Class 12 - Mutton Dressed as Lamb

Have I told you I don't like lamb? I feel like I should like it, so I keep trying it, but it's no use. Everytime I have just a bite, I immediately want to spit it out. It doesn't even matter what cut of lamb or what its cooked in. Unfortunately, lamb was our dinner this class. Luckily, we also cooked chicken in this class. Only problem was that we didn't cook the chicken until around 10, so I was STARVING!

Anyway, tonight we focused on combining the two techniques of meat cooking that we learned last class (concentration and extraction). The combination of these two techniques is called mixte and is used for the less tender cuts that require longer cooking. The mixte is either brown or white depending on how much you brown/caramelize the meat. We cooked the lamb mixte a brun and the chicken mixte a blanc. The meat is first sauteed, which is the concentration part, and then the meat is cooked in stock, the extraction part.

I was only too happy to let my partner take the reins on tonight's lesson, since I will never cook lamb at home or anywhere else for that matter. For the lamb, we seasoned it and browned it until it was a deep brown on all sides in a smoking hot pan with oil. Chef told us to resist the temptation to stir it, move it around, or shake the pan and to just let it brown and get a little crispy. Once the meat was done, we removed the meat from the pan and added onions, leeks, carrots, celery, and a little water to deglaze the pan. These veggies and the meat then went into a pot with some tomato paste, crushed garlic, and some flour. After this thickened a bit, we added stock and a bouquet garnet that included a sprig of rosemary and a slice of orange peel. After this simmered for about an hour, we took the lamb out and strained the sauce. We then thickened the sauce a little and then added the meat back to the sauce. Chef gave us a little tip here - Add a dash of red wine, sherry, or balsamic vinegar to any brown sauce at the end because this will give the sauce some added depth.

Well, I tried the lamb and surprise...I still don't like lamb. Luckily, tonight the pastry class had a whole bunch of extra cookies they had made and they brought them for us to have. So, I snacked on these so I wouldn't faint from low blood sugar!

After break, I was really excited because we got another shot at quartering a chicken. Like I had said in the chicken class post, this is something that I really need to practice a few more times to get right. I definitely needed a refresher on this! After I finally quartered my chicken, I melted some butter in a pan and lightly browned the chicken. For the chicken, since we were doing a white sauce, we didn't get too much color on it just a light brown. We removed the chicken from the pan and browned diced onions and sprinkled them with flour and added stock to thicken. Then the chicken went back in the pan and covered with a parchment lid until it was fully cooked. After it was cooked, we thickened the sauce with a little bit of cream and added some veggies and salt and pepper. This heavily resembled a chicken pot pie. It was good, but I wanted it to be a little more flavorful.

All in, the class was pretty good. Chef said that beef can be substituted easily for the lamb in the stew. I liked the flavor of the stew sauce, so I'd like to try it at home sometime with beef. The chicken wasn't great either, but I'm one step closer to being able to breakdown a chicken without thinking about how to do it!

Next up is pork and you know I love pork!
Until then