In Cuisine class today, I had a very tough time. As far as skills go, it wasn't hard too hard. It really tested my ability to hold my breath and close my eyes. We made Escargot. Chef Samuel said it was delicious with garlic, butter and parsley.
I started by running to grab latex gloves. I was not going to touch them - not a chance. We started by rinsing the live snails and removing the seal they create during the hibernation. We then salt them liberally to purge them. Once the snails touch salt, they begin to foam. When the snails have all turned green, you can rinse them more thoroughly. We then blanch them in cold water and brign to a boil. once the snails are cooked, we use a toothpick to pull them out and cut off their spiral tails. Needless to say, I panicked a lot. Then you toss them back into water with white wine, carrot, black peppercorn, and bay leaves to cook on medium for an hour. The rest we do tomorrow. There was once a time where I contemplated eating Escargot. After today, that day may never EVER come.
After we finished making snails, we switched to a slightly more appealing dish. We worked on Paella. Typically, I would be far more excited. This time, however, we were going to replace the rice with squid. Erica and I had to cut the slimy, delicate squid into the size and shape of rice after removing the skin on both sides of the large squid. It is best to store the squid over ice until you need it for hygeine purposes. We blistered the peel of a red bell pepper and removed it. We sauteed the onions, bell peppers, bay leaf a whole garlic (au chemise). Once sweated, we added the squid and white wine to avoid sticking.
On the side, Chef Samuel let me take care of the saffron water for the whole class. I boiled the water, added saffron and let it sit for 10 minutes. The bright yellow water went on the paella next. The we threw in the shrimp, mussels and butter and cooked until the mussels opened nicely.
For garnish, we made a tuille. A tuille is a mix of flour and water that you create a crisp out of for garnish. In this case, we added olive oil to create a bubbly appearance. Voila!
Feeling
Yucky!