#25 - Approaching the end of the beginning...

I'm not quite sure how it happened but the reality of the rapidly approaching end of Basic is finally starting to sink in. I think the email from LCB confirming the spelling of my name for the certificate did it for me. That - and everyone else panicking.  I know that it's just food, but somehow that doesn't lessen the stress.  I have had to do more homework and study for this course than I ever did for law school or any other university class and there is still a much higher chance of failure than I have ever had to face before.  Everyone is tired, sleep-deprived and it has been a hard week.  Tempers are starting to flare and there is more bitching and moaning - quite justified.  Things that no one cared about much at the beginning of the term are beginning to grate as we all buckle down to study.

I haven't looked at what we are doing for next week so have no idea if it's going to be harder, but I suspect so.  We still have our full load of classes, each practice run is currently taking 30 minutes too long and we have multiple recipes to learn for Patisserie.  If we limit practices to 2 per dish (unrealistic for patisserie) that is still a minimum of 24 hours of cooking proper, not allowing for shopping for supplies which are too copious for anyone's kitchen to accomodate.  Then there's the theory to learn and I can't say, "who cares what the coagulation temperatures for various permutations of egg are?" because the dish will turn into scrambled eggs instead of whatever it's supposed to be - unless it's supposed to be scrambled eggs, but we are finished with scrambled eggs...no nightmares about food yet, but I fear they may not be far away.

Challenge for the Grand Diplomes
The 16 of us who are preparing for both sets of exams (with corresponding theory, only some of which overlaps) have stopped smiling so much in class.  Chef N told us on Friday night, "You are allowed to smile - this is fun!"  Which it is - when impending exams are not casting a cloud over our days.  No study week, as we had at university...difficulty getting the correct ingredients (guesswork on the flour, fondant is difficult to find), the equipment (enormous mixing bowls, huge balloon wisks, substituting any size ring shape for our tarts and cakes) and finding time to practice everything...have decided to imitate a sponge for the next week.

End of seafood (for now)
Anyway - quick update:  we finished seafood this week with moules marinieres (mussels steamed with white wine and vinegar) and crabe farci (dressed crab).  I never thought it possible to hear the words "too much butter" from a French chef...until Tuesday (or...Wednesday?) afternoon.

The crab and I had a bit of a disagreement.  It wasn't really awake when I lowered it into the court bouillon (basically - stock) so that was fine.  It was the getting through the hard shell which was a bit problematic.  I'm not that tall and it wasn't really possible to get the necessary leverage so I really had to whack the knife in order to cut it up.  The bruise on my hand was much more impressive the next day.

However, I finished the dish - take that, stubborn crab!  Also - it was the first time we used our cleavers.  Not the sharp edge of the blade, but rather the flat side - to crack the bottom of the shell so that we could use it for plating.  You can't tell from the picture (and I managed to kind of hide it from the chef) but I broke part of the shell, which is why I had to put 3 lettuce leaves and tomato petals...to support the broken part of the shell and shore it up while I was stuffing it.

Incidentally, those tomato petals are an excellent way to put tomatoes in sandwiches.  I always hated how if you packed a sandwich in the morning, the tomato would make the bread soggy by lunch time, even with copious amounts of mayonnaise or avocado "to creat a barrier between the tomato and the bread".

Next week we have to make a bearnaise (hollandaise sauce with added herbs) to go with the steak.  Remember when I said that I was sure that hollandaise, in some guise, would return?  Yup...and I found out that the students doing the Cuisine stream who were doing the bearnaise on Friday night were responsible for the massive shortage of eggs.  We ran out of eggs for our patisserie class - we needed them for our cakes and for the mousses and the patisserie recipes are already reduced to the bare minimum.  The Cuisine students who messed up their sauces restarted them - but since they used 2 - 3 egg yolks per recipe (whole recipe) and they did more than one, they needed extra eggs with a corresponding shortage for those of us baking and mixing upstairs.  Maybe it's time to start putting a dozen eggs into my utensils bag...

More sponges - and gentle intro to chocolate...
Then it was on to cakes - the Gateau a la Foret Noire (Black Forest Cake) - my first flat sponge...overworked batter so it came out really dense - NOT what we were aiming for.  The chocolate work went a bit better although - you have to be fast.  Some of the stencilling didn't come off because I hadn't worked that patch while it was still warm enough.  Not great, but not horrible.  We happened to go past a pub in search of dinner after class and I didn't want to schlep the cake in the big box, so I gave it to the first person who asked.  Some man who was very excited for the cake (FYI, the box was cardboard and he couldn't see inside).  Little did he know...

The next day (Friday) was our first Charlotte au Chocolat (Chocolate Bavarois encased in light chocolate sponge).  I didn't have the right sized piping tip so any inaccuracies in piping are a lot more apparent - too thin and the cake snaps (like mine did) so you have to make a join and repair it.  Making the bavarois, which is like a mousse except you lighten it by adding whipped cream, has been added to my ever expanding list of things to practice.

For the moment I am concentrating on getting through the next 11 or so days.  We have classes straight through and next week we do truffles in Patisserie.  I forsee many, many days of laundry - cocoa powder tends to stick and chocolate spatters are a lot harder to hide on a white uniform than a dusting of flour or a deluge of milk.

Hopefully today I will make it to ballet class - adrenaline gives a boost to our days as exams approach and the amount of what we have to know sinks in more each day.  The theory is starting not to be so much fun (chocolate is more fun to play with than to learn temperatures for) and I need the activity to clear out my mind...wish me luck, it's the first class this month.  Somehow May has just whooshed by - so much so that I called to wish my niece a happy birthday earlier this week.  Except her birthday is in June!

Well-aimed kick
Tonight I have arranged for a couple of friends to come over for dinner.  Knowing that I have promised to make dinner and they have set aside time to come over is the necessary impetus to make me practice.  I have found reasons to postpone for the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully my lemon meringue and the chicken fricassee will only need one or two practice runs to get the timing right so that I can focus on the others this week.  It's so much easier to learn a recipe when you make it, rather than just sitting and rote learning it.  More delicious when it comes to tasting too...and since we have a max 2.5 hours for all the patisserie, there's also a set amount of time for the practice - going over is not an option because otherwise your kitchen chef (apparently) screams at you to get it done and if you still don't - well, basic is full for next term and visa conditions require that you remain enrolled in your course in order to remain in the country...see where this is going?

Right - must run. Time for a coffee and my grocery shop so that I have time to get set before class. Then it's cooking time - on the menu for tonight - ahi poke (if I can find acceptable fish), mixed green salad with vinaigrette, chicken fricassee with potatoes, carrots, zucchini and baby onion (and possibly rice, since this is my first mini-Hawaii Club in London dinner) and a lemon meringue tart. 

Hawaii Club in London
LM has agreed to give me feedback on the tart as she did this 3 months ag0, although she didn't get the tart on her final.  She got the choux pastry (eclairs) - and of course it was the one for which she wished she had had more practice.

MA and I have started discussions regarding the charter for our multi-national LLC (to be incorporated in Delaware).  We haven't told LM yet, but I think it should be broached after dinner - maybe over the tart.  Not sure about the IRS position, we'll need to check out non-profit status (currently considering UN model but will need to defer to MA's experience and knowledge).

Light at the end of the first tunnel
Am looking forward to the time between end of exams and graduation (22 June 2011) - haven't booked any flights yet, but hoping to get a last minute one to Manhattan to visit friends.  The Columbia alumni in Sydney are also hoping for me to go - they have a shopping list for the alumni store!

Thank you
Somehow I have found out that there are more than 8 readers, which came as a bit of a surprise and for which I am very grateful.  I trust you find the occasional flash of humor in these posts and sources for entertainment.  I am not allowed to give recipes, but if you ever have a question, please ask.  If I don't know it (and chances are that I won't, but you never know) then I know who to ask.

So until next time (which might be after exams! I have a lot of reading, studying, flashcards to do!) I wish all of you well and look forward to (hopefully) giving an account of triumph over the clock.

#24 - In which people have started to panic...

I see that my last post was almost a week ago.  It's a good thing my computer and phone keep track of what day it is - I have lost track of days and had to check with people 3 times yesterday that what day it was (Tuesday, the day that follows Monday, which was the day immediately before).  Also - thanks to those of you who have gently prodded me to get my act together and update.

Apologies as these become a bit more sporadic as a cooking frenzy takes over the next 2 weeks of my life - there will be more tarts, cakes and eclairs than I will ever want to look at again - except we will need to do them, but with much greater refinement and complexity as we progress up the levels.  I found out what the Superior Patisserie students have to do as their Practical exam last night - they have 6 hours of cooking and it incorporates everything they have learned from basic on through to where they are now - I recognized elements from our week 2 in Patisserie. 

Last week

So - recap since last post:  we had a wine technical class last Wednesday (18 May).  I tasted all 6 wines and predictably didn't like any of them.  They all made my mouth feel puckered up inside (apparently that was caused by the tannins).  I also accidentally swallowed some wine (the first Chardonnay we tried).  It's a good thing that class was scheduled for our last class that day, it would not have been good to go into a kitchen and have to cook after that.

We also had our patisserie classes - getting on to slightly more advanced cakes now.  Thursday night was the Chocolate Almond Sponge cake (aka Sachertorte) with a marzipan rose.  The masking at the end was a bit problematic on the sides of the cake, but it looks pretty from the top and according to reports, it tasted good.  I had a tiny taste from when I cut the cake into halves/quarters and gave it away to various people - I liked it, but the crumb was more than enough.

Then on Friday night we did our last potential exam dish - the Genoise Spongecake with buttercream frosting and raspberry jam.  We had to make our own jam (piece of cake!) and apparently the frosting that Michael, my partner, and I made was really good, so I feel a little more confident about trying the whole thing at home on my own.  The problem with doing things in pairs in class for something like this is that when it comes to the exam, we will have to do all the components on our own:  the batter, the jam, the soaking syrup, the frosting, cut, trim, fill, then assemble it all and complete it with piping.  I only remembered when I had to pipe the chocolate on top of the frosting piping Chef G's comment that it is easier to pipe smaller patterns because any uneveness is not quite as apparent.  Whoops.  This cake also went to other people who would be able to eat it.

We had a cuisine practical on Saturday  morning at 8am - more chicken butchery - taking apart all the pieces and skinning it.  It was Supreme of Chicken (i.e. chicken breast) stuffed with chicken mousse and herbes de Provence, poached and served with a Tomato Butter sauce (mine was too thick - more a coulis) and courgette spaghetti- zucchini sliced on a mandolin and sauteed with some garlic and butter.

Life actually
I even made it to a movie - maybe 4 weeks ago?  I'm not sure...it was the most recent Scream movie.  I should not go to those - as silly and stupid as it was, it still scared me.  Total movies seen in London:  2.  Total cultural experiences:  1 ballet (Covent Garden), 1 concert (Southbank) and...do visits to markets count?  No museums yet.  They are still on my list but are always lower on the list of priorities as the kitchen and related things take over my life.

There is a lot of ground to cover and I realize that I have forgotten to include much in the way of social life.  There hasn't been one as such, but I have managed to catch the odd dinner with friends who are not LCB related (MA, who is in town from Hawaii for work for the next 3 months or so) and JB, who is currently posted to Rome during the week (also for work), SO who has the cutest little daughter (they live in Oxford) and my dear PC who was in town over the long weekend in April.

There have been a couple of trips to Kua'Aina burger in Carnaby Street - yesterday I made a mental note of the days when they serve the Lion Vanilla Macadamia nut coffee and now have forgotten them in the exhausted haze which has dogged the last few days.  Most of my other friends are from LCB, a couple of whom have had little parties, as they had to move after the course started.  Unfortunately I didn't take many photos of the one from the week (two weeks?) before,  but here are photos from Saturday:

Recognize any of the food?

Our hosts - Pedro & Angela

 

 

I think most of the people there were from those who are enrolled to do the grand diplome.  Apparently some of the people in the other group are a bit more comptetitive - they have more people who have industry experience, whereas my group doesn't seem to have reached that stage.  Yet.  Who knows - tempers have been known to run hot in the kitchen when ingredients go missing.

The girlfriends/husbands/etc. who also came may have been a bit overwhelmed with the shop talk, but that only came later.  We were all concious of wanting to talk anything except food for the first little while.  We have spent all these weeks together, but as most conversations revolve around organizing some fun time or discussing class, people are still getting to know each other.  I am sure that lifelong friendships will be forged during the next few months, but I am equally sure that lifelong antipathy may develop as well.  There is no way that we can all spend so much time together and not get on each other's nerves and given the strong personalities and wide age ranges involved, I am sure that cliques are already starting to form.

In the meantime, the girlfriends/husbands/etc. are finally understanding what their respective other halves are talking about when it comes to a bad day or things that went wrong.  They said they can put it into context - and they have good naturedly tried to support their tired, grumpy and hungry chefs when they get home.  ("Look honey - I just spent the last 2.5 making this and this is what went wrong and...just try a bite!")  Apparently they have also started to go to the gym, if they haven't already, and those who do exercise, have to do more.

And this week...fish and seafood

8am Monday - butchering a whole Lemon Sole, including gutting, filleting and skinning...rolled with a mushroom duxelles - the one on which I cut my finger somewhere in week 3 and poached in a fish fumet (fish broth) which we had to make from the bones.  We are all hurrying more in the kitchen now and can't believe there was a time when it took us 2 1/2 hours to cut up some vegetables and make a salad with dressing.  Now we are stressing out that it took 20 minutes to take apart the stupid chicken instead of 10.

A whole fish resulted in 4 little pieces of fish (you only plate 3 because it looks better on the plate) with a piped mashed potato border and the sauce...

Yesterday morning we got to do it again, this time with a rainbow trout.  Luckily I already knew how to gut a fish, but it wasn't done in demo and they didn't mention it so I was a little unprepared to have to gut the thing at 8:15 in the morning (well, we had to scale it first).  The butchery went pretty smoothly, but after class we all got together in our little huddles and had our own little debrief.  It appears which chef you have in the kitchen also determines how you season your food.  Oh - and my hollandaise sauce split.  Whatever the reason, I'm sure we'll have to do something like it again at some stage.  So - the trout a la meuniere, which I'm sure my dad would have loved but for the very burned butter...this is what the dish looks like just before I take it to the chef for feedback.

This is what my workstation looks like in the aftermath of the flurry of plating (no time to clean!) and things haphazardly pushed wherever - after feedback.  Ugh - first time I overcooked my fish!

Tonight we have to kill a crab (yes, it has to come to us alive) and make a stuffed crab in its own shell and a dish of mussels (moules mariniere).  That is one that many of us are looking forward to, although there is one unfortunate student who is allergic to certain shellfish, mussels being one of them.  He is in the other group, so I am guessing someone will go to class prepared with a baguette and stick a bottle of white wine in the fridge for after!  Some people are not enthused with the idea of putting a live crab in boiling water - we can't freeze it because our fridges aren't cold enough (especially as they will have been opened and closed so many times during the preceding 9 hours) and we can't use our knives to kill it because we need the shell intact for the presentation.

It is a late start today - 12pm - for which I am grateful.  Some of the girls and I got together after class yesterday to practice turning our vegetables.  The ideal is a football shape (for Americans and Australians) - an oval with points on both ends and 7 even facets.  Right now the chefs are willing to settle for however many facets as long as we don't waste a lot of potato and they are all about the same size.  And now - our practice has been documented...

 






There has been a little consternation from all of us as some of the ingredients we need to practice for patisserie are not available in normal places.  No fondant in the supermarket and the plain flour doesn't indicate whether it is strong flour or soft flour - I suppose I will find out when I try to make my pastry for the lemon meringue tart.  Also - no one sells butter in anything more than 250g (8 ozs).  I bought 12 blocks last night and had to lug them home - each thing that we have to practice uses ridiculous amounts of butter and as pretty as they are to look at, I am not sure I will be able to eat many of these things ever again.

Back to life...
As for life in London - it is, despite my many hours at the school or at home, trying to organize my mind for the following day, still delightful.  We have lunch or drinks out in the sun if there is a break between classes.  The days are still lenthening, so there is light past 9pm - which is perfect for the nights when we don't finish class until then, generally Thursday and Friday nights (and tonight).  The mornings are still cold - some may say brisk, but those are the ones who like the cold more than I do.  They require a warm jacket and a brisk walk to school.

There is a lot of construction going on in London as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics.  Tube stations are being upgraded, new train line/s being put in, streets having things done to them and sounds of construction going from morning until...well, I'm not sure when they stop since I usually get home later.  Everyone generally wants to wind down from the day at the pub and I think that when the school moves to Bloomsbury Square in January, the local businesses will really notice the difference.  You can tell when there's a break between classes because the streets and cafes are suddenly awash with white jackets emblazoned with the blue LCB crest paired with crocs and houndstooth checked pants.  Starbucks gets a lot of people coming in, desperate for a coffee to keep them awake for the 3 hour lecture coming up (or in progress) after they have already had up to 6 hours of class.

Now I must once again gear up to go to class.  A demo for 2.5 hours - this is the target time for our demo chefs, but classes have been known to run over the allocated 3 hours, which can cause a bit of a scramble for the next class - then a break (nap and review of notes) before being back and ready to go in the kitchen at 6pm.

So until next time, happy resting!

#23 - Things I don't understand about the UK...

There are a few things that have puzzled me since my arrival in London and I still haven't worked them out.

Miscellaneous
For instance, why does the deodorant/anti-perspirant need to work for 48 hours?  Camping or being somewhere without hot running water and soap for a certain period of time (like my apartment when the boiler pressure turned off) is understandable.  But if you are home and have access to a shower/bath - why?

And speaking of boilers - mine wasn't working the other night.  It was late, it was freezing and I was tired from class.  I eventually figured it out - there was a certain amount of desperation because the boiler controls both the hot water and the radiators.  Also, because I cannot get into my bed when I am dirty.

Differences in language can be amusing too.  In the US, saying someone is "spunky" usually refers to their personality.  In Australia, it refers to their appearance, in a good way.  In the UK, apparently it refers to...hm, how to put this...male bodily emissions.  So not a compliment here to say that someone is spunky.  There's also a whole thing on thongs, but I won't get into that.  Suffice to say that between the US, Australian, South African and Hong Kong interpretations of the word, it gets interesting.  The conversation in our locker room, by the way, was in reference to rubber slippers.

So - words that can cause confusion, depending on where you are:
thongs, slippers, spunky, next week (geography seems to determine interpretation).  Feel free to add any suggestions to this list because I am too tired to think of any more.

Liquid soap - they have the usual arrows (one way makes the pump pop up, the other way makes it go down and you can usually lock it down).  I haven't been able to make them work, so I just refill the one bottle that got unlocked (but a friend who lives around the corner) and refill that.  Yes, I am not smarter than my soap pump.  Who cares?

OCD is only a problem if it functions with your normal daily functioning.  I haven't done the research (if you do, I will believe you as long as your source isn't Wikipedia).  Anyway - I had tutorials for my Cuisine and Patisserie classes yesterday.  My Patisserie mentor told me to stop cleaning so much (in response to my question as to why I am so slow in class).  He said, "in the time you've taken to clean, you could have made something."  Which is true - I am going to test it next week and see if I get pulled up on it.

Am very disorganized.  Everything looks so organized, but it's all a facade.  Nowhere is it more apparent than in the kitchen when I have neglected to collect the other 3 bowls you will need when you got the first two.  It seems the chefs all have eyes in the backs of their heads.  They seem to see everything (and they talk).  Apparently they notice when we make 5 trips to the sink area to get various pieces of equipment.

Fashion - I think I am sartorially challenged.  Spending most of my time in uniform makes for a lazy attitude towards every day dressing (I walk 4 minutes to class, change, then might go out for quick dinner with friends before coming back home).  Total time spent traipsing around London in street clothes on a school day:  10 minutes - 4 hours...anyway - back to my point.  During the 4 hour window, I have seen many inappropriately short skirts.  A (male) taxi driver told me that is the fashion now.  See?  Fashion challenged - I am being told what is in by a taxi driver.  So I thought I was being a granny but one of the younger girls in my course (she turns 19 in a month) also made the comment that the girls in London dress like prostitutes.  Might be a bit harsh, but accurate nonetheless.  If you have to keep tugging the hem of your skirt/dress down (and you don't have to lean a little to do it!) then it is probably too short, and possibly too tight.

Back to food
Somehow this week has whizzed by and I now have to update more photos.

I can't make soup...no time to take pictures of my chicken and mushroom soup (the soup wouldn't thicken...but the chicken julienne was nice) or the potato and leek (?) soup with julienned vegetables (watery soup flavorwise, but the first time my julienne was acceptable)...



French Onion Soup
with burned croutons

More troubled soups:  burned croutons on the French Onion soup because I forgot about them, and soup a bit bitter because I overcooked the onions.



Beef consomme
with too-brown savory crepe

Beef consomme was still a little too oily and the crepes were too brown.  Agh!  I will never make soup!!!

Basic Breads:
Soda bread and dinner rolls

Basic bread and cakes
Went a bit better.  The bread tasted a bit boring but everyone I gave rolls and bread to seemed to like it - possibly because it was made with a certain something (like, I don't care as long as it's pretty).

Basic cakes:
Lemon cake and madeleines

Cakes - were edible.  A bit too much baking powder in the madeleines resulted in air pockets, but otherwise any stuck edges were on the side not being presented.  I tasted one madeleine and a tiny edge of the cake - the one and the edge were enough.

   





Sienna eating a madeleine

SO & Sienna came down from Oxford to visit their friend Bernice. We managed to meet for coffee before lunch - so Sienna got to do some tasting. Evidently the madeleines have met and passed kid testing - she ate three immediately.


Some research:
Comparing to my test eclairs...

    



Wouldn't you visit this store?

 

This week - more meats and stuff...

A dish to help practice butchery because my chicken fricassee was way behind schedule - where does all the time go?

Poussin with apple compote

The poussin - had problems with potatoes.  I can't cook potatoes either - this is the third time something has happened to them - I hate potatoes!  and forgot to trim the drumstick ends.

Luckily JK and ML each had some spare potatoes so I could plate because mine were not cooperating.  The apples were a bit tart for Chef J, but I thought they were perfect...cut through all the butter and cream.  Oh well - still developing the palate (is that a good thing?)

Then it was offal - yech.  I tried them in demo and told the chef that if I liked liver or sweetbreads, I would have loved the dishes.  As it was, I hated them both.  So today we had to make them...I'm not sure whether I smelled the liver or the sweetbreads while we were in the kitchen, but any residual hunger I might have had from tasting the amazing sole from demo before (on the list for next week) was completely buried.
 

Chef EB refused to taste anyone's liver because he had already done 3 classes worth of tastings today.

Veal liver
with onions & sauteed potatoes

I don't blame him - my one teeny taste yesterday was enough to turn me off liver pretty much forever.  I can confirm that my policy of refusing to eat anything that has ever been on my dissecting table (or a variation of said item) is completely sound, along with the certain discrete exceptions (i.e. fish).  So the liver was well done, as per Chef E's directions, the onions burned to a crisp and beyond repair (I checked my photos from the demo - should have stopped when I had originally stopped) and the potatoes were good except they needed more salt.  Maybe everything needs more salt because we are always so hot in the kitchen that everyone pretty much sweats buckets.  Yes, yes, I know - ladies don't sweat.  Well, we're not ladies - we're chefs!  And I defy anyone to stay cool, calm and collected (and not to sweat) when it is 40 degrees C / 100 degrees F in the kitchen with the clock ticking and the dishes misbehaving.

Veal sweetbreads with
asparagus tips and parisienne potatoes

The sweetbreads (say what?) were beyond yuck - they looked like brains.  Just because something doesn't have latex running all through it like in our fetal pig which we had to dissect for 4 weeks, doesn't mean that it doesn't smell bad or look good.  They also feel kind of rubbery, but not firm - a bit squishy, actually.  So I can make it look pretty on the outside, but this one, which was super thick, should have been cut into small escalopes, then breaded and fried.  As it was, Chef E tasted the potatoes, asparagus and jus - bitter jus and the asparagus had been peeled too much...but the potatoes were good (ok, maybe I don't suck at potatoes quite as much as I thought I did).

So we finished class on time (even me!) and everyone headed to the pub for a drink.  There was a deep sigh of relief as we started drinking down our various beverages (Coke, beer, Pimms...)  I had run out of water during the practical so have been chugging for the last couple of hours.

De-offaling...


My dinner after all the awful offal

I took the longest shower ever - getting the feel of the greasy smoke, even if only in my imagination, took forever.  Then it was scrubbing the day off before I could even think about dinner.  So - the results of looking at innards for two days in a row:  yes, I cooked.  Yes, this is kind of an attempt at presentation, but I really couldn't be bothered.  There's all kinds of fussing about to make things pretty and put them in shapes, which is fine if you are getting graded on it - or being paid lots of money to look it that way.  At home, it's just more dishes to do and I have to do my own dishes - so just as soon throw it all together.

So until next time - no more offal!

#22 - In which a lot happens in a few short days...

Not quite sure what happened to the last week, but I will try to catch up.


Brutal day
We had a double practical on Wednesday - 6 hours of meat (the two steaks in the first practical, finished early so a quick little break, then the blanquette in the second practical).



Steak with peppercorn sauce



Well done steak

I think I previously mentioned that there are a couple of friends I made who are in the more advanced patisserie class.  I gave CD a steak with peppercorn sauce (the medium one - I overcooked it), and a serving of the blanquette with rice because I felt bad that I had messed up the potatoes with the steak so badly (black and burned on the outside, not cooked on the inside - yuck!)  CD loved the sauce on the steak - generally thought to be more interesting than the blanquette (which is a much milder dish - LOTS more cream) depending on your preferences.


More evil puff pastry 
So this time was another slice that we made with our own puff pastry.  Chef G (whom I'm not sure I've ever actually met, although he let me borrow ice from his Boulangerie today) looked at my bande and said, "that's not a band - that's an orchestra!"

Bande aux fruits de saison

As you can see, the sides fell over a bit and I have some difficulties with the decorating.  It would help if I had liked more of the fruits, but I chose them for what I felt like eating, rather than what would look prettiest.

I hate wisking the creme patissiere for underneath the fruit.  It always feels like your arm is going to fall off - who needs a gym and do weights when you can get arm muscles from beating the cream?  "I hope I don't get this in the final!"  I managed to gasp to Chef M while I was trying to beat the patisserie cream back into a smooth consistency.

"Really?  You have to do a creme pat in the final?"  he asked innocently.  Um, yes!  It's part of the even more evil Pate a Choux (aka choux pastry aka eclairs, etc.) final.  Pate a Choux is even more evil because if you mess up the dough (which you can do in several places), that's pretty much it - it kills you for the whole basic patisserie course.  The first pitfall is about 5 minutes in.  So pate a choux being evil - more beating (adding the eggs into the batter) and more beating (the cream for the chantilly cream).  Then there's the timing and piping.  But I am getting ahead of myself here.


Really big palmiers and some bowties?

We also put together our dough scraps and made palmier cookies (aka palm leaf cookies aka elephant ears).  We were meant to make them small but I (still) can't cut straight and some of mine turned out gigantic.  The ones that were supposed to be the small palmiers didn't have enough folds so I twisted them and got the bowtie ones (Chef G said too much effort).  The little circle was just so that I could use the scraps of the scraps.  Rufus and the Michaels quite liked the cookies and the not-Bande, actually.  I gave the rest of the bande to the real estate agency downstairs from me.  I didn't want it to take up all that room in my fridge (I had a chestnut filling sponge cake from C in it already) and I was sick of looking at it.

Another brutal day
Saturday was another double whammy - pork cutlets in cuisine and then pate a choux in patisserie, one after the other.

Chef S commented how mashed potatoes are comfort food, then asked, "Who doesn't like mashed potatoes?"  I was the only one who raised her hand.  Hey, I'm from Hawaii - we eat rice with almost everything (not with spaghetti, but otherwise...)  Then she asked, "who doesn't eat pork?"  Guess what?

Anyway - here is the pork cutlet with mashed potatoes - somehow I got lucky and the sauce was pronounced "bangin'".  Thank you EA for helping me get the right consistency!  The chefs seem to be fond of that word - I don't care, as long as they are using it in conjunction with my dish and they mean it's good.  There's also a piece of pork crackling there and the mash potato which had been causing me no end of grief (seriously - I cut it up and it still took the potatoes almost and hour to cook) but ended up fine - thank you tons of butter and lots of cream!  For which LM was also very thankful - she said the mashed potatoes were her favorite part.

Evil choux pastry

And then...choux pastry - a potential exam dish (must practice a LOT)...had problems with piping, as you can see from my sad, lopsided eclairs.  Also had trouble with the fondant icing (you're supposed to pipe a pattern with chocolate on top of the eclairs but I didn't even get that far) - and in the exam, you have to do all this on your own.  In class we worked in teams, so you can see where I'm going with this.  Also my swans didn't have enough fruit (to cut the sweetness of the chantilly cream - there's tones of sugar in it to make it shiny) and I didn't whip the cream enough so it looked fine when Chef M inspected it for marks, it had collapsed a bit when I took it to a birthday party.

I packed all the eclairs, etc. into the cake box, along with Laurie's chestnut cake (a trade for the pork cutlets & mashed potatoes) and took it to TL's 30th birthday shindig.  I missed the gathering at the pub that afternoon because I was in class, but they had all retired to the house so I joined them there.  The sweets were very much appreciated and LM's cake and CD's cake got an almost equal number of votes (LM's cake was preferred by those who liked less sweet, C's cake was preferred for those who liked their desserts more sweet).

I also managed to snap a shot of KP eating one of my (too big) palmiers.  Luckily they were all eaten so I took home an empty cake box, which is good - I need it for later this week.

Basic egg skills - kind of, sort of - not really

Yesterday we did eggs and the remainder of this week is to be spent on soups (cuisine) and bread and sponge cake (patisserie).
  

Way undercooked poached eggs



So - I can't poach an egg.  Or rather - I can poach an egg but can't quite tell when it's done.  It will require lots of practice and tons of poking.  The eggs look so pretty in the dish, even if my mornay sauce split (oven was too hot and I was a little sloppy in making the sauce).  Of course that all changed once Chef J opened the eggs with his fork - the whites (which weren't completely cooked through) hadn't finished in the oven so they were still that disgusting clear runny white by the yolk.  It finished cooking in the dish later, but it was not an attractive sight.  Still, sauce was completely edible - all packed in a tidy container with the 2 eggs which were not pretty enough to present (and which I cooked a bit longer so that LM would have cooked eggs instead of disgusting ones).

  

Good French Omelette



Slightly better luck with the omelette - I knew I couldn't do it the way Chef S did it in demo, with a screeching hot pan and not getting any color on the egg.  So I cheated a tiny bit and had the stove turned a lot lower, then stirred until it was just underdone.  I knew it would be runny when it was all folded - just the way they like it (and just the way I won't eat it).

LM liked both - thank goodness!


Basic Soups - not really

Today was soup.  Possibly the second worst day for me - my chicken veloute (basically a flour & butter mixture to thicken a chicken stock) wouldn't thicken.  I did what the recipe said but it all went wrong.  I suppose it should have been a warning signal when the first roux I did got overcooked and I had to throw it away.

  

Chicken & Mushroom veloute



Everyone had packed up and left before I could present the chicken and mushroom soup.  It ended up tasting fine (bowl was too cold) but I'm not sure I want to try this one ever again...talk about things not working.

Potato & Leek soup with julienned vegetables

The potato and leek went a bit better although this one was too thick and I kept having to let it down with water.  But water makes it so that the flavors kind of separate again - which means each thing is distinct instead of everything kind of jumbling together in your mouth/mind.  However, this is the first time that my julienne passed muster, so that was a happy thing (this picture is after Chef D tasted it, which is why the chervil is off to the side and a bit lopsided).

Still needs more salt!  I haven't trained my palate yet - need to add more salt without going over and adding too much.  One of the chefs said that the usual pattern is - not enough/not enough/too much/too much/just right.  I'm still at the not enough (it's only been over a month!) stage - just hoping I get to the just right stage in time for the exam.  Praying consomme will go better tomorrow.

A taste of Hawaii in London!

LM and I finally made it to Kua'aina Burger in Foubert Place, just off Carnaby Street.  They were really friendly and we took a while to decide because we wanted everything on the menu.  We eventually settled on a mahi burger (me) and an ahi burger (her) - we switched half of each.  Both were a taste of home, but given the distance, I think I will wait till I get home to have another mahi anything.  Next time we have vowed to have the burgers (you know - the kind with meat).  In the meantime, here is a photo of LM helping one of the guys choose a good radio station (or several) for them to stream at the joint.  Good to know we can exert our powers for good and make sure they have good local music in the middle of London.

We were going to put photos of our burgers, but both of us were so food deprived (yes I know - ironic that for people surrounded by so much food, we should miss meals or not eat enough, but that's a discussion for another time) that we inhaled our food and forgot all about photos until our table had been cleared.

So until next time - aloha (and happy eating)!

#21 - Evil puff pastry and too much (?) red meat

Evil puff pastry

Last week was more pastry in cuisine.  Puff pastry, to be precise.  We had to make our allumettes au fromage (i.e. cheese matchsticks - it doesn't translate very well).  They're actually more like cheese rolls instead of sausage rolls, with mornay sauce in the middle.  The sauce was really good.  If only the pastry had been as good.  Alas, alack - the holes in the layers (because I have such hot hands, you know) meant that the butter leaked everywhere.  You can see it on the paper...

Evil puff pastry - before

Allumettes au fromage

 





Then it was pasta with alfredo sauce.  (This is when I found out my hands were hot - something to do with how the dough was/not coming together - I forget).  I didn't manage to take a photo of the pasta when it was fresh so it doesn't look as good, but trust me - it tasted delicious.  You can take the girl out of Hawaii but you can't take the Hawaii out of the girl (note the chopsticks...)

Patisserie - more puff pastry (!) and a dear friend

Then we made jalousie (aka in Australia as pear slice, so I was told by a friend from class) - poached pears, puff pastry (out of a packet because ours have to rest until the next pastry class - next week!)  See how nice it turns out when the pastry is made right?

Also, my dear friend PC came to town for work.  We nearly didn't get organized in time, but somehow we managed to catch each other right after I'd made my pear slice/tarte/whatever.  It had been a few years since we had seen each other so there was a lot to catch up on, including what brought him here (work).

  

Before...

 So - pictures of our civilized dessert - he was suitably impressed and made the requisite yummy noises.  Of course finding the ice cream to go with it was a bit of a thing - I think we tried 3 convenience stores before we found our Haagen Daaz to go with it.  He isn't dead, so I assume that the dessert was safe to eat.

and after...

   I left the rest of it with him to share with his friends the next day while they watched the royal wedding.

All of this is quite hard work actually - it took me a while to figure out on Friday or Saturday that my arms were tired from rolling out the puff pastry on Thursday night.  It's actually easier if you have more leverage - I had been standing on the ledge under my counter but it was a bit of an awkward position (why couldn't I be 6' tall???) - luckier than one of the other girls whose hands were bruised on the heels from the rolling pin...

Royal wedding
EA did an amazing English tea for us on the day of the Royal wedding.  I made it to her house after ballet in time to catch the highlights (good - the ad-free version).  Here are some of my classmates from LCB.  The picture has representatives from South Africa, Chile, Portugal, Colombia, Australia and the US (including me).

EA made scones, cucumber sandwiches, a cake with strawberries and had all the fixin's for various alcoholic beverages - people managed to hold out until around 3pm...she is the most amazing hostess.

Last week's demonstrations

Then there were the demonstrations for the upcoming practical classes.  It included butchery - I have only ever seen that much raw, red meat in one place so early in the morning:  the butcher shop on my way to work in the morning in Sydney.

We made lamb first thing on Saturday morning.  Given the timing of everything, we are a few days behind schedule (i.e. lamb is practical 11 but we have had demonstrations up to class 13).  This is much rarer than I like my meat - but we have to serve it the way they want it, not the way we like it (the words "this is, after all, a French cooking school..." keep ringing in my head).

It took most of us about an hour to French trim the rack of lamb.  I eventually got the hang of it, but it was tough going until I did.  (For the record:  trimming was very nice and the lamb was perfectly cooked - if you like your lamb still baa'ing on the plate!)



What happens after we present
our dishes for inspection

Then I packed the food to take home - dinner...we actually got to use olive oil for the bayaldi (i.e. like ratatouille) so it didn't feel quite so disgusting after I ate it for dinner last night.  Yes - I cooked the meat some more.  The dish below is what it looked like after SL and I butchered it while getting out the pieces for presentation on the plate at the end of class.

Vegetables bayaldi -
NOT ratatouille

One of the girls was going away for the weekend and didn't want to take her lamb with her because she couldn't cook it (travelling and all that) so I took it home with me.  Both Michaels and Rufus were in the art shop on the way home so I gave the guys a bit of a taste.  Rufus was not offered any...

This Michael (on the left) likes his meat cooked "properly".  This other Michael loves rack of lamb but likes it a bit more cooked (I sympathize).  He ate it though - and pronounced it good.

Rufus's Michael and I have made a deal:  he will provide a home for various culinary experiments and in return, he will frame my Grand Diplome when I get it.  Now it's just a matter of actually passing all my classes...i.e. not setting the kitchen on fire during finals!

Seen and overheard...

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...I was at Starbucks when I wrote most of this yesterday afternoon.  The conversation involved snatches of phrases like "...but, like, I can't wait for him forever" and "like, there's never, like, a perfect time to break up with someone"...initially I thought they must be in their late 20s/somewhere in the 30s (except for all the "like"s).  Then one of them said something about being 23/24.  Oh puh-leeze!

There was a fellow sitting at the next table with an older woman - possibly his mom.  Both appeared to be following the girls' conversation quite intently but trying not to look as if they were interested.  All I could think was that this conversation would be much more urgent for these girls in about a decade...and that perhaps Starbucks isn't the place to have a deep and meaningful conversation, especially if you don't want anyone to overhear what you are saying.

We have to cook a roast beef on Tuesday.  Served rare (ew!) so until next time...baa baa, moo moo...