with a hand full of fingers

 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

..........Superior!!

the time has come, i am now, officially, a superior student! Daunting? yes, very much so. the pressure is on now. no more playing around in the kitchen and taking our time... its down to business!!!

haha... that sounds so intense. but in all honestly, its crunch time... in 3 months time, i can officially call myself a chef, but then all that means is i can go into a kitchen, and start from the bottom again. its like going from junior school to high school .... being the big fish in the pond, to being the scum on the on the root of the algee the the tadpoles eat. but before you know it... i will be fish again... i hope!

in my last entry i was was talking about the exams, as it was nearly exam time...
so to let you know, for the exam we had to do the lamb dish, with the tian of artichoke, mushroom, spinach, tomato and i feel like im forgetting something... oh well... and i got through it! thank goodness, even though it didnt go as i had hoped, but the fact of the matter is i passed and i am through to the next round. then for pastry i had to do the fraisier cake.. the one with the strawberries around and the marzipan rose on top.... got through that one too!!! PHEW :)

so now.... superior!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

before class started, we had a 3 week break, which was much needed. seriously needed a little bit of a beak and getting out of london to get some sunshine and space!

so i went to PORTUGAL :) and italy (but im not going to talk about that because i got stuck in bed with bad bad flu, thank goodness i had my grandmother to keep me alive!)  fun fun fun! it was just perfection to get away from the business of traffic and tubes to the spacious fresh air of the algarve and porto. 

spent a few days on the beach, catching some sun, drinking freshly squeezed sweet sweet orange juice and caparhinias, soaking up the heat and attempting to catch a tan. we visited wine farms, and drank some absolutely delicious wines.. then eating the most delicious simple things.... piri piri chicken, cooked on the grill, served with tomato salad, portugeuese egg tarts, and egg tarts... oh and did i mention that we had egg tarts??? well we did, and I LOVE THEM!! and port and wine and all things nice :-) all i can say is that is not the last time im going to portugal, there is so much to explore there, and what i love most about it, is it is not the most popular holiday destination in the world, so some of it is almost untouched by the 'tourist'!

we have now been through 2 weeks of superior, and it has been busy busy busy.
almost on day one, we were given our exam dishes and what is expected of us, no more demos on what is our exam, we get given the list, and the rest is up to us!!!So for our cuisine this is is :  a tartlet with spinach, a poached egg and hollandaise sauce, and roast crown of pigeon and confit legs, various winter veggies, fondant potatoes and a red wine sauce......
Pastry is a 6 hour exam, where there are various components we have to do, one of which is a plated dessert of our own invention, but there have to be certain components: a mousse or bavarian cream, an anglaise, a coulis, tempered chocolate decoration, a sponge and a few other aspects, but when i get closer to my final decision, i will let you know what ive decided to do!!!

so we started off our first day with a 6 hour patisserie practical, making chocolate truffles... and this went on for tuesday too. so in total we spent 12 hours making chocolate truffles... and when you see the result, you will understand i am not exaggerating when i say that we could have opened up a chocolate shop and run it for a week!! for our exam, we have to make a moulded chocolate truffle, which is just one of the components... but these pracs were just teaching us the different methods and techniques there are to make truffles. we made coffee ones, and spiced ones and lemon ones and caramel ones and coconut ones and marshmallows and and and.... the list is almost endless. but it was such fun, and i think my whites had a seen better day!!!

Cuisine too was excitement:

Our chefs this term are Chef Eric and Chef Franck.. both french and both incredible chefs. it is so inspiration to watch them work, their methods are both very different, Eric being an absolute perfectionist even to the extent that he lines up his knives in size order so they are all perfectly straight, and continues to do so throughout the demonstrations, and chef Franck who walks into the kitchens and you get the feeling he doesnt quite know how he is going to get around the demonstration, and he spends ages telling you stories about his grandmother and yet, still, even if sometimes a bit late, gets the dish out, and with out fail, it is delicious perfection on a plate. 

So our first demo and prac was Roast Duck or Wild Duck ( if in season, which it just so happens to be) with cloves and honey. with a celeriac puree, roast tomatoes and baby veg. i, unfortunately bit into a shot that had been left behind in the bird when i was tasting it. but thats what happens when you eat game birds i guess!

Demo 2: Herb Crusted thick salmon steak, Mushroom Flan and Maderia Jus. this was a salmon steak with a herb burrer crust with parsley, coriander and chervil, with breadcrumbs and ground almonds in it to give it a bit more texture, The mushroom flan was deliciously smooth and soft but packed full of mushroom flavour. it was also served with a salmon mousse... i think the mousse part was just to give us a heads up practice for the mousse we have to make for our exam. and the Maderia Jus was yum!

Next was Grilled Lamb Noisettes, marinated in with herbs,  with a minted hollandaise sauce and served with a lamb jus, blanched asparagus and crispy potatoes.

and so that brought us to the end of week 1 of superior...

in next issue: Chocolate boxes and windmills, Beef wellington, red mullet with potato scales, and open lasagne with lobster.... i but you just cant wait!!!!

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

 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 :)