Culinary School: Week 6 Recap

We just finished week 6 and it's getting more in depth with culinary principles. We covered so much that the nights in the kitchen just fly by. My cooking partner and I work really well together so it's been great tackling the recipes we're given. This week we learned more about braising, poaching and sautéing. Read on to see how we applied our learning from my culinary principles course...

Culinary Principles 1 - This week we had no lecture and focused on straight cooking techniques. Specifically, we made three different recipes applying the cooking techniques of braising, poaching and sautéing.

Chef S. started our kitchen lab by demonstrating how to cut up a chicken into 8 pieces. I've done this before so it was a good review. Essentially, to cut a chicken in 8 pieces, you start by cutting the chicken in half through the breast bone. Then the chicken is divided into quarters and then again into it's individual parts of 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 breasts, and 2 wings. Here's my chicken after cutting...

All trimmed and prepped for recipes...

To apply our learning of braising, we prepared Coq au Vin, which you can read about here and get the recipe.

To apply our learning of poaching, we prepared Poached Chicken with Tarragon Cream Sauce, which you can read about here and get the recipe.

To apply our learning of sautéing, we prepared Chicken Sauté with Onions, Garlic & Basil, which you can read about here and get the recipe.

At our next class, we'll be continuing our studies in 'Principles of Cooking,' which is much more in depth than the basics we've been covering the last few weeks. So that's it for this week's recap. Stay tuned for what I learned in the coming week with my week 7 recap. Until then, happy cooking and baking!