This week’s Regional meal I felt was a bit too easy. I may blame it on the Alsacein region food but I’m really not sure this was it. I had to make something that’s called “Tart Flambée” which is another name for a thin crust pizza dough topped with créme fraiche, onions and bacon. I was doing this dish as an amuse bouche which is also weird, I guess this dish is more like a midnight snack than an appetizer in restaurants. I also had to prepare it with a partner although it was enough for one person to make. The second dish was foie gras which was also too easy for the amount of people placed in this group. The fish course and the dessert also finished their cooking very early, only the meat group had a decent amount of work for their dish. I felt this day that we are maybe too many people in class for some of the activities, and wished we could have come to school like always on 8Am instead earlier at 7:30AM. Good thing is that we had some wine to relax.
Alsacien dry riesling. Read all about it here.
Tarte Flambée (flammekueche)
Best wine in this meal, to me, was this Gewurztraminer, not the late harvest type (less sweet then usual)
Foie Gras de Canard Poêle, aux Fruits de Saison, Kouglof
Sandre en Choucroute à L'ancienne, Beurre Blanc
Red Sancerre, I always forget what was my impression of the last wine, wonder why 🙂
Civet de Chevreuil
People eating
Espresso à la Sebastian
Fondant au Chocolat, Croquant au Grue, Sorbet au Fromage Blanc
So Alsace which is a region boarding Germany, has been lost and “re-gained” to France several times during wars, a fact that made this area very unique cuisine wise. What’s also interesting about Alsace it’s its unique climate. The mountain ridge stops the rain clouds from passing from the Lorraine side to Alsace side of it, what makes these mountains perfect to grow vineyards. Interesting story we learned in our history class is about the Baeckeoffe dish. In the past, Monday was laundry day so ladies of Alsace took pretty much everything they had left (meat, potatoes, onions and wine) and put it in a ceramic pot, on the way to the laundry gave the pot to the baker who baked it in his oven, when they came back they had this dish ready to be served for dinner. This is the meaning of the name of the dish – baker’s oven. Now that we are smarter, back to our lunch preparations..
Tarte Flambée (flammekueche). Thin crusted bread tart with créme fraiche, onions and bacon – Zeynel, Me.
Ingredients, not many
Making a starter: yeast + water
Adding flour
First time worked with a mixing machine in school
Dough ready, risen
Cut
Rolled
Molds
Smoked bacon
cut and fried
Mixing créme fraiche and fromage blanc (45%) with yolks
Adding onions
Spreading over the dough
Four tarts
To the oven. Bummer we used convection oven instead of baker's oven which is a lot better for the dough to get crispy from under
Ta-Da!
No interesting plating, just slice and serve
Was pretty good actually, but I don't get why they make such a big deal out of it
They love their traditional dishes. Taken in Supermarket, heat and serve Tarte flambée.
Foie Gras de Canard Poêle, aux Fruits de Saison, Kouglof. Duck liver, glazed fruits and a traditional milk bread – Claire, Daniel, Ihsuan.
The bread out of the oven. It had things inside and was very good!!
Toasted
Pears cut and turned
Caramelized
that's always a good addition
Roasted figs
Foie gras à la plancha
Plating
From the other side of the stove
...
Looks edible, lets roll!
Great dish, very simple though. The grapes were pealed!!
Sandre en Choucroute à L’ancienne, Beurre Blanc. Pike with fermented cabbage, white wine and butter sauce – Barbara, Alissa, Olive
So pretty, such a shame
Barbara's favorite pose with fish
Choucroute !!
White butter sauce
The fish on the plancha.
"Flip them gently, with love"
Plating!!
...
...
Mine was cooked just right (some were a bit under cooked), and a beautiful filet
In the middle of preparations for the meal, fire drill. Fun fun!!
Civet de Chevreuil. Venison stew and seared, steamed vegetables, cépes mushrooms – Rob, Shane, Andreea.
This poor Bambi was about 3 months old. Andreea and Shane having a hard time boning
The meat for the stew
Braised in an iron pot
Bones added to make a sauce
Stew going to the oven
The higher piece of the meat pan fried
The Cépes are porchini mushrooms (Italian), fresh and super expensive
Fried
Some of them with chives
Red beets and golden beets in the background
Vegetables to the steam oven
Pig's blood as the sauce thickener
Glog glog glog
Plating
...
Venison two ways. I preferred the steak way to eat it but liked the stew sauce.
Barbar's most lovely dish is popular among the photographers
Fondant au Chocolat, Croquant au Grue, Sorbet au Fromage Blanc. Chocolate fondant, Coco bean caramel and white soft cheese sorbet – Adrian and Ericka.
I missed all the steps before this. I guess it's something to do with eggs and chocolate.
Mess around with chocolate is fun!
Fondant molds
Poured in
Sugar mixed with butter and sprinkled with coco beans shreds, to the oven
Melted and formed a caramel
Cut to circles
Fondant out of the oven
Plating
Do you know how to make an ice-cream cannelle with only one spoon?
Chef's example of ice-cream cannelle made with one spoon
Find the difference 🙂 They got better with time. I couldn't even try!
Plating
Sprinkle some sugar
Added also edible flower and raspberry
😛
The real test, cracked open. Perfectly runny!
Coffee is a great idea to finish this beautiful meal without having to go sleep it off
דם של חזיר נשמע פנטסטי להיודית הוא נשמע YAK ומגעיל
pig’s blood is weird enough – but pigs blog? in a bottle?
אני מקנה בך, משאיר לי טעם בפה
נשיקות
Poor bambi..
The meal does look simpler than all the other meals you’ve had.
But still tasty. My favorite was the Venison stew, even though it was made of a poor bambi. And the desserts of course!
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