#117 - "A Merry Christmas to all. God bless us every one."

Hard Core Chef
One of my brothers has a friend who went to cooking school.  By profession she does something very impressive and her standards for cooking are equally so.  (As in, she is much stricter about things like making her own stocks, which take 3 days to make, etc etc.)

Unfortunately she broke her wrist not so long ago and is still recovering from surgery.  I told her I would be her sous chef since we had discussed cooking together.  Somehow we were volunteered to cook Christmas dinner before we knew what had happened.  You can imagine how impressed I was, and how tough she is, that she did the bulk of the cooking for Christmas dinner for...14?  16?  A lot of people anyway - more than I can count on just my fingers.

I got a telephone call Monday morning - it was early for me, as I was still jet lagged and sleep deprived (I had had an argument with technology the night before, which I won but only at 4am).  I wanted to go back to sleep but woke up when she said it was to discuss Christmas dinner - specifically, the size / weight of the leg of lamb and the number of people which had grown to 13 people within less than 24 hours.  I think only cooking nerds may appreciate how we managed to talk about the right stock (and how we didn't have any) for the jus, before we decided on a cheat version because we were the only ones who would care.  By the way, the jus turned out well.

Preparation, Preparation and Preparation - Christmas Eve Day
'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the houses, creatures were stirring to get a lot of food organized for a lot of people.

Luckily Chef DC is very organized.  We got our list of who was doing what.  She and I discussed what was missing / logistics / timing.  It was all good and under control.  Nothing too complicated - but a bit of thought required given physical constraints with respect to counter space, refrigerator space, over and stove availability and our low tolerance for crap in the kitchen.

My prep was very basic - shopping, parboiling potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, mire poix for the sauce...some salad stuff, extra shopping for the more gourmet ingredients (thank you Williams Sonoma - no, this is not product placement, it's giving credit where credit is due - and letting you know shortcuts are not only ok, they can be really good).

Rock 'n roll
I'm not sure how or why it is a chef thing but it must be - I have heard this phrase so often and it's almost always in preparation for fun in the kitchen.  Though somehow it's very different to hear it in a strong French accent than in our American one.

Chef DC also did a black rice dish, a cauliflower and chickpea curry which may sound not that good to those who don't like any of those ingredients but all I can say is, wow!  (I actually hate chickpeas but I packed a whole container of this curry away for tomorrow, that's how good it was.)

Also brussels sprouts - although there are many who don't like them, these were so good my 4-year old niece not only ate them, but she told us how much she liked them as she ate them.

And Kabocha squash (Japanese green squash).  And a butternut pumpkin / carrot puree.  And a Caesar salad dressing.  From scratch. Which was totally delicious (and I have the rest of the bottle in the fridge for tomorrow, hooray!)

and then today I just made a vinaigrette and the 2 salads.  FYI, the Veal demi-glace from Williams-Sonoma made a very acceptable substitute in the absence of having a good veal stock to hand and it cut out a few steps.  We had a nice sauce about 45 minutes after we started - not a bad record...

In which we have a very merry cooking party - Christmas Day
DC showed up today with a written time plan.  I had one but it was all in my head and pretty easy.  (As in, from time we planned to serve, onions - 1.5 hours; confit garlic - 1 hour; roasted veggies - 30 minutes.)

The lamb went into a portable convection oven which is just amazing.  It came out a bit over for those who like their meat still moving but it was perfect for me.  We were on time with DC's plan (we thought we were 15 minutes behind until we remembered that we had trimmed off a lot of fat and bones) and all went well.

We had an addition in the kitchen near the end of the day - a friend is the Yorkshire pudding Queen so she made a gluten-free and a regular Yorkshire pudding (yum!).  They had different cooking times which was interesting for the person who made them, and we had to reshuffle our cooking timeline a bit to allow for the Yorkshire puddings to cook because they have to be last minute.

DC and I had a great old time - she actually fixed the leg of lamb because the butchery was done by machine so it didn't follow the joint (instead, the saw cut straight through the bone).  She gave me the piece attached to the hip so I separated it and we had a nice little loin-ish roll.  Which we forgot to cook.  But it gave some really nice trimmings which made the sauce really good and one of the girls actually took home the meat and the veggies because she said it was like stew but without as much juice.  She (DC, not our Yorkshire Pudding Queen) also put this really good rub on the lamb - an olive tapenade with a few other things thrown in - as you do.

Starters (aka Round 1 when I eventually got around to eating):  cheeses, prosciutto, a few other things and sashimi (which we sliced at home). 

Main (aka Rounds 2 and 3): Roast leg of lamb au jus and fresh mint, roasted root vegetables with rosemary and sea salt (yellow and purple carrots, fingerling potatoes, onions and garlic confit), black rice, cauliflower and lentil curry, butternut squash / carrot puree, roasted Kobacha squash and brussel sprouts with butter.

My plates:  there isn't a whole lot of difference between the first and second platefuls of food but I was slowing down by the second plate of meat and veggies. There's no way to escape the day with eating only a little bit when there's so much good food and I have a bad habit of choosing "both" when presented with a choice.  We also decided that food made with TLC doesn't have calories (for those who know about that sort of thing).

Dessert (aka Round 4):  pumpkin pie, sweet potato and haupia pie, dried fruits, cookies and ice cream.

So until next time - merry Christmas (#or insert your holiday of choice here) - happy, safe and joyous holidays to all.

#116 - Home for the holidays - In which my mission takes a flying start

Raindrops and Rainbows
One of the disadvantages of living so far away from home (or calling more than one place home) is that there is always something to miss about the other place/s.  Of course, the bright side is that there is always something to love about where you are.  If you think about it, there is no down-side to having something to miss - you can't have rainbows without a few raindrops, after all.  My first rainbow came out about an hour and fifteen minutes after I left the airport.  The scents of the flowers were lightly carried on the morning breeze, letting me know as nothing else that I was back in the Islands, beloved (the Islands) and beloved (me - by my loved ones).

(Apologies if this post looks odd - I don't know what's wrong with it and I'm not tech savvy enough to be able to fix it.  Hopefully whatever the bug is will have been worked out by the next post.)

Neither Pavlov nor his dogs...
Friends and family have held me responsible for their increased appetites and, occasionally, increased waists.  Far be it from me to shirk my responsibility for serving the same purpose as Pavlov's bell to his dogs (yes, it is an unfortunate analogy but one which was suggested by one of my friends).  I have been known to say that the most dangerous place is between a hungry Cooke and her food.  There are variations on this theme but the result is that you can replace "Cooke" by practically anything or anyone and it is still accurate.

Food is a huge part of our social scene here - I'm not sure if it's the Asian influence or if it's just because people come home for the holidays.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Island girl/boy returning from time spent elsewhere is in want of local food to curb the cravings they have been experiencing, be it poke, sashimi, Zippy's (chili / saimin / insert your choice of food here), plate lunch, etc. etc. and a trip to a favorite local eatery tends to follow either immediately after leaving the airport or immediately after the shower immediately after leaving the airport.

My mission, which I had chosen to accept, is to eat everything while I am home.  (Of course, the everything only includes the things I want to eat.  You may not suggest snails or offal or anything else that might make you go "ew".)

As today had some patches of pouring rain (it is winter, after all) those of us who are temporarily between jobs (one of the girls and the boy at lunch - they start their new jobs next week and right after the New Year, respectively), having a day off (one of the other girls) and on vacation (that would be the girl pictured above) went for Vietnamese food.  We got food envy from the table next to us - so three of us ordered the enormous noodle salad.  And because I'm me, I ordered the Vietnamese coffee - chicory, bitter, sweetened by condensed milk in the cup before you pour the brew into the glass of ice.

Yes, the bowl was big.  Yes, it was delicious.  No, I did not manage to finish it all - I am out of shape, obviously - but the goal is to change that by the end of this trip.

Christmas Dinner - A preview of sorts...
Christmas will be a team effort - one of my brothers has a friend who was trained (very well trained) as a chef.  She is currently injured so we have divvied up duties for Christmas dinner which somehow grew from the 7 originally envisaged to about 13 people.  We'll see how it goes but the current menu has poke, sashimi, roast lamb (with jus), rosemary and sea salt potatoes, roasted vegetables, roasted garlic, chickpea and cauliflower curry (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it!), a big salad with home made vinaigrette and home made Caesar dressing, candied almonds (if I can be bothered to make them), a pumpkin and something-else puree...and people will bring starters and desserts.  Something tells me there will be lots of food so we have requested that people bring their own containers to take it home.  Tomorrow will be the test as we prep as much as possible before hand so that we don't spend all Christmas cooking.  After all, I have a visit to pay to little children who will be eager to rip open their presents...

So until next time, merry Christmas and if you must have rain, I wish you lots of rainbows.

#105 - Fast food (but not)

It's amazing how fast time flies.  I finally managed to catch up with a girlfriend whom I haven't seen in over 6 months - and got to meet her son for the first time.

Persian food
Such a treat - I got to taste my first Persian food after a lovely fig and manchego salad with a really nice walnut oil dressing.

They threw an elegant dinner party while getting their little son to bed and entertaining company.

 
There was a lamb stew made with dried limes, basmati rice (and the yummy crunchy bottom layer - centre photo), a Shirazhi salad (tomatoes and cucumbers), then a really nice dessert.  CT wasn't happy with her dessert but I finished the whole thing, a record for me since I'm not huge on desserts.  The stewed plums were particularly good with the heavy cream.  What is is about cream which makes dessert so delicious?

(Almost) Vegetarian but delicious
Both CT and KN are huge foodies so they were a bit horrified when I told them I occasionally make 2-minute noodles.  A chest infection sent me home for a few days on antibiotics which you have to take with food - but cooking when you're sick isn't that much fun.  CT, as horrified as she was by my 2-minute noodles, wasn't too horrified by my 4-minute noodles (that's how long it takes the noodles to cook).  Lest ye all be completely against vegetarian dishes, this had fresh tofu in the soup rather than meat.  Easier on the stomach and the fresh herbs really pick up the flavours.

I was torn between being completely vegetarian and the old remedy of chicken soup - compromise by using chicken stock but vegetarian ingredients.  It was a variation of the chicken long rice broth from a few weeks ago:

Ingredients
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock (use vegetable stock for vegetarians);
a few pieces of tofu;
2 - 4 leaves of bok choy;
1/2 zucchini, sliced;
1-in piece of ginger, grated;
1 garlic clove, grated;
sliced spring onions (green onions if you live in the US);
a few leaves of coriander (cilantro) for garnish.

Method
Bring stock, ginger, garlic to a simmer.  Add tofu and simmer another 5 minutes (until warm).  Add bok choy and simmer for 4 more minutes.

Pour over steamed rice and sprinkle with spring onions and coriander to serve.

Perfect for a cold night when you need a little soup.

Happy eating!

#67 - (Not) Graduation and variations on a theme

The variations are not on a theme by Paganini.  It's more a theme by Le Cordon Bleu London - that is to say, hygiene.  Kind of.  Sort of.  What can I say, it's more laundry.  But as usual, I've begun in the middle so must loop back to the beginning.

Good bye Dinner
On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend of one of my brothers (they of the walk in the countryside and trip on canal boat fame) - she and her partner took me to a lovely restaurant called Alba near the Barbican - really good Italian food - definitely comfort food.  I took a photo of the dessert as research.  As delicious as my vegetable soup and slow cooked lamb were, they weren't something I might put in an exam.  Probably not the pear either, but it was good for taste, texture and potential ideas (the marscapone cream was really good - definitely on the list for a future dessert).  The Alba is a family owned and operated establishment and my hostess had been going there for years.  I must say that I will definitely go back - what's not to like?  Small but thoughtful menu with something available for the carnivore, the vegetarian and the pescatarian (they're the ones who eat fish but not meat, right?).  I was tempted to get the set menu which had a truffle dish on it, but couldn't go past the lamb.

Graduation Lunch
As of Friday, 16 December 2011, the term has officially ended for my fellows in Superior Cuisine and Patisserie - they are now chefs, some of them entitled to wear the toque at least for the last few minutes of the graduation ceremony.  Today was graduation day for most of those who began this long quest to learn how to cook, improve technique and to share our love of all things food.  The party was at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane.  Much better food than what I remember being served when we had our graduation from Basic.  This is the final graduating batch of Superior students from 114 Marylebone Lane.  From next year, students will be taking classes in Bloomsbury Square.

It was nice to see everyone dressed up and out of their school uniforms.  It appears that people dress up more for the Superior Graduation - not that I remember much from when I was in Basic (and I wasn't here for the Intermediate one) but I have to admit people cleaned up very well.

Everyone had put their best shod foot forward and you could feel the palpable air of relief, excitement and (possibly it's my imagination, but who knows?) the need to catch up on just a little more sleep after the marathon Patisserie exam a couple of days ago.  Some of people said that a few problems had occurred in one of the exams and sometimes it was little but important things which just went wrong on the day.  I think it's always frustrating when you have an element which normally is not a trouble maker all of a sudden causing problems on the day because it tends to throw you off your stride.

The Dorchester was very pretty - a little OTT perhaps, but then again, this was a big occasion for everyone - a culmination of a lot of work and in many cases, some blood, lots of sweat and a lot of tears.  Possibly also some grumpy moments, loss of sleep and monumental self control when something didn't go right in class and continued not to go right.  Yes, it is personal experience talking...

Having had so much time in class, I have to say I cast an eye over our lunch as though we were having it presented to us for tasting and judgment.  Maybe not Iron Chef - but definitely consideration on a couple of levels:  the first being, could I do this?  (Sometimes yes, sometimes maybe...) - and the second one being, what might the chefs say if this was a dish that we were presenting to them.

So I do not have a 3 Michelin star palate - even after al this time and the incredible ingredients we used in class, I still do not like foie gras (although today I hated it less than usual).  The toasted brioche was a nice touch although I observed a demonstration of someone's objection to it which is that you get this large slab of foie gras but only a little bit of bread and salad.

The menu said cannon of lamb.  I thought the cannon was part of the leg but this looked more like a steak-ish type of cut.  Also, it didn't taste particularly lamb-y, but maybe the tastebuds were confused by the foie gras and a piece of the toasted brioche (yummy, by the way) which had preceded it.  Again, left the sweetbreads behind.  I think they are considered a delicacy nowadays - certainly they seem to be trendy at the moment, both as part of the head-to-tail philosophy of using every part of the animal and as part of the offal-is-trendy-because-it-sounds-kind-of-weird-and-no-one-knows-what-it-is.

Dessert was a mocha and something-or-other parfait, macadamia nut brittle, coconut ice cream (milk ice cream?) and sauce.  This one got particular scrutiny as there were several patisserie students at my table from all the levels as well as our head Patisserie chef.  The students looked at it from the view of a plated dessert and Chef JW looked at it, comparing it to what had been served during the tasting (when they chose the menu) as well as technical points.  The only really technical point is that a parfait is frozen, which these weren't.  I thought the mousse might have been a tad heavy on the gelatine, but that might just have been me.

There was some discussion as to how well the chocolate was tempered, some people at the table having had rather recent and harrowing experience with uncooperative chocolate.  Split verdict - I thought it was fine, someone else thought not and Chef JW did not weigh in with her opinion.  She did observe that there are two LCB graduates who worked in the pastry team of the Dorchester and at least one of them had worked on these desserts.  In any event, it tasted good and was quite pretty.  They stuck the tuile and chocolate in the dome though, so I'm not sure what Chef GB thought of that - he told us particularly not to do that to our plated desserts.

I also found out one of the girls who just completed Basic Patisserie has been reading this blog - rather a compliment.  I asked her how she had found it and she said it was because she had been searching for photos of the dishes we had been making in class.

Chefs!
Anyway - they made it and have the medals, papers (lots of papers) and the hats to show it.

Well done chefs!

As for my graduation, hopefully I will be able to time my finals with the next batch of graduating Superior students.  This was supposed to be a year of food, but it's turning out to be a bit longer.  It's been more of a year of building character - in which food played a large role.  I will know more once I hear back from the Academic committe but for now, there will be photos of practice sessions (once my hand is back in shape), possibly some bitching and moaning and now I have a great excuse to eat a lot of things at a lot of places.  After all, it's a chance to collect ideas for finals without trying to get too clever.  It wasn't far to find a very large silver lining (a break to reorganize, get warm at home for the holidays with family and friends and a chance to see the new school).

So until next time, happy holidays - may your year end as positively as mine bids to do.

#63 - In which the Grinch fails to make an appearance

The Whos in Whoville (aka students at LCB) are beginning to breathe sighs of relief as the unrelenting pressure of finals end with the exclamation of "finished!"  Well - that's true for everyone else who happen to be taking their exams.  The Who writing this post is bummed she's not partaking of the final dash and the commiserations/celebrations which follow as the Sword of LCB finals still hangs over her head.  In some ways, much more painful than the Sword of Damocles will ever be.

Last Superior Cuisine Demo ever at 114 Marylebone Lane
Anywho...ok, that was bad.  However, you'll live.  We had our final Cuisine demo on Friday - and here's a photo of some of the happy Superior Cuisine students.  What's not to like?  Delicious food cooked by an amazing chef and since some people didn't show up, extra for everyone.  I have to admit, it was a really good dinner:  Coulibiac de Saumon (salmon in a brioche crust with dill sauce) and Grilled rack of lamb with pepper sauce and pressed tomato/chevre/cream cheese mix.  Those of us who were still there after everyone had had their first smidgen of a taste went back for more - it's the whole good manners thing.  You can't take a whole lamb cutlet from the rack until everyone has had some, but once they have (and the photos have been taken) it's pretty much a free for all.  Since I can't cook at home (more on that later) it was really nice to have a meal that wasn't cold pizza or some random takeout.

Bread Street Kitchen again
Then tonight I had dinner with UP down at Bread Street Kitchen.  Yes, again.  And I had the same thing as last time so I didn't bother to take photos (still yummy).  UP had the mutton with potatoes which turned out to be Shepherd's pie so he was very happy because he loves Shepherd's pie.  Dinner was fun - there was a couple not looking very happy at the table next to us, so we spent a little time speculating as to what the reason might be.  This naturally turned our attention to several other tables - in front of us, a table of 4 girls + 1 guy.  Speculation that it was friends out for dinner, not work colleagues (I wonder if the guy was an honorary girl?) although hard to say - at one point after the fellow had left, all 4 of the girls were on their phones at the same time.  I think my objection to phones at the dinner table are well founded (subject to certain exceptions - like family emergency, the dog ate someone's homework, etc. etc.)  Behind us was a table of 5 guys - speculation that they were work colleagues and given the area, most likely in the finance sector.

Night photography
UP had a bit of amusement while I tried to get some pretty photos.  These don't do the actual view justice - partly because I'm not even an amateur photographer (there's a reason why these things are called point-and-shoot) and partly because I probably need a more technical camera to get good shots.  But - it was too pretty to pass up an attempt at the dome of St Paul's cathedral and the lights around.  The clouds were blowing around so the shot of the moon by St Paul's didn't come out well at all (hence not being included in this post).

Horses!
After a delicious dinner and yakking away about Christmas parties, travels and a few other things, it was time to go home.  Then a bit more amusement for UP:  the police horses who were wearing blinky lights which makes sense safety wise - but also had tail lights!  I had to get a photo of those although I'm not sure if the lights are just flashy safety ones (like on bicycles) or if they serve an additional purpose.  In any event, I missed the first pair of horses who went past the bar under the restaurant before I had a chance to get the camera out of my bag, but managed to get the zoom to work for this shot.  They may have this in other places, but for me, this is only in London.

No taxis were to be had at that hour in that part of town (slackers!) so I hopped on a bus headed my general direction then hurriedly pressed the stop button when I no longer knew where it was going after Oxford Circus.  Possibly in my general direction, but possibly not.  So then a walk home from Oxford Street - not too late so there was plenty of foot traffic.  A bit too many tourists for my taste, but I finally had my camera with me so I took some photos and did as the tourists did.

There are pretty lights in quite a few places - all along the high street outside my window, up and down Regent Street and Bond Street - they're quite pretty.  The Oxford Street ones are nice as well, and some of the ones for the department stores are very pretty (John Lewis and House of Fraser are in the photo above).  I have to admit there's one I'm not a huge fan of but I've forgotten which store it is.  The lights are rainbow colored but not put together in an attractive package - I say this both as a slightly snotty, but also as an aesthetic observation.  What looks right on Rainbow Drive-Inn's sign just looks wrong next to the pretty lights along Oxford Street.  And I finally got a shot of the moon!

Remote and distant
It's strange - I love the moonlight on water and on snow but here, where there's neither (unless it rains, in which case no one's looking anyway) the moon seems to be a lot further away and colder.  The nimbus, which  looks like a rainbow when we look at it in Honolulu only looks like a distant halo around the moon when I look at it from Marylebone High Street.  The halo can be obscured by the clouds but is nevertheless present.  I suppose the thought of being homeward bound at this time in 2 weeks is making me start to think of all the things I am looking forward to seeing, doing and experiencing upon my return.

So until next time may your inner Grinch be mollified or banished by all the pretty, twinkling lights.

#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!

#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!

#39 - And the waiting begins...

One of our Patisserie chefs told us in Basic that you know when you leave the kitchen if you failed.  If you're unsure, you're still in with a chance.

So Tuesday's Patisserie debacle was temporarily put on hold while we studied for our Cuisine theory test yesterday (no idea where my handout is on shellfish) which I managed to finish pretty quickly.  Think I did well on it - which is necessary given the implosion at the Cuisine final exam today.  We had an 8am demo which I thought was a bit hard on those of us who had our final exams at noon (2 groups).

Ugh - we had the lamb for our final exam.  Apparently I looked crappy enough that some nice guy whom I don't know (Superior Cuisine?) handed me a cup of water as he passed by because I was "all red".  I was on Station 6 so had half an hour to stew and calm down until I could get into the kitchen to start my 5 minute prep, then start cooking.  No doctor's note, so the choice was to skip the exam and fail Intermediate or to take the exam and give it my best, which I knew would be far from my best.  I was prepared for the exam, just knew that I wasn't moving very fast.

I'm not the only one who was feeling crappy.  I had a friend in town for work and we were supposed to have a quick dinner last night.  We had just sat down and the food arrived when we had to bolt the restaurant - he had been taken ill and we cabbed it to the London Hospital where we couldn't find the ER - we wandered around until we found it, then there was the inevitable wait for triage where they sent us next door to the NHS (National Health Service) walk-in clinic.  No paying, which was great - and he didn't need to be admitted so that was all good.  A relief that he didn't need to stay the night.

Visions of Grey's Anatomy
Preparation for today:  blue paper surgical mask for the coughing.  Definitely did not look like I belonged on Grey's Anatomy.
Outcome:  5 minutes over = 10% penalty on top of the problems with the lamb dish - I think I forgot my mint chiffonade, the sauce was under reduced and greasy, some of the vegetables weren't going to be hot enough and I am praying that the lamb was not overseasoned or undercooked and did I leave smudges on the rim of the plate when I was carrying it over to the kitchen chef?  Rumor has it that the tasting is being carried out by all the French cuisine chefs - I am so going to get killed on the debrief.

Some reassurance by Superior students that if the cake is still standing in Patisserie and you get (most) of the lamb on the plate and if it's still standing in Cuisine, there's a good chance of passing.  Any hopes of doing well have flown out the window and now it's just a matter of hoping and wishing and praying - is that how the song goes?

I suppose if worse comes to worst, I will be the best prepared Intermediate next term - but I really don't want to repeat it...especially cuisine - rabbit and bouillabaisse once was enough.  I can still feel those rabbit bones under my fingertips as I write this post.

Sorry for there being no photos - there was no time.  I think everyone just wanted to go home and have a hot shower after class.  I had a small snack with some friends then fled home, only to find that the work in my bathroom - recaulking in the shower - hadn't finished.  The guys were working on the second coat but they had a very glum audience watching them finish, not bothering to hide the fact that she wanted them out as quickly as possible.  They finished quickly and I had a nice long scrub - it was so nice to wash the lamb off.

Anyway - until next time, may you all have no period of uncertainty where you await your fate.

#36 - Wonderland revisited

Monday (15 August 2011)
Did not need to hear that someone sitting behind me in class is not having good sex with some new guy.   DID need to hear what chef was saying...I'm happy that she has found someone whom I gather is new, but hearing a discussion as to how long to wait for their sex life to improve was not what I wanted to hear while the chef was talking about the point at which we could store our fondants and what not to do so that it would turn out well.

I am a bit puzzled as to why some of the people are there.  They don't seem to be listening to what the chef is saying and they don't strike me as the most...skilled...of all the students, given their own admissions saying the same thing.  I don't know, I find them annoying - maybe it's just a sign of old age.

Still Monday - Wine tech (cuisine) - Spit, not swallow!
Whoops - forgot to spit out all of the first 2 wines - ended up taking a few sips of each.  Resulted in red blotches spreading all down my neck and below my top - have decided that I have not developed a tolerance to alcohol.

Have discovered I can smell but find most of the tasting kind of overwhelming from all the tannins, especially in the red wines.  Cannot do the wine speak although there are some impressive noses/palates in class.  Especially when they talk about lingering finishes and follow through on (from?) the nose and something about flowers which I've heard of but never smelled, to fruits which I can't smell (apricots, really?) and something about leather and wet dogs.  Yum, sounds so appetizing - and those are supposed to be characteristic of quality (I assume good) wines.

Tuesday - Patisserie - no cooking

Wednesday - Patisserie - sent home
Made it through demo but  up feeling absolutely nauseous - got sent home and ended up missing fondants and banana mousse/bavarois. So much for the first attempt at plated desserts...

Being sent home was a good thing, rest wise since I slept most of that day and all night.  Sad to have missed class though - we were meant to do chocolate fondant and a 2-part mousse/bavarois/playing with noisy toys class.

Thursday - Forgetting how to cook
We did a sole with tomato sauce and spinach tagliatelle.  The sole was supposed to be filleted as double fillets (as in taking off the entire top and the entire bottom so you have 2 pieces of fish instead of 4).  Part of this new filleting method was squeezing out the roe sac - and remembering how hard I had had to push on the sea bass, I did the same to my sole, only to have to ask the chef why there was no roe but pieces of the fish seemed to be coming out.  She looked at the fish and told me it was because I was pushing out the flesh of the fish and there was no roe.  Whoops...the poor mangled thing fell apart and I was left wondering if I had forgotten how to cook.  It was an example of true talent:  outside of the fish overcooked and falling apart, inside of the fish not cooked...we won't mention the rest of the dish except that it was only redeemed by the pasta and the sauce.

The spinach pasta was a big hit with one of the friends in Superior Patisserie - unfortunately that was mostly due to the stellar work done by my partner in getting our pasta dough done while I fought with my fish.  I have to admit it tasted really good and I enjoyed rolling it out on the machine - probably the first time I made good pasta.  Too bad I still have to work on the basics - like tasting the tomatoes and then fixing them because they were boring, tasteless and unevenly cut.

Friday - Time for a freak out
Then the scary one last week:  our second potential exam dish - Tian d'Agneau et Sa Petite Sauce a la Menthe Poivree (or something like that).  Definitely a case of having forgotten how to cook - or at least, butcher.  It was like going back to basic ("AC, you're picking at the lamb - it looks like you're afraid to touch it.  Are you afraid?") - it took forever to get the lamb prepared and ready to go.  The of course there were the other preparations (roasted garlic, which I forgot about so it overcooked) - the actual list of things isn't long - confit onions (which I also forgot about and they overcooked); artichokes (which took forever because you have to break the stems so that the fibers come out, rather than cutting the stem.  I jumped up and down with my weight on my hands and the choke/stem - it helps if you're taller than I am because then you have better leverage), sauteed mushrooms, sauteed spinach, diced tomatoes, the lamb and the sauce.  So out of all those things...I cooked the lamb, the mushrooms and the spinace well.  Everything was underseasoned and there were other things wrong with the dish as well.

Verdict:  I have some (lots!) work to do.  This one will kill you in the exam if you get the organization wrong.

Also, cutting fingers and things not the desired outcome.  Middle finger hasn't completely healed from the last cut, but have a new one to add from lamb butchery last night.  Why the middle finger???  Have discovered fingertips are one of the worst places to get a cut.  Who knew you used them so much?

Friday afternoon - Wine tech (patisserie)
I won't bore you with the details but we had a second wine lecture last week - Friday afternoon and it was on to dessert / sticky wines.  I liked a muscat-ish on from Hungary whose name currently escapes me.  I think it was alcoholic enough to knock people's socks off.
After all the swirling, looking, smelling, sip/breathe/swish/spitting, I was glad to escape and go home.  It was time for dinner...and I had just the thing in mind.

Fish tacos
Some friends went to the fish markets earlier in the week so I decided I would do the fish a few different ways.  The week seemed light on vegetables so I chose something light and fresh:  fish tacos.  I hadn't seared ahi before and I had a bit of trouble getting the fish turned in the pan - hence the overcooking...but the others turned out really well and I have discovered that they make cilantro/coriander as mixed micro-greens.  All I can say is, wow!  The tiny leaves pack a huge flavor punch completely out of keeping with their size and saved the ceviche from being boring and uninteresting to something zingy.

Wonderland, When Harry Met Sally and Lateral thinking...
A friend, SC was in town.  We have known each other since law school and she happened to be travelling through London so we met up and had coffee at Monmouth Coffee.  We had a moment where she asked for a mocha.  Our waitress said they don't make mocha but they have cocoa powder - no, they couldn't mix the cocoa powder into the coffee.  I asked if it would be possible to have the cocoa on the side of a coffee (having a flashback to Sally), to which she said yes because apparently SC, who had just asked the same thing, wasn't speaking English despite all appearances to the contrary - go Wonderland.

It's been a while since I had a really good coffee so I was very happy.  Ballet didn't happen but I did start studying in earnest.  I hope it will all settle in by this time next week - I have completely run out of time...

Monday (22 August 2011) - Souffle Day
The souffle on the left below is the classic method (mixing meringue with creme patissiere) and the one on the right is a slightly updated (completely differet) - way too much egg, especiallyin the lemon sauce (measured the yolks wrong).  The design on the plate - needs a lot of work.

Tuesday - Lobster
Had a pretty good day with lobster.  It was delicious and most of the time I felt quite calm.  Maybe it's the sleep deprivation - had tome time in which I could organize everything and clean my station down.  Dish turned out quite well - good thing because I had arranged to have a couple of friends around to taste the lamb exam dish and I planned to make a starter with the risott  - although I forgot the semi-dried tomatoes.

Cooking / studying / trying to stay motivated (in case the lobster was insufficient):
The risotto from yesterday morning was meant to undergo a transformation - as risotto balls with cheese inside.  There must be a way to stick it all together - mine ended falling apart when I put them in the hot oil.  However, cheese went really well with Nir's bread and the lamb turned out ok.  Had a go at the butchery and the cooking to a degree.  I think the lamb is more med-rare than med, but will need to check with the chefs, if at all possible.

So tired I am writing down nonsense on the screen...must go, it is the middle of the week and I don't want to be late for class, but here are photos of dinner from last night and an attempt at the exam dish.

Exam Dish #2 - practice...

So until next time, may your knives stay sharp and only cut what they are supposed to cut!