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. :)

Today Marks My Official Residency

Today was my appointment at l'OFII to get my medical examination and resident permit approved. Paid my 55€ in taxes first. Afterwards, I hopped from room to room to get eyesight (near and far) checked, weight and height checked, lungs x-rayed (first experience ever and I even get to keep the copy), and finally a face to face discussion about my health in general. Overall, I passed! They stamped and signed my medical certificate and stuck the resident permit into my passport. "C'est fini!" is what they said to me after all that was done and over with. Finally! All legal documentation done.

With that completed, I took my stroll through Paris once again but this time from the 11ème to 4ème to 1er. I just basically went from East to West but this time on Rue de Rivoli. Here are some pictures!

There's: Hôtel de Ville on top left (going clockwise), a neighborhood filled with streets like these near Forum des Halles (a mall), Tour Saint-Jacques (Saint-Jacques Tower), L’église Saint-Eustache (a church in Les Halles), and Colonne de Juillet (July Column) with L'Opéra Bastille in Bastille. This is not the order of where I walked. It's just for the sake of fitting the photos in proportionately. Lots of cultural buildings and monuments that I passed by. So breathtaking!

Since I was in the area, I decided to check out Bubble-T. As seen in the photo, the letter "T" seems to be missing. hah.

I ordered a Green Bubble Chai. It was okay... I should've went for Matcha au Lait or something. Yes, it came with the tapioca that I never really liked. BUT the nifty thing worth mentioning was that the lid had my astrological sign!

On a side note, I really liked the portraits hung on the wall. Very artistic. It seems like with my logo there, it's as though I'm claiming credit for those pieces of art. I'm just claiming credit for photographing them!

So here are also some nummies I have came across today shown below. Times like these, I really do wish I had the polarizer lens filter. Horrible window reflections of light and sometimes of me holding the camera...

Well, actually, the bottom left photo is savory. There's cheese and meat in them. Anyhow... since we're on the topic of food, here's a recap of Lesson 05 at le Cordon Bleu: Feuilletage (Puff Pastry)

During demonstration, we learned how to make Chaussons aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers), Palmiers (Palms), and Pailles aux Framboises (Raspberry Strawmats). Layers and layers of butter. Yum. In demonstration, we only made the Chaussons and the Palmiers. See below!

I'll need practice with this puff pastry. My layers weren't exactly puff enough. Boo. Oh and we ended up having Chef C as our practical chef. I was happy. Anyway, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow will be back to pâte à choux with both demonstration and practical in one day. Oh and it will be the start of my French language classes! Huzzah.

A Conglomeration of Things

Lesson 03: Cake aux Fruits (Fruit Cakes), Madeleines, and Week-Ends (Lemon Pound Cakes) were shown during the demonstration by a new Chef that we haven't had before! I think he has become my favourite Chef to learn from.

He is Chef XC. Very light-hearted and free spirited with a good sense of humour. Very much unlike the Chef who had us for the practical. They were nearly two complete opposites!

Chef NB was the one who taught us for the practical. He was the MOF of 2004. Perhaps that is why he seems to be the most strict of all chefs? He had some slight sense of humour as well but was predominantly just yelling at students or lecturing them. Yes, I was one of the victims.

But in the end, this is the result of the war zone in the kitchen. My Cake aux Fruits and Madeleines.

Chef MOF criticized me for having laid my Madeleines on the bump to cool off so they were ugly. I suppose that I should have laid them out more neatly before I had rushed off to wash the molds. I was just afraid he'd yell at me for not having washed the molds yet!

Anyway, the Cake aux Fruits weren't too bad despite having soaked with a rum syrup. It doesn't taste like the much appalled fruit cakes during Christmastime. I think the toasted almonds and the rum makes it better. I mean, who doesn't like alcohol?!

Today, we learned Pâte à Choux during demonstration but I'll post up pictures after we have completed the practical. I'm still trying to finish up the aforementioned pastries. In fact, I still have the Diamonds!!

Instead, I'll just show some photos during my stroll around the 1er, 2ème, and 8ème Arrondisements. I have already posted some of these on my Facebook photo album so you can just skim through if you have seen it.

Doesn't the Arc de Triomphe make you think of the background used for this blog? haha That's the first thing that came to my mind. And here's just for fun: the nummies I have come across that I remembered to take a photo of :)

Sigh. And now I dread the 8:30AM class to come in just... 9 hours from now. Saint Honoré, here I come!