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Peas a la Francaise
Delicious and Nutritious.
Cleaned my first artichoke. Look at this precious little flower-like cup.
I will no longer hesitate at the grocery store next time I see these beauties.
Next week we move on to Pasta, Gnocchi, and Animal Protein! Bring it on!
I like carrots and I can easily down a whole thing of green bean casserole at Thanksgiving Dinner, but most of the carrot and green bean dishes I come across leaves very much to be desired. Through repeated exposure to mushy, dull-colored carrots & green beans, one can easily dismiss any significance these vegetables ever contributed to society. It’s the culinary equivalent of trying to convince people that their parents were once cool.
However, after yesterday’s demo and today’s production on perfectly executed Carrots Vichy (glazed carrots) and Green Beans Amandine, I am now respectful of these two nutritious items — they’ve got star power after all.
Carrots Vichy (glazed carrots)
Special cuts of carrots carefully cooked in a mixture of water, butter, sugar, salt & pepper to arrive at tender-but-toothsome pieces coated in a subtle, sweet buttery syrupy emulsion. A touch of parsley for garnish. Balancing the carrot doneness and glaze consistency offers a great opportunity to study heat control.
Green Beans Amandine
After a butter bath, nutty, toasty slivers of almond roll around in the pan with bright green (blanched) green beans. So simple, so perfect. For me, this is the most impressive dish in this class so far. I love the colors, I love the crunch. These images are not photoshopped, I swear!
Clean up post-production is a big deal.
The class goes from 7am to 10:35am; clean up takes a good 20-30 min.
We’re talking about pots & pans for 20+ people, waste buckets, cutting boards, miscellaneous equipment, ranges, tables, floors — everything must be cleaned and sanitized before the entire group can leave.
Thanks to slackers and r-tards, we have not been able to finish class on time, not even once.
Hiding in the walk-in (“cold room”) during clean up?
Not prepared enough and ends up slowing everyone down?
Blissfully unaware of how one slow poke holds up the whole team?
Not cool.
My heart goes out to the people that are trying very hard but struggling to keep up. And despite my lifelong unappreciation of slow people, all I ask is this, please be considerate of how your actions impact your peers. Get some help!
Who knew potatoes can be so versatile?
I love my fries in all kinds sizes and shapes. These big fat stubby ones at Pommes Frites in NYC over the weekend were heavenly. Highly recommend the Mexican ketchup, btw.
Anyway, we learned that even if a restaurant is too snobby to serve potatoes in the form of fries, baked, or a simple mashed, there are still plenty of ways to play with them.
First up, Duchess Potatoes
Mashed, seasoned, then piped through a pastry bag. Me and Jose made a great team today but we obviously need some training on piping. Ours look like little doody pies, but trust me, they are very tasty.
And in contrast, look at how pretty the star-tipped piping job came out on Gina & Bianca’s.
This is going to be a pot-luck-worthy dish next time.
Next, the haute-sounding Dauphinoise Potatoes (its well know American cousin is called Scalloped)
And finally, putting tourne potatoes to work — Rissole Poatoes
8 tournes from 1 potato, par-cooked, then sauteed. Crispy crust on the outside and super soft center live up to the promise of their graceful shape. What a beautiful dish.
I enjoyed working in pairs and look forward to working with many of my other classmates, well, except maybe for a few.
The structure of cooking the day after watching a demo is very effective. Everyone pays attention to different details and we all constantly remind each other of little things and help out throughout production time. Now we just have to learn how to work with the people that are operating like they live on another planet.
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