Knees are Knockin'

My practical exam in Food Tech is this week and I'm nervous. I spent most of the day studying and creating a work plan.

Here's my mission:

Beef Consomme with Brunoise Vegetables and Fine Noodles
Pan Seared Scallops with Saffron Tomato Infused Beurre Blanc
Fresh Snow Peas
Tourneed Parsley Boiled Potatoes

Tuesday's class will be entirely prep (mise en place) for cooking on Wednesday.

The trickiest part of the menu is the fact that the potatoes are tourneed, which is a knife cut that shapes the potato into an oblong, sort of a football shape with blunt ends. Ugh. Other than that, the fine noodles are homemade which causes me stress. The day that we made pasta in class was not extremely successful.

Other than those possible pitfalls, the menu is pretty simple. All I have to do on Wednesday is make the consomme (throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot and let it simmer), sear some scallops (which I can do in my sleep, and sometimes do), and boil some veg. Yes, I've not addressed the beurre blanc, but it's a sauce. I should be able to handle sauces. Besides, I'll practice that in my own kitchen a few times before Wednesday.

This is sort of an Iron Chef America on training wheels.