Cooking every day now..

Two weeks ago, we started Intro to Culinary II, which is basically a Soups, stocks and sauces class. Delicious! I was most excited for this class because I heard great things about our Swiss-born instructor and the fact that we got to cook every day!

Here are the highlights of my class so far:

Boiled rice sauteed with mirepoix veggie, roasted chicken and allemande sauce slathered over everything. I liked the allemande sauce so much that when I got home that night, I made it again for Jonathan and I. I turned out even better due to my great little helper! (carefully monitored, mind you..)




Here's little J keeping a close eye on the sauce. He was so excited to be able to help!







Here is the finished product at home. Sauteed chicken and mushrooms with wheat linguini, topped with the allemande sauce a la emilia...(me) Not too colorful-but I would pay for it.







Next day we made Blanquette de veau (veal=only milk fed baby cow)

We also made glazed tournet cut carrots to go with. The sauce was very rich because we made it using the water we blanched the veal in with a boquet garni (thyme, parsley stems, peppercorns, and a bay leaf wrapped in a leek). Alongside of this we made rice pilaf.




Then came Hollandaise day! I knew this day was coming and I was looking VERY forward to it because Eggs Benedict is my favorite! The hollandaise is a very tough thing to make if you are not careful - it's basically 3 yolks and a cup of clarified butter-whisked then seasoned (don't forget the cayenne) In this class we are required to go around the kitchen and try everyone's sauce-this is the only day that gave me a stomach ache after-blech.. But the end product was well worth it! See?

We did have broccoli to go alongside of it but we forgot about it in the boiling water because the sauce was so time consuming and delicate.
By the time we were all done- I only had room for one of these.