Halibut with Cucember Beurre Blanc
A busy week covering such varied styles of cooking and incredibly different products.
We started the week with making a starter/ Biga for a Fougasse which is a Herbed and salty bread from Provence in the shape of a leaf which would be finished and baked the following day. We also started the dough for our croissants which would involve a 3 day process as over time the dough develops a better taste. The second day we incorporated butter(all 200g of it!) and the following day was shaping and baking cutting out triangles of dough with our state of the art home made templates. We were given the opportunity to also use the dough to make Pain au Chocolate which was gleefully taken and mine turned out quite stunning ( if I don’t mind saying so myself) to the extent that Michael our teacher said he would pay good money for them and they would not have looked out of place in any French Cafe.
Layering of Pain Au Choc
Croissants were good but maybe my dough was rolled out a little too thick or they rolled a lightly too tightly – Stupid error as it was not the first time I had made them.
Fougasse – topped with Dried Herbs
Making the Fougasse was fun and getting the holes right was tricky as when the dough proves they close up again. However the taste was great and whilst Focaccia has been my favourite bread this term, Fougasse came in at a close second.
Had some great Fish cooking during the week too. First up was a Roasted Salt Cod with a Bouillabase Sauce and Caramelised Baby Fennel. My sauce was a little too punchy but it’s a great dish and will do again at home – just don’t intensify the sauce as much,or let it down with a splash of water at the end.
Salt Cod/ Bouillabaisse Sauce
Also prepared a beautiful Halibut with Cucumber Beurre Blanc. This was my stand out dish if the week and whilst we all receive compliments and good marks when our dishes are well prepared, I was told for the first time that “This was great cooking” – I was very proud !
Another fish dish we prepared was a Peter Gordon Recipe from his book “Savour”. Peter is the Chef at Providores Restaurant in Marylebone (which I have visited a few years back ) and he focus is Pan Asian Fusion dishes. He had been in and given us a Demo on the Monday afternoon and this included the dish we were to prepare later in the week – Seared Yellowfin Tuna, Green Papaya Salad, Lime Dressing, Nori Sauce and a Peanut and Sesame Gomasio.
Mr Gordons Tuna as prepared by Moi
There are a lot of ingredients involved and a lot of preparation/ Chopping but nothing to complicated and the final dish was stunning, Zingy, Fresh and really tasty. One interesting thing learnt was searing Tuna in a smoking Hot Pan ( 15/20 seconds each side) and then immediately submerging it into Ice Water to stop the cooking process. It ended up with beautiful colour and tasted amazing. New trick to use at home.
Something completely different was prep and cooking of Sweetbreads. We had some students who thought these looked disgusting and were not looking forward to cooking or eating the, on the other hand I love them and was really looking forward to the Sweetbread day. Firstly we had to poach them lightly before cooling them to peel the membrane from them as this is stringy and inedible. Then we pressed them overnight before dusting them in flour and pan frying them. We also made a Marco Pierre White Madeira Jus to accompany them, and a decadent Pomme Puree involving roasting The a Potatoes in their skins, scooping out the flesh and passing it through a sieve and then beating in an infused mix of Double Cream/ Milk/Thyme and Garlic.
Meat and 2 Veg anyone. “Not my best plate” …..
This made it extremely rich with a wonderful creamy consistency and went so well with the Madeira Jus which was also packed full of flavour. Unfortunately this all happened on a Friday afternoon on a week which I had been out every night and my energy levels and concentration were leaving the kitchen so I undercooked my Sweetbreads slightly and was lost for plating inspiration and just dumped it in the plate out of sheer exhaustion. “ Not my best plate” was Michaels comment, and that was being polite- looked like SHIT, but the Jus was marvellous !
For some reason and probably never to be repeated by any of the students we were also tasked with making Ile Flottante ( French classic Dessert – Floating Islands) , which are basically Quenelled poached Italian meringues sitting on a Cognac infused Creme Anglais.
They are very Retro, and cool from that point of view- the best part of it though was making a Hazlenut praline and then blitzing that to make a lovely caramelised Hazlenut Dust to sprinkle on top. Not difficult and lots extra to take home !
As far as Demonstrations go then we had a great Shellfish Demo that involved killing Crabs and Lobsters ( much to the dismay of many students who are not keen to repeat this next week in class)and also shucking and preparing scallops in advance of our practical experience next week. We also had two plant based sessions. One involved David Bailey who runs a Vegan Food Truck operation called Buddah Bowls which he takes to many music festivals etc. He prepared 4 dishes for us to try which gave us a different style of food to consider and recipes without the protein meat and fish give us.This was followed up with a Plant Based Tasting Menu Demo which involved some interesting plates such as Celery,Apple and Sumac Meringues, Kvass and Potato’s Four Ways.
Just to finish of this extremely varied week we had a practical Demo on advanced Gateaux preparation focusing on a Gateaux Opera that we will undertaking ourselves early next week. Did not look too difficult but every time we think that we experience something quite unexpected. Its better not to be over confident in our approach to this task – we know from experience that a relaxed or blasé approach can bring the walls crashing down, or at least a very bruised ego and a burnt wrist !
In the middle of all of the above we had a 50 question test to sit too just to keep our minds sharp and ensure we are absorbing all of the new found skills and can recall everything else we have learnt on the Course. General feelings were that this was quite a difficult test and contained elements that were really dredging our minds back to earlier recipes and other elements that we have not even undertaken as yet. Results next week.
Roll on Week 8 with a Bank Holiday to enjoy beforehand !
Ps – next Friday is Official Class Graduation Photo Session, that reminds us all it’s coming to an end closer than we all realise !
Gosh, I would like to taste everything, even the sweetbread 🙂 And Iles Flottantes were my favourite dessert as a child. I didn’t realise it was classified as “retro” though!
C