Lesson 17: More Sauces!!

Today was definitely not an easy commute!  I didn't think I was going to even make it to class!  First, I was waiting for the 10:23 train from Matawan and they announced that the train was cancelled because of mechanical difficulties.  The next train wasn't going to come until 11:23, which would get me at Penn Station a little after 12:30.  I was bummed because I knew I would be a little late for class and had to wait around for the train to come.  I decided to drive to Starbucks around the corner and reviewed some of  the recipes we were going to be making that day.  I had to pay for parking again and finally got on the train.  

THEN to make matters worse, there was an announcement on the train that the bridge was stuck open and they couldn't get into NYC.  They got us to Newark Penn Station and told us we could take the path train to 33rd street.  I had no idea how to take the path train, so I figured I'd go on an adventure and just follow everyone else ;)   .. I had to switch trains at Journal Square and miraculously ended up at 23rd street right by my school!  I ended up being only 30 minutes late, so it wasn't a big deal.

We spent the entire day making different sauces from the "mother sauces" that we prepared yesterday.  The homemade tomato sauce was DELICIOUS... so rich and thick.  I also loved the sauces we made from the bechamel, like the mornay (which is just the addition of cheeses to the bechamel + we added some green wind for color--very finely chopped parsley) and suboise (the addition of a lot of cooked, chopped onions pureed into the sauce and some reduced tomato puree).  I made the Allemande sauce in my group (with help on the prep).. I sweated onions and mushroooms and added some veloute sauce (from yesterday--thickened chicken stock with a blonde roux).  After straining the sauce, I tempered in egg yolks and cream for richness.

The last sauce we made was the creole sauce (because it included some of homemade tomato sauce that had to simmer for 1 1/2 hours).  I made a bitty mistake when I was adding the ingredients to the sauce :/.  All of the ingredients for the sauce were next to the stove and I was basically just adding them into the pot.  The very last ingredient I added was the cayenne.  I should have checked the recipe, but figured the cayenne was already measured out like the rest of the ingredients, so I just poured it all in (while thinking "wow that sure is gonna be spicy").  I tasted the sauce, and it tasted great at first..until the spice hit me at the back of my throat.  I made the rest of my group members try it and they all reacted the same way, turning red in the face and agreeing that it was verry spicy.  Finally, Matt asked me just how much cayenne I put in.  I told him, "well the amount you measured out, duh!"  He then informed me that the recipe calls for cayenne "to taste" and he just put some in a cup for me to put SOME in...definitely not all of it!!!  WOOPS!  I still thought it tasted good and brought a little home.  I even put some on my spinach omelet for lunch and it was delicious!!  Granted my nose was running and my heart was racing while I ate it, but it was definitely tasty!

We finished our Friday afternoon class with....... ya guessed it, more mac & cheese!  This time it was made with a mixture of the suboise sauce and the mornay to form 2 layers of macaroni cheesiness.  A few of us headed across the street to Limerick's for a cocktail to celebrate the end of the week and then headed on our different commutes home.  Luckily, the bridge was fixed and I didn't have to go on another journey to get back to Matawan!