Cuisine des Amis / Cordon Bleu - Jour 3

Each day at the Cordon Bleu brings something different, whether it be the food, the chef, the participants.  Saturday, I got up early and headed to the school ready to cook.  My instructions were to wear trousers, closed shoes, socks, and a long-sleeved shirt.  I only have one of the latter, so you'll probably see it in all of my cooking pictures.

We first had a demonstration of the following:

Salade de haricots verts frais à l'artichaut et anguille fumée
French French green bean salad with artichoke and smoked eel

Suprême de volaille farci aux shiitakes, sauce à l'estragon, pomme mousseline
Chicken suprême stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, tarragon sauce, potato mousseline

Soupe de fraises au vin rouge, granité marjolaine
Strawberries in red wine, marjoram granita

I was wary about the smoked eel, egg and green bean salad, all served in an artichoke, but it was surprisingly tasty.  I don't really see myself purchasing an eel, so I was pleased to learn that smoked salmon could be used as a replacement.  It's definitely strawberry season, because I had two different versions of the dessert in two days, but it was really good.  Saturday's addition of marjoram sorbet was a nice change.  More on the main course in just a minute.

After the tasting, we had an hour for lunch (no real need to eat), so I walked around the neighborhood and discovered a flea market/garage sale on the sidewalks.  I didn't find anything I couldn't live without, and after a nice stroll headed back to the school for my practical.

The eleven students were divided into two groups so we could have more personal instruction from the chefs.  There were five of us in my kitchen, plus the chef, the interpreter for the non-French speakers, and the sous-chef.   We started by peeling potatoes and then chopping our mushrooms for the duxelles, or mushroom-based stuffing.  We got other things ready, like shallots and parsley.  Then, it was time to de-bone the chicken.  They had been ordered cut in a "coffre" or "bâteau," but I'm so inexperienced that I didn't really notice the difference between that cut and any other whole chicken.  The wings were chopped off just above the joint, and it was our job to slice along the backbone on both sides, and then down the carcass, trying not to leave any flesh on the chicken.  I'm not very confident with large knives, so I struggled, then confessed to Chef Terrien that I'd massacred my bird and needed help.  He was really patient and encouraging, joking as he pulled off a few feathers that remained to be plucked.

He offered three cuts of meat, so I gratefully accepted so I could feed my hosts dinner later that evening.  Then, he offered to chop up the carcasses so we could make the base for our sauce.  "The smaller the pieces, the better the sauce will be."  Later, I needed more help opening the meat for stuffing.  Like cutting the suprême, it's something that I know takes practice.  But the mushroom stuffing?  That I made well!  Just ask D&K, who really appreciate the surprise dinner after a busy Saturday with the kids.

While the chicken was baking, we used a moulin à la grand-mère to purée our potatoes.  This needs to go on my shopping list because those were the smoothest, best mashed potatoes I've ever made.

Tips of the day:  "Nothing is forbidden in cooking, as long as it tastes good."
A raw egg will spin more slowly than a hard-boiled one.
The smaller the bones, the better the stock will be.
If you have the time, gently boil your whole potatoes over low heat.  Cutting them lets water get in,   and if they boil too violently, they risk exploding and water can get in that way as well, making your purée too runny.

Shopping list: food mill, China cap strainer, really good knives, sauté pan, ice cream/sorbet maker