Day 43 and 44 are missing because I went to Miami.
Woke up bright and early today to make up my written exam that I missed on Friday. I also had two very special visitors come with me on the subway to get the royal tour of my school! My Mom and Dad were in tow and insisted on taking a few photographs of me in my uniform. I briefly showed them around, thought they were going to kill me because I made them take the stairs to the third floor instead of the elevator. I then dropped them off at the main reception room while I hurried down to take a “mock midterm” exam. Our mock midterm is given smack in the middle of the program after your third month as your level 3 final. For the midterm, you are given two dishes to cook and present them both at their designated times that chef decides on. We pick out of a hat to see who presents first, second, third, and so on. I picked the number six. I was surprised I didn’t get five (my lucky number), but hey I’ll take it because it’s better than one.
Our two dishes that we had to make today was the sautéed pork chop in a green peppercorn espagnole sauce with pommes darphin and a chicken consommé with macedoine vegetables. I was working at a station with Jack because he was A6 and I was B6 (those are the positions we picked out of a hat from). Our consommé was due at 12:20pm and our pork chops were due at 1:24pm. That means we had to do some major multitasking and that there was no room for singing. I’ve surprised everyone in level 3 because I just don’t have any time to talk. Lashandra today said, “wow, Eliana, I didn’t hear you once”. Go me! Go me! I started preparing everything I needed for my consommé. I got my marmite (broth) to cool down before adding it to my meat with white eggs and julianne veggies. I then added some marmite into my mixture to temper the ingredients and then added it all back into the marmite broth. I was really nervous that my eggs were not going to coagulate and instead stick to the bottom, so I paid extra attention and watched my raft form. I also made sure not to over stir, but luckily I did everything right because my consommé turned out clear, yummy, hot, and even though my talliage of macdoine weren’t perfect, it didn’t stop my consommé from stealing the show.
After I presented my consommé, I was ready to let the “dogs” rest, but no! I had some filleting to do next. I took my chops out of the freezer and started to cut them into chops and machonner the stems (expose them by pushing the meat off the bones) so that mine could look all pretty and everything. I then sautéed my lamb chops in hot oil till it was nice and seared on both sides. I even used brandy to flambé those bad boys (yes, that’s when the fire explodes up in the pan). At one point or another, my hand touched the side of the stove and as soon as that happenmy hand automatically went spazzing into the air knocking the oil container right into jack’s chopped shallots. Oh lordy, never a dull moment on my side. Then I stuck the prok chops into the oven for about 8-10 minutes, so that they could continue to cook. While doing that I sliced my potatoes really thin using the mandoline. I then used butter and oil to brown the thinly sliced potatoes into a hash brown cake. In the same pan that my chops were sautéed in, I took butter, shallots, and peppercorns and let that heat up a bit before adding my handmade sauce Espanole. After the sauce Espangole reduced, I added the heavy cream and allowed that to reduce down even more till it was thick enough to be considered a sauce. Once everything was ready, I plated it all and was 1 minute late to present. Oops- sorry! But, thank the lord I didn’t royally screw anything up and overall I was successful! Just need a lot of fine-tuning!
Tomorrow I will be at the garde manager section working on a poached egg salad. That is unless chef moves me to another station.
Off to meet my parents again!
Love,
E