A profiterole (pronounced pruh-FIHT-uh-rohl, but I like to say "olé" at the end for flair) has its own fairly strict definition that's not to be confused with cream puffs. You must scoop vanilla ice cream (not whipped or pastry cream) inside a delicate puff of choux pastry (pâte à choux to be French about it) and drizzle the concoction with chocolate sauce (not sprinkle it with icing sugar as I did because it looks so pretty!). And don't try to call a savory choux pastry a profiterole!

Profiteroles are quite simple to make, if you know how to make choux pastry! Getting the consistency of the choux pastry just right is tricky.

Choux be do be do
Choux pastry is cooked twice, once on the stove and once in the oven. First, you cook the water, butter, sugar and salt on the stove until it comes to a boil. Then, add the flour all at once and cook over low heat until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the pan. This is the tricky part. How long do you cook this mixture? How "dry" do you let the dough get?

Then, if you've figured that out, you whisk in the eggs off the heat, one at a time, until the mixture is light and airy, not runny, and the dough is "just right"! Here is where practice, practice, practice comes in. The size of your eggs, the type of flour used and how dry the dough is make a difference. Too many eggs, and your puffs will be flat. Not enough eggs, and your puffs will be tough. The dough should be glossy and stiff enough to pipe. Got that?

Pipe the dough into rounds and brush with egg glaze before baking at 425°F for 15 minutes and then at 350°F until they're browned, about 10 minutes.

Once you've mastered choux pastry, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce are easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Recipe: Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

This pork tenderloin with beer dish is a crowd-pleaser. But not for the cook since it involved turning the potatoes! Now if I weren't going through this Le Cordon Bleu curriculum, I wouldn't bother turning the potatoes into the perfectly seven-sided cylindrical shapes that they're supposed to be. In fact, even when I try, they don't look turned. The potatoes are boiled in salted water until tender.

After browning the meat on all sides, it's roasted in the oven for about 15 minutes. While it's roasting, I made the sauce. Sugar and vinegar are melted and caramelized (without burning as I did the first time!), and then the beer is added carefully since it sputters. This is reduced by two-thirds before stirring in the liquid gold of veal stock, which is further reduced by half.

When all the vegetables are julienned, they're sautéed in butter. Season everything and let it all mellow together in the pan before serving.

Recipe: Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

Tasting Notes
The sauce had a hint of sweetness from the sugar and sour from the vinegar that paired well with the pork. My favorite part of the dish was the vegetables. They were crisp, tender and buttery. But the best part of this meal was how easy it was to prepare…in one hour I had a gourmet dinner on the table.

Next Class (I'm on vacation next week.)
• Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce) pages 304-305

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Running total: $1,453.13 + $18.00 (pork) + $11.18 (other ingredients) = $1,482.31
($4.86 per serving)

Butter used so far: 12 pounds, 28.5 tablespoons

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This is an easy soup to make if you don't have to take your daughter to a birthday party, pick her up from the party, go shopping for a different birthday party, take another daughter to a sleepover, make meals in between, and watch Hoodwinked.

The soup is named after Contesse Dubarry, a favorite of Louix XV, and just so you know ... the cauliflower represents the powdered wigs of the time. Vinegar
First, soak the cauliflower in vinegar for 5 minutes (or all afternoon while you're shopping!). The vinegar helps retain the whiteness of the cauliflower.

Roux + Stock = Velouté
Next, cook the leeks and onions in some butter until translucent. By adding the rice flour (which absorbs more moisture than regular flour), you're making a light roux. The next step is to add white stock, such as chicken stock. Now, the mixture is called a velouté. Stir in all but 1 cup of the cauliflower florets and cook for about half an hour.

Here's a video showing how to make a velouté sauce.

After puréeing the soup, strain it through a fine-meshed strainer so that you get a velvety, smooth soup. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer for a bit on low.

Liaison
The last step is to make the liaison, which is a mixture of cream and egg yolks that thickens the soup and adds a richness of flavor. This is the trickiest part of the recipe since the eggs can curdle. Slowly whisking some hot stock into the cream and egg mixture is key. After "tempering" the cream and egg mixture by bringing it up to a similar temperature as the stock, combine the rest of the stock and liaison in the pot. Then, stir and watch it carefully on the heat so that it thickens a bit more without letting it boil.

Garnish
Cook the remaining cauliflower florets by boiling in salted water or steaming in the microwave. These will be part of the garnish, along with some toasted, homemade croutons.

Recipe: Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup)

Serves: 6