Week 3 of the diploma course drew to a close today. Nasty weather- it didn't stop raining the whole day! Joe was back with us today, setting us a canape challenge. Before the impending panic of canape making, we prepared a scallop starter. There was a worry that we wouldn't be able to have any scallops today- the divers don't go out when it rains as it breaks up the sea bed and makes it harder to hand pick them. Our scallops were hand picked. Most scallops are aggressively trawled, using nets to pull the scallops off the sea floor. This damages the sea bed and apparently takes seven years to recover! These scallops cost about 50p each, whereas hand dived ones cost about 80p each. You're paying for the divers' time, but it's more economically friendly.
I've never opened scallops before. so it was exciting to see how it's done. Quite simple, it turns out. You just need some force and need to be careful that you don't cut the scallop in half. Some of the scallops were still pulsating when I had cut them out of the shell. Another fact for you- you can tell a girl scallop from a boy scallop by seeing how big the coral is on them. The coral is the orange roe bit of them. If it's large, plump and bright orange, it's a girl. Did you know that scallops can change their sex if they wish?
We made a pea purée, simply by blitzing some cooked peas in a blender and adding a squeeze of lemon juice and my good friends, salt and pep. We also made a saffron foam- very cheffy. Then it was time for the pudding preparation, a tart tatin with a caramel sauce. Mmm mmm! We flambeed the apple slices in some brandy- very impressive, seeing the pan flame up- you can just about see the flames in the photo. We then laid them out in a pretty pattern in some really cute little individual tart cases. Then we tucked the apples in for the night with a duvet of puff pastry and left it to rest before cooking. The caramel sauce was made, simply mix some caramel made from melted sugar with some double cream. Extremely healthy! Before the canape challenge, it was time for the starter.
Pan fried scallops with a pea purée and saffron foam
Then it was time to turn up the heat in the kitchen for the canape challenge. The challenge was to make two canapes per team of two and we had a time limit of an hour. Margaret and I were assigned the job of making the parmesan cheese straws and teriyaki chicken skewers. We quickly devised a plan on what needed to be done and when and successfully whipped the canapes up. It was great to see everyone doing something different and it all coming together at the end. Then it was time to eat! We had ten different canapes to munch on. They were cheese straws, blue cheese and sesame biscuits, smoked salmon pinwheels, sausage and mash, mini yorkshire puddings with rare venison, parmesan crisps, bread tartlets with mediterranean vegetables with halved soft boiled quails' eggs, chicken teriyaki skewers, mini filo pastry tarts with avocado crab and mini puff pastry olive tapenade and tomato tarts. All so tasty and simple to do. Now I have some great ideas of what to make, other than the classic cheese and pineapple on a stick and cocktail sausages.
For the last time this week, it was pudding time, and boy it was good! We did some caramel work, manipulating the caramel into different shapes. I even managed to form an accidental flower. The caramel went everywhere. A very messy affair. It even got into my top 3 of my favourite puddings. Number 1 being the lemon tart, number 2, the treacle tart and number 3, the tart tatin. I think there's a theme of pastry growing here!
I'm looking forward to the last week of the course. I expect it to be pretty busy. We're doing our mystery boxes, wine tasting, healthy-eating day, sushi, exam...and much more. Then, next Friday, it will all be over. Boohoo! Maybe I'll just do all the courses at ACS and blog forever!
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