Sunday, March 27, 2011

Days 29 and 30: Bread!!!

Finally, coming to France has paid off.  I can officially say I've made bread.  My baguettes and sandwich breads were delicious!  Soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside for the baguettes and perfectly firm and brioche-like for the sandwich bread.

My Mom and Jex had the honor of coming to the demonstration class for my bread baking.  They were very excited, but the combination of being jetlagged and the room being super warm to encourage the bread dough to rise was not good.  They both nodded off a few times, but really enjoyed the Chef's bread when he finally let us all have a taste.  Even though they fell asleep they were still such a hit with the Chef that he gave them their own fresh baguette to bring home!

Chef Cotte's bread creations

My Baguettes

My sandwich breads

The last time they came with me to a demo class was in Basic Pastry and we learned to make a Gateau Basque.  Chef Cotte offered Lindy one of his cakes after that class and she bought a tupperware container and flew the cake all the way home to Virginia!  This time we brought the bread home and enjoyed it with some cheese before heading out to an extremely fancy dinner at Guy Savoy's flagship three Michelin starred restaurant aptly named Guy Savoy.  We enjoyed a truly over the top tasting menu that took us 3.5 hours to finish.  Holy Moly!

An amuse bouche of soup with spices on the side
that you sweep into it before eating it.

When we picked up the soup to drink it another
tasty treat was hiding under the cup.

Jex, Mom, Me

Fish Course: Sea Bass with swish chard and spices on the side.

Second Course: Lobster medallions served in the shell
with crispy lobster pancakes on top.  Very fancy.

Third Course: Artichoke Soup with shaved Truffles.  Delicious!

Meat Course: Veal that was roasted and then cut and served
tableside with creamy potatoes and roasted vegetables.

Small Dessert: A marshmallow and chocolate lollipops.

Medium Dessert: Meringue in a fruit sauce.

The dessert Trolley

Chocolate Tart with Vanilla Glace

Cheesecake with Mango Glaze

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Days 27 and 28: French Wedding Cakes

A French wedding cake is not made from chocolate, buttercream, fondant, or even carrot cake like an American wedding cake,  instead it is made of profiteroles and called a Croquembouche.  A Croquembouche is a tower of profiteroles filled with pastry cream, glued together with caramel and decorated with caramel threads.  The tower sits on a base made from caramel and almonds that have been combined and set much like a bark.  It can also be adorned with flowers made from pulled sugar.  We learned to make the Croquembouche, but not how to make the flowers.  In superior pastry we will learn how to work with pulled sugar and as part of our final exam we will have to create a sculpture made of sugar.  The cake is interesting, but not necessarily that pretty.  It took two days to make and I hope I never have to make one again!

My tower and my stand before they were combined.
The white threads are strands of royal icing.

My Croquembouche fully assembled.

Chef Cotte and his Croquembouche at our demonstration class.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Israel

In the beginning of March Maggie and I took the trip of a lifetime, we went to Israel!  We traveled to Tel Aviv, Rehovot, and Jerusalem and stayed with our friends from our Basic Pastry class Naama and Esther, Etty for short.  Israel was nothing like either of us had expected.  The weather was warm and sunny, but the parts of the country we toured were very much like an American city.  The cars, houses, shops, and grocery stores were far more like America than anything we have in Paris or have seen in other European cities.  The thing that struck me the most was that all of the signs were in English.  Of course, all of the signs were in Hebrew and Arabic as well, but not much is in English in Paris and virtually everything was in English in all of the parts of Israel that we visited.

Our first night in town, was Friday night which meant many restaurants and stores were closed because of the Shabbat.  The Shabbat is the Jewish sabbath celebrated from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday.  So, we went to an asian sushi restaurant for dinner.  We also, went to a few bars that were open and discovered the coolest thing ever-a bar with swings suspended from the ceiling instead of bar stools!  Very fun!
Maggie, Me, Naama, Etty

Swings instead of Bar Stools!
 Saturday we got up and went to see the Mediterranean Sea near Tel Aviv.  It was a very windy day, but sunny nonetheless.  We also went to an indoor market selling everything from fresh juice, meats, fresh pasta, herbs, and wine to kitchen gadgets.  We also sampled the gelato and while it was not as good as Italy it was certainly tasty and hit the spot.  For lunch we went to a restaurant and shared a bunch of Israel dishes including hummus, kebabs, and several types of bread.
Maggie and Etty with the Mediterranean Sea roaring behind them.

Everything resembles America, even the Vodka advertisements!
 Every day we were in Israel it was sunny, sunny, sunny.  Even on the windy days it was absolutely beautiful.  It was like Southern California meets Florida.  The vegetation was gorgeous and there were fruit trees and flowers in every yard and along every street.  Even the medians on the highway were planted with spectacular flowers.
A rose in Naama's front yard.

The lemon tree in Naama's backyard.

Lemons as lovely as at the Yellow House!
A highway median beautifully planted.
On Sunday we went to Jerusalem to the Old City and explored a bunch of places I've spent my whole life learning about.  I think the only way to describe the visit is to say that it was incredibly overwhelming.  It's hard enough to figure out what's true and can be taken literally in the way of Bible stories to begin with, but then to be facing the actual spots where so many parts of Catholic history began was just unreal.  

We went to the Wailing Wall which is one of the most sacred parts of Jewish history.  The Wailing Wall is the remnant of one of the walls that surrounded the Temple's courtyard.  Yes, this would be the temple referred to in the Old Testament that was destroyed and rebuilt.  Crazy.  Nowadays people from all religions travel to the Wall.  Many people pray there and before they leave write prayers on small pieces of paper and stick them inside the wall hoping they'll soon be answered.

We traveled all through the Arabic part of the Old City as well and saw shops selling everything you can think of, clothes, jewelry, tchatckes, and more.  We also sampled some falafel and baklava.  

Our last stop was a visit to the Christian section of the city where we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  This church was built by Saint Helena in 326A.D. to commemorate the hallowed ground of Golgotha or the Hill of Calvary as it is also known.  This was the spot where Jesus is thought to have been crucified on Good Friday.  Preserved within the church is the actual rocky hill where the cross was erected, the marble where they laid Jesus' body once they took him down off the cross, and the entrance to the tomb where he lay until the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  It was moving and somewhat unbelievable to be in the presence of such a holy place.  

Underneath the church is a statue built to Saint Helena as she is thought to have discovered the original cross of Jesus while excavating the land to build the church.  Again, very spiritual and amazing.
A view of Jersalem-The Old City

Etty, Maggie, Me

The Wailing Wall

One of the shopping corridors within the Arabic section of the Old City


The marble they laid Jesus' body on they took him down off the cross.

The candles and decorations around the tomb they laid Jesus' body in on Good Friday.


A statue of St. Helen holding the cross of Jesus.



All of the food above is part of the traditional Israeli breakfast we enjoyed on our final day in Rehovot.  We had breads, white fish, smoked salmon, some tomato confit with eggs, salad, dips, and a delicious raspberry dessert.  Our trip to Israel really was one of the best trips I've ever been on in my life and if I could only recommend one country for everyone to visit, it would definitely be Israel.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Days 25 and 26: Caramel Walnut Cake

This cake is called Triomphe Aux Noix or Walnut Cake.  Not so very exciting to look at, but it is pretty good if you like caramel.  The cake, the mousse, the imbibing syrup, and even the candied walnuts are all flavored with caramel, but it's not a rich cake, it's very light and creamy.  The cakey bottom of this cake is imbibed with a caramel flavored simple syrup, layered with caramel sauce mixture, a caramel mousse, and a caramel glaze.  For decoration, the final touch on this cake is the chopped walnuts around the top edge.



Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 23 and 24: Raspberry Passionfruit Cream Cake

Lesson 15 of Intermediate was Entremets Passionata or a Raspberry Passionfruit Cream Cake.  It was not my favorite thing to eat, but it did look pretty.  It was a cake with, once again, several layers.  This time it was a coconut meringue with a spongey, cakey edge layered with passionfruit cream, raspberry mousse, and finished with a raspberry glaze.  Very time consuming and very pretty.

My Entremets Passionata

The colorful sideview of my cake.

The cakes from my whole class.
Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Sestriere, Italy

In the middle of February I went on a ski trip to Italy with my friend Maggie.  We flew to Torino and took a 90 minute drive to a small town in the Italian Alps called Sestriere.  Sestriere was one of the two ski towns that hosted the main skiing events for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.  The trip was really fun and all of the Italian mountains and towns were beautiful.  

We stayed at the Shackleton Mountain Resort which was a fairly new and very large hotel in town.  It is owned and operated by David Shackleton and his wife.  They were a nice couple who were involved in all aspects of running the resort from visiting with people in the hotel dining room to arranging car transportation for guests to actually teaching ski lessons on the slopes.  They were the quintessential innkeepers at what could as easily  have been a 5-star hotel. 

We had a variety of exciting italian foods including pizza, pasta, and braised wild animals.  Everything was delicious.  We also finished each day with gelato at the base of the slopes and the best cocktails I've had anywhere in Europe so far at the Barabba.  Their extensive cocktail menu made you feel like you were on a Caribbean vacation after a long day on the slopes.

The view from our room at the Shackleton Mountain Resort

Lunch at an outdoor restaurant in the mountains near our hotel.

Flags of the world from the 2006 Olympics

Lunch on the slopes on our second day of skiing.

Just call me Picabo Street

View of Sestriere from the ski lift.

A melting igloo near the town square.

Fancy Cocktails at Barabba
A snowstorm on our last morning in Sestriere.
Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!