Day 75: Pigeon, Steak Poele, & Pecan Tart

This week was full of time-intensive menus to get us geared up for our difficult practical exam at the end of the week!  Everyday we were hustling to get all of our dishes out on time…

Wednesday’s first course was particularly time-consuming!  It was essentially a timbale (basically a mold) of squab.  The entire thing was wrapped in braised endive leaves—and there were a bunch of other stuffing components as well!  It was our first time working with squab—which in less fancy terms means pigeon meat.  I took a bunch of photos of the butchery process, so if you are squeamish you might want to scroll on down if you would prefer not to see them! 

The entire process started with breaking down pigeons.  Unlike other poultry we’ve broken down in the past, we received the entire pigeon—head, feet, organs, everything!—and had to clean it all up.  Sounds a bit gross, but I found it really interesting actually.  A culinary school dissection, if you will!  I have to say, they were a bit sad to look at though…

It started with cutting off the head, legs, and then using your hands to remove the lungs from the rib cage!  It was a messy, dirty process.  Once we did this, we were able to literally pull out all of the organs in one go. 

We then trussed the pigeons and seared the legs and back over the stovetop, before roasting the whole pigeon in the oven. 

While we were roasting the pigeon, we assembled the rest of our timbale ingredients (we started braising the endive right when we arrived at school in the morning), which included sautéed mushrooms, as well as searing a small amount of foie gras (duck liver) and the livers of the pigeon. 

We also were given veal mousse—which Chef Patrice had prepared during the morning lecture—to use as binding to hold everything today.  Once our pigeon was cooked, we removed the breasts and legs and sliced the meat.  Then we lined ramekins with endive leaves and filled it up with everything.  This got baked in a water bath at a low temperature for about 30 minutes until it was all set…

To go with our timbale, we also prepared an orange gastrique (gastrique is simply caramel mixed with acid, usually red wine vinegar), which we added to a jus we prepared using the pigeon bones.  To accompany this, we also prepared a simple shallot cream sauce. 

Can you tell that this dish was a bit time-consuming??? It tasted good though! 

Luckily, to balance out the more labor intensive first course, we made a simpler main course of steak poele (pan seared steak), served with a bordelaise sauce.  To go with it, we cooked snap peas and also made pommes rissolees, a potato dish from Phase I, which involves tourneeing potatoes, quickly blanching them, before sautéing them in clarified butter.  We were quickly running out of time, so I had to tournee the potatoes extremely quickly during service!!

And lastly, we served a pecan tart for dessert, with whipped cream quenelle on the side.  The pecan pie was made with a pate brisee crust (flaky, sugar-free dough).  The filling was a simple mixture of melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, toasted pecans, and an egg.  Right when it got out of the oven, we poured on a mixture of Kentucky bourbon and vanilla extract.  Yum! 

We ended the exhausting day with our third (and last) wine class of the program!  We talked a little bit about food pairing, and got to taste a wide selection of wines, as well as Champagne (Perrier-Jouet—the good stuff!) and a very good quality Madeira and Port. 

I think we all didn’t eat enough lunch, because we were all acting a bit goofy by the end of it   Our spit cups were also suspiciously on the empty side…

I then headed home to try to concentrate (difficult after a wine class, I might add) on studying for our theory exam the following day! 

Back soon with an update on Thursday’s class, as well as today’s 5th practical exam. 

I thought it might be fun to write my next school update as a “Day in the Life” type post and looked for feedback on my Facebook page.  I have had a lot of positive feedback so far—so I’m leaning in that direction!  Any more readers interested in this??

Day 74: Rockfish, Rabbit Saddle, & Clafoutis

Woops—the weekend zoomed by and I didn’t ever end up writing a quick weekend update!  Before I knew it, I was heading back to school to start Week 20, which is going to end with our fifth (and notoriously difficult) practical exam on Friday, as well as another theory exam. 

Overall, the menu was quite delicious!  Much better than last week’s sweetbreads…if I do say so myself.  Our first course was a potato encrusted rockfish served with a green olive sauce.  We started by breaking down rockfish (I still need to practice breaking down round fish, but I’m slowly getting better at it).  We then sliced potatoes extremely thinly, until they were almost translucent, with a deli slicer, coated them with melted clarified butter, and carefully wrapped them around the rockfish filets.  We also added in some herbs (chives) for a bit of color.  Right before service, we seared these on both sides in a saute pan to cook through.  The potatoes ended up getting crispy and delicious and it kept the fish very moist. 

The green olive sauce involved blending olives (which we blanched to remove some of the saltiness), onions (sweated), garlic, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice, and a bit of Pernod.  I really liked this dish! 

Our main course involved quite a bit of work.  The main component was a boneless rabbit saddle, stuffed with sautéed spinach, sautéed mushrooms, cooked quinoa, and sundried tomatoes.  The trickiest part was removing the spine from the saddle without puncturing the skin.  To hold it together, we wrapped them in caul fat. 

The rabbit saddles ended up getting braised in a liquid made by searing mirepoix, rabbit bones and deglazing with white wine and veal stock.  This liquid ended up being reduced at the end and turned into a sauce.

To go along with our rabbit, we also made homemade pasta (which at this point, we all know will probably be part of our fifth exam this Friday…).  To add a little interest and flavor, we actually added some chopped chives to the dough while we were rolling it.  It added a fun color variation too! 

And some plain asparagus on the side!  Peeled, of course  

Our dessert was another winner!  We made a blueberry clafoutis.  Traditonally, clafoutis are made with cherries, which still contain their pits (which prevents the juice from spilling and adds flavor).  However, they can really be made with any type of fruit.  Since cherries are not in season, we used fresh blueberries (ironically, they are also not in season—haha) and also a bit of griottes, which are dried cherries soaked in alcohol. 

The batter is very simple to make and quite similar to a crepe batter—simply a combination of all-purpose and almond flour, sugar, cream, milk, and eggs.  It is very moist and custard like in flavor.  I liked it a lot!  And it really was so simple to make…

I see more of these in my future! 

We ended the day by getting together our marinade for a venison dish we will be making this Thursday! 

And now I am off to study for my upcoming test—which will most likely translate into going to bed early, as I am tired!  Posting this week might be a bit sporadic, but I will do my best to keep you all updated…