Chef's Secrets - Le Cordon Blue

Chef's Secrets is a demonstration of a couple of dishes that allows you to see the dish created from beginning to end and, hopefully, learn a few tips along the way. The other advantage is seeing what can be prepared ahead and to what stage.

Also, you get to eat the food at the end and there's wine too!!

Our Chef for the evening was Phillippe Clergue and our Translator was Benjamin, he was English and dead-pan funny, although if you didn't speak English, you would have missed some of the humour!!

Yes, I am talking while the photo is being taken .. which is quite usual for me - NOT! At least the other two look okay!!

The two dishes being prepared were .....

Noix e Saint-Jaques Aux Endive Meunieres A L'Orange (Scallops with Belgian Endive and Orange) 

8 scallops (shelled)

200g Belgian endives

25g butter

juice of 2 oranges, reduced to a glaze. (Before juicing them, remove the rind and slice one half into a fine julienne and the other into tiny cubes (brunoise), then blanch) 
salt & pepper
2 brik pastry sheets (warka dough)

In Paris, you always see scallops in their shells, usually still alive.  The demonstration included removal of the scallop from the shell and we could see the animal in it's entirety ... I didn't realise they were so big, which explains the size of the shell!

In fact, the chef advised that if you can't get fresh scallops, don't bother eating them.  He believes that they are not as good once they have been frozen.  It is a bit of a shame, given, I have only ever been able to get hold of frozen or defrosted scallops .... it is not the same as removing them from the shell (or getting your fishmonger to do it for you), just before you cook them.  The scallops were seared in a pan of clarified butter, the chef stressing the importance of leaving them translucent.

Endives are popular over here. They are also known as witlof (from witloof meaning white leaf) or chicory. They are a little bitter, but growers have been breeding the bitterness out, years ago they were much moreso.  The chef removed the core and outer leaves, then finely sliced and blanched the endives to further reduce any bitterness.  They were then tossed through butter and an orange reduction, the rind added and seasoned.

The sauce consisted of the juice of 3 oranges reduced to a syrupy glaze, 1 shallot finely chopped, 100ml white white wine, 100ml cream and 100g butter. It was really good with the scallops.  The wine was reduced in a saucepan with the shallots, then the orange reduction and cream was added.  The sauce was then put aside until the serving stage, just before the butter was added.

The chef explained that this dish had been modernised a bit. Years ago, the scallops were wrapped in warka dough or pastry after they were cooked, and placed in an oven.  This resulted in overcooked scallops and took away from the dish.  In order to still utilise the pastry, the chef brushed it with clarified butter, and rolled it around a steel handle. It was then cooked in a 150°C oven until golden.  The resulting cylinder was later stuffed with the endives.

Cote De Boeuf Cuite en Croute De Sel, Pommes Sautees au Lard, Sauce Bearnaise (Rib Eye Fillet cooked in a salt crust with sauteed potatoes and bacon and Bearnaise Sauce)

1 x 1.4kg rib eye fillet, lightly trimmed

black pepper

oil and butter

Salt Crust

250g flour

200g course sea salt

100g egg whites

thyme, bay leaf - chopped

Mix the flour, sea salt, herbs and egg whites in a bowl, turn out onto a board and knead to form a smooth dough.  Roll out dough to a size large enough to surround the beef.

The ribeye fillets were sprinkled with black pepper and seared on all sides in oil and butter.  Then wrapped in the salt crust, it is important to make sure that there are no holes left before putting the meat in the oven. They were then put into an oven at 180°C - 190°C to cook for 15-20 minutes. The class had agreed we were going to have the beef rare. Which was a relief to the translator and Chef Phillippe!

Sauteed Potatoes & Bacon 

1.2kg potatoes (waxy type), trimmed to a cork shape

300g smoked bacon, cut into lardons

100ml oil

30g butter

1 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

fine grain salt

The potatoes were peeled and shaped and then sliced on a mandolin to ensure they were all the same thickness and shape They were cooked in oil, then drained, cooled and later sauteed in butter.  The bacon was cooked in a pan and added to the potatoes towards the end, parsley was added just before serving.

Bearnaise Sauce

Reduction

50ml white wine

50ml wine vinegar

20g shallots, finley chopped

peppercorns, crushed

tarragon stemps

chervil stems

Sauce

4 egg yolks

50ml water

180 clarified butter

salt

finely chopped tarragon and chervil leaves

Place shallots, chervil & tarragon stems, vinegar and wine in a saucepan and place on the heat until reduced to about 30mls.  Strain and set aside.

Place egg yolks and water in a bowl and whisk together, add the reduction and place over a pot of hot water (the water must not be boiling) and whisk until pale and thick, slowly drizzle in clarified butter and when it is completely incorporated, remove from heat and season with salt and add herbs.

The final dish .......
 

Both dishes were excellent!  The sauce with the scallops was perfect and who, apart from vegans and people with no tastebuds, doesn't like rib eye with Bearnaise???  The red wine served with it was REALLY good ... can't wait to get my hands on some more.