Happy Pickle Day!!!
Today is indeed national pickle day, so I hope everyone honored this most sacred of all holidays by eating pickles ALL day long!
This past week in school, we finally made the transition into module two, meaning that the real cooking begins. The goal of this second module is to perfect the art of basic cooking techniques and to begin weaning us off following recipes. As a girl who started her love affair with cooking in the world of baking, recipe-following is what I do best. However, the thought of making the leap from following a piece of paper versus relying on my own knowledge of cookery would make me feel so much more professional :)
This week's techniques were the simplistic, but pivotal, arts of sauteeing and pan-frying, where we sauteed and pan-fried practically every available protein which were then paired with some form of sauce. Our first item on the menu was a simple chicken breast with a white wine pan sauce. After successfully cooking my first dish, there was a feeling of satisfaction that emerged when I presented the chef with my chicken that was golden on the outside and tender on the inside.
Other dishes that we made included crab cakes with an avocado sauce, sauteed strip steaks with aguardiente, brined pork tenderloin, and fillets of sole with a lemon butter sauce. The most interesting one to make was the Paillasson de Pommes de Terre, which was basically a giant potato pancake made from grated potato strips, pressed together to form a pancake, and cooked in 100% butterfat- it was amazing! My favorite tasting dish of the week was the sea scallops a la plancha estilo tipitapa (see the horribly long names that I have to pain-stankingly learn??). The scallops were sauteed and paired with a delectably creamy caramelized onion sauce. The sauce definitely made this dish, as most good sauces do.
Now that we are actually cooking real meals in class, there will be SO much more to talk about. Tomorrow we start deep-frying so stay tuned! Once again:
Happy Pickle Day!
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