First: Guinea Fowl Pie
This recipe is not too bad, except for the fact that it takes about an hour to cook in the oven and has a lot of prep time. First, you have to make the pie crust. Then there's the whole cutting the guinea fowl up into two breasts and separating the dark meats for the stuffing. You also have to make the stuffing which includes the separate task of cooking the potato lining and cooking the chicken livers. So, it was a pretty hectic morning in the kitchen with this recipe, but it was a great leftover especially during all of the snowy/icy days we have been having here in Paris.
Second: Bordeaux-style Duck Breast, Fondant Potato Rounds, Pan Fried Cep Mushrooms with Smoked Bacon
We made this later in the day after the GF Pie (above). This recipe was pretty easy and included a Bordelaise Sauce, which I really liked. A bordelaise sauce is essentially reduced wine infused with shallots, bay leaf, thyme, and pepper and then you add reduced veal stock. It has a nice flavor.
Third: Lobster "A l'americaine", Rice with Raisins
Yep, we were all killing live lobsters. Which really didn't bother me and I killed someone else's for them as well. The rough thing I found with lobsters is that even once they are dead, like really dead, their reflexes are still working. It threw me for a shock when I was slicing the tail and it snapped back at me as I placed my knife into the flesh. I jumped a mile high. Then I learned how to palm the tail down, so it will not do that whole attack thing.
Also, the fact that it is called American style Lobster is because it is served with what the French call an American sauce. I do not know what is SO American about this sauce, but I am definitely not claiming it for my country. Just give me a good garlic/butter sauce with my lobster. This sauce is a fish stock base with seared lobster shells, white wine, tomatoes and onion. And then coral at the end to thicken it. It was ok, but definitely no garlic/butter sauce.
Fourth: Ballotine or Chicken Stuffed with Foie Gras Mousse and Pistachios
This recipe required deboning a chicken. Yes. Taking every single bone out of a chicken. It was fun! I really enjoyed it. We then took this carcass, lined it in a pork stuffing, and placed the foie gras mousse which had been rolled in pistachios inside. Rolled the whole thing up and poached it in a court bouillion.
However, during this lesson, I couldn't figure out how to get the foie gras mousse out of the can, so one of my classmates showed me how he did it- by taking a spoon and scooping out a bit to let in some air so the very compacted mousse could slide out. Well, the chef saw me do this and FREAKED out. We're talking him telling me that this was a travesty; that I was destroying the product; that I had no respect for food; and that I was getting a zero for the day. All because I emptied a can incorrectly. Luckily, it's a MOUSSE, so it was really easy to roll it all back up together and continue on with the cooking. I think by the end of the day I did not get a zero. But, who knows!
(The ballotine on the Aspic plating)
Fifth: White sausage (Boudin Blanc) with Apples
(the sausage)
Yep, I stuffed sausage this week. Which, also yes, earned a lot of snickers and inappropriate jokes from students and chefs alike for that day. But, I enjoyed making the sausage- it's actually pretty easy and allows for a lot of experimentation. Also, on this day, we made Aspic (from the court bouillon that we cooked the ballotine in). Aspic is a meat jelly. There are also lots of jokes back home about me and my love of aspic, hence my real excitement. I think it stems back to all of my grandmother's jello salads. We made it from a chicken based consomme, so our's was pretty clear. We lined dishes with it and made vegetable decorations. I made tomato roses with leek stems. It was fun, if not super 1950s looking.
(Individual plate. This is the chef's but mine ended up looking similar)
Sixth: Trout stuffed with Morrel Mushrooms and Braised in Riesling Wine
This recipe was for Alsace. It is basically trout with a duxelle of mushroom. It was very good, but those trout were a pain in the butt to filet. And I did not do a very good job of it at all! So.Many.Bones. But it all worked out. Except for my sauce.
It was a white fish stock based sauce that you add cream to at the end. So, I reduced my sauce, added the cream, turned around to start plating, went to grab my sauce and there was essentially scrambled egg in the bottom. SCHWAT?!? Not cool. I had to strain my sauce, leaving I kid you not what looked like a flan in the chinois.
(We also learned how to make Choucroute for Alsace, but did not cook this recipe)
This left my sauce super thin again so I ran to grab flour and butter, whipped up a beurre manie (a cold roux) and threw it into my sauce and plated before the fish (that had now been sitting for a minute or two) got any colder. When the chef tasted, he said my sauce was one of the best for the day (because it was so thick from the beurre manie) and not to worry about the cream particles in there because it was something wrong with that box of cream and that a few others had had the issue. He only speaks French, so I only understood that the milk is ok (it had not smelled bad to me or anything) to eat, it just reacted weirdly to the fish sauce, but apparently this happens. Whatever. It was over.
Seventh: Lamb Filet with vegetable "tian", peppermint jus
This was a great recipe and I love lamb. It was a tomato concassee on the bottom, then sauteed spinach, with lamb on top and little sauteed potato balls to cover. It was my kind of recipe and I definitely ate all of the leftovers. I didn't even use rice or pasta to get creative. Just ate it all.
And that's where we are now. There were a few other recipes in their, but these were the best/most exciting/most difficult ones of the week. It was pretty busy! But also a lot of fun and definitely preferable to the lazy weeks we had before.
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