Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

Trouble is, I had much help from Debbie. And there was a quote from Babe Ruth (supposedly; citation needed as Wikipedia would say…) on the wall at the business session yesterday which went something like “Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.” So more attempts are needed! Especially as doing this is one of the techniques we may need to demonstrate at the end of week 6. And you can be sure that if I haven’t practiced again this is what will come up for me…

Other than my elective shortcrust, I had, as mentioned on Tuesday, to prepare plaice (well, megrim) goujons with coriander aïoli and a chilli salsa plus coffee & cardamon éclairs—i.e. a choux pastry exercise. To give me time for the shortcrust, I made the aïoli and salsa before class proper; Debbie was happy with this as she’d seen me make mayonnaise and a salsa before. So after making the shortcrust with her, it was time for the choux.

This we had to make by hand and there was none of the Gastronomicom precision of cooling the panade (the cooked butter, water & flour mix) to 35-40°C with a paddle in a mixer before you add the eggs, just leaving the pan to cool until you can hold it. Well, I’ve got sensitive hands so that took a little while! Debbie did say, though, that now we’ve made choux pastry by hand we can mix in the eggs with a food processor. I think I’d still go with the mixer/paddle, though, as you have more control over the texture. (Rachel did give a neat trick during the demo yesterday, though, for working out if you’ve added enough egg: take a pinch of the pastry between your thumb and forefinger; if it stretches between them as you move them apart then you’ve added enough egg, if it breaks you haven’t.)

Just as my éclairs were getting to the end of their time in the oven, the flat fish for our filleting exercise arrived. These turned out to be megrim; the school orders the fish from Ballycotton Seafood and what we get depends on what has been landed in the morning.

The filleting done, I just had to make chantilly cream to fill the éclairs, give them the coffee and cardamom icing and finally coat and deep fry the goujons.

Apart from feeling a bit shortchanged on the goujon quantity, Debbie was pretty pleased with everything. I just have to see if I can justify her confidence that I’ve mastered lining a tart tin with shortcrust pastry…

After lunch, to go with the assemblies and the bells calling us to order, we had a class photo. I’m at the back on the left, just to the right of the light on the wall.