Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #25; Practical #25

Zucchini. Red bell pepper. Onion. Tomatoes. And eggplant. Collectively roasted.

No, this was not a homemade dish. Nor something ordered at a vegetarian restaurant. This was actually something we made at Le Cordon Bleu. Vegetables! Without butter!

Chicken sauté with tarragon and Italian-style vegetables might be my favorite dish we’ve made so far. Me and chicken? Right? Usually I’m not a fan. But, tarragon – my favorite herb – can glorify any dish.

Segment a chicken into eight, sweet, little morsels. Season – non-skin side. (Skin prevents seasoning from penetrating into meat, making it useless to season.) Brown. Remove chicken and make jus. With shallots. White wine. Veal stock. Tomatoes. And tarragon.

The trimmings – fallen bits and pieces – of the chicken were also used in the jus. The vertebrae and wings are roughly chopped to exude flavor. Using a cleaver, I gave the vertebrae a firm whack.

SPLAT!!!

Junk covered my face. Blood. Skin. Bones. Who knows what else. Including my eye – causing my vision to briefly blur. At first I thought, oh I got some crap in my eye. [Blink. Blink. Blink.] Ahh, there. Now I can see.

Then it dawned on me that it was RAW CHICKEN nestled in there! With a quiet panic, I rushed to the bathroom. Took out my contact. Thoroughly rinsed my eye. Did the best job of cleaning my contact without solution. And returned to work.

I rinsed and changed contacts the moment I returned home. My eye has yet to swell shut. Or puss out of the corner. If. This should. Occur. I’ll be sure to let you know.

Gross.

Other than my salmonella infection, practical went well. A bit more salt in the roasted vegetables – Chef Tivet just can’t seem to get enough. Everything else, très bonne.

Chef also prepared Parisian-style gnocchi with cheese. Apples with Italian meringue and raspberry jus.

There are three types of gnocchi. Parisian – choux (dough made from water, butter, flour, and egg) base. Roman – semolina base. And Piedmontese – potato base.

The Parisian-style were good, but lacked the airiness from potatoes.

Meringue can also be prepared three ways. Italian – cream whipped with heated sugar. French – cream whipped with raw, granulated sugar. Or Swiss – cream whipped with sugar over a bain-marie, water bath.

Each has their use, but most commonly we find the Italian-style.

Today’s lesson, no raw chicken in the eye.

Lesson #25

• Parisian-style gnocchi with cheese
• Chicken sauté with tarragon, Italian-style vegetables
• Apples with meringue, raspberry jus