fandomhigh | Beginning Gourmet Cooking Techniques

Hannibal had the students beginning gathered around the stove at the front of the class this week.

"Last week we attempted the mother sauces; unfortunately, it seems I may have overestimated the simplicity of the task. So, further into the basics first. In order to make the béchamel sauce, we must first make a roux. In order to make the roux, we start with clarified butter. So."

He pulled out a square block of butter and heated the pan. "Butter contains butterfat, milk solids, and water. Clarifying butter removes the water and milk solids. This means it can get much hotter without burning, so it's very good for frying." He demonstrated how to skim the butter as it cooked, leaving only the part they wanted. He hoped they could follow along; it seemed absurdly simple, but he was learning things he thought were, not everybody else did.

"Once we have that, the roux. A good roux is essential to many sauces. It helps to thicken them and adds some flavor. It's important not to burn it, and to make sure that the fat and the flour mix evenly." He showed them the rest until he had a nice, pale roux.

"Once you have the roux, the next challenge is avoiding lumps." Or so he gathered from watching last week's class; he hadn't had such a problem in decades. "You must add the milk slowly, and it helps if it is cold. If you add it too quickly, or too much at once, you will have a disaster on your hands."

After he'd demonstrated the proper technique, he nodded to them all. "There, you see? Now, only one sauce for today, but you'll be clarifying your own butter and making the roux. Please let me know if you have any questions." Self-sufficiency was admirable, but some of these children raised it past an art form and to extremes.

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Still saucy this week!

Because you know he always uses a fat as innocuous as butter.

Clarified butter, roux, béchamel. Easy peasy, right?

He's made something out of his béchamel sauce this week - baked rigatoni with prosciutto (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/baked-rigatoni-with-bechamel-sauce-recipe2/index.html).

Once they ping in.

Couldn't resist the recipe when I went looking for one - it's the producer's (step)granddaughter!

Emma Swan

Isabelle Lightwood

Flick

Okay, Flick could do this. He was going to do it slowly so he avoided lumpy sauce but he could do it. It was a lot easier to do when he had the use of both arms again and wasn't preoccupied with other things.

Sparkle

Sparkle was here, of course, and was very intently working. He was super intently working. He was going to work like he'd never worked before. He was going to--

He was going to kind of get lost in the butter-clarifying step, and sort of zone out on it as he mechanically skimmed away the milk solids. Yeah, butterfat was super fascinating. Wasn't it?

He was going to have a pretty decent roux when he was done, considering how intensely he was paying attention to it.

Billy Kaplan

So that was the thing people on the Food Network were always talking about. Now roux-started recipes made a lot more sense... and were also making Billy hungry.

Billy had managed to get his roux going, and was now adding milk veeery slowly. But hey, he was lump-free so far, so that was good, right?

Minako Aino

Minako had never been good at doing things 'slowly,' not even pouring milk. But she was concentrating VERY VERY HARD to try and do it right, and avoid any disasters or explosions.

Anna Korlov

Anna had never clarified butter before, but she'd made loads of sauces. It was just a matter of getting past that step and she thought she'd be okay.

Rilla Blythe

Rilla was much more herself this week, which meant that nothing was being scorched or forgotten about.

Hannibal watched him for a moment and nodded. "Good. I take it you're healing nicely?"

Okay, so sue him; he could tell that just by watching him, but he was curious by nature.

Actually, don't sue him. He had a very good lawyer.

Attention was good. Obsessing on food to avoid thinking of other things? Well, Hannibal could only approve. He squeezed Sparkle's shoulder as he passed by.

"Very good," Hannibal remarked as he watched. "It can take some patience, but it's worth it."

"Relax, Minako," Hannibal said, chuckling. "You will do fine."

Hannibal watched for a moment, then nodded. Anna's sauces last week hadn't been a problem, so he was confident she'd manage. "There are of course sauces that use non-clarified fats," he noted, "but this is a good skill to have."

"Hello, Miss Rilla," Hannibal said with a smile. He eyed her butter. "That seems to be coming along nicely."

"Yeah, I'm good," Flick said, nodding. "Pretty much back to normal. Just took time, I guess. No more one handed cooking demonstrations."

Minako had the grace to look a bit sheepish. "Gomen. I'm not very good at being patient..."

"No need to apologize." Hannibal nodded to her. "Just take your time; you can't rush good food."

Alana

Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar

(Zhari)

Zhari had never worked with clarified butter before. In fact, she'd never even heard of such a thing.

She was dorkily excited how much an affect it had on her roux!

"Thank you," Rilla said with a tiny smile, stirring carefully.

Beginning Gourmet Cooking Techniques | Tuesday, 1st Period

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