#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!

#30 - Um, where did the time go?

Somehow the first week has gone by in a complete blur.  Then the second week...I'm not sure where the time went, but here is a quick recap:
The end of June had Pithivier (right) and Mille-Feuille cake (left), both made with the Evil Puff Pastry from Hot Monday (aka the first day of Intermediate) - and I was so tired by the end of the day that I got the two mixed up on their labels when I put the photos up on Facebook.

Then we had three practicals for Cuisine - a (too salty!) pumpkin soup and Flemish style beef stew with braised endives on Wednesday, a Dover (?) sole with seafood and cream sauce on Thursday and a braised salmon fillet roulade with sole and scallop mousse, turned mushrooms and broccoli on Friday.  The salmon dish, by the way, is one of our potential exam dishes for cuisine this term.

Braised endive with
Beurre Meuniere

Pumpkin Soup

Braised fillet of Sole
with seafood sauce

Salmon stuffed with
scallop and sole mousse,
mushroom cream sauce
and steamed broccoli

Carbonnade of Beef

FYI, it was 39 degrees in the kitchen on Thursday and on Friday it was 40 degrees.

Saturday was a lovely day of nothing, ending with a delicious meal (Lebanese?) in Islington.  I don't think I've been there before, so it was a nice little adventure.  Then came Sunday and the highlight of my week - a cruise down the Thames followed by a pub lunch and a long walk in the English countryside.

I was invited by a friend of my eldest brother (from their university days).  There was  some unfortunate miscommunication at Paddington station involving my asking for the next train to my stop, the lady (it appears) not knowing and telling me that the trains only run once an hour to that stop (they don't) and my arrival much later than originally planned.

Anyway, I arrived and we took the canal boat from Abingdon to...I've forgotten the name of the little town.  During the trip we went through a couple of locks and I got to steer for a little while.  I gave back the rudder when we approached the first lock, mainly because it required steering in a straight(ish) line and my steering had the boat basically waggling along down the river.

We saw lots of swans, coots which look like ducks a little, ducks and gulls with black heads.  There was a cricket game going on - it wasn't over when we came back 5 hours later - and we passed by little village churches, under various bridges and past fields of wheat and barley.  The wheat has already started to turn golden but the barley is still somewhat green.  In the meantime, I had Sting's Fields of Gold running through my head.  Until we arrived at the second lock, anyway.

KTQ hopped out of the boat to push buttons to open the sluice gates or the lock gates to adjust the levels of water so that we could get into it, T had the rudder and one of the big ropes and I got to play deckhand and loop the rope around one of the things on the side of the lock while they lowered the water.

We made pretty good time and stopped by the bridge of this tiny little village where I didn't even know which direction was the town center.  We had lunch by a pub which had delicious looking food.  I couldn't go past the traditional roast beef (very traditional beef!), Yorkshire pudding and some vegetables.  I feel bad I couldn't finish the potatoes but we had a lot of walking to do and we were starting to feel tired from all the food.

Then came week 2
There was baking - lots and lots of baking.  We did various buns, pastries, more fish and for the first time, quail.  Quail is a lot harder to carve once it's cooked because it's so small and you don't want to mess it up - bones aren't nice for anyone.  I'm so happy that there are more vegetables on the menus this term.  I'm not sure if it's because we have to work faster or if it's more advanced stuff, but depending on the day, we sometimes make a starter and a main in our cuisine classes.  It will take too long to write about all the food, but here are the pictures:
Patisserie

Hot cross buns



Brioche




Croissants and Danois

Cuisine
I couldn't find my camera to take photos of the roast pork filet with prunes that we did the day before the quail so I don't have any photos for that one, unfortunately.  They are starting to do desserts in our cuisine classes as well, hence the souffle.


Braised trout wrapped in lettuce
and braised lettuce



Vanilla Souffle











Roast quail with glazed
veggies, potato rosti and jus

Selle sur cher with glazed
beetroot, grape and poppyseed
vinaigrette








Also, finally made it to the British Museum on Saturday morning.  There are just as many tourists as I feared there might be, but I did get to see things I haven't seen before.  Last time it was most of Ancient Egypt (the ground floor part) and part of Assyria.  This time it was some of Ancient Egypt, then on to Ancient Greece and Rome with a wander through the Celtic region and Britain during the Iron Age.  It's amazing how so things have survived, virtually intact, for a few thousand years.  Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of eeling through hordes of people who stop in the middle of a sidewalk to check their maps.  You tend to run into them if you're walking quickly and then they give you a dirty look and you just have to smile sweetly and apologize.

Yesterday was bread day...I officially have bad boulangerie hands.  The dough for the rye (pain de siegle) kept sticking to my hands.


Baguette viennoise, pain de siegle and focaccia


No cooking today, but tomorrow it will be back to two classes in the kitchen.  Wish us luck - we start going over our exam cakes next week.
So until next time, may the tourists not be with you.