SOUPS and MUCH more!

This week we worked on SOUPS! The soups that we made were:

1. Beef Consomme

2. French Onion

3. Minestrone

4. Cream of Cauliflower

5. Split Pea

In addition to the soups we fabricated a chicken and had our first knife skills test!

LETS START WITH SOUPS!

First up Beef Consomme:

Ingredients:

• 5 egg whites
• 1 # ground beef
• ½ # mirepoix, brunoise
• 6 oz tomato, peeled, seeded, diced
• 2 ½ qt beef stock or broth
• onion brulee (optional)
• Sachet

Method:

1. Whip the egg whites until slightly frothy
2. Combine the egg whites, beef, mirepoix and tomatoes in stock pot
3. Add broth or stock; mix well , add onion brulee and sachet
4. Bring to simmer over moderate hear, stirring occasionally, scraping the bottom to be sure nothing sticks. – stop with raft begins to form
5. Break a hole in center of the raft to allow the consumme to bubble through
6. Simmer until flavor develops – about an hour
7. Strain through several layers a cheesecloth and adjust seasonings. Cool and refrigerate or hold for service

In class we did a few things differently. We used ground chicken instead of beef. We then mixed the egg with the chicken and mirepoix – to make a meatloaf like mixture

Put that mixture in a stockpot with the stock… then turn on the HEAT, make sure you turn the heat on AFTER you put the ingredients into the stockpot. Let it cook.

The RAFT should look like sort of like a dumpling or like a fluffy turkey omelet!

This picture is the beginning of the raft forming.

Once your raft is complete carefully remove it from the liquid. You should be left with a clear consommé! Ours turned out really well. If we had waited a few more minutes it would have been nearly perfect. We did keep ours and was able to use it our minestrone the next night!

After removing your raft or the next day if there is still fat floating on top you can use a paper towel to skim the top.

Beef Consommé is a very classic first course. Usually severed in very fancy restaurants.

If you have CLEAR stockpot (which I know is typical in a normal family kitchen!) try making beef consommé in it, by doing so you can watch the RAFT form.

2nd Soup: FRENCH ONION

In the French Onion soup the sherry is very important! Here’s the recipe:

• 1 ¼ # yellow onion, sliced thin
• 2 fl oz clarified butter
• 2 c beef stock
• 2 c chicken stock
• 1sprig fresh thyme
• TT salt and pepper
• 1-2 fl oz sherry

GARNISH: toasted French bread slices, Gruyere cheese, grated

1. Sauté the onion in the butter over low heat. Carefully caramelize them thoroughly without burning.
2. Deglaze the pan with 1 oz beef stock or water if onion starts to get to brown. Cook au sec – Repeat until onions are very dark, even brown
3. Add remaining beef stock, chicken stock and thyme
4. Bring to simmer and cook 20 min to develop flavor. Adjust seasonings and add sherry to taste.
5. Serve in warm bowls. Top with sliced bread and a thick layer of cheese.
6. Place under broiler or salamander until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Step 1

Step 3

Step 4

Finished Product!

YUMMMM it was SO good!

Our third soup was: MINESTRONE

The minestrone consists of:

• ¼ # dry white beans
• 1 T olive oil, extra virgin
• 3 oz onion
• 1 garlic, minced
• 1 ½ qts veg stock
• ¼ # cabbage diced 1”
• ¼ celery, diced
• 3 oz tomato paste
• 3 oz carrots, diced
• ¼ # tomato concasse
• 3 oz green beans, ½ pieces
• ¼ # zucchini, diced
• ½ t oregano, fresh, minced
• 2 t basil, fresh, minced
• ¼ t chervil, fresh, chopped
• 1 ½ parsley, fresh, chopped
• 1 oz elbow macaroni

1. Soak beans in cold water over night
2. Drain beans, place in saucepan with fresh water to bring to simmer, cook till tender – 1 hr
3. When beans are cooked, drain them, reserve for later
4. Add the stock, cabbage, celery and tomato paste. Cover and simmer for 1 hour
5. *Sweat onion in oil for a few min. Add garlic cook slowly till translucent
6. **While soup is cooking, stir the macaroni into 2 qts of boiling, salted water and cook until al dente – reserve for later
7. Add carrots, tomato concasse and green beans and cook 15 min
8. Add drained beans and all other ingredients EXCEPT macaroni and parmesan cheese
9. Cook for an additional 10 min, add macaroni, season to taste with salt and pepper
10. Serve in warm bowl with a garnish of parmesan cheese – DO NOT FORGET CHEESE

Fresh aromatics for minestrone

Beans and macaroni for minestrone

EXTRA TIPS!

*You want to make sure you cook your onion before you add the garlic to cook. The garlic will cook much faster then the onion and you want them to finish at the same time.

**After your macaroni is cooked you want to make sure and WASH it. The reason you do this is so that the starch doesn’t stick to the soup and make things cloudy. (When making pasta as your main course you DO NOT want to wash it because the startch is what makes your sauce stick to the noodle!)

FINISHED SOUP – Rewarded the best Minestrone of the NIGHT!!

NEXT UP: SPLIT PEA SOUP!

Note- this is not how I would make split pea (which is one of my fav soups) I use an excellent vegetarian recipe

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 ½ oz bacon, minced
• 1 T olive oil, extra virgin
• ½ # mirepoix, medium dice
• 1 garlic, minced
• ¾ # ham hock pieces
• 2 qts white chicken stock
• ½ # split peas, rinsed – pebble free
• sachet
• TT salt and pepper

1. In stockpot, render bacon with olive oil (slowly)
2. Add the mirepoix, garlic – sweat with out browning
3. Add ham hock or bones and stock-bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Cook 1 hr
4. Add peas and sachet – cook until tender (1-1 ½ hr) – add water if needed to keep peas covered
5. When peas are tender, remove hock, bones and sachet–put through a food mill
6. Remove all the meat from the hocks or bones and cut into med dice. Adding to puree.
7. Serve in warm bowls, garnish with crutons

Mire poix for split pea

Split pea cooking

LAST SOUP OF THE WEEK – Cream of Cauliflower

I surprisingly really liked this soup! Here it is:

• ¼ # onion, yellow diced
• 2 oz celery, diced
• 2 oz leeks, diced
• 1 ½ # cauliflower florets and sliced stems
• 2 oz butter
• 1 ½ qts white chicken stock
• ½ t salt
• 1 pinch white pepper
• 1 oz heavy cream
• GARNISH: blanched cauliflower florets

1. Sweat the onions, celery, leeks, and cauliflower in butter. DON’T BROWN
2. Add chicken stock, bring to simmer and simmer for 30 min (or until tender)
3. Add the cream and return to a simmer. After simmer remove from heat
4. Using blender or wand mixer puree the soup until very smooth- strain through a china cap
5. Adjust texture, with stock if needed, Adjust seasonings with salt and white pepper.
6. Add garnish

Step 2

TIPS

When cutting cauliflower, go in from the bottom to take the stem and green leafy part out; as shown below in picture! Then you are left with all the yumminess of the cauliflower.

Peel the stems of the cauliflower and EAT them too! They are the SWEETEST part.

I think that adding pesto to the cream of cauliflower as a garnish would make it even more delicious!

Our three finished soups – left is cream of cauliflower, center is minestrone, and on the right is the split pea.

In addition to making soups we took some time out to Fabricate a Chicken:

Which means we cut up a chicken!

Now as most of you I limit my meat intake. I do eat chicken (however after this exercise I probably wont for a while!) and fish but not much of anything else… and even though I do eat it I prefer not to cook with it ESPECIALLY when I have to cut it up my self! In one word it was GROSS and I was nauseous through out most of it.

That being said, I want to succeed in school so I WILL learn how to fabricate an entire chicken in 6-8 min (which is what we are tested on) - So friends that live near me get ready for some CHICKEN!

I unfortunately do not have pictures of the chicken step by step or its finished look because my hands were covered with... well... chicken!

here is a picture of Mr. Chicken before I cut him up!

Many of the recipes’ this week called for tomato concasse – that is a tomato that has been blanched, peeled, seeded and diced.

First step; blanching the tomatoes so that they can easily be peeled – before you put them into boiling water you want to put an X on the top of the tomato:

After putting them in boiling water for only a few minutes put them directly into an ice bath. Once they are removed they should be easy to peel.

After they have been peeled, cut into quarters. Get all the seeds out EVERY SINGLE SEED OUT – (they are ugly!) once the you are seed free, cut out the rest of the center stuff, once that is cut out of all four pieces of your tomato you have CONCASSE! Dice up the rest of the tomato and use as well!

Last but not lease we had our first knife skills test. This was our first test of many testing our.. you guess it! KNIFE SKILLS – we are tested on 9 different things.

1. parsley - pixie dust
2. orange supreme’s
3. garlic
4. tomato concasse
5. carrots- ¼ dice
6. onion- ¼ dice
7. matchstick potatoes
8. tournee
9. cleanliness through out the test

Below is a picture of a fellow classmates test. (one who did well and completed most of it; not mine!)

All is shown except the tourne (nobodies prefect!)

Thank you all so much for reading... Next week VEGETABLES!