Moist heat

               After yesterday, today I was introduced to moist heat methods of cookery. this included poaching, steaming and boiling, as well as a braising chicken and vegetables. 

With the Court Bouillon, we started the poaching process. I added several cut vegetables like celery, carrots and onions to a few cups of water and wine and threw in herbs to my liking (sage and thyme). I then put in the raw chicken thigh and let it slowly cook on the burner. I also added peppercorns and caraway seeds before letting it cook. I got distracted with my stew at one point, so I think I let it get too hot and it began to simmer. This is probably why my poached chicken was slightly overdone. Once it simmered, I placed a parchment paper over it and let it cook for about another 10 minutes before removing the poached chicken from the broth and straining the broth of all the vegetables and herbs.

                We made a buerre blanc sauce with star anise, I began with some melted butter and flour in the bottom of my pan and let warm. Then I added about two cups of heavy whipping cream and let it heat up until it began to simmer. I whisked the flour roux clumps into the heated cream and then added some stock to the sauce. Afterwards I combined the broth from the poached chicken into the cream mixture and whisked that until it was bubbling occasionally. I kept the heat on low and added salt and pepper to my own taste.

                The chicken stew was my favorite to make today. Chef John let us do whatever we wanted with the mixture and add whatever seasonings and ingredients. I let a pot get hot with oil and then sauted 4 cubed chicken thighs to about the point where it was half cooked through before removing t from the pot. Next I added more oil to the bottom of the pot and sauted a cup of onions and then began adding carrots, celery, shallots, and potatoes. I also used a fair amount of salt, pepper and Tuscan rosemary seasoning to it. Once it was all mixed in I coated it with about a ½ cup of flour and let it get sticky like chef showed us. When there wasn’t much liquid left in the pot, I added some white wine and then added about three cups of chicken stock to the stew. I let it cook for a while to where the potatoes were almost soft and put the chicken back in the stew. I let it cool to thicken a little bit more and I think this is why the bottom of my pot had some brown stuck to it.

                The Rice Pilaf was about the same beginning process as the formers. I sauted some onions and garlic in a small saucepan and let cook until translucent. Then I added the rice. The recipe said to only cook for about 30 seconds before adding chicken stock to the pan. Once it started to simmer, I took it off the heat and covered the top with some aluminum foil before placing it in the oven to cook the rest of the way.

                The steamed chicken was an interesting process. We used a buttered parchment paper cut to be an en papillote and l placed a chicken thigh with carrots, celery, thyme and a few cubes of butter before wrapping it and placing the butter knives as a weight so that the chicken could steam properly in the oven.

                I also braised carrots today and successfully cooked them, so they were not undercooked like last time with the parsnips. I sauted them first before adding a bit of stock and then brown sugar and let braise for a few minutes. After tasting them, I was pleased with the texture and how it was not overcooked either.