I Love the Fishes Cause They're So Delicious! Day 24!!!

Hello Food Diary and Hungry Bloggers!

Poeled chicken thigh/leg
with glazed turnips and a pan gra

Today we worked more on chicken, but we also got the pleasure of fabricating a fish...NOT easy. I had a very hard time today. Filleting a fish is A LOT harder than it looks. Chef made it look like a cinch...but that was not the case. Today in our Les Cuissons lessons was Le Poeler and Le Sauter. Le poeler is a humid roasting method...where you cook your protein covered with a little bit of liquid. Le suater is sauteing...cooking in a small amount of hot fat. On the menu was a poeled chicken thigh/leg with glazed turnips and a pan gravy, and Sole Meuniere (a breaded, sauted fish fillet with a brown butter sauce and lemon). I started off class with my chicken, and I saved my fillet-ing for last...which was the worst idea! I should have gotten it out of the way first! Anyways, I seared the skin of my chicken leg with clarified butter. Once it was nice and brown I covered it and put it in the oven. From there I had to baste it every 5-10 minutes. After about 20 minutes I added some nicely chopped mirepoix (carrots and onions), and continued to cook and baste. While that was in the oven I tourned my turnips, and started glazing them. After about an hour I had everything done and ready to turn in. My plating looked great...but I had no time left! I quickly turned in my plate (didn't wait for my critique) and got started on my fish.

Lonely, broken, Sole Meuniere. :(

I was filleting a flat Sole fish. This fish is really weird looking! If you have never seen one...it has both of its eyes on one side of its body...but its mouth curves around like normal (how this thing functions in real life is a mystery to me!) Any-who...I had to start off by scaling it, making my cuts (a flat fish has 4 fillets where as a normal round fish has 2), and then skinning it. I was in such a rush doing this that I didn't learn much about the proper way to do it. My cuts were very sloppy and embarrassing. I literally had no time left, so I took my first cut and started cooking it. (we were supposed to turn in 4 fillets...but I figured one would be better than none) I dredged it through flour and threw it in my saute pan. While that was going I attempted to make my brown butter...but that did not work out. Time was up, so I plated my sad, broken, lonely fish, threw on my nice lemon garnish (this is where my extra time went), and gave it to chef. My chicken plate had still not made it up to the front of the grading table so I had both of my dishes for her to grade at once. She took my chicken and said it looked great...but once she touched it she said it was overcooked...by a lot! Ugh. She did say it had great flavor though, and my turnips were good as well. (could have been worse). Now onto my disaster plate. (Although I was very thankful to get anything turned in...this was embarrassing!) She looked at it and then looked at me. She saw it on my face...and knew that I already understood what was wrong with it. I told her I hadn't expected filleting a fish to be that hard...so I didn't manage my time properly (surprise! my biggest problem!). Chef was reassuring and said...it was my first time fabricating a fish and not to be so hard on myself..."it is a hard thing to do." A little disappointed in myself I started my dishes. Thank goodness it is the weekend! I need some time to regroup! Next week I will be back and shining!

Until next time!! Cook on!

- Chef Kass In Training!