BEST WEEK EVER! Why? Here’s why…
x2 Pasta dishes
x1 Chocolate and Ice Cream Dessert
x1 Rabo de Toro with croquetas de patata y queso (there is Mash, so it’s great)
x1 Coriander Spheres along with some Dried out Coriander for garnish
x1 amazing Pie!
So now that we have gone through the list of what I consumed at class, let’s take it day to day.
Monday:
Surprise Beverage test… damn… Of all things I read through in the holidays, Beverages was not one of them. And I would have thought I know everything about MCC by now, I drink it enough, but I realised that I do not know what a Muselet is. Oh, you don’t know? It is the wire part on a Champagne Bottle that keeps the cork in the bottle. Oh, and there is a process named ‘riddling’. Thanks Gavin for informing me.
After aging the bottles undergo a process known as riddling (remuage in French). In this stage the bottles are placed on special racks called ‘pupitres’. The person that places the bottles in the racks is called the riddler. Each bottle is then marked on its base; generally that of a white line. On a daily basis, the riddler must turn each bottle a few degrees. After placing each bottle at a 45 degree angle with the cork pointing down. The shake and twist is intended to dislodge particles that have clung to the glass and prevent the sediments from caking in one spot; the tilt and drop encourage the particles, assisted by gravity, to move downward towards the neck; the time in between riddlings allows the particles to settle out of solution again. In about 6 to 8 weeks the position of the bottle is pointed straight down with sediment in the neck of the bottle.
http://gavinhubble-wineblogs.blogspot.co.za/2009/12/riddling.html
Tuesday:
I just got the best news. We are making Lasagna today. For someone that does not eat Cheese I always envy people that order Lasagna because you can never order it at a restaurant without Cheese. Here is my opportunity for me to have a delicious, Cheese-free, Lasagna. For my 2nd concern, my Lasagna is always very saucy. I enjoy a saucy Lasagna very much but when serving it to a stranger there is no explaining why the Lasagna is saucy or that it is Saucy because I never want to throw away any liquids with flavouring in it to keep my dish as tasty as possible. Luckily there is a trick for this…
Ramekins! When I saw the Ramekins I thought it is a bit small to serve but I stuffed that Ramekin and it is actually a big enough serving, especially if you add something on the side.
I enjoyed my Lasagna, and for once it was not that saucy. Great! Like I said, I stuffed those Ramekins, you’d be surprised to know how much food fits in there. Sauce Pasta ratio wise I did a good job, if I say so myself.
Even without Cheese this Lasagna looks yummy… and it was!
Wednesday:
Today I played ‘scientist’. Chef told me I am making Coriander Spheres. How exciting! I don’t know what those are but let me pretend… which is difficult because if Chef leaves it to you and you don’t know what you are making… it is difficult. So, annoyingly, I kept asking Chef what the next step is, or if it looks fine, ALL THE TIME!
First I had to blanche the Coriander, to get it that nice and bright green steamed Veggies go. One of my favourite colours to eat. After this I blended it with quite a bit of water and then I had this beautiful green liquid, smelling of Coriander and the dash of Lime Extract I added. I was a bit scared to just add flavouring because I didn’t know what the scientific complications would be, but judging by the meal the group was preparing, no one was going to eat my Coriander Spheres. After this I squeezed all the liquid through a hairnet. The remainder of the Coriander I spread onto a baking sheet and dried out, kinda looked like grass. I just thought, “Why not?” Something else to bring to the plate.
Now came the science… I had to add the Alginate to the Coriander Water and add Calcium Lactate to cold water. The Alginate made the Water a little Jelly. Then I took a syringe and started dropping Coriander into the Calcium Lactate Water. Uh… it looked a bit… uh… weird… At first I was scared to touch it but then I thought I might as well touch the ones that did not come out as spheres… which in the end were all of them. Or should I say none of them? Some of them were small little balls, some of them were long strings of goo, when I slightly lost control of the syringe, and some of them were droplets.
I tried to get the droplets because it looked pretty but they just didn’t want to do what I wanted them to do. Oh well, let’s hope it looks cute in the plate. I still wasn’t sure what the results were suppose to be.
As soon as we started plating it started to look very complicated, on the plate there was:
Cous Cous, Lamb Stew, Chicken Supreme, Rainbow Carrots, Parsnip Puree, Harissa Paste, Aubergine Ash, and then of course all the greens are my Coriander science.
Pretty, isn’t it?
I just want to add that in this busy day I bought a Pie made by the Bakery group and it was so delicious, so meaty, and massive.
Thursday:
HAPPINESS! We are making Alfredo… Yes! Pasta! Pasta! Pasta! My soul mate Pasta! Today was a bit cold so a Creamy plate of Pasta is just what I would have ordered if I were in fact at a restaurant for lunch. Usually I don’t like the Ham too much which is perfect because today we only made it with Mushroom and Garlic. Chef also informed us that we will be marked on plating. Now, usually I do not like hearing that, today I enjoyed it, I wanted to make a pretty plate and I like the concept of garnishing with the ingredients that are in the dish. Mushroom and Garlic… I saw a cute little Mushroom and cut it and fried it so that the very familiar shape of the Mushroom looked nice and brown, and then I did the same with the Garlic. BTW, if you love Garlic and Cream, you must come visit me and I will serve you an amazingly rich meal.
Sauce is done, Pasta has been made, now the rolling out is going to start. So today we all shared a batch of Pasta with our neighbouring chef-to-be’s. We rolled out the first piece and due to my error we rolled out Spaghetti instead of Fettuccini. Within seconds my neighbour decided we will also use that as garnish, but how? Deep-fry it! Then I tried to be a little bit MORE creative… I made a little bow. Needles to say, it tasted great (dough deep-fried obviously does) and looked a bit cute. Thus the Parsley leaf under it to give a little colour and to emphasize the bow. Oh yes, the dish also has Parsley in, I got so excited about the other ingredients that I almost forgot about the Parsley.
I will admit that I struggled to finish my Pasta… I couldn’t believe that I could not finish a Pasta meal, but I struggled through it and vowed I would never eat again.
Until one of my classmates kept informing me how good the Dessert of the day looked. It looked good, so good that when we went to look at the Dessert we just automatically fell into the line to buy the Dessert. It was delicious!
(Chocolate Lava with Vanilla Ice Cream)
Friday:
Spanish day! The day of Rabo de Toro, served with Croquetas de Patata Y Queso, Pimientos de Padron filled with a bit of Alioli, the Spanish version of Aioli. It comes from the Catalan words’ main ingredients, all (garlic), i (and), and oli (oil). I would suggest you roast the Garlic first before you chop it up and use it in the Sauce. For this meal I decided to add a few Spanish Tapas together. Obviously there had to be a form of Mash with the Oxtail (Rabo de Toro) so I decided that we will make the Croquetas and filled them with the Alioili Sauce. Originally Rabo de Toro is the tail of the Bull killed in the Plaza de Toro. We placed the Oxtail in a pressure cooker for an hour and then in a pot with a bottle of Red Wine and some Sherry in and let it simmer for another 3 hours. Unfortunately we did not have Pimientos for the dish but we used Green Peppers that we cut in 1/8ths then fried in Olive Oil then cracked some Salt over it. When we dished the meal we added one or two of the bones so that people can see they are indeed eating Oxtail since it was so soft that it slipped off the bone.
What do you think?
I ordered 2 for dinner so that I can share our lunch we made and I am going to brag… there was nothing left.
A great week indeed!
FarciduPreez 