Stocks to Stock

Regrettably, I arrived about an hour and a half late to class after squeezing in a doctor's appointment. My partner is back at class but seeing as I was late - teamed up with another partner-less victim for the night. We worked as a three-some to create some excellent dishes. When I arrived they had already started the veal stew so I got to work on prepping potatoes to make frites for our Steak & Frites dinner. Ken seasoned and grilled the steaks while I cranked up the frier and Leah made an amazing sauce choron. The sauce consisted of a hollondaise sauce made with bernaise reduction and tomato fondue. It created a balance of acid and butter perfect for the steak.

After recovering from a minor food coma, we started the rice pilaf to go with the "Blanquette de veau a l'ancienne" (veal stew in white sauce) and the mushroom and pearl onion garniture. I got the rice pilaf going by sweating onions in butter and mixing in 1 part rice to 1.5 parts chicken stock. The rice was then covered and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Talk about hands off cooking! After the mushrooms and onions had been cooked, Ken started the sauce for the veal stew. This was the poaching liquid thickened with a roux and heavy cream and seasoned to taste. At the end we mixed the veal, mushrooms and onions into the sauce and plated with the rice pilaf for a lovely, rich winter dish.