During this week in class we talked about the main different kinds of sauces and how sauces can be used in dishes. To begin, Chef made a beautiful cheese sauce which he incorporated into noodles and made a baked mac and cheese for all of us to enjoy (ONE OF MY FAVORITES)!! For the sake of time, the slide show below will show you an assortment of pictures that contain the different parts of the mac and cheese. Enjoy!
Picture number 10 is of course my beautiful portion of cheesy goodness. I love it. The noodles were coated in the cheese sauce and then topped with Panko Bread Crumbs.
But the real activity taken on in class this day was the sauces we made ourselves. The tables split, half of the room was to make Hollandaise and the other half was to make Beurre Blanc. I can tell you that I did not learn how to make hollandaise sauce.
Beurre means butter in french. Beurre Blanc in the literal sense means 'White Butter'. I also study french this is how I know this I suppose. So to maker Beurre Blanc we needed a lot of butter. Here is the basic recipe:
But the real activity taken on in class this day was the sauces we made ourselves. The tables split, half of the room was to make Hollandaise and the other half was to make Beurre Blanc. I can tell you that I did not learn how to make hollandaise sauce.
Beurre means butter in french. Beurre Blanc in the literal sense means 'White Butter'. I also study french this is how I know this I suppose. So to maker Beurre Blanc we needed a lot of butter. Here is the basic recipe:
1¼ oz/35 g minced shallot 6 to 8 black peppercorns 8 fl oz/240 mL dry white wine 2 fl oz/60 mL lemon juice 3 fl oz/90 mL cider or white wine vinegar | 8 fl oz/240 mL heavy cream, reduced by half (optional) 1 lb 8 oz/680 g cubed butter, chilled Salt, as needed Ground white pepper, as needed 1 tbsp/9 g grated lemon zest (optional) |
Here is a lovely picture of either Nick or Ryan dicing butter. Which, I might add, is a lot more difficult than it looks. The technique is to lightly simmer the heavy cream and then add butter a few pieces at a time, whisking constantly. This is because the butter has to be incorporated into the sauce without completely loosing its emulsified state. The ingredients on the left are made into a reduction prior to starting the sauce, which in our case Chef had already made for us. Keeping the butter in the right stage is crucial to the process.
As you can see, the butter is still basically in chunks in the right-hand picture, just as it was on the left when Ryan was dropping it into the pot. It is important for the butter to be cold the entire time, since it has to stay emulsified in the sauce. The only thing that is left at this point is to season to taste. Here is what our finished sauce looked like, noting the apparent thickness as it is poured onto a plate:
And finally, here is the presentation of most of the groups in my class' sauces. The ones in the metal bowls are Hollandaise and the plates are Beurre Blanc. We went around and tasted all of them, noting color and taste differences, and the levels of seasoning each group had added.