#125 - How NOT to make croissants

In which I remember why I don't make puff pastry or croissants at home
We had a couple of weeks when it was freezing here.  Mind you, it's all relative - it's not the same kind of freezing as it has been on the East Coast and other areas of the US, but I could have used a little bit of that tonight.

After thawing out my dough from yesterday, I rolled it out and shaped it tonight.  That is to say, I attempted to do so.  The kitchen was a bit on the warm side but who cares, I was in a long sleeved shirt.  Until it got warm trying to roll out the dough.  I had to let it rest several times during the rolling out and it kept sticking to the (I guess warm) marble and...my hands.  You can actually see all the tears in the pastry and in some places I could actually see the butter either through the pastry or oozing out through the tears (see photo above right).  All I can do now is hope and pray that it will come out ok tomorrow morning.

Hot hands are bad for pastry
I forgot about the fact that my hands tend to run warm which is why my pastries and breads tend to have problems when I have to handle them.  The only thing I didn't do was put them in an ice bath because I wanted to be able to feel the knife when I had to cut the croissants.  Blood is not a standard ingredient and I like to have my hands as intact as possible, given the abuse they have been taking.  (Yes, just boiled water and a metal pan that has been on the stove is a little warm.  Not as warm as melted sugar but still warm...)

User error?  Most likely!

Yes, that is flour - from leaning against the bench while rolling

This is a slightly smaller recipe than the one we did at school so there is a little less dough but I have a feeling I should have gotten 3 more croissants out of the batch (I have 9 ok ones and 1 weird one).  They are all shaped a bit funny and the end of the croissant got twisted on some of them so only the baking will show how they turn out.  Oh well, not all experiments can end successfully and in this case, I suspect it's user error since LM rolled and baked her croissants today - apparently they turned out well.

So until next time, if at first you don't succeed, try again.  (And if that fails, blame the materials!  Just kidding - try again until you get it right.  Now I will have to follow my own advice...)  Enjoy your repetitions!

#124 - Les croissants, les croissants, how I love les croissants!

In which LM and I test out / experiment with some butter (aka play in the kitchen)
LM had a slight issue with croissant dough lately and the only thing we could think of was that the butter didn't have enough fat content.  So we decided to give several brands a whirl.  Personally, I didn't feel the need to experiment with Lurpak (Danish butter, approximately 85% or so fat content) because it's what I use to bake in Australia.  The US doesn't label the fat content of their butter and unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the Italian one (83% fat content).  There's one called Plugra (US - I think it's about 83% fat content) but I accidentally bought the salted one because the red Plugra is the salted one whereas the red Lurpak is the unsalted butter.  So much for being detail oriented yesterday, when I was in a bit of a whirlwind mode at the grocery store (and a bit distracted by being unable to reach that pack of butter at the very back, thank you very much, Mr Tall Man who got me the last pack of unsalted Lurpak butter).

Planning ahead (photo above)
There's always some down time while the dough is resting and since we had arranged to meet up at just after lunch time, I took some lunch / snack supplies:  9 different cheeses, a fig and nut bar and family bread from St Germain bakery - soft, white bread (thin slices) which is full of refined flour and who knows what else but is absolutely delicious.

Interlude

I also took some supplies so that we could make a bechamel sauce.  For some reason, people seem to get a little intimidated by it, maybe because often it doesn't seem to turn out quite right.  The two main culprits I have identified (so far) appear to be that the flour hasn't been cooked out sufficiently in the roux so that it still tastes floury and/or the seasoning isn't quite right.  It seems the traditional cheese to use in the sauce is Gruyere - but since I love cheese and I'm me, I like to add taleggio, if it's available.  It tends to be on the salty side and it melts really well so you get a nice, punchy flavor.  LM wanted to make a Croque Madame (the Croque Monsieur was, as I understood it, a melted ham and cheese sandwich.  This one was ham, a fried egg and topped with the bechamel sauce) - so we split one after our Raclette grilled cheese sandwiches.

[SKIP TO SUNSET DRIVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE TECHNICAL CHEAT AND MISTAKE]

Cheat Stage 1:  Begin play (Dough, inclusion, first turn, rest)
Most of the recipes seem to call for an overnight stage.  LM and I didn't have that kind of time so we took a shortcut - we cheated and did it the school way - mix the dough, rest for an hour, butter inclusion and book turn, rest for 1/2 hour and second book turn.

Cheat Stage 2:  Continue play (Second turn and rest over night)
There were some small errors but I won't know until I cook the croissants whether the errors are tragic or not - my dough ripped and some of the butter leaked.  Normally in puff pastry that can be a big problem but I am hoping the croissants will be more forgiving.

I had to go home so we wrapped my dough up really well - and then I think I did something stupid.  My dough had expanded so much in the refrigerator that I stuck it in the freezer - I read somewhere that the freezer retards the yeast, but I'm afraid that might be wrong, in which case my dough will be flat and the croissants will not rise when I shape them tomorrow and bake them on Saturday morning.  Only time will tell but you may see a sad photo of croissants - in which case I will have to do another batch just to redeem myself sometime in the near-ish future.

Sunset drive

Sunset drive home

In any event, more photos to follow of the croissants shortly.  Making them at home is so different from having equipment you would find in a commercial kitchen.  If I had a dream kitchen, it would have a blast chiller, a commercial grade oven, a separate fridge....oh my, the list is endless.  But the whole point of dreams / fantasies is that they don't have to bear any resemblance to realism.

So until next time, dream away - and may your dreams come true.

#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!

#120 - Fun date!

One of the really nice things about catching up with friends from different areas of your life is that you don't have the same old conversations.  Tonight was food, food, more food and some technical conversation about food - specifically, fat content in butter and the various brands, prices in different places and...never mind, on to the evening.

In which dinner plans go awry and confusion ensues
I caught up with a girlfriend from LCB.  We both thought that things would be relatively calm and quiet as we had planned to meet for dinner early on a Friday night.  6.30pm saw us a little bit perplexed as Plan B was completely packed.  Our chefs would not have been impressed by our preparation.  Or rather, the lack of it.

Plan C required a 30 minute wait so on to Plan D we went.  It was actually quite fun, a new Chinese restaurant we had both passed a few times but hadn't tried yet.  There was a little bit of confusion initially because the sign for the parking lot informed you that the entrance was behind you, so around the block we went.  Then a little more confusion because upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted in Japanese.  We asked the friendly waitress if the restaurant was Chinese or Japanese (note:  the name of the restaurant was something something Dragon).  She said it was both so in the spirit of the place, we ordered Japanese and Chinese food.  They came as little sharing plates (a Chinese/Japanese fusion-y pork bun for which I broke my no pork rule because it tasted like sticky, sweet, kind of teriyaki deliciousness instead of pork; Japanese fried chicken which was crispy, hot and everything fried chicken should be; cucumber with a sesame and chili dressing reminiscent of the cucumber dish at Ippudo in New York / Sydney; fried rice with Japanese curry; and crispy stir fried ong choi which was just wilted enough to be cooked but crunchy enough to feel healthy).

In which we carry out some research (aka dessert)
As you know, I'm not a big fan of the "or" option if there is an "and" option.  We went to dessert at this little place around the restaurant - I think it was called Little Oven.  My girlfriend saw a couple of things on the board which interested her and I saw a few more.  Since we were carrying out research and having talked patisserie tech speak over dinner, we were ready to dig in and try the interesting sounding things on the menu and here are the photos.  Of course we couldn't choose just one - that's like asking a parent who their favorite child is.  LM chose the more interesting sounding ones.  I have to admit I stuck to the more standard ones but how else can you establish a baseline?  You can't fake it on a standard...

PB&J cake

Verdict:  PB&J cake - white sponge was dry but the PB&J part of it was very nice as was the frosting.

S'More Brownie / Fluff Brownie (?)

S'More Brownie - both LM and I prefer our brownies a bit denser.  This is a light, fluffy brownie - almost like a cake.  So if you want something slightly lighter, it's actually a very good option.  And the scorched marshmallow was just burnt enough to get a nice little crunch on it, almost like a creme brulee.  I didn't see if they actually put some sugar on it to get the caramelization but at that point we kind of didn't care, it tasted good.

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake - moist, not-too-sweet with a nice, thick crunch on the top.  Perfect with my tea despite its moniker.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae

Vanilla sundae- rather a disappointment.  The ice cream was too light and fluffy - more air, not enough fat content.  But then, I like my ice creams nice and dense - you know, like Haagen Daas (oh geez, how do you spell that?) or Ben & Jerry's.

Pretty fruit decoration - I'm going to steal this one!

LM and I still have our cooking party planned - postponed from a couple of days ago till next week due to random road work.  However, we did manage to come up with a shopping list and a couple of things we want to experiment with in the kitchen.  And we came up with a (partial) menu for our snack/lunch on the day as well so I am feeling pretty organized after the dinner debacle.

She also told me the results of her butter research:  not good.  So we have a couple of theories to try out and if they don't work, someone who might be able to provide an answer.  I can't wait to play!

All in all, one of the best dates I've had in a while.

So until next time, may you have as much fun on your date/s as I had on mine and keep smiling!

#57 - Sugar, fish, lights, action!

Long day Wednesday
Wednesday was Day 2 of sugar in Patisserie.  I got so used to Patisserie being late sessions (3 - 9pm) that I completely misread my schedule.  I want to say it was because I was on painkillers, but that would be untrue.  On the other hand, although I was still (mostly) in bed at 11:45am, that was more due to the fact that I was trying to get my back into working order.  Back spasms are kind of inconvenient when you have to push, pull and carry things.  Anyway - got a text from one of the girls in class - I was late!  Major rushing (also not good with bad back) and staggered into class.  Managed to finish the bow and ribbon, but I think I didn't pull the sugar enough.  For whatever reason, I didn't cool it enough before I put it together, so the ribbons looked ok when I put them together.  A few minutes later, however...


Then the centrepiece.  A second try - I tried out a couple of things, quite unsuccessfully.  I say unsuccessful because the second try turned out worse than my first try.  Also, I managed to drip some sugar on myself - a couple of burns on my fingers.  The blister on my middle finger burst in class on Friday morning while I was cleaning my knives.  The other one is still on my pointer finger, so we'll see how cleanly they heal.


Wednesday afternoon was the official ceremony to turn on the Christmas lights for Marylebone Village.  I was in class during the time when the street was closed off, but the lights were on when I was on my way home.  I must admit that any Grinch-like tendencies which normally want to rear their heads around this time of year have been quiescent - mainly because lights at nightime are pretty, regardless of the time of the year.  They are just more effective at the moment because the sun sets before 4:15pm so it's pretty dark by the time we get out of class and head home after 9pm.  No Christmas music yet (thank goodness) but the lights, the cold wind at night and breathing air which feels cleaner because of the drop in temperature all help alleviate any slightly depressed feelings that might otherwise make us a little more like Scrooge rather than Tiny Tim.


Cuisine Thursday...
Normally they give us a little leeway when plating now.  I took this to mean that the spinach could go the plate the way I wanted - as a swirl instead of a quenelle.  Apparently not.  I presented my plate and Chef FJ said "funny."  What do you mean?  "Funny plate, funny quenelle, funny lemon...are you feeling all right?"  When a teacher says they can tell you are tired and sore - that's not a good thing.


So the dish - halibut grilled...with Bearnaise sauce and other stuff.  I gave my fish to Chef P in the production kitchen.  I didn't give him the Bearnaise sauce because it was too light in texture (and I hadn't cooked the sabayon well enough at the beginning so I had to fix it by cooking another yolk / sabayon), but at least it tasted ok.  The potato is supposed to look like a rose but having to slice pieces that thin and long, like an apple peel, almost caused a nervous breakdown in class.  Apparently the potato rose tends to do that to people.  The potato is slippery, the peel gets oddly shaped and breaks off in short pieces which makes it hard to fasten into a rose.  Then when you cook it, it expands a bit - great if well assembled, but otherwise it falls apart or looks like mine.  It's supposed to be crispy outside and creamy/soft on the inside of the rose.  The centre was ok but something was wrong with the outside, I just can't remember what.


Then we had our wine tech class. It was the Patisserie wine tech (dessert and wine pairing), which means sweet and sticky wines. I like the flavors much better but generally this is also where we run into fortified wines. Even with the (inelegant) spitting, my ears still got really hot. Good thing it ended a little early so that I could actually get to the theatre in relatively good repair.


Chicago!
Tursday night capped off a slightly crappy practical with a show in the West End - Chicago, in case the heading to this section didn't tip give it away.  It was at the Garrick Theatre, near Leister Square.  I was expecting something like Broadway but this was almost more like off-Broadway.  Some of the singing was good and some of it mediocre (America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, was Roxie Hart) - oh dear..her voice isn't bad but there were a few spots where I couldn't tell what the tune was.  She can carry a tune, but it's like she dropped it for just a couple of notes here and there.  Quite an entertaining show - I'd only seen the movie before - and the staging was great.  I loved having the characters move around the orchestra / band which was sitting up on stage, as a part of the set.


Thoroughly corrupted?
Afterwards I wanted something sweet.  Very unusual, I'm not normally a big sweets person.  My parents would be surprised by this picture.  I was a bit shocked - at the size of the ice cream thing whose name I've forgotten.  Something to do with chocolate.  Anyway, managed to get LM to have a teeny, tiny taste.  Pretty good for that time of the night, although it wasn't something that I could finish on my own.

Friday - Breakfast of champions?
We had an 8am demo on Friday morning. The practical which corresponds to this demo is our mock exam next week. Similar (but not same) conditions during the mock exam. In the meantime, Chef FJ prepared a standing rib roast, a Bordelais sauce, some mushrooms and mac 'n cheese.  Let me just say, normally I hate blue cheese. There is now an exception to this rule, which is gorgonzola in mac 'n cheese. I think they did something like this at some fancy restaurant - Ducasse? - although of course they call it by it's proper name, macaroni gratin. Anyway - wow! I don't think I can post pictures from demo because I don't have permission from the school or the chef, but I have the recipe so it's definitely on my list to make at some point in the near(ish) future.


Our dish for that day's practical was a Dover sole and crayfish timbale.  It was a fish mousse, blanched crayfish and crayfish sauce encased in a fillet of sole, served with more crayfish sauce and a champagne sauce.  Maybe it's because I don't drink, but I could really taste the champagne in the sauce so I put in butter at the end to soften the alcohol.  The result:  "too much butter".  Then Chef JB looked around and asked if he had just said there was too much butter.  We couldn't believe it - on the other hand, it wasn't that the sauce was super buttery (it kind of was, but I don't eat much butter at home either) - his objection was that he couldn't really taste the champagne.  I had put some aside to add at the end but didn't, so I added the reserved champagne and asked him to taste it again (marking was over).  Nope, still too buttery.

Then it was a bit of a hurry because I had dinner plans with MD.  We were going to meet for drinks in Gerrard Street, then head to dinner in Chinatown where her man was going to join us.  But first, the fish, mousse and crayfish needed a home.  I went to my go-to guys and even got a little cuddle.  Apologies for the school uniform - Michael had himself a little laugh but I felt so disgusting and sticky after cuisine, I couldn't bear the thought of changing into my civvies without having a shower first.  Not even the croquembouche decoration helped because it was quite a warm day so we didn't cool down much between end of cuisine and leaving school altogether.  Having seen Chef NH in action, I can only see how far we all have to go before we could even begin to look as smooth as he does when he works.

Harder than it looks (or else any monkey could do it) - aka guess the chef

It's actually like that with all the chefs.  Somehow they make it all look so easy, then we go to class and things fall to pieces.  People forget about the sugar ("Geraldine, I see blue smoke!  Who's burning the sugar?" or "The monkey used scisseaux to cut that.  I don't remember the monkey tearing the foil."  Or "I didn't say it was easy.  I didn't say a 2-year old could do it, did I?"  to which the reply was "No chef - you said a 5-year old could do it with one arm tied behind his back.")  Sometimes we forgot other things ("you can't pour the sugar on the side - you can't get it out")  In any event, it always seems that the thing which looks so easy in demo then is super fiddly in practical.  Occasionally it can make you want to throw the stupid potato across the room.

I'd write more but I have been falling asleep for the last 2 paragraphs so it's time to get some sleep.  so until next time, patience, Grasshopper!

#55 - Tired, confused...and a little cooked

Cause for celebration
My memory stick adaptor may have gotten laundered, but 24 hours in a plastic bag with some rice grains seems to have dried it out and I can get photos off my camera card!  So on with the post.

A little cooked - Monday - Day 1 of sugar, Session 1...
Everyone said to be ready to get burns and blisters when we started our sugar module.  I was lucky enough to get away today with a couple of minor burns (but stay tuned - we don't finish until next week) when we did our poured sugar.  I forgot to grease my measuring cup for the sugar fountain, so it stuck to the sides.  One of the porters saw what I had done wrong, so he whispered that I should also pour the sugar down the centre of the ice cubes, not the side of the measuring cup for my coral.  I thanked him profusely and got a wink in reply, especially when Chef CB told me the same thing a few minutes later, although his language was a tad more colorful.  Yes, I am forgetful.

Anyway - sugar duly poured, I have quite a few things to work on for next time.  A few unintended things happened, but over the next few days a design should take shape because we have to do one of these for our final exam - a minimum of 2 - 3 platforms because our petit fours (the truffles and sable biscuits) are supposed to be able to rest on these.

Session 2 - The Rose
This is the one where we had to pull out our gloves.  I had bought mine last term while getting other supplies.  Even better, I remembered to take them to class!  So while some of the guys were whimpering from the heat, the girls who had gloves were happily pulling our sugar to make it satiny and shiny.  The final part of pulling the sugar got to be a bit of hard work - I had to basically lay over my hands over my sugar in order to press it after I'd pulled it.  We had to make sure it was shiny and silvery, keep it under a heat lamp, then pull bits off of it to make a rose and some leaves.

Eggs and potatoes
Also, as promised in the last post, here are a couple of pictures from the poached eggs and Hollandaise yesterday - oh, and the fondant potato.  A small piece of potato (well, we'll have to cook two pieces) slowly confited in an obscene amount of butter and only enough chicken stock to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Not that the poaching of eggs needs a lot of practice, but I forgot a couple of things so now I think I'm set.  The only thing is the potato - AM and I cooked them for about an hour and twenty minutes - and they still could have used a bit more cooking.  Thank goodness the final exam is 4 hours long.  I have to say, the egg could have been worse.  Still not my favorite with the runny yolk, but surprisingly edible.

We are all tired and confused.  I'm a bit sad because I hate being confused - I hope it passes soon because we've still got a fair amount of work left to do and I think this is when we will really need to dig in and work hard.  I'm trying to think the last time I shed a few tears over exams - hm, not since Intermediate when I wasn't sure if I'd make it through the practical exams, actually.

At least I have the comfort that my shortcrust pastry for the exam has the right consistency this time, even though it's still too thick (and it's see through when I line the moulds).  One of these days...
So until next time - may you be less tired and confused than I am.