Dishes during the course.

Last May, I promised to write a bit more about the dishes we made during the superior cuisine course. I was a bit behind with the blogging back then, but now it's time for the first update. I'm home now for three weeks and I've also been shopping in the kitchen stores here in Amsterdam. The latest purchase is a new KitchenAid blender. This is something we used a lot during the course. It's the perfect tool to make sauces, chop up herbs and vegetables and make ice cream. So we decided to buy one.

Right. Menus. Dishes we made. Turning mushrooms again...

Lesson 14. Classic cuisine.
starter: Roasted jumbo shrimp on a stick of lemon grass
mains: a thick salmon steak with a (butter based!) herb crust, a mushroom flan and a creamy (veal stock based???) jus. Typical LCB - veal stock with a nice fish dish....
and for dessert chef made pistachio creme brulee with a tuile.

The trick with the flan was to clean the ramekins really well and butter them generously. Then keep in the fridge to 'set the butter'. The herb crust was nice and very easy to make. You just blend/grind some herbs like chervil, parsley and coriander, add some butter and almond powder, breadcrums and an egg and roll it out thinly on some parchment paper. Finally you freeze it and when you need it, you just cut it to the right size. Easy-peasy!
And I never thought you could re-use the salmon skin. Chef rolled a (cleaned) strip around a metal mould and dried it out in the oven at 100degC for 2 hours in a convection oven. The result was a dry ring of crispy salmon skin for decoration on the plate. Nice trick!
With the left-over salmon or trimmings you can make a salmon tartare. Don't throw these trimmings away! Ever !
Chef's dish.

starter, shrimp something...

Tuiles in the oven. Let it cool down a bit, then wrap it around a rolling pin to make a nicely shaped tuile. (recipe on request!)

Mayra turning mushrooms.

Adriano struggling...

Comments from Bruno. Meredith's dish.

Carlos listening to Bruno.

Victoria's dish.

more to follow soon.

Sjoerd

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

Smell of fried sweetbreads at 9 a.m., Kirsch dessert and smoked eel

Bonjour! Did you all have un bonne weekend?
Today, Monday that is, is a semi-free day. Only one early morning demonstration by chef Clergue.

The picture is taken from one of the TV screen in class;
We have quite a big group with 53 (minus those that are ALWAYS late or absent...). So there is a lot of work to do for the assistant of today, Priska; Helping chef, chopping,chopping,chopping and setting up the plates (53x3) for the tasters. Thanks P! for all the work!

I thought I was looking forward to it, but have a look at today's menu; Keep in mind that it's only 8.30....

starter: smoked eel, smoked salmon and smoked trout with a beetroot mousse and a sauce made from the (smoked) skin of the eel and all the leftover fish-trimmings... LCB calls it 'smoked surf and turf duo', or 'mariage terre et mer en composition fumée'. Now that sounds a lot different! Maybe even better.

For mains, chef made quail with veal sweetbread pastries with shit-aches, I mean shiitake, mushrooms and a peppery jus.

dessert; Frozen chocolate nougat with sour cherry coulis.

Well, let me tell you this; Personally, I'm not that keen on sweetbreads (tasteless funny waste product), but the smell of fried sweetbreads early in the morning, right after a nice breakfast, is just too much.
Then the carcasses of the quails were shredded to the smallest ever possible, leaving the breasts (to eat) and the legs (to make a forcemeat).
Livers and heart were used in the forcemeat. And it's still so early....In the meantime chef also gave us a few tasters; Like the (dessert) sour cherries in kirsch... now that's nice early morning start!! Reminds me of my skiing holidays... Some of us were not that keen on the alcohol shot at this time in the morning.... ha,ha!

Chef ran late today, big time. Not that we really cared actually. Philippe is a super chef and we take it as it comes. That's different with other chefs, like last year in intermediate...
Finally breakfast arrived; a cold fish dish for a starter (smoked), then pastries stuffed with quails and sweetbreed and for dessert a (too sweet for me) chocolate nougat. All fantastically plated. Time for us to take pictures:

Would I make it again? Well, yes and no. I'll make it all, but probably with a few adjustments. (no sweetbreads, adjust suger contents of dessert if possible)
It was good today. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I'll have the corresponding practical at 15.30 at 'holiday-camp LCB' ! I'll promise to use the sweatbreads, yuk.
à plus tart! - that's the culinary version ... I mean à plus tard! of course...
Sjoerd