INTRO:
This week in lab we will be cooking chicen fricasse, broccoli amandine, and fettucini carbonara. Considering pasta is my favorite dish (Fettucini Alfredo being my favorite), I am sure I would be quite fond of the Fettucini Carbonara. Broccoli is a vegetable I am pretty tolerable of, if of course it is covered in cheese or any other unhealthy type of topping. However the Broccoli Amandine seems like the perfect dish to try roccoli with a finer seasoned taste. Though my mother has made countless dishes using chicken as the main ingredient, chicken fricassee has never been one she has tried, and I am looking forward to learning this new recipe. We will be using our skills of sauteeing from previous labs as well as steaming for this weeks lab.
RESEARCH:
As I mentioned above, I have personally never tasted chicken fricassee, but because it is a Spanish Caribbean dish brought over from those living in South France and Spain, it is a dish I feel as if I would enjoy. The word fricassee means "a dish of pieces of meat (such as chicken) or vegetables stewed in stock and served in a white sauce. This dish is quite fitting to this weeks topic of learning. The word "amandine" refers to a dish that is served with almonds (toasted, sliced, etc.). WE have of course Americanized this word and have created the word "almondine", which essentially means the same thing. Though I am no fan of broccoli, almonds are something I do like to snack on and add to dishes to give things more nutritional value. Fettuccini Carbonara is of course an italian dish created in Rome. It is a mixture of egg and hard cheese (two of my favorite ingredients). I have never made my own pasta before, and I am looking forward to using this recipe of my own! I alwasy thought pasta was hard to make, but with step by step tutorials we learned from class, it is not as bad as a I had expected.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
We will be using techniques in this particular lab that we have used previously, such as sauteeing, simmering, and of course basic techniqes like dicing and other cuttig techniques. With the chicken fricassee we will be cooking with wine which is something I have never done before, but have always wandered what the science was behind cooking with wine. After researching, I learned that white wines work very well with dairy, and overall the wine adds depth and cuts to the richness of cream based sauces. Of course you have to be careful wth the brands you choose, some have added salt, sugar, and preservatives which alter your dishes overall taste.
CHICKEN FRICASSEE
Yield: 8 servings (8 oz each)
Ingredients
2 lb. 8 oz. - 3 lb. Frying Chicken (Cut into 8 pieces)
TT Salt & Pepper 3 fl. oz. Clarified Butter
10 oz. Onions, Medium Diced
3 oz. Flour
8 Fl. Oz. Dry White Wine
1 qt. Chicken Stock
Sachet:
1 Bay Leaf
1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme
1/2 tsp. Cracked Peppercorns
8 Parsley Stems
1 Crushed Garlic Clove
8 fl. oz. Heavy Cream
Ground Nutmeg TT
Directions:
Season the chicken with salt and white pepper.
Sauté the chicken in the butter without browning. Add the onions and continue to sauté until they are translucent.
Sprinkle the flour over the chicken and onions and stir to make a roux. Cook the roux for 2 minutes without browning.
Deglaze the pan with the wine. Add the stock and sachet; season with salt. Cover and simmer until done, approximately 30–45 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the pan and hold in a warm place. Strain the sauce through damp cheesecloth and return it to a clean pan.
Add the cream and bring the sauce to a simmer. Add the nutmeg and adjust the seasonings. Return the chicken to the sauce to reheat it for service.
BROCCOLI AMANDINE
serving size: 8 (4 oz. each)
Ingredients:
2 lb. Fresh Broccoli
TT Salt & Pepper
2 oz. Whole Butter
1 oz. Sliced Almonds
1 Garlic Clove, minced
2 fl. oz. Lemon Juice
Directions:
Cut the broccoli into uniform spears. Rinse and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
Place the broccoli in a single layer in a perforated hotel pan and cook in a convection steamer until tender but slightly crisp, approximately 3 minutes.
Melt the butter in a sauté pan. Add the almonds and garlic and cook just until the nuts are lightly browned.
Arrange the broccoli on plates for service and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Drizzle the almonds and butter over the broccoli and serve immediately.
FETTUCINE CARBONARA
serving size: 6 (4 oz. each)
Ingredients:
12 oz. Pasta
3.5 oz. Pancetta, diced
2 Eggs
1 1/2 oz. Parmesan cheese grated
1 1/2 oz. Pecorino cheese, grated
Directions:
1.Cook the pasta in salted water until aldente, reserve 4 fl oz of the cooking liquid.
2. Place the pancetta in a cold pan and bring it up to a medium heat to ender the fat. Sauté until it has crisped and is golden.
3. Whisk the eggs and ½ the parmesan cheese together in a bowl and set aside.
4. Add 2 fl oz of the reserved pasta water to the pancetta. Add the pasta and toss and heat for a few seconds.
5. Add the eggs to the pan and stir immediately and rapidly.
6. If the sauce is too thick then add more of the reserved water.
7. Add the Perconio cheese and the remainder of the parmesan cheese.
Season with salt and pepper.
COOKING OUTCOME:
As pictured above, the dishes turned out great! Though I almost set off the smoke alarm not once but TWICE... My fettuccine carbonara turned out delicious as well as the chicken (though mine was more browned than others). I was super grateful that my teacher and chef let me borrow some of his roux for my chicken, or else it would not have tasted as good as it did. I also burned my almonds a little too much, but I still of course taste tested the broccoli and it was not bad!
RESULTS:
This lab was super tasty! All of the cooking methods we used in this lab, we have done so before in our previous labs. It was very nice to get hands on when cutting the chicken and sectioning off the legs, wings, and breasts. That will be a cooking technique I plan to use at home and surprise my mother with dinner! After watching her do it growing up it will be neat for the roles to be switched.
CONCLUSION:
All in all, the lab was very fun and educating. I am very glad I was able to attend. It was fun to be back with friends and cooking our own dishes side by side. Nobody's dish looked the same, which was expected. With pasta being my favorite dish, I fully expect to recreate the fettuccine carbonara as well as the chicken fricassee in the near future. Next time I will be more observing of my dishes when cooking in hopes to not burn anything.
WORKS CITED:
https://www.winemag.com/2017/10/06/how-cooking-with-wine-transforms-food/
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