#123 - Traditions, A rose by any other name and Family Fun

(But first - Sunday Brunch by the Sea)
It's tradition that on my last Sunday at home, we have brunch down by the ocean.  One of the big draws is the omelette station in which, as per my request, Chef S always squishes my omelette so that it isn't runny anywhere.  About a year ago he was promoted to a different service so I was very happy to see him.  Even better, he remembered both my omelette and me (it's so nice to be appreciated!).  Another member of the staff was kind enough to have refilled the fried rice tray because he saw I was getting ready to fill my plate.  How did I know?  Because he told me so when he saw that I had already started to fill my plate - so of course I had to add some of the fresh fried rice to my very full plate, so that his efforts were fully appreciated.  (It's so nice to be missed and even nicer to be spoiled - a girl could get used to this in a hurry!)  So although this was originally intended to be Round 1, unfortunately I was defeated by the enormous omelette topped with house salsa, fried rice, crispy bacon, sauteed mahimahi with tartare sauce (not one of my usual choices) and lots and lots of coffee.  Thanks Chef S & D!  By the way, that's a dinner plate, in case you can't tell by scale.

Porn is porn is porn (aka Is porn, porn?  In which some names sound much more exciting than the actuality)
Kind of like the Sex Party in Australia (apparently not the fun kind, but I couldn't tell you what they are - no one could tell me when I was at the voting place last year either).

The other day our dinner plans went a little awry.  How, you may ask, when all we needed was some chicken breast.  I'm not sure how it happened, but at Safeway, the chicken was still frozen - as in, I could see the ice crystals (really, how good will the meat taste?) so I went to the second store which didn't have anything free-range / organic / something which didn't sound like it was full of hormones.  So you think it's no worries, there's another one down the road.  No chicken breasts at all, frozen or otherwise!  1.5 hours after leaving home and buying everything except the chicken, we gave up on that idea and had to come up with a quick last minute dinner idea.  The result:  ginger, garlic and green onion (spring onion to my Aussie / UK friends), salt and a little oil.  On everything.  And it appears my niece has a good palate - she wanted a bit more salt on everything (my Mom said it was too salty)...oh dear.  You win some, you lose some.  A friend said that I am a "food porn producer.  Or culinary porn."  Another friend calls it "gastroporn"  - which makes me wonder a little at the whole "...I can't define what is pornography.]  "But I know it when I see it."  - Potter Stewart, opinion in Jacobellis v Ohio (1964) [NB:  I got this reference from Wikipedia - aka I don't really care what the answer is, but I cared that teeny bit enough to look it up.]

Then later that night, my niece asked me in her little voice if I could "please cook for me".  I asked my sister if she had asked my niece to ask me to cook for them - as Lil Sis said, "I didn't, but it's something I would do."  Well yes, that's why I asked...

Comfort food / family fun in the kitchen
Today was cold and rainy - and since we had a couple of hours until dinner time and no one felt like doing anything elaborate, we settled on meatloaf.  I've been meaning to try the bacon wrapped meatloaf for over a year now so we tried it today.  Lil Sis likes meatloaf because it's a good way to hide lots of vegetables although I haven't noticed that her children need much encouragement to eat their veggies.

Even better, my niece and nephew each like to help in the kitchen and they love to wash - I heartily encourage it!  So they washed the vegetables and did the all important taste test once the mixture was done and a little bit cooked off (shades of LCB cuisine classes...)  I have a feeling that each of their first memory of me will be the sight of me standing by the stove - and all I can say is, there could be worse first memories so I have no objection to this one.

Superbowl is coming up and although we haven't managed to settle on a party plan yet (will there be one for commercials?  That has yet to be determined) the bacon experiment was also a trial run for any sort of party:  meatloaf cooked in a muffin tin lined with bacon.

One of my classmates from LCB will be leaving (has left?) Dome restaurant and of course I had presentation envy so we dolled up the meatloaf.  Previous failures at finding baby / micro-greens notwithstanding, I have seen them in several places the last couple of days so I of course they made it onto the plate.  You think that they would be a complete waste by my niece actually wanted some of the little plants for her plate (of course she didn't eat them - but she did eat her other veggies...)

The thing with presentation is that you already have to have an idea in your head.  Since I couldn't decide (and falling back on my "why choose if you don't have to" philosophy) I did a couple of different variations.

Of course the large meatloaf took a lot longer to cook - the bacon lattice didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned it but that may have something to do with the really large chunks of fat that I removed from the packet of bacon.  My recommendation if you like to trim off the excess fat from the bacon like I do:  buy two packs of bacon so that you have some back-ups for the lattice.  This one went into the fridge for tomorrow so we'll let you know how it turns out.  For the English / UK / Aussies, this will be burnt and unfit to eat.  For (most) Americans that I know, this is about right since we like our bacon crispy - maybe not this crispy?  Only a tasting will tell.

On the agenda for tomorrow - more fun in the kitchen involving lots of butter (testing different types, naturally, all in the name of research), cheese and all the things doctors, nutritionists and dieticians tell you are bad for you.

Until next time, may you have happy family hang-outs and fun bonding time!

#94 - Life continues after LCB

After we all received our pass confirmations, it was time for a few well deserved drinks.  It was a warm March day so we all gathered in the courtyard outside the LCB Cafe.  There's a pub there so they provided us with drinks (and me with food) - there's a student discount, which was a bit of a bonus for our very last day as students.


We gathered for the last time - the others would see each other at graduation but I was due to get on a plane the following morning so this was our last chance to say hello.  Several of us also had quite a bit of packing up to do and limited luggage space in which to do it.  One of the things about missing graduation is that I wouldn't get to wear the chef's hat or get the medals from the chefs.  CB, one of the very nice people in LCB administration went upstairs to get my medals because they weren't going to be included with my diplomas which would arrive by post.  I carefully wrapped up the hard-won pieces of metal and packed them in my bag.  Then I had several rounds of repacking, with the result that it took me a couple of days and virtually unpacking everything when I got home to find them again (carefully tucked away in a plastic container).  My sister and my parents requested that I wear them while cooking - all I could think of was the universal horrified look which would cross one of the chef's face at such a suggestion...


Life after LCB...
The last couple of weeks since I got home have been pretty busy.  I'm not sure how, since I'm theoretically on vacation...some of it, of course, has been spent cooking for family and friends.  There's a certain expectation when you come home and you (theoretically) have been trained how to cook, that you will cook for people.


The difficulty is learning to differentiate between cooking / playing time and a cooking / time sensitive time.  That is to say, teaching that difference to well meaning friends and family.  It's sweet people want to participate but as one of my brothers told me, they don't (so he claims) know what they're doing and it's all about fun.  Which is fine, as long as their fun time isn't my time sensitive time because then it just stops being fun for everyone.  (Let's just say that trying to grill stuff on a grill which needs to be fired up and trying to make a theatre time is not the stuff of relaxing and fun dinner preparation.  Neither is fancy plating.)


A simple lunch turned out to be quite a large one.  What was meant to be lunch for 4 somehow rapidly expanded to 6, then 9...an example below of our simple lunch - grilled fresh mahimahi, grilled lemongrass/keffir lime/ garlic shrimp, salad with vinaigrette and grilled veggies.  My brother had been dying for fresh fish and as we had a pescatarian, this was friendly for all.  I still have dreams about cooking, but I'm hoping those dreams will get fewer and further in between.  It's no fun when the dishes are imperfect even in dreams - surely that must say something?


You say potato, I say potahto...
There's a place called Diamond Head Market and Grill here.  Several people are completely in love with their blueberry scones.  I have a slightly difficult time with this because the scones I'm used to (Australian/English influence) have always been circular ones which slightly resemble the biscuits of the American Southern cooking:  slightly crisp-ish on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.  The scones I've had in the US usually resemble...triangular heavy dough things which could take out an eye, so I was doubtful about the blueberry scones.


I was immediately suspicious when I saw these large things because they were so shiny - yup, coated with some sort of sugary thing.  But actually quite delicious.  They put cream cheese in the batter so that gives it extra moisture and it's nice and kind of oozy and gooey when fresh out of the oven (first thing in the morning will do that).  I'm not a huge lover of sweets but I have to say that the next time I have a sweet craving, I might just head over and get one of these.  Perhaps tomorrow morning, if I get up early enough to eat one before ballet class - have to have enough time to digest it so that turning doesn't make you want to hurl.  That's not so elegant - not to mention it's a dead giveaway to the teacher that you haven't been spotting.  For more on spotting, I suggest you watch an episode of Gilmore Girls (the one where Rory is getting ready for her debut with the Daughters of the American Revolution).


Several evenings...with Schroeder and friends
It has been a music filled week leading up to Easter.  There was a wonderful concert last week - the soloist was Something Wolfram or Wolfram Something (from NY?  I don't have the program anymore or I would be able to tell you) and he played Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto.  He was this tall, imposing fellow who was so tall they had to lower his piano bench so that he could fit his legs under the piano.  It reminded me of Schroeder from the Peanuts comics - Wolfram's knees weren't quite up to his ears, but they weren't far off.


The newly reconstituted Hawaii Symphony Orchestra then played Dvorak's New World Symphony.  One of the oboists (coincidentally she's also the English horn) is staying with us so we got a little preview while she practiced - anyway, wow!  I asked later - she and the bassoon had discussed the blend of their sound and it sounded wonderful at the concert.


Later on in the week, we went back for another concert:  Russian Easter Overture (Rimsky Korsakov), the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Tchaikowsky's 5th Symphony.  I forgot how long the symphony was and I kept nodding off in the last movement.  Oh, the whiplash!  Still, an enjoyable night and sweet lullabies...


Easter
The end of this trip is drawing to a close, marked by my first Easter at home in over 10 years.  It was a beautifully (mostly) sunny Sunday.  We started with Easter breakfast by the water.  It was supposed to be brunch but they did a couple of seatings and we left the arrangements sufficiently late that the only table we could get was at 9am.  Slight rate of attrition due to the early hour, but I like to think we acquitted ourselves well.  After the first couple of rounds to warm up (coffee, water, coffee, omelette, bacon, fried rice, coffee, some kind of BBQ chicken) the non-vegetarians went for the meats.  I headed for the prime rib (how could you not?  It's not something you would be cooking at home for breakfast - or at least, not something I would cook at home because you'd have to be up at the crack of dawn to do it), more rice and more bacon.  Bacon makes everything better...


Eventually defeated by the limited capacity of our bodies (stretched to their absolute limits) we headed for the water after applying copious amounts of sunscreen.  Yes, you can get into a swimsuit and get in the water, but to describe what we did as "swimming" would be like saying...actually, I'm in too much of a food coma to come up with a suitable simile.  More accurately, I think you could say we dipped ourselves - just enough to cool off.  I was going to do some reading this afternoon but fell asleep instead - and woke up just in time to make it to Easter dinner (another buffet!  Thank goodness I'm going back to Sydney and cooking for one) where I'm sure I stretched my capacity for food intake once again.  I don't really cook when it's just me so I took the opportunity of having quite a large supply of guinea pigs at home.


Now it's time for a second attempt to read about transferring proceedings from one court to another and the biggest challenge of all:  staying awake long enough to process it so that I can remember it tomorrow.  Finding the time to get caught up on readings has proved to be quite a challenge between all the things I have to do (unpack, repack, etc. etc.), the cooking and the resting.  I've been sleeping a lot since I got back - I think the stress of finals still hasn't fully worn off - I seem to remember not sleeping more than 6 hours or so on a given night during March and there's still a little bit of jetlag although that finally seems to be abating.


So until next time, happy Easter/Pesach and happy eating!

#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.

#3A - Coffee!!!

Found at last:  eatright (http://www.eatright.com.hk/ / martin@eatright.com.hk) has Toby's Estate coffee and it tastes delicious!  It's also a restaurant and wine bar, but the coffee and the breakfast brunch menu are enough to assuage any pangs of homesickness Aussies may experience, especially when they're missing weekend brunches.