This book is the reason I started this blog. I'll cook all the recipes in 90 separate events over the next 3 years. You can read more on
how this got started on the About page.
This was my first Le Cordon Bleu cookbook. It's a technique book (like the title says), and it focus very much on how to prepare, cut, boil, roast, etc. There is a lot of explanation around types of vegetables, meats, sauces, utensils and pans.
The thing that I like about this book is that it doesn't assume you know anything. It gives you precise instructions, with lots of pictures and most of the time cooking the recipes yield great results. However, because it's so focused on the details of the techniques some recipes take a lot of time.
One of the best foods I had my entire life is a Seafood Risotto from this book. Everything is done from scratch, so it takes a lot of time, work and uses lots of pots and pans, but the result is just ridiculously good!
It also contains one the best pizza doughs recipes that I managed to make.
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
Worst Dish: Cucumber Salad with Mint
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.
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).
January, 2008
My Browser
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Furl
StumbleUpon