the past few weeks have been a build up for exams, which start on tuesday. The nerves are rising and the butterflies are bursting through me. i cant believe that i have already come to the end of the intermediate course. it feels like only last week i was stressing about making choux swans, and the week before that feels like it was my first day at le cordon bleu. i am more than half way through! its amazing how fast time has flown.
Last weekend, london, and all its londonness was driving me dilly. the constant grayness of the buildings and the straightforwardness of day to day life. the nights being filled with the beeping road cleaners and rubbish trucks, and the lonely man, wondering down the road, whistling an empty tune into the emptiness of the buildings, that bounces back at him, rather than the gentle hoot of an owl being lost into the trees or the croak of a frog ringing through the night. I long for space and sunshine that lasts more than 30 minutes... so i took myself off to the park, hired a bike and cycled. I was filled with energy in that open green space, watching fathers teaching their children to ride bikes; families sitting having a pic-nic in laughter and the half naked teen-age couples being utterly inappropriate rolling around on the grass. the old couple walking hand in hand along the river eating ice-creams, as though they were newly married. the rollerbladers practicing their tricks between traffic cones and the charity run to raise money for a poor boy with cancer, with every runner wearing a red t-shirt in support.
all this made me think, and made me realise, that, although there are hooligans running wild through the streets, and shop windows boarded up on every second corner, that london is not dark and grey (even if it is), it has a society and its filled with happiness and laughter and love, and dare i say it.... sunshine, you just have to look for it. And i was reminded of how lucky i am to be in one of the worlds most fascinating and diverse cities, doing what i love most.... cooking!!!
Im going to do a quick run through whats been cooking over the past few weeks...
i started off practicing my salmon dish for Nicholas, but realised i had no cream, so i made a creamless mousse and a creamless sauce, and to my surprise, it was so delicious.
At school, we were deep into the ocean cooking fish like it was going out of fashion.
made a pike stew... pike is i little bit of a mission to cook, as it lives deep in the sea, it has a lot of protection around it, in the form of sinue and tissue, so all that has to be removed, and then, deboning it, well thats another story as, unlike a normal fish, the bones are all zigzagged, so you can imagine what it must be like to get those bones out.... thank goodness there are experienced fish mongers!!!
we also made squid, stuffed with pork mince... now to be entirely honest, i do not understand the french fascination with using pork mince as a stuffing... especially if you are going to be stuffing a squid, personally i would stuff it with a fish stuffing or something to that extent. but i am not french!!
In pastry, well, class was cancelled due to the riots, so for safety reasons, we could make our chocolate truffles. but our next practical, we were working on our chocolate tempering skills. we had to make a chocolate centre piece, with colours and stencils... well... you will see the picture at the end...
then more fish.... but this time fresh water... trout. with spaztli.. and green beans and turned mushrooms.. to practice our turning skills.
St Jullien parisien: scallops served in a shell, with duchesse potatoes piped around the edge, and a gratinated with bread crumbs and a bit of cheese.
due to all our fishy recipies... we decided to go and visit billingsgate market, which is only open from 4-7am... so we ventured off bright and early, well it wasn't so bright, but thats besides the point. and went to the market. it was amazing, i have never seen so many types of fresh fish all at once, there were mussles, and oysters and crabs and lobster and salmon and sole and and and and and......
then, we cooked more fish... lemon sole, filleted served with a tomato sauce and green hand cut pasta.
Back to pastry, we made an erupting chocolate fondand, so rich and chocolaty, that when you cut into it, it erupts with the soft gooeyness of warm molten chocolate. then we made a tart-tartin with creme anglaise and a banana mousse, with salted caramel inside it, incased in velvety white chocolate..
we then had to make our second exam dish for pastry. which is a lamb tian. it is a tower of sauteed spinach, mushrooms, grilled artichokes, confit onions, tomato concasse, 6 slices of perfectly cooked pink lamb loin, topped off with a quenelle of confit garlic, served with a mint and peppercorn sauce.
so needless to say, i have practiced this again.... hmmm
before i move on to what i consider as the most delicious dish we have done this term, i will talk briefly about the fantastically fluffily light cointreau souffle and the not so light baked souffle...
now... hmmm, Lobster with a broad bean risotto and a deliciously tomatoey tomato sauce.... it was scottish blue lobster, which has a much richer, creamier, sweeter flesh, it was honestly a taste bud expierence. and the sauce was just so perfectly tomatoey, with a gentle undertone of lobster, as that is part of the secret of cooking it. this is not new to me, but it confirmed my belief... tomato is undoubtedly my favourite ingredient, by far!!
as we came to the end of our intermediate cusine course, we touched a little on vegetarianism... cooking a dish of sautéed spinach and wild mushrooms, sitting upon an artichoke heart, encased in a puff pastry net, served with a tomato and basil sauce.
then onto canapés: we did a salmon rose on a blini, topped with fresh horseraddish cream. grilled, marinated prawns, honey glazed roasted aubergine with roasted peppers and goats cheese roulade. and lime smoked chicken wings, and parmesan sable...
and thats that!!!
this weekend ive been studying studying and practicing!!! and had my lovely cousin kitzy visit me :)
thats all folks :) xx
Last weekend, london, and all its londonness was driving me dilly. the constant grayness of the buildings and the straightforwardness of day to day life. the nights being filled with the beeping road cleaners and rubbish trucks, and the lonely man, wondering down the road, whistling an empty tune into the emptiness of the buildings, that bounces back at him, rather than the gentle hoot of an owl being lost into the trees or the croak of a frog ringing through the night. I long for space and sunshine that lasts more than 30 minutes... so i took myself off to the park, hired a bike and cycled. I was filled with energy in that open green space, watching fathers teaching their children to ride bikes; families sitting having a pic-nic in laughter and the half naked teen-age couples being utterly inappropriate rolling around on the grass. the old couple walking hand in hand along the river eating ice-creams, as though they were newly married. the rollerbladers practicing their tricks between traffic cones and the charity run to raise money for a poor boy with cancer, with every runner wearing a red t-shirt in support.
all this made me think, and made me realise, that, although there are hooligans running wild through the streets, and shop windows boarded up on every second corner, that london is not dark and grey (even if it is), it has a society and its filled with happiness and laughter and love, and dare i say it.... sunshine, you just have to look for it. And i was reminded of how lucky i am to be in one of the worlds most fascinating and diverse cities, doing what i love most.... cooking!!!
Im going to do a quick run through whats been cooking over the past few weeks...
i started off practicing my salmon dish for Nicholas, but realised i had no cream, so i made a creamless mousse and a creamless sauce, and to my surprise, it was so delicious.
At school, we were deep into the ocean cooking fish like it was going out of fashion.
made a pike stew... pike is i little bit of a mission to cook, as it lives deep in the sea, it has a lot of protection around it, in the form of sinue and tissue, so all that has to be removed, and then, deboning it, well thats another story as, unlike a normal fish, the bones are all zigzagged, so you can imagine what it must be like to get those bones out.... thank goodness there are experienced fish mongers!!!
we also made squid, stuffed with pork mince... now to be entirely honest, i do not understand the french fascination with using pork mince as a stuffing... especially if you are going to be stuffing a squid, personally i would stuff it with a fish stuffing or something to that extent. but i am not french!!
In pastry, well, class was cancelled due to the riots, so for safety reasons, we could make our chocolate truffles. but our next practical, we were working on our chocolate tempering skills. we had to make a chocolate centre piece, with colours and stencils... well... you will see the picture at the end...
then more fish.... but this time fresh water... trout. with spaztli.. and green beans and turned mushrooms.. to practice our turning skills.
St Jullien parisien: scallops served in a shell, with duchesse potatoes piped around the edge, and a gratinated with bread crumbs and a bit of cheese.
due to all our fishy recipies... we decided to go and visit billingsgate market, which is only open from 4-7am... so we ventured off bright and early, well it wasn't so bright, but thats besides the point. and went to the market. it was amazing, i have never seen so many types of fresh fish all at once, there were mussles, and oysters and crabs and lobster and salmon and sole and and and and and......
then, we cooked more fish... lemon sole, filleted served with a tomato sauce and green hand cut pasta.
Back to pastry, we made an erupting chocolate fondand, so rich and chocolaty, that when you cut into it, it erupts with the soft gooeyness of warm molten chocolate. then we made a tart-tartin with creme anglaise and a banana mousse, with salted caramel inside it, incased in velvety white chocolate..
we then had to make our second exam dish for pastry. which is a lamb tian. it is a tower of sauteed spinach, mushrooms, grilled artichokes, confit onions, tomato concasse, 6 slices of perfectly cooked pink lamb loin, topped off with a quenelle of confit garlic, served with a mint and peppercorn sauce.
so needless to say, i have practiced this again.... hmmm
before i move on to what i consider as the most delicious dish we have done this term, i will talk briefly about the fantastically fluffily light cointreau souffle and the not so light baked souffle...
now... hmmm, Lobster with a broad bean risotto and a deliciously tomatoey tomato sauce.... it was scottish blue lobster, which has a much richer, creamier, sweeter flesh, it was honestly a taste bud expierence. and the sauce was just so perfectly tomatoey, with a gentle undertone of lobster, as that is part of the secret of cooking it. this is not new to me, but it confirmed my belief... tomato is undoubtedly my favourite ingredient, by far!!
as we came to the end of our intermediate cusine course, we touched a little on vegetarianism... cooking a dish of sautéed spinach and wild mushrooms, sitting upon an artichoke heart, encased in a puff pastry net, served with a tomato and basil sauce.
then onto canapés: we did a salmon rose on a blini, topped with fresh horseraddish cream. grilled, marinated prawns, honey glazed roasted aubergine with roasted peppers and goats cheese roulade. and lime smoked chicken wings, and parmesan sable...
and thats that!!!
this weekend ive been studying studying and practicing!!! and had my lovely cousin kitzy visit me :)
thats all folks :) xx
mushroom turning progress
creamless practice
pike stew
stuffed squid
chocolate centre piece
trout with spatzli
st julien parisian
london sunrise
chocolate fondant
tart tatin
banana mousse... and my creative decoration!! haha
sole and spinach pasta
exam dish... lamb tian
souffles in the oven
souffle
baked souffle
lobster with risotto
canapes
exam practice... not so good!! woops
me and my lovely cuz :)
