Real life

As I very proudly announced to the world, I had the amazing opportunity to work under a very well known and respected, at least in his industry, chef - Paul gayler, who is currently the head chef at the lanesborough hotel in London.
I was so excited to get some real work experience in a kitchen, see how it is all run, how everything is prepared on the other side of the wall from where I usually am seated.
I have cooked all my life, I would say I am a relatively good amateur chef,i have eaten all kind of cuisines, in some of the best restaurants in the world. I was very excited to have been given this opportunity.
And gosh was it nothing I could ever have imagined. I actually peeled about 500 eggs yesterday! Is that what my job is gonna look like after cordon bleu training? Peeling eggs and turning artichokes? 10 h on my feet in a Michelin star kitchen to shovel down overcooked pasta in the canteen within 10 min... Yes that was pretty much the extent of my break. A coffee and a cigarette. Never I my life have I been so tired when I finally got home. Passed out within 10 min of getting home and putting my feet up. Maybe it was the well deserved and desired glass of wine that knocked me out, but it does not surprise me some chefs become alcoholics!
I didn't even mind peeling those eggs or being exposed to the lovely smell of 50kg of fresh from 9 in the morning but when a bunch of uneducated losers with a superiority complex kept looking for shitty jobs for me to do I occasionally had the urge to have a slip of the knife or pick that bloody seabass up and snack somebody in the face with it. I guess all of this is part of climbing the professional ladder.
Taking a deep breath and jumping on the next opportunity, raymond blanc, let's see how this will turn out:)

More macaroons

Since I successfully made my own macaroons the other day it has become an obsession. All i think about are macaroons, flavors, colors!
SO here are some more macaroons and flavor combinations on my mind, especially with christmas lurking around the corner:
Vanilla with crushed pistachio on top and pistachio creme patissiere, Gingerbread cream and bronze dust, praline filling and hazelnut decoration, redm white, green colors, chestnut cream filling, mandarin filling, dark red macaroon with chocolate ganache filling and a cherry in the middle...

Macaroons

Macaroons are to patisserie what a chanel bag is to fashion. These delightful, small, chewy mouthfuls of heaven are what everyone wants to put their hand on and lick off their fingers.

In terms of baking, they have been my everest. The numerous books and articles i read, the different ingredients and methods i used, the endless attempts to make a perfect macaroon... and nothing. ALL the things that can go wrong, you name it, have happened to me. Discoloration, cracking, lack of a "pied", too dry, not cooked enough... all of them. And im one of the most stubborn people one can ever meet. I do not give up and never surrender to failure or defeat. I was trying, trying to correct my mistakes, but every bloody time something else went wrong. So, after i had wasted enough ingredients, i decided to sign up for a macaroon class.

So today the spell have been broken and i finally succeeded. Under the supervision of a professional patisserie chef but never mind. I made my own, beautiful batch of macaroons.

Im gonna write this recipe as straight forward as i can, although its really not a straight forward recipe and add a little square of tips and tricks at the end that i learnt today.

I'm giving you recipes for 3 different fillings, three different kinds of fillings which you can change around as you wish. 

Macaroon Shells
250g ground almonds
350g icing sugar
215g (7-8) egg whites
150g caster sugar

Fillings:
Salted Butter Caramel filling:
170g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
140ml double cream
pinch of salt

Vanilla Cream filling:
250ml milk
Vanilla pod
3 egg yolks
30g corn flour
100g caster sugar
100ml double cream

Lemon Buttercream filling:
50g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 lemon, juice and zest


Making the macaroon shell:
1. Preheat the oven to 160C
2. Whisk up the egg whites slightly and add the caster sugar in one go. Keep whisking until you have a stiff and glossy meringue mixture.
3. Mix the icing sugar and ground almonds together and sieve the mixture. Make sure you have a very fine, lump free powder.
4. Incorporate 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the meringue with 5 big movements. Don't press the meringue, fold it in, keeping the meringue mix as airy as possible. Scoop from the bottom and fold.
5. Add the rest and of the dry mix and fold until you end up with a smooth and shiny mixture.

6. Fill a piping bag with the macaroon mix and pipe the macaroon mix onto a baking trey covered with parchment paper. The piping is one of the most important bits of making a good macaroon. Place the nosil on the trey and press out the mix to the size of the macaroon that you want. Stop pressing when you have reached the size but stop pressing while the nosil is still in the mix. Then lift it. Try to make them the same size. Lift one side of the trey slightly and bang it on the table to remove the air. Do the same with the other side.
7. Leave the macaroons out to dry for about 15 min in room temperature until they form a skin. You can check this by touching one of them and if it does not stick to your finger its dried enough.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 min. Do not open the oven door before 10 min has passed for them not to collapse.
9. Leave them to cool on the treys.

Adding coloring:
this is an important part where i was making the mistake. Although a lot of books tell you to add liquid coloring, this is what ruins it all. When you add a liquid to the mix it completely changes the consistency. So use POWDER coloring. I only know a couple of places where you can buy it, which is online or in the l'atelier the chefs store on wimpole street, but will continue searching.

Making the filling(s)

Making Salted Butter Caramel

1. Place the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and allow to melt without stirring. Do NOT put a spoon in as  the sugar will crystalize. Shake the pan if you feel the need to move the sugar around:)

2. Once you have a golden caramel, add the butter, of the heat, a little at the time allowing it to melt before you add the next batch. 

3. Put back on the heat and add the cream. Stir around and cook until it has thickened up a little bit and then remove the mix from the pan into a bowl and allow to cool.

Making Vanilla Cream Filling:

1. Place the milk and the split vanilla pod and the seeds in a saucepan and bring to boil. 

2. Mix the egg yolk, sugar and corn flour in a bowl. 

3. Add 1/2 the warm milk into the egg mix and stir. 

4. Pour it all back into the rest of the milk in the pan and whisking continuously cook on a medium heat for 3-4 min until you end up with a thicker custard consistency.

5. Transfer into a bowl, cover with cling film(make sure the cling film touches the filling) and chill in the fridge.

6. Whip the cream and gently fold into the cooled vanilla cream. 

Making Lemon Buttercream:

1. Place the softened butter, sifted icing sugar and lemon zest and juice into a bowl. Beat together until you have a smooth, thick buttercream.

Once the macaroons shells have cooled down, put the fillings into piping bags and pipe onto one shell and top with another one of the same size.

Qualities a macaroon must have:

A crispy shell with a chewy center

A 'pied', the foot of the macaroon.

No discolorations

Quick Quiche Lorraine

For this tart you should be making your own shortcrust pastry, which is delicious, however requires some work. If you wanna make a quick dinner, use the pre made one you can buy in the form of a block in the supermarket and i must say it turns out absolutely delicious too. Serve with a simple green salad on the side and dinner is served!

My chefs at cordon bleu saw my edges of this tart i think they'd fail me but hey, it tasted amazing.

Serves 4-6

You need:
Pie form

500g short crust pastry, one block
Flour, just for dusting

Filling:
150g bacon rashers, chopped into small pieces
100g gruyere cheese, grated

2 eggs
300g double cream
salt and pepper, to taste
nutmeg, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. For best results, remove the pastry from the fridge 15 min before use.
3. Dust your working area and roll out the pastry to 0.3 mm thin.
4. Roll it up on your pin and roll out over the pie tin. Press down the edges and roll the pin over the tin to cut off excess dough. Discard of it.
5. Dot the bottom of the tart with a fork(see picture).
6. Line the pie with baking parchment and fill with rice or beans to "blind bake" the tart.
7. Blind-bake in the oven for 20 min.

8 .In the meantime whisk the eggs up in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

9. Add the cream and season with nutmeg. Leave to rest in the fridge until use.

10. Fry the bacon in a pan until golden and crispy. Dry out the fat by putting it on kitchen towel.

11. Once the tart is pre baked, sprinkle the bottom with the bacon. Cover with 2/3 of the grated cheese, pour the cream and egg mix on top and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. 

12. Bake in the oven for 20-25 min until golden on top. 

13. The filling should be like a creme caramel, slightly wobbly but set. You can put a knife through and if its dry, its ready. 

14. Leave it to rest for 5 min before serving. Serve up with a salad on the side. 

Lanesborough

I will be working in the kitchen of a michelin star restaurant on thursday at the lanesborough hotel under Paul gayler!
http://www.paulgayler.com/

LCB Superior Autumn Dinner

My old class mates are in superior... i just can't believe the time has passed so quickly and they are about to graduate soon. 

I was invited to an amazing dinner party they had prepared as part of their course and i was not disappointed...

A beautiful, seasonal, autumn menu including pumpkin, beetroot, fois gras, truffles, veal with a berry reduction, spiced pears, and apples and vanilla. Just mentioning these ingredients brings back the memory of the flavors and makes my mouth water.

Dinner starting at 18.45, my friend Kat and I run late, as usual, and make an entrance at 19.30! Missed all the fabulous finger food.Great. Never mind, to start off the dinner an amouche bouche of beetroot ravioli was served with a sage and parmesan sauce( i believe) which was the perfect mouthful and soo yummy. I loved the idea of a beetroot filling, so earthy, seasonal.. just delicious. 

The starter was a pumpkin soup with fois gras and chicken liver parfait, personally not a fan of liver, love fois gras but only in the form of a terrine complemented by a sweet chutney or fruit. The soup however was a beautiful, bright orange color, smooth and delicious. The main course - a duo of veal with a parsnip puree, spiced pears and a wine and grape reduction. Incredibly thought through dish with everything from the meat to the garniture completing each other in flavor. If you ever were to try to describe a plate of autumn -  this would be it. Veal, spiced pears, parsnip puree, red wine and grape reduction, even a chestnut to decorate the plate. Phenomenal. My friend Kat, a devoted vegetarian, even had a bite of the veal tongue - maybe not aware of what it was at the time but she sure loved it!

After that a little cheese platter was served consisting of goat cheese with a truffle honey which, to me being a truffle lover, was the best thing of the evening. 

To round up the evening a trio of apple and vanilla was prepared which are both ingredients I adore. A petit tarte tartine, mini custard tart, vanilla ice cream with crumble and a shot of creme anglais with green apple foam. Im one of those people who always crave something sweet after food but im usually satisfied with one spoonful. So desserts like these are a bit too much to me but i loved the concept and combination of flavors.
Last but not least, it wouldn't have been the same without two special guys making sure my wine glass  was always full and i was taken care of! :) you know who you are. 

Congratulations guys!

Veal Scalloppini with lemon butter and rice

Serves 4

4 x Veal escalopes, cut into 3
100g flour
Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil
100g butter
2 lemons, juice
Handful of parsley, finely chopped

approx 200-300g rice

1. Wash and cook the rice. Set aside.
2. Cut the escalopes into the size of a palm and flatten to 0.2mm thickness.
3. Sieve the flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper. Combine.
4. Coat the veal evenly by dipping in the flour.
5. Heat up a frying pan to maximum heat and add the olive oil.
6. Add the veal and cook for 1 min on each side. When you turn the veal over, add 1/2 of the butter to the pan. Remove the veal from the pan and keep in a warm place.
7. Add the rest of the butter and cook until it starts becoming a golden color. Then add the lemon juice to stop the cooking. Add the chopped parsley at the very end.
8. Serve the veal on a warm plate with rice on the side and drizzle the meat with the browned lemon butter.
9. Decorate with a sprig of parsley and lemon wedge.