Lesson 22; crunchy veggies, fusion cuisine and macarons ! yummie !!

This was a strange lesson; For a starter, chef Terrien made crunchy vegetables with peas and a peppermint sorbet, for mains he called the dish fusion cuisine, combining Spanish, Asian and French influences and for dessert chef made typical French macaroons....... strange combinations indeed !

The starter could be used in the exam. Since 'a soup' is on the exam list, we could make a pea soup. The trick is to shell all (!) the peas for more flavour (or press the cooked peas through a drum sieve). The crunchy vegetables are served cold, so I guess the soup is also served cold (with the sorbet.) - but I can't really remember....

Then the interesting fusion dish. Roasted thick cod fillet, gazpacho with basil and eggplant paupiettes. This was nice. Very tasty and easy to make. This was also our practical, and I ate it all !
It looks a bit messy on the plate; Plating skills...

We used one aubergine to make the stuffing for the second aubergine..... as you do... So, put one scored aubergine with slices of garlic in it and some olive oil/salt/thyme in the oven at 180 degC for about 20 minutes - when done, scoop out the flesh and put that with some sauteed onion and breadcrumbs in slices of sauteed aubergine. Roll it up and keep warm. Tasty!
The vegetable skewers that go with it are funny. Cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, chorizo (?!), bell pepper and courgette on a skewer. Interesting combination. The gazpacho was nice. Basically, you put everything in a blender and cool it down. Served luke-warm.
All these strange combinations actually tasted very good. I've made the main course already at home. Nice!

Macaroons; Or macarons. Tricky. Frustrating. Chef said he wasn't that good with it, but I think he did a great job. Nice and smooth batter and the end-result was a great dessert. We've tried to make macaroons at home last week. 5 times already..... and most of it went straight into the bin ! I mean, it was edible, but the shape and consistency was way off. Bugger. We have to try again, it's becoming frustrating now. But I will succeed in making a proper macaroon!

You only need powdered sugar, ground almonds, some egg whites and normal sugar to make a macaroon. So it can't be that difficult. Well, it is!
Chef served this with fennel ice cream. Fennel ice cream??? Yes, and it tasted surprisingly delicious.
Thank you chef for an interesting tasting.
Until next time!

Today and last week; Jayne in Paris! Lessons/market tour.

Let me start with today, and the things that happened last week;
We only had a 3 'o clock practical today - fish; cod with veggies. An easy dish to prepare and actually quite nice. I just finished that for dinner ! (after having a few beers with Levi from last year's intermediate class).
The practical went really well. I was first to plate and chef T. liked it. My gazpacho, French style, was really tasty. And the HUGE piece of fish was nice. I took most of it home (uncooked) to put it in the freezer. And I also found a few pieces of super-steak (beef) in the fridge from the group before us..... what can you do..... you just take it home! Right?
And this morning I met Audrey, from Amsterdam, whom I met at LCB Ams a while ago, with a few of her friends. They are in Paris for a few days and they booked a demo with the intermediate class. Thank God that chef Thivet was in charge and not chef Caals. Caals is great, but quite often he can be 'a bit hectic'..... to say the least. Afterwards we had a nice glass of wine in the local cafe near the school.

And finally Jayne was here for a few days! Yippee!! It took her a while to get here; 6 weeks.... She missed her birthday in Paris because she was stranded in Cork, Ireland, for a week because of some volcano... She arrived last Wednesday evening and left yesterday late afternoon. We had a great time together. Lots and lots to talk about, some nice restaurants, some good cafes, we cooked together, Jayne baked bread (with eggs in it and without... ha,ha). And we also went to the 'chef invite' at LCB together to follow a demonstration about catering. Chef Roger Raymond of 'Duval traiteur' (yes, click on the link please, it's nice!) did a demo about a 'smoothy de tomate' (please say out look in French...), scallops with a purple spud puree and a tuna and daikon 'thing'. It was very nice actually. In 3 weeks (on exam day) time, Jayne willl be back in Paris! 31st May. I'm looking forward to it already!

What did we do in school last week? Let me see - lesson 19-22. And we went to Rungis, the world famous biggest food market in ze world. That was a nice day out; Get on the bus at the school at 6.30 and be back at 13.00. Interesting tour.

Let me get back on the lessons we did some other time. It's a bit too much for now.... sorry.

Rungis;
some pictures; getting dressed for the freezer, beef, cheese, vegetables and flowers. Breakfast in one of the 21 restaurants on site.

Artichokes; the trauma of many in basic cuisine...

Until tomorrow.