FISH FRIDAY

At school, in Level 2 (Intermediate), Fridays have become the last of three nights for each group at their current stations. It's our last night of Poissonier (fish station) and we'll be doing two dishes:

Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise, a Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons. With this dish we lightly flour filleted Skate in butter, garnished with capers, diced lemon, parsely (cooked in beurre noisette) and croutons.

Éscalope De Saumon Grillée, Sauce Au Vin Blanc et Aux Herbes, a Grilled thinly-sliced Salmon in White Wine Sauce. Here, we do a reduced shallot and wine glaze with stock and cream til napped (a finger across the back of a dipped spoon leaves a briefly clear space), sautée some garlic and spinach with nutmeg and grill the salmon.

FISH FRIDAY UPDATE

DISH: The Éscalope De Saumon Grillée, Sauce Au Vin Blanc et Aux Herbes, a Grilled thinly-sliced Salmon in White Wine Sauce, was the first dish we prepared tonight. We'd done a grénobloise in Level 1 but were even more unfamiliar with the Salmon so we opted to do it first.

DUE: 8:15 p.m. SERVED: 8:20 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: One difficult thing about the dish is the grilling. The grill must be pre-heated and brushed with vegetable oil to prevent sticking. If you've cut the fish right to start, you've got beautiful pieces-- you want them just as beautiful on the plate. The fish is very thin so be careful placing it on the grill and making the criss-cross grillmarks (quadrillage). The fish should be lifted using the sharp-pointed fork-tongs and fish spatula. I grilled the fish on both sides and was repeatedly frustrated when pieces stuck to the grill. Two things, 1) the fish does NOT need to be grilled on both sides, just the presentation side! 2) make sure the quadrillage is even and not dark (black marks mean burnt fish!). Without grilling both sides it probably won't be cooked through so it can be finished in a preheated oven for a few minutes.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: The spinach should be plated first and the salmon should lean up on it a bit. Be careful timing the spinach. The leaves should be trimmed of stems and always washed well (spinach is notorious for being sandy so the more washes the better). The spinach should be added to the sauteed garlic only until the leaves wilt then removed to a bowl covered with a plate until needed for service (when it can be reheated and drained).

The salmon should be brushed with a bit of melted butter (lustrer) to give it sheen. The sauce should be a cream color. Some sauce on the sides of the pot caramelized while reducing and we scraped it out before straining it because we worried about running out. We picked up some caramelization, slightly browning it. Chopped parsley should be added to the sauce directly before plating, not cooked in it or the chorophyll in the parsley will turn it green. The sauce should nap the plate around the fish but not actually dress (cover) it (after doing a lovely quadrillage the goal is to show it off, not hide it).

DISH: The Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise, a Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons, was the second dish we prepared.

DUE: 10:00 p.m. SERVED: 10:01 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: The capers should be gently squeezed and drained of its briny water; too much will overpower the dish's other flavors. Mind, Skate is like a Manta Ray so there are sharp edes poking out while you fillet the wing. Only the presentation side (the prettier side, i.e., no discoloration, filleting mishaps) of the skate should be floured before cooking in clarified butter. The pommes vapeur (turned potato) should be cut about 6.5 cm long, cooked a l'anglaise (started in cold, heavily salted water and boiled til tender), then gently tossed in parsley cut haché.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: Skate isn't the kind of fish that tastes good undercooked so make sure when the presentation-side is golden-browned, the other side is cooked through. Plate the skate so that the thicker side is away from the customer and place the lemon slice and pommes vapeur behind it. You want to have some pieces of the lemon supreme showing so don't jostle too much or overcook. The beurre noisette can be drained if you don't want the brown bits (butter solids) but they don't have to be. Don't smother the dish in the beurre noisette!

OVERALL: The dishes were generally approved of by the chef, we finished pretty much on time even though the chef did a lemon tartlet demo to start class, and it felt as though with the past two classes we finally began to hit our stride as a team. Of course, this is also the last night that our current groups of four (since early March) will be together. New groups on Monday, Garde Manger (cold buffet dishes station, well, mostly cold) for me. Orders due for the following station, Poissonier (again!). This follows the pattern of being jostled into a new situation in school, be it new dishes, new people or new kitchen areas as soon as you've begun to feel comfortable!