Mother of all pastries.

Lesson 104: Puff Pastry making Victorias and Palmiers.

Yes thats right readers we are now onto puff pastry. The mother and queen of all pastries.

There are a variety of different ways to make puff pastry. This lesson we did the French method and English method. No I am not picking sides of which one is the best at all. They were both just as difficult and just the same result. Our teacher likes the french version but alas, he is french. The French Method has 5 fold and the English has 6 folds. Confused?... read on dear reader :)

The recipe is very simple, it is the process that takes time and patience.

Puff Pastry:
500g bakers flour
10g salt
270g water + a couple drops of white vinegar
375g butter

This was my first time making puff pastry and let me tell you the folding and rolling and resting all got a little confusing for me and the more I tried to work it out the more I confused myself.

First you sift the flour and salt onto your clean bench and make a well in the centre. Add your water and vinegar mixture in the middle gradually working it into the flour to form a dough. Knead into a ball, cover in a wet cloth and refrigerate for about 20min. If you are doing the french method, at this point you would cut a cross in the top of your dough. If you are doing the english version you would form it into a rough rectangle/ball shape.


While your dough is resting in the fridge, beat your butter so it is a similar consistency to your dough, not too soft and not too hard. Your want to be able to roll out the butter in the pastry evenly with the pastry not have huge hard chunks of butter ripping your dough.

For the French Method; roll your dough out into a cross shape (sorry no photos... would have been so much easier to show you with photos) using the cuts your made on top and place the butter in the centre. Fold the edges in, overlapping them and making sure not butter is visible and roll out into a long rectangle. Fold (1st fold) evenly into three like you are folding a letter and turn 90 degrees around so the open ends are now the top and bottom. Roll out to a long rectangle and then fold (2nd fold) evenly into 3 again. Allow to rest for 20min in fridge. 


For the English Method; Roll out rough rectangle to make it a little longer then roll out your butter into a rectangle a little smaller. Place butter on dough and fold in the sides. Roll out into a longer rectangle then fold into 3 (1st fold) like folding a letter, turn 90 degrees so open ends are at the top and bottom and roll out to a long rectangle, fold (2nd fold) in three again. Allow to rest in fridge for 20min.


French method & English method: Let your dough sit on the bench for a couple of min to take the chill of but not let warm up. Have the open ends facing the top and bottom and roll into a long rectangle like before and fold (3rd fold) in three. Repeat the rolling and folding (4th fold) once more making sure every time you roll you turn the dough so the open ends are always at the top and bottom. Allow to rest in fridge for 20min.

French: Roll out into a long rectangle for the last time and complete the final fold (5th fold). You can now roll out the pastry to your required thickness. We rolled it out into a large square 3mm thick.


English: Roll out into a long rectangle, fold into three (5th fold), turn 90 degrees. Roll and fold (6th fold) for the last time. Allow to rest for 20min. After the resting time you can roll out your pastry. We rolled it into a large square 3mm thick.

English Puff with the marks for 6 fold completed.

Making the palmiers and Victorias:

Cutting the Victorias

Folding the victorias

Palmiers ready for the baking tray

Putting the bunny ears on the Palmiers.

Palmiers baking

Victorias baking with creme patissier and tinned apricots in them.

Victorias straight from the oven.

Palmiers straight from the oven.

The final products.

Thanks for reading! keep watching for more delicious pastries :)

Girls and their Choux's

Lesson 3: Choux Pastry.

Everybody loves an eclair or choux bun. The crunchy pastry and soft custard inside with sticky icing or toffee on top....mmm yum!

To make choux pastry can seem daunting but its well worth the trip from the stove to bench top to oven.

First you boil 250mL water, 100g butter, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar on the stove then add 190g bakers flour. Cook over the heat for about 30sec or until the mixture comes off the sides of the pan. Someone explained this stage to me like when you cook corn and it turns into pop corn. You need to cook the little grains of flour for this to work. Once it come off the sides take the pot off the heat and empty the mixture into a clean bowl and spread it out to let it cool slightly. You can also do this stage in a mixer with the paddle attachment (we use the mixer at work) and beat it until it cools slightly. Once it cooled a bit add your eggs one at a time beating well after each egg. We used about 5-6 eggs but it can depend on how big the eggs are and the humidity of the day so it is best to add a little less to start with and see if it comes to the right consistency. You want a glossy dough that is 'drop' consistency; not runny and not too thick.



Next pipe your choux buns or eclairs onto a buttered baking tray and brush very lightly with an egg wash and run the back of a fork over the tops making small imprints. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 15-20 min. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN FOR ANY REASON IN THE FIRST 10min. Let the steam out of your oven towards the end to allow them to dry out slightly.


When they are ready let them cool completely on a wire rack.

For the filling we made vanila creme patissier , a chocolate creme patissier and chantilly cream.

To make the chocolate creme patissier we added melted dark chocolate to the vanilla creme patissier.


Chantilly cream which is  whipped cream with 10% icing sugar added to it.


For the toppings we used fondant from a bucket which we heated to 37 degrees to get the right consistency and shine when it dries and toffee (my favourite!). 

Thanks for reading and keep watching for more delicious morsels :)

Deliciously evil.... mmm.

Prepare and Produce pastries 102: Creaming method making lemon meringue pies.

We made short pastry again this week but using the creaming method instead of the rubbing method we did the previous week.

To do this we creamed the butter until very soft and added the sugar. We do not want to aerate this mixture. Next you add the eggs and emulsify then your chosen flavour. We used Vanilla extract. Add the flour a little to start with then turn everything onto your bench and combine with your hands. Remember: DO NOT OVER WORK YOUR DOUGH. Place our baby in the fridge to rest for 30min.

All sections of lemon meringue pies were cooked separately and then put together to get this deliciously evil sweet and sour pie.

While our dough was resting we made our lemon filling which consisted of lemon juice, butter, sugar and eggs. We cooked this till above 60 degrees but made sure not to curdle our eggs at the same time.

Our pie shells were blind baked at 180 degrees until golden. Blind baking is cooking the tart shell before adding your filling. This can be done by stabbing the pastry with a fork which is what we did or lining the base of the tart/pie shell with beans, rice or pie weights. We made small tarts so we didn't need to use anything to weigh it down.

Once the shells were cooled we filled them with our lemon filling and placed in the fridge to set.

We then made Italian Meringue which we have made previously at TAFE and piped that on top of the lemon filling.

To top it all off we used a blow torch to give the edges the cooked look.

Overall my favourite thing so far! Love that sweet and sour taste... have to admit also loving the peoples facial expressions when they don't like sour things :) hehe just a little bit evil?

From cakes to pastry.

We changed topics and finished off cakes with a bang. Now onto pastry and starting with the basics.

Prepare and produce pastries 101: Short pastry making Tarte Bourdaloue.

We used the rub in method then all gave up (including chef) and used the mixer with the paddle attachment. I think he realised we would all take too as it was a cold morning and our butter was hard as a rock. We sifted the flour and sugar on our bench and then added our cold butter which was cut into small cubes. Rubbing with the tips of our fingers (you can do this also in a food processor or a mixer with the paddle attachment). Once the mixture resembled fine breadcrumbs and there were no lumps of butter throughout we added some lemon zest for flavour. Next we made a well in the centre and poured in our eggs and vanilla in and combined it all using our hands, kneading lightly into a log shape. You have to be very careful here not to overwork the dough as you don't want it to shrink when it is being cooked. We then glad-wrapped our little pride and joy and placed him in the fridge to rest. He can also be frozen at this stage for up to 2 months.

For our filling we poached some pears in sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water), lemon zest and vanilla, made almond cream and used some tinned pie filling to see the difference between home made and canned. Home made was so much better!

After our dough had its time in the fridge we rolled it out and lined out tins.

Ready for delicious goodness.

We then filled some with almond cream and topped them with the sliced poached pears and with the others we mixed together almond cream and apple pie filling and filled our tarts. We then topped these with slivered almonds ready for the oven.

My Little boys ready for the oven.

We baked them at 180 degrees celsius until golden and cooked on the bottom. The pear tarts took less time then the apple tarts.

Mmmm warm pear tart straight from the oven anyone?

After they came out we glazed them to give a nice shine for that extra professional look :)

YUMO!!

Just a little bit fancy.

Lesson 4: Gateau Fraisier

Sponge cake again today but this time we got to make it fancy and even more delicious then what we have done previously to a sponge cake.

When the cake was in the oven we made a Creme Patissiere and turned it into a mousseline. YUM!

Creme Patissiere
500mL milk
125g sugar
50g corn flour
3 eggs yolks
1/2 vanilla bean
25g butter

To make a creme pat whisk half the sugar and eggs yolks together, adding the corn flour next and whisking again till all combines. Heat the milk with vanilla and remaining half of the sugar till just boiling and pour over egg mix. Return to the pan and cook on medium heat until you get bubbles coming through the bottom and cook for another 30 seconds. Take off the heat and stir in the butter. Pour into a clingfilm lined tray and cover with more clingfilm to avoid a skin occuring. Once cooled slightly, place in fridge to chill.

To make mousseline
1 batch x creme patissiere
250g soft unsalted butter

If anyone has watched my favourite movie 'Julie and Julia' they would see why I say butter makes everything delicious and this time it is crazy how delicious this turns out. This has been whisked into submission... seriously!

To make Mousseline whip butter till light and fluffy with no lumps. Whip cold creme patissiere until smooth (you can add a splash of alcohol here if you like). Combine butter and creme patissiere and whisky until they are combined.

Putting our Gateau Fraisier together: 

We made the sponge cake in a square tin (20cm x 20cm) and when cooled completely (chef said it is better to do this the next day but as we have only one day at TAFE we did it the same day) we sliced it in half horizontally and brushed off any crumbs. We spread the base with chocolate then placed it in the fridge to set. We did this so the cake has a bit of structure to the bottom and doesn't stick to the cake board (not sure this was a good idea as on the car trip home I drove even more like an old nanna so my cake didn't slide in its box).

marsipan flowers in the making.

Place chocolate side down on a cake board and brush the top with sugar syrup. Spread a layer of mousseline over and line it with cut strawberries having the fat end of the strawberries facing out. Spread another layer of mousseline over the top, covering the strawberries (careful not to put too much on here). Place the other half of the cake on top and press down lightly and evenly. Brush more sugar syrup over the top and spread a final thin layer of mousseline on top. Place in the fridge to firm up.

While it is in the fridge roll out some marsipan and add your desired colour to it or leave it natural. Leaving some extra to start the fun stuff.

Once the cake has firmed up place your rolled out marsipan over the cake, trim the edges with a bread knife and glaze the top.

For the fun stuff we make flowers to go on top of our cake. Chef made them so quick in class it was a whirl wind so a girl in my class showed me. I also asked the pastry chef at work and he showed me a way to do them too. I will have to do a picture step by step to show you how. Words will do this no justice and only confuse both you and me.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and fancy-ness of this post.

slap me! ...I know I need it.

I need a good slap. I have been terrible at keeping this blog up to date. Think of my morning off today as a HUGE catch up. I will keep you all up to date today and gradually post one (hopefully... fingers crossed) every couple of days :) But this morning task is to write everything I have learnt from TAFE so far. Here goes, I have till 1:10pm until I have to leave for the train and head off to work...its 11:16am now. So here goes!

Lesson 3: Maderia cake and Fruit cake.

A Maderia cake is a great cake for cake decorating as it is a dense sponge like cake which holds its shape very well and is great to travel as it wont end up in a load of crumbs in your picnic basket. The taste was pretty boring to me but good to learn incase I need a dense cake and I am sure you can add different flavouring to it. It was a cake I felt would be delicious toasted and slathered with butter and a cup of tea on the side. Oooo then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, I'm a sucker for cinnamon sugar... mmm hot cinnamon donuts... sorry getting side tracked. Back to cakes.

We softened the butter (175g) with a spatular and then added the sugar (180g) and lemon zest (1 tsp) creaming it together with a spatular, not our whisks like we have done before in the pound cake as we don't want to incorporate air into the cake because we are using chemical aeration. We then added the tempered eggs (200g) one at a time. Tempered means they have had the chill taken off them and are slightly warmer then room temp. Next we added the Vanilla extract (5g) and the batter should be smooth and silky. If the eggs have curdled because they were too cold add a tbs of flour and give it a good mix or warm the mixture up over a bain marie slightly. Usually works for me when this happens. Next add your sifted cake flour (260g) and baking powder (1tsp) and mix to combine.

Place in loaf tins or cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees celsius until golden and cooked through. Test with a knife to see if it comes out clean.

When the cupcakes were cool we iced them with fondant. To get the fondant to the right consistency you add a tiny splash of water but be careful hour much you add if you are also adding food colouring. This was our big mistake so far. The whole class (except a few experienced cake decorators... me not included here) added WAY to much and ended up with fluro icing rather then a nice shade of baby pink. I added more fondant to mine to dull the over bright colour down and thicken it up. You need to take it to blood temp over hot water so it dried shiney. This I need to practice... too much colour, not hot enough.

They turned out... well... there is a reason there are only two in the photo  :)

We iced the loaf cake while it was still hot with a lemon icing (lemon juice and icing sugar) and then quickly stuck it back in the oven to seal for 10 seconds.

Maderia loaf, fruit cake and cupcakes.

The fruit cake. Now this was no much chopping sticky gooey fruits that in the beginning I don't like. Dried fruit in my opinion is old fruit, why would you eat old fruit?!?

We had old...sorry I mean dried apple, pear, apricots, sultanas, peel, dates, currants, glace cherries, almonds and hazelnuts. After you have chopped your old... sorry dried fruit and nuts and soaked it in some rum you start on making the batter. Do the same method as the maderia cake in regards to creaming the butter and sugar then adding the tempered eggs and finally the flour. Mix this through your old fruit... sorry dried and then add a fresh (wahoo!) grated apple last. Pout into a double lined 20cm x 20cm square tin and bake at 180 until coked, this felt like hours and might have been but silly me didn't write the time down.

We glazed the cake with a flavourless glaze from a tub (looked like really runny jelly) and decorated it with almonds.

If anyone wants the whole and complete recipe for this as even me who hated dried fruit really enjoyed this fruit cake let me know in the comments and I'll email you a copy.

Thanks for reading and keep watching because I promise next post will have more pictures :)

Finding my feet in the kitchen.

Lesson Two: Swiss rolls and Italian meringue.

I am finding my feet a little more in class now and don't feel as lost as my first day which is always good. We made the same sponge recipe as last week but instead of placing them in Sponge tins we used a tray and made swiss rolls. One traditional swiss roll and the other black forest.

To make the swiss roll follow the recipe of the sponge cake recipe but bake it at 220 degrees celsius for 10-12 min. You have to be very careful not to overcook the sponge and let it go dry otherwise it wont roll nicely and it will crumble and fall apart as soon as you start rolling it.

There is enough mixture for a swiss roll pan and one (or two, depending on how aerated your batter is) sponge tins.

Once the swiss roll cake was cooled we placed the cake on a tea towel, smothered one side with jam, Chantilly cream and dotted it with cherries. We started rolling it tucking it tightly in the tea towel and then placing it in the fridge to firm up. Once it is firmed up you remove it from the fridge, trim the ends and cut it in half. Chefs treat :)  ... the ends not the whole other half!

Tradition swiss roll with cherries.

We dusted the traditional swiss roll with icing sugar and served it as it is.

With the black forest swiss roll we covered the top with a chocolate glaze (from a tub... the pastry chef at work wasn't too happy that we didn't make our own) which we had to heat up and pour over the cake evenly and decorated it with chocolate curls. I had beginners luck with the chocolate curls. They turned out very well as you can see (if I say so myself), then I showed the pastry chef at work and he asked me to do them at work and 2nd time round they were a flop. Practice makes perfect though.

Black Forest swiss roll.

With our left over mixture which we baked in a sponge cake tin we made Italian meringue to ice it. If you have never had italian meringue go and make it now. Thats an order. It is delicious!!!

Italian Meringue
200g egg whites
400g caster sugar
120g water
(The pastry chef at work says it doesn't matter how much water you add because you boil it away anyway. The more water you add the longer time it will take to get to your desired temperature. When I make italian meringue at work I don't measure the water but I think this is a good guide anyway.)

1. Heat the water and sugar over the stove.
2. At the same time as you are heating the water and sugar, start whisking your egg whites to stiff peaks and fluffy in a standing mixer.
3. Once the sugar mixture reaches 120 degrees celsius- this is called soft ball stage or Boule. (It is called soft ball stage because if you drop a spoonful of it in cold water you can make it into a ball with your finger tips.), pour it slowly down the side of the bowl into the fluffy egg whites while still whisking in the mixer.
4. Keep whisking until the mixture is cool.

5. Place into a piping bag and pipe onto your cake or use a cranked spatular and ice your cake as desired.

We then blow torched the top to give it a different look. A must try at home!

Delicious!

And I brought my $5 to take my cakes home and an extra $2 for two boxes.


Thanks for reading and keep watching for more delicious treats next week!

Pastry School: New Kid on the block.

Lesson 1: Sponge cakes (or as our French Pastry teacher says it... spooonge cakes)

This was my first day at a new campus, with new people and a class that is already established that is 3 times the size of my previous one. I hate being the new kid but feel I am getting better at it. I have also started a new job doing just patisserie, (hence the wind changing post) and am also the new kid on the block there too. Having avoided moving schools (except the transition to high school) I avoided this title for 13 years and getting it 4 times in one year I now understand what its like being a newbie and apologise to all newbies for not being more welcoming on your first day!

We kicked off the semester with cakes. First lesson we went with traditional and classic. The sponge cake and chocolate pound cake.

For the sponge cake we whisked by hand at the start in a bowl that fitted a mini-hobart (a hobart is a huge kitchen aid that is so big it sits on the floor, the ones at school are in between a hobart and a kitchen aid) 225g eggs, 160g sugar and vanilla over a bain-marie until it is approx 50-60 degrees celsius and changes colour slightly. We then attach the whisk attachment to the mini-hobart and whisk the mixture in the machine until it doubles in size, turns pale and fluffy and is no longer warm.

You then fold in the 80g bakers flour and 75g cornflour gently, divide into your lined tins and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 15-20 min. When they are done they should spring back when you touch the centre. You must remove the cakes from the tins immediately to stop any moisture forming. Then cool on a wire wrack until the fun begins.

Plain sponge and chocolate pound cakes. Straight from the oven!

The chocolate pound cake. Yes it is as delicious as it sounds!

A pound cake traditionally has a pound of each ingredient, hence the name; pound cake. 

Firstly we creamed 250g butter by hand until there was no lumps, added the 250g sugar and whisked until it was pale and fluffy looking. Next we incorporated the 250g eggs one at a time then finally the 170g bakers flour, 50g cornflour and 35g cocoa ditching our whisk and using a spatular. Divide into two lined tins and bake at 170 degrees celsius for 25-30min. Turn out of tin and cool on wire wrack.

Next we got to decorate them and make them more taste then they already were. 

With the sponge cakes we made a sandwich of raspberry jam and Chantilly cream (Chantilly cream is whipped cream with 10% icing sugar added) slicing the top layer so that when you cut it to serve you don't squash all the filling out. 

Sponge cake with jam and cream.

With our chocolate pound cakes we covered them in chocolate ganache making them even more delicious and chocolatey!

Chocolate pound cakes covered in chocolate ganache.

Unlike Commercial Cookery we get to take what we make home for a $5 fee, cash only ($1 extra if you need a cake box). I however didn't know this on my first day and had no cash on me so either someone else got to buy my cakes or the lovely ladies who do our washing up ended up with them.

Thanks for reading and keep watching for more delicious goodies!

Change.

Feeling a change in the wind...

Show and Tell.

Tell: 

We did emulsion sauces this week at school which meant manual labour. Ok it wasn't that bad but I am going to try and become ambidextrous just because of this lesson. An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that don't like each other and come together to make one. We made a hot emulsion; hollandaise and a cold emulsion sauce; mayonnaise. Both require you to whisk egg yolks and fat until you get a thick creamy delicious sauce.

For the mayonnaise we whisked a teaspoon of french mustard, a teaspoon of white vinegar with two egg yolks together until pale. We then added about 230mL of olive oil in a fine drizzle while continuously whisking. If you add too much oil at once or over whisk it splits and you end up with gooey oily mess. The way to fix this is add a teaspoonful of boiling water to your mixture and whisk or if its really split start again but whisking an egg yolk in a separate bowl and adding your split mixture to your single egg yolk like you wee doing with the oil. To avoid over mixing your mayonnaise don't whisk it when you have stopped adding your oil and only whisk when adding your oil. Have I confused you yet?

For the hollandaise there was a little more whisking involved. You start by making a reduction of 30mL white wine, 30mL vinegar, 30mL water, 1 tbsp of finely shopped onion and a few peppercorns crushed. Reduce this until the alcohol is cooked away and it has reduced. It should taste bitter when you taste it (nasty!). You then strain your reduction and add your 3 egg yolks to this. Whisk over simmering water until it is so fluffy it can hold its own. This is where you need to make sure NOT to scramble your eggs. Remember that protein sets at 60 degrees so you can not let your eggs get to above 60 degrees. A trick we were taught was that if the bottom of the bowl is too hot for your hand then its too hot for the eggs so take it off the heat for a bit and keep whisking. You are in control of the heat! When the eggs get to the creamy extra fluffy stage you can start adding your clarified butter in a fine drizzle while whisking. We added about 250mL of clarified butter to this mixture and it turned out deliciously rich. 

(Health tip: don't keep homemade hollandaise for more than 20min. Because it has to be kept at blood temperature it is most dangerous temp for bacteria to grow in (the danger zone: 5-60 degrees Celsius). Just keep it in the fridge you say? your sauce will go solid because of the butter in it. Just don't want my readers to attempt this delicious sauce and then think they can keep it for the next day or something like that because its a lot of work for only 20 min)

Whats clarified butter you ask? It's also known as ghee. It is where the milk solids are removed from the butter so you can heat it at a higher temperature without burning it. Here is a link where some chef does it on youtube. I did it slightly different in class and melted the butter using a double boiler and the milk solids sunk to the bottom and I carefully tipped the clear section into a jug without getting the white bit. Everyone does it differently and I couldn't fine a clip with someone doing it my way. Do what ever works for you :)

Show:

This is my deconstructed prawn cocktail with mayonnaise and a derivative of mayonnaise; cocktail sauce.

Toffee flowers that come on top of a croquembouche for a wedding at work. YUM :)

Thanks for reading and keep watching for more show and tell :)

Terrible Mother Hen.

Two weeks in and after having multiple babies I'm going to hire a babysitter. I can't hack it anymore!

Yes babies.

We were told in class that making stock is like looking after a baby. You have to constantly watch it (so it doesn't start boiling) and care for it (keep skimming the impurities off the top). I had to share my baby with the teacher this week and after having it drilled into us now for two weeks that our stocks are our babies I still wasn't prepared when he yelled out in a thick Irish accent..

"OUR BABY IS CRYING!"

I just stood there looking at him dumbstruck thinking 'huh?' until I saw our stock bubbling away out of control. oops!

I've had 2 Brown beef baby, 1 white chicken baby, 1 white fish baby and a brown chicken baby. Been a busy mother hen over the past two weeks and ready to hand them all off to daycare.

Brown beef baby in the back and my White fish baby in the front.

If your keen to make a brown beef baby then here is the process;

• Brown your beef bones and pat off any excess fat.
• Place in a pot with COLD water covering all the bones.
• Bring to the boil and reduce immediately to a simmer- like you have the shakes after a night out.
• Deglaze the pan you used to cook the bones in and add liquid to stock pot.
• Cook for 4-6 hours continuously skimming the top taking off the impurities.
• In the last hour of cooking add your browned mirepoix and bouquet garni. 

Hint: If you boil your stock it will become cloudy (a no no!), if you use hot water to start you cook the impurities in rather then letting them come to the top (also a no no!) and if you add your mirepoix too early the vegetables will soak all the flavour up and your left with a water baby.

I am hanging out for the soups and sauces part of this topic but as we keep getting reminded in class; you need a good stock to make a good sauce. So... keep an eye on your baby readers because a good sauce can make a dish an a bad sauce can ruin it!

Enjoy making babies and thanks for reading again!

Fairytale Kitchen.

Over the past few weeks I've been Cinderella, apprentice pastry chef, nervous wreck and dish-pig. Which was my favourite you ask? The second of course!

At work with Winter closing in, the sea side dining scene is coming to an all time low. Summer usually brings in over 200 people for lunch alone and today we had 10 which means lucky me gets to play Cinderella in the kitchen; getting on my hands and knees or standing on benches scrubbing the walls. There is only one difference... I have no ball to go to, no fairy godmother and no shiny glass slippers.

The slow in customers does have its perks though. I was the resident apprentice pastry chef over the weekend & loved it! Frenchie showed me how to make lemon caramel, chocolate ganache, vanilla panna-cotta and how to make bread. I got to plate up desserts all day and finished work smelling like chocolate and sugar... not prawns. I felt inspired :)

Being a nervous wreck was last week because I had my practical exam for TAFE. We had to cook:
- Pasta with Duxelles in a Cream sauce
- Pan Fried Chicken breast with a tomato reduction sauce along side buttered beans, glazed carrots and chateau potatoes.
- Apple compote with orange segment garnish
- Anglaise Sauce

I was a huge nerd and practiced the 2 nights before :) Good news though. I didn't scramble my Anglaise sauce...

Cooking my custard with my ice bowl and spoon ready.

AND...

Practising my tiny wine barrel potatoes :)

because I practiced my (hated) turned potatoes I had the hang of it. Yes, I stood in my kitchen for what felt like hours and wasted about half of each potato turning them. Was worth it though as they turned out pretty damn good ;)

*Here's an interesting fact about Chateau potatoes that I found out the other week; the reason the potatoes are turned and have 7 sides for chateau potatoes is because the 7 sides represent the 7 wine regions in France and the potato looks like a tiny wine barrel. It all makes sense now... I still don't like doing them and am very happy I don't have to do them at work.


Dish-pig = blurrr! That was me today. As I mentioned before its slow at the moment at work and will only get slower due to the cold weather. This means they don't roster on a kitchen hand and me being the shit kicker was demoted to dish-pig. Ok I exaggerate a little... it wasn't all day but it felt like I had the worst pots and pans to wash up compared to everyone else.

New Subject at TAFE tomorrow... soups, stocks and sauces.

Thanks for reading and keep watching for more frequent (I promise) updates!

Angry Daddy.

Tafe holidays are over this week which means I'm back to college this Wednesday. I've been working the extra day I'm normally at tafe which means I've had a few more hours around the kitchen trying to find my place in the kitchen world.

The french pastry chef at work loves to come up to me randomly during the day and give me tips and tricks about pastry and cakes or like this friday it was about the bread.... when it has had it's second proving it should feel like a breast. Thats right a boob. As he is telling me in a thick french accent which I find extremely hard to understand he is holding one of his own breasts then to my surprise grabs the dough with both hands like he is grabbing a pair of boobs. At first when he started to explain I didn't really understand what he was talking about but as soon as he grabbed his breast then the dough like a pair of boobs I understood completely. Shocked and not knowing what else to do I laughed nervously and politely nodded. What else could I have done...!?

The head chef has also returned back to the kitchen after his wedding weekend is now over. The whole kitchen knew this when on Saturday he yelled across the kitchen;

"Daddy's back and Daddy's angry!!"   

At first I didn't think I heard right as no one else in the kitchen reacted like I wanted to which was to start giggling uncontrollably... well the rest of the kitchen aren't 22 year old girls either so I held my giggles in and continued on peeling my prawns.

A note when ordering prawns: Dear Readers, next time when you go to a restaurant and order the prawns think about the poor shitkicker in the kitchen who has spent hours and hours de-heading, peeling and de-pooping your lovely cooked prawn on your plate and please, please, please enjoy every mouthful...because the poor shitkicker is probably swearing every time a prawn order comes in knowing that tomorrow they'll be doing more de-heading, peeling and de-pooping.

Thanks for reading! More next week on what I learn at college and yes I'll try keep you up to date with more tips from the french pastry chef.

Blast from the past.

Apologies to my faithful readers for this late and overdue post. I've been working (more poo shoots yes but also a little bit of plating up and salad tossing), sick (sinus infection....been an attractive week for me) and the best excuse of all TAFE holidays!

SO since I've had a week off the last time I was at college was nearly two weeks ago now and we cooked foods that to me, did not go together well at all. Eggs florentine but instead of a hollandaise sauce over the top which I thought you are meant to have, we made béchamel sauce. This makes me think this is in our practical exam coming up because Chef made us practice it just like the sauce anglaise which she is drilling into us because most of us in class make scrambled eggs. We also did poached pears in (cheap and nasty) red wine. Thats the snob coming out in me but I remember this brand of goon back in the day when I made coke-a-goona (red cask wine mixed with coke) so poaching a pear in it brought back memories of being sweet sixteen again... not the sweetest memories coming to mind.

We also filleted fish then shallow poached it in homemade fish stock. I think I did quite well since I got four fillets out of my fish like we were meant to. The fish stock stunk... fishy. Last week was much more fun I am not going to deny that fact.

I bought cream, eggs and a vanilla pod the other day to practice making anglaise sauce at home for our practical exam which is after the holidays... fingers crossed I won't scramble it and can turn it into vanilla ice cream with our old ice cream maker! (any hints for making ice cream from scratch without a machine please spill!)

I'm back at college in another week and will be working my ever growing hynie off and also trying to try all the desserts at work. So far the Vanilla Panacotta is delicious :) I hope you all have a lovely Easter and the easter bunny visits! I made hot cross buns earlier this month - check them out!

Thanks for reading. Keep watching for more delicious and maybe not so delicious posts! Fingers crossed no more cheap and nasty wine poaching :)

News, Poo's & Choux's.

Exciting News.

I have pictures from college of things coming together from class. We cooked OssoBucco, couscous and Profiteroles filled with Chantilly cream and topped with a delicious sticky chocolate sauce. Unfortunately no pictures of finished products because I was way too hungry by the time we finally got to scoff down our food to even think about photo's... yes I know, thinking with my stomach again.

Also more news... you might have noticed the '(to be)' is missing from the title of my blog. This is because I am officially an apprentice chef and no longer looking for work. Not sure if i'll get in trouble saying where but lets just say that I have to walk across a beach to get to work. Yes sand and salt water. My first week the tide was so high I had to take my shoes and socks off to wade across the water in bare feet. I was not a happy chappy and wanted to give up then and there with my jeans rolled up to my knees calf deep in water. 

Am going to admit that being an apprentice chef is not very fun. Prawns will never be the same to me after cleaning kilos of them and removing hundreds of poop shoots. Seriously no joke, we must order the greediest prawns in at work because I have never seen so much prawn poop in my life. Blurrkkk! But back to the fun stuff... College!

The Ossobucco is a simple Italian stew which tastes rich, robust and full of flavour (wanted to say delicious then but will save that for later on). The couscous had peppers throughout it which made it sweet and buttery. Now for what I thought was the Queen dish for the day and maybe so far; Profiteroles. DEEELICIOUSS!

I've never made profiteroles before and was super excited being the nerd I am and it also helped with my sugar fix for the day. Since working at the restaurant I have had such a sweet tooth and can only ever think about desserts, chocolate and everything else the dentist would disapprove of. My theory is that I am craving everything I am not working closely with and unfortunately that is sweet, divine goodies. Thinking I chose the wrong apprenticeship here.... or would it be the same if I work with chocolate and sugar all day???

Anyway back to what I was saying; to make profiteroles you need to make a choux paste (pronounced shoe- like the shoes you wear on your feet), Chantilly cream and chocolate sauce topping. To make the choux paste you combine butter, water, strong plain flour, eggs and a lot of muscle power. The Chantilly cream is a fancy way of saying sweetened cream- be sure not to make butter which I have done many a times-  most memorable occasion was high school when I cried and a friend had to steal more cream for me from another classroom. And finally the chocolate sauce... is your mouth watering yet or what?!

Choux Paste

100g butter

250mL water

190g strong plain flour

6 eggs (total 350g)

pinch salt
Arm muscle power

1-   Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcius. 

2-   Sift flour and salt together.

3-   Melt the butter and water over the stove until it starts to boil.

4-   Add the sifted flour & salt mixture to the butter, take off the heat and mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball.

5-   Make sure the butter & flour mixture has cooled down and then add your eggs one at a time. Apply your muscle power here. After each egg the mixture will look like it has separated but with some force and beating it all comes together.

  Tip:   If you lift your spoon the dough should fold over.

6-   Transfer your mixture to a piping bag and pipe walnut sized balls on a baking tray. If you get little tails on your balls, dip your finger in some water and tap them. This will remove the point and give you the walnut shape.

7-   Bake in the oven until golden.

Once you've let your golden balls cool you can fill them with the Chantilly cream which is 250mL cream, 25g (sifted) icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence whipped to piping consistency- Not butter. To fill your balls stick the nosel of the piping bag full of cream in the base and squeeze until the ball is full.

Top filled rolls either by dipping or drizzling this chocolate sauce over them or using melted chocolate.

Chocolate fudge sauce.

300g caster sugar

250mL water

60g cocoa

1-   Combine sugar and sifted cocoa and add water.

2-   Bring to the boil and reduce until thick. Be careful not to take this too far but make sure it won't run off the back of a metal spoon.

3-   Cover profiteroles in sauce and devour.

I thoroughly enjoyed stuffing my face before my exam with these delicious parcels of goodness and hope you do too. 

Thanks for reading! Keep watching and wish me luck for the (predicted) disastrous poaching lesson next week. 

Stinky.

Greasy, oily, soggy...thats right this week was Deep frying. A subtle and delicate technique... NOT!

I'm going to admit it now, I didn't enjoy this week of college. Feeling a little delicate from trivia the previous night and to start with deep frying was not the greatest. Deep frying is meant to be a quick form of cookery where the food is submerged into hot fat for a short amount of time but it took FOREVER. There is only 2 deep fryers in the kitchen and about 12 of us to use them. It took (excuse my french) fucking for ever. 

We sinned and it wasn't my colourful language above. We deep fried fillets of pork. I was ashamed and felt we had betrayed the poor pigs by cooking such a good piece of meat in a terrible way. We also deep fried fish... that tasted horrible, calamari which was ok and banana which I'm going to confess was delicious. Normally when I'm delicate from having one too many the night before all I can think about is a greasy burger and chips smothered in tomato sauce and chicken salt. Not today, I wanted ice water and to be far far away from a deep fryer and anything that goes in a deep fryer as possible.

Although this lesson sounds hideous and I spent most of it feeling sorry for my self I did learn something. The batter for the banana had fresh yeast in it which I had never used before as it is so difficult to find- if anyone knows where to get it please let me know! The trick to getting it to rise when its not a hot summer day is place the bowl with the batter in another bowl of warm water and keep changing the water to make sure its always warm.

The deep fried bananas were yum and I think its because they were still hot when I ate them not like the rest of the food which was cold and had gone soggy by the time we were allowed to eat it. They tasted like a hot cinnamon donut but banana-ree. I love fresh donuts... my weakness!

Theory was terrible. We had a substitute who kept us there until dead on 5pm and the whole bus ride home all I could keep thinking was that I could smell something funny and a little off putting. I was about to blame the guy that was sitting next to me until when I got off the bus the smell stayed with me.... I smelt like a greasy fish and chip shop and had a deep fryer burn to match my smell. I felt sorry for the people around me ... I was the stinky person on the bus.

Banana Fritters

2 bananas

1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

1/2 lemon, juice

1 batch of yeast batter (recipe below)

1. Slice your bananas up into three of four pieces and cover them with lemon juice and a pinch of the cinnamon sugar.

2. Toss them in flour then dip them into the batter (see recipe above).

3. Deep fry bananas until golden then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

4. Resist for a few min and wait until you wont blister your mouth but eat warm.

To make the yeast batter:

10g fresh yeast

5g sugar

250mL warm water

200g plain flour

2 eggs

pinch salt

1. Add the fresh yeast to the warm water and sugar and leave to prove for about 5 min.

2. In another bowl add all the flour and make a well in the middle. Add your eggs and gradually drag the eggs in the flour a little at a time using a wooden spoon. When it seems you can't mix anymore flour in add a little of the yeast water mixture until all the water is added and you have a lump free batter.

3. Let prove for about an hour by submerging the bowl in a larger bowl which is filled with warm water. Keep changing the water regularly so the yeast can do its job.

4. After the hour, mix the batter with a wooden spoon and your ready to dunk your banana.

Thanks for reading! Keep watching for an Italian favourite Osso Buco & the almighty French profiteroles next time. Hmmm another favourite week maybe?

Meaty, cheesey, creamy goodness...

I'd say this week has been my favourite so far. Can anyone disagree when our practical lesson is scheduled for lasagne and then anglaise sauce for dessert? I don't think so.

Most people have their mum's famous lasagne that is a family secret passed on from generation to generation. For some reason our house hold never had lasagne as a staple regular which I feel has scarred my youth. Lasagne is one my favourites! Layers of tomatoey, rich, meaty sauce in between layers of pasta and creamy, cheesey-ness. Your officially a nutter if you don't agree with me.

I was in charge of the béchamel sauce while my partner was in charge of the meat sauce. I was excited to do the béchamel sauce as I've never made one before and was a keen bean to learn.

It started with 500mL milk heated on the stove with a quarter of an onion studded with 2 cloves, a few white pepper corns and a bay leaf. Once the milk had come to a boil it was turned off to infuse with the flavours of the goodies which I put in it. Next I started the white roux (pronounced roo as in kanga-roo) which is a thickening agent consisting of a mixture of flour (40g) and fat, in this case (40g of) butter. You melt the butter over the stove being careful not to burn it then take the butter off the stove and add the flour. Mix until it looks like really wet sand and cook back on a low heat for 1-2 min. Strain your infused milk into a separate jug for easy pouring. Take the butter and flour mixture off the heat and add a little of the milk, which should now be warm not hot and mix with your savoury wooden spoon. Keep doing this little by little off the heat making sure there are no lumps until all milk has been incorporated. Once the milk has been incorporated stir over a low heat until sauce thickens to your preferred consistency. This takes about 20 min as you have to cook the flour taste out. I then added a small handful of tasty cheese- this thicken the sauce a little too much so I added some extra milk to thin it down.

My partner was making the bolognaise sauce at this point so both we were both ready at the same time. We layered a little bolognaise sauce on the bottom, then an instant lasagne sheet, then more bolognaise, a spoonful of béchamel, a sprinkle of parmesan then another layer of pasta and continued this until we reached the top of our tray. Chef had a brilliant tip which was not to use all the béchamel sauce in the lasagne and add one egg to the left over and then spoon that as your final layer then sprinkling with both parmesan and tasty cheese. We put it in an 180 degrees Celsius oven until cooked through and golden on top. yum, yuM & YUM!

After devouring our lasagne we started our anglaise sauce. Custard and me have never really gotten on like rice and me (until recently, Woop!). My custards alway end up either a watering undercooked mess or a scrambled egg slop. Both sound appealing... not.

A sauce anglaise is the basis of making custards and ice creams so it is pretty damn important to get this right if you want to work in the kitchen. You can't just go out and buy a carton of dairy farmer thick custard like normally would..

The rule with an anglaise sauce is for every 100mL of milk (or cream or a combination of both) you need 1 egg yolk and 10g of sugar. I put my milk on the stove to bring to the boil with a vanilla bean scraped in it for flavour. While this was doing its job I separated my eggs and mixed my egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl using my sweet wooden spoon. Chef told us not to use a whisk because we don't want air in the egg yolk, just to combine them with the sugar. Next strain your milk into your egg and sugar mixture and stir to combine. Place it all back in the saucepan you used for the milk and back on a very very low heat. This is where you either get custard or scramble eggs. At this point in class I had everything possible crossed in hope that I ended up with custard not scrambled eggs. Anglaise sauce cannot come above 83 degrees Celsius so its easier to use a thermometer but today we used the back of a metal spoon technique. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a metal spoon and when you run your fingers down the back the sauce does not run back and meet again.

SUCCESS! I ended up with a velvet vanilla custard.

All in all a delicious day.
(If any one has some suggestions of words other than delicious please let me know, I feel I am repeating my self... everything is DELICIOUS... delicious, delicious, delicious!)

* Thanks for reading & keep watching for more cooking adventures!

Early morning Chook.

Oops... last weeks...

College started at 8am with the dissecting of a raw chook. 8am is a little early for slimy raw chicken with fat, skin, bone cracking and popping. Not to mention the giblets I found when finally splitting the poor chook in half. (Giblets for those who don't know are the inside goodies like the heart etc.) I know it has to be done and I wouldn't say I'm the squeamish type when it comes to food but 8am in the morning, really? the smell of parmesan cheese was too much the other week.

We washed and dried our chook, learnt how to truss it then cut our chook into saute pieces which is 8 pieces. Four white meat and four dark meat. You usually serve one dark piece and one light piece when serving in a restaurant. Trussing is tying with string so your bird doesn't flap around in the oven or your roasting pan (also for even cooking and presentation).

When I cut my chook I took off the marylands (thigh and drumstick as one piece) first and looked for the oysters. The oysters on the chicken are located on its back, one on each side of the back bone. It's a fleshy piece of meat that sits in what looks like a little oyster shell which is part of the chickens back bone. After removing both marylands I took the drumstick off the thigh bone and frenched the bone on the drumstick. Frenching the bone is cutting the meat away from the bone to expose the bone. We also removed the knuckle but Chef explained that some chefs don't do this because the bone can split.

Next was the boobs. This is a lovely process because first you have to remove the back bone from the breast bone. You hold your chook up and cut downwards then pop the shoulder blades out and remove the back bones from the breast bone. This was not my favourite part of the whole early morning experience. I removed the boobs by placing my chefs knife on one side of the breast bone and pushing down then scraping the meat off the remaining bone. I did this for both boobs then we split them in half so we had 4 even sized pieces with the wings still attached.

This all sounds a little groosem. But I respected my chooky and my 8 peices of chicken were neatly cut and not mongolated. We made a delicious thai curry with the chicken pieces. I made a thigh curry, the boys made a boob curry - as chef put it.

We made pilaff rice to go with it and guess what? SUCCESS! The stove time was minimum so I got away with less time to burn it. We sweated onion off in butter, added the rice, stirred it so all the rice was coated then whacked it in the oven until it was done. Delicious and nutty... will definitely be repeating this at home.

To go with the curry and pilaff we made cucumber riata (chef's recipe) which consisted of yoghurt, lemon juice, salt, cumin and cucumber. Wow, yum. We jumped through different cultures and countries this lesson but it all tasted great for lunch.

Thanks for reading! Keep watching for lasagne (my favourite) & anglaise sauce (scrambled eggs? or custard?).

Trick of the hand.

Bit late on my post about College last week but I've been a busy bee with to be honest, goodness knows what. The job search is still happening, I think I'm being too picky now... not sure if its a good thing or not. They say you should stay at your first place for a year so does that make it ok to be picky? I will be washing dishes and chopping onions for the first few months anyway.

Back to the fun stuff. College was great! We cooked all day and then to top it off theory was cancelled in the afternoon. Could it get any better?! The day was about shallow frying and grilling. We cooked;  Shallow fried breast of chicken with a tomato reduction sauce served with buttered beans and glazed carrot batons. AND... Grilled sirloin steak with grilled tomatoes and potato gratin. I remembered my container this week so I could take my food out side and eat it for lunch rather then scoff it down in class. Not sure if this was a good idea or not. I ate so much and felt incredible sick after by then end and would have probably gone into a food coma in theory anyway so it being cancelled worked out well.

Butter. I smelt like butter after class, I could still taste butter after class and I know for sure that there was butter in or on everything we cooked.

The chicken was cooked in olive oil but the delicious creamy sauce started with butter, onion and garlic. Yum or what? stock and wine was added, reduced then strained. I had never done this before and at the time Chef demonstrated it to us all I could think was what a waste of those delicious goodies. Turns out the sauce is a lot smoother and looks a lot better presentation wise without all the goodies. Cream and a little french mustard was then added and reduced. Tomato concassee and parsley tossed through then served over the chicken which was resting on buttered beans which literally speak for them selves and glazed carrot batons which are carrots chopped into Jardiniere's, simmered in water, butter, salt and sugar covered with a cartouche and cooked until tender.

Whats a cartouche you say? It is a piece of baking paper which covers the contents of the pan not letting out any steam which therefore stops food drying up and locking in flavour. Jamie Oliver quotes in Jamie at Home that the italians often use procuitto instead of baking paper, getting the extra flavour of the procuitto in the cooking.

Onto the steak. I have to admit now that I am a total girl and before college cooked steak to buggerey and sausages on the BBQ until they were charcoal. That is of course until now! I learnt the trick of the hand of how steak should be cooked. If you touch your  thumb and pointer finger together and press with your other hand on the meaty part between your thumb joint and wrist, its rare. Thumb and rude finger, medium rare. Thumb and ring finger medium and finally thumb and pinky and if the meat feels like this you know you should throw on a new steak and start again.

To go with the steak we served potato gratin which consisted of garlic and onions cooked down in butter then layered in between cream drenched slices of potato, topped with cheese and baked until done. Parsley butter and grilled tomatoes with parsley butter and cheese on top.

Julia Child would be so proud of me.

Theory test on food presentation was better then expected (fingers crossed). Off to do homework from last week.


Thanks for reading and keep watching for Poultry Preparation. Doesn't that sound appealing!?

Buttery goodness.

Week 3 at college was delicious. The morning started out by collecting our goodies on a large gastronome for boiled rice, Tomato Concasse and Mushroom Duxelle which we used then in a rich pasta sauce. No one in the class needed lunch after this which worked out quite well since my egg and salad sandwich had gone soggy in my bag.

Tomato Concasse is diced tomatoes which have been blanched, refreshed, skinned and deseeded. First I cored my tomatoes and made a cross at the other end with my paring knife. The tomatoes were submerged in boiling water, I counted to 15 seconds (obviously less for the more squishy tomatoes) then refreshed them in a bowl of ice water. The skins slipped of as if the tomatoes couldn't wait to get naked and ready to become a concasse. I chopped each tomato into quarters then deseeded each quarter. The quarters were then diced about 1cm. What can you use these minx of tomatoes for you ask? Brushetta, salads, garnish, pasta sauce, pizza base sauce... the list can be endless.

Mushroom Duxelle is finely chopped onion and mushrooms cooked in until there is no liquid left. First I sautéed the onion in butter (you know this is already going to be delicious because it starts with butter) then added the finely chopped mushrooms which I sweated off until there was no liquid left. This was seasoned to taste and left to cool ready to be used in our pasta.

I mentioned cooking rice above. If you have read my other blog and my rice post you will know that I cannot cook rice unless it is with a rice cooker. I have sort of gotten the hang of boiling the rice and then letting it steam in a colander when I am desperate but today we were required to cook rice using the absorption method and not using cup measurements for the water but your finger. The water must come up to your first knuckle when you stick your finger in the pot and touch the rice. Terrible explanation and I can tell you this, I need to practice cooking rice. Mine was gluggly. At least cooking rice is better to practice then tourne potatoes, and yes to answer your question- I am still avoiding potatoes.

Now to the delicious pasta we made. Delicious but terribly rich I must warn you.
The sauce was very quick because we'd done all the prep to start with so first things first the pasta needed to be cooking for at least 5 min before I start the sauce. I gently sautéed a clove of finely shopped garlic in butter then stirred in some of our mushroom duxelles. Added cream and a tsp of french mustard and brought it to the boil and reduced the sauce a little. Tasted and seasoned with S&P then finish off with some tomato concasse, parsley and parmesan cheese. The spaghetti was folded through and served in a hot clean bowl. Sprinkled with extra cheese, tomato and parsley for garnish.
Delicious buttery, creamy mouthfuls! mm yum.

After lunch and our food coma we zested and segmented oranges. Zest is the outside coloured part of citrus fruits such as lemon, lime and orange. Segments are the fillets of the fruit. We also learnt different techniques to use lemon as a garnish on a variety dishes.

Theory consisted of us getting our assignment and learning that we have an assessment on the 30th of March for Food Hygiene. All this talk about food poisoning is going to make me scared to leave the house or eat anything. Ok maybe not the later of the two because that would never happen, food and I get on too well.

Thanks for reading! Watch this space for shallow poached chicken, grilled sirloin steak, buttered beans, sauce a l'anglaise plus more next week. Until then. Happy eating!