Stock It To Me!

I am not sure if we will ever see Chef Loving again.

 At least not as our teacher. That kind of worries me, although I do enjoy Chef Gabriel.

At the beginning of class, some lady came in with her daughter in matching blue track suits. She basically told us about starting the program, how there were a few spots in the Winter, and how we will all have a spot Fall 2014. That's a relief because it gives me time to save up cash! Like I told you before, we take one class at a time in 5 week rotations. Once we turn in the grades for CAP 103, we get accepted so long as it's over a 2.5 and we start the intense rotations. Bring it on, random lady.

Chef Gabriel immediately had us go the kitchen and set up (mise en place, remember???). We were told to make a white mirepoix because we were going to make our very own stock! Remember what goes in a white mirepoix?

• 2 parts onion
• 1 part parsnip

• 1 part celeriac root (but we used celery)

We also created a 'loose' sachet, which means it didn't have a bag. That was okay because we were straining it. Remember what goes in a standard sachet?

• Sprig of thyme

• Peppercorns
• Bay leaf
• Parsley stems

Standard sachet ingredients

After we set up, we went back to the demo kitchen for surprise surprise! Herb and Spice identification! Aren't you excited? Be excited because we all got our own herb or spice that was number and were told we would stand up and present them after doing research. Guess who got #1? Your girl! I had cloves and went first. It was funny because I said everything off memory and they were horrified like 'We can't use our notes??' I said, oops my bad! Chef Gabriel thought I did very well but said we could use notes. Way to not look like a total douche, me…

If you don't want to see the herbs and spices we passed around, skip until you're past the photos!

That says 21. Mace, 22. Dill, 23. Fennel Seeds, 24. Dry Rosemary

Match the numbers with the list above.

Yes, we will have to ID all of these on the final!

After a brief intermission, it was time for some stock making!

Stock Making at a Glance:

• Clean meat and place in stock pot. Fill with water up to two inches above the meat.
• Bring to a simmer, skimming off the skum that rises to the top. Simmer (don't boil!!!) for 5-6 hours.
• Add mirepoix and sachet. Simmer for another hour.
• Strain and remove as much fat as you possible can from the top of the stock. Should be translucent and puurty. Not cloudy.

We gather our chicken bones and chicken feet (yes- chicken feet!) and got to work. Once our stock started to simmer, we were shown a demo on how to make Roux.

Roux is basically a way to thicken sauces, soups, and the like, and is usually made with 40% clarified butter (but you can use another type of fat) and 60% flour (cake flour thickens the best.) You cook that until it gets the desired roux that you need. There are essentially four types:

White- really pale, used for white sauces like the basic Velouté, or a Béchamel.

Blonde- a little darker but not too much. Used for the same as the above. The darker the roux, the more color it gives a sauce and the deeper the flavor.

Dark brown- Used for darker sauces and gumbo.

Very Dark- Used for gumbo.

The result is supposed to be smooth and creamy with a gorgeous gloss on it. Needless to say… that ain't how mine turned out.

First, you make the clarified butter (butter with the milk and water removed), which is a bitch to make. In fact, I had to take a break from finishing it up to take lunch. It sounds simple- we melted a pound of butter in a pan. You skim off the skum (the water part) and carefully dip out the translucent clarified butter, careful not to take any milk with it and make it cloudy and you have to start again. Like I had to.

After lunch, I melted the cloudy mixture down again and eventually made a see-through clarified butter. Success!

Then Chef Gabriel threw a curve ball and was like, make a tomato concassé too while you're at it! (He was joyful because we were technically making items for the next day's special event.) While I blanched the tomato, I started the roux.

Roux at a glance:

• Pour clarified butter in cold pan. Add enough flour to make a sort of thin peanut butter.
• Cook on low heat until the flour starts cooking and you get the colors you need.

We were to take out a sample of each stage and display it on a plate. My first two stages were okay, but the last two, I burned a bit of something and the chunks of that got into my roux! Other than that, one of the assistants said the color was really nice, I just needed to turn the heat down. As far as my concassé, the cut was neat and clean, I just need to blanch the tomato for shorter than what Chef Gabriel told us.

We added the mirepoix and sachet to our stocks and simmer for a while. Soon, we were to start straining. It took me a while to find something to strain in, so mine cooked a little longer, but that's a plus, not a minus.

I was so afraid! After a demo of fat skimming, I noticed that my stock was cloudy and I had a lot of fat. I darn near removed most of my stock before I was satisfied. Left and right people were getting straight dissed, and I wanted to run away and not show him anything! I hate being criticized on food items I make. But we couldn't leave without showing him, so I filled a shot glass with stock and slowly walked over.

He downed the shot and stared at me. Like really stared. It was a weird, evil, I-hate-you, 'curiouser and curiouser' stare, and I might have sounded a little disrespectful when I was like 'What?'

He stared some more and finally said, "This one has the best flavor of all the ones I tasted, I don't know what you did." The upper-level student next to him said that was good because he doesn't say that often! I did not hide my pleasure. I said YAY! And was all smiles as I made it back to my table. Of course I ignored him when he was busy telling the other upper-level students about my stock, but I was a little embarrassed and put on spot. He also like one other girl's, but all I know is mine came first! YAY! You really don't know what it means to have a master chef say something like that to you.

After that, we were asked to chop up some veggies for a stock for the special event, and it didn't have to be perfect. That's all I needed to hear. I banged out those veggies in no time. After cleaning, we sat around for a bit, talking, and then Chef Gabriel showed us a Velouté sauce… one of the mother sauces that we will learn to make. It was basically stock and roux. We all know the classical mother sauces, right?

• Velouté- stock and roux. (we tasted it… it's aight, but it's meant to start off other sauces)

• Béchamel- white sauce made of butter, flour, and milk.

• Hollandaise- This mostly goes on Eggs Benedict. It is made with yolks and butter, lemon juice, and seasoning.

• Tomato- Everyone knows what this looks like. A very basic one could be tomatoes, stock, seasoning, olive oil… but we like to add garlic, onion, basil. Yum!

• Espagnole- Brown sauce made of very dark brown roux, veal stock, browned bones, beef, veggies, seasonings, and tomato paste.

Some of these sauces can be topped on things on their own, but some are also the building blocks to other sauces such as Alfredo or Mornay sauce.

While we were cleaning up, Chef Loving walked by a window and winked at me. I had to fan myself.

Next week we move on to sauce. Two more weeks until the start of practicals… are you nervous?