We’ve been talking about Classical French cuisine in our Tuesday classes for the last couple of weeks and now we’ve progressed into the world of Haute cuisine. In class, we define haute cuisine as French high-style cookery featuring fine foods that are professionally and elegantly prepared in an appropriate manner. Taking that one step further, haute cuisine is often thought of as the ultimate expression of classical French cooking…it’s cooking elevated to its highest level, the ultimate in gastronomy and in some ways, it’s recognized as it’s own form of art.
Marie-Antoine Careme is the man responsible for elevating French cuisine to these new heights. Abandoned by his parents at a young age, he was a self-taught cook that specialized in everything and was interested in everything related to food, right up until his death in 1833. He became the first chef to achieve fame via publishing cookbooks and he is also considered to be the first real celebrity chef. Careme is also well know because he tried to better the conditions for chefs toiling away in primitive kitchens by coming up with a number of safety-oriented innovations, including oven mitts. The familiar look of a chef, donned in a crisp white coat, also came from Careme, who thought that the bright white coats symbolized cleanliness. He is also known for being a great innovator and somewhat of a mad scientist…creating massive, elaborate and decorative centerpieces made from sugar and fondant that looked towards architectural works for inspiration.
Today I made this Goat Cheese Souffle, which can be considered both a work of art and interesting practical application of a colloidial foam (gas suspended in a liquid, or specifically in this case, air suspended in egg whites):
Chef J assigned this ‘easy’ recipe to me because she felt like I would want to ease back into the school kitchen after missing both of last week’s cooking labs. I did appreciate the thought and also figured that it had been some time since I had madea souffle, so I was happy to have the practice. I will say that making a souffle is not as hard or as intimidating as one might think…I think where people run into trouble is in the execution of the dish. One of the tricky parts of souffle construction involves the addition of beaten egg whites to the souffle ‘base’. The beaten egg whites provide all of the leavening for the souffle, so it is important to beat them to the right consistency (what’s known as ‘stiff peaks’) and to also incorporate them into the base correctly so as to not deflate the foam that you’ve created. The first time, I overfoamedmy egg whites and caused them to ‘break’, resulting in a pool of water at the bottom of the bowl. The second time, Chef J suggested adding a tablespoon of sugar to my foamed egg whites, which would help provide stability (and surprisingly, not make the foam sweet). This worked great and after another lesson in folding, the technique used to combine the heavy souffle base with the light foam in such a way as to work quickly and gently to incorporate the two without knocking out all of the air bubbles in the foam, the souffle went into the oven. It is these steps where your timing must be precise. The egg whites must be worked into the base quickly or else they will be begin to deflate, and once incorporated into the base, the entire mixture must be poured into a pre-prepared souffle dish (mine had been buttered and coated with grated parmesan cheese), then it all must go immediately into the oven in order to achieve as much of a rise as possible. If left to sit around, this batter will eventually deflate on its own.
The other part of this recipe that presented a timing challenge was the somewhat temperamental sauce (not pictured here) to be served alongside the souffle. The sauce began with three different types of crushed peppercorns, combined with a cup each of chicken stock and red wine vinegar, to be reduced down to about 1/4 cup in volume. This was then fortified with a small amount of demi-glace. I completed these steps before beginning the souffle. While the souffle was cooking, I’d would need to slowly whisk in almost a pound of butter over gentle heat so that the butter would emulsify the sauce but not break (ie, melt). I initially caused the sauce to break (because I incorporated the butter over direct heat which proved to be more than the sauce could handle). Luckily I had an ice bath near by, so I transferred the broken sauce to a bowl and plunged the bowl into the ice bath and whisked constantly, which firmed up the butter. But then the sauce was too solid to accept anymore butter, so now I had to go over a double-boiler to heat the sauce gently in order to be able to add more butter. By the time I had added all of the butter to the sauce, the sauce tasted entirely like butter and nothing else, so I’d have to fix that but then I realized that my souffle was ready to come out of the oven. I removed it from the oven, immediately photographed it before the top had a chance to deflate too much, then realized that the center was still a bit runny. Back in the oven went the souffle and I turned my attention back to the sauce, which was fixed with a healthy addition of some more demi-glace and served along with the souffle once it had been cooked through.
Potage d’Automne:
Basically, a leek and potato soup a few other ingredients, fortified with some egg yolks added in at the end.
This is a terrine that was made the previous week:
Last week, after cooking it, the terrine was allowed to cool, then weighted down with bricks in order to enhance its texture and consistency. After a week under pressure, the bricks were removed and the terrine was unmolded and decorated. Then we cut into it…
…revealing assorted chicken breast, chicken liver and pistachio nut pieces. It was really good and also really nicely decorated and presented.
Kulibyaka:
According to our lecture notes, Careme was inspired to develop this dish after his stay in Russia. Here, a puff pastry crust surrounds a salmon/rice/mushroom/egg/shallot filling.
Pate de Canard en Croute (Duck Pate in Brioche):
The pate was made with the duck meat from a whole duck, duck liver, aromatic vegetables and lots of seasoning, all ground together and studded with dried prunes then wrapped securely inside the skin from the whole duck. This skin helped the pate to keep its shape and also served to baste the pate while it cooked. Once it was cooked, it was encased in brioche dough and the whole thing was baked. Not that I’d ever make anything like this at home, but it was actually really tasty.
This intricate production is entirely edible:
Here we have strawberry mousse served on top of meringue, garnished with a caramel ‘cage’ and a small meringue ‘dove’ (well, it’s supposed to be a dove) on top of the cage. The caramel cages were made by drizzling caramel over greased ladles. Once the caramel set, it was gently twisted away from the ladle, creating a cage, or dome shape. Careme would’ve been proud of the sugarwork.
Blanc Mange (A Bavarian Cream):
It sure looks pretty, but I really don’t care for the bavarian cream dessert, which is really nothing more than a creme anglaise that has been stabilized with gelatin. Maybe because I never liked eating Jello as a kid, there is nothing appealing to me about the idea of eating a ‘grown-up’ version of it.
As an added bonus, later that night I attended a cheese tasting seminar:
I got to sample 8 different kinds of cheeses, beginning with two mild and smooth goat cheeses and finishing with two really great and pungent blue cheeses. The only cheese I didn’t really care for was a particular variety of sheep’s milk cheese from Belgium that tasted similar to what I expect the inner-most part of a sheep’s rectum would taste like if it had been allowed to sit in a humid locker room for a week. The odor was beyond comprehension and the lingering and slightly ‘burning’ aftertaste was just something that I was not prepared for. But I really enjoyed all of the other cheeses, especially the Comte cheese from France that we sampled.
