So it was “breath of wind” day and I made my little vol au vents using Tuesday's puff pastry – small, medium and large and the filling to go with them, that incredible apple compote and Calvados pastry cream filling and then had to issue myself with a restraining order to stay away from it. The little pastry guys came out really well, I thought I’d overcooked them but in the end they were just perfect, so crispy and light, dead pleased. Lunch was a shocker, willpower of note required to last the hour without eating my annual allowance of pastry in one sitting, everyone’s “food babies” (the size of your tummy and how many months along you seem to be have become a frequent subject of discussion) had a field day, not good.
I made the smoked chicken salad too, not much to it to be honest since the funky bit of actually smoking the chicken had already been done but still, made for a delish lunch along with the tuna, I wasn’t down to make that but thankfully my partner was so managed a plate of that too, better than scoffing pastry at any rate.
Practiced brandy snaps as well since I’ve put them on my final exam menu without actually having made them before but they came out a treat although my timing estimate for them is slightly off – I’ve a sinking feeling that might be the case all round, definitely going to have to add a shot of speed to everything I do...................
And for my bread hit of the day I made ciabatta and my word it’s good and one of my favourites because the machine has to do all the work – far too wet and sticky a dough to knead by hand so it’s a Kenwood job, my kind of bread. It really is just the business, so pleased with the end result and for once I reckon it came out better than the Woollies version that I normally buy at home – the same cannot be said of the rest of my breads, most of which could sink a battleship but this one was a dream, YAY!
Demo was with Darina and sadly it was mostly deep fry day which so doesn’t bode well for lunch tomorrow – why is it that everything that goes into the deep fryer tastes amazing and yet because you know where it spent the last five minutes, it comes with a massive side helping of guilt??
We did a few types of batter, one with beer and a couple of other slightly lighter ones too and then popped an assortment of fish and seafood into them, quick detour via the deep fat fryer and then onto a plate to make up a classic Italian Fritto Misto de Mare, yum – there was sole, haddock, squid, mussels, monkfish and highlight of the day, scampi, such an 80s throwback but WOW, it’s good, we made it with huge Dublin Bay prawns, they’re not actually from the Bay, I’ve no idea why they’re called that but wearing a thick overcoat of crispy batter they were heaven on a plate. It is winter after all so even prawns need a bit of extra cover you see.
Classic tartare sauce followed, about a hundred times better than the manky stuff you normally get at fish restaurants, a tomato, chilli and avocado salsa that almost set my mouth on fire, OMG the chillies are hot at the moment, volcanically, scud missile hot and then all the traditional accompaniments – chips of every size and good old mushy peas with mint. We also made some wicked little crab cakes, spiced up with the aforementioned chilli weapons, a touch of coriander and served with homemade sweet chilli sauce, so good.
For starters we did traditional French onion soup which I adore, takes bloody ages to make, it’s those lazy onions and their “we’ll caramelise when we’re good and ready” thing again but topped with a crispy cheesy crouton, it really is just the business.
And for pud it was all types of mousses, tangerine, orange and another chocolate version, the tangerine worked for me in a big way, really good. And more chocolate cups to put them all in to – painting those was going to be a huge drag I thought but I did a few last week when we made the handmade choccies and it’s actually therapeutic in a big way, lovely.
No comments:
Post a Comment