"To make a long short..."

Andy, Andrea and I discussed it all morning. Our comrade monopolizes the Chef's time, same as she has in every cooking class, and she's so slow. We joke about the five-day brioche from European Cuisine, and yesterday's dessert turned into a two day project that was barely in time for today's meal. Silvia said, "She's going to have a restaurant and call it the Three Day Café, because that's how long it will take to get your meal." Andrea said, "I know he just lets us do our own thing because he trusts us," but it's easy to feel ignored in the midst of such an obvious grab for attention. We'd pretty much decided to stay after class and talk with the Chef, when she announced, during lunch, that she's moving to the mid-day class rotation when this course is over. With an end in sight, we can move on. While we walked to the parking garage, Andrea asked, jokingly, "Now who will be the object of my scorn?"

Mexico! Mexico! It was a great day, food-wise, though Silvia was in need of some hot sauce. (Apparently we'll have no shortage of it tomorrow: Chef Patricio started a mole using 3 pounds of habaneros and 5 pounds of yellow onions.) Andrea and I made carnitas, and it was awesome. We cut up a pork shoulder, seasoned the cubed meat with salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin, and "sautéed the hell out of it" in a large pan. We took out the meat, drained off the oil, and deglazed the pan with beer (3 Budweisers). Then we added a quart of orange juice, dried oregano, cumin, and julienned jalapenos, put the meat back in the pan, and simmered it for about 90 minutes. In "real life," we would have let it go much longer, until the meat was falling apart. Then we took the meat out of the pan, reserved the juices and reduced them to make a sauce, and melted about 3 cups of lard in the pan. (Lovely lard, in a box, from Farmer John.) Then we fried the pork chunks until they were crispy. Silvia said that she realized yesterday that carnitas is really a lot like confit, and it's true that there's nothing new under the sun.

Chef made rice and beans. We had snapper a la Veracruz (in a piquant sauce made from onions, mild and hot peppers, capers, and green olives) and chile rellenos. The batter was oily so I knew that the frying oil was not hot enough. I am learning something. I really am.