Le Cordon Bleu - Practical #11; Practical #12

I had been expecting this boning-a-whole-fowl thing. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to go. In the end, everything went well.

Placing the chicken breast side down – contrary to previous methods – I made one long slit down the backbone. As though filleting a fish, I began to set the left breast free from the center carcass. Using long, steady strokes the meat began to pull away. Repeating on the right side opened the bird like a book.

Once the two halves were lying flat on the table, the next step was to separate the carcass on the breast-bone. Working extremely diligently not to cut the skin, I freed the center skeleton. By this point I had an opened chicken still containing the thigh, leg, and wing bones.

Working in a particular manner I carved out the final three bones. First operating on the thigh. Then leg. Finishing with the wing. Once repeated on the second side, the boning task was completed. Whew!

From here it was straight forward. Just as explained in Instruction #11.

Chef gave me a magnifique on my ballottine.

Like with most things I make, I brought the ballottine home for dinner. Slicing the item in a thin piece, I left it at room-temperature to acclimate. Then dove in.

The first bite was juicy chicken breast – delicious. Next I was overcome with the sausage stuffing – slightly fatty and a bit too chewy for my taste. Finally. I got to the center – the foie gras roll covered in pistachios.

My mouth was watering. The anticipation was killing me. Avoiding gluttony, I made a complete bite – chicken, sausage, and foie gras. (I really just wanted a huge fork-full of foie.) In my mouth it went.

I about gagged. Almost hurled right in my living room.

As mentioned, the sausage was chunky. In a bad, bad way. For all I know the foie – which turns out to be the cheapest crap available – could have been cat food. As my detest for felines flamed inside I took a big gulp of water and swallowed my day’s work.

I trashed the rest. Never again.

The thought of making sausages also sent me into a bit of a panic. Working with sausage casing – made from pork intestinal track lining – did not look easy.

Chef demonstrated how you place one opening around a pastry piping tip. Then working in a gathering motion, bunch the rest over the tip. Until you have about a meter waiting to be filled. I was convinced that I was going to tear the casing during this step.

But. I didn’t.

At this point it was simple. Fill the piping bag with the prepared filling. And squeeze. Working out into a long sausage. Once filled, I periodically tied the long tube into small sections creating manageable sizes. To cook, I poached in a simmering mixture of milk and water for about 20 minutes. A final pan-sear in butter and oil gave a nice browned look for presentation.

We passed turned, butter sautéed apples with the sausages. Or at least we were supposed to. Our practical chef changed this recipe on the spot. Losing something in translation, I used only orange juice. Of course, it left the apples a bit bitter. As commented by the chef.

Chef also mentioned more regularity in my turned apples. But. As for the taste, bien!