Beef cheeks, Duck breasts, and "Hello Kitty!" sugar

In Cuisine this week:

a)  Starters:  1)  White fish ceviche guacamole.  b) Marinated herring mixed with cream and caviar, served in little cucumber cups.

b)  Mains:  1) Duck breasts baked in salt crust dough, vegetable "tagliatelle" and crispy potatoes.  2)  Beef cheeks "Miroton" style with cumin carrots and stuffed turnip

The duck breasts came out nice and rosé, perfumed and flavoured by coarse sea salt dough studded with chopped herbs.  It was also a delight to crunch into the wafer thin potatoes!

The beef cheek stew is a rather traditional dish, the meat was so tender by the end of our 3 hr class, nicely gelatinous in the middle, flavoured with red wine and herbs, sliced and breaded with light herb seasoning.  Very heart warming when you bite into a piece.  Also, an ingenious way to serve turnip in cups filled with mushroom duxelles and ham.

C)  Dessert:  Warm strawberry soup flavoured with ginger, served with yoghurt sorbert (made during class, of cos')  2) Light tiramisu-style mousse and sugared raspberries.

First of Pastry (Superieur)

We started classes mid-week, as such, we only had 1 lesson so far, and thus few photos.  It seems we always start the term with 'travelling' cakes - sort of pound cakes that you can bring along, as opposed to mousses and cream which looks pretty, and will never survive out of the house.  

The first, a chestnut cake, and on the right, a carrot cake topped with mini panna cotta whose centre is filled with apricot jelly - looks like a mini fried egg, yeah - cute.  For practical, we made some tube cakes, filled with strawberry mousse with a coating of banana compote inside; next are florentins (sticky almond cookies) half covered with choc.  Simple, to start us off.... it will soon be a lot of heat (for sugarworks), and stress (chocolate showpiece) and the finale of our very own creation of a cake!