Meat Part 1!

I was not sad to say buh-bye to fish. Sure it tastes good (sometimes) it smells TERRIBLE and by the time you're done with it, you want nothing to do with it. Also after a fish practical- you seem to find scales everywhere. It's not pretty- so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see that we were starting meat!

We arrived today at 8:30 in the snow. Because of the change, my knees were really really killing me today. It also can't really decide whether to rain or snow- which makes them also hurt (thanks to Melissa for the aleve- what a lifesaver!). While waiting for class to start, Dimitri and Lauren mentioned how they got their grades yesterday in pastry demo, that we'd be getting ours today. WHAT?!?!? I was so scared. We got to class and Celine came in to hand them out. We were given our average and our groups average. I was higher than our groups average- so I was happy, but it wasn't as high as I would have liked. I'm right in the middle. I stewed over my grade for a second and thought that it couldn't be right. I then realized that because I had missed a practical- I had less numbers to average together. You don't get a 0, but you just have fewer grades to average together. I'm still not thrilled- but it is what it is.

Chef Stril diligently taught us how to marinade our beef for boeuf bourguignon which we'll be cooking next practical! He also showed us how to trim rump roast and cook it slowly for 3 hours. Then he showed us how to make what we were going to do in practical. Roasted sirloin and potato puree.

We had practical right after demo, so I was sure to pay very close attention and write my notes on my recipe in steps. We got in there and I got all my pots, pans, turned on my oven, turned on my burners and got out all my tools. I was ready. Chef Terrien came in- I'd never had him before. My group had him while I was sick and loved him so I was happy to have him. First order of business was to trim the beef to be marinated for our bourguignon. We had to dice it into chunks, pour in a whole bottle of vin rouge, add some mirepoix carrots, celery, onion, a bouquet garni, some cognac, and some peppercorns. Once that was safely in the frigo, we were able to begin our roast sirloin.

We had these GIANT slabs of beef that were cut, but NOT trimmed. We had to remove the hard fat- mine was very fatty and make sure there was no cartilage on there. We then had to tie string around it so it was a neat little package. After searing it on both sides, we added the aromatic garnish (carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bouquet garni) browned that and threw it in the oven for 8 minutes. 1/2 way through the cooking- we turned the meat.

While that was cooking, we boiled our potatoes and put them through the ricer. Once it was puree, we added beaucoup de beurre (a lot of butter Ker!) and lait chaud (hot milk) and made it beautiful. Theoretically, we should have seasoned them enough by salting the boiling water, as Stril told us it was too late at this point.

My meat just wouldn't seem to cook- it was SO rare. We're not supposed to cut into it, so I pulled the old Mark Hutchinson and pinched to see if it was cooked. Still rare, so I threw it back in for a couple of minutes. I took it out, determined that I would serve the Chef the ends that were cooked medium rare and just take the other home. I took it out, covered it in foil and let it rest near the heat. Meanwhile, I cooked the aromatic garnish and added some veal stock and let it cook into a jus. After straining it, degreasing it and making sure it was properly seasoned, I was ready to plate. I was in the first 5 people to plate which is rare for me.

I plated and I got a tres bien. My meat was cooked perfectly (they like it rare here in France- if you order meat bien cuit it will come medium rare), my jus was parfait, and my potatoes were the perfect consistency...BUT they could have used un peu de sel (a little salt) DAMNIT!!!! SO close to being perfect, grrrrr.

I was pleased, it was a great practical- easy, fast (we were mostly done in an hour and a half) and there were no catastrophes!

Ansel Adams (Lara Said) took some pictures of us in practical today...here they are!






A Bientot!