Congratulations! You're going to Sydney!

Sydney weekend! Weeee! Because I've promised you a food journey, I will start by sharing with you my traditional Friday meal- chips of course, for hallowed Chip Friday.

Obviously in my excitement I forgot to hold my phone still...

Don't fret, this won't just be a post about me eating chocolate and chips. (Although would that really be so bad?) Much to my taxi drivers disappointment, I was not hitting the clubs of Sydney, this was a food trip, after all, so after my chip feast it was off to bed so that I would be rested for the big weekend of eating that would come. 

Saturday! My delightful travel companion, AP, and I hit up Pitt Street Mall, as all Sydney trips dictate, and eventually made our way to Westfield for some lunch. It was off to the Becasse Bakery for me, where I gave a confit chicken baguette and lemon tart a try. The baguette was nothing to write home about, but I was sold on the lemon tart which was completed with a fleck of gold, and the perfect amount of lemony goodness. 

Glam. 

Next stop was a ferry trip to Manly, where we enjoyed exotic Copenhagen icecreams. Just for something different! To make up for that boring food experience, here's a nice picture from the ferry. 

Guess where?!

Dinner was a visit to Mr Neil Perry's establishment, "Rockpool." After much internet research, I was looking forward to seeing if the service really was as helpful and friendly as promised. I am happy to report that everyone was very helpful, and professional, so well done to them. The setting was also really lovely, we were seated near the kitchen, so luckily for me, I got to watch a bit of the action, whilst sitting on a comfy cushioned bench seat. As for the food, here comes the blow by blow account.

First up, the canapé, a crab, toast, mayo combo. As far as canapés go, it was fine. 

"Queensland spanner crab, toast, 

Tabasco mayonnaise, peach leaf jelly"

Starter time! My dining partner (who also happens to be the aforementioned travel companion- what a spooky coincidence) chose the crab congee from the first course offerings, which from all reports was very nice. I chose the goat's cheese and beetroot assortment, which was, once again, fine. 

"Blue swimmer crab and corn congee, almond tofu, 

star anise scented peanuts, fried bread and chilli oil"

"Goat’s cheese lasagne, beetroot, leek, 

endive and roast eschalot"

The main event. After much internal debate, I had finally settled on the seafood combo plate. Also known as mullet with squid and assorted other goodies. Man, I should really get into menu writing with such eloquent descriptions as that. I think you can guess what I thought of my meal. It was fine. AP selected the beef, which while tasty, did have us both wondering if a trip to the old golden arches would be required after dinner to make sure that he wouldn't be left hungry. 

"Coorong yellow-eye mullet grilled over rushes, squid,

iceberg lettuce, pearl balls and red date infusion"

"David Blackmore’s Wagyu beef rib cap, 

black sesame, parsnip, enoki and pear"

And now, for the course that really counts. I was sold on the chocolate, hazelnut, quince plate, and I am happy to report that it was the best course of the night. Thank goodness! AP opted for the passionfruit soufflé, which I was quietly thrilled about because in an ideal world, I would have ordered two desserts, and the soufflé would have been the second. I really liked this dessert too, and would be my pick of the dishes we tried. Oh! Except for the bread! Goodness me, I almost forgot to mention the bread. It was uh-mazing. I worried for the tables of more than two in case they had to split their bread between them, because one loaf was nearly not enough for us. Go there for the bread. 

"Five layered variations of chocolate, hazelnut praline,

 poached quince and cocoa nib ice cream"

"Passionfruit soufflé, passionfruit ice cream"

That brings us almost to the end of the meal. Just some petit fours to wrap it all up. And our thoughts by the end of the meal? It was okay, but strangely disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice enough meal, and the company was wonderful, but I just didn't love the food. Go there, or don't go there, it wasn't a life changing meal. 

Baby eclair, pineapple jelly and a 

chocolatey, nutty, caramel bar. 

My description, not theirs, surprisingly. 

http://www.rockpool.com/sydney/ 

Sunday was Zumbo day. An adventure to Adriano Zumbo's new dessert train at "The Star" casino in Pyrmont with some fellow Adelaideans who happened to be in Sydney was planned. It had come to our attention that happy hour ran from 12pm until 2pm, so it was effectively a dessert lunch, but hey, all the best lunches are. With plates of dessert at only $4 each, we went to town. 

Chocolate coffee brulee

 Violet Crunchie

The fondant of the day- chocolate with 

peanut icecream and banana anglaise (in the syringe) 

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a photo of all of the treats that we enjoyed, so here's a picture of the macaron piping machine instead. 

Serious business. 

http://adrianozumbo.com/the-star-pyrmont/

As if we weren't feeling sick enough at the end of our sugar overload, we then took ourselves to the Sydney Fish Market just to check it out. Of course, this lead to us eating way too much cray and other assorted fried creatures of the sea, but it was a good place to visit. 

Crustacean overload.

After our little excursion it was time to head back to our hotel so we could travel to the airport and return back to the city of churches. The airport food that we had for dinner really doesn't need to be mentioned. I will, however leave you with a picture of my zumbarons after their trip back to Adelaide. 

Appealing! Popcorn, Hendricks G&T, Annunziata, Salted Butter Caramel, 

Passionfruit and Tonka Bean, Blackened Vanilla Bean.

So ends a wonderful trip to Sydney. Luckily for me, I arrived back in Adelaide for the start of Tasting Australia. As a TAFE student, I got to help out with setting up the event and preparing food for the chefs who were running classes or demonstrations. Such an intense week deserves it's own post, so get ready for that one folks! Until then, happy cooking! xx

Cream of the Crop- Week 11

Cakes again! We kicked off the week by using the swiss rolls from the previous week to make a Charlotte Royale. This meant a return of the dreaded bavarois. This time it was a Cointreau flavoured devil concoction, which did not do much to change my mind. To summarise this strange dessert- an outer layer of swiss roll, filled with bavarois and then topped once more with some swiss roll. We left it to set, and then turned it out and brushed it with gel. Mmm interesting.

The cream really adds a touch of glamour, don't you think?

Following on with the cream theme, we made a Strawberry and Cream Gateaux on Tuesday. Yay! More even slicing of cake! Each layer was brushed with a sugar syrup and then spread with jam and cream. When fully assembled, the cake was masked with cream, and topped with strawberries, more cream, and coated with almonds on the outside. 

Bakery perfection.

Whyyyy did I not notice the smudged cream?! 

Check out the precision placed almonds though.

In this lesson, we also baked our Fruit Cakes, as expected, we made a batter and added the previously macerated fruit and popped that into the oven. The result- an ugly, lumpy cake. Stay tuned for a picture at a later date when it looks a little more appealing. 

Another bakery classic followed, with Black Forest Gateaux appearing on the lesson plan. First we needed to prepare the cherry filling by thickening the juice from a jar of morello cherries with some cornflour and sugar over heat, and then adding the cherries and cooling it until was required. Next, we sliced the chocolate cake, and layered it with sugar syrup, piped rings of cream, and whole cherries. It was then masked with cream, and decorated with shaved chocolate and some drained cherries. 

 What magnificent chocolate curls.

The fateful Opera Gateaux day was upon us. Before we had started cooking I was pretty nervous. I knew that there were a few layers to this classic French cake, and I wasn't convinced that we'd be able to pull it all together. We'd made the coffee butter cream the day before, so no need to worry about that. We started off the lesson by making a thin sponge, and then cut it into three. Next up, was the dark ganache- cream and chocolate, done. Then the chocolate glaze for the top- sugar, glucose, cream, chocolate, butter- done. Now came the assembly. First, a layer of sponge, brushed with coffee syrup, which was then spread with the coffee butter cream. Then another layer of sponge with coffee syrup, and the chocolate ganache. When the final layer had been brushed with coffee syrup, it was covered with the glaze and left to set. Time to do dishes! Now was the point at which time ran away from us. I remember being in a dishes haze for about an hour, so when it came to finally cut up the opera, I was a little dazed. 48 portions of Opera later, and it was time to individually label them with their name. Can you say tedious? Anyway, enough of a whinge, here's the outcome. 

 Almost the death of me.

Opera Calligraphy.

Test day rolled around once more, and so it was time for Gateaux St Honore take 2. You know the drill, here's the result. 

Burnt finger gateaux.

And with the end of that week, came a trip to Sydney! Or more accurately, I should say, a food adventure in Sydney! Coming soon... xx

Let Them Eat Cake- Week 10

After the Easter break, we were back, and to kick off the proceedings, a day of vegetable cakes. I was so unimpressed with that idea. Carrot Cake, and Zucchini Cake. Zucchini! What a concept! I'm happy to report, though, that the zucchini cake was delish! The pineapple in the batter helped to make it sweet and moist, and really, you can't go wrong with cream cheese icing.

Zucchini

I'm not a massive carrot cake fan, so all I'll say here is that tasted like carrot cake. But it did have cute carrot decorations! 

Carrot cake, carrot cake, have you any nuts?

The next cake we were faced with was a gluten free option- Orange and Almond Cake with a Coffee and Cardamon Anglaise. Unfortunately, all of our cakes exploded in the oven, so we had nothing to plate up, but it was a delicious combo. Because we had nothing to serve the anglaise with, we turned it into icecream- yum! 

Cake morsels

Next up was a cake prep day- when we made the cake component of a Sacher Torte, and also a Genoese Sponge Cake. When the cakes were out of the oven they were cooled, wrapped and popped into the fridge for later use, because only a silly ninny would bake and fill a sponge cake in the same day! We also practiced our chocolate writing. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Last task of the week was to assemble the Sacher Torte and make a Swiss Roll for use the following week. First job- cut the sacher sponge evenly into two layers. Oh dear. We all have to start somewhere! Next, we brushed each layer with apricot jam, and then covered it with a thin layer of marzipan. 

Marzipan cake!

Next up, we had to heat up the chocolate glaze that we'd made the day before, and evenly coat the top and sides. Then we left it to set while we made the sponge for a Swiss Roll. This was all fine and dandy, once the sponge was out of the oven, it was rolled up and let to set for 30 seconds. Then it was unrolled, and spread with jam and rolled up and wrapped. Into the fridge, and back to the Sacher. 

Time for the defining feature of a Sacher Torte- the name. We had been instructed to pipe it in chocolate, but our supervising chef of the day suggested to me that I pipe it in ganache, because it "looks better". Oh how wrong he was. My letters all ran into one another and it looked awful, so he scraped it off and told me to re-melt and set the ganache on top. Oh yeah? And how do I do that? "Just put it back in the oven!" he said. So back into the oven my cake went. Upon removal, the chef piped it again, and when the writing was complete, he took one look at it and scraped it off. Back the drawing board again! This time though, an industrial paint stripper, much like a hairdryer was fetched so that my cake didn't melt anymore. I was not willing to try ganache for the third time, and so went for the suggest chocolate method. Surprise, surprise, it was fine! Sadly though, after I had packaged the cake into a box, I dropped the lot, and so the borders and icing all came off onto the box's interior. What an end to the week! 

Post-drop. 

Next week- more cake! Weeeee! xx

Burn Baby, Burn- Week 9

And now for an alternative pastry- choux! We started off the week by making Eclairs and piping Profiteroles for the following day. This did not pose a problem, until it came to taking out the hot tray of eclairs, when, alas, I was subjected to my first major Tafe burn. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty nasty, and I will post it as a reminder to be careful of hot trays. (If only I had heed my own warning).

 Chocolate and Strawberry Eclairs.

Ouch!

The next day, I took my burn back to Regency Park to make a Gateaux St Honore. This cake is named after the patron saint of Patissieres, so it was with great trepidation that I commenced the challenge. We started by making some more choux pastry and piping it onto a pre-cut puff-pastry base and baking it. Profiteroles were filled with creme patissiere and then dipped in hot toffee. Key word there- hot. 160C in fact. So one would assume that it would burn skin upon contact. Here I was, for the second day in a row, with another burn on my finger, this time from dipping a profiterole in toffee. I digress- when the profiteroles had been toffee dipped and stuck to the border of the base, creme pat was piped between the choux borders, and the cake was decorated. 

 The result.

An alternative flattering angle.

Wednesday brought on cakes. Not an unfamiliar concept to most of the students in a Patisserie course, but none-the-less, we started off with some basics- a Madeira Cake and some Vanilla Cupcakes. Oh, and incase you were wondering, I made it three from three, by burning my hand on a tray whilst taking out the Madeira cakes. Not a good week for my health as it turned out. 

 Madeira Cake x2

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Our last lesson before the Easter long weekend had us making Banana Cakes and Apple Tea Cakes. The banana cakes were finished off with little marzipan bananas that we made from dyed marzipan dipped in chocolate. 

One cake complete with walnuts, the other, nut-free.

Apple cakes.

More cakes are on their way! xx

Green with Jalousie- Week 8

Pastries, Pastries, Pastries! This week started with cooking the aforementioned Linzer Tortes, Sable Biscuits, and then creating Fruit Flans from the pre-prepared sweet pastry. The biscuits were simply cut from the roll, and baked, and then when cooled, had chocolate stripes artfully placed on them.

 Absolute precision.

Boxed up for sale.

Next up were the Fruit Flans. The pastry bases were first baked, and then once cool, filled with creme legere and topped with fruit. 

Voila.

Tuesday, and Apple Frangipane Tarts were on the menu, followed by Lemon Tarts. The Frangipane tarts were filled with the frangipane filling from Friday, and topped with caramelised apple quarters and then put into the oven. While they were still warm, the tarts were brushed with boiled apricot jam to add shine. 

Glossy!

The tart bases for the Lemon Tarts were first blind baked, and then brushed with egg yolk so that they would stay crisp. Unfortunately my tarts were subjected to some dodgem car action from someone else's tray in the oven, so half of the filling fell out, but they were still nice and lemony. Surprise, surprise!

Less than perfect. 

Hump day this week was a pastry preparation day, when we made two different types of Puff Pastry- a half puff made in the English method, and a Scottish rough puff. Both of these methods were a mammoth workout, because each block had to rest between folds, and so was quite solid. Recommend making your own pastry to tone up your arms! We also made our Gingerbread Dough for our houses that we're making later on. 

The following day, we put all of our hard word to use, making an apricot Jalousie, and a Cherry Millefeuille from the pastry. The Jalousie was made from the half puff pastry and was filled with frangipane and apricot halves, with layer covering the fruit and providing some viewing windows and extra puff. The baked jalousie was brushed with apricot jam and sprinkled with flaked almonds.

Fresh off the press.

Portioned up.

To assemble the Millefeuille, we first docked and baked 3 rounds of pastry, and then piped custard and placed cherries into each layer. When the final pastry layer was placed on top, white fondant was spread, and red spirals piped, so that we could create a web. 

 Finished product.

At least I tried...

The last lesson of the week has us making pastry products from the leftover scraps of pastry, resulting in Palmiers and some Fruit Vol au Vents. The Palmiers were simply rolled from a rectangle sheet of pastry after being sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, and baked. 

Palmiers

The Vol au Vents were made by cutting circles from the 1/2 puff pastry and then placing a matching circle on top (with the centre cut out) and cooking them before filling with creme patissiere and topping with fruit. 

Fruity.

Next week is a stressful one, and I should warn, a painful experience too, but enjoy the upcoming pictures of delicious pastries! xx

Cream Colored Ponies and Crisp Apple Strudels- Week 7

Back to Tafe after a few days off, and it was time to present some desserts. Well that's what the program told us we'd be doing anyway. First cab off the rank was Honey Doughnuts with Honey Syrup. This was an interesting lesson, because it turns out I'm a bit of an un-co at piping dough into a deep-fryer. Not particularly surprising, but annoying when this was how the doughnuts were cooked. They were served with honey syrup, cream, dates, and pistachio.

 Check the micro-herbage!

Because one plate presentation is not enough.

We also prepped some Chocolate Fondants for the following day, along with some Vanilla Anglaise to be used as icecream.

Studel day! This was an interesting day. We made an Apple Strudel which was served with a Calvados Sabayon. This included making the pastry. Ooh, ahh. We made the dough and let it rest for half an hour, and then we had to stretch it out to the size of the bench so that it was thin enough to see through. During the resting time, we prepped our apple and walnut mix, so when the dough was stretched we just had to lay it out, and roll it up. 

Strudel with Calvados Sabayon and Icecream

During this lesson, we also baked our Fondants and made our icecream using the amazing "Frixair" machine. It turns solid, frozen cups of anglaise into a lovely creamy icecream in a matter of minutes, so there was no need to wait around, as we could have if we'd churned using a conventional icecream machine. 

Fondant sylin'

Once more for luck. 

Gotta love a short week- the final lesson of the week was the first of our official pastry lessons. We made a Sweet Pastry, Creme Legere, Linzer Torte, Frangipane and a Sable biscuit dough. It was really just a prep day- no finished products, but just this one time, I'll put up the Linzer Torte with this post so you can see what it looked like. 

Hazelnut and Raspberry goodness.

Next week is pastry week! Best week ever. xx