We made a very simple pork preparation in this class. Its a simple process of old French cooking and surprise of all surprises it involves butter.
Before we began cooking the pork, the chef demonstrated on how to cut a pork rib roast. Each team got a 4 chop rib roast. We seasoned the pork with salt and pepper and cooked it in a preheated pan with butter and oil. After it was browned on all sides, we added carrots, onions, and celery into the pan and topped the pork with a large pat of butter. We then covered the pan and put it in the oven. We basted the pork with the butter in the pan every 10 minutes and cooked it until the pork's temperature was 150 degrees. Then we removed the pork from the pan and deglazed it with white wine and veal stock until it was reduced. As a side to this pork, we made cabbage leaves stuffed with finely diced carrots, leeks, celery, and browned bacon. We started by wilting the leaves in boiling water for a few seconds and then sweating the vegetables in the bacon fat for about 10 minutes. Then we stuffed and rolled the cabbage with the veggies and put them in a small saute pan with a little chicken stock and cooked then until the stock evaporated. Our other side to the pork were potatoes cut in half and braised in veal stock and shallots. This was our dinner for the night. To me, it was a far cry from last class's unappetizing lamb dinner! Everything on the plate was fantastic. I loved the pork and the sauce. The cabbage leaves were surprisingly delicious and the potatoes were rich and onion-y. I truly think that veal stock is my favorite new ingredient, and I have obsessively begun devising ways in which I can keep it on hand at home all the time.
Our second dish of the night was Chicken Breast Viennese Style. Okay, when I looked at all the different sides that this was served with, I was kind of grossed out. The wierd part was that when I tried it all together (except the anchovies) I was pleasantly surprised. We began the chicken by quartering a whole chicken and then removing the breast portion and boning and skinning it, which is called a "supreme" of chicken breast. It was good to have practice breaking down another chicken, because I definitely needed a refresher course before I could quarter it! We then butterflied the chicken breasts into heart shapes and lightly pounded it between plastic wrap. Then salt and pepper on the chicken. To bread the chicken we dipped it in flour first, then egg, and finally bread crumbs. Then we fried this in a hot pan with hot clarified butter. Okay, so those wierd sides...We hard-boiled two eggs and split them between whites and yolks. We then diced up each respective part and used this as a garnish on the plate. Also on the plate were capers, parsely, a lemon cut into slices, green olives, and anchovy. In the spirit of food adventure, I tried a bite with the chicken, lemon, olive, caper, egg, and parsley...I think we can all agree that adding anchovy to this might be a little too adventurous!
Next up is soups! Happy Thanksgiving
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