Day 4 of Light and Natural Cooking

Day 4 of Light and Natural Cooking leads us to Desserts! Of course these are nothing compared to the Pastry stuff. But it's quick and relatively easy to put together restaurant desserts.

Yes yes, it's another workshop again. 1 to 1 with chef! And 5 desserts! Lol, I'm getting more bang for my bucks now!

The first you see, is a pan roasted pear (cut in 'pyramid' to have even golden coloration) in a pool of caramel cream (from reduced fat cream).

Here, you will ask, if the cream has less than 30% fat content, one will not succeed in whipping it! That is true! That is why, the caramel cream was placed into a siphon and pressed out right, nice and moussy!! So, here's another advantage of the siphon!

Next is a Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar, Yoghurt with Spice.

We made the yoghurt 2 days ago. It's really simple and delicious! Basically, you bring milk to 42C, not more, and at 38C, add some store-bought

yoghurt and milk powder, let it cool and place in little jars/pots, and place them into a yoghurt-maker (it's like an incubator) which will keep it at a warm temperature overnight, for the beneficial bacteria to grow.

After the overnight incubation, let it cool gradually, before sealing the jars, and place them into a fridge. The first day was a 'drinking yoghurt' consistency, the longer you leave it to mature, the thicker it will become.

Next is French Toast with Wine and Coconut Cream. Red wine and spices are reduced to a nice syrup, day-old bread immersed in it, and topped with some light cream moistened coconut flakes.

These are mini-bananas served with a light flan. That means no egg yolks which are normally in regular flans. We use the eggwhites only, and frankly, it taste like a cooked meringue. I prefer the real flan anytime.

Last but not least, are Duo of Mango and Pineaple, sauteed, and served with yoghurt and Fromage Blanc cream. Looks like a square pineapple!

See you next week for Modern Star Cuisine!!

Day 3 and 4 of International Influence

Update: Yay, I took the leftovers from school to bring to friends for dinner that night, and they took a photo! It's the next best thing.

Going clockwise from the top, the first dish is partly covered by the wine, it's the fish wrapped in crispy crepe, it's not longer crispy by nowfor sure.

Next to is it the pigeon with kumquats confits, below it the langoustines with mango salsa, on its right is another dish from earlier, lamb parcels, and the last is the beef tataki (like a carparccio). And a little apricot mango chutney from earlier as well. Served with 1999 (or is it 98?) Chinon red, from the cellar (yes, below the very apartment) of my friend!!

Day 3

a) Tuna and Mango, Wasabi Vinaigrette, Ice Plant Salad (extra: coriander and shiso leaf 'pesto')

Nothing really exceptional, except the ice plant is very unique, I've never seen it before. It's like a juicier watercress, with little bubbles of water/juice surrounding the stems and leaves, looks like someone spritzed it with water. It's soft to the bite, slightly 'sweet' and a little sour aftertaste. Very refreshing. The Asian 'pesto' was very good too!

b) Boiled White Fleshed Fish with Green Curry and Galangal

In french, they called it a Tom Kha Gai, but it's not at all! It's like a mix of that and Green Curry.

When I made it, I made it taste more Tom Kha soup, and I made the green come out of blendered herb greens and not so much from the green curry paste. Chef took extra spoonfuls of it!

c) North African Lamb Parcels, Quinoa Risotto, Apricol Chutney

Taste of well seasoned cumin, mint marinated lamb, very soft to the bite. My quinoa risotto was good too, except could do with a little more salt.

d) Fresh Fruit Minestrone with Pearls Tapioca, Tomato Cappuccino and Basil

Very refreshing, nice! You will not be able to achieve the tomato cappuccino without a whipped cream dispenser! Actually this device is getting very popular in modern cuisine with many ideas of foam. While it's very fancy sounding, I think it plays well with its light airy texture vs more denser items on your plate. And the mixture of air gives it an immediate 'lift' of flavors to your olfactory senses.
Ok, now it comes to the highlight of this week!

Day 4 is a workshop, where we have free play to create 4 dishes out of a 'mystery' basket of ingredients. Well, it's not so much a mystery, cos' it was given to us in the folder, but I didn't notice until Day 3, I thought it was a mystery basket till the very morning!

Well, we have to create 1 fish, 1 beef, 1 pigeon (squab), 1 langoustine dish. Use of foie gras is a must, either with the langoustine or in any of the above dishes.

My creation:

a) Beef Tataki with Shiso Leaves, blend of Ginger Sesame sauce.

I seared the sirloin and cut strips of 2mm slices, arranged in a radial pattern, alternating with Jpn seaweed and shiso leaves. Good!

b) Pan Fried Langoustines with Mango Salsa

Juicy mango with shallots, chilli, lime juice and zest. And a small side of salad green. Was good too, until I forgot about the mango salsa! I hurriedly sent it up!

c) Sea Bream Fillets with Mediterrenean Vegetables, wrapped in Crispy Warka (like spring roll skin), served with Light Mango and Curry sauce. Was good!

d) Roasted Squab stuffed with Nashi pears and Foie Gras, side of candied kumquats. Very similar to the quail dish we did in Superior class. Problem is, I served it still a little on the rare side! Booboo. I liked my candied kumquats, but I think I could have done a more alternative jus, maybe a bit more galangal, and could have added a small potato or rice side. Like yeah... do I have time!

Where are the photos, I'm sorry!!! Try to imagine the dishes!!! I didn't have time to take any photos as once the dishes were ready, I sent it up right away!! I wasn't late, but the Spanish girl was so quick! I couldn't lag behind! She doesn't take photos of her dishes at all! When I was chatting with chefs while keeping my tools, she was out of the classroom already! Actually, quite rude...!

Best of all, we had a bottle of champagne at the end of Day 4! Yay!! I didn't realise it was a test! Well done!

Day 2 of International Influence

a) Quails 'Yakitori' marinated with Lemongrass, Port Wine Glaze, Lime Sauce - served with potato fondant on a bed of baby spinach.

The quails are marinated and grilled yakitori style, and there's a dollop of miso/cream in the hole of the potato.

Chef liked it, but warned that because of the sugar in the mirin, it could burn easily, mine was still ok, but not more than that.

b) Shortbread with Crab, Lime and Lemon Balm, Green Mango and Lemongrass Sauce.

The white rounds you see are Japanese yam. Topped with some crisp serrano ham.

This is an extra, since we were using foie gras in a later dish, Chef showed us another way of using it - Pan Fried Foie Gras with Balsamic and Cocoa Sauce, and some warm apples.

c) Scorpion Fish with Foie Gras, Bouillabaisse-style Vermicelli, Turmeric and Chorizo.

The vermicelli isn't the kind we get in SG, it's actually a pasta, angel hair, broken in smaller strands.

The fish and foie gras are lightly pan-fried, sandwiched, and steamed. Personally, I didn't like too much turmeric, so I added less in mine.

Chef liked it too, though my cut of the fish was a little thick, so the middle was still a liiiiiitttlllleeeee raw.

d) Sweet 'sushi'!! It's actually Thailands' mango sticky rice, but fashioned to look like sushi! Served with some pineapple/coconut sauce, and a ball of red pepper sorbet!! It was good, Chef approved. My sauce was nicely thick, cut of the fruits were good too.

Cuisine this week...

Cuisine this week:

Starters:

a) Buckwheat crisps with crab meat and crab 'mustard' - I must explain more about this mustard, it's basically the cream at the back of the brains of crustaceans that gives a rich creamy seafoody sweet taste when mixed into sauce or soups.

b) Terrine of duo salmon and leeks, shallot vinaigrette

c) Sauteed green asparagus spears and langoustines, beetroot vinaigrette. The pink quenelles you see on the left are whipped cream colored with beetroot juice. First time I had a salty whipped cream! As you notice, this cuisine chef of mine likes pink and hello Kitty!

Mains:

a) Crusted Seabass, Lemon and capers, and Chicken Jus, with Maple almonds

b) Filet de boeuf a la ficelle (Tenderloin in bouillon), celeriac "bone" with beef marrow, horseradish sauce.

It's cute, we cut the celeriac and dug a hole in centre to make it look like a bone with a hollow, and stuff some real beef marrow in the edible 'bone'.

c) Lamb rib roast in bread crust, artichoke puree with hazelnut oil. We made a country bread dough, flatten it out, and rolled a lamb noisette (chops without the bones) in it. When it bakes, it looks like a large loaf of bread, but when you cut it open, surprise! lamb and vegetable trimmings!

Desserts

a) Apple crisps with pineapple sorbet, lemon balm-lemongrass syrup

b) White and wild rice with vanilla milk, pan-fried mangoes and honey milk granita

It's essentially Thailand's famous Sticky rice with Mangoes! Sorry, didn't capture the photo well. The crisps covered a bed of rice pudding with sauteed caramelised mangoes on it. I was too mesmerised by the hello Kitty! cut outs..... I told you my chef is crazy about pink (pink icing sugar) and hello Kitty!

c) Seasonal fruit clafoutis and streusel with mango-passion fruit sorbet. Gotta be one of the best mango sorbet I tasted!!

Golly! Giant Macaroon!

We looked at more innovative logcakes this week, and a macaroon cake.  Ok first for the logcakes, don't you love the pretty sight of what I call a "Chanel bag" square logcake?  I thought the patterned indentation reminds me of an expensive fashionable purse or bag.  Sitting on a sweet tart dough, the inside houses a disc of vanilla pear cream, and a smaller disc of fleur de sel caramel, suspended in vanilla mousse, then encased by praline biscuit, and then, the outermost with coffee caramel mousse!  *pant pant*  Needless to say, we didn't make it, it would have taken us maybe 5 hrs!

Instead, we made the mango raspberry logcake which you can see mine in the pale yellow creamy logcake.  We laid some dacquoise, which soaks up nice and moist, in between layers of mango and raspberry cream.

Another demonstration was a vanilla apricot mouse cake, while for practical we made the technically more difficult macaroon.  This recipe uses Italian meringue.  While it holds up the batter more easily, it also gives a more chewy texture to the biscuit. I know the soft crumbly texture is much desired in the 'usual' macaroons, but I think it will not work in this recipe, as the minute you pick up these 18 cm discs, it would have fallen to bits or you would have given it undesired cracks.

Cakes!! Give me cakes!! - Marjorie from "Little Britain"

It's easy to see why the Fat Fighters are so crazy about cakes, it's pleasing to the eye as to the tongue, not many pleasures in life give you that.... 

I have submitted my post on the Opera cake in the other blog, so here, we have, a Jamaica: mango - passion fruit mousse on thin layer of choc sponge filled with coconut mousse with rum pineapples.
We have Royal Chocolat - soft smooth choc mousse cake with a crunchy layer in between, very delicious.   We also have a Lemon chocolate mousse cake, and a vanilla/chocolate 'buttercake' lined with roasted almonds.  A small dessert from Cuisine: Strawberries in Red Wine "Soupe".

Pastry and Desserts- Week 2

Check out the labels for this post and guess which is which....