SAUCIER, ROUND II

Poulet Rôti À La Grand-mère, or Roasted Chicken, Grandmother-style, was one of the first dishes we learned in Level 1. I suppose it's simple, but it's tasty and there's certainly nothing wrong with that combination. The second dish, Boeuf Bourguignon, is a bit more complicated as we have to marinate the beef and make the pasta from scratch.

DISH: Poulet Rôti À La Grand-mère, Roasted Chicken, Grandmother-style

DUE: 8:30 p.m. SERVED: 8:30 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: The recap, a whole chicken is tied up and seared in a pan with a bit of oil and butter then roasted in the oven where it's drippings are ladled over it every so often resulting in a crispy outside and moist, flavorful inside. It's served with sauteed mushrooms, bacon pieces (cooked in in butter) pommes rissole (par-boiled then oil-tossed and finally butter roasted potatoes) and butter and sugar browned pearl onions.

When I tried to truss the chicken (tie it up with butcher twine), I knew it was going to be a long night. You ask, "how difficult can it be to tied up a bird? It's dead, right? It's not running away or anything. It doesn't move? What's the problem?" Well, there's a way to do it so that the legs and wings stay pressed tight to the chicken, concentrating it, making it easier to brown the parts you need to get to and easier to move it around in the pan while you're browning it.

I thought I was pretty clever, tying it up with an extra loop around the legs and pulling tight. It looked good. It looked like it would hold up to being turned on its different sides in the lightly oiled pan on the stove. Still, I hoped the chef wouldn't see it; I knew he wouldn't approve. (LINK HERE) Sure enough, halfway through searing the skin the chicken started to loosen up a bit, doing a little "so-you-think-you're-going-to-roast-me-so-easy-dance?" loosening her legs until chef came by, said "you tied this the wrong way, it won't work," pushed the wobbly bird in the pan to demonstrate and shrugged his shoulders in disapproval.

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: While the taste was good, the chicken wasn't properly tied and so it took longer to cook, both on the stovetop and in in the oven.

DISH: Boeuf Bourguignon

DUE: 9:45 p.m. SERVED: 10:05 p.m.

COOKING NOTES: Beef, marinated in red wine with onion, carrot and garlic is dried, seared in some oil on the stove top then cooked in stock and wine in the oven (braised) and served with homemade noodles. In this is instance, the chef found us lagging a bit and without much recrimination, helped us make the pasta. Instead of using the pasta maker he rolled the pasta dough out, folded it over and then hand sliced it. The presentation seemed slightly more rustic but seemed much quicker. I'd practice it once before the midterm but in a pinch, forgo the machine in future when it comes to small amounts of pasta!

CHEF'S CRITIQUE: Good job with the meat, cooked well, not too much. Excellent job on the pasta!

OVERALL: I'm suffering from post mock-midterm relief. I've been dragging a bit since Friday's test and my partner carried me a bit through the night. I just couldn't move as fast as I usually do, the synapses weren't firing and the heavy-metal ballet that is kitchen cooking was more like Starlight Express meets Stomp.