Trout test
After yesterday’s timing troubles, today’s possible exam dish needed to run like clockwork. The goal? Serve up on time, come hell or high water. To give myself a chance I tried out a new time plan format that helps me visualise multitasking across 15-minutes segments.
Quietly, I was really hoping the lesson would go well.
The possible exam dish is Filet de Truite à l’Etuvée, Laitue Braisée et Sauce Hollandaise. That is a fillet of trout with braised lettuce and hollandaise.
The good news is I served up on time. Yay! But I lost points on preparation and presentation. Boo.
It was a ham-fisted filleting operation. Not good on a fish with such delicate flesh. First time though, I guess. Note to future self—angle the knife. I’m buggered if I could feel the pin bones though. Prodding and poking around trying to find them really didn’t help the flesh.
I stupidly served up on a starter plate. Wrong!
My fish was a little overcooked. Chef did say it was perfectly seasoned though.
My lettuce was undercooked. I knew this but went with it anyway to hit the serving time. I forgot to remove part of the root and it could’ve done with one final glaze before plating. For some reason there wasn’t much stock left around the lettuce when it came out of the oven. I’m putting it down to a cartouche fail.
I made this sublime sabayon then hollandaise, airy and light, then wrecked it with too much lemon juice. Chef literally grimaced. I couldn’t help laughing. Kicking myself now though.
Success was limited to my paysanne vegetables. Do I hear a woot? Nope.
In summary? The dish went up on time. I’m annoyed that I made silly mistakes but better to make them now than in the actual exam.
Chef’s trout fillet
My trout after tasting