SAUCIER: BEEF ROLL AND BUSTED PANTS

It feels like it has been weeks since we've had to rush in the kitchen. While that probably means it's time for me to get a restaurant job where I'll be facing new challenges it's also because we've been away from the Meat and Fish Stations (Saucier and Poissonier). Monday marked our return to Saucier.

DISH: Braised Sausage and Mushroom-Stuffed Beef Escalope With Carrots (Vaucluse), Paupiette De Boeuf Aux Carottes

RECIPE:

For The Paupiette
250 G Sausage
200 G Ground Beef
100 G Boiled Ham, Brunoise
20 G Shallots, Ciselees
50 G Brandy
10 G Parsley, Hache
3 G Tarragon, Hache
Salt & Pepper
8 Slices Beef Top Round
8 Pieces Caul Fat
15 ML Vegetable Oil
10 G Butter

For The Sauce
100 G Onions, Ciselees
4 Tablespoon Tomato
100 ML Red Wine
2 Garlic Cloves, Crushed
Bouquet Garni
500 ML Fond De Veau Lie

For The Carrots
4 Large Carrots
2 Tablespoons Butter
Salt & Pepper

Procedure (serves 8):

PAUPIETTE Mix 250g sausage, 200g ground beef, 100g brunoise boiled ham, 20g ciselees shallots, 50 g brandy, 10g hache parsley, 3g hache tarragon, salt and pepper. Test the seasoning by poaching a bit. Slice 8 pieces of top round beef, tap each flat with a mallet between pieces of plastic film. Lay out thin slice of beef, tuck filling in middle and roll beef around filling taking care to ensure the ends are tucked in. Wrap each paupiette in caul fat and season all sides with salt and pepper.

In a wide sautoir, heat 15 ML vegetable oil, brown all sides of paupiette, remove from pan and pour off the fat. Add 10 G butter to pan, and 100 G onions, ciselees, sweat. Add four tablespoons of tomato compote, sweat and then add 100 ML red wine and deglaze the sucs from the pan. Reduce by half, add paupiettes, two cloves of crushed garlic, bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley, peppercorns) and 500 ML fond de veau lie halfway up the sides of the paupiettes. Season, simmer and cover. Cook wither on the stovetop or in a 350°F oven for 1¼ hour, turning and basting. Remove paupiette to a clean pan, degrease cooking liquid, reduce, strain over paupiettes.

CARROTS Clean and peel carrots, halve, then slice in small diagonals. Warm several tablespoons of butter in a large sautoir, add carrots, salt, pepper, water and cover with parchment paper. Simmer until tender, remove and set aside but reserve cooking liquid. Reduce liquid to a glaze and add back to carrots. Keep warm for service.

BREAKDOWN: I'd tasted the finished paupiettes another group had done last week and the end result was dry and unappealing so I was hopeful that we might avoid a similar fate. Our dish, left, was attractively presented and the sauce was delicious. Even though we were all mindful of the paupiette being dried out and only cooked it for 45 minutes (the recipe called for a half hour more) but without sauce it was dry. I wonder whether it would have made a difference to cook it on the stovetop instead of in the oven.

We multiplied all ingredients above by three for restaurant service and added a rice pilaf and green beans.

For Rice Pilaf:
3 Cups Rice
3 Cups Chicken Stock
3 Tablespoons Butter
1 Cup Raisins
2 Red Pepper
2 Green Pepper
2 Yellow Pepper
Salt and Pepper
1 Cup Frozen Peas

Over high heat add three cups of chicken stock to three cups rice, and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat, add 3 tablespoons of butter and toss rice. Add 1 cup raisins and toss. Separately, roast six peppers (red, green & yellow). Peel burnt skin off peppers, macedoine and add to rice. Season with salt & pepper then add 1 cup of frozen peas and toss. Keep covered (background, right) for service.

We also added green beans which we prepared very simply, cleaning about 100 beans, snapping off their ends, cooking them a l'anglaise (in heavily salted water) shocking them in ice water to keep their bright green color (always have an ice bath handy before cooking the beans!), and then cooking them in butter with salt and pepper for service.

Left, you can see our service station set up on the table, a hotel pan complete with salt, spoons, butter and finely chopped parsley. Also at the back a square-boy filled with a bit of vinegar and water with rolled up and tied cheesecloth to clean any stray drops of sauce or parsley leaves off the plate edges before bringing the plates to the front of the kitchen.

At right, the service trays with three dishes ready for the waiters to bring out into the restaurant of L'Ecole. Our dish at right is accompanied here by two fish dishes (it must be two different tickets going out as the fish and meat wouldn't be served at the same time). The food is sitting under a heat lamp, keeping warm for the (hopefully) few seconds it must wait before someone brings it out into the restaurant.

There were only four of us today, we were down one person (our group of five is more than any other group has on any given day) and during service one of us expedited (kept track of the dishes being ordered and fired for service) so there were only three of us actually cooking but it was a pretty simple dish to make and easy enough to plate. Two of us were actually breaking down chickens during most of service. The only time we were "in the weeds," (is that a golf term brought by caddies to the kitchen or what?) was at the very beginning of service when we had to plate a party of 20 all at once. I sliced the paupiettes and my two partners plated and sauced as I came back around to sprinkle parsley and clean the rims.

It was HOT today, the weatherman said it would be 98°F but I think it ended up being higher and I was out on Long Island playing tennis and swimming before class (tough life, I know) and I think I got a little touched in the head from the sun. Still it was a pretty easy night. The most eventful part of the night was when I went into a crouch to pull a huge plastic bin of chickens out of the low-boy (fridge) and I heard and felt the front of my kitchen pants tearing. It was so hot in the kitchen it was actually not a bad thing and the hole was covered by an apron so hey, no problems. Maybe I'll just tear open all my pants and sew them back up in October.

Jokes solicited here...