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Test #2

post #1 of 33
1/3/02 at 5:18am
Thread Starter 
Good job folks. That was pretty easy as is the next one.
Brad well done. That is correct. The papain in the pineapple (the same ingredient in meat tenderizer) will destroy the fiber in the meat. It will not alter the appearence but the texture is disgusting. Yes Salmon is classic, it is cured as well not a salad topping. Also correct is no olive oil and or lime. In fact the whole thing is screwy. CoolJ that's a very good point. I don't know how much it would effect it but the leached proteins may well coagulate. And Suzanne, you get the question that I didn't ask correct. Taro is the primary ingredient in Poi.
Okay this one isn't hard either. I have to spend a little more time on the next one. I'll have more time this weekend. Until then;

Test #2

Your client has just finished a party and has some comments about the food that was served to them.

The Consomme was tasty but didn't seem to be quite how she remembered it in that nice little French Restaurant (recipe to follow)
The Beef Wellington was cooked nicely, but the crust seemed very dry and flaky and the mushrooms inside were not all cooked evenly.
The Green Bean Amandine was a little off. The beans were still kind of firm but olive green in color and the almonds were soft and had a soggy texture.
The Chocolate Mousse for Dessert was delicious but the menu said soft and creamy and there were a lot of little hard flecks in it.
And the candied orange zeste dipped in chocolate that was served with the coffee was a nice touch, but they were awfully bitter.

The only recipe you need is the consomme.
Chuck beef + shin bones and knuckles
onions,carrots,celery, bay leaf, water, salt and pepper
Brown beef and bones in hot oil. Add vegetables, cover just to fill with cold water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cover. Cook 2 hours. Drain soup through a colander. Save meat and chop into pieces for soup. Discard the rest. Season to taste and serve hot.

Okay detectives what happened? Brad put your hand down.
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post #2 of 33
1/3/02 at 5:43am
My God Chrose!!!
There are so many screw ups here, I don't have time to type them all:p

I will try to come back later and take a look,
BTW Chrose, How did you know I was raising my hands in DISGUST:eek: LOL
cc
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post #3 of 33
1/3/02 at 5:49am
I'll go straight for dessert...
Adding chocolate to cold mousse will result in flecks of chocolate. It has to be added to something warm (usually the yolks), before folding in the whipped cream.

Candied orange zest with choc. and coffee doesn't have to be that bitter, but if you follow a very sweet dessert with it, the flavor will seem more bitter. In any case, the zest has to be cooked in simple syrup several times to get the bitterness out.
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post #4 of 33
1/3/02 at 6:23am
Let me start with the Wellington,
First, it seems the the puff pastry was not egged washed,hence the dry,flaky crust. As for the mushrooms, They must be made in a duxell first before coating the tenderloin. also be sure to sear the tenderlion first
cc
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post #5 of 33
1/3/02 at 6:27am
for the nasty little haricot vert and almonds, Do not ever cover your green vegetable while blanching and or finishing. This will not let the cloriform set in the veggies,and of course the almonds would become soggy.
Just blanch your beans in salted boiling water,and shoke in ice water and drain till dry. Toast your almonds and keep them to the side, Simply saute the beans in whole butter and toss in the almonds just before you plate
cc
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post #6 of 33
1/3/02 at 6:31am
For your consamme...You really only made a beef broth, There was no clarification to the colagen and fats, no raft was present,no degreasing was done. Also do not cover this soup,this will allow the impurities to return to the soup.
cc
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post #7 of 33
1/3/02 at 11:57am
Blanching the orange rind and refreshing it 5 times works for me. then I simmer it in simple syrup, but you might want to check you didn't dip them in unsweetened chocolate, though that would be tough to do.
I also think the consomme needs clarification and enrichment. I've gone to using ganache as a chocolate mousse base to avoid the problem of crunchies in the mousse, which seem to come from chocolate seizing against the sides of the bowl as it's folded and being shaved off by the spatula.
The problem with the green beans is the forgotten cream of mushroom soup and the canned onion rings. Put them on and everyone will say, "Don't that nice."
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post #8 of 33
1/3/02 at 2:11pm
Wait a minute, that's not even "beef broth" -- more like barely flavored water if it's only cooked 2 hours. :(

Please, Brad, sit out the next one and give the rest of us a chance to have more fun! You're just too good!!!;) :smiles: :smiles:
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post #9 of 33
1/3/02 at 2:39pm
Ok Suzanne, I promise!! and seeing today is your birthday, I will kindly obliged.
Just watch Mr Chrose, he is a tricky man:D

Just kidding Adam!!!
Keep em coming
cc
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post #10 of 33
1/3/02 at 3:21pm
No raft (hope it's the right word) to clarify the consomme.


Orange zest need to be candied, with all the steps it implies, before being covered in chocolate.
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post #11 of 33
1/3/02 at 5:12pm
Thread Starter 
Very good, almost 100% You'll likely have to wait until this weekend for another, but we'll see.

Consomme is correct. You have beef soup! You need a raft to make it clear and to add extra flavor and protein to give it body and make it a true consomme.

Green vegetables when cooked release acid during cooking. If covered the acid is returned to the water reacting with the chlorophyl turning it olive colored. Also the almonds were gasp..yes, cooked with the beans.

The beef wellington is correctly identified as having a duxelle in it. However the description of the crust would lead one to point to a short pate brise rather than an unglazed puff pastry. Though now that I look back I should have omitted the word flakey. My bad.

After Momoreg answered I edited the chocolate orange to be clearer. The actual answer is that a plain piece of orange zeste while strong is not necessarily bitter. I did say it was candied. Therefore what would make it bitter? The pith people! The pith. It was obviously left on when the peels were cut!

And yes the hot or warm chocolate going into the cold bowl would not actually seize as there is too much fat in the cream but harden almost instantly into little pieces as it was mixed.

Very good you all get an A for effort. It will hopefully get harder as we go along.:chef:
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post #12 of 33
1/3/02 at 8:34pm

I love these lessons!

I was simply going to say that the green beans had been over cooked and that the almonds hadn't been toasted, and had been cooked with the beans. I strive to keep the color and nutrients in my vegetables when I cook them, but now I know how it works! Thank you, Chrose! :) And everyone else.
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post #13 of 33
1/4/02 at 12:11am
Chrose, as Suzanne has pointed out, give us a little more time! The pith part of the orange peel problem screamed out to me as I read it just now, but you had already given the answer!! I'm sure Brad would have gotten it first, though, had your consomme' m.o.p. not offended him so much.
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post #14 of 33
1/4/02 at 5:20am
Thread Starter 
Sorry Greg, I'm just so used to short attention spans. Still you beat CC to the pith part. He'll just have to retain his cool and not get so flustered with such culinary faux pas!
I'll give you all more time on the next one, and try to make it a little harder.
Still feel free to embellish on the answer.
Thank you all for your indulgence.
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post #15 of 33
1/4/02 at 6:29am
I didn't pick up on the pith being present. I just looked back on the original question, and it doesn't imply that at all. I feel cheated.:D
I'm looking forward to the next one anyway...
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post #16 of 33
1/4/02 at 8:45am
You people have fun here :-)

I knew the problems with the mousse and the almonds, but not the others. Thanks for the education.
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post #17 of 33
1/4/02 at 1:44pm

Teach me!!!

Um... what's a raft?

I knew it couldn't have cooked long enough, but have no idea what a raft is?

I need to read more chapters in my cooking books than the pastry/baking ones, I think.....

~~Shimmer~~
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post #18 of 33
1/4/02 at 1:51pm

LOL!

Thank heavens somebody else asked first. :D
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post #19 of 33
1/4/02 at 2:25pm
My Friends,

A "raft" is a methode in which you clarify your consamme,

It is usually egg whites whipped and ground ox tail, Or other gelatinuos meat. This is mixed together and floated ontop of the warm stock, The eggs and meat will cook and stay on top and collect the impurites. Kind of like a magnet
cc
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post #20 of 33
1/4/02 at 2:47pm
So, would it be possible to skim the raft off, and keep the liquid the beef had cooked in, for more flavor? (Is that the point?)

Thanks for responding so quickly.

Frankly, the word gelatinous isn't an appealing word to me. Yech.

~~Shimmer~~
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post #21 of 33
1/4/02 at 2:54pm
Shimmer, I may have not explained this clearly enough, Sorry.

The mass of the raft is tiny compared to your volume of liquid, The sole purpose of the raft is to capture floating sediment, It is not designed to enhance the flavor, The raft is removed before you start your next stage of clarifying, With it will come a load of "skum" yes this is a real word used to discride the impurities.

Does this help?
cc
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post #22 of 33
1/4/02 at 3:42pm

Very interesting:)

I am loving this! So, the next stage in clarifying the consomme is maybe - straining? Cheesecloth? And if this is true, why can't the whole thing be done that way without using the raft? I appreciate that you are all sharing your education!:)
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post #23 of 33
1/4/02 at 4:46pm
I realize the raft will be small. My question is when you are finished cooking the liquid, what happens to the liquid minus the raft? Do you throw it out too? (This is similar to Pastachef's question). Or do you use it? I understand the raft is to be thrown away, with all its impurities.

Does this question make sense now?
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post #24 of 33
1/4/02 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
Think of the raft as a big tasty filter. As Brad said lean meat is mixed with egg whites and some vegetables like carrots and leeks. It is mixed up and added to warm stock. Heat up the stock while whisking the raft in a circle. This is to keep it together rather than having it float all over the place defeating the purpose of the raft. As the stock heats to a fast simmer and the raft starts to solidify many chefs poke a hole in the middle of the raft. Set the stock off to one side, don't boil it, and allow it to simmer quickly. The motion of the simmering liquid will continue to pump the stock up through the raft. The raft will act as a filter with the proteins in the raft catching all the impurities in the stock. The meat and vegetables will add to the flavor of the stock. After a couple of hours the raft is carefully removed with a ladle. The stock is now consomme and should be rich in color and taste. When cooled it will have a very rich and thick consistency. It will have "body" when it's hot. If you like or if it's necessary you can further strain it through cheesecloth.
There are way too many fine impurities that will not be removed by a cheesecloth no matter how many times you run it through. These are particles and bits of protein that serve to cloud your stock and can't really be caught in cloth.
Hope this makes it a little clearer (cute huh?)
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post #25 of 33
1/5/02 at 9:20am
One caveat I want to throw in here...make sure you follow all the principles for making a clear stock which are scattered throughout these message boards. You can't clarify a cloudy murky stock which has been vigorously boiled. Rinsing the bones, blanching, skimming, letting the stockpot smile, these techniques will give you a stock worth the effort of clarifying. One thing that's always bugged me though, did anyone ever notice the difference in taste between the stock and consomme made from it? It always seemed to me to go a little flat, but then, I've found over the years I never used enough salt.
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post #26 of 33
1/5/02 at 9:28am

Now I understand

Now I understand the purpose of the bone. That is very interesting, and I'll have to practice the tecnique before I go back to work after winter break. Thank you again, everyone. Your knowledge is awesome:)
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post #27 of 33
1/5/02 at 9:32am
Thank you chrose for taking the raft to the next level, I appreciate it. If you pass the consamme through cheese cloth this would be coulded a "double Consamme"

A technique I learned many years ago when I make a fish fumet to turn into a consamme I do what is called "fining" this is used also to clarfy wines. Lightly whipped eggs whites are placed on the fumet while still warm, This sets the whites and form a kind of cover over the fumet, You then let these whites slowly drop to the bottom of your stock, and with it goes all the impurites. This takes almost 8 hours.
cc
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post #28 of 33
1/5/02 at 6:00pm
Thread Starter 
Bighat I think the difference is in what you put in your raft. I have always used a flavorful meat. I add the egg shells as well for extra albumen and calcium. I also use a lot of vegetables. In a sense it's like making a second soup. I don't go overboard contrary to how it might sound, but I think I get a lot more body and a much deeper flavor, that as you pointed out is possibly "flat" to some. Remember that you have taken out shall we say "bits of flavor" with those floating bits.

Also it's hard to make out your avatar but are you trying to scare my Diablo!
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post #29 of 33
1/6/02 at 8:30am
The avatar is a photo of the earth from space. It kind of lost some detail in the shrinkage.
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post #30 of 33
1/6/02 at 12:18pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, I see it now. Looks from here kind of like a skull. Still doesn't scare the Diablo!:cool:
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