GARDE MANGER X 2

From our first day with the new menu in Pastry (Patisserie) on Wednesday we move to the next station, Appetizers (Garde Manger) where fortunately we'll be doing two dishes again (these are the two stations where during Level Four, students prepare two dishes for restaurant service). We'll see how things go but we may have time to still do an extra dish afterwards if we like.

More after class on the jump...

DISH: Tomato Soup With Basil and Garlic-Sauteéd Scallops, Soupe De Tomates Au Basilic Et Saint-Jacques Sautées À L'Ail

RECIPE:

The Soup
100 ML Blended Olive Oil (Slightly Less Than ½ Cup)
1 Small Onion, Émincé
1 Small Red Bell Pepper, Émincé
2 Garlic Cloves, Smashed
75 G Tomato Paste
125 ML White Wine (Slightly More Than ½ Cup)
1 KG Ripe Tomatoes (Slightly Less Than 2¼ LB)
Bouquet Garni, With 2 Whole Cloves & Small Basil Branch
2 L Chicken Stock (½ Gallon)
150 G Cooked Rice

The Aioli
4 Garlic Cloves, Puréed
Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
Juice of 1 Lemon
3 Egg Yolks
2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
150 ML Blended Olive Oil (~2/3 Cup)
8 Fresh Basil Leaves, Minced

The Garnish
225 G Scallops, Cleaned and in Macédoine
Blended Olive Oil, For Sautéing
Tiny Basil Sprigs, For Garnish

Procedure:

SOUP Heat the oil in a small marmite, Add the onion and bell pepper and sweat them until softened. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes, achieving some color. Deglaze with the wine and evaporate. Stem and chop 900 grams of tomatoes and add them to the pan, along with the bouquet garni. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the rice and cook 15 minutes more. Remove and discard the bouquet, and purée the soup in batches with a blender. Strain through a medium-hole china cap. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

AIOLI Place the garlic, seasoning, lemon juice, and yoks in a bowl or the jar of the blender and whisk or blend until incorporated. Whisk or blend in the cream, and then incorporate the oil as if making mayonnaise. Taste and adjust the seasoning and add the basil. Set aside.

FOR GARNISH AND SERVICE Mondez the remaining tomatoes, seed them, and dish the flesh in macédoine. Per serving: Sear approximately 2 tablespoons of the scallops in the oil, adding a bit of the dice tomato and seasoning towards the end. In a bowl, mix the scallops and tomato mixture with some aioli to bind. Arrange a small mound of the scallops in the center of a warm shallow soup bowl. Ladle the soup around and decorate with a basil sprig.

DISH: Steamed Clams With Roasted Red Pepper, Almonds, And Ham, Casserole De Palourdes À La Catalane

RECIPE:

3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
1 Small Ancho Chile Pepper
2 KG Manila Clams (4 & 4/10 LB)
1 Red Pepper, Roasted, Peeled, and Seeded
75 ML Olive Oil (Slightly Less Than 1/3 Cup)
100 G Onion, Ciselé
4 Garlic Cloves, Finely Minced
Pinch of Saffron Threads, Pulverized
125 ML White Wine (Slightly More Than ½ Cup)
500 ML Chicken Stock (2 & 1/10 Cup)
30 G Hazelnuts (About 32), Lightly Toasted & Finely Chopped
50 G Serrano or Proscuitto Ham, Thinly Sliced & Cut Paysanne
Salt
2 Teaspoons Eau De Vie or Grappa
2 Tablespoons Chopped Flat-Leaf Parsley

Procedure:

Pour 250 ML boiling water and the vinegar over the chile pepper and soak overnight. Rinse the clams and soak them in cold salted water for 20 minutes. Drain, rinse, and keep refrigerated until service time. Simmer the softened chile in its soaking liquid until tender. Remove the stem and the seeds, cut the flesh in brunoise, and set it aside. Cut the roasted pepper in large brunoise and set aside. Heat the oil in a sautoir, add the onion, and gently sauté until tender but with coloring. Add the brunoise of chile and roasted pepper, the garlic, and the saffron, and continue cooking for a few minutes more. Pour in the wine and stock and simmer briefly to blend and develop the flavors. Place the mixture with the hazelnuts in the bowl of a blender and pulse for a few seconds until a chunky paste forms. Pour the sauce into a suitable container and add the ham.

At service time and per order, place approximately 250 G of clams in a sautoir with 150 to 175 ML of the sauce. Cover and bring to a simmer, shaking the pan a bit. Remove the clams as they open and trasfer to a warm, wide, shallow bowl. Adjust the salt level in the broth, if necessary, and add about ¼ teaspoon liquor to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the clams, sprinkle with the chopped parsley, and serve hot.

BREAKDOWN: Our group (at right, minus one) got down to business at Garde Manger. It was strange to be on the other side of the room, to have convenient access to low-boys, the stoves and to be doing two recipes but it was also fun.


TOMATO SOUP For restaurant service we multiplied the recipe above for the soup by three times, the garnish by three times and the aioli by two times. There weren't any changes to the recipe. The soup was okay, a bit gummy actually, due most likely to the rice. There may have been a bit too much rice added.

While the scallops tossed in aioli and centered in the soup were a nice touch, I needed another tablespoon of it to really make the soup enjoyable. I think this might be a better fall or winter soup. Chef told us that the dish originally used frogs' legs instead of scallops but that the dish didn't sell. When the scallops were subsitituted the dish started selling. We may get an opporunity to cook with frogs' legs before our time at FCI is over. I hope so-- it would be funny not to learn how to cook them having attended a French Culinary Institute! At right, Christine samples a flourless chocolate cake made by the professional cooks that cook a la carte meals for the restaurant.

STEAMED CLAMS We multiplied the ingredients by four times for restaurant service. The main difference between the recipe in the book and how we actually prepared the dish was to not brunoise either the red bell peppers or the ancho chiles. The mixture was blended anyway so cutting the peppers into identical shapes made no sense.

At first we were disappointed in the sauce-- expecting much deeper flavors from the peppers, especially the ancho chiles. Some extra salt helped as did a touch of lemon juice (Chef said to alway season with salt first, then to add the lemon juice as the acid changes the perception of the salt) but we didn't mess with it much further because Chef told us that the flavor would change significantly with the addition of the grappa at service. And she was right-- the combination of the salty-seawater flavor released by the clams when they were steamed plus the grappa improved the flavor considerably.

I spoke with Chef A., in pastry to get his advice on learning more about plating technique and design and he suggested a book, "Sweet Seasons," by Richard Leach. I'm also going to go in a bit early to meet with him before class on Wednesday so he can point out some books in the school library which also demonstrate good techniques and designs.

Next class, on Monday, we'll be doing an extra dish in Garde Manger, one we asked to do in the spare time after service, a molded salad with goat cheese. Any extra dishes we can do while we're still in school only give us more dishes in our arsenal when we graduate. Chef (with me at right) is really great about doing extra dishes in our spare time.