Lesson 4: Lessons Learned

Here is my own picture of the Pineapple Sorbet

The lessons from menu 4 are Crepes and Sugar Syrup, or rather I should qualify that these are the two NEW lessons. Skills learned through previous lessons in Roasting, Deglazing and Roux and Flour-Bound Sauces were also needed.

This illustrates clearly how the progression of skills from one lesson to the next is really critical. Having practiced making Bechamel for the Oeufs a la Tripe I was better prepared for what to expect, as well as more experienced and therefore much more comfortable with whipping up the Bechamel sauce for the Gratin de Blettes.

I appreciate this progression as a teaching and learning tool, as well as confirmation of one of my reasons for choosing Le Cordon Bleu AT HOME. I do have a bit of concern that making each dish in order will be a challenge when selecting fresh ingredients, of which I have not had too much difficulty up to this point. However, I am going to go to check out the current fish selection today in order to do a little reconnaissance for Lesson 5 and Lesson 6. I am worried about the timing of these two dishes, as they both contain seafood, of which scallops and mussels would be best fresh. My guess is that scallops could be found frozen, however not ideal I am sure, and mussels will only be available if fresh. I hope that the timing will work out just fine, but I have no idea. As for other fresh ingredients, I feel fortunate to live in an area with a very moderate climate year-round, as well as a place fairly rich with agriculture. Therefore I can usually find most of the vegetables and other related items (with the exception of pearl onions when I need them) pretty easily.

Maybe I should get back to the main event...lessons learned through menu 4!?!

Crepes--As explained in the lesson, crepes can be "served hot or cold, rolled into cylinders, folded into triangle shapes, or even stacked one on top of another" (23). I followed the directions, making the batter, which by the way is very simple, and letting it rest. I used an old crepe cooking contraption my mother let me borrow that consisted of a round electric heating element and a pan that you place upside down on top of the heater. You are supposed to heat the pan up and then dip the bottom of the pan into the batter, flipping the pan upside down back onto the heater to cook. This definitely helped keeps the crepes very thin, and was much easier than using an omelet pan. The ones I cooked in the omelet pan were much thicker. The crepes were easy to roll up and I had great results with the dish. Overall, something I found pretty easy, although I would buy two crepe pans (as instructed) for next time as well as give myself more time to cook the crepes.

Sugar Syrups--Another lesson that I thought was pretty straight forward and easy, requiring some patients to allow the liquid to heat up on low heat so that all sugar is dissolved prior to boiling. Nothing to exciting here, until the simple syrup was combined with the pinneapple and frozen in the ice cream maker...then...magic!

As for the other lessons, roasting the leg of lamb will take some additional practice to get the proper doneness all dialed in (although who knows the next time I will buy a leg of lamb and roast it again?), but deglazing the pan with water was a breeze and produced my favorite sauce so far!

I am not so sure that I learned it through this lesson, but I confirmed that entertaining is definitely more complicated than cooking for family at home. I do enjoy entertaining, as I enjoy sharing good food with others at least as much, or even more, as I enjoy eating good food myself. Having extra people around was helpful as I used the extra helping hands around the kitchen to help with grating cheese and making crepes, both required more time than I had budgeted.

All in all, I have to say again that this was my favorite meal so far. I am sure glad to have the confidence from making all of these dishes pretty much failure free the first time around so as not to embarrass myself too badly in front of my guests.

Lesson 3: Lessons Learned

There are two lessons to be learned through the menu for Lesson 3: Roux and Flour-Bound Sauces, and Liaisons. I can confirm, as stated in the last post, that I had my first failure.

First the positive. Roux and Flour-Bound Sauces were used during this meal to create the bechamel sauce for the Gratin of Hard-Boiled Eggs. I felt successful completing this, taking care to whisk so that the sauce would not burn to the pan. It surprises me that the sauce turns out with a sweet flavor at the end.

Now for the big failure. As you have read from the previous post, my first attempt at using a liaison to thicken a sauce resulted in a thin sauce with chunks of floating egg whites. I know exactly what I did wrong, and it mostly had to do with being lazy. Instead of scooping out a little warm sauce to pour in the bowl with the egg whites, I instead used the bowl with the egg whites to scoop up a little warm sauce. By doing this, I didn't get enough sauce to actually warm up the egg whites enough so they wouldn't boil when I poured them into the pan.

I have to admit, that this failure has increased my concern over my ability to learn to thicken sauce using a liaison. My concerns are magnified by both the importance of sauces in French cooking and the fast approaching Thanksgiving holiday. The first being that I understand the importance of sauces to French cooking. The veal was great on its own, but it could have been spectacular with the sauce. The second being Thanksgiving, a day I have hosted and cooked for my family for the past few years, and for two years before that in my college apartment for my roommates and friends. At each Thanksgiving I have yet to make gravy, this being the my most notable use of using a liaison to thicken a sauce. I typically leave this to my grandmother or mother who both use corn starch as the liaison. The last two years I have been trying to observe and learn, but mostly just watched from afar. Knowing that I have failed with the egg yoke, this year I feel more determined to attempt the same technique to make gravy, hopefully learning more for the next time I will need to thicken a sauce.

In addition to the lessons outline in the book, I was also able to learn to hard-boil eggs properly, and enjoyed picking up the Les Halles cookbook to read some more. I think Bourdain does a good job of teaching his way through the recipes in that book as well. When the eggs are properly hard-boiled, they spin way better than hard-boiled eggs that are overcooked...it's kind of fun to see them spin like a top!

My final thought is that I have been amazed at the desserts, with the exception of the caramel custard, the desserts have been the highlight. The Chocolate Mousse was easy to make and a real wife pleaser!