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!!

Hard Candy... and soft ones too

You'll notice that we have made any cakes in the last few weeks, that was the end, until we have to produce our creations for our final exams.

Instead, we are now focusing on chocolate and sugar works and showpieces, the likes of which you see on the buffet tables or at a wedding reception.

Sugar and chocolate are very temperamental, and they're not easy to work with, it's as though they are living creatures, and you need to tame them into obeying your wishes to form the shapes and structure and consistency for your artworks.  We started with soft candies and will gradually proceed to more difficult pieces.

Loukoum, othewise known as Turkish delight (or Greek delight, whichever side of the Aegean sea you're on...  Incidentally, IMHO, the best loukoum I ever tasted was found on Mykonos, at a small tea shop, fabulously decked out for sure, it's Mykonos after all!  It has a good soft yet chewy consistency and yet not too sweet and a nice layer of pistachio nuts for added bite, I would go back again just for the loukoum.  In my practical, I tried to re-create those loukoum by bringing my own pistachios, and I think the result wasn't so bad.) 

On the same day, we also made a strawberry/raspberry jam, and milk jam (confiture de lait), yes it looks like condensed milk, but it's made from fresh milk, it has a fuller value and lotsa vanilla seeds!

Fruit candies with marzipan.  Mielina - a sorta nougat-y soft candy made from honey, cream and nuts.

Our initiation to sugarworks was a nightmare.  Basically sugar is melted to 160C (yes, i'm not kidding you!) and poured unto a silicon mat, upon it's cooling down, while it's still pliable (and still at about 120C)  you pull stretch roll the sugar to the shapes you want.  We need special gloves for that, and a heater lamp to keep it pliable.  Once I stretch out a piece of sugar nice and fine so as to wrap some praline, I placed it down on the board too hard, and it being thinner, it cools down very quickly as well, and like a window pane, it shattered like glass!!! I was devasted.  The solution:  Gather all the broken shards, re-melt them gently (you don't want them to turn to caramel) and start all over again.

Anyway, in the end it still turn out alright.  Sugar works will be one of the other component, than your own creation of a cake, on the final exams.  Oh boy, we're gonna have a good time.

Just to give you an idea what we have to submit as sugarwork for exams.  Yes, all from sugar!

Fish and more fish!

Yeah, about half of superior cuisine's mains has to do with fish, I am guessing the chef who is in charge of us this term likes them a lot.

Starters:

a)  Foie gras terrine.  Cooked in a bain marie, it needs to rest for a few days, followed by..

b)Presentation of the foie gras terrine.  Foie gras should be eaten with something sweet and a little sour, it should work well with chutney, like this beetroot and red onion.  The pink swirls are tuiles made from rice flour colored with beetroot juice.  Also on plate, fig bread.

c)  Haddock and Potato Terrine

Mains:

a)  Red Mullet with Tapenade sauce.  We made the fresh egg pasta ourselves in class, it's so easy, I'll never pay for over-priced pasta at Da Paolo Gastronomia ever again!

b)  Herb crusted salmon supremes with mushroom flan and red wine sauce.  Delicious!  Who knew red wine can be paired with a fish!  You actually can, for fatty fish, e.g. tuna.

c)  Sea bream sauted, squid filled with cilantro flavored langoustine risotto.

Desserts:

a)  Frozen choc parfait, orange cream and citrus fruits and basil

b)  Inversed peach melba, red currant jus flavored with hibiscus (rosella)

c)  Crisp sweet puff pastry with berries

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!!)