Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #15; Practical #15

I have always enjoyed it fried. But. I’ve come to realize that I like calamari – squid – just about any way.

Chef Clergue whipped up a fantastic entrée. Trick when pan-searing squid is not to over cook it. Barely heated through in fact. Similar to shrimp.

Paired with thin chorizo slices, red and yellow bell peppers, Kalamata olives, veal cheek, and garlic. This salad base exploded when drizzled with arugula pesto and vinegar sauce. Reduced white wine and balsamic vinegar gained volume from fumet. Color from squid ink. And viscosity from olive oil. Acidic. Velvety. And dark. A sauce favorite of mine.

What goes up. Must. Come down. The day’s main course was less than stellar. So bad in fact, I think it was the worst dish prepared at Le Cordon Bleu.

The only favorable part of this recipe was deboning a squab. A mid-sized, 500 gram pigeon systematically lost all of its bones. Part by part removed through the cavity opening. No other incisions or holes were made. Finally. A limp bird laid flat on my cutting board. Regained shape from stuffing of veal sweetbreads, shiitake mushrooms, breadcrumbs, onion, shallot, and American farmers cheese.

As the stuffing was piped into the center the fowl blew up like a balloon, resembling its original shape. Slow roasted. Paired with spelt risotto. And jus made this the worst dish ever.

So bad that I could barely taste the final product. Chef Clergue commended my work – at least I know the poor flavor wasn’t my fault.

Dessert regained the face of LCB. For all my chocolate lovers get your notepad. Bittersweet chocolate cakes studded with sea salt caramel. Baked just enough to hold its shape. Oozed when cracked opened.

Chocolate and salty caramel flavors were happily met with coffee sorbet. Delicious happiness throughout.

Chocolate Cake
125 g bittersweet chocolate
125 g butter
3 eggs
125 g sugar
40 g flour

Melt chocolate. Melt in butter. In a separate bowl, blanch eggs with sugar by whisking until slightly lighter in color. Whisk flour into eggs. Fold batter into melted chocolate/butter.

Fine fleur de sel sea salt caramel
100 g sugar
30 g glucose
Hot water
Fine fleur de sel sea salt

Caramelize sugar and glucose in a dry pan until blond caramel color. Stop the cooking by adding hot water. Reduce until caramel consistency. Chill. Add in fleur de sel sea salt to taste.

Pipe chocolate batter half way up buttered/paper-lined molds. Make a small well in the center with the back of a spoon. Fill with prepared caramel. Top – filling mold to top – with more chocolate batter. Bake in a 180 degree Celsius oven for about 10 minutes (set, but not baked through). Allow to rest 5 minutes. Unmold and serve with favorite fruit sauce or sorbet. Serves 8.