Bechamel mucho...

Today we actually got to do some cooking.  Yep indeedy we did.  We read about sauces for our homework last night then today we got to make Sauces Bechamel which is a white sauce made with butter, flour, and milk,  with some spices added for flavor...And  might I say that Darcys' Mom makes an Awesome gravy to go with biscuits for breakfast which is a derivitive of, yes you guessed it, Bechamel. 

So, Chef does his lecture and then demos how we are to make the sauce, he then has us pair up to make our sauce and i had Thomas as my cooking partner.  We had to make the sauce and in between that cut potatoes.  And just like on Chopped he says "Okay you have 30 minutes...Run Forrest Run!!!"  and we all start scrambling for ingredients (okay run forest run isn't in Chopped but it is in our class lol).  Thomas and I worked quite well together.  I got our pots and turned on our burner and...Nothing.  The pot is not getting hot and it's not melting the butter.  "Chef, Chef the burner isn't working..."  Chef comes over and says, "well they were all working this morning"  Looks at the pot and burner.  "Hmmm, nope it's not working.  Get another pot, this pot must be warped."  Why would that matter, you ask?  Well, we use Induction burners in class and if the metal pot is not sitting on the burner porperley then it won't induce the necessary electric current to heat the pot.  An alternating electric current flows through the coil in the burner, which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric current in the pot.  Cool huh?  Well, to me it was because well, learn something new everyday right? (Darcy, you might want to suggest this burner to Gordon and Jorge.) 

Anyway, in the meantime i'm thinking tic toc tic toc my 30 minutes are melting...and Yay the new pot works.  So, Thomas gets the roux together, butter and flour, while i'm peeling our potatoes to cut.  The roux is now done and i get the milk on the burner.  It's heating, i go and get our onion, bay leaf and clove, plop, into the pot of milk it goes.  Thomas is like, "I think the onion, bay leaf and clove is good enough, I don't think we need the Bouquet Garni".   Me, I take off to the cooler, grab the leak, parsley, thyme, celery leaf, and peppercorns and start making our Bouquet Garni, why?  Because i don't like to do things half ass...  I wrap up my garnishes in my leak, tie it up and plop it into the milk.  Back to potato cuts, Thomas is stirring and stirring the milk, i finally had to tell him to stop lol, the milk was never going to boil with him stirring it so fast.  I'm cutting and cutting, look up and the milk is steaming so i walk around to the other side of the table to check it out.  I stir and Thomas says, "I think it needs to cook some more", and i'm like, "it's frothy and steaming, it's hot enough lets pour it in the roux now."  So there we are with our milk and roux getting whisked by Thomas.  He was cutting his potatoes while i was getting the Bouquet Garni together so he stirred while i got my potato cuts done.  He's stirring and stirring, I look up and it's boiling and getting thick.  I'm cutting and cutting, I look up again and it's doing that blop blop blop kind of boil.  I take my spoon, dip it in the sauce and check it's consistancy or Nappe.  Looked good to me, back around the table i go to get a better look.  Yep, looks good.  We start seasoning.  Thomas adds a 2 finger pinch of salt and 1 finger pinch of pepper.  I'm stirring and stirring while Thomas goes and gets our nutmeg and spoons for tasting, I taste, mmm bland, needs more salt.  Taste again, needs more salt,  Thomas tastes and says, "we better stop, we don't want it to be too salty", i'm thinking hmm needs more salt.  Off Thomas goes to get the Chinois to strain our sauce, and... I add more salt and pepper lol.

Into the bain marie our sauce goes though the chinois.  Stir, taste again, I think it's still in need of just a tad more salt.  Thomas tastes, he says more salt.  More salt, stir, i look up and the teacher is coming around now to taste our sauce, Taste, one more pinch, stir stir stir... Chef takes his spoon and dips it into our sauce to test, "hmmm good consistancy, good color..."  and into his mouth our sauce goes.   "MMMmmmmm, Very good flavor, the best Bechamel i've tasted all day..."  Thomas and I with BIG smiles on our faces... "Thank you Chef!"  We reach across the table... High Five.   YES!!!  It was AWESOME!!!  All around the room we were getting razzed by our classmates, "OOOooooo the best he's tasted all dAAaay"  Thomas and I..." don't hate, don't hate..."  Both with grins as big as the Cheshire Cats'.

I pray that I can keep this up.  It is a lot to absorb in a short amount of time.  We recieved our grades today for our second week and i got lucky and got another A even though i missed a class due to my trip to St. George for Lua. 

Sanitations was boring, but who wants to write about that when we could end on a high note from Culinary class? lol.

So, that's my blip for my BFFs today.