Tourner Up the Heat

Day 4

My brain is turning into a cocotte.

I was warned for good reason: Tournage is hard. The French technique is used for shaping vegetables by, well, turning them in seven fluid motions. For me, it's more like 70 awkward motions.

There are five main sizes of tournage cuts, and each has a separate name; the most common (in our school, at least) is a 5-centimeter cocotte. The idea is that similar shapes and sizes are easy on the eater's eyes. It also ensures the vegetables will cook consistently.

After making cocottes from several vegetables, we turned them into a garniture bouquetiere, complete with an artichoke bottom cooked un blanc (a lemon, flour and oil solution) and filled with peas; pommes rissolees (potatoes simmered, sauteed in oil, baked in the oven and then tossed in butter); haricots verts a l'anglaise; lightly caramelized pearl onions; and carrots and turnips prepared glacer a blanc (simmered in just enough water to create a glaze, but not browned).

It sounds like a lot of work, right? It is.

So, I said I'd let you know if I was correct about the herbs. I got one correct (lovage). One out of two ain't bad.

What's bad is that I have to practice tourner tonight. How I'm going to fit that into writing down recipes for my next class and enjoying my time out with former co-workers, I have no idea.

Time to tourner up a notch.