At the Culinary School: Garde Manger week two

One of our plates from Friday

Salt perception on the same product when it cold or hot...

The second week of Garde Manger was even more intense, but interesting. We made a lot of forcemeat (galantines, terrines, pates) and we made very interesting flavours.

Monday was the sausage day. All class was busy making sausages. I made sweet Italian sausages. Before I mixed seasoning I asked the chef if the recipe is accurate in terms of salt. I remember making similar sausages in meat fabrication class and the recipe was really off for the amount of salt. The chef said the recipe isfine. So I made sausages as per recipe and it was over seasoned. Later I realized why did this happen. I was making half a recipe and used full amount of spices and salt. I poached them first and then grilled. The poaching
helped to bring saltiness down, may not completely, but much better than it happened originally. As an accompaniment I made an apricot relish and swedish mustard sauce. The sauce was on a sweet side so it also helped to balance the taste of sausages.

Tuesday

Sausage plate

First thing was to remove bresaola from marinade to dry, it was marinating for about nine days. It was time to dry it, wrap in cheesecloth and place into a refrigerator for dry cure. It was only me out of four people in class bagging the chef for the key to the refrigerator. He gave it to me. The other three persons realized that they a job to do after dinner.
That day I served sausage leftovers. For these sausages made another condiment - pickled onion and poblano.
Also cooked a galantine of chicken, as everybody in the class. Galantine is made from poultry. You should take skin off the whole bird, taking care not to tear the skin. Then you debone the bird, the breast are used whole, the rest of the meat used to make mousselline (pureed with cream and spices). Then breast and mousselline are rolled into the skin, wrapped in plastic and foil and gently poached. As soon as they are done, they are chilled and could be served. A galantine is usually served cold.
The interesting point is how different taste in the same product when it hot or cold. For my galantine I made a taster to check seasoning and I thought the salt was too high. When I tried it cold the salt was just right.

Wednesday
I made my first terrine. The protein was rabbit, for garnish I used almond and cranberries. Rabbit meat was split in two parts. One part was ground with some pork fat and pork meat. The other part was cut in small cubes and seared. A terrine mold was lined with plastic and then thinly sliced black forest ham, then filling was piped inside and covered with ham. The terrine was cooked in the oven and then cooled (it also suppose to be served cold). My concern was about almonds, I thought that probably it was not the best choice and they are going to be tough. They were fine, I was able to slice through with no difficulties.

Thursday

Galantine, crostini, and pickles

Was a busy day. We did our preparation for the Friday's grand buffet. We made sauces and condiments. I made two sauces and relish. I was going to make one sauce, but mixed up my recipes and made another one - dill and mustard. As I wanted to make garlic and walnut sauce I made it in addition to the first one:-) Relish I made from mango and raisins, it was good.
Also that day I made cheddar cheese and walnut crackers. The recipe was not clear - it said bake until crisp, but the chef said I should have remove them from the oven when they were slightly golden and they would have crisped when cool down. The last project for the day was to prepare profiteroles and freeze them (to save time on Friday).
We decided to serve some sausages and galantine filling cooked without skin (there was excess filling and only one skin). Somehow we were the only team served food that day.

Friday - Grand buffet.

Mortadela and profiteroles

Our team was in a great shape, we had all our sauces and condiments prepared. I baled profiteroles. We had to prepare a couple salads. After that we spent a good two and a half hours plating our food and watching other teams finishing their cooking.
We had so much food - three chicken galantines and one turkey (from week one), one pate, one terrine, two types of sausages, mortadella, profiteroles with mortadella mousse, smoked chicken, pate en croute... Everything was served with a sauces, pickles or relish, salad.