This lesson was one of the easiest and cheapest to date. It included 4 dishes, two of which I had done before and two that were very easy to do. The lesson was:
Gratinéed Onion Soup (Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée)
Trout with Almonds (Truite aux Amandes)
English-style Boiled Potatoes (Pommes à l'Anglaise)
Snow Eggs with Caramel and Crème Anglaise (Oufs à la Neige)
The Cooking
The hardest part of cooking a multi-course meal is to synchronize every dish, so all of them become ready at the right time. If you miss the timing, your dish might be too cold, too hot, too soggy, too hard, etc. This lesson was one of those because I had to have the soup ready at the right time and had the trout and potatoes cooked just before I sat to eat, while keeping them warm on the oven.
I never done Onion Soup before and I never order them at a restaurant, so I had no clue what taste or appearance it had to have. But the recipe was very, very easy and I'm pretty sure it makes it easy to mix one or two more ingredients to get quite a few variations on the theme.
I did the trout wrong. It was supposed to be whole trout, not filets, but while I was at the market I blanked out and ordered the filets. It wasn't a big deal since I've made a very similar dish before with both, filet and whole trout. I really like the taste and texture of trout.
The boiled-potatoes was a joke, oh wait, that's the French joke about English people, hence the name "Pommes à l'Anglaise" and by the description on the Cordon Bleu everything that is said to be "à l'Anglaise" is the simplest way to cook it.
Finally, the desert was very similar to a desert we have in Brazil with the same name, except that instead of using boiling water to create the "poaches" they use boiling milk. I took my eye for 30 seconds from the Creme Anglaise and it became a bit of a scrambled egg again.
The results
The onion soup was pretty bad. I don't think I sautéed them enough to get a good brown-ish color and that taste of caramelized onion. That's because I followed the instructions by time (they said 20 minutes on low heat) instead of using my instincts.
The trout was very good, well seasoned and the almonds was an interesting extra on the dish and they were a perfect combination to the potatoes. If I was picking how to do the potatoes I would have sautéed them in butter and add the parsley at the end. Boiled is too bland.
The desert was very interesting. Taste-wise it was very good, the presentation didn't look as good as I wanted, mostly because the creme anglaise was a bit clumpy, the "poaches" were not round enough and the caramel was too soft, and I wanted it a bit harder/crispier.
Technical Data
Guests: Rita, Alessandra
Total cost: $35
Item hard to find: none
Utensils bought: none
Appliances bought: none
Best dish: Snow Eggs
Worst dish: Onion Soup
Score
Recipe
Ingredients
Preparation
Cooking
Taste (1-5)
Do it again?
Onion Soup
Very Easy
Easy (20min)
Easy (30min)
2.5
Maybe
Trout w/ Almonds
Very Easy
Easy (30min)
Easy (30min)
4
Likely
Boiled Potato
Very Easy
Easy (5min)
Easy (15min)
3
Unlikely
Snow Eggs
Very Easy
Easy (20 min)
Medium (45 min)
4
Very Likely
Table Legend: Ingredients - How hard to find them; Preparation - Cutting, assembling, washing, etc.; Cooking - Roasting, frying, searing, etc.; Taste - 1=inedible, 2=edible, 3=good, 4=great, 5=OMG; Do it again? - How likely would I do it again (based on cost, time and result).
I actually cooked this lesson four weeks ago but I've been delaying writing the blog post. It has been 8 months without cooking any lesson due to the new baby and I was eager to go back to cook. The lesson consisted of:
Choux Puffs with Gruyère Cheese (Profiteroles au Gruyère)
Guinea Hen with Cabbage (Pintadeaux au Chou)
Strawberry Bavarian Cream (Crème Fraisalia)
The Cooking
It took me a long time to find the Guinea Hen, after much search on 5 different supermarkets and 4 other butcheries. I found it thanks to a friend of a friend who also likes to cook.
The Profiteroles was one of those recipes that I knew upfront I was going to mess it up. First, I need to do puff pastry, then bake the profiteroles, then add the filling and finish it up. I found the recipe actually fun to do it. I was surprised when I added the flour all at once that the whole thing didn't become a clumpy thing.
Again I had to truss a chicken, this a time a guinea hen, and I found out that it doesn't matter how you do it, as long as things are tied together. Guinea Hen (also known as Guinea Fowl) is like a chicken with black feathers. It's relatively popular in Brazil (and apparently very popular in France). In the USA, from what I could gather is not popular, but not rare either since almost every butcher I asked about knew what it was.
For the desert, the Straberry Bavarian Cream was almost a repeat from the Bavarian Cream, with the added strawberry puree. I felt pretty good this time about desert and the cooking was not stressful.
The entire lesson took me probably less than 4 hours of cooking, way less than previous lessons, some of which took me more than 12 hours.
The results
The Profiteroles au Gruyère were just amazing. So amazing that I'm making them again for the New Year's party I'm going to. Usually people think of chocolat profiteroles, but their savory side is excellent as well and Gruyère is becoming one of my favorite cheese.
The Guinea Hen end up undercooked. It was absolutely my fault (of course) because I forgot to check the internal temperature after I roasted on the oven. Since the recipe called to roast then to cook in broth, I thought that the final cooking would take care of cooking it fully.
And the desert was very delicious and of perfect consistency, like a light soft creamy desert, not too sweet.
Technical Data
Guests: Marcone, Ilka, Mario, Suzana
Total cost: $81.03
Item hard to find: Guinea Hen
Utensils bought: Pastry bag with 4 tips ($7)
Appliances bought: none
Best Dish: Profiteroles au Gruyère
Worst Dish: none
Accompanying wines: Milbrandt Vineyards, 2007 Chenin Blanc, Columbia Valley, USA; Sagelands Vineyard, Ellipse, Columbia Valley, USA; Penfolds Bin 389, Cabernet Shiraz, 2005, Australia.
Score
Recipe
Ingredients
Preparation
Cooking
Taste (1-5)
Do it again?
Profiteroles au Gruyère
Very Easy
Easy (30min)
Easy (30min)
5
Very Likely
Guinea Hen w/ Cabbage
Very Hard
Easy (45min)
Medium (90min)
3.5
Unlikely
Strawberry Bavarian Cream
Very Easy
Easy (20 min)
Easy (30 min)
4
Likely
Table Legend: Ingredients - How hard to find them; Preparation - Cutting, assembling, washing, etc.; Cooking - Roasting, frying, searing, etc.; Taste - 1=inedible, 2=edible, 3=good, 4=great, 5=OMG; Do it again? - How likely would I do it again (based on cost, time and result).
It has been a while since I cooked anything interested on this project. The reason is that we are staging the house for selling it, and our time has been devoted to that.
However, I found a very cool new website for you to create your own cookbook: The Secret Ingredients. It sounds pretty simple: You sign up, enter your cooking recipes and pictures, check out and you get your own cookbook on the mail. It's the real deal.
My only problem is that I'm not a big recipe inventor. Usually, I can make up a lot of things without recipe and using whatever I have at hand, but I never take notes. One time, we did a beets and squash soup that was out-of-this-world delicious, but since then I failed to recreate the recipe and we keep just wishing to have another taste of that soup.
This week I also did lunch instead of dinner. I need to adapt to my friends commitments. Since I have so many friends with kids, I try to invite one couple of kids and one without. I had some concerns about the quantity so I increase a bit of the portions.
This week's recipes were:
Onion Tart (Tarte à l'Oignon)
Mussels with Wine and Cream Sauce (Mouclade)
Vanilla Bavarian Cream with Raspberry Coulis (Bavarois à la Vanille, Coulis de Framboise)
The Cooking
I love when a recipe allows you to prepare a big or tough part ahead of time, and the dough for the Onion Tart was just like that. According to the book, I could prepare it 2-3 days in advance while keeping it on the refrigerator. That's what I did, but then... When Saturday came, I checked out the though and it was tough like a rock. Did I ruin the dish? Well, I gave it an hour or so to reach room temperature and it was still pretty tough. I decided to roll out the dough anyway, and, surprise... It worked perfectly. I found this dough recipe quite easy to do.
For the mussels dish it seemed like an easy task. I've done mussels many times and I've learned how to know when mussels are ready. That part was very easy. The hard part was creating a reduction with the liquid left-over and crème fraiche. The problem is that if you heat too much, crème fraiche can suffer so chemical separation of the fat (like cheese), and that's exactly what happened.
The desert was quite simple. Crème anglaise, like last week, whipping cream, gelatin powder and the raspberry coulies. I almost messed up the crème anglaise by cooking at a higher temperature than what I used last week, but at the end it worked out pretty well. The gelatin powder also had some issues becoming too firm before I mixed with the crème anglaise. My solution was to poor a little of the crème anglaise over the gelatin, mix until they were relative well homogeny and then turn it back into the big bowl w/ the rest of the crème anglaise.
The Results
I think I never had home-prepared Tart dough before, because this was just perfect. The onion tart was very good. It didn't have onion taste, but a sweet mix of tart dough, cheese and nearly melted onion. Really wonderful and I'm glad I did two tarts instead of just one.
The mussels were good, but not great. I was expecting something much better, but it was just like nearly every mussel recipe I had before. I'm starting to think there aren't any original way of cooking mussels. That said, I love mussels and I ate quite a bit.
And, finally, after five not so great deserts, this one was excellent! It was not too sweet, or too moist or too dry, just great. And given how simple it was to prepare I think I'll have to do a few more times.
Different from other "lessons", I think this one, although without any dish that stand out, was the most uniform experience with three very good dishes.
Table Legend: Ingredients - How hard to find them; Preparation - Cutting, assembling, washing, etc.; Cooking - Roasting, frying, searing, etc.; Taste - 1=inedible, 2=edible, 3=good, 4=great, 5=OMG; Do it again? - How likely would I do it again (based on cost, time and result).
For the first time we did lunch on Sunday instead of dinner on Saturday and I think it work out better, because we don't feel so tired at the end of the meal. On the other hand there is just so much that can be done in the morning, which is critical for foods that must be prepared just hours before serving.
The recipes were:
Summer Harvest Salad (Salade Messidor)
Fish and White-Bean Stew (Cassoulet de Poissons)
Sponge Cake with Crème Anglaise (Biscuit de Savoie, Crème Anglaise)
The Cooking
This time I had to compromise on three fronts.
The salad was quite simple. It was the first time I cooked artichokes by trimming the leaves first. Usually I cook as a whole and eat the base of the leaves as well. The first compromise of this lesson was the mayonnaise. The recipe called for a home-made mayonnaise with Dijon mustard. There was two pregnant and I couldn't serve that because the base for mayonnaise is raw egg yolks.
The cool part was blanching the tomatoes to remove the skin. I didn't know it was that easy, but dropping them in boiling water for 10 seconds or so and then quickly moving them into cold water (so they don't cook). It works amazingly well.
The main dish was very promising, with onions, tomatoes, carrots, white beans and fish. The second compromise of the night was that I couldn't find monkfish. I tried 3 different markets, but they were all out. Instead, I used Halibut Cheeks. I left the white beans in the water for about 24 hours, so they were relatively fast to took (less than 1.5 hours). The third compromise of the night was the tomato and onion mixture to go into the stew. Since this is not tomato season, they were pretty tasteless, so I decided to add a can of diced tomatoes.
Finally, there was the dreaded desert, which so far is 0-4 against me. The Sponge Cake was so thick that was near impossible to spread it on the pan. I wonder if anyone at Cordon Bleu ever followed the recipe instructions they wrote. The Crème Anglaise was very easy to make. The hard part was to wait for it to thicken (I think I had the fire too low).
The results
Contrary to what I was expecting, the salad was not heavy because of the mayonnaise. The artichoke bottoms were excellent and a bit more firm than you usually find on cans, which I really liked.
The Cassoulet was also very good. According to Jordana it’s the best dish I’ve done to date! The topping of the Cassoulet didn’t look as crispy – with the bread crumbs – as it should have been but it wasn’t a problem. The white-beans with tomato sauce and the fish were all near perfect seasoning (not under-salted like many of my previous dishes). This Cassoulet felt like a perfect dish for a Sunday family lunch.
Finally, the desert had some issues (again!). The Sponge Cake was neither a cake nor a biscuit, it was something in between. However, one of the persons on the table, which lived in France for a year said it was quite common that kind of hard dry cake with Crème Anglaise in France. So, I probably did it right, but the taste was not great.
Technical Data:
Guests: Alfredo, Audrey, Roger, Dana
Total cost: $100 (Artichokes are quite expensive this time of the year)
Item hard to find: Monk Fish (substituted with Halibut Cheeks).
Utensils bought: Gratin dish ($20), Flour Sifter ($7), Small Whisker ($3), Cake Pan ($17).
Table Legend: Ingredients - How hard to find them; Preparation - Cutting, assembling, washing, etc.; Cooking - Roasting, frying, searing, etc.; Taste - 1=inedible, 2=edible, 3=good, 4=great, 5=OMG; Do it again? - How likely would I do it again (based on cost, time and result).
This lesson was relatively easy with the biggest challenge being to find the Leg of Lamb to the specifications the recipe required. After a one minute discussion with the butcher, I gave up. He was not going to understand what I wanted and I couldn't make myself clear.
The recipes were:
Smoked Salmon Crêpes (Crêpes au Saumon Fumé)
Roast Leg of Lamb (Gigot d'Agneau)
Swiss Chard Gratin (Gratin de Blettes)
Pineapple Sorbet (Ananas Givré)
The Cooking
I've made crêpes several times before(BTW, to my English speaking friends, it sounds like "crap", not "crape"). The secret to great crêpes is to not worry too much about making a few that look like a truck with snow chains went over them. I only needed 7, but I've made 10. The last 7 were the better one because they were thinner. The content was macerated smoked salmon ("marinated in milk").
The Roast Leg of Lamb was the wrong part. It was a leg of lamb with the bone, but it was not "shortened". I would have cut to the right subject if I knew what I was supposed to do. Because the piece was 4.9lbs, while the recipe called for a 3lbs, it took way longer to cook. Instead of 40 minutes, it took about 1h. I always use thermometer to know when the meat is "perfect". It just eliminates the guesswork.
The Swiss Chard Gratin was another recipe that I had a bit of a problem with one ingredient: The swiss chard. Turns out that it's really hard to find that one (at least this time of the year), but I found a "Red Swiss Chard". It looked very similar except by the stem being red. This recipe also used Béchamel, which was used on the last 3 lessons, so I'm becoming an ace on that.
Finally, the Pineapple Sorbet was a great experiment. I had never, ever done ice cream before (or sorbet) and it sounded so simple, that I was over optimistic about its success. Well, after I unboxed the Ice Cream maker that I had just bought, I start reading the manual and I found out I should have put the container in the freezer for 6-24 hours. Well, too late for that now. I manage to put it in the Freezer for about 2 hours, because I needed to make the Sorbet and then leave the sorbet for 2 hours.
The results
The Smoked Salmon Crêpe was very good. It was a perfect first course. I was expecting a very bland taste, but it was very tasteful. Seasoning was perfect and the creme fraiche topping matched very well.
The dinner was the Roast Leg of Lamb and the Swiss Chard Gratin. The Leg was thick, so the middle was more of a medium-rare, while the outside was medium to medium-well. That was ideal because of some people on the table not being able to eat medium-rare (because they are pregnant). It seems people really liked the Leg of Lamb but for me was a bit chewy.
The Swiss Chard Gratin was ok. Not a great dish and I probably won't repeat it because it's a bit too much work for not so great results.
Finally, the Pineapple Sorbet worked quite well. It tasted very fresh, but the consistency was very different from the first scoop to the last one. Probably because the churning on the ice cream maker suffered because I forgot to freeze the container. I'll absolutely do the Pineapple Sorbet again and I'll try a few more fruits like Banana, Mango, Nectarine and more.
Technical Data
Guests: Marcelo, Flavia, Fabricio, Lilian
Total cost: $86
Item hard to find: Shortened Leg of Lamb (had to use the regular one); Swiss Chard (used "Red Swiss Chard")
Utensils bought: none
Appliances bought: 1 Ice Cream machine
Best Dish: Pineapple Sorbet.
Worst Dish: Swiss Chard Gratin
Accompanying wines: Columbia Valley Sockeye, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 (USA); Scala Dei Prior Criança (Priorat), Grenache/Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000 (Spain); Porto Rocha, LBV Prot, 2000 (Portugal).
Score
Recipe
Ingredients
Preparation
Cooking
Taste (1-5)
Do it again?
Smoked Salmon Crêpes
Very Easy
Easy (10min)
Easy (15min)
4
Likely
Roast Leg of Lamb
Medium
Easy (15 min)
Easy (1h)
3.5
Likely
Swiss Chard Gratin
Medium
Medium (20 min)
Medium (25 min)
2.5
Unlikely
Pineapple Sorbet
Very Easy
Medium (15 min)
Easy (10 min)
4.5
Very Likely
Table Legend: Ingredients - How hard to find them; Preparation - Cutting, assembling, washing, etc.; Cooking - Roasting, frying, searing, etc.; Taste - 1=inedible, 2=edible, 3=good, 4=great, 5=OMG; Do it again? - How likely would I do it again (based on cost, time and result).
Because my son's birthday party on Saturday, we didn't schedule a lesson for this weekend. Back to our regular schedule next week.
The one thing I manage to do this weekend was a major clean up on our pantry, which included throwing out 3 fondue sets (who needs 6?), several serving plates (ceramic and metal) and a box of Pringles that had expired *4 years ago*!
This has been the easiest lesson so far. The prepping was very fast because the only thing to chop was 1 onion. I had to clean and prep the mushrooms and a few other things, but it didn't take long. Again, desert was a challenge.
This weekend recipes were:
Gratin of Hard-Boiled Eggs (Ouefs à la Tripe)
Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms (Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise)
Chocolate Mousse with Hazelnuts and Whisky (Mousse au Chocolat aux Noisettes et au Whisky
The Gratin of hard-boiled eggs sounded like a very simple dish. I have one of those egg cutters that will do the hard part for me (by the way, the strings broke on the last egg so I need to buy another one). It used one of the "mother sauces" called Béchamel (flour, butter, milk). One of the things the French cuisine and I have in common is the belief in sauces, but I always have difficulty creating amazing sauces.
The veal shank was not that hard to find. I actually got the butcher to cut to exact specifications which was great. I never had veal shank before, and it looks like is not the highest quality meat of a veal there is. Lots of connecting tissue, that probably why doing in stew is the way to prepare it.
How hard can it be to melt a pound of chocolate? For me it seems to be pretty darn hard. I can never get the chocolate to melt at the perfect point. This time, I think it was too cold, and when I added the egg yolks it become very rigid and hard to mix. Another mistake I've made was that I forgot to remove the Hazelnuts skin, but that was barely noticeable. Finally, I had to cut down on the Whiskey from 6 table spoons to just 1 because of two pregnant on the dinner.
Results
Pretty amazing how an egg, flour, onion, butter and milk dish can turn out. The eggs were just delicious. It was just perfect.
The veal turn out to be pretty amazing was well. It was voted the best dish. I love bone marrow so for me was an extra bonus to have that as well. The pearl onions end up over-cooked just a tad, becoming too soft. Most people felt it had not enough salt, and to be honest I forgot to do the last tasting on the sauce to check for that.
Finally, the desert was not a disaster (yay!). A few people felt was too sweet and a few felt it was not. That's how it supposed to be (you can please all). It didn't end up with a mousse-like consistent, becoming a bit harder than you would expect, but I believe is a bit related to the fact that I forgot to remove from the refrigerator until the last minute. I should have taken it out 1-hour before serving.
Technical data:
Guests: Eduardo, Katie, Flavia, Carlos (and Camila)
Total cost: $57
Item hard to find: none
Utensils bought: 1 teaspoon/tablespoon measurer ($4); a new 14-piece pan/pot set ($159) - I needed a new sauté pan so why not buy everything new?
Appliances bought: none
Best Dish: Veal, followed by a close second by the Eggs.
Worst Dish: Mousse -- it simply didn't feel like a mousse.
Accompanying wines: Umberto Cesari, Sangioveses di Romagna, Riserva, 2004 (Italy); Château Latour-Laguens, Bordeaux, 2006 (France).
This weekend was easier than the previous one. There were very few things to chop and slice, and the only thing that worried me was desert. I've never been a good cook of deserts, mostly because I'm not a big fan. I'll replace a desert with a savory dish any time.
The recipes were:
Country-style Vegetable Soup with Noodles (Soupe Villageoise)
Veal Scallops with Apples and Calvados (Escalopes de Veau Vallée d'Auge)
Caramel Custard (Crème Reversée au Caramel)
I was very worried about the soup because it used a lot of leeks. I had no idea what a soup with that much leek would taste like. Not only that, but the soup called for Chicken Stock, but not any chicken stock, your own home-made chicken stock. So, two days before I cooked my own chicken stock. The only thing it didn't go so well for the chicken stock was that I didn't do a good job a removing the fat on the top.
Finding the veal scallops was not that hard (I went to Whole Foods), but it was expensive. At the meat counter, there was a debate between me and the butcher if "veal scallops" was the same thing as "veal scallopinis", since he only had "scallopinis" and he told me "scallops" was a shelfish (oh, really?). I still don't know the difference if there is any.
Cooking the desert was never wrecking. First, because I had to pour hot milk into an egg custard, and I heard if you don't do it right you end up with scrambled eggs. Second, because I never did caramel, and I know that sugar boils very hot and just a tiny amount dropping on you can hurt quite a bit. Plus, the book said going from great caramel into burnt caramel was very fast.
Results
The soup was outstanding, it was thick and hearty. It didn't have a strong taste at all. My only complaint would be that it end up looking "too green", a contrasting color would've made it much more appealing. The veal... Is there any possibility that veal, wish mushroom and crème frâiche can go wrong? Nope. So it did taste amazing. Although I do think I could have undercooked the veal a little bit, so by the time I served it was just perfect.
The apples that went with the veal also tasted good.
Finally, the desert was what I expected. I failed to make it perfect. Although it tasted pretty nice, the caramel end up being too light -- I took it too early from the stove.
Technical data:
Guests: Toninho, Marta, Marcone & Ilka
Total cost: $98 (what did you expect of a veal meal?)
Item hard to find: none
Utensils bought: none
Appliances bought: none
Best Dish: Veal, followed by a close second by the Soup.
Worst Dish: Caramel Custard -- it wasn't bad, but end up in 3rd on the final rank.
First time was very easy, although, it required a lot of chopping, peeling and slicing. Who'd have thought a fruit salad can take two hours to prepare? I'm trying to be as close as possible to the instructions on every detail. So, if the book says you have to slide the orange in a specific way, that's what I did.
The recipes of this weekend were (I'll add the French name to look fancier)
Cucumber Salad with Mint (Cocombre à la Menthe)
Roast Chicken (Poulet Rôti)
Spring Peas with Lettuce, Chervil and Onions (Petits Pois à la Française)
Fresh Fruit Salad with Cointreau (Salada des Fruits)
Roasting the chicken was easy, trussing it (aka tying the legs and wings) not so much. I found two videos on the web, because the explanation from the book was too hard to decipher. At the end I realized that if you tie the wings and legs well, it really doesn't matter how you did it.
I used frozen peas instead of fresh ones. I just thought that it would be hard to find and they might not taste so good because they've been sitting on the grocery shelf for a while.
Results
By far, the best part of the meal was the Peas w/ Lettuce and Onion. Everybody just loved it. The chicken tasted like roasted chicken. No better, no worrse. The cucumber salad end up tasting not what I expected. It was very bland. And, finally, the Fruit Salad was not good, probably because the fruits were very acid and I forgot to add the sugar.
Technical data
Guests: Daniel, Manu & Hiram
Total cost: $47
Item hard to find: Chervil (not super hard, but had to go to two markets)
Utensils bought: none
Appliances bought: none
Best Dish: Spring Peas with Lettuce, Chervil and Onions
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. It's relatively popular in Brazil (and apparently very popular in France). In the USA, from what I could gather is not popular, but not rare either since almost every butcher I asked about knew what it was.
