Week 3: Bloody Murder!

This weekend was great, and I know the question in everybody’s mind…no, I didn’t cut myself yes! But believe me there was plenty of blood.

We started on Saturday chopping, chopping: onion, celery, carrots – all of these vegetables were going to be used to make stocks. Then we moved on to the exciting and terrifying part of the day: fileting fish. All I could think of was, this is where it’s going to happen this is when I’m going to lose a finger…but I stayed positive and thought of Julia Child “be fearless”. We started with a flat fish: the fish that is obviously flat and has both eyes in one side (ewwww).  Then we moved on to round fish – the regular ones we all know and eat, it wasn’t as hard as I thought, however taking the guts out is a little disgusting and since the fish were super fresh, there was a quite a bit of blood to go around – there goes one of my jackets for sure-. We fileted salmon and rubbed it with a certain mix of dried herbs and put it in the fridge to macerate overnight, apparently we would be enjoying cured salmon (lox) next day for breakfast. We did shellfish, clams and oysters (I almost stabbed my hand again with this one).

Then, after cleaning our cutting boards for the millionth time, the Chef brought a big white box, covered, and told us to get ready. He uncovered the box, and there they were 8 perfect lobsters alive and kicking, it was time to commit murder. The chef told us that we didn’t have to do it if we didn’t want to, that whoever felt uncomfortable could leave the kitchen and then come back, however he strongly recommended we did it at least one time. I was ready to go but in my head I kept singing “Under the sea, under the sea…” what the hell is wrong with me? Any way I took the lobster, that little Sebastian was moving a lot, put in my board, took the knife (kept on singing in my head), and got into position and with the help of the Chef I stabbed it in the middle of the eyes and down. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t scream, oh god the sound was horrible, and guess what? They keep moving and jumping around after you kill them and take the head off, even in the hot water!!!.  And no, we didn’t get to eat them; we were getting them ready for another class, so we didn’t enjoy them with delicious melted butter. Damn it.

We also made shrimp butter, you would ask, and what is it? Basically the best thing ever, it tastes exactly like having a piece of lobster with butter, you can use it too cook fish, shrimp, for a sauce, etc.  

Sunday started with straining our fish stock, and having some of the lox for breakfast, it was really really good.  And then out came the animals again! This time we would “fabricate” chicken, duck and beef. Bring it on! This was a bit harder; I don’t know why I kept hitting the bones with my knife all the time, by the third chicken I was getting better. The duck guts were also disgusting; however Fois Gras is and will remain on of the most delicious gifts from heaven.  We learned how to tie a roast like they do at the butchers which was pretty cool. We got to cook our medium diced potatoes “persillade” style – finally the fruit of our labor.

By the end of the day I was exhausted, but the Chef had asked who could help him for an hour, and me wanting to gain points with him, said I would do it. I HAD TO CHOP 3 BOXES OF TOMATOES !!!! It took me and another class mate 1 hour and 45 minutes nonstop. Next time I will really think about “helping out”. But as always I can’t wait until next Saturday (actually we don’t have class next weekend but I will be volunteering at the Star Chefs International Congress - www.starchefs.com/cook/events/icc/2012 – God help me).