A Date with Mr Cod

Starters:  Spicy vegetable 'jelly' with avocado cream (Fondant de Légumes Epicés à l'Avocat).  Why some menus insist on using the French terms is because, and I find this case a good example, is that, something is lost in the English translation.  Fondant in French means 'melting' as a noun, de legumes, of vegetables.  It's a  cool, melt-in-your-mouth consistency, yielding to small brunoise of vegetables rolling on your tongue, as its sweet and spicy flavour warms up from your palate to your nose.

Mains:  "Roasted Cod, Basil Gazpacho, Vegetable and Chorizo skewers" is very tasty, and reminds me of the kind of food I like best and would love to make, Mediterranean... eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers, herbs.  

Desserts:  Stuffed Dates wrapped in phyllo pastry and saffron ice-cream (!!) Delicious!!! 

Interestingly, this is the 2nd cod dish we produced.  The other being Cod with Red Cabbage in Beer Jus Vinaigrette.  The cod we receive is unlike the 'black cod' that we get in SG.  Although the cod is also a white fish, it is far less oily than what should be correctly termed as 'Chilean seabass'.  The taste is more delicate and the cooking is definitely more so!  It risks of drying and flaking very easily once overcooked.  The chilean seabass is more forgiving as it exudes plenty of fish oil when cooking, and this fat absorbs flavours very well.  I should count myself lucky to be able to work with the genuine cod, as its species are on the brink of extinction.  

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.

Cuisine Week 2

I have a break on (most) Wednesdays this term.  Take the opportunity to upload more regularly. 

Dessert:  Baked bananas in its skin, with red fruits sauce and banana sorbert.

Starter:  Foie gras flan with morel sauce and herb salad.

Main:  Hake fish wrapped in parma ham and grilled baby eggplants, side of olives and fava beans with turned carrots/celeriac root/zucchini, sauce fresh tomato and olive oil with herbs.  You will see 2 platings here, the one with a more yellow background (landscape) is the chef's demo, the (portrait) one with dots of sauce is my dish served to the chef.  

Continuation:  We looked at a creamy pumpkin soup with truffles and smoked duck breasts; main:  pot-au-feu of monkfish in a herb butter sauce.  The photo with the snowpeas radiating outwards on a dish is chef's, mine was a centralised plating with 2 'discs' of chopped herbs at opposite corners.  Dessert:  Liquorice flavoured panna cotta with some crunchy sugar studded choux allumettes!