Le Cordon Bleu Instruction #4; Practical #4

I don’t know what is with these baked, stuffed creations. But they are making it difficult to plate. In a way that is modern, attractive, and appetizing.

This time. Phyllo pastry was stuffed with quail, shiitake mushrooms, offal, and sweetbreads.

Offal and sweetbreads? Organs and glands. More specific. Offal refers to the heart and liver. Whereas, sweetbreads means the thymus and pancreas glands.

It is important to blanch sweetbreads to help remove the outer membrane. Luckily if you forget to do this, like I did in Practical, it’s hardly noticeable.

Sweetbreads, quail breast, and offal were given a quick pan-sear – leaving the center raw. Once each ingredient was codified – preventing flavor to escape – they made their way to the pastry. And baked until properly cooked in a 170 degree Celsius oven for about 30 minutes.

Cream, salt, pepper, shallots, and parsley flavored the stuffing. While breadcrumbs and eggs bonded the entire mass together.

I have been a stuffed bread fan up until this point. Surprisingly enjoy them. This one didn’t make the top of my list. Too bland and dry – not enough fat. Nonetheless Chef Lesourd – instruction and practical chef – gave me two thumbs up on my pastry and accompanying pepper flavored jus.

Practical was at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night. Immediately following the 3:30 p.m. instruction. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue. But James is here. I was bummed that I had to spend part of Friday night in class.

As always. It worked out for the best. He came to instruction with me. Talk about a treat. Here I am in Paris. At Le Cordon Bleu. And my husband is on my left! He was more than amazed about the process. Cooking. Chefs. And, of course, me in my uniform.

After instruction James went wandering Paris with some of my friends. And once I banged out my sweetbread pastry. I jumped on a bike. And met up with them for dinner and drinks. We had the best time ever. I was even able to catch a picture with him and all my friends.

In addition to the odd pastry, James also witnessed the entrée and dessert in demo.

Smoked surf and turf misguided me. I was expecting lobster and steak. LCB’s version is diced smoked eel, trout, and salmon – surf. And parsnips, beets, celery root – turf. Smoked fish trimming based sauce, shallot, onion, and cream mixed with the diced confetti. And topped with a wine vinegar, hazelnut oil vinaigrette.

The end result was heavy on the smoke and light on other flavorings.

A frozen concoction of chocolate, cream, candied fruit, sour cherries, Kirsch, nougatine – caramel, almond mixture – and meringue constituted dessert. Simply prepare all ingredients. Mix together. Freeze. And serve.

James said he liked the dish. Some where in between of ice cream and chilled milk.

Instruction #4

• Smoked surf and turf duo
• Quail and veal sweetbread pastries with shiitake mushrooms, pepper flavored jus
• Frozen chocolate nougat with sour cherry coulis