Friday's class

We made a veal blanquette and the veal/veloute combination ended up looking like some of the pale wet dog foods I get for Salado.  Which was the desired effect, it needed to be as white and monochromatic as possible, and as we plated it with rice pilaf it was a very very pale plate. 

Beef bourguinon was delicious.  We made a hell of a sauce for our beef to braise in.  My partner eats almost no salt so I have to taste and season for salt levels; any salt is too much salt for her, and this French cuisine is like creamed salt lick after creamed salt lick. 

With dishes like beef bourguinon, I'm wondering how it could be tweaked to be vegetarian friendly.  Thick chunks of root vegetables, some tempeh chunks, something.  The wine is there foremost to cut into the collagen in the meat, break it down and tenderize for the braise to be effective, but maybe there's a way to pull out more of those rich wine flavors in a different method, kinda fudge and back into the bourguinon flavor profile.

In any case it was good and so cool to think about how these techniques originated from the peasants.  Culinary study is unique, I'm very happy.

Also on Friday, I dropped off resumes at Olivia and Asti, looking for staging opportunities.