Le Cordon Bleu - Lesson 16

Mains

Medaillons de veau sautes a la sauce au tarragon

served with Gratin dauphinois

Desert

Crepes aux poires 

Aka Juicy soft veal medallions with a creamy tarragon sauce (of course) served with Gruyere cheese potato bake and if you're not full yet, we'll throw in a couple of thin pancakes with pears (that have been macerated in sugar).

Before we get started with the cooking and eating of veal, I'd like to take a minute to talk about what veal is and where it comes from.  Veal is the meat from a young calf,  mostly a byproduct of dairy farming.  In order for diary cows to continue to produce milk they must give birth to a calf once a year.   This fuels the production of veal calves and bobby calves (which I'm not going to go into). Across the world veal is a controversial issue due to the treatment of veal calves.  Different countries treat their calves differently, resulting in different types of meat produced.  

In France, and other parts of Europe, veal calves spend their entires lives in individual crates, where they are unable to turn around, they do not see the light of day and they are fed a nutritionally complete milk formula resulting in a classic white or ivory to pink coloured meat.  They are slaughtered 18-20 weeks old.

You can feel a bit better about enjoying your veal in Australia as here the calves are generally reared in groups (unless they have been quarantined due to illness), enjoy a diet of fed milk, milk substitute, grain and cereals.  They are reared until they are 7-8 months old resulting in the meat being pink-red with a texture not quite as silky as the French version, but with very little taste difference.

Since ancient times veal has been an important ingredients in both Austrian and French cuisines.  Generally the same cooking rules apply to veal as they do to Beef, using the same cuts for the same methods of cooking, with the exception of the rareness.  Because veal calves are slaughtered so young, they have under developed immune system and are more prone to illness and so veal should be cooked a minimum of medium.

Returning to our French cuisine, we were using the tenderloin, which is the premium cut of veal.  It consists of the eye meat above the backbone, is nice and tender and has very little fat and sinew.  The tenderloin gets cut into the 3 main parts: tournados, chateaubriand and filet mignons.

I was lucky to pick up a piece of the chateaubriand, with the smallest amount of sinew, so after cleaning up the tiny spec of sinew and fat, I cut it into 3 medallions, tied them with twine (to hold their shape) and let them rest in the fridge to set their shape.

We sautéed our veal medalions medium-rare, to an internal temperature of approximately 60 degrees, in a splash of grapeseed oil.  When sauteing any meat, put the meat into a hot pan and then try not to touch or move it before it has had a chance to develop a good colour.  The brown colour holds lots of taste and looks great.  Nothing worse than a grey piece of meat on your plate.   Sneak a peak at the colour, once you are happy, turn it over and repeat on the other side, adding another splash of oil if your pan has dried up.   I then tested my internal temp on my thermometer, and if you have the colour you want and its not yet cooked, pop it in the over to finish it off.  After the cooking is complete, remove the veal and leave to rest.  Then comes the sauce; degrease the pan by wiping off any excess oil using paper towel, deglace your pan using 100mls of white wine and let it reduce to 1/2.  Strain and remove to a clean pan (one that won't discolour), add 100mls of stock and reduce again to approx 1/2.  You sauce should be starting to get thicker and stickier by now.   And then finally, add 100mls of cream and reduce again.  Just before serving, add a blob of butter and finely sliced fresh tarragon.  YUM!!

Serve your medallions in a puddle of your delicious sauce.

While this was all going on we also get our Gratin Dauphinas on the go...Dauphine is a region in France. Its cuisine relies heavily on cheese, freshwater fish, crayfish, mushrooms, potatoes, and fruit, making our Gruyere cheese and potato bake very traditional, and with no shortage of cream, also very delicious and fattening.

Start by taking a few peeled Desiree potatoes, slicing them about 1.5cm thick, par boiling them in milk that has been seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg (and maybe a bit of garlic).  In the meantime heat 300ml of seasoned cream, strain your potatoes and carefully layer them into a pre-buttered and dish that has been rubbed with a garlic clove.  Pour over the warm cream to 3/4 full and bake at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.  Cover in grated gruyere cheese and bake again until cheese is golden and potatoes and soft all the way through.  

Finally to finish off with the crepes.  Crepes originate from Brittany, a region northwest of France, but are now consumed across France and are considered a national dish.  

A crepe is a thin pancake made with a trace of butter and then fried in butter or oil.  They are eaten both savoury and sweet and today we made sweet crepes with macerated pears.  

You can macerate fruit by sprinkling it with sugar, this allows fruit to release and stew in their own juices making them tastier and easier to digest.

It is best to use fruit that is still firm. We macerate our pears by peeling, de-coring and then slicing them into thin slices.  We layered them onto a tray and sprinkled them with sugar.  This was then left out while our batter rested.  Oh, I haven't mentioned that yet, yes... it is very important to make your crepe batter ahead of time and let it rest for at least 1 hour.  This is so the gluten in the flour is given time to relax before cooking.  If you are resting them in the fridge, return them to room tempreture before cooking.

Finally, before cooking, make sure you are using a frying pan that is smooth.  Most restaurant serving crepes will keep their crepe pans separately, so that they are kept beautifully smooth so that your crepes don't stick.  

Heat up a blob of butter and just before it browns pour in your crepe batter.  Spread evenly over the surface and when you have colour, turn it over and cook the other side.   We layered our slices of pear into our batter, but you just as easily add your pears after cooking, fold them up and serve with some cream.  We finished our crepes off by brushing them with Poire Williiam liqueur (pear liqueur), but you could use any liqueur of your choice.

Le Cordon Bleu - Lesson 6

Saturday's schedule does not include theory, so after waking, I spent 2 hours spring cleaning the house so so that we don't scare tomorrow's guest away(!) and then headed to Le Cordon Bleu for my 11.30 start.

So starts another exhilarating day at Le Cordon Bleu, today's menu treated us to Braised (cooked in liquid) Lamb Shanks (second grade cuts) in a red wine jus (sauce made from reduced stock) served with sautéed green beens and glazed carrots (turned of course)
&
Risotto (cooking method of absorption)

Chef Elke did a wonderful job demonstrating these dishes as well as Chocolat semi freddo, which we didn't get to make but we do get to taste next Thursday.

First priority was to season, brown, degrease, add deglaze the shank and to get it into the oven asap.  Then we prepped the other veggies and started on the risotto.   Half way through the risotto turn the lamb and then finish off the risotto and serve when ready (thanks Chef Elke for being so kind :).  Turn, blanch and refresh, saute and glaze the carrots and bean.  Finally finish off the lamb by reducing the stock into a beautiful jus.  Plate and serve.  Easy peasy!  (and VERY yummy).

Risotto had 200g cream in the recipe and lots of parmesan, so I think i'll be heading out for a run tomorrow morning.

Above:  Chef Elke plating the risotto and our days notes

Above:  Chef Elke finishing off the lamb shank and adding the jus

What we learnt today and a classmate having her plate assessed.

ps - I got a 'You love cooking don't you?' on my Risotto (although it was a bit crunchy) and a 'Perfect' on my lamb shank.  I also had my jus used as an example :)  Yah me!  Pity Ryan's not home to help me enjoy it!!

Handy tip of the day:
Risotto:  Also add boiling stock or cream to your arborio rice, otherwise it will become stodgy.
Braised lamb shanks:  Also make sure you have cooked off all the alcohol when cooking with wine, otherwise you meal will taste bitter.  To make a sweet jus, reduce your wine before adding stock.

After class i headed off to Greg and Abby for a yummy bbq, not cooked by me, but still perfect :)

When i rolled into Kirribilli after leaving G&A (at 11pm), I stopped to take a photo of the bridge, where tomorrow the city of Sydney is allowing 6,000 people (one of which is me) to have breakfast on the bridge.  The city of Sydney is closing the bridge and laying 1 acre of turf (for the cows).  Isn't that amazing!  Anyway, these are a few of the last lucky cars to make it across before the bridge is closed for this event at 1am.

Le Cordon Bleu - Lesson 5

Second Day at Le Cordon Bleu with Pissaladiere and Rice Conde (Rice pudding) on the Menu.

After a weird morning theory class, which I'm still not entirely sure about today's subject, we were dished out a group assignment and separated into groups of 5.  3 of of our 5 don't speak very good english, so i reckon it's going to be a bit of a challenge.

During our morning demo Chef demonstrated both dishes with grace and ease, making both look extremely simple.  However, the Koreans were not keen on the mixing sugar and rice and it was the first tasting dish set out in front of our class that was not spontaneously gobbled up.  Even Chef commented on this.  Chef also had a field day on the guy in the first row who kept nodding off.

Into the practical and it was blaringly obvious, that besides 'Italian' and myself, not one of our other class mates had ever used yeast before (or payed attention during the demonstration) and most of them produced hard biscuits instead of the sponge we were aiming for.  I proudly got a 'very good' from chef for my assessment.

However, my rice skills are not that great, and my rice pudding was a bit stodgy!  oops.

It was a great, exhilarating day!  I loved it!  Oh, i also found out that I can expect to earn aprox $14.95 per hour (before tax), LOL, I'll have a tough time explaining that to my accountant :) (who i can no longer afford)

ps - yesterday i bought a proper toolbox, moved over my stunning Wusthof knives, and stocked it full with a few stolen things from my kitchen making today much easier that yesterday.  Things like scales, little bowl, measuring cups and spoons all made my day almost a breeze.

Top left:  Pissaladeirre, top right, class tasting pissa
Bottom left:  Chef putting the final touches on pissa before it goes into the oven.  Bottom right:  3 single serving of rice pudding.

Above:  pissa, breads and rolls and other ingredients off viewing tv in demo room.

Above:  bread and rolls

Le Cordon Bleu - Lesson 4

Today was my first day at Le Cordon Bleu, Sydney.  I joined 1 week late and it was the most fun I have had since possible pre-primary school!

After the 2.5 hours theory on hygiene and stock receiving and keeping, I enjoyed my very first demonstration where Chef John, make Thai style King prawn salad and Quiche lorraine.  The taste test proved yummy and then off we all set to complete our imitations of his masterwork.  About 4 hours later, some of the quiche Loraine's in our class looked more like scrambled eggs, but then to be fair many of my class mates have NEVER before seen a quiche before.   Mine (proudly stated), was the most cooked in the class and was used as the demo, as in a good demo, after the class.

My salad was great, except I kind of cheated because I left out the papaya and then when realising I just stuck a few pieces in without redo-ing it, but i had already plated 3 times as my salad stack kept toppling over.

Anyway, fabulous day, and of course Ryan and I enjoyed King prawn salad and quiche lorraine for dinner.

My quiche is the one on the left, isn't it pretty ? :)

Day's schedule.

New class schedule.

Le Cordon Bleu - Orientation Day 6 Oct 2009

YAH! Very exciting!

We were treated to little pastries, pots of hot fresh coffee and 3 hours of motivational speeches, but came across a little threatening. 100% attendance is required! Don't take any food you don't cook home with you! and your uniform must be clean and neat, you will be sent out of the kitchen if this is not so! Yes Chef, Yes Chef, Yes Chef :)

I am the only blond in the whole intake of approximately 120 students this term! I am also one of the few that have English as their first language. There was one granny in the class, but I suspect she was there for moral support, leaving me as possibly the oldest women attending! Those 17 and 18yr olds probably think I'm a granny! lol ;)

The Customer Service Manager of Le Cordon Bleu kindly pointed out that if we had been working hard to attain the 5.5 English score to be accepted at Le Cordon Bleu, that we must not stop there and we must keep learning our English. Only problem was that I suspect that this speech was presented a bit too quickly for those it was aimed at! But I shall keep learning my english good! I wonder how much of a hindrance the language barrier will be.

Registration, class schedules and uniform rules were handed out. Class schedules range from starting at 7.30am to ending at 10pm, but I have been given a beautiful class schedule that starts at 9am and ends at 6pm.

Le Cordon Bleu shares the premises with Ryde TAFE, which should be easily accessible for me, hopefully taking less than 30 minutes one way, also conveniently close to Ryde shopping center (where I went and had a small shopping splurge after class).

Last week I picked up my Le Cordon Bleu tool Kit and uniform, a black canvass case filled with large Wusthof knifes, timers, peelers, zesters, etc, making it all very official. I've taken them out to play a few times and have almost sliced off a few pieces of my hands, with two bleeders already. I suggested to Ryan and I buy some waterproof plasters, but he suggested I just get better at using the knives. Fair! I might do that:)

Right: Registration in action

Welcome and why...

Welcome! This is a blog of my experiences and I am giving it to anyone willing to take the time to read them. I hope this is fun, exciting and not a waste of time (yours and mine:)

About Me
To help describe me, here is my life's philosophies:

#1 You only get one life, so live it. Don't be boring, try things out and never live to regret anything you do. EASY!
#2 Eat good food. Quality vs quantity or eat quantity of quality. Don't eat meat from tins! Yes, that included chili con-carne and Spaghetti & meat balls. (long story).
#3 Be a nice person.
#4 People are surprisingly similar and want similar things....(more about this later)

Be bold
With the above in mind, I am uprooting my boring, stable, repetitive life! I'm leaving my corporate IT job and follow my passion of cooking. A recently completed season of Australian Masterchef 2009 inspired me to enrolled (and soon start) my first 3 months at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Sydney! My employer has kindly agreed to a 3 day working weeks, allowing me 3 days work, 3 days cooking school and 1 day rest, every week from 6 Oct to Christmas.

My new exciting life plan action is:
#1 Expand my vast (at least i think it is) cooking knowledge and learn to cook professionally! Learn to appreciate food even more than i do now! (and eat lots of yummies in the process) YAH, and YAH!!!
#2 Create a cooking school YAH YAH YAH!
#3 Leave predicable stable job behind to do something that is inspiring and fun. Something to make me excited to get out of bed each morning. YAH YAH YAH!!!!
#4 Keep loving, adoring husband loving and adoring
#5 Keep fit

My love for cooking, hubbie and my kitchen often results in Hubbie sitting and chatting in the kitchen while I prepare dinner. Our dinner parties more often than not end up inside the kitchen, it's a fun room, filled with possibilities, things brewing in jars and pots and bottles. Anyways, my point is that you should not be afraid of the kitchen, spend some more time in there, it's only a matter of getting in some practice in chopping, slicing and dicing and soon you will be a kitchen masterchef too.

why

My mother religiously keeps a daily dairy, cunningly it's in dutch and neither i or my sisters speak Dutch, so no lock was needed to keep us nosey kids out.   Often I think how wonderful it must be to be able to look back and see what great things have happened in your past.   That,  together with friends and family often asking for simple tasty recipes, I have decided to document my journey into the food world and hope that we all get to share something special along the way.

Lets get started
So moving on as swiftly as I started, today I am going to start with 2 recipes. One is a quick, healthy and tasty Tuna pasta. And the second, a decadent, divine triple chocolate brownie that is always a hit!

bye for now...