Whew! And this is only lesson 2? (from Baby)

I was expecting this to be an easy dinner -- after all, a simple soup and custard, which I've made in some form dozens of times before, and then sauted meat, which I've done often enough. But the details, the methods of cooking, threw me off. We sat down to eat about 1-1/2 hours later than planned (with hunger-crazed kids). Now I'm concerned about the difficulty of lessons 10-15, not to mention 60-90.

The caramel was the main thing that threw us off. I let my sous-chef take that over (the Texan), and we both forgot to read ahead in the recipe. For us, the worry was about burning the caramel...so after rescuing it at a perfect light amber, while we casually looked up what to do next, the caramel hardened half in the heating pan and half in the custard pan. That alone set us back 45 minutes, because everything had to be cleaned, and it took forever for the caramel to come to a boil. Also, distracted by these problems, I allowed the simultaneously sauteing cabbage to be "colored" (aka, a little burned). But I was able to rescue the majority of it for the soup.

However there were no other disasters, and the soup and mushroom sauce were delicious, as was the final caramel custard. The veal was tasty but tough -- in queasiness about the whole use of the meat, I had purchased scallops that were on sale, and then froze them. I've decided that next time I'll try turkey cutlets (unless beef is recommended?).

Fatty, fatty two by four
I halved the butter and creme fraiche in all cases. The sauce was on the chunky side, more a tasty glop than a sauce, but everything tasted fine. I'm definitely going with less fat in future.

Weird cooking practices
So, is Savoy Cabbage tougher than ordinary green cabbage? We blanched it, then sautéed it, then simmered it for 45 minutes in stock. (One would think the cabbage was an inmate at Gitmo.) Amazingly, it was still the perfect texture in the end, a little crunch still left. I would guess the blanching preserves the color and texture of the cabbage through the sauteing (and removes some bitterness), but it seems like a lot of steps when in the past I've just thrown the greens into the stock. On the other hand, it tasted great, perhaps my favorite part of the meal.

Three oenophiles only, we drank less than one bottle of a Pacific Coast Viognier. Nice wine but a little pungent with this meal. Brother BeerDrinker drank two microbrews.