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

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