American Thanksgiving

Celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving on October 9^th was a bonus, and it is finally time for American Thanksgiving!  I have six hours of class this Thursday (which is pretty typical), so we decided to celebrate on Tuesday this year.

The pumpkin pie recipe on the back of my pumpkin label

Since we enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes (the usual meal my family celebrates with) in our other Thanksgiving, we decided early on to change it up for this Thanksgiving and prepare the Nelsons’ holiday meal.  I’ve had the privilege of sharing it once at Chad’s family’s home, and it was fabulous: a juicy boneless pork loin roast basted with apricot sauce, and delicious mashed potatoes loaded with all sorts of goodies.

For Canadian Thanksgiving, I made a batch of homemade pumpkin muffins.  The cans of pumpkin I used have a picture of a beautiful pumpkin pie on the label, with the recipe on the reverse side.  As soon as we discovered this, Chad was inspired to bake his first pumpkin pie on for our American Thanksgiving dinner.  We almost forgot about all of his ingredients patiently waiting in the cupboard for a month and a half, but remembered just in time to get the pies in the oven when the roast came out. 

Chad measured out his dry ingredients while I ran to the
store for more eggs -- good Mise en Place!  Chef would be
proud.  

The pie-making process was fun and easy.  We used homemade crust dough that I had prepared in an early class (that had been waiting patiently in the freezer), and accidently made enough filling for two deep-dish pies.  I showed Chad how to roll out the dough and transfer it to a pie tin (a skill which he was basically born with – he was such a pro!), and how to press on the edges of the dough with a fork for a traditional decoration.  I fashioned a funny little turkey out of dough scraps and put him on top of one of the pies, and they baked beautifully.  I tried one small bite of Chad’s first piece (which was magically and uncommonly beautiful, not maimed and crumbled like most first-out-of-the-pie pieces turn out), only to remind myself that I definitely dislike pumpkin pie.

Making sure we get every last bit of the
pumpkin-y goodness

Cutting the crust to the right size

My funny little turkey, fit for a South Park Thanksgiving
special

They're beautiful!

Our yummy roast!

In our excitement and anticipation for this dinner, we bought canned apricots at the grocery store about a week ago without first checking with the recipe.  It turned out to be a mistake, as the recipe calls for dried apricots…but not to fear!  “We’ll just dry our own apricots!” we said.  So we looked up instructions, dipped the juicy little halves in water and lemon juice, arranged them neatly in a casserole dish, and closed them up in the oven to dry.  Six hours later, they were almost ready, but still not quite there.  Though they took a long time, they were fun to play with when we flipped each apricot over, and they eventually did turn out beautifully.

The roast, though we over-cooked it a little, was every bit as delicious as I remembered it being.  The apricot sauce was thick and sweet and a little spicy (with a few spices we mixed from our cupboard to simulate cardamom), and it contained a magical secret ingredient that neither Chad nor I would have guessed (and which will remain a mystery on this blog).  The potatoes, also, contained a little magic that we wouldn’t have thought to add without the recipe that his mother graciously shared with us. 

Basting the roast with a tiny rubber spatula...too bad I left
my knife kit at school!

Mashing the potatoes in one of the aprons Mom made for me!

The rest of the day, before and after dinner, was filled with laundry, a quick run to the department store (where I was sure they sold my the pods for my espresso machine), and a late-night snack of chips with salsa and homemade guacamole made from the biggest avocado with the biggest pit I have ever seen, while we watched five episodes of Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom."

What a HUGE avocado!

Overall, it was a great Thanksgiving.  We didn’t get to meet with family, and there was no football or playing catch or cousinly hijinks (though we did get a rather thick Christmas catalogue in the mail, so I spent some time paroozing gift ideas), but it seemed to fit, in our tiny little home with our tiny little Christmas tree, to have a tiny little Thanksgiving.

Dinner was a success.  A super-delicious success.

Dual Demo

On Saturday the 10^th, I had signed up to attend a free demonstration at school, in which both the Superior Cuisine chef, Chef Didier, and the Superior Pastry chef, Chef Hervé, would show us their favorite festive dishes for the holidays.

I was very excited for the demo, especially after dropping Chad off at the airport that morning (he flew back to Iowa to defend his Masters at the Univeristy).  Not only was the demo going to be interesting and fun, but it also meant two hours less that I was to spend in an empty apartment.

Filling a mold with exotic fruit filling

Before arriving, we only knew that the dishes would be “festive.”  Once the demo had begun, we learned that Chef Hervé would be making an “Exotica Christmas Log” with macarons and fresh exotic fruits, and Chef Didier would demonstrate “Stuffed Duck Breast with Salsifis and Pomme Dauphin.”  Chef Hervé passed out pages with the ingredient quantities for the Christmas Log and Chef Didier had a student write his ingredient list on a whiteboard propped on a tall easel. 

The demo itself was great fun, fast-paced and full of energy.  Since there were only two hours allotted for the little class, the Chefs had to work on their dishes simultaneously in order to finish on time.  One would talk us through a procedure and let it rest or simmer or keep whipping, and the other would take over for a few minutes.  This method worked out well, especially since the duck and potatoes needed to spend time in the oven and on the stove. 

What is this mysterious root vegetable?

About a third of the way through the demo, there was a huge mystery: Chef Didier, who doesn’t speak English very well, so avoids it when at all possible, started to prepare the “Salsifis.”  He held up a long, skinny, dark brown, branch-looking root that my friends and I did not recognize.  He peeled a few of the roots, sliced them, and began to prepare them.  For the rest of the class, we were baffled:  What on Earth is that vegetable?  Even after the dish was finished and we each got a taste, I still didn’t recognize the (incredibly rich and delicious) mysterious “Salsify.”  I did some research, and now we can all benefit from this great mystery!

Salsify, also called Goatsbeard or Tragopogon, is a type of plant related to the sunflower family!  “Salsify” itself is the edible root of these flowering plants, which are, many times, mistaken for weeds.  In that regard, I like to think of Salsify as the “Dandelion Leaf Salad” of root vegetables.  If you’d like to read more, HERE is the Wikipedia article.

Tasting Chef Didier’s duck dish was glorious.  I had only tasted such things in fancy restaurants on vacation, and I definitely plan on trying to recreate a version of this dish at home someday (minus the über-expensive black truffle he cooked with the salsify).  The duck breast was stuffed with the most heavenly stuffing, which was nothing like any stuffing I had ever seen.  It was chicken breast-based, and the Chef had to pipe it into the duck, where it cooked through.  The Pomme Dauphin was basically a large patty of hashbrowned, seasoned potatoes that the Chef cut into triangular slices.  If the demo would have been excruciatingly boring, eating my tiny plate of duck would have made it worth it.

My beautiful duck (center), Salsifis with black truffle and
Chorizo (right), and Pomme Dauphin (left)

The Pomme Dauphin was like gourmet hash-browns 

Chef Hervé’s Exotica Christmas Log turned out completely different than I had expected.  Having not seen our Christmas Log demo, I expected him to roll the cake with filling and ice the outside to look like wood.  Rather, he baked a cake with a seseme seed crust which added the perfect amount of texture.  The “log” was flat on the bottom, and the cake itself merely served as a barrier for the exuberant amount of chocolate mousse and tropical-fruit-purée filling on the inside.  My slice of cake was pretty tasty (I LOVED the fruit filling), but the cake-to-other-stuff ratio was just too unbalanced for me.

Quite a lot of chocolate and filling for a tiny bit of cake, but the
macaron was lovely (and I could eat the filling by itself!)

The sesame seeds gave a nice texture to the dish

The logs were garnished with fresh exotic fruits and macarons

The most exciting thing was to see Chef Hervé’s macaron demonstration.  I absolutely cannot wait until our Intermediate Pastry macaron lesson – I am obsessed with those little guys!

After the class was finished, I took a stroll in the little park across the street from the school and took some Fall photos.  It’s a lovely little place – definitely picnic worthy in the Spring!

A nice bench for a little lunchtime snack!

The park is right on the river, which made for some nice views

Overall, the Dual Demo was a fabulous way to pass the afternoon, and a great spirit-lifter after seeing Chad leave indefinitely.  

Uniform

Maybe I'll be wearing a different white, double-breasted uniform
someday...

Today, when many of my college friends are in their double-breasted uniforms with their hair tucked away under a hat, seems like the perfect day to pay homage to my Cordon Bleu uniform and its strange sense of déja vous.

During our orientation, there was a section dedicated to our uniforms: how to properly wear them, what is required for each type of class, what the uniform means.  Student Services brought a chef up from the production kitchen to demonstrate how to properly wear our white chef coat, pants, hat, hairnet, and apron.  There was a little speech given about the importance of looking nice in uniform, how we represent ourselves and the school and French cuisine as a whole.  How being in a clean, pressed uniform means that we are ready to do our best to learn and bake and get the most out of our schooling here.  During the entire presentation, though, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d done this before.  Four times before.  Every year toward the end of ISUCF’V’MB Band Camp.

My marching band uniform meant so much to me.  It was always clean and neatly hung in a garment bag.  I understood the importance of its symbolism; how when I was in uniform I was the face of the University and the music program, and the embodiment of school spirit.  I still giggle a little at the similarity of my two uniforms, how I put them on: member shirt underneath, high-waisted pants first, jacket on top, a bun on top of my head, a whole pack of hair clips keeping stray hairs from sneaking out from under my hat.  Add a little sweat and I even look pretty similar after a long day at school than I did after a game.

Double-breasted coat, high-waisted pants, bulky shoes,
hat with hair hidden underneath, not particularly flattering...
the two uniforms are pretty similar!

Kitchen uniform, with my apron tied in front
in case I light it on fire

My school uniform is much like I expected it to be.  It consists of quite a few pieces.  From bottom to top: White steel-toed non-slip kitchen shoes (which I found in Des Moines before coming here), socks, black and white hound’s-tooth flame-retardant kitchen pants (which look grey from a distance), a plain undershirt (I usually wear a black tank top or a marching band member shirt), a truly double-breasted snap-up white chef coat with blue trim and the Le Cordon Bleu Paris logo embroidered on the left (we were given two jackets, since they are bound to get dirty in the lab kitchens), and our short toque (lightweight paper chef hat) with the LCB logo, as well.  Whenever we are in the kitchens, we are also required to wear a half apron, tied in the front with the bow tucked away and one little tail sticking out (for easy access in the event of a flaming apron), at least two kitchen towels tucked into the apron, and a hairnet. 

I am in love with our jackets.  They really aren’t flattering for most women, as they are straight-cut for men, but their sheer practicality is genius!  They are long-sleeved, but the cuffs are deeply slit to make rolling the sleeves much easier (and it’s a good thing – my sleeves are rolled to my elbows 95% of the time), and their double-breasted appearance isn’t just for show.  The snap covers are removable and the jacket can be worn with either breast on the outside.  In a restaurant or bakery atmosphere, this comes in handy when a chef, hard at work, pays a visit to his customers.  If his jacket is dirty, he merely flips to the other breast, rolls his sleeves down, and has a magically clean appearance for the paying guests.  How clever!

Our jacket sleeve has a little spot for two pens and markers,
which is also good for our name tags.  You can also see my
hairnet in this photo.

The jackets really are long-sleeved, and here you can see
that I have the opposite front on the outside of my jacket
(the other side had cocoa powder on it, and you can't even tell!)

Our toques, however, are less what I expected.  I was picturing the hat of every cartoon French Chef I had seen.  Like these guys:

The hats, though, aren’t exactly round.  They fold flat (which is really nice for keeping them in good condition), and when worn, the tops make us look, in my opinion, like a pack of particularly calm dilophosaurus in the classroom. 

(Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum)

It’s cute, and I think I like it better this way than a truly round-topped toque.  The hats also have a few practical purposes.  A chef’s hat’s size signified his rank in the kitchen.  The taller the toque, the more power he has.  (Our chefs to have taller hats than ours, too!)  They also have a hygienic purpose:  They are fancy sweat-bands, soaking up forehead sweat so it doesn’t drip into the food!

Our hats aren't quite round on top.  The smaller someone's head
(like my tiny noggin in the second row), the more pronounced the effect

Overall, I love my uniform.  My towels are almost constantly in need of laundering, but I’m glad it’s not always my jackets!  My toque is still nice and un-wrinkled, and everything is comfortable.  I just always look back to my marching band uniform and thank it for giving me the respect and feeling of honor I have every time I pull on my hound’s-tooth pants and double-breasted white jacket with my hair in a bun and a hat on top.

Pastry Update #2

Slightly over halfway through the Basic Pastry program, we have moved from making elements of French pastries (just the dough, just the cream, etc.) to assembling and decorating entire things, start to finish.  I recognize many of the pastries’ names from the bakeries in Chambéry, and now my portfolio is starting to look like I belong there!

Leçon 7

Lesson 7 was truly the beginning of making entire large pastries, and paying specific attention to each dish’s iconic French décor.  It was also the demo in which we finally got to use our puff pastry dough, something we had been tweaking slowly in practicals the entire week before.  In the demo, we learned different ways to use puff pastry dough:  Chaussons aux Pommes (apple turnovers), Pithiviers (a large puff pastry filled with almond cream), Palmiers (thin, crunchy puff pastries rolled in granulated sugar), Feuillantine (thin, sweet puff pastries sandwiched with raspberry jam), Millefeuille (Napoléon), Gallettes des Rois (the same as the Pithiviers, but with a different design), and Bichons (puff pastry rolls filled with lemon cream).  Quite the list!

Chef's Bichons (left) and Palmiers (right)

Chef's Millefeuille

From bottom to top: Pithviers, Gallettes de Rois,
Apple Turnovers, Feuillantine

In the practical we tried our hands at Pithiviers (still my favorite-tasting pastry so far) and Apple Turnovers, with the option of filling any extra time with Pamiers. The practical was light-hearted and it went well.  Though I consciously put as little filling as I could imagine into my apple turnovers, it was still too much, causing them to open in the oven (a problem that Chef Jocelyn blamed on me being American, with a smile, of course), but my Pithiviers was fantastic and SO tasty.  Upon arriving back at the apartment, I ate a quarter of it before I remembered that the cream is made solely of butter, sugar, and almond powder. 

My Pithiviers and Apple Turnovers (which
exploded a little)

The tops of my turnovers

Piping Workshop

On our schedules, we had a mysterious workshop scheduled for a day we don’t usually have class.  Most of us knew what that meant: it was our promised piping time with the Chef!  We were correct: in the lab kitchen, Chef Jocelyn taught us the basics of piping.  Much of it was not new to me, but it was good to learn the French version of rosettes and shell borders, and it was a good opportunity to practice piping chocolate. 

For a few hours we piped lines, dots, balls, and shell borders with buttercream, and letters and swirls with chocolate.  We also prepared for Lesson 9, in which we would have to pipe dough for a few different pastries.  The Chef was very pleased with my work, and I got even more excited to try my piping skills on finished pastries in the coming lessons.

Leçon 8

Our first official cake demo had arrived!  Although we learned and practiced genoise (sponge cake) early in our studies, we never truly assembled a French cake.  In this demo, we watched the Chef prepare three favorites:  Gâteau Forêt Noire (Black Forest Cake), Moka (vanilla genoise with coffee-flavored French buttercream, toasted almond slivers, and chocolate-covered espresso beans), and Mexicain (chocolate genoise with dark chocolate ganache and poured fondant).  The cakes were fabulous, though the Mexicain is far too rich for my taste, and we were to recreate the Black Forest in our practical the next day.

Chef's Moka

Chef's Mexicain

Chef's Black Forest

It was a great practical.  Everyone was excited to finally assemble a cake, start to finish, and it was our first opportunity for chocolate work.  We made the genoise first, which involves quite a bit of whipping, then prepared Chantilly cream (more whipping) for filling and icing.  The Chef taught us how to make chocolate shavings for the side of the cake, and we garnished our completed creations with very strong cherries soaked in Kirsch.  I was very happy with my performance, and the Chef was so proud!  He complimented my piping skills, said my tastes and textures were spot on, and that my presentation was fabulous.  Score!

My Black Forest

My Black Forest

It was so tasty, we just kept a spoon next to it at all times!

Leçon 9

Lesson 9 was Pâte à Choux day!  I had been looking forward to this Basic Pastry lesson since I was in France because of one adorable little pastry: Religieuses.  It was so exciting to finally be learning how to make them.

In the demo we learned how to make the Pâte à Choux (also called “Choux Paste”…it doesn’t really have a word in English).  The Chef then showed us how to use the dough to make four different light, fluffy pastries with filling: Éclairs au Chocolate et au Café (chocolate and coffee éclairs), Religieuses au Café (coffee Religieuses, little round cream puffs named after nuns), Cygnes (“Swans,” literally), and Salambô (filled cream puffs dipped in light caramel).  Upon tasting each pastry at the end of the demo, I remembered why I was so excited for this lesson: Religieuses and Éclairs (the same thing in different shapes) are so delicious I could hardly contain myself.

Chef's Chocolate Eclairs

Chef's Religieuses

Swans!

Salambo from the demo

In the practical, we were to make chocolate and coffee éclairs and coffee Religieuses.  The Pâte à Choux is notoriously temperamental, and definitely an exact science, but it went very well for me.  Piping the dough was good, but the “heads” for my Religieuses were a little large.  Crunched for time, the Chef informed us that many would not finish, a fact that he expected.  He said not to be worried and just present what we could finish.  I hurried, quickly preparing fillings and dipping pastries in fondant.  I only truly finished two éclairs and one Religieuse, to my disappointment.  It turned out well, though.  The critique was very positive, aside from my nun’s head being a little large, and fewer finished pastries meant fewer calories for Chad and I back home.

My Religieuse, with a large head

My Eclairs

Leçon 10

At the beginning of Demo 10 we learned that there are five different categories of Petits Fours, and we were about to experience the first:  Dry Petits Fours.  The Chef demoed five French bakery classics: Bâtons de Maréchaux (“Marshals’ Sticks,” crunchy little almond-covered pastries, admittedly one of the Chef’s favorites), Madeleines (the classic French mini-sponge cake shaped like a seashell), Cigarettes et Tulipes (two different shapes of a very delicate little pastry), Palets de Dames (the French take on a raisin cookie), and Tuiles aux Amandes (thin, dainty almond pastries, curled into a half circle).

Chef's Marshals' Sticks

Chef's Madeleines

Tuilles des Amandes

Cigarettes and Tulipes

Chef's Palets de Dames

For the practical, we were to recreate the Madeleines, Palets de Dames, and Cigarettes et Tulipes.  Madeleines were simple, cute, and delicious, just as I had imagined them to be.  The Palets de Dames were also as expected, but were surprisingly, addictively delicious.  I, along with many of my classmates, was afraid of the Cigarettes, as they need to be tightly wrapped around our knife sharpener while still very hot.  Though I feared for my fingertips, they turned out good for the first time, along with the Tulipes.

My work in the practical: Tulipes and Cigarettes are over-baked,
but other than that, everything turned out well!

Leçon 11

Another cake day, Lesson 11 focused on cakes layered with Daçoise, a crispy-outside-soft-inside almond biscuit that is popular in many a French pastry.  The Chef showed us three: Gâteau Russe aux Noix (with coffee buttercream), Succès (with praline buttercream), and Progrès (with chocolate buttercream) and each cake’s signature décor.

Chef's Progres

Chef's Succes (sorry it's sideways: technical
difficulties)

Chef's Russe

Our practical was over the Succès, another pastry I recognized from the windows of the Chambéry bakeries.  It was our first experience actually making the French buttercream, and I was pretty nervous.  Though the process had me a little uneasy, my buttercream turned out very well, my Daçoise was fabulous, and the décor looked nice. 

In my critique with the Chef, he didn’t have enough good things to say.  The buttercream was flavorful and the exact correct consistency.  The Daçoises were piped nicely and were baked just right.  The décor was dainty and cute, though my little sign could be a little larger.  The best compliment of all, though, came when he took a slice to taste.  Usually he takes a small slice, takes one bite, and tosses the rest in the trash (since he has 12 students’ cakes to test).  When it came time to test mine he took his slice, took his bite, and when he turned to toss the rest in the trash, he popped it into his mouth.  He turned back and, when he saw that I noticed, he just smiled with a little shrug as if to say, “What?  It’s a good cake!”

My Succes (Succes indeed!)

Evidently this is how hazelnuts grow in nature

Leçon 12

Christmas came early with Lesson 12!  It was finally time for us to tackle the Bûche de Noël: the ever-famous Christmas Log.  I had seen lots of photos in my French classes at ISU of Christmas Logs, and with the holiday approaching, I was so ready for this lesson.

Chef Jocelyn made two logs for us, one with chocolate buttercream and the other with vanilla, and spent nearly an hour decorating them.  When he was finished, it was like Christmas exploded all over a fallen tree.

Hey, Christmas!

The Chef's log was full of all sorts of decoration!

In the practical today we knew we had to hurry to finish.  The cake itself wasn’t too difficult (though physically demanding), and the buttercream was the same as last lesson.  But, though we were hurrying, most of us were still pretty crunched for time toward the end, decorating our logs with snowmen and gifts and trees and holly.  I didn’t really have time to finish, but I presented a good cake with which the Chef was mostly pleased.

My Christmas Log!  I didn't have time for my chocolate decoration
to set or to finish the log's ends...but it looks pretty good!
Chef Jocelyn wrote his in English, so I wrote mine in French to return the favor,
and I wasn't the only one!

The marzipan decor was great fun

Leslie kindly took a photo of me and my first Christmas Log