Basic Week 3: Huff and Puff!

Last week ended with legendary puff pastry demo on Saturday.

Thank god! This week is bit relaxed with a day off on Wednesday and only 3 practicals as compared to 5 in the last week!!!

Monday, it started with the lecture on "Examination Procedures". Chef Julie, the only lady chef amongst all chefs conducted this lecture and she explained us all about the exams and rules.
What?...exams? Yes, exams are coming up soon for us, the "intensive" people. We have our Final exams for Basic Level, which we'll be finishing just within one and a half months. The written Theory exam is on 15 Feb and Practical exam is on 16 Feb.
Practical exam can be on any one of the 3 - Lemon tart, Genoise with raspberry, Blackcurrant mousse cake (out of which we have learnt only lemon tart, so far).

Weightage of marks for final assessment is,
45% of the regular practicals (19 recipes) evaluation
45% of the final practical exam
10% of the theory exam
hmm..suddenly we were feeling some tension in the air!

We had another demo after this lecture, and that was of Mixed fruits puff pastry. I love puff pastry and I was waiting to try my hands on it but the practical was scheduled only on Thursday directly.

Tuesday, we had Cheese lecture. It was very interesting. I came to know so many things about cheese, making of it and history. A very experienced and knowledgeable cheese expert guy called ‘Tom' conducted it and the way he told us about it, I have no words to explain, I just loved it!
We tasted almost 15 types of cheese and there is a great story behind each one.

Cheese Lecture

I am not a cheese lover person but the lecture changed my whole perspective to look at it. If found time, I would like to dig in more about it.

After a day off, we were all ready for Puff pastry practical, but before that we had to attend another theory lecture on "Flour, Sugar & Honey" on Thursday.
Finally we were back in kitchens to make puff pastry!
It was the last slot of the day, i.e. 6:30 to 9:30pm. We were supposed to make a butter puff pastry from scratch with 6 folds, label and store it for use in the next practical. Then, make a Pear & almond cream Jalousie using a pre-made puff pastry.
It was a bit tough, my palms were sore after all of the rolling for 6 turns but overall, it was fun. I enjoyed doing the Jalousie. Buuuuttttt, in the course of making it as desired, we all actually took longer than required to finish the practical. We finished it around 9:45!! Chef was not happy with that and we again got a dose of instructions and advice! :(

Ideally, we are supposed to finish any preparation in 2.5 hours and rest 30 mins are dedicated to evaluation, cleaning up, resetting the kitchen (yes, each student has to setup the workstation with necessary equipments for the next class coming up in that kitchen).
Now only thing worrying me was, how will I get back home so late! I couldn't take a decent picture of my Jalousie because of it.

Jalousie aux poires et creme d'amandes

I reached home as late as 10:50pm that day! Thank goodness, there were few people around in train as well as on my station and my house is not too far from station!
Gobbled up an orange and hit the sack as soon as I reached as I had to be in the school next day for Fruit puff pastry practical at 7:50am, that means leaving house at 6:50am!
(We have to report in the kitchen minimum 10 mins before the time. We need extra 15 min in advance, to get dressed in the proper uniform…and I have 30 mins of travel time. So all in all, I need to leave house an hour before the class time including the walking time.)

Next day, Friday, I reached school on time for the practical. We had to make the "Fresh Fruits in Puff pastry" out of the puff pastry we made last night. Inspite of knowing that I've done it correctly, I was little worried about how will it turn out after baking, whether it will puff properly? Will it have decent amount of layers, and all.
I was relaxed to see it after baking, it turned out pretty good :) Yayy!! my first successful puff pastry!

Bande Feuilletée aux Fruits de saison

We had 3 hours gap before the next session, so we friends decided to go out for lunch to a place near Oxford Street, which is famous for its burgers. Burgers and fries were really yummy!

I went to Oxford Street for the first time and would love to go back there again in leisure time ;) We took a bus on our way back to the school and I rode a bus in London for the first time :)

We back at school for the demo of Eclairs! Another legendary dish! Chef told, this was one of the exam dishes till last batch. It's no more an exam dish for us, but I have heard that it is not easy as it looks. Let’s see it tomorrow, now looking forward to go back home and catch on some sleep!
Captured this beautiful view on my way to Holborn station at 5pm!

Darkness and full moon at 5pm! :)

Back in the kitchen on Saturday, we have to make 12 identical Coffee Eclairs. We had to take care of making correct choux dough with proper amount of eggs in it. Only then the eclairs will puff properly and will make a hollow channel inside. Everything went well for me until I started applying the fondant (this is fondant icing and not the rolled fondant we use for cakes) onto the eclairs. It was tedious and messy job to frost them. I managed it somehow, decorated them with chocolate piping and finished making them. Chef commented they are baked and filled nicely and fondant is shining well that means it is applied at the right temperature; Only thing is they are not of identical height.

All this was recorded in the journal. I think it was not so bad apart from the icing part as opposed to all the fuss I heard about it. 

Coffee Eclairs

Next we had demo of White bread - an introduction to bread making. We learnt how to make basic white bread dough, how to shape dinner rolls and how to make an Irish soda bread. The practical will be on next week Monday.
End of another happening week, now just want to relax for tomorrow and do nothing! :)