2nd half of Week 1 in Intermediate

To finish up the first week, we made sauteed guinea fowl with caramelised apples (man, it's such an ugly bird, check it out here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guineafowl .)  Starters was a cassoulette of shellfish.  Typically it could be served in a baking dish, but this version was a savory tart.  Easier to portion and cleaner dishes!

Pastry-wise, we made Galette Bretonne, a shortbread actually, and Pain d'Epice a l'Orange, spiced bread/cake with candied orange.  On demonstration was Far Bretonne, a typical baked fruit dessert, not unlike clafoutis.  Another (rather simple) dessert was fine apple tart on puff pastry with caramel ice-cream.

Hope these wet your appetites.  

Have a good weekend! 

Let's go again!!

Welcome back.  I hope you did not miss the weekly features .  Well, school started 

on Monday.  Your eyes (at least) will be in for a treat.  

In intermediate cuisine, we will be following different regions of France and their regional specialties.  In intermediate pastry, we are using the basic building blocks of basic pastry, with more creativity, piecing different bases with different mousses, creams, tastes, colors, etc.  These usually takes more time, so organisation and planning is key.

To start off, here are some 'dryer' cakes that keeps well, aka 'travelling' cakes - which you can bring with you on a journey and need no refridgeration.  (Hint hint:  One of them will travel with PG to SG over this CNY.)  These basic cakes can be embellished with choc glazing, fresh cream and fruits like the photo above.  These will definitely sell in a pastry shop window.  Some other plated desserts, snow eggs in creme anglaise with blackcurrant, apple charlotte.

In cuisine, we had tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese and aromatics, shellfish soup with garlic glaze.  For our practicals, we made spring chicken with spring vegetables (notice the herb butter under the skin, like how I showed Idah how to make before?).  Stuffed salmon rolled in cabbage leaves with red wine sauce.

Good thing this term we finish all our cuisine practicals at 7pm; perfect timing to bring them back home for dinner!