Sensational Soups!

After a good 4 week break from my chef course, it's time to get started again.

Following my level 3 course that I started in February, I am now onto level 4.

The first lesson was breads but today I'm sharing my first soup lesson.

We made:
Oxtail consommé
Crab Bisque
Borscht
Seafood Chowder

Oxtail consommé
A consomme is a clear soup. To make the soup clear and 'grease free' there is a strict process throughout the making of the soup. You must constantly skim the 'skum' off the stock when you are reducing it down with the oxtail bones. This is so the stock is as clear as possible when you serve it. 
The 2nd process for getting the clear soup made is to make a raft from mince. For this we mixed egg whites with mince and finely chopped vegetables and placed them in our strained oxtail soup. Bring this to the boil and simmer once the raft of mince has risen. It is important at this stage not to stir it and break up the mince raft. Then you must carefully strain out the liquid soup from under the mince.
I love making this soup as it is a very cleaver way of getting a clear soup. It also brings out the perfectionist side of me to get the clearest soup possible!!




Crab Bisque
This soup has ALOT of flavour. and as a big seafood fan, I LOVED this soup. Unfortunately there were no crabs available in the area at the time so we used whole prawns and crab meat. We broke up the prawns with there shell still on and all. I'm guessing this is what gives the soup a great flavour! Luckily the shells are all strained out at the end :) so no crispy shells in your soup..!

Borscht 
To my understanding Borscht is a popular soup around Eastern Europe. There are lots of different versions of this soup that all slightly differ from the other. The main ingredient in this soup is the beetroot which gives it a vibrant bright red. Our version used spanish onions and red wine. We garnished this soup with sour cream, soft boiled egg wedges, and chives.
I had never made this soup before but I found it interesting but definitely an enjoyable soup! Very healthy too :) Its great to get colours in the diet!



Seafood ChowderYum!
Like I mentioned above, I'm a big seafood fan. So I loved this chowder. We put shrimps, blue cod, salmon, mussels,  clams, cockles and smoked blue cod into our chowder.It is very easy to make and I highly recommend it to all seafood lovers out there!

Healthy Lunch Idea!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post today of a healthy lunch idea :)

I know what its like when your busy throughout the day and you have no idea what to whip up for lunch. Something healthy, easy, tasty and quick would be ideal! Right?

My lunch today was an easy toastie which had chicken, pumpkin and feta cheese in it.

The reason why this was so quick was because I used leftovers from last nights tea :)
Sometimes it does pay to make a wee bit extra for tea so then you can have something ready for lunch the next day!

Beef Wellington! July #3

Hey everyone!

Here is my first time making a beef wellington!
Turns out that its actually really easy and simple to make and this recipe doesn't require many ingredients at all!

P.S : it's winter here in NZ at the moment so its great for cold nights! :)


Serves 1-2
Recipe:
150g beef fillet
1 slice ham
1/2 block puff pastry
4 mushrooms
1/2 onion
20g butter

Season your beef and seal off in a hot cast iron pan.
leave aside.

Roughly chop mushrooms and onion and sweat in butter.
leave aside

Roll out half of your puff pastry for the base of your beef wellington.

The first layer that goes on top of the pastry is your beef fillet, followed by ham, then the sweated mushrooms.

roll out the 2nd half of your pastry and gently place on top.

join the edges of pastry together so everything stays in the beef wellington! :)

Prick a fork through the pastry, so any excess steam inside can escape other wise your pastry could go a bit soggy!

brush your pastry with egg wash to give it a nice colour once cooked.
Cook in your oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20mins or until pastry is golden brown.

Really quick and easy celebration cake idea! July #2!

Hey everyone!

Today I'm sharing with you a really quick and easy way of decorating a cake for a special occasion :)

There has been so many times when it is people birthdays and I get really excited about making them a birthday cake, except I always seem to be rushed off my feet doing other things! - (working, studying)

So basically all you need for this idea is to use your most favourite cake recipe! eg: sponge cake, chocolate cake, vanilla cake. Just whatever you feel like :)

My favourite quick go to cake is:

Chocolate mud cake (you only need one bowl!)

2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream or yoghurt
3/4 cup cocoa
200g soft butter
2 tsps baking soda
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups self raising flour
1 cup boiling strong coffee

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat for 1 minute!

cook for 1 hour at 160 degrees celcius

Easy as that!!

now for the decorating!

I cut the cake in half and put cream and jam in the middle (an easy classic)

spread cream on the outside of the cake and this one has chocolate flakes on the sides and chopped nuts on the top :)
I have piped cream around the edges make chocolate heart decorations to finish it off.

If you have any question about this idea or want more ideas, feel free to comment below :)

Do you have any ideas you would like to share?

Brit :)

Dessert Lesson #3 + July #1!

Hey everyone!

sorry it's been a while! I have been flat out getting assignments finished for the end of the semester! But good news now, I have a 4 week break!

So for July I'm aiming to do one blog a day! I hope I manage to do this... :/

Anyhooo... 3rd Dessert lesson!

For this lesson I made:

Crepe suzette

Apple strudel

Mille feuilles

Meringues

Mille feuilles

This was my first time making Mille Feuilles and actually the first time I had ever heard of them!

From my experience I would describe them as a bit of a flasher version of the good old custard square.

This had 3 layers of puff pastry (homemade!) with layers of pastry creme in between.

My one is decorated with icing ontop.

I was really happy with how mine turned out however I am definitely going to have to practice making more puff pastry to try get some more 'puff'.

Apple Strudel

A classic dish once again I had not made before. I filled this with a delicious apple filling with raisins and some leftover pastry creme! (Didn't make my own puff pastry for this one though...)

I loved decorating mine with some leftover pink and white icing. This was a great finishing touch.

Crepe suzette

This dish made me a lot more confident in the kitchen..... flipping those crepes had always been a fear of mine since I just couldn't trust myself to do it! Basically I had to force myself to do it otherwise I wouldn't pass.  My first attempt.... was a success! woohoo!
So if you don't trust yourself to flip crepes, you should definitely give it ago. Perhaps watch  videos of others doing it. Then you can show off at that next dinner party ;)

The crepes are lightly poached in a sweet orange syrup.

Meringues

The Meringues are very similar to the pavlova I made in a previous dessert lesson.
2 egg whites with 100g sugar
Cooked in a low heated oven then left to cool in the oven until dried out.
These are filled with cream then a selection of fresh fruit.

What do you think of these desserts? Have you tried them before?

Brit :)

Dessert Lesson #2

Hey guys it's time for the 2nd dessert lesson!

For this lesson I made,

-Lemon meringue pie

-Pear conde served with rice pudding

-Orange and Lime Bavarios

Lemon meringue pie

This was probably my favourite dish made today because I just can't get enough of lemon desserts!

I just love the acidic flavour of the lemons brought down by a hint of sugar to make a match made in heaven!

The meringue on top is roughly piped on and the baked lightly to cook the egg whites and give it a slight golden colour.

This is the final image of the dessert all plated up.

It is served with cream and a mixed berry coulis :)

 Pear Conde

The pear conde is a pear poached in a stock syrup with red wine. The flavours of the stock syrup enhance the flavour of the pear giving it a soft but delightful finish! yummo!

The rice pudding to my surprise was really yum! Infact so yum here is the recipe!

Cook 75g rice in 400mls of milk with 50g sugar and 3-4 drops vanilla essence and a pinch of nutmeg. absorb the liquid into the rice and it is ready once the rice is cooked (not crunchy but not mushy)

Enjoy!

This dish was served with cream and a reduction of the leftover stock syrup.

Orange and lime Bavarios 

We had made Bavarios before but this time we tried a different flavour. The orange and lime was an interesting one and a flavour that made you want to keep eating more because your taste buds were still trying to figure it all out! (if you know what i mean??)

I practices chocolate run outs on the plate and filled them with a mixed berry coulis and a kiwifruit coulis

I hope you enjoyed this 2nd Dessert lesson :)

Remember if you would like any recipes, feel free to leave a comment :)

Have a great week!
Brit :)

Dessert Lesson #1!

Hey guys! Its sweet treat time!

This week I started Dessert lessons!

Today I Made:

Pavalova with fruit decoration

Bakewell Tart

Eclairs (choux Pastry)

 This was my pavalova

This is the pavlova after it is cooked and cooled in the oven

and another decorated picture

I decorated my pavlova with:

Whipped Cream

Kiwifruit

Grapes

Melon

Orange Zest

Bakewell Tart

 I have never tried this tart before and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not because I thought it would have too much of a strong almond flavour but I was very surprised of the outcome and the almond flavour was not overpowering! It was delicious, and everyone else thought so too! :)

Raspberry Jam in the base on pastry filled case

Frangipane Filling

Case all filled ready to go into oven once I put the pastry top on!

All ready out of the oven! :)

Choux Pastry Eclairs!

I had never make Eclairs before - mainly because they looked so hard to make!
However I was very surprised on how easier they were!
These are definitely going to be made more often in my house :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you would like recipes!

I really recommend making these desserts! They are all so yummy and easy to make :)