Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #26; Practical #26

Still fried from all the studying, I was less than thrilled about today’s instruction and practical.

Or. Perhaps it was the menu that seemed less than desirable.

Instruction #26

• French-style scrambled eggs with smoked salmon
• Hot fish terrine with beurre blanc
• Vanilla Bavarian cream, coffee sauce

You may ask, what are French-style scrambled eggs. In a nutshell. Over heat. And a lot of butter. Whisk the hell out of the eggs. Until they resemble a runny mess. Mmmm. And call it cooked!

Needless to say. I am not a fan. The chef tried to mask the flavor by adding salmon roe, smoked salmon, and a piece of toast.

The hot fish terrine – today’s practical assignment – sounds worse that it tastes. I enjoyed mine so much that I brought it home for dinner.

Similar to the chicken breast stuffed with a mousse-like substance, we whipped pike perch – a fresh, river fish – salt, cream, and egg whites in a food processor. Piped into a spinach-lined terrine. And baked in a water-bath for 45 minutes. Slipped into the center of the terrine was a small band of oven-poached salmon – giving an awe presentation effect.

The sauce is butter emulsified with a reduction of shallots, cider-vinegar, and white wine. 99% butter. A little-bit of this goes a long – long – way.

Bavarian cream – crème Anglaise with gelatin – was once the trendy dessert. Panna-cotta now holds this in-vogue title. Bavarian cream has a crème- brûlée consistency. That can be infused with any flavor. Today Chef opted for traditional vanilla. Drizzled with coffee sauce.

Le Cordon Bleu - Exam Report

The exam went off without a hitch.

The 25 multiple-choice questions seemed very easy. The true-false a bit more tricky. But, then again, I always get tripped up here. My fill-in-the-blank-recipe was crab bisque. One I knew well. That was a breeze. Total exam time was a mere 15 minutes – if that.

The preparation, especially learning vocabulary words, has helped beyond the exam. Demonstrations are much clearer. Understanding the chef a bit more – relying less on the translator. The translators, as I’ve come learn, do not always convey all the information. This gained knowledge can only help.

The grades will be posted in the Winter Garden according to our student number. Knowing France, this will probably take six months! Trying my patience. I quietly wait.

Written exam down. Now. It’s just the practical exam (worth a lot more) to worry about!

Le Cordon Bleu - Basic Written Exam Preparation

After a week and yesterday's 9-hour study-session with Carolyn and Lauren, my brain is fried.

Written exam this afternoon. Wish me luck!

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

Le Cordon Bleu - Wine Examination; Wine Essentials #6

Twenty-five true/false and matching questions. One blind tasting. It didn’t take more than 20 minutes.

There were questions on the vineyard’s sequential, annual events. How to make red wine. Which grapes are which colors. Where alcohol comes from. Food and wine pairings. Degrees of French wine. And. A question about bottle storage.

The instructor kept saying not to worry about the wine exam. To tell the truth, it wasn’t difficult at all. But. I studied. If I, didn’t worry about the exam, I would have had problems.

I’ve heard the same comment about the cuisine written test. You will be fine, don’t worry about the examination.

First off, my nature prevents me from worrying about an exam. I get stressed over getting my cholesterol tested. Secondly, after taking the wine exam I am doubly worried. Finally, even though cuisine’s written is only 10% of the final grade, it can still make a difference. Either way.

After our assessment we continued on with our final class. Developing wine over time. The notion of vintage. And ageing wines.

It is important to understand tannins. The astringency. This is what allows the wine to develop – age – over time. Tannins will soften as the wine gets older. Once the tannins are gone, no more aging can occur. Eventually the wine will turn bad.

In general wine is made to be consumed immediately. Within 10 years. Very few bottles are designed to sit for centuries.

Ideal wine storage is in complete darkness. Well aired. Without vibrations. Humidity between 70-80%. Temperatures of 8-15 degrees Celsius (46.4-59 degrees Fahrenheit). But above all, theft-proof.

Darkness protects the juice from harmful UV rays. Vibrating can cause the wine to break-down. In dryness the wine can leak through dehydrated corks. Warmer temperature accelerates aging. And more and more buglers have their eye on private wine collections.

For my wine collectors out there, get this! Bordeaux 2009 vintage is set to be the best in years. Claims have been made first of the 21st century. All thanks to mother-nature. Bordeaux hasn’t seen such a fantastic vintage since 1949. Buy as many 2009’s as you can. Store them. And watch your investment appreciate. Don’t forget to put my name on one of your bottles.

Session #6 – Tastes

• Lalande-de-Pomerol (merlot, cabernet-franc, cabernet-sauvignon) by Château Ame de Musset, 2006
• Saint Estèphe (merlot, cabernet-franc, cabernet-sauvignon) by Saint Roth, 2005
• Côtes de Castillon (merlot, cabernet-franc, cabernet-sauvignon) by Château Cap de Faugères, 2004
• Margaux (merlot, cabernet-franc, cabernet-sauvignon) by Les Hauts du Tertre, 2001

Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #24

He blamed it on his hang-over. I think it was the intimidation of a guest chef in the room.

A French chef about ready to be sent to Le Cordon Bleu – Seoul, Korea, is observing for two weeks.

Chef Lesourd prepared – well, supposed to – pork medallions with potatoes Dauphine. Trout flan with a port wine sauce. And sabayon, fresh fruit, and vanilla ice cream.

Potatoes Dauphine are mashed potatoes mixed with choux – same dough used for éclairs – and deep fried. Chef messed up the quantities of the choux resulting in a disaster in the deep-fryer. The dough was too runny. Unable to fry together. So we scratched it.

Only issue with scratching the potatoes from today’s demonstration and tasting is that we need to make them in today’s practical. We got the gist – I think. At least enough to get started.

The mustard, pickle sauce served with the pork was too mustard-y. Chef’s glared eyes perhaps misjudged the quantity needed. Whoops!

Otherwise. The trout flan was very good. And the dessert. I suspect. Was good as well. For fresh fruit we used oranges, grapefruit, and kiwis.

My practical is this afternoon followed by my wine exam. And final class of the Wine Essentials course. The second level of wine, Wines of France, will pick up two weeks after Intermediate commences.

Instruction #24

• Trout flan, Port wine sauce
• Pork medallions in charcutière sauce, potatoes Dauphine
• Fresh fruit gratin with sabayon