As I have mentioned before, Force Meat is not my favorite food.The texture, taste and appearance does not attract me, but we gotta learn how to make everything, since we don't cook only for ourselves.
With this in mind, I made the choice to have fun with what we produced today.
Since an attractive food plate is more fun to eat, we had decided to play around with our plating.
On our first plate, we put together two pieces of Duck Terrine with one Devil's Egg on top of a Chaud-Froid Aspic.
Obs: the Chauds-Froids are meat of fish Aspics that include cream. We used a Bechamel base in our jelly.
For those of you who are not to familiar with Aspic Jellies, here goes a brief explanation:
They are usually made like a Consomme, from a flavorful meat or fish sauce (sometimes cooked with a veal foot to provide extra gelatin, which in this case comes from the veal's collagen), clarified with egg whites and finally flavored at the end.
Aspics should be thick enough to cut through but tender enough to melt in the mouth. If it is made to be used in a Terrine, such as we did below, it should be slightly thicker so that it does not run off the food.
Extra information for curious cooks:
Sources tell us that most of the gelatin we produce in the USA and in Europe comes from pigskins. A second source of gelatin production is cattle skin and bones.
Here goes how we made our Duck Terrine: First we made our Duck Force Meat by marinating our duck legs, wings and liver in red wine and spices. Then we mixed it with some raw, crushed Pistachio nuts and folded half of it inside a ceramic bread pan that was already buttered.
Next we folded in one layer of Caul Fat and placed our (also) marinated Duck breasts (the 2 of them kind of overlapping each other) on the center of the bread pan on top of the Force Meat. Finally we pasted the rest of the Force Meat equally on top of the duck breasts and locked the top of the pan with the remaining Caul Fat that was hanging off the sides.
We were suppose to bake this dish over a hot water bath, but forgot to. I think my partner and I were a bit overtaken after working with the "interesting" Caul Fat.
Not using a Bain Marie to bake off our Terrine caused it to shrink a bit, but according to our chef instructor, it still tasted good, similar to what it's suppose to taste like.
Who knows!
Below we added a side of grilled and seasoned local vegetables, which were made simple, but with the Maillard Reaction, which is the browning effect from the grill, they ended up being very tasty.
We finished them with a touch of Garlic and flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Post Scriptum: Science has identified that smoke may contain anti human compounds that are harmful to our health, such as the PAH component. This chemical reactions is formed especially from the smoke that comes from hot burning wood ovens or grills. With this fact in mind, when grilling, try not to keep your food too close to the flames or smoke. This is also one other good reason to score it only to a mahogany color, not a black burnt color.
On the plate below we added cute Cucumber Cup filled with fresh Mint, Cherry Tomatoes (we still are lucky to be harvesting the Cherry Tomatoes that are as sweet as Strawberries), crushed raw Garlic and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
On the right again are the mahogany colored strips of our grilled and scored Squash. We tried getting the perfect 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock marks on these ones that were served open.
Our table Buffet: we served most of the food on platters. It looked kind of like a traditional European festive supper.
Above is the Chicken Galantine.
Here goes a reminder about Force Meat, which is the filling we used for our Chicken Galantine, Duck Terrine, Pate en Croute and Pork Sausages:
It is usually made with the darker pieces and pieces with more connective tissue of animals that are not as tender and aren't used for cooking on a high heat method. Glandular meat, such as liver is also a meat that is usually used in Force Meat.
These pieces are then ground in the chilled grinding meat machine, seasoned, (always keeping the meat chilled, so that the fat and the protein emulsify), tested for flavor, adjusted and then used for their final purpose.
Usually the Force Meat will also be mixed with some kind of dairy, such as whipped cream or heavy cream during the process of emulsification. This will give it a richer flavor.
Our Chicken Galantine Force Meat was finished with heavy cream. Finally we laid it spread on the chicken's breast, wrapped it around the skin, trussed it and roasted it.
Hint: you can test the flavor of a Force Meat by taking a small portion and cooking it on the sautee pan.
For the Pate en Croute, we made the Force Meat, mixed it with some dried cherries and placed it inside our Flaky Crust (Pate Brisee) that was wrapped it with the steel sieve pinched in the middle. Then we baked it off. Once it was done we poured a flavored Aspic Jelly we had made earlier inside it, and waited a few minutes before slicing it and serving it.
Here goes the Pate Brisee Recipe we used:
Flour, butter, lard, eggs, chilled water and salt.
Procedure: mix the flour and fats together, until no big lumps of fat remain. Now mix the liquids together and mix this mixture with the flour mixture gently until the dough looks uniform. Gather the dough into a ball, knead it a bit, cover it and chill it until you are ready to use it.
You can play around with your ratios of flour, fats and liquids. You can also use different kinds of flours and fats, such as whole grain flour and different kinds of hardened fats, according to your taste.
A Vegetable Platter.
Seasonal vegetables served on the side.
Here is the raw Pate En Croute as it was about to go in the hot oven.
Here we are making the Consumme that will be turned into clear Aspic Jelly.
We also had Pork Sausage Patties that were wrapped in Caul Fat before cooking.
After cooking them we left them on a rack for a few moments to drip off the excess fat.
This was my first day cooking, smelling and tasting Caul Fat. It has a very strong fatty glandular smell and taste.
Since we served the today food in a Buffet Style, I will briefly talk about a Buffet Set Up for a Double Sided Buffet:
1) Always double your food, one in each side. One side should look like a mirror reflection of the other.
2) Put your food in an appropriate order and place the most expensive food at the end of the buffet, this way people will fill up their plates with the cheaper food first.
3) Put your condiments at the end of the buffet so that people can dress their food appropriately.
4) Make your buffet look pretty, such as placing ice sculptures in the middle or small flour arrangements. If it's a holiday, decorate it accordingly.
5) Don't give away all your food at once. Serve little at a time, this way when people ask for more of something you will have it.
6) Use good quality, stainless steel pans for holding your food and flame devices. This will save you money. Also, make sure your staff takes good care of this equipment.
7) Make sure you learn who to manage and maintain each food that your are serving in your buffet. For example, if you are serving an Egg Frittata dish or even scrambled eggs, your egg batter should be made with a bit of acid, such as lemon juice so that your eggs would produce sulfur as they keep hot for to long. Follow your directions for how much acid you should use in your quantity of egg batter.
8) You should always have more food in a buffet than the number of people and always keep it looking full. That way when someone such as the bride's mother is finished talking to all the gets and is finally going to help herself to some nice food she will find a nice full and fresh buffet table waiting for her.
Protein:
9) Suggestion for amount that should be produced:
8 oz of protein per person if there is a single option of protein.
6 oz of protein per person if there is a double option of protein.
4 oz of protein per person if there is a triple option of protein.
Starches and Vegetables:
5 oz per person if there is a single option.
4 oz per person if there is a double option.
3 oz per person if there is a triple option.
Here is a further suggestion of how to place your food in a buffet:
Start by placing your plates, then your breads, your salads, vegetables, starches and finally proteins.
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