Rolling, resting... PASTRY

Week 3

This week has been all about pastry… in both cuisine and in patisserie.  Which, in fact is an immensely important thing when it comes to French cuisine.  Think about all the delicious tarts, and croissants, and mille fuiles that the French are so famous for. So it entirely makes sense that we are spending lots of time in getting it absolutely perfect.

Last Update… I mentioned the custards, and then we did all the derivatives of a pastry cream, or crème patissier- like the crème diplomate, and crème chibouste, and a few more… these are basically a crème pat, with the addition of whipped cream and different liquors or the addition of Italian meringue, all giving the crème pat various flavours and textures, which allows for them to be used for different things.

This concept of having a base recipe, and then there being multiple derivatives that branch off them to change then or make them more complex is very common in French cooking. And quite frankly, ingenious!!!

This is true to pastry too. We made a pate brise (short crust pastry), and then in cuisine, did a pate brise sale… that is the substitution of salt in the place of sugar… obviously not in the same quantities, that would be like eating the sea!

We also have made puff pastry this week… wow, scary stuff! And the pate sucre, which we made yesterday… disaster!!! A pate sucre… or sweet pastry is a very delicate pastry as it is made in a different method to the short crust pastry or puff pastry. The creaming method is used, so instead of rubbing the butter into the flour, which is what is mostly done for making pastry, you cream the butter and sugar until light in colour, add some egg, mix it all up… then add the flour. Now because you have creamed the butter, it is immensely soft and fragile once made into a pastry. And doesn’t have any elasticity as a normal short crust pasty would. So the key to this pastry is keeping it cold, and work fast! Not as easy as it sounds.

We had such a disaster making this, as the fridges in the kitchen, for some odd reason weren’t working, so when we put our pastry, which had been made with much love and care, in to cool and rest… this did not happen. So when it came to actually rolling out the pastry to line the tart tin,  it was just a soft sticky mess! And with chef Matthew’s, who was involved in making of a wedding cake for the exhibition for the royal wedding, help, we stuck it onto the blast chiller (amazing gadget!!) and he so kindly helped us out!

That was the most drama we had all week… so to what we made with all our pastry: Tarte Au Citron (lemon tart, or more commonly known as lemon meringue pie, but do not mention the word pie to a French man, unless you would like to have your head chopped off... the French make tarts!!!) Quiche Lorraine, Puff Pastry (which on Tuesday we will make ammullettes au fromage like a cheese pasty, or sausage roll type thing), and we made crepes (which, now I’m not bosting or anything… were, according to chef David, the best in the class), and Tarte au Pommes (apple Tart).  

Yesterday (Thursday) we had a cheese lecture, which was absolutely brilliant. Tom the Cheese man was lecturing us. He was so typically English, and so passionate about cheese. He kept telling us about how his mum made cheese in her old stockings when he was a child, and how society is so silly with eating all these sterile foods, and there is nothing wrong with bacteria… so eat cheese J ! he told us about the history of cheese, and how it was accidently made, and then when discovered, the way to get the goats and sheep to let you milk them, was to wee on a rock, and the goats and sheep would like it, as it would become like a salt lick, so they would lick the rock, and then a trust was formed between the goat and man, and milking was allowed which lead to the making of cheese! And he went on and on about monks and wine and all sorts. Fascinating!

Sitting on the train right now, on my way to my family for easter.  It is so lovely to see how green things are out here.. and all the trees are still in blossom up here, in London the beautiful blossom has been and gone. And there are fields and fields of eliminating, sunshine yellow canola looking flowers, but that’s just me taking a stab at what it could be!!!

Well… Happy Easter to everyone.

Please keep me up to date with news J

And I love hearing back from my readers! So leave a comment if you can figure out how to… I hope its  not too complicated!

turning turnips and trussing chickens

well, my dear readers... it has been a busy week...
and been jam packed with loads of fun and technical skills :)
 but, first, lets back up..... because if i remember correctly, i have put up pics of my creme brule and creme caramel... but there has been no literature to back it up!
so here goes:
we had 2 days of demo classes... thurs and fri, about making all the varieties of custards... baked and stirred and all that jazz... and we did tuile batter and pretty decorations that one can make out of that, and we did sugar work with sugar syrup... and chocolate piping. all with the very kind and soft chef matthew. what a lovely chef he is!
then we had our back to back prac on saturday, first one was making the creme caramel and creme brule, and the second one was plating it and decorating... piping chocolate is not as easy as it looks, your hands have to be very stable, and it has to be done in a swift movement, otherwise it will not look neat and perfect! so once again, much practice needed!!!
the creme caramel was delicious... its amazing, such simple ingredients... egg, sugar, vanilla and milk ... and you have one of the worlds most delicious puddings! hmmm, all i can say is that i will most definitely be making that one again!

then on sunday... day off :) was a good chance to enjoy the lovely sunshine which we WERE having, and give my house a good little tidy! then, there was much excitement, as my lovely cousins and aunt came to london for the night for lily's birthday... so i thought i would use my decorative skills that i have recently acquired, and make some pretty decorated cup cakes... they looked amazing... in my head. but in reality, more practice needed!! oh well, thats the only way i guess...

Monday, now i am going away from the cooking a little bit... but i went to the most amazing concert with Jemma (bull) on monday. it was Jose Gonzales, accompanied by an orchestra. the gothenburg string theory... i have never been so moved by music. i could feel it vibrating through my veins. every musician on that stage was absolutely in love with music, you could see the passion radiating off them. the conductor was conducting with his hands, and feet, and hair... it was truly spectacular! i will attach a video i found on youtube.. for those of you who are interested in having a look!

well... this week during cuisine, we have covered all our veggie cuts... well for now anyway! we did turning. now, for those of you who dont know what that is, turning is cutting your potato or turnip (usually) into a barrel shape! dont ask why, but yes, it is nessisary. and it has to have seven equal sides. now, this is (well at this stage anyway) almost impossible. and apparently for our exam in june, we have to present 15 perfectly turned veggies... so hence again, MORE PRACTICE... and that is just what we did! on tuesday evening, some of the girls from class came over for turning practice! what a laugh that was... i think more pimms was consumed than turning done... but we did get a little of it done!

we have also covered stocks and basic sauces this week... a béchamel , which thanks to Mev De Villiars and Home ec at school, no practice needed there. Kels, i thought of you so much when making it! and all the laughs we had in our home ec classes. and then, we made the worlds most delicious sauce ever... namely a Sauce Tomate... or to those non frenchies, a tomato sauce! MY GOODNESS... Deliciousness! i want to make it every day of my life! it is basically, bacon, and mirepoix (which is, celery, carrot and onion, cut paysanne (roughly)) sweated in a little butter, some deseeded tomatoes added, and reduced with home made chicken stock... oh and a bouquet garni and garlic, then strained through a chinoisse... and eaten! and i was so chuffed... chef david said that mine was absolutely delicious, which i agree. so that gave me a nice boost!

Yesterday we moved onto meat! much excitement in that. as now we have learnt some of the basics, we are swiftly, very swiftly, moving along to become proper french trained, aspiring 3 michelin star chefs (as chef John calls us). so we did.... ROAST CHICKEN! and once again... deliciousness!
and so basic. cooked with nothing but butter! roasted in the oven for an hour.. but i shall not divulge the secret to it. i cant give away all my secrets, as then when the time comes to cook for you all, i would have given you my tricks, and you could have made it yourself, and then there will be no wow factor, as it will be old news for you.
i stupidly forgot to take a picture of it for you. but when i make it again, which i will be, as we have been told this is also one of our exam pieces, i will take a picture and you will be able to see the golden beauty of the wonderful bird.

today and tomorrow are patisserie days... we are going deeper in the the science of custard making, and furthering our egg skills into meringue making so i cant wait!
i will remember to take pictures for you!

hope all is well... and remember, please comment, and give me news, i love hearing from everybody.
x

just a few pics

here are some pics of me in my sexy uniform
and of my first plated deserts... creme caramel and creme brulee... but the coulis on the creme caramel ran so it doesnt look nice....  but here they are anyway...

its with the sugar work, and tueils we made :) 

carrots, carrots, darn carrots, and some mayo too!!!

It has been a few days since i last wrote on this spectacular website that revolves entirely around me! so i aught to catch you all up to what i have been dabbling my time on over the past few days. 

Daily routine this week, has been: waking up at 6, to get to class by 7.45, as we have to be there early to be able to get a good seat, and also have a chance to change into out "protective clothing" ( i will get back to why that is in inverted commas later). then finishing class by about 6pm most days.

So, on monday we had Chef John from canada give us a demonstration on the different varieties of french veggie cuts.... and my my my, it is complicated, until you understand it! firstly he explained the used of all our knives... i don't know if have mentioned before, we have all been given the most beautiful knife set, laden with all sorts of dangerous and potentially harmful goodies if placed in the wrong hands. serious fun!!! 

then he went through and explained all the basic french standard cuts. so there is the julienne, which is 1mm x 4cm, and every single little carrot or leek or celery or turnip or what ever veg you wish to be julliening, needs to be exactly 100% the same. and this goes for all the other veg cuts too... namely: Brunoise, which is a very fine dice 1-2mm x 1-2mm, then the Macedoine, a larger dice, 5mm x 5mm, then the onion slice and dice, emincer and hacher respectively. then there is mincing garlic and a bouquet garni (a really nifty looking cigar shaped parcel, bursting with flavour and aroma.) it is parsley and a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme and some celery leaf all wrapped in a thin layer of leek, tied up with string, and then cut into a 4cm length perfect cylinder. 

it really is so mind blowing watching the amazing speed and precision that the chefs are able to do all this. as they say practice makes perfect, so practicing shall be done!!!

then wen went on to learn about a basic unstable vinaigrette, and various flavourings which one can experiment with. and a french dressing, which is basically the addition of mustard into a basic vinaigrette. but all so simply delicious. Back to Basics really is the key to getting it totally right. 

gosh, i better get a move on to the prac, i could honestly go on and on talking about all of this... there were a few more basic cuts we learnt too... 

so onto our parc with chef david. now, at the beginning of the course, the chefs did warn us that they all have their own opinions on different things, which is understandable, as everyone had their own tastes and style... but we never guessed it would be about things like the size of ones jullienne or macedione! but you cant argue with the chefs... well not yet anyway ;)!! 

so we spend 2 and a half hours chopping up carrots and leeks and celery and making vinaigrette and simple, one ingredient based salads. who would ever think it would take so long to chop up 2 carrots, 1 onion, 1 shallot, 1 leek and a celery stick?  but we have to strive for perfection. 

then we had to have, yet another health and safety training session... which is were we were told all about all the precortionary measures and all that jazz... and hence enforcing us to wear our protective clothing to class... that being chef whites with all the gizmos and gadgets that go with it. 

tuesday, was another demo on veg cutting, but onto a stable vinaigrette... that being a mayonnaise! chef Sonia... but now come to think of it, i have merged monday and tuesday into 1... so that above was with chef sonia and chef john... and now i am so confused as to what was what... and that just gives an example to, even though it doesn't sound like that much, it really is a lot to take in and digest. 

so yesterday which was wednesday, we made mayo... exhausting stuff when you are used to making it with an electric beater... gotta beat and beat and beat, and just when you think your arm is going to fall off, you have to beat some more! made a potato salad and a salade italienne (italian salad) with the mayo we beat our arms off with...

it really all is so exciting and inspiring, and i cant wait to be able to be so experienced  in all these techniques. 

there is much excitement going on in london at the moment because... THE SUN IS SHINING :) and has been for 2 days! it was a whole 21 degrees yesterday, and today too! oh what fun. 

so i am going to go off now and enjoy some sunshine now, you never know how long its going to last. 

I have a patisserie demonstration today in which will be doing creme caramel and creme brule and creme anglais... and all those lovely custardy things!!

please keep me posted as to whats happening at home. i love getting feed back from you!

have a wonderful week!

x

Sugar cooking

today felt like it was very long! i just realiesed that i put my other post up this morning, but feels like it was yesterday. i apologise in advance for this entry being so long!!

well... this afternoon, i went to go and buy my super sexy safety shoes, and my goodness are they sexy. they give crocs a run for their money! but wow are they comfortable!!! i left them in my locker at school, but will upload a pic of them soon, so you can see just how lovely they are.

then went back to the school, to change into uniform! it really is like being back at school! oh well...

we have to wear the chef jacket with the school emblem on it, and black and white checked trousers.. and for pracs we have to wear granny blue hair nets and a little sailor looking hat, and an apron. (i dont know if you want to hear all these random details, avid readers... please report back on what is necessary to divulge).

first class this afternoon was Demonstration. the head pastry chef, chef julie, is so lovely. you can see she has such a passion for teaching and anything pastry related. i really cant wait to learn more from her. 

(the health and safety system is so crazy in this country... we had to go through how to work all the equipment, and light switches and power switches, and once the chefs had seen that we know how to work it, we had to sign a document to show that we have done it. i guess it is to cover their own bums if something happens, but still madness! cant imagine anything like that happening at home.)

so back to the lecture: it was 3 hours, on how to use our knife sets... then we identifying fruits and then making a simple and sugar syrup with different infusions. then sugar spinning, and making those amazing looking domes and spirals out of sugar!! it really is mind blowing watching the chefs do their stuff, its all done with such ease! i cant wait to be like them!

then we went off to the prac class in the patissarie. we walked in, and there stands a french man. but when i say a french man, that is an under exaggeration. he is so fantastically french. you can see his life is patisserie! now, we are not allowed to wear any jewelry or watches or anything to class. and i forgot to take my watch off, so he looks me up and down, and asks me the time, so i look at him strangely thinking i was late or something, but it was impossible because there was only one other person in the room, and then in his accent "it is time to take off your watch, you have zero". so first impressions of him... SCARY! chef cristophe, is in fact not scary... he is mad, but amazing. another man who loves his job. we learnt a sugar test... how to check the different stages, by sticking your fingers into the pot of boiling sugar!!! yes, you read right!!! this is a magic trick, and i shall not tell how its done :) but its super fantastic!!

well.... thats me for today... i am tired!!!

until next time :)

thanks to my avid readers for reading! 

x

first day!!!

yesterday was my first day at le cordon bleu! i went feeling very nervous, but that was mixed with huge amounts of excitement.
it was just an orientation, so no cooking happened.... but we did get to meet some of the chefs at the school, and had a tour around the tiny, cramped building, and even had a fire drill.... brought me back to the days of primary school, when we used to have fire drills, and every time you hear that noise, your heart stops dead! i really don't like that feeling at all!!!!

so, how it all works- have class every day, and some saturdays. we have a demonstration class, and then following that, there has to be a practical class, to see if you can do what you learnt in the dem class. the prac kitchens are snug, and there are 10 people in a class, which is great, so then we get lots of personal attention! the chef talking to us, chef franck, said one thing to us which really made an impression. he said there is no right or wrong way of cooking, cooking is like putting make up on food... which is so true. everyone has their own style and palate and preference, and can dress their food us as much or as little as they wish... and then he went on with such passion, in his heavy french accent about his grandmothers fish stew!
it is so wonderful to hear people talk with such passion and intensity about the simplest of things, food... life is all about food... well i know mine is anyway!!!

well, i have my first patisserie demonstration and practical this afternoon... so will update you about that later. and have a health and food safety food course all day tomorrow!!!
so... fun fun fun!!!
have a lovely day to all you avid readers of my blog!! (ha, wishful thinking)
x