Last of Superior Cuisine

In this week, we had the same 3 demonstrations, but only 1 practical. The other 2 practicals were taken up to prepare for, and the final practical exams itself.

Starters:

1) Green asparagus and crab charlotte, verjus sauce. Verjus is actually the juice made from unripe grapes and lends a tangy taste, thus an alternative to citrus or vinegar.

2) Lobster salad with citrus fruits

3) 'Greek style' artichokes with saffroned mussels

Mains:

1) Stuffed guinea fowl breaks cooked 'en cocotte'

2) Crisp wrapped lamb fillet with provencal vegetables

3) Roast rabbit legs tandoori-style with herb salad. The green juice in the shotglass is cucumber juice to reduce the heat of tandoori. Tandoori is normally served as a whole, but this was sliced to for the photo.

Desserts:

1) Warm mascarpone souffle

2) Raspberry souffle, tropical fruit salad with spices

3) Orange and lime sorbet, sweet wine jelly balsamic vinegar dressing

Thus ends our journey with Le Cordon Bleu Dusit, Bangkok, Thailand. I hope you enjoyed the sensory delights of these dishes, desserts, pastries and cakes as much as I did.

Looking back, it was quite a dive into the deep end, but the best part of all is the satisfaction of knowing your level skills have improved by a couple of notches.

Still a long road ahead in this absolutely fantastic journey! Stay tuned for more updates as I take up an internship and September in Paris for Cert IV "Professional Perfecting of Skills".

More Cuisine!!!

The problem with putting away updating your blog is that you suddenly have too much to do!

Starters:  

a)  Creamy Capuccino Mushroom Soup in a Cup

b)  Mackerel fillets, cucumber and cream with lamb's lettuce salad

c)  Duck Foie Gras Terrine and wild mushrooms

d)  Cold French Scrambled Eggs with Botargo, herb salad and green olives coulis

e)  Tuna Carpaccio with parmesan cheese

Mains:

a)  Roasted Lobster Tournedos, zucchini, risotto and fennel confit

b)  Thick Veal Medallions with lemon and ginger, macaroni cake

c)  Chicken breasts with langoustines in a light curry sauce

d)  Roasted squabs (pigeons) with new potatoes and fava beans

e)  "Black Prince" saddle of lamb and country-style bacon-potato cake

Desserts:

a)  Mango Pineapple and vanilla "kebabs" with gingerbread and coconut

b)  Figs in spicy strawberry wine, cocoa crisp and yoghurt sorbet

c)  Soft-centred chocolate cake, pistachio ice cream

d)  Apples slices with cinnamon mascrapone mousse

e)  Mango and pineapple chutney, avocado sorbet

Happy feasting (with your eyes!!)

Lobster and terrine

Lobster, an item you see on the menu, but never dared order it, cos' it costs way too much!  Well, we had a chance to make our very own lobster dish.  The grey/black lobster (before) flew in the very morning, almost late for our class, still alive of course..... the legs were moving and it was trying to get away from my platter of ingredients for that morning.  Sad fact is....we had to kill it.  No freezing, no dipping into boiling water.  Just a sharp knife, tip goes in, 'crack!' and split the head in half.  Squirmish girls may beckon the french chef instructor, ever willing to help..... Lobster a l'americaine, the red one (after), with raisin pilaf rice.  Why american?  Legend has it that a few americans showed up at a parisian restaurant late one night, for lack of ingredients by the time the restaurant was closing, a pair of lobster was idling in the fridge... the chef created a new recipe, the americans loved it, and it went on regular menu.

We also made guinea fowl with cabbage pie in class.  

Starters:  Eggplant caviar on toast with semi-oven dried tomatoes, verrine (terrine in a glass "verre") in 3 colors (tomato, goat cheese, avocado) with raw sea bream marinated in vanilla-infused olive oil.  Second, millefeuille wit tomatoes and confit fennel.  Third, white boudin, with caramelised apple.  We stuff our own sausages, of course.  (... and we hide it well too.)

The next dish on practical took over 2 sessions to prepare:  ballotine of chicken with foie gras mousse and pistachio.  It's like a sausage, or a terrine, if you like, wrap in a whole chicken, deboned.  Man, it's hell trying to debone a whole chicken in one piece!  Why they have so many bones anyway?  (By the way, we also have also made our own sausages in last week's recipe of duck legs pot-au-feu, fun stuff.)  It has to be slow cooked in prepared stock, and leave it in until it cools, thus, we only had the product today.  That is not all.  This is typically served on a buffet spread, and you need to have a presentation platter.  The first layer is a thick white coat of milk and gelatine, and next you make some decoration, and set it with a layer of thickened chicken consomme.   Each year there is a competition in France for such presentation platters.  Yes, you can each everything on the platter.  The squarish platter was the chef's demonstration, and the roundish one, mine.  I think I have to go for some fruit and veg carving class after this.  It's a very pretty picture.  You may not see it so well in the pics, it's like an archaic mirror.