day 93: chicken galantine, vegetable terrine and pate en croute

I might vomit if we have to do another week of meat pastes. Or meat jellos. I thought sandwich day was pretty silly in Garde Manger 1, but it was so nice to get Monte Cristo sandwiches from the other class today. Too bad all we had to give back was meat jelly bread. The chaud froid platters were sort of fun to make, but I don't remember signing up for arts and crafts. I told Patrick yesterday I felt like Martha Stewart, but hey, if I could become a billionaire making these platters, I'd do it.

secret ingredient challenge: mangoes

After convincing myself it was going to be an herb, the secret ingredient turned out to be a fruit.  Sweet!  I toasted some crostini with olive oil, rubbed it with garlic, and topped it with a salsa I made out of mangoes, tomatoes, pineapples, onions, jalapenos, lemon juice and some basil.

 

The dish that sunk me.  My mango beurre blanc never came together.  I didn't score my fish skin all the way so it curled up.  The mango rice pilaf sucked, and there is way too much of it on that plate.  But worst of all, I missed my plating window and was promptly disqualified.  This just happened like an hour and a half ago, so...I don't really know what to say.  I'm pretty disappointed in myself for this dish.  I could have done better.

 

And because of that snafu, they never even looked at this.  So all I had for judging was stupid crostini and salsa.  I steeped mint into my simple syrup, and the mango sorbet was really cool and refreshing.  I knew it would be a hot day, so this was going to be my secret weapon.  Which I never got to fire.

day 88: bbq buffet; shrimp and andouille bbq skewers

 

 It's a pretty good feeling when a mob of people comes through and annihilates your buffet in like 90 seconds. Thanks, Patrick, for one of the best buffet ideas ever. Aside from the skewers, we also made brisket, bbq ribs, kielbasa, duck confit, caprese salad, potato salad, cole slaw, cornbread, bbq beans, mac 'n cheese and corn on the cob. What a week! 

day 87: lox, smoked salmon and smoked trout

Our days long garde manger buffet is nearly complete...but we had time for a quick fish tasting today.  The smoked trout was quite salty, even though we doubled the water in the recipe.  The smoked salmon was quite delicious, but the lox...well, I think that's an acquired taste.  Ugh.  We've been working on all sorts of bacon and charcuterie items, but I'm most looking forward to the Andouille sausage we stuffed yesterday, and will smoke tomorrow!

day 83: creme brulee and revenge of the truffles

Whatever chocolatier zen I possessed the other day, it was not with me today at all. These truffles really did a number on me. Luckily, I had the creme brulee to help balance my grade out. Not too shabby on the sable cookies either. So long, baking!

day 82: gateau l'opera and sachertorte

Yesterday and today, we worked really long and hard making the components for and then assembling our beautiful layer cakes. And withinin 5 seconds at the end of class today, bad penmanship ruined it all. I have a newfound respect for the lady at the Ralph's bakery that writes "Happy Birthday" on everyone's cake. It takes a lot of experience and a steady hand. The opera cakes were pretty delicious, with one layer of chocolate ganache, one layer of coffee buttercream, and a coffee soaked sponge cake. We garnished with a little gold flake on top, just for extra fancies.

The Sachertorte was good chocolate cake, but nothing too special. It got a layer of apricot jam in the middle, and we soaked it in rum. Eh.

day 80: toffee, truffles, marzipan and marshmallows

I'm not sure who's a bigger bitch, sugar or chocolate, but they can both suck a big fat one.  I'm gonna have to say sugar was tougher to deal with since I had to go through four batches of sugar to get my toffee not to become a big crystallized blob.  The chocolates, although annoying because I had to keep putting it over the double burner, off the double burner, over the double burner, off, etc., at least didn't seize or do any funny business on me...today, at least.  The milk chocolate truffles, toffees and marshmallows were my favorite.  I added a little lemon oil to my marshmallows and it tasted fantastic.  The dark chocolate truffles were a bit rich for me, and the marzipan cookies just tasted like something my great-great-great-great-grandmother would probably like.

day 78: sexy bananas foster

For our practical exam today, we re-did our bananas foster and chocolate souffle.  I had to do another cage...a simple and great technique we learned yesterday.  James overheard Chef Watts say this looks like something you'd find in Vegas...I'll take that! She also said my souffle plate was very whimsical.  I'll take some of that, too.

day 77: flan, pot de creme and creme brulee

We made some pretty rich and custardy desserts today. For the flan, we spun caramel into cages and nests, which was a lot of fun.  But there was such a short window you had to do it in before your caramel set, it would probably have been easier to just start a new batch of sugar each time.

I did my nest after my cage, and you can see those big globs of sugar stuck in there because the sugar had gotten too cool. That caramel sauce that came out of the flan was delicious.  I ate every last drop of mine.

The chocolate pots were really delicious, especially with the earthquake cookies, which were just like little brownies.  Also, I'm glad I learned the trick to quenelles a lot sooner than I learned the trick to tournees. Whip the cream until it's really stiff, like just before the point of being overwhipped and getting grainy...that allows it to best hold its shape.  It really is just push, and pull back with one spoon.  I'm gonna have to ask Chef about the two handed technique.

The creme brulee might have been delicious.  I did eat it.  But at this point, I was about two clicks past my custard limit.  And to save the richest one for last.  What was I thinking?  One thing I do know for sure is that those sable cookies are purely decorational.  They tasted pretty bland.  Impressive technique, though, as with that caramel cage...simple, but incredibly elegant.