Red red wine you make me feel so fine You keep me rocking all of the time...

Red red wine you make me feel so sad, Any time I see you go it makes me feel bad
(UB40- Red Red Wine)

Intermediate Lesson 09- Bordelais

We now go a little up North from Landes to Bordeaux. Ahh Bordeaux, the grands vins, the oysters from Arcachon, the truffles of Perigord, the ducks and poultry..... This is definitely my favorite region of France. Our dish today is magret de canard, which we've used before in basic, and is by far my favorite slice of meat, which we served with a Bordelais sauce. Bordelais is a red wine based sauce that I'm not quite a fan of, but I'd eat a good slice of magret de canard with anything.

Pow Pow! Pow!

This time we got the duck breasts directly, so we didn't need to prep (or habiller, "dress," as the french would say) the bird. We simply had to pan sear the meat, which takes quite long actually because of how thick the meat is, and then cook the jus. The fondant potato rounds actually took the longest. We had to turn the potatoes, friy them until they are slightly colored, then braise them in chicken stock in the oven until all the liquid is gone. It's a complete pain.

This was also one of the first classes in a while that I didn't feel completely lost in the practical, mostly because I didn't fall asleep in the demo. The intensive schedule has been really difficult, as I would have class all day, get home at around 10, maybe eat dinner, and then do some errands, write my blog, PERHAPS (but likely not) study a bit, sleep at 1, and then wake up at 6:30 for class again. On Thursday, I definitely fell asleep in practical, and the result was my notes were a complete mess. Even on Friday, when I didn't think I fell asleep, I would step into the practical class and have no recollection of steps required to prepare a certain dish. I must have had my eyes open and still writing notes while sleeping, because I at least had the steps written on my notes despite having no memory of watching these steps. As you may know, Cordon Bleu doesn't provide recipes, just ingredients lists, and students must learn the cooking method from the demonstration classes. Falling asleep in demo regularly, therefore, would make practical classes very difficult to follow.

Well yesterday I went home at around 10:30pm (after grabbing one drink with some friends), took a shower and went straight to bed. Today I woke up at 7am, which is later than my usual 6:30am. The end result was I felt so refreshed and could focus better. Hopefully I can keep this going.

Somehow I didn't write down any quotes for today. Oh well. There's enough entries every day these days to keep you entertained. Stay tuned for next entry!