#40 - A long time ago, in a culinary galaxy far, far away...

Ok, maybe not such a long time ago.  A small band of students were either recovering from the brutality of final exams or getting psyched up to take them.  Weary in mind, body and spirit, they gathered to chat, laugh and eat lots of yummy food.

It's not over until it's over
Exams are over...but classes are not!  We found out today that they have rescheduled that truffle class which got postponed due to the riots - to Thursday at noon.  They won't mark us absent if we don't attend - but for those of us still in London, it's a chance to do the class because we'll be doing this as part of the Superior Patisserie final exam - that is, temper 2 different kinds of chocolate - so truffles it is.

Drinking the Kool-aid?
In the meantime, there has been a rebellion against French cooking at home.  Friday night was an early dinner for a friend as I had missed her birthday celebrations last week due to panic and preparation for my final exams.

The rest of it was rather an insidious rebellion - Saturday night I made a pasta that any of my French cuisine chefs would have approved of.  I didn't have macaroni, so I made mac 'n cheese with broken up spaghetti noodles - and whole milk, butter, double cream, cheese - then to top it off because it needed a little something, smoked haddock for that salty kick.  I thought I had been indoctrinated by the French cooking we've been doing - certainly it tasted pretty good.  Or it could be because I was really hungry by the time dinner was ready - I had spent the day sleeping, reading and watching You Tube.

However, Sunday morning was brunch with some friends and the rebellion occurred over eggs.  Omelettes, to be precise - the power of more cream and butter failed to sway us to the dark side.  Instead, I used olive oil for almost everything.  We have to make and present things the "proper" way in class.  So I made my omelettes with color (quel horreur!) which is a more rustic way of doing it.  One of the Roux brothers (Albert?) likes his omelettes colorless - i.e. the proper way.  The other Roux brother (so I'm guessing it must be Michel) likes his with a bit of color.  I made mine his way - except my omelette wasn't runny in the middle, although I made runny middles for CD and NR.

Had planned on poaching eggs and making hollandaise sauce, but changed the plan because we didn't have enough stomach space after all the other cooking.

We also had a Spanish omelette (someone said it's called a tortilla - I have no idea) - which is more potato and onions with a little egg to bind it together.  We also had some sauteed girolle mushrooms with garlic, crispy bacon, Scottish smoke salmon with country style bread, jamon, lemon wedges, dill and...I can't remember if there was anything else.

Yesterday was a lovely day off.  The sun was shining for most of the day - I opened the blinds in my flat and enjoyed the sunshine while reading a book, sprawled out on the bed.  It was bliss not having to do anything - although I did take the opportunity to get my things together for class today and to do some laundry.  Yes, we had class today...

In which we don't need AA...
Today was Patisserie - finishing our celebration cakes.  They are basically like the Christmas cakes you find in Australia / Europe - the ones which are rum with some dried/candied fruits thrown in and a little starch to make it all stick together.  It's apparently also the top layer of an English/Australian wedding cake - the layer you freeze and keep until the Christening of your first child.  Anyway - you could still smell the alcohol we put in it back in July and if you wanted to, you could give your cake another "drink".  Mine didn't need more - besides, I'm not sure how Kirsch goes with rum.

So these are the cakes we made back in July - where the smell of the rum was making some of us drunk in class.  We made the flowers last week because they needed a few days to dry.  Then we covered the cakes with marzipan and royal icing today, before putting our decorations on the cakes.  The concept in my head was sound, but I think the execution was a bit lacking.

Well that's about it.  Tomorrow is another fun filled day - more laundry (!), a pedicure and more fun reading.  I promise, I'm not laundry obsessed.  It's just that the washing machine can only fit in a certain amount of clothes - pretty much the equivalent of one set of full uniform (jacket, pants, apron, etc. etc.) or a couple of pairs of jeans and some tank tops.  Also - must sort out my apartment so it doesn't feel like I am living in a storage facility for chocolate.  My practice supplies arrived last Friday - 3 days after my final exam!  So now I have 10 kgs of various kinds of chocolate in my apartment and need to find a way to store everything so that I can practice and still have room to move around and use the living space.




So until next time, wherever you are, may you have enough room to swing a cat.  Or at least, walk around without falling over boxes and recycling.