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. =)

Written final exam

Oh how I wish I could take both practical and written exam today. Then I would be finished! And then I could focus on the CAP. Sigh. We have class tomorrow, then the practical for the other half of the class. Too bad finals week isn't like in the US. A week with just exams and free time to study more.

Oh, and the written exam was surprisingly really easy.

Wish me merde !

Pre-test#2 - Quite possibly the worst day of my life

...at school.

But it's quite funny now that I think about it.

For our first dish, we had to make allumettes au fromage which are simple, BUT you need time to make a puff pastry.

Flashback from the beginning of the semester:


There's a technique to it in terms of mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and then incorporating the butter into the dough without it ever "leaking out" of the dough itself. You also have to roll the dough, fold the dough, and turn the dough a certain way, and then let it rest. Then you do it all over again. The turns and resting results in the pastry dough puffing up and having many layers.

Long story short, we were all running late in putting our allumettes in the oven. I didn't even have time to foncer my allummettes, let alone do enough turns to have them rest and then puff up correctly in the oven. It was terrible. Everything about today was terrible. I was 100% dans la merde. And it was quite the same for everyone else. Chef was not too happy today, to say the least.

Let's just say Pre-test day#2 resulted in:

"Stupid !"

Slamming the oven shut... throwing a pan here or there on the plaque.
"Putain de merde !" (Context translation - fucking shit, I suppose)

Mix that in with a few looks of death.

And then my chef looking at my dish, then looking at the other chef, pointing to my dish, and then having that look. You know the "can you believe she is serving this shit?" look.

Then the:

"Joan, the poubelle (trashcan in French) is over there."

Followed by "Everyone, there is a poubelle here, ok?"

Ah, classic.

And to top it off, I was the first to serve both my dishes today. So basically that means I get the most shit (everyone else's didn't work out too well either but you can only yell so many times). Also, I think I got a lot of shit because the first time I made them, they rose pretty well and my chef mentioned for me to keep the technique up. The ones I made for the pre-test were rushed, flat, leaking cheese from the sides, uneven, and just plain ugly. The shitty-ness of my first dish overshadowed whatever I made for my second dish. Chicken something? I don't even remember.

But anyway, I knew it was completely shitty. But at the same time, I don't think it was the best idea to have a timed test with a puff pastry recipe that requires turns, time, and more turns and time. Regardless, I was quite disappointed in myself and how the day turned out. But it's okay. C'est comme ça.

Pre-test #1

This week we are having two "pre-tests" to prepare us for our final exam before Christmas vacation. Amanda I were stressing out about these tests even though there was no grade and it was strictly for practice.

So for today's test, we had very simple recipes - Quiche Lorraine and Poulet rôti. We all picked numbers randomly to see who would present their first dish first. Then we would need to serve our second dish a few minutes later. It turned out to be totally okay - I even had time to kill.

Here are my creations - these are extremely classic French dishes in terms of preparation as well as presentation.

Quiche Lorraine. The only complaint on my quiche were that the lardons were cut too large. BUT the only reason why my chef noticed was because he saw me cutting them. He said to me "Not steaks, Joan." HAHAHA! Also, I need to work out foncer-ing the tarte (edge of the tart to make it all pretty). Otherwise, the seasoning and cooking was good.


Poulet rôti. I got a few points docked off for the tressing of the chicken. But otherwise, it was ok. My jus tasted terrible in my opinion, but it was because we used water instead of stock which didn't give it the right flavor. You like how traditionally, the middle finger sticks out? HA


So far so good.