
I disagree. The first plate manton did looks great. The second strikes me as too symmetrical. Still, it all looks very, very good.

I should have specified "in comparison to chef's"

I now see what you mean with the symmetry and I agree...but I think the garnish/sauce looks better together than more separated liek chef's
 

KJT

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When making the potato cake garnish - how long do you wait before rolling it up? Do you do it around a funnel and let it rest so it dries that way? Any suggestions would be great. I think it's really cool.

Edit - is it just a wedge? I need to work on my reading. Chef's plate looks like it's a cone with the watercress inside.
 

Manton

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^^^ You don't roll it at all. The potatoes are shredded on a mandoline, and then dried and then seasoned in a bowl. They are just dropped into a hot pan thereafter. The shape comes from the pan, and from working it with a spatula.
 

Manton

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Soups. We made four soups. Two of these - onion and vegetable - I learned in Knife Skills. The other two - consommÃ
00a9.png
and cauliflower -- are new to this class.

ConsommÃ
00a9.png
is something I have read about but never attempted. It always seemed so hard, and also kind of wasteful and a waste of time. You have to use a lot of extra ingredients, including ground beef. You lose a lot of stock. You lose flavor - indeed the point of the extra ingredients is to replace some of the flavor that the consommÃ
00a9.png
process sucks out. And all that work, money, and lost flavor is sacrificed for ... presentation. So your broth will be crystal clear. Or as close as you can make it.

A very typical French thing, I must say. It's the soup equivalent of tournÃ
00a9.png
. Spend a lot of time, throw out a lot of usable food, all for the sake of ... presentation.

Still and all, it was fascinating to do, because it is one of the revered techniques in the repertoire. Basically, you make a "raft" - a mixture of meat, mirepoix and egg whites - and you boil that in some stock, and then simmer. The egg whites "fine" the broth - cloudy particles stick to them and clear up the broth. The other stuff puts back in some of the flavor that the egg whites take out.

You can do this to any stock. What makes it somewhat complicated doing it to a white stock is that you can't use ground beef. Ground turkey or chicken will do. For fish fumet, you can't use any meat at all. At least, Chef said, you would be a fool to do so, since you would have to buy and grind your own white fish meat, which would be time consuming and expensive. Since the whole process strikes me as time consuming and expensive regardless, I wondered why this was such a big objection.

We used "marmite". That is, apparently, white stock darkened with onions brule - burnt onions (described in the stock post). Marmite is also the French term for a tall stock pot, so it is both vessel and the thing in the vessel.

The raft is ground beef, egg white, and julienned leek, carrot and celery and rough chopped tomatoes. Use scraps if you have them. Mush all that together in a bowl until the egg whites are no longer runny. That is your raft. It goes into your marmite (in both senses) still cold, but on high heat. You have to stir like crazy - like a tornado, Chef said. At first the liquid will turn red. Then you will notice an amazing amount of scum and gray foam. That means it's working. When the meat itself starts to turn gray, stop stirring. Time to let the raft set. It will form into a solid. If it does not, they you have stirred too long and broken it. Start over.

Regulating the heat is very important. You need it to come to a full boil to get the process started, but if you leave it on a full boil too long, the violence of the liquid's motion will sink the raft and destroy your attempt. You have to gradually lower. Use your ladle to spoon out as much fat from the center as possible (I found this to be a waste of time). Then make a hole in the center of the raft. Get the temp down to a low boil/high simmer, and the liquid will circulate: up the sides of the pot, across the top of the raft, down through the hole, etc. Over and over. Throughout, the egg whites will attract particles, and the rest will impart flavor.

dscn2712.jpg


Looks sort of disgusting, doesn't it?

Leave it on for a while. I think mine was on for 45 minutes. Then strain through a fine chinois lined with a cheesecloth. A plain chinois is not thorough enough.

It should be really, exceptionally clear. Ruhlman says that the rule of thumb at CIA is "read the date on a dime at the bottom of a gallon." I am not sure mine was quite that clear, but it was not bad.

dscn2719.jpg


You also have to defat. Chef again said that the lazy way is to refrigerated and scoop it all out once it has solidified. We did the paper towel method, described in my last post. It worked, but I think it wastes a lot of broth. No way you are only catching fat.

After that we added some macedoined vegetables (cooked a l'anglaise previously) and a sprig of chervil and served. It was tasty, I had to admit, but a lot of work for a soup.

dscn2720.jpg


We also made farmer's soup, or potage cultivatuer. This is one of the repeats for me. It's a tasty soup, I must say. All the vegetables are paysanned, that is, cut into battonets and then into little super-thin tiles. Except for the cabbage, which is chiffonade. In knife skills class we used our veg trimmings to make a veg stock (these cook fast, 45 minutes on the outside) and used that as our liquid. This time we used chicken stock. Chef's reasoning, which seemed fair enough, was that since the soup included bacon, it's already not vegetarian, so why not. And, indeed, the soup he made in knife skill did include bacon.

First you do your prep. There is a lot of it. You have to paysanne carrots, turnips and potatoes, plus emincer leek and celery. In addition, you have to anglaise some green beans and peas. Beyond that, however, the soup is not so hard. Just sweat the bacon very slowly in butter (no color) then add the veg (minus green beans and peas) and sweat slowly. Then add the stock and the cabbage. Boil for 15 minutes. Add the potato and boil for another 15. One trick Chef imparted. You recall how I said that Chef insists that peeled and/or cut potatoes must be held in liquid. When making this soup, instead of using water, use chicken stock. Some starch always leeches out of potato when you hold it in liquid. Starch is good for this soup; that's what thickens it. If you hold the potatoes in water, you either have to throw that out, or use it and dilute the flavor of your soup. This way, you avoid that dilemma.

dscn2714.jpg


The yellow color is mostly from the butter. If the soup is any darker than that, it means you inadvertently browned something. I did that when I made this in Knife Skills class. The resulting color was more orange. It still tasted good, though.

Turn the soup down and let it simmer for a while, there is no set time, just stop when you like the way it looks and tastes. Season at the end, as ever.

Here was mine, finished, and then plated:

dscn2715.jpg


dscn2716.jpg


Did you know there is a difference between onion soup and gratinee a l'oignon? Well, there is. Only ignorant Americans call them both onion soup. That is INCORRECT! They begin the same way. You caramelize a lot of onions - really, a lot. Cook them high enough to get a deep brown, but low enough not to burn. Add stock and simmer. That's it. (You can also sautÃ
00a9.png
a little garlic with the onions.)

Here is is, cooking:

dscn2722.jpg


The final taste depends on the quality of the stock above all. According to Chef, this began as a peasant dish (onions are about the cheapest thing on a farm) and was made with water. Once the chefs got hold of it, they thought of many improvements.

We made ours with the remainder of our consommÃ
00a9.png
. This is not really done, but as we had it on hand, and it really had no other immediate use, Chef said to do it. He likes to make comments about how this or that little tweak to a dish can increase what you can charge for it in a restaurant. I wondered what one could charge for onion soup made from consommÃ
00a9.png
. "Oh, forget it. $18, $20. Maybe more. But no one would do that. It's crazy. And all the clarification is lost in the cooking."

I have to say, it was damn near the best onion soup I ever had, though.

Oh, and the difference between the two? With onion soup, you toast a piece of thinly sliced bread, lay it in the bottom of the bowl, add some cheese (always gruyere) and then add the soup. For gratinee, you put the soup in a crock (a little ceramic pot), put the bread on top, grate the cheese over the bread, and then put in the oven or under a salamander and melt. I thought the latter was simply "onion soup," but no, it depends on the presentation. We made both. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures.

The last thing we did was Crème Dubarry, or purÃ
00a9.png
ed cauliflower soup. This was rather easy (actually, thy all were, apart from the consommÃ
00a9.png
). Just sweat some leeks emincer until translucent, singer with flour, cook the flour, then add lots of stock (white) and coarsely chopped cauliflower. Cook for a good long time until the liquid has reduced by about half.

dscn2721.jpg


Add some cream and bring to a boil, then off heat.

This gets pureed in a blender. Add salt and white pepper to season, and some butter. Meanwhile, you should have saved some of the fleurettes from the cauliflower. SautÃ
00a9.png
those quickly and use as a garnish.

dscn2723.jpg


I don't like cauliflower much, but I liked this soup. It must have been the butter and salt. As Chef says (often) "Butter is good! Salt is good!" Indeed.
 

KJT

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When you add the raft to the stock for the consomme, you say to stir. I'm having some trouble picturing how to stir the stock with a donut shaped mass floating at the top. Does the raft float when you first put it in or only after it cooks for a little bit? Or do you add the raft loose and does the stirring bring it together into the donut shape?

Like you, I've always thought that the process for consomme is wasteful and something that I wouldn't try, but one of these days I might get bored and give it a shot.

Always a pleasure reading these posts, thank you!
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by Manton

dscn2723.jpg


I don't like cauliflower much, but I liked this soup. It must have been the butter and salt. As Chef says (often) "Butter is good! Salt is good!" Indeed.


I loooooooove cauliflower soup. That looks fantastic. Some day, when you are feeling flush, I'll send you the recipe for Robuchon's Osetra caviar in crab aspic with cauliflower cream. It is amazing.
 
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