No, Ida - I haven't quit culinary school. I did miss this last week though because I was in Michigan at my cousin's wedding. And what an event that was! I have never seen flowers in my life like the flowers at this wedding. Peonies, roses, hydrangeas and other greenery and they were everywhere, absolutely everywhere!
I flew to Michigan on Friday with my 11-month old niece. Yep. I took an infant on the plane all by myself. Long story as to why I was entrusted with the baby, but suffice it to say that if I had not taken her, neither she nor her twin brother would have gotten to go and the whole family, including my 95-year-old grandmother would have been very disappointed. So I took her on the plane to Michigan and was her caretaker for 24-hours. I'm happy to report that both niece and aunt survived swimmingly.
But I digress. Back to cooking school. Luckily I knew that I would be missing class so I made arrangements for a makeup class later in the term, thus not harming my certification in any way. However, I am a little concerned that I will be behind when I go back on Monday but at least the class I missed was sauces and hopefully I can catch up! I'm just so happy that I didn't miss the class where we do choux and puff pastries. Phew.
Last week was the funnest class so far and the easiest surprisingly. We made souffles. When I sat down and saw the very thick hand out that we received for that class I was apprehensive. There were four recipes for souffles. FOUR!!! I couldn't believe we were going to make that money. As it turned out, half of the class made two of them and the other half made the other two.
First we learned about the different variations of souffle - there are liqueur souffles, pectin based souffles, roux based souffles, flourless or eggbased souffles, pastry cream based souffles and frozen souffles to name a few. We learned the roux-based, the liqueur based, the flourless and the pastry cream.
The first half of class we had a choice between creating the Lemon-Pistachio Souffle with Fresh Raspberry-Red Wine Compote and a Goat Cheese Souffle. I opted for the Lemon because the Goat Cheese sounded gross to me. It wasn't but I'm still glad we made the Lemon, if only for the amazing raspberry sauce.
I have to interject here that I am now rewriting this post because my internet connection failed when I was publishing and I lost have of the post. No matter that it took me an hour to write it. And it was good. I hope I can recreate it.
So where was I. Valarie (my permanent partner, still hoping) and I started out with a bang. All was going great until Suzanne came 'round and took a look at our pastry base. What had happened was, we were following the directions on the paper and there was a mistake as to the order of ingredients. Why we did it wrong and noone else, I don't know, perhaps they listened more closely during the demo when Suzanne did it right, but we put the eggs in too early in the mixing process. Now you wouldn't think that would make such a difference but as we've been learning, baking is a chemical process and everything matters. So our souffle batter was a little out of sync, meaning it would not rise and puff as much as it should.
Hey, did you know there is a proper way to butter a ramekin? You don't put the butter in around the cup, you brush it up and down, like you are making tracks up the sides for the souffle to ride on as it is rising. Isn't that cool?
The other cool thing is that after you butter the ramekin, you can dust it with yummy stuff like powdered sugar, cocoa, whatever will add to the souffle experience. We dusted ours with ground up pistachios. Not only did it taste good, but the green of the pistachio dust looked wonderful with the yellow of the souffle (PS, it's important to add enough lemon, our recipe could have used more) and when we added the fabulous raspberry sauce. Ooh la la.
The sauce was the piece de resistance of the evening as far as I'm concerned. It was not only delicious but the deep, red color was sumptious. I think it would be wonderful with the chocolate souffle that was also made that evening.
Speaking of which, Val and I really wanted to make the Chocolate Souffle/Mousse (thus named because you can not cook the batter and eat it as a mousse. YUMMY!) but Suzanne decreed that those that were stuck making the goat cheese souffle (which was really good but not as good as the lemon) got to make the chocolate. So we made the Flourless Espresso Souffle.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for two reasons. Did I mention how stupid it was to start cooking school in the summer? No air conditioning, ovens blazing and us in our white coats. Need I say more?
Anyway, the Espresso souffle was really quick and easy and the biggest surprise of all? It was absolutely delicious!!! So easy, so delicious. Just add a fabulous chocolate sauce and you will knock the pants off of anyone you serve it to. It is very impressive looking and tasting, yet fast and easy. Gotta love that!
Oh, the best news of the week is I finally got my KitchenAid mixer. It's awesome!!! It's the MacDaddy 475 watt Professional Mixer. The same one Suzanne uses! I love it. It is, however, still in the box but only because I just got it today and it is so hot that the thought of turning on my oven and making my apartment even hotter, makes me want to barf. But this is southern California so you never know when the weather will cool down to a perfect temperature and I'll be ready (as soon as I run to Smart and Final to get the instant yeast). I'm just itching to practice my brioche dough.
Plus, I promised my mom sticky buns when she comes in July.
Here's the recipe for the Flourless Espresso Souffle.
4 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Espresso reduced by half or to taste (or 1 Tbsp of espresso powder dissolved in 2 tbsp. hot water)
pinch of salt
1 tsp. Turkish coffee grounds (Optional, we didn't do this)
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
8 tsp. sugar
1. Preheat oven to 375. Butter and sugar ramekins.
2. Whip yolks and 2 Tbsp. sugar to ribbon stage. Add espresso concentrate, salt and Turkish coffee if using. Set aside.
3. Create a medium stiff meringue with the whites, tartar and sugar.
4. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the yolks. Next, very gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Using a spoon or ladle, divide the mixture among 4 ramekins.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
It's that easy!
