Paris Day 5 - Hollandaise at Le Cusine Paris

Oct 8, 2010 - Friday

About a month prior to our trip, we booked a cooking class at Le Cuisine Paris, and we are running late for our "poisson du jour" class.  Three girls.  One shower.  Our Paris apartment's bathroom is smaller than most of our closets, but the real challenge is having only one blow dryer, but somehow we manage... we manage to be late.  We hopped on the metro and headed over to Quai de l'Hotel de Ville - (as in Cruella) along the Seine River and it's a beautiful day with blue-blue skies.  We actually ran the couple of blocks from the metro station to the class.  We were greeted by the owner who directed us upstairs.  There were aprons hanging on hooks, so Kellie and I each tied one on, then realized that those were for the instructor's... students wore disposable plastic aprons, like big bibs, my first thought was, I hope we're having lobster... we laughed at each other and ourselves.  The classroom kitchen is pretty spacious for Paris and well lit with a big window looking out onto traffic and beyond to the Seine River.  A small gas cook top at one end of a long work table with plenty of room to prep runs the length of the room.  There's a large wooden table in an alcove with chairs near the big window, and an elderly gentleman enjoying the sunny spot with his newspaper, he had accompanied his wife to the cooking class and was participating in the eating portion of the class, he called it supporting his wife's interest... A narrow bar with bar stools line the length of one wall and more stainless steel with sinks and supplies on the other side with ovens, refrigerator and of course the enviable wall of knives...

The class had already gone through introductions when we arrived, most of the participants were retired travelers from the US or the UK and they were ready to start.  This afternoon's poisson du jour was... drum roll please... saumon (salmon), coming from the Northwest region of the US, salmon is a common fish... I had hoped to learn the technique for Sole Meuniere.  Well, at least it was "saumon avec sauce hollandaise" and since I have not mastered my hollandaise skills, it was not a complete loss. Champignons sautés and tatin aux pommes, bread and wine completed the lesson's menu.

Our instructor, an expat from Chicago had us peeling and chopping apples (for the apple tart tatin) and shallots, and cleaning and trimming three types of mushrooms; oyster, chanterelles, and a dark mushroom that translated as "black trumpet of death" (for the sauteed mushrooms).  I was surprised that she instructed us to plunge the mushrooms in a large bowl of cold water.  I had been told to gently wipe mushrooms with a damp towel, that mushrooms are porous and would absorb the water AND most edible mushrooms are cultivated so you need only to wipe off the dust... well Dorthy, we're not in Kansas anymore, or CA, or OR, well... these must have been foraged in the forest?  The salmon fillets had already been trimmed and pin bones removed, so they were left at peace, no poking or prodding.

 

The instructor demonstrated the caramelization process using powder sugar and butter under the mound of sliced apples, but it didn't caramelize, it gave off a lot of water from the apples, at which point she abandoned the recipe, and started dumping granulated sugar, turned up the heat and the tartin started bubbling and turning golden, you could see the relief on her face, it could have gone either way, tragic if it had scorched.  She topped the apples with pastry, brushed it with an egg wash, tucked in the sides, slid the pan into the oven.  I wondered if we could get everything done in the one and half hour?

Most often, when I go out for breakfast, I order eggs benedict, simply because hollandaise is a pain and I would rather have someone else do it badly, with an exceptions for a few places in Portland, Screen Door being one of them, hollandaise sauce appears to be a problem even for professionals.  I've read lots of recipes and tried several - use a double boiler - don't use a double boiler, use melted butter, use cold butter... you just want to throw up your hands and settle for an omelet.  I wanted to learn a technique not just a recipe.  So I was an eager student for this portion of the lesson and you'll be happy to know I learned a few tips.  First, clarify the butter, a lot of butter, separating the milk solids and water from the butter fat will give the sauce a silky mouth feel and a glossy look (see Harold McGee's "Keys to Good Cooking" or Mark Ruhlman;s, "Ratio" for alternate recipes).  Mix the egg yolks with water on low heat into a fluffy emulsion (sabayon).  Slowly, add the clarified butter, the butter should be hot but not scalding, add just a little, to temper the sabayon, so you don't end up with scrambled eggs, slowly drizzle in the rest of the clarified butter constantly whisking and adding air into the second emulsion.  To finish the sauce, add lemon juice and continue to whisk.  I got the best tip of the day, use direct heat on low but keep your hands around the pot. Whisk the egg yolks and clarified butter, when your hands get too warm, remove the pan from the heat but continue to whisk... Brilliant!  Our hollandaise took 20 minutes of whisking in nonstop figure eights to come together.  Advance warning, it's a process that made a professional-chef-that-teaches-French-cooking-classes-in-English-at-a-Paris-cooking-school SWEAT!  You need muscles on top of muscles, so start the arm workout now.  Find a recipe that appeals to you and try this technique.

The mushrooms were cleaned and trimmed to a uniform size.  Another tip:  BROWN the mushrooms in a large pan with olive oil with salt and pepper, it takes time, but makes a world of difference in flavor, don't overcrowd the pan, it will steam and boil rather than brown and serve right away, once it sits, it gets that wilted - dejected look - not pretty.  I discovered my love of chanterelles in this class. 

 

The salmon fillets were treated simply with some salt and pepper and sauteed in pans with olive oil and finished in the oven.  The apple tart tatin was successfully inverted.  Food was plated, wine was poured and lunch was served.  Le Cusine Paris is a great little cooking school in Paris. It has a fun atmosphere, we learned a few new ticks and when your first drink of the day is wine, well, you just have to love Paris...

My friend Joan is tall (everyone is tall to me) so how tall is this Julia look-alike?

Tweezers-like tool to remove pin bones from fish (available at E. Dehillerin)