This week's lessons focus on plating. First up, we did a raspberry bavarois (pronounced as ba-va-ruah). Bavarois is the French term for Bavarian Cream. It is like a mousse, except that it has egg yolks added into it. After preparing the mixture, it is poured into small moulds or Dariole moulds (Dariole is French for a small, cylindrical-shaped mould).
I wanted to create height for my plate with my caramel wheel, but alas it cut into the bavarois when I tried to stand the wheel upright against the fragile dessert. So I had to place it flat on the plate, which really kinda loses the whole effect that I wanted to create. This plating isn't too good, so I shall try something simpler and cleaner the next time. I think it is a little bland too..perhaps a little more sugar in the recipe might make it taste a little more appealing to the tastebuds.
Then we did a buttermilk panna cotta. Panna Cotta is Italian for "cooked cream", because this dessert is made by cooking cream and then adding in the rest of the ingredients. This I must say is a wonderful dessert. A combination of sweet and tangy, smooth but not overly soft...it is simply... heavenly. We made ours with a pineapple, strawberry and mint salsa (salad). I think it would taste lovely with warm caramel sauce drizzled over it.
Then we did a buttermilk panna cotta. Panna Cotta is Italian for "cooked cream", because this dessert is made by cooking cream and then adding in the rest of the ingredients. This I must say is a wonderful dessert. A combination of sweet and tangy, smooth but not overly soft...it is simply... heavenly. We made ours with a pineapple, strawberry and mint salsa (salad). I think it would taste lovely with warm caramel sauce drizzled over it.
Second day. Another day of plating. The star of the day was..chocolate pudding. Yummy. The perfectly done chocolate pudding holds its shape but oozes out chocolate when you cut into it. I figured the whole world would be using tuille/ bubble sugar/ caramel sugar for their decorative piece so I went with something which we learnt back in basic class - caramelised fruit slice. I didn't do it so well in basic class but today my orange slice turned out really nice - firm and shiny. Alas, it couldn't stand up on top of the pudding so I had to press it down into the pudding, which I didn't really like. Chef said that was probably the only way to make it stand. Anyway, I should've done without the lemon slice. Orange and chocolate makes a great pair and we don't need a lamp post around huh..I was also looking for chopped pistachio nuts to give some nice green colour to the plate but there was none in the kitchen. Oh well. So I had to settle for slivered almonds. The sauce is a little messy. I shall do it better next time.
Companion for day number two? Grilled Fresh Fruit with Cointreau Sabayon. We grilled fruit skewers in a mixture of butter, spices, cointreau and sugar, and then drizzled it with sabayon. My favourite part of the dish was the grilled bananas. I love to eat bananas and they taste especially fabulous when they're grilled. The only nightmare now is that bananas cost a hefty $6.98/kg at the supermarkets. That's like ten times more than in Singapore. We only pay SG$1.90/kg for bananas in Singapore and the price is almost always stable, fluctuating at most by a couple of cents. Looks like I have to stay away from bananas for some time..
On the third day, we made Savarin and Crepe Suzette. Savarin is an yeast cake that is soaked in a fruit and liquor solution, and sometimes filled with whipped cream and fruits. It is made in small or large bundt tins. I only had one savarin mould to use for my presentation piece so I made doubly sure that I greased and dusted the mould really well and put the filling in evenly. This is quite a yummy dessert, except that I find it a little on the soft side . Wonder if it would taste better after being left in the fridge. Back to plate presentation and today I told myself that I had to focus and not let negative events in the kitchen affect me. We were supposed to do a spun sugar nest to decorate the savarin and Chef said we had to do it. I wasn't that keen on doing the nest because I didn't want my dessert to look like everyone else's...so I decided to give my dessert a twist and and made a super pink tornado with the spun sugar instead! I was so happy with my dessert that I actually took a photo with my plate for the first time in my LCB life.. :)
Making the crepe suzette was fun too. It is really easy to prepare the mixture and cook it, but I think to get the perfect consistency for the mixture is a little tricky. After we cooked the crepes we then had to coat it in an orange sauce and flambe it with grand marnier. I didn't like this recipe though. I think my mum makes better crepe suzette.
Done with Week 3!