soups & sauces

Yesterday I posted this on facebook:

The ease of last week's soup class is going to be quickly overshadowed by the stress of tonight's Mother Sauce class.

It's nice to be right and all that, but in this case, I wish I had been wrong.



"No Soup For You" - the soup nazi from Seinfeld

Last week's class was soup and it was a delightful class.  I don't mean to imply it was easy...it wasn't.  But compared to some of our other classes, soup class was a nice treat.  One would think that soup class in November is perfect timing for fall cooking.  Except we live in Texas and I sent my son to school in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt today because it's still hot outside.  But let's pretend it's all fall-like and let's talk soup.

Each team had to make 5 soups: New England Style Clam Chowder, Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup, Fresh Peach and Yogurt Soup, Split Pea Soup, and Vichyssoice (cold potato-leek soup).  I don't know if we simply had plenty of time to make the soups or if we were just really organized that night, but time was definitely on our side and that made the whole learning process very pleasant.

Typically, we present our food to Chef for evaluation as each dish is ready.  However, tonight Chef wanted the entire class to present all the soups at the same time.  I believe he did this for two reasons: 1) Everyone in the class gets so caught up working within our own tables that we don't communicate and coordinate with our other classmates very often.  I think Chef wanted to see us work more as a kitchen tonight and not just as tables.  2) Although each table was making the same soups, each soup turned out a bit differently.  Chef wanted us to see and taste the differences between the same recipes.

Most of the soups in tonight's class were new to me.  I've probably eaten clam chowder and split pea soup maybe one or two times.  And I have absolutely never eaten cold potato-leek soup...and at the beginning of class I was wondering why anyone ever would.  But to my surprise, it was quite tasty (great job, D!).

I made the peach and yogurt soup.  I know...that doesn't sound like a soup.  I brought some home for my husband to taste and he couldn't wrap his brain around it either - he called it a smoothie in a bowl.  I see his point, but I quite liked it (and so did Chef).  It's definitely not a fall soup (well, I guess it could be in Texas)...but imagine it as a dessert soup on a hot, summer Texas day.  It really was delightful and next summer I will make my family some smoothie in a bowl.

I also worked on the hearty vegetable beef soup.  The cuts on the vegetables and beef were really important on this soup...they all had to be very uniform.  I worked with another classmate on this soup and we did great on coordinating our cuts.  I was worried about the taste of this soup the entire time it was cooking.  It was just bland.  In the end, the taste had improved a bit, but I never loved it.

Table 3's soup line-up

Fresh Peach and Yogurt Soup (AKA: fruit smoothie in a bowl)

Split Pea Soup (the lighting is off on the photo...it was a beautiful color)

Vichyssoise with Sweet Potato Frizzles

New England Style Clam Chowder

Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup

At the end of the night it was so interesting to see how three versions of the same soup looked and tasted so differently.  Remember, we only use recipes as a guide, so there is a lot of room for variation.  But, it was an exciting night because every table turned in some amazing soups.  

"My Love Affair With Eggs Benedict Is Over" - Angelic Poe, Culinary Student

Mother Sauces are the 5 classic sauces that all the other fancy, culinary sauces are derived from: Béchamel, Espagnole (fancy word for Brown Sauce), Veloute, Hollandaise, and Tomato (NOT marinara sauce).  Most Mother Sauces aren't served as is...they are the base for other sauces.  But without a good Mother Sauce, you don't get a good sauce.

I knew this class would be challenging.  These sauces have very few ingredients, but they are tricky...very high-maintance.  But I also knew this class was my kind of class...tailor-made for the detailed, type-a kind of person.  Yup, that's me...except, not last night.  I was off my type-a game.  I was missing a detail here and there and these sauces are unforgiving in that way (and so is Chef).  So, it was one of those kind of nights.  I learned a lot, but it was painful.

We had a total of 9 sauces to make and Table 3 had three people last night (we missed you, S!).  I wish we could have had some of that extra time from soup class.  The great thing about Table 3 is that we work really well together (I'm sure the other tables work just as well together, but I'm particularly fond of my table) and that helps a lot during these stressful classes.

I started working on the Espagnole.  It's basically brown stock flavored with caramelized veggies and thickened with brown roux.  In fact, three of the five Mothers are thickened with roux.  Thank goodness I've had a gumbo/roux lesson from my M-I-L, plus D made some killer brown roux.  My slippery slope of not catching a few details began here and did not end until the end of class.  I kept surprising myself and NOT in a good way.  Luckily, this sauce is a bit more forgiving than some of the others and ended up turning out quite right.

Next, I tackled mayonnaise.  That's right, we made mayo and I have a bigger right bicep to prove it.  I'm sure there is valuable learning in having to whisk it by hand...or maybe not.  But the mayo turned out quite well.

And now for the real train wreck of the evening....I really wanted to make the hollandaise sauce because I USED TO BE madly in love with eggs benedict and I had never made hollandaise sauce before.  I knew this was the fussiest of the Mother Sauces, but I'm in school and I'm here to learn...so I wanted to give it a go.  I was really hoping to nail this sauce.  I wasn't scared of it...I thought I prayed to the Goddesses of Eggs, Butter and Emulsions...but this was a total fail and therefore, my love affair with eggs benny is over!

I started out on the right track...I whipped my egg yolks in the bain marie without cooking them, got them off the heat and cooled them down a bit with a touch of lemon juice.  Two big pitfalls avoided...yay!  Now it's time to add the melted, clarified butter.  Long story short...apparently, I misunderstood or misinterpreted how to properly add the butter...combine that with not the best whisk and bowl and now I have ugly, greenish, grayish hollandaise sauce.  Good Times!

But, it was only 9:40 and we had until 10:00 to turn in our sauces.  That was plenty of time to remake the sauce.  So, I did with the help of D and J.  It turned out much better the second time, but a bit on the thick side.  And that was that.  However, the rest of Table 3 did an amazing job on their sauces.  I really do have stellar teammates.

I don't sleep well after stressful classes and last night was no different.  I kept replaying the evening and where I went wrong and how could I have missed the few things that I did.  I know I didn't do my best  and that part drives me crazy.  I guess even type-a people are human and for whatever reason, I just had an off night.  I still learned a lot and that's really the most important thing.