Trick of the hand.

Bit late on my post about College last week but I've been a busy bee with to be honest, goodness knows what. The job search is still happening, I think I'm being too picky now... not sure if its a good thing or not. They say you should stay at your first place for a year so does that make it ok to be picky? I will be washing dishes and chopping onions for the first few months anyway.

Back to the fun stuff. College was great! We cooked all day and then to top it off theory was cancelled in the afternoon. Could it get any better?! The day was about shallow frying and grilling. We cooked;  Shallow fried breast of chicken with a tomato reduction sauce served with buttered beans and glazed carrot batons. AND... Grilled sirloin steak with grilled tomatoes and potato gratin. I remembered my container this week so I could take my food out side and eat it for lunch rather then scoff it down in class. Not sure if this was a good idea or not. I ate so much and felt incredible sick after by then end and would have probably gone into a food coma in theory anyway so it being cancelled worked out well.

Butter. I smelt like butter after class, I could still taste butter after class and I know for sure that there was butter in or on everything we cooked.

The chicken was cooked in olive oil but the delicious creamy sauce started with butter, onion and garlic. Yum or what? stock and wine was added, reduced then strained. I had never done this before and at the time Chef demonstrated it to us all I could think was what a waste of those delicious goodies. Turns out the sauce is a lot smoother and looks a lot better presentation wise without all the goodies. Cream and a little french mustard was then added and reduced. Tomato concassee and parsley tossed through then served over the chicken which was resting on buttered beans which literally speak for them selves and glazed carrot batons which are carrots chopped into Jardiniere's, simmered in water, butter, salt and sugar covered with a cartouche and cooked until tender.

Whats a cartouche you say? It is a piece of baking paper which covers the contents of the pan not letting out any steam which therefore stops food drying up and locking in flavour. Jamie Oliver quotes in Jamie at Home that the italians often use procuitto instead of baking paper, getting the extra flavour of the procuitto in the cooking.

Onto the steak. I have to admit now that I am a total girl and before college cooked steak to buggerey and sausages on the BBQ until they were charcoal. That is of course until now! I learnt the trick of the hand of how steak should be cooked. If you touch your  thumb and pointer finger together and press with your other hand on the meaty part between your thumb joint and wrist, its rare. Thumb and rude finger, medium rare. Thumb and ring finger medium and finally thumb and pinky and if the meat feels like this you know you should throw on a new steak and start again.

To go with the steak we served potato gratin which consisted of garlic and onions cooked down in butter then layered in between cream drenched slices of potato, topped with cheese and baked until done. Parsley butter and grilled tomatoes with parsley butter and cheese on top.

Julia Child would be so proud of me.

Theory test on food presentation was better then expected (fingers crossed). Off to do homework from last week.


Thanks for reading and keep watching for Poultry Preparation. Doesn't that sound appealing!?