Week 6: Whisk and whisk and whisk

This weekend was all about sauces, the mother sauces, the grandma sauces, the cousin sauces, and all of them with lots and lots of butter. Since I am always on a diet I had forgotten what real butter tasted like, I swear I could've taken a straw and just drank it straight up from the pot.

I was doing great until we started doing the hot emulsions meaning: hollandaise, béarnaise and crème anglaise. 

The trick to a good emulsion moreover a hot one, is in the speed of the whisking, which translates at least to me on how fit you are. The chef demonstrated the hollandaise and the béarnaise, and all I kept thinking about was eggs Benedict and steak yummy. Anyway the sauce needs to be whisked very fast in a bowl on top of a pot of hot but not boiling water. If the water is too hot the eggs will cook and you will end up with scrambled eggs. The chef whisked liked he was a transformer, his hand was a blur, the eggs raised beautifully and the hollandaise was done. Now it was our turn, we all got into position like we were going into a wrestling match. Pot of hot water check, bowl with egg yolks check, whisk in hand check. Like I said the eggs are supposed to rise, and form "ribbons", when you get that consistency you can add, very slowly, the clarified butter. I started whisking like my life depended on it, again those words: faster, faster. Suddenly the eggs started to rise, I had no feeling in my wrist, arm, head, but it what is happening, at one point I was whisking so fast that half the sauce ended up in my jacket, but damn it that sauce was going to be right. And it was! I was so proud of myself, some of my class mates had to do it 3 times because it was simply not happening for them, and I got the first time! But, lets not get ahead of ourselves it's not like I am ready to enter a cooking competition, I either just got lucky or I am the terminator! Jag!

We also did tomatillo salsa, corn relish, mango chutney and roasted tomato coulis. And as a bonus crème anglaise (which was to die for, in that I would have happily drowned)

So module 1 is almost over, according to the school I have learned culinary fundamentals, meat fabrication, basic sauces, and on Saturday basic soups. My final written test and my practical will be Sunday, for the practical I have to medium dice 2 potatoes, make mayonnaise, and broccoli soup. Wish me luck! And on to module 2: hot cooking techniques! And my homework for the first day an essay on sauté - say again?

But as always I can't wait until next Saturday.