Finishing Fish: Joy and Fear

Our foray into fish came to a close this week. As I fried my last fish, I was ecstatic that it was all finally over and I might soon smell like a semi-normal human being again (while in French culinary school, I am fairly certain you never smell normal).  However, shortly thereafter fear slowly crept into the edges of my psyche.   The reason for this fear is simple and yet frightening to me: as far as school learning goes, it's over for fish.  Chef formally taught me everything he could in the time given for fish.  Hmm.  That time isn't very long, especially when I envision myself in the final exam, staring at a lifeless, slimy, whole fish and thinking, "What am I supposed to do with that?"

Some may say that I should just buy some fish at one of the plentiful markets in Paris and practice at home.  To those people, I say that you must have missed the post about my kitchen.

Whether or not my fears come true, I must say that I am still ultra excited at the prospect of not sticking my hands into a fish belly at 8 am any time soon.  Woo hoo!

Sauce Americaine

Apparently, in France, they have an "American Sauce" which is basically a crab bisque without cream.  It's delicious, but quite frankly I find it more than odd that the French have named it Sauce Americaine.  However, if there is one thing I have learned at Ferrandi, it's not to question why the French do anything they do.  The answer usually given by Chef when asked something of this nature is, "Because.  Zis iz France.  Zis iz ze life." and the conversation ends there. :)

Again the crab and cleaver meet.  Again the cleaver reigns victorious.  Again it just doesn't seem fair.

Fileting this monster is like standing on a bed of broken glass.  Literally.  It's painful.

Saute the crabs and "ze veg."

Add some brandy and step back.

Add some liquid and let simmer.

When ready, crush the crabs even more to get all the yummy goodness out of them and then put the concotion through a strainer.  No one wants crab shell in their Sauce Americane, do they?

Season the fish with Piment d'Espelette which Chef loves just as much as people in Louisiana love Tony's.  He puts it on EVERYTHING!  Saute the fish and finish in the oven.

Finished product.

Fried Fish

On our last day of fish, we did the ultimate cooking method: frying.  Yep, we pan-fried and deep fried.  Take that arteries! Now, this is where I thought we might see something named after America (you know you love your fried fish.  Don't lie to yourself).  Instead, we made gougenettes, which are the French version of fish sticks.  Leave it to the French to come up with a fancy sounding name for fried fish sticks!  We also pan-fried an entire fish, which was pretty cool.  See below for details.

For the fried whole fish, we started to filet both sides of the fish, but stopped just short.

Leaving the spine exposed.

Then, cut out the spine.

The fish is ready to be breaded and fried.  Doesn't he just look so excited about that?

With the other Merlan, we made filets for the fish sticks which we then sliced on the bias so we could call them gougenettes instead.

We then had to make a tartar sauce, which is obligatory with fish sticks.  So, we made some mayonaise by hand.  (Side note: it is a fact that my brother just stopped reading this blog post because of the mayonaise).

The final tartar sauce was full of all kinds of things: pickles, onions, shallots, capers, egg.  The list goes on and on and while that might sound like a bit much, it was really good with the fish.  Or was I just hungry and in a state of glee that it was my second to last fish dish in school?

The gougenettes, very lightly breaded and ready to go.

Bring on the deep fryer.

Finished plate.  Even the parsley was fried!

The whole fish, lighlty breaded and ready to fry.

In this skillet of health.

Chef told us to do one "good coloration" on the fish.

And voila!  The end of fish went out with a bang.  Pan-fried and topped with an herb and garlic butter. Yum!

Too bad I had to stick around to clean these pans with coarse salt and some elbow grease.

Farewell Fish!

Amsterdam by Night

Amsterdam by night was even more fun than Amsterdam by day (albeit a little more dangerous when riding the bikes since many in Amsterdam had spent an entire day intoxicating themselves with various goods).  But the fresh, cool breeze was intoxicating in itself and was the perfect backdrop to see the nightlife in Amsterdam. 

FYI - I'm going to skip over the fact that B and I got totally and completely lost and frustrated at the end of the evening and spent an hour riding around cluelessly on our bikes looking for Liliana's house.  That picture just doesn't fit into the "fairytale" weekend I'm trying to paint for you here and neither does the fact that it took us 3 hours longer than we thought to get to Amsterdam on Friday night, during which time I had a mini-breakdown in the car because I was exhausted and we were hopelessly lost in Holland and all I could smell was the stench of fish emanating from my pores.  But just pretend that didn't happen, ok?

Me and one of the psychodelic elephants the Amsterdam government decided to randomly place on a street.  Not quite sure if that is the best choice of street art for people who partake in the legal goods offered in Amsterdam.  Or maybe it's the opposite and is exactly what should be displayed.  Either way, I liked Mr. Elephant.

Wow.  This is in the middle of the town's main square. Bikes everywhere!  Without a doubt, the main method of transporation in Amsterdam.

This street performer was awesome.  Fire, knives, unicycles.  What more could you ask for?  I hope to upload a video for your viewing pleasure soon.

B in the main square.

After finally finding our way to Lili's house, she and her husband Janne took us to a cool restaurant, Envy.  This is what you see when you walk in the door.

Open kitchen.

A high and long shared table is where we sat.

The produce was on display like artwork.

Me and Liliana.

Delicious oysters.

Even better homemade bread with a truffle sauce.

Foie Gras.

Avocado and Crab Salad.

Duck.  Yum!

And the "piece de resistance," chocolate heaven.

Many thanks to our hosts, Lili and Janne, for welcoming us into their home and their city!

Amsterdam by Day

Saturday morning, our host, Liliana, took us on a bike tour of the city and then to one of the most delicious and interesting lunches I have ever had.  So interesting, in fact, that it merits its own post.  Stay tuned.  After lunch, B and I rode our bikes all over Amsterdam, which is the best way to see the city.  Although, I must say that riding a bike in Amsterdam was a bit nerve racking at first since you have to make sure not to get run over by other bikers or drivers or any other errant ramblers who have been enjoying Amsterdam's lax drug laws.  Once you conquer that, though, it's smooth sailing from there.  Well, that is until you wake up the next day walking like John Wayne since you haven't ridden a bike since people were talking about who killed JR on Dallas.  However, before feeling sore in places I didn't know existed, I as able to see all the cool stuff below.  Check out Amsterdam by day...

Full of narrow streets like this, lined with bikes.

Another bike lined, narrow street.  The feeling in Amsterdam is definitely that of a small village.

Lili and me.

Church in the city center.

I couldn't help but stop by Amsterdam's only big department store where I found this piece of awesomeness.  Just let me know if you want this sweater for Christmas.  I can make arrangements to get it for you, but hurry while supplies last.

Canals run through the entire city.

A group taking in the scenic view.

My new favorite person on earth.  Why, you ask?  Well, besides the obvious fact that this guy is the coolest person to ever exist just because of his looks and his awesome boat, he also plays the trumpet while spinning the boat in circles and then yelling a bunch of cool sounding Dutch words.  To top it off, he doesn't ask for money.  He's just there to entertain the world for free.  You can thank me later for introducing you to him.

B and our rental bikes.

A picture of the ground.  I was trying to ride my bike and take a picture of B riding his at the same time.  Bad idea.  Not quite as coordinated as ol' Lance Armstrong on a bike.

One of the many "coffee shops" in Amsterdam where you can see...

people like this guy.

Another canal.

See the beautiful building in the back right of the photo?  That's the train station in Amsterdam.  This is why I love Europe, because let's face it, there aren't too many train stations that look like that in the States.

From the beautiful building above to two huge, plastic four-sided urinals.  These were all over Amsterdam.  I guess they have to give people somewhere to relieve themselves after too much Heineken.  However, they certainly don't give them much privacy, do they?

Our afternoon snack: apple strudel.  Yum!

And the winner is...

Kenny Powers!  What an honor it is to bestow the title of "Pink Slip Gourmet's Winner of the Day" to the incomparable Kenny Powers.  Kenny, I feel certain that you will print this blog post, sign it and then have Cassandra sell it for you on Ebay for $7.  That's my hope, at least.  A girl can dream, can't she?

Yes, Kenny was right.  Amsterdam was where B and I spent our weekend.  For those of you who thought it was a mountain destination, I have this to say to you:  Not a bad guess due to what the guy was wearing, but more attention needs to be paid to the"dazed" look in his eyes (a look that Kenny undoubtedly knows first hand).  Let's put it this way, that guy would have made Cheech and Chong proud.  Plus, I am not sure why he was wearing so many clothes.  It wasn't all that cold in Amsterdam.  However, maybe in his own hallucination of Amsterdam it was cold. 

Before posting some pics of Amsterdam, let's just enjoy an awesome pic of winner Kenny Powers...

Where Has the Pink Slip Gourmet Been?

Yes, I haven't posted since Thursday, and I know you are just dying to know why.  You don't have to act coy with me.  I know that you missed me. :)

No, I wasn't quarantined with H1N1; nor was I kidnapped by the French Legion.  Nope, neither one, although they are both possible. Ok. One is more possible than the other, but still anything can happen, right? 

So, where have I been?  I simply went on a weekend vacation.  The question, then, that remains is where.  Below is a photo of a person I saw while at this unknown location.  I would venture to say that this might be what a typical tourist looks like while enjoying this city.  So, go for it.  Take a guess, and if you are the first person to guess correctly, you'll be "Pink Slip Gourmet's winner of the day" and let's be honest, who doesn't want to be that?