Thursday, September 29, 2011
More Food
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Food Pictures
Duck Gizzard stored in fat atop a bed of fresh lettuce tossed in balsamic raspberry vinaigrette, topped with hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, walnuts, and crumbled foie gras terrine!!! This is why I haven't lost weight here!!! Hahah!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Food Pictures
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Recipe for Lamb Belly Stew
Sear lamb belly on all sides to create nice caramelization and maillard reaction. Remove from heat. To the remaining hot fat, add carrots and onion cut in small dice. Saute until browned and add tomato paste (about 2 tbsp.) Cook out the raw flavor of the tomato paste and add white wine. Allow this mixture to simmer for a bit, until the alcohol evaporates. Put this liquid into a rondeau (the style of pot below) with lamb stock and seared lamb. Allow to simmer with a bay leaf and dried time for a couple of hours. This recipe is a bit vague, but stew is almost fool proof. Add the spices and vegetables that you wish. Clean out your fridge and add those carrot or celery scraps. You can hardly go wrong, unless you burn the meat or let it boil instead of simmer. Enjoy with baguette and a nice glass of wine!
Dorothee's Gateau Prune (Plum Cake)
Friday, September 16, 2011
Semptembre 16, 2011 (Break time)
I am on a short break between lunch service and dinner service. Today I prepared plum and apple tartlets, made mushroom duxelle for Jean-Denis' veal stuffed with mushrooms, formed puff pastry for onion tarts, made quiche du jour (jambon (ham), gruyere cheese, minced onion, and egg/cream/milk/nutmeg/s and p/ mixture). Helped with lunch service and made the salads and dejeuner plat du jour (lunch plates). Tonight for dinner service we don't have many people on the books. Dorothee and Jean-Denis are perfectionists, however, so pressure will be here at all hours to only put out perfect products. Until next time, a bientot!
16 Septembre, 2011
Yesterday when I got to L'ancienne Auberge around 2:00 p.m., Dorothee gave me a local grape juice to drink, introduced me to the sous chef, Jean-Denis, and told me she would be right with me after speaking with a client about scheduling a wedding event. Once we spoke, she explained the run of things and told me I did not have to work that day, but that I should rest up for today's work. I, however, tend to become overly excited about things, and even though I was running on a scanty 1/2 hour of sleep on the whole travel route over here, I decided to stay in the kitchen and helped out in any way I could. After a while, I went back to my humble abode in a little cottage adjoining the restaurant. My front door was something out of a storybook, I tell you. I never thought there was a place in the world where nobody locked their doors, and where everyone's door-handle was a metal latch. Yes, it is just like in the movies! Prior to service that day, I had gone on a walk for about 1/2 hour to explore the town a bit. There was not much in the way of entertainment, nor an overly tourist vibe. In fact, the place is stuck in the 14th or 15th century. There are hardly any cars to be seen, and almost every building or house is made out of wood or stone. The streets are narrow and you can hear families speaking in French through the windows, many of which don't have a pane, but just a curtain because the air is so perfect. The whole city is surrounded by a wall and a street for walking that spans the whole circumference. You can see hills and valleys, small farm houses, and hear lambs bleating. On the other side of the street are houses and an elementary school with a noisy bunch of young French children! But, I will fill you in more on the town later.
After service last night, I ate a delicious salad, basically the Auberge's version of Chef's salad. It had fresh arugula and local laitue (lettuce) tossed in a dijon mustard vinaigrette, with a topping of julienne carrotte (carrots) and celeri (celeriac), olives noir (black olives), hard-boiled oeuff (egg), jambon (ham), thinly sliced poivre vert (green peppers), and fromage du Gruyere cheese. I fell asleep at 10:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until I got a knock on my door at 8:45 a.m. for prep. work.
After service last night, I ate a delicious salad, basically the Auberge's version of Chef's salad. It had fresh arugula and local laitue (lettuce) tossed in a dijon mustard vinaigrette, with a topping of julienne carrotte (carrots) and celeri (celeriac), olives noir (black olives), hard-boiled oeuff (egg), jambon (ham), thinly sliced poivre vert (green peppers), and fromage du Gruyere cheese. I fell asleep at 10:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until I got a knock on my door at 8:45 a.m. for prep. work.
15 Semptembre, 2011
I apologize for not keeping you posted. It’s been quite a trip. Let’s see, I left off when I was at Grand Central’s Starbucks sipping on a bitter cup of coffee. Oh, the leisurely life of an American girl! I have to say, that lax attitude had to go out the window very quickly. When 12:30 rolled around I decided I better make my way up to where I was supposed to meet the shuttle. After searching hopelessly for the right standing point on 42 street and Lexington Ave, I decided to ask the next (seemingly) best person for advice, the bellboy at the Grand Hyatt hotel, figuring he would know where a lot of people pick up the shuttle for Grand Central…false! Instead of directing me towards the most obvious spot to stand (on the street) he told me to go upstairs to the mezzanine level of the hotel because “the supershuttles ONLY ever come there to pick people up.” I believed him, since he was a new Yorker, and I was just a gullible Ohioan, inexperienced traveler type. I went upstairs and waited. At 12:55 they still weren't there. By one o’clock my toe was tapping, and I was getting progressively more annoyed thinking that I would have to pay two-fold for my transport to the airport, once for the no show super shuttle, and once for the overpriced, most likely disagreeable cab driver I would have to hail. Finally, the bus boy upstairs felt bad for my situation and called the Super Shuttle company to tell the guy to turn around and come upstairs to get me. I barely gave him enough for a tip since I had mostly Euros in my pocket, and almost no cash money (except for coins). When I got to the airport I checked in and got body scanned for the first time and headed upstairs to wait for my flight to Madrid. The flight went well. I watched some corny movie called Arthur and sat in a typical overly-crowded seat on the scanty 2 rows-of-3 seats plane. The airplane food made me revel in the fare yet to come once I got to France. The Madrid airport was large and I had to take a shuttle when I got off the plane to the connecting terminal where my plane was to fly out for Toulouse. I was famished, since I wasted most of my pasta dinner and boycotted the feaux blueberry yogurt I was given for breakfast, since it made an airbag impacting sound when I opened it. I don’t think having a churning stomach was worth the acidophilus hook-up. The second flight was very short and ended up leaving about 1/2 hour behind schedule. When I got to Toulouse I purchased a ticket for a bus to take me to the Toulouse train station. I quickly bought a ticket and took the train one stop to Montebaun. I had a harrowing experience trying to make a phone call to Dorothee to come pick me up. It was definitely entirely my fault, as I dialed a 33 before the phone number which apparently notified Verizon that that “cellular user is not answering calls at this time.” It all made sense when I asked the woman at the convenience store in the train station if the number looked correct. When I tried again, I got through. The first time a man answered the phone who did not speak English. He told me to call back in two minutes to talk to someone who “parlay anglais.” I did, and he answered again. He told me to hold on and got someone else on the phone. She understood the language a bit better than he, however she then handed over the phone to (who I hoped was) Dorothee, who sounded completely English. I am a simpleton for not being more fluent in the language under such circumstances. For those of you fluent in more than one language, you can attest that it is no easy feat to learn, and that it takes time. That is why I am here. I do, indeed, want to learn French. I want to feel uncomfortable trying to ask questions in broken French, and to be talked to and only understand half of what is being said. I will learn that way and feel like I have done my part. For the past two times I have traveled out of the country I have had many willing individuals help me find my way around, order items for me, and give me tours. Now is my time to undergo what all of them had to in the beginning. Until next time, au revoir!
Day 1 (September 14, 2011) 5:44 a.m.
Today I finally embark on my journey to France. It seems like ages since I received the e-mail telling me I won an internship with Dorothee Alexander in Puycelsi, France. My excitement has been steeping since then. Last night I slept over at my friend Tina’s apartment so she could drive me to the train station at the crack of dawn before work. I slept quite well for the first five hours, however during what must have been my more dream-laden sleep time, I kept having travel related nightmares that had me stirring and jumping awake. I dreamed that I forgot my passport, however somehow had been able to get all the way to Spain where, instead of going onwards to Toulouse, I was made to take a plane back to the U.S. Then, I dreamed that they searched my luggage in customs and found bottles of wine I had not claimed, beautiful bottles mind you, which they proceeded to take from me. Terrible, a mortal sin I tell you!
Finally, the alarm clock went off. I chugged an energy drink, in all its chalky Tums-like flavor, in order to get me through the six transportation modes I would have to survive in order to get to Southern France. Now, I am on a Poughkeepsie train bound for Grand Central Station in NYC. Once I am at the station, I will have to wait to catch a shuttle at 12:55 p.m. from Grand Central to JFK airport, NYC. Until then, wish me luck!
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