Veal Stock

Oh Yeah! After and hour or so of chopping the usual herbs, I was given the assignment of making (or at least set up for day 1) the veal stock. 100 Lbs of bones and knuckles, 15 onions, 25 carrots, 2 bunches of celery, 4 large cans of tomato paste, spices, etc...I first soaked the bones in cold water (degorger) to rid of impurities, then browned them in the oven to get some color and flavor, then I filled up 2 huge stock pots with all the ingredients and topped off with water, and placed on heat. Skim, skim, skim, and more skim. Tomorrow, the stock will be drained, strained, and the juice will be reduced. The bones and mirepoix refilled with water for a second batch. That will also be drained and strained. The 2 liquids will be combined and reduced some more for the eventual veal stock. the restaurant does this every Monday and Tuesday.

It was a slow night, so I received lots of instructional tidbits

from everyone as there was slack time on the line. I have never had pork cheek before. Upon hearing this, the sous had one fired for me to try. I was expecting just a piece of meat as a sample, but the hot app guy prepared me the entire dish and served me the same plate presentation used for service. It was awesome. The cheeks had been browned in a pan, then braised for 2 hours and then sauteed in a pan upon being fired, served on a bed of polenta and Swiss chard, with a veal sauce reduction. NICE!

After that, it was 20 minutes of organization in the walk-in fridge, a little cleanup and the night was over.

The night ended on a high note as the sommelier gave all the cooks a blind taste of a wine to see if anyone of us could guess what it was. No one got it right. I had never even heard of the varietal before. The name was too long to remember but it began with "Franken--------------". It was a sweet desert wine from Austria with flavors of peach and pineapple.