#87 - Last Demo - Ever!

A bittersweet day in Cuisine this morning - our last demo ever.  I'm already feeling pangs of nostalgia and we haven't even finished yet.  We are so over it already that there was the most talking I've heard in a demo in a long time.  Chef JB asked people to share their best memories of their time at LCB - there were a lot of chef FJ stories (one of the guys apparently had been likened to an animal, after Chef FJ looked at him in his hair net (you have to wear one if your hair is longer than collar length) and beard net (if they can see stubble, you have to wear one).  Another guy had been chased around the kitchen by Chef DM with a crayfish - I'm going to guess that was in Intermediate when they had a crayfish sauce.


Although I didn't say this one, I think the best part of having gone to LCB is being able to cook something for my family and friends which isn't necessarily hugely difficult technically but can end up looking really pretty if you manage to plate it right and taste good.  That's still a work in progress, but I do seem to have an endless supply of guinea pigs, for which I am grateful.


Duck, duck...mushrooms
We had a practical soon after the demo - but it was for a dish that was demonstrated last week so I had to check my notes.  Somehow I managed to get the quantities off on my mushroom flan and I'm not quite sure where.  The volumes were right but I had a lot of mix in the bowl compared to others in the class.  And then I overcooked the flan and it souffleed - crap.  The duck needed just another couple of minutes to get the last of the fat out from under the skin but otherwise was ok - a pleasant surprise because it felt really overcooked - so I have to remember what that felt like so I can duplicate it with the pigeon.  The sauce - well, needed a lot more salt.  He could taste the foie gras and the duck (good - I didn't taste it after I added the foie gras) but it was underseasoned.


I was sous chef today - no idea what I was doing so JE had to show me what to do.  Things have changed a bit since the old school (she had to explain the dummy lift - apparently a goods lift that you can send places) and I ended up wearing some duck blood when I chopped the bones for people to have for sauce.  More laundry - ugh.


Tomorrow night is our last practical class ever.  After that will be the last minute frantic dash to get the Patisserie portfolios done.  I remember friends in previous Patisserie classes who practiced so much and I feel like I'm going into it a bit too casually.  I've thought out the recipes and they need a little tweaking, but last week...no wait - earlier this week was the first time I actually made the plated dessert with all the correct ingredients.  I was going to say it was the first time I made the plated dessert as it was meant to be, but realized that would be inaccurate because there were various mistakes which needed to be addressed.  Hopefully we'll still make it but it seems like there are some people who have practiced a lot and some people who haven't.  I still haven't done a full run through for either Cuisine or Patisserie, although Patisserie is a bit more forgivable as we need some specialty ingredients and tools.  No excuse for the Cuisine one except that everyone is freaking out about our Patisserie portfolio and practical exam.


Must go - my eyes are starting to feel happiest when they are closed.  so until next time may you not experience any freak outs.

#67 - (Not) Graduation and variations on a theme

The variations are not on a theme by Paganini.  It's more a theme by Le Cordon Bleu London - that is to say, hygiene.  Kind of.  Sort of.  What can I say, it's more laundry.  But as usual, I've begun in the middle so must loop back to the beginning.

Good bye Dinner
On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend of one of my brothers (they of the walk in the countryside and trip on canal boat fame) - she and her partner took me to a lovely restaurant called Alba near the Barbican - really good Italian food - definitely comfort food.  I took a photo of the dessert as research.  As delicious as my vegetable soup and slow cooked lamb were, they weren't something I might put in an exam.  Probably not the pear either, but it was good for taste, texture and potential ideas (the marscapone cream was really good - definitely on the list for a future dessert).  The Alba is a family owned and operated establishment and my hostess had been going there for years.  I must say that I will definitely go back - what's not to like?  Small but thoughtful menu with something available for the carnivore, the vegetarian and the pescatarian (they're the ones who eat fish but not meat, right?).  I was tempted to get the set menu which had a truffle dish on it, but couldn't go past the lamb.

Graduation Lunch
As of Friday, 16 December 2011, the term has officially ended for my fellows in Superior Cuisine and Patisserie - they are now chefs, some of them entitled to wear the toque at least for the last few minutes of the graduation ceremony.  Today was graduation day for most of those who began this long quest to learn how to cook, improve technique and to share our love of all things food.  The party was at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane.  Much better food than what I remember being served when we had our graduation from Basic.  This is the final graduating batch of Superior students from 114 Marylebone Lane.  From next year, students will be taking classes in Bloomsbury Square.

It was nice to see everyone dressed up and out of their school uniforms.  It appears that people dress up more for the Superior Graduation - not that I remember much from when I was in Basic (and I wasn't here for the Intermediate one) but I have to admit people cleaned up very well.

Everyone had put their best shod foot forward and you could feel the palpable air of relief, excitement and (possibly it's my imagination, but who knows?) the need to catch up on just a little more sleep after the marathon Patisserie exam a couple of days ago.  Some of people said that a few problems had occurred in one of the exams and sometimes it was little but important things which just went wrong on the day.  I think it's always frustrating when you have an element which normally is not a trouble maker all of a sudden causing problems on the day because it tends to throw you off your stride.

The Dorchester was very pretty - a little OTT perhaps, but then again, this was a big occasion for everyone - a culmination of a lot of work and in many cases, some blood, lots of sweat and a lot of tears.  Possibly also some grumpy moments, loss of sleep and monumental self control when something didn't go right in class and continued not to go right.  Yes, it is personal experience talking...

Having had so much time in class, I have to say I cast an eye over our lunch as though we were having it presented to us for tasting and judgment.  Maybe not Iron Chef - but definitely consideration on a couple of levels:  the first being, could I do this?  (Sometimes yes, sometimes maybe...) - and the second one being, what might the chefs say if this was a dish that we were presenting to them.

So I do not have a 3 Michelin star palate - even after al this time and the incredible ingredients we used in class, I still do not like foie gras (although today I hated it less than usual).  The toasted brioche was a nice touch although I observed a demonstration of someone's objection to it which is that you get this large slab of foie gras but only a little bit of bread and salad.

The menu said cannon of lamb.  I thought the cannon was part of the leg but this looked more like a steak-ish type of cut.  Also, it didn't taste particularly lamb-y, but maybe the tastebuds were confused by the foie gras and a piece of the toasted brioche (yummy, by the way) which had preceded it.  Again, left the sweetbreads behind.  I think they are considered a delicacy nowadays - certainly they seem to be trendy at the moment, both as part of the head-to-tail philosophy of using every part of the animal and as part of the offal-is-trendy-because-it-sounds-kind-of-weird-and-no-one-knows-what-it-is.

Dessert was a mocha and something-or-other parfait, macadamia nut brittle, coconut ice cream (milk ice cream?) and sauce.  This one got particular scrutiny as there were several patisserie students at my table from all the levels as well as our head Patisserie chef.  The students looked at it from the view of a plated dessert and Chef JW looked at it, comparing it to what had been served during the tasting (when they chose the menu) as well as technical points.  The only really technical point is that a parfait is frozen, which these weren't.  I thought the mousse might have been a tad heavy on the gelatine, but that might just have been me.

There was some discussion as to how well the chocolate was tempered, some people at the table having had rather recent and harrowing experience with uncooperative chocolate.  Split verdict - I thought it was fine, someone else thought not and Chef JW did not weigh in with her opinion.  She did observe that there are two LCB graduates who worked in the pastry team of the Dorchester and at least one of them had worked on these desserts.  In any event, it tasted good and was quite pretty.  They stuck the tuile and chocolate in the dome though, so I'm not sure what Chef GB thought of that - he told us particularly not to do that to our plated desserts.

I also found out one of the girls who just completed Basic Patisserie has been reading this blog - rather a compliment.  I asked her how she had found it and she said it was because she had been searching for photos of the dishes we had been making in class.

Chefs!
Anyway - they made it and have the medals, papers (lots of papers) and the hats to show it.

Well done chefs!

As for my graduation, hopefully I will be able to time my finals with the next batch of graduating Superior students.  This was supposed to be a year of food, but it's turning out to be a bit longer.  It's been more of a year of building character - in which food played a large role.  I will know more once I hear back from the Academic committe but for now, there will be photos of practice sessions (once my hand is back in shape), possibly some bitching and moaning and now I have a great excuse to eat a lot of things at a lot of places.  After all, it's a chance to collect ideas for finals without trying to get too clever.  It wasn't far to find a very large silver lining (a break to reorganize, get warm at home for the holidays with family and friends and a chance to see the new school).

So until next time, happy holidays - may your year end as positively as mine bids to do.

#45 - Planning, planning, planning...dessert!

Reprieve
Saturday was supposed to be a double session - 8am - 11am, plan out an entremet (fancy dessert with multiple layers and textures filled with a mousse or a mousse-type filling) and decorated with things to show our artistic and technical skills with chocolate, possibly sugar, tuiles, flavor combinations and creativity, then 12 - 3pm making the bases for our desserts.  Um, ok...it all sounds really good in theory, except sometimes it takes a while for ideas to come.  So the first 3-hour set (or rather, a bit later) was spent trying to get our ideas together.

Lucky for us our chefs had pity on my group.  We were slated to start building the bases for our desserts that day (!) and finish them today with all decorations, etc. then get our feedback this afternoon.  It wouldn't have given us a chance to put in special requests for items not on the list of available ingredients or to figure out how to make certain items (for example, how to deal with wanting pineapple flavor in my mousse when pineapple contains some enzyme which keeps the mousse from setting).  After checking schedules, we were offered the chance to leave early on Saturday and have the feedback session on Tuesday at noon instead, giving the chefs time to order in special ingredients between Saturday and Monday afternoon.  Since all of us appear to be endowed with a certain amount of intelligence (or a sense of self-preservation), we all elected to wait until Monday afternoon to start the bases for our entremets.  I am hoping mine will be quite delicious.  Surely they will be able to guess the general theme given the request for coconut, pineapple and Malibu rum...

Starting at the end
Obviously I am not any good at starting at the beginning and continuing until I get to the end.  I seem to start at the end quite often, then loop back to the beginning.  Thankfully my name is not Alice and I don't have to worry about hearing "Off with her head!" in reference to the separation of said head from my body due to the inability to start at the beginning.

Back to the beginning - sort of
The last post ended with the chocolate box, truffles and finally having an item finished for presentation.  The lid fell out of the package on my way home and smashed into a zillion pieces.  The box and the truffles went to one of the girls in Cuisine - she likes chocolate and I am happy to see the end of chocolate - until Monday afternoon when we will be doing more work with it.

Return of the Evil Puff Pastry - Take...9,783,301
Ok, this heading might be guilty of a tiny bit of hyperbole and just a little drama queenishness, but it's quite true.  We had to make puff pastry on Wednesday in preparation for Part II of our Beef Wellington practical.  Beef Wellington Part I involved making the puff pastry in a cuisine kitchen, which we have aready established is not cool.  In addition, foie gras needed to be seared, truffles sliced, a lot of mushrooms chopped, a few other things chopped, sliced and diced and a chicken mousse made.  In between various steps the puff pastry needed to have a few more turns and the beef stuffed with cooled cooked foie gras before being tied and cooked to rare.  Doesn't seem like a lot except that after the last time I made a mousse, I was too nervous to rush it this time.  I'm not sure where all the time went, but went it did and I was left at the end of the practical wondering what alternate dimension I had been in while everyone had been cooking in this one.

Fortunate ones
Thursday morning did not start well for a couple of the Cuisine groups.  Somehow the cool room, where they had stored their puff pastry, prepared beef, chicken mousse and the remaining mise en place from the day before, had had the power turned off overnight.  The result was that anything that contained protein was not usable and they had to start again (although apparently they were given puff pastry from the rolls the school has when we don't have to make our own and the chef made more mousse for them), then finish their Beef Wellingtons.  I have to say, the students in those groups were very cool about it all.  Maybe it was different in the kitchens, but when we saw them outside later, they were fairly philosophical.

My beef ok - a bit overdone on the very outside because I didn't sear it quickly enough, although it was rare in the middle, which was the aim.  The good part about it was that LM had been wanting to try the Beef Wellington for a while.  This piece was supposed to serve 2.  It ended up more as about 3-4 meals.  Neither of us likes foie gras as a general rule.  I picked mine out and she managed to eat hers.  There was no sauce left to speak of since it had all been poured on the meat which had soaked it all up by the time I got it home.  As always, the meal was much more enjoyable when shared with a friend.

The next day was a red mullet in crispy potato scales - a signature dish at Bocuse.  It seemed straightforward enough - make a broccoli flan, clean 2 scallops, boil the shells, butcher a fish, make a sauce, cover the fish fillets in scales made of potato slices. Except somehow that managed to take all of the time allotted to the practical.   One of these days I will have something that is good pretty much all around.   Fish day was not one of them. We had to mount the sauce in butter at the end but it kept reducing while I was waiting to plate. The result - a thick, buttery sauce which was to heavy for a plate where the fish was basically fried, covered in fried potato scales (yes, we had to lay them on one piece at a time) and a flan with double cream in it. Saffron also tends to get pretty strong when it reduces for that long, so must learn to keep from forgetting about the sauces on the stove while doing other things.

We happened to make it and finish just in time for lunch.  3 guesses as to what I had for lunch that day (and the last 2 don't count).

Friday night was a quiet-ish one.  That is to say, there was a brief stop at the pub before heading off to ballet class.  A teacher whose class I haven't taken before - learned a lot, still feeling it in the legs...

A perfect afternoon
Then of course there was the Saturday morning and the reprieve mentioned at the beginning of this post.  It turned into one of those relaxed afternoons - I met up with LM and we had a late lunch in Chelsea, then wandered around a bit.  It was the usual perfect girly afternoon - we chatted about a zillion things but if you asked what they were, I couldn't tell you.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, a little on the cool side - perfect, because it's not as nice to walk around it if it's hot.  We passed the Chelsea (Farmer's?) Market - it only took a glance at each other before we headed in the entrance.  I think we were both expecting something like Borough Market - a big, sprawling market with lots of stalls and things.  It was actually a few restaurants / pub-type things and an organic store.  It was cleverly designed so once you went in, you kind of got funneled past the shops and restaurants.  There was also something that looked like a giant green house, once you got past the little atrium of flowers which just looks like a flower stall.  We didn't make it in because it was getting on in the afternoon and we were headed to lunch at a bar whose name I can't remember.  There was a garden area but it was such a nice day that it was crowded out there (and the smokers were outside, which I find tends to spoil the taste of your food if you aren't a smoker).  Inside it was, and a very unhealthy but yummy lunch.

The nice thing about being a grown-up (or at least being able to go places by yourself and do mostly what you want to do) is that if you want to, you can have crispy fried chicken bits and nachos and a chili dog (all beef - my first chili dog ever) and no one will say anything.  For those of you who know me, I shared all that food...it appears that London has revealed the limits to even my appetite.

After a late lunch we headed to Oxford Street and John Lewis - LM wanted a particular cake pan (they didn't have it) and we both needed to do some baby shopping.  She had a godson whose christening is coming up and I have a niece or a nephew arriving soon.  And of course since it was close to the children's section, she and I both ended up shopping for our respective nieces.

At the end of it all, we both had quite a few items and had to take ourselves out.  It helped that the store was closing!  We dropped off a few things, then had a quick bite (well, hers was quick) while we discussed what she was going to do for the dessert after the christening.  There were certain constraints on what she could do and they limited her options.  The result was something that she is going to try out this week, using the big pan I bought which has adjustable dividers.

(Our bite - because it's French food.  The beef bourguinon was delicious and she loved her feuilletine with chocolate mousse thing.  True to form she went for the sweets and I went for the food.)

Then I remembered I still had leftover puff pastry from beef wellington and it needed to be used.  We have a student event dinner coming up and the palmiers I made with the leftover pastry were so cute, I proposed them as a possible petit four to my team mates.  I also finally see why we don't use this puff pastry for croissants. 

Sunday morning and a tense morning of watching the Rugby World Cup and lamenting the Wallabies' form. Occasional flashes of brilliance and a general improvement over some of their previous problem areas, but not up to their best standard. Playing against the All Blacks, I'm not sure that a team can afford to play less than their best. Especially since NZ was trying to break away from their tendency to lose to Australia during the World Cup - well, at least during the last couple that I've seen.

This was followed by brunch, which turned into lunch in Islington.  I was meeting ACP and KP for lunch, whom I hadn't seen since late August or so.  They are expecting Baby P so ACP is a bit restricted in what she can eat.  Fortunately palmiers are on the list of "can eat".  Lunch was ok, but the company was excellent.  Quick dinner with a friend from Australia (who has now relocated to London) at a pub, then home to prepare recipes, etc. for class.

Entremets (aka fancy dessert of our own design aka Tropical Sunset - because I didn't want to put Hawaii in the title)

Thank goodness I checked my schedule last night.  I thought we had class from 3-9pm, which has been the case for the last couple of weeks.  Of course if I had turned up at 3pm today, class would have been over.  That's right, it started at 8am.

Am rethinking making fruit glazes - reducing juice takes a long time and you have to reduce the amount of water to concentrate the flavor, as well as other technical things which I can't remember right now, but it's important because of our final exam (which is 8 weeks away).  Have realized that my time plans are completely unrealistic.  They might be fine if I were SuperChef or something, but since I'm just me...we'll see how it comes out tomorrow.  One of my jellies didn't set today - thank goodness I'd made a second one (and added a tiny tad more gelatine to it).  We put everything together and we unmould them tomorrow, then finish our decorating.  My chocolate was really bad today - it set so fast that I couldn't bend it without cracking it.  Hopefully they broken pieces will be big enough to use.  The tuiles kept breaking because of the toasted coconut in the mix - I forgot that if you put things in the batter, they can make it more fragile.  We'll see what's left tomorrow...

In the meantime, have made a pina colada mousse, poached pear and compote, passion orange jelly, have reduced the passionfruit puree and orange juice for the glaze tomorrow and kept back some of the Malibu for the pina colada coulis.  Haven't worked out what I'm going to do with the crunchy biscuit layer yet...photos forthcoming.  I believe there will be tasting (and judgement?) tomorrow.  For now, I am doing more laundry to combat the insidious appearance of chocolate in odd places - hardly ever on the front of my jacket, but frequently on the left sleeve or the right elbow...

One of the other girls did something with pina colada too, which I only found out this morning.  No problem, we shared the coconut milk.  She is extremely artistic and ended up tempering white chocolate, some of which she colored, before piping her chocolate decorations.  I expect it will all be very impressive and am looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.  Chef GB had a little taste and said it was a sexy mousse.  Great to see passion for food doesn't fade.

So until next time, share a bite, share a story and have fun with your loved ones.

(I actually started writing this on Saturday, so please ignore any lapses in the chronology.)

#37 - Serious study mode - if I remember how...

Warning - this is super long - abstract:  had classes last week where we cooked.  Discussion about pole dancing/strip clubs; had a weekend where I cooked some more, not always successfully.  Descriptions of cooking.  Pretty pictures.  The end.  Those who are time poor may stop now.

Am cursing the fact that I need to sleep.  Exams are looming and I feel like I got a very late start.  Last term we had so many long weekends that there was an extra week of classes.  Then there the long weekends themselves, so we actually had more time to digest and learn things.  This term went by extremely quickly - our first day was in the last week of June - so exams are during our 10th week - not a whole lot of time to practice 3 cakes and 2 cuisine dishes, all with multiple components and followed by theory exams.

I think I've forgotten how to memorize and to learn - it's been years since I had to take a closed book exam - law school is pretty forgiving that way - if you know where to look for it, the exact wording is there.  It's been writing drills (flashes back to Korean school where they used to make people write things down 10 times to learn something) and trying to learn the components of our cakes.

Here's a quick rundown on the last few days.  Tomorrow morning is my Patisserie final and I am praying that I pass the exams.  Yes, that's exams, plural.  We have our practical exam at 8am followed by theory at noon.  You would think they would cut us a break and give us an opportunity to finish our practicing and then focus on the extra reading - but no...and do I remember my quantities, ingredients and methods from basic?  Um, not really...do we need to know them?  Apparently so.

So last week:
Wednesday - our first vegetarian dish - Artichaut en Croute farci etc. etc.  (Stuffed artichoke in puff pastry)

We had to saute spinach, make a tomato sauce, glaze 'baby' vegetables (Chef hates the term 'baby' because they are actually just small veggies), stuff an artichoke with spinach and wild mushrooms and top it with a puff pastry lattice, then bake it.

The artichokes are big - the globe ones.  Still had to jump on mine (we had 2) to get the stems and attendant fibers off.  Then we had to turn them...which means you have to cut off the leaves (about 2/3 from the bottom), cut off all the green and make sure you remember to rub lemon on the cuts so it doesn't discolor.  The lemon is very useful - in addition to preventing discoloration of artichokes, mushrooms and certain other fruits, it helps you to find all the tiny little cuts on your hands that you might otherwise not know are there.  If the artichokes are really big and you can't fit them in your hand, it helps to just take a knife and cut off the outer leaves first (basically cutting instead of turning) and picking them back up once they're trimmed down a bit.

Not sure why but it seemed to take forever - it's actually not a very time consuming dish but I felt very disorganized.  However, it was finished and served - the mushrooms needed more lemon (yes they did - I forgot the lemon altogether and had to try to sneak in a couple of drops between the holes in the lattice just before service) and the carrots needed more salt, as did the sauce.  Otherwise - not bad...the pastry was kind of soggy by the time I got home but the sauce and the vegetables were very nice on some leftover chicken the next night.

8am Thursday morning:  Chocolate tasting (really)
We started out with a cup of hot chocolate that tasted and felt decadent for the first couple of sips.  Then the amount of chocolate and cream started to make themselves felt.  No one finished their half cupfuls of hot chocolate, not even the most avid chocoholic.

Chef MH played a little trick on us.  There was one bag of chocolate which was old but no one was told until after we had tasted the button and a chorus of "ugh!" and "what is that?!" started flying around the room.  All I could taste was powdery flour and something not very nice - I'm not sure I have the words for it.

Some of the other chocolate had lingering aftertastes which wouldn't go away, no matter how much water or tea I drank.  The colored buttons (clementine and strawberry) are actually flavored white chocolate - so not chocolate at all.  I think if you like sweets, they might taste really nice.  I was already overdosed on sweets from the hot chocolate so this was just more sickly sweetness.

Thursdsay night - Canapes class/workshop - teamwork
...many hands make light work.
They broke this down into little teams so each team of two was in charge of one canape (except for the Thai marinated shrimp - those people also did the parmesan sables).  It was odd because each canape had a tiny bit of busy time at the beginning and a little at the end, but the rest of it was a lot of waiting around where everyone asked everyone else if they needed any help.  For instance, the dough for the parmesan sables had to rest, as did the batter for the blinis (go TN!  Chef JB said they were amazing) and ML and I had to wait for the court bouillon to boil for our cod.

As for the cod - we got asked how long we cooked it.  No idea - it was more a case of picking up a piece from the court bouillon and looking at it - it looked done so we fished out the pieces and made the balls.

I think generally it went pretty well - VC and TN were a bit upset because they thought there was too much horseradish in the cream for the smoked salmon.  Personally I thought it was perfect - and the fact that the horseradish had been freshly grated just gave it that extra zing - really yummy.  After plating and a quick talk from Chef JB, we all dug in.  A couple of people took some canapes home and I packed a few when it looked like they were not going to be eaten or taken - but there weren't many looking for a home.

Thursday night Dinner #1 - canapes from class followed by leftover stuffed artichoke en croute with yummy sauce (thanks for the veggies PA!); Dinner #2 - rice with chicken goujons (that's chicken fingers for those of who don't speak French); Dinner #3 - um, I mean study munchies - baguette/s (!) from friends in Superior Patisserie - with Brie de Meaux and Fig & Almond loaf.  Because frankly, if you're studying at 11pm, you just need that little something to keep you going and I had been thinking of the baguette with cheese since I'd been given the bread.  I like to keep the fresh bread in my locker because when you open it, the smell of it just wafts out and banishes some of the less fragrant smells in the locker room.

Friday morning - Cervelas de Saumon (Salmon and Foie Gras Mousse sausages)

8am on a Friday...way too early for foie gras - but then, any hour is too early for foie gras.  We had to test the mousse to check the consistency and texture, which means having to taste some of it after we cook it off - NOT yummy.  I suppose if you like foie gras, it tasted good (so said Chef FB) - for me, not so much, mainly because I hate foie gras and I found that even 50g of it really came through even though that was only a small proportion of the mousse itself.

We didn't have the pork intestine to stuff the sausages (hooray) and eventually they brought up lamb intestines - yech - so in the meantime I rolled my sausages in cling film (Saran wrap for the Americans) and practiced making roulade shapes, then stuffed a few in the lamb intestines.  Anyway - we were all running late and we still had to take the mousse out of the intestines, chill them, roll them in butter, then bake them.  We didn't have time to chill them so people just took them out of the casings and fried them in breadcrumbs and butter.  The breadcrumbs kind of fell off the sausages when I was frying them in butter but they still turned out ok - I made sure to present one which had been in the casing rather than the saran wrap ones.  It was a plain dish and we didn't have any other herbs, so I made a tiny parsley salad/garnish to go with it - still a slightly boring looking plate but there wasn't a whole lot you could do with it, given we only had the ingredients from the dish available.

Head Cheese

Then it was the demo for Charcuterie II and head cheese.  FYI - head cheese is made from a pig's head but it is not cheese and apparently, it doesn't resemble cheese either.

Head cheese includes trotters (yes, feet!  Chef had a bit of fun, dancing the feet across the chopping board) and tongue, all from pigs.  There was a tiny discussion in class as to the various inappropriate things we were not going to say - a bit Gilbert and Sullivan, actually...as for what's below the feet on the right:  the pig's brain.  It wasn't on the ingredient list but Chef DM wanted to show it to us after he spent all that effort cutting the skull open to get the brains out.  They passed it around class - I have to say that the smell alone would keep me from eating it, even if I could get past the texture and knowing what it is.  All of these were put into a brine solution and is being kept for the next demo (later this week).

So that was the week and you would think it's all smooth sailing from here, except...

Friday night - in which I accidentally crashed a stag night

I'm not sure anyone ever plans to crash a stag night, especially if the person in question is of the wrong gender to attend - in a guest-ish capacity, anyway.

The initial plan was to have dinner with a friend's husband.  She was unavailable that night as she had plans to go to the theater as part of pre-wedding celebrations for a friend of hers.  He was at loose ends and I hadn't seen them in almost 6 months so dinner after class sounded fine.  Another friend who is moving to Hong Kong shortly, joined us for drinks and in the timeless way of going with the flow, we asked him to join us.

We ended up at this place - Mr Kongs?  Mr Hong's?  Something like that - in Chinatown.  I hadn't eaten much during the day except some delicious focaccia from two friends, given the whole foie gras at 8am then the pig's head at noon so I told the guys I was starving.  Food duly ordered (3 mains, 2 rice, 1 veggie) - I had to tell them I was still hungry.  Another main, veggie and rice later, we were all happy.

It looked like I was going to get my early night after all - but then we got a call from the stag and his best man - both of whom I know and whose girls were also at the theatre.  Nothing would do except that we all meet up - and the boys decided they would introduce me to my first strip club.  [**Parents - please stop reading now and pick up at the photos below where it says "The long weekend - cakes anyone?"]

Pole dancing vs strip clubs (Education of a different kind)

Lots of walking around later we ended up at an establishment where the girls danced - pole dancing.  Having seen pole dancing classes offered where I take ballet, I was curious to see if these girls were any good.  I'm not sure if it's because I've never been to one before or if a strip club and a pole dancing place are different - but they didn't dance.  I was quite disappointed...one of the guys (not the stag) was a bit disappointed that the girls were all dressed.  I suggested it might be because they are dancers and not strippers.

One of the girls then educated me on that point - she said it's the same as the US - they take their clothes off (I wanted to ask what more could they possibly take off and not be naked).  So what was the point of the pole and the stage, I wanted to know.  Apparently it's their advertisement - they get up and do a lot of pouting, some posing and a little bit of gyrating.  If a gentleman likes the look of one of the dancers, he pays (someone - I don't know who) and gets a private dance in the back.  They have a garter on their leg but you don't put money in it - so I'm still confused about the garter.

And as all cliches go - the girl who kindly gave me this explanation was studying (she didn't say what) and did this to pay her bills.  She was standing much too close to me so I just wanted the conversation to be over as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, the boys were telling me this wasn't what they had expected - well, me neither.  I think I was the stripper block - they offered to dance for me as well, but I have to say, all I could think was that it was Friday night and I wanted to go to sleep.  In any event, the boys went home (I am guessing) and so did I.

The long weekend - cakes, anyone?

When I was in college/law school, my parents always knew when exams were approaching by the following exchange:

Parents:  So what are you doing/have you been doing?

Me:  Cleaning.

Parents:  Exams soon?

Me:  Yup.  Can't study when it's dirty and untidy.

Parents:  Mm hm.

Saturday began with - yes, you guessed it - cleaning.  I couldn't start cooking because I didn't have space for anything and I need a lot more space to practice this term than I did for basic.  I also cleared off the glass table by the bookshelf and put all my papers and folders in the living room - the most use it's gotten since I moved in.

The Opera - fail

Let's just say that the practice did not go well.  For one thing, I forgot that the tray only slides into my oven easily when the washing machine door is open so that the oven door doesn't get caught on the handle of the washing machine door.  It meant that unbeknownst to me, the tray was tilted - with the result that the sponge slid and one side got very thick while the other side didn't.  The thick side didn't cook and the thin side was burnt to a crisp.  The second tray with batter wasn't full because there isn't quite enough batter for 2 full trays - mine are a bit smaller than the ones at LCB but not by a lot - so more trimming was needed.  The result was quite a small cake.

I finished anyway, just to practice putting the components together and discovered that spatial perception is not one of my gifts.  The layers are all supposed to be the same thickness (cake, ganache, cake, buttercream, cake, ganache + glaze).  None of them are right - and I was looking at a failing cake.  Since the layers weren't even, I just decided to try a zillion different things with the piping, knowing that this cake was going into the rubbish bin.

Sabrina - possibly a low pass

Having put Saturday down to experience, I tried to go over notes and read about eggs until I fell asleep.  Sunday was spent with my Sabrina.  Once again, improvisation was the name of the game - no pistachios to speak of, so I used toasted almonds on the bottom part of the cake.  Baked the sponge on 2 baking trays - but didn't turn the tray so the back part of the full tray was burnt to a crisp and had a concern I wouldn't have enough sponge for the cake.

And the apple and strawberry puree I bought at the store was actually more like apple sauce - so I ended up putting in a couple of frozen raspberries with the puree to get color (they were out of red food coloring at the store too) - except that frozen raspberries leave lumps so that was interesting...

Have learned quite a few things to be careful of for the exam - like not letting the marzipan just hang out all tilted - because it will dry that way and not lie flat on the cake.  Also - need to work on my piping (when does anyone not need to do that?) - and also importantly - must learn to cut even sized pieces!  It doesn't sound so hard but ask any parent who is asked to cut something in half for two squabbling children - it is impossible because they will pick up the minutest differences.  Frankly I should have 5 year-olds check my portioning.  But I digress - the cutting of the cake into 8 even sized portions is a part of the final mark and I still can't do it.  I think it's the wavy lines from the chocolate - they throw me off.

The only things which seemed to work quite well was the chocolate tempering and the masking - I made sure to squish in as much of the strawberry cream down the sides of the ring as possible before I chilled it so it had time to set.

Rewarded myself by having dinner with a friend.  A girl has to eat and cake alone isn't sufficient.

Other than that - have sunk to a new low.  I am now eating the off-cuts from my cakes.  Have eaten so much cream and cake from the Sabrina yesterday and the cake and buttercream from today that I am starting to feel like I should moo when I speak.

Opera again - potentially not bad (except the piping)

You might be thinking it was time for the Fraisier, non?  I did it the same day that I did the salmon paupiettes (last weekend?  the one before?) - it was so embarrassing that I didn't take a photo of it - but I know what I did wrong and a lot of it is variations on the genoise we did back in Basic (except for the whole marzipan top with rose, which I still suck at).  I went back to the one which was scaring me.

Better today - turning the tray half way through cooking turned out to be the way to keep the sponge from burning to a crisp.  The gas flames are in the back so trimming has to be done - it's just a matter of degree now.  Also I have found a new use for my dishwasher - I can't run dishes in it while I am cooking because they are generally things I need almost right away and it takes too long to wash them.  So I wash them by hand and put them in the dishwasher to dry/drain - excellent!  2 trays or whatever you call them and I know where they are AND it frees up space on the counter where I don't have space for them to dry.  Yes, I could dry them with a kitchen towel but I am in the middle of doing 2 other things at once (laundry...shopping list...oh, and watching the sugar for the buttercream).

Remembered that there had been way too little ganache and buttercream the last time I did this so I trowelled it on.  Still needs more ganache but the buttercream is better.  This one got stuck because I put the bottom layer (chocolate only) on aluminum foil instead of paper, with the result that the bottom layer of the cake stuck, then buckled.  Now I don't know if it's uneven because I spread it unevenly with the palette knife when I put the batter in the tray or if it's because I mangled it when I moved the cake.

Had more practice piping - hoping it will be better on the day but afraid not - last term my hand was shaking by the end of class because of nerves.  They say that mainly the cake has to look and taste good.  The method of getting there, while important, is more flexible as there are many different ways to do things and we are encouraged to try different ways until we find one that suits us.  Not sure if we are allowed to build up the chocolate piping so much but had a little fun seeing if it was possible to replicate anything calligraphic (it may be, but I can't do it).

Am looking forward to having a life again.  Just need to make it through the week and after tomorrow I can go back to worrying about the regions of France,  the dishes, the climate and trying to guess what's going to be on the theory test - because at least Patisserie gives us a list of things we should review (then they tell us other things to add, but the list is a good start) but Cuisine is just hoping you have good notes from class.  Oh, and reading the handouts about foie gras, mussels and shellfish.

Have realized we spent a lot of time with chocolate, sponges and mouses in Intermediate Patisserie and a lot of time with seafood in Intermediate Cuisine.  Hoping to pass both - but afraid of the finals for Superior already.

Yesterday I happened to be out and about.  This weekend was forecasted for a lot of rain and cloud.  I got one of the rare sunny patches on the way back from the Marylebone Farmers' Market and the grocery store (stocking up on supplies).  It's amazing the difference a few rays of sunshine can make.  All this time I thought I was tired, old and grumpy - maybe so, but maybe it was also not seeing the sun for a while.  There are the occasional rays in the afternoon or during the coffee break if we are having a demo, but I can't remember the last time I actually was in the sunlight.  The fact that it was an instant mood boost brought home how I miss it.  London has sunny days and sunny patches but we don't always see that much of it because we are running around in class (or to class) and sunlight in class is not always a good thing, especially during plating.

So until next time, I will be hearing the tune to the song "I'm walking on sunshine!" May you also walk on sunshine.