beef bourguignon – Stewart Borden

All You Need Is Love, and that darn Hollandaise – Day 75

TODAY’S TIDBITS

To keep your Hollandaise hot, put it in a thermos (courtesy of Diana Colman)
3 times – this seems to be the magic number of times that ‘most’ of us need to really nail a dish, unless you’re A2.
When pressing the final roll of fettuccine through the pasta roller, I have found it is best to keep the strands all aligned (don’t let them curl up). This way you can lay them out flat to dry and won’t stick to each other. You can also see if there are any that fail ‘quality control’ and bin them.

I humbly accept defeat to the poached eggs dish. I find it so frustrating that every little diner in the city can serve up a nice poached egg with a ‘hollandaise’, and after three days I still can’t nail it. Ugh!

The chefs giving us our evaluations.

My poached eggs, I’m smiling, but deep down I know how much they still needing improving

Jess, filleting the bass

It was the class’s third day doing our recipes, and judging by the comments by the chefs at the end of the day (“Today was a nice improvement”), most of us did much better, though the chef’s didn’t hold back when the improvement wasn’t there. It was another mock final exam, which meant we all picked a number out of a hat (mine was A4) and plate according to the schedule on the board. At the end of the day the chefs go over their assessments, but for the past two times they’ve only said the number, not the person’s name. So you hear the comments, but aren’t exactly sure whom they’re talking about. I think I like it better when you hear the names, you’re able to give high-fives to those that do well, and also you know who to watch in the kitchen, and we all know each other pretty well by now that we can take the criticism publicly.

Joanne nails the tarts

Anyway, when time came around to rate number A4 (me), the comments weren’t so good on the poached eggs. “The hollandaise didn’t cover the eggs fully”, “not enough vegetables”, “the vegetables were caramelized”, “could be warmer”. Ugh!!! It was super-frustrating because I knew I had slightly burnt the vegetables when trying to heat them up, and one egg I didn’t fully cover (the one chef picked), and I’m definitely going to bring in a thermos to try Diana’s trick to keep the Hollandaise hot. But then a nice surprise. The chef said “I don’t want to mention who this is because it will end up on a blog, but the beef was really outstanding with the best sauce. Really outstanding”. I was blushing all over because everyone knew it was me, and so I got a whole bunch of high fives. This is what its all about I guess! The “plates of the day” went to A2, which was Joe. The chef said you know you have an excellent plate when “you don’t want to stop eating it”. Congrats Joe.

Meagan removing her papillotes from the oven.

Third time’s a charm. Luis gets his tarts to the chefs station.

Later, several people came up to taste my sauce and/or ask what I did differently. Today I was totally focused on getting the consistency of the sauce perfect because yesterday it was too thick and on the first day it was too thin. Today I knew I had nailed the consistency, which means the flavor is more likely to be right. But I really didn’t have an answer for any “magic”. What I do know is that I love this dish a lot. Maybe all you need is love.

“Old School is Gooood Schoooool”, Boeuf Bourguignon, and Pure Mayhem – Day 73

TODAY’S TIDBITS

Cut a small slit in your papillote when pulling it out of the oven so it doesn’t deflate (more on this dish next week).
Your pasta dough is properly kneaded when you stick your finger in it and it springs back 90% of the way.
Use clarified butter to brown your croutons to get a beautiful even brown colour.

Today was the day Chef Dominique had been subtly warning us about for the past three weeks. My half of the class had to prepare Poached Eggs with Hollandaise over macedoined vegetables plus Boeuf Bourguignon and the other half had Bass en Papillote and the Lemon Tart. And it was pure chaos!!!!

Chef demoing the beef bourguignon “old school” style

Emma plating the poached eggs

Lemon curd coming out of its shell

Everyone was running everywhere, there were burnt and spilt tarts, broken and curdled Hollandaises, fresh pasta too hard to cut into fettuccine, sauces that weren’t reducing, eggs that were too cold or over poached, there was a fire alarm, ovens at all the wrong and different temperatures, papillote that weren’t sealing, etc… Even the normally calm and genial “ICC Mayor Joe” didn’t have time to answer questions.

I really wanted to nail these dishes. I had served my first poached eggs and Hollandaise to my brother and his wife on a visit and it was a total disaster – the eggs were cold and the hollandaise didn’t work at all. Ugh. So I had a personal rivalry going with this dish. And also, this beef dish was the one that got Julia Child her book deal. It really is a classic dish. Chef told us this dish was “old school, but old school was goooood schoooool”. But my dishes definitely weren’t gooooooood school today.

Sofia and Dolma double teaming to hit the deadline

“Mayor Joe” and crew prepping the beef shoulder

The day Vitor fell in love with a fish

The eggs sound pretty simple: Place two eggs in 180F degree water with a mise cup of vinegar in it. Swirl slightly at first so the eggs don’t stick to the bottom, wait “twoish” minutes till done, remove and shock in ice water, trim, and reheat in hot salted water before service. (You have to wash the vinegar off, and the salted water gives the eggs some additional taste.) You shouldn’t poach them in salted water because the salt interferes with the coagulation. Chef told us to always poach an extra egg “just in case”, I forgot to do this, and of course one of mine broke slightly (I covered the break with Hollandaise so I might have gotten away with it). The hollandaise is whisking and egg and an egg yolk with a bit of water over a hot water bath till it thickens (a sabayon), and then slowly add clarified butter off heat, and finish with salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. I ran out of time to get my sabayon thick enough. The eggs are served over a bed of macedoined (“old school” cubed) vegetables, and topped with an “x” of tomato peel.

The beef is marinated overnight, seared and then braised in the marinating liquid. It is plated in a reduced sauce of the marinating liquid, deglazed sucs and stock, along with those darn pearl onions, mushrooms sauteed in bacon fat, freshly made swirled pasta, and a heart shaped “crouton” tipped with parsley. Again I ran out of time. I left my pearl onions till too late, I forgot entirely about the pasta for a while, my sauce took too long to reduce, my pasta stuck together, and I realized I didn’t have parsley well after the Chefs announced “has everyone got all their ingredients?”. Thanks Joe and Alton for donating some parsley to the cause. Ugh…I’ll do better on Monday. Despite the chaos, the kitchen smelled amazing. While yesterday’s fish fumet is a taste highlight, the red wine braising is definitely a smell highlight.

Today I’m volunteering at the Jame Beard House, and Chef Kruse is preparing 11 courses, so we have to be there at 2pm. There are three cameras in the kitchen so you can watch here to see if I’m peeling the potatoes correctly. Have a great weekend everyone.