Case of the Cordon BLUES

A gloomy peace this morning with it brings. And what a tearful 24 hours it has been. As you may have guessed, the cuisine exam did not go well. And now you know that I am a rather dramatic mourner of all things lost in testing situations.

I was given a break, or so I thought, and pulled the beef as my test recipe. I will spare you the long drawn out details of how and where I went wrong, how I couldn't get anything right, and how despite getting the easiest of the 3 recipes, I still managed to run 2 minutes late (costing me 2% points per minute off my score). This is all acceptable, until the shocking news arrived: the judges had made a horrifying discovery on my plate. It arrived to the table with a hair hidden in the carrots... Not only could this hair never have come from my head, but there was absolutely no sign of it when I checked the plate prior to leaving the kitchen. Eat your heart out lemon sole; when chef returned with this news, I was the gutted one.



And so this morning reared it's ugly head and for the first time, in I can't remember when, I had to forgo contacts for glasses.
Assessing the damage done to my living room from the previous post-assessment evening: a kicked bottle of Bordeux, two bloodied and beef-jus-stained aprons, a cell phone convulsing on the last legs of low battery, and a barrage of increasingly depressing and indecipherable text messages to anyone and everyone who would listen, I realized I was acting more like a carnivorous beast than the distinguished culinary student I am supposed to be.

With that (and with a big fat Please Forgive Me gift in route to my husband's office) I stumbled into my kitchen to resurrect another fallen hero...



With a clear disdain for travel of any kind (see their previous appearance), these pate a choux swans have become my Stay-at-Home-Swans. Let's just hope that if I get these Homebody Birds on the pastry exam they'll be suffering from a rare case of cabin fever and relish an outing to the schools patisserie...


Chantilly Crack


Ducks in a Rows


Squawk Box


Love Birds


Darcy Jones

Craving Consomee and Cupid

Another perfect match? Cold and Consomee of course.

It's day two of soups and I am finding the liquid diet fad suddenly slurpingly appealing...
And with these two Savory Soups, you do not have to wonder why.



Onion Gratinee, commonly known to all of us as French Onion Soup, is quite possibly the epitome of Savory in my mind. There is nothing more satisfying than soft sweet and sour onions in a sea of salty syrup. And to reach this bed of soup stock you must succeed in sinking the surface of baked cheese baguette boats. It's a food-lover's equivalent of Battleship really, and for me it's the ultimate Gourmand Game.



But for the adults among us, homemade beef stock Beef Consomee seems to go hand in hand with any great sporting event. Often referred to as 'aiming fluid' when paired with vodka in a Bullshot, Beef Consomee is packed with remarkable amounts of flavor despite it's complete clarity and lack of fat.



The art of deception if fully realized in this rather involved recipe, and I just love the whimsical touch of fresh herb crepes chiffonade that swim about the center like savory seaweed. If you asked me what my constant craving is I might have to call on this consomee.



Alison's Consomee that seemed to be channeling the universal constant...

(Yes, her crepe-chiffonade formed the symbol Pi)

And if an ocean of onions and a carafe of consomee wasn't enough to quench my thirst, a little gift from Cupid served to satisfy all my Valentine's Day cravings...


Flowers From my Valentine :)


Darcy Jones

A Monday of Meats

There is nothing quite like waking up to a morning of marinated meat… maybe it’s an acquired taste.

In any event, we began the exceptionally cold winter week with a bang: Beef Bourguignon. After 24hrs marinating in red wine our trimmed beef shoulder was tantalizingly tender. After a quick sizzling sear, we sank the meat into a sea of veal stock and set it to stew in the oven for a good hour.



A quick sauté of bacon and mushrooms later, the braised beef is basted in it’s own sauce and adorned with steamed potatoes and parsley-sourdough crisps.


Just a light lunch.

Round Two: A Roasted Roast Beef

Positively Primal.
The primary cut of roast beef could send any of us into a meat comma. This preparation of simply seasoned and seared beef is like crack for carnivores. My result is a little overcooked by French standards, but as for my own: Brilliantly Bien!



My dish after our brilliant 3-star Michelin French chef got a hold of it:



Isn’t it amazing how presentation can take something from passable to truly palatable.

And then there’s the way my husband chooses to plate his meal:



Weather it’s rustic or refined, you gotta love a man’s approach to meat.


Darcy Jones