Monday, 3/23/10 – Mousses and Soufflés

And so it is done. As quickly as it began, our pastry lessons have ended. Gone are the days of uninhibited sugar experimentation and excusable mis-measurements. We’ve done each classic French pastry recipe once, and will now inevitably be expected to have them not only memorized but perfected enough to complete on a whim in front of accomplished chefs at a certain Level 3 practical exam. I’m understandably nervous to leave the comforts of pastry, the safety net of flour and sugar, only to get dumped right back into savory food, which we have not practiced for what seems like forever. I am, however, very ready to get back to fulfilling my passion. To add to the excitement, we’re actually starting a 3-part series on nutrition, during which half the class will be spent in lecture and the other half will be spent cooking. I took a peek at our first recipe for Wednesday and, in true French style, it’s a seemingly simple fish fillet on a bed of lentils yet the ingredient list took an entire (front and back) 4x6 note card. Welcome home.

We were able to enjoy our last pastry day in style, celebrating with three delicious soufflés – chocolate, cheese and liquor. Soufflés are very tricky, as the delicately whipped mixture deflates almost immediately after leaving the hot oven. It didn’t help, either, that we were using metal disposable ramekins (no insulation), allowing us about 45 seconds (maximum!) before the tops started to sag and collapse. We ate so many desserts in one night, I found myself actually turning down delicacies. I was like a new dieter at a McDonald’s….the pressure was too hard to handle. They were forcing the desserts on me, those evil dessert fairies, enticing me left and right. Eat this frozen fruit soufflé. Some more pistachio crème anglaise? You look like you need a heap of chocolate mousse. Unbelievable.

Speaking of chocolate mousse…I am at a loss for words as I attempt to describe the chocolate mousse borne of my delicate, pale hands last night at around 9:32pm. Two angels paid me a visit last night, one posted on either side, their wings tickling my shoulder as they guided my arms and wrists to whip the egg whites to a stiff peak. They were there, tending the gourmet chocolate as it melted gently on the double boiler. They even kept the cream cold with their heavenly gaze as I struggled to turn it into whipped cream by using pure strength and determination. And when I faltered, my muscles too tired to continue, they picked me up off the tile floor, brushed off the week-old bread crumbs and whispered, “You’re almost there! You can do it, just a bit more.” The end product was nothing short of ethereal – a light, fluffy and semi-sweet pillow of chocolaty goodness. In my true shameless style, I “volunteered” to take home chef’s mousse as well, and brought home a quart (A QUART) of the most amazingly delicious chocolate mousse I’ve ever tasted. Steven and I plan to put it all in a big bowl and dip our faces directly into the chocolatey sweetness.

In honor of the pleasurable yet intense pastry course, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the many recipes we completed over the last few weeks, projected slowly onto the screen to Don Henley’s “Taking You Home:”

Bande de Tarte aux Fruits

Bavarois a la Crème Anglaise

Beignets aux Pommes, Coulis de Fruit

Beignets Souffles a l’Orange

Biscuits a la Cuillere

Charlotte

Choux a la Crème Chantilly

Crème Anglaise

Crème au Beurre

Crème Patissiere

Crème Renversee

Crepes au Jambon et aux Champignons

Crepes Suzette

Eclairs

Glace a la Vanille

La Genoise

Meringue Chantilly

Mousse au Chocolat

Pate a Choux

Pate Brisee

Pate Feuilletee

Pate Sucree

Quiche Lorraine

Sorbet au Pamplemousse

Soufflé a la Liqueur

Soufflé au Chocolat

Soufflé au Fromage

Soufflé aux Fruits

Soufflé Glace aux Fruits

Tarte a l’Oignon

Tarte aux Poires a la Frangipane

Tarte aux Pommes

Phew! It’s definitely been busy. As we tuck ourselves back into the routine of savory food, the subject for which we all initially enrolled in school, I can’t help but feel a bit of excitement for the next chapter. It’s about to get real.

Friday, 3/19/10 – Frozen Desserts & Meringues

I’m very much enjoying this whole pastry section of Level 2. Not because it’s fun (it’s not) or easy (it’s not), I am just greatly reaping the fruits of my labor. Instead of trucking home gelatinous containers of leftover lamb stew with wilting carrots and cold pearl onions, I’m able to bring home entire tarts, full cakes and individual flans – enough to host a decent cocktail party. (Again with the cocktail party fantasy segments??)

We used our hand-made puff pastry as the base of a fruit bande de tarte, which is a delicious little pizza of vanilla pastry cream and assorted fresh fruits. I chose to channel the incoming spring flowers with the below motif.

This tart is approximately 18”x8”, so it will definitely be included in my rounds later this evening as I attempt to pawn off some of these desserts to our poor, unsuspecting neighbors.

As fate would have it, every single one of the school’s ice cream machines was broken on Friday, which happened to be our designated ice cream-making lesson. Disappointing, yet I’m wondering if it was all a ploy to distract us away from the fact that they don’t even own any ice cream machines! Regardless, we still made the base for vanilla ice cream, the versatile crème anglaise (which topped last week’s apple fritters) and also prepared the Grapefruit sorbet. Hopefully the machines will be up-and-running on Monday so that we can all fall into a painless sugar coma, starting the week off right. I would actually prefer, instead of having to wait for the sugar to enter my mouth, be chewed and then be absorbed by my body, if I just hooked a line up to my arm with a constant drip of confectioner’s sugar and butter. That way I don’t have to wake up on Saturday mornings anymore feeling like I got hit by a bus and am simultaneously coming down from a 5-day bender. “Steven, wake up and refill my bag, da*nit!!!” or “Bring an extra bag, it’s going to be a long ride.” They hand out free drug needles on the street anyways, and I could get a Costco membership so I can buy my sugar and butter in bulk. We could even sell all of Steve’s clothes so that I could store my supplies in his closet. I wouldn’t be able to take my IV pole on the subway, though, unless I only traveled through the stations with elevators. Easy. It’s starting to look like a possibility…this pleases me.

One of the desserts we did get to enjoy on Friday was the light, airy and crunchy Meringue Chantilly, which consists of a Swiss meringue baked into dry, brittle cookies (either in spirals or rectangles) and filled with a delicious Chantilly cream. It’s similar to an ice cream sandwich, only it awkwardly squirts out and sprays everywhere the minute you take a bite, which could prove to be disastrous for a first date, or any date on which you’re wearing a nice, new outfit and want to not look like a 4-year old.

Our final dish was a frozen fruit soufflé. Well, it looked like a baked soufflé, expanding an inch above its mold like it magically rose in the freezer, yet it is not baked and it actually piped into the mold with a guard above the top, so that you can pipe the mix above the edge of the mold. Confusing, I know, but I’ve never been one with words; my apologies. We actually had to leave it in the freezer over the weekend to freeze solid, so we didn’t have the pleasure of enjoying it. I almost flipped a table when I found this out….see, this would not have happened if I had my intravenous sugar/butter drip installed!

Ever since my short introduction to the beauty of the crepe, I’ve been really into www.world-of-crepes.com. They’ve compiled every crepe recipe you could ever imagine! Try one out this week/weekend and send me pictures!

Wednesday, 3/17/10 – Custards

Wednesday, what the world celebrated as St. Patrick’s Day, was a busy one for yours truly.

I left work early, donned in my power suit and silk blouse with inexplicable lunch stains, to attend the FCI Spring career fair, anxious to meet some of the biggest names in culinary history. Although I’ve pretty much decided that I don’t want to work at a restaurant, it was exciting to be in the same room as representatives from the restaurants that have made NYC a culinary capital of the world: Momofuku, Resto, Oceana, Blue Hill and Nobu, to name only a few. My reason for attending, however, was to attempt to put myself in front of the few very reputable and respected culinary magazines in attendance. The career fair was overly saturated (I waited in line for 25 minutes to speak to one magazine for 2 minutes) yet it was still a good experience. It was valuable, and I learned that it’s perhaps a little too early to be seeking an internship at a job fair, competing with soon-to-be and recent graduates as well as alumni. I was told by one editor to email him a few months before I graduate…still, it was great to make those connections and get my feet wet. (I promise I’m not acting like I made the varsity cheerleading team when in reality I botched the try-outs and was asked to leave…really. It went well!)

After a short snack, it was on to class to learn the beauties of the French custard desserts. My favorite dessert ever, one that I will consistently and predictably order at restaurants over and over, is crème brulee. For whatever reason, this treat has its hold on me; it might be the creamy yet solid interior or the runny caramel underneath a hard crusty shell. I’ve tried many times to replicate it, but without a kitchen torch it’s just not right.

Unfortunately, we did not make crème brulee in class. We did experiment with all three types of custard: stirred (crème anglaise), starch-bound (crème patissiere – thick pudding) and baked (crème renversee – French flan). We also made a huge sheet of biscuit, or separated egg foam cake, and rolled it with preserves (I chose raspberry). We cut it into slices, placed it into a mold and filled the remaining space with Bavarian cream. The gelatin in the cream needs time to set, so we’ll cut it up and serve it in class on Friday. It was a little bizarre, and I almost felt like this “project” was made up 5 minutes before we arrived to keep us occupied until the end of class. “Ok, sure, um now take the cake slices, slather them with preserves, and mold them into the bottom of the bowl. Now….um….la la la…you’re going to, uh, pour the cream over the cake in the mold. Great job guys, we’ll finish this up on Friday.” In class on Friday…”Oh man guys, I’m so sorry. A freak thing happened: a wild bear got into the school and happened to raid the 4th floor refrigerator with only your desserts….I’m so sorry, they’re all gone, as is any evidence of the disaster. This sucks….maybe next time guys.”

With all these custards and egg-yolk whipping, my arm literally fell off. I’m not kidding: I heard a small pop, felt a tickle at my shoulder, looked down and there it was, wedding band and all. I’ve never had an appendage fall off of my body from fatigue before, but I’m hoping it’s just a small set-back in my quest for Kelly Ripa-esque biceps.

Monday, 3/15/10 – Puff Pastries

One of the first “really impressive” meals I made for Steve was Beef Wellington, the classic dish involving a filet mignon wrapped in puff pastry with mushroom duxelle and pâté. It was Valentine’s Day, so I even put a little puffy heart on top (love). While it’s obvious there have been many, many, many more impressive meals since then (right Steve? RIGHT STEVE??) the evening still stands out as a huge personal victory, partly because I tackled an intimidating recipe and made it work. As I’m often known to do on Valentine’s Days of lore, I spend the entire day in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, and by dinner time I’m sweaty, cranky and smell like beef. But that’s what I love about cooking – making other people happy. Sure, I love to create an amazing meal for myself, seeing it from start to finish like some sort of marble carving, but I much prefer to cook for others. In fact, several times in my life I have cooked a nice big meal and suddenly found myself not hungry, choosing to enjoy the look on my guests’ faces instead. Now that I think about it, I probably didn’t eat because the food was poisoned or spoiled or something, and, as the chef, naturally kept that information to myself.

Back to Beef Wellington. At the time, I had used a store-bought puff pastry, but had I known puff pastry is completely doable from scratch I would have considered it! That’s exactly what we made in class: puff pastry from scratch. It requires several steps that seem unnecessary, like entombing a block of butter in the dough, and rolling the dough out, folding it a particular way and rolling it out again. However, in the end the reasoning becomes clear: the butter/dough alternation and endless folds ensure that the flaky, crusty layers are formed properly. Fascinating, right??

-crickets-

Maybe a little cream puff discussion will reel in your attention. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we produced sheet pan upon sheet pan of homemade cream puffs. Hand-whipped cream and all, there’s really no other way! The dough is called pâte a choux, and it’s piped into small rounds that, when baked, hollow out into light, airy balls. Using the same dough, we piped out éclairs and Paris-brest, a classic wreath-shaped pastry sprinkled with almonds. I chose to flavor my whipped creams with espresso (for the cream puffs and éclairs) and praline (for the wreaths). Chef had fondant warming on the bain-marie, and we finished our éclairs with a nice dip in the frosting. These are classic, hand-made pastries, and are very different from the store-bought, preservative-laden ones many families are used to. Home-made is always the way to go, though. Always.

I'm ready to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for croissants. The obsession kind of snuck up on me, taking me by surprise with its flaky, buttery softness that seems to read my inner thoughts and feelings. They call to me, softly and seductively, and I know that I can safely envelope myself in their warmy goodness, always the same and always perfect. My love affair with croissants started a few short years ago, and has intensified since working at the bank - we have a gifted chef who runs a fantastic cafeteria. It helps that the cafeteria’s prices are unbelievable: I can buy a filling and well-rounded lunch for $5, while the normal Manhattan lunch costs about $10, on a good day. With my intense schedule, I started grabbing breakfast in the cafeteria as well, and now find myself knee-deep in a destructive croissant addiction from which I’m not sure any breakfast cereal or oat can pull me. I knew I had a problem when I got legitimately angry, like, seconds away from throwing a hissy fit when I discovered they had run out of croissants this morning. I stewed at my desk all morning, my mouth was foaming and my pulse was quick. I had to fix this! Give me something yeasty and puffy, anything for cripe’s sake! I eventually found reprieve in a $4 designer croissant from a Wall Street bakery down the street. I was ashamed to fork over that money, but it was the right pastry at the right time. My blood pressure is finally back to normal, at least until tomorrow morning…

Friday, 3/12/10 – Crepes

Every culture has its pancake. IHOP aficionados will tell you that pancakes come in many shapes and sizes with myriad toppings and fillings. I’ve proudly witnessed the consuming of a stack of 10” pancakes at The Lick Skillet, kountry kooking powerhouse of Monrovia, Indiana, but I’ve never personally been a huge breakfast advocate, opting for a small bowl of oatmeal or cereal and a piece of fruit. I can definitely understand the appeal of justifying the need to fry sugar, flour and eggs and douse them with maple syrup at 8 o’clock in the morning, though. And we wonder why Americans are overweight.

True to their style, the French have a more sophisticated and less gluttonous pancake – the crepe. Like its counterpart, crepes can be filled and doused with endless ingredients. They have an advantage over pancakes, though, being that they can be savory dishes too. In making the watery and loose crepe batter, you simply leave out the large amounts of sugar and throw in some buckwheat if you're planning on making this dinner. (Fun fact: Buckwheat is actually gluten free…which makes it a perfect substitute for my celiac friends and family!)

That’s exactly what we did to make the savory crepes stuffed with ham, mushroom and gruyere cheese, browned in the oven and broiler. It can be a breakfast meal, but I could even see it being served as an appet---------

Sorry, I just got sucked into a Snuggie infomercial. That thing is revolutionary.

--izer or main course. Making crepes takes patience and a light hand. You get your nonstick pan nice and warm and oiled (the French use clarified butter), pour in a small amount of the batter and swirl it around until it coats the bottom. It only needs a few seconds, and then you flip and do the other side. If you have the right amount of batter in your pan, not too little and not too much, you will be able to get a nice flip without breaking out the utensils or dropping it onto the flame a la Julie Child. It’s a crap shoot though, meaning that no amount of experience will ensure that it flips perfectly.

We also made a sweet crepe batter and cooked perhaps the most delicious thing I have eaten since starting at FCI: Crepes Suzette. The dessert was so good, in fact, that I made it for Steve on Saturday night, and had to get my fix on Sunday as well. It starts with a compound butter consisting of sugar, orange juice, orange liquor and orange zest. The butter is melted in a large pan, and each crepe is added one-by-one, swirled on both sides in the butter and folded into fourths. When you have four of the crepe folds in the pan, add a small amount of brandy and flambé the mix. This will burn off the raw alcohol taste of the brandy yet still maintain the base flavor. At home, my flambé wasn’t the best. Scratch that, it didn’t light at all. I enlisted Steve’s help, and we kept adding more and more brandy. I was sure that it would ignite at any moment, and would create a firestorm in our small kitchen. Alas, it was anti-climactic, and even touching a match to the sauce produced nothing more than a puttering spark. We finished it off with a few delicate orange supremes and candied orange zest. The dish is that perfect mix of butter, warm liquor and orange sweetness, just perfection. Again, I’ve had it three times in the last three days.

Our last and final dish was apple slices marinated in sugar, liquor and cinnamon, dipped in beignet batter and deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served on a berry puree with a side of crème anglaise. Due to the apple’s high water content, the batter doesn’t stay crispy, but the apples inside are warm and mushy, and the tartness of the berries and sweetness of the crème make it divine.

I think I must put this knowledge to good use and have a dessert party featuring all these amazing delicacies! I cannot continue to bring home these goodies and/or replicate them at home…we’re starting to plan our evenings, those few we get to spend together, around dessert. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, we just want to share the wealth!