bock, bock, bock

This weekend was a blatant reminder of why I am a pastry arts major and not a culinary major. Not only was there more fish in the kitchen, there was also a plethora of raw chickens. Lucky for you, I only have images of the cooked chickens. Unfortunately for me, I almost passed out while chopping my raw chicken's limbs off. I was literally the biggest chicken in the room.

You know those delicious rotisserie chickens that grocery stores sell for six dollars that smell and taste delicious, but you still have to rip the meat off the bones when you get home? Well, I've just recently managed to bring myself to tear enough meat off of those babies to get my six dollars worth, but I was not at all prepared for the chopping up of a raw chicken. Chef made it look so easy in the demo, but as a new butcher, the bones and cartilage snapping was just a little too much for me to handle. Not to mention the blood that poured out when I was trying to hack a wing off. I immediately became light-headed and thought I was going to pass out. Why is there bright red blood flowing in a dead chicken carcass?? Bleh.

After a fleeting moment where I considered becoming a vegetarian, I decided to sauté up one of my chicken breasts. And boy was I glad I did. This was the juiciest piece of chicken I've ever had via pan preparation. The trick is to keep the skin side down in the oil and use the spoon to drench the top of the chicken with oil - never turn the chicken over. Put some garlic and thyme in the oil at the end, stick in the oven for a few minutes and you will be rewarded with moist chicken with slightly crispy skin on the bottom. 

We also did some frying, which was tasty, although I'll admit it was a little bizarre to be munching on a leg that I broke off of a body not long beforehand

And then we had to pull out more chickens to roast in the oven. These were way more fun to prepare because only their wing tips get cut off. And then we got to slather the birds with oil and stuff them with garlic, lemon, shallots and seasonings and let the roasting begin.

We decided not to tie up the legs, so the stuffing came out a bit, but this was one juicy, tasty bird. I would pay the going rate at the grocery store for this one.

And now perhaps I'll be even better at taking all of the meat off when I do buy one. Just don't give me a raw chicken. Or another fish. Those were pulled out next. We made striped bass en papillote, which means it was wrapped in parchment paper with veggies, butter, lemon slices and seasonings and steamed in its own juices. The bags are usually cut open at the table when you order this at a restaurant. Here's the raw version. Much prettier than it tastes (in my opinion).

The final item we worked on was potatoes anna. These are like scalloped potatoes except you layer them in a small sauté pan and let them brown on the stove for awhile on each side. They are seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme (one of my new favorite herbs). They are really fun to make and will be part of our final practical exam next week....here's my first attempt.

After an extremely meaty Saturday, I was craving something sweet. And since my mother has been begging me for key lime pound cake ever since my recent blog, I decided to surprise her with one for my family's visit on Sunday. How did I manage to bake said cake on Sunday before their arrival at 10:30am?

Coffee. And the strong desire to put something in the oven that didn't previously breathe the same air as me. It was a much better way to end the weekend. And this upcoming weekend will be a grateful goodbye to the culinary world for yours truly.