Midterms already (again)
We just started our restaurant dessert module today. Tutorial comments - I have lost most marks because I am not organized and must push myself more. And to get that brain turned on (not that the chefs said so, but I got the drift). Apparently the laid back island attitude isn't going to get things done. Right - must work on organization - time to start a list.
Today's schedule was one which students find less than ideal: an 8am class, then a 6pm class. Tomorrow: more of the same. I find it a bit of a mixed bag. It's good because I can do things in the day (i.e. osteo, pick up dry cleaning) but bad because we get out of class so late and I don't feel like going at 6pm. Of course then I think of the chefs - Chef M has this schedule for the next few days and he's in on Saturday.
We have Chef M for our Tea Party. Things can either go really well or really badly, I think. Luckily for us, the Tea Party items are already set, so we are paired up, then assigned 2 desserts to a pair. It saves us on having to come up with plating ideas or recipes or anything because those are already set. This is quite a test of making sure you produce the requisite number of items and having them be identical and be of an acceptable standard. I remember seeing these desserts 3 months ago and 6 months ago. I can't believe that we have learned enough to start to put these impressive looking things together.
If only I had known then what I know now
Oh, and the part that makes me want to die - my mousseline would have been all right if I had torched it just a bit more during the Intermediate final. I torched it a bit but was afraid of melting it. Of course it would have been more useful if it had split during class so I could bring it back instead of it happening during the exam. Crap! So I spent the last 30 minutes of class this morning kicking myself in the butt, then did it for real at ballet class. Then I spent the 2nd class today experimenting - if things go wrong, the Chef can tell me when/where/why.
Tonight's session was mostly for decorative work. Unfortunately it was very hot in the Patisserie (about 30C, which I think is somewhere in the 80sF) and we had to work a bit to get the chocolate tempered. The temperature also meant that we had to wait quite a bit for the chocolate to set because the ambient temperature was not conducive to a fast chocolate set. The good thing is we know that we can get it to set in a hot room and hopefully we will get quick enough that we can deal with a cold room which gives us much less time to work. At least today we had a little more time - which wasn't helpful when I wrapped my mousse in the chocolate which went on crooked (and once it's on you can't take it off and put it back on again). Thank goodness we get to have one more little try tomorrow - I need to work on those blasted twirls, cigarettes and the 2-tone casing which looks so cool if you do it right and is oh-so-wrong if you do it wrong.
Drama, drama, drama
By the way, if you thought cooking school wasn't dramatic, this morning there was an incident at the end of our class. Some guy from Basic had kind of pushed his way into the elevator because he was mad that we had been holding it - we were all running things down to the blast chiller in the production kitchen from the Patisserie and back up. Anyway, one of the guys in my class took exception to this other fellow (Spanish?) having made one of the girl from our class have to walk up to the 3rd floor from the basement (remember that in the UK, the ground floor is not the 1st floor) and they got into it - all the posturing and yetlling, etc. Chef M interposed himself between the two of them. I had to go downstairs to get changed, but I heard from one of the other girls that it went far enough that Chef M had to restrain one of the guys and Chef GB had to restrain the other. By the by, the Basic guy already had a shiner and what looked like a split lip. Looks like he had a hell of a weekend!
Are we nearing full moon or is it just Halloween?
Photos for today's work forthcoming as today was end of parts I & II. Tomorrow night we do more decorations and presentation of the 2 desserts we did today (a vanilla brulee encased in chocolate mousse and a Mirabelle plum tart).
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
#47 - The nightmare before the Student Event (and brrr!!!!)
(Note: This was written over a course of several days so the change in tenses is entirely accurate, even if possibly grammatically incorrect.
Teamwork
Part of the Superior Cuisine course is to put on a Student Event dinner - I think I may have mentioned this before...
As much as the event is about the food, it is also about our ability to work as a team. (Personally I have a suspicion that it's also a clever piece of marketing for those students who haven't yet decided whether they will continue on to Superior Cuisine...) It's a fast sell out -where else can you have a multi - course meal for £15, which includes canapes, a cocktail (champagne?), a glass of red and white wine each and petit fours?
There are 2 dinner events each term - one by the 2 groups containing the Grand Diplome students ("GDs") (and a few other students to round out the complement, if there are fewer than 20 Grand Diplomes, as in our case), the other dinner by the remaining groups of students in Superior Cuisine. There is a rivalry which becomes apparent during the discussion over the breads and dessert planning session, mainly because the GDs want to take advantage of having learned more complicated things in Patisserie than the desserts taught in the Cuisine courses. We will see on Thursday night whether we over reached or whether we calculated our abilities well.
On Wednesday morning we will start our mise en place, then we cook from 12noon on Thursday until 6pm (or so says our schedule). Given that dinner starts at 7:30pm, we will be plating / serving our desserts around 9 / 9:30pm. Then there's clean down, possibly a mini-debrief (I've forgotten, it's somewhere on the schedule) then people will retire to the pub for a drink or ten.
***After the event...***
Our group is lucky - we don't have class until noon tomorrow(although we started Thursday with a demonstration). The other group has their first planning class for their entremets (the design your own dessert) which we had a the Saturday before last. It has definitely put a damper on their anticipation for drinks at the pub as they will need to be awake quite early. The school's rationale is that this is a small taste of what it might be like to work in a restaurant. According to Chef FJ, the day we did lobster was a small taste as well. Someone tole me we finished an hour late. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. I thought we finished an hour earlier - so much for thinking we had been more organized than the other groups. There has been some consideration as to whether they remove one of the dishes from that particular class. I seem to remember that when we were in basic, the Superior group ran quite late - and the reason I remember this is because it was a day when we had to do puff pastry (Day 1 of the allumettes de fromage, I think). Hmmm, same kitchen as well, now that I think of it.
The weekend just past
So the whole point of this narrative safari is: we spent the weekend playing with food. Perhaps it doesn't sound serious when I say play, but that's what it felt like. Saturday started quite late - we had all had a fairly big week and we had to try out a couple of things. We had a few ingredients we didn't have enough of and we couldn't find it at the store, so we had to make a substitution. It never occurred to us that we wouldn't be able to find more icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar aka powdered sugar) when there were 3 stores within walking distance. So my friands (aka finaciers) seemed a bit odd - not what we remembered. Then TN tried her hand at them since she is slated to make them on Thursday. One of the guys who came a bit later brought the correct sugar, but there was still something not quite right. My suggestion was that it might be a result of us not using the correct moulds because we don't have them. Hopefully that is the case because we are running out of time.
We also had a try at the tea-scented macaroons. Um, no - they didn't work. Something wasn't quite right, so we ended up scrapping that idea and doing a variation of it (I think the tea is going to go into the filling, rather than the biscuit part). See right for practice photos.
Sadler Wells
The baby pears were poached and prepared for the next day. I'm not sure what else we did, besides discuss, plan, bake (a bit) - I had to go because I had plans to go see the Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler Wells Theatre. The Sadler Wells had been on my list - part of the whole ballet revival in the UK and all that.
I went with one of the girls from my group, AM (from Argentina). She had been to see Swan Lake (Royal Ballet?) before, so hadn't had much exposure to ballet. This was one I hadn't seen before: La Fille Mal Gardee. It's a light, fluffy, old-fashioned ballet - the story is quite clear from the dancing. It's a problem I find with more modern ballets - quite often they don't have a story, in which case a person who hasn't had enough exposure to see and appreciate the nuances in technique might find it boring.
The Sadler Wells is quite a different atmosphere from Covent Garden. For one thing, it's not as opulent - to be expected, I think. In some ways it's a smaller and more intimate space - closer in terms of width and you end up looking down at the stage so that you can see the patterns much more easily. The company has its own orchestra who tours with them. The conductor (leader?) was sensitive to the dancers and could cue the music accurately enough to have the orchestra end with the dancer's last flourish after a variation - something which can lend a bit to the performance and sometimes help to disguise timing that is slightly off.
It was quite sweet to have the couple on my left discussing the performance between themselves. AM enjoyed herself as well and after the fiasco of getting to the theatre (she had a problem with the trains so we watched the first act on the screen, by the bar) it was pretty much smooth sailing for the rest of the night. We went for a late dinner down by Tottenham Court Road on a little street whose name I always forget. Then it was home to bed. She was ready to go out for a little boogie, but I had to meet my group on Sunday. We were going to try the plated dessert as well as have another run at the macaroons and GL had a couple of things he wanted to try with the bread.
I overslept and got there a bit late, but I arrived with supplies. The others got the bread started, I wrote down a couple of recipes and I can't remember what else I did. Is it possible I did nothing? No...I remember being in the kitchen quite a bit. At some point we all had to get lunch - dim sum at a place down the street...then back to cooking, although by then we were all ready just to lie down and have a nap. I believe someone made that suggestion, only to be teased mercilessly by the rest of us for his choice of words (something about sleeping with several people).
So this was Sunday. Again I had to leave - I was supposed to have dinner with a friend. I'm not sure what was going on with the transportation this weekend - I arrived at her house almost an hour after I wanted to be there. Luckily for me she had already cooked so we could just sit down, chat and eat once I had settled in. My contribution to dinner: roasted red, yellow and orange bell peppers, marinated in olive oil, garlic and some salt (see the last post).
Dinner finished, LM and I had a chat about various things, then she showed me a couple of bits of a show - I think it's called Top Chef - Just Desserts - or something like that. Then I had to go home and go to bed because I had class at 8am on Monday.
Bread, more bread and still, more bread
Monday morning almost didn't start well. I remember waking up and thinking it odd that my alarm hadn't gone off. Except...it had been going off for almost an hour by the time I woke up. Somehow I managed to rush out of bed, finish packing my bag and get to school within 10 minutes or so. Got up to the boulangerie - chef CB had started, but not by much, thank goodness.
Then it was back to business as usual. He told us to time ourselves so that we could plan our times for the final exam. We all forgot when we put the brioches in the ovens, but hopefully we will remember that for tomorrow. My brioche had a few problems, but I think I know what they are. Tuesday morning is an opportunity to try again.
Bread went on until 2pm. We had an early break because there were things which needed to rest (like the baguette dough). Lunch was a ciabatta roll, which was delicious. We all ended up shaping 2 baguettes (Chef made the dough) - I gave one to Michael and Rufus, but I took the other one home and had it for my 2nd dinner with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Yes, I said 2nd dinner - the 1st dinner was leftover risotto from last night (thanks, LM!) with some marinated roasted peppers, a little fish and some chilli. The chilli didn't go with the risotto, so that was my bad. I had to wake myself back up to get ready for bed - I kind of passed out for a couple of hours on the sofa right after dinner. I really wanted to go to bed but it was something like 7pm - sad...
There was a restaurant dessert demo after breads, before I got to go home. I wish we'd had it before our entremets class - there are so many things I could have done better but just didn't know (or rather, I'd forgotten them). There was a fire drill right before the end of class...so I took the opportunity to take a photo of us going back to class...
Tuesday was one of my favorite days, mainly because I looovvvveee pain au chocolat. We had made the dough the day before and let it rest overnight. I had mixed the flour (half soft, half strong). Maybe we all know how to handle our dough better, maybe it's something else. For whatever reason, everyone agreed that this was a much better tasting croissant and pain au chocolat than those that we did in Intermediate (only just over 3 months ago now...) It's just so hard to beat the gooey, flaky goodness of a pain au chocolat fresh out of the oven. It leaves crumbs absolutely everywhere but is completely worth the extra clean down. Besides, it gave us something to do while we were waiting for various things (like the brioche attempt #2 to prove).
We also finished off a couple of different types of bread, among them our hedgehog (aka Pain Surprise).
We had to cut off the top of the bread, cut out the middle in one piece, slice the piece into thin discs of bread and make them into sandwiches. I had taken in some of my favorite sandwich fillings because I'm not a huge fan of salami (school supplied salami, ham and smoked salmon). I managed to get enough slices for 4 layers of sandwiches, then clapped the lid back on. My hedgehog supplied several people with dinner (he went to some friends the next night as dinner).
I have to admit that that night I just wanted lots of salad as we had already sampled Chef CB's hedgehog in class (with a glass of wine, for those who wanted some).
Wednesday was preparation for the Superior Cuisine event - doing the preparations and such. It was all starting to come together from the sound of things. I had unfortunately overslept - thank goodness ML called me to see where I was. I arrived there soon after and managed to get most of what needed to get done, done. There was a bit of unexpected (like burning the lemon juice off altogether because I was in a hurry and turned the burner up high, then forgot about it...whoops!)
We also had a demo for class, but didn't actually end up cooking food (as opposed to dessert) so when I went home, I ended up using the rest of the puff pastry in my fridge along with the poached pears and syrup from last week. SH, who was taking the hedgehog, loves poached pears and I needed the space in the fridge. I used the scraps to make palmiers with some caramelized madamia nuts as well - so it worked out for everyone. The only bad thing is that my oven is so uneven (gas flame, unevenly distributed) that it overcooked my palmiers a bit and killed the bread I was trying to bake with what was leftover from class.
The Event
Today was the Event. I have to say that when I saw the plates, I was impressed by what everyone had achieved. I can't believe how far we have come in a few short months (and we're still just under half way through this portion of our course). I am too tired to write too much about all the food, but here are the photos. I will add what the dishes are later, but for now...
So this is our week so far. Class tomorrow from 12 - 9pm, then I think I will come home and sleep a long time. Nothing but sleep and coffee on Saturday, possibly. Can't face being on my feet for long - didn't dare sit down after 6pm tonight for fear that if I sat, I wouldn't get back up again. Feet are protesting the unaccustomed amount of standing, walking and running they did around the kitchens and up and down the stairs.
Any errors are entirely the result of exhaustion and being unable to see straight. I hope you enjoyed the photos. I definitely enjoyed the food!
So until next time, may you feel and be rested.
Teamwork
Part of the Superior Cuisine course is to put on a Student Event dinner - I think I may have mentioned this before...
As much as the event is about the food, it is also about our ability to work as a team. (Personally I have a suspicion that it's also a clever piece of marketing for those students who haven't yet decided whether they will continue on to Superior Cuisine...) It's a fast sell out -where else can you have a multi - course meal for £15, which includes canapes, a cocktail (champagne?), a glass of red and white wine each and petit fours?
There are 2 dinner events each term - one by the 2 groups containing the Grand Diplome students ("GDs") (and a few other students to round out the complement, if there are fewer than 20 Grand Diplomes, as in our case), the other dinner by the remaining groups of students in Superior Cuisine. There is a rivalry which becomes apparent during the discussion over the breads and dessert planning session, mainly because the GDs want to take advantage of having learned more complicated things in Patisserie than the desserts taught in the Cuisine courses. We will see on Thursday night whether we over reached or whether we calculated our abilities well.
On Wednesday morning we will start our mise en place, then we cook from 12noon on Thursday until 6pm (or so says our schedule). Given that dinner starts at 7:30pm, we will be plating / serving our desserts around 9 / 9:30pm. Then there's clean down, possibly a mini-debrief (I've forgotten, it's somewhere on the schedule) then people will retire to the pub for a drink or ten.
***After the event...***
Our group is lucky - we don't have class until noon tomorrow(although we started Thursday with a demonstration). The other group has their first planning class for their entremets (the design your own dessert) which we had a the Saturday before last. It has definitely put a damper on their anticipation for drinks at the pub as they will need to be awake quite early. The school's rationale is that this is a small taste of what it might be like to work in a restaurant. According to Chef FJ, the day we did lobster was a small taste as well. Someone tole me we finished an hour late. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. I thought we finished an hour earlier - so much for thinking we had been more organized than the other groups. There has been some consideration as to whether they remove one of the dishes from that particular class. I seem to remember that when we were in basic, the Superior group ran quite late - and the reason I remember this is because it was a day when we had to do puff pastry (Day 1 of the allumettes de fromage, I think). Hmmm, same kitchen as well, now that I think of it.
The weekend just past
 |
| Trying out various ways to plate dessert |
So the whole point of this narrative safari is: we spent the weekend playing with food. Perhaps it doesn't sound serious when I say play, but that's what it felt like. Saturday started quite late - we had all had a fairly big week and we had to try out a couple of things. We had a few ingredients we didn't have enough of and we couldn't find it at the store, so we had to make a substitution. It never occurred to us that we wouldn't be able to find more icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar aka powdered sugar) when there were 3 stores within walking distance. So my friands (aka finaciers) seemed a bit odd - not what we remembered. Then TN tried her hand at them since she is slated to make them on Thursday. One of the guys who came a bit later brought the correct sugar, but there was still something not quite right. My suggestion was that it might be a result of us not using the correct moulds because we don't have them. Hopefully that is the case because we are running out of time.
We also had a try at the tea-scented macaroons. Um, no - they didn't work. Something wasn't quite right, so we ended up scrapping that idea and doing a variation of it (I think the tea is going to go into the filling, rather than the biscuit part). See right for practice photos.Sadler Wells
The baby pears were poached and prepared for the next day. I'm not sure what else we did, besides discuss, plan, bake (a bit) - I had to go because I had plans to go see the Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler Wells Theatre. The Sadler Wells had been on my list - part of the whole ballet revival in the UK and all that.
I went with one of the girls from my group, AM (from Argentina). She had been to see Swan Lake (Royal Ballet?) before, so hadn't had much exposure to ballet. This was one I hadn't seen before: La Fille Mal Gardee. It's a light, fluffy, old-fashioned ballet - the story is quite clear from the dancing. It's a problem I find with more modern ballets - quite often they don't have a story, in which case a person who hasn't had enough exposure to see and appreciate the nuances in technique might find it boring.
The Sadler Wells is quite a different atmosphere from Covent Garden. For one thing, it's not as opulent - to be expected, I think. In some ways it's a smaller and more intimate space - closer in terms of width and you end up looking down at the stage so that you can see the patterns much more easily. The company has its own orchestra who tours with them. The conductor (leader?) was sensitive to the dancers and could cue the music accurately enough to have the orchestra end with the dancer's last flourish after a variation - something which can lend a bit to the performance and sometimes help to disguise timing that is slightly off.
It was quite sweet to have the couple on my left discussing the performance between themselves. AM enjoyed herself as well and after the fiasco of getting to the theatre (she had a problem with the trains so we watched the first act on the screen, by the bar) it was pretty much smooth sailing for the rest of the night. We went for a late dinner down by Tottenham Court Road on a little street whose name I always forget. Then it was home to bed. She was ready to go out for a little boogie, but I had to meet my group on Sunday. We were going to try the plated dessert as well as have another run at the macaroons and GL had a couple of things he wanted to try with the bread.
I overslept and got there a bit late, but I arrived with supplies. The others got the bread started, I wrote down a couple of recipes and I can't remember what else I did. Is it possible I did nothing? No...I remember being in the kitchen quite a bit. At some point we all had to get lunch - dim sum at a place down the street...then back to cooking, although by then we were all ready just to lie down and have a nap. I believe someone made that suggestion, only to be teased mercilessly by the rest of us for his choice of words (something about sleeping with several people).
So this was Sunday. Again I had to leave - I was supposed to have dinner with a friend. I'm not sure what was going on with the transportation this weekend - I arrived at her house almost an hour after I wanted to be there. Luckily for me she had already cooked so we could just sit down, chat and eat once I had settled in. My contribution to dinner: roasted red, yellow and orange bell peppers, marinated in olive oil, garlic and some salt (see the last post).
Dinner finished, LM and I had a chat about various things, then she showed me a couple of bits of a show - I think it's called Top Chef - Just Desserts - or something like that. Then I had to go home and go to bed because I had class at 8am on Monday.
Bread, more bread and still, more bread
Monday morning almost didn't start well. I remember waking up and thinking it odd that my alarm hadn't gone off. Except...it had been going off for almost an hour by the time I woke up. Somehow I managed to rush out of bed, finish packing my bag and get to school within 10 minutes or so. Got up to the boulangerie - chef CB had started, but not by much, thank goodness.
Then it was back to business as usual. He told us to time ourselves so that we could plan our times for the final exam. We all forgot when we put the brioches in the ovens, but hopefully we will remember that for tomorrow. My brioche had a few problems, but I think I know what they are. Tuesday morning is an opportunity to try again.
 |
| Ciabatta and baguettes |
There was a restaurant dessert demo after breads, before I got to go home. I wish we'd had it before our entremets class - there are so many things I could have done better but just didn't know (or rather, I'd forgotten them). There was a fire drill right before the end of class...so I took the opportunity to take a photo of us going back to class... |
| Some of the other breads (Campagne, complet and more brioch) |
Tuesday was one of my favorite days, mainly because I looovvvveee pain au chocolat. We had made the dough the day before and let it rest overnight. I had mixed the flour (half soft, half strong). Maybe we all know how to handle our dough better, maybe it's something else. For whatever reason, everyone agreed that this was a much better tasting croissant and pain au chocolat than those that we did in Intermediate (only just over 3 months ago now...) It's just so hard to beat the gooey, flaky goodness of a pain au chocolat fresh out of the oven. It leaves crumbs absolutely everywhere but is completely worth the extra clean down. Besides, it gave us something to do while we were waiting for various things (like the brioche attempt #2 to prove).
  |
| It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye |
We also finished off a couple of different types of bread, among them our hedgehog (aka Pain Surprise).We had to cut off the top of the bread, cut out the middle in one piece, slice the piece into thin discs of bread and make them into sandwiches. I had taken in some of my favorite sandwich fillings because I'm not a huge fan of salami (school supplied salami, ham and smoked salmon). I managed to get enough slices for 4 layers of sandwiches, then clapped the lid back on. My hedgehog supplied several people with dinner (he went to some friends the next night as dinner).
 |
| Dinner - Tuesday |
I have to admit that that night I just wanted lots of salad as we had already sampled Chef CB's hedgehog in class (with a glass of wine, for those who wanted some).
Wednesday was preparation for the Superior Cuisine event - doing the preparations and such. It was all starting to come together from the sound of things. I had unfortunately overslept - thank goodness ML called me to see where I was. I arrived there soon after and managed to get most of what needed to get done, done. There was a bit of unexpected (like burning the lemon juice off altogether because I was in a hurry and turned the burner up high, then forgot about it...whoops!)
We also had a demo for class, but didn't actually end up cooking food (as opposed to dessert) so when I went home, I ended up using the rest of the puff pastry in my fridge along with the poached pears and syrup from last week. SH, who was taking the hedgehog, loves poached pears and I needed the space in the fridge. I used the scraps to make palmiers with some caramelized madamia nuts as well - so it worked out for everyone. The only bad thing is that my oven is so uneven (gas flame, unevenly distributed) that it overcooked my palmiers a bit and killed the bread I was trying to bake with what was leftover from class.The Event
 |
| Canapes |
 |
| Amuse bouche |
 |
| Starter - plating seared scallops |
 |
| Main - Partridge 2 ways |
 |
| Cheese course - brie de Meaux |
 |
| Plating the dessert trio |
 |
| Pear & Chestnut mousse entremet, poached Baby Pear and Armagnac Parfait |
 |
| Petit fours: Lemon Butter Logs, green Earl Grey tea Macaroons with salted caramel and Financiers |
So this is our week so far. Class tomorrow from 12 - 9pm, then I think I will come home and sleep a long time. Nothing but sleep and coffee on Saturday, possibly. Can't face being on my feet for long - didn't dare sit down after 6pm tonight for fear that if I sat, I wouldn't get back up again. Feet are protesting the unaccustomed amount of standing, walking and running they did around the kitchens and up and down the stairs.
Any errors are entirely the result of exhaustion and being unable to see straight. I hope you enjoyed the photos. I definitely enjoyed the food!
So until next time, may you feel and be rested.
Friday, October 21, 2011
#46 - The best laid plans, a first and Not-the-End-of-the-World
(Warning: long, rambling post...don't say you weren't warned)
I think the last post ended with a plan for my dessert idea. Well...it didn't work out quite as envisioned. In some ways this is a good thing because I now know what won't work. On the other hand, it wasn't good because (a) I probably got a bad grade on that set of classes and (b) I now have an idea of just how far apart Chef CB's and my tastebuds are (something on the magnitude of from here to Pluto). Which is to say, he said it was "tasteless as hell" and I thought it was way too sweet. My proposed solution? Add copious amounts of alcohol somewhere, but make sure it doesn't destabilize my mousse or jelly. By the way, writing about mousse - I looked at the recipe I had written down for a "pina colada mouse". Now that might have been an interesting dessert! So - to start at the beginning (for once):
The concept was sound but the execution was...
We spent Monday morning and afternoon making the components for our entremets. Tuesday around noon we finished assembling the desserts. The tuiles had to be put back in the oven to crisp up because they had gotten soggy overnight. Consequently the ones which had previously been bent into twirls and things snapped when I tried to bend them back after the second baking. Whoops. The chocolate was not good to begin with - Monday was so cold in the Patisserie that it had pretty much set by the time I had spread it, before I got around to making patterns and bending it. Note to self - must work even faster for the final...and I can hear Chef NB laughing in my head as I write this.
lacking...
I had misunderstood my brief a little bit. Since this was (I thought) part of our restaurant dessert module, I had planned on plating the thing - the plans including making a couple of different sauces and decorations. Ok, an entremet is always served on a cakeboard. No day in which you learn something is wasted and I have been learning a lot! On the other hand, my alcoholic pina colada sauce was a hit downstairs with Reception and the Administration office upstairs, or so I was told. Anyway, here are the photos of my unsuccessful dessert (fyi, Chef CB thought it was mango jelly - it wasn't).
These photos represent 4 class sessions: planning (session 1), making components (sessions 2 & 3) and assembly, presentation, critique and filling out paperwork (session 4). Given the results from this week, I now have a slightly better idea of what might work and what clearly won't. It may require quite a bit of tweaking for the final dessert plate idea, so I am glad that I hadn't started the portfolio yet. Sometimes procrastination does pay off!
In which we puzzle Chef FJ
Then it was straight on to a Cuisine practical, which was a bit unusual. We usually have Cuisine Wednesdays - Fridays. This one was particularly long. I thought we finished on time, or a little late which only goes to show how bad my sense of time is. In any event, one of the guys in my class burned his hand very badly on a pan handle (we had been roasting lobster shells in the oven) and had to go to the hospital. I had a couple of smaller burns on my left hand (same silly mistake) but they are mostly healed now.
My tomatoes got too vinegared in my dressing because I put them in too early and my lamb's lettuce was "burned by the dressing". Hence the reason why you always do it later - so the leaves don't go translucent and lose any crispness they may have. The celeriac salad was yummy, but only after I went home and added another whole spoonful of mustard (we made remoulade - pretty much mayonnaise - by hand in class) and a lot of salt. Yes, it would have been good if I had done that in class, but such is life. Still learning all the time. Chef was a bit unimpressed with the time and wanted to know why we couldn't get it done on time.
So the tips
I had to go to an osteo because I had tweaked a rib - but the appointment was for 2:30pm (can't be choosy about the time on such late notice). My practical was slated to end at 2:30, so I went to see Chef FJ (who had also had us the day before). I thought I would skip class. As Chef FJ laughs, hahahahaha. He said I would do class and leave at 1:30pm, but he gave me a break on the assignment - only do the risotto and the stuffed pepper. I thought about it and asked if I could also try the veal. Given how slow I am in the kitchen, he thought it was a big risk and was doubtful...so this is what I ended up presenting at the 1hr 34 minute mark (4 minutes over - "You're late! What am I going to do with you?")
In which Chef FJ was (a little) impressed - still not quite the end of the world
And yet, when I showed him the plate, everything was there except the Bayonne ham (because they didn't have any in the production kitchen). He wanted to know if I had done everything myself. Yes, Chef! I did...obviously not pefect, but I'm not sure I will ever get even close. A few things wrong with the timing, but it wasn't horrible, or so I hope. Others in class started to plate (and I assume present their dishes) soon after - but it was a nice feeling to get it all done and everyone was very encouraging as well. I have found out the secret to saving some time...which is not to worry about wasting a little bit. They threw out that little bit of carrot so I may as well use it to get the perfect little cubes rather than using as little as possible. The less wastage will come later (I hope). The chefs have been saying to treat our class days as we might an exam - given the nerves, shaking hands and nausea since I had to finish and go, I can only say that the Stanislawsky (sp?) school has something to say for it. Anyway, I still had to clean up before I could leave.
Chef FJ thought I took too long cleaning up, but having a look at my station (after I had cleaned away as much that was unnecessary as possible), wouldn't this take you longer than 5 minutes to clean up? Cleanup duly completed and all my knives cleaned, even had time for a quick shower before getting to the osteo (a little early). Must go back next week, but am back in working order.
More quail (cute, until they get blood everywhere)
Yesterday we had to make quail again. Puff pastry, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads...oops, forgot to tell the guys in the real estate agency there are sweetbreads in the puff pastry friands. I hope they like them. Or at least don't dislike them. We also did a mousse with minced chicken and thigh meat from the quail to spread around the quail, livers and sweetbreads to keep them from drying out. It was fairly warm in the Cuisine kitchen, which kept things a bit tricky with the pastry.
I have the leftover pastry scraps from some of the other students because we had discussed making mini-palmiers as part of our petit fours. The idea was subsequently abandoned, but I have the scraps in the fridge. I suppose this means I can used the poached pears to make some sort of puff pastry something-or-other so that nothing is wasted. Photos later, if I do them. This is a much nicer thought than what I was thinking while cleaning the quail carcasses for the sauce (yes, we butchered 2 of them).
You can't have blood and organs in the sauce because it will not be nice. On chickens this is fairly easy to address. In quails I have resorted to using the back of my knife to scrape out all the spongy (and wormy looking!) bits because it's kind of hard to get quail blood off your hands and the spongy bits feel disgusting. Plus you can't get all of it out unless you use something to get into those little nooks and crannies.
Switching gears - back to desserts, then ballet, then...
We finished our meeting about the Superior Dinner Event (now less than a week away, eek!) and it was still early enough that I got over to ballet class just in time for some exercise. It makes it a lot easier to sleep at night since it clears all the food stuff out of your head. Unless, that is, you're like me and you go grocery shopping at 9:30pm after cooking in class. I didn't want veal or quail (with livers and sweetbread) but Waitrose was selling a couple of salmon pieces for 30p. I was going to cook last night anyway, so I bought them. They were very nice on their own. They didn't taste as good with my salad dressing - something about the Cajun spices I put on the salmon not quite matching the dressing which tasted really good with the seafood ravioli (relax, only 6 raviolis!) but it was an interesting experiment.
I also roasted and marinated some bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) because they make a nice snack with french bread and we start our boulangerie modules on Monday. It feels so much more multi-task-y (even if it's just putting something in the oven) to think that you have 2 pots, a couple of bowls and the oven all going on at once, even if it's all easy, simple stuff. Apparently I am not quite tired of cooking and I knew we wouldn't be cooking at school today.
For now, it is Friday night. I have put on a load of washing (yes, more laundry - I dropped a piece of quail yesterday and it left marks down the front of my apron), written this entry and am about to go meet several of my London friends for dinner. We are celebrating a new job and seeing each other again after a while.
There has been a fair amount of sun this week, which always makes things seem so much brighter. There have been lots of discussions about technique, feasibility of various ideas, potential execution problems, an experiment or three as we prepare for our Student Event. Tickets went on sale yesterday (or possibly the day before) - today there was a sign up at reception informing students that they are all sold out - quite encouraging.
Have been watching the chefs even more closely during demonstrations. I think I have counted up to 7 pots and pans going on at once while things are still being done for other preparations. Way better than watching...is it Masterchef which is full of amateurs cooking? We can't predict the lines which always makes it more entertaining.
Until next time, may you have as enjoyable a week as I have had with all my classes and phone calls home. If everyone could have even half as nice a week, what a happy world we would live in. As it is, people seem pretty cheery and happy most of the time anyway. Everyone has been telling each other to have a nice day (I heard them) and smiling at each other.
I think the last post ended with a plan for my dessert idea. Well...it didn't work out quite as envisioned. In some ways this is a good thing because I now know what won't work. On the other hand, it wasn't good because (a) I probably got a bad grade on that set of classes and (b) I now have an idea of just how far apart Chef CB's and my tastebuds are (something on the magnitude of from here to Pluto). Which is to say, he said it was "tasteless as hell" and I thought it was way too sweet. My proposed solution? Add copious amounts of alcohol somewhere, but make sure it doesn't destabilize my mousse or jelly. By the way, writing about mousse - I looked at the recipe I had written down for a "pina colada mouse". Now that might have been an interesting dessert! So - to start at the beginning (for once):
The concept was sound but the execution was...
We spent Monday morning and afternoon making the components for our entremets. Tuesday around noon we finished assembling the desserts. The tuiles had to be put back in the oven to crisp up because they had gotten soggy overnight. Consequently the ones which had previously been bent into twirls and things snapped when I tried to bend them back after the second baking. Whoops. The chocolate was not good to begin with - Monday was so cold in the Patisserie that it had pretty much set by the time I had spread it, before I got around to making patterns and bending it. Note to self - must work even faster for the final...and I can hear Chef NB laughing in my head as I write this.
lacking...
I had misunderstood my brief a little bit. Since this was (I thought) part of our restaurant dessert module, I had planned on plating the thing - the plans including making a couple of different sauces and decorations. Ok, an entremet is always served on a cakeboard. No day in which you learn something is wasted and I have been learning a lot! On the other hand, my alcoholic pina colada sauce was a hit downstairs with Reception and the Administration office upstairs, or so I was told. Anyway, here are the photos of my unsuccessful dessert (fyi, Chef CB thought it was mango jelly - it wasn't).These photos represent 4 class sessions: planning (session 1), making components (sessions 2 & 3) and assembly, presentation, critique and filling out paperwork (session 4). Given the results from this week, I now have a slightly better idea of what might work and what clearly won't. It may require quite a bit of tweaking for the final dessert plate idea, so I am glad that I hadn't started the portfolio yet. Sometimes procrastination does pay off!
In which we puzzle Chef FJ
Then it was straight on to a Cuisine practical, which was a bit unusual. We usually have Cuisine Wednesdays - Fridays. This one was particularly long. I thought we finished on time, or a little late which only goes to show how bad my sense of time is. In any event, one of the guys in my class burned his hand very badly on a pan handle (we had been roasting lobster shells in the oven) and had to go to the hospital. I had a couple of smaller burns on my left hand (same silly mistake) but they are mostly healed now.
My tomatoes got too vinegared in my dressing because I put them in too early and my lamb's lettuce was "burned by the dressing". Hence the reason why you always do it later - so the leaves don't go translucent and lose any crispness they may have. The celeriac salad was yummy, but only after I went home and added another whole spoonful of mustard (we made remoulade - pretty much mayonnaise - by hand in class) and a lot of salt. Yes, it would have been good if I had done that in class, but such is life. Still learning all the time. Chef was a bit unimpressed with the time and wanted to know why we couldn't get it done on time.
So the tips
- Don't dress your salad too early unless you like limp lettuce;
- Don't grab a hot pan (duh! to quote one of the Patisserie chefs);
- Don't put your tomatoes in the dressing too early or they will be "not tasty";
- When in doubt, add a bit of salt;
- When in doubt, don't add vinegar;
I had to go to an osteo because I had tweaked a rib - but the appointment was for 2:30pm (can't be choosy about the time on such late notice). My practical was slated to end at 2:30, so I went to see Chef FJ (who had also had us the day before). I thought I would skip class. As Chef FJ laughs, hahahahaha. He said I would do class and leave at 1:30pm, but he gave me a break on the assignment - only do the risotto and the stuffed pepper. I thought about it and asked if I could also try the veal. Given how slow I am in the kitchen, he thought it was a big risk and was doubtful...so this is what I ended up presenting at the 1hr 34 minute mark (4 minutes over - "You're late! What am I going to do with you?")
In which Chef FJ was (a little) impressed - still not quite the end of the world
And yet, when I showed him the plate, everything was there except the Bayonne ham (because they didn't have any in the production kitchen). He wanted to know if I had done everything myself. Yes, Chef! I did...obviously not pefect, but I'm not sure I will ever get even close. A few things wrong with the timing, but it wasn't horrible, or so I hope. Others in class started to plate (and I assume present their dishes) soon after - but it was a nice feeling to get it all done and everyone was very encouraging as well. I have found out the secret to saving some time...which is not to worry about wasting a little bit. They threw out that little bit of carrot so I may as well use it to get the perfect little cubes rather than using as little as possible. The less wastage will come later (I hope). The chefs have been saying to treat our class days as we might an exam - given the nerves, shaking hands and nausea since I had to finish and go, I can only say that the Stanislawsky (sp?) school has something to say for it. Anyway, I still had to clean up before I could leave.
Chef FJ thought I took too long cleaning up, but having a look at my station (after I had cleaned away as much that was unnecessary as possible), wouldn't this take you longer than 5 minutes to clean up? Cleanup duly completed and all my knives cleaned, even had time for a quick shower before getting to the osteo (a little early). Must go back next week, but am back in working order.More quail (cute, until they get blood everywhere)
Yesterday we had to make quail again. Puff pastry, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads...oops, forgot to tell the guys in the real estate agency there are sweetbreads in the puff pastry friands. I hope they like them. Or at least don't dislike them. We also did a mousse with minced chicken and thigh meat from the quail to spread around the quail, livers and sweetbreads to keep them from drying out. It was fairly warm in the Cuisine kitchen, which kept things a bit tricky with the pastry.I have the leftover pastry scraps from some of the other students because we had discussed making mini-palmiers as part of our petit fours. The idea was subsequently abandoned, but I have the scraps in the fridge. I suppose this means I can used the poached pears to make some sort of puff pastry something-or-other so that nothing is wasted. Photos later, if I do them. This is a much nicer thought than what I was thinking while cleaning the quail carcasses for the sauce (yes, we butchered 2 of them).
You can't have blood and organs in the sauce because it will not be nice. On chickens this is fairly easy to address. In quails I have resorted to using the back of my knife to scrape out all the spongy (and wormy looking!) bits because it's kind of hard to get quail blood off your hands and the spongy bits feel disgusting. Plus you can't get all of it out unless you use something to get into those little nooks and crannies.
Switching gears - back to desserts, then ballet, then...
We finished our meeting about the Superior Dinner Event (now less than a week away, eek!) and it was still early enough that I got over to ballet class just in time for some exercise. It makes it a lot easier to sleep at night since it clears all the food stuff out of your head. Unless, that is, you're like me and you go grocery shopping at 9:30pm after cooking in class. I didn't want veal or quail (with livers and sweetbread) but Waitrose was selling a couple of salmon pieces for 30p. I was going to cook last night anyway, so I bought them. They were very nice on their own. They didn't taste as good with my salad dressing - something about the Cajun spices I put on the salmon not quite matching the dressing which tasted really good with the seafood ravioli (relax, only 6 raviolis!) but it was an interesting experiment.
I also roasted and marinated some bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) because they make a nice snack with french bread and we start our boulangerie modules on Monday. It feels so much more multi-task-y (even if it's just putting something in the oven) to think that you have 2 pots, a couple of bowls and the oven all going on at once, even if it's all easy, simple stuff. Apparently I am not quite tired of cooking and I knew we wouldn't be cooking at school today.
For now, it is Friday night. I have put on a load of washing (yes, more laundry - I dropped a piece of quail yesterday and it left marks down the front of my apron), written this entry and am about to go meet several of my London friends for dinner. We are celebrating a new job and seeing each other again after a while.
There has been a fair amount of sun this week, which always makes things seem so much brighter. There have been lots of discussions about technique, feasibility of various ideas, potential execution problems, an experiment or three as we prepare for our Student Event. Tickets went on sale yesterday (or possibly the day before) - today there was a sign up at reception informing students that they are all sold out - quite encouraging.
Have been watching the chefs even more closely during demonstrations. I think I have counted up to 7 pots and pans going on at once while things are still being done for other preparations. Way better than watching...is it Masterchef which is full of amateurs cooking? We can't predict the lines which always makes it more entertaining.
Until next time, may you have as enjoyable a week as I have had with all my classes and phone calls home. If everyone could have even half as nice a week, what a happy world we would live in. As it is, people seem pretty cheery and happy most of the time anyway. Everyone has been telling each other to have a nice day (I heard them) and smiling at each other.
Monday, October 17, 2011
#45 - Planning, planning, planning...dessert!
Reprieve
Saturday was supposed to be a double session - 8am - 11am, plan out an entremet (fancy dessert with multiple layers and textures filled with a mousse or a mousse-type filling) and decorated with things to show our artistic and technical skills with chocolate, possibly sugar, tuiles, flavor combinations and creativity, then 12 - 3pm making the bases for our desserts. Um, ok...it all sounds really good in theory, except sometimes it takes a while for ideas to come. So the first 3-hour set (or rather, a bit later) was spent trying to get our ideas together.
Lucky for us our chefs had pity on my group. We were slated to start building the bases for our desserts that day (!) and finish them today with all decorations, etc. then get our feedback this afternoon. It wouldn't have given us a chance to put in special requests for items not on the list of available ingredients or to figure out how to make certain items (for example, how to deal with wanting pineapple flavor in my mousse when pineapple contains some enzyme which keeps the mousse from setting). After checking schedules, we were offered the chance to leave early on Saturday and have the feedback session on Tuesday at noon instead, giving the chefs time to order in special ingredients between Saturday and Monday afternoon. Since all of us appear to be endowed with a certain amount of intelligence (or a sense of self-preservation), we all elected to wait until Monday afternoon to start the bases for our entremets. I am hoping mine will be quite delicious. Surely they will be able to guess the general theme given the request for coconut, pineapple and Malibu rum...
Starting at the end
Obviously I am not any good at starting at the beginning and continuing until I get to the end. I seem to start at the end quite often, then loop back to the beginning. Thankfully my name is not Alice and I don't have to worry about hearing "Off with her head!" in reference to the separation of said head from my body due to the inability to start at the beginning.
Back to the beginning - sort of
The last post ended with the chocolate box, truffles and finally having an item finished for presentation. The lid fell out of the package on my way home and smashed into a zillion pieces. The box and the truffles went to one of the girls in Cuisine - she likes chocolate and I am happy to see the end of chocolate - until Monday afternoon when we will be doing more work with it.
Return of the Evil Puff Pastry - Take...9,783,301
Ok, this heading might be guilty of a tiny bit of hyperbole and just a little drama queenishness, but it's quite true. We had to make puff pastry on Wednesday in preparation for Part II of our Beef Wellington practical. Beef Wellington Part I involved making the puff pastry in a cuisine kitchen, which we have aready established is not cool. In addition, foie gras needed to be seared, truffles sliced, a lot of mushrooms chopped, a few other things chopped, sliced and diced and a chicken mousse made. In between various steps the puff pastry needed to have a few more turns and the beef stuffed with cooled cooked foie gras before being tied and cooked to rare. Doesn't seem like a lot except that after the last time I made a mousse, I was too nervous to rush it this time. I'm not sure where all the time went, but went it did and I was left at the end of the practical wondering what alternate dimension I had been in while everyone had been cooking in this one.
Fortunate ones
Thursday morning did not start well for a couple of the Cuisine groups. Somehow the cool room, where they had stored their puff pastry, prepared beef, chicken mousse and the remaining mise en place from the day before, had had the power turned off overnight. The result was that anything that contained protein was not usable and they had to start again (although apparently they were given puff pastry from the rolls the school has when we don't have to make our own and the chef made more mousse for them), then finish their Beef Wellingtons. I have to say, the students in those groups were very cool about it all. Maybe it was different in the kitchens, but when we saw them outside later, they were fairly philosophical.
My beef ok - a bit overdone on the very outside because I didn't sear it quickly enough, although it was rare in the middle, which was the aim. The good part about it was that LM had been wanting to try the Beef Wellington for a while. This piece was supposed to serve 2. It ended up more as about 3-4 meals. Neither of us likes foie gras as a general rule. I picked mine out and she managed to eat hers. There was no sauce left to speak of since it had all been poured on the meat which had soaked it all up by the time I got it home. As always, the meal was much more enjoyable when shared with a friend.
The next day was a red mullet in crispy potato scales - a signature dish at Bocuse. It seemed straightforward enough - make a broccoli flan, clean 2 scallops, boil the shells, butcher a fish, make a sauce, cover the fish fillets in scales made of potato slices. Except somehow that managed to take all of the time allotted to the practical. One of these days I will have something that is good pretty much all around. Fish day was not one of them. We had to mount the sauce in butter at the end but it kept reducing while I was waiting to plate. The result - a thick, buttery sauce which was to heavy for a plate where the fish was basically fried, covered in fried potato scales (yes, we had to lay them on one piece at a time) and a flan with double cream in it. Saffron also tends to get pretty strong when it reduces for that long, so must learn to keep from forgetting about the sauces on the stove while doing other things.
We happened to make it and finish just in time for lunch. 3 guesses as to what I had for lunch that day (and the last 2 don't count).
Friday night was a quiet-ish one. That is to say, there was a brief stop at the pub before heading off to ballet class. A teacher whose class I haven't taken before - learned a lot, still feeling it in the legs...
A perfect afternoon
Then of course there was the Saturday morning and the reprieve mentioned at the beginning of this post. It turned into one of those relaxed afternoons - I met up with LM and we had a late lunch in Chelsea, then wandered around a bit. It was the usual perfect girly afternoon - we chatted about a zillion things but if you asked what they were, I couldn't tell you.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, a little on the cool side - perfect, because it's not as nice to walk around it if it's hot. We passed the Chelsea (Farmer's?) Market - it only took a glance at each other before we headed in the entrance. I think we were both expecting something like Borough Market - a big, sprawling market with lots of stalls and things. It was actually a few restaurants / pub-type things and an organic store. It was cleverly designed so once you went in, you kind of got funneled past the shops and restaurants. There was also something that looked like a giant green house, once you got past the little atrium of flowers which just looks like a flower stall. We didn't make it in because it was getting on in the afternoon and we were headed to lunch at a bar whose name I can't remember. There was a garden area but it was such a nice day that it was crowded out there (and the smokers were outside, which I find tends to spoil the taste of your food if you aren't a smoker). Inside it was, and a very unhealthy but yummy lunch.
The nice thing about being a grown-up (or at least being able to go places by yourself and do mostly what you want to do) is that if you want to, you can have crispy fried chicken bits and nachos and a chili dog (all beef - my first chili dog ever) and no one will say anything. For those of you who know me, I shared all that food...it appears that London has revealed the limits to even my appetite.
After a late lunch we headed to Oxford Street and John Lewis - LM wanted a particular cake pan (they didn't have it) and we both needed to do some baby shopping. She had a godson whose christening is coming up and I have a niece or a nephew arriving soon. And of course since it was close to the children's section, she and I both ended up shopping for our respective nieces.
At the end of it all, we both had quite a few items and had to take ourselves out. It helped that the store was closing! We dropped off a few things, then had a quick bite (well, hers was quick) while we discussed what she was going to do for the dessert after the christening. There were certain constraints on what she could do and they limited her options. The result was something that she is going to try out this week, using the big pan I bought which has adjustable dividers.
(Our bite - because it's French food. The beef bourguinon was delicious and she loved her feuilletine with chocolate mousse thing. True to form she went for the sweets and I went for the food.)
Then I remembered I still had leftover puff pastry from beef wellington and it needed to be used. We have a student event dinner coming up and the palmiers I made with the leftover pastry were so cute, I proposed them as a possible petit four to my team mates. I also finally see why we don't use this puff pastry for croissants.
Saturday was supposed to be a double session - 8am - 11am, plan out an entremet (fancy dessert with multiple layers and textures filled with a mousse or a mousse-type filling) and decorated with things to show our artistic and technical skills with chocolate, possibly sugar, tuiles, flavor combinations and creativity, then 12 - 3pm making the bases for our desserts. Um, ok...it all sounds really good in theory, except sometimes it takes a while for ideas to come. So the first 3-hour set (or rather, a bit later) was spent trying to get our ideas together.
Lucky for us our chefs had pity on my group. We were slated to start building the bases for our desserts that day (!) and finish them today with all decorations, etc. then get our feedback this afternoon. It wouldn't have given us a chance to put in special requests for items not on the list of available ingredients or to figure out how to make certain items (for example, how to deal with wanting pineapple flavor in my mousse when pineapple contains some enzyme which keeps the mousse from setting). After checking schedules, we were offered the chance to leave early on Saturday and have the feedback session on Tuesday at noon instead, giving the chefs time to order in special ingredients between Saturday and Monday afternoon. Since all of us appear to be endowed with a certain amount of intelligence (or a sense of self-preservation), we all elected to wait until Monday afternoon to start the bases for our entremets. I am hoping mine will be quite delicious. Surely they will be able to guess the general theme given the request for coconut, pineapple and Malibu rum...
Starting at the end
Obviously I am not any good at starting at the beginning and continuing until I get to the end. I seem to start at the end quite often, then loop back to the beginning. Thankfully my name is not Alice and I don't have to worry about hearing "Off with her head!" in reference to the separation of said head from my body due to the inability to start at the beginning.
Back to the beginning - sort of
The last post ended with the chocolate box, truffles and finally having an item finished for presentation. The lid fell out of the package on my way home and smashed into a zillion pieces. The box and the truffles went to one of the girls in Cuisine - she likes chocolate and I am happy to see the end of chocolate - until Monday afternoon when we will be doing more work with it.
Return of the Evil Puff Pastry - Take...9,783,301
Ok, this heading might be guilty of a tiny bit of hyperbole and just a little drama queenishness, but it's quite true. We had to make puff pastry on Wednesday in preparation for Part II of our Beef Wellington practical. Beef Wellington Part I involved making the puff pastry in a cuisine kitchen, which we have aready established is not cool. In addition, foie gras needed to be seared, truffles sliced, a lot of mushrooms chopped, a few other things chopped, sliced and diced and a chicken mousse made. In between various steps the puff pastry needed to have a few more turns and the beef stuffed with cooled cooked foie gras before being tied and cooked to rare. Doesn't seem like a lot except that after the last time I made a mousse, I was too nervous to rush it this time. I'm not sure where all the time went, but went it did and I was left at the end of the practical wondering what alternate dimension I had been in while everyone had been cooking in this one.
Fortunate ones
Thursday morning did not start well for a couple of the Cuisine groups. Somehow the cool room, where they had stored their puff pastry, prepared beef, chicken mousse and the remaining mise en place from the day before, had had the power turned off overnight. The result was that anything that contained protein was not usable and they had to start again (although apparently they were given puff pastry from the rolls the school has when we don't have to make our own and the chef made more mousse for them), then finish their Beef Wellingtons. I have to say, the students in those groups were very cool about it all. Maybe it was different in the kitchens, but when we saw them outside later, they were fairly philosophical.My beef ok - a bit overdone on the very outside because I didn't sear it quickly enough, although it was rare in the middle, which was the aim. The good part about it was that LM had been wanting to try the Beef Wellington for a while. This piece was supposed to serve 2. It ended up more as about 3-4 meals. Neither of us likes foie gras as a general rule. I picked mine out and she managed to eat hers. There was no sauce left to speak of since it had all been poured on the meat which had soaked it all up by the time I got it home. As always, the meal was much more enjoyable when shared with a friend.
The next day was a red mullet in crispy potato scales - a signature dish at Bocuse. It seemed straightforward enough - make a broccoli flan, clean 2 scallops, boil the shells, butcher a fish, make a sauce, cover the fish fillets in scales made of potato slices. Except somehow that managed to take all of the time allotted to the practical. One of these days I will have something that is good pretty much all around. Fish day was not one of them. We had to mount the sauce in butter at the end but it kept reducing while I was waiting to plate. The result - a thick, buttery sauce which was to heavy for a plate where the fish was basically fried, covered in fried potato scales (yes, we had to lay them on one piece at a time) and a flan with double cream in it. Saffron also tends to get pretty strong when it reduces for that long, so must learn to keep from forgetting about the sauces on the stove while doing other things.We happened to make it and finish just in time for lunch. 3 guesses as to what I had for lunch that day (and the last 2 don't count).
Friday night was a quiet-ish one. That is to say, there was a brief stop at the pub before heading off to ballet class. A teacher whose class I haven't taken before - learned a lot, still feeling it in the legs...
A perfect afternoon
Then of course there was the Saturday morning and the reprieve mentioned at the beginning of this post. It turned into one of those relaxed afternoons - I met up with LM and we had a late lunch in Chelsea, then wandered around a bit. It was the usual perfect girly afternoon - we chatted about a zillion things but if you asked what they were, I couldn't tell you.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, a little on the cool side - perfect, because it's not as nice to walk around it if it's hot. We passed the Chelsea (Farmer's?) Market - it only took a glance at each other before we headed in the entrance. I think we were both expecting something like Borough Market - a big, sprawling market with lots of stalls and things. It was actually a few restaurants / pub-type things and an organic store. It was cleverly designed so once you went in, you kind of got funneled past the shops and restaurants. There was also something that looked like a giant green house, once you got past the little atrium of flowers which just looks like a flower stall. We didn't make it in because it was getting on in the afternoon and we were headed to lunch at a bar whose name I can't remember. There was a garden area but it was such a nice day that it was crowded out there (and the smokers were outside, which I find tends to spoil the taste of your food if you aren't a smoker). Inside it was, and a very unhealthy but yummy lunch.
The nice thing about being a grown-up (or at least being able to go places by yourself and do mostly what you want to do) is that if you want to, you can have crispy fried chicken bits and nachos and a chili dog (all beef - my first chili dog ever) and no one will say anything. For those of you who know me, I shared all that food...it appears that London has revealed the limits to even my appetite.
After a late lunch we headed to Oxford Street and John Lewis - LM wanted a particular cake pan (they didn't have it) and we both needed to do some baby shopping. She had a godson whose christening is coming up and I have a niece or a nephew arriving soon. And of course since it was close to the children's section, she and I both ended up shopping for our respective nieces.
At the end of it all, we both had quite a few items and had to take ourselves out. It helped that the store was closing! We dropped off a few things, then had a quick bite (well, hers was quick) while we discussed what she was going to do for the dessert after the christening. There were certain constraints on what she could do and they limited her options. The result was something that she is going to try out this week, using the big pan I bought which has adjustable dividers.
(Our bite - because it's French food. The beef bourguinon was delicious and she loved her feuilletine with chocolate mousse thing. True to form she went for the sweets and I went for the food.)
Then I remembered I still had leftover puff pastry from beef wellington and it needed to be used. We have a student event dinner coming up and the palmiers I made with the leftover pastry were so cute, I proposed them as a possible petit four to my team mates. I also finally see why we don't use this puff pastry for croissants. Sunday morning and a tense morning of watching the Rugby World Cup and lamenting the Wallabies' form. Occasional flashes of brilliance and a general improvement over some of their previous problem areas, but not up to their best standard. Playing against the All Blacks, I'm not sure that a team can afford to play less than their best. Especially since NZ was trying to break away from their tendency to lose to Australia during the World Cup - well, at least during the last couple that I've seen.
This was followed by brunch, which turned into lunch in Islington. I was meeting ACP and KP for lunch, whom I hadn't seen since late August or so. They are expecting Baby P so ACP is a bit restricted in what she can eat. Fortunately palmiers are on the list of "can eat". Lunch was ok, but the company was excellent. Quick dinner with a friend from Australia (who has now relocated to London) at a pub, then home to prepare recipes, etc. for class.
Entremets (aka fancy dessert of our own design aka Tropical Sunset - because I didn't want to put Hawaii in the title)
Thank goodness I checked my schedule last night. I thought we had class from 3-9pm, which has been the case for the last couple of weeks. Of course if I had turned up at 3pm today, class would have been over. That's right, it started at 8am.
Am rethinking making fruit glazes - reducing juice takes a long time and you have to reduce the amount of water to concentrate the flavor, as well as other technical things which I can't remember right now, but it's important because of our final exam (which is 8 weeks away). Have realized that my time plans are completely unrealistic. They might be fine if I were SuperChef or something, but since I'm just me...we'll see how it comes out tomorrow. One of my jellies didn't set today - thank goodness I'd made a second one (and added a tiny tad more gelatine to it). We put everything together and we unmould them tomorrow, then finish our decorating. My chocolate was really bad today - it set so fast that I couldn't bend it without cracking it. Hopefully they broken pieces will be big enough to use. The tuiles kept breaking because of the toasted coconut in the mix - I forgot that if you put things in the batter, they can make it more fragile. We'll see what's left tomorrow...
In the meantime, have made a pina colada mousse, poached pear and compote, passion orange jelly, have reduced the passionfruit puree and orange juice for the glaze tomorrow and kept back some of the Malibu for the pina colada coulis. Haven't worked out what I'm going to do with the crunchy biscuit layer yet...photos forthcoming. I believe there will be tasting (and judgement?) tomorrow. For now, I am doing more laundry to combat the insidious appearance of chocolate in odd places - hardly ever on the front of my jacket, but frequently on the left sleeve or the right elbow...
One of the other girls did something with pina colada too, which I only found out this morning. No problem, we shared the coconut milk. She is extremely artistic and ended up tempering white chocolate, some of which she colored, before piping her chocolate decorations. I expect it will all be very impressive and am looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. Chef GB had a little taste and said it was a sexy mousse. Great to see passion for food doesn't fade.
So until next time, share a bite, share a story and have fun with your loved ones.
(I actually started writing this on Saturday, so please ignore any lapses in the chronology.)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
#44 - Jinxes, chocolate and more chocolate.
It has been just a few short days since the last post and already it feels like things are starting to ratchet up about 100 notches. For one thing, we now have our briefs for our final exams for each of Cuisine and Patisserie.
Let the Panicking begin
The Patisserie final is 6 hours long and designed to take up pretty much every second of those 6 hours. Am seriously contemplating the need for those astronaut diaper things - they don't stop the clock once it starts. We are having 6-hour stints in Patisserie at the moment as quite a few of our practicals require 2 parts (we get a break in the middle, our pieces get a chance to set before assembling) so it's almost a chance to get used to working for that time. This entire term is basically going to be spent going over things to prepare us for our final (3 compulsory items, poured sugar sculpture and our 2 identical plated desserts which have 8 components by the time you get to the sauces and decorations).
The Cuisine final is 4 hours long - and includes my current bete-noir, Hollandaise. Hopefully we get an extra egg or two because poached eggs have known to break during reheating under the stress of plating. We have to plate two identical starters (savory shortcrust pastry tart with what looks like sauteed spinach, poached egg, Hollandaise and garnish) then two identical main course plates (pigeon, chicken mousse[?], more turned vegetables, confit something or other and sauce).
Recap
Ah, but I am ahead of myself here. First, a backtrack to the last two Cuisine dishes from last week: the herb crusted salmon steak with mushroom flan and Madeira jus, followed by the grilled Lamb Noisettes with Potatoes Maxim and Asparagus with Hollandaise.
The Salmon Steak
I think I am jinxed when Chef FJ is in the kitchen. Every single practical we have had with him has ended with sad food...in this case, the salmon was overcooked (I like it cooked all the way through but they wanted it medium) and the mushroom flan was too egg-y, even though I followed the recipe. I can't tell if the photo I have is of Chef's demo plate or mine, so I have left it out. I suspect it's the demo plate because the mousse looks fine on it and mine had problems.
I have promised Chef FJ that one of these days I will get him a good dish. He said he is waiting...
Lamb Noisettes
This one was a bit of a Three Bears and Goldilocks plate - I thought I sliced the pieces evenly but somehow ended up with one overcooked (just how I like it), one just right (medium) and one undercooked. Part of that was running out of time - I'm not quite sure how or when, but it happened.
Return of the Evil Hollandaise
Well, a variation of the evil Hollandaise, anyway. I'm not sure if the difficulty here is that the sauce is actually so difficult or whether I've gotten psyched out by its reputation. In any case, it seemed to be going well, then split while I was adding my butter before service, which is why it is missing from my asparagus stems. The result was a slightly acidic butter coating on the asparagus (which needed more salt - go figure).
A deep breath
Then it was a lovely weekend of catching up with friends (World Cup Rugby breakfast on Saturday, lunch cooked for me by a friend, dinner with another friend from Sydney) dancing on Sunday and trying to figure out my recipes for Cuisine and Superior finals. Oh - and laundry. Somehow I ended up doing laundry every day last week due to chocolate mysteriously appearing in random places on my uniform and the heat in the Cuisine kitchens (a cool and breezy 33C).
Chocolate nightmare
Monday was not a good day this week. It started out well enough with tempering the chocolate. The problems came when it was time to unmould our large egg moulds - my chocolate egg halves came out of the moulds like they were supposed to when I flipped it. Unfortunately, I happened to tap the mould down to release the last egg (there were 3 halves) just as one of them dropped out of the mould. The result: unmitigated disaster. I tried to fix the egg but ended up having to borrow Chef's egg in order to finish the windmill. Having handled the base so much, my fingers left smudges all over it which is why it's not shiny in the photo.
Then of course there was the cracking of the windmill blades (?) themselves. Oh dear...the only thing that turned out ok were the practice milk chocolate truffle shells, although they could use a bit more white chocolate by way of decoration so that it doesn't look like a mistake. We have to use 2 different colors of chocolate and temper both simultaneously. This was just a practice run - I am so glad they built in so much practice time for these. If something must go wrong, better to do it while there is a chef in the room so they can tell you what you did wrong (other than being stubborn and not listening to them).
We don't need no stinkin' gym!
One of the things about tempering chocolate (other than trying to keep your own temper when things are not going well) is that the initial melting and tempering becomes easier (not easy, you'll note). The hard part comes with trying to keep it at the right temperature to use. The Chefs can tell pretty much by looking at it. I have to check by using the back of my finger. So as it gets cooler, it gets thicker and more viscous. Which isn't fun when you have to keep stirring it to get it back to temperature. I haven't been to the gym in longer than I care to remember, but all the aching arms (both of them, from switching when one gets tired) have resulted in getting stronger. Moms have babies, Patisserie students have chocolate. And dough.
Sweet success
Today went much better - the chocolate tempered, the shells for the truffles got made (ok, a little thick at the very top) and the chocolate box was (mostly) ok except for the little bit where I didn't spread enough chocolate for the bottom. There was a certain amount of hurry up and wait because you have to work fast with the chocolate when you work with it, then you have to wait for it to set.
Somehow the mistakes got salvaged with the result on the left. This is my Chocolate Box (entirely made of chocolate) and a couple of different types of chocolate technique thrown in - or rather, required by Chef CB. I wanted to do a swirl but the pieces kept breaking (hence the skinny ones) and the ones I had meant to make swirly ended up being the larger curls. At this point, I was just happy to get them on the box.
One of the girls in class didn't want her white chocolate truffles so she offered them to me - I put them in my box because they all look so pretty together. And I dropped the box lid on the way home, so it's good I have the couple of extra truffles kicking around in there - it doesn't look quite as incomplete.
Tomorrow we get going in Cuisine again - Beef Wellington Part 1 (the puff pastry, chicken mousse, beef and a few other bits and pieces). Wish us luck with the puff pastry. I have a feeling we are going to have to work on the baking trays again because we don't start cooking until noon. I am guessing the kitchen will be hot.
Until next time - enjoy the eating. And now I know why chocolates are so darn expensive!
Let the Panicking begin
The Patisserie final is 6 hours long and designed to take up pretty much every second of those 6 hours. Am seriously contemplating the need for those astronaut diaper things - they don't stop the clock once it starts. We are having 6-hour stints in Patisserie at the moment as quite a few of our practicals require 2 parts (we get a break in the middle, our pieces get a chance to set before assembling) so it's almost a chance to get used to working for that time. This entire term is basically going to be spent going over things to prepare us for our final (3 compulsory items, poured sugar sculpture and our 2 identical plated desserts which have 8 components by the time you get to the sauces and decorations).
The Cuisine final is 4 hours long - and includes my current bete-noir, Hollandaise. Hopefully we get an extra egg or two because poached eggs have known to break during reheating under the stress of plating. We have to plate two identical starters (savory shortcrust pastry tart with what looks like sauteed spinach, poached egg, Hollandaise and garnish) then two identical main course plates (pigeon, chicken mousse[?], more turned vegetables, confit something or other and sauce).
Recap
Ah, but I am ahead of myself here. First, a backtrack to the last two Cuisine dishes from last week: the herb crusted salmon steak with mushroom flan and Madeira jus, followed by the grilled Lamb Noisettes with Potatoes Maxim and Asparagus with Hollandaise.
The Salmon Steak
I think I am jinxed when Chef FJ is in the kitchen. Every single practical we have had with him has ended with sad food...in this case, the salmon was overcooked (I like it cooked all the way through but they wanted it medium) and the mushroom flan was too egg-y, even though I followed the recipe. I can't tell if the photo I have is of Chef's demo plate or mine, so I have left it out. I suspect it's the demo plate because the mousse looks fine on it and mine had problems.
I have promised Chef FJ that one of these days I will get him a good dish. He said he is waiting...
Lamb Noisettes
This one was a bit of a Three Bears and Goldilocks plate - I thought I sliced the pieces evenly but somehow ended up with one overcooked (just how I like it), one just right (medium) and one undercooked. Part of that was running out of time - I'm not quite sure how or when, but it happened.Return of the Evil Hollandaise
Well, a variation of the evil Hollandaise, anyway. I'm not sure if the difficulty here is that the sauce is actually so difficult or whether I've gotten psyched out by its reputation. In any case, it seemed to be going well, then split while I was adding my butter before service, which is why it is missing from my asparagus stems. The result was a slightly acidic butter coating on the asparagus (which needed more salt - go figure).
A deep breath
Then it was a lovely weekend of catching up with friends (World Cup Rugby breakfast on Saturday, lunch cooked for me by a friend, dinner with another friend from Sydney) dancing on Sunday and trying to figure out my recipes for Cuisine and Superior finals. Oh - and laundry. Somehow I ended up doing laundry every day last week due to chocolate mysteriously appearing in random places on my uniform and the heat in the Cuisine kitchens (a cool and breezy 33C).
Chocolate nightmare
Monday was not a good day this week. It started out well enough with tempering the chocolate. The problems came when it was time to unmould our large egg moulds - my chocolate egg halves came out of the moulds like they were supposed to when I flipped it. Unfortunately, I happened to tap the mould down to release the last egg (there were 3 halves) just as one of them dropped out of the mould. The result: unmitigated disaster. I tried to fix the egg but ended up having to borrow Chef's egg in order to finish the windmill. Having handled the base so much, my fingers left smudges all over it which is why it's not shiny in the photo.
Then of course there was the cracking of the windmill blades (?) themselves. Oh dear...the only thing that turned out ok were the practice milk chocolate truffle shells, although they could use a bit more white chocolate by way of decoration so that it doesn't look like a mistake. We have to use 2 different colors of chocolate and temper both simultaneously. This was just a practice run - I am so glad they built in so much practice time for these. If something must go wrong, better to do it while there is a chef in the room so they can tell you what you did wrong (other than being stubborn and not listening to them).We don't need no stinkin' gym!
One of the things about tempering chocolate (other than trying to keep your own temper when things are not going well) is that the initial melting and tempering becomes easier (not easy, you'll note). The hard part comes with trying to keep it at the right temperature to use. The Chefs can tell pretty much by looking at it. I have to check by using the back of my finger. So as it gets cooler, it gets thicker and more viscous. Which isn't fun when you have to keep stirring it to get it back to temperature. I haven't been to the gym in longer than I care to remember, but all the aching arms (both of them, from switching when one gets tired) have resulted in getting stronger. Moms have babies, Patisserie students have chocolate. And dough.
Sweet success
Today went much better - the chocolate tempered, the shells for the truffles got made (ok, a little thick at the very top) and the chocolate box was (mostly) ok except for the little bit where I didn't spread enough chocolate for the bottom. There was a certain amount of hurry up and wait because you have to work fast with the chocolate when you work with it, then you have to wait for it to set.
Somehow the mistakes got salvaged with the result on the left. This is my Chocolate Box (entirely made of chocolate) and a couple of different types of chocolate technique thrown in - or rather, required by Chef CB. I wanted to do a swirl but the pieces kept breaking (hence the skinny ones) and the ones I had meant to make swirly ended up being the larger curls. At this point, I was just happy to get them on the box.
One of the girls in class didn't want her white chocolate truffles so she offered them to me - I put them in my box because they all look so pretty together. And I dropped the box lid on the way home, so it's good I have the couple of extra truffles kicking around in there - it doesn't look quite as incomplete.Tomorrow we get going in Cuisine again - Beef Wellington Part 1 (the puff pastry, chicken mousse, beef and a few other bits and pieces). Wish us luck with the puff pastry. I have a feeling we are going to have to work on the baking trays again because we don't start cooking until noon. I am guessing the kitchen will be hot.
Until next time - enjoy the eating. And now I know why chocolates are so darn expensive!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
#43 - Cutting off feet...and wet dog smell?
(Intermezzo)
Thank goodness I tried to make a couple of things when I was back in Sydney. They may have been partly unsuccessful and I still bear marks from mysterious sources (ok, the cut on my thumb was my chef's knife, so not a mystery) but at least I hadn't completely forgotten how to cook.
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your brains...
I think everyone's brain is still a tiny bit switched off. Or it may have something to do with the fact that we started at 8am on Monday morning (which means we were in the locker rooms at 7:30 or so) and then did things with chocolates, nuts and other messy but fun things for the next 6 hours. Well, there was a 30-minute lunch break...then we got to do it all again the next day because some of the things we made on Monday needed to chill overnight before we could finish them. The result: 6 kinds of truffles, 6 kinds of ganache, 3 confectionary items (one of which went onto a ganache) and 3 praline things. It actually looked quite impressive once we laid out the trays with all the goodies. I took home 2 containers full of the things we made, which eventually made the rounds to several friends.
Cutting off feet
When we had finished our initial allocated tasks, people help others finish theirs. My team was lucky that our tasks seemed quite straightforward and were not time consuming (although the brittle took a lot longer than we thought it would). One of the things I was supposed to do to help was to cut the feet off the dipped nougat. It's when you trim off the little bits of chocolate that spread out past the base of the thing you're making to neaten them up for presentation. EA gently reminded me I was supposed to just trim the feet, not cut off the chocolate dipping on the sides. Whoops! Luckily I only did that on one nougat piece and the remainder were fine.
We even finished the second day early enough to have a quick run at making the shells for our exam truffles. Good thing we did, mine were a fail and will need lots of practice - something some of my guinea pigs are already cheering. The good thing is that I got to figure out what NOT to do in the exam.
Seriously - start your brains.
Then first day of Superior Cuisine which started off with a bang. Actually, it was more of a squeal as I fell up the last 4 stairs on the way up to our demo (note to self: heeled sandals on stairs + running does NOT = good idea when caffeine has not yet been ingested).
The first demonstration was a wake-up call in working cleanly. I'm not sure I will ever be able to work as neatly and tidily as Chef EB. I noticed during class that my station had stuff everywhere - so now it's time to be more organized. Although that would imply things were organized before. Anyway - Chef EB managed to go over our course manuals, prep 3 (or was it 4???) livers for the terrine tomorrow, give us a break, then prepare and cook 4(???) mallard ducks, plate and feed us. We students did 1 duck apiece in our practical and still managed to go a little over. Most people managed to get satisfactory results with their dishes (my duck breast was a tiny bit overcooked and the legs a tiny bit under, carrots and duck legs needed more salt and the sauce was over reduced. Ahhhh!!!!! Still coming along - but will it ever arrive? It's like waiting for Godot - and I fondly think of Doc Bassford and Doctor Gorsky from high school as I think of Godot). Presentation needs work, but at least most of it tasted fine. Have managed to find a loving home for one serving tonight and tomorrow will see the other serving go to another home.
Wet dog smell
You might be wondering what the smell of wet dogs has to do with cuisine if we're not actually out there hunting down our own wild ducks. Here's the thing - apparently it's the smell of game. It bothered most of us to a greater or lesser extent and all I could think of was large, hairy, wet dogs. Chef DM was convinced that I must have stuffed wet dog smell up my nose. Of course he was also teasing me about my "delicate" hands as they were covered in duck blood while I was ripping out the spongy bits left behind from the lungs when I took out the heart and whatever other things they left inside the cavity of the duck. It took scrubbing my nails like TV surgeons do in order to get the smell off my hands.
Tomorrow is salmon steak. Must go to sleep - things are starting to feel floaty and we have class from 8 - 6. There's a lunch break in there somewhere, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it to ballet after school. Monday and Tuesday were only 6 hours of class but they felt much longer.
So until next time, happy cooking.
Thank goodness I tried to make a couple of things when I was back in Sydney. They may have been partly unsuccessful and I still bear marks from mysterious sources (ok, the cut on my thumb was my chef's knife, so not a mystery) but at least I hadn't completely forgotten how to cook.
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your brains...
 |
| Truffles - to set overnight |
Cutting off feet
 |
| Deciding which ones to take home (all of them, of course!) |
We even finished the second day early enough to have a quick run at making the shells for our exam truffles. Good thing we did, mine were a fail and will need lots of practice - something some of my guinea pigs are already cheering. The good thing is that I got to figure out what NOT to do in the exam.Seriously - start your brains.
Then first day of Superior Cuisine which started off with a bang. Actually, it was more of a squeal as I fell up the last 4 stairs on the way up to our demo (note to self: heeled sandals on stairs + running does NOT = good idea when caffeine has not yet been ingested).
The first demonstration was a wake-up call in working cleanly. I'm not sure I will ever be able to work as neatly and tidily as Chef EB. I noticed during class that my station had stuff everywhere - so now it's time to be more organized. Although that would imply things were organized before. Anyway - Chef EB managed to go over our course manuals, prep 3 (or was it 4???) livers for the terrine tomorrow, give us a break, then prepare and cook 4(???) mallard ducks, plate and feed us. We students did 1 duck apiece in our practical and still managed to go a little over. Most people managed to get satisfactory results with their dishes (my duck breast was a tiny bit overcooked and the legs a tiny bit under, carrots and duck legs needed more salt and the sauce was over reduced. Ahhhh!!!!! Still coming along - but will it ever arrive? It's like waiting for Godot - and I fondly think of Doc Bassford and Doctor Gorsky from high school as I think of Godot). Presentation needs work, but at least most of it tasted fine. Have managed to find a loving home for one serving tonight and tomorrow will see the other serving go to another home.Wet dog smell
You might be wondering what the smell of wet dogs has to do with cuisine if we're not actually out there hunting down our own wild ducks. Here's the thing - apparently it's the smell of game. It bothered most of us to a greater or lesser extent and all I could think of was large, hairy, wet dogs. Chef DM was convinced that I must have stuffed wet dog smell up my nose. Of course he was also teasing me about my "delicate" hands as they were covered in duck blood while I was ripping out the spongy bits left behind from the lungs when I took out the heart and whatever other things they left inside the cavity of the duck. It took scrubbing my nails like TV surgeons do in order to get the smell off my hands.
Tomorrow is salmon steak. Must go to sleep - things are starting to feel floaty and we have class from 8 - 6. There's a lunch break in there somewhere, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it to ballet after school. Monday and Tuesday were only 6 hours of class but they felt much longer.
So until next time, happy cooking.
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