Of late life has been increasingly time consuming, hence my lack of updates... You know that's funny because all my recent posts have started with similar silliness, I do think that i have finallycome to the conclusion that I'm and truly and honestly rubbish at keeping my blogging up to date!! Revelation of the month!
So as promised at the end of my last entry, lobster pasta and chocolate windmills! In all honesty, that all seems so very long ago!
The lobster pasta was delicious.... Fresh lasagna sheets with basil leaves through them so it almost looks like staind glass. With lobster and a fresh tomato salsa and asparagus tips and fresh zesty asparagus pure, a perfect dish for a summer lunch sitting in the sun, under a tree, sipping on a cool crisp glass of sauvignon blanc with the people who make u laugh! Oh what a life!
Chocolate,, the chocolate module was intensely chocolate filled... Did u know that if du eat too much chocolate you get ulcers in ur mouth? Well, I do... And I did. And most of it wasn't out of choice, as when one tempers chocolate, one should,( and I say should in a very lucrative manner here as this is not always done as many opt for the judging by eye, more risky method), test the temperature of the chocolate on ones lip as it is a very sensitive part of ur body, especially to heat. So by tempering kilos of chocolate a few days in a row... One can imagine how much chocolate could potentially be consumed. DAANGEROUSSE... (yes that is dangerous in a funny attempt at a French accent)
You know, one of the most beautiful things in the world, Is the morning sun, the golden bright one that is mentioned in the song that we sang at primary school, mr golden sun, but when that golden glow breaks through the morning mist and shines onto the reds and browns of the autumn trees, and because some of the leaves have fallen off, there are gaps and the sun pushes it's way through those gaps, creating a golden glow around those leaves, it almost makes u want to pick the leaves and place it on a dessert as a gold leaf! Just as a random aside!
So, we have made chocolate truffles - the moulded ones which are an exam piece... A chocolate box, which looks remarkably like a grand piano for some strange reason.I m
We then moved onto the entremet module: an entremet Is a dessert or cake that is multiple layered and multi textured, for example, has a mousse, and a jelly and a sponge and maybe a little something to give it a bit of a crunch, maybe some brittle of sort or to be honest, what ever the heart desires,... And that is just what we were allowed to
Do... We had to create our own entremet, And make it, and we where honestly given the freedom to do what ever we wanted... As long as it consisted of a mousse of sorts, a sponge, a crispy layer, a brûlée o r jelly encased inside it, and it was glazed.... So no limitations really, my flavors were fig, honey and pistachio. I made a marscapone and honey mousse with honey pistachio brittle folded through it, it was two layers with figs poached in a spiced honey syrup, sliced and then set into a jelly. The base was a pistachio darquoise, which is a type of sponge consisting of nuts and meringue folded into it to give it a lighter texture, then I sprayed the top with dark chocolate spray... And that was that!
We then did the bread module, where we made baguette and croissants and pain au chocolate and pain de campange and pain du suprise, which is a hedgehog or turtle (or what ever u think it looks like) shaped bread, with the Inside neatly carved out and sliced in order to make sandwiches out of it and then perfectly placed backed I side, the lid put back on, and the placed to look quite hedghog-like, until it is attacked by a hungry victor.
We also made brioches at tete... The ones that look like they have a giant pimple on top of it. This is also one of our exam pieces.
Then we moved onto the plated desert module.... Where we made a few deserts, and were given freedom to experiment with different plating methods and chocolate and sugar work for decortion..
The Next stop In the pastry kitchens was the superior tea party. This is the patisserie equivalent of the student event in cuisine, which I shall shortly enlighten you on. We had qa tea party at the hotel down the road from the school, and 3 groups, my group and two others, had to make all sorts of delicious goodies and then host and run the tea party. Was quite Fun really, I'm just going to tell u about the ones i made, because if I go through all 20 odd deserts, You might be sitting here all week reading my blogging.. Which in hindsight is not such a bad idea, as then you would feel like you had had your money worth , if money were involved, which it is not, of blog updates,aNd you wouldn't have go come back to read my next update, because u would already be sitting on the computer.... But now I'm getting side tracked. So ... What I made, was not my favorite to be nice, but I did what I was told. And it was a coconut meringue with a zesty lime mousse, glazed in white chocolate. And then I. Made the scones :-)!!! There were chocolate dessert and raspberry and wild strawberry with champagne and fruit rates and eclairs and macaroons and and and....... Get the idea??
Sugar, sugar, oh, honey, honey... No! Just sugar! The time came to embark on The dreaded sugar centre piece.... Dum dum dum dum!!!!
This too is one of our exam pieces, and we have all been frightened to death that if we don't get the sugar work done in time, then it doesn't cool enough so u can't assemble it falls apart, and then, in the wise fords of chef christpohe, you get a "zero" (again in a french accent please) for this part of our exam!!! eeeeeek!!! But it's not that bad actually! We have to make a poured sugar center piece that will serve the purpose of being a stand to present the chocolates and sable hollandaise for the exam. We have to used 4 or 5 different techniques to create our masterpiece... I am still working on what the final product will look like... But these are my attempts so far. Thinking of a red and green theme, and to try and make it look slightly christmasy, because you know me and my christmas obsession.
And that is that all caught up on the patisserie front.
Now onto cuisine, and I promise I will run through this as fast as a possible, as I can imagine how tired your eyes are feeling from reading this enthralling, mind blowing, ultra educational piece of literature. Oh oh, and my visit to the fat duck..., I Will have to put that in a second entry and that will go on for ever... So if I don't, and you are interested in reading about it, remind me!
Beef Wellington, cordon bleu style... And that means, with truffles and foie Gras... Delicious. Description : fillet of beef, filled with foie gras, with a mushroom duxelle and farce meet stuffing around it, lined with truffles, wrapped in a crepe (to stop the pastry going soggy) and all encased in home made puff pastry, and that was that.. And it was yum!
Red mullet with potato scales and a smooth broccoli flan, served with scallops An a delicious saffron sauce.
Then... More puff pastry, in the form of a pitivier, with quail breast and mushrooms and liver and sweetbreads inside. It is almost like a pie of sorts. This was not my favorite, not because I don't like offal, but I felt that all the flavours, were too much, and too rich for one dish like that. It's like having a mouthful of strong flavour, and they all over power each other so no one particular ingredient has the opportunity to shine. But that is just my opinion, and I do know of some people who will disagree.
The student event: this is where the superior cuisine students, in groups, ours was group a and b, get together and create a 5 course dinner for some of the students at the school. We get given ingredients we have to use for the each course and the we create the meal, decide the theme and decorate the demonstration Room to transform it into a high class top quality restaurant. So our ingredients were: scallops for the starter, partridge for the main course and pear for the dessert. An before u get carried away ad stared singing Christmas carols, our them was not a partridge in a pear tree... It was autumn! as that was the season we were in, so we decided to go seasonal and use all only seasonal ingredients, as any good chef would do.
We had to do 3 canapés, and a mouse Bouche, starter, main course, cheese course, dessert and coffee and petite fours. And that is what we did... Pictures will follow, with descriptions.
Back to normality after the almost semi stress of the event.
Turbot with olive mashed potatoes and a tomato salsa, with deep fried herbs. And a cold tomato soup with marscapone and Parmesan chips.... Which, every time I do them, I burn them... They are so simple but my darn nemesis.... I don't know what it is, but I keep burning them. Oh well, we can't all be perfect ... Haha! I wish.
Then it was sea bass with lentils and razor clams ... With a creamy sauce.
Lamb with pea puree, roasted peppers and a fondants potato filled with confit lamb, this was a delicious dish.
Pigeon breast with foie gras, wrapped in farce and cabbage served with a wild mushroom tartelette. Mine was a little bit of a disaster,a as it over rested and completely dried out and over cooked. Oh dear!
Frogs legs.... Yes, how could u be at a French. Cooking school, and not cook frogs legs? We made a millefeulle of spinach and frogs legs, served with chorizo crusted fish and pan fried froggies on the side.
This next dish was fun, as we were allowed to play with it a little, and change the way in which we cooked it, as long as we came up with a dish that represented the name. So in pairs. We made. Milefeulle with goats cheese, served with an apple chip, and salted sautéed apple, with pistachio and almond brittle and a vinaigrette. Then the main dish, was salt crusted sea bass... So it was baked I a salted meringue, and served with bak choy and parsley oil.
Then it was grilled halibut with a potato rose and sautéed spinach, the rose was amazing... You cook it in clarified butter, do it Is so deliciously soft and tender on the inside and golden and crispy on the outside... Such contrast of texture in the mouth. I really think I shall be making these again and they look fun.
Sole mousse with crayfish and Champagne sauce. This Is is a tian of sole fillet and soul mousse... And you cut it open, and the crayfish sauce and a little crayfish tail oozes out, and it is served with an interlay rich an creamy champaign sauce. Lovely dish, but after two mouthfuls you are more than satisfied as it is so rich. But I do. Feel it is such a shame to make z mousse out of such a succulently soft and delicious fish.. But what can u do? It was still a top dish.
And that's that just about all caught up! There are. Few things missing here and there, but I have done my best to catch you up to speed.
Phew ...
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this :)
Until next time
x
So as promised at the end of my last entry, lobster pasta and chocolate windmills! In all honesty, that all seems so very long ago!
The lobster pasta was delicious.... Fresh lasagna sheets with basil leaves through them so it almost looks like staind glass. With lobster and a fresh tomato salsa and asparagus tips and fresh zesty asparagus pure, a perfect dish for a summer lunch sitting in the sun, under a tree, sipping on a cool crisp glass of sauvignon blanc with the people who make u laugh! Oh what a life!
Chocolate,, the chocolate module was intensely chocolate filled... Did u know that if du eat too much chocolate you get ulcers in ur mouth? Well, I do... And I did. And most of it wasn't out of choice, as when one tempers chocolate, one should,( and I say should in a very lucrative manner here as this is not always done as many opt for the judging by eye, more risky method), test the temperature of the chocolate on ones lip as it is a very sensitive part of ur body, especially to heat. So by tempering kilos of chocolate a few days in a row... One can imagine how much chocolate could potentially be consumed. DAANGEROUSSE... (yes that is dangerous in a funny attempt at a French accent)
You know, one of the most beautiful things in the world, Is the morning sun, the golden bright one that is mentioned in the song that we sang at primary school, mr golden sun, but when that golden glow breaks through the morning mist and shines onto the reds and browns of the autumn trees, and because some of the leaves have fallen off, there are gaps and the sun pushes it's way through those gaps, creating a golden glow around those leaves, it almost makes u want to pick the leaves and place it on a dessert as a gold leaf! Just as a random aside!
So, we have made chocolate truffles - the moulded ones which are an exam piece... A chocolate box, which looks remarkably like a grand piano for some strange reason.I m
We then moved onto the entremet module: an entremet Is a dessert or cake that is multiple layered and multi textured, for example, has a mousse, and a jelly and a sponge and maybe a little something to give it a bit of a crunch, maybe some brittle of sort or to be honest, what ever the heart desires,... And that is just what we were allowed to
Do... We had to create our own entremet, And make it, and we where honestly given the freedom to do what ever we wanted... As long as it consisted of a mousse of sorts, a sponge, a crispy layer, a brûlée o r jelly encased inside it, and it was glazed.... So no limitations really, my flavors were fig, honey and pistachio. I made a marscapone and honey mousse with honey pistachio brittle folded through it, it was two layers with figs poached in a spiced honey syrup, sliced and then set into a jelly. The base was a pistachio darquoise, which is a type of sponge consisting of nuts and meringue folded into it to give it a lighter texture, then I sprayed the top with dark chocolate spray... And that was that!
We then did the bread module, where we made baguette and croissants and pain au chocolate and pain de campange and pain du suprise, which is a hedgehog or turtle (or what ever u think it looks like) shaped bread, with the Inside neatly carved out and sliced in order to make sandwiches out of it and then perfectly placed backed I side, the lid put back on, and the placed to look quite hedghog-like, until it is attacked by a hungry victor.
We also made brioches at tete... The ones that look like they have a giant pimple on top of it. This is also one of our exam pieces.
Then we moved onto the plated desert module.... Where we made a few deserts, and were given freedom to experiment with different plating methods and chocolate and sugar work for decortion..
Sugar, sugar, oh, honey, honey... No! Just sugar! The time came to embark on The dreaded sugar centre piece.... Dum dum dum dum!!!!
This too is one of our exam pieces, and we have all been frightened to death that if we don't get the sugar work done in time, then it doesn't cool enough so u can't assemble it falls apart, and then, in the wise fords of chef christpohe, you get a "zero" (again in a french accent please) for this part of our exam!!! eeeeeek!!! But it's not that bad actually! We have to make a poured sugar center piece that will serve the purpose of being a stand to present the chocolates and sable hollandaise for the exam. We have to used 4 or 5 different techniques to create our masterpiece... I am still working on what the final product will look like... But these are my attempts so far. Thinking of a red and green theme, and to try and make it look slightly christmasy, because you know me and my christmas obsession.
And that is that all caught up on the patisserie front.
Now onto cuisine, and I promise I will run through this as fast as a possible, as I can imagine how tired your eyes are feeling from reading this enthralling, mind blowing, ultra educational piece of literature. Oh oh, and my visit to the fat duck..., I Will have to put that in a second entry and that will go on for ever... So if I don't, and you are interested in reading about it, remind me!
Beef Wellington, cordon bleu style... And that means, with truffles and foie Gras... Delicious. Description : fillet of beef, filled with foie gras, with a mushroom duxelle and farce meet stuffing around it, lined with truffles, wrapped in a crepe (to stop the pastry going soggy) and all encased in home made puff pastry, and that was that.. And it was yum!
Red mullet with potato scales and a smooth broccoli flan, served with scallops An a delicious saffron sauce.
Then... More puff pastry, in the form of a pitivier, with quail breast and mushrooms and liver and sweetbreads inside. It is almost like a pie of sorts. This was not my favorite, not because I don't like offal, but I felt that all the flavours, were too much, and too rich for one dish like that. It's like having a mouthful of strong flavour, and they all over power each other so no one particular ingredient has the opportunity to shine. But that is just my opinion, and I do know of some people who will disagree.
The student event: this is where the superior cuisine students, in groups, ours was group a and b, get together and create a 5 course dinner for some of the students at the school. We get given ingredients we have to use for the each course and the we create the meal, decide the theme and decorate the demonstration Room to transform it into a high class top quality restaurant. So our ingredients were: scallops for the starter, partridge for the main course and pear for the dessert. An before u get carried away ad stared singing Christmas carols, our them was not a partridge in a pear tree... It was autumn! as that was the season we were in, so we decided to go seasonal and use all only seasonal ingredients, as any good chef would do.
We had to do 3 canapés, and a mouse Bouche, starter, main course, cheese course, dessert and coffee and petite fours. And that is what we did... Pictures will follow, with descriptions.
Back to normality after the almost semi stress of the event.
Turbot with olive mashed potatoes and a tomato salsa, with deep fried herbs. And a cold tomato soup with marscapone and Parmesan chips.... Which, every time I do them, I burn them... They are so simple but my darn nemesis.... I don't know what it is, but I keep burning them. Oh well, we can't all be perfect ... Haha! I wish.
Then it was sea bass with lentils and razor clams ... With a creamy sauce.
Lamb with pea puree, roasted peppers and a fondants potato filled with confit lamb, this was a delicious dish.
Pigeon breast with foie gras, wrapped in farce and cabbage served with a wild mushroom tartelette. Mine was a little bit of a disaster,a as it over rested and completely dried out and over cooked. Oh dear!
Frogs legs.... Yes, how could u be at a French. Cooking school, and not cook frogs legs? We made a millefeulle of spinach and frogs legs, served with chorizo crusted fish and pan fried froggies on the side.
This next dish was fun, as we were allowed to play with it a little, and change the way in which we cooked it, as long as we came up with a dish that represented the name. So in pairs. We made. Milefeulle with goats cheese, served with an apple chip, and salted sautéed apple, with pistachio and almond brittle and a vinaigrette. Then the main dish, was salt crusted sea bass... So it was baked I a salted meringue, and served with bak choy and parsley oil.
Then it was grilled halibut with a potato rose and sautéed spinach, the rose was amazing... You cook it in clarified butter, do it Is so deliciously soft and tender on the inside and golden and crispy on the outside... Such contrast of texture in the mouth. I really think I shall be making these again and they look fun.
Sole mousse with crayfish and Champagne sauce. This Is is a tian of sole fillet and soul mousse... And you cut it open, and the crayfish sauce and a little crayfish tail oozes out, and it is served with an interlay rich an creamy champaign sauce. Lovely dish, but after two mouthfuls you are more than satisfied as it is so rich. But I do. Feel it is such a shame to make z mousse out of such a succulently soft and delicious fish.. But what can u do? It was still a top dish.
And that's that just about all caught up! There are. Few things missing here and there, but I have done my best to catch you up to speed.
Phew ...
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this :)
Until next time
x
2 comments:
Ems you are soooooo clever - can't believe the incredible creations - well done treasure x
Emma
Thanks finally for the update. Your loyal readers were getting anxious awaiting your next posting. Can't wait for the next one. Your course is nearly over and I can't wait for the dinner we are getting .
Lol
Dad
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