Discomboobulated

Phase 3, Week 3, Day 12

Discomboobulated is what Chef Bruce calls discombobulated, or when things get all mixed up and you are disorientated. That's what today was all about. Although, I made the barded beef dish last night and I figured I could make Calves Liver Lyonaise with Haricot Verts, what is basically liver and onions with green beans, with out a problem, it was not a good day.

Right off the bat, the liver was looking good and with in the span of 10 seconds BAM! It burnt! Crap! I flipped it, carefully watching the cooking process and the pan grabbed a hold of the meat and wouldn't let go. Now some would say, that's ok, the Maillard Reaction is taking place, let the meat do it's thing. Well, I could tell the damn thing was burning, AGAIN. Crap! Now any chance of making a pan sauce from this disaster would taste like licking a charcoal briquette.

Remember, this is a test, but since I wasn't "in class" the day before Jeremy could help me out. During this process of an epic fail of a liver lyonaise, Jeremy is "helping me a long"and laughing. Thanks J.

I learn from Jeremy that yesterday Chef Bruce totally used a different recipe for his Souffle, so different that cooking time for the side dish went from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. A BIG difference, and of course, the procedure is completely different too. For the last straw, Chef's Sauce Maderia was constructed in a different manner as well. I found myself arguing with Jeremy about processes. ARGH! At this point, I was completely discomboobulated, I had to change game plans and my overall thought process. Not too sure if I can save this one at the rate the ship was sinking......

Filet seems to be going well. Good. Wrapping up veggies. They just need to be sauted  after they have been blanched and shocked. No biggie there, we do it all the time without issue. Wrong!  Both the green beans and artichokes carryover cooked in the pan too far. In fact, the chokes totally burned. As Chef Bruce would say, "Sabotugie!"

Result:
Beef Filet- Could use more color on the searing. Temperature was good.
Sauce- Nice sheen and flavor
Chokes- He didn't even try them. (ouch!) I should have taken a page from Jeremy's book. He burned his too. He just served one piece of choke on top of the filet.

Soufflet- Very good. Liked the garnish of a cheese wedge.

Liver- All was well, until, he checked the underneath side of the liver. Fail.
Sauce- Could have used more onion. Remember, I had to borrow what I had because mine was burnt.
Beans- Overdone.

Grade: 87.

Needless to say I was definitely down on myself after today. Am I really going to be able to do this?

   

Barded Beef Filet w/ Charcoal Chokes

Charred Liver Lyonaise and Limp Haricot Verts

Souflet no. 2