#53 - Tea Party (then pigeons)

Or - In which more dramas ensue but no one killed anyone else (we left our knives back in our lockers)
Too tired for much commentary. Long day yesterday (but not as long as scheduled). We started early in the morning - everything was more or less made so it was a matter of getting the decorations done (and in my case, cutting straight). Occasionally felt like too many cooks in the kitchen. I suppose that's bound to happen when you have almost 30 people (including our teaching chefs) crammed into a couple of kitchens normally meant to hold 11.

A friend from Masters (law school) days in town for work - got to come to the Tea Party (yippee!) and his office was very glad for the goody box he got to take with him. We caught up for dinner after all the cleaning up at school - and his office got more treats because they needed homes. After all the sugar, butter, flour and chocolate, was a relief to have savory food - really yummy Indian food down near the egg-shaped faceted thing somewhere near Bank / Leadenhall. May have finally found the time to take up the standing invitation to visit Cologne to see him and meet his family, of whom I have heard so much but never met.
So - photos...done fighting with the formatting...

Pigeons
We then had an 8am practical on the following morning.  Pigeon wrapped in cabbage (breasts), stuffed legs and a mushroom tartelette.  I am not a big fan of the whole butchering small birds (or anything, actually) first thing in the morning.  The thing about the pigeon is that it has a strong smell, the skin doesn't come off as easily as with quail or chicken and it has a lot of gross things inside.  Like the heart.  And the liver (maybe I should have cooked its liver too!)  and various other spongy bits and pieces.  I forgot to put on gloves - don't think I'll forget again.  Yes, I should be used to it by now.  Is it indicative that I'm not yet used to having blood and guts on my hands first thing in the morning?

Anyway - long practical.  Tomorrow morning at 8am:  St Pierre en Croute de Chorizo, Mille-Feuille de Grenouilles aux Amandes (John Dory with chorizo crust, frog legs mille feuille with almonds).  Photos then.

We had our cheese lecture today after a demo for tomorrow.  It is late and I have to review my notes, so must go.

Until next time - good night, sleep tight.

#31 - A New High...

I have heard the saying "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."  Well, we are living that saying - yesterday was a new high in class - we had the first practical at 8am (41C/105.8F) and the second practical at 3pm (45C/113F).  But as always, I am getting ahead of myself and need to go back a few days.

Busy Wednesday
After the focaccia and other breads, we had a practical for patisserie which included a skills test.  Yes, mini-test on making more pastry shells (the pate sucree from the apple tart back in Basic) and piping.  I am not going to bore you with photos of substandard work which might only be of interest to people who are into technical-ish pastry type things, so I'll move right along to the food.

Later that same day
We are starting to do a lot more in classes.  As I've said, the course is cleverly constructed so there isn't really any way for us to stand around and do nothing.  On the rare days when we finish early, I think it has been noted for any future amendments to the curriculum.

Surf and turf
Our schedule has also changed so we occasionally have days when we don't cook (two days this week) but we make up for that with double practicals on the other days.  On Wednesday, we started with mouclades which is a regional mussel dish from...near Normandy, I think (I haven't checked my notes).  It appears that the defining difference between that and the moules mariniere, which is the one more people are familiar with (white wine, shallots, etc.) is the addition of curry.  Yes I know - curry and cream sounds so not right, but it's actually really good if you can get the balance right.  The demo one Chef FB did was really good - mine had a few things that weren't quite right about it.


Anyway, we did the mouclade and a lamb stew as well.  Somehow I got lucky and the lamb was actually tender, even though we only had a couple of hours to do it and the mussels turned out pretty well.  I don't know if it's the heat that killed the other stew that we did last week or whether it was the cut of meat (or the age of the animal?) but the lamb stew which was made with a secondary cut, was much more tender and delicious than the beef one.  So if you are looking for hints about stews and things, use the cheaper cut with more connective tissue - it's a much better dish!  I also checked with one of the chefs - don't use bad wine.  If you can get a good one and it's not expensive, great.  I think a good rule of thumb is that if you won't drink it, don't cook with it.  Which goes with the mantra "one for the stew, one for me..." which I have been thinking about suggesting in class.

Then we had a cheese lecture on Thursday - Tom the Cheese Guy is as entertaining as ever and we got some really good cheese.  I still am not a fan of the bleus and I don't think I ever will be.  The smell really puts me off and the texture of the mold cultures in my mouth - kind of grainy and raspy against the smoothness of the cheese itself - is not for me.  Kind of like having seared fish or seared meat where you can really feel the difference in textures, as opposed to when the flame has only just kissed the fish or meat and you get that delicious smokiness but otherwise you wouldn't know it had been touched by flame or heat.

Super hot Friday
It's kind of hard to feel fresh and clean when you can feel your clothes sticking to you.  The 8am class wasn't so bad, it was still cool outside and there was a bit of a breeze which came through the open windows and doors (until we had to close the doors so that we wouldn't set off the fire and smoke detectors).  Again it was a double dish class:  warm asparagus salad with walnut vinaigrette (my asparagus died when I reheated it for service).

Then we did a fillet steak (mine was just on the verge between rare and medium rare - they wanted medium rare).  I couldn't remember what time I put the steak on the stove, so I just poked it with my fingers - I thought it would be slightly over, which just goes to show how much we have to go before we know.  We served it with roast potatoes (or rather fried in lots of clarified butter - mine weren't brown enough), broccolini and wild mushrooms.  It would have been a really good dish except my mushrooms and broccolini got cold by the time I got the dish to the chef, even though the broccolini had been really hot when I stuck them on the plate.  Makes you wonder why we bother.  It is now all sitting in my refrigerator in containers and since I have to reheat the meat anyway, I suppose it's perfect because it won't be overcooked unless I do it that way.  I find it amazing that meals on a student budget include prime cuts of meat and amazing food (as long as we don't mess it up).

Then - duck.  Our class started really late because the class before us was still there at 3pm (they're supposed to be finished half an hour before we start).  They were finishing up their asparagus with walnut dressing and their steaks.  We were wondering what took so long because I'm still the slowest one in my class and we pretty much finished on time in the morning (except for me cleaning up my knives and dishes).  Someone stuck their head in and had a look at the clock to see how much time we were losing and reported back that it was 43C/109.4F - all the stoves were off.  By the end of class, when we had left most of the ovens off and only used the stoves, it was the 45C/113F that I reported at the start of this post.  I think almost everyone had lost some weight by the time class ended and one of the girls in Superior Patisserie joked that she was considering cuisine as a weight loss method.  A lot of people have been desperate to go home and wash their uniforms - which I like because the locker room can be a bit...fragrant on a hot day.  Also - flame retardent clothing isn't that cool...

Butchering a duck is very much like butchering a chicken except for the fact that it is a lot more fatty so your knife gets greasy and slippery and you have to be much more careful to clean all the handles well.  Oh, and the feather shafts are much more stubborn so I feel like it took too long to scrape them off, take off the legs for the confit next week (a little harder to see the oyster by the hips on a duck) and to get the meat off the breast so that it is boneless.

It's meant to be served pink (or medium rare - yech!) and we had to do roast vegetables which weren't really (we parboiled them in water and shook them around in butter just before service) and sauteed fruit (apples and pears) and things with oranges and lemons.  The sauce from the demo was much too sweet for me so I put in much less sugar in my sauce.  Chef FJ, whom we hadn't seen since orientation (he had the other group more in Basic) didn't like my sauce because it was too sour.  It turns out I roasted the bones too long - but it took a few questions to figure out where I went wrong.  I think I have the wrong palate for French cooking - I always seem to have not enough salt (except for that pumpkin soup) and now, not enough sugar...

Also, I had my dish evaluated by another student - nerve wracking, to say the least.  I'm glad Chef was there to overrule him because he thought my vegetables were undercooked (they weren't) and there was something about my duck (which was exactly the way the chefs want it - and exactly the way I wouldn't eat it, so that's always a good measuring stick for me).  I agreed that the sauce was greasy (maybe adding the juices from the duck after I'd degreased it wasn't such a good idea...

So the difficulty was also in making the dish pretty.  I have to say that I don't think it's pretty at all but I also had to get the various bits and pieces onto the plate.  You know how it is, you run into a situation and 6 hours later you think of what you should have said or what you should have done.  I have some ideas for next time, but I find creativity for presentation tends to flee when I am under pressure.

Hopefully next week will be cooler.  We start our exam cakes in Patisserie and I haven't looked at Cuisine.  There's a duck confit in there - we marinated the legs yesterday and rinsed and dried them off - they ought to be in their little vaccum packs by now and waiting for us to do things to them next week.  As for the rest of the week...well, I suppose I will know tomorrow when I start getting organized.

Anyway, it is now a rainy Saturday afternoon and I have slept quite a bit.  On the agenda for this afternoon:  finding a home for the duck (I think the 2 Michaels are a good place to start), a snack and some coffee, then Harry Potter in 3D this afternoon.  A reward for the hot kitchens and doing laundry on a Friday night...

Sneak peeks and previews
I am looking forward to going to the Tea Party by the Superior Patisserie students and the Supper Party by the Superior Cuisine students.  Unfortunately the Supper one is only open to students at the school, which is sad because I have friends who would love to go.  The Tea Party (at the Mandeville Hotel on Marylebone High Street) is open to the public but you have to book in advance because it tends to sell out really quickly.  It's also harder for people to get to  because it's held in the afternoon - 3-6pm and most people work.

It's a good chance to get a preview of what we will be doing next term, assuming we all pass this one.  I am still of the opinion that it's something not to be taken for granted, but a lot of people are finally starting to feel like they are no longer so lost in class.  Superior students have said that Superior is mostly spent in consolidating, refining and putting together everything that went before.  Apparently Intermediate was the most work - which makes me gulp a little in alarm.  There is still a lot to learn and given the shake up of various groups (and some new additions) people are still on their best behavior.  After all, Monday signals the start of only the 4th week of Intermediate - and we already have mid-term assessments.

Well I must go and find a home for my duck - it has not found a loving home at my place, so until next time, I wish you cool or warm weather, according to your preference.  If you are cooking, may your sauces be grease free and your pastries happy with the relevant temperature and humidity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



French Onion Soup
with burned croutons

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



Beef consomme
with too-brown savory crepe

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

Basic Breads:
Soda bread and dinner rolls

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

Basic cakes:
Lemon cake and madeleines

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

   





Sienna eating a madeleine

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


Some research:
Comparing to my test eclairs...

    



Wouldn't you visit this store?

 

This week - more meats and stuff...

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

Poussin with apple compote

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

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

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

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

Veal liver
with onions & sauteed potatoes

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

Veal sweetbreads with
asparagus tips and parisienne potatoes

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

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

De-offaling...


My dinner after all the awful offal

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

So until next time - no more offal!