<3 Livvy
PS. I just realized that all of those sentences ended in an exclamation mark! And that last one did too!! I don't know what it is. I guess I'm just so forceful or excited when I think about what I'm going to write next that it has to end with an exclamation mark or else it will sound like I'm talking in a monotone. :P. Hope it's not too energetic for you guys!! (Haha, there I go again)
I'm finally catching up!! :D Yay! So here's how my Monday morning in the kitchen went: I felt like I was on top of everything the whole time, then as the 12:00PM deadline drew nearer I somehow couldn't pull everything together in time and ended more around 12:45! UGH! I don't know what it is! This is what I made...
- Mixed green salad with Gubbeen lardons (a locally produced bacon), Coolea cheese (a locally produced cheddar-like cheese), poached egg, and Caesar salad dressing. I thought it tasted pretty good! I had some trouble poaching the eggs because they kept breaking up in the as soon as I dropped them into the water. Ugh! Oh well! The one on my presented salad turned out alright :).
- Flaky pastry: this is a commitment. You essentially create 729 layers of pastry that are separated by butter, and lots of it! You roll the pastry multiple times, but only dot it with butter three times. The chilling time is what makes it take so long. I didn't really think of taking a picture because the pastry (which has to chill overnight) was just a square of dough.
- Wilted Chard: this is a really straightforward dish because you just desolate chard, cook the chopped stalks in water for a bit, then add the greens and cook until done. Good stuff. I guess it just gets tricky when you have to time it so they're done as soon as you're ready to serve and no sooner.
- Glazed fruits: I didn't find this too bad a dish either, though I don't know if I'd make it at home. You make a light caramel and then dip fruits WITH SKIN on them. I'd rather just eat the fruits the way they are! :). We got to use ground cherries/physalis, which are related to gooseberries and tomatillos. I love them!
I was also able to turn out my terrine from Friday today! My instructors thought it had a great flavor! I really really liked it! I guess it is worth the amount of prep that goes into it. It goes beautifully with chutneys :).
The second dish I'm showing is a particularly delicious salad I learned about! I can see it becoming one of the Call usual salads (though I guess my mom doesn't really like meat all that much). It's a salad made of watercress (which we could totally grow!!), but I'm sure you could substitute it with arugula or some other green. It has smoked salmon (that you smoke yourself on a homemade smoker :D:D:D:D), with boiled beetroot and a horseradish sauce. YUM! If you wanted to make it a heartier salad, I'm sure you could add a seed of some sort to the top as well, but then again it is also refreshingly simple. Each flavor is very distinct the way it is.
All I want to do is snuggle up under the covers and eat warm potatoes or polenta (which they made today!! :D). Hope you all have had a great Monday!
Love,
Livvy