Emma Cooking In London: Much over due Update!!

hi all,

im terribly sorry that i have not been updating my blog as much as i should, and im sure many of you are hanging onto the end of your seats, waiting desperately to hear what i have been cooking!! (wishful thinking)... so once again, i apologise..

But before i start, i am demanding an update from everyone who reads my blog: so EMAIL ME YOUR NEWS : emma.ack@gmail.com, because i like to know what you all have been up to too :)

right, im going to do my best to back track and remember what i have been up to, it really has been a jam packed, busy, intense few weeks.

so my last update i mentioned that we were doing eggs and bread... well that was true! we had a demonstration with chef sonia all about eggs, first we had a lecture all about eggs and where they come from and what they are, and some of the scientific facts and properties and cooking times and temperatures of the egg itself, and the yolk and the white.. who would guess there is soo much to know about eggs? then she went on to make eggs florentine, and poached eggs, and fried eggs and creamy runny creamy creamy s(cream)bbled eggs, i honestly cannot emphasise the fact that it was actually more cream than eggs!! haha, but thats the french way right? so not to argue!! then in our prac, with chef john, we had to make eggs florentine, which is a poached egg, on a bed of sauted spinach, covered in a juicy melting mornay sauce (cheeeeesy). and then a basic fine herb (which consists of tarragon, parsley, chives... all those lovely soft leaved flavourful herbs) omelet. so that was that.. eggs, done!!!

next: soup! so we again we had a demo with chef sonia, and im going to condense 2 days into 1 here, because we had 2 days of soups: so we did: leek and potato soup with julienne veggies, and a chicken and mushroom soup with poached chicken in it. then we did french onion soup, with greye cheese croutons toasted and melted on the top. and a crystal clear jam packed with flavour crystal clear, clear, clear consommé. so im not going to go into detail about the other soups, but the consomme, i am, because i think it is absolutely amazing. and as we speak, i am experimenting, and have a pot of chicken stock on the go with the intention of attempting to make it into a chicken and garlic consomme... so we will see how that turns out. so what it is, is a good quality, flavourful stock, clarified with proteins (egg white and other clarifying stuffies) , so all the floating bits in the stock, get stuck in in, and when the white coagulates (you home ec hommies will know all about that) it captures all the unwanted floaty bits, leaving you with a crystal clear soup.. and by gently reducing the stock while clarifying, you intensify the lovely meaty flavour of the soup... = delic!!!!

and another lovely thing that happened that week, was that my aunt was in town, and i got spoilt to an absolutely delicious meal... and a really fun night! and now, all i can think about are those amazing, melt in your mouth, buttery soft scallops... hmmm! Thanks so much sam :)! xx

moving on, the rest of the week was patisserie: Bread and a move forward onto cakes:

so we made soda bread and basic soft white bread rolls, and then got to play a little bit with the rolls, and could add flavours and make them into different shapes. so i made cheese and onion, and greyere and provincial herbs, for my flavours, and then made a few other little shapes, and poped an olive on here, and some onion seeds on there.. so just a bit of fun.

then ... deliciously rich and soft and light and lemony lemon cake... hmmmm that was great. and little Madeline's, which are soft slightly lemony, buttery sponge cakes, in the shapes of shells.. im sure you know what im talking about, but i will attach a pic so you can see just exactly what i mean!

Then, then, oh then.. the big daunting day arrived, we were given our exam dish! oooo... scary stuff! and guess what, we have to present 12 perfectly turnned 7 sided veggies! this is giving me night mares, but i have got a smaller turning knife coming, so hopefully my problems will be solved, boggy having small hands! haha..

so the dish is Chicken Fricassee = chicken with a creamy mushroomy sauce and the turned veggies. and we have to do it all in 2 hours MAX, every minute we go over, we loose marks. so.... practice practice practice... and i already have once, and the story behind making the chicken consomme, is that i was practicing butchering my chickens (which i am now expert at, if i do say so myself) and then i didnt know what to do with all the chicken, so hence... experimentation!)

then, we made poussin s, with a deliciously mustardy tarragon sauce, served with apple compote and boiled potatoes, finished off in a little butter just to add the extra french deliciousness to it. Chef john was our chef that day, he also did a really traditional homely french dish in the demo, guinea fowl cooked with cabbage and pancetta and sausage, so all the juices cook into each other... this is definitely something i am going to try this!

then, the dreaded offal classes.... and they were awful! we did sweet breads, crumbed with a truffle jus, Parisienne potatoes and steamed asparagus. and calves liver lyonaisse (with onion) with sauted potatoes... and in the demo, chef sonia did lamb kidneys too... ok, granted, it all sounds delicious. but, that liver... my goodness, the smell and the texture... no thanks. not for me. i can almost just deal with the sweet breads... but lets just say, if i have a restaurant one day, no organs will me on the menu!

Moving on to stuffings and mousses... demo was veal, with a mushroom and veal stuffing. and then for our prac we made, chicken breast, stuffed with a chicken mouse, flavoured with chopped herbs. then poached, and served with courgette spaghetti (which is courgette cut on the mandolin so it looks like spaghetti) and a tomato, and herb butter sauce... this is definitely on my top 3 list of what we have made on the course so far. it sounds all fancy and strange. but the flavours just complement each other so perfectly, and i think the fact that there is basil and tomato and courgette on the same plate, makes me smile, thats my italian love slipping in there.... and the subtle hint of garlic in the courgette and the softness of the herbs in the mousse, go so perfectly with the garlicy tomatoey basily sauce, which has just a touch of acidity, balanced but a smidgen of sweetness and then the intensity of the tomato breaks through, leaving you with a softness of the butter that you have piled into it! hmmmm

right... so onto patisserie... Gateaux alhambra, which in english is a chocolate hazelnut sponge cake, coated in a decadent melting chocolate fondant, and garnished with a marzipan rose...

this cake is really interesting cake, we learnt the history of it and why it has a marzipan rose on it (which we did make ourselves!!!!) and it is because the the alhambra gardens in spain, were full of almond trees, and lush roses, so some mad baker who wanted to impress an austrian king for some mad reason, made this deliciously decedent cake, soaked in a coffee and rum syrup, and coated with chocolate, all indications of wealth and richness. so traditionally, it has to have alhambra written on the top, and have marzipan rose on the top, and should have pistachio nuts around the bast (but we didnt do this).

and then the other cake we made was a genoise a la frambais (or something to that name) which is a genoise sponge cake, with a home made raspberry jam and deliciously sweet buttercream in the centre, the cake is soaked in a raspberry au de vie liquor syrup to keep it moist. and covered in the buttercream, and decorated with piping, and chocolate piping, and raspberries, and almonds, around the bottom and on the top... the french way is decoration... and i dont like it, but you gotta do what you gotta do :-) and chef liked it. so then i guess its all good!

and that is that... i have managed to catch you all up... hope i havent missed anything out!

KEEP IN CONTACT,

and good luck to all those writing exams :)