Day 24

Have you ever eaten 6 different potato preparations in one day? Well, I don't recommend it. Ever. Even if you are recovering from the worst day at school ever. I am sure I just changed clothing sizes. But here they are for you to see.
The red one is sauteed and then finished in red wine. Sooo much better than it sounds, I swear. The next one is plain old lyonnaise potatoes, sauteed with onion and thyme in olive oil. Next to that is a saute finished with chicken stock, obviously a class fav at 10 am. At the end the mostly empty pan was holding the orgasmic duck fat sauteed potato. It far surpasses any and all other potato preparations on earth. Don't even think about being grossed out by duck fat. If you hate duck fat please immediately pack your knives and go.
We also made 2 versions of au gratin style potatoes. Nothing mind blowing. One was cream over potatoes with cheese on top, the other was more of a custard type like potatoes dauphinois. It was hard to tell if the dauphinois sucked or was overcooked. I would like to try it again. We made it in teams and I was not on that team so I'm not sure what they felt "cooked" meant. I do like the idea of serving au gratin that has been cut into shapes with a cutter or ring mold. I think the layers will look pretty.
We moved on to duck a l'orange. Duck breast with orange sauce. I had always wondered how this sauce was made. You start with a gastric (vinegar + sugar) reduced to syrup, add oj, reduce and then add demi glace. Simmer and voila! Viva la France! I cooked my duck to medium rare and then freaked the fuck out about how not to make it look shitty on the plate. While trying to make sure all hot items were as hot as possible. My potatoes did stay crispy though. Thank you little buds. I fucked up though by not using odd numbers. It would have been so much nicer to look at. I also should have used a bunch of green in the center too. This is like a bad fall sweater.

I did enjoy it for lunch though. Those are orange segments in between the duck slices and that's orange zest at the top. Its in a cute fluffy little pile that you can't really tell from the birds eye view. Our next dish was so French that I can barely stop from having the rest of this post translated into French. Lucky for you I am tired and can't be bothered, really. Behold sauteed sweetbreads (ris de veau). I spared you the pics of the raw ones. It was rather unappealing. But seared? super.
These lovely thymus glands of baby cows were braised in a port wine/demi glace mix. They get 2 pan sears. One before the braise and one after. The one after with the big flambe is much more fun. All the good juices join together with some sauteed mushrooms to make a killer sauce. Sort of a liver texture but in a good way. I really liked them. Don't be scared. They are not creepy.
You can make a cute little bowl for them out of puff pastry like we did. I even carved Viva France into the top rim of the bowl for chef's entertainment. He seemed pleased by that. He then carved the pretty tomato rose and placed it on my plate. Bonus points for being fired up about France.
Big day tomorrow as we have our beautiful bouillabaisse and a tarte tatin.