Each time I upload a photo... I get so HUNGRY! I can still smell that white wine sauce!!!
Today (September 20th) was probably one of the more easy days that we have had in weeks. It was definitely a technical day still, we had to fillet a Dover Sole, a flatfish. That took us about 30 minutes, one of the most time consuming tasks of the day, but it wasn't a bad day!
Here fishy, fishy!...
Today was a sad day for our wonderful photographer, Bubba. You can just see him (above, right photo just behind Chef Marcus Lepke) as he watches Chef ruin his side towel! The best part of this demo for the rest of us, was watching the use of the towel! Bubba lamented as Chef requested a towel to help him peel off the skin of the sole, Chef's response was to use the towel liberally. I mean he smeared as much of that fish on the towel as he could, with no holds barred. It was, honestly, hilarious! Sorry Bubbs... :-/
Getting a good grip on the skin to peel it back was tough! But I am amazed how easily it came off once you got it going.
As Bubba groaned about the fish all over his towel, Chef just put in on the cutting board, right in that stuff!!! :-D
(Bubba ended up ending that towel...)
I did a much better job today with the cutting of the fish than yesterday. It was a bit different, flat fish are build differently and thus have 4 fillets instead of 2. But just getting that experience from the day before, going into this project with a base amount of knowledge really helped get the project finished faster and better.
The first two were alright (bottom two) but as I went it got a bit better. It's still crazy the small amount of meat that you get from a whole fish!
Megan prepares to flute mushrooms, not something I have that kind of finesse for...
As far as cooking went, we prepared the fish in two ways to compare the flavors and cooking techniques of each dish. Sole Dugléré and Sole Meunière, two very different but great ways to prepare this fish.
Sole Dugléré
This one was my favorite type of dish for the day. As a Kitchen we are still a very large class, we have four teams of about six people each, so we get to prepare the dishes differently. I enjoy this, it is really cool to see how someone started with the same ingredients and basic idea, but came up with their own way, their personality of that dish. So we had four slightly different versions of this dish, all were really good, I LOVE wine sauces so this one was a hit for me (some people didn't take to it, but I have an idea that might be related to the mean age of our class, it is quite young).
I also love to caramelize onions, they are my FAVE!!!!!! So doing that and then adding white wine to simmer and reduce, mmmmm...... These are they days I look forward to, after all John Snow has been telling us: Winter is Coming. A good, hearty dish with a nice wine broth warms me right up!!!
Sole Meunière
(It is the dish on the bottom left of the photo)
This dish reminds me of the days long gone. It isn't quite the same, but it is close to one of my childhood favorites. Back, years and years ago, my grandmother would make her incredible butter fried Flounder. The Danes really know how to use butter, Chef Marcus can attest, the Germanic cooking traditions are so, so, so good! I don't have the recipe yet (I am going to try and get it soon!), so I don't remember quite the amount of butter needed for our full meal but it was A TON! Anyways, that was a bit of a tangent...
Sole Meunière is made by searing the Sole, and resting them. You then brown some butter
in a pan and add some lemon juice. Once that is hot your immediately pour it over the fish and serve. It is quite delicious!
We are still learning. The fluted mushrooms (above, left) were pretty and well seasoned; however they were not close to fully cooked. Each team had a slightly different prep for them and some were a bit better than others, but at the end of the day we did not perfect them. Next time!
Mashke and Sarah made a wonderful salad with grilled pears. It was SUPER good!
Different plating techniques for the fish (above, left). Kelly made a wonderful Salmon Cobb salad. This was one of the first dishes to be fully devoured!
Not quite sure what that is, possibly a sense of overwhelming, "shut it!" Our class is not the best at being quiet when we should be, we are working on it!
We only have days left, DAYS, in this block! It's a 6 week block, where did it all go! I can't believe that it's happened. I wonder how many hours I have now been awake and have tried to sleep compared to my old life. Maybe I will find out and tell you! It might just make me super depressed though so maybe not. Sleep beckons as I write this... Still more work to do..........
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