D’Smith’s Gourmet Home Kitchen’s French Cuisine Challenge

I’m making a new series of videos taking on the challenges from broadcast cooking shows. In this video, I’m challenged to make my interpretation of classic French cuisine in 1 hour. So I make Coquille St. Jacques, or scallops in puff pastry, served with sauteed vegetables and a rich beurre blanc sauce. I also make a potato gallet and sauteed broccolini as side dishes. I completed the dish ahead of time, even despite a mess up on the initial batch of puff pastry (lost track of the timing). I even had tasters to provide their commentary on this dish. This was a fun challenge and I look forward to completing other cooking challenges.

Hi i’m daryl and this is the smith’s gourmet home kitchen cooking challenge in this video series i’m replicating some of the cooking challenges on broadcast tv and this challenge is for french cuisine in this challenge i will have one hour to make my interpretation of french cuisine using my pantry of ingredients

We have one hour for this competition and the time starts now for this challenge i decided to make the classic coquilles jacques or scallops in a puff pastry with sauteed vegetables and an orange bare blanc sauce i roll out some store-bought puff pastry and with a three to four inch ring

Cutter i cut out rounds and then with a smaller ring cutter i’ll make small indentions to create tops for my rounds then i place the rounds onto a parchment lined sheet tray then i make a quick egg wash and brush the pastries i place in a 400 degree oven

For 15 to 18 minutes my twist on this dish is to do a quick smoke of the scallops i make a stove top smoker with my wok and some water soaked hickory chips and allow that to come to heat then i make sure that my scallops are dry

And i season them with cajun spice i prep my vegetables for the saute using baby carrots and baby bella mushrooms for the baby carrots i slice off the tops and cut them into smaller bite-sized pieces on a bias and now that smoker’s up to temperature i’ll add some of the scallops and allow

To smoke for about 5 minutes as another side dish i’m going to make a potato gallet and i’m going to thin slice the potatoes on a japanese mandolin on the thinnest setting possible be sure to use the guard so that you don’t cut yourself on this very sharp instrument

Into a saute pan i add olive oil and a little bit of butter and then i start to layer in the potato slices into a circular pattern i season lightly with salt and cracked black pepper a little bit of olive oil and then i add another layer of potatoes

And another side dish will be sauteed broccolini i saute the carrots and mushrooms and olive oil over medium heat then i add in some shallots and season them all with salt and cracked black pepper and after five to six minutes of cooking you get a brown crust on the potatoes

Then i flip onto a plate and back into the saute pan to finish and i add a little white wine to the vegetable saute i must admit the time challenge got me and i burned my puff pastry so i’m having to redo it with the available

Dough that i had so i roll out the puff pastries cut the rings again egg wash them and get them back into the oven this time for 12 to 15 minutes i checked my vegetables for doneness and set them aside next i’m going to sear the smoked

Scallops using the same pan that i sauteed the vegetables in you want to get a nice crust on your scallops this will take about two to three minutes so i’m going to heat a pan to start sauteing my broccolini season them with salt pepper red pepper flake

And i like to add some minced shallots turn the scallops add a little cognac to the pan and simmer for a couple more minutes mount a little butter into the pan allow to melt and baste the scallops with the sauce set the scallops aside for plating

And finally i’m going to make an orange bear blanc sauce by sweating some shallots and olive oil adding a sweet white wine and the juice of half an orange reduce until you get two to three tablespoons of liquid then melt with heavy cream and cold butter

I start the plating by cutting the cap out of the puff pastry then i slice the potato gallette in the quarters and place two of them onto the plate i add some of the sauteed vegetables into the puff pastry then add a couple of the scallops

Next i add a few of the broccolini then i drizzle some of the sauce onto the puff pastry and the scallops for a more refined plating i’ll strain the sauce and then drizzle that around the edge of the plate dust the plate with a little cajun seasoning

And there you have my finished dish and i present to you coquille’s ain’t jacques with a potato gallette sauteed broccolini and an orange bear blanc sauce and the meal is done with time to spare the tasters for this dish are jamelle foster and jason page a couple of local gourmet connoisseurs

Scalp and very tender i’ve never had potato garlic but that’s good it’s like a potato crepe or something it’s good flavorful i must admit i don’t even like stuff but this is something different i don’t know the right word to use because it’s good everything about it is

Good that everything comes together with the sauce it is sucky the scallops are succulent they’re cooked just right because it’s not too like mushy and not too tough and a puff pastry very flaky and i really am digging these potatoes anybody else thanks jamelle and jason i think this

Was a successful challenge i hope you try this dish and enjoy