Sauté (You Know I Got Sole)

Today's lecture was brief, basically a run-down of the recipes we would be making today, the third day of sauté. The sautéd spinach was simple -- a lot spinach, triple washed, salted, enough to crowd the pan to prevent the copious amount of water from splattering in the hot olive oil. Move around until wilted, then set in a strainer to get out the extra liquid out.

The Paillasson de Pommes de Terre is basically julienne potatoes (we used the mandolin for the first time today during mise prep) tossed in clarified butter, lemon juice, and salt. It is placed in a hot iron skillet with more clarified butter and allowed to brown into one big pancake. It is flipped once and if too thick, finished in the oven.

Dover Sole a la Meuniere (in the style of the hat maker) found us fabricating a whole sole, removing the head, then the skins and tail. It is dredged in flour then sautéed. The fish is removed and lemon supremes, whole butter and parsley is thrown in to brown a bit, then this pan sauce is served with the fish.

We sautéed a tranche of salmon, and served with a Salsa Verde (parsley, basil, garlic, capers, sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt, all pureed) that we finished during mise. Additionally, we cooked up a loin of lamb with a simple pan sauce using reduced lamb stock.

Today, mise went quick, with 2LG, RH and N coming up to me and asking what was to be done next when they finished their task. Neasy peasy, quick n' easy! N revealed that he too could not kill the lobster, and that he is a commis (unpaid helper) at Café de Artistes, where he preps the mise for the line cooks every weekend. I thought he was a bit of a goof with a little attitude, but he actually rocks harder than most kids in the class.

Chef demoed the Sole, then we went at it. My fish's skin kept on breaking when I tried to pull it off with my knuckles, and Chef observed I had an unusually thick-skinned fish. I did a 2nd and it went a bit smoother.

We all started with the potatoes, and they took a surprisingly long time to cook, maybe 25 minutes. RH and N were able to flip it in the pan, I copped out and turned it out onto a plate then slid it back in the pan. The sole looked quite elegant in the pan, and when presented to Chef M, he showed me how if it's cooked properly, the 4 fillets will literally fall off the bone with a little tug. Indeed, mine did, and the golden crust formed by the dredge made this light-tasting but flavorful fish something I want to cook for company -- it's a showpiece (well, for me, anyway!)

The salmon looked nice, but confirmed to me that it's taste is a bit of a boring note, overplayed and oversold. The lamb's preparation was simple sautéing and making a pan sauce, but the reduced lamb stock we used really kicked it over the edge in terms of flavor. I thought I had over cooked it on one side, with a thick caramelized crust that almost looked burned, but when sliced thinly it looked quite attractive, and Chef gave me kudos for getting the meat to proper medium-rare.

Tomorrow, deeper into the grease with pan-frying.

ADDENDA:
After class, I went down to God's Love We Deliver for my first volunteer shift in the industrial kitchen they use to pump out thousands of meals a day. At first I was put on a line assembling desserts, plopping a bit of pudding in a container, putting the lid on, placing on a tray, etc. Everyone was very nice and a bit on the grandmotherly side. Soon, a fellow student from my class showed up and grabbed me away to the the knife area, where 5 of us rough chopped potatoes and broccoli. Today I literally doubled the amount of broccoli I've chopped in my life.

In our group was Hillary Cruz, Miss Teen USA. She was oddly tan and strangely over-made up, but nice enough, even if she didn't quite know how to hold her knife correctly. We all chatted, and I asked her what was it that clinched her win for the crown. She said that it's probably because she's not a typical pageant girl. I told her I wished Britney Spears would have embraced her short hair when she had her break-down, to join in the fight against the tyranny of the uniformity of popular female beauty. (She had no witty retort.) She was on the Rachel Ray Show with Miss Universe and Miss USA recently, so what do I know? Oh well.

Met with Ilsa yesterday, we spoke about my fast and how I'm feeling, health wise. I'm starting to feel a little bit lighter, though I definitely don't look any different. Ilsa is a bit concerned about my blood pressure -- since cooking in school, it's become very explicit to me how much salt I'm taking in. This morning before breakfast, I read 132/100 , definitely not that great. Gonna measure the next few days before I book a check up.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, 3 buttermilk pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Wacked 2 in the freezer.

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11:30am, 1 Paillasson de Pommes de Terre (1 bowl), Dover Sole a la Meuniere (.5 bowl), Tranche of Salmon with Salsa Verde (.25 bowl), Sauteed Loin of Lamb with Pan Sauce (.25 bowl), water, total 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Fullest I've gotten from class yet.

DINNER I: 5pm, large baby spinach salad, large piece of chocolate babka, seltzer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER II: 8pm, 3 sea scallops in pan sauce with short grain brown rice, small scoop of agave cashew vanilla ice cream, half glass white wine, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Used store-bought frozen fish stock, much better than the stuff in the tetrapacks. Didn't have clarified butter, so the butter solids browned a bit, but was still quite tasty. Nice to see I can replicate with some panache the stuff we're doing in class. The wifey was impressed.