Culinary School Update: New England Clam Chowder, Hollandaise, Pound Cake & more!

So I'm gonna have to catch you guys up a bit on how school is going.  We're a little behind!

In Food Production class a couple weeks ago, we made espagnole sauce.  It is one of the 5 main "mother sauces," or sauces from which many other sauces are derived.  It is basically a brown stock to which a brown roux, tomato puree, and mirepoix are added.  We also made a New England clam chowder to practice bechamel, another mother sauce, and knife skills.  A bechamel is a roux-thickened milk or cream sauce.

New England clam chowder.

I missed baking class that week, so we're moving on.  In Food Production last week, we made tomato sauce, yet another one of the 5 main mother sauces.  Sadly, I don't have a photo of the tomato sauce.  We also made hollandaise, a 4th mother sauce, and arguably the trickiest to make. 

Made me crave eggs benedict.

We also made maple glazed carrots, to practice blanching and knife skills.

 These are batonnet, or french-fry cut.

In baking class last week, we made pound cake. 

 Chocolate swirl pound cakes, strawberry coulis, lemon glazed pound cakes.

The chocolate pound cakes were made European style, where the butter and sugar are whipped, the eggs are then added in stages, and the flavorings and dry ingredients are finally added. 

Chocolate swirl pound cakes.

We made the swirl by adding a paste of cocoa powder, sugar, and milk to half the batter, coloring it brown. We then gently folded the brown batter into the light batter, stopping after a couple of folds so the chocolate wouldn't become completely incorporated.

 A cross-section, with strawberry coulis.

The lemon pound cakes were made American style, where butter and shortening are first creamed, and dry ingredients are then added alternately with lemon juice and eggs.

Lemon-glazed pound cakes.

I preferred the slightly lighter texture of the chocolate swirl (whipped) cakes, but I think I would have like a simple glaze on them, like the lemon glaze we added to the American pound cakes. 


That should do it for the time being. Be looking forward to my new custom blog design, which should be installed in the next week or so.  I know I am!