Class 11: A Little Concentration Please Or You'll be Extracted

In class 11, we learned about cooking beef and veal. The thing is that there are tons of different cuts from these huge animals, and there's more to learn about the different cuts of meat then can be covered in one class. As a result, the class included a lot of high level information about the different beef cuts and what cuts require what type of cooking. There are two basic types of cooking meats: concentration and extraction. Concentration is the process of sealing the natural juices inside the meat through methods like roasting, sauteing, or grilling. Extraction is poaching, simmering, or boiling and basically involves "extracting" the natural juices from the meat into the cooking liquid (typically water or stock). After the initial boil, the meat is strained and then aromatics like celery, onion, carrots, and seasonings are added and the mixture with fresh is brought back to a boil and then simmered. Fittingly, we cooked one piece of meat extraction style and the other concentration.

We started with the veal (we used shoulder), which we made into a stew. Due to the nature of veal shoulder, it has to be cooked in moisture rich methods. Veal looks a lot like regular beef, but much pinker and it has a lot more silver skin that must be removed. My veggie partner was only too happy when I volunteered to clean and cube our veal. Chef's demo included the very important directive that we should cut away from ourselves when removing the fat to prevent any accidential self-inflicted wounds. We are after all using knives that can cut through bones (yikes!). We didn't remove too much of the smaller bits of fat on the veal, because the longer meat cooks the more time the fat has to melt and enhance the richness of the stew.

After I cubed the veal, we covered it with cold water and brought it to a boil. We then strained it and put it back in the pot with stock, onion, leeks, carrots, celery, and a bouquet garni, brought it back up to a boil, then simmered it for about an hour or until the veal was tender.

While our beautifully cubed veal was cooking, we made tomato fondue from class 2 and a bernaise reduction from class 3. At this point, I was ecstatic because I realized that for dinner we were making our own steak frites with a tomato bearnaise sauce. My partner didn't appear to be in the mood to cook this class so I got to make grill our steaks, which were heavily seasoned with salt and crushed black pepper right before grilling (if you season it too early you can pull too much moisture from the meat). We used the classroom grill and learned how to make the beautiful grill marks. Its actually easier than I would have thought to make them perfect. You put the steak on the grill at a slight angle pointing to the top right. Then after it browns slightly, you rotate it with the same side on the grill and the steak pointing to the top left. After that side is completely brown, you flip the steak and repeat. Viola! (oh you never take the temperature of steak with a thermometer because you don't want to poke it and lose the juices so you have to figure out whether its done by touch and how much bounce the steak has when you push on it...chef told us that when you see blood rise to the surface of the already browned side you know that that part of the steak is at medium. If the steak is too thick, it can be finished in the oven).

Okay, so as I let our steak rest, I worked on the hollandaise for the bearnaise sauce. The first time I made a scrambled yolk so I had to start over. Second time it came out perfectly and I added the bearnaise reduction, some of the tomato fondue, and chopped fresh herbs. While I did all this, my partner made beautifully crisp two fry french fries. And then it was time for my dinner. The tomato fondue in the bearnaise was a really nice addition and it was nice to dip the french fries in this sauce as well. The steak came out a perfect medium, easily the best meal I've had in class yet...not that I didn't love my meal of potatoes 1,000 ways!

After break, we finished the veal stew and garnished it with mushrooms cooked with a parchment lid and pearl onions glacer a blanc (mine actually ended up browning but who likes pearl onions anyway?!). To finish the veal stew we removed the veal and strained the broth. My partner than started a roux, to which we added this broth, and cooked slightly to thicken. After this was thicker, we added some cream and added the veal, mushrooms, pearl onions, and a few drops of lemon juice. This was for us to take home!

Next up Mutton and Lamb

Until then,