Back from dinner, and yet not that much time left before I better get to sleep - we had dinner tonight at the Escoffier Room, French cuisine. What a 180 degree turn-around from our less-than-spectacular experience at the American Bounty restaurant last night! Going back to yesterday's dinner, the service was less than perfect, but the food - well, I enjoyed my food immensely. My dinner started off with a tart of cabbage, quinoa, and mushrooms, and had as my entree the roasted game hen with peas. I could tell that the kitchen staff was enjoying their work - the presentation and flavors reflected their enthusiasm. The tart, it had a thin pie crust shell that was really wonderful, and had some herbs incorporated into it; the filling was an equally enjoyable balance. The main course was an amazing visual presentation, of small halved and stacked game hens, pan fried, served on a green pea sauce and small mashed potato rosettes. Dessert - alas, it never did come. We did enjoy some of their cheese selection, but somehow the management decided that we had either (a) exceeded our spending limit as outlined by the Boot Camp program, and would not allow us to pay for further dishes; or (b) had too much to drink, though it averaged about 3 bottles per table of 6-7 (I didn't have much more than a taste of our pre-determined selection of red and of white). It was weird - management couldn't articulate clearly why it was that they cut us off from further ordering of food or of wine, and service really was not enjoyable.
However, this evening's dinner was, as I said, a 180 degree turn-around. French restaurant, and typical of most of our visited French restaurants, the service was impeccable. Well, almost to the point of too controlled and contrived, but it was top notch. As the amuse bouche, we enjoyed a foie gras sausage served in a small puff pastry, with a balsamic reduction. I decided on the consomme, which was served in a small terrine with a puff pastry top; and the seared duck breast with caramelized peach as the main course. Both dishes were wonderful, though I had a harder time navigating around the puff pastry top of the consomme. Presentation was amazing - one of our fellow compatriots at my table ordered a white bean soup, and true to French nature, the soup was served at the table, always an elegant method. A cheese course preceeded the dessert, and alas, knowing that the soft cheeses they served were made from pasteurized milk, I did have to partake in a touch of epoisse, along with an assortment of 6 other cheeses. Oh, my epoisse - how I've missed you so!
Dessert, I chose the seasonal fruit tart, dressed with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and kiwi. They also brought out for our enjoyment a small plate of tea/coffee cookies. Honestly, this was one of the more enjoyable eating experiences, and I know I will remember it for quite a while. The student servers were great - they carried the decorum of working in an upscale restaurant, but when pressed, weren't stuffy and had ease of humor.
So going back to our days' events - between yesterday and today, so much has happened. We've been working consistently in teams of 2-3, and between yesterday and today, each team produced about 4 dishes. Add those dishes up, and by lunchtime, among the 5 teams, we had about 20 cooked items lined up for our enjoyment. Not the easiest lunches, I must admit - I've learned from Chef Ainsworth to eat like a bird, taking small bites of every dish, and eating just one bite from each, to enjoy flavor and to get the variety of flavor without finishing lunch as a bloated whale. Yesterday, we did dry-cooking methods: grilling, roasting, and broiling. My team came away with grilled salmon, which we laid, whole boneless side, on the grill, pink side down. (BTW, did you know, the lesson we learned yesterday in the kitchen - how to know your salmon is a wild salmon - black tongue; not unusual to see injuries sustained from an active life among other fish; and brushing our hand on their fins will yield injuries, whereas farm-raised (I think, now I'm forgetting) do not have the injurious scales on their fins) It really was a whole big to-do, as the chef instructor from the adjoining kitchen said firmly that no, we couldn't possibly grill the whole side without it falling apart! Well, Susan stayed firm in her experience, and sure enough, we did get the wonderful grill marks on our salmon, and then finished it in the oven.
Salmon - what we did - season w/salt and pepper, all sides. Coat well with oil, and brush oil on the hot grill as well. Picking up the salmon from the tail end, lay it down on the grill in one direction to mark the presentation side; and within 5 seconds, pick it up from the tail and turn it 90 degrees to get the complementary contrasting grill marks. We then stuck it into a 350 degree oven to finish.
We also prepared some side dishes, of rice pilaf, sauteed mushrooms, and sauteed spinach with bacon. We substituted the spinach with Swiss chard, due in part to the E. coli scare of packaged spinach and the inavailability of fresh spinach for our use. Quick notes...
Rice Pilaf - I didn't take charge of this dish, but Rebecca put her experienced hands to the task. We quick-sauteed some shallots in butter, tossed in long-grained rice to coat, and covered with stock and a bay leaf. We then finished the dish in the oven.
Sauteed mushrooms - contrary to popular belief, mushrooms can sit in a pan for quite a while, to let the liquid in them evaporate. I asked Jenni, of the team next to us, for tips, as they put together some wonderful sauteed mushrooms just the previous day. Big pointers - warm up the oil; toss in the mushrooms, but do not pack the pan too tightlyl; and just let it sit. Yes, it will steam, it will hiss, it will act all kinds of angry - but do not touch the little suckers. Before you know it, the steam will slow to a trickle from the pan, and your mushrooms will be reduced to almost 2/3 their original sizes. At that point, you've successfully caramelized one side of the mushrooms, and then just stir to even out any of the brown juices on the mushrooms if desired. Her tips worked like a charm - we got our mushrooms nicely caramelized, and no burning at all. Who wooda thunk! We finished the dish with a small pat of butter. We use a lot of butter in these classes.
Sauteed Swiss Chard - pretty basic, we started off the pan with some chopped bacon, and tossed in the Swiss Chard. These leafy vegetables do a lot of work on their own, reducing and softening in relatively short time. The dish came out wonderfully, and it balanced well with the salmon.
As for today, we had the wet-cooking methods - poaching, braising, and steaming. Our team had as our menu poached chicken with tarragon sauce, mashed turnips and potatoes, hot and spicy mixed vegetables (guess who got to do that one! Yes, I know, it's like asking a Latin American to take Spanish class.), and haricots vert.
Poached Chicken with Tarragon Sauce - this dish involved a couple of major steps - making a chicken veloute, which is basically a chicken stock thickened by a light roux; and poaching the chicken breasts, which we cubed, in chicken stock prior to finishing in the oven. The chicken veloute, combined with reduced poaching liquid, made the sauce for the chicken, to which we added some tarragon and heavy cream to finish. I made the mistake of chopping up only 2 chicken breasts, instead of the requested 6, since, apparently, I'm still learning how to read. But, we did manage to save the dish, by reserving the cooked chicken in a separate bowl while we poached the other chicken cubes.
Mashed turnips and potatoes - we cooked both items in boiling water until tender, and we mashed into them a mixture of milk, butter, parsley, with salt and pepper to taste. Pretty simple, very smooth, and the turnips added a bit of different texture to this dish.
Hot and spicy mixed vegetables - heated oil in a wok, tossed in scallions, garlic, and ginger. Upon fragrant, we added chopped vegetables (zucchini, carrots, daikon, celery, squash, and cabbage), along with some chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and a touch of sugar. We finished with sesame oil. On this dish, I felt it wasteful to just toss our carrot ends (I sliced the blanched carrots on bias) into the compost pile, and as we were in a bit of a waiting period, I decided to put my surgeon-family genes to some good use with the carrot ends and my paring knife. I made some simple garnish with the carrots, which we set in the middle of our presentation plate, flanked by the mashed turnips and potatoes (which I shaped into football shapes with 2 spoons - the term escapes me) and the spicy mixed vegetables. Chef touted the shaping and garnishing methods - yay!
So that's a quick and dirty rundown of what we've learned over the past couple of days. Other items...
Risotto - cook in a taller pot, so that the water doesn't evaporate so quickly. And what of all those "risotto" pans!
Mozzarella - Chef showed us how to make it fresh - so easy! Cheese whey, set into hot water, pull and knead, and when no longer lumpy, pinch off little bundles. That's the direct translation of mozzarella - little pinches. Who knew!
Chef has also been making ice cream for us, from scratch, and it has been quite delicious. Simple, simple, simple - half and half, eggs, and sugar, along with different flavoring additives (mint, pistachios, etc). Tomorrow, he promises creme brulee - oh delight!
All this food that we prepare every day - it does get heavy and old after a while, as each dish is a restaurant-quality dish, and there are so many flavors. I've been balancing our heavy lunches and dinners with some fresh fruit and yogurt in between. I'm jonesing for a salad or just a cucumber, and I think some of my other fellow colleagues are feeling the same. Poor Hubby - he may be joining me for a meal while I will be craving all things uncooked!
Alas, it is definitely time for rest and for bed. Tomorrow morning, we face our final challenge, using 2 given protein ingredients, and creating a menu from them. We have quail as our appetizer protein; with pork loin as our entree. My team is ready for the task, and we have our game plan laid out. I will report tomorrow on how we do in our menu - wish us luck!
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