day 48: beef bourguignon over pappardelle noodles

Today, we made a classic beef bourguignon and served it over fresh pappardelle noodles that we rolled out. 1. I've never had it. 2. We got no demo. 3. It turned out great, just following Chef Pastore's directions. Chef Shalchian said I had perfectly tender and well seasoned meat, and a delicious sauce with just the right consistency. I started by rendering the bacon fat and then giving the chuck a good sear in it with a light dusting of flour. Some onions got carmelized with some garlic, and I deglazed with red wine. I added some veal stock and let the meat braise about an hour and some change. Pearl onions and mushrooms got carmelized in some butter, and were then added to the sauce, which I strained and reduced. I mounted with a little butter for some shine, tossed my pappardelle in some butter, and that was about it. I got called "Emeril" for bamming my plate up with parsley...but I should actually be called "Pastore" because it was him I saw doing it the other day with our linguine and clams, and I couldn't wait to try it on my own plate. Both chefs were glad I at least powdered my parsley (which I made sure to do first thing at the start of class so I wouldn't have wet clumpy parsley), and Chef Shalchian said I would have gotten 100 if only I cooked my pasta through a bit more. Unfortunately, I only had 4 egg noodles and was afraid if I sacrificed one to taste, I wouldn't have had enough to plate. Bad call - that sure won't happen again. Tomorrow: second chance on filet mignon for my portfolio!

day 47: pan roasted chicken breast over mushroom risotto and duck breast with dried cherry port wine sauce

Today was test day, and I was glad to finally get a break from these marathon lectures all week. We broke down chicken today, and after a few more I should be able to do it blindfolded. We also made risotto, which I probably haven't done in about two months...and it showed. Overall, my dish tasted great, but I took my risotto too far. Chef Shalchian took a couple bites of my chicken, which can cause you major anxiety sometimes. But then she commented on how much she loved garlic. And I definitely garlicked up that chicken and sauce. All my flavors were on point...I just needed to go more al dente on the risotto.

Unfortunately, I overcooked my duck breast...again. At least I didn't decimate my dried cherries by leaving them in the stock for 17 years like last time, so I'm going to call that progress. Chef Pastore tasted my dish, and I'd forgotten how much I missed his critique. He's got an amazing palate, and knew something had scorched in my pan. I was puzzled, and kept tasting my sauce with him and had no idea what he was talking about. I did sweat some shallots, but didn't really have any opportunity to burn anything in my pan. He told me to bring him the pan, and sure enough, the nasty burnt stuff from whoever had used to pan before had fallen in my sauce. I cannot believe he picked that up. I'd give anything to work under him after school is over.

day 46: fabricating shellfish and sole; lobster dynamite, linguine and clams, shrimp scampi, escargot, geoduck, oysters, clams, mussels and crawfish

We had everything today from raw oysters and clams to geoduck and crawfish as well as lobster dynamite (with scallops), linguine and clams (and an alternate version with mussels), shrimp scampi, and escargot...it was quite the shellfish feast.

This weird thing that looks like an elephant raped a clam and made a baby is the geoduck.

Chef Pastore drops it in salted boiling water for seven minutes, then shocks it in an ice bath.

And if it wasn't phallic enough already, he slips this weird condom looking skin off of it.

He slices only the exterior meat (we do not open the shell).

Because he is Chef Pastore, the knife cuts are flawless. The geoduck was sweet in flavor, but quite chewy in texture. No thanks.

Chef Pastore starts the lobster demo by showing us how to identify the lobster's junk. The females are supposed to have a sweeter meat.

We skewer the tail so the lobster doesn't curl up during cooking, as well as to kill it right before cooking.

Like the geoduck, the lobster goes for a hot, salty swim for exactly 7 minutes, and then we shock it in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

The cuffs come off, as well as the skewer.

Chef Pastore points out the joint between the head and the tail...

and our friend gets it, right along the center of the tail.

We spin it around, and separate the head the same way.

This beauty is called the tomalley...

and it goes bye-bye.

The smaller tearing claw comes off...

and the big crusher gets a good whack under a towel.

Chef Pastore works out the claw meat...

and he trims off the walking legs.

To start the lobster dynamite, we remove the tail meat from our Maine lobster...

slice it on the bias...

and replace the evidence.

Our scallops are diced, dried very well and sauteed until they get a good carmelization...

and we toss it with a spicy mayo (mayo and Sriracha).

This mixture gets stuffed back in the cavity...

and we slather another coat of spicy mayo on top.

Chef Pastore takes to the torch...

and he plates over a bed of salt and black peppercorns. But wait, there's more.

Chef Pastore whittles a lemon for garnish...

adds one last ladel of butter...

and we have Lobster Dynamite. Note how Chef Pastore replaces the claw meat where it belongs.

The crawfish are boiled just like the lobster...

shocked and drained. Oh, how this made me homesick for New Orleans. We twist the tails to eat the meat...sucking the head is purely optional.

We had a variety of oysters to shuck today, which are opened from the V-end. These should be held level in a towel while shucking, to preserve the liqueur.

The clams, on the other hand, are opened from the wide end. I didn't mind the raw oysters, but the clams had quite an agressive flavor to them, especially the larger ones.

For our linguine and clams, we start by cooking small manila clams with some garlic and chili.

We add some white wine to the clam liqueur being released in the pan.

and we evacuate the clams when they open up.

We add some clam juice...

a touch of butter, and let it thicken a bit.

Clams get tossed back in, as well as pasta, if we had any...

and we plate.

Some parsley for garnish, and we have linguine and clams.

Chef Pastore did the same preparation on some mussels. I liked the clams better.

Our escargot was prepared with garlic, white wine, butter and capers. The dish was fine in itself, but snails taste like dirt.

For our shrimp scampi, we clean, peel, devein and butterfly our shrimp.

A little salt and pepper...

and these get parcooked until they are mostly done. We want a little bit of suc in the pan.

We evacuate the shrimp.

It wouldn't be shrimp scampi without a ton of garlic.

We deglaze with white wine, and let it reduce.

Then, we return the shrimp along with their good friends, butter and lemon. We season with salt and pepper to taste...

and we plate.

Shrimp Scampi.

For our final demo of the day, Chef Shalchian fillets sole fish. She points out the dark sack of guts by the head and instructs us to avoid it by cutting around it.

The fin gets snipped...

And like our round fish yesterday, we score all around the fish, flexing our boning knife to the fish's curves.

We cut right along the lateral line, two fillets per side.

Chef Shalchian flexes her boning knife towards the bones for maximum yield...

and takes off the four fillets.

As always, we give it a quick wash...

and a good pat dry.

Removing the fish skin is a lot like removing silver skin, only upside-down. You flex your boning knife on the board, pull the skin in one direction and push with your knife in the other.

Here are my fillets, which Chef Shalchian said I did a beautiful job on. I found the flat fish a lot easier than the round fish, if only because it didn't have any pin bones to pull. It's also probably just getting easier by experience. I was disappointed we didn't have time to cook today, but tomorrow is our test so I'm sure I won't be missing it for long.