BP: Week 7 – Fruit Jelly, Poached Pear Tart

Sigh. Yes I admit that I have been stuck in an extremely bad procrastination mood. It’s already week 10 and I still have yet to finish writing about week 6. geez. Maybe I should skim by but let’s see how this goes.

Jelly and Poached Apple

Like I said “last week”, this week we made jellies. Making nice jellies are surprisingly a bunch of hassles. What we did was layer the bottom of the tray with a little gelatine thingy (I added lots and lots of Cointreau ^^), cool it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes, then start decorating the ‘bottom’ (which will be the top after turning it over) with fruits etc. After that, fill it with a little layer of more gelatine thingy (only a little, to prevent the fruits from floating around, 5-10 minutes, and then fill it to cover the first layer of fruits, and then ta-da: 3 more layers to go… . So, now you know how time consuming it is to make a product look nice.

My Compote

We also learnt to make fruit compote and fruit coulis on the first day. And mm bad news, I missed the third day because I just couldn’t get myself up. :p Not a very good excuse but… oh well. Though it wasn’t anything special on the third day, but I really missed out on making Creme Brulee: I would’ve gotten to use the freakin flame gun thingy! :/ One of these days, I’m going to go and get myself a flame gun thingy and use it to burn stuff. Rawr!

Oh and by the way, compotes are basically fruits served in its cooking liquid. You can easily serve it with ice cream by the way. Yumm… . Saw how my compote looks? Now imagine it with other yummy stuffs. ^^ And on the ladle (spoon thingy), the thick syrupy goodness running down can also be called a coulis: basically a thick sauce of puree or something (strained), usually fruits or vegetables. Good stuff to dribble all over ice cream (again). ^^

Alchoholic Bench

Just a side note, the above is a photo of my bench space. See that bottle of wine? See that coffee cup? Well, in that cup was initially a mixture of apple juice and Cointreau. Eventually the bottle of Cointreau ran out (ahem) and it was eventually filled with red wine (we used the red wine to poach the pears). Don’t ask me why that cup was filled with apple juice/Cointreau/red wine because as far as I know, it is against the rules to drink or eat or especially drink alchohol in the kitchen especially while working. But you know, I didn’t say anything. ^^

Oh and see how neat my space is. ^^

Uncivilised People

Before I forget, I really want to whinge about something. I’ve always wanted to talk about this but this time, I have photos to prove it. Ja’s class apparently was pretty civilised about it. According to her, once the chef is done with demonstrating, the students are usually considerate about taking photos of the finished product, some choosing to take a quick photo of the goods and some others choosing to use the zoom function on their camera.

Uncivilised People (again)

In my class, those barbarians (yes I’m a bitter person, especially towards inconsiderate people) tend to start swarming even before Chef Gert says that they could come up to the front for photo taking sessions. Secondly, almost every one of them takes more than 2 photos, averaging about 10 clicks per person: taking a photo from the top, the bottom, at an angle, at another angle, you get the gist. Thirdly, the barbarians swarm around the finished product like flies over a fresh dung on a hot summer day and you know how that is: irritatingly annoying, like flies on a hot summer day. Extremely inconsiderate and constantly blocking the lights, being too close to the food, even (oh my God) touching the finished product and rearranging them to suit her camera angle (YES I HAVE THE HUGHEST URGE TO NAME YOU). Sigh… I just can’t believe anyone moving the product around, or bringing it closer to themselves to have a better shot with her (yes HER) camera.

Totally… barbaric… uncivilised… inconsiderate… rude… girl. (and the rest (most) of my classmates too)

4 minutes after with Chef Gert finally cutting it (yes, I posted this photo because SHE is in it)

So, it usually takes me around 10 minutes of waiting around before I could get a nice shot (READ: ONE SINGLE SHOT) of Chef Gert’s finished product. In the photos above, you can see my classmates swarming around the poor pear tart. Sigh, I want to keep whinging but, let’s move on… .

Tarts and Jellies!

Oh, and the pear tart: inside is pastry cream covered with a layer of Dacquoise base (made with almond meal, meringue, flour and vanilla essence: tastes really good) and then topped with pears poached in red wine (yummy). The photo on the left is Chef Gert’s (so beautiful) whereas the other one is mine (I made a huge accidental mistake in arranging the pear slices, see if u can spot the difference). The jelly in the middle is Hsiu Yen’s whereas the other partly hidden jelly is mine. ^^ No, I didn’t mean for it to be hidden but here’s the story.

Make sure you’re patient, because impatience will get you nowhere. Haha. I was too impatient with waiting for the gelatine to harden and when I poured the next layer of gelatin in, my beautifully arranged fruits ended up floating around. So because of lack of time, I ended up dumping all the fruits inside the mould. ^^ So much for being patient.

~ by limmyfox on June 17, 2008.