Slight amount of procrastination happening now, as really I shouldn't be writing my blog, but instead studying for our first theory test tomorrow (hehehe!). How could I go without telling you what we did?Today was an interesting day, as our theory teacher walked out after the first hour of a two hour class to attend a union meeting, which as it turned out then lead to a 'walk out' of all teachers!
Chef John Daly was kind enough to still present our demonstration lesson before he walked out, but we were awarded a sub teacher for our kitchen class. So, enter Chef Vito Mancino!
Chef Vito Mancino is about as Italian as they come and just willing to give out any information that he can think of. This was great! Sadly his accent is so strong that I was probably only able to understand about 80-90% of it, however I suspect that was a lot more than others in my class.
Todays menu was Chicken supreme chivry (aka poached chicken stuffed with mousseline and served with onions, mushrooms and a cream sauce). The point of this dish is to keep everything blanc (or white), so the chicken is poached and not roasted, the mousseline (which is a chicken mouse) is kept white too, using white pepper to season, etc.
We were also supposed to have a cheese souffle on the menu, but that was scrapped due to the union strikes.
There are 5 main components to this dish:
1. The chicken - needs to be trimmed, and a big hole poked through it. Filled with moussseline then pouched in chicken stock.
2. Pistachio nuts - these are blanched, refreshed and then individually peeled and sliced.
3. The Mousseline (chicken mousse) - grind up chicken, add egg whites, cream then sieve, season and add pistachio nuts. This took the most time as Jon and I spent ages trying to get the Robot coupe to work, and when it did, it stank like off chicken because it hasn't been cleaned properly by the previous user, so we had to stop, clean and try again.
4. Beurre Ravigote - the compound butter made with finely chopped chives, tarragon, parsley and butter. All ingredients are mixed together then you rolled into clingfilm and set in the fridge. This is later sliced and added to the sauce and on top of your chicken.
5. Sauce (i have lost the french name for this) - this is made from the chicken stock used to poach the chicken, reduced down, cream is added, then again reduced down, then the butter is added and it is served.
This dish must be one of the most delicious chicken dishes I have ever made or eaten. However, just looking at it undid my 3 days of weight watchers. I think I would be expelled from weight watchers if they knew that when I got home Ryan and I enjoyed the chicken, sauce and butter! Ryan even licked his plate (that might actually have been a first ever!).
Good news: I did not burn or cut myself! Yay me!
Bad news: my onions were over cooked (i blanched them too long), and my chicken was sliced too big.
Chef also demonstrated how to turn a mushroom, which was very very impressive. I managed to get a photo (first photo, top right hand corner), sorry about the poor quality, I left my camera at home today and my little iPhone had to step up to the job.
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