Day Twenty Nine

Two sauces ready to be strained

What is alternative to thicken sauce with flour?

Second day in the kitchen this week. It was GREAT! Finally we were able to keep schedule, to be on track for all tasks. The assignment for today was to prepare Hollandaise and make two sauces Espagnol and sauce with a fancy French name - Jus de veau lie.

Hollandaise came out very good, with slightly thicker consistency then required. That was easy to correct and confirm with the chef that that is perfect (this may not affect my grade for today, but I am know now what it should be and how to evaluate).

These two sauces were very similar The difference was in thickening agent. Sauce Espagnole was thickened with roux (flour cooked in butter) this time we used brown roux, since the sauce is brown. Jus de veau lie was thickened with arrowroot starch, which is an alternative to use flour.

Even though we can use starch instead  of flour, the end result will not be  exactly the same. The sauce will be similar in consistency, but slightly different in appearance (starch will not cloudy the sauce).

Today was the first day when I was satisfied with my grades for a knife cut tray. I've got 10 (!) for parsley and 9.5 for garlic. Other grades were aso not bad, please see picture. What was also good, that I finished these cuts approximately 8 minutes ahead of time. Good, I am happy about this. Still there is room for improvement.

I was working today after my classes. It was really long day for me. Work was also good. This is really a good place. Communication with peers is good. Also some chefs are really open for communication and when they see you in the kitchen it's easy to speak with them.

So yes, that was really good day, now is time for a rest.