Fishmonger by day, Wine Connoisseur by night

Apparently, the universe thinks I'm a fishmonger. In addition to all the fish related activities of yesterday, I took on the task this morning of hacking apart the fish bones so that everyone could make stock. When the sous chef asked for someone to cut up the fish bones, I thought, "Just the bones? Sure! I can do that easily." Well, dear readers, fish bones aren't exactly just bones - they are fish that have been filleted down to the bones with heads and tails attached, internal organs still clinging to the underbelly. It's no surprise that all of this at 7:45 am will jolt you awake considering that as soon as you unwrap the fish "bones" the entire room (including you) immediately stinks of, well, dead fish. Your perfectly pressed white apron and jacket also take on that creepy look you see at the butcher or in a horror movie where there is just blood and guts all down your chest and belly. Classic.

With all of that taken care of, we started a busy day, which is why I don't have many photos - too much going on to stop and snap a play by play today. We finished our Soupe de Poisson from yesterday, which entailed blending the soup with the whole fish and crabs in it. This sounds a bit like a jackhammer in concrete and considering we were using that huge immersion blender shown in a previous post, it looks and feels like that as well. Chef said my soup was a good consistency and had good flavor. Sigh of relief and on to the next thing.

We did two different fish stocks today in order to see the difference between the two. Chef actually stole one of mine accidentally, thinking it was his, so I don't have much to comment on for the fish stocks, other than I have learned to label my pots. :)

Then we did marinated mussels in white wine and shallots. Yum!

Next came a cream of mushroom soup (my favorite!) into which we threw the mussels and some baby shrimp. It actually tasted pretty good to my mushroom indifferent palate. Then again, what doesn't taste good with cream?

So, all of that made for a good, busy morning and no pictures. However, I came through in the afternoon because, hey, who doesn't want to take photos during wine tasting class? We tasted two white wines this afternoon, a Sancerre from the Loire Valley (Sauvignon) and a Rully from Burgundy (Chardonnay). I know what you're thinking: She sounds like one of those wine snobs. Well, don't hate me because I spent the afternoon drinking wine and eating cheese from Normandy (Camembert and Livarot) with freshly baked bread made this morning by the Patisserie students.

Yum!

Rully on the left, Sancerre on the right. I cannot believe you can't tell the difference! :)

You know you are in France when you walk into a classroom and this is on the table.