#intermediate cuisine

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 30. This class, the last class of the intermediate session. Already 2/3 of the way through the program! I was reminded that for the last class of the basic session, we had a display of flaming alcohol around a baked alaska. This time, we had no such spectacle, but it still feels good to make it to the end. The starter for this class, some vegetable fritters, which reminds me of vegetable tempura. My favorite vegetable tempura is yam or sweet potato, but for this selection of veggies, eggplant is probably my top choice.

For the main dish, pork tenderloin and chestnuts. The pork is cooked in a pot with a dough wrapped around to make it air tight. The pork is topped with chestnuts and some glazed onions, although it's hard to tell the difference between the two at first glance. This dish is a little on the sweet side. 

For dessert, a broccio cheese tart with blackberry coulis. I'm not a huge cheese person, but others seemed to enjoy this. I think it's perhaps like a cheesecake in tart form. 

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 29. The starter for this class, a warm skate and leek salad with herb vinaigrette and clams. I don't think the flavor particularly stood out to me and the texture of the fish was a little mushy.

For the main course, pan-fried cod steak with flemish style red cabbage and beer jus. It's important not to overcook the fish, and when cooked right, it's very tender, moist and delicious. The cabbage is cooked until it becomes tender and acquires a tart flavor from vinegar. And one of my favorite parts, onion rings. Actually when I was small and I got onion rings, I would only eat the outside crunchy batter and pick out the onion inside. Now, I enjoy both components of this fried treat.

For dessert, a rhubarb tart. The rhubarb is peeled to remove the fibrous bits, but that also means the red color is lost. This tart was cooked with a custard mixture, which isn't my favorite. I prefer just the rhubarb compote and flaky pastry dough.

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 28. We're winding down towards the end of the session now. Just a couple more classes left. For this class, the starter is some seabass with aromatic vegetables. The seabass is served sashimi style with a colorful variety of vegetables and a lemon vinaigrette. 

For the main course, some veal tenderloin with creamy risotto, mushroom duxelle and asparagus sauce, which we made during practical. The veal is seared and finished in the oven until it's cooked pink and the risotto is flavored simply with shallots and parmesan. I enjoyed the asparagus sauce, which had a nice flavor of fresh asparagus in there. As for the risotto, I prefer if it's not so super creamy that it can stand up, but just slightly runny, and also perhaps with other flavorings and ingredients to make it more delicious. 

For dessert,  strawberry granita with poached mango and meringue. This is a very light and refreshing dessert, fruity and not too sweet.

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 27. I quite enjoyed this class. Why? Many good things to eat. To start off, a salmon rillette with a tropical salad. A whole salmon fillet is cooked in the steam oven before mixing with other ingredients to create the rillette. I'm usually not a big fan of things ground up like this, but it was nice atop some toast. To go along side it, a tropical salad of mango, kiwi and tomato with a kind of guacamole. It's kind of an odd combination of ingredients perhaps, but refreshing to eat. And I'm always a fan of fresh fruit. 

This here, the bread to go with the salmon, simply toasted with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

For the main course, this salt crusted sea bass. The good thing about making this in practical was that we didn't need to scale or fillet the fish. We just had to remove the guts before seasoning and enveloping it in the salt crust. Well that surely saves a lot of time and mess. Scaling fish is one of the messiest parts as those scales can fly everywhere. 

Since the fish is baked in the crust, the flesh turns out very moist and tender. It's very light and fresh tasting, which is how I like my fish. We made a beurre blanc to go along with it, which has not been my sauce of choice in the past, but it actually didn't taste bad this time. Perhaps it's the difference of chef who made it. The light fish is enriched by dipping it in a touch of sauce. 

On the side, a vegetable tart. It's made simply with a puff pastry base, layered with a combination of softened onion, fennel and celery and then topped with arranged slices of pan fried eggplant and zucchini and oven dried tomatoes. I think it's hard to go wrong with this combination of vegetables and flaky crisp puff pastry.

For dessert, this chestnut cake with caramel ice cream and caramel sauce. The best part of this was probably the ice cream. So. good. I love caramel and it had just the right sweetness and caramel flavor, and the caramel sauce gave an additional caramel texture. There was a large bowl of the ice cream left there after the tasting. I had to resist going in there for more. The chestnut cake was moist and tasted nice with the ice cream, which when melted became a kind of crème anglaise sauce. 

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 26. For this class, besides having a main course of lamb, we also had a butcher come in demonstrate the butchering of a lamb, separating it into all its various cuts. When you see all the pieces come from a whole, it's much easier to understand and remember what all the pieces represent. 

Here are various cuts, including the breast pieces, the leg, saddle and neck.

Using the shoulder of the lamb the butcher also made what he called, a duck (though I'm not sure I've ever seen a duck look like that). The leg is the head and he used the scapula from the shoulder to cut out a tail - maybe it's more like a peacock. While he was describing the prices for the various cuts of meat, one of my classmates asked how much the duck would cost. His response? Why, of course that's the most expensive cut of all. 

Here, some more cuts, including a deboned leg and the rack of lamb.

For our practical, we made this lamb stuffed with apricots and dates. With a rib roast, we removed the bones while leaving the layer of fat so we could use that to wrap up the fillet. And of course we used the bones to make a nice jus. I think lamb is always a treat to cook and eat. I liked the sweetness of the dried fruits to pair with the moist and tender meat.

On the side, we made couscous with dried fruit and nuts. Again, I was a fan of this dish because of all the contrasting textures. I love the chewiness of the dried fruit, the crisp, toasted nuts and the light and fluffy couscous. 

For dessert, a catalan cream, which resembles a crème brulée. The base is similar to a pastry cream, and it is baked and then caramelized with sugar on top. The texture of this is slightly denser.

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 25. To continue our theme with French regional food, this class was on Lyonnais. First off, this lyon-style sausage with potato salad. The chef made some sausage during demo, and also used some store bought sausage, which is pictured above. This sausage was rather salty, as sausage often is. 

The chef's sausage pictured here also included pistachios, which was nice. I enjoyed the potato salad, which was coated with a nice, light vinaigrette (rather than a heavy, mayonnaise based sauce). It was refreshing to eat.

For the main course, some pike-perch dumplings in crawfish sauce, which we made during practical. The dumplings are formed in quenelle shapes and then baked in the oven with a sauce made from crawfish shells, thickened with béchamel. These dumplings are very similar to fish balls. 

Rather than making small quenelles, you could also choose to make a large one like this. For decoration, we also cooked some whole crawfish. I like when we use seafood like crawfish or lobster to make sauces. They impart really nice flavors. And although the sauce was tasty (especially with a hint of cayenne pepper), I think my favorite way to eat fish balls (if it's okay to call these that), would be with hot pot, dipped in a simple combination of soy sauce and 沙茶醬 (sha cha jiang).

For dessert, some lyon-style mardis-gras fritters. The texture of these reminded me of 麻花 (ma hua), a kind of fried sesame snack, or also old fashioned donuts. Except, these are flavored with lemon zest and rum, and the citrus flavor really comes through.

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 24. This class, another three courses, starting with this pan-fried duck foie gras with roasted apple, cider and walnut sauce. The chef layered some apple compote, a roasted sliced apple, the seared foie gras, and then another apple slice, topping it with a baked crumble mixture. It seems common to pair savory foie gras with something sweet, like apples in this case. 

For the main course, pan-fried steak with a madeira sauce with diced truffles on a bed of celery root purée. I found the steak a little tough, though the sauce is quite tasty. It's important to be careful with the madeira though, as it can make the sauce too sweet. 

On the side, we made  a celery root flan and potatoes pan fried in goose fat. The flan was okay, but fried potatoes are always tasty.

For dessert, this cake with nougatine and crème anglaise. The texture is kind of like a muffin, with lots of crisp walnuts and pine nuts running throughout.

[eliu]

location: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Intermediate Cuisine - Demonstration 23. This class, dishes from Brittany, starting with this salad of roasted langoustines and artichoke salad. When making langoustines before, this chef also cooked a whole langoustine like such for presentation. For me, there might be one too many langoustines on the plate - I prefer presentations that are a little more reserved and elegant. Taste was okay, various vegetables with a vinaigrette. I did like the nicely seared pieces of bacon.

For the main course, monkfish wrapped in bacon. Supposedly monkfish is never sold with the head still attached because it is so ugly it would scare customers out of buying it. Well, you be the judge. I thought the monkfish wasn't extraordinarily good in this preparation, perhaps because it was a little dry and overcooked, but my classmate said monkfish is really good with hot pot. Well, what isn't good with hot pot! On the side, we made a broccoli and cauliflower pancake of sorts. Since we fold beaten egg whites into the batter, it comes out light and fluffy, like a soufflé.

We also made some artichokes. After turning the artichoke, we slice them up in pieces and cook them simply with some herbs. The artichokes become tender and delicious.

For dessert, this prune flan. When I think of flan, I think of something really tender and soft, but this had a much denser and gummier texture. It kind of reminded me of the cherry clafoutis we had earlier. But flavor was pretty good.