Using Brown Stock and Pastry Domes

Remember that brown stock we made? This stock is going to be strained, and reduced or used as is. Three things we would do with the stock are espagnole sauce, demi-glace, and using it as a base for a few soups.

The first step to straining the stock is to gather around the stove and watch someone else do it. (Kidding!) Chef was demonstrating the two steps for straining: first through a colander, to separate the large bones and pieces of vegetables, and then through a china cap (also called a chinois). If you want to really go into it, strain a third time through a fine chinois.

Here, we are removing the strained bones. It is at this step that nibbling happens in your own kitchen.

Classmate Yitzi

Bonnie getting ready to strain the ladies' pot of stock.

Below, espagnole sauce, made with a few quarts of the veal stock, tomato puree, carrotsonioncelery, and roux (flour+butter). This mixture is reduced by half and strained again to yield a rich, deeply flavored meat sauce.

You can do few other things with the strained veal stock:
Demi-glace: equal parts stock + espagnole sauce, reduced by half and strained
Glace du Viande (meat glaze): veal stock reduced by 80% for the thickest, richest sauce you've ever tasted (this one we didn't do)
Use the stock as a base for soups, rice, cocktails

Classmate Bracha slicing stew beef for the mushroom barley soup.

Another recipe the class was working on was French Onion Soup. In the kosher world, we cannot have gooey, melty cheese in our meat-base soups, we have to find alternate ways to serve this dish that are just as elegant as the non-kosher version: steaming hot bowl of soup with melted mozzarella cheese dripping off the edges of a crusty piece of bread floating on the surface of the soup.
So instead of that, chef showed us how to present soup with a pastry dome. The first step is to make the onion soup and keep it steaming hot. Cut a circle of pastry to fit the ramekin or oven-safe dish you are using (since you will be putting this in the oven for ~20 minutes). 

Next, we brush the top of the pastry circle with egg yolk and put a little around the edge of the ramekin.

With the leftover pastry dough, you can cut shapes with a cookie or fondant cutter, or a regular knife. This is chef's leaf design before oven:

...and after oven.

This is mine! I cut flower shapes out of pastry and to my surprise, they puffed up in the oven and they look like little cream puffs!

Some of the class' soup puffs.

Another view of mine:

We achieved this effect by using steaming hot soup and baking the dish in the oven. The steam from the soup puffs and cooks the pastry from below and the oven takes care of the top. It is imperative that the seal between the pastry dough and the ramekin have no holes and is even all the way around, so you don't get a deflated dome.

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French Onion Soup with a Pastry Dome

*it is recommended that you use real stock for this - though it could be beef, veal, or a combination of the two.*

 3 1/4 pounds of white onions

3 ounces of clarified margarine or olive oil

1 TB flour
 7 cups veal or beef stock

 3 cups hot water

1 sheet puff pastry, frozen

3 egg yolks

In a large, preheated saucepan, cook the onions in the margarine/oil until they are golden brown, about 30 minutes. 

Sprinkle the flour into the pan with the onions and cook for 3 minutes.

Next, add the hot water and stock and bring to a boil.

simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, covered.

Ladle the soup into oven-safe single-portion dishes.

Cut a round and additional shapes out of the frozen pastry and brush it and the rim of your dish with the egg yolks. Make sure it's sealed up tight.

Into your preheated oven (350), place your dishes in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the top of your dough turns golden brown.

Want to make this dairy? Substitute the following:

Butter for margarine

Mushroom or vegetable stock for veal stock

Enjoy!