#51 - Mystery Basket

AKA - thank goodness I have a day job!
Today as our Mystery Basket.  It wasn't actually such a mystery for my group because we had class at 6pm, by which time the first 3 groups or so had already done theirs.  The main ingredient:  duck.

We were given a list of 27 ingredients.  I used 18 (plus substituted one flour for another).  Chef's comment was that I hadn't used that many ingredients.  I'm really not sure how I would have gotten away with putting pasta and potato on my plate when it already had a savory short crust pastry (trial run for the exam - timing will be fine but technique needs a bit of work) and a few other things.

Like a cooking show - but not
This is apparently like cooking competitions.  You have ingredients, you have some time and you cook.  Sometimes it's a compulsory item and sometimes it's do whatever you want.  Which would be fine, if I were an Iron Chef, this might have been a breeze.  Since I'm not...and since we're all students...let's just say that we heard "2 hours" and everyone froze up for a split second.  It's the time aim for our practical classes but because people take time to present their dishes and take comments, sometimes you have a bit more time to refine a couple of things on your plate (i.e. fix your sauce 3 times like I did yesterday).

Lead up to the Mystery Basket
But first - back to the beginning.  Some people had been stressing about the Mystery Basket.  Me, not so much - mainly because I kind of forgot about it until yesterday.  We also happened to have class today from 12 - 6pm so by the time the not-so-mysterious Mystery Basket was on the agenda, I was already brain dead, having half- fallen asleep for part of the 3pm cuisine demo.  Interesting notes...it looks like a chicken walked across the pages and mixed up the methods (wild mushrooms on the scallop dish which doesn't list mushrooms anywhere on the ingredients list).

We'd also had a review of 3 of our compulsory Patisserie pieces for the final (as in, even if it's crap, turn it in.  Otherwise they disqualify you - I assume this means a fail for the course even if everything else is splendid) so that was a bit of a sit-up-and-take-notice time block.

Clueless much?
I have to say, I saw the list and the tray and didn't even think - I just butchered the duck and hoped that inspiration would strike.  Also I wanted to keep things pretty simple - simple, clean, neat.  Well, that was the idea - probably not a bad one.  The execution, on the other hand...not so much.  I braised the legs (not enough time to confit them, although I tried to confit the tenderloins - "try" being the operative word - they were really bad.  As in, I would eat them and like them, so they are definitely not something I would present to the chef) and produced a nice sauce.  The breast pieces felt like they were going over so I took them off.  Nope...way, way under.  And looked very strange.  There was a certain amount of quiet panicking when it was time to plate.  Only idea was about the tarte but the rest of it was all a blur.  They say to diagram it out - but that's a bit hard to do when you have 2 hours to do the dish.

Humiliating - Wild Mushroom Tartelette,
Braised leg of duck and roasted duck breast with
Poached Pear in Red Wine glaze

Learning time - aka "Chef - this is what I won't do for the final"
I finished the tartelette but it was overcooked - so I know what NOT to do for my Cuisine final when we have to do the tarte for the poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.  I totally messed up the Jerusalem artichokes so they didn't make it on the plate (should have made them into a puree like Chef "suggested" at the beginning of class).  Luckily he liked the sauce, but other than that, today was pretty much a write off.  I liked the pears but Chef wasn't such a big fan.  On the other hand, he had been tasting pretty much all day and if even half of the dishes were as miss as mine, it was a looonnnng day for him.  As for me, I am so very glad that I have a day job already.  We laughed at the chefs when they said some people will never pick up a knife again after the course.  I wouldn't go that far, but I have to say that I am not confident enough to cook restaurant style dishes without a recipe.  Certainly you could throw something together, but the questions today were:

1.  Was the technique correct?
2.  Would someone buy this at a restaurant?  If yes, would they eat it?
3.  Chef's personal preference...

"Home cooking" after a long day - a confession
It's almost bedtime and I have my uniforms in the laundry.  To tired to do much of anything except to try to unwind so I can sleep.

So I made 5 minute noodles.  They're actually 3 minute noodles but I had to wait for the water to boil, while cleaning a leak in the fridge and getting out the vegetables for the noodles.  So if you had a vision of fancy food at home, you just heard my deep, dark secret.  Beans on toast with gruyere cheese were on the menu when we did our Boulangerie module a couple of weeks ago.  Very gourmet, non?

Tomorrow:  Bath.  I need a break, then it's on to work on the portfolios for Cuisine and Patisserie with a classmate on Sunday.  On the one hand I can't wait for this to be over.  On the other hand, I am already waxing nostalgic for student days.  I've run out of hands so it's time to say good night and scrub off the day.

Until next time...may you have the satisfaction of a job well done.

#50 - Plated desserts, fish, lamb and a looming mystery

This week has gone by in a flash.  One minute it was too early on a Monday morning and the next moment the week is ending with the Mystery Basket looming over us.

Starting at the middle

Leaning Towers of Ricotta...

Because you already know the beginning.  We did our identical plated desserts - was it only yesterday?  According to my camera, yes, it was.  We had another class to practice tuiles and chocolate (worth quite a points in the final exam as they count towards technique, presentation, balance, taste and, possibly, texture).  This was then used to decorate our ricotta bavarois (kind of like a mousse, but a mousse is not necessarily a bavarois - analgous to how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square in geometry - fancy schmancy technical terms you know, so that we sound really cool when we talk shop).




Plated desserts

Leaning Towers of Ricotta with
2-tone chocolate latticework

I was of two minds about a piped chocolate decoration which I eventually left off because I thought it was too heavy (above).  Chef NH made a suggestion that I trim them (hence the 2-toned chocolate lattice triangles - right) but that was after he marked the ones I presented.  I admit it looks a bit more impressive but whether or not I can work quickly enough to pull it off on exam day remains to be seen.  It will require some practice sessions to get the timing/texture and piping down so that I can get it all done in 5 minutes - especially if it's a warm day like yesterday so that it takes so much longer to do chocolate and there's much less time to get the tuiles done.  The raspberry coulis is a bit of a disaster but all in all it was a good learning and experimental day.

Cuisine - Who knew Mustard is salty?

Then it was on to Cuisine and today.  2 practicals sandwiching a demo - all I can say is, it might be 14C outside, but it's still pretty tropical inside.  The first class was a seabass confit this morning.  It seemed under control until I had to add mustard to the sauce - after which, the sauce tasted terrible.  Why?  Because it was too salty.  Hands up everyone who knew mustard is inherently salty...

I apologized to Chef JB about the sauce before he took a taste.  Sad - the dish started out so well (good fish, good lentils...) and then the sauce, which made him make a face.  He told me how to fix it (basically start over and do things to it - like bringing back a split Hollandaise).  Too late for this dish, but possibly useful in the future.  (Not a bad day, according to Chef JB.)  In the meantime, no, I haven't tasted the dish.  We confited (is that how I say it in English?) in duck fat.  There was double cream in the sauce (which I tasted and didn't like - very mustard-y).  I liked the lentils (had to check the cooking point and the seasoning) which were quite easy to make.

Hit and miss lamb

Then this afternoon:  lamb a couple of different ways and split pea puree.  The pea puree doesn't sound very appetising, but I found it surprisingly yummy - especially the bacon-y goodness which came through after I added quite a bit of salt to the dish.  The things that tasted so salty to me were ok for seasoning.  It might have tasted ok but the cooking was a bit unfortunate for this one.

Comments:  The fondant potato could have used a little more cooking (but Chef, my potato fell apart!)

• The petit fillet of the lamb is blue - so that's not good and needs work.  (Yup.)
• The fillet is cooked med/med-well.  A bit unevenly cooked as well.  (Yup...)
• The confit lamb needed more time.  (If only class were longer, Chef.)
• The pea puree was good.  (Yes Chef - because you made the puree for us.  I just added more salt.)
• The presentation is...ok.  (Yes Chef - I'll work on the whole making it pretty.)
• The sauce is good - tastes like red wine sauce.  (Hmmm, good to know you didn't see me almost burn it away and have to revive it so many times.)

Looming Mystery

Tomorrow is our mystery basket.  We each get a basket of supplies and have our usual class time in which to come up with something.  Everything goes except that some things don't go together (i.e. pasta and pastry), it has to taste good and it has to be pretty.  Oh, and whatever technique we use has to be done properly.

Surreal life

Wish us luck - this is probably the most like a TV cooking show scenario (except for the countdown during exams).  Odd - as much as it sucks to mess up a dish, this is still the most fun I've had on a daily basis in quite a while. I'm living in my own little fantasy world of personal interactive cooking show (we get to taste! Almost every day!) and we get to learn - plus we get pictures and we get to take the food home. I can't imagine when school will ever be so much fun again, seeing as how I can't seem to stay away from classrooms. For the moment, my life is a little bit of a combination of Bridget Jones (from Diary days, not the sequels) + Iron Chef/Master Chef/Top Chef [insert name of your preferred cooking show here] + Ally McBeal / Legally Blonde [although the Ally McBeal / Legally Blonde references are not mine).  Must admit I had to check my hair color a couple of times after I spent an entire week thinking it was a day later than it actually was and again today when I couldn't find my camera which was in my bag because it wasn't in the right place.  (Everything might have its time and to everything a season, but when they have their time and place, it gets very confusing when they switch around.  What's wrong with organized chaos?  I never lose things more often than after I tidy up.)

So until next time - would you be able to make a dish (or a meal) based on a list of ingredients?  Happy thinking / planning / dreaming!