Week 10

What a fun and relaxing week.  Started off with making petit fours and chocolate and ended with a 3 day wine course.  Can each week be like this ;)

November 21st Day 42 AM: Theory Revision

Our last and final exam next week is our theory exam, so today we did a little revision of what might be on our exam.  lots to study and go over before the exam.  just one last thing before school break.

Day 42 PM: Cooking- Petit fours class 1

• Chocolate fudge

• Dark chocolate fudge

• Exquis

• Fudge

• Petits fours glace- amandes, cerise, craises, marron

• To temper couveture chocolate

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November 22nd Day 43 AM: Demonstration

• Petits bateau d'aigrefin fume (Small boats of smoked haddock)

• QUick Hollandaise sauce

• Noisettes d'agneau a la clamart (lamb noisettes)

• Sauce Madere

• Pate feuilletee (puff pastry)

• Jalousie a la creme

Petits Bateau d'Aigrefin Fume

Noisettes d' Agneau (lamb cutlets)

Jalouise a la creme

Day 43 PM: Cooking- Petit fours class 2

look at all of what we made.   it was a fun 2 day class making these.  all the fudges were delicious, melts in your mouth kind of fudge.  the chocolates were also good, when you have good quality chocolate its hard not to taste good but next time i would have added some nuts or some filling inside of them. however the petits fours were not my favorite as they were covered in fondant which just makes each one incredibly sweet as we added it on top of an already sweet cake and creme frosting.  great to learn how to make but won't be on my list of things to make again.

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November 23rd Day 44: Wine Course Day 1

today began our 3 day wine course. we learned the process on how wine is made, starting with the grapes and ending with the bottle .  we then moved on to LEARNED about the different wine regions in france, first bordeaux, burgundy, rhone valley, loire valley, and finished of with alsace.  with each region we discussed the location, climate, soil, main red and/or white grape VARIETIES and some of the main wines that come from that region.  after understanding what kind of wine comes from that area, we then tasted a wine.  we first look at the color of the wine, if its a bright red or dark red for example and the VISCOSITY, if it is quite thin or thick.  then we smelled the wine to see if it came from a hot or cool climate area, what fruits it smelled like, and what other things we might be able to smell.  then we tasted the wine to check the ACIDITY, tannin, flavor, and finish.   it is always interested to see how people react to wines, some people might love a certain wine while other dislike it .  as everyone's taste buds are different preference on wine will also be different.  

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November 24th Day 45: Wine Course Day 2

second day we moved to the rest of europe, italy, spain, portugal, and germany.  then to other parts of the new world australia, new zealand, california, south africa, and to south america chile and argentina. lots of wine, lots of learning.

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November 25th Day 46: Wine Course Day 3

today we learned about port and sherry. and what i learned is that i like port, i really like it.  I will buy a few bottles to try over break :)  we then learned about sherry, not sure if i really could like it, it is quite an interesting and different taste.  but there are a variety of different types of sherry with their own unique taste, so maybe i will find one that i like lets see. after that we then learned about champagne and sparkling wines, quite interesting to learn how it is made. a very informative three days and was hoping that at least some of that information sunk into my brain as we had a wine exam that afternoon.  too many french names and regions but it will be interesting to see  when looking at wine menus if i will know more about the wines listed.