Lesson 5: Lessons Learned

The lessons from menu 5 are Mayonnaise and Creme Anglaise.

As the instructions on pg. 31 note "Mayonnaise is very easy to make if you follow a few rules." I would agree that mayonnaise was easy to make if you follow the rules and have a third hand. So I would suggest, don't make mayonnaise alone. Instead find someone to pour the oil for you while you whisk. If you are so inclined, they could also give you a whisk break when your arm is tired.

The rules that are so helpful would be to bring everything to room temperature before beginning and adding the oil drop by drop until the sauce begins to emmulsify. Then adding the rest more quickly is just fine.

As for the Creme Anglaise, I wrote about my failed first attempt in the previous post. I would say the lessons that I took from making this are that the temperature tollerance of creme anglaise is much lower than a boil and the best judge for me on being done was that the frothy top caused by whisking the milk into the egg yolks dissapeared. This will be extremely helpful as through menu 8 there will be a need to make creme anglaise for various desserts.

The additional lessons that were pretty evident to me are:

1. Cleaning whole fish is not my strength.

2. I am improving my skills in some of the following ways:

-I feel better at finding fresh ingredients at a variety of stores, most notably having success this time at Trader Joe's.

-My knife skills are improving as evidence in the salad.

-My ability to plan and execute a more complex meal has improved.

3. I am continually excited and impressed with the flavor of the dishes and my desire for French cuisine continues to increase. This was a close second, to the leg of lamb, in terms of a flavor and a really well made meal.

I still need to work on a few things, in particular cleaning fish. I would also like to increase my speed in the kitchen without having the quality of my work suffer. My photographic skills need to be worked on. However overall I continue to be very excited about all of the things that I am learning. 

I also feel that by sharing with others (and everyone sharing their thoughts and comments with me) has been an invaluable experience as well. I guess what I am trying to say, is that by blogging I have found an additional learning experience that so far has exceed my expectations. So thanks for reading, and thank you even more to those who have shared their suggestions and comments.

Lesson 5: Menu

Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to Lesson 5 because I don't normally cook and eat fish. It is not something that I dislike, just something that I don't usually buy and cook at home. I also don't normally order fish when we eat out, although my wife and I enjoy going out for sushi and often order crab cakes when we see them on a menu. I also really like calamari, however other than that, I normally select other items to cook at home or to order off a menu. I would really like to find good home fish recipes that would open myself and my wife to eating more fish, and something about the Fish and White-Bean Stew gives me hope.

Here is the menu for Lesson 5, found on pg. 29:

 

	Lesson 5
Salade Messidor SUMMER HARVEST SALAD ___ Cassoulet de Poissons FISH AND WHITE-BEAN STEW ___ Biscuit de Savoie, Creme Anglaise SPONGE CAKE WITH CREME ANGLAISE

In my last post I mentioned that timing may be an issue with finding fesh ingredients, mostly focussed on the fish. I have done some initial research, and Mike at Olde Porte Fisheries has assured me that it should be no problem getting whiting, monkfish and for Lesson 6, fresh mussels. This again is someone that has been extremely helpful and willing to share information with me, for which I am very thankful. My research was done the week before Christmas and since then I have yet to follow up again regarding the fish. I will be doing that this week and hopefully cooking this weekend or next.

The other timing issue would be that the first course of this menu is Summer Harvest Salad, and I will be enjoying this in the middle of winter (if you call it winter when it doesn't snow and everyone, including myself, has been complaining about it being "cold" when the highs are in the 50's and lows in the 30's-40's). I am not too worried about the ingredients for the salad, as I have already seen places to buy most, if not all of the ingredients.

As for the unknown, I am curious and excited about the Sponge Cake with Creme Anglaise. The desserts have definitely been a highlight. As an extension from the sorbet I might be curious enough to double the amount of Creme Anglaise, so that I could freeze some to make ice cream. I have also noticed that I will be making the Creme Anglaise as a base for Bavarian Cream in Lesson 6, a Strawberry Bavarian Cream in Lesson 7, and Creme Anglaise again in Lesson 8, so in the next few recipes I can expect a lot of practice.

In addition to the Creme Anglaise, the other lesson will be to make mayonnaise. Page 31 starts by saying "mayonnaise is very easy to make", which is far enough for me to read to not freak out (even though the rest of the sentence reads "if you follow a few rules").  Following directions, I can handle that, so mayonnaise should be no problem...right?

Can't wait for the fish to arrive!