Well, the pico de gallo was about flavor not knife skills... and I was soo sure! The good news is I did figure that out before I presented something with no flavor. In fact the chef enjoyed my pico which was made with roasted garlic, tomato, red onion, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice. Personally, I didn't think it was spicy enough, but it's creation had become an obsession and I was over it. I can only be obsessed for so long and then I just run out of energy, and my back starts to hurt. :-]
The best part of Tuesday's class was learning the Court Bouillon (pronounced "cou buyon"), which is a delightful poaching liquid made of water, lemon juice, white wine or vinegar, herbs, mire poix cooked until the vegetables are soft and released their flavors. It is then strained and you add salt and a lovely piece of fish, shellfish or chicken. On our break, after the french chef demonstrated this ambrosia, I called Ron and asked him to get some halibut for dinner. I got home at 6:30 and proceeded to reproduce the recipe. This is what I learned - you need to have enough poaching liquid to poach :-] and you must be patient because the protein only gets better the longer it poaches. Try it - you'll love it.
Wait, I think I said the best part of Tuesday was the Court Bouillon... well I have two words for you... DUCK FAT!! Oh my gosh... oh my gosh. I know what you are thinking, but you are sooo wrong. Toss just the smallest amount of duck fat on hot french fries... o m gosh! You can probably only do this once a month for health and pocket book reasons, but what a treat! This is all I have to say "Go out and buy duck fat today."
The only downside to class was getting "yelled at" because my bangs weren't under my hat.. I want to type "WHATEVER", in fact I wanted to say to the pain-in-the-neck chef - "whatever", but I have to follow the rules. Can I say that I just don't look good with my bangs under my hat. ;-o
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