Discover La Chic Chef Lifestyle

Never buy mayonnaise again!  Make your own. 

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk (20g)

30 g Dijon mustard

150 ml grapeseed oil

10 ml cider vinegar

Salt

Ground pepper

Instructions:

Using a whisk, combine egg yolk and mustard in a small bowl.  Keep whisking until smooth.  

Slowly stream in oil while constantly whisking.  Consistency should be smooth and the finish should be glossy.

Add salt and pepper to taste  (You must taste!)

Add vinegar and whisk to incorporate.  ALWAYS add vinegar in AFTER the oil or your mayonnaise will separate.

Please try this at home and let me know how it goes!

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry

200g flour

100g butter

5g salt

50g egg (1 egg)

20 ml of water, as needed

Garnish

120g smoked streaky bacon

100g Emmental cheese

10 ml sunflower oil

Savory Filling

1 egg

140 ml milk

140g whipping cream

3 egg yolks

salt, white pepper, nutmeg

Instructions: 

Shortcrust Pastry

Tip - Always add salt to a shortcrust pastry and mix it directly into the flour. 

Weigh salt and flour and put into a mixing bowl and mix with your hands. 

Break or cut the butter into small pats and knead it into the flour and salt mixture with the tips of your fingers.  This process is called "sanding" as the result should look like sand once th butter is incorporated sufficiently. 

Crack egg into a small bowl (never crack and egg on the side of the bowl) and then place it into the mixture.  Continue to mix with hands, but do not overhandle as you do not want gluten to form. 

Put some flour on the counter and “mill” the mixture.  Then “Abaisser” to roll it out.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Use magnets to keep paper down.

Roll dough out into a 2-3 mm thick disc and them put into a tarte pan with a removable bottom.  Add water if dough is too dry.

"Roll" disc upon to rolling pin and then use roller to put onto mold.

Push dough up onto the side of the pan to create a “collar.”

Crimp with fork or crimping tool. 

Prick bottom of pan with fork. 

Cover dough with cellophane and put baking beans or weights on top.

Put into oven to blind bake for 20 minutes.

Savory Filling

Add a little bit of salt and pepper into a bowl.

Grate nutmeg into the bowl.

Put whole egg in bowl. 

Put egg yolks into bowl. 

Whisk together. 

Add milk and cream and whisk.

Put into fridge to store.

Garnish

Remove cartilage and rind of bacon.

Cut into 4 cm long and 5 mm thick lardon.

Blanche lardons by placing them in cold water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Drain onto paper towel.

Finely chop Emmenthal cheese.

Put lardons into oil on medium heat and make “blonde,” not brown (lightly sauté).

Assembly

Remove beans and cellophane from tart and cook for 6-8 more minutes, until lightly browned.

Put lardons into pan.

Put cheese into pan.

Fill pan ¾ with liquid then rest into pan in oven.

Cook for 20-25 minutes, until a tester is inserted and no custard remains on tester.

Let sit at room temperature on a cooling rack and place the tarte pan on an inverted bowl to remove the ring.  Remove the bottom part of the tart pan as well.  (I forgot this step in my practical and felt like a prize idiot!)

Ingredients

1 1.6 kg free range yellow chicken

250 g chicken wings

30 ml sunflower oil

20 g butter

salt, white pepper

For jus:

120 g mild onions (about 1 medium onion)

40 g garlic cloves

1 fresh thyme sprig

Preheat oven to 230 C.

Prepare Chicken - remember the front of the chicken is the presentation side, so no incisions on the front. 

1. Remove the label and stretch the chicken out. 
2. Put chicken on top of an inverted hotel pan. Use a torch and brush over the chicken to remove the down. 
3. Wipe it clean.
4. Remove any feather parts.
5. Prep feet.  Keep the center claw, but remove the nail.  Then cut off all the other toes.
6. Remove scales from legs by dipping chicken into the boiling water up to the “knee” for 10 seconds. This is called echauder.
7. Rub clean with a paper towel.
8. Clean pad of feet really well. Use a pairing knife if necessary.
9. Make a vertical incision down the back of the legs and remove the tendons.
10. Cut off the top third of the wing tips off. Save for jus.
11. Remove gland in the tail by making an incision just under the “parson’s nose.”
12. Make a long incision at the back of the neck bone. Fold down skin.
13. Remove head.
14. Sever the neck bone and take out the skin. Remove trachea pipe. Cut down as far as possible. Save with wings. 
15. Clean flap of neck skin.
16. Remove the internal “pouch” just inside the neck. Make sure trachea and esophagus are removed as well. 
17. Using a hook motion with your finger, sweep the inside of the neck cavity to loosen the lungs from the thoracic cave. 
18. Remove the fat cluster in the tail end just under the parson’s nose.
19. From the rear end, use sweeping hooked finger motion to remove all organs at the same time. Bile patch is the dark green pouch.  If it has been severed, the chicken needs to be rinsed very well. You should have lungs, heart, liver, and gizzard. 
20. Remove the wish bone by making an incision on either side of it.  Save for jus.

Tress the Chicken

Remember leg to leg and wing to wing and season before tressing!

1. Using your thumb, break the tail bone a bit by pushing the skin inside the cavity. 
2. Tie string with a double loop to one end of tressing needle. 
3. Face chicken breast side up.  Head to the right side. Going away from yourself, push the needle through the side of the bird, just under the drum stick part. Leave some string on the side closest to you.
4. Flip bird over with back bone on top.  Push the needle through the wing going away from you. Through the arm.  Under the backbone and through the neck skin and through the other wing at the same point. 
5. Pull string through.  Pull string out of needle and tie two ends.  Taut, but not too tight. Cut first tie.
6. Second tress - Face chicken breast up.  Put legs to your right side. Rethread needle with string. 
7. Tilt legs forward with hand and push needle through the pelvic bone, over the tail.  Should not have to push too hard. Leave some twine on the side you pushed through. 
8. Rotate the bird with the head to the right. Pull legs back and thread the needle just above the knee on the leg, under the breast area, and through the other leg.  
9. Undo the needle. Tie two strings together. 
10. Reposition chicken tips.
11. Put foil on the feet.

Season Chicken

1. Weigh the chicken once cleaned. 
2. For every kilo, season with 18g of salt and 2 g of pepper. Use ⅔ of mixture to season inside the cavity and the remaining ⅓ to season outside of the bird.
3. Massage salt into the skin of the bird.
4. Brush oil onto the bird.

Roast

1. Cut up wing bits. 
2. Cut up the neck bone into smaller bits.
3. Put some oil into the pan and put the bird in on its side.  Put the wings and neck pieces into an empty space in the pan.
4. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. Flip over.  Baste and roast the other side for 20 minutes. 
6. Add butter, onion and garlic.  Baste and roast breast side up for 10 minutes. 
7. Once roasted, using the chef's fork and skimmer, take it out of over, put on a circular cooling rack on the pan. Pour juices into the pan.  If clear, it is cooked. Keep set aside and work on jus. Put all stuff except chicken back into a sauté pan for jus.
8. Remove the darn tressing string before serving!

Jus Prep

1. Emincer onion.
2. Split garlic.  Take out germ. Crush garlic. Do not add thyme yet.
3. Once chicken is roasted, put the chicken aside and work on jus.
4. Add thyme to the pan at the very end so it does not burn. Simmer and then degrease by straining fat into a bowl.
5. Put the mixture back into the sauce pan. Deglaze with water.
6. ”Wet” it by adding some more water and let it simmer and skim. 
7. Strain one more time into a bowl for serving. 

Madeleines

Ingredients:

220 g eggs (about 2)

190 g of sugar

50 g chestnut honey

90 ml heavy cream

300 g of butter

300 g of flour

15 g baking powder

1.5 ml vanilla extract

1 lemon (zested)

1 orange (zested)

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan.  Remove to cool to room temperature, but do not let it harden.
2. Put milk into a sauce pan and add the chestnut honey.
3. Heat the milk and honey on medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Add the vanilla powder into the milk mixture and stir.  Take the pan off of the heat.
5. Put the lemon and orange zest into a bowl.
6. Add the egg yolks, sugar, and whisk.
7. Add the warm milk mixture into the bowl and whisk immediately, or your eggs will cook!
8. Add sifted flour into the bowl.
9. Whisk until smooth.
10. Add the baking powder. 
11. Add the room temperature butter into the batter.
12. Put batter into an uncut piping bag and put into the fridge to rest for an hour.
13. Leave some butter out at room temperature for buttering madeleine tray.
14. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. 
15. Butter madeleine tray and use a pastry brush to make sure butter is in all of the crevasses. 
16. Flour the mold and dust off the excess flour.
17. Pipe the batter into the molds once rested and back for 8-10 minutes.
18. Remove the madeleines onto a cooking rack once you remove them from the oven.

Pots de Crème - Vanilla, Pistachio, and Coffee*

*Feel free to get creative with other flavors.  These are just the ones we made in class. 

Ingredients:

750 ml of milk

150 ml of whipping cream

240 egg yolks (about 4, but measure)

180 g of sugar

1 vanilla pod

8 g of coffee extract

15 g pistachio paste

15 chocolate paste

Instructions:

1. Split vanilla bean and remove the seeds from the bean.
2. Add the milk in a sauce pan and bring milk to a slow boil. 
3. Add the whipping cream to the sauce pan.
4. Heat on medium gently. 
5. Put the yolks into a bowl and add sugar.  Whisk and blend right away to prevent curdling.
6. Take the milk off of the oven.
7. Add the milk mixture to the egg mixture and whisk.  Divide into three parts for flavoring.
8. Add pistachio flavor to ⅓ of the mixture.
9. Add coffee flavoring to ⅓ of the mixture.
10. Take the vanilla pod and dry it in the oven to grind into a powder for later use.  Never waste any ingredients - especially expensive ones such  as vanilla!  (We can thank Coca Cola for that one.)
11. Divide the mixtures equally into 12 containers. 
12. Put into the oven at 100 degrees C for 60 minutes.
13. Remove and cool to room temperature before serving.