Something Like Eggs Benedict

Purple asparagus, whole wheat toast, pork loin chop, fried egg, and of course, hollandaise sauce. Not exactly the transmogrification that got Wylie his third New York Times' star, but still a damn good dinner.

My Practical...

went very well. The instructor enjoyed my cream of mushroom soup with black truffle whipped cream, and the asparagus with hollandaise. I finished that with a little lemon-infused fleur de sel. While she was tasting my preparations, she asked me if I worked in a fine-dining restaurant. I told her I did not. She then asked me if I had any interest in working in one, to which I wanted to reply "hellz YEAH!!!", but I probably just said, "I would love to."
On a different note, I have two recommendations to make. First, if you're looking for a REALLY good scotch, I highly recommend MacAllen's 17 year old. I'm not really a scotch drinker, but this was so good...
The other thing is if you're looking for a wonderful dining experience in Memphis, TN then by all means check out Erling Jensen.

SUCCESS!!!

After three attempts, I was finally able to make a hollandaise that didn't break. Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I didn't make anything to have it with, so I just scrambled some eggs. Honestly though, I would have been happy just having it with a spoon.

Hollandaise Work

The reason for the clarified butter. Making it wasn't bad. The recipe did contain a step that makes no sense to me. After reducing some champagne vinegar with salt and cracked peppercorns au sec, I'm supposed to remove from heat and add cold water. Then I pass the reduction through a fine strainer into a bowl. Makes sense so far. But then I'm suppose to use a spatula to make sure I transfer all the flavoring material into the bowl. If I do that, what was the point of straining? The sauce had the consistency of homemade mayonnaise, which makes sense given that hollandaise is essentially a warm mayonnaise. It looks good in the picture. It broke five minutes later. Ah well. Better luck tomorrow. Next time, I'll have to try this, or, you know, not screw it up.

Something Beautiful

The beginning...


and the end. Clarified butter is a beautiful thing.

Practice 2.0

Tonight's soup was FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!! If I do say so myself. I used a different chicken stock (unfortunately not enough time for fresh homemade), a saute pan instead of a saucepot, added a little nutmeg, and damn, it was tasty. The black truffle cream was a nice touch to put it over the top.

Practicing For The Practical

Cream of mushroom soup is one of the three things I have to prepare for my practical exam in my basic food prep class. This first practice batch, while edible, I feel lacked the appropriate body. While making a truffle whipped cream to top it, I discovered rancid white truffle oil, well, it don't taste so good.