Happy Holidays!

Been quite a busy bee lately. Once Halloween passed, Thanksgiving came and flew by. Unfortunately I was unable to prepare a dessert because I went on a road trip with Allen. (Also because I wanted to cook rather than bake this time around) It has been getting more and more busy at work due to the holidays. I feel extremely exhausted after my shift is over but at the same time, quite accomplished to have fed so many diners in one night! Only 2 more nights of work and Christmas will be here!

In celebration of the holidays, I made some peppermint bark. It was my first time so I was not exactly sure of the procedure. I tempered the chocolate as opposed to adding vegetable oil. Lesson learned: don't let the dark chocolate set completely before pouring the white chocolate on top. When I broke them into pieces afterwards, many of the white chocolate pieces separated from the dark chocolate. Luckily, most of them still stayed intact. Phew. Thank goodness I'm not giving these out as gifts. What embarrassment that would be! They're very tasty nevertheless. Just need a cup of Mexican hot chocolate next to it now. Mmmm. Happy Holidays everyone!

The New Dessert: "Poire belle Hélène" Trifle

It's been exactly 2 months since I have been working at the restaurant now and I've realized that the pace of things is a lot quicker than I had expected. Already one of the desserts, what used to be known as the  Stone Fruit Crumble has been transformed to a strudel which shortly changed its filling to apple (to be specific: Northern Spy currently but it changes over time to different local favorites). Has anyone ever tried an apple called Hidden Rose? Amazingly, me being the oddball with fruit allergies, was not allergic from eating a slice of it. When you cut it open, it's really beautiful inside; white weaved in with shades of pink, which gives off an impression of a rose. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have thought of a rose if I saw it without knowing its name.

*Image taken from Flickr

Over the past two weeks or so, the chefs have been developing a new dessert that was to replace my favorite, the Cremeux. After the experimentation and trials, from caramel sauce to chocolate sauce, the "Poire belle Hélène" Trifle was created. Vanilla mousse made with bourbon vanilla beans, a disc of caramel biscuit, Valrhona dark chocolate mousse, Pear William poached pear brunoise mixed in with a sweet gelée, warm chocolate sauce drizzled on, topped with a vanilla marshmallow square: all packed in a little glass jar. Oh and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. At first, I thought the alcohol was too overpowering but that could just be me since I'm prone to the Asian glow. After it became official on the menu, it turned out that there were diners who felt it was too strong as well. With an immediate revision of removing the additional alcohol from the gelée, the dessert has become a hit. I wish I could bring my dSLR into the kitchen but unfortunately, all I have are phone pictures that aren't so clear.

It's really enjoyable to see this entire process. Although every day the work is nearly the same, I'm loving the kitchen. I hope it stays with me for a good long time to come.

Sweet Stuffs and Memories

Since it's quite late, I'll keep this one short. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I had baked some macarons and brioches at home when I did not have work. Last night, I baked some Italian butter cookies (finally not a French pastry!) that I have adapted from Soap Mom's Kitchen. I would have followed the recipe as it was but since I only had 8oz (2 sticks) of butter, I had to readjust the entire recipe. I also just used 2 full eggs as opposed to the whatever ounce it should have been. Anyhow, in the end, I find it to be a pretty good attempt at imitating those sold in Italian bakeries! Ah, one bite and it just reminds me of how mom used to buy them by the pounds. She'd come home with that white box tied up with the red and white bakers twine. Nomnomnom. I think I'd like to keep these homemade from now on!

Here's the recipe for just the basic butter cookie:
8oz (227g) butter, softened
4oz (114g) sugar
2oz (57g) confectioner's sugar
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
12oz (341g) cake flour
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Beat butter in mixing bowl at medium speed with paddle attachment until soft (I heated my butter for a few seconds in the microwave to make the process easier). Cream granulated sugar into the butter until light. Add confectioner's sugar and continue to cream. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary throughout this entire procedure.
2. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Lower the speed and beat in the salt, flour, and vanilla extract. Mix until homogeneous.
4. Prepare a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill it with the cookie batter. Pipe 2 inch logs (or whatever shape you prefer) onto parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes. Turn tray and bake for another 7 minutes or until the edges are brown. Cool on rack.

For the Italian butter cookies: After the cookies have been cooled, spread your choice of preserves onto each cookie half and press them together. Melt semi-sweet chocolate (I used an entire Nestle's semi-sweet baking bar) into a bowl. Prepare another bowl with sprinkles. Dip sandwiched cookies into the melted chocolate first then roll them around in the sprinkles. Lay each cookie onto parchment paper for the chocolate to set. Resting these in the refrigerator can also quicken the process as well.

I hope it works out for whomever is going to try this recipe! I was fairly pleased with it. As was my family thankfully.

Work is wearing me out. Not to mention that I got another burn on my arm. Lovely. I definitely need to catch up on my sleep now. Have a good night all!

Belated Post on a Rainy Night

I am yet again very much procrastinating in updating this blog. July was national ice cream month so as I mentioned months ago, I made a Chai flavored ice cream. Didn't get to churn it properly since my container just wasn't cold enough so there were itty bitty pieces of ice in it. Sad news. Better luck next time. I'm not making that flavor again because no one in my household likes Chai apparently! The more popular item is the palmier so I made those again but this time with "European butter". I didn't spot much difference between using good ol American butter versus the European one. So it looks like I can be cheap and use the domestic butter.

Right now I am baking some brioche in the oven. It's too bad that I don't have any molds for them except for one loaf pan so there are 4 buns that look like Chinese roast pork buns. How deceiving! Pictures for these will probably be posted in 2 months at my blogging speed. I also made macarons 2 weeks ago for my company at ADM. It was a joint visit with my fellow pastry chef, Candy, who made Earl Grey cream puffs. Everyone at the office enjoyed them so we were happy! We have fulfilled our duty.

I have also started working at a restaurant last week and I'm already expected to do service solo this week. I better quicken up my pace or else I'll have some angry diners along with an angry chef. I should really be sleeping now or at least in half an hour.

On another note, I finally got to visit New World Mall at Flushing. Food court heaven! One of the dessert places was a replica of Honeymoon Dessert in Hong Kong. They used the same bowls and same menu but instead, it's called Manji Dessert. The Chinese name is still the same, however! I was disappointed to learn that there's actually no affiliation between the two but hey, bootleg is better than none at all. Here's what I ordered. Mango Pancake and Mango and Black Glutinous Rice in Vanilla Sauce (my favorite! but the mango could've been better).

Well, brioche is done. Time to clean up and hit the sack. Another closing shift coming up for the following 6 days. Dang.

Not 9:30AM but 3:30AM

It's been nearly 5 weeks since I've been back to New York and I'm definitely suffering withdrawal. Everything has become a "In Paris, blah blah blah. It's so different compared to here!" or "When I was in Paris, I did blah blah blah." I'm betting that most people around me are tired of hearing me whine about my short lived life in another country. It's too bad that I didn't even get a chance to blog here before I left! 

My boyfriend came to visit me and helped me clean up my mess on rue Dulac. I probably would have panicked more and broke down much earlier had he not been there with me to take my mind off things. Thanks boyfriend! 

So here I am sitting in the home I grew up in; typing this up at nearly 4AM. Quite obvious that I have plenty of time to spare and am in no rush for what normally people would be doing at this hour: sleeping and then waking up for work. Yes, currently still unemployed. This means more baking at home! I actually haven't kept up with my original idea of baking something once a week. I did bake twice and am in the process of making a Chai flavored ice cream. Here's a picture as proof.

I made two flavored eclairs with a crumble on top as opposed to fondant. Passion fruit flavored pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream with a hint of passion fruit (I do like the fruit indeed!). With the leftover egg whites from the pastry cream, I decided to make macarons with them. The shells were colored with Intense Red (the label was no joke; it was eye blinding-ly red) and flavored with lavender. I made a pistachio ganache filling but unfortunately it wasn't enough so I used the rest of the chocolate pastry cream. It was too sweet for my taste but some people liked it, which is all that matters!

I'll take a picture of the ice cream when (or if) it gets churned tomorrow. We're experiencing a heat wave for this week and our air-conditioner at home has decided to take multiple lunch breaks so it makes this into a pretty hot situation for ice cream making. Hoping for the best!

I'm getting a little lazy now so maybe I'll post up some other pictures for next time! I think I should also rename the blog as it's not really so etranger anymore.

la fin: supérieur pâtisserie!

Last Thursday marked the final class of Le Cordon Bleu, which was also known as my final exam in pulled sugar. I must not have been fully awake as I made a few clumsy mistakes which resulted in a blister that remains inflamed 3 days later. It's about the size of Jekyll's tumor that was on his face. It's hurting me so much that I can't imagine how much pain my baby hamster was in. Then again, blisters are nothing compared to tumors... Anyhow, I digress again.

Here's some photos that summarizes the classes focusing on tempering chocolate and working with sugar. These two areas of study took up the latter half of superior pastry.

If you were to ask me what I enjoyed most out of this experience in culinary school, I'd have to say pulled sugar was my favorite. Needless to say, working with 165°C (329°F) sugar was no easy feat at the beginning but as time went along, my hands began to grow accustomed to the constant heat. One of our chefs work with sugar bare handed. It was a jaw dropping moment when we first watched him do it but one can understand why he has what he calls "gants au naturelles" (natural gloves). He's been working with sugar for so long that his skin must have grown thicker. My hands have turned quite ugly after these lessons but it was well worth it. It's a pity that the 5 hours put into these pieces of display only gets thrown into the trash bin after being graded. I cringe at the sound of pieces shattering.

Graduation is happening later this week on June 3. My long time friend from Canada will be arriving to Paris in 2 days just in time to attend the ceremony. We'll take a side trip to Switzerland for a bit. Lausanne and Geneve: here we come! I'm still not giving Greece up. Occasionally I check on the flight fares but it's so ridiculously expensive! On another thought, it's even more expensive to fly from NY. Why can't money grow on trees? There's so many in the courtyard outside this building harboring so many insects instead! (One of which just flew across between me and the screen)

Unfortunately, I have withdrawn from the externship opportunity due to several reasons. I am extremely excited about sleeping in my own bed in Brooklyn again though. I miss everyone so much and look forward to meeting up with them to reconnect. Hopefully it won't take too long before I can get my hands on some flour and butter again in a professional kitchen.

Paris, it's been fun. Time surely does fly by.

Halfway Towards the End

Superior begun near end of March and we are already halfway complete with the course. Graduation is coming up next month! But let's not get ahead of ourselves since we haven't taken a single exam yet.

To summarize thus far, I find that there has been more flexibility with creative flair per individual instead of trying to recreate identical desserts as the chef's. The first few lessons continued with some more modern cakes but very fruity as usual. If not fruity, then chocolate-y and nutty. Then the following lessons focused on hot and cold restaurant desserts: from miniature desserts to plated desserts. I still have much to improve on in that area. I typically end up with so much awkward white space on the plate. Pictures below for visual explanation.

From hereon, the area of concentration shifts to everyone's favorite (or at least nearly everyone): chocolate! As I've complained numerous times previously when working with chocolate, I always get my uniform so dirtied no matter how careful I am. The plastic apron doesn't help defend me either. Meh.

So today was our first time tempering again since Intermediate. We made a hollow dark chocolate box with a picture frame and its holder. I had so much trouble finding the plastic film coating on that Leonardo bunny cartoon picture to rip off. I almost served my customers plastic because I was about to give up! With that aside, I really enjoy the process of tempering more than the assembly of chocolate pieces, especially in this heat! It's so fragile and everything is prone to melting. Hopefully, I'll have more confidence come exam time in May.

With that, I end my entry tonight with a picture of me being a glutton in the kitchen. Can't throw out good food, right?

Results of a Broken Laptop

So what happens when your primary source that connects you to the rest of the world breaks down? Answer: A prolonged break from updating your blog (even after you've fixed it and bought a new source). Because it's late now seeing as it's 5AM, I'll just recap the past 2 months with pictures and some minor wording while trying to keep it chronologically correct.

I took a side trip to Milano with two friends during our week long break from class. Coincidentally, fashion week had just begun there. The streets were more crowded and more was happening. The area where our hotel was situated on the other hand didn't seem most inviting but we made it through fine. I stepped foot into Switzerland for a few hours during this trip because we went to an outlet. I can still say that I've been to Switzerland now, right?

As for classes itself, I have completed Intermediate Pastry last month finishing off by making the Plaisir during the final exam. I had unknowingly spent too much time trying to practice piping the word "Opera" out with chocolate that I lost track of time. In the end, I had failed to remove the mold from the cake so I am positive that had crippled my final score. I'll know better to keep an eye on the clock for future practice.

March was a pretty busy month as my best buddy from college and my brother came to visit me. They made life in Paris that much better. With them, I was able to go on more side trips (can never get enough of them!). I went to Lille, France with Sally and hit up a few places in Italy with Andy. I think I remember the food more than anything else from those towns. Anyhow, pictures will tell the story better than my half-asleep state can right now.

I guess the photos are a bit jumbled as well but you get the idea. That brings us to today, where I am living by myself again and in Superior Pastry! Next destination: Mont Saint-Michel! I haven't bought tickets yet but I hope they aren't excruciatingly expensive.

I love weekends.

Au Chocolat and an Excursion to Lyon

And so we're in the month of February already! 2 more days until Chinese New Year. I should really clean up the apartment even though I'm not all that traditional about it but I can imagine my mom instructing me to do so if she were here. Tomorrow night is also the student dinner so I hope that I can get all my errands done prior to that! Not to mention I idiotically left my phone in my locker at school so I'll have to waste some time trekking there to pick it up.

Anyway, so the past lessons have all involved chocolate! I've washed my uniform 3 times already because it just can't get enough contact with that ingredient. First, we learned to make the Bavarois aux trois chocolats: 3 layers of [dark, milk, and white] chocolate bavarian cream over a lady finger sponge disc covered with a cocoa glaze. Melted white chocolate was used for decoration. The following 2 lessons after that were Chocolat au lait and Chocolat noir. Here was our first time finally to pop the battery into our thermometers and temper chocolate. Lastly (tonight), we made the Douceur Chocolat (Heavenly Chocolate). By that name, you must know it tastes pretty darn good! It's like eating Ferrero Rochers but in cake form. Its main ingredients basically consist of chocolate and hazelnut. It even has that crunch in the center! The downside about it is that there's no pretty way of cutting into it. I tried heating up my knife to slice through but it still came out a mess. Oh well, it will only end up in my stomach anyway!

Examples from Chef T and D's demonstration.

I actually shipped home a box of those chocolates since they're more practical to send than say mousse cakes? I hope they'll still be edible by the time it reaches my brother's office.

And not to forget, I went to Lyon two weekends ago with 2 classmates. We did a little sightseeing on our first day (there were Roman ruins! My favorite!) then spent the next day at the Sirha Exposition. The expo was HUGE. If I could've stayed a few hours longer, I definitely would have. There were so many different foods to taste from savory to sweet in addition to a wine section (which of course I did not have the courage to try). Luckily for me, there were other non-alcoholic beverages such as cinnamon orange hot chocolate among other flavors. All sorts of kitchen equipment, restaurant equipment, and furniture were placed on display. The grand Pastry World Cup was held on the day we went also. That was exciting. In the end, I found out on Facebook that Spain won. USA, you weren't too shabby. I rooted for you.

After that one little weekend excursion, I'm now tempted to go on more of these 1-2 day trips outside of Paris. Hopefully I can find people to join me. If not, I guess I can also go alone since I'll be returning home on the same day anyway!

By the way, this past week or so, the weather has decided to dip below 0°C. FREEEEZING... someone please buy me a better heater. Thanks.

Fickle Weather and Trip Planning

It's been a little more chilly these days around again while the previous week I had to open the windows because it had felt so warm. It's like a tug of war between winter and spring! Or something of the likes.

Anyhow, we had our Lessons 05 and 06 this week thus far. (Lesson 07 tomorrow but I'll post that next week). We learned to recreate typical restaurant dishes such as the Crème brûlée au caramel and layered cakes with buttercream and ganache. Oh yeah, we also learned ice cream for the first time. I totally missed where they took the bowl of freshly made (not frozen yet) ice cream but it went out the room and was brought back in later when it was needed. There is a freezer in the classroom... I don't know. Anyway, pictures below!

Why yes, we made a fancier style of macaron known as Macaron Anis-Framboise (which is a raspberry filled macaroon with anise flavored pastry cream) and my favorite cake, Opéra. I forgot which way the accent mark for the "e" went so I didn't pipe it on. Unfortunately, Chef caught it and commented about my lack of an accent proceeding to draw into my glaze with his palm pilot stylus. Hence, that mark you see there is obviously not piped on. Don't ask what that horrible design on the corner is. He was stopping everyone from continuing on so I randomly rushed to just fill up some surface area.. Meh.

Onto other things outside of school, I had my first fondue here in Paris with some classmates. We ordered two different pots of cheeses. It was so tasty dipping bread and potatoes into them! Extremely tummy satisfying but a few hours later, I was hungry again. hehe. One meal a day does that to you.

And now with regards to the trip planning, there's quite a bit going on! This weekend will be a mini trip to Lyon by train. There will be an exhibition focusing on trends in the food and catering industry. There are a few schoolmates who are also attending. (It is an event that our school is promoting and participating in.) While we are there, might as well check the city out, right? The month after, two friends and I will be flying down to Milano for a bit during our break between classes. Hope the weather will be good.

The Friday on the week that we return to Paris, Sally will be visiting! I'm pretty psyched about that! Shortly after, my brother will fly in and we'll be heading down to where else but Italy again. Florence and Venice are on the itinerary. I would have preferred Athens but I guess that will have to wait. The calendar is quickly getting filled up with events! On the other hand, my wallet is quickly emptying out. Traveling is a bad addiction.

Anyway, until next time!

More Cakes With Fruits

This week focused on using fruits as the main ingredient. Both cakes were assembled with two thin cake discs entrapping a mousse or cream filling with fruit pieces in the center. As it usually is with mousses and creams, there was a lot of whisking.

Lesson 03: Jamaïque (Jamaica). Where this name originated, I'm not so sure. I can, however, tell you that it is made with a chocolate joconde biscuit that is decorated with grated coconut, sliced almonds, and coarse pistachio. In between is a coconut mousse with poached pineapples. On top is a thin layer of mango-passion fruit mousse (Mine was too thin because my strip of joconde was cut out too high)

After class, we took a field trip to Angelina, a well known restaurant on Rue de Rivoli. They're famously known for their incredulously rich hot chocolate and Mont Blanc (not the pen, but the chestnut/Chantilly cream dessert). Anyhow, we were able to take a quick tour of their kitchen through the guidance of the sous chef. We were shown the various machinery utilized to make production more quick and efficient. Sure beats whisking and piping everything by hand! By the end of the tour, they shared some deletable sweets with us.

Lesson 04: Fraisier. Many of you are probably familiar with this one. It's a genoise cake with mousseline cream lined with strawberries. My mom and I actually made this cake together in Hong Kong at those one-day culinary courses some while back. Of course ingredients and procedures were somewhat different. It had red beans in the mousseline cream and it used whipped (Chantilly) cream instead of Italian meringue, etc.

A weekend off! I will be seeing some school friends tomorrow night for a housewarming party so that will be fun. Before that, I hope I'd have the chance to buy some dried anchovies to make my soondooboo soup sometime this week. Attempt #2!

I'm also currently in the process of figuring out which destination should be next on my 4-5 day breaks in the coming months. Athens is quite tempting as the airfare is around $200 roundtrip. There is also the option of Italy (Florence + Venice or Rome + Venice). Any picks or suggestions?

A Love for Fruits

Our second lesson involved making tarts with the fruity fillings of raspberry, passion fruit, and lemon. It was a somewhat light and refreshing taste to the palette. Low in carbohydrates and butter. Yum.

The one with the white cream piped on top is the Tarte Légère au Citron (Lemon Tart). It has an almond cream spread at the bottom of the tart and lemon cream piped over it. The other one is the Tarte Passion-Framboise (Passion Fruit and Raspberry Tart), which is also the one we made in our practical. It consists of 2 layers: raspberry jelly and passion fruit cream.

I obviously need to work on my decorating skills but I guess it could pass as a simple design. They brought out strawberries at the end when I was done shaping my "S". Alas, I didn't want to bother with trying to somehow fit it into this design without it looking so apparent that it was a last minute addition. I'm sure there'll be some of you who are glad I didn't get my hands on the strawberries hehe.

Another afternoon class today. It appears my schedule this time is more broken up than previous. Many of the demonstrations and practicals for the same lessons are held on separate days. I suppose that will make these months go by quicker since there will be more or less something to do nearly every day.

Wow, we're already almost halfway into January. Chinese New Year is coming up soon. Of all days, that is the day that we will have both demonstration and practical from 12h30 on. I was all excited and looking forward to attend the parade in Chinatown just to see how is it conducted here. I guess that won't be happening after all! Boo. Enjoy it for me, guys.

Ringing in the New Year with Puff Pastry

Bonne année 2011! Intermediate Pastry began today with both demonstration and practical for my group. At first, I was dreading it a bit but it wasn't too bad after all. We received an entirely new binder full of recipes for the semester!

Lesson 01: We learned Streusel (Streusel Cake), Pavé aux Amandes (Almond Cake), and Écossais (Scottish). So, Streusel Cake was the only one that incorporates puff pastry. hehe. Pictures below!

Yeah, I tried to be fancy with my powdered sugar decoration but I was horrible at cutting the shape out the cardboard. At that angle, it's not as easily noticeable how my "flames" are not smooth and curvy. hehe.

My critique for today: be more generous with the garnishing! Oh, and also improve on crimping the edges of the Streusel Cake. It's very similar to how a "Gok Jai" (fried Chinese flaky crescent pastries with peanut & sugar inside) is sealed up. Whenever I tried to help my mom during all those times when she made them, I would never be able crimp them nicely. If I had done it more back then, it would have paid off today!

Onto other things: I finally took a quick stroll through Jardin du Luxembourg yesterday. Who knew they'd close up the park at 4:45pm! Luckily I was able to snap a few photos before I got whistled out the gates. I kind of wished that it was a snowy scenery instead but bare trees also signify winter just as well.

I'll leave it at that for now. I took more pictures but it's time to hunt for some food. :)