#18 - Late Start and Shortcrust Pastry (Tarte au Citron)

Borough Market
Today was one of our late start days - our demonstration wasn't until 3pm.  Some of the others went out last night but I sensibly went home (also my headache made me decide that discretion was the better part of valor).  One of the girls suggested that we go to Borough Markets.  I think I mentioned it in the last post.

Anyway - it has the good coffee (thank you Monmouth!) and the good coffee place also has good pain au chocolat.  The only problem was that it was all a bit too rich for breakfast.  We arrived and EA brought a friend who was down for the weekend from Oxford.  He found himself surrounded by four girls (the others, for various reasons, couldn't make it) who wandered around the markets and basically got excited about everything and wanted to eat it all.  He couldn't understand how anyone could be excited by perfect aubergines/eggplants or the seven different kinds of wild mushrooms. 

It could possibly be explained by the fact that each of us love to eat while EA's friend said that he ate so that he wouldn't be hungry.  Philistine!  Still - he took it in good part and eventually just watched in bemusement as we went wild over the various vendors (drunken cheese!  I forget the Italian word for drunk, but I got cheese which had been...soaked? in red wine and prosecco, respectively - ok, I didn't know prosecco was white wine).  We are having some sort of get together at EA's house tomorrow night and since I can't drink, I decided to contribute cheese.  I eventually stopped at 9 cheeses...any more would have been slightly over the top.

Borough Market does not sell clothes or arts and crafts - at least none that I could see.  It's pretty much all food or food related, in the case of the stall selling Borough Market handled bags.  We tried a bunch of different things (raclette - melted cheese starting with "O" whose name I can't remember over baked potato whose name I also can't remember), a steak/egg/caramelized onion/cheese sandwich for me (I have to wash my jacket because I got ketchup all over it), a burger with bacon and egg for TN (they got her order a bit wrong and gave her bacon instead of sausage), some Biltong for EA and her friend (it's kind of like beef jerky - South African), some juices and the coffee & pastries.

Eventually we all went and sat down near the church to chat a bit and discuss any confusion (each chef has their own way of doing things so it can confuse the issue between a demo and a pratical when we are told to do things a bit differently).  We eventually staggered off to class, feeling a big sick from all the food but sublimely happy.

Class demo was a lemon tart and a chocolate tart.  The chocolate tart had so much butter it was kind of disgusting if you think about the amount - but it tasted so good and the lemon tart was yummy too.

French
See Mom?  I knew that taking French was a good idea!  Some of the terms are in French and we have a vocabulary test as part of our written theory exams (not that the Chefs told us any of this of course).  So I have a bit of a head start, but only for this.  The rest of it happens to be still quite difficult - getting the timing down for the Lemon Tart is going to be tricky for the final since I am quite sure that we won't have a chef there to pull our tart casings out of the oven while we are making our meringues, nor will we have a partner to watch the candied julienned lemon peel.  There is a lot of pratice ahead, as well as revising the methods for the various recipes.  1 chance in 3 of drawing this as our final...

We are given a lot of theory in class (for example, why the lemon juice and water have to be a certain temperature to keep the eggs from curdling).

So - pictures from today:

Tarte au Citron avec Creme de Citron Garniture, Meringue Italienne et Decoration
(Lemon Tart with Lemon Cream, Italian Meringue and Candied Lemon Peel Decoration)



Our uniform...

Not there yet, but a second day without injury is indeed a cause for celebration.  Also am beginning to think that I may just survive this course.

Have set aside the weekend to rest, take dance class (to work off all the butter and sugar!), do laundry and catch up with friends.  I have to say, Patisserie is a bit more friendly to my clothes - not so much laundry to do, unlike in Cuisine.

Have found willing victims to give a home to half of my tart.  I have shared part of my other half with my friend JB (whose flatmates are going to eat the tart half I left in their fridge) and have a bit in my fridge for me to take to my ballet teacher tomorrow.  It's a little beaten up now because it was sliding around in the box (and I almost dropped it so the meringue got smushed) but still tastes good, if I do say so myself.  Having made the lemon cream, I am prepared to admit that I may be just a bit biased.

This is my first full weekend off since the course started - can it be only 2 weeks ago?  It seems like a lifetime ago...so until next time, have a wonderful weekend!