All day in class...

I had a full day of class today. Starting out with a practical in the morning, I made the veal chops, jus, and grand-mere garniture that we learned how to make during our demo class on Saturday. Over and over again, we've been making glazed onions. I guess it's a good thing that we've repeated it over and over and over again so we get it right but I sometimes wish they'd teach us some new things as well...at least they're yummy! I've heard that in Intermediate Cuisine, the students make forcemeat stuffings over and over again...

There was a special conference today being put on by an American dietician. Her demo was about using different oils during cooking and the different properties of each. We were given handouts that showed the different composition of fats (saturated, monosaturated, polysaturated, omega-3) in different kinds of oils and the smoking point of each kind of oil. She recommended that we incorporate more omega-3 rich foods and oils in our cooking. Canola oil in particular has a high percentage of omega-3's while most other oils have very little or none. Some foods rich in omega-3's are fish (i.e. salmon) and nuts, particularly walnuts. Interestingly, I also learned that it can be harmful to your health if you let oil come to its smoking point. At that temperature, the oil begins releasing a toxin, which can be harmful to your health. Oils should be stored in cool, dark places, and unrefined oils only have a shelf life of several months before they go rancid. Unrefined oils are more unstable than refined oils because they are cold pressed and haven't been treated chemically or with heat like refined oils. We also were able to do an olive oil tasting of oils from Italy, Spain, and France. Each had their defining characteristics on the palette. According to the dietician, olive oils can range in quality and taste depending on where and where the olives were harvested. Oils are a bit like wine in that aspect, and we tasted them in a similar fashion.

To end the demo, we had a tasting of a lemon olive oil sorbet. I've never had anything like it! It was creamy, tangy, and unique.

In demo class, I made roast duckling with turned turnips and pearl onions. We learned how to truss and roast a duck (very similar to the method of trussing and roasting a chicken). Chef also made warm oysters in a muscadet sauce with leeks as well as a cointreau and orange souffle.

We had another serving of millefeuille from the pastry cream and puff pastry we had previously made. Pastry cream always gets sweeter as time passes, and today, I think I overdid it on the sweetness factor! I'm almost all pastry-ed out! (not quite yet... but almost!)