I was hoping we could make the sauteed duck breast again since we were fabricating duck today...but I'd never say no to chicken marsala. It was also nice to see Chef Pastore demo it, not only to get a refresher but to see a slightly different technique as well. Before that though, we get a refresher on tourne cuts.
Chef Pastore starts by squaring off his potato.
He then carves each of the corners into a "C" shape, like a football.
Now with four rounded sides and four flat sides, he starts carving the flat sides into a "C" shape at a slight angle so that the tourne will have seven sides (about two sides per one whole flat side).
When he gets his basic tourne shape down, he can...
go back for a second or third pass to refine the sides.
Take a bow, Chef. Good job.
Next up, Chef Shalchian preps our duck by removing the neck, liver, kidneys and other goodies from the cavity. A bird without this bag of treats would be called a W.O.G. (without giblets).
She gives it a good wash...
and a good pat dry, inside and out.
Like our chicken yesterday, she starts by making an incision where the leg and breast meet...
until she can snap the thigh bone from its joint just like this. She was extra careful to make sure the breast skin stayed intact.
Also, like our chicken yesterday, she separates the breast by sliding her boning knife as close as she can to the keel bone on either side.
The rib cage was lot more fragile on the duck than on the chicken.
After removing both breasts, she flips the bird and slides her finger under the oysters to separate them from the bone.
Carefully cutting around the oyster...
and following straight down to keep as much yield as possible...
Chef Shalchian removes the leg entirely from the carcass.
She cleans and trims the fat around the leg...
and carefully trims the fat around the breast, making sure to preserve about 1/4in beyond the meat to allow for seizing upon cooking.
Here is my fabricated duck...
and for fun, another chicken.
The highlight of the day was seeing Chef Pastore do what Chef Pastore does best: cook. Cook chicken marsala. Here, he heats up some oil until it starts to smoke.
After pounding out his chicken breast, seasoning it, and lightly dredginging it through flour, it goes for a saute in the hot pan, presentation side first (the shiny side that has/had the skin).
You can tell he's getting a nice brownness once the edges crisp up...
and we flip. Why did we do the presentation side first?
Because the second side never browns as well.
Setting our chicken aside, we carmelize some onions in the same pan, adding more oil if needed.
Next we add the mushrooms, and we definitely want carmelization on these. Today, we had oyster, cremini and shiitake to choose from...delicious!
Like potatoes, mushrooms love a good hit of salt.
Chef Pastore adds some shallots, and we saute.
And for the marsala in chicken marsala, we deglaze with marsala wine, scraping up the fond from the pan.
We let that reduce, about demi-sec.
Then we add just a bit of veal stock, for body.
We mount the sauce with cold butter...
and we swirl, swirl, swirl.
We check our seasonings to make sure the sweetness from the marsala wine is balanced with some salt. We also add our concaseed tomatoes and some parsley. Then, we add our chicken back to the sauce to coat.
Finally, we plate.
Hell, why not all of it.
Here is my chicken marsala with pommes vapeur. After over-herbing yesterday, I made sure today to season with a gentle hand, especially the black pepper. Chef Shalchian said my chicken was cooked nicely, although there was a small spot that may have overcarmelized from too much heat in the pan. My tournees were cut beautifully, although I might have overcooked my potatoes just a bit. Best of all though, she said my marsala sauce tasted great as I really found the balance between sweet and salty. Fantastic! I also made sure to serve on a nice hot plate. After burning Chef Brown's fingers once, I may have gotten a little bit shy about heating my plate too much. But Chef Pastore and Shalchian always give the plates a quick test pat to check the temperature, so I don't think I'll be having that problem in this class.
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