Day 33

Okay, so the test was not that hard. But it was annoying. It was detailed but all over the place. I definitely memorized a bunch of useless shit. Fine, maybe it will be useful at some point. I missed at least 2 questions. I didn't remember why you had to cook a lobster alive. Well, it is so that the lobster does not flush itself out which I guess is what it does when it dies. I thought maybe the meat was just more tender. oops. So the other question was about which flat fish has 4 fillets. I don't know what the answer was but I was for sure wrong. Oh well. I was able to name 5 red and 5 white grape varietals used to make wine. Which I am sure is more important.

So we made clear beef stock using the ingredients below. Those black circles are charred onion halves, it gives some caramelized flavor that complements the beef. We tied up our chunks of beef and tied them to the sides of the pot. It was kind of like fishing. Also into that pot went oxtails, celery, the burnt onions, carrots and large bouquets.
The stock simmered for 8 hours. It came out looking like clear beef stock. But here in Italy week at school, this is not good enough. We went on to clarify said clear beef stock, but that's tomorrow. Today: osso buco. Osso buco is made from veal shank and is simple to make. My recipe was for osso buco a la milanese. Which involves prosciutto and tomato sauce. It works like any other braise. Sear meat. Remove. Add prosciutto and saute. Add small mirepoix and saute. Add garlic and saute lightly. Deglaze with white wine. Add equal parts tomato sauce and demi glace. You need enough liquid to go about 1/2 way up the side of the meat. Bring to simmer, cover, bake until meat is super tender. Add more demi if the liquid gets too low. This should take about 1 1/2 hours, maybe more.

Serve it over homemade egg pasta. People will like you more because of this meal. Make them bring fantastic wines to your dinner. I need to make friends with people who have/drink fantastic wines. Another great dish that we made was a veal scallopine with an artichoke and pancetta pan sauce. You start it by pounding your veal (from the top round) super thin. Flour and season and pan sear. Remove from pan to begin sauce.

Change fat in pan and add thinly sliced pancetta. Saute. Add finely chopped shallots, saute. Add chopped artichoke hearts (cooked), saute. Add chopped garlic, saute. Deglaze with white wine, reduce. Add about 1 cup demi glace and a shot of cream, simmer. Add meat back in to pan and serve. This is also good over egg noodles. Finish it with chopped parsley.

We had some extra time in class (since we had a student drop out last week) so Chef said we would take a short detour back to France for some crepes. He haughtily whipped up a simple crepe batter (no measuring) of flour, eggs, sugar, milk and melted butter. Then he quickly got 2 pans going to start cooking the crepes.

They were light and delicious just like this with sugar sprinkled on top. But nooooo. Chef said "I will make the crepes suzette". And seconds later they were there and gone. I could not photograph them because they were eaten by wild dogs which were me and my classmates. I did remake them though this weekend. It goes like this: equal parts butter/sugar in pan. Melt sugar and once done add orange juice (not too much). Add shot of grand mariner and add folded crepes to the pan. Swirl crepes around in the sauce and pour onto a plate. You can be smug and French too.