Day Six

Sorry Day Five had no entry. It was Friday and when I arrived home, vodka was calling much louder than my laptop. I anticipate this trend on Fridays, maybe Thursdays too.

Today we made a traditional diced veggie salad, tossed in homemade mayonnaise called La Macedoine de Legumes. This dish requires exhausting amounts of knife work and had little WOW factor; I will spare you further details.

We also made a delicious strawberry tart - yes, we get to make dessert! Anytime we do a dessert it skims time and brainpower from our recipe writing homework since baking requires exact measurements, which the big dogs provide.

The crust of the tart is made from Pate Sucree, a traditional sweet dough that has thousands of uses.

You'll need:
8 oz. of butter
4 oz. of sugar
12 oz. of all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Beware, if you don't have a baker's scale, you must convert the dry weight measurement to a dry volume measurement. Combine all the dry stuff and cut in the butter as you would for a pie crust. When you have pea sized pieces of butter, add the egg (scramble it first) and vanilla; knead together with your hands. Use a technique called Frisage, where you take the heal of your palm and push down and forward on the dough at the same time. It makes a mess, but is the fastest way to fully incorporate the butter. Once the dough is together, chill for at least 30 minutes.

Roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 thick. Then, line a 6" tart tin with the dough. Poke your fork into the bottom of the tin to allow steam to release when cooking. Blind bake (or bake the shell empty) at 350 degrees until golden brown. You may want to weight down the center of the tart shell with pie weights or baking beans.

For the Creme Patissiere:
2 c. milk
6 egg yolks
5 oz. sugar
1 1/2 oz cornstarch
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat the milk over a very low heat. Quickly and thoroughly whisk the yolks, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Don't stop mixing or the yolks will get dry and create lumps. Once the milk starts to let off the slightest bit of steam, whisk about 1/2 cup quickly into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking milk into the yolks until all the milk is incorporated. Pour the entire mixture back into the pot and put over a low heat. Keep whisking like a crazy person and the mixture will begin to thicken. It is done when big heat bubbles pop through the surface (almost as though the creme is boiling). Remove the creme from the heat, transfer to a cool bowl and stir with a rubber spatula until cool - about 5 minutes. This part is boring, but worth it to get a smooth, shiny creme.

Once the tart shell is cool, fill it halfway with the creme. Top the creme with sliced strawberries. Glaze the strawberries with any fruit glaze. You can quickly make a glaze by mixing equal parts of jam and water over a low heat. Voila.

The most interesting part of the day was watching the Phase III students. These are students in the final phase of the program. Phase III entails a restaurant externship coupled with classes, taught by the Head of Everything, a few times a month.

The Head of Everything had them competing in a Top Chef style knife skills competition. "Iz zat what you call a julienne?" he barked at one girl. He paraded around the room scribbling on a clipboard. 'What could he be writing?' I wondered. "Do you zee zis?" he asked a guy, while pointing to his clipboard. "I geeve you zerho points for speed! My grand mama is vaster zhan you!"

After the cutting match, Phase III turned out a beautiful beef dish with an artfully plated vegetable thingy and buttery looking sauce; whatever it was it trumped our Macedoine and strawberry tart. As the Phase III students grumpily scurried around the kitchen, surrendering to the wants of the Head of Everything, all I thought about was how I couldn't wait to be in Phase III. How refreshing it feels to be excited about a seemingly miserable challenge. Bring it on Frenchie.