@Shelovescake

Week 6 was short and sweet (and crisp). Just two days in school and three off for half term break.

The sweet element came from the delectable pastry wheel, the Paris-Brest. We started on Thursday by making the crème pat base for the mousseline filling and the craquelin to top the choux pastry for a crisp bite. Once completed, we got stuck into our first experience with squid. A competition ensued over the gutting to see whose squid contained the most interesting specimen. Half digested fishes were the most popular contenders. Once cleaned, we sliced and dried the squid ready for deep fat frying. To accompany the crispy cephalopod, we made a vibrant ginger, chilli and coriander salsa. My previous home attempts at crispy squid have not been that successful. But here we used a gluten free flour and a very small amount of sparkling water to make a batter the consistency of Greek yoghurt which worked perfectly. It was difficult not to polish off the entire plate whilst standing in the kitchen.

Finishing the Paris Brest on Friday was a lovely meditative session. Making, piping and baking the choux and topping with tiny overlapping circles of thinly rolled craquelin. Making mousseline by whipping a considerable quantity of soft butter into our crème pat and flavouring it with praline paste. Melting sugar to create caramel and combining it quickly once dark amber with toasted hazelnuts to make praline. And finally the majestic assembly. The choux delicately sliced in half and filled with fluted columns of rich mousseline. The praline roughly sliced into tiny shards to add texture and interest to each bite. And an elegant fine dusting of icing sugar to make it picture perfect.

Sauces and pasta were the focus of our teaching sessions. In sauces I finally understood what is happening on Masterchef when they are browning and cooking bones in stock which somehow transforms into a glossy sauce. The ‘jus’ is essentially a double stock. One relatively quickly made stock which is enriched with alcohol and a previously made longer cooked stock, resulting in a sauce that is packed with flavour and a syrupy coating consistency. Ours would be started on Monday to be served with duck later in the week. We were taught the three C’s of jus: concentration, clarity and consistency; and the love and attention required in the making of the jus to achieve them. The second sauce was a smooth buttery veloute served with poached brill and a leek croquette – one to be repeated!

Pasta dem was predominantly revision of skills from foundation but we also had a go at shaping into garganelli and tortellini. Grace also ran us through the sausage and fennel ragu we will make to coat the garganelli for our next assessment; plus a delicious lemon and ricotta filling for the tortellini.

Panic struck at the end of the week with the realisation of quite how much there is to do in terms of coursework, assessments and revision during the second half term. Definitely a need for head down revising wine this weekend ahead of our level 2 exam in two weeks’ time.