* Muscat de Beaumes de Venise + Soleil Indien (pineapple/cream) = good combo
* Pineau des Charentes + Equateur (coffee dacquoise with creme brûlée) = wine tastes more alcoholic with dessert
* Gérard Bertrand Banyuls + San Marco (chocolate/pistachio) = good combo, maybe better with plain dark chocolate
* Champagne Pommery + pâte de fruit (fruit jellies) = all the sugar kills the champagne :(
The rest of the week was covered in chocolate, save a few hours of cuisine and restaurant service. Because of the long weekend, however, some of my classmates extended their breaks and missed Monday. I have to admit that with just 6 of us in class (normally 10), it was amazing. We didn't have to necessarily work in partners, things were so much more decontracté (relaxed), and it just felt like I could breathe and take it easy.
We started that Monday afternoon making the mise en place for an anise/cinnamon ganache, then continued onto a praline milk chocolate & pâte de fruit number, rolled balls for the palet or and truffes au whisky, and finished with a colorful molded one with apples and caramel inside.
spreading the Anis cannelle ganache in the molds
yellow and red cocoa butter
covering the Hespérides (red and yellow molds) with chocolate
baiser volé before it's cut
We cut and finished all of the chocolates on Tuesday morning, before our cuisine class that afternoon, where we made a delicious volaille & foie gras (chicken and foie gras). We seasoned and stuffed the thigh with foie gras/asparagus and steamed them, while we pan-fried the chicken breasts and let them cook in a little broth. We also prepared mini veggies to accompany the dish, which we got to take home (= dinner for the whole next week...).
la guitare used to cut the chocolates
my squares of chocolates before dipping them
close-up of the baiser volé - milk chocolate praline under a layer of fruit jelly
And on to the savory...
la guitare used to cut the chocolates
my squares of chocolates before dipping them
close-up of the baiser volé - milk chocolate praline under a layer of fruit jelly
pan frying the foie gras...
foie gras with white asparagus and fresh raspberries (the best part!)
deboned chicken thigh seasoned and stuffed with asparagus, foie gras, and herbs before rolling up to steam
chicken thigh with spring veggies
chicken breast with peas and mushrooms and a delicious cream sauce
Wednesday was a day of just dipping the millions of chocolates that we had made. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), we made enough chocolates for the people who were absent on Monday, and yet I still ended up dipping a double batch of the ganache chocolates... at least I got extra practice?? Tempering the chocolate and making sure it was kept at the right temperature (31°C) was difficult, but once that frustrating experience was over, the actual process of dipping the chocolate was quite fun.
assembly line to double dip the truffes au whisky before rolling in cocoa powder
palet or filled with coffee-flavored ganache and decorated with fun transfers
my tray of dipped chocolates, from top to bottom: ganache, baiser volé (ones with several horizontal stripes on them), and palermes (with the hazelnuts on top)... plus some.
one of my favorites of the batch - palerme
Hespérides filled with apples and caramel... a little too much liqueur for me!
Lunch service on Thursday comprised of prepping two different desserts (a pineapple carpaccio and a feuilleté fruits with ice cream and fresh berries) and boxing our chocolates.
all the berries for the feuilleté fruits
feuilleté fruits: puff pastry filled with creme chibouste pistache and fresh berries... delish!
I spent all of restaurant service making these cigarettes... you can only bake about a dozen at a time because you have to quickly shape them once they come out of the oven
Carpaccio d'ananas (pineapple) with lime sorbet and topped with my cigarettes (making even just the garnish to top off the dessert is time consuming!)
and just a close-up of my cigarettes ;)
palmiers!!
Friday was Boulangerie class where we got to make specialty breads! It was by far my favorite boulangerie class, as we all got to make individual recipes and try them all. Although the room was a humid 26°C, and we were sweating to no end, it was a great class. We had plenty of time to complete our recipes and it was fun to do something different for a change. While some people brought in their own recipes, I went into class with the vision of making a bread with cheese... I flipped through some of Chef's books and once I saw Khachapuri, a cheesy bread from Georgia (the country), I knew I had to make it. Chef had an abundance of ingredients to choose from, but I kept mine simple with an emmental/cantal cheese blend, dotted with sundried tomatoes and minced garlic.... oh SO yummy, fresh out of the oven!
Khachapuri, fresh out of the oven
close-up of Khachapuri
and a final view of the inside (see all the melted cheese in the middle??)
salted and herbed focaccia (delicious the next morning toasted with butter!)
chocolate croissants (with chocolate dough)
nut and raisin bread?
onion and sun-dried tomato bread... so soft and yummy!
a glimpse back home... bagels!
a variety of fig/apricot, walnut/raisin, and sun-dried tomato... and maybe a batch of roquefort mixed in the basket as well...
the pizza I so carefully decorated while I waited for my Khachapuri to rest (anchovy lovers on the left side!)
Melon Pain (Japanese) -- note: there's no melon inside, it's just called that because of its shape -- a nice sweet alternative from our savory breads
Our picnic in the park that night seemed like the typical Parisian boulanger's Friday night... wine + fresh bread - how could you go wrong?
the first time I made a cheese/bread...in SF...and the bread was one from Georgia...in a large shape bao. Melting cheese inside, baked in a pie pan. Sooooo delicious. isn't that weird?
ReplyDelete