So today was Thursday! I had a pretty great day in the kitchen as well. I got to practice a lot of different techniques, like poaching and scrambling an egg, and doing hot emulsion sauces. The first picture, by the way, is the creation of a student in my kitchen to use up extra puff pastry - boil an egg, roll it in parmesan and chorizo, then wrap with puff pastry and bake. Yum! Here's what I made (that I was supposed to):
- Stingray with thyme hollandaise: ray is incredibly difficult to work with. I think it's the high levels of ammonia or something that make it secrete mucus EVERYWHERE. Once you cut the wing off of the skeletal structure, you just poach it in water until the meat falls easily off the cartilage. The flavor of ray is delicate and not very pungent, with a similarly delicate texture (without mucus too!). I don't know if I'd go out of my way to eat ray again, but I definitely wouldn't turn down the opportunity :).
- Caramel ice cream with caramel popcorn, salted peanuts, and chocolate sauce: there are so many different components to this dessert (which all make it insanely delicious!). I got to make some popcorn too, which was fun. A little really goes a long way, as you can see in the before and after picture! It seemed like a classic American dessert too because of the peanuts and popcorn :). YUM!
After demo, I finally got to cook the donut sourdough!! :D It turned out really well (though I think Tim was still skeptical hah). It was pretty dense because it was packed in so much, so maybe if I made it next time I'd put it in a bigger tin. Still though, it was fun to eat!
After I finished my sourdough, we had a gin distiller come and speak to us about gin and what he has been doing. Also fun fact: today was international Beaujolais Nouveau day!! It's a type of wine made with the Gamay grape variety in Beaujolais, France. The second to last Thursday of November is when all of the Beaujolais wineries release the next year's wine! We got to try one that was delicious and fruity!
Back to gin - the man speaking to us was a co-founder of Blackwater Distillery, which has only been open for 6-7 months! Apparently it only takes 2 - 3 days to make a gin once you have the vodka because you are just evaporating the alcohol off. I learned that juniper is one of the main "botanicals" used to flavor gin, along with coriander (cilantro seeds), lemon peels, and orange peels. A "sloe gin" (or "hedgerow gin") is simply gin that has sloes (similar to damson plums) and a bit of sweetener added to it. It's dangerously good! I'd never tried gin until tonight, and after the first shock of the highly alcoholic stuff, I found it quite delicious!
Back to gin - the man speaking to us was a co-founder of Blackwater Distillery, which has only been open for 6-7 months! Apparently it only takes 2 - 3 days to make a gin once you have the vodka because you are just evaporating the alcohol off. I learned that juniper is one of the main "botanicals" used to flavor gin, along with coriander (cilantro seeds), lemon peels, and orange peels. A "sloe gin" (or "hedgerow gin") is simply gin that has sloes (similar to damson plums) and a bit of sweetener added to it. It's dangerously good! I'd never tried gin until tonight, and after the first shock of the highly alcoholic stuff, I found it quite delicious!
Wow what a day! Things are really starting to heat up!
Love,
Livvy
Love,
Livvy