Whatever thoughts I might have had last term about getting ready for finals and doing portfolios was trumped yesterday. An email reminder arrived from a course I enrolled for back in September - related to my job and obviously before I got injured. The reminder email was to confirm technical setup with our lecturers in Sydney. Yes, I am beyond silly in that I now have to finish my Patisserie portfolio, finalise the Cuisine portfolio, practice for the exams and...do readings for a dispute resolution course. That could always go on the back burner but I have a couple of assignments due during the period that I am away so what I had thought would be easy down time at home over the Easter holidays now bid fair to be rather involved in catching up on the reading that I don't really have time to do over the next couple of weeks. Between study / practice sessions and classes finishing full pelt, I have little free time as I have to pack up pretty much right after finals in preparation for leaving London for the foreseeable future.
Finals have started to permeate every aspect of life, from allowing no time for ballet classes to taking over conversations and any conversations I might have with anyone. There has been random browsing on the internet as well as trying to think of flavor combinations within the list of ingredients which don't sound horrible (cinnamon and white chocolate made various faces screw up at the very thought). Thus far we have had some good natured guinea pigs as evidenced by the mousse and raspberry thing the other night.
Good influences
There are good influences everywhere you look. One of the girls from Cuisine has kicked my butt into actually making a practice schedule for our cuisine final. That influenced a slightly less ambitious one for Patisserie - less so because there are a few things I can't practice at home (sugar and brioche). In the meantime, our first practice session is tomorrow. She has kindly offered the use of her kitchen and equipment - I will provide the things she doesn't have. I have high hopes for the upcoming finals as I have only practiced on my own in the past. If nothing else, this will teach me whether I am capable of practicing with other people or whether I need to do it on my own.
Gather ye roses...
In the meantime, we have been using the boulangerie module to practice brioche. Mondy and today resulted in more bread items than we could carry - a happy bonus for friends not doing Patisserie. We made a few breads for the day, then prepped a few other things for Tuesday (a second brioche recipe, the croissant doughs, etc.) which we did first thing in the morning - not a bad breakfast / morning snack. We actually had so many that I gave a few to various people. The porters like these days because they also get to share - we need assistance in making our take-home packages manageable and they get to have fresh bread - a win/win situation for all concerned.
After all the Viennoiserie was baked, we all had to do a quality control/taste test. As you can see, they looked quite nice (my croissants are the two outer columns and the pains au chocolat on the left - we shared trays). For hygiene reasons, I've been wearing a mask while I cook, but that doesn't interfere with tasting time. The others in the background are ladling hot water in their cups so they can have coffee with their croissants. Milk and sugar were already on hand for other ingredients so we were well supplied.
In which we eat - a lot...
Tuesday's afternoon session was for finishing a few other breads, then time for some fun. We have these enormous deck ovens which can make their own steam so you get a really nice crust on bread. The only thing is, these are apparently the small ones so it makes it a bit harder to have one at home. You can make do but it's a bit more dangerous to make your own steam so I just do simpler ones. The Viennese baguettes are baking on the left (just before we went for lunch). Then we had to turn out and cut our pains de campagne in the second session. It gets a really nice crust, it freezes well and it's really good when you defrost and toast it. This is the one I had in my freezer when I got injured last term - really good with beans on toast - even better if the beans and toast is topped with melted Gruyere and a fried egg on top.
Pain Surprise
This is one we make with a rye bread mix (pain de siegle). We baked the bread the day before, then chilled it over night - apparently that makes it easier to slice. It's something you can do with any bread (so we were told) and traditionally people make them for parties - either as a finger food, part of a buffet or whatever - easy to eat and the display is quite nice.
Hollowing out my Aloha Honu ("honu" is Hawaiian for turtle) was a bit of a pain, mainly because I missed a little bit on the bottom and it was uneven. Did manage to disguise the layers - the one on the left below is Chef's turtle, Terry. Mine is in the centre and on the right below - the girls work at the dentist's office on the ground floor of the building where I'm staying. They saw the turtle and they made the same impressed sounds I made when I first saw a Superior student taking home her hedgehog back when I was in basic. Anyway, both girls are from Australia. One didn't like smoked salmon so she just sampled the prosciutto one and the other one tried both.
As you can see, Honu was quite popular. Knowing just how much butter I had spread over the various layers when making the sandwiches, I couldn't face eating so many more for dinner, especially since I had already had a pain au chocolat by then. All I want was a nice salad - so this was dinner. Of course I ended up having a second dinner a few hours later - apparently eating lots of butter and refined flour doesn't satisfy your body's need for food and it still demands the good stuff after you've given it tons of bad (but oh so delicious) stuff.
The remainder of the evening was spent doing more laundry - the baking trays have been cured over years of use but the whole not washing them thing means that they get crap on the bottom of the trays - so each day the pristine white uniform gets random rusty looking streaks not too long after you handle the trays. I've washed my oven gloves but they still look a bit cooked. Hopefully they don't affect hygiene marks.
Today is a late start - 3pm demo, then a 6:30pm practical. Luckily the main time of the practical will be waiting for the lemongrass / ginger/ other spices bouillon to come together so there should be some yummy goodness to bring home for dinner. There's enough time to drop off a Kugelhopf bread to a girlfriend (not cooking school) who had a baby not so long ago, with some of the bread from yesterday, then it's on to meet a friend from Cuisine to go over a couple of things for finals. I can finally get some things out of the fridge, like the wood pigeons I bought over the weekend -I'm not sure if that means they were wild but we have to look for shot in them - and some of the vegetables. Busy day ahead - must go.
So until next time, happy eating and sleeping!
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