![Picture](/uploads/1/6/4/6/16460548/6510354.jpg)
CU234: Classical European Cuisine (E1)
Week: 9 | Cuisine of Switzerland
Daily Objectives:
Review basic classical cooking techniques and quality standards
Follow standardized recipes
Demonstrate plating techniques
Work as team to meet timeline production
Menu:
Child bed soup / Soup cookery
Red Mullet Fillets with Herbs
Puff Pastry with meat filling
Roast Duck with Chicory
Potato cakes
Shredded dough cake with apples
Equipment:
Stock pot
stand mixer
cutting board
mixing bowls
chef's knife
spatula
whisk
Summary:
In Today’s lab we worked on dishes from Switzerland. The dishes are similar to Northern France and Germany both in taste and appearance; all of the dishes are very rich in taste and texture, but there is very little color variation between the dishes. Because there were only two of us in class we basically divided up the larger recipes and then worked on the dessert together. I decided to do the Red Mullet dish, the Shredded Dough desert, and the potato cakes. We used red snapper instead of the Red Mullet. It was a very simple preparation with very few ingredients, and the technique to bake the fish at a 525°F oven temperature was different from anything I had heard of before. Chef instructed us to do it at a lower temp so that we would not overcook the fish. The sauce was more or less an herb butter concoction but it complemented the fish very nicely. The puff pastry dish was a very detailed recipe. It used several types of meat – veal loin, pork loin, veal ground sausage, and sweetbreads for the meat filling, and 3 different ways to cook them. The loin was sautéed with onions and garlic. The veal sausage had to be dropped into beef stock via a pastry bag to produce little meatballs. And the sweetbreads (Thalamus glands) had to be poached in the beef stock and then diced before adding to the rest of the meat in the mushroom sauce. The meat filling was then poured into heart shaped puff pastries that I had to cut out and assemble freehand before baking. I must say that the hearts were pretty good cutouts and the final dish turned out to be very tasty. It was surprising to have the diced sweetbreads as we have had a lot of dishes with some form of inner organ meat, but it was not as bad as the liver or the kidney. Sara prepared the Childbed Soup which was very good, basically a chicken soup, and the Roast Duck with Chicory that turned out perfect. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender and juicy. I both prepared the Shredded Dough Cake with Apples. This, again, was different in the preparation. The dough is cooked in the oven and is about ¼ inch thick. After it is baked, it is then “shredded” by slicing it into small strips and then topped with the caramelized apples and currents. The dish was like a deconstructed apple pie to me because that is how it tasted. Overall, not too bad
Week: 9 | Cuisine of Switzerland
Daily Objectives:
Review basic classical cooking techniques and quality standards
Follow standardized recipes
Demonstrate plating techniques
Work as team to meet timeline production
Menu:
Child bed soup / Soup cookery
Red Mullet Fillets with Herbs
Puff Pastry with meat filling
Roast Duck with Chicory
Potato cakes
Shredded dough cake with apples
Equipment:
Stock pot
stand mixer
cutting board
mixing bowls
chef's knife
spatula
whisk
Summary:
In Today’s lab we worked on dishes from Switzerland. The dishes are similar to Northern France and Germany both in taste and appearance; all of the dishes are very rich in taste and texture, but there is very little color variation between the dishes. Because there were only two of us in class we basically divided up the larger recipes and then worked on the dessert together. I decided to do the Red Mullet dish, the Shredded Dough desert, and the potato cakes. We used red snapper instead of the Red Mullet. It was a very simple preparation with very few ingredients, and the technique to bake the fish at a 525°F oven temperature was different from anything I had heard of before. Chef instructed us to do it at a lower temp so that we would not overcook the fish. The sauce was more or less an herb butter concoction but it complemented the fish very nicely. The puff pastry dish was a very detailed recipe. It used several types of meat – veal loin, pork loin, veal ground sausage, and sweetbreads for the meat filling, and 3 different ways to cook them. The loin was sautéed with onions and garlic. The veal sausage had to be dropped into beef stock via a pastry bag to produce little meatballs. And the sweetbreads (Thalamus glands) had to be poached in the beef stock and then diced before adding to the rest of the meat in the mushroom sauce. The meat filling was then poured into heart shaped puff pastries that I had to cut out and assemble freehand before baking. I must say that the hearts were pretty good cutouts and the final dish turned out to be very tasty. It was surprising to have the diced sweetbreads as we have had a lot of dishes with some form of inner organ meat, but it was not as bad as the liver or the kidney. Sara prepared the Childbed Soup which was very good, basically a chicken soup, and the Roast Duck with Chicory that turned out perfect. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender and juicy. I both prepared the Shredded Dough Cake with Apples. This, again, was different in the preparation. The dough is cooked in the oven and is about ¼ inch thick. After it is baked, it is then “shredded” by slicing it into small strips and then topped with the caramelized apples and currents. The dish was like a deconstructed apple pie to me because that is how it tasted. Overall, not too bad