[Intro music]
Macédoine is the name given to a specific mix
of vegetables or fruits cut into small dice.
The vegetable Macédoine is typically made of
carrots, potatoes, turnips, green beans and green peas.
It can be served hot as a garnish for meat and poultry for example,
but it is more popular served cold bound with mayonnaise.
Ham cornets and Russian salad are examples of
recipes that call for vegetable macédoines.
To cut the carrots into macédoine, peel your vegetables,
then cut your carrots into segments or sections.
Cut each section into 5 mm slices.
Then cut each slice into 5mm sticks
and again… and cut each stick into 5mm cubes.
Does it sound familiar?
Indeed! We learnt that in a previous lesson.
What really makes a macédoine.
Macédoine- it’s the size of its cubes. 5mm².
we are going to apply that science to every vegetable-
the potato, the turnip and the carrots.
And what about the peas? Don’t worry, I wont ask you to cut them into cubes.
We will leave them as they are.
Cutting the macédoine will produce a substantial amount of trimmings.
Don’t throw them away. Use them in a soup or a vegetable puree.
I am looking for perfection and you should do so
if you want to use the French culinary tips.
Then do the same thing for your turnip.
Cut it into slices, so 5mm. Cut each slice into 5mm sticks.
Trim. Then continue for the rest of your turnip.
And do the same technique for your potato.
And here we have the potatoes as well.
So now, let’s prepare the green beans.
To prepare the green beans, my first step is to bring a pot of water to a boil.
I added a pinch of salt and we are going to start our vegetables,
at least the green ones in boiling water.
The root vegetables will be started with cold water and bring to a boil.
But I will show you in a minute. Stalk the beans.
So break and pull. Break and pull.
That allows you to remove the strings, if they have any.
If you use a knife to cut the ends of your green beans,
then if they are stringy, you would cut it off
and you will leave the strings attached to the main beans.
So always clean your green beans by hand.
Enough America, Chefs have the tendency to leave one end,
pointed one attached to the green beans for presentation.
If you want to be true to French culinary art, you will have to remove both.
At the end of the day, its your decision.
For our recipe today, it doesn’t matter
because we are going to cut them into small pieces.
Poach the green beans in boiling salted water.
Make sure they are totally immersed and next to my pot,
I have a bowl with ice cold water
to stop the cooking of the green vegetables here.
And also to give you chlorophyll intact, and brightly green.
We are not going to overcook the green beans.
We are going to cook them here for those ones, probably 3-4 minutes.
You want to keep them crunchy.
Cooked little bit, but crunchy. Not totally well done.
To cook the root vegetables, I am going to place them in a pot.
Separately. Cover with cold water.
Add some seasoning. So some salt and bring them to a boil.
That’s opposite as cooking green vegetables
that are always blanched in boiling salted water.
Then refresh in a ice bath.
Our green beans are ready.
Let’s transfer them into an ice bath
to stop cooking and to keep them brightly green.
Here I don’t have large amount of peas or green beans,
so I can use the same water.
If in the food industry you are cooking a large amount
of green beans or peas for your macédoine,
then use a different water for each vegetables.
Peas cook very quickly. Only, maximum a couple of minutes.
Bring to a boil the root vegetables
and cook the carrot and turnips until tender.
Same thing for the potatoes.
But for the potatoes, you want them cooked, not overcooked and not mushy.
For the carrot and turnips, if you overcook them,
It’s fine because they will stay soft and they will keep their shape.
Potatoes, if they are overcooked, they would go into a mush
and they won’t keep their shape.
So just give a special attention to your potatoes.
Drain the green vegetables. And cut the green beans.
Arrange your green beans into a little bundle,
trim and cut them into 5mm slices.
Check the tenderness of the potatoes.
Still a bit crunchy. May be another 30 seconds.
The potatoes are tender and perfectly cooked.
Drain. And refresh with cold water.
Check the carrot and the turnip.
They are tender, so drain them and refresh them
under cold water until totally cold.
Mix your vegetables. Look at the colour.
It’s beautiful! My macédoine is done.
It is ready to be served sauté with butter as a side dish
with any meats or even sea foods.
Or use it with mayonnaise in a macédoine salad.
Or into a Russian salad. Have fun!