Practical final is over !

What a day. Yesterday, l'economat accidentally gave us part of our mise en place for today's final. So I knew we had a Tarte aux Pommes. It turned out to be Tarte aux Pommes à l'ancienne which is almost the same, except with a custard instead of an apple puree.

The other half of the class got to do a Quiche Lorraine and Carré d'Agneau aux primeurs (quite a few turned vegetables). I was convinced that we would get some kind of carré (rib rack) of lamb or pork. Turned out that our main dish was to be Filets de Sole Bonne-Femme. I didn't look at any of our previous fish dishes. But it was fine because this recipe was really easy. It simply entailed

- fileting two soles
- making a fish stock
- preparing the garniture (shallots and mushrooms)
- cooking the filet in white wine and stock
- reducing stock and adding crème fraîche.
- reduce and reduce.
- "Napper" the fish with the sauce and throw it under the salamander in order to gratiner but without having the sauce break.

Overall, I think I did fine except for few things. For my tarte, I didn't let the dough rest long enough so when I "foncered" the edges, it didn't hold up too well. Well, I suck at foncering so I didn't expect the crusts on my tarte to look spectacular.

Next thing is that I underestimated the time to reduce my sauce. I thought 15 minutes would be sufficient. Ughhh, it was way too watery. At least it tasted good. Oh, and I did put mine in the salamander but apparently the judges said/thought I didn't. Oh and I strained out the garniture instead of placing it under the fish. ARghhh ! Oh well, not a complete disaster. I just really wish my sauce was thicker. Tant pis !

It's over, and I feel good. =)