Last day of School!

I realised I forgot to update on my last day of school. Like the first week, we're given a mystery basket of ingredients to use. This time, there is no compulsory dishes nor ingredients, but Chef would like us to do 2 good dishes rather than 3 that doesn't work. Of cos' the 2 dishes has to be of .... 'star' standard! I felt it will be necessary to use sous-vide technique, the 'siphon', and include something crispy.

For starters, I used the pig's trotters to make a Thai-style salad "Laab" - it's basically seasoned with ground roasted rice, chilli powder, lime juice, salt (lack of fish sauce!), and some mint leaves in chiffonade. For foie gras mousse, I cooked the foie gras and passed through a sieve to get a puree, mixed with some cream and put into a 'siphon' to be plated at last minute. Some poivrade artichokes cooked sous-vide. Some salad greens with hazelnut vinaigrette. For crispy, oven-dried cured ham brushed with balsamic glaze.

For my main, I flattened a chicken breast and rolled it up with a salmon centre and bell peppers brunoises, with cured ham. This is quickly colorated and put to cook sous-vide. I made some carrots and celeriac puree by sous-vide which retains its colors and flavors very well! The chicken thighs didn't come in useful, but I dug out the chicken oysters, sauteed it in brown butter and finished cooking in chicken glaze. For crispy, oven-dried chicken skin and a slice of salmon skin. Sauce: Red wine with juniper berries and truffles brunoises!

I'm happy with my results. If I were to do it again, the siphon method for foie gras mousse came out very thick, next time I will just whip it with a whisk, with 'siphon' maybe I could add in some... chicken stock? Maybe add 1 more interesting item on the starter plate..tomatoes confits? For my main, I've not much complaints, but the cured ham was salty, so I think I needn't have seasoned the salmon/chicken. Chef was happy with both our contributions. The Spanish girl made some spanish-inspired dish (of cos!), but her portions were a little too large (but that's how they eat in Spain!), but tasty as well.

There ends my formal culinary training. I will be on an internship from next week at Restaurant Auguste in the 7th arrondisement with Chef Gaël ORIEUX. You can read up more on him on the net, he was the second with Yannick ALLENO in Le Meurice (3*) in Paris.

I chose a 1 * place and a smaller kitchen team so that I will be able to have more hands on, and more interaction with the chef.

Thanks for your attention all this while. I hope to put up something interesting time to time in my forage into culinary Paris!

This week in Modern Star Cuisine

I know I haven't been updating this blog for 1 week. Well, it's because I moved out of my friend's apartment where I've been borrowing the camera-computer cable, and I could not download the photos from my camera. Good news is, I got a box from Singapore with my cable in it, along with other stuff, and here I am!

This week, we ran classes in a 'workshop', where basically, we end up cooking the 3 dishes/lesson alongside with Chef.

Modern star cuisine is exemplified by smaller but tasty portions of creative combination of ingredients. Presentation counts a lot. As well as different textures (and colors) of soft, firm, cold, hot, crispy, crunchy whipped into a dish. Less use of butter, cream, which 'softens', 'mellows' the taste in more traditional cuisine, modern cuisine has more stark flavors which comes across very directly to the diner to identify. The technique of sous-vide is widely used. I will explain more in later paragraph. The use of 'siphon' as explained in my earlier posts to create mousses is very popular as well.

Now! Let's go to the dishes!

This is a very unusual combination indeed! Foie gras and marinated sardines escabeche terrine. Somehow the use of 2 rather fatty ingredients made an interesting link to each other's flavors.

Sea bass fillet re-constituted to a darne with truffles centre. Various vegetables cooked to the point, and herb coulis. Very healthy! Fish and some of the vegetables cooked sous vide.

Sous vide, or its English translations means under vacuum, vacuum packed. Indeed the food is placed in a special plastic bag, vacuum sealed, and placed to cook either in hot water or a temperature controlled steam oven. Being cooked in its own juices instead of leaching out to the cooking liquid, or even to air, means that the flavors and moisture are preserved a lot more. Then these can be cooled rapidly (preventing overcooking), and re-heated easily again before serving.

Now, some of you, even myself, will ask, then isn't this just like frozen food packets we get in supermarkets? Yes and no. Well, if you start with raw ingredients and you watch the seasoning and cooking point, you're cooking, not just reheating pre-cooked food. Plus, you ensure the freshness yourself. You normally wouldn't keep food (sous vide or otherwise) more than a day or 2 (although technically possible), while the food on the supermarket shelves are (possibly laced with some preserving substances) intended to last for a much longer period of time, and no guarantees on taste and nutrition there.

Lobster on tomato bavarois and lobster sorbet(!!). Bavarois is a term we use to make dessert mousses, we apply pastry techniques into cuisine to achieve more interesting textures. This dish can be served in a martini glass, small shot glasses for catering, or on a plated dish, with an interesting molded tomato bavarois. Here, I made it into a 'tart'.

Tomato skin can be dried in oven to create a featherly item to catch the eye.

Rack of veal with rolled cabbage and vegetables chartreuse. Look at how pink and juicy, rosé the veal is!!! La cuisson est parfaite!

Ok, back to sous vide. Fine with boiled or steamed food, but how do you prepare roasts?! You'll melt the plastic! Yes, so, the idea is to well-colorate the exterior first, get the sweet caramelised (actually Maillard effect) meat browning juices going, and chuck it into the bag, and cook in a steam oven at precise temperature not going beyond 60C. (You actually have to use a thermometer probe throughout the cooking and remove from heat immediately when cooked to the desired doneness) Why? Because it has been scientifically proven, that most (if not all) proteins coagulate at about 60C. When this happens, your food is cooked, but any further means that the collagen breaks down, and you'll start to get grainy, rubbery meat. When the juices are preserved in the bag, and with the addition of (for e.g. bay leaves, thyme), the flavors goes right back into the meat as it is cooking, and the result is amazing!! We are told to be careful with our seasoning because aromatics are multiplied by about 3 folds (why 3?) when cooked sous vide (due to lack of escape into the air, yes, when you're cooking and it smells so good, flavors chemicals and esthers are being lost in the air, not into your food!) This is part of what molecular gastronomy is about. (So, goodbye to good old fashioned cooking??)

And to get more browning in the end, you can put it under a grill, though, be careful not to cook it further.

Zucchini flower petals lined and cooked spinach flan, pan-fried langoustines.

Pig's trotters with foie gras, Potato terrines with truffles. My presentation above. Chef's below.

Marinated Sea bass Carpaccio on a Crisp tart, Leek cream, Salmon Roe Vinaigrette.

And the de-constructed version below......

What is de-construction? It's basically taking apart to its basic components, and re-match them together again on a different plating.

Potato Tourte and Caviar Sauce.

Veal sweetbread and 'Vin Jaune' fricassé. Plated into a macaroni cake. Morel mushroom sauce. The two mushroom halves aboved are stuffed with chicken filling.