Garde Manger – Smokin’ hot! ….. and cold

I know, I know, it’s been another 2 1/2 weeks, but that’s only half of the time I left you last month – work, school, now yard work and that occasional escape to golf leaves me barely a moment to breathe!!  and I thought it was difficult to do both full time in the winter!

SOOO, this semester my cooking lab is called “Garde Manger” (GARde MANjay) which literally translates to “keeping the eats” (well, that’s my interpretation), but it basically means “pantry” a place to store cold foods – like cold soups, salads, meats, cheeses, paté, etc.   I LOVE this class (ok, I haven’t met a culinary class I didn’t love yet!). So far we have made said soups & salads, made cheese, butchered whole salmon and duck, smoked and cured salmon, made duck confit, bacon & sausages (yes, starting from a hunk of meat), including bratwurst (YUM!), forcemeat (what the heck is that you ask? meat mousse!)  terrines, learned about aspic and are working next week on “chicken galantine” (oh, go google that!) and pork roulade. It’s great fun!   We will then move on to appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, sushi, ice carving, condiments, raw oysters and then prepare buffet platters for our final (most of this stuff is still in the freezer).   It just doesn’t get much better than this.

Some pics of Garde Manger so far!   more to come!

bacon (need I say more?)

Borscht and Carrot Soup

Baked Goat Cheese & Pear Salad

Ricotta and Mascarpone

SMOKIN’ HOT!

before and after! (ok, we poached the brats in beer)

during 🙂

playing with aspic (yes, those are “inside” – it makes a pretty platter to serve things on)

• This topic was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Vicki.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Vicki.