Sauté (Napoleon I am I am)

At the start of class, Chef reviewed the method of sauté and the method of making a pan sauce. In a modern kitchen, pan sauces take too much time -- the flavorful fond is trashed in favor of a ladle of pre-made sauce kept warm until needed.

Four recipes were up today: Pommes Persillade (sauteed cubed potatoes with garlic and parsley), Brined Pork Tenderloin with a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, Sea Scallops with Onion Compote and Sautéed Strip Steaks with Aguardiente (a funky licorice-flavored liquor). We were broken into new teams, and I got 2LG and RH again, with the addition of a fourth member: a kid with a lip ring who calls me "Bullwinkle" because my hair curls out of my commis cap. Let's call him Natasha.

First up was knife skills, particularly a medium-dice potato for Pommes Persillade (which will be on our practical this module.) If the potatoes weren't evenly sized, the browning would also be uneven. We all spent the first hour collecting our mise. On the board it said Potato, Garlic, and Parsley minced for Knife Skills. I finished my drills first, and went about collecting mise. When I get back a few minutes later, all three others in the team were mincing shallots -- way more shallots than we'll need. Once again, I step into supervisory role -- no one else was doing it. Natasha then nick-names me Napoleon. 2LG and RH immediately step into line, and N follows their lead. Yes, our mise is complete before everyone else, though N burns the carmelizing onions (not enough fat) and I redo it for him. N looks a bit sheepish, so I tell him that he's rocking -- he gives me a quizzical look and asks me why I said that? "Because despite the step back, we're ahead of the curve and totally rocking, thanks in part to you!" He continues to call me Napoleon, but with a little affection. It's easy getting 20- year-olds on your side!

I assigned different tasks while I sorted the mise: 2LG cleaned the scallops, N got the pork into the iced brine and into the fridge, RH got our liquors into squeeze bottles and roasted the red peppers. For the scallops and pork, the team puréed the sauces and placed them into bowls above the stoves to keep warm till we needed them. A round of cleaning, double checking the mise, a demo from Chef M how to do the potatoes and steaks properly, and we were off sauteing.

First up we did the potatoes. Getting those little cubes of starch evenly golden in clarified butter, hitting them with the garlic/parsley mix, then seasoning with a light hit of salt....like delicious little french fry cubes, garlicky and happy.

The scallops were surprisingly easy, first dredging them in a flour and cumin mix then sitting still in clarified butter in the pan for a few minutes on each side gave them a wonderful golden crust. The onion compote was a bit odd tasting, but Chef gave it a thumbs up. I look forward to making these scallops again for B, though perhaps with an interesting stock/butter/parsley pan sauce.

The pork tenderloin was trickier than I thought, especially considering that I've made myself pork tenderloin many times for myself and guests. After taking out of the brine, it's wetness splattered in the hot fat, and prevented a good fond from forming. After sauteing for a good 3 minutes on each side, the center was till too rare and had to be finished in the oven. According to Chef M, it was still a bit too pink in the middle but I thought it was perfect....I like more pork on the medium rare side, though that freaks some people out.

The steak I totally muffled, making my pan too hot and browning the surface too fast and dark while leaving the center of the steak a tad far from medium rare. There was no time to try it again, though I definitely now have a better feel for what is a too-hot pan and what is a too-cool pan.

After class, I attended a 1-shot seminar in butchering a whole spring lamb. The entire carcass was laid out in front of the room, with mirrors above so all could get a good look. Weird seeing it in one big animal-shaped portion, and even weirder seeing it become chops and loins and racks before our eyes. I know a lamb becomes about 50% trim, and here watching him toss pieces off left and right brought the point home -- our meat consumption is insanely wasteful.

After butchering, several pieces were grilled and cut up for us to taste the different flavors of the different cuts. As expected, the loin was soft and mild, and the shoulder was a bit tougher but 5x more flavorful. I definitely want to experiment was some cheap tough meats cooked long and slow...

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

A nap yesterday afternoon threw me off. Slept 6 hours, feel imbalanced. Only ate the banana so I wouldn't get too uncomfortable later.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, piece of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30am-11:30am, .5 bowl of Pommes Persillade, .5 bowl of 2 sauteed scallops over onion compote, .5 bowl of sauteed pork tenderloin over roasted red pepper sauce, .25 bowl of steak in Aguardiente pan sauce, 2 cups water, total 1.75 meaty bowls, hunger 4/5

The brined pork was salty, everything else was seasoned with salt for the Chef's taste - very salty.

PM TASTING: 2:30pm, 4 small pieces of grilled lamb from various parts of the lamb, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
The loin was tender but relatively mild. The chuck (shoulder) was pretty delicious, if a little tough.

LINNER: 5:30pm, falafel on whole wheat, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, half pint of vegan cashew milk ice cream, small left over pulled-pork sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The cashew milk ice cream is made with agave, a low-glycemic sweetner. Got a lot of stuff do do this evening and am tired, hope it keeps me up a little.