Today was the last day that we learned new techniques, information, etc. Next week will be entirely review, without demos, so that we can spend the time concentrating on production and practicing what we've learned the past four weeks. The week after next will be finals, where most of our grade will come from. Course I is the only course that has a review week. The other courses simply keep teaching until finals come around. Hopefully, I'll be able to make good use of the review week to refine and get a firm grasp of what I've learned so far.

However, that is next week. Today we learned a couple of classics: Gnocchi with a browned butter and sage sauce, as well as New England Clam Chowder.

A couple of days ago, some of us were discussing bread making. I spoke proudly, and rightly so, about my sourdough. The next day, I brought in some of my sourdough starter for those who were interested. But, I thought, how much better would it be to also bring a sample of the finished product. Thus, the night before, I baked a small loaf of sourdough.

Now, the best sourdough takes well over a day to make. It should be punched down three, even four times before baking. Because it takes so long, however, I could only punch down my dough once before baking. It still came out great, but not nearly as good as it would with more time to develop the distinctive sourdough flavor. Of course, for those who prefer only a slight tang, the faster process is probably the best.

First thing, we had to throw some potatoes into the ovens to roast for the gnocchi. The potatoes would take a good 45 minutes to an hour before they were ready for further processing.

While the potatoes roasted we began the clam chowder, which is actually a fairly quick recipe, though it does take some prep in the form of knife work to produce presentable small dice potatoes and carrots.

The recipe actually calls for some plain water (in addition to canned clam juice), but Brent and I filtered the water in which we steamed our clams through a coffee filter and chinoise to add additional flavor. Why waste the clam liquor? We also cheated, I mean, garnished, our soup bowls with a couple pieces of homemade sourdough toast. My loaf was actually the perfect size for a bread bowl, but that would have been going a bit too far. In any case, I had already cut slices to share with some of the other students.

The soup was great, except that my clam pieces were a little too large. I basically did a medium dice, unlike all the veggies, which were small dice. I thought that larger pieces of clam would be appreciated. Chef Perez, however, said that everything should be uniform. The toast was an excellent addition, but did not influence the grade.

Skinning and putting the insides of the potatoes through a food mill was the next step in making gnocchi. I showed my station mates how to remove the skins of the potatoes in two halves. This would be very useful as the skins would otherwise be discarded. Brent took the complete halves, brushed the skins with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and tossed them the oven to roast into nice, crisp potato skins. Delicious (everyone was asking for a bite) and Brent and I used them for garnish for our gnocchi.

Ah gnocchi. They're not to everyone's taste, but I sort of like them. Unfortunately, mine were a disaster. I didn't quite add enough flour to my potato/egg mixture and after boiling, my gnocchi melted into something that was postively non-Euclidian. It was as if primordial gnocchi were attempting to lift themselves from the muck. Ooops.

I had to borrow (with Chef Perez's permission) some of Brent's very nice gnocchi for use with my browned butter and sage sauce. I nailed the sauce, but I'll have to work on getting the flour/potato ratio right. I was almost there, but not quite. But, as I've said before, that's why I'm in school, learning.