Veal Stew, Steak with Bearnaise, and Veal Chop

It's been a very busy week here in Paris- with family here and having only a day off from school leaves very little time for blogging. It's 10am on Saturday and I'm the only one awake- circle the calendar...this has never happened before and promises never to happen again. I have a cold which stinks but I'm trying to take medicine and drink all sorts of Vitamin C so I'm not clearing my throat and sniffling all through demo this afternoon.

Monday Mom and Lauren came to demo class with me. Everyone knew immediately that they belonged to me when we were waiting for class to start in the winter garden. We had Chef Poupard who seemed to be an a crabby mood at first. You could hear a pin drop in the classroom. No one was laughing- he wasn't cracking jokes, it was very uncharacteristic of him. I looked back to Mom and Bird to sort of say with my eyes...this isn't usually this scary and weird! Once he was done making dough for the sugar tart- he was back to his normal self...thank goodness!

He went on to make this amazing sugar tart, raw salmon marinated with dill and lemon juice which was awesome and veal stew- which I could have lived without. True to form- we were making the veal stew with glazed onions and rice pilaf in practical. Monday night after class- the farkels went to meet up with Mom and Dad's friend Elisabeth Wilmers for a drink in her house. She lives right around the corner from me and her house shares a wall with the infamous hotel that 'stole' my coke bottle collection the last time I was in Paris 12 years ago. It was very neat being in someone else's home- and boy was it gorgeous! We headed to a simple brasserie on the Saint Germaine where all 4 of us ordered burgers.

For Tuesday's practical- we had Chef Terrien, and it went without incident. I got a tres bien across the board (Chef Terrien doesn't grade using the standard LCB grading palm pilot- he writes your name out and makes a grid with all the grades on it). His method of grading seems a bit archaic- as if he uses an abacus to slide our grades across0 but in a way, it seems more thorough.

Wednesday's demo with Chef Stril was great- we learned about how to cook meat to different temperatures. Usually the cuts of meat that we make don't necessarily make my mouth water, but Wednesday was beef tenderloin, need I say more? We learned to make bearnaise sauce as well. Similar to hollandaise- bearnaise is an emulsion that makes my arms hurt just thinking about it. Why would we use a machine (the French pronounce maCHine- it makes me laugh every time) when we have our hands?

Thursday morning 8:30am practical wasn't too pleasant. We first had to make this reduction- which was actually really gross. A mixture of chopped shallots, wine, tarragon vinegar, salt, pepper and chopped tarragon and chervil stems. We had to let that reduce a lot- so that there were about 2 tablespoons. While that reduced, we clarified butter, and started emulsifying the egg yolks over a bain-marie. We had adorable Chef Clergue (Mr. Bean) and he kept looking over my shoulder telling me that I should whisk in a figure 8 motion. It's very hard to do an 8 motion while trying to whisk something very quickly. Everytime he wasn't around- Lara and I would go back to just whisking in circles. Every once in a while, he'd poke his head between us and we'd go back to doing 8's. We laughed so hard when this happened- I mean obviously we hadn't been doing the 8's, but when he looked at us we pretended her had been. He laughed too- love him. My eggs would NOT emulsify. I was pouring sweat and starting to lose my patience when I asked him "Chef, is this ok?" "1 more hour whisking Caroline" he said as he laughed and told me that I was ready to add the clarified butter. Once I finished the sauce, I cooked my turned artichokes in a blanc and sliced and pre-cooked my french fries or "pommes de pont neuf". They are named after the oldest bridge in Paris- and they needed to be pre boiled and then fried. Once all my sides were finished- I got to grill my meat. We had to cook 3 pieces of meat- 1 bleu (still mooing) 1 rare and 1 a point (medium). I had perfect grill marks and was ready to plate. We were able to plate whichever piece we wanted to, but we needed to identify how it was cooked. I thought I'd plate my medium piece...that was until I cut into it and found that it was rare. I plated it and it filled my turned artichoke bottom with bearnaise and made a little house of my fries. Everything was great- cuisson parfait (perfectly cooked meat), my sauce was tres bien and my artichoke was cooked very well. The only comment he had was that my fries were good, but they couldn't have been cooked anymore. That was like when Chef Cotte told me that my consomme was ALMOST too salty- it's not too salty, so why mention that? Typical French.

I came home after practical and crashed. I had to be back at school at 3 for demo- and I was moving tres slowly. I wanted to snuggle with blanky all day. We were on the 1st floor demo room which was TERRIBLE. The marketing lady from school came in and informed me that there was going to be a journalist from Time magazine sitting next to me- so I had to take good notes. I did and we learned to do our cotes de veau, and mussel soup. I had to go right from demo to practical (count that: 2 practicals in one day while my family was here). I was ready for it and felt like I had a handle on the recipe. We had to French the bone on the chop which means remove all flesh, and then trim and put string around it. The journalist came back and was in the kitchen with us- she asked me my name and how to spell it, so if I were you- I'd keep my eyes out for future issues!!! My veal was cooked perfectly (again), my onions, and mushrooms were great, and my potatoes were seasoned perfectly- the only complaint Chef Stril had for this practical was that my jus was too runny. It had been perfect until I thought I didn't have enough, so I added more water. NUTS. I really feel like I'm getting my groove in school- I'm getting more confident and it's proven to be so when I plate and present my dishes to the Chef's. Everything is cooked and seasoned well- imagine that, I'm improving!

I was assistant this week, so I made sure everything was put away and dragged my tired butt home where Mom, Dad and Bird were waiting with salad, bread, and wine. I told them I'd take care of the meat- and we had meat for days! It was delish- but I literally couldn't have been more tired. I took a sleeping pill just for good measure and thought that my head was sewn to the pillow when I woke up yesterday morning. We had planned to go to Strasbourg for the day to see Mark Gorey- old family friend and also because Aunt Andree was from there, but we didn't make it. I almost fell asleep at the lunch table as it was, a 2 hour train ride would have done me in. So Dad took a page from my Paris walks cards and we went for a fabulous walk in and around the Marais. A totally different area than I had ever been and I loved it. I have been so spoiled this past week with family around- I'm going to be seriously depression child when they leave me tomorrow, who will I talk to? what will I do? Who will I watch Olympic curling with?

I'm off to bond with them before they head back across the pond- I'll try and write tomorrow, but I'm sure I will be crying all day...literally. :( The good thing is- that I recognize how pathetic I become when my family is around me...and I'm OK with it!

A bientot!

Day From Hell

Yesterday was a long one, a really long one.

We had Marche Du Paris at 8:30 with Chef Poupard (my favorite!) where we walked around an open air market and looked at everything. Then we walked back to school and had a little party with all the stuff Chef got for us- We had all sorts of amazing cheeses, pates, bread, cookies, a cheesecake that looked burned on top but was light and fluffy, sausage, charcuterie. It was a feast! It was fascinating to see all of what a market has to offer. We did have to fight some little old ladies who weren't too thrilled with a group of oogling students in their way. Here are some pictures from the market (no pictures of the horse meat place, I couldn't do it!)







Then we had practical- we learned crab bisque on Monday (Poupard!) and were doing that, starting puff pastry and making croutons with clarified butter. We had Poupard again, and I was so excited. He's the type that you really WANT to do well for and impress- not like someone else I know...We started by making the dough for our puff pastry to let is rest in the fridge.

We murdered live crabs in a big pot with VERY hot oil in it (less painful for them). After adding mirepoix aromatic garnish, we took a rolling pin wrapped in film and beat them completely senseless. We crushed them into teeny tiny pieces. Added tomato paste and tomatoes for color and acidity and added a liter of water and a liter of fish stock. Then we just let it cook for 30 minutes.

While the soup was bubbling away, we rolled out our puff pastry dough and did 4 turns. We also cut bread into croutons. Chef said mine were too big (he actually called them sandwiches" but they were the same size- which is key. We fried them in clarified butter and put them aside while we worked on our soup some more.

Finishing the soup, puff pastry and croutons- Chef tasted the soup- he said my consistency was perfect (we thickened it with rice flour) but needed a touch more salt. Overall, good. FEW!

Then we went right to demo where we were learning more soups. We learned French Onion (easy) Fish Soup Marseillaise Style (gross) and we learned to clarify stock into consomme and make cheese straws to go with them.

Right after demo (no food) we went to practical...guess who we had...COTTES. I nearly fell over. The first thing he said to me was "no crying today S'il vous please" that's what he says to be 'funny'. It sucked again with him- I was super behind and he yelled at me a lot again. I'm not sure why he picks on me so much. We had to brunoise vegetables to put in the consomme and he kept telling me mine were too big. I FINALLY got it right, my stock clarified and my cheese straws were 'bien' (a coup for a pastry chef instructor). I threw out my consomme and gave the dishwasher all of my puff pastry. It was 9:15pm and I was exhausted. Frustrated and mad Bruna and I went to have dinner (and dessert- we earned it) and I came home to Skype with Dad. I was in bed at midnight and didn't think I'd wake up this morning I was so tired.

Alas, here I am and I'm pleased to report that Anthony and I are going to Avignon this weekend! I was supposed to go to Spain to see the Weber's but I wasn't able to find flights :( We're going very early on Friday am and returning Saturday evening. It should be really fun! Any and all suggestions welcome!

A Bientot!

C'est Parfait

Those are words that a.) culinary school students don't hear too often and b.) are exactly what they want to hear every single day. I wake up in the mornings before class going over the steps in my head over and over and over again. Most nights before practical I don't sleep much because I'm so stressed and nervous. Last night was one such night.

This morning, at 8:30 I was in the basement getting everything ready (I'm still class assistant) and things weren't looking good for me. The dumb waiter with all our food wasn't coming up to the send floor, so I ran (literally sprinted) down to the basement again to make sure all the doors were closed, then ran up again. Nothing. Merde. I ran downstairs to group A who had all of their things and were happily preparing for practical. I ran back upstairs and luckily the dumbwaiter had arrived!

Things just kept on getting better. I was behind most of the class because I (assistant) had to keep running and getting more flour when we ran out. 10 students making 2 kinds of dough requires a lot of flour. I'd sprint up to the 3rd floor until finally Chef Poupard said "Caroline- why do you keep running upstairs? Do you need the exercise that badly? There's a hige vat of flour right here!" Oops.

First we did the savory short dough- made that and let it rest. Then we made the dough for the puff pastry and let that rest as well. We then blanched bacon- drained it, sauteed it in butter and got the rest of our stuff ready for the filling. Eggs, cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg- pass through a chinois and set aside. Once that was ready we rolled out our dough put it in the mold and blind baked it.

While they were blind baking, we did 2 turns of our puff pastry dough- you have to roll it out with a big X in it. Put a disgusting hunk of extra dry butter in there, fold the dough over the butter and roll it out into a perfect rectangle. Then fold it again, roll it and put it in the fridge again.

Once we finished that, we filled and baked our quiches. Mine came out brown and delish looking. I was frankly really surprised- I had been behind all class and here I was, the first one done! I did 2 more turns of the puff pastry dough and plated my quiche. Chef Poupard simply said "C'est Parfait!" I was SO excited (see picture) I could barely contain myself! I was getting very hungry so I dashed around the kitchen cleaning up after everyone and took the ingredients back down to the basement to enjoy my quiche.

I thought Chef Poupard was the best we'd had yet- he was calm, helpful, didn't yell and kept us all on target in a relaxed, yet stern way. He definitely yelled at some but I was just in a groove today- I felt good, I felt confident and it turned out!

After practical- I hoovered more quiche than I care to admit into my mouth and went to demo. We were in the bad demo room again but I was in the second row which is the best to be in. The mirrors show everything and it's easy to hear and see.

I came home, took a cat nap and just went to see It's Complicated with Bruna and Anthony. The movie was cute and for .0005 seconds made me a little homesick for California. I quickly snapped out of it when I noticed the French subtitles and said..."DUH I'm in Paris!" After the movie we walked around and had a crepe in the 6th St. Germaine area. I love that place SO much I could walk over there for hours. Each restaurant and cafe has more charm than the next and it's just very European. I loved it!

Tomorrow at 8:30 we have to finish our puff pastry and make poached eggs with this strange sauce/leek combination and put it IN the puff pastry...interesting. But then it's the weekend!!!

A Bientot!