New attraction

Hello food blog and bloggers who follow this page

What's up lately is that i'm having an internship for 6months in Conrad Centennial, Singapore

Training in the Lobby Lounge

It's kinda fun here,

we take turns to do many tasks everyday

from being a hostesss, to waitress, to runner, to barista

So here's what i've been entertaining myself with lately

(FYI: i only get to do this when i'm the runner)

My Latte Art:

 1st attempt

 2nd attempt

(Cup was too small for the circle to be formed)

This next one is actually done by someone, somewhere on earth

Which looked like this

I just thought of testing my capabilities

So..

 1st attempt

 2nd attempt

3rd attempt

And then i got tired,

But will definitely try it again to perfection,

 when i have the chance

For now, this is..

CLOSE ENOUGH

=D

Farewell Dinner

For the appetizer

First the prawns are blanched

and then sauteed with butter and seasoning.

Chicken breasts stuffed with pilaf rice and parmesan cheese

 (Raw)

Chicken marinated with:

Butter

Salt and ground black pepper

Mixed herbs (in a small plastic container, pre-prepared)

Pilaf rice:

Shallots

Carrot

Mushroom

Provence herbs (from France)

Stuffed with:

Cooked pilaf rice 

Grated Parmesan cheese

Method of preparation:

Toothpicks were used to aid in the stuffing

Sear with butter

Coated with butter ad honey

Baked at 200D.C

not exactly sure how long,i'm sure there is about 1hour?

I did not time it as I checked from time to time

Fish fillet with lemon butter sauce

The Dory fish fillet was marinated with:

Thyme

Butter

Salt and pepper

Method of preparation:

Seared

Baked for about 40 minutes at 190D.C

Sauce:

Fresh lemon juice 

Cold butter cubes

Salf and pepper

I added sugar because it was originally too sour

*Very important to remove the hot pot before adding in the butter, as it will cause the sauce to split

*After lemon juice boiled, whisk in cold butter while AWAY FROM HEAT

*only apply SLIGHT heat when sauce is not hot enough to melt the butter

*Basically whole process is done away from the heat, except to boil the lemon juice in the beginning

Finally, meringue with custard:

Meringue:

Whisk 4 egg whitte plus 200g sugar

until stiff peak

add vanilla essence

Pipe it out 

Bake 150D.C for about 40-45 minutes

Custard:

300ml milk

70g sugar

4 egg yolk

40g corn starch

2 teaspoon vanilla essence

30g Butter (not compulsory, purpose is to make the custard smoother and give it a shine)

Method:

Whisk 4 egg yolk + 40g corn starch + 35g sugar + vanilla essence + 10ml milk + butter (if applicable)

until well mixed  

Boil 290ml milk + 35g sugar

Temper boiled milk with egg yolk mixture

*Tempering 

= Whisk the cold mixture fast while slowly adding in the hot mixture 

(this is so the egg yolk does not cook and form lumps.)

 Continue doing this until there are about half of the hot mixture left

 then pour the cold + hot mixture into the hot pot, with the rest of the hot mixture. 

Sorry if this is confusing, basically tempering is done to control the temperature of the mixtures.

Moving on...(After tempering)

Mixture is now in the hot pot

Put hot pot on slow fire and stirring the mixture as it slowly thickens

USE A WOODEN SPOON TO STIR, not whisk

*While stirring,be sure to scrap the bottom of the pot as there are custard stuck to it, instead of just stirring around the surface. 

After custard thicken, remove from heat, put into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap

Chill it.

Practical Class 18-11-10

Back with the 2nd practical

During pastry class
we made bavarois!

Bavarois is a layered dessert of creme anglaise
with different flavours
Commonly,
Vanilla, Choc and Coffee

The key to making a perfect bavarois is
giving it time to chill longer
so it can set
and be firmer
so the layers do not mix
like wat my chef said
"do fast fast, chill longer"
-Chef Zamri

It took quite a long time to make it
all cuz of the time required to chill
we have to chill it after putting each layer

Chef Zamri's
well set,
firm bavarois
however,
the taste was abit off
haha
some part of it taste salty
this is because
salt was used to preserved the ice


Mine
It looks "ok"
but it stil wasnt firm enough
n yes,
it was salty in some area
=/
YY's
looks great,
just lack of the colour
Carmen's was the best amongst us
it's well set and firm

Unfortunately,
some of us did not turn out well
Nik Haris's
Should be the lack of gelatine and chilling

Next is Kitchen class
This time we are to prepare
My dish was
Pan seared duck, accompanied with risotto, braised rad cabbage, sauteed asparagus,
served with orange sauce
So this is how it looked like
Well,
my chef did not fancy it
I did not peel my asparagus =/
Chef liked my risotto taste
but not the texture
The diced dragon fruit need not to be there
=/
LOL
Wat my chef said
=(
Anyways...
here are some nice presentation of that day
Kah Wai's
I liked it
Carmen's

FYI:
I forgot to take a picture of my impose dish
which was
poached chicken mousseline with muchroom, mixed salad and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Done by my commis, Ariff
=)
Well done

(",)/"

Making Gateau Saint Honore with LYY n her Sis

So my fren,

Yinying's sister,
Qying
(dunno wat's her full name)
=/
has a project
which is to make a cake
So YY n i helped
=)

It was a hot day
I remembered
As we were going around shopping for ingredients
but we could not find some, however

We ended up making a gateau saint honore
without using gelatine powder
Resulted a "unsuccessful gateau saint honore"
but still edible
LOL
(",)/"

Practical Class 21-10-10

A new Term

Tougher
Harder
Stricter
More challenging..

So here's the thing
In this new term
(which is ending, but i'm only updating now cuz been busy =/)
Our pastry & kitchen class are on the same day
So every alternate Thursday
Pastry 1st, then Kitchen

Our first pastry class in this new term
we were to make
Gateau Saint-Honore
A classic French dessert
made from a shortcrust pastry as base
small cream puffs as the ring
and
crème chiboust as the filling
This is how it should look likea raspberry variation

AND..
This is how mine looks like
Saddening
But it taste great >< by..
i forgot who =/
by foo haw

Some tips :
1. To make creme chiboust = creme patissiere + italian meringue
Italian meringue : Boil sugar with some water until 117 - 120.C /
If no thermometer, it is ready when bubble can be blown from the liquified sugar
2. Caramel is used as deco and also to stick the cream puff on the sides
3. Inject cream into puffs from bottom before dipping in it the caramel
4. Cream puff can either be filled from the bottom or
cut into half, cream fill in center

Next would be kitchen class
we have to prepare
either an appetizer or dessert
as an impose dish
and a main course
The impose dish in prepared by our commis
(kitchen helper)

So for the first class
out impose dish was an appetiser
known as nicoise salad
Done by my commis:
Edmund Chan, a.k.a Sifu! lol =P
The original nicoise salad
has no potatoes in it
so i did not use potato in mine

Ingredients :
Fresh salad vegie
Red and yellow capsicum
black olives
anchovies
artichokes
balsamic vinaigrette as dressing

Chef didn't like it
=(

the main course
Stuffed chicken with fried rice, accompanied with glazed carrot, potato, cauliflower and aubergine
Basicly,
i used chicken breast to stuff the fried rice
Fried Rice : carrot, apple, brocolli and some chopped english parsley
turned potatoe and carrot
Sauce : Chicken jus reduced with balsamic vinegar
Chopped walnuts as garnish

Here are a few of my friends presentations which i liked
the end =)

MACAROONS =P

16/7/10

Was a really good day for me
Bcuz I learnt to make macaroons from
The one & only
Chef Karam
from Taylor's Uni College

If u dont know wat are macaroons
These are d all so lovable macaroons!
Made by Chef Karam

250g almond powder
250g icing sugar
180g egg white
250g sugar
That's a whole lotta sugar
That's y it's so yummy!!!
LOL

Steps :
1. Mix almond powder + icing sugar
2. Add in 90g of egg white
3. Add colouring
4. Boil sugar until 117.C-120.C
5. Whisk 90g of egg white until fluffy
6. Add sugar to egg white once temperature is reached
(step 4-6, Italian Meringue)
This is how it looks like
7. Add meringue to almond powder mixture
8. Pipe it out baby!
9. Let it rest for at least 10mins
10. Bake it at 150.C - 160.C with double tray
Chef Karam's look so pretty!!

My 1st try =/
2nd try
=/ well, at least it looks better
><

D next day,
I made my own macaroons!
This is wat happened :
Because d temp was 2 high n i 4got 2 put double tray =/
d next batch turned out better
But there were stil cracks



Look at d beautiful layer =)

A few days later..
I tried again..
AND.............
......
.........
.........
........
..........
.......
.........
.....
TA-DA!!!!!!!!

Special thanks to Chef Karam

That's all for now
(",)/'