Week 8 Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream? I am not your friend if you don't love ice cream... haha.

This blog is full of first trials. This week is my first time making ice cream. I was so excited! Even though the flavour that we had to make wasn't my favourite, it didn't matter, it was still ice cream. We made poppy seed & honey ice cream. 

I first heated the cream, milk and poppy seed in the pot. In a separate bowl, I mixed in the honey and egg yolks. Once the milk was boiling, I poured the milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisked it to combine. Then it went back on the heat to cook until it thickened.

Then it was cooled and refrigerated. 

The magic starts when the mixture is poured into the ice cream machine where the cream is churned in a cold container and then it turns into ice cream. It was so simple. It makes me want to get one of those fancy ice cream machine!! Then I can have homemade ice cream with the good ingredients. Imagine how much I can save in the long run from not having to buy ice cream from the store! haha.  Anyway, then the ice cream goes into the freezer until ready to serve.

Poppy seed & honey ice cream just out from the machine.

 Strudel dough is basically flour, water, salt and oil. Hmm... which is exactly the same ingredients for when we make "mian fen gao"(面粉糕) which is like a doughy noodle cooked in soup. But strudel is more troublesome to make. For the strudel dough, we put the ingredients in the stand mixer and mix it with a hook attachment for about 20minutes until the dough is stretchy. That is when the gluten is activated. Then the dough is left to rest for an hour. 

Now it's time to stretch the dough. Does it look like roti canai? Can you see how thin it is? (Ignore the mess around it though)

Stretching the strudel dough

Then we brushed the surface of the dough with melted butter and sprinkled cake crumbs on it. The apple and cherries were arranged on the pastry and rolled up like a swiss roll. The thick edges of the dough were cut off. Into the oven it goes for almost 45minutes.

Apple and Cherry Filling in Strudel.

It was a little under baked but still looks good right? haha.

Apple & Cherry Strudel fresh from the oven.

Making the créme anglaise was a pain. My first batch curdled because I had the heat too high and the second batch nearly curdled but I took it off the flame just in time. Luckily the trainer said that it was good. 

Apple & Cherry Strudel served with créme anglaise

The ice cream was to be served with pancakes. I didn't know what Flapjacks were when I read the menu. It is actually just pancakes in a different name. So I made some pancakes. I burnt a few before I could get the perfect golden colour. 

Flapjack batter resting. 

Flapjack with ice cream and maple syrup. 

 Look at the pancakes and ice cream. Doesn't it make you want to have some? I ate most of it after the trainer tasted it. He liked it too. 

 Danish pastry. We prepared the dough two weeks back and had it in the freezer and today we get to make some danishes with hazelnut filling and some with poppy seed filling and créme pâtissiére.

We made envelope, windmill and horseshoe shapes.

The layers were good for the danishes but it was so difficult to make the shapes because the dough was getting so soft from the heat in the kitchen. But we managed to get some nice ones. 

The windmill is topped with créme pâtissiére.

 I had a great day, it was a Basically Pastry Day! Everything went well except having to make the créme anglaise twice and throwing out the first few pancakes. I am so glad to have our current trainer. He is friendly and always willing to help. He shows things in detail. When to use the whisk, when to use the wooden spoon. But the sad thing is I don't think we will have him for the next stage. 

Week 7 Focaccia

Bread time! 
Today we learn about yeast. All the recipes for today had yeast and flour as the basic ingredients. What is interesting is that even though all had similar ingredients, the end result for each was so different. By just changing the ratio and also cooking method, it creates something totally different to one another.
Today's menu had Focaccia, Chelsea Buns, Savarin and Brioche. 

That is my focaccia having it's first prove. 

The focaccia has no butter and is a fairly whitish dough but the Chelsea bun dough on the left is so much yellower because there is butter in it. It is so cool to see the dough double in size when it was proving. I was getting worried when my focaccia took much longer than others to rise. I thought I killed the yeast! Luckily it did rise after almost 2 hours. 

Our brioche

I have never seen or heard of Brioche before this. The texture is more like a cake and has strong buttery taste. The dough was more like a paste than a dough. It was rather wet and when proving it, it doesn't only rise, it has blisters in the paste. I too got a blister on my thumb from stirring the butter into the paste. It was so tiring. Luckily we work in pairs, so my teammate and I had to rotate the stirring task. Phew! We now all have popeye biceps.

Our Savarin Aux Fruits

Savarin... once again, I have never heard of this dessert before. It has it's own special savarin moulds which had a hole in the middle. It comes out like a ring and then we pour sugar syrup over it to let it soak it all up. Then fruits and whipped cream are filled in the centre before serving. I tried to carve a rose with the strawberry. Does it look like a rose? Well, it was good practice.

Pouring syrup into the savarin. 

I thought I wouldn't dare eat the Savarin because it must be very sweet. To my surprise, even though we poured sugar syrup over the savarin, it wasn't too sweet. That is because we use light syrup which was more water than sugar really. And because there were whipped cream and fruits to accompany it, what's there not to like about it. 

Our breads at the end of the day, we have focaccia with rosemary, chelsea buns which has raisins, currants and orange peel and the brioche which was plain. 

Focaccia, Chelsea Buns and Brioche.

It was a great week. We have a new trainer and he is just great. He is very organised, explains things clearly, doesn't mind people asking questions, demonstrates and gives tips to make things work better. I think I will learn a lot from him. 

Week 6 Crême Brûlée

The first time I tried creme brûlée was last year in a mall in Kuala Lumpur. It had a layer of burnt sugar on the top where you crack it open by knocking the spoon into it and then there is the silky soft custard inside. It was so delicious! That was when I fell in love with it. 

 On week 6 the menu had Créme Brûlée. I was so excited! I am finally going to get my hands on the blow torch! hahaha..... but the sad thing was the recipe for the egg custard doesn't involve any baking. We had to whisk the egg mixture over bain marie (i.e. over a pot of simmering water). My arm nearly fell off from whisking non stop for what felt like almost forever!! We had to whisk it until it is sabayon stage, which is also known as ribbon stage. This is when you draw a figure 8 with the whisk and the figure 8 can still be seen on the mixture. When the mixture reaches this stage, we pour it into the ramekins and refrigerate for a few hours to set. 

My first créme brûlée. 

 Haha... I know, the plate decoration is too simple. I will get better next time.

We also got to play with Sugar!! We made spun sugar. It was so much fun. We melted the sugar to 165C, just as it was starting to turn brown on the sides. Then we took it off the heat and let it cool lightly. Then we had 2 prongs which were wrapped with aluminium foils and had the chopping board resting on half of it and the other half was hanging over the edge of the work bench. We placed aluminium foils on the floor so that when the sugar drips it will fall on the foil. 

Then we made webs by swinging 2 forks that was dipped in the sugar syrup. It was done very quickly and then gathered to form a ball. Then it sets. It was so beautiful. 

Ah, now it looks a little prettier with the spun sugar.

We also made chocolate mousse. Yes! more whisking. Just keep whisking! The menu for the day should have been "whisk everything dessert". 

Chocolate mousse with brandy snaps.

The brandy snaps were fun to make but a little too sweet for my liking.  The sauces on the plate are caramel sauce and anglaise sauce. Making the caramel sauce was exciting, it was fun to see how the sugar spat when i poured the cream into it. I was a little scared when i poured the cream in but at the same time I felt excited to see the reaction. 

Sticky dates pudding with brown sauce and double cream. 

The sticky date was a little undercooked but it was still edible. But look at the presentation. Isn't it beautiful? Well, that's because the trainer showed us how to cut the strawberry for this one. 

Week 5 Puff Pastry

Week 5 was a heavy load. We had to make puff pastry for chicken stroganoff in vol-au-vent, sweet paste for fruit tartlets, pumpkin soup and bread rolls. 

I was in charge of making the vol-au-vent cases and the sweet pastry. The puff pastry was very interesting to make. There was way too much butter in the recipe and even after reducing the butter there were still too much of it!
I was very careful and patient with the pastry making process. You really need to let the dough rest in the fridge before each folds and don't forget how many folds you have made. This puff pastry had alternating folds of single turns and double turns. 

Well my vol-au-vent cases were slanting to a side because the oven fan was on. Sigh..Next time, I got to make sure I turn the fan off. But I was happy to see all the layers that puffed up. Not too bad for a newbie.

Nice golden colour and crispy layers.

The chicken stroganoff was prepared by my teammate. It was very nice and I have to admit, it is my first time eating chicken stroganoff. I quite like it. 

Shortcrust pastry filled with créme pâtissiere and topped with fruits.

Hmm... I actually tried making this at home before the practical day in class. The ones I made at home were not good. I think I overworked the dough and also it wasn't chilled long enough causing the cases to be hard. So I learnt from my mistakes and did pretty good in class. haha! Just that I wasn't too happy that it was still too thick and the edges were not tidy and smooth. I will have to try this again to get it right.

Yummy fruit tartlets.

Even though it didn't look too good, the texture light and crumbly. In other words, Yummy!!!

Week 4 Profiteroles

Week 4, we made Profiteroles and Éclairs.

Choux pastry is really quite interesting to make. First you boil the water, salt and butter in a pot and once the butter has melted, the flour is poured in all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dough in the pot. Keep stirring for a minute or two to make the dough a little drier. Then let the dough cool slightly before mixing in the eggs one at a time. 

It is quite simple to make but then somehow there are so many ways to get it wrong. 
There are a few things you need to be careful of when making choux paste. The consistency of the dough. When the flour is mixed in, make sure you keep stirring vigorously for a minute or until the mixture forms a smooth, thick mass that comes away from the the side of the pan.

When adding the eggs, add one at a time and beat constantly and make sure it is mixed in well before adding the next egg. It may not need all the eggs, the dough should be glossy and falls in on itself when cut through with a spatula. 

When piping the choux paste, make sure you leave enough space between them for it to rise and not stick together. 

This is the first batch that sank after it came out from the oven. The inside is still not properly cooked. 

One of the most important thing is not to open the oven for the first 20minutes when the choux paste is in the oven or it won't rise properly.
Make sure oven is preheated before putting in the choux paste. Once the choux paste is in, do not open the oven!

This is the second batch which looks much better. The eclairs are filled with créme chantilly and the profiteroles are filled with créme pâtissière.

My first batch of choux didn't rise properly. Well of course we blamed the oven for being too hot.... and also blamed the recipe for having too many eggs. But honestly it could also have been that I took it out too soon, or I left the choux paste out too long before putting it in the oven or the consistency of the dough was not right. 

The second batch looks better! Hmm... the eclairs would have been nicer if we had chocolate ganache topping. Yum! 

Week 3 Ossobucco and more

Here comes Week 3, where we had to make Ossobucco, Chicken Breast En Papillote , Risotto, Pan Fried Sirloin with Dutches Potatoes, Carrots and Beans. Big Menu!

This week I had a new teammate and she is amazing too. She is very calm and in control of the situation. I am glad that I was working with her as I have never made any of the above mentioned dishes. I have never even heard of Ossobucco before. I was responsible for making the Ossobucco and Risotto.

Ossobucco is a traditional Italian dish that uses the the "ossobucco" part of the veal. Yea, the name of the dish is the same as the name of part of the meat. It is the veal shank that is normally quite a cheap and tough. It is from the top part of the thigh which has a big bone and the meat is crossed cut to have the bone in the centre. This part of the meat is braised to make it tender. According to some people, the bone marrow is the best part of the dish. The traditional dish doesn't have tomato paste but we are making the modernized version. 

This is the one the trainer made for demo.

Our Ossobucco with risotto. We made a mistake,they were supposed to be served separately.Oops!

I like this Ossobucco and it is actually quite easy to make. So here is the recipe if you are interested in trying. I can't say that I enjoyed making the risotto though, my arm was sore from all the stirring and because I still didn't quite know how to control the heat of the electric stove, I burnt the onions and garlic a little and that made my risotto a little brown. As you can see here. Ha Ha!! 

Ossobucco (amended a little from the school's recipe)

Ingredients:

1 Bouquet Garni:
                                 20 peppercorn
                                 4 Parsley stalks
                                 1 Thyme Sprig
                                 3 Bay leafs
1/2 Carrot 
1/2 Leek
3 stalks Celery
1/2 Diced Onion
2 cloves Garlic- minced
1 Tomato
2 Ossobucco
1tbsp Butter
20ml Olive Oil
200ml Chicken Stock
3 tbsp Wine
1/2 Orange juice
1/2 Lemon juice

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C

• Bouquet Garni: Wrap all the herbs in muslin cloth and tie it up with a string. 
• Roughly chop the carrots, leek and celery and tomato. 
• Season the ossobucco with salt & pepper and dust it with flour. 
• Seal the meat on hot pan with some butter and olive oil, it takes about 5minutes.
• Remove from heat and put in on a baking tray with some olive oil.
• Use the same pan, sweat the diced onion and garlic, then add in the carrots, leek and   celery.
• When the vegetable is soft, put in the tomato paste and wine. Stir to combine and then pour over the meat that is on the baking tray. 
• Top with the chopped tomato, chicken stock, orange and lemon juice.
• Soak in the bouquet garni.
• Cover with a baking sheet and aluminum foil over it.
• Bake in the oven for 1/2 hour on 200C and then reduce the heat to 160C for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the meat in tender. Check it every half an hour , add water if it is too dry and salt and pepper if required.

Note: You can use white or red wine.
           I tried using water instead of chicken stock and it was still nice.

Our Sirloin Steak was a success a well. Can you see how rare the meat is? hehe.... that is how my teammate likes it. Then there is the Dutches Potatoes which I really liked. I ate quite a few of the potatoes when it was hot from the oven. Delicious. The beans and carrots were blanched al dente. The garlic butter was from last week's class.

Pan fried Sirloin with Dutches Potatoes.

 Chicken Breast En Papillote is basically baked breast meat in greaseproof paper. This enclosure keeps the moisture trapped inside the bag and it requires very little oil in cooking it. This is a very healthy dish for people who are on a diet. It doesn't take long to make either. I personally do not like breast meat so this is not really a dish that I enjoyed. Maybe I can change the breast meat to thigh meat! 

Ingredients:

1 Chicken breast 
50g Mushroom
1/2 Lemon juice
5g Butter
Chopped Parsley
Butter
Baking paper cut into heart shape

Method:
Season the breast meat with salt & pepper.
Seal the meat on a pan with some oil.
Saute the mushroom with some butter and then add lemon juice into the pan. 
Place the breast meat on one side of the heart shaped greaseproof paper and top it with the mushroom and chopped parsley.
Wrap the chicken up by folding the sides of the greaseproof paper.
Bake in preheated oven at 200C for 10minutes or until the bag puffs up. 

Dish it up and cut the paper open in front of the customer! 

Ah.... overall it was a fun and exciting day! My teammate didn't want to take any of the food home so I took them all and that was our dinner for the night. Good thing the steak was rare because I refried them and it was medium rare. 

Next week we will be making choux pastry. Finally some pastry!!!!

Week 2 Start Cooking

This is when the fun begins. The menu for the week was quite interesting, we had to make mayonnaise by hand, garlic butter, fillet fish sailor style, chicken schnitzel, pear in red wine and an open sandwich.

It was a lot to do in one morning but I guess we had to start the stress test  somewhere. We were working in pairs, I had a wonderful partner. She was very organized and I think we made a good team. 

Preparing the workflow for the day took a long while but it was worth spending the time doing it because when it comes the actual preparation, all you need to do is refer to the workflow and work accordingly.

The mayonnaise was really quite interesting to make. We were lucky that the egg mixture didn't split. The end result was quite good. I forgot to take a picture of it though. It was great exercise for the arm because you have to continue whisking while drizzling the oil in. Good thing we were working in pairs. One person poured the oil while the other whisk and of course we rotated the whisking process.

The pear in wine was one that took a long time, therefore we made that and let it simmer away while we made the rest. The pear was peeled and cored and submerged in wine and sugar syrup with cinnamon and cloves for more than an hour. I think our pear could have been in the pot for a bit longer to get a nicer colour. 

Fish Fillet Sailor Style. I didn't get to fillet the fish but I did devein the prawns and fry the bacon. It doesn't look very pretty but it was nice to eat. 

The chicken was quite simple to make. The chicken breast was tenderised with a hammer, seasoned with salt & pepper and then coated with flour,egg wash and breadcrumbs before pan fried. Then the garlic butter that we made earlier was cut and placed on the hot chicken before dishing up. 

The butter melted by the time I took this photo.

The open sandwich had mayonnaise spread on the bread and topped with lettuce, tomato, ham, radish and gherkin. I quickly took a photo before packing it to bring home. Some students didn't want their sandwiches and was about to throw it in the bin so I quickly cling wrapped the unwanted sandwiches and then gave it to the homeless people on the street. I think the school should actually have a separate box where the students can put their food there if they don't want it and then have the food given away to the homeless. I can't stand the sight of throwing away perfectly good food. 

Ah..... it was a tiring day but fulfilling nonetheless.