So last night a man stuck his head round the kitchen door to enquire (in German) where he could park his horse. This morning when I walked to the restaurant for the mornings lessons, I wasn't too surprised by the horse or the gyspy caravan. Not sure if I'd want to take 3 young kids on a holiday where you are restricted to about a 6km radius per day, but they seemed very content.
Today kicked off with crepes (base for the suzette tonight), mousse au chocolat, and then piping creme patissier into choux buns (profiterole-style), then shaping inside a cone with caramel to make a croquemboche. This is something I'm keen to try at home. I need to nick a traffic cone.
Then, if that wasn't enough, after tossing crepes with varying degrees of success, we made bechamel and learnt techniques for making vegetables taste nice (hint: substitute some of the butter in the bechamel with duck fat) - so all vegetarian friends can now enjoy their broccoli gratin. Plus instead of only topping with ementaler Bernard sometimes adds Roquefort to the bechamel: top tip.
We then made the suzette sauce - another tip: to keep it smooth you rub sugar cubes on the outside of the orange to infuse it with the oil rather than adding the zest to the caramel.
After heading back to the teaching kitchen we made the pastry base for the tart au citron, and a roue base for the mushroom soup for tomorrow. All that by midday. Right arm is feeling veeeery exercised, and I need a massage. I'm sure a glass of wine at Bernard's restaurant in 30 minutes over lunch will sort me out! Apparently he's rustling up charcuterie, a goat's cheese salad, and then this morning's mousse. F-a-b.
This afternoon: Condom and armagnac.
Oh - Bernard used a beautiful phrase earlier when adding a little lemon zest to his chocolate mousse. He was explaining the art of adding a slight signature twist to classics, and said that "people don't have to find the taste". The art of subtlety. Funny that he's allowed to mess with classics, but someone ELSE isn't allowed to put red wine into cassoulet...yep: I didn't get the Incredible Sulk nickname for nothing.
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