Advanced Garde Manger Class

[Tonyy13]

Fantastic photos! Great recipe break-down as well, Bravo!  You are clearly in your element and I bet the students are thrilled.

Once I tried to poach a few quail eggs to surprise my better half and got stuck at the start just opening the little things.  Have you a secret for opening their tough shells?

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Without stepping on the instructors toes, I use a pairing knife and pierce the side of the narrow end of the egg and make a small turn with the knife to loosen the shell. Then you can pull the top back and expose the egg.

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Chefdg,

No problem, no toes stepped on here, in fact, I find that sometimes, that is the problem that I deal with as well, but I usually just trim them up, and they look fine, but next time, I will have to try the paring knife trick!!

[racheld]

And how many eggs did they cook all at once, and what size pan? It would seem to be quite a conjuring trick, trying to baste or remove them all while they're perfectly `a point (sorry---my keyboard doesn't have one of those language thingies). I just had visions of a big pan, with dozens in it, clamoring "Me! Me!" at the same time, whilst the hapless spoon-wielder juggled madly, dipping and splashing, to rescue the little fellows before they were hard-boiled.

Fresh from the wonderful pics of your repast, we consigned ourselves to the Sunday brunch at a rather pricey hotel this weekend. And of course, Eggs Benedict was what our tastebuds desired.

Suffice it to say, the ice sculptures were lovely and the coffee was superb. As were the fruit selections, the madeleines, the croissants. But alas, the eggs. A perfectly wonderful poacher-person's artistry was lost--nay, smothered, beneath an insipid white sauce reminiscent of Campbell's Cream of Chicken. It was too thin to remain in place, and provided a see-through glaze over the eggs and flabby, thin "Canadian bacon"---hah! whilst forming a moat around the rusk and heading for the rosemary potatoes. No lemon, no cayenne; just a floury, watery, tasteless glue which served only to contaminate everything else on the plate.

Take that back---the "garnish" overall was a violent sprinkling of a brightly-colored pepper/paprika of some unfortunate bastardage.

So, on this cold and rainy night, the poaching pan will be at the faintest murmur, the yolks at room temperature, the perfect amount of fresh-squeezed lemon awaiting. Tender cohesion of yolks, butter, juice, with a reverent sprinkle of salt and cayenne. A gentle toasting of the muffins, quick sizzzz of both sides of the bacon in a hot skillet, removal and trip of quiver-yolked eggs to drying paper, then assemblage, anointment, Heaven.

A mimosa as we move softly about the kitchen, the poached asparagus will receive its own golden cloak, the grapefruit's mask of pale golden sugar will be kissed briefly by the broiler, and we will sit down.

And Proust himself would have loved those madeleines.

[Tonyy13]

And how many eggs did they cook all at once, and what size pan? 

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Rachel,

While your visions were comical and sometimes true, I had one of my better students (there are always a few that sit above the rest) make the poached eggs and hollandaise, one egg at a time, and then the hollandaise whilst one other student was assembling the eggs. It can get to be quite a cluster in the kitchens, and accidents usually happen, on a daily basis. But that is half of the fun, and most of the challenge!!

[Fernwood]

Got it!!!    Ne plus ultraness to the nth degree...that's it!

Thanks for the lengthy explanation.  Somewhere in my reading past, there was a series writer who described the tastes, aromas, succulences, unctuosity, mouthfeel, mouthwateringness in the most elaborate detail, and his favorite word for the best of the best was "cockaigne."    I've always remembered that word, though I may not have spelled it correctly.

    Wish I could remember who he was---does anyone recall anything like that in readings of past years?

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"Cockaigne," which refers to a legendary land of ease and luxury described in medieval tales, is used in the second edition of Joy of Cooking to designate the authors' favorite recipes (maybe in the first as well, but that one is at my mother's and I haven't seen it recently enough to remember). I believe that the Rombauer/Becker family home in Cincinnati was also called Cockaigne. Another writer may have used the term as well, but that's where I learned the word.

Fern

[racheld]

YESSS!!! That's what I got when I googled the word. I haven't delved into my own JOC in quite some time. I knew it was all familiar.

But this particular writer (70's issues of a small, unassuming mag of uncertain ancestry and glowing magnificence) could wring the last drop of essence from a description. He quoted recipes, described the consistency of sauces in stanzas worthy of Byron, and waxed eloquent on shapes and colors and tastetingles and combinations, when fusion was still limited to rocket science.

He brought such imagery to the page, reminiscing of the silvershine and chinaclink and scent of the roses in the Orrefors vase, describing his own travels and delvings into cuisine beyond mere mortals' depth or comprehension.

And all this, to my memory, in a weekly/monthly? column which may have been mimeographed or may have contained typos and ads for fondue sets.

So, "cockaigne" was not his own, was not of his own creation; oh, well. He used it perfectly, took it up so many notches that I've remembered it all these years as a towering compliment to the best of the chef's art. And so it is, but I do wish I could remember the writer who first implanted it in my cook-memory.

Does anyone of an age to have been cooking in the 70's have any recollection of this column? I'm going to have to go on a journey through all these shelves of oddly-colored BA and F&W and Gourmet---they all took on a burgundy, bloodymud color in that era, disconcerting when it tainted the greens of salad, the golds of fruit and bread, the sparkle of May wine.

Thanks, Fern, for the input. Magnificent Tarte Tatin!!!

rachel