Day 25

So with the running of a half marathon and all, I have been neglecting my school memoirs. I have now recovered feeling in my legs and am prepared to share school with you. I did finish my half marathon in case you were wondering. It was awesome and terrible all at once. So for our last day in France we made bouillabaisse and tarte tatin. Our bouillabaisse (I will from here on out refer to it as soup, since typing bouillabaisse annoys me) started with a saute of fennel, onion, and celery, then rockfish (red snapper), then garlic and saffron, then fresh tomatoes, then fumet (fish stock). This gets simmered until the veg is well cooked (about 45-60 minutes) and then painstakingly pushed through a food mill. I recommend going to the bathroom while your classmates struggle with this step. You now have fish soup. To serve the soup you line up your fantastic array of Mediterranean seafood in a saute pan with a drizzle of olive oil on the bottom. We stabbed that lobster through the head just this morning. I did not even feel bad about it or pray for his crustacean soul. These exoskeletons don't tug at my heartstrings anymore. I am hardened, cold, and crusty.

But doesn't soup sound great? Just ladle the soup on top of the seafood and simmer for maybe 5 minutes. The seafood cooks up quick and is ready for serving.

We made a rouille with boiled potato whisked with egg yolks, saffron, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. Baguette croutons were baked and rubbed with cut garlic cloves. Rouille goes on croutons, croutons go on soup and pour some rose (we drank Tavel from Provence) and you can pretend you are somewhere other than in stinky fishy chef whites sitting on a stool sweating and eating in your hot stuffy kitchen. The soup was great though. What a good party dish.

For tarte tatin apples get peeled, cored and halved. They are then wedged as snug as possible into a baking pan lightly greased. If you have extra cracks you should fill them with apple quarters.
From here we used chef's shortcut version. We made a caramel on the stove top and poured said liquid hot magma of sugar on top of apples. They got baked for about an hour (until tender) and then covered with a round of puff pastry. This baked until the crust was cooked and then cooled in the fridge. Once cooled sufficiently it got flipped out of its pan and cut into wedges to eat. I didn't like it very much. It tasted a little burned and the pastry tasted tough. I would make it again for sure to try it but I didn't take any home for late night noshing.

Au revoir France. Next week we go to Asia.