Friday, October 3, 2008

Day 15

Nothing like carnage to get your weekend going. Mine came today in the form of a leg of lamb.

Yes, that is it. A large leg. I took charge of my leg and deboned it in the longest amount of time I'm sure ever...EVER. It was not total wreckage and I didn't massacre the meat, but it sure took awhile. There's a guy in my class who is a retired army medic who did it like 5x faster than I did. I asked him if he ever had to do some kind of amputations in the field or battle or whatever but he said no. I bet he's not allowed to tell those kind of stories anyway. I have my theories. So after we (I) finished (last) this is the lovely image that followed.


With the legs deboned we cubed up all the meat and made a stew. It was real relaxing compared to plating for the last two days. All we had to do was brown meat, remove meat, add veg, add meat, deglaze, add flour, add stock, tomato sauce and bouquet and simmer until meat is super tender and stock has thickened. It was okay. I think sitting in the fridge overnight will improve it. We set the lamb bones in the oven for a good roast in preparation for lamb stock next week. Isn't that gnarly?
I thought you'd like to see that big pile of roasted carcass. Next we made duck. Roast duck. The downside to this duck situation is that we had to share 1 duck for every 2 people. I shared my duck with a classmate who has severe hearing loss. Everytime I get to share with him its real tricky since he has maybe little or no idea what we are actually doing. I had a lot of responsibility so I could not find time to take any pictures of the sharing of the roasting of the duck. It went down like any other poultry you have ever made. It was neither exciting nor climactic. Season duck, truss duck, roast duck, lower temp, add mirepoix, test for doneness by color of juices, remove to rest, degrease, deglaze on stove with wine, transfer drippings to pot, add stock, simmer 15 or so, carve duck and serve with jus. I would have taken a picture of the carving of said shared duck but the other half didn't' fair so well (not my half). I did get to take all of the duck home though since my partner doesn't care for it. I think duck hash and duck tacos are going to be on the weekend menu. I don't know other ways to reuse leftover roast duck.

Tomorrow we will be going wine tasting with our class. I am not driving. Let's see how this goes. Oh, and chef said that the girls should wear high heels and skirts. We informed him that since we now wear pajama pants every day that we no longer shave and that might be a reason not to wear a skirt. Oh and we'll be at vineyards...in dirt. Dar. I would call him a pig but I thought it was funny the idea of girls wobbling around in heels all day. Who would do that? Never mind, I know people who would do that and I am glad that is not me or my classmates. I can't wait to see what people are like outside of class.

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