It was GORGEOUS on Friday. Blue skies, about 50 degrees and the sun was shining. Perfect day to get some exercise so I decided to jog to school. I got there, had a quick sandwich and re-wrote my notes before class.
We hadn't had Poupard in a while and so I was so excited when he shouted "Bonjour tout le monde!"
We had been told that we were going to share 1 large fish between 2 people- I was pretty pumped about that because the last time we had to fillet a fish, I was told mine looked like crocodiles. When we got there and saw all the food, we realized there were 10 fish and 10 people in our practical. I got nervous but went right to work. Fins were snipped, scales were removed and I was ready to tackle this thing. I cut down the center of the back and started slowly removing the fillets. Chef Poupard suggested I turn the fish a different way which made it very easy. I worked slowly and tried to get every ounce of meat off the bones. He kept commenting that people were leaving too much meat on the bones so I tried extra hard. My first fillet was a thing of beauty. It was enormous and perfectly cut. The next one wasn't as pretty but it worked. I flipped over to the belly side and cut 2 more gorgeous fillets. I put the carcass in a pot with some butter to make stock while I skinned them. The skins came off perfectly and I honestly didn't know what I was going to do with all the fish! I was so happy that I had done a good job filleting and skinning them.
As the stock was bubbling away (we added wine, shallots, onions, garlic, mushroom trimmings and water) we had to turn potatoes. Chef said it should take us 20 seconds to turn a potato. It took me about 10 minutes to get them to not look completely horrible. Then we had to ciselee shallot, onion and tomatoes that had to be skinned, seeded and chopped very very very very finely. Once the fillets were placed in the pan, we added wine, the chopped veggies and stock to braise the fish.
6 minutes later, the fish was cooked. It needed to remain firm, if it fell apart it was overcooked, so we all were very vigilante. Once the fish was determined to be cooked properly, it was removed, covered and kept near the heat. We then had to reduce the braising liquid into a thick sauce. Normally, sauces are my thing- they always reduce and taste great. This one I couldn't pay it to reduce. I used a few tricks- switching it to a shallower and smaller pan so it would reduce faster, adding butter- nothing seemed to get it to reduce! Everyone plated and I was the last one standing. I didn't want to plate it before I knew it had reduced enough because I knew Chef wouldn't like that. So I impatiently cleaned my station, put away my knives and put my plate in the oven to warm. With 1 minute left- I plated my dish. Fish was cooked very well, sauce reduced enough but tasted too much like fish stock...aka needed MORE butter, and my potatoes needed to be cooked a little more.
I was very bummed. I have yet to get a perfect in school (besides the quiche- which doesn't count) and I really want one. Often, there are perfect elements to my dish, but never the whole thing. I'm half way through basic- I need a couple of perfects!
It POURED rain all day yesterday- I mean I was getting ready to build the ark! I watched a lot of Entourage and Lauren and I walked around and went to Le Bon Marché which is far more than an amazing grocery store. I'm happy to report that my French is getting much better. I'm able to speak thoughtfully with sales clerks and navigate myself around- I'm pretty darn proud of myself!
I have to start drinking tea so I can stay up and watch the Super Bowl. I'd really like to see the Saints take it- they've had a great season so far and deserve to win
A Bientot!
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I hear ya about the perfects...I mean come on...let's start handing them out!
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