We’re going out to eat now, not because I have the energy for it but because I don’t have the energy to cook something here.
Up at 5 am this morning to leave at 6 for a 0645 exam start – which didn’t get underway until 0830 because they were waiting for one of the examiners and two of the students. Same story on Monday for our English exam, people turning up late and being let in and in front of me to do their stuff. I think I’ve eaten too much Swiss cheese because frankly, you ain’t there on time for your exam? Then 0/20 and tough shit, organise yourself idiot. It’s a big part of cooking, you know, organisation. If you can’t organise yourself out of bed I don’t want to have you mucking about with my millefeuille d’asperge, thankyouveryybutch.
So today we did fricassée d’agneau hongroise (i.e. with paprika in it) with riz créole and choux chantilly.
I had a really panicky moment at the start when I thought I wasn’t going to have enough time. I tore, almost literaly, through my lamb shoulder (thankyou, Chef, for making me practise on so many at work), turned all my veg for the stock and the service, got it all squared away and the stock on the boil and then turned around to see the other 4 in my workshop deboning their lamb shoulders. Eh? I thought, what have I forgotten to do first, how come they’re only doing their lamb shoulders now when I finished mine half an hour ago? What should I have done first that they’ve all done instead?
Turns out they were taking 30-45 minutes each to debone a single shoulder, and hadn’t even thought about veg. Which was a relief.
I had also thought to check my ingredients – we get given a box of what we need at the start, I was missing an onion and the paprika so called for them, then asked for a couple of rondeaux (large, shallow saucepans with lids) for my fricassée and rice. Two hours later some Nana comes along and tries to snaffle one, on the grounds that she needed it. Get yer own, I said, think ahead. She wasn’t happy, well tough shit.
In the end I had to send my stuff out first so I sent it all too quick, didn’t add salt to my rice and didn’t put enough sauce on the plate. And my choux buns weren’t dried enough so I should have cooked them longer. Huh.
Still. Eh?