#33 - Peace, man...

Well it has been a few days since the last post so here's the rundown.  There has been a lot of food, some baking, riots (more later) and enjoying London's summer.

First, food...
We've done a lot of seafood in the past few weeks. Most of it was good, some of it was not.   Examples: Stuffed seabass Nicoise - good.   Fish guts at 8am - bad.   Seafood risotto - good.   Stove not working - bad.  Super hot kitchen and mouthing off at the chef - very bad. 

Apologizing to chef the following week and having it graciously accepted - very good.

Then dinner for 6 on a Sunday - practice run at salmon fillets stuffed with sole and scallop mousse, then dessert (another run at the tuile with fruits/berries and sabayon).  Lots of guinea pigs (thanks JB, RK, Vicki, Jess and JP!)  No fish stock to be had - all out at the grocery store.  I am guessing people are practicing their exam dishes!  The fish store told me to let them know the day before and they will keep the fish bones for me so that I can make my own stock.  For the practice, used vegetable stock.  Still tasted ok, but was missing something (fish and a couple of other herbs and spices).








then baking...
Sponge cake with poached pear (in caramel), chocolate mousse and chocolate decorations followed by white chocolate mousse cake with pistachio dacquoise/succes biscuit, redcurrant jelly, glacage and chocolate and berry decoration. 

So - decorations are supposed to be prettier if they are finer/thinner.  The thing is - they can be too thin - so I only had a few rectangular pieces that came off the textured sheet for the side of my mousse cake.

It was pretty hot when we did the two cakes - the chocolate mousse with the pears set ok because of all the chocolate.  The white chocolate mousse, which had less support...well...it looked ok when we finished class and it was straight out of the refrigerator.  By the time I got home half an hour later, the cake/mousse was bulging out by the sides.  I don't have a picture of the bulging sides but they are forever emblazoned in my head.

and more cooking...
There was a ballotine of chicken - basically a chicken leg that has had the thigh bone removed, the thigh removed and made into a stuffing and stuffed into where the thigh would have been...with sauce.  The chef and I have different ideas of what constitutes cooked chicken (I say not pink - he said overcooked).  Sauce was ok but we were "all too shy with the seasoning".

Then - pike.  We had to make what was essentially a choux pastry (similar to the evil choux/eclair from basic patisserie) and make a fish mousse with pike.  FYI, pike does not smell good.  Anyway, had to mix it all together with other stuff (eggs, butter, etc. etc.) - and the mixture is supposed to rest.  6 hours is good, overnight is better.  Our classes are 2 1/2 hours long - um...so the comment from our chef was "the dough needs to rest more".  Anyway, these are really ugly - I couldn't get them to hold their shape (supposed to look like a 3-faceted oval).  The sauce was pretty good (crayfish sauce) but getting there was a little too much excitement.  The crayfish were alive (good) - and very active (bad).  We didn't cover them in people's refrigerators.  I'm not sure if any managed to crawl out of their bowls, but I used my tongs to put them into bowls from the huge plastic tub because they were too lively for me.  I can handle live crabs but...

Followed by stuffed cabbage - essentially a sausage mix in a cabbage leaf-lined mould.  Chef FJ said this wasn't very sexy or exciting so we should layer the meat and sauteed cabbage inside to make it more interesting (below right - the only thing I did right).  I couldn't make the carrots grow, so he told me to make the turnips and onions smaller next time.  Of course, I got marked down in the Basic Cuisine final for doing that (the onions were too small)...

We finished early last Thursday, so I went to a dance class.  So nice to be moving again - something more than running around in a kitchen.  Then class again on Sunday morning.  Of course it hurts to move now...

I was asked if cooking is still fun. I have to say, yes it is. There are days when I don't feel like going to class but as soon as I set foot in the kitchen, somehow the enthusiasm returns.

Grace and coordination
Of course being tired can sometimes affect how motivated I feel. Also how clumsy I am...so far I have managed to cut my finger (with a thread, while doing laundry!) and yesterday I ended up wearing my Coke rather than drinking. Drinking was attempted but grace won out over coordination - with the result that I had to be excused in the middle of class to go change into a clean (and dry) uniform. Apparently from behind, it looked like I had had an accident of a different nature. Anyway - the Coke didn't come out completely. I was concerned about the caramel coloring they put in it - hopefully it will eventually come out with continued washings...

Outdoor movies
Sunday night (again) - picnic and outdoor cinema in the park by Houses of Parliament.  Can't think of a better venue - it had rained quite heavily during the day but cleared up by evening.  There were 9 of us and of course everyone brought way too much food.  The movie was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - kind of a depressing movie, actually.

London riots
Anyway, during the movie, we heard police sirens quite a bit.  At one point two cars went screaming past the park, lights flashing, sirens blaring - and in opposite directions.  I'm still wondering if one car radioed the other car to say, "you're going the wrong way!"

Riots are ongoing and our 6pm class today was cancelled - something about potential trouble in the area.  Have taken the opportunity to update this blog, go over some notes for finals...and contemplated going back to school to fetch my knives so I can practice a cake tonight.  Have decided against cooking in favor of continuing my enormous book A Dance with Dragons (George RR Martin) - 960 pages of happiness await.

So until next time, peace...