Jayne going home, sushi and sweetbreads/quail practical

Today, Jayne went back to Amsterdam. Yes I know, somebody has to make some money; I understand who the breadwinner is at the moment! We went to the Gare du Nord together and I dropped Jayne off at the Thalys. It was a very easy-going trip for her; Paris-Amsterdam in 3.15 hrs. That's just great.

After I left the railway station, I walked around the city centre a bit and then I took the metro to Vaugirard, near the school. It was lunchtime, so I decided to have some sushi. I had a nice lunch with miso soup, a salad and 12 maki (with lots of wasabi) for only 8.80 euro (menu N) - no beer or wine yet...

Then to school, to do the quail and sweetcrap practical.

I cleaned the bird, chopped off its head, legs, toes,wings and tore the liver,lungs and heart out. Then I cut off the breast, and trimmed the meat before I schredded the carcass completely with my cleaver. What a great way to start a cooking session!

The end-result wasn't too bad. I actually took the leftovers (a whole pie) home and just had it for dinner with a glass of white wine. According to chef Clergue, that should have been a full bodied red wine, but who cares.....!?

My dish.

See you all tomorrow! Sj

(And I cut myself twice today; new knife....)

Just one of those days; a small tour of the centre of Paris.

What do you do with the rest of your day when you only have an early morning class? Yes, you go out and have a look around a few of the major sights. Especially when the weather is nice.

So, yesterday afternoon Jayne and I did.....

• the metro system
• Le Bon Marchee
• The river Seine
• A view of the Louvre (didn't go inside)
• Jardin des Tuileries (near the Louvre; nice!)
• Place de la Concorde
• View on the Avenue de Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe
• Place de la Madeleine
• Fauchon at Madeleine
• Laduree
• Place Vendôme (The Ritz and all the posh places)
• and beer in our own street

not a bad afternoon, I think. A small selection of our trip;

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