Bonjour Food Diary and hungry Bloggers!
Today class was full of "woosah moments" for me. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTGdAGPDBpo) "Woosah-ing" is supposed to help relieve the stress...but today that didn't really seam to work!
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| Chefs demonstrating Beurre Blanc and Aoili |
It was mayonnaise day...or emulsion day to be more precise. We had to make four different types of sauces with a mayonnaise type base. For those of you who are fortunate enough to have never made mayonnaise by hand...it kinda sucks! lol You basically have to whisk egg yolks with a lot of oil...but you have to continually whisk really fast while adding the oil
REALLY slow. It is a long, tedious process that is really easy to mess up, and leaves your one arm that is whisking looking like Popeye when your finished (and you don't even get the pleasure of eating that yummy can of spinach...there is no time!)
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My station in class...That is my mised out tray on the right! |
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| The Beurre Blanc |
Anyways, the types of sauce we made today were Hollandaise, Buerre Blanc, Remoulade and Aoili. All of these sauces are very tasty once finished, but very hard to make for a beginner (they can "break" really eaily if you add to much oil - too fast) We had about an hour (not a lot of time) to finish all four and get them turned in for grading. So I get all my mise in order, it takes me about about 15 mins, and start as fast as I can. Chef recommended that we start with the Hollandaise (egg yolk whisked with hot clarified butter, mixed with lemon juice, cayenne and salt - Really good on asparagus or eggs Benedict!). That was one of the hardest and longest to make so we should get it out of the way. Which is exactly what I did. I got my hollandaise done in about 25 mins, whew my arm was tired. Then I started my Beuerre Blanc - White wine and minced shallots reduce, then cold cubes of butter are swirled in. That one was easy and only took me about 15 mins. Now time to start my 3rd sauce...looking at the clock I started to panic...I only had five minutes left but I needed about 25 minutes to finish everything. Oh no!!! I knew there was no way I would finish...I didn't think I would even get my third sauce out. Stressed, I started to throw my Remoulade ingredients together (1 egg yolk whipped with 8oz of oil - this is the hard part - then mixed with finely minced capers, Gherkins, parsley, chervil, tarragon and salt.) Whisking and whisking and whisking I was working at the speed of light. "ONE MINUTE LEFT, GET ALL OF YOU SAUCES TURNED IN OR THEY WONT BE GRADED," yelled Chef. AHHHHHHH....I am not going to finish. I am not OK with turning in only two of the four sauces. Frantic, I whisk and pour oil... I'm...almost....done. "10 SECONDS," Chef yells out again. I quickly dump the rest of my oil in whisk as fast a I physically can, toss in all of my remaining ingredients...throw them in a bowl and place on Chefs table. I didn't taste it so I was sure it wasn't right, but I figured turning in a bad sauce was better than turning in nothing. (0 out of 100 vs 50 out of a 100...I will happily take that 50!) Chef grabs her spoon, mixes it around, and takes a taste. "Very good Kassandra. Needs a tad more salt. Other than that great job" she says.Wait, what? That is awesome!! Here I was thinking it was going to be bad! Feeling pretty good I start doing my dishes and help the class clean the kitchen. After talking to my fellow classmates i found out that only a few people out of the entire class finished all four sauces. This made me feel better about my results.
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| Hollandaise Sauce...being present to Chef |
Today sure was stressful...and I have defiantly started to feel the pressure. The trick is to not let it get to me. I need to keep my head in the game. I CAN and will do this! Woooossssaaaaahhhhhh!
Till next time my fellow food lovers
Au Revior!
-Chef Kass in Training
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