Despite the long weekend, I really didn't have much energy this week and was already wishing that it was the weekend on Monday. It didn't help that we were scheduled to have 7pm finishes all this week and as we've experienced so often before, chances were that we would be finishing even later than said time, poo! Its now Wednesday and I think we've been in school for almost 12 hours each day this week.
Onto the interesting stuff though, we kicked off the week with a morning of cuisine where we learnt to make quiche and other savoury pastry goodies such as tatin de chèvre and gnocchis à la parisienne. Alas, I only have pictures of the quiche we made as I managed to drop my digital camera on the flour of the lab whilst taking a picture of my fellow student flamboyantly tossing some lardons, aaaagh! Luckily, it was an old compact which I've had for over 5 years but couldn't help feeling sad about it since it has served me well to date in Paris, its the camera which I've used to take most of the pics on this blog :( I have a sneeky suspicion that its completely dead now as its keeps saying lens error whenever I turn it on, oh wellos....
Tatin de chèvre is a tart which has layered on the outside with some smoked ham and then filled with slices of new potatoes, a wedge of goats cheese all on a puff pastry base. The tart is baked upside down and turned onto the puff pastry (like a tarte tatin) when it is cooked - quite yummy, especially the ham which was used.....chef Alain had painstakingly cured and smoked it himself, word on the street he is up for a MOF charcuterie, after tasting the ham he definitely gets my seal of approval. The gnocchis à la parisienne were not really my cup of cha....shortcrust base topped with a dome of mornay sauce (béchamel sauce with cheese) and poached choux pastry cubes, more cheese and baked until molten. It tasted a bit like savoury cement, its a dish that the poor used to eat as it was cheap and would fill you up quite quickly.....like a lead balloon, I'm thinking.....
The quiche (some of us made traditional Lorraine and others made vegetarian) was really delicious and here are some of the secrets, one, use cream only as a base for your filling (unlike milk, it is less likely to make your pastry go soggy) and two, 2 parts flour to 1 part butter for an extra "short" pastry, mmmm.....
We have spent the last 2 days working on croquembouche, a tower of caramel covered choux adorned with nougatine pieces and royal icing, traditionally what French people have as their wedding cake. We started off making the nougatine pieces first, a dangerous and laborious task. We were working in pairs, my friend made hers first and didn't cook her caramel enough which meant reheating the nougatine in the oven numerous times and struggled to make her initial base. Having seen what she went through, I knew that I had to work fast and in my haste, managed to pour molten nougatine onto my hand which was painful as hell. In my crazy delirious state, my first instinct was not to go and shove my hand under a cold tap but to get my base rolled out as quickly as possible and shaped! It got done but afterwards, I had to shuttle back and forth from the cold tap to cool my injured hand whilst making the rest of my pieces (makasih again Fen for being a fab commis!) Then it was onto making and baking all the choux buns for the tower. Once we had all the components made, we then had to decorate the nougatine with royal icing, glaze the choux and build the croquembouche today. All I can say is sugarwork is a pain in the ass and I'm not terribly good at it! I was happy enough with my final croquembouche except for the fact that I overcooked my caramel (again!) so my tower is a Julio Iglesias-leathery-tanned colour compared to my fellow students, yikes! (have also included a pic of chef's "Blondie" tower) At least I managed to keep the rose-mantic with the spun sugar heart on the side ;)
We also had our last scheduled dessin class today, a little sad as I will miss Monsieur Niau's neverending enthusiasm and passion but I certainly won't miss the large amounts of homework we've had to turn in. On a positive note, I got my highest mark for the proposed drawings for my bro's wedding cake, Monsieur Niau said that my bro will be a very happy man, fingers crossed!!
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