Last night we learned how to quarter a chicken and a duck. I handled the chicken and my partner the duck. Thankfully, I had a much better time handling this than the lobster. It's crazy how sharp a poultry boning knife is - cut through the chicken like butter. And, when you slice your finger with it, you don't feel a thing.....trust me, I know.
It's funny how I cut myself last night not by quartering the chicken, but by cleaning my boning knife. It was about 30 minutes into class, and let me tell you, the blood was flowing. The wound itself is kind of deep - my chef came over and took a look at it and then asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital for stitches. I'm sorry but there was no freaking way I was going to leave class!!!! So, one of the assistants took me to the first aid station for band aids and a finger guard that covers the bandage and allows me to continue cooking. Unfortunately, within a minute the blood was oozing out of the bottom of the guard. So, I wrapped my finger in paper towel too to help stop the bleeding. The timing was good because Chef was about to demo the Duck L'Orange. This gave me time to try to get the finger to stop bleeding. However, 20 minutes later, it still had not stopped. Chef then had his other assistant take me back to first aid to get it properly bandaged. When we took off the old bandage, I got a look at how deep it was. Should I have gone to the hospital? Maybe, but I was going to gauge that by whether or not the bleeding stopped. Again, the chef asked me if I wanted to go get stitches and I just looked at him and said, "NO, I want to cook my duck!!!" So, they got out a spray that was a blood coagulant and antiseptic and it was like magic. The bleeding almost instantly stopped, I was bandaged up, new finger guard applied, and I was back on my way to helping my partner cook our duck! Woo hoo!!!
So, the night continued on. We made a Duck L'Orange and a Chicken Chasseur. Here are some pics (of dinner and my finger! None of the wound itself, though. I just bandaged it up about and hour ago with some surgical tape strips and forgot to take a picture. Not that you really care to see it either! But yeah, it is a lot bigger than I remember from last night! However, I think had I gone to the hospital, they would have done the same thing. Not sure it would have required a stitch).
Back in the game!
My chicken:
Duck legs and carcass simmering in aromatics which was later used as the basis for the sauce:
Duck breasts searing:
My final plated Duck L'Orange (which was also my dinner - yummy!)
Chicken breasts searing:
My final plated Chicken Chasseur:
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