My week of French Food

This week was all about France, we did Quiche, French Onion Soup, Poule au Pot al Creme, Coquille St. Jaques Provencal, Boeuf Bourguignon, Poulet Chassuer, Escargot a la Bourguignon, Crepes, Tarte Tatin, Duck a la Orange, La Bouillabaisse Provencal and Riz de Veau Braise aka Sweet Breads. The Sweet Breads were the star of this week. I'd never had them and it was a very interesting process to cook them. I'll be honest I was a little freaked out by the visual as we went through the process of preparing them. France was fun, can't wait to go visit. Here's some shots of this week.

Coquille St. Jaques Provencal ( Scallops )

Poulet Chassuer ( this was unreal, the sauce made we want to cry it was good )

Escargot a la Bourguignon. I've had snails before but not like these, they were soft, tender and delish, especially with the wine. 

Duck a la Orange with roasted Celery Root, my new favorite veggie.

Tarte Tatin with Rum Whipped Cream

my pot filled with all the seafood for La Bouillabaisse Provencal

La Bouillabaisse Provencal ready to serve

This is the first course for the La Bouillabaisse Provencal, croutons with Rouille sauce on them as well as a lovely Rose from France.

My Bowl

Jim's bowl, packed for the ride home. He loved it !

These are the Sweet Breads sauteing, trippy looking stuff. 

It looks like brains, but it's not, they are the Veal thyroid gland.

This is mine and Rebecca's mise en place for the Sweet Breads and the Duck a la Orange.

You can see Roasted Celery Root, the Duck sauce, the Sweet Breads in their sauce with the sauteed mushrooms, the random pound of butter, orange segments for the duck plate. I love my mise en place.

Riz de Veau Braise aka Sweet Breads in Puff Pastry.

Confession time, this was not my plate, it's Chef's. The rose is a tomato, so pretty.

Seriously this dish blew my mind, it was amazing.

Next week Italy !

Week 4 all things from the Sea

Fish week was entertaining, delicious and exhausting. 

The pictures will tell the stories.

These are Red Snappers about to get filleted. 

This is breaded Red Snapper atop mashed potatoes in a butter caper lemon sauce.

Crawdads are fierce little F*ckers, they don't like it when you pull out their intestines while they're alive, I didn't like it either. These guys were a lot of work, won't be going here anytime soon, if ever.

This is bacon wrapped Monkfish, atop Mushroom Duxelle in a Crayfish aka Crawdad sauce.

Steamed Mussels in white wine and butter.

pan seared Sea Bass on rice pilaf with Mussel sauce

the line in action- court bouillon (for poaching Halibut) -Veloute sauce- saute'd spinach

poached Halibut atop saute'd spinach with Veloute sauce.

my mise en place for the Prawn plate

pan seared Prawns with julienned veggies and sauce Duglere 

these are Salmon Mousse simmer/cooking.

Salmon Mousse with a lemon thyme beurre blanc sauce.

Ah Friday, last dish and lunch of Ahi Tartre with a lovely french Pinot Gris. School is so fun !

Chocolate Covered Grape Truffles

Grapes and chocolate are for sure favorites of mine. Together like this, they are divine.

Last summer, my super fabulous friend Debi made these for us when we stayed with her and her family in Chicago. These are so good and easy to make, you must give it a try.

You can use green or red grapes, make sure they're really fresh, plump and crisp. Remove them from the stems. Wash and dry them well, then refrigerate for a couple of hours. 

1-1/2 pounds of grapes

1/2 pound good dark chocolate, chopped up for melting, use a good chocolate, the taste and quality of these truffles are dependent on the quality of chocolate you start with

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

chop the chocolate for melting in a double boiler or ......

use a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.

pour the melted chocolate over the cold grapes and......

mix really fast. The chocolate will start to harden right away, so don't dilly dally. Make sure all the grapes get covered with chocolate, keep them separated so they don't stick together. Toss them on to a baking sheet and dust them with the cocoa powder with a small strainer.

Cover baking sheet and chill for a couple of hours to set chocolate.

Enjoy ! They are so good !

Protein !

Last week was all about protein- beef, pork, lamb, chicken & duck. We fabricated, portioned & cooked them all in several different ways. I was up to my elbows in flesh and bones, so I didn't get a lot of pictures of the process.  I did get pics of the finished plates though and they were delish ! James really enjoyed this week. We were learning to plate our dishes, so each one is a different set up.

Chicken Breast stuffed w/ saute'd Spinach and Goat Cheese atop Sauce Robert. 

Petit Filet Mignon - Chateaubriand Sauce, the funny looking toad stools are tourned, a fancy way to cut potatoes, with Shitake mushroom tops.

Pork Medallions atop Red Onion Confit, Baked Apples with Green Peppercorn Sauce. 

Crusted Lamb Loin, Roasted Potatoes with Marchand de Vin Sauce.

We also did Lamb Stew and roasted a whole duck. Super yummy week.

Next week FISH !!

School is cool !

Who knew school could be so fun, I guess when you're doing what you really love, it is! It's exhausting at the same time, there's a ton of info/notes everyday and lots of cooking too. Here are a few pics of what's gone down in the last 2 weeks.

We did stocks, soups, sauces, wine education and some knife skills

This was the Lobster I killed with a knife to the head, chopped him up and made the most delicious Bisque ever. 

Simmering Bisque

Vegetable Stock 

This was my Potato Leek soup and my feeble attempt at fancy presentation, swirling paprika sour cream w/ fried leeks.

This is the Hollandaise derivative collection, rarely seen all at once like this.

Each of us made one- Hollandaise, Bernaise, Foyot, Choron, Maltaise, Mousseline, Paloise. 

Wine Class, tasting for 2 days, rough life for sure.

Chef is fast with his board notes, I take pictures ALOT so I can compare my notes to his before he erases them and moves on. This one is about the French wine regions, they make it so complicated, but oh so old world cool.

The first 2 weeks have been amazing, Still geekin' that I'm actually doing this.

Now if I can pass the ServeSafe test next week all will be good.

Kale Chips

However you feel about Kale, put it to the side and try these crispy crunchy yummy Kale Chips. Super crispy super food !!

My cousin Amy was here this summer and she brought some from her neck of the woods, Los Altos, Ca. She gets them at her farmers market and they aren't cheap. Her kids LOVE them, which is amazing, because getting kids to eat veggies is always a struggle. I did some research and found several blogs and a recipe that was in Bon Appetit last year. After trying a couple this is what I came up with.

Get some Kale, make sure its firm, bright and fresh. No wilty Kale. There are various types of Kale in the markets these days. Most will carry the curly Kale as pictured below. I used the curly and organic red Kale, both were delish !

Preheat oven to 250 F - Remove the big center stems 

Tear into chip size pieces, wash ( submerge in water ) & dry ( use a salad spinner ) them really well. 

In a large bowl drizzle olive oil ( 1 Tablespoon ) over the Kale pieces, coating them well. Be careful not to use too much oil, this will make oily chips. I used spray olive oil, this worked really well. Salt lightly and arrange on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, but start checking them at 20 minutes. All ovens vary and they will burn very quickly. I take them out when the smaller stems on the leaves are crunchy, the thickest part of the chip.

When they're hot and crispy, you can sprinkle cayenne or salt & pepper or parmesan cheese or all of the above. I did the parmesan, it was so tasty. Kids love them, I swear ! try it !!

Makin' Friends

Today I made friends with my knives and Hal, the key player in our Fumet Fish Stock.

This is Hal - sweating it out in the Rondeau....sounds glamorous doesn't it ?