Week 2

Sauces.... all sauces. 9 sauces in 2 days and I will smoke you in all of them.
This is what we made in class in 2 days (10 hrs total).

1. Espagnole (Brown Sauce)
2. Béchamel
3. Velouté
4. Tomato
5. Fresh Tomato
6. Demi-Glace
7. Hollandaise
8. Mayonnaise
9. Beurre-blanc (lemon-butter)

Day 1 - Monday:
We made sauces 1-4. Each member of the team was responsible for 1 of the sauces and the rest of the team was to help. We have a team of 3 so we needed to be more efficient. We decided to leave the Velouté for last as it took less time to cook than the rest. I got to start with the Tomato sauce because frankly, I knew that I was mostly likely/inevitable to get messy (yes, I did leave covered in red dots of tomato sauce).

Bobby (I finally remembered his name) got started on the Béchamel (milk + white roux) and Stormy worked on the Espangnole sauce (brown stock + brown roux + mirepoix and tomatoes). To be honest, both of these sauces are simple; however, they do take a bit more care than the Tomato sauce that I did because they both involve making a roux. A roux (flour + fat) cooks together very quickly and doesn't take long to burn. My team-members had to take close stock of how long the roux had cooked and how dark they needed it to be. Bobby (Béchamel) was making a light sauce and wanted a light or pale roux, so he wanted to cook his quickly and keep his roux on the pale/white side. Stormy, on the other hand, was making a brown sauce and wanted to use a brown roux which required more cooking. The tricky part is that there is a very small time frame between a brown roux and a BURNT roux. Stormy did well and we finished, after straining, with one of the better looking brown sauces.

I was responsible for the Tomato sauce. This was my first use of Salt Pork. I have substituted bacon in the past, but now, for real, I got to use salt pork to create the cooking fat. And, of course, as I was rendering it, Chef Pierre walked by and said, "turn it up; it's cooking to slow".
I responded, "I turned it down because it started to stick."
His response was, "Just add a bit of oil to get it going."

So far, the only profession where cheating is encouraged is in the kitchen. And it's not really cheating! There are 1,000+ shortcuts that don't hurt the quality of the food that I didn't know about. It's more about understanding what the ingredient is used for and if there is a viable substitute (more than likely, there are 9).

Most groups have 4 students; ours has 3. After we had each done 1 sauce, we combined efforts to make the 4th and catch up with other teams (Velouté = white stock + white roux). Luckily, the Velouté only takes about 35 min after creating the roux and doesn't require additional ingredients.

My tomato sauce turned out well. Bobby and I decided that Stormy is our official seasoner for the rest of the quarter because she got a “thumbs up” on all 4 sauces whereas other tables got suggestions for "more pepper" or "too salty".

Interjection: Straining is a pain in the butt. Chinois strainers and Cheesecloth + China Caps make sauce-making much more tedious than anyone should ever anticipate. In the future, if possible, I will buy pre-made sauces. Mark it!

Day 2 - Tuesday:
I'll tell you right now, the Hollandaise and the Mayonnaise are the hardest, by far! Unless you are a cy-borg with a whisk attachment, you're going to mess up 1 of the 2 sauces. Our group messed up the mayonnaise.

We added the oil too quickly to the beaten egg and never gave the emulsion a chance (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, look up the word "emulsion"). Chef Pierre came over, looked at our mayonnaise and said, "That's broken." Bobby, Stormy and I said in unison, "It never started." Chef Pierre saved our mayonnaise by adding it back to another bowl with a spoonful of water. If you're amazed, count me in for 4; it was pretty awesome. I was astounded. It seemed as if he was doing the same thing we did except that his technique worked. He explained to us that we probably added the oil too quickly and never gave the emulsion a chance to happen. FYI - Homemade mayonnaise = excellent and Homemade mayonnaise = illegal/unsafe (need to used pasteurized egg yolks).

The sauces made in Day 2 were ready much faster than those in Day 1. The Demi-glace (brown stock + brown sauce) took about an hour and a half to reduce but required no work other than skimming the fat off of the top of the sauce (degraisser). Beurre Blanc (lemon-butter) took about 15 min: 8 min to cook down the ingredients and then another 7 to melt the butter. The Hollandaise and Mayonnaise are simple in theory, but require good technique to execute well. *If you go to a restaurant and they offer hollandaise (only stores well for an hour or two), ask how long ago the hollandiase was prepared. If they tell you it was made the day before, order pancakes!

The crown jewel of Tuesday's class was the fresh tomato sauce: 1. It's something everyone recognizes or has attempted at home; 2. We learned an additional knife skill; 3. It tastes awesome and we got to add it to pasta in class!!!

We started with raw, Roma Tomatoes. We cored (cut out the top) and scored (x-cuts on the bottom) them and dropped them into boiling water to peel the skins. After 20 sec, we dropped them into an ice bath to keep them from cooking. The three of us then peeled off the skin, quartered and seeded -- Seeding tomatoes requires cutting out the ribs and just shaking or pushing out the seeds in cold water-- about 16 tomatoes. At this point, we are left with quartered, seedless segments and a pile of tomato ribs. We practice our "small dice" skills on the quartered, seedless segments adding anything that didn't fit to the "rib pile". Then, for fun, we chop the crap out of the rib pile and add it to the rest.

Interjection: The whole point of separating the tomato pieces is that the rib and the trimmings are just extra. The perfect small dice, or any cut in particular, is really made in perfect proportion so that, if necessary, can be used as garnish.

We add our fresh tomato to onion, carrot, celery and garlic that have been sweating. To that mix, we add a bit of chicken stock just to thin down the tomatoes and let the whole pot roll for about 30 min. After that 30 min period we add fresh basil -- I'm pretty sure I rule at the chiffonade (slice leafy vegetables)--, parsley, salt an pepper.

While making these 4 sauces, Chef Pierre, for fun, cooked up some fettucine so that we could all try our own fresh tomato sauces.
....
....
Just to let you know, there isn't a drop of sauce or fettucine left.

Dude, school is awesome.

--Rees