Roasting (Getting to the Marrow of It)

This morning started off with a quiz, which was half matching names to definitions (guffaw!) and half short answer. Outside of forgetting the appropriate internal temp for roast chicken, I assume I aced it. If not, I'm a big jerk for being over-confident.

Today was another day of roasting, this time with a bit more challenging recipes The roasted stuffed squab with porcini truffle butter involved chilling marrow bones, removing the marrow by pushing through with my fingers, then adding to the sauce right before service (to prevent melting). The roasted veal tenderloins with mushroom cream sauce was really tasty -- for this we pan roasted, which was first a sear in a sauté pan on the stove top then into the oven to continue searing, flipping a few times in the oven.

DD & DK took care of most of the mise for those, I got together the Roasted Patty Pan Squash (tiny little bit sized gourds smothered in shallots, garlic and a few aromatics) and Curry-Garlic Roasted Cauliflower (a combo of olive oil and canola is heated with curry powder, turmeric, 10 whole cloves of garlic and aromatics; left to cool; strained; then lightly coated onto the cauliflower for roasting).

I really like DD & DK personally, but they're too good -- while it's more relaxing to work with them, I'm not learning as much as when I was with the some of the less motivated students who needed a team member to oversee that the train remained on the rails. DD & DK would be amazing co-workers or bosses, but are boring to watch if you're waiting for them to drop the ball.

Part of the process of preparing the pan sauces for the meats were flambé, which is very exciting to watch, and goes by pretty quickly. Other than that, today's cooking was pretty straightforward, with some seriously delicious end products.

After class, I met with the externship advisor, and we talked about potential restaurants and media outlets that might help me to form something of a career. It's all pretty gelatinous right now.

ADDENDA:
Sugar is rearing its ugly head at me. Went to yoga today; afterwards, I rewarded myself with a huge slice of watermelon. Unfortunately, after a nice dinner at a local pizzeria with B and some of her friends, we all ordered dessert that turned out to be huge....and I had shockingly little trouble finishing a small bucket of zeppoles.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, granola with good milk, half a too-ripe banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11:30am, a bite of cauliflower, a bite of squash, half a tiny breast of squab, half a veal tenderloin with truffle sauce, 1 very meaty bowl, hunger 4/5
Squab was weirdly gamy, but the veal tenderloin was easily the most delicious thing we've made in class yet. The oyster mushroom cream sauce were redolent with truffle shavings, truffle butter and lots of reduced veal stock.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, large piece of watermelon, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
I wonder if this is considered a dessert?

DINNER: 7pm, half a thin pizza, a huge bowl of zeppoles covered in powdered sugar and nutella, 1 slice of nutella dessert pizza, 1 small canoli, half a glass of wine, water, 1 bowl of pizza, 2 bowls of dessert
WTF? How'd that happen?! They just jumped into my mouth!!