culinary school flashback: week 6 in review
This is another long one. Lots of food pictures, so get ready …
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week six in review
Another week has flown by and it is getting harder and harder to keep the promise I made when I started school – not to eat (and finish) everything we produce in the kitchen! We are creating so many delicious meals these days, it is very, very hard to say no to lunches, but they are worth breaking my promise!
Looking back on the last six weeks, it is interesting to see how our meals have evolved in such a short amount of time. Check out week one and two:
While they were tasty, we mostly made soups, salads, vegetables and simple desserts. I enjoy seeing how my culinary knowledge has expanded since day one.
Now let’s get to this past week’s details:
Spanikopita – Made with phyllo dough, spanikopita is a tough dish to make. Or I should say that I think its tricky because of the dough. Phyllo dough has a tendency to dry out very quickly, so the key is to move extremely quickly when filling and folding the spanikopita triangles.
LA POITRINE DE VOLAILLE AU CHAMPIOGNONS DE PARIS – Roast chicken topped with mushrooms, served with tourneed potatoes and broccoli. I am slowly getting better and better at taking the chicken breast off the bone, which means I actually get most of the meat off in one piece .
LA GALETTE AU FRAMBOISE – a simple vanilla cookie served with fresh raspberries. The cookie was surrounded by CREME ANGLAISE (a vanilla ice cream base) and a fresh raspberry sauce.
LA PISSALADIERE – This onion tart is incredibly simple. We used puff pastry, topped it with caramelized onions, then added black olives and anchovies.
I made this appetizer when my in-laws were in town earlier this week, but instead of olives and anchovies (of which I personally am not a huge fan) I used goat cheese. Delicious substitute!
LE ROTI DE BOEUF PIQUE A’LAIL – We scored a small roast (top eye round) and filled it with garlic and rosemary, put it in the oven and then thinly sliced it. The beef was topped with a bernaise sauce and served with pomme anna (thinly sliced potatoes, sautéed in small pans), asparagus and a carrot puree spiced with ginger.
LA ROULADE A CONFITURE DE FRAMBOISES – Vanilla cake, filled with a raspberry jam.
LA NOIX DE SAINT JACQUES GRILLEE – A grilled scallop, sautéed spinach and a simple butter sauce.
LE SAUTE DE PORC AUX HERICOTS BLANCS – A pork stew served with navy beans. We realized that it is difficult to make this meal in 2 ½ hours (the time we usually have to make lunch), because the pork and beans did not have enough time to tenderize. Regardless, the dish was pretty good. I say pretty good, because beans are something that I am still learning to love.
LES FRAISE AU SABAYON and LES TUILES AUX AMANDES – We served fresh fruit in a sabayon (an egg, sugar and sherry wine custard) with a thin almond cookie.
LES RAVIOLIS DE CREVETTES – Fresh pasta filled with shrimp, then tossed in a cream sauce. See what I mean when I say it is hard to pass up lunches these days? How can you not finish this dish?!
We have made pasta a few times now, and I am realizing how easy it is. Now I just need the KitchenAid attachment so I can make pasta at home. Sounds like a great christmas present idea, right?! Maybe D will read this post and take notes .
LES OEUFFS BROUILLES PORTUGAISE – Scrambled eggs served with a tomato sauce. Sounds simple enough. Well, we learned a new technique this week, where we cook the eggs over a double boiler, for an hour! The idea is to cook the eggs at a very low temperature, moving them continuously the entire time. This allows them to stay extremely silky and smooth. While it took up a lot of time, the eggs were worth it in the end. I am not sure that I will adopt this method at home anytime soon though.
The next time you order scrambled eggs in a fancy restaurant and they take forever to come out, you now know why!
Brownies – Chef Somchet showed us an extremely simple brownie recipe and from now on I will never use another recipe! I actually just used this brownie base to make a White Chocolate Pomegranate Brownie for my pomegranate report due this upcoming week (recipe to be posted soon).
Here are a few more photos from the week:
Our week also included an Open House that our families were allowed to attend, see what we do on a daily basis and taste our food. Stay tuned for a post on that as well!
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The open house post is pretty short, so I’ll post that in a day or two 😀. Until then, hope you guys enjoyed Week 6 in review. I am now super hungry and contemplating which of these dishes to make for dinner soon 😋.