Few days off, time to blog again.

I'm having a few days off now; Tuesday and Wednesday and this Friday as well. On Thursday I have my second 'exam',the atelier #2, so I've got some time to practice for that, and I've got some time to blog as well; Tomorrow, I'll post an update off my adventures of last week! promise....

Jayne still stuck in Ireland; no visit ! yet...flight cancelled again.

Jayne is still stuck in Ireland due to the Icelandic volcanic eruptions. (click on the link for a video!) Actually, most of the airports in western Europe are still closed down due to the ashes in the air.

Jayne is booked on Tuesday's afternoon flight to Paris now - l hope she can make it, I miss her! She's already stuck in Ireland since last Thursday, when she was supposed to fly to Paris... We'll see what happens in the next few days.

Update, Monday evening: It looks good... it seems that flights are going again tomorrow! The flight Cork - CdG (Paris) is still  'on time'.
Update, Tuesday afternoon: All flights from Ireland cancelled again. No Jayne in Paris! Tomorrow's flight to Paris is fully booked and Jayne is now on the late afternoon flight to Amsterdam tomorrow (the last seat!). This time it will work out perfectly to get back to mainland Europe, I'm sure. I guess...

First 'exam' - the atelier, or workshop. Exciting stuff !

A few days ago I asked you for some ideas for my upcoming workshop. I received quite a few replies, thank you very much for that and it certainly gave me some good ideas. I did have a few sleepless nights over it... The chefs told us numerous times that we should keep it simple (and French probably) and respect the ingredients. Some things go together, some things don't.
I explained the rules before in an earlier blog entry; click here for those details.

On Wednesday, I went to Simon, the cookery shop, to have my knives sharpened. Just mention that you're from Cordon Bleu and mention the name of chef Terrien, and everything is for free. C'est formidable ! But..... the machine was 'en panne', broken down, so I had to go back the next day. So I brought 7 knives to sharpen.... ze man in ze shop was not 'appy....

So, to cut a long story short, I came up with the following menu:
My starter, two identical plates.
Chartreuse de saumon et gambas, mayonaise de poivron rouge, un salade aux herbs avec une vinaigrette de échalotes.
My main course:
Pigeonneau avec une glace de porto/miel, pommes de terre farci avec duxelles et cougette, oignons grelots glacée et tomate avec petit pois. Isn't that crappy French, or what!?

Yes, the bird is dead now!

Some details: I cooked the salmon (just put it in the oven at 150degC for some time, no oil, until done - don't overcook!), fry the shrimps and chop up (keep one for decoration). Mix the shrimp well with the salmon and cool off.
Make a mayonaise (egg yolk, mustard,salt/pepper, vegetable oil - no olive oil, that's too strong, whisk like hell, add lime juice and some 'jus' from the red bell pepper to give it some colour. Check seasoning all the time.
Use bit of mayonaise in the salmon/shrimp mixture to bind it properly and make it more smooth. Put all of it in a plastic piping bag.
The chartreuse: Using a mandolin (I bought one!) slice thin layers of carrot, red bell pepper (skin off) and leek. Blanch all separately, cool and pat dry. Then, cut into nice strips. Line a mould with clingfilm and 'coat' the inside with the strips of carrot / leek / red bell pepper all around. Finally, using a piping bag, fill the chartreuse with well seasoned salmon/shrimp/mayo mixture and keep cool in the fridge.
Presentation: Chartreuse, herb salad with a shallot vinaigrette and mayonaise on the side. Decorate the plate with some paprika powder.
I was ready with my starter at 10.15, which was bloody early, but I didn't want to plate first, so I waited a bit until 11.15 after 1 or 2 others presented their dishes to chef. I guess I was a bit scared.... don't know.

Chef really liked this one. It was colourful, I used different techniques and above all, the taste was good. I was really happy with it.

My main course was pan-fried pigeon breast, served pink, with a porto/honey glaze, a stuffed potato with duxelles and tiny sprigs of courgette sticking out, some glazed pearl onions and a (hollow) tomato with peas inside. And a nice pigeon sauce around the breasts. All well seasoned and served on a hot plate.
This one was OK, not really spectacular, but OK/good. My pigeon was slightly overcooked and I should have served the peas in the tomato as a puree inside it, not as whole peas. (And I did some therapy during the atelier - I shelled the peas AND I took the skin of the things.... )

All in all, quite an adventure. And please don't forget, this was the first time ever we've done it like this. So, next time the dishes will be more professional and colourfull etc., I hope! I really really liked doing it. Actually, if we can do this every other week or once every 3 weeks, I'd really like that. I've learnt a lot from this. And thank you chef Franck Poupard for supervising and helping us out to get more ingredients when needed!

One of the nicest things in class was that everyone did something completely different. Some did a starter with the pigeon, some made a carpaccio of the salmon, some deep-fried a lot. Well, there were so many different dishes, so here is a selection of the starters we've made in this atelier. (I will not post any names with the pictures and it's in random order. Nor will I put any comments with it.)

I'll post a few of the main courses on the next blog entry.
Sjoerd

Lesson 12; fish, veal and puff pastry.

Lesson 12, the last one before our first exam on Friday. On this Friday, we can sort of cook whatever we want within certain boundaries. I'll explain later in my next blog-post..
This lesson is all about fish 'a la plancha', with a méli-mélo de condiments (medley of condiments... dangerous, that could be anything!), a classic cuisine dish of sautéed veal grenadin with polenta and a stuffed artichoke and finally a puff pastry dish with all kinds of berries.

'A la plancha' means 'on the griddle', one of those FLAT grill plates. If you don't have that, just pan-fry the fish. And a trick chef did with this dish was to make thin slices of rhubarb using a mandolin, then blanch it in a 30 Baum syrup and then dry them in the oven at 90degC for a while. Candied lemon zest is also made in a syrup. Quite a few starters and desserts are made with these kind of techniques. Sometimes we even use the syrups in a main dish to candy lemon or lime zest.

Let me explain a bit about the syrup: 30 Baum syrup is a solution of 1.3 kg of sugar that has been dissolved in one liter of water. 18 Baum syrup is 700 grams of sugar per liter of water. It's all about the sweetness of the syrup you are looking for and the density of the sugar to make that.

The trick with the veal grenadin was to serve it pink, not red (undercooked), not brown (overcooked), but just pink. Mine was cooked to perfection as chef Bruno S. told me in the practical. I was really happy with that result! He even got others over to have a look at my dish. Yes, I did well... We served it with polenta; That's an easy one - you can shape that in every form you can imagine; French fries 'pont-neuf' style, flat, rounds, squares, even the shape of the Eiffel Tower...

Before I forget, a 'grenadin' is the same as a tournedos of beef (tenderloin). Because this is veal, it's called a grenadin. It's the name of the veal-cut.

My notes: Here are some details of the notes I make during a demo. Sorry that the pictures are not so good ! The first picture is the list of ingredients we receive, then it's all explained in the demo and the last two pictures are my notes. It's in 3 languages, all mixed up and messy... but at least I can read and reproduce it!

(click on the pictures for a 'blow-up')

Tomorrow, it's our atelier.....

See you all later!

Sjoerd

PS: the wines, how could I forget - with the starter we serve a Mediterranian wine, something like a rosé 'Ott', or something Spanish like Muscat d'Alexandria. With the main course we could serve a cabernet sauvignon, like Bouguoi from the Loire Valley. Don't serve a pinot noir or merlot. It's an acidic sauce with plain polenta. Medoc can be chosen. For dessert a sweet dessert wine, but when we have whipped cream, strawberries, we always go for....... ta,taaaaaa.... champagne!

We could even serve a creme de framboise or a Muscat wine from the Rhone valley with it. (This last one is tres parfumée and sticky.)

I'm back ! With food stuff. Nice food stuff.

Yes, I'm back on-line posting new stuff. Foodstuff. Sorry that is has been a bit quiet on the blog, but I've been rather busy, I was lazy, I just didn't feel like 'blogging' every day.
Right, where was I, a few days ago, regarding the food stuff? Lesson 9, on 11th April was my last food update, so here we go:

Lesson 10.
A demo on a Saturday. Bugger. But it wasn't that bad actually. Early afternoon class, run by chef Clergue.
starter: an artichoke salad with ricotta gnocchi and other stuff
mains: slowly cooked spicy lamb shanks with salsifi and spud-gnocchi (= practical)
and for dessert chef made pineapple and vanilla 'brochettes'with gingerbread and a coconut sauce with saffron. Not bad for a Saturday breakfast!

The Monday practical was by supervised by 'the liitle one' - chef Fred Lesourd.

Remember him from Basic and Intermediate cuisine? Well, he's back in town; he's been on a cruise ship for a few weeks (cooking, he says...) and now he's back at the school again. As usual, he was teaching us few tricks of the trade. Instead of adding spices ('spicy', as chef says) to the browned meat, he told us to grind it coursley in a pestle and mortar first, then rub it into the meat with a bit of force, and then fry it in oil. How right he was - much,much more flavour in the meat. The spices penetrated the meat much deeper. Nice one chef, thank you!

And he brought another gadget, a gnocchi board. We all liked it. It's just those little things that make a practical class much better. Lesourd is the perfect person to do all that!

And I've learnt how to cook salsify properly. I've done it at home before, but that went straight into the bin. I guess I overcooked that heavily when I made that some years ago.

A few things about salsify: use gloves when peeling them (stains) and put them immediately after peeling in milk (or water/lemon juice). To shape them nicely round, use those yellow scrup things you might have in your kitchen to clean the sink. The salsify will be perfectly white and nicely shaped. (Lesourd trick). Cook in a 'blanc' - water with flour, salt and lemon juice, until crunchy, cut into 5 cm sticks (cut at an angle) and finish off in the frying pan with a bit of butter and salt. Or just fry them in a bit of the jus you have from the lamb shanks. Even better!

My slowly cooked spicy lamb shank with a glaze and shitty shaped gnocchi. Good dish and I'm sure I'll make that again!

Then Tuesday, yes it goes really slow at the school, in general we have only one class a day - sometimes a day off and occasionally we have 2 sessions a day.

The 13th April, it's a demo AND the corresponding practical. Yippee!!! Chef Clergue again, he's a great chef, nice and explains everything very well I think. And he gives wine advice with every dish.

starter: a shotglass of guacamole and céviche (mirinated fish, like cod. White fish in general)

This can be served as an amuse bouche or as a starter. It certainly looks appetising!

The shot glass presentation is also part of our final exam in June. We have to present four of these (all the same) next to our main course. Also for four, and identical.

For mains chef made lightly pan-fried 'saint-jacques', a scallop parmentier and beurre de carotte. (Chefs plate and mine...)

Le dessert: Beet ravioli with berries (the ravioli is just the style of presentation)

Here are the wine suggestions for this menu that chef gave us;

With the starter, chef suggested a white fatty wine. It's a spicy dish with lime and raw marinated fish, so a Sancerre should go well with it. Or a nice sauvignon blanc from Chili.

For mains, the scallops, he suggested a Sancerre again (why not have the same wine with the starter and mains if that's possible) or a chardonnay from the Bourgogne. Something like Saint Aubain (spelled correctly??).

And with the dessert,the beetroot thing, which is also fruity, an acidic wine could be nice. Banyuls or a champagne rosé or a Madeira port is good! No vin rosé.

Sjoerd

To fly or not to fly - Iceland's revenche ?

To fly or not to fly... that's the question; Jayne's in Ireland at the moment and she was supposed to be on the Aer Lingus flight to Paris today, but.... due to overnight volcanic activity in Iceland, extensive flight disruptions are being experienced today throughout the UK and Ireland. So no Jayne in Paris today! %^*$! She has been booked on tomorrow's flight now (if it actually goes..).
And some people don't like these flight cancellations at all; click on this weblink. Well,  he's Scottish...

Some volcano news: click HERE.

Iceland - nice country - IceSave - bad management - money - volcano - no money - more volcano's - UK loan - Dutch loan - high interest rate - referendum - government Iceland gone - some Icelandic people blame UK and NL - eruption - lava - ash - more eruptions - no flights western Europe - no Jayne = Icelandic revenche !

Hopefully, Jayne will be here tomorrow, right after I had my first exam, the atelier that is all about squab, salmon and shrimp. A demain!
Sjoerd

Ze French - Those little things in class...

Over the last few days we had a few different chefs in the practical classes; Clergue, Terrien, Poupard, Cotte and Lesourd.
All have their own style of teaching and supervising, but I must say, they all help you out with small tips or they even do 'hands-on' work when you're plating the dish in the end.

They also comment on your cooking (style) or final result. Sometimes they don't say that much, apart from 'très bien' , or something like that, but sometimes they are a bit more, let's say, 'expressive'.

Chef Cotte the other day: 'Maintenow, mes amis, you can begin with cuttink yeur vegeta-bu-lus'. (thick accent!)
Cotte again when tasting Meredith's dish: 'Carefuul, I am not Roger Rabbiet' , when he thought the carrots needed a bit more cooking...

Lesourd is in a different league; He talks about rubbing the spicy into the meat. Oh yeah! Of course he means the spices, but it's funny when you hear him say 'ze spicy'.
After adding ze spicy, he commented on a dish: 'Watch out, zis is not a Tex Mex', when somebody might have added a few too many 'spicy'... It's funny.

Clerque always starts with his standard phrase: 'Bonjour, tous le Monde!'
Terrien makes fun of other chefs, and often comments in a strange/funny voice: 'Oui, mon chef, c'est bien mon chef'. Thivet is chef 'petite histoire'.
And one of the daily rituals is that a certain chef always sticks his head around the corner in EVERY demo and practical (where he's not supposed to be - he's never our chef!), just to get some attention....

And I must say, all the chefs speak English these days. One better than the other, but they do understand you and (try) to talk back in Franglais. It's great! I just love being here.

Atelier (workshop) coming up and a challenge for YOU !

Next week, on Friday, we have lesson 13; A so called 'atelier', where you just get some ingredients and you have to come with 2 identical starters and 2 main courses. It's an exercise for the grand final, where we have to produce 4 plates of each....

Let me explain the rules of the workshop a bit; yes, there are rules! We have to use certain ingredients like squab, salmon, shrimps, peas, pearl onions, mushrooms and a red bell pepper. On top of that we have some more things available that you CAN use.
Please have a look at the ingredients list.

QUESTION: WHO OF YOU READERS CAN COME UP WITH A FEW NICE SUGGESTIONS WITHIN 2 DAYS ???

(email : sjoerd.servaas@hetnet.nl)

Hint: keep it simple and use the ingredients on the list. Some additional information; we have 6 hours to prep, make and serve it. Peas are fresh. Garnish: two simple ones (just veggies on a plate) and one composed (a combi of vegetables). We have to make a stuffing, a cold sauce for the starter and a jus or sauce for the main course.
Of course I have many ides at the moment - too many! and that's exactly the problem....

I will guarantee you, you'll have a very bad night's sleep over this one. I haven't done this before, well, I've made some menus at home together with Jayne, but this one....

     PLEASE, SURPRISE ME !

Sjoerd

pictures of the week and recipe update

I'm a bit behind with my blogging and publishing of the dishes we made. First things first: I like superior cuisine class a lot ! It's just great. So far, I think I'll make all the recipes again; at home, for somebody else etc. Maybe with a few small adjustments, but I do like like it a lot so far.
Please let me give you an update of the week;

1. the class idiots; you remember those two ? They are quiet. Maybe chef said something to them or they might have read my blog post... I don't know. The 'big one' is still asking stupid questions and she's still filming chef's demonstrations; every day...
2. (pictures of) this week's menu; sea bream/squid/risotto practical on Tuesday evening, demo first, (Wednesday we had the day off), on Thursday the flying rat (demo and practical), Friday - fish again, also a demo and a practical (red mullet with potato scales and artichokes) and on Saturday early afternoon a demo on lamb shanks. In one word: Nice !

Tuesday; Tasting of the fois gras terrine chef made last week (not bad!), dorade poêlée, encornets farcis au risotto de langoustines et coriandre, and for dessert a lemon grass cream with a citrus jelly and a rhubarb crips. Nice! And sweet....

The sea bream was the evening practical.


Wednesday, nothing to report... That is, I forgot what I did on this day.

Thursday; Lesson 8. Franck Poupard in the lead. Shortbread with crab, lime and lemon balm with a green mango and lemon grass sauce (don't remember this one, sorry), flying rat wrapped in cabbage (pffffrrrrrttttt - yes, that was a fart! it's the red meat and the cabbage again, sorry. It still sounds and smells like during those cabbage classes in Intermediate cuisine last year.) with a tartelettes de champignons mélangés and for dessert a coconut meringue with a yoghurt sorbet, blackberries and a parsley coulis. Right.

Of course the pigeon was the corresponding practical - and served pink. Bugger. Pink. And not overcooked! Mine was borderline.

Starter of crab, something with shortbread, dried ham, a sauce and other stuff.

Pigeon, served pink, with mushrooms. That creapy thing on the plate, in the top right corner. is a stuffed leg. Horrible tough piece of meat. It looks like a thing from the Harry Potter movie !

And a meringue dessert. A bit messy, but it had a nice taste to it. I think. The pictures are from Meredith - thank you! I forgot my camera today.

Friday; Chef Clergue- - 'Bonjour tous le Monde ! ' He made a courgette blossom with langoustines, red mullet with spud-scales and an orange beurre (blanc) = LOADS of butter and for dessert candied tomato stuffed with red berries and a lavender shortbread.

2x Langoustines picture, a red mullet and tomato shortbread.

The practical was the red mullet with the potato scales. A bit of therapy! We used the mandolin, a Japanese one - the most dangerous there is, and we all survived. First you peel a potato, then you use an apple corer to drill through the spud and finally you slice the small cilinder over a mandolin to get really really thin slices and stick them on a fish. As I said, therapy.Will I buy a mandolin ... not sure yet.

Chef Xavier Cotte in charge during our practical. He was in a good mood today (yesterday he wasn't - he had quite an argument with somebody in another class next door to ours) and joking around as usual. Al in all, a good lesson. Easy fishdish, although I didn't brown my 'scales' (potato slices) enough. Raffaele called my dish 'shitty'- thank you very much. In a way he was right, I could have done better... next time. Maybe.

My dish...., sauce good (but needs more salt, I don't agree), the fish should have been more browned and NEVER ever pour the butter sauce over an artichoke - always use the jus where it's made in. Yes, I'm an idiot, according to chef X.C. Merci to you too!

Saturday; well, that's tomorrow's blog post I guess. I've had enough of it today.

A demain,

Sjoerd

On the menu today: flying rats and foie gras! lots of foie gras...

Today's demo at 8.30 (after coffee in the cafe, drunk guy, 2 beers, etc - well you get it, the usual), we started off with a meringue based dessert, a starter I can't remember and finally - a flying rat ! A what? Yes, the pest of our lives, the thing that shits everywhere, that spreads uncontrollable diseases and that lives all over the planet! Even next to my bedroom window in Paris. What, what, what is it? It's a ^&;?;a;%^$# pigeon!

It's also one of those things that is quite bloody when you have to prepare it. There's not much meat, just two breasts and the two legs. The rest is for the jusor sauce . And they are expensive; Around 10 euros a piece. And that for a flying rat!

Chef Franck P. in the lead today. A bit chaotic again, so we predicted a late finish, and how right we were. We are all paying attention today; the beast is used in our 'atelier', or workshop next week. More about that later.
I'll tell you more tomorrow about how to prepare these buggers, I'm tired and will go to bed soon. No pictures yet, I forgot my camera today, so I'll ask others for a few snapshots.
Before I forget, we used a lot of foie gras in the stuffing and on the plate today. And truffles. And guess only once where the leftover foie gras, truffles and 5 chicken breasts went..... yes, into my fridge! Thank you chef P.
I'll make something really nice with it. Any ideas from my blog readers?
(terrine, or....)
I'll be back tomorrow,
have a good night, Sjoerd

Fish, risotto and a stuffed squid, evening class, shopping for kitchen stuff

Today, Wednesday, is another day off, shopping time!

We'll be paying a visit to Dehillerin cookery shop..... that's so dangerous, euro,euro,euro... and we just come here too often, despite the 10% discount.

Big pans, small pans... everything!

I got home at 17.30, with my newly bought gadgets; a terrine mould, drum sieve (tamis) and quite a few mini  'cocottes' and glassware for plating purposes. All in all, it wasn't that expensive. Lucky me...

Right, let me tell you about yesterday. (Monday we had the day off as it was Easter Monday.) Chef Terrien was in charge and Yuka was assisting.

Part 1 was the 'degustation' (say this out loud in French, that sounds a lot better!) of the fois gras terrine chef Poupard made last week. Part 2 was a main course of sea bream/ langoustines and squid stuffed with risotto.

Part 3, le dessert, was a lemon grass cream with

citrus jelly and a rhubarb crisp.

This was made with agar agar, to make a gelly.

Chef gave us some background info on the foie gras dish - plating and garnish tips, and that was nice. The taste of the fois terrine was great! I might make that again at home, although Jayne can't eat it...

We also used Lota or Yota, a gelatine replacement. It's one of those E-numbers... probably very very chemical.


The main course was a bit too simple I thought. 'Just' a piece of seabass fillet with risotto. The nicest bit was the stuffed mini squid. And I liked the reduced vegetable stock with herbs and butter as a sauce. I made quite a nice sauce, I think. I'm sure I'll make the squid thing at home.

Between our demo and the practical lesson, we had a few hours off and Raffaele and  I went to the Jardin Luxembourg for a walk and some coffee. Nice. And the weather was super!


Then our evening practical. Not everybody showed up (again). For various reasons: allergy or religion (langoustines). We finished this easy practical by 21.00 hrs and went straight to the pub to have a few beers and watch football.
What a terrible day it was: demo, stroll in the park, practical, beer and football - and all of that in Paris....

until tomorrow,
Sjoerd

entertainment in class; class idiots and a drunk....

Last Friday, we had quite a nice demo. Chef Clergue teaching. For mains, chef made the lamb dish. It became a bit of a funny session after a few people went out to go to the toilet, get a quick coffee, glass of water or do whatever. It bothered chef. And he remembers... he always remembers.

Then he found out that somebody was filming the demo all the time. So he stopped that (but she started filming again later..). Filming is not allowed at LCB, taking pictures is not a problem at all. It has all to do with copyrights of recipes.
Later during the demo, Ms.D from Peru went out; noisy ! Later, he (indeed) came back in class with many of his 'gestures' and he just didn't shut up. Chef didn't like it at all and it actually pissed him off quite a bit. So he made a comment (with the same 'gestures' ) to ms.D. and told him to behave. Laughter all over.

The two class idiots

(picture taken from behind so nobody can recognize them...)

But then, the stupid thing sitting next to Ms.D. , the one that is filming every lesson since the beginning, used her last brain cell to get a coffee and return WITH it.... How stupid can you be ! Imagine chef's reaction.

Ms.D. was on a roll. His last comment to chef was: 'Vous êtes très bien chef; bravo !', or something like that. Chef turned all red, was ready to explode, but he didn't say nor did he do anything. If only eyes could kill this idiot....
And we had a smelly drunk guy sitting next to us; I think he came straight from the pub to class. It was kind of funny actually. I don't think he showed up at the practical afterwards.... and that was a smart move of him!

'Want another beer ?'

And last but not least, the two in the front row, Ms.D and 'no brains', already started having quite a few tasters at the end of the class; You know, we actually get to taste the food that chef is making in a demo. Sometimes there is more then enough, sometimes there's not that much. Even before everybody else had their first taster, they were already on 3.... it pissed a few people off. Actually, most of the time after a demo, she has emptied 5 or 6 tasters by the look of all those empty plates near her seat. So,no wonder why she's so large.... (didn't I just say that soooo nicely!?)

The big question remains: Why didn't chef remove these two out of class immediately?

Then there's the absentees: Well, there are quite a few people not showing up in class for whatever reason; but just going on holiday abroad instead of being in class and now being on 6 absent points already is a bit too much I guess. (The maximum amount of points we are allowed to lose is 6. The course is 11 weeks, and we're only in the second week now.) Some people are already on 4 or 5 absentee points, this one is on 6 and the chefs have commented on that. This guy, who's on 6 points,  just doesn't take this course seriously. It's very disrespectful; Not to chefs, not to the school, but certainly not to the other students in class. One more point and he should be out! No matter what. But I guess LCB will let him stay anyway.... unfortunately. Obviously, money is not a problem here if he will fail this course. But hey, it's his problem I guess.

In short: A lesson to remember. There's a lot happening during a demonstration...

Update Tueday, one day after publishing this post: Quite a bit of support from people in class. General reaction: 'Finally somebody is saying something about this/them..., but LCB needs to take (more) action'.
We actually signed a contract when we started in basic cuisine or pastry that we'd behave/do not film/ be on time etc. It was quite a list! So the issue is easy to solve.