Small-sauce buffet

Monday was small-sauce buffet night. This time we were grouped in three larger teams instead of 6 smaller teams, and each team was given a list of 7 dishes to complete– one chicken dish per team, the rest veg or starch, nearly all involving small sauces in one form or another. Another man and I worked on Chicken Chasseur, which is simply chicken cooked in an integrated chasseur sauce, a brown sauce from demi-glace with mushrooms, shallots, white wine, and tomato. We planned carefully, cutting up our chickens and setting up the rest of our mise first. Then we had some time before we needed to actually start the dish, so Chef asked us to make a stock from the class’s chicken carcasses. After that was simmering, Chef asked if we could hit a new target time half an hour early, and we said we could. We browned our chicken in two pans, then did the final simmering in one. It was a good dish– in fact, as usual, the entire buffet was good, and I ate too much: two plates, plus desserts of little chocolate lava cakes and bread pudding with crème anglaise.

Then a bit of a slow night yesterday, beginning cream soups. Today is the small sauce test, followed by two days without classes. If it wasn’t for the last speech class on Saturday, I could join Edith in Tucson. <sigh>