Friday, September 24, 2010

Fish Day, I Thought I Was Done With Fish Smell

Today was test day and Fish day. We started by making Brown Veal Stock again as well as a large pot of chicken stock like normal. Then before our knife tray cutting we made Fish Fumet.

Basically its fish stock. Water, fish bones, mirepoix (celery, leeks, onions, mushrooms), satchet (aromatics/herbs), lemon juice and a touch of white wine. Simmer for 45 minutes. Easy enough. Well it doesn't smell too great, bleh! Anyway, after that we used our fish fumet to make Fish Chowder. Also easy and not too bad even though I'm not really a fish person. Basically just bacon, mirepoix, potatoes, stock and roux (veloute aka a "Mother Sauce") all simmered to make a thick soup before cream and fish are added.

For those who don't know Roux is a mixture of half fat (usually clarified butter) and half flour. Here we use 60% flour and 40% butter but anyway you cook it until the desired type. Either white, blond or brown. The longer you cook, the more it thins out and the less thickening power it has. We used blond roux today. It creates a nice thick soup and any real "Cream Soup" is thickened with roux.

It was pretty good and of course I did an excellent job cause I am a soup pro. My knife tray was pretty solid and after lunch we had a big midterm, test type deal. It was super easy and I got 2-3 wrong at most out of a lot. A decently busy day but successful none-the-less.

The weekend is here and I'm excited. Supposed to be nice out so I plan on taking full advantage of that. When you wake up at 5:30-6:00am everyday and work/go to class/ cook for 8-9 hours you realize how precious the weekends are. Use them to make your life a bit easier. That's my advice for the week.

Chef Werblin

ps. I miss ultimate.

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