Weeks 4 and 5: Writer's Block and Aspic

Friends:  I have been slacking on my blogging duties the last week.  I’d like to blame it on mid-winter darkness, chills and general malaise, but honestly it’s just been a bad case of writer’s block and some amusing distractions.  I was intent to get caught up on my semi-free Monday afternoon, but I just didn’t get to it – the culprit knows who he is!

That said, other than the adventures in lamb, last week finished with a few new dishes. The first was Truite en Bellvue, a cold poached trout in aspic served on a pile of cold white rice. It’s the sort of thing I would have expected to see on a buffet at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas around 1965. You can dress it up with whatever pretty garnishes you want, but it’s still cold fish covered in fishy gelatin.

We wound the week up on Friday night with a braised rack of pork with black olives and a pot of ratatouille, the famous Provençale vegetable stew.  Nothing new with either dish, just a more practice on butchering and braising.  Pork came out okay, if slightly on the rare side, and the ratatouille was fine because I’ve made it at home about a million times.

So far though, the highlight of this week was my first turn as a demonstration assistant.  On Tuesday I helped a Chef with a demonstration for the Grand Diplôme Level 2 class.  The Grand Diplôme students are the brave souls attempting to learn both pastry and cuisine at the same time, and thus follow a similar, but differently-timed curriculum.  And guess what their dish was that day?  Chartreuse de Riz de Veau, the chaos and drama-provoking dish I made just a few weeks ago!  I got a good arm workout scraping  a LOT of chicken through a tamis to make farce fine, peeled some sweetbreads, washed some dishes,  and mopped up spills and wiped cutting boards.  Other than that, I stood in the corner and smiled like a hostess on The Price is Right.  It was a good experience though, watching a Chef run a demo – a million things to do and keep track of, all the while talking, explaining and answering questions.  I’ve taught classes and workshops before so I can understand how hard they work in each and every class.  They sweat during the demos, and we sweat during the practicals.

Tomorrow morning is an early class – we’re making a rolled turkey breast with yet another farce fine, this time with saffron, cilantro and almonds, and a spicy and sweet couscous with dried fruit.  It doesn’t seem like an especially difficult dish, but yet another practice of important techniques and a nod to the historic influences of North Africa and the Silk Road on the evolution of French cuisine.

Will leave it there for now, but more updates later this week!