3rd VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST: RICOTTA GNOCCHI & CARROT SOUP

I remember when the Level Four students started to tell us that pretty soon we'd just be looking forward to the end of classes. I'll really miss school when it's over but between working at the restaurant, working on the final project, blogging about school and the project and actually going to school, I'm pretty tired. Tonight we do two recipes and we're having the test on the pastry recipes that was happily postponed on Friday.

My second wind (I hope) on the jump...

DISH: Purée of Carrot Soup With Leeks, Sorrel, And Dill, Potage Crécy Auc Poireaux, Oseille, Et Aneth

RECIPE:

The Soup
1 KG Carrots
100 G Onions
200 G Leek, White & Tender Green Parts Only
50 G Butter
2 L Butter
2 L Chicken Stock
100 G Potato
Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper

The Garnish
160 G Pain De Mie
70 G Butter
80 G Carrot, Cut Macédoine
120 G Leek, White With Some Pale Green
15 G Sorrel Leaves, Chiffonade
40 G Dill
125 ML Blended Olive Oil

Finishing the Soup
200 ML Heavy Cream
75 G Butter
Dill Sprigs

Procedure:

SOUP Peel the carrots and onions and clean the leeks. If the carrots are extremely large and woody, cut them lengthwise down the middle and snap out the core with a paring knife. Émincez these vegetables and sweat them in the butter until tender but with no color, and then season them lightly with salt. Pour in the stock and add the potato. Cover the pot and simmer the soup until all the vegetables are tender. Stir the soup from time to time to make sure that none of the vegetables stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

GARNISH Meanwhile, cut the bread into 3/8-inch dice and sauté in 40 G of the butter until golden. Drain on paper towels to absorb the fat. Cook the carrot garnish à l'anglaise and refresh. Émincez the leeks and sweat them in the remaining butter until tender, adding the sorrel at the last minute and allowing it to soften. Season them with salt and pepper and set aside. Purée the dill with oil in a bldender until smooth and very green.

FINISHING THE SOUP When all the soup vegetables are compltely soft, purée the soup, in batches in a blender. Strain the soup through a china cap and return it to the heat. Add the heavy cream and bring the soup back to a simmer. Adjust the seasoning and consistency of the soup as needed. Add more stock if the soup is too thick and swirl the butter into the hot soup. Reheat the carrots and leeks separately and stack a portion of them in the center of each hot soup bowl, starting with the carrots on the bottom. Serve the hot soup oured around the warmed garnish and topped with the croutons and a dill sprig. Acidulate 1 tablespoon of the dill oil and trace a circle of it over the top of the soup.

DISH: Ricotta Gnocchi With Braised Greens, Mushrooms, and Prosciutto, Gnocchi De Lait Caillé Et Vergure Braisée, Champignons, Et Jambon De Parme

RECIPE:

The Gnocchi
500 G Ricotta, Well Drained
2 Eggs
60 G All-Purpose Flour* (CHANGE THIS TO 90G)
4 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese (CHANGE THIS TO 8 TBSP)
Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper

The Garnish and Finish
250 G Oyster or Other Exotic or Wild Mushrooms, Stemmed
100 ML Blended Olive Oil
150 G Greens For Braising (Baby Bok Choy, Lettuce Hearts, Arugula)
Cut in 2-inch Pieces
25 G Prosciutto, Cut in 1-inch Triangles
500 ML Chicken Stock
150 G zbutter
5 to 6 Fresh Sage Leaves, Cut in Julienne
25 G Parmesan Cheese, Finely Grated
Balsamic Vinegar

Procedure:

GNOCCHI Blend the ricotta and egg briefly in a food processor. Stop the machine and add the flour, cheese, and a bit of seasoning. Process again until just mixed. Place the mixture in a bowl set over ice and refrigerate until needed. Form the mixture in teaspoon-size quenelles and poach them in lightly salted simmering water. The quenelles will sink to the bottom when they enter the water and then gradually rise to the top. Count 4 minutes of cooking time after they rise to the top. Refresh in ice water, drain, and set aside.

GARNISH AND FINISH Sauté the mushrooms in 30 ML of oil, season, and set aside. Per order: Warm a tablespoon of oil ina small sauteuse. Add 5 to 6 musroom pieces, 6 to 8 pieces of greens, and 3 pieces of prosciutto, and cook gently until the greens have wilted and are crisp-tender. Pour in 65 ML of stock. Add 1 Tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon cheese, and the equivalent of 1 sage leaf cut in julienne. Bring to a simmer and emulsify the sauce. Meanwhile, drop 4 to 5 gnocchi in some hot salted water and reheat briefly. Drain and add them to the sauce and swirl the pan to baste them with the sauce. Adjust the seasoning. Arrange all the elements decoratively in a wide shallow bowl and finish with a few drops of balsamic vinegar.

BREAKDOWN: Chef Wanda who was not in class tonight and we certainly missed her. I'd hoped on doing a froglegs recipe with her but it looks like that might not happen before we graduate-- there's just not that much time left. We had a subsitute Chef who was very involved in one of the slowest services we've had in all of Level Three and Level Four. We were done serving our appetizers and fairly along the way into cleaning up our station by 9:45 p.m., an hour before the end of class. Considering how beat I am it's not a bad thing that it was a slow night.

RICOTTA GNOCCHI We didn't have nearly the tough time with the gnocchi tonight as we did the last time around but that's because we made Chef Wanda's changes to the recipe above which included an extra 30 G Flour and 8 additional tablespoons of parmesan cheese.

I'm fairly certain our subsitute Chef noted that the gnocchi might hold up even better if we didn't mix the ingredients in the robotcoupe. Tonight we served the gnocchi in a smaller bowl than we had previously and we only served two gnocchi per bowl. It certainly looked more like a tasting menu dish than a full-sized appetizer.

CARROT SOUP When all was said and done, the soup seemed a bit thin and could have used some additional dimension. I suppose sometimes a carrot soup is just that, carrot soup. It might have been better had we been able to further sweat the vegetables before adding the chicken stock. When we work with Chef Wanda we usually give the "sweat" vegetables a little color and slight caramelization which brings more flavor to the soup.

The soup is not a dish that involves a lot of work and that's what I was working on so while I looked around for things to do and clean, it was hard to escape how slow a night it was. While I would have liked to get some more experience with the gnocchi it is something that is easy to practice at home because the ingredients aren't exactly exotic. (PIX TK)