Dessert on a Dish

We spent yesterday learning how to make a long list of French goodies including creme caramel, creme brûlée, creme anglais, tuile, and fruit coulis. We watched the chef demonstrate the steps, and then it was off to our practical to try to replicate the fiddly processes on our own.

The practical went fairly smoothly, and I didn't have too much trouble. I'm still struggling with what the consistency of some these items are supposed to be, and I ended up curdling my creme anglais and undercooking my coulis. Better luck next time, I suppose. Fortunately, my creme caramels came out like a dream.

Today was the first lesson we had in plating our creations. Let me tell you, it was a lot more difficult and frustrating than I could've imagined. I ended up with something fairly basic before I ended up tearing my hair out and calling it a day. Note to self: take the photo before chef takes a bite!

The orange dots are mango coulis, the yellow smears are creme anglais, the music note (fallen over) is a tuile, and that clear thing is a sugar cage. Believe it or not, the chocolate lines were what gave me the most grief. Piped chocolate and I are NOT friends! I also probably overdid it with the kiwi, but I think it's such a pretty fruit. Caramelising the creme brûlée was lots of fun, and a blowtorch is now on my wish list along with a few other kitchen items.

I was glad when today's practical was over. Fussing over a plate for that long was starting to give me a migraine, but it felt a lot better when I got the whole lot into my belly. Teehee. I had some extra left to take home, and J and I are both fat and happy after having the leftovers for dessert after our thai takeaway. And don't worry, I haven't overlooked the irony of someone spending 6 hours in cooking school having a takeaway for dinner. Sigh.