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.
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