Saturday, March 24th we got together again for some more fun and cooking experience. The class increased in alumni by 2 with our friends Sara and Joe Lombardo joining the party. Again, we all spend a great evening together with a culinary delight, featuring a seafood appetizer and a very Swiss themed main course.
Kalbsgeschnetzeltes is ranked by various gourmet critics as one of the worlds 100 best dishes.
Before everybody arrives, Donna is printing out the cooking instructions
As always I like to share the recipe.
First the appetizer :
Sautéed Sea Scallops
Princess
Polenta croquet, grilled asparagus, spinach,
fire roasted pepper
Mousseline
sauce
SERVES 8
Polenta croquet
1 cup chicken stock
2 oz butter
4 oz yellow corn meal
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tbs flour
1 ea egg
2 tbs olive oil
Bring chicken stock and butter to a boil, add cornmeal,
simmer for 2 minute, stirring constantly. Add the cheese and pour the polenta out on a smooth
surface to a thickness of ½ inch. Let it
cool and cut into 2x3 inch strips. Flour them slightly, dip in egg and sautés
in olive oil, set aside and keep hot.
Spinach
1 oz butter
1 tbs finely chopped onions
1 tbs finely chopped garlic
1 Bag fresh baby spinach
salt, pepper, hacomat, nutmeg
(optional)
Sautee onions and garlic in butter until tender but not brown,
add spinach and let wilt, season and set aside, keep hot
Asparagus
1 oz butter
24 ea medium size asparagus
salt and pepper
Cut asparagus, blanch and sautés in butter, season, set
aside and keep hot.
Red pepper
1 ea whole red pepper
1 tbs olive oil
Slightly oil pepper and roast over open fire (grill or gas
flame) until burned. Place in bowl and cover air tight and let steam for 10
minutes. Peel off burned skin, cut pepper and discard seeds. Set aside and keep hot.
Sauce Hollandais
2 ea Egg yolks
2 tbs white vinegar and shallot reduction
1 tbs warm water
2 oz clarified butter
¼ lemon
juice
salt, pepper, hacomat
Whip egg yolks, vinegar reduction and water over double
boiler until creamy, add clarified butter slowly and season. Set aside and keep
warm.
Scallops and seafood sauce
16 ea Scallops U/10
2 oz shallots
4 oz white wine
4 oz clam juice
2 oz scallop juice
4 oz heavy
cream
salt, pepper, hacomat, lemon juice
1 tbs chopped parsley
Dry scallops with pepper towel , season and sautés in butter
until golden brown on both sides.
Careful, they are cooking very fast, depending on their size, in 2-4 minutes.
Remove from pan and keep warm.
Sautee shallots in same pan adding more butter if needed.
Déclassé with white wine, add clam juice, scallop juice, cream and reduce to
half the volume. Thicken with corn starch and season.
Sauce Mousseline
1 cup seafood sauce
½ cup hollandaise sauce
½ cup unsweetened whipped cream
Fold in hollandaise into seafood sauce and then the whipped
cream.
SERVE
Place polenta on flat top with spinach then red pepper,
asparagus. Spoon sauce mousseline through the middle and top with scallops.
Serve and enjoy.
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For just an appetizer, this seems to be a lot of work. There are actually 7 recipes to make this dish . Just for that I chose this, it is great for teaching. There is polenta you will be able to us in many other meals. So is the hollandais, you can use on eggs benedict or fresh asparagus etc
Scenes from the appetizer session
Gina and Karla are preparing the appetizers
Daniel decided to be the photographer
Separating eggs for hollandais
Explaining how to prep fire roasted pepper
I was good, observe, my Bacardi and coke is still full !
Having fun chopping parsley behind the chefs back!!
Gina seems confused over my instructions?
Knife sharpening technique
everything comes together nicely
Posers - having fun!!
Gina finishing the polenta
Done, they are ready to serve
A well deserved rest after this great performance
and now the recipe for the famous Swiss dish:
SLICED VEAL ZURICH STYLE
WITH ROSTI
POTATOES
SERVES 4
SLICED VEAL
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24 oz veal* (thinly sliced by hand)
3 oz
butter
3 oz
shallots, chopped
5 oz
fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 oz
chardonnay
8 oz
fresh cream
5 oz brown stock****
salt, pepper, ¼ lemon zest, chopped
parsley
beurre manie **
Season the veal with salt, pepper, paprika and sauté quickly
in butter until golden brown. Remove from the Pan and keep hot. Sweat the shallots and mushroom and season. Deglaze***
the pan with wine, add the brown stock and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Thicken the
sauce with beurre manie. Add the cream and reduce for 5 minutes. Add the meat, re-heat,
but do not boil or cook further. Add the lemon zest and check the seasoning.
Serve
with Rosti, sprinkle with chopped parsley.
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*) Veal is expensive and not found at all meat counters so pork tenderloin is a
good substitute making this dish Sliced Pork Zurich
Style.
**) Beurre manie is French for “kneaded butter”.
It is a paste made of softened butter and flour in equal parts that is
used to thicken sauces.
***) Deglaze, after meat has been sautéed and removed from pan, deglazing is done by
heating a small amount of liquid ( wine or stock) in the pan and stirring to
loosen browned bits of food on the bottom. the resulting mixture often becomes
a base for a sauce to accompany the food cooked in the pan.
****) Brown stock is a base sauce made with Veal bones. I have always some in the freezer in 1 cup containers. Recipe in my next blog entry. (you always can buy brown stock mix in the Grocery store, but it will never test as good as your own.
ROSTI POTATOES
------------------------------------------------
1.5 lb. raw potatoes,
roughly grated
3 oz onions, finely chopped
2 oz bacon * (finely sliced)
2 oz butter
salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped chive
(optional)
Sweat the bacon and onions
in butter
Add the grated potatoes
and seasoning. Stir well for 2-3 minutes.
Spread the mixture over
the bottom of the pan. (like a pancake)
Cook each side until
golden brown over medium heat.
Sprinkle with chopped
Chive.
*) Bacon is optional,
substitute with 2 tbs of oil. There are several variation of rosti in Switzerland
changing by the region.
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This recipe is simple to prepare and takes no time.
Scenes from the main course session
I am trying to get them started
Joe and Eric decided to cook the main course
Eric needed to find a good place for his Bacardi
the work begins
It is getting late, but it is ok, we had a big appetizer
Eric is watching the rosti cook with his hands in the pocket
Eric is taking on double duty
knife handling instructions
Eric cutting shallots
making progress
Joe is squeezing lemon juice in to the mushroom to keep them white
even the photographer is getting hungry
Finish teaching, they are serving up the dinner
Dinner is served
satisfied customers
Eric and Joe did on excellent job cleaning up the kitchen
Sara looks happy
Smoke break
a well deserved cocktail after serving up the dinner
another great evening
we are about to start a wii golf game
The party lasted to 1:30 in the morning and it looks like everybody had a good time and also took a little more knowledge about cooking home with them. They are all anxious to find out about the next class, when it will be, and what we are going to serve.
Jacobs wonderland
