meat meat meat!

I've made it to level two! I can't believe how much I have learned in such a short amount of time. My brain is running out of room. But, I am really enjoying level two because chef Rogers provides less instruction, which facilitates a more creative environment. Yay for independency.

We have been doing lots of meat -- from pork chops, to short ribs, to rabbit. 

Reaching inside chicken carcasses to remove their hearts and livers was revolting and the bunny-in-a-bag disturbingly resembled a fetus on my cutting board, but these once-furry critters were killed by an outsider (sicko), so no complaints here. RIP Louie.  

Here are some of the dishes I've made...

contre-filet grillé aux beurre raifort & beurre d'echalote
[grilled strip loin with horseradish butter and garlic shallot butter]

filet de boeuf et sauce bordelaise & pommes frites
[beef medallions with sauce borderlaise]

rosettes de porc au gingembre, sauce aigre-doux
[ginger-marinated pork fillet with sweet and sour sauce]

navarin printanier d'agneau
[lamb stew]

côtes d'agneau avec ratatouille
[marinated lamb chops with vegetable ragout and roasted garlic butter]

sautéed venison loin with sauce borderlaise and pommes darphin

pan roasted quail with rice and sausage stuffing

suprême de cancton sauté et cuisse braisée à l'orange
[sauteed breast and braised duckling led with orange]

poulet rôti grand-mère
[roasted chicken, grandmother-style]

veal blanquette de veau à l'ancienne & riz pilaf
[poached veal with cream sauce and rice pilaf]

pot au feau, sauce raifort
[slow braised short ribs with horseradish sauce]

jarret d'agneau braisé
[braised lamb shank with cous cous]

rabbit ragôut with vegetables and pommes purée
[slow briased shredded rabbit sauce over mashed potatoes]

paupiette de volaille & légumes farces
[stuffed escalope of chicken with stuffed vegetables]

poulet sauté chasseur
[hunter style chicken]

poulet poché un court bouillon méditerranéen
[mediterranean chicken]

<3 lisa, the little foodie

shellfish day

Shellfish is definitely my favorite kind of protein, hands down. I could have clams every day for the rest of eternity and be -- wait for it -- happy as a clam. Sorry too easy. 

Anyway, although we ate wonderfully this day, we had to go to a dark dark place to get our lobstery reward. I'm talking murder. Slow, torturous murder. I knew that I would be asked to kill a lobster, since the other students in upper levels told us weeks ago, so I tried to mentally prepare myself. But nothing could have prepared me for such a horrific experience. I tried this task only one other time, when gorgeous 5-lb. lobsters were on sale at Fairway and I convinced my family to have a lobster bake. But, when I saw those little critters crawling around, I just couldn't bring myself to kill them. So I did what any sensible animal-lover would do -- asked the landscaper if he could do it for me as I ran out of the kitchen until the shrieking subsided. They were deeeelish. 

So, obviously my anxiety was high days before the execution. But I felt a little bit better when I heard that we kill the lobsters by sticking a knife between their eyes, which makes them die instantly. FALSE. That tortured crustacean wrapped its tail around my wrist as the knife went in, and I'm still having nightmares. What's worse is that it was still MOVING for an hour, and even after it was cut into 10 pieces (by my partner, duh). It's little tentacles still feeling around, it's legs struggling to get off my cutting board. Ugh, so upsetting. Never again. 

Now, obviously I had no problem eating louie the lobster, he was also delish. But still...

moules á la marinere
[mussels with white wine and shallot reduction]

coquilles saint-jacques, coulis au persil
[seared scallops with parsley coulis]

oysters and clams shucked by yours truly

escargot bourguignon
[snails with parsley shallot butter]

Louie
[sauce Américaine]

<3 lisa, the little foodie

fish day

Nothing like the smell of soaking-wet boxes of whole fish first thing in the morning! Filleting, aka descaling, deboning, and deskin-ing (?) these slimy creatures was one of the more unpleasant things I have done in quite some time. But, one of the most important qualities of a good chef is efficiency, so learning how to fillet a fish leaving only the head and skeleton behind (a la Garfield) is definitely a skill worth learning. Here goes...

not fun.

poisson en papillote
[bass baked in a parchment paper pouch
with mushroom duxelles, tomato fondue, and julienned vegetables]

fillet de truite à la grenobloise
[crispy trout in a lemon caper butter sauce]

goujonettes de limande aux sauce rémoulade et sauce aux poivrons rouge
[deep fried breaded flounder strips
with tangy mayonnaise and sweet red pepper sauce]

filet de limande bonne femme
[braised flounder with a white wine, shallot, and cream sauce]

Love, Lisa

the little foodie

potato day

Ahhh, the potato; crunchy, crispy, creamy, sturdy, fluffy, sweet, savory, yummmmmy. What a glorious tuberous root. We made about 10 different potato recipes on this day and saw just how versatile and widely used it is - from fine french dishes, to peasant pickings, to classic fast-food fare. Oh how I miss the days when McDonald's fried their potatoes in lard, and I had no idea what an artery was.

deep fried fun

pommes gaufrette

pommes pont-neuf

gratin dauphinois

pommes anna

pommes anna

pommes purée

pommes darphin

salad day

How anyone can get excited over a salad is beyond me. However, I guess it was important for us to learn how to store, clean, cut, and dress different types of salads just in case future customers are craving foliage. Yum.

salades douces et amères aux tomates et aux herbs
[sweet and bitter greens with tomatoes and herbs]

homemade mayonnaise with basil purée 

peas, green beans, carrots and turnips macédoine tossed with mayonnaise
[appreciate that cutting]

macédoine de légumes topped with tomato fondue

macédoine de légumes topped with tomato fondue

salade Niçoise

love, lisa
the little foodie<3

culinary school: week one

Week one of twenty-four is complete. umce umce umce. So far it has been great.
Here is a typical day in the life:


7:15 - alarm clock goes off
7:45 - out the door; walk to school
8:30 - begin uniform assembly (basically your standard karate uniform but less   comfortable and no awesome/tyrannical colored belts), including but not limited to: a hat that can be described best as a bonnet-yamaka love-child, a neckerchief (pointless/ridiculously irritating), a double-breasted, 20 lb. coat with my name embroidered on it and a snazzy pen/spoon holder, black and white houndstooth pants (also 20 lb.), a crisp white apron, side towels tucked into the apron, socks, and the most hideous shoes/clogs you have ever seen. This assembly literally takes me no less than 15 minutes. 
8:45 - enter my station in the classroom, which has my own burner, oven, and flat top grill. gather all of the ingredients necessary for the day.
9:00 - in an adorable French accent, Chef Rogers (RO-jay) demos how to make the recipes for that day. 
10:00 - magical cooking time 
12:00 - "family meal" - lunch served to the entire school :), usually delish. sometimes not.
12:30 - chef demo numero deux
1:30  - replication of demo numero deux
3:00  - disrobe armor


It has been absolutely wonderful to be able to do what I love all day, every day, and be able to talk about food with everyone around me all day, every day and it not be excruciating for the conversation-ee(?) 


HOWEVER...(dum dum duuuum), this profession is crazy exhausting. We are standing all. day. long., the kitchen is the temperature of hell, and sometimes after whisking and stirring for an hour, my spaghetti string arm has violent cramping. At the end of the day, I am ready to collapse. Time to build up the ooold stamina. 
Also, it's kind of unnerving to think that I spend every day with a group of amateurs (including myself), working with fire, scalding hot oil, samurai-sharp knives, and  copious amounts of spilled liquids on the floor. Intéressante Chef Rogers...


Here are some photos from the first week. We did a lot of basic things - knife skills, French "mother" sauces, stocks, etc. I promise/hope the photos will become more exciting soon!

carrots: julienne, jardiniére, tranches

warm goat cheese and roasted beet salad with frisée and macédoine apples

Ratatouille

garniture bouquetiér
carrots and turnips cocotte, cooked glacer au blanc, pearl onions cooked glacer au brun, haricots verts and peas cooked a l'étuvée, potatoes cooked rissoler, and artichoke cooked a blanc

sauce château briand

sauce mayonnaise 

sauce béarnaise

sauce beurre blanc

sweet sabayon with fresh strawberries

toasted sabayon

in my belly sabayon

potage saint-germain
[split pea soup]

potage cultivateur
[farmer style vegetable soup]

gratinée à l'oignon
[french onion soup]

<3 lisa, the little foodie.