Chef J began class today by talking about the evolution of French cuisine from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance period. Owing a great debt to the work of La Varenne, author of the revolutionary cookbook “La Cuisiner Francois” and considered to be the father of classical French cooking as we know it today, French cuisine began to take on new levels of refinement and sophistication not previously seen. In this time period, sauce evolved to become the hallmark of the cuisine, the concepts of garnishing food and vegetable cookery were introduced, as were the ideas of serving food at appropriate temperatures (hot food should be served hot, cold food should be served cold) and that one should eat food with actual utensils as opposed to just jabbing at it with your knife or sword. Additionally, the heavy usage of spices and seasonings to mask the taste of food began to wane…highly refined and subtle sauces would now be used to highlight and complement individual dishes.
Today we were also introduced to pates and terrines, dishes that came to exist as a way to make use of all parts of whatever animal a chef had at his disposal. Pates and terrines are based around forcemeats…basically a mixture of meat, fat and seasonings that is ground together and cooked. A main characteristic of forcemeat is that it is very fatty, usually featuring a ratio of 1 part fat to 2 parts lean meat. The purpose of all this fat is to provide smoothness and flavor to the final product and to serve as a basting medium for the forcemeat while it cooks. Classically speaking, a pate is a forcemeat that is encased in a crust (just like a corn dog, as Chef J explained) while a terrine is baked in an earthenware dish (traditionally) that has been placed into a hot-water bath. Classically speaking, after cooking a terrine, it must be chilled and then pressed or weighted down as a way to further enhance the smooth consistency of the final product. Then it is removed from the cooking vessel and covered with aspic, which is stock that has been stabilized with gelatin…as the stock cools, it solidifies. In the old days, the theory is that this gelled-layer of stock would help thwart the advances of bacteria and other microscopic trouble-makers, thus ensuring a long life for your terrine. If you think about it though, a thin layer of a meat based product atop what is essentially a gourmet meatloaf probably isn’t going to deter bacterial advances, thus now the application of the aspic is more for the sake of decoration and tradition. Today’s class only featured 1 such recipe, a rabbit terrine, which Christian began by employing the services of the meat grinder in order to make her forcemeat:
I believe she is grinding up the rabbit pieces and judging by her facial expression, is having the most fun she’s ever had in her entire life. As her terrine will need to be pressed for a few days, it won’t be ready until next week’s class, so I’ll have the chance to further document this process as we will be continuing our discussion of pates and terrines over the next few weeks.
Potage Puree De Cresson:
I wasn’t expecting to like this watercress soup due to my unfamiliarity with that particular variety of vegetation, but it was actually quite good. The ingredients were pretty similar to the leek and potato soup that I make at home…onion, potatoes, chicken stock, cream etc…so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did.
Poireaux Vinaigrette:
Blanched leeks served with a champagne vinaigrette dressing.
Marjoline Tartlets:
The tart shells were made following the pate brisee formula that we’ve all become so intimately familiar with, but with a new spin. Instead of making the dough by hand, it was made in a food processor, advantageous for a few reasons. First off, it’s quicker than using your hands and second, because the food processor allows the butter to be processed into very small pieces, you’re practically guaranteed that your baked crust will be exceedingly tender. The tart shells were then ‘blind baked’ (baked without filling), removed from the oven, filled with cheese sauce and a finished with a ring of cheese flavored pate a choux, then baked again until golden brown.
Tanner, Grace Anna and I joined forces to put together the main course, Noisettes of Lamb with Sauce Paloise, Pommes Anna and Macedoine de Legumes au Buerre:
I was tasked with butchering the partial baron of lamb:
I had never really heard of a ‘baron’ before, so I looked it up on the internet. Apparently the baron refers to the rear half of the lamb carcass and it includes the back (saddle) and hind legs. This cut as you can see was missing the legs (among other things), but it did have sections of both loins, which you can see in the center of the picture (the two red oval-looking things). It would be my job to extract and portion these two loins, ensuring clean removal of all unnecessary fat and silverskin while trying not to hack the loins to death. I was able to obtain 10 approximately 2″ loin sections, which were wrapped up with small sections of additional ‘flap’ meat that I was able to trim away from the rest of this beast. The meat was rubbed with olive oil, salt and white pepper, then tied with butcher’s twine, seared, then finished in the oven.
Tanner prepared the pommes anna…thinly sliced potatoes, layered in a pan with lots of clarified butter and baked until crispy…and the toast points. Grace Anna made the macedoine de legumes au buerre…asparagus and carrots cooked with butter, sugar and demi-glace (technically, a small sauce of the espagnole mother sauce)…and the sauce palosie, essentially a hollandaise sauce flavored with fresh mint, tarragon and shallots.
Here’s another shot of our final dish:
Gatuau Alcazar:
Pastry cake filled with an almond filling and garnished with an almond topping made from sugar, beaten egg whites and ground almonds. The filling was definitely a bit of an acquired taste, but it was still pretty good. It was kind of an unfamiliar flavor even thought it consisted of nothing more than almonds, sugar, vanilla, butter and kirsch.
