Friday 4 March 2011

Goodbye for now...


So, the last day of the Advanced Course has come and gone. Sad times. I do love a Cookery course. Anyway, we had a lot of get through. We had a kind of 'grazing' day set out for us, preparing dishes and then nibbling our way through them. We managed to fit all of this in; sushi, salmon gravalax, marinating cucumbers, venison, bacon lardons, polenta cake, tomato and dried cranberry vinaigrette, chilled lime and chocolate creams, valrhona chocolate truffles, decorated them, florentines and butter fingers. Phew!

Firstly, we made sushi. Regular readers of my blog will know how to make sushi as I detailed it in the month's Diploma blog entries. I experimented with different shapes this time, making some sushi balls (see photo). We then washed and dried the home cured bacon which I was so excited to try. We rolled it out thinly between two pieces of greaseproof paper and then slow cooked it in the oven, until really crispy and caramelised. Joe then showed us how to prep the venison and portion it up.
We whipped up the praline biscuits, which we were pros at because we had done them yesterday. Then Mat and I set to work on the butter fingers. You may wonder, 'what on earth goes into a butter finger?' and the answer is simple. A shed load of butter and naughty things, but they make one tasty biscuit! We had to pipe the mixture using a star shaped nozzle, but once they were in the oven, our artistic creations turned into normal shaped blobs. This is because our mixture was not stiff enough, but then if it was any stiffer, it would have been impossible to pipe. I think the answer is to pipe the biscuits and then to freeze them for half an hour or so to keep the shape in the oven.

Joe showed us how to make polenta cakes- be careful, when boiling it, it's rather volcanic! Someone was then volunteered to grate the expensive valrhona chocolate. We mixed the chocolate shavings with softly whipped cream, a lime syrup and creme fraiche. After marinating the cucumber and making the tomato and cranberry vinaigrette, it was almost time for lunch. We prepared our slow cooked venison first. It was sealed in a hot pan and then wrapped up tightly in a cling film sausage. Then it was put into a pre-heated oven at 60C for at least two hours. Now, I know what you're thinking. Two hours? 60C? What are they playing at?! Well I shall tell you. 60C is the perfect temperature for medium rare to medium meat. The heat slowly penetrates the meat so it is perfectly cooked throughout. Two hours is long enough for the meat to cook, but not overcook. It is then melt-in-the-mouth when you do
come to eat it as it has been bathed in heat, not aggressively scorched like regular pan frying. It is similar to cooking in a water bath, which is what the water bath simulates. Plus, it doesn't need any resting time as at 60C, it is already rested. Great dish for a dinner party, folks.

Lunch time!

Makizushi rolls and nigirizushi

Mmm mmm. I do love sushi. So refreshing with the pickled ginger. I stayed well clear of the wasabi. Nasty stuff!

Whilst we were digesting, we moved back into the kitchen to finish off the salmon pre-starter.
We diced our home made salmon gravalax and mixed it with greek yoghurt, lemon juice, and dill. We rested it on a bed of vinegar and sugar marinated cucumber.

It was really delicious. Quite simple, but really yummy. It was really light as well and I loved the slight sweetness from the yoghurt, contrasting with the salmon and cucumber.

After gobbling that up, we made some chocolate truffles using the left over ganache from Day 2. We dipped the truffles in cooled melted chocolate, decorated with white chocolate and set them in the fridge. Then it was time to prepare the main course. We made the cassis glaze, finished the vinaigrette, fried the polenta cakes to warm them through and then it was time to eat again!

Salmon gravalax, cucumber salad and greek yoghurt

Slow cooked medium rare loin of venison, home cured bacon lardons, cassis
glaze, polenta cake, green beans, tomato and dried cranberry vinaigrette

Ooo this was fabulous. The venison was incredible. I will definitely cook my meat like this again. It was pink all the way through, unlike pan frying methods where it is pink in the middle and darker shades until it gets to a brown outside. I really liked the vinaigrette too. It was lovely a sharp and cut through the rich venison. The polenta cake went well too. I haven't had polenta before, but I definitely will now. A nice alternative to potato.

The day was drawing to a close. We tidied up and finished off our pre-dessert and petit fours.

The pre-dessert was lovely. Not too intense from the chocolate as the lime cur through the richness and they went really well together.











Pre-dessert of chocolate and lime creams with mint fragments and gold leaf


Petit fours: hand-made valrhona chocolate truffles, praline biscuits, chocolate dipped florentines and butter fingers

Over our coffee and chocolates, we were presented with our certificates for the Advanced Course. We all said our goodbyes and exchanged emails. It is sad to say goodbye to new friends and Ashburton, but I'm sure I'll be back soon. I hear there's a Chef's Skills Advanced Plus course...

Thursday 3 March 2011

An offaly good day...


Sorry for the pun! Today was even busier than yesterday, if possible. We got so much done today; praline, shallot tart tatin, praline and white chocolate parfait, filleted a sea bass, poached some baby leeks, mustard vinaigrette, forty-day aged roast rib of beef, Florentines, praline biscuits, whipped truffle mash, wilted spinach, port and cardamom syrup, mystery soup challenge, balsamic veal glace, calves’ liver, sweetbreads, tempura batter and fig beignets.

The morning began with making some praline. We quickly roasted the hazelnuts in a hot oven to remove the skins as they taste bitter and made a caramel, tossing the naked hazelnuts and almonds through it. Joe and Rob showed us how to make the parfait, using the praline after it had been blitzed to a dust in the food processor. Then it was time to descale, behead, de-gut and fillet a sea bass. Did you know that it's illegal to take a sea bass out of the water if they're shorter than 30cm? It's cruel if they're any smaller as they're not old enough and haven't lived their life yet. So leave the babies alone! A good tip for descaling small fish is to put them into a plastic bag to catch all of the scales. I don't think my knife was sharp enough as when I was filleting the fish, it slipped and almost went into my hand. Lucky escape! We blanched some baby leeks and emulsified a mustard vinaigrette and by then, it was lunch time already!

Seabass carpaccio, baby gherkins, capers, poached baby leeks, micro cress and mustard vinaigrette

Lunch was surprisingly lovely. I wasn't so sure about the raw fish and mustard as I don't like mustard on its own. However, I was pleasantly surprised, I gobbled it all up! The sea bass was so fresh and sweet and the mustard vinaigrette went really well with the dish. The poached baby leeks were so delicious and intensely flavoured. All together, great.

After lunch, we started on the afternoon food. We attempted to make some florentines for petit fours tomorrow. Our florentines didn’t turn out that well, a bit holey. Our mixture seemed to be a bit wet when it went into the oven, but practice makes perfect! We also tried to make thin praline triangles to garnish the puddings. We did this by rolling then praline dust very thinly and melting the caramel in a hot oven to fuse together. Then we very carefully tried to triangles out of it. This proved more difficult than first thought because you had to get it to the right temperature as it was cooling, but not so cool that it cracked when cut. Anyway, after much frustration and re-re-heating and melting, we managed to get a few good ones for pudding presentation.

My sweet potato soup

Then it was time for the daily challenge. We could choose from various ingredients, so long as we created a…spoiler alert, the mystery is about to be revealed…sweet potato soup, all within half an hour. There was celery, a carrot, sweet potato, sweet potato, button mushrooms, shallots, garlic, cream, butter, oil, a chilli, a smoked bacon rasher and a selection of spices and herbs. I set to work to create a slightly spicy, creamy, sweet potato soup. I turned the bacon into a crispy lardons and used them as a garnish, along with some finely chopped chives. Once the thirty minutes were up, we gave a taster bowl to the judges, Rob and Joe and then swapped our soups with our partners to eat as a starter. Mat’s and my soups were both very similar and both very tasty indeed.

Mat's sweet potato soup

Afterwards, we got feedback on our soups. They said that mine was a good flavour with the salty bacon, nice, smooth texture, but needed more seasoning and more of a punch. When I was making it, I tasted, seasoned, tasted, seasoned and I thought it had enough in it. Oh well! It’s better to under season than over, as you can always add more if you wish.

Back into the kitchen to prepare the main course. Rob showed us how to take the membrane off the huge calf’s liver which he said could be used as a nice bracelet, hair band or even contraception. Lovely! Anyway, we pan fried the liver and sweetbreads, sliced the medium rare beef, warmed the potato puree, reduced the sauce, cooked the shallot tart tatin and plated up.


Well-aged roast rib of beef, calves liver, crisp sweetbread, shallot tart tatin, whipped truffle potato puree, balsamic veal glace and essence of truffle

This dish was a mix of scrumptious and not so good for me. The shallot tart tatin was mind-blowing. Sweet, sticky shallot with a puffy cup base to cradle the delicious contents. The beef was so tender, it literally just melted in my mouth. Mmm mmm. The potato was really wonderful. The truffle oil flavour was first, followed by sumptuously smooth, creamy mashed potato. I didn't, however, like the liver. I tried it with high hopes, but the after taste wasn't good. It was just too...'livery'. The sweetbread was alright. I didn’t like the texture, it was spongy and a bit like what I’d think brain would be like, but the taste was ok. If they were there, I’d eat them, but I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t have them again. Finally, it was time for pudding. We dropped the batter-coated figs into really hot corn oil (at least 200 degrees centigrade) and then plated up.

Iced praline and white chocolate parfait and tempura fig beignet with a cardamom and port syrup

The fig was beautiful, both in flavour and looks. The crispy, sweet cinnamon sugar encrusted tempura batter was wonderfully balanced against the soft, luscious fig. Simply marvellous. The syrup was intensely wonderful too. However, I didn't like the parfait. I tried a bit in hope, but the hazelnut flavour was just too strong and I really detest hazelnuts. Yuck!! It's not Ashburton's recipe's fault, in fact everyone who had it said how divine it was. I shall take their word for it. So, if you like praline and white chocolate, this is for you. I'll try the parfait as a normal white chocolate one, with no praline in it sometime soon. I'm sure it will be absolutely delicious.

Last day tomorrow. We’ll be eating our gravalax, our homemade bacon and venison. Yummy!

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Nine spring rolls and half duck later...


Gosh, today was busy! We got through a lot; picked crabs, raspberry puree, butchered whole ducks, braised its legs, dill mayonnaise, savoury orange jelly, palette test, spring rolls, seafood cocktails, raspberry sorbet, creme patisserie, duck leg pomme anne, celeriac puree, glazed young carrots, jasmine tea jus, raspberry souffle and raspberry smoothie.

The first job of the morning was to pick the crabs which were meatilicious, packed full of delicious, sweet meat. Once it was all done, we had to meticulously go through the white meat to check for shell. Michelin starred restaurants could lose a star if a customer found shell in their crab dish. Bad news indeed. Then we started to butcher our ducks. Our ducks were free-range peking ducks which were quite lean and had a nice layer of fat under the skin, but not too much. Enough for tastiness, but not enough for greasiness. Perfect. We trimmed off all the excess fat and rendered it down to make an Ashburton Cookery School record of 3 litres of fat which would cost you about £20/30 to buy. All as an extra from buying whole ducks. Bargain! The duck legs were then sealed in a hot pan and had vegetables, chicken stock, star anise and herbs added to it and went into a low oven for 3 to 4 hours to braise and become delicious.

Joe then gave us our daily challenge of a palette test. We had to taste some oriental spring roll filling and re-create it from a range of ingredients, some of which were used and some were there to throw us. My work partner, Mat and I worked together and got cracking. Ours was quite spicy and I don't normally like hot food, but it was very tasty. Joe was tasting everyone's to test for the right flavours for Asian style food (sweet, sour, salty, hot). He came round to us, tasted ours and said it was delicious and didn't need anything else. High five!

By the time we'd finished all that, it was time to prepare lunch. The spring roll filling was rolled up and deep fried and we whipped up a dill mayonnaise by hand. You can do it in a machine but making it by hand makes it much lighter. Good for a few portions, but not for a big dinner party! The prawns that we blanched yesterday were chopped up and we started to layer up the crab and prawn cocktail in cocktail glasses. Cocktail and cocktail, geddit?! Brown and white crab meat, tiger prawns, diced cucumber, sun-blushed tomatoes, dill mayonnaise, caviar and edible flowers were used to make a delicious lunch.

Crab and tiger prawn cocktail, dill mayonnaise and edible flowers with hot oriental crab and bean sprout spring rolls

The cocktail was very good indeed. The dill mayonnaise was particularly tasty. The dill and lemon juice in it made it really fresh and light. I loved the spring rolls and ended up eating all nine of mine. I didn't want them to go to waste after all. They fell into my mouth! I felt completely stuffed afterwards and definitely regretted eating so many when we were preparing supper. Oof! The only off-putting thing about the crab mayonnaise was that even though Mat and I went through the white crab meat three times, we ended up with at least ten bits of shell between us. It was a little disappointing as it made the cocktail more like a chore than a pleasure. The flavours were delicious though. I just needed to go through the crab meat more times. Or get a UV light which shows up all of the shell.

Back in the kitchen for duck cooking and raspberry pureeing. Joe had already showed us how to make the celeriac puree, so we started on the pomme anna. We cut a Maris Piper potato with a tall ring cutter and then sliced it thinly. We used Maris Piper potatoes because they will absorb the flavours around it. If you used a baking potato, it wouldn't absorb any flavour as it's too waxy. We created a kind of potato cake by layering potato slices and shredded, braised duck leg until there were 5 layers and gently cooked it in clarified butter. It was then finished off in the oven. We made a savoury orange jelly, to accompany the duck, using the vegetarian alternative to gelatine, agar agar. The magic of agar agar is that it sets at room temperature and won't melt when on a hot plate. The jelly consistency was more like turkish delight than say a jelly you would have at children's parties.

Roast duck breast with layered braised duck leg Pomme Anna, celeriac puree, glazed young carrots, orange jelly, duck crackling, micro cress and jasmine tea and port jus

The dish was amazing. I think it's even topped the confit salmon of yesterday as my favourite savoury dish so far. The orange jelly was a bizarre concept, but once you get your head round the idea, it was brilliant with the duck. The star anise gave it a lovely spice and the bittersweet orange cut through the rich duck. And then the crispy duck skin. Yum! I enjoyed the duck leg pomme anna. It should be good being cooked in clarified butter! The celeriac puree was heavenly and the jus was lightly perfumed from the jasmine tea but wasn't overpowering. Everything together was fabulous. I'd definitely do it again. And will be very soon!
Joe then showed us how to make the raspberry smoothie and souffle. The trick to a good souffle is to keep calm, don't panic and don't knock the air out of it when you put it into the oven! If you brush the butter upwards in the ramekin, it will help guide the souffle upwards when in the oven. Tip time: once the souffle comes out of the oven, dust a layer of icing sugar on the top and it will form a crust to help prevent it from sinking. Collapsed souffles no more!

Trio of raspberry puddings: raspberry souffle, raspberry sorbet with mint fragments and raspberry smoothie with a vanilla foam

Overall it was an explosion of tangy raspberry, refreshing mint, cool sorbet and hot souffle. Divine indeed. The souffle was lovely, light and sweet and the smoothie was a refreshing relief against the sweetness of the other elements as it was slightly tart and the vanilla foam was delicious. The mint fragments were superb with the ice cool freshness of the tangy, sparkling raspberry sorbet. It's difficult to say which part of the pudding was my favourite, but if I had to choose, I think the sorbet was the best part. Fabulous.

Definitely a lot has happened today. Goodness me! It was the longest day so far as we've been finishing at about 5.30pm each day, but today we didn't finish until 6.10pm. All worth it though. Tomorrow, we're filleting a whole sea bass and making a chocolate parfait with tempura fig. Bring it on!

Tuesday 1 March 2011

And it tasted like velvet



Day 2 of the advanced course was quite busy. Today, we whipped up some home made streaky bacon, pecan shortbread, a paysanne vegetable challenge, parsnip ice cream, sweet parsnip crisps, saffron pasta, morel mushroom and chicken mousseline, chicken consommé, cooked some crabs and blanched some tiger prawns, both in preparation for tomorrow, confit salmon in a vanilla spiced oil, intense prawn sauce, shellfish chowder and marinaded some salmon to make gravalax. Phew!

One of the tasks for the morning was the paysanne vegetable challenge. “Paysanne” means pretty shapes so our task was to chop a carrot, leek, celery stick and green beans thinly, neatly and they needed to be beautiful. We had to present them in four piles of each vegetable and take them up to Rob to be judged. (There seems to be a running theme of judging so far). I chopped up my veggies and took them to Rob who gave me a 9½ out of 10. I was very pleased. I wonder what the half mark was lost for?!

We got the chicken consommé going and then we got started on the pasta as a garnish for the consommé for lunch. It was a saffron pasta dough that was bright yellow. Some saffron strands were dry toasted, boiled with some water and reduced by half to give a natural food colouring. You could experiment with pasta flavourings and colours, such as squid ink to make black pasta, spinach to make green pasta and sun dried tomatoes to make red pasta. Once it was made, we left it in the fridge to rest to relax the gluten and make sure that when rolled, it won’t shrink. Then we cracked on with the stuffing for the pasta; a minced chicken, cream and morel mushroom mousseline. It was time then to roll the pasta, cut it, fill it and shape it. Rob showed us how to make farfalle and tortellini. He taught us a trick when rolling pasta. You create a continuous loop whilst the dough sheet is in the machine and use a rolling pin to help it keep moving. Clever stuff!


Time for lunch. The paysanne veggies were blanched and refreshed, ready for the soup and the pasta only took a minute to two minutes to cook through and then we laid the veg, pasta parcels and some chopped chives in a bowl and ladelled the lovely clear broth on top. Rob offered us a drizzle of truffle oil on top. Some chefs would laugh at you putting oil on top of a consommé as you've just spent a couple of hours getting the grease out of a soup and then you put some back into it. However, it was a flavoured oil and more of a garnish than accidental grease left in it. So I put some in and it not only tasted great, but added some sparkling, golden jewels to the top of the soup.

Chicken consommé with paysanne vegetables, morel and chicken mousseline stuffed farfalle and tortellini pasta and a drizzling of truffle oil

In the afternoon we got on with the pecan shortbread. I'm allergic to peanuts, not pecans, but I try to stay clear of all nuts, just in case. Luckily for me, there was another person in the group who was allergic to nuts, so we paired up and made our plain shortbread biscuits, substituting the pecans for the same weight of flour. Rob had told us all that the biscuits may spread slightly when cooked, so when they come out of the oven it was advisable to re-cut the biscuits so they look refined and neat. Unfortunately for our biscuits, disaster struck. We’re not sure why, but our biscuits spread massively and ended up with a honeycomb texture and were so delicate and crumbly. They were nice, but a bit disappointing that they didn’t work. Anyway, I managed to get a few successful ones for my pudding presentation. I guess the recipe relies on the nuts to keep the biscuit together. Oh well, you learn from experience.

We then prepared for the salmon and chowder dish in a Heston Blumenthal style moment. The spiced vanilla oil had to be heated to exactly 56 degrees centigrade, then the salmon was submerged in the liquid, brought back up to 56 degrees, turned off and left for 25 minutes to confit. This would cook it enough for consumption but also made it a wonderful texture and go almost translucent. Whilst the salmon rested, we put together the chowder using shallots, garlic, butter, cream, white wine, noilly prat, mussels, clams, prawn liquor, pancetta, sweet potato, chervil, lemon juice and seasoning.

Slow cooked ‘salmon pave’ in spiced vanilla oil and scallop coral powder with a chowder of clams, mussels, pancetta, sweet potato, shallots and garlic in a shellfish and chervil emulsion

The salmon was seriously, scrumptiously divine. The best salmon I've ever had. It was so velvety in texture and lightly spiced from the vanilla oil. You wouldn’t think that vanilla would go with fish, but no no my friend, you are wrong. They are best buddies. Why not give it a go yourself? Not only was the fish fabulous, but everything else in the dish was superb. The bright red coral powder was the epitome of scallop and the chowder was amazing. The prawn liquor made from the prawn shells really lifted the sauce and I liked the addition of the pancetta. If you like shellfish, I recommend this dish. It’s simply sublime. After this flavour sensation, it was back into the kitchen for pudding construction, followed by demolition.

We had already made the parsnip ice cream from a custard base and pureed parnsip earlier in the day. We built up the pudding, starting with the quenelle of chocolate ganache and sprinkled it with a little salt and gold leaf. To stop the biscuits from sliding around the plate, we used some creme fraiche, but you could use clotted cream. Rob told us that some restaurants even use a tiny bit of mashed potato. Not so sure on that one. Parsnip ice cream is radical enough for me, let alone mash!

Quenelle of bitter chocolate ganache on a shortbread biscuit, drizzled with white chocolate, maldon sea salt, edible gold leaf, parsnip ice cream and parsnip crisps

The taste of the pudding was wonderful. Firstly you get a hit of the intense salt, which then led into the smooth, velvety, dark chocolate ganache, the crunch of the shortbread and parsnip crsip, the sweetness and creaminess of the parsnip ice cream and then back to the salt. It was really good. The gold leaf didn’t really taste of much. I think it was more there for wow factor. It would be better of course with a solid biscuit rather than a honeycomb one, but I loved how the natural sweetness of the parsnip was used. The ganache was to die for too, definitely worth the £40 per kilo chocolate. It was bittersweet, but not harsh like cheaper dark chocolates can be and so so smooth it was unbelievable. Perfect for truffles.

And that was it for day 2 of the advanced course. Almost half way through, boo! But tomorrow promises delights of a trio of raspberry puddings and ‘pomme anna’ using slices of potato and braised duck leg. Come back tomorrow for delicious details.