Having gotten a demo on the fabrication of a beef forequarter yesterday (Kitchen Academy - Course II - Day 9), we now got a lesson in fabrication of the beef hindquarter, where the majority of the more well-known steaks come from.
Production today started with a Steakhouse Tomato Salad (2 plates), followed by three steaks at various levels of doneness along with two sides.
The salad was actually quite tasty, though one might dispute calling the rich plate a "salad". The base was Heirloom Tomatoes in a balsamic vinaigrette, which were really quite good, but the salad also included a generous portion of deep fried shallots and crumbled blue cheese. There were a few leaves of baby arugula as well, but this was a salad a steak lover could enjoy.
Because of the ease or preparation for the dish, most students finished it quite early.
Cooking steaks doesn't really take all that long, so most of the production effort really goes into getting the side dishes and sauces ready. For a green, we had Sauteed Rapini, aka Broccoli Rabe, with garlic and chile. For a starch, we made Smashed Red Bliss Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots. Both of these dishes were fairly straight forward in preparation. You do have to cook the Rapini somewhat carefully in order to reduce its bitterness (a dash of acid at the end can do wonders) without overcooking it, but otherwise it is sort of difficult to ruin these dishes.
The real difficulties were in the sauces. We made two: Bearnaise and Bordelaise. The latter isn't too difficult, but it does take time to reduce and one has to control the amount of fat in emulsification. You don't want to hit it with too much fat in the beginning.
Bernaise, like its mother sauce Hollandaise, is a technically difficult yolk and butter emulsion. Bernaise differs from Hollandaise primarily in the addition of tarragon. A nice sauce, but a bit of a pain. Recommendation: make this sauce absolutely last, just before service; it is too difficult to hold long.
The students did get to choose which side dish went with which sauce. I followed the basic rule: dairy sauces with vegetables (i.e., Bernaise with the Rapini) and brown sauces with starches (i.e., Bordelaise with Smashed Red Bliss Potatoes).
All in all, a fairly simple day, which was highly appreciated after the busyness of the previous days.
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
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