Chicken and Waffles: French Style

Chicken and Waffles is one of those southern meals that baffles people who are not from the south (or grew up there like me).

According to wikipedia (where I find all of my day to day information/ factoids that impress people), there are three versions of the origins of Chicken and Waffles. I will put them here for you, so you do not have to click on the link or google it yourself.

The first:

"As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots. Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry were already a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic. Chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal".

The second:

Some historians believe the dish goes back to the late 19th century, when Southern African- Americans,recently freed from slavery, began migrating to the Northern United States. Would go out in the morning and wring a chicken's neck and fry it for breakfast. Preparing a breakfast bread with whatever meat you have on the hoof, so to speak, comes out of the rural tradition".

The third:

"It is interesting to note that this combination and/or recipe does not appear in Abby Fisher's 1881 cookbook What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her book is generally considered the first cookbook written by an African-American. These foods appear (but not together) in Mrs. Porter's 1871 cookbook Mrs. Porter's Southern Cookery Book. 

So, there you have it. A conundrum. Wherever it came from, chicken and waffles exists.

But it does not exist in France, or so the French people think. But the other day, while studying the cuisine of Burgundy, we were asked to make Poulet Fermier A La Facon De Gaston Gerard, Les Crapiaux Comme en Morvan. 

Or "Gaston Gerard" style free-range chicken, morvan-style "crapiaux".

Or essentially, chicken and blinis. And we all know that a blini is in fact, a fancy-type pancake. And pancakes are basically waffles made in a skillet instead of a waffle maker.

Essentially, we made chicken and waffles- French (or more specifically Burgundy) style. Now, some of you may say that I am grasping at straws in my attempt to prove that this is chicken and waffles. But if you've been ridiculed for eating chicken and waffles and then watch that culture present chicken and blinis as if it's completely normal, you'll agree with my deduction.

Here's how we did it:

1. Make the blini batter which includes: tempering the yeast in milk, then slowly adding that milk into your dry ingredients of salt, flour, egg yolks and peanut oil as you whisk. Then add some melted butter.  Let it sit.

2. Cut up your chicken into 8 pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts) as well as some extra chicken wings (trimmings) and brown all of it.

3. Once browned, Degrease then Deglaze with Chablis, place a cartouche (paper cover) on top and put the chicken in the oven. Remove breasts and wings at 20 mins, the rest at 45 mins at 190 degrees Celsius or 375 Fahrenheit.

4. Boil potatoes and then run them through a drum sieve. Chop chives

5. Add potatoes and chives to blini batter. 

6. When the chicken is cooked, remove it and cover in cling wrap. Keep the wing trimmings in the pan.

7. Add butter and finely chopped shallots. Add an equal amount of water to the liquid in the pan.

8. Add cream and paprika until sandy brown. Pour this liquid into a smaller pot for infusion.

9. Whisk egg whites and sugar until you form peaks. Add this to the blini batter.

10. Heat a blini pan (small skillet), add a little clarified butter to the bottom and make blinis (like you would a pancake).

11. Strain sauce, check seasoning, mount with butter. When at the right consistency, add mustard off heat. 

12. Remove thigh bone and breast bone from chicken.  Remove skin from all chicken pieces. Brush chicken with mustard, sprinkle breadcrumbs and comte cheese on top. Place in the oven to melt.

Serve Chicken, blini, and sauce. You can serve the chicken on the blini or next to it.

So, you see. In the end, you get a slightly breaded piece of chicken with a sweet (remember the sugar in the egg whites) pancake (or waffle)- like side.

Take that, France.

(the chef's version. We also had to serve it with an herb salad. I plated mine with the blini on the side, but did not take a picture of it in the kitchen)

Chef Profile

So, I came across this Chef Profile of Ryan Smith the other day and just loved it for a few reasons:

1. He talks about terrine
2. He's the Exec Chef at Empire State South (Hugh Acheson's Atlanta Restaurant)
3. He talks about offal and charcuterie
4. He talks about terrine

I would definitely recommend checking it out. ESPECIALLY if you live in the Atlanta area.

You're welcome

http://atlantaeats.com/2013/01/16/chef-profile-ryan-smith/ 

(Smith (L) and Acheson (R))

Leftovers

One of the perks of being in culinary school is that we get to take home what we cook. So, for example, today me fridge consists of the following: butter, old goat cheese, mustard, a bag of shrimp-stuffed sea bream wrapped in lettuce wraps, and puree of Jerusalem artichoke.

Just an average Tuesday's refrigerator.

While getting all of this free "included in your tuition" food is great, the thing is that most of it just doesn't taste great reheated. In fact, it can be kind of gross.

So, it has become an artform of mine to figure out at the end of class which leftovers to take home and more importantly, how to package them to get them home. This packaging includes leak prevention as well as maximum leftover taste capacity. Because let me tell you, fish that has leaked into your bag not only creates funny looks on the metro, but also creates a lingering smell that multiple washes and soaks and fabreeze will just not remove.

For example, yesterday, our dish was the aforementioned lettuce-wrapped sea bream. One of the girls in our kitchen unfortunately has the flu and halfway through our practical had to leave. So, the chef made an announcement that someone needed to use/take her uncooked fish and sauce. Since no one responded and the chef was looking at me, I volunteered. But, the fact of the matter is that I knew that the shrimp-stuffed fish was not going to be one of my favorites to take home and work with as a reheated leftover creation.

This is partly because forcemeat stuffings are just one of those things that taste great except when you've made them and passed them through a drum sieve yourself. Especially the gummy raw shrimp. I'll leave it at that.

So, I decided that the best mode of action would be to use the extra sauce by adding it to my own sauce (I didn't have enough of my own in the end, but no one did) and with the fish, I decided to just quickly bake it with some coarse salt while I was presenting my plate.

I ate some of that fish on a baguette with dijon mustard for lunch.

But tonight, I decided to just go down the route of my usual leftover creations: some sort of pasta, rice, or stir-fry.

Tonight it was rice. I ended up making a risotto with the sea bream (separating it from the shrimp stuffing), the J-lem artichoke purree (which is about 50% cream like mashed potatoes), and spinach (I keep frozen spinach in the freezer at all times because it's cheap, never goes bad, and I love spinach). Add some spices and a little hot sauce and you're good to go!

Like all of my leftover creations, it wasn't that creative, but it was cheap, tasted good, and wasn't wasteful!

Crackbird

While in Dublin, we happened to try an ex-pop-up turned full time restaurant called Crackbird. I was most excited about Crackbird because they mainly do fried chicken. Yes. FRIED FREAKING CHICKEN. Something I am missing. Along with sunshine. Seriously Paris. Get it together and import some sunshine and fried chicken.

Then, I will be happy.

Anyways, Crackbird was delicious. Just look at the menu.

We enjoyed the buttermilk chicken (which I of course ordered), the carrot and cranberry salad as well as the spicy asian noodles (which are not on this menu).

Since it used to be a pop-up that was using an old chinese restaurant to house it, the decor is still asian-reminiscent in a black and red sort of way. With high tables and stools with drinks served in large class jars and the chicken in buckets. But, it works. Or maybe its the bottles of wine we got that worked so well. Not sure.

Anyways, the place was packed when we went and the servers were great. So, if (let's be serious, WHEN) I go back to Dublin, I'll be stopping here again. After breakfast at The Bakehouse, of course. 

Guest Chefs: Chabaudie and Veillit of the Elysees Palace

As posted before, ever two-ish weeks, LCB invites a chef (or two) to the school to do a special guest presentation. We started off the new year right with two chefs from the Elysees Palace (aka where the President of France lives- the French "White House" if you will). One of our chefs on faculty used to work at the Elysees Palace with these two guys, so I'm sure he orchestrated this event. He also stayed for the whole demonstration and heckled them throughout. They heckled him back pretty hard as well.

(I am apologizing now for the poor camera quality in this post)

Anyways, to the menu. Usually, the chefs will do one entree (in America, we would call this a starter or appetizer) and a main plate (in America, we would call this an entree- which makes no sense as entree means entering, but whatever. I'm sure we have a reason) OR a main and a dessert. These guys did the entree/main route.

To start us off, they made Croustillant de Saint Jacques (Crispy Scallops). Now, this dish actually serves scallops in two ways (despite the name). First, there were the crispy scallops or scallops rolled in a brik pastry, which is similar to phyllo dough in texture.

A fun trick that I learned during this recipe: roll the scallops in breadcrumbs before making the roll in brik because the breadcrumbs will soak up excess moisture and keep the brik flaky!

The second way of serving scallops was a scallop carpaccio, which seems to be a very popular way to eat scallops in Paris (I keep seeing it on fancy and/or "hip" restaurant menus). The carpaccio was served with a traditional cucumber and radish garnish, however, they added espelette pepper, pine nuts, and mimosa to mix it up a bit. Now, like me, you're probably like, "Mimosa? Where?" But this mimosa is actually just grated hard boiled egg. You grate the white and yolk separately. It's a thing here and while interesting, not nearly as exciting as a real mimosa.

(SUPER blurry. I know. But I still thought it would be cool to see the crispy scallops in the middle on the bed of the carpaccio with the cucumber/radish/mimosa)

The main dish, Roti de Lotte Facon Paella (Paella Style Roast Monkfish) ended up basically being a deconstructed paella dish with monkfish, chicken wings, langoustine (scampi), and calamari. To make the paella, they created a risotto using langoustine stock. Then they formed the finished risotto into balls, covered them in breadcrumbs, dyed the breadcrumbs with squid ink, flash froze them, and then deep fried them.

The monkfish was wrapped in serrano ham then caul fat and was roasted in the oven. The langoustines were marinated in paella spice and thyme and then seared on their blanched claws. The chicken wings were roasted and the calamari was struck like grill marks and then seared at the last minute.

Things I liked:
1. The scallop dish. Those scallops were really quite incredible. Before arriving in Paris, I was not a scallop eater, but especially this course, EVERYTHING has scallops in it. And I actually quite like them. Usually. But these were fantastic served in the two ways together. I would love to use this recipe as a base to continue experimenting with in the future.

2. The idea of deconstructed paella. It was kinda fun. Plus, deep fried risotto balls? Yes, please.

3. The monkfish roasted in this way. But you wrap anything in serrano ham and caul fat and roast it and I will 95% of the time be happy.

Things I didn't like:
1. The squid ink on the risotto balls. To me, the strong black color did not fit the rest of the Paella inspired/colored dish. I would have preferred to keep the balls their natural color in this case.

2. Platter served deconstructed Paella. It just looks funny to me. Deconstruction makes me think of smaller plates, more like a tasting situation. Not a platter.

(In guest chef demos, we are allowed to take pictures during the demo as opposed to class where we can only take pictures of the plates at the end. These are the two chefs in the front. I was sitting in the back row.)

Anyways, that's my review on the food. But now for the part that as a once Washington, DC-er, I enjoyed. Learning what it's like to cook in the Presidential Palace kitchen. I of course compared it to what I know about the White House kitchen.

Elysees Palace:                                                                        White House:
-There are 18 full time chefs on staff                                        -There are 3 full time chefs on staff
-There are NO women chefs on staff                                       -The executive chef is a woman
-The first lady picks the menu                                                  -SAME
-They serve family meals and state galas                                 -SAME

So, as you can see there are some pretty big differences in these two kitchens and some similarities.

Other fun things that I learned:
1. The 18 person staff is on different teams (there is the executive chef, two sous-chefs, and then teams made up of chefs de partie with their commis) and there is one team that does not get along AT ALL! Ooooh exciting!

2. President Hollande enjoys "light, healthy" food. President Sarkozy was always moving too quickly to really have time to eat, so he liked his food cooked to be eaten quickly.

3. There is no movement by the French Presidential chefs to improve or change the way French people/children eat as opposed to First Lady Michelle Obama's goals and gardens. However, I don't think they have as much of an obesity problem here...

So, once again, a successful guest chef attendance.

(One of the chefs with the blue collared LCB assistants- students who take the semester "off" to work as assistants to the school chefs for a small wage. This was taken while in line to take a picture of the plated dishes.)

The Bakehouse

So, I have always had this dream to go to Ireland.

I'm not that big of a traveller really, which often surprises people. But, I'm not.

For a few reasons actually:

1. Traveling stresses me out- trains, flights, crowds, the whole things is giving me slight anxiety chest pains and tingly muscles thinking about it as I type this.

2. I don't like being stressed

3. I don't like not being able to speak the native language or feel rushed to get to know a place because I only have 3 days!

4. I like relaxing on beaches with sun (something my albino-like skin can no longer remember as a result of the past 4 grey months of Parisian weather)

So, with these reasons and I'm sure others that I can't think of right now, I do not like "traveling." I prefer beach vacations to places that I have been before. OR just moving somewhere new like I am now. Though, I would not recommend this for the weak of heart, either.

But there are a few places that are an exception to this rule. Ireland was one of them. Turkey would be another- I have got to see the Hagia Sophia (I once wrote a 10 page paper about how the now Mosque and the Empress Roxelana together offered a unique look into how Ottoman Islamic culture accepted beauty in relation with "others" or outsiders- I could totally send it to anyone who wants to read it) as Russian nationals wrote back to their czar about the cathedral in the 10th century,

“We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is not such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and that their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty."

So, obvs, I gots to go theres.

But, I digress. BACK TO IRELAND.

(Obviously IRELAND in all caps will lead to a picture in front of the Guinness factory)

So, being on my short list of places that I really wanted to go to, I dragged our group of travelers along to Ireland. It was winter, so not super green, but still pretty amazing. The people could not have been friendlier. Plus, the food was pretty great. From random pubs on the street to a brand new, chic place to eat (I'll write about it later), the food was really pretty great. And a surprise- while I was expecting a lot from Ireland (like good beer and whiskey), I was not expecting much in the food department.

However, I was pleasantly surprised.

We were in Dublin for 3.5 days and ended up eating breakfast/lunch at The Bakehouse for 3 of those mornings.

WHOOPS! I think they thought that we were kinda weird.

(The counter and baked-goods. I stole this from their Facebook page)

But we kinda fell in love with it. As my friend B said, "There is nothing NOT cute in this cafe."

From the decor to the menus to the baked goods to the chef (he was pretty cute even with his black eye!) to the waitresses to the owner in her pink cardigan, it was without a doubt one of the cutest little places I have been in a long time.

It was also packed. All three days.

I usually got the Potato Farl with sauteed onions and mushrooms, cheese on top, and a grilled tomato. I also put a fried egg on top (because that makes all breakfast foods better). It was pretty superb. Though, I heard from the others that the sausage sandwich, soda bread, all omelets, and christmas salad were also delicious. I also had a bite of my friend's cupcakes and they were pretty amazing. Much better than certain famous cupcake shops in DC, but I won't say names.

So, if you find yourself in Dublin, check out The Bakehouse. Seriously. Just Do It. You'll thank me later.

You like Seagrass? Look, See-grass!

So, in classic administrative fashion, I am off basically this entire week. I have one demo on Wednesday morning and the following kitchen practical on Saturday.

That's it.

You may be thinking, "Didn't Elyssa just start again on Friday?" And you'd be right. Two days of class (Friday and Saturday) and LCB thinks I deserve another 2 week break (as I basically have the same schedule next week too).

Awesome Possum (that was sarcasm, I don't say things like awesome possum with enthusiasm).

Well, that and since I just found out that I get in to all the museums FOR FREE because I am a "French Resident under 25," I all of a sudden have a lot of touristy things to do!

Maybe I'll blog about them.

But, as promised, some posts about my trip to London and then Dublin.

Let's talk pop-up.

So, in London, we found out about this place called Seagrass, a pop-up housed in a 19th century Mash shop (that still operates during the day). It was a pre-fixe menu and BYOB. And to get to the bathroom, you literally walk right through the kitchen (totally sanitary, LOVED it, may have lingered a little too long).

Pretty sweet. You can look at a review here: http://www.spottedbylocals.com/london/the-seagrass/
And the actual page here: http://www.theseagrassrestaurant.com/

It was a pretty great night.

First, my friend L opened the champagne (she's pretty good at it), but as it was warm, the top flew off and nearly blinded one of the other guests. WHOOPS!

Then, it was the chef's birthday that night, so we all celebrated. Oh and that girl that L almost blinded? One of the chef's good friends. DOUBLE WHOOPS!

So, in conclusion, if you find yourself in London (Lord help you with THAT conversion rate. It's still nagging at me), check out good ole Seagrass. I had the crab bisque, duck, and chocolate dessert.

We brought 1 champagne and 3 (or 4?) bottles of wine for the 4 of us and were there for a good 3 hours, which was really rough on my tush-y as you can see that those benches are not very long!

Andddd We're Back

So, I apologize for my absence, but I have been on break and spent most of December either in London or Ireland (LOVED IT by the way. I think I was meant to be born of Irish descent because I am all about that country, but alas...) or with family/friends visiting in town and just did not really have time/means to update the blog. I will try to pop in a few bits about the past month over the next week or so. But anyways, today was my first day back at LCB post winter break. It was great to see some faces that I have not seen in awhile as well as many new ones!

For Intermediate cuisine, the curriculum is regional. So, this week is "Basque Region/Cuisine" while next week is Normandy and so on and so forth. It's quite cool actually as in our recipe binders, the first page of each section tells you a bit about the different regions as well as lists the best chefs and restaurants for the area/cuisine.

Today was a chicken saute basque-style. Luckily, it was a very similar recipe to the one that I made for the final, so I was ready. Well, kinda. There was of course that nervousness of having been on vacation for two months, but we floated back in pretty seamlessly.

My chicken turned out well- no complaints. As did my accompanying saffron rice. I didn't catch the chef say that anything wasn't seasoned or cooked properly.

Now I say "catch" because hahahahah funny joke, I'm the only NOT fluent french speaker in my class. Hilarious, right? Not so much. Add to it that I'm the only native English speaker and you got yourself a real good time. I think most of my class thinks I'm an idiot. (Maybe that's because I sometimes sorta dance while I cook? OR maybe it's the way I continue to butcher French...who knows?) ANYWAYS, when I invited everyone out to the bar after class, they all stared at me like I was crazy. And the chef told me that it's the first day, no need for the bar. I told him that being the first day meant that it was THE perfect day for the bar. (It's fine- this chef loves me, we're even facebook friends. I know, big deal.) But, I'm not worried. My charming personality will win them all over eventually.

So all in all, good day. I cut myself once (the blade was so sharp it just grazed my finger and bam, blood everywhere, but no pain) and a pretty intense looking burn on my wrist and burns on my middle and index fingers as well as my thumb. Yeah, I'm starting to look intense.

Anyways, it's good to be back.