Even a Chocolate has a soul!

"Chocolate has only three molecules, but he is not stupid" - said one of our chefs.

Did you hear how the chefs talk about the food?

Food for the chefs it's kind of human being. They talk to food, feel it, hear it and etc. It sounds crazy :-), doesn't it?

In Cuisine it was something like: "The meat should get used to the idea that it has become a steak" or some chef said "Chicken it's as a woman, you should be gentle with her, soft hand!"

In Patisserie it's: "When you make a ganache (chocolate cream), you should slowly add the slightly chilled cream to melted chocolate. Before you add the cream, try it with your finger. And if you say "Aah!" (hot), the chocolate will say "Aah!" too. Chocolate has only three molecules, but he is not stupid." By the way, three molecules are cocoa butter, cocoa solid and sugar :-).

The dish or the dessert can be sexy! It can be just a dish, you know the regular one, or it can be a sexy one. When I see a nice guy and it something in his eyes (or in other place :-) ), you know "something", that you can't explain, sexy. The same is about the food, it can be sexy dish, also a simple dish, but it something about it, something sexy!

And these are just a short examples.

At the beginning of my studies it was sound weird to me, but now I start feeling this way too. I think it's a good sign, I become a part of this profession!

And if you ask me: " Do you enjoy what you are doing"?

I'll answer "Absof---glutly"! (Mr. Big from "The Sex and the City" would say)

And here are some pictures from the Basic Patisserie:

Enjoy!

Black forest

St. Honore

Genoise sponge with Raspberry Jam and cream

Fresh strawberry and Chantilly cream cake

Light fruit cake

Alhambra - Death by chocolate - Very sexy :-)

Home made bread

It's Raining, but very sweet!

Do you know the famous song "It's Raining men" ?

It' goes like this:

"God bless Mother Nature, she's a single woman too

She took off to heaven and she did what she had to do

She taught every angel to rearrange the sky

So that each and every woman could find her perfect guy

It's Raining Men! Yeah!"

Honestly, I prefer Mother Nature will find some Sunny guy to be with :-).

It's already two month of rainy weather here, with may be some sunny days between.

According to statistic, more than 35 million people worldwide have been prescribed Prozac - including more than 500,000 in UK alone - since its launch in 1989.

This fact is not surprising, it's enough to look outside through the window and you will find yourself in deep depression looking at this grey, rainy weather.

Since I almost lost the hope to see the sun here, I will go to meet the Sun.

In one and a half month I'm going to Israel to take some tan mentally and physically :-).

Meanwhile this horrible weather (surprisingly my husband likes this weather), I started Patisserie studies. In comparison to Cuisine, it's very relaxed and a bit easier and it's Sweet!

There are some pictures for the start:

Lemon tart

Eclairs and etc.

Stay with me, it will be more!

I'm Chef De Cuisine!

I have passed the final exam!

Looking backward I can tell that those 9 month of studies were very hard. They (Le Cordon Bleu) have to keep their name of the one of the best Culinary School in the world, so the study is not easy at all.

The graduation dinner, as always, was in Four Seasons hotel and it was very nice and tasty.
We got the diplomas with the best wishes - "Keep cooking and smiling!" That's what I'm going to do!
For now I'm going to continue my studies in Patisserie for the next 9 months and may be to work with some good chef - to see how this business works.

Keep looking at my blog, it's going to be sweet!

Here, as you can see, I already have started to meet famous chefs :-)

The Diamond of Superior Cuisine!

The Superior Cuisine it's the last course in Cuisine trilogy. The last one - the most difficult one. As one chef told us - we are " The cream de la cream of Le Cordon Bleu school - the Superior students".
The course is very very difficult!
The recipes are complicate, the timetable is busy, I even have no time for shopping this term :-).
Next week we have to carry out the Student event. Student event it's the dinner that we should cook for 40 guests. I have to say that it will be a delicious one (I know the menu :-) ).
I can't tell you what is it, because we keep it in secret until next week, but I promise to make some photos for you.
At the end of the term we'll have a final exam, that the thought of it makes me a little bit nervous. We were given a list of near 20 - 25 ingredients that we should combine somehow and make a "very Superior" dish. The main component is a Duck and there will be five chefs to judge us. It's look like a piece of ceremony. But this is why their name is "Le Cordon Bleu" :-).
So, wish me a lot of luck!
Meanwhile the Diamond dish of the French Cuisine has arrived - The frog legs!
What can I say! The taste is nice, very unusual :-).
No, I didn't make them - it was only a demonstration that we were watching. And tasting at the end of it. And since I'm not a conservative - I have decided to try it. The taste is very nice, as I told. But after that, thinking about it and understanding of what I just put in my mouth, made me feel not so good :-).
It just shows that "everything is in our mind"!

Viva La France or the last week of the term!

This is the last week of the Intermediate term.
It was a crazy term with crazy timetable and very cold weather. The timetable was with 4 hours windows between the sessions, and when I saw it at first time I was in panic what I'm going to do 4 hours. After one day of four hours of shopping I concluded that I don't need so much to buy ( which made my husband very happy man :-) ). And I found the way to spend this time - I was going to nearest gym :-). The time just flied and it already the last week. Actually very important and busy week with two exams. So wish me a luck!
During this term we were going through the France regions (as I already told in previous post). I still don't know where each of regions are but I have to amend that I totally in love with France. I just can imagine the beauty, hear the smells, and feel the love in the air. My next vacation is Provence! I have an interesting proposal from my husband to go and live there for half a year. It should be magnificent place.
And here are some dishes from Provence:

Mussel Soup

Seafood Risotto

Lobster with Tomatoes

Fine Biscuit Tulip with Red Fruits and Lemon Sabayon

The cold weather and winter dishes

How cold is winter in your country?
In UK is zero degrees now. Some people will tell: "It's very warm weather" - they probably live in Canada, Russia or East Europe. But for me, and I'm from very warm country from all points of view :-) , it's very cold weather. When I'm getting out to go to the train station, first of all I should clear my car from the ice on windows. Then, I switch on the heating in the car and try not too freeze there. When I'm arriving to the station, I'm getting out from my nice and warm place and running to the train, that actually delayed.
One morning, I just opened a door of my house and saw this picture (see on left, above), and I had no words to say. I run to bring the camera and take a picture, because the last time that I saw snow near my home was very very long time ago.

As I already told before this term is all about France regions and the speciality of cooking there. I like this term more, because first of all I feel that I already know something about cooking (I mean professional cooking). Here we are familiar with a lot of techniques and we just having fun cooking all kind of interesting dishes. In most of practices I get compliments from chefs about my cooking. But also happen some failures. For example today was really not "my Day". When I was supposed to show my dish to chef, it just slipped out of my hands.
That was a dish that we were cooking two practices time - something with beans and different kinds of meat, warming winter dish (very good ) and it just gone :-(. So, I was very upset today. But then I remembered that broken plates brings happiness, and my mood was up again :-).
So broke you plates and be happy!!!
And here some dishes that survived :-)













Chicken cooked with Bell Peppers and Cured Ham and Pilaf Rice.















Preserved Duck with Truffle Sauce and Sliced Potatoes From Perigord.













Breast of Duck with Citrus Fruits, Sauteed pear and apples, roasted beetroot and celeriac.













Rich Lamb Stew with Glazed Vegetables.













Fillet of Beef with rich Red Wine Sauce, Mushrooms with Garlic and small Roasted Potatoes.

Trout stewed Anjoi style, braised lettuce, Nantaise butter sauce.

Sweetened Cream Chees Dessert with Raspberry Sauce.

Ethnic delights

In my marriage package I got a following things:
1. Wonderful husband (of course)
2. Long and unpronounceable surname.
3. Big amount of relatives
4. Ethnic delights.

The story is that my husband has a half of Bukharian blood. And all the things that I have mentioned above are from that half. Since my husband also reads my blog I'm not going to talk about the relatives and the surname :-), I'll concentrate on Ethnic delights point.
Since they lived in Uzbekistan, they cook a lot of traditional food as pilaf, samosa and etc.
In the beginning of my "friendship" with my husband, I was very excited by all those dishes. And also it seemed very complicated to cook it. Hundreds of times I was watching my father in law is cooking and I didn't take a risk to cook it by myself.
But now, when I'm on the half way to be chef, it's just as simple as that :-)
The most popular and delicious dish is Pilaf. There is no celebration without a Pilaf. Also, there are different types of it: sweet with raisins and prunes, with different kinds of meat and etc. The traditional one should be cooked with lamb and on lamb fat, carrots, rice, garlic and ground cumin.
Last weekend I decided to cook Pilaf for our friends visit. My preparation for it have started a weeks before, I was looking for right pan. The pan for Pilaf should be cast iron, round and tall shape. After a long search everywhere (Internet, shops) I gave up to buy one for now.
It's very expensive in UK, as everything here. And for now I prefer to spend money on something else. And in addition, as I told before I'm on the half way to be chef, so the chef should be able to cook in every pan and the dish should be delicious.
As a fan of healthy cooking I used the beef instead the lamb, and olive oil.
The result was just perfect! Now I can destroy the myth of cooking the Pilaf - it's a question of the experience!

Intermediate cuisine.

Intermediate cuisine is the second course in Cuisine trilogy. This course is about different regions of France and their kitchens.
It turned out, that there are 22 French regions, and all of them have their own kitchen. The difference between them is everywhere. It could be in cooking methods, using particular meat, the presentation of the dish and etc. After this course I'll know not only how to cook, I also will learn the geography. My husband always complains that I don't know geography (what could I do, it wasn't my favorite subject in school), so in two month I'll could say where the all regions of France are, one by one :-).

The course had started a week before, and I still didn't organize myself. I forgot my camera every day, and there were very nice dishes to show you, but I promise to show something on my next post. Besides it was very nice to come back to school, to see everyone (students and chefs) after a long vacation. I have to mention that the chefs relation to the students became more respectful, not as to dilettante. We still don't know where all the French regions, but we know something about cooking :-).

There is another interesting fact: as long as I study to cook, my relationship with the computer becomes to be less and less professional. I'm asking my husband "stupid" questions, that I didn't before. I have to say that it's great - to be dummy in computers :-).
Another good thing that happening it's that my parents came to visit us. We didn't see each other for 4 month, and I realized that I don't really want to live away from my family and friends. May be it's very short period and I can't do such a conclusions, as my husband says "We will talk about it next year!".

For now, here some pictures from London. I have an opportunity to travel a little bit, see nice places.

Happy Hanukkah!

Last year when we were lighting the Hanukkah candles my daughter asked: "Who has a birthday?". Now she grow up a little bit (she is almost 4 years old) and she already knows that it's for Hanukkah.

During our stay in UK, we want to keep our traditions more than ever. We light the candles, eat donuts and pancakes. By the way, the donuts on the picture are mine :-).

But now I want to share with you great recipe of sweet potato pancakes:

For the ingredients you need :

3 medium sweet potatoes

1 egg

1/2 - 2/3 glass of flour

salt to taste

vegetable oil or butter

The method:

1. Cook the sweet potatoes not peeled,

2. once they cooked, peel and dry off.

3. Finally mash potatoes.

4. Add the egg, flour and mix well. Season with salt to taste.

Make a little pancakes and fry on vegetable oil or on butter.

The result should look like this and may served with sour cream:

"Beteavon" (Bon Appetit in Hebrew)!