Last class for Soups and Sauces

We concluded our final lab for our Thursday class with a straight forward assignment - cook something with whatever was in the refrigerator - as long it had an integral sauce. Our proteins were steaks and chicken; we had the usual suspects in terms of vegetables and stocks. I started with some thinly sliced potatoes which became Pommes Anna in a small Teflon pan. After the first side browned up, I successfully flipped it over and put it into the oven to finish. Next I chose a split chicken breast which I lightly floured and sauted in some oil. It then went into the oven to finish. I started my sauce by deglazing the pan with some shallots and some white wine (actually too much white wine). Then I added chicken stock and started a reduction. Well, too much wine translates into a very sweet sauce (you would think by now I would have figured this out). I started getting concerned that my efforts at a reduction would not turn out but it did as the sweet liquid slowly but surely turned into a sauce. I also sauted some broccoli while this sauce was forming - I used some extra chicken stock on the broccoli to help it along as well. My sauce actually shaped up quite nicely going from a light tan liquid to a nice brown pan sauce. My lack of multitasking skills caught up with me as the sauce became too thick while I messing around with the broccoli so I had to add some more stock to the pan.

Long story short - I got my ingredients plated and in from of chef in a timely manner. He thought the plate looked good. I used the potatoes with a wedge removed, filled that spot with some broccoli and cut about half of the chicken into some slices. The uncut portion went on top of the potatoes and the slices were placed on that piece of chicken. My sauce then went on the slices. Nothing too fancy but (for me) decently executed.

Overall, this class exposed us to a lot of concepts in a short amount of time - I wish in some respects that the amount of time could have been at least doubled. Chef pointed out that true sauce artists spend their whole careers perfecting their craft - we had ten weeks . . .