Vegetable Cookery

Vegetable cookery was not the most exciting week, to say the least.  Because it was thanksgiving weekend, we missed Monday's Demo and thus had to spent a good portion of Wednesday's lab going over what and how we were supposed to be cooking.  We roasted root vegetables - a combination of yellow turnips, parsnips, celeriac, carrots, shallots, and garlic - that we chopped roughly and seasoned lightly with salt and pepper.  It was rather simple, the most important point being that the veg have to be completely coated in oil, to ensure that they do not dry out in the oven.
Secondly, we braised legumes.  Legumes are dry fruits/vegetables commonly referred to as pods, such as beans, lentils, peas, alfalfa, soy, peanuts, clover and carob.  Pretty much we made a sweet braised bean dish - like the beans commonly eaten alongside eggs at breakfast.  It was was a pretty simple dish to prepare, and it took a painfully long time to cook.  The beans took at least 45 minutes to even start to soften.  It was a real drag when our other two dishes were finished in about half that time.  The other downside to this dish was that I don't like sweetened beans.  Thus, even though I took my food home for the sake of my family, I unfortunately did not get to enjoy it myself!
The last dish we were responsible for preparing was glazed carrots.  Once again, the process was straightforward and the product was undesirable (personally speaking).  I find carrots an overly sweet vegetable to begin with, especially when cooked.  To cook them in butter and sugar, making them sweet enough to be a desert, is not something I plan on doing often, if ever,  in my own cooking.  It was, however, good practice for our batonnet cuts.

This week I cooked a couple meals that were good enough to be made note of: Cocquilles St. Jacques, and Ricotta and Mushroom stuffed chicken breast with a white wine and mushrooms sauce.  For the Cocquilles St. Jacques, I picked up some gorgeous - and obviously expensive - extra large sea scallops from the St. Lawrence Market.  I seared them until they reached a golden brown, removed them from the pan, added a paysanne cut of onions and mushrooms, which I then sweat for a few minutes.  I added a couple whole sprigs of time, a couple bay leaves, some salt and pepper, and about three cloves worth of garlic puree.  I proceeded to de-glaze the pan with white wine which I then let reduce by about 2/3.  I added cream, began to boil some fresh linguine pasta, and let the sauce reduce until it reached the desired consistency.  I quickly added the scallops back into the sauce, finished cooking them for about 2-3 minutes, careful not to overcook them, and then quickly plated the dish.  It was absolutely glorious.  Avery simple, classic french dish, using incredibly fresh product was, at the risk of sounding dramatic, just pure gloriousness in my mouth.  Definitely something anyone could try at home!
The stuffed chicken breast was something I came up with using extra/leftover ingredients from past dinners.  I stuffed large chicken breasts with a ricotta, diced and pan-fried mushrooms, and garlic puree filling.  I then pan fried the chicken pieces until they were cooked through and had a nice golden brown colour on the outside.  I removed them from the pan and quickly de-glazed the pan with white wine, added a blond roux I had made earlier, and put the rest of my chopped mushrooms into the sauce.  Alongside, I served mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, both of which also received the same sauce.