Dressing it up

French Dressing

There is nothing better than a strong french dressing.  Here is a quick and easy recipe from last night's poultry class.  

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Dijion mustard

1 tablespoon vinegar of choice (balsamic, walnut, jerez etc) I prefer red wine vinegar

3-4 tablespoons good quality olive oil.  

good pinch of salt

Method

Put mustard into mixing bowl with vinegar and salt.  Gradually whisk in olive oil until well emulsified. Some like to add a finely diced shallot.  I am not such a fan.  

Seriously...what is going on?

I know that I am not the warmest blooded person going around and that I suffer from an absurd sensitivity to the cold but seriously, I am sitting in a down jacket, beanie and polar fleece while writing this post and it is the 24th June in France.  The only thing keeping my blood pumping this evening is the idea of Greece this Friday and a long range weather forecast of low to mid 30s.

Maybe my lack of blood circulation also relates to the ridiculous study regime I have imposed upon myself.  I am starting to question the wisdom of undertaking maths classes while on holiday - it certainly kills the mood a little and is nowhere near as leisurely as baking tarts.  Fortunately, my Bosnian teacher is off on holiday tomorrow afternoon - I have one class with her in the morning and then one with some other maths genius on Thursday. After that I am done!

Who wants to make croissants? Not me!

Final products

I have finally learned the fine art of making croissants and pains au chocolat and have come to the conclusion: why bother?  When you combine all the different steps, they take about 48 hours to make yet they only cost 1 euro at the bakery and about 30 seconds to eat.  The opportunity cost of making them is simply not in your favour.  In fact, you could probably have them flown from France to Australia more quickly than making them yourself.  In any case, if you are interested, I have included the recipe below. Enjoy wasting those hours of your life because you are not getting them back! 

While I don't intend to make them again, I did thoroughly enjoy my class on Saturday.  It was a three hour class at La Cuisine Paris.  It was a bit of a cheat's way to learn how to make croissants but I didn't mind.  We cheated because it takes so long to prepare the dough - so we were given pre-made dough to prepare our croissants and while they were rising, we prepared our own dough.  

The key to croissants is not to muck up the dough and this is most easily done when you are rolling in your massive clump of butter. When rolling a 250g block of butter into the mix, you need to make sure that the butter stays cool otherwise it will burst through while preparing your layers.  That means, with every simple and complex turn (yes, there are simple and complex turns with dough) you have to put the dough back in the fridge for about 20 minutes. For good dough you should do this about 8 times.  How boring! After you have rolled your layers, you should really leave it in the fridge overnight.  If you leave it out, you will activate your yeast and then it won't rise when you need it to rise later on.

Anyway, the class was fun and I enjoyed it but I was starving by the end and a croissant, pain au chocolat and a cup of tea really didn't cut the mustard.  

Hot tip: For a real croissant experience in France, it is important to order a croissant au beurre.  A croissant au beurre must be made with butter.  All other croissants are made with margarine and are nowhere near as nice.  When made with margarine they also tend to be straight as opposed to crescent-shaped.

Preparing the dough:
Flour, salt, butter, water, yeast

Worked into a ball and ready
to be rolled.  Cut a cross into the top,
place your fingers in the middle and
peel outwards to make a square.
Not particularly clear, I know...sorry.

Now roll into a rectangle.  Btw: that is
a special croissant brush

This has 250g block of butter
hidden in it.  Needs to be rolled AGAIN.

Cut dough into rectangles for
pain au chocolat and triangles
for croissants.

Obligatory photo chez 'Olly

Crème Caramel

Being in a moderately hungover state today has prompted me to update a few of my recipes for you all to enjoy.

This recipe is from the cream class I did just before heading to Croatia.  It was really very yummy.  My photos didn't turn out too well so I have decided not to post them.

Preparation:  40 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Caramel

400g caster sugar

100g water

Lemon juice

Crème Caramel

1 litre full cream milk

250g caster sugar

2 vanilla beans

480g eggs

160g egg yolks

Method

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees celsius

Caramel

Mix water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Add about two tablespoons of lemon juice - this helps to slightly clean the caramel and give it a good colour.

Once cooked, pour caramel on to two silicon mats or two baking trays with baking paper.  Allow to cool.

#Tip: always place water into a saucepan before adding sugar as it is easier for the sugar to dissolve.  

Crème Caramel

Bring milk, vanilla seeds, pod and half of the sugar to the boil. Remove pod. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and the rest of the sugar.  Incorporate the egg mixture with milk/sugar mixture.  Strain - this is a must if you would like a smooth end product. 

Break the cooled caramel and generously place in the bottom of your mould.  Pour crème caramel mixture on top and cook in a bain-marie at 160 degrees celsius for about 12-15 minutes.  You don't want to overcook the cream so make sure you keep an eye on it.  

You can either serve in the mould or turn upside down and serve on a plate. Enjoy!  

Crème Brûlée

This is dead set easy and delicious.

Preparation:  10 minutes

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

70g egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
75g caster sugar
125g full cream milk
375g liquid cream (fat content: 35%)

Method

Pre heat oven to 130 degrees celsius

Lightly whisk sugar and egg yolks and place to the side.  Bring milk to the boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla bean seeds and pod and allow to infuse for about 5 minutes.  Cover with cling film during this time.  Remove vanilla pod and stir in cream.  Add a small amount of egg mix and stir - this lowers the temperature and prevents the rest of the egg mixture from cooking in the hot milk.  Then add the rest of the egg mix.  Pour into small ramequins and cook in a bain-marie for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Top with a small amount of raw sugar and caramelise with a flame.  

Horses beware - I know what happens to you when you lose.

Take a close look at the photo on the right.  I know the quality is a little dodgy but I am positive you can see the things dangling down.  That my friends is a horse hair covered handbag. They range in size but the blonde one is just over 1m long.

I was wandering around the 11th yesterday afternoon after my first maths tute with Ines, my Bosnian maths teacher, and came across this store RAW.  I was taken aback by the weird window display so went a little closer to look at the objects hanging in the window and to read the sign.  I was horrified.

I don't care if it is entirely made by hand, the thought of hauling that over my shoulder and walking down the street is really just not cool.

Horses, Hats, Hot Baker and Bond... James Bond

Sunday was an opportunity to rest the spatula and doll myself up for a day at the races.  Prix de Longines at Chantilly Racecourse was beckoning and 'Olly and I were ready for a day of fine champagne, sunshine and fun times.

Some of 'Olly's friends had organised the day and after meeting at Gard du Nord mid morning we boarded the train with several thousand other people and headed out of the city.  Actually we boarded two trains.  After getting comfortable in our first train, we were kicked off and moved to another one.  I am not quite sure what had happened but given the number of people on the platform, I am guessing the allocated train had insufficient capacity.  Credit is definitely due to Pete for pushing through the crowds and securing us seats in the second train. Very impressive.

After a quick journey we arrived at Chantilly train station which is just a few steps from a forest. After following a small track through the lush greenery, we found ourselves on the boundary of one of the most spectacular racecourses in the world.  The majestic Chateau de Chantilly and the Great Stables overlook the Chantilly Racecourse and immediately set the tone for the day to come.

According to legend, Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Conde believed that he would be reincarnated as a horse after his death.  In 1719, he asked the architect, Jean Aubert to build stables suitable to his rank.  These 186m long stables are considered by some as the most beautiful in the world. Of greater interest to me however, and to one other passionate Bond fan was that the Chateau and the Great Stables were featured prominently in the Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985), as the estate of evil Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken).  I had hoped that Roger would make a brief appearance but he must have mucked up his diary.

The race programme offered
no help

Keen to engross myself in the race day activities, I studied the race guide for about an hour in a bid to master enough racing terms to confidently place a bet.  I thought I had them down pat but I was wrong and unfortunately spent twice the amount I had intended and on a combination that I hadn't really wanted.  Fortunately this didn't hit the pocket too hard...then again the Aussie dollar has gone down and the NAB exchange rate is woeful.  After my first loss I decided it was probably better not to place any more bets - I don't know how to pick a winner in Australia, let alone France.  I did however fair better than 'Olly - she thought it appropriate to rock up to the bookie's window and place a bet of each and every race. She did everything on gut feel and hadn't even looked at the form guide until she handed over the money.  She did manage one place out of her selection which pocketed her a massive 4.50 euros.  I won't divulge how much she outlaid.  

We could not have asked for more glorious weather for a picnic race day.  'Olly, as per usual, was using the opportunity to bronze herself to the max...apparently she doesn't burn...unlike a few of the other members in the entourage who by the end of play were rather rouge.

Everyone in our group thoroughly enjoyed commentating on the fashion wins and a number of fashion faux pas.  My favourite number was a poor lady positioned just behind us - her dress reminded me of toilet paper soaked in blue duck toilet cleaner. She was happy with it which I suppose is all that counts.  

A hat guaranteed free entry for ladies and I need to thank my old host mum for her contribution to my outfit.  I had been in Normandy the day before and after informing her that I was off to the races the next day but didn't have a hat, she insisted that we make a last minute dash to Printemps.  I was very impressed with our last minute purchase especially given I had no intention of spending more than the ticket price on a hat.  I will say however that I didn't take up the shop assistant's recommendation of pinning the front part of my hat up.  She thought it would be terribly fashionable.  My host sister and I on the other hand did not.

Blue Lagoon! Do you still intend to 

buy this hat? It is on sale for 2,500 euros

Admiring the hats on display was a lot of fun and around mid afternoon, a group of us went for a wander around the grounds to see what else we could find.  We came across a milliner who was allowing a few people to try on his creations.  Blue Lagoon - who was in fine form - thought if he sounded as if he was keen to buy me a hat he would be able to score us all a free glass of champagne.  We had been to the champagne tent a few minutes earlier and decided not to part with our cashola. Blue Lagoon's negotiating tactics worked and they opened a new bottle of champagne for the four of us.  The hats were amazing (some a little random). Not surprisingly they all came with an equally amazing price tag.   

In addition to some wonderful displays of millinery craftsmanship there were a few who didn't quite have the style down pat. One girl looked like she had stolen someone's blonde locks and wrapped it around an Asterix helmet and another looked like she had branches coming off her head.  Given she was also pushing a pram, I thought the hat must have been dual purpose as it worked quite nicely as a baby's mobile.  I wish I had some photos because they were truly magnificent in their own special way.

A random selection found during our walk.

Seriously...

Another entertaining encounter during our wander around the course was finding a lady face planting the lawn.  I could not believe my eyes and started to think maybe face planting was the latest craze taking over from planking. Just as I did with 'Olly, I prioritised a photo opportunity over determining whether this person had a pulse. 

One of the highlights of the day was spotting the handsome Mr Simon Baker.  As the face of Longines, hot Baker graced us with his presence and certainly caused a few hot flushes amongst the youngins.  I was heading towards the stands and was nearly bowled over by a huge flock of women running after some - at this stage - unknown man.  The benefit of being tall kicked in and I worked out quite quickly that it was none other than Mr Mentalist.  He really is rather gorgeous.

Weary after a whole day in the sun we headed home shortly after the final race around 7:30pm.  'Olly and I went home after arriving back in Paris but a few others decided to have a few beers while trying to work out where they actually lived...

Baker goodness

Random selection of photos:

...the afternoon

Pont de l'Archevêché

Much to my delight, the sun came out early this evening.  I was so excited about the glimpses of blue sky and sunshine that I decided to walk home from the 5th - a trip according to google of nearly 14km.  It would have been shorter had I gone direct but I wanted to go via a few baking stores to pick up a few more goodies...again.  Not quite sure how I am going to get all of this stuff home but I will cross that bridge later.  In any case, I did walk over a bridge today, a very pretty one too as it was all covered in 'love' locks.  

View of Notre Dame from the bridge

Pont de l'Archevêché

(courtesy of Wiki)

The Pont de l'Archevêché is the narrowest road bridge in Paris. It was built in 1828, by the engineer Plouard, for the society Pont des Invalides after the demolition of the suspension bridge at Les Invalides.

The bridge is 68 meters long and 11 meters high. It is composed of three arches of stone carrying heights of 15, 17, and 15 meters, respectively. The low clearance of the arches do cause an impediment to river traffic; however, in spite of a municipal decision in 1910 to rebuild it, the bridge was never replaced.

The bridge commonly seen in the background of the set on Highlander when the show was set in Paris. After the Pont des Arts was cleared of its display of padlocks in 2010, and similarly the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, lovers started to place their 'love padlocks' on this bridge. The original two bridges for this were footbridges, but this one, albeit narrow, is a road bridge.

Not the best photo but bring on the sunshine!

Sugarplum Cake Shop

Lychee and pear tea with a delicious fig square

While I have been reluctant to complain about the weather, I just have to ask: when is summer going to grace us with its presence?  It is the 13th June for goodness sake and I find myself yet again traipsing around Paris with a raincoat and umbrella.  

Wanting to make the most of the day in any case, I have gone on the hunt for a good coffee shop to read my book and do some study.  Yes... study... what I should be doing now rather than writing a blog post.  I did some research before my departure - namely reading a little blog that 'Olly has raved about since my arrival My Little Paris - to find a cool haunt for lunch and ended up selecting Le Bar a Soupes  - a little soup bar in the 11th and recently listed as one of the best in Paris.  I am not sure what happened to my brain but it took me ten times too long to find the place and when I finally arrived, there was a queue a mile long out of the door.  I am sure the soup is delicious but I decided it could not have been that good to warrant waiting in the rain.  So I trundled back down the street to Blvd Richard Lenoir - an old haunt of mine as my old host sister used to live nearby.  My timing was just right as the market was still going strong.  I found myself a fresh and more importantly cheap falafel wrap and went on my way.  

Still in search of somewhere warm and inviting, I have found myself in Sugarplumb Cake Shop in the 5th.  It is a quaint little American cake shop serving old school cakes and biscuits.  It is buzzing with young people studying and catching up with friends.  The waiter isn't helping with my studying - he has a voice like God... or more like Keanu Reeves.  It has taken me about 45 minutes to work out who he reminded me of and I am mightily relieved I have sussed it out.  Three middle age women from Perth came in a moment ago to share a pot of tea and they were quite hysterical.  In addition to laughing their heads off about the 'menu' scandal in Australia, upon their departure, one leaned over to me and said: "Why don't you have a crack at him.  He is gggooorrrgeeeoouuuss".  I had a chuckle and then turned a nice shade of fluorescent pink as I noticed him glancing in our direction at that very moment.  It didn't help that this was a bi-lingual cafe and English was his mother tongue.

Anyway, I must get off the computer and start brushing up on my maths.  Sadly I am not brushing up on my maths to calculate bulk recipe quantities...this is for something more serious...as in....what to do once this holiday concludes.

Falafel goodness

Gateau fondant gourmand aux noix de coco et au chocolat

This little cake is really quite simple.  It was nice but maybe because it is so simple, I am not such a fan. 'Olly and Cat seemed to enjoy it for dessert so maybe I am on to something after all.

Ingredients 

200g  Good quality dark chocolate (50%)
125g  Desiccated coconut (this can be replaced with almond meal if you so choose)
125g  White sugar
1tblsp  Plain Flour (sifted)
125g  Butter (cut into small pieces and at room temperature)
5  Eggs




Method

Look at this goodness!

Melt chocolate in a bain marie.  Remove from heat and gradually add butter until all combined.  

In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thick but light and fluffy.  Add egg/sugar mixture to chocolate and then add sifted flour and coconut. Mix together.

Grease and then lightly flour your moulds.  Make sure you tap out the extra flour.  Cook at 170 degrees for about 18 minutes (for a mould about the same size as a coffee cup - anything smaller and it requires less time).

Remove from mould and serve.

We found it easier to pipe the mixture

It is important not to store these little babies in the fridge.  The fridge will destroy the chocolate.  

Enjoy!  

Cakes at the back -
chocolate recipe to come...

Pate a tartiner au Gianduja (aka NUTELLA)

I am not sure how you actually make a spoon of
 this look good. I promise it is delicious! 

180g  Icing sugar
100g  Hazelnuts
100g  Blanched almonds

200g  Good quality milk chocolate
50g   Good quality dark chocolate (70%)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 100 degrees.  Lightly toast almonds and hazelnuts in the oven for about 10 minutes.  The aim is to to warm them up so the flavour comes out, you don't want to roast them entirely.  Let them cool.

Place icing sugar and roasted nuts in a food processor and blend.  Blend for a fairly long time - the oil from the nuts will gradually release and form quite a good paste with the icing sugar. Blend until the mixture basically clumps together in one large clump.

In a separate bowl and over a saucepan of water, melt the milk and dark chocolate.  It is important not to cook the chocolate, you only need to melt it (dark and milk chocolate melt at different speeds).  Remove from heat and stir chocolate so that it is mixed well.

In order not to form clumps in the final mixture, add a small amount of the nut paste to the melted chocolate.  Mix this well.  Now add all of this chocolate/nut mixture to the nut mixture in the blender bowl and blend again.  Blend until it is mixed well and to a consistency that you are happy with.

As this recipe doesn't have any eggs or fresh milk you can keep it for about two months in the pantry or fridge.  It is so much better than nutella.  I just had it for breakfast.  

Enjoy! 

Don't touch the flowers

I popped down to the market today for some fruit and veg and decided to also buy some flowers for 'Olly who is not feeling 100%. I must not have been visiting this particular florist on a good day - he first yelled at me for leaning too close to the flowers and then he said he didn't know anything about flowers and couldn't recommend anything to go with the freesias I'd already selected.

In a bid to make a hasty exit, I selected something pink and went to pay.  While preparing the flowers he asked if I wanted to add some foliage which was 'tres a la mode'.  I thought it looked foul so politely declined his request but this prompted him to give me a lecture on how all the florists in Paris were using this foliage and it was very very fashionable.  Clearly I am not sufficiently cool enough to be one of his customers.  My flowers sans foliage look just fine to me.  

Le Cordon Bleu = Fail

I am not sure if I have had the chance to tell you yet but I didn't get into Le Cordon Bleu.  I should be baking all sorts of bread this week but the snobs at LCB mucked up my registration and I can't get into the class.  I am quite upset about it because it was meant to be a week long baking course and it would have been great. Instead of making dough rise, I am at home today catching up on some much needed work.  Boo! 

I jumped off a mountain and it was great!

My walk around Lausanne.  I look a) sunburnt and

b) like I am standing in front of a fake background.

After a mammoth effort to get home from Croatia on Thursday, I had four hours sleep and then trudged back to the airport to go to Lausanne to meet with my client.  I had planned to do some meeting prep on the plane but passed out before the plane had even taken off and didn't wake until we landed in Geneva.  Alistair picked me up from the airport and before heading back to the office we made a quick detour via the WHO to pick up a bike from his friend.  The nutter was planning to ride around Lake Geneva on Sunday - a trip of no less than 180km.

Salmon tartare

Fortunately for my liver Alistair’s impending ride and another colleague returning to Singapore meant that we couldn’t get up to our usual dinner tricks. I was desperate for sleep but was still keen to make the most of my time in Lausanne so I went for a leisurely stroll around the Lake and then headed up to the old town to check out a random bar that I had read about for dinner and a drink.  The front courtyard of the bar was packed but I wasn’t keen to sit like a Nigel-no-friends out the front so resorted to sitting at the bar inside.  It was a cool place but the staff have no bloody idea how to make gin and tonic.  I felt totally pissed after the first sip.  I had a salmon tartare with wasabi and soya sauce for dinner and it was quite good.  They could have gone a bit harder on the wasabi but I figured they were tailoring it to the Swiss market. 

The great flight

Platform change in Martigny

The next morning I was still on my mission to make the most of my short trip to Switzerland and instead of sleeping in (which would have been delightful)  I got up at 6:30am and jumped on a train to Verbier.  

Ever since I first visited the Alps, I have wanted to go paragliding and today was finally the day.  My instructor, Claude, picked me up from Le Chable and we headed up the hill with another boy who was going to make his first solo flight.  Claude was a bit of a dude. While it was cold at the top and there was snow everywhere, he was walking around in a t-shirt and shorts.   He didn’t even want to put his jacket on for the flight. 

I really had no idea what to expect and Claude was in no rush to explain to me what exactly we were going to do.  All he told me was that we needed to wait for the wind to warm up a little and to flow in the right direction.  Apparently the recent snow falls had made it difficult in the last few weeks to fly.  I was just going with the flow and was happy warming myself up with the morning sun and spotting the marmottes that were running all over the place.

I was really quite surprised at how calm I was and when he finally suited me up and told me that we were going to have to run I was excited not nervous – my only fear was that I would trip and face plant the ground on my take off.  That would have been embarrassing but fortunately it didn’t happen – in fact, Claude said my take off was perfect.  

The flight went for about 20 minutes and he took me over a cliff that dropped a kilometre, which was pretty cool.  He also chatted away telling me about all the cool places in Verbier.  I was really calm and it was really relaxing being up there….that was until he asked if I suffered from sea sickness or car sickness.  I said no which was a complete lie.  He then asked if I wanted to have some fun to which I, of course, said yes not fully realising what ‘fun’ at such height actually entailed. He quickly capitalised on my answer and put us in to a massive spin – I am not sure how you refer to g-forces but he said it was 2 G.  I nearly vomited but fortunately held on until we landed a few minutes later.  All in all, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done and I totally recommend it – I am almost considering going back to do a week-long training course to get my licence.  

BTW: this is a Marmotte

Quick walk around Geneva

Amazing cloud action over Lausanne

   

Food multiculturalism - Croatian pizza, Bosnian gelati, German stir fry (don't worry we said 'no' to the fritz sandwich)

A beautiful morning despite the early hour

So our tummies are feeling a little crook. It has been a long day and our choice of food at each location was not, what one would say, the best.  Getting up too early to make the hotel breakfast, ‘Olly and I went empty stomach on the ferry from Hvar town to Split.   At the very glamous Split port we had about five minutes spare between the ferry and the bus.  (This was another example of the website not quite corresponding to the actual timetable.)  We had just enough time to fit in a scrumptious slice of Croatian pizza, a chocolate filled berliner bun and a bottle of coke.  Healthy breakfast.  We both concluded that Croatian pizza is quite like Italian pizza only square.  (The name of ‘Olly’s coke btw was Laura.  Mine was unpronounceable.)  

Seriously...

We jumped onto the bus – well I actually jumped on to the wrong bus by accident only to find it was completely empty. Second time lucky I was then able to snooze for the first leg of the trip to Dubrovnik.  Actually, ‘Olly snoozed while I kept watch to make sure she was still alive.  ‘Olly’s sleeping habits are rather unusual in public transport.  I was most concerned when I saw that she had face planted the seat.  I wasn’t quite sure whether she had had a stroke or suffocated but before checking her breathing or pulse I made sure I took a photo.  She remained in that position for quite some time so I figured she was comfortable.

The trip from Split to Dubrovnik takes some time and we were quite miffed when the bus driver decided to make an extra long stop in Bosnia. We made the best of the situation and in keeping with out desire to test the local delights we ate Bosnian gelati and admired the view of the Adriatic sea from the bus park.  Like Croatian pizza, Bosnian gelati is quite like the Italian version. 

Concrete cafe

After our terribly inconvenient stop over, we were back on the road; ‘Olly assumed her usual bus position while I listen to some tunes – namely fuck you by Lilly Allen.  I was fondly thinking “fuck you” to the bus driver for making our trip unnecessarily long.  After another border control in Bosnia we finally arrived at Dubrovnik just a few minutes too late for the airport shuttle bus – Lilly Allen was still ringing in my head.  We made friends with a honeymooning couple from Woollongong and shared a cab to the airport.  We didn’t feel the need to consume any food in the taxi however while at the airport we ate a foul chicken coucous salad, some spinach and cheese Croatian concoction resembling the common dog turd and ‘Olly had another not so Italian cuppa coffee.  We also spent a few hours sunning ourselves in the idyllic concrete car park café. 

While we had already had a fairly long day, we had much more to come.  In a bid to save some cashola, ‘Olly and I had decided to fly via Munich on the way home and for some reason we thought we should eat…again.   After all, it was diner time. ‘Olly had the munchies for some noodles so we settled on a German Asian fusion restaurant.  It wasn’t so bad if you like 2 minute noodles and a tonne of chicken salt. 

While we are not quite home yet we are thankful to even be on the final leg of the journey.  As we casually enjoyed our noodles outside gate 30, it was brought to our attention that it was the final call for our flight.  The moron flight attendant on our earlier flight had told us that we were at gate 8… needless to say this was incorrect and after having our names called out on the loud speaker we ran 25 gates like fatty boombaladas only to be informed that the new gate was gate 31…just behind our original restaurant. Due to our fitness levels we powerwalked 22 gates back and then feigned running for a further 4 gates to save face and after receiving a stern talking to by the grumpy German, we are now sitting on the plane. I am pleased to advise that we have both turned down the offer of a fritz and tomato sandwich and opted instead for a glass of water.  I suppose we can eat at Charles de Gaulle airport if we are hungry upon arrival.  I think not mon ami! Then again, we can always get the taxi to go via a drive through.

We are both rather stuffed but are enjoying the hysterical giggles that overtiredness has brought us.  The only thing that makes me want to cry is that I have to get in a taxi in 7 hours to get on another plane to Geneva.  Holy smokes! @Hollpopp  

Getting creamed...

A good few days have passed already since my last two cooking classes but I make absolutely no 
excuse for this delay in writing as it has taken me this long to recover from the extreme consumption. However after a few days in the Croatian sun, I now feel ready to raconte.

My last few days started with mastering the magic of macarons and ended in getting creamed - so creamed in fact that I don't think I can cream again for some time.

I’ll leave the creaming until later and instead start with macarons.  The class was fun but nowhere near as good as the other classes as it was targeted to tourists a little more than to people who actually have some idea about using a spatula.  Don’t get me wrong, I don't want to be a cooking snob, but it does somewhat help if you actually like to cook and know some of the basics such as know what a saucepan and blender looks like and what they are used for.  Their piping skills probably irked me the most.  Other than Igor, the Serbian pastry chef who currently works in St Petersbourg and was looking to add macarons to his repertoire, no one had the slightest idea about cooking.  Apparently macarons have not hit the Russian market yet and Igor wanted to be the one to make the introductions.  It was more than amusing watching this big burly guy take such an interest in this dainty dessert but he was happy to share some of his tips with us all during the class.

We learnt both the French and the Italian method of macarons and I much prefer the Italian method which involves pouring a hot sugar mix into egg white mixture as it gives you a smoother finish. After dabbling with different flavours and fillings, I learnt that despite their fun and colourful appearance macarons are sickly sweet and quite expensive to make if you want to have a few different flavours. 

Reducing strawberries - Yum!

Fortunately, Olly and I had a dinner party to go to that evening with some friends so my little collection was taken along. Although macarons are supposed to be devoured after a 24 hour waiting period, mine were promptly devoured that very night after the necessary amount of oohing and ahhing from the taste testers.

Now, onto getting creamed. My cream class was a small class of four back at Lenotre. It was mostly smooth sailing until I nearly completely ruined the crème au beurre (butter cream) which was highly embarrassing and left me cursing in French after the chef’s slightly overdramatic shrieks of panic. Besides the almost-burnt crème au beurre, we learnt how to make: crème anglaise (similar to pouring custard), crème pâtissière (similar to thick custard), crème au chocolat (chocolate custard as found in eclairs), crème au cafe (coffee custard as found in eclairs), crème a la pistache (pistachio cream), crème legere (“light” cream similar to pouring cream which was not light at all!), crème caramel and crème brulee.  I think in total we used about 5 kgs of butter. That can either be viewed as delicious or really just disgusting. There was a lot of cream to say the least. I felt totally creamed out by the end of the day and much to my distress, I had to take the damn stuff home. I must admit the crème brulee and the crème caramel were nothing short of delicious and were enjoyed by Olly and myself.

Now days later, I still feel like I am oozing butter and cream from my pores.

Look at this!  This is just pure art!

Gorgeous creations coming out of the oven.

 

Nearly there...