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

Dinner alone with 2 friends; I'm a murderer!

Killed twice today... sorry. I thanked the lobster for a hopefully happy life and stuck the metal pin up its behind. The boiling water was ready and I finished him/her off quickly. Good job, I think.
There are two ways to kill the lobster straight away; Like I described above (and in an earlier blogpost), and there is a more human way. Well, the end result is the same; Cooked meat... This second option is just to tie two lobsters together and throw them in a bigger pan with boiling water. Nice solution for a minor problem.

It wasn't a really difficult practical. Only in the end, there was a bit of pressure - put the chartreuses in the oven over a waterbath, blanch spinach quickly, reduce the sauce, make lecitin in soymilk to thicken the sauce, whisk whisk whisk, and make a frotty sauce, whisk more, then put the plate  in the oven to warm it up and check chartreuses. Un-mould the stuff and plate-up quickly while it's still warm.... Where's chef ???? Busy judging other people's plates... hurry,hurry...

today's creation!

I was very happy with the suace (so was chef), spinach and farce. The only problem was the shitty design of my chartreuse. I ran out of pre-cooked carrot slices, so my chartreuse looked a bit scruffy. Sorry, I'll do better in presentation skills next time.

Raffaele had a good chartreuse I think, but a lousy sauce....

Tonight's dinner will be a nicely cooked lobster chartreuse (or two) with spinach, lobster pieces AND...... an extra lobster.

So, I'll be having two of my lobster friends TO EAT. Wonderful. By the way, I asked chef nicely for it. There was a leftover lobster because somebody didn't show-up today in class. At school, I wrapped it in clingfilm and took  it home safely... hi, hi, he's going to die very soon...

15.00 hrs; I just cooked/killed lobster #2. Reserved the meat and made a bouillon from the bones/carcass. I'll  use that jus for the risotto in combination with my homemade vegetable stock (no Maggi cube in this place!!) Should be a great dinner! Mark M. where are you? Help me out eating some good LCB food here. (picture: tonight's dinner)

Bon appetit to you too!

A demain, Sjoerd

Normal weekday with homard, foie gras, a 'light' tiramisu and a loooooong needle.

Indeed, it's one of those normal weekdays.... Chef Franck Poupard is in charge today. We started kind of late because first we received some information about the 'stage', internship that is, we can do after our superior program. We got a list of mainly Parisian posh places where we can go to. I don't think I'll apply to any of these, but I'll look into it some day this week.

Anyway, chef started late and finished very late. He also blamed it on 'silly Peruvian' questions.... and he gave us a lecture on 'NOT being on time in class'; There are too many students already losing too many points. (You are allowed 6 absences; some are on 4 already!). Chef explained the consequences of all of this in detail... and he was quite right actually. With 53 people in class it's pretty full; This is my view on the demo kitchen today.

On the menu today:

starter: A terrine. No tasting today, it's dans le frigo. Chef made a fois gras and oven roasted vegetable terrine. (no picture yet)

mains: Chartreuse de homard aux agrumes confits, jus mousseux. Doesn't that sound great? I'll explain: It actually is a lobster chartreuse with candied orange and lemon with a frotty jus. I liked this dish. But hey, doesn't everybody just loves lobster?

A typical chartreuse.

dessert: A light tiramisu-style mousse with sugared raspberries (with lots of mascarpone that is.... light.... not....)

Chef wasn't really 'sharp' today. Nice guy, but a bit hectic and that showed in the final presentation. But he did produce four desserts. Nice taste, I liked it.



The foie gras (starter dish) was about how to devain a piece of foie. That was quite easy. Assembling the final terrine with all the vegetables was a bit more work, but actually very simple. Further: Cook it in the oven for 40 minutes at 150C, au bain marie (waterbath) and then a few days into the frigo. We'll get a taster next week. It certainly looked good.

Then the live lobster - well, the way chef put that trussing needle up it's arse was just great! Some of us were shocked. This will stay with you forever!

Picture this: You're well alive and kicking and somebody takes a loooooooong needle and choves it straight up your arse... what do you do? you'd freeze! And so did the lobster! The bugger stayed nicely straight and only wiggled it's claws. Actually, that was the only thing left he could move... We finished him off quickly in a nice court bouillon, but just water will also do. What a way to go: Head first into the boiling soup with a needle up your arse!

The end result, after a lot of work (make a mouse, cut/blanch veggie's, make jus from the carcass, blanch spinach, make candid orange and lemon), was OK.

Great taste, shitty plating. Tomorrow early morning 8.46 hrs, after boiling the water first, we have to put 'a big prick up the arse' ourselves.
Oh yeah! Have a good night....
To be continued.