COOKING FRUITS

The theme for Week 7 in Patisserie is 'cooking fruits', which is all very French. I love watching Jacques Pepin playing around with cooked fruits on Asian Food Channel, this Master Chef may be getting on but he has not lost his magic. While culinary techniques in this space vary, the notable ones are; poaching, baking, plus the preparation of compotes ie fruits served in their own reduced liquid & coulis ie pureed fruits sauces. The best thing about this series is the wonderful application of colors that come from the variety of fresh fruits ... red, green, purple, yellow, blue ... you name them, patissiers work with them. It is a dream for those who get high on presentations as the sky is the limit. I poached some visually attractive Pears in Red Wine, as shown. While poached pears is a nice warm dessert for the winter (it was below 10C this morning due to a cold front) these ones are destined for a Poached Pear Tart in tomorrow's lesson. To give you a feel for this week's agenda, we have : Moulded Fruit Jelly, Berry Compote, Poached Apples with Orange Segments, Baked Apple, Orange Almond Sponge Pudding, Tarte Titan & lastly, another French classic, Creme Brulee with Fresh Fruit.

We were officially informed of the end of term assesement schedules. There will be a 1-hour Theory Assessment ie book work, plus 3 Pratical Assessments @ 3.5 hours each, over the course of 3 days. Day #1 is to prepare Puff Pastries using the French & English Methods; Day #2 is dedicated to the preparation of 10 Coffee Eclairs with coffee fondant, using Choux Paste & Creme Patisserie; and if I am still standing on Day #3 we have to deliver a 22cm Fruit Flan, plus 10 small & 5 large Vol-au-Vent.

I might as well change my address to 'HELL' the week of June 22. I have Cuisine Assessments the first half of the week, to be followed by the above in the second half. I suspect between now and June 27 sleep will be a luxury ... not that I will be studying nightly, but rather the inability to sleep from intense worries. I have not been this anxious & nervous since graduate school at Yale, and that was 34 years ago in 1975. It is scary, isn't it?