On our second workshop day (You can read about the first day here), we were able to arrive on time! Haha! Very excited for what was to come. Read on for the last recipe of the Ducasse workshop! :D
The recipe for the day was Marjoram Rockfish Meuniere but before starting on anything, Chef Joma discussed how he prepared the potatoes we were going to use to make gnocchi (a type of pasta). Basically, you score the potato then bake on a bed of sea salt for an hour and a half.
While the potatoes were baking, Chef showed us how to properly clean a fish! From descaling to cleaning out the internal organs to...
Filleting! This was honestly a difficult lesson to learn, but I think Chef Joma did a good job explaining it as a noob like me was able to do it too. Haha!
The process of filleting is honestly too tricky to type out. I guess this is truly something you have to enroll in Enderun to learn for yourself! Haha!
There's quite a few steps involved that it took us all about an hour to finish filleting 4 fishes.
Now it was our turn!
Cut off the head and cleaned out the organs.
Cutting out the fish spine.
Removed all the remaining bones and there you go!
Next, Chef took out the baked potatoes, peeled them and started mashing them in the sifter.
Next, he combined the mashed potatoes with flour and nutmeg to create the dough for the gnocchi! Gnocchi is a type of pasta, that's kind of like a mix between macaroni and ravioli. It has the chewiness of ravioli but doesn't have filling inside. Instead, it catches the sauce in its orifice like macaroni.
Chef then added 1 egg yolk and proceeded to form the dough.
Afterwards, he rolled the dough into a thin log and cut them into 4 even pieces, and cut those subparts into 3 even pieces.
Next, he balled up the 12 pieces of dough and started making the gnocchi shapes. You simply press in the center of the dough ball to create a well. Then you roll one end on a fork to kind of create a cylindrical shape but you don't seal the gnocchi. There should still be a small slit for the sauce to enter. The purpose of the fork is to create marks on the dough. You'll see more later!
Now it was our turn!
So it goes from pillow-shaped dough to balls then gnocchi!
Chef then explained how to make Olive Tapenade. Tapenade is kind of like a spread or a pate and it was to be used on the fish we filleted for flavor.
While preparing the tapenade, Chef proceeded to boil water to cook the gnocchi as well toast pine nuts to garnish the dish.
He combined canned olives, anchovies, garlic, marjoram, sage, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a processor and blended away.
And voila! Olive Tapenade! Salty and tarte, very very suitable for seafood, or even just spread on a cracker?
Next, Chef brought out the zucchini, zucchini blossoms, sage, and butter. I didn't know Zucchini had such beautiful flowers!
He peeled the zucchini and proceeded to cut them into quarters. The core was sliced off then the remaining meat was cut into slivers. The ribboned peels were saved for garnish.
For the blooms, we were asked to pick out the two freshest ones, and finely minced the remaining blooms.
The zucchini slivers were cooked in a pan with butter and chicken stock. The goal here is to soften the zucchini so it can be easily pulsed into a chunky salsa.
Chef also started cooking the Gnocchi. An important tip when cooking pasta: the water you're boiling should taste like the ocean so put a lot of salt in your pasta water! This adds flavor to your pasta.
The zucchini was carefully pulsed into a chunky paste.
It's then put on a pan and reheated along with the minced Zucchini blooms. The ribboned zucchini skin is also boiled before being used as a garnish.
Next, Chef put out a shallow pan and put milk in it.
On one pan, we have butter and chicken stock and milk on the other. They both have to reduced into thicker consistencies.
While they're reducing, take your fillets out of the fridge, season with salt and pepper, and put some tapenade in the middle!
When the milk is reduced, carefully place the fillets into the hot milk and let cook for 10 seconds on each side. Afterwards, put it in the oven for 5 minutes to fully cook. The fish will absorb the creaminess of the milk!
On the reduced butter and stock pan, put in the gnocchi and reheat! Add some thinly sliced sage as well!
With everything ready, Chef began plating!
So pretty and sophisticated right?!
Now it was our turn. Chef had done so much before it was our turn to work that we were almost scared to follow up. Haha!
Still not over the pretty zucchini blooms!
Our cooked fish after the oven!
I can proudly say, my sister and I were able to follow up quite decently haha!
And here is our finished work! Haha!
So tiring but so rewarding. Not only were the dishes we made delicious, but the techniques we picked up along the way were honestly the real treasures of the workshop. Highly recommend trying Enderun's short courses if you're looking to try some cooking classes! Be it with friends, family, or a special someone! It's bound to be a lot of fun :)
For more info on Enderun's Extension courses you can check out the first leg of the Cooking with Ducasse series on the blog!
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