SECOND SEMESTER: WEEK 2

So as I mentioned in my last post, this week's menu was Wild Mushroom Terrine with Aspic. I was excited about the terrine, as I have always wanted to make pate.  To my chagrin, the process of preparing a vegetarian terrine, such as the one we did in class, is completely different from that of preparing a meat or liver pate.

Essentially, vegetable terrines/pates have a veloute as their base.  After having prepared the veloute, perfectly of course so that there are no lumps, you add the veg (wild mushrooms, brunoise of red and yellow peppers, garlic, etc) and the gelatin.  This is done rather quickly, so that the veloute does not cool down, so that the gelatin does not set before you have the chance to fold in some whipped cream.  By adding the whipped cream, the terrine becomes a mousseline.  Anything to which you add whipped cream is then necessarily called a mousseline.  The whipped cream is a must in this dish in particular, only because it adds a level of richness and fluffiness it would otherwise lack.

Once the mixture is added to the terrine mold, it is immediately placed in a bowl full of ice in the fridge.  Under normal circumstances, anything with gelatin like this would sit overnight so that it sets properly.  Of course, at school we do not have that sort of time, which meant that our terrines were softer than an ideal product.

Along with the terrine, we prepared aspic.  Aspic is traditionally prepared with veal or pork knuckles rather than powdered gelatin.  Once again, due to time constraints, we were unable to prepare it in the traditional fashion (sigh).  Either way, the use of the aspic to decorate the plate with flowers designed with very thinly sliced, and blanched, veg, was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated.

The minute the warm aspic hits the cold plate it sets.  This means that you have to be quick.  The other frustrating part about using aspic is that you cannot fix it if you've made a mistake.  Trust me on this one, as I tried my best to fill a whole on the plate where the aspic hadn't filled in.  It was not a good idea.  Either way though, I did pretty well.  Chef Reid loved my flower design that I made with leek and carrot and thought my terrine tasted great. 

This week in Banquet production our star ingredient was duck (YAY!).  We had two full ducks per team.  We broke them down completely and rendered down all of the fat for duck confit.  The legs were obviously used for the confit, which, once again, was not as succulent and tender as it should have been due to time constraints (as it should be cooked at a really low temperature in its own fat overnight or for at least 6-8 hours).  Still, since I LOVE DUCK, I was more than happy to take the leftovers home.  We seared the breasts to medium rare (duck breasts should never be cooked longer) and served them fanned out on a bed of braised peas with pearl onions alongside turned potatoes.  We browned the bones and mirepoix and used them to make a delicious blueberry sauce.  We made a demi-glace with the bones and stock and then added blueberry wine, fresh blueberries, and a teaspoon of black current jelly (yum yum!).  It was a glorious meal, one I will surely repeat (kind of a big deal considering what I've said in the past about what I've cooked at school)

'Til next time...