#118 - Happy New Year!

Cuckoo for coco puffs
I had my first coco puff a few nights ago.  They're from Liliha Bakery which is known for several things, this being one of them.  (My friends wanted to know how I had grown up here and never had one of these.)  My favorite part was the pudding inside - it's one of the few things I have always liked.  Unfortunately the climate here (and possibly the moisture in the filling) means that the pastry was not crispy like it is when you have a croquembouche.  Trying to figure out how to make some at home is part of the fun when you eat something and you think of things people like (or don't like, as the case may be).

In which certain traditions are upheld
I'm not sure when a tradition becomes a tradition - is it the number of years or the number of occasions in which a certain thing is done?  Or do I go with the lawyer answer of "it depends..."?

In this case, it has been a tradition (both by reference to the number of years and the number of occurrences) that I stop by my friend SM's house on New Year's Eve if we are both home for the holidays.

It is a newer tradition that he makes truffles as his contribution to the festivities.  And because he loves chocolate and I just love to talk about cooking and the fun things you can do with food, of course we always talk about food in between our catch ups over what has happened with each other's lives over the intervening year.

Last year, still relatively fresh out of cooking school, I happened to mention something about tempering chocolate and we shook on it.  Well we followed through this year but because I forgot my truffle moulds in Sydney (aw shucks) we decided to do something a little different.  That is, I had my first coco puff from Liliha Bakery only 3 nights ago - something local people know about but which I had not had until now because I refused to eat desserts or sugary things until just a couple of years ago.

Coco puffs were something with which I was relatively unfamiliar and it took a little while to settle on the filling.  Pudding might have been a better idea but we thought we'd go with ganache because SM was going to make some anyway.

A walk down memory lane
In addition to not having my truffle moulds, I couldn't remember what equipment I had left here and what now resides in Sydney so there was some digging through my bags/closet and the kitchen.

Equipment and recipe in hand, it was time to make choux pastry.  So...a couple of years makes a very big difference because I couldn't remember how long I used to cook out the panade (the dough ball).  Then I had to add an extra egg to get the right consistency because I had cooked the panade a little too long.  And then the piping...uneven and...let's just say that you find out how much you need to practice when you start doing things again, even things which used to be second nature.

We used mystery flour - that is, it was in the fridge in the ziplock bag and I was really hoping it wasn't self-rising flour.  We baked the choux pastry in batches, experimenting with the timing because we guessimated / approximated the temperature setting.  (190 - 200 C for 20 - 25 minutes translated to about 380F for 20 - 22 minutes).  The optimum time for us seemed to be 21 minutes...

Then the truffles...there was one made with the cream infused with genmai cha and another which had plain cream but parmesan mixed through it after it the ganache cooled, for the sweet/salty combo that SM likes.  I'm not usually a huge fan of the sweet/salty but I have to say this was pretty good.  The genmai cha infused truffle was rolled in kinako powder (from soy beans) and the other truffles were dipped in tempered chocolate.

Do what you're afraid to do (again) - aka cooking nerd speak / skip to Nerdy Portion Over (below)
One of the things they used to tell us is that you have a couple of degrees' leeway to bring the chocolate back up to temperature after you melt it and cool it.  The thing is, we always used Callebaut at LCB (it's what I have in my kitchen) but SM bought Valrohna because that's what he could find.  A very good chocolate but I remember the chefs telling us you have to be very precise when you work with it because it has a smaller range of temperatures for it to stay in temper.

Until I took my Patisserie finals, I felt pretty confident about tempering chocolate, once I got the hang of it.  On the day of the final, I remember the kitchen was freezing and my chocolate got too cold, too fast and I had bad truffles.  I hadn't tempered chocolate since and all of a sudden I was going to temper chocolate - with a brand that was too expensive to mess up (especially since I hadn't bought it!) - talk about performance anxiety.

Luckily, I seem to have this perverse quirk of personality where the more stressed another person gets (SM was upset he couldn't find the right butter) the calmer I get.  He thought he messed up his chocolate for the ganache - he didn't (we split it into two separate bowls for the different flavors).

Look Mom, No hands!  (The tea infused truffles)
We had a little bit of a thing because he didn't want to roll the ganache for truffles (his hands melt it) and my melon baller was too small.  So I quenelled the ganache then he rolled it around in the kinako powder and patted it into the shape he wanted with spoons.

Assembly required (The truffles with cheese)
This one did require us to get our hands dirty.  Well, chocolate-y, anyway.

The ganache had set quite hard so we had to dig it out to roll it, but then since the chocolate had passed the test (small amount on knife blade or parchment paper, it should cloud over relatively quickly and set) we had to dip the truffles.  I did not think this through - I think next time we should skip the wire rack - you get feet on the truffles but you don't lose the bottom of the shell when it gets stuck to the rack.  Oh well, you learn (or re-learn) and mistakes help consolidate the lesson.  Of course I told people to keep it refrigerated because of the cream, and to eat it within a couple of days (because the shell wasn't intact).

Nerdy portion over
So the final results of our efforts:  a plate of truffles and a plate of "coco puffs" with ganache instead of chocolate pudding filling and no "chantilly" which is some sort of frosting they put on the coco puffs.  You can see the inside of our coco puffs below...

Not perfect, but actually quite a successful experiment.

So until next time (and for the rest of this new year) - Happy New Year and may all your experiments and forays into the unknown / slightly intimidating be as happy as our was yesterday.

#113 - Therapy...

Every once in a while I get seized by an inexplicable attack of insomnia - which is ironic since it's usually the opposite problem.  Luckily, "therapy" consists of (almost) instant gratification.  Normally my parents hear "I didn't sleep well, I'm cooking tonight" but since I'm not home, the guinea pigs - um, I mean, beneficiaries - of my cooking adventures are now drawn from my circle of friends.

The most recent foray was for the Opera cake - yes, Intermediate patisserie strikes again!  I remember being so excited when I found out we were going to make it because I've always loved this cake - there's just something about the coffee and the chocolate combination...

I also found out that my oven needs a lot of time to warm up and it cooks unevenly.  And the oven makes my kitchen nice and warm - no heater needed, even on a cold, winter night.  Actually, winter is best because I could open the windows and let the fresh air in to cool the place as well as speed up the cooling of my ganache.

There were a few mishaps (like taking the sugar for the buttercream too high and having to fix the syrup) - you lose the touch so very quickly.  Anyway -the end result (and morning tea) - the big cake for the office and the little mini-cakes for friends who work nearby.

Coincidentally, it was also the last day for someone in our office, but I want to emphasize, it was not for the actual going away.

My perfectionist side was a bit annoyed by some things (uneven layers, forgetting the melted butter in the joconde...don't tell, but it turned out ok!) and some pathetic piping.  An ok effort but needs work.  However, it was shared and enjoyed by friends so a happy outcome.

So until next time - enjoy sharing what you love with those you love!

#90 - The C word...

Committing...
There it is - the "C" word...once we turn in our Patisserie portfolios, we are locked in with our desserts, decorations and plating.  I'm going to have to take in a photo of mine so that I can remember what I committed to on paper.

I spent Sunday afternoon experimenting with tuiles, puree and plating.  If there was ever a time that drove home how unartistic I am, today was it.  There was also the scientific curiosity which made me see if I could marble blackberry puree with white chocolate for a tempered decoration.  I know that a small amount of water (or other liquid) can make chocolate seize.  I just wasn't sure what the quantities were.  So the unscientific part of me didn't measure, but it doesn't matter.  The puree on chocolate was an unmitigated disaster - if the chocolate stayed tempered, you couldn't see the purple.  If you could see the coulis, it took the chocolate out of temper in a spectacularly disastrous fashion that I would be ashamed to present to the chefs at the Patisserie finals.  What to do, what to do?  I was still dithering as I fell asleep last night...plate design depends on so many factors (like, what if I accidentally overcook my coulis?  It turns out blackberries do have pectin so cooking it too long or cooling it too much will make it lumpy because it does something or other to the water.  I'd tell you more but that would require going into permutations and I'm still finishing the portfolio which just makes me want to curl up and eat Snickers bars.)  You'd think with all the chocolate, sugar, butter, milk and cream around, I'd have no problems making myself something sweet in the absence of any Snickers bars, but no - you'd be wrong.  Making any sweets would require cooking and I am pretty much through except for the exams.  As for the Snickers bar...well, I already ate it so another one would be massively naughty.  And I only had one so actually...


Anyway - the tuiles.  A slightly more successful attempt at the lattice but I am beginning to give up on it.  Part of it is that the equipment at home is a little bit different - like I don't have a blast chiller or a fridge large enough to accommodate the baking tray once I've spread the diamonds on the silmat, before I pipe the connecting batter.  The rest of it was that I was experimenting with the piping but since I didn't use a proper piping bag, the batter melted and I ended up with a closed lattice instead of an open one.


Praticing the plating took a lot of plates.  I think for some of them I tried a couple of designs on the plate.  All I have to say is thank goodness for dishwashers!  This is what the sink looked like after I had cleaned up any and all mess from the preparation and cooking part.  It's a good thing no one needed the kitchen because I had things everywhere (plating area, photography area, rubbish area, etc. etc.)  I got really lucky with accomodation in that the kitchen is actually usable for most of the practice things.


It's all starting to feel real
I have been sorting out my knife kit and Patisserie tools bag only to discover the acetate that I use to line my moulds for the dessert is not thick or strong enough to use for my chocolate twirls (I want a larger circumference on the twirl so I need a less flexible acetate strip).  Ah, the dilemmas of being in culinary school.  They're real in the sense that some people will do this for a living.  On the other hand, they (most likely) won't change the world or bring about world peace or do anything useful to better someone's life or the world so it's not as real as some other jobs I could name where every day you make a difference to someone's life.


There has been substantial panic in the kitchen as tuile paste refuses to cooperate and I keep forgetting which way I bent the tuiles.  Hopefully if it goes on backwards on the day, they won't deduct marks for getting it backwards.


The portfolio has been submitted (with literally just a few minutes, if that, to spare.  Formatting took way longer than I had wanted to spend on it but this is Patisserie - how pretty it is counts.  How pretty everything is counts.  In Cuisine, sometimes you can wing it.  As long as your techniques are good, you can always try to save it by saying it's "rustic" - unless of course, that's not what they're looking for, in which case you're just in trouble.


Must go and start mental review now of my game plan.  And do laundry.  And pack my kit for school.  And organize Patisserie tools.  And pack my bags.  So much to do, so little time.


There won't be much cooking between now and the finals but still a lot of thinking to do.  So until next time, may you have as fun a week as mine will be.

#54 - In which people start to imitate zombies

I just realized that Friday was the end of week 5.  Half way if you look at the term dates, but actually more if you consider that this takes into account start of term to graduation.  If you take out graduation and exams, we have less than 4 weeks left.  Ok, I just freaked myself out about the patisserie exam.  It seems like last term's Superior Patisserie group were already quite set on what they were going to do for the final.  I'm still trying to get my recipes set because the dome idea I had isn't going to work.  And the thought of having to buy all that cream, milk, etc. etc. to practice is making me quite depressed about my refrigerator and its lack of space.

There have already been a few panics by various people as they contemplate the amount of work ahead of us (less than 2 weeks to finish our Cuisine portfolios, the Patisserie ones due a week after that).  It helps if you break it down - until you realize how many components there are.  I've started doing the math just in case something goes wrong (you know they almost always do) and a decision as to be made whether to skip an element, take a time penalty or to present it but it's bad (sometimes you get partial credit, sometimes it's all-or-nothing).

In which we imitate zombies
Although the service part of the Tea Party had been quite easy, the lead up to it had had a certain urgency to it.  I asked Chef GB if he was nervous.  He asked why should he be nervous, to which I replied that he was now letting us loose on the public - mostly family and friends...but there was a rather large press table, at least one of whom has attended previous event/s before.  Chef said no, he wasn't nervous, but given that he had just given us a little talk about how we were representing the school, its reputation and how he took it seriously, I had my suspicions on that score.  In any event, you already know the details so I'll continue on with last week.

St Pierre en Croute de Chorizo, Mille-Feuille de Grenouilles aux Amandes (John Dory with chorizo crust, frog legs mille feuille with almonds)
8am Thursday morning we had another Cuisine practical. Everyone was moving in slow motion.  Apparently we still haven't quite recovered from the Tea Party and people are really starting to panic about how fast the time is going by.

I admit that I tried the cuisse the grenouilles (frog legs) in demo.  Not a big fan.  Apparently they are nice when they are fresh but for me they go into the basket marked "was on my dissecting table, won't eat".  These were frozen, which changes the texture of the meat.  I found them really mushy and kind of tasteless.  This is after they were cooked by a really amazing chef.  Needless to say I didn't taste them when I made them and neither did our teaching chef, Chef JB.  He doesn't like them either, unless they are fresh.  So this was just an exercise in French trimming the legs and frying them (longer than you think).

The John Dory was as delicious as ever, but I'm not a huge fan of the chorizo crust.  It might have been better if it had been crispy, but we had to make a call as to whether to crisp the crust (and overcook the fish) or have the fish perfect but the crust a bit soggy.  Opted for the fish, seeing as how it's the main component of the dish.  We also did a puff pastry with spinach (below and inside) and the small bits of frog leg we took off when we trimmed the bones.

The sauce is made from crabs.  Mine was very crab-y ("it's more like a really lovely crab stock.  Just too much for this early in the morning.") and I thought, quite salty.  By the way, that's after I added so much butter that I don't even know how much I put in.

Fusion?
I didn't want to cook dinner when I got home but I didn't want to eat we'd made in class exactly.  I had to buy some salad anyway, so a stop in Waitrose also resulted in buying 3 large scallops.

Oh, ew, Waitrose!
A little detour here.  I was so completely disgusted - I took a couple of days to think about it and I am still grossed out.  The lady at the checkout counter was sick.  How do I know this?  Aside from the miserable look on her face, she handed me a plastic bag to pack my own groceries - no problem.  But in the middle of scanning in my groceries, she took out a wrinkled tissue from her pocket, blew her nose, returned the tissue to her pocket and then continued to handle my groceries, among them now my raw vegetables.  I have seen other employees use hand sanitizer, but she didn't.  And then - she did it again!  I'm not sure if it was the same kleenex, but given that she kind of had to hunt for what I assume was a dry spot, I didn't quite know what to do.  It's not like I could complain to the manager - I can't imagine she would go to work when she obviously felt so crappy if she didn't need to go.  For me, it's just a disgusting ick factor, whereas I have no idea what it was for her.  I just made sure I handled my debit card and washed, peeled and/or cooked everything carefully when I got home.  One of the girls at school told me that they are supposed to have antibac by their stations though, and that it's part of the health and hygiene things people are taught.

But back to the food...these are big, fresh King scallops (Scotland?  I forget) - needed to clean off the roe.  Then I happend to glimpse panko crumbs and furikake (seaweed sprinkles, for those who didn't grow up in Hawaii, Japan or eating Japanese food) and dinner was sorted:

An attempt at something like the starter from the student event - Pan fried King scallop in furikake and panko crust with crab vinaigrette.  I used a few drops of the "crab stock" from the John Dory in a vinaigrette - quite similar to the one we did with the lobster lasagne a few weeks ago.

The salad I have been craving for who knows how long - it needed to be colorful, have contrasting textures and in this case, contrasting temperatures, so that it wouldn't be boring.  In an attempt to be organized I packed some salad (sans dressing) in a tupperware, thinking I would take it to school yesterday for lunch and how easy it would be to do this when I go back to work.  Well, yes - as long as I remember to take it with me.

Finally, dinner!  I made rice because we didn't make any starch with the John Dory (puff pastry doesn't count - I chucked it because it doesn't travel well) and I thought it might soften the flavor of the chorizo crust.  It didn't so I scraped off the chorizo, but only after I took the photo.  I can't remember what else I did to the crab sauce (maybe more dressing?) but it tasted pretty good.  Some people say they don't eat leftovers - personal preference, I have no issue with that.  I just wonder, is it leftovers if you didn't eat it?  I think it took me the time it took to cook the rice to do everything (I had to empty the dishwasher, do the other dishes and a general clean up - it didn't take 20 minutes to make scallops!)

Teamwork...
Then yesterday at 8am was another practical.  Two dishes this time, a starter and a main.  We were working in teams of 2.  It kind of threw me because I had a plan for everything and I think I could have done it on my own.  On the other hand, it wouldn't have turned out as pretty.  We were told that this was a test of teamwork (some teams were told they needed to communicate better).  ML and I had a couple of little blips but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

Feuillete de Fromage de Chevre et sa Salade d'Herbes, Miel et Fleur de Sel (Puff pastry with Goat's Cheese, herb salad, honey and Fleur de Sel)
We had Chef LM who is just amazing.  He said he didn't really care what we did as long as it was beautiful (think all this in a French accent).  The other classes who didn't have to do extras finished earlier, but I think our dishes may have also ended up a bit more creative.  ML, my partner for the day, insists she isn't creative, but she came up with the vol-au-vent idea for our goat's cheese starter.  We did the mise en place together, but plated our own individual plates.  My plate needed more salad (see the name of the dish) but he liked the little extras we did.  I sprinkled my peanut pistachio praline bits on the dish, ML put hers in the base of her vol-au-vent with the little apple compote we made - a nice little surprise, which I thought was a great idea (and wished I had copied...)

Chef LM said they do starters like ours in restaurants quite often.  Of course we were given some suggestions (like, "you can't just give me apples like that, you have to turn them" or "what else can you do with the apple peels?" or "those apples don't have any color - what will it look like on the plate?")  Suddenly what was pretty straightforward had teams discussing and scrambling to get the extras done.  We were fortunate enough that if we wanted other ingredients he was willing to arrange to have them provided so that we could stretch ourselves a bit.  We ended up with an apple infused vinaigrette on our herb salad, the apple compote, a vol-au-vent (instead of plain rectangles) and the praline/brittles.  I messed up the caramel a bit (too much butter) so I just poured it off before adding my toasted nuts.  Not great technique, but sometimes they don't care if it looks and tastes good.

In some ways this reminds me of what one of the girls was saying at the pub on Friday night after class.  She did Basic and Intermediate at the Paris school and she is here with us for the final push in Superior.  She said that London focuses a lot on technique while Paris really does amazing presentations and pushes you to be creative.  I'm glad I'm here because I find pressure thends to quashy any creativity which sometimes comes in unlooked for bursts.

Dourade en Croute de Sel, Huile de Ciboulette (Baked Sea Bream in Salt Crust, Chive Oil)
Mains:  ML made the egg white and salt meringue for our fish.  Chef LM wanted to see our fish before we took them out of the crusts so we had to make it pretty (the other groups didn't have to do this).  Chef DM happened to pop his head into the kitchen while we were doing this and he said that he used to have people pipe on the meringue (or have the pastry chefs where he worked do something to it, I've forgotten what).  In any case, ML handed me a piping bag.  I didn't feel like diving into the knife kit to get a tip so I just piped it straight from the bag.  She thought the little puffy scales were quite cute so she did hers like mine too.  Our ovens are a bit uneven (I had an oven thermometer which we use to check because the dials are so old the numbers have rubbed off and the temperature gauges aren't particularly reliable) so our crust, which should have been white, turned out golden.

We were told in demo to keep the bok choy kind of crisp, for a texture contrast from the fish. However, given it was Chef LM in the kitchen, ML and I decided we would cook our vegetables a tad longer (yes, confusing with the initials).  So there are the photos (minus the ones with the whole gutting them thing).  Chef LM wanted to know if my fish was sick because the I hadn't smoothed the salt crust over the head very well.  He also said that if we weren't good at this sort of thing, you could use a spoon to make the fish spiky...

Cheese and Wine
Back to the other bits of the week.  We had our cheese tech on...Wednesday night?  I'm not sure...then our last Cuisine wine tech yesterday - the Patisserie one is next week.

Cheese
Anyway, Tom the Cheese Guy is extremely entertaining.  He is so sweet, how enthusiastic and passionate he is about cheese, although I always worry when I see an anticipatory, gleeful smile on his face.  I have learned that the cheese making the rounds is going to be particularly stinky / strong.  Some of the gems from our cheese lecture:

• Calling the Cloche (goat's cheese from Touraine - see left) "utterly beautiful" in reference to its rippled texture which looked like the ridges on a brain to me;
• "decent, sexy cheese" (cause for a ripple of amusement through the class);
• "become one in unholy decay" in reference to his love of cheese and what he hopes will happen to him upon his demise and being interred with...Roquefort? - resulting in outright laughter (in a nice way);
• Roquefort being "carried down to limestone caves and being stroked by little Frenchmen" (also how Stilton should be treated);
• "If they're calling for wine, they're not really English [cheeses].  They're probably a Frenchman in disguise".

Brillat Savarain - triple cream
also a party favorite (mild, creamy)

Vacherin - seasonal, stinky
one of my favorites

Wine
This one was more fun by virtue of the fact that we got to eat canapes prepared by the production kitchen with the wine to test food and wine pairings.  I enjoy food but the wine thing is a very slow process, although considerably facilitated by the past few months here.  View of canapes to the right - on the overhead mirror, which is why it looks upside down.

Have come to the conclusion that I shouldn't do tasting for food and wine.  The only pairings I thought were good were the ones everyone agreed on.  Those who know about wine could talk about complexity, etc. etc.  Sometimes they went well, sometimes it tasted atrocious - a suggestion was made that I ought to practice more drinking.  Hmmm, usually classes don't encourage you to drink...photo of my favorite on the right (of course - dessert, fortified, very sweet...)

All the sitting in class made me very twitchy so after a quick stop at the pub after our wine lecture, I took myself off to ballet class.  Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm working as hard as I could in class - but that doesn't mean that it doesn't still hurt the next day.  I spent last night stretching out from the unaccustomed exercise on Friday night and the extensive walking on Saturday.

Saturday excursions
Yesterday was a trip to see more of London's sights. In this case - a snack at a market near Bermondsey on Maltby St where LM introduced me to the best grilled cheese sandwich ever. I have an aversion to sourdough bread because it tastes like it's rotten - but wow! I seem to have missed the list of ingredients, but here they are, preparing the sandwiches, with a view of LM's excited face - she's been talking about these sandwiches for a couple of weeks now.  After the grilled cheese that changed my view on sourdough, we had a bit of a walk around to see what else was around.  Maltby St market didn't seem to have many places open but the ones which were, seemed to be quite foodie heaven-y.  (Yes, I know that's not a word - but if it got my point across, who cares?)  One of the things we saw was this grocery stall which was much more like a shop - quite big and had a bunch of things which I had been looking for in other places but haven't seen in a while - like micro greens (remember my fish tacos a while back?) and these interesting looking mushrooms.  No idea what they are, I couldn't see a sign.  I was just enamored of the lavender color on something which looked a little like a cross between girolles, shiitake, oyster and who knows what else.

Having seen most of the Maltby Stree market, we went to Camden where we only saw a fraction of the markets.  We started near this canal thing where they have a bunch of food stalls and a small indoor section which reminded me of some of the shopping arcades in Sydney.  The weeping willows are still green and we had to pass under a hanging curtain of the branches to cross the little bridge to the other side.  (Q:  Why did the Anna cross the bridge?  A:  To get to the food on the other side.)

It was even prettier because they had strung up lights, which were particularly effective as it got darker.  It was pretty to see all the lights on as the overcast day got darker (the sun is now down by 4:30pm and getting earlier every day).  Some sections have names (The Stables; Designer Row?) - generally it seemed like similar things were sold in the same general location, like the little place with furniture stalls, which were more like shops, the stalls off the main street which sold similar looking dresses/sweaters/sweatshirts, the food section...I kept thinking of it like a fair because of all crowds and the food.  The art and the crafts were much better though.  I hope to make it back to do a little Christmas shopping, but we will see how the time goes.  It is rapidly slipping away and I still have a lot to do.

Early to bed
I think we walked for about 5 hours straight - I was too afraid to sit down near the end of the day because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get up again.  I was in bed by about 8:15 with a Dr Watson and Mr Holmes, never having read all of their adventures consecutively.  They await me patiently as I finish this particular entry.

I don't have photos of my tartelette with poached egg and Hollandaise sauce (which turned out a strange gray color - I will have to ask the chefs why it looks so weird) because I accidentally washed the memory stick adaptor for my camera with my laundry.  The Hollandaise didn't split!  Cause for a mental happy dance even though it was a little thin, except still wondering about the color...photos later, once I manage to get things sorted out.  Late start tomorrow - Holmes and Watson are calling me, so I must go.

So until next time, may you enjoy your little successes as much as I have enjoyed mine.

#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.