2nd Lunch and Dinner service @Le Premier

Here we go again, our second restaurant service training at Le Premier restaurant. We served lunch on Wednesday and dinner on Thursday, and it was challenging as usual, because the dishes were complex and required new technical skills.

Maison Emil's pick of flavour: Fried eggs - who knew that eggs could taste so nice :)

Fried egg - Photo by Thierry Delabre

This time I was allocated to the "Fish" station, and on top I was assigned the role as "Chef de Partie", meaning I had to pay attention to the order taking (table number and serving quantity), time management (time allocation during the order coming in and the dish going out at allocated table), collaboration with the other group working on a different "Fish" menu, and team management as we were three allocated to the Fish station.

Lessons learned from Wednesday cooking session were captured and improved on Thursday :) Improvement points: organisational and teamwork, time management, and communication skills with the other group.

Prepared and cooked by Group B (my group):

• Amuse bouche: Oignons de Roscoff roti en tartiflette (Roscoff is a protected appellation for this particular sweet onion)
• Starter: Cromesquis of snail and terrine of pork cheek and pork feet in truffle reduction 
• Fish: Oeufs frits (deep fried eggs) en croute de noisette (hazelnuts), emulsion moules (mussels foam) and cockles reduction
• Meat: Rables de lapin en porchetta and baked zitoni with parmesan and mascarpone (rabbit roll and zitoni pasta) - Italian inspired dish

Amuse bouche - roasted onion tartiflette

Cromesquis of snail and terrine of pork feet and cheek (photo by Thierry Delabre)

Fish - deep fried egg, mussel foam, vegetables in cockles sauce

Garnish for fried eggs

Meat - Rabbit roll with zigoni pasta

Thanks to Thierry Delabre for sharing his beautiful photos with our class.

Happy cooking,

Maison Emil Paris

Regional Cuisine - Bordeaux

It's been a very busy week in the kitchen @Ferrandi. The regional cuisine "Bordeaux" is on the teaching plan, and it's a demanding set menu. Many recipes require technical skills, and preparation beforehand is a must. Great learning experience, so thanks to my chef for the challenge. Looking now forward to the weekend and some rest :) 

MEP's Pick of flavour: Razor clam tartar (yum)

Razor clam tartar

Bordeaux set menu cooked and tasted:

• Amuse bouche: oeuf toque with foie gras cream and puff pastry stick with morel sauce
• Starter: razor clam as tartare and deep fried accompanied by aspargus wrapped in bacon and Greek yogurt dressing
• Fish dish: Pike in bordelaise sauce
• Meat dish: Baby lamb (younger than 60 days old), polenta espuma, chantarelles in veal jus 
• Dessert: Canneles, raspberry chocolate tarte and icecream 

Œuf toqué (cracked egg) - puff pastry with morel cream 

Oeufs toques technique

Razor clam (tartar and fried) 

Pike fish in bordelaise sauce and garnish

Roasted baby lamb (leg, shoulder, saddle and carre), polenta espuma, chantarelles

Caneles - a local speciality from Bordeaux.
MEP caneles recipe here
Photo: Pedro Frade

Caneles from Bordeaux, raspberry chocolate tart and ice-cream

And this lovely menu was of course paired with some nice wine from the Bordeaux region :) 

Aquitaine region with Bordeaux as its capital

How razor clams look like :)

Happy weekend,

Maison Emil Paris :)

Choux pastry

Basic choux recipe consists of water, butter, salt and sugar, flour and eggs. The water generates the puffiness when baked. However I have always used half milk half water in the batter as I find it tastes a bit better and less dry. Below Pierre Hermes' choux pastry recipe. 

Maison Emil's mini choux. Filling: pastry cream + whipped cream.
Topping: roasted almond + cinnamon + brown sugar + a bit butter

Maison Emil's bug choux with vanilla whipped cream

You can also make savoury choux and fill it with thuna cream :) 

Pierre Hermé’s Pâte à Choux (Choux Pastry)

(Makes 20-24 big choux)

½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into smaller cubes (8-10)
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil.

3) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

4) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.

You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, but do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

5) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets. 
Remarks! My mom in Norway does not bother to use the pastry bag. With the help of 2 tablespoons, she forms a ball/lump and adds it on the baking tray. Easy :)
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each choux to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 choux.

6) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the

handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the choux have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the choux are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes. 

Happy baking,

Maison Emil Paris :)

Wine @breakfast :)

The wine class is of great value to me. To learn about and understand different wines and wine producing regions of France is important in the French cuisine. It gives me a basic idea how different dishes can be paired with different wines.

Alsace region with a troubled past

At 9am the wine journey takes me to Alsace, to dry Riesling and late harvest sweet Gewürztraminer - the latter paired well with the Alsacian Munster cheese with cumin seeds.

Great wine class and nice wine for breakfast. Looking already forward to next wine class in two weeks, when we will be tasting Bordeaux wines.

Happy tasting,

Maison Emil Paris :) 

L: Dry Riesling - R: Late harvest Gewürztraminer

Wine tasting with Munster cheese

Late harvest often means over-riped grapes and good sweet wine :)

Scallop coral sauce

Thanks to my Italian friend, Ivo Bonacorsi, for the inspiration to this simple, easy yet flavourful seafood dish without seafood. Grazie per l'inspirazione, Ivo :)

If you don't know what to do with the scallop coral, don't throw it away. Instead make this sauce and serve it with pasta or freeze it for later use. It makes very tasty sauce :) 

Add scallop sauce, herbs and fresh lemon juice 

Simple yet tasty

Squid ink pasta :)

Buono appetito,

Maison Emil Paris :)

Scallop sauce 
Approx 200 gr or 25 pieces of scallop coral
100 gr shallot - finely cut (I like leeks and had left over so I added it)
20 gr or 1 full tablespoon butter

1 dl or 100 gr white wine (I used dry rose wine as I ran out of dry white - importance is to have acidity)
2 dl or 200 gr stock (unsalted)
1,5 dl or 150 gr thick cream

Ingredients

Tools
Blender
Sieve or mesh
Sauce pot

Method
1. Melt the butter but do not brown it (no coloration)
2. Add the shallot and cook until soft approx 5 min (no coloration)
3. Add the wine and cook until it's reduced to one third
4. Add the stock, cook and reduce to one third
5. Add the scallop coral and cook for 3-5 min
6. Blend and strain (season with white pepper and a bit of salt)
7. Keep very cold or freeze (add lemon juice when using this paste or sauce in cooking)

Sweat shallot in butter 

Add scallop when the liquid is reduced to one third 

Blend until smooth and strain for a smooth texture

Regional Cuisine - Picardy

Picardy is located at the very north tip of France, bordering Belgium and hence the Belgium influence is present in this regional cuisine (such as mussels, carbonnade, beer).

Below a set menu prepared by us :) 

Creme chou-fleur aux moules

Parmentier de kippers with parsley breadcrumbs ready to be baked

Cold smoked kippers (herring)

Parmentier de kippers

Scallops with Brussel sprout cream, fried onion rings

Carbonnade a la flamande 

Parfait cafe, creme brûlée cafe, espuma cafe

Belgian dessert beer

Picardy region

A nice regional cuisine from Picardy. MEP's personal preference was the beef carbonnade with tasty roasted endives. Yum.

Happy eating,

Maison Emil Paris :)

Lemon mascarpone cream

Maison Emil's version of lemon cream consists of lemon curd (which you find in most French tarte au citron or French lemon pie), mascarpone cheese and whipped cream for a rounder, creamier and "lemony" pie. I do like plain lemon curd also, but I often find it a bit sour. 

Lemon mascarpone cream tart

Lemon cream filling - recipe a la Maison Emil 
Juice of 2 lemons (non treated preferably) - or 3 small lemons
Zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
1,5 dl sugar
1 dl thick cream
1dl or 100gr mascarpone (or philadelphia cheese if you don't have mascarpone)
1 tablespoon butter - or 15gr butter cut in cubes

Tools: handmixer, blender (if you don't have a shortcrust pie and don't have time to bake one, you can use your blender to crush some biscuits before you add the melted butter to form a kind of pie shell)

Ingredients for lemon curd

Cold pie crust

Blind bake the shortcrust pie and let it cool completely before you add the lemon filling. If you don't feel like baking, you can also blend the biscuits and add the melted butter. Add the mixture to a pie mold and keep cold (fridge or freezer) while you prepare your lemon cream.

Quick method: 
1. Prepare a bain-marie; i.e. bring a pot with water to a boil and reduce to medium heat.

Use a heat-proof bowl

2. In a heat proof bowl, quickly beat with a hand mixer all ingredients except the liquid cream and mascarpone (just whisk until foamy - don't over whisk).

3. Put the bowl in the bain-marie and stir slowly until the cream thickens.

Stir until it thickens - approx 5 minutes

4. Take the bowl out of the bain-marie and stir in the butter.
We use the bain-marie method to avoid cooking the egg yolks - we are not making scrambled eggs :)

If you like the lemon curd like this, then chill and pour it over the shortcrust pie. Cool and serve very cold.

Lemon curd

However if you like the creamy texture, then continue with the following steps:

5. Whisk the cream and mascarpone until thick

Mascarpone and whipped cream

6. Fold in the mixture in the chilled lemon curd

Cream mixture and lemon curd folded together

7. Whisk until smooth (don't over whisk).

Lemon mascarpone cream

8. Spread over your pie and chill.

Yummy

Serve very cold.

Bon appétit,

Maison Emil Paris - MEP :)

1st live cooking @ Ferrandi training restaurant

After one month of training, we are considered ready to cook live at Le Premier, one of Ferrandi's two training restaurants.

Two groups of students to cook 46 portions for lunch and 66 for dinner. Each group had a different
menu and each group has he following dishes: amuse bouche (apetizer), starter, fish, and meat. I was allocated to a "Starter" station with two fellow classmates.

It was an intense but interesting learning experience. Thank God it's Friday and weekend.

So what did we cook? Many nice dishes :)

Mini burger (bun made with squid ink)

Lots of garnish

Entree - salmon roll with goat cheese, salmon rillette, gravlax, lemon confit coulis,  grapefruit espuma

Baked scallop with julienne vegetables in beurre nouilly prat sauce

Duck, mille-feuille gratinated potatoes, duck springroll and garnish

Happy weekend,

Maison Emil Paris :)