Regional Cuisine: Provence (Nite of 1,000 Pizzas)

Today's mood was the lowest yet, again with a different third of the class absent. After a short lecture about the region we were cooking from (dry facts about the locally grown ingredients), we reviewed the menu: Bourride (fish stew), Filet de Sardines en Escaneche (marinaded & grilled sardines), Tourte de Blettes a la Niccoise (Swiss chard tart) and Petits Farcis a la Facon du Vieux Nice (Stuffed Provencale vegetables.) Dirty Dave took the tart, Chef Jr took on the four different vegetables, Dora went her own way with the sardines, and Speed and I took a crack at the fish stew.

First step was making Fish Fumet -- basic stock. White mirepoix (onion, white leek) was sweated in butter, then all sorts of fleshy fishbones were hacked down to size an put in with white wine and covered to steam for 5 minutes. A load more of wine, dry vermouth and water were added to cover the bones, along with some herbs. Simmered for about an hour, then strained.

The soup base was more mirepoix and fennel sweated, then tomato concasse, potatoes and orange & lemon rinds thrown in in a sachet. Covered with fish stock, simmered for a while to tenderize the tatos, seasoned with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.

clams. Mussels first, all were dumped in to simmer for 10 minutes. During prep time, I made While that was happening, the seafood was cleaned and portioned: squid, shrimp, red snapper, mussels and little neckaoili (garlic mayonnaise) which now was tempered into the soup (tempering: to prevent the eggs in the mayo from curdling, a bit of the soup is mixed into the mayo and stirred, a little by little to raise the temp slowly, then the mess is added to the big soup bowl.) Parsley and scallion is tossed in for some green, and Chef Jr's croutes are floated on top with pinkish smear of rouille, a puree of red peppers, chilies, garlic, basic and olive oil.

The class rolled to an end, with yesterday's cassoulet (which required holding overnight to get a good 3 hour cookign in) tasting better than just about everything today. Monday, our last day in France, Burgundy.

ADDENDA:
This evening was what I'd call a Night of 1000 (or so) Pizzas. Dirty Dave, Dirty Kim, and Stalker Kowalski came over with toppings and wine (and beer) pairings and we went crazy on the dough I set up to rise in the fridge on Wednesday. Long Island Lolita was supposed to come, but she got sidetracked by some last minute Billy Joel tickets -- Billy Joel to Long Islanders is like crack to a crackhead!

Rather than go on at length about how yummy it all was, check out the pictures:

The dough, right after making it on Wednesday.

The dough, after rising 48 hours in the fridge.

Wonderfully elastic, got to some nice thinness. Can't see it in this pic, but the light was shining through the raw stretched dough admirably.

Under the skirt shot, à la Sliceny.com . I had three air conditioner s in the house running, so I could heat my 2 pizza stones at maximum heat for about 5 hours. The above browning was achieved in 2 minutes. On the bottom stone, 4 minutes slightly burned the crust!

The first pizza: simply caesar-dressing on romaine, cold, on top of a garlic & extra virgin olive oil-baked crust, hit with sea-salt. Made the dressing, too.

Bufala mozz, parm-reg, and homemade tomato sauce, a raw sauce made with market tomatoes. I wanted to use up the whole ball of mozz, and ended up overcheesing, unfortunately. A few glasses of wine down, forgot the basil chiffonade.

Dirty Kim's : goat cheese, sautéed multicolor peppers and clams on top of a layer of mornay sauce (bechamel and gruyère) -- slightly spicy and totally delicious.

Dirty Dave's: duck confit and cherry tomatoes over fontina and ricotta. The saltiness of the duck was a heavenly match with the sweetness of the cheeses.

SK's first dessert pie: roasted pears over honeyed marscapone. Never made a sweet pie on my dough, but it totally totally worked. B's favorite.


SK's second pie: white and dark chocolate over a bed of raspberry sauce. I actually made the crust a little too thin to hold the topping (I guess sweet pies can go a bit thicker than a cheese pie, to balance the sweetness), but it was still amazingly good. I kind of detest white chocolate, but in this case, I thought it really enhanced the raspberry flavor instead of competing with it like the dark.

And, of course, the menu:

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Woke up hungry, first time in quite a while, nice motivation to make a smoothie. Good yogurt and milk, freshly ground flax, banana, grapes, cherries, blueberries, ice, kick ass.

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11am, tarte tatin & vanilla icecream, a stuffed mushroom, a few spoonfuls of fish soup, a small plate of yesterday's long cooking cassoulet (white bean stew with pork), assortment of amazing desserts sent up from the pastry class, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Today's food didn't appeal, unfornately a lot of sweets materialized.

LUNCH: 4:15pm, school-made mushroom risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, small amount of homemade chocolate gelato, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, slices of various homemade pizzas, including 2 dessert pizzas, about 3 units of alcohol, including 3 beers and 4 wines, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5