I love our regional Friday lunches!! This is why (Don’t forget to watch the video clips!):
Wine #1, the white Sancerre. Not a Normandie wine but close enough
First course: Tourteaux meat (big crab) ,avocado cream and mango-grapefruit salad. It was great, I couldn't stop eating it until it was all done, and I meant to eat just a little bit. Mango (hmm!), crab (hmm!), avocado (hmm!) can't be bad!
Fish course: Bar (Sea bass) baked in salt, Duex of apple and potato, Black trumpet mushrooms, Cider cream sauce! That was an amazing dish, cooked perfectly and we were all very impressed!
The second wine, another white: Rully
Second Fish course (!!): Sole filled with champignon and Girolles mushrooms, ginger, mussels cream with Bigorneaux (sea snails), Jerusalem artichokes cream and Sรขtรจd Cantharelles (another kind of mushroom)
Wine #3: Red, Chinon to go with the duck
Duck breast, Potatoes and sweet potatoes Gratin, Red wine and calvados sauce, Duck leg rolled with Cรจpes (another kind of mushroom!!). I wasn't that hungry that point but it was pretty good. Gratin melting in the mouth.
Normandes Apple Tart, Calvados ice-cream. Nothing like fresh tart out of the oven to finish this kind of meal. The ice-cream was pretty good!
Had a cider to accompany the dessert
Can you imagine having this meal on a Friday lunch? It was hard to function afterwards! Anyway it was all made so well and Presented beautifully. Now if you’re interested, the rest of the post will focus on the process of making this lunch including demo videos.
Dish #1: Tourteaux , avocado cream,mango-grapefruit salad. ( Shane, Ihsuan and Adrian)
Yes, if you wonder, they came alive
Taking out the meat. The group hated this job obviously, it's not easy.
All the meat that was pulled out
Not to forget the "Coral", Crab's brain, has it's own interesting texture and flavor.
Plating in glasses
Avocado cream on top
Dish #2: Bar baked in salt, Duex of apple and potato, Black trumpet mushrooms, Cider cream sauce (Barbara and Zeynel)
Barbara bragging her fish, for a good reason, it's top quality wild bass marked with a quality sticker. Did you ever see that size of a sea bass? Not cultivated!
Frying the perfect potato cubes
After frying
The green apples also cut to small cubes
Covering the fish with grey salt and egg whites
There's no tray big enough for this monster
The proud mom and baby
Fish came out of the oven
Removing the skin and dividing to portions
Plating: first black mushrooms then apples deaux
Fish and sauce. I had a little part in this dish as well, the lime zest sprinkled on top was made by me for the restaurant service and had been forgotten ๐ used here as a garnish!
From the other side of the kitchen
She cut her finger but it was totally worth it!!
Great job with this fish!
Dish #3: Sole filled with Champignon and Ginger, Mussels cream with Bigorneaux, Jerusalem artichokes cream and Sรขtรจd Cantharelles. (Ericka, Claire and me)
All kinds of mushrooms! It's the season!
Jerusalem Artichokes and ginger
Today were about to make a whole different thing from the sole fish
After scaling the sole, this is my hand
Boning the fish without removing the filets. How to do it you ask? Good question, it’s complicated.
The fish is empty like an envelope
Sweating the mushrooms in butter
Cooking the mules ร la Mariner
After pulling every single mule out of his shell
Filling the sole
Generous amount
Cooked in the oven with white wine and fish stock
For 7 minutes only! Came out like this
Chef helping Claire with the Artichoke cream
Whisking the mule sauce
Almost forgot about these sails. Then being yelled at: "not snails!! it's Bigorneaux!!!!"
Cooked for 20 minutes and then had to pull out of its shell one by one with a toothpick!! Good thing we had some help, it took forever but Adrian found a nice method
My board after the de-shelling
Cutting the fish to portions
Plating time!!
Claire with the sauce
Gave Barbara the camera. Good job Barbara ๐
Plated and looks amazing!
I liked this dish, the sole was better this way then the roll but still can't find it that attractive
I would de-shell you any time
Adrian, after three dishes, still clearing the plates! Mom would be proud
Dish #4: Duck breast, Potatoes and sweet potatoes Gratin, Red wine and calvados sauce, Duck leg rolled with Cรจpes (Daniel, Alissa and Olive)
Kwak
Birds areย usually sold whole and not “prepared” like they do back in Israel. So how to deal with that? Simply follow the next video:
After all the insides removed in one piece, the liver and heart used for the sauce.
Searing the duck breasts to brown
Good color! Now they go bake in the oven
The thighs rolled with Cรฉpes and seared inside a foil!
Gratin with parmesan on top
The rest of the cรฉpes pan fried
Plating
...
Awesomely presented
Even the chef taking pics of his plates ๐
ย Dish #5:ย Normandes Apple Tart, Calvados ice-cream (Rob and Andreea)
Flambed apples with calvados
Drying apple skins to form an apple powder
Almond cream, yamm
Pre-baked
Post-baked
"You can make only two tarts if you want.." - "No, no, four tarts will be fine"
Plating
Sugar, OMG that looks amazing!
Andreea and her babies
The dessert served, lucky us!
๐
Eating, drinking, happy times!
Shane saying grace
Group effort!
I had to ask the Chef when the Lunch was over if Normandie is known for their mushrooms because we had so many kinds in all the dishes we made. The answer is no. It’s just the season so better use then now before they’re all gone.
now I need to run to get a sole to practice on… a duck too…
Hi Mashav!
Rina will be in Paris from 19-25 October. You wrote in one of your posts that there are some meals that outsiders can participate in, if I’m not mistaken? What would she have to do ? I told her to contact you aslo for tips on where to eat while in Paris… She will be visiting alot of her family there, but she also likes goooood food… so any tips are welcome!
Thanks for the help!
Gmar Hatima Tova & cook a good Arucha Mafseket ๐
Love,
Eli7
Unfortunately we don’t have any restaurant service this week. Should buy plane tickets after first reserving a table!!!
I posted basically every single thing I have been eating in Paris so she can just use this blog to get recommendations but if she needs more details or more suggestions like places I never been to but want to go, she can contact me by email.
ืื ืืื ืชื ืืช ืืงืืข, ืืื ืื ืื ืืฉืื ืืืืฆืื ืืช ืื ืืคื ืืืืื ืืืื , ืืฉืืชื ืฉืืฉืื ืืฉืืืจ ืขื ืืืจืืื ืฉืื ืืืืื ืืชืืชื ืืช ืืืจืื ืืืืงืื ืื ืืื ืืคืฉืจ ืืืชืื ืืื ืืืืฆืื ืืช ืืคื ืืืืื ,ืืืืืืืืืืืืืืืื?????????????
There are two reasons, one is that we’re learning in this school so sometimes we do things we don’t actually need to do for this recipe just for the practice. The other reason is that we used the two breasts together, and if you don’t clear the insides in a clean way, there could still be pieces of lungs in the back of the breasts. Like you sometimes have leftovers of insides on your chicken, that’s not the end of the world but not for high end restaurants.
Thats one of the best meals you have posted here!
The Tourteaux meat was my favorite, looks so tasty I could have eaten so much of those..
The sole fish looks so tempting as well.
But the duck! How could you have touched that? I prefer not to see or touch the animal that was my food.
Shrin it’s the other way around. First it’s the animal and then it’s food. So there’s no problem. Anyway, I was in the fish group so I didn’t prepare the duck, just seen the demo.
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