The rest of Basic Cuisine - A Photo Montage (Part III)

Writing these blog entries has been a good refresher on all of the recipes we've learned, which was good, since our final exam was coming up! It was yesterday, and it was actually a lot of fun ... but I'll get to that in due time...

After learning the methods for making various kinds of soups, we turned to more traditional French recipes, and, in general, our demos shifted from three dishes demonstrating similar techniques, to full meals (entree, plat, dessert). This demonstrated the timing and multi-tasking necessary for preparing an entire meal in a given time period. (We're not there yet, though ... in practical we generally just prepared the plat, and occasionally the entree!)

So, lesson eighteen: beignets de gambas, sauce tartare (deep-fried jumbo shrimp, tartare sauce) and souffle au fromage (cheese souffle). You'll all be happy to know that my souffle rose beautifully (although Chef Poupard did help me out a little with getting my egg whites to consistency. I have small arm muscles!) I couldn't help think about the souffle scene in Sabrina ("A woman happy in love, she burns the souffle; a woman unhappy in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.") and wonder what this says about my lovelife ... but I digress ...

In demo, chef also made saute de veau Marengo, pommes a l'anglaise (veal Marengo with boiled potatoes), and clafoutis aux fruits de saison (seasonal fruit clafouti). We learned that veal Marengo is so named because it is the dish Napoleon had the night before the Battle of Marengo (only he had it with chicken, because veal wasn't available - I kid you not!) But did he have it with those heart-shaped croutons??


The next day, we made blanquette de veau a l'ancienne, riz pilaf (traditional veal stew, rice pilaf). Not one of my favorites. Not difficult to prepare, but I'm not much of a stew person...

As a starter, chef prepared saumon cru marine a l'aneth (salmon marinated with dill) -- a nice light accompaniment to the heavy stew -- and for dessert, tarte au sucre (sugar tart). So I didn't go hungry!


But, I was happy to move on to our next class, when we made tournedos grilles sauce bearnaise, pommes Pont Neuf (grilled tournedos with sauce Bearnaise, potatoes Pont-Neuf). Potatoes Pont Neuf are so named because, according to legend, they were fried right there on the bridge. Chef suggested we plate them in a bridge formation, to continue the theme.


A few weeks later, I was able to demonstrate my sauce know-how at dinner at Hotel Costes ... after tasting Matthew's bearnaise (and amusing him by wanting to taste the sauce unadulterated by the steak it accompanied!), I subjected him to a discussion of how I'd improve it (it was missing acidity and flavor ... so a better vinegar/wine/shallot reduction). I think he realized at that moment just how much of a food geek I am!



That same day, Chef also demonstrated how to make flamiche (leek tart), and parfait glace au cafe, sauce caramel et cognac (frozen coffee parfait with a caramel and cognac sauce). Our degustations keep getting better and better!