Day 31: French Onion Soup au Gratin!

We are making french onion au gratin soup today. The veal stock that we began making on Monday is to be used for the soup. Veal stock is the best for a french onion soup. Our mise en place for the french onion soup is two onions, thinly sliced. We caramelize the onions in butter and oil (oil helps with the smoke point) and season with season with salt and pepper. When the onions are just about done we hit the sauce pan with a splash of sherry creating a burst of flames. When the alcohol has evaporated, I add three or four ladles of veal stock. I simmer the soup of onions until it reduces by half. I fill the soup bowl with onion soup, french bread, shredded mozzarella, and cover it with a slice of Swiss cheese and top with grated Parmesan cheese. The soup is put under the broiler for the cheese to bubble and then brown. As usual we get to eat what we make ~ french onion soup au gratin at 9:30 a.m. in the morning!

Ratatouille is a quick recipe that can be eaten as a side, a starter or part of a dish such as pasta. The mise en place for this dish was equal size cuts of eggplant, onion, zucchini and tomato.

We had a few eggplants left and chef had us making breaded eggplant. We had a breading station that consisted of flour, egg, and panko crumbs (white bread crumbs). The eggplant was sliced rounds of half an inch thickness and sprinkled with salt then put through the breading station. Oil was heated for the eggplant to be deep fried. When the eggplant was taken out of the oil, it was hit with a light sprinkle of salt. These breaded slices of eggplant were so good and so much better than using bread crumbs (typical bread crumbs include the crust). We all worked together in making this dish with everyone either working on preparing, cooking, or eating.

Another vegetable side we made and our last dish of the day was sauteed mushrooms. Very easy to make and build the flavours. We first cut the mushrooms in quarters and then sauteed them in butter and oil, with salt and pepper cooking them to a nice colour of brown. When we reached the desired colour of brown for the mushrooms, we give them a splash of sherry and continued to cook them until the liquid has evaporated. This is a great side for a steak and very inexpensive to make.

Homework tonight is to print off what I have completed on my business plan project.