Day 3 Wednesday, June 9, 2010
I could taste the sweetness of the roasted beets and the richness of the goat cheese in my mouth as I walked home. We had made a beet and goat cheese salad, along with ratatouille in class, and I couldn’t wait to devour the leftovers.
It was midnight when I unlocked the door to the apartment. But I opened the plastic container and ate all of the mashed up salad. I dug in, trying to get roasted beets and goat cheese in one spoonful. I loved the tartness of the vinaigrette. We had used champagne vinegar.
In class, Henry and I had made a beautiful salad plate. We filled a metal, round mold called a timbale with diced roasted beets. Then we spread goat cheese on top to fill up the mold. We drizzled vinaigrette around the beets and cheese and placed tiny apple cubes around the star of the plate. To add color, we mixed the vinaigrette with the deep fuchsia beet juice and drizzled that around, too.
Henry carefully lifted the mold, and the beet and goat cheese cylinder stayed intact. He gently pushed the seasoned frisee into the goat cheese, so it stuck up in the air.
“Nice structure,” Chef L said as we presented our plate.
Chef X and Chef L broke the perfect cylinder of beets and cheese with their spoons.
They tasted the ratatouille Henry and I had made.
“It needs more salt,” Chef X said. “Remember you give a pinch for yourself and a pinch for the chef.”
Later, I tasted the ratatouille--- a mélange of eggplant, zucchini, red and green peppers, onions and garlic. It had a lot of flavor, but salt would have made the dish pop.
I took a bite of the salad.
“Wow,” I said, surprised at how well it turned out.
I enjoyed the product of our stress.
We had let the ratatouille simmer as we worked on each component of the salad. Pressure weighted us down, but I welcomed the feeling of adrenaline. Class felt exhilarating, reminding me why culinary school was worth it.
Other posts:
Why I'm going to culinary school
Panic before my first class at culinary school
Day 1: Who said cutting vegetables is easy?
Day 2: Cutting, boiling and sauteing vegetables in 35 minutes
4 comments:
Very cool! Leftovers are so awesome.
The combination of roasted beets and goat cheese is heavenly, Jenny. It's good to see you are enjoying culinary school. You'll be a Top Chef someday, for sure. And leftovers are soooo worth it all.
Yum!
Seems like you are enjoying yourself :)
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