This week we applied stock and sauce making to a final product, soup. Without understanding stocks and sauces, we would be lost. The first 2 weeks are truly about learning to appreciate technique and learning to feel comfortable in the commercial kitchen environment.
The class is starting to run like a kitchen. We're all starting to understand what prep has to get done to 1. start cooking sooner and 2. get out faster. Now remember, these classes are 5 hours long. The faster we get started, the more time we can spend cooking and the more work we get done, the faster the cleaning goes at the end of class. In every class, Chef Pierre starts by discussing what we are preparing much like a head chef would go over responsibilities for that night in a restaurant kitchen. Because it's a class, his discussion is not about who makes what, he instead is reminding us of the techniques that each team needs to apply to properly prepare our dishes and some pitfalls to look out for. After the 30 minutes of discussion, bang, the teams split up and handle different jobs in order get prepared or as they say in the get kitchen, "Mise en Place". I usually go straight for the fridge to grab the food that we'll need in order to prepare each dish; Stormy usually goes for the cutting boards for each of us and Bobby always grabs the towels and the garbage and sanitation bins for the table. Within 5 minutes, knives are out and prep work begins.
It's good that we all move fast because it's amazing how long it takes to prepare 3 soups. Soups can be broken into 3 distinct categories:
1. Clear Soups
2. Thick Soups
3. Special Soups
Monday we tackle Clear Soups. Clear soups start with stock or broth as a base.
The difference:
-Stock is made from bones only. This keeps the flavor neutral.
-Broth is made from meat and meat+bones. This adds extra flavoring.
On the menu for Monday:
Chicken Consommé
Minestrone Soup
French Onion Soup
I had heard of consommés before and heard chefs make a big deal out of them. Now I know why. You can never appreciate a consommé until you make one. A consommé is a stock or broth that is clarified to remove all impurities so that it becomes crystal clear (Note: clear does not mean colorless; it means that you can see through it).
To start a consommé, you have to develop the Clarification, also known as the Clearmeat. The clearmeat consists of egg whites, ground meat, fish or poultry, mirepoix, herbs and spices and an acidic product (usually tomatoes, lemon juice or wine). The ingredients for a clearmeat are mixed together by hand (kinda gross and kinda fun). Then we added the clearmeat, which looks like meatloaf, into a pot of cold stock. If using chicken meat, use chicken stock; if using beef, use beef stock to keep the flavoring consistent. Then we brought the pot up to temperature (110°-140°). At this point, Bobby had to stay close to the pot becuase he had to stir frequently to avoid any of the clearmeat to sink and stick to the bottom. These pieces would burn and cause discoloration and cloudiness.
So now you're thinking to yourself, how do you get a clear soup with all of that crap in there? Well, here's the nerd in me.
Caution Science Content:
The albumen (protein in the egg whites and meat) trap impurities in the stock and begins to coagulate (big word for clump). As the coagulation continues, these clumps run into each other, get bigger and float to the top.When the pot reaches temperature (you don't have to test it, the pot will tell you), the clearmeat will rise to the top. At that point, it is now called a raft (shocking, because its floating). Amazingly, the clarification (clearmeat) has clarified the stock!
While the clearmeat is pulling out impurities, the hot liquid of the stock is pulling flavor out of the clearmeat. Next, we have more science. With this raft floating on the top, it's difficult for evaporation to escape so we must cut a window in the raft. With the window side of the pot over the burner, we pull the other end off of the heat. The heated liquid will rise to the top, basting the raft with hot liquid, as the hot liquid rises, it is replaced by the cooler side, the cooler side is then replaced by the liquid that is running off of the clearmeat. It creates a temperature loop. For the next 60-90 mins, our job was to watch the consommé baste and cook itself.
After the 90 mins, we strained it through cheesecloth. Last week, I complained that I hated cheesecloth because it takes forever to strain. The clearmeat apparently did its job because the consommé shot right through the cheesecloth. It was pretty awesome compared to what I had seen in previous weeks. When you're finished there may just be a little bit of grease coating the top. We simply dragged a few paper towels across the top; the fat sticks to the towel!
While the consommé was simmering we got started on the other two soups. Luckily, for my wrists' sake, you should all be familiar with these soups so I don't have to explain them. Here are the highlights:
Minestrone is a simple stock or broth soup with extra ingredients added for flavor.In our case it has lots of vegetables floating in the soup. This provides an opportunity to make it look fancy. We applied a new cut to our knife skills, the Paysanne. This cut is a 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch square. Imagine a scrabble tile but only 1/8th of an inch thick. Time consuming but fun.
French Onion soup is awesome because of its simplicity. Onions sauteed in clarified butter, deglazed with white wine and simmered in beef stock. You let this simmer until the onions are tender.
After completing the 3 soups, we had our first adventure in plating. Chef Pierre explained a few guidelines on plating soup.
1. We heated bowls for the consomme and minestrone, because soup should always be served hot. We didn't need to heat the bowls for the onion soup because those bowls were added to the oven to melt the cheese over the toast on top of the soup.
2. Fill the soup about 3/4 of the way full to help avoid spills
3. wipe down any spills on the lips as it doesn't look good or and the soup may burn and stick on the hot bowl.
Here is what Monday's soup looked like:
Top left: Chicken Consommé. Notice how clear it is... you can see the bottom of the bowl.
Top right: Minestrone. Tons of veggies and garnished with parmesan.
Bottom: French Onion. Mmmmmmmmmm
Tired of typing today... I'll update Tuesday's soups tomorrow.
--Rees
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