Woah guess who's back! BACK AGAIN!

So I'm finally back.

Decided I shall get this blog out from the closet and clean off the cob webs. I have finished my formal studying and I'll be joining the work force soon, good lord what a nervous and exciting event in my life. When people ask what I'm doing now, or one of those internet forms ask what my profession is, I can't select the option of student anymore. Woah what a mind blowing thought!

Anyway I am gonna be doing alot of cooking on the side to keep my skills up along with experimenting with all manner of ingredients for friends, family and others who desire to feast. So that shall be documented here along with all my daily deeds.

So ciao guys! Until next time.

that's one big (*$^@!

HOLY! Happy day today, I went down to Simon Johnsons, an up-market grocer to collect my little order which I made a week ago and woohoo!

Take a look for yourself!

Black gold in a plastic bag! That's 60g of Australian Winter Truffles! WOOO I'm gonna have a ball with this when I get back to Singapore. I feel so tempted to rip it out of its plastic just to smell its lovely aroma but I must not remove it from its seal just yet, not till I get back to Singapore!

This has boosted my morale for tomorrows exam! I feel extremely confident now! So wish me good luck tomorrow! I'm gonna go rest and focus on tomorrow's exam now. So until next time, さようなら.

the calm before the storm

So I've been really busy preparing for my upcoming exam on Monday & Tuesday therefore my blog update frequency has gone down significantly. I've been reading through all the recipes and trying to memorize all the important details of everything that we have learnt up to now. For example, stock cooking times, what different thickening agents are used for. Oh a bloody nightmare, so many things to remember.

On Monday, we made a roast beef with all kinds of vegetable garnishes. I have no idea where the pictures which I thought I took of the beef and its vegetable garnishes went to so I'll just skip that. No, I'm not getting lazy. I really have no memories of taking a picture of it. Everything is so routine now, I don't know how it could have slipped my mind to take a photo of the roast beef. Anyway on to Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we made pasta from scratch with a Tomato Basil sauce & a guinea fowl with mushrooms and leeks. I have never had guinea fowl before but it was pretty yummy. Especially when it was eaten with the mushrooms and leeks. I have never had oyster mushrooms as well, which was one of the mushrooms in the mixture and I really like it. It's got this subtle earthy flavor to it that I really enjoyed eating. I'm not a great fan of shitake mushrooms by the way unless its in Bak Chor Mee aka Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle. OH!!!!! I miss Bak Chor Mee.



I realised the awesomeness of fresh made pasta. Its so much more tasty than those dried pasta and its texture too is so much better. It also open millions of possibilities with the flavour of the pasta, for example, truffle linguine or spinach linguine. Not to mention it comes with this satisfaction of having made your own pasta. I see only pluses when it comes to making your own pasta. So to everyone out there, make your own pasta dough! You'll enjoy the results of your labour, which is not even much of a labour since its so easy to make. I'll put the recipe below. On a side note, you'll probably need a pasta machine that I have seen cost $60 in Singapore.
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Pasta Dough
Bakers Flour 200g
Eggs 2 x 60g
Olive Oil 1 tbsp
Salt

Semonlina Flour for dusting

1. Sift flour and salt into a basin and make a well.
2. Whisk eggs and oil together and pour into the well.
3. Mix the flour and egg mixture together to form dough.
4. Knead until the dough is firm and smooth and silky.
5. Let rest for 45 mins before cutting.

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On Wednesday, we made Lamb Noisettes & a Cointreau Souffle. Did I ever mention how much I love sweet souffles! I remember when I was younger, going to this little French Cafe called Cafe De Amigo and always having their French Onion Soup and their Lemon Souffle. Om nom nom nom, those 2 dishes are to die for. It's so hard to find a good onion soup nowadays in Singapore.

Oppps I'm side tracking and ranting there. Back on topic, lamb noisettes is basically a deboned T-bone rolled up to form medallions and served on a crouton. We also served it up with braised lettuce and cheatau potatoes. It was pretty hard to get right because the medallions were thick and it was easy to burn the exterior of the lamb without cooking the inside. I served up my lamb a tad bit undercooked but my souffle was nice and tall. It looked very much like the one in the picture. Take note, those dishes are not mine but the chef's.




The chef also made a Salmon Tartare with a Cucumber Salad which was a teacher's demonstration only. I don't eat cucumber so I didn't have any of the salad but the Salmon Tartare was delicious while maintaining the flavour of the salmon. It was marinated with lemon juice, lime juice, sour cream, dill, sugar and mustard.

Since my exam is coming up in a couple of days, I have been practicing the menu. Yesterday, I went to Kevin's place to make the Beef Consomme and Herb Crusted Lamb Rack and today, I decided to practice the lamb rack one more time and yay!!!!!, it came out nicely, my thermometer is a saving grace! Here's a picture of the lamb rack I did today. I feel more confident about my exam now.


Ok, I'm going to get back to remembering stuff now, alot of things to remember for my theory exam. So til after my exams, 안녕히계세요, aka goodbye in Korean!