Day 14 of PCA II – Curry Time

This was a good night. We again worked in teams of 5 for our curry dishes, but solo for the Coq au Vin dish.

Our last team of 5 included Emma, but she was out on Friday so we got Jay. Of course I had to pop off with my big mouth “Come on over to the ladies team Jay and we’ll teach you how to cook!” Of course the whole class did the OOOoOoooOOoo. Hahaha. I must say I was concerned about him joining our group and wondered how his arrogance would mesh with us. We were all pleasantly surprised. He pulled his weight, and got the message right off that we all check with each other on flavor, ideas etc. Made for a good team.

Tonight we made Yellow Curry, Green Curry and a totally 180 dish to the curry, Coq au Vin (Chicken that has been marinated in red wine and spices) and then is braised and topped with a pan sauce made from the marinade. Oh this was funny… the Chef was demo’ing this dish. Brown your onions and mushrooms, remove and set aside, then brown the chicken and remove and set aside. Then add ¼ cup brandy and reduce. Of course brandy + flame = Flambe and we all know this. Even those leaning on the edge of the stove looking over as the Chef pulled the pan off the stove, poured the brandy in and put it back over the flame. While it was funny as hell, it wasn’t funny…no..no..it was. That flame must have shot up 3 feet and common sense should have told the 2 gals to step back. We’ve done flambe’ foods before, we know the end result – Whoosh! One gal stepped back while feeling for her eyebrows. I think that’s where I lost it. Ok so maybe it wasn’t funny but I laughed like hell.

The curry came really, really good. The green was nice and spicy and yellow had that deep rich curry flavor. We served it with Raita and Naan (a flat bread normally used as the main utensil). I’ve only had a form of curry, nothing like what we made Friday evening. We wrapped it all up and packaged it to eat later, but more soon than later. We had another tailgate party, only this time at one of the students house. I won’t get into whom because they may not want it known. I don’t know about them but I laughed so much that night. It’s nice to have others who understand what it’s like to go through culinary school to talk with and laugh with outside the school. We all go home and talk with our families about what happened that night and they listen politely but just don’t understand why you got so upset when your hollandaise broke. To them it’s just a sauce no biggie. But to us it was a lot of work.

I also found out I’m show impaired. Not that this has anything to do with cooking, just thought it should be noted. I have the least amount of shoes to everyone. I think I have 9 pair total and my favorites are my chef shoes because they’re comfortable. It almost gave Carrie a heart attack. I might have pushed her over the edge with my comment of “I buy all my shoes at Payless”. Thank goodness that curry was hot and kept her heart going.

Next week we being our Lamb Fabrication along with our big banquet on Thursday. So I’ll assume that Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll be making the dishes for that banquet. Again I’m not bringing any family as the drive is just too long. I think the only thing I’ll bring them out for, if they do anything, is our graduation.

Here is a picture of our Curry dishes. Yes you can smell them from there.

Until Tomorrow!...