Boeuf Bourguignonne, Cheese Soufflé, Fried Shrimp

First, apologies for the delay in blogging, it's been a wild week for me- culminating in the arrival of my parents and sister! Their visit has been wonderful so far, but certainly bittersweet as there are several members that are missing. We keep saying "it's so cute" the way Lily does and it's made us all miss Boo, EJ, and Lily a lot.

Thursday was a crazy day- we had 8:30am demo where we finished the boeuf bourguignonne, among other red meat recipes. Chef Stril taught us the proper way to make bourguignonne even though we wouldn't have enough time to properly cook it through. It's a bit of a rush to get the thing in the oven- first you have to brown the meat- then add tomato paste and flour, strain the marinade- bring it to a boil and make sure to skim it, heat up the veal stock and get it in the oven for at LEAST an hour and a half. After demo- I came home to take a little nap, I then had to be back at school at 3:40 for my meeting with Chef Caals.

I was a little bit bummed that my meeting was with him because he doesn't know me. We've only had him once in practical so it wasn't like he could really give me insight as to how I can improve. All he said was to really know the recipes before heading into practical and also know WHY we do things. He asked me in French why do we always cook vegetables in 3x's as much water? That was easy- because you want them to move around and cook evenly on all sides- but that was his point. He wants us to know why we do the things we do.

After my meeting, I had tons of time to kill before 6:30pm practical. I sat and froze in the winter garden and wrote out the written exam recipes on flash cards that I had bought that morning. I also chatted with some classmates until it was time to go up to practical. I was nervous, but then Chef Caals came into the room- I got really nervous. He is a PSYCHO about cleanliness. He'll come in to a practical room where he's not even teaching and yell at you about cleaning. Lara and I were on a mission to be very clean. I mean we were lunatics about it!

It wasn't my night- my meat wouldn't brown, my stove wouldn't get hot enough and I was behind to get my boeuf into the oven. Then I worked on my garnish which was fine- but I'm still so bad at turning vegetables. My meal ended up being very good. The sauce was the correct consistency and tasted good. The meat wasn't cooked enough- but as he said that was a product of the recipe, not of me. My vegetables were good. But the real highlight was when he told me that my cleanliness and organization was PARFAIT. Hearing that from Caals is MAJOR.

Friday came with a demo of about 600 different types of eggs- which was boring, but we learned to clean, marinate, and fry giant shrimp AND make tartar sauce. Chef Stril took his sweet time and I had practical right after demo. I was feeling stressed about timing, so I didn't even taste his dishes. I went right up and got going. This practical was the fried shrimp and the cheese soufflé we learned a long time ago. I frantically got everything ready and for the first time yet- I felt completely at ease in the kitchen. I knew the steps for the soufflé. I knew exactly how it needed to be done- this time, people were asking me how to do things...ME! Chef Lesourd is back from London and he bopped into the room in his usual manner- loudly. We first made the batter to fry our shrimp, as that needed to rest. Then we cleaned and marinated our shrimp, and got on to the soufflé. I buttered my dish properly, made my béchamel, and beat my egg whites to perfection. Mine was the first into the oven. 12 minutes later, it came out (again, first) Chef Lesourd made everyone stop, clap and congratulate me on my soufflé. It was perfect. He immediately punctured the top of my pretty thing and tasted it- parfait! On to the tartar sauce.

Making a mayonnaise (cold emulsion) and beating egg whites to stiff peaks=arm very tired. But- I was way ahead and doing very well. My mayonnaise came out well, and I added the shallot, chopped capers, hard boiled egg, salt, pepper, tarragon, chervil and parsley. Tartar sauce...DONE. I fried my shrimp after Bruna- and they came out wonderfully. I plated 2nd(!) and Chef said everything was perfect. MY FIRST PERFECT!!!! I was really excited. Here's a picture of me getting my feedback...courtesy of Lara Said (again)





Saturday morning I went to the Paris cookbook fair to work. I was to assist a French Chef during a demonstration. I was absolutely terrified. Anthony said it best- he had to leave because I looked so nervous! Obviously communication was a challenge, but I managed to assist him and serve the cucumber gazpacho. I rushed home and awaited the arrival of Mom, Dad and Lauren!!

Once they arrived, we walked around the St. Germain- had a sandwich at Cosi, went to Le Bon Marché and had dinner at the little cute place Le Square right on my corner. It was very delish! Yesterday I took them to the Marais where they had their fist Falafel experience- they loved it! It was SO cold yesterday that after meandering the streets of the Marais, we came home, read- drank wine and I cooked at home. We're not getting ready to have lunch in the St. Germain area and then we're sending Dad on a walking tour while Mom and Lauren accompany me to demo class!

A Bientot!