The successful preparation of the assigned main dishes along with accompaniments, including appropriate timing ensuring the highest quality dish is served. This week we serve two dishes per day, bringing coordination of two whole plates into the picture.
Sanitation and Safety
There wasn't much new in the way of safety or sanitation topics this week - the usual regarding handling of proteins, especially chicken. These are topics we're rapidly becoming familiar with.
Information
For week 8, we prepare the following four dishes:
- Fricassee of Chicken with broccoli in pecan butter, buttered green beans, and rice pilaf
- Grilled Flat Iron Steak with pommes allumettes, aioli, maitre d'hotel butter, and broiled tomato
- Sautéed veal scaloppini in white wine lemon sauce with risotto milanese and brussels sprouts amandine
- Breaded pork cutlets with pommes nature, glazed carrots, and sautéed spinach
The flat iron steak is cooked a la minute, just before service, so we prepare the rest of the accompaniments first so they are ready when the steak is finished. The aioli is prepared and set aside in the fridge; the same is done with the maitre d'hotel butter. The tomato is prepared and put in to cook close to the same time the steak is started.
The veal scaloppini and cutlets are being fabricated from a pork tenderloin. We first trim the tenderloin of excess fat and silverskin. We then make a butterfly cut for the cutlets, and some smaller cuts for the scaloppini. These are then pounded out to appropriate thinness and set aside for cooking. For the scaloppini plate, the risotto and brussels sprouts are started first once the meat is prepared. As they approach the desired doneness, we cook the scaloppini and serve the dish. For brussels sprouts, it is important to pay attention to their size - if they are too large, such that they are more than a mouthful, they should be cut in half after cooking. This is primarily to enhance the service to whomever will be eating them.
It is a similar situation for the pork cutlets, which will cook quickly. Once the meet is fabricated and ready for cooking, we prepare the potatoes for the pommes nature. The glazed carrots are next, and as they approach completion we do the cutlets along with quickly sautéeing spinach.
Practical
The fricassee of chicken is started by de-boning a whole chicken. We cut the thigh away from the carcass then cut around the "ankle" of the drumstick to disconnect the connective tissue. When the meat is free from the bone, we can then work the bone out of the lower portion. The thigh is then cut where the remaining bone is and trimmed away from this bone, which is pulled out, along with any remaining cartilage. For this dish we then cut this piece into two. From the carcass, we then break away the wishbone to allow easy access to trimming the breast. The breast is trimmed away and also cut into two pieces. The process is repeated for the other half of the chicken, giving eight pieces from a single carcass. The chicken is seasoned with salt and white pepper and sautéed in butter without browning; onions are added and cooked until translucent. The pan is deglazed with wine, chicken stock is added along with a sachet and the pan is covered and cooked for 30-45 minutes. Once done, the chicken is removed and held while the sauce is strained, has a thickener such as flour added and brought to a boil. We then add some cream, nutmeg, and any seasoning adjustments. The sauce is returned to the chicken and it is ready for service.
The pecan butter is prepared by heating butter in a pan until it begins to brown. Chopped pecans are added and cooked in the butter to merge the flavours. Broccoli which has been cooked and shocked is then tossed in this mixture and is ready for service.
Buttered green beans and rice pilaf are prepared per our previous methods.
There is not a lot of new preparation involved in the flat iron steak. The steak itself is rubbed with seasoning and cooked on a grill to desired doneness. The pommes allumettes are potatoes chopped to matchstick style and cooked per our regular french fry method - blanched in the deep fryer at 250ºF until tender then set aside until service, at which time they are deep fried at 375ºF until golden brown and served. Maitre d'hotel butter is a blend of whole butter, chopped parsley and lemon juice, wrapped in a tube shape in saran wrap or parchment paper and chilled; this is then sliced off in medallions and used as a sauce for our steak. The broiled tomato is a tomato cut in half, rubbed with sugar and broiled until tender. It is then topped with a seasoned bread mixture and broiled once more before service to give colour to the topping.
Aioli is made per our previous method.
After the scaloppini is prepared as described above, we dredge it in seasoned flour then pat away any excess. We heat clarified butter in a pan and sauté the veal. Once the veal is done and set aside to keep warm, we add chopped shallots to the pan and sauté them. The pan is then deglazed with white wine and lemon juice. A brown veal stock is added and reduced, and a sauce is formed by swirling in butter (monter au beurre). The seasonings in the sauce are adjusted and the scaloppini is served along with the sauce. For the brussels sprouts amandine, we first peel any undesirable leaves away from the sprouts and then cut a cross in the base of them to promote even cooking; they are then boiled to appropriate doneness. We melt butter in a pan and cook garlic and almonds until the nuts are slightly browned. The cooked and drained (and cut if necessary) sprouts are tossed in the sauce and ready for service.
Risotto and spinach sauté are prepared per our previous method.
Once the pork cutlet is prepared per the description above, we coat it in flour, put it through an egg bath, and then dip in bread crumbs until completely coated. The cutlet is then pan-fried until the breading has a golden brown colour. It should be served with a slice of lemon to provide a light acidic flavour.
Pommes nature and glazed carrots are cooked per our previous method.
Personal Observations
This week was a good week for learning and experimenting more with presentation as I felt fairly comfortable with the flavours in all of the dishes. Overall I felt that we did a good job. Our fricassee was done well, and the steak turned out well also. Both pork dishes were very good, and our accompaniments were good across the board.
Chef's Observations
Chef commented that our fricassee of chicken dish had an overpowering lemon flavour. We had garnished the dish with lemon zest and after checking over it again, suspect this flavour had interfered too much with the dish. As well, our broccoli was slightly overdone.
Our flat iron steak dish was very good, the main issue with it was our butter had probably been out of the fridge too long before service, or we waited too long to serve the chef, but rather than getting the butter as a whole piece on the steak it had already melted. Otherwise, presentation and flavour was very good on this dish.
Our presentation for our scaloppini was very good as well, although our lemon sauce was quite strong. We served very little sauce because of it's intensity, and chef commented on the lack of sauce - we countered with the strength of it, and he understood why we hadn't served more. However, this showed that something wasn't quite right, and the sauce perhaps could have been thinned with a stock.
Our pork cutlet dish was very good and chef didn't have much feedback for us apart from the good job we did on it.
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