Plumpcious abroad: 13 July 2012

Friday 13th July - a day of vol au vents and vomit. Curious? Read on ...

Today we travelled back to 1985 and made vol au vents. Some were filled with lobster in a creamy sauce, mine were filled with pastry creme and apple compote. In the demonstration yesterday the chef turned out dozens of perfect puffy cases with ease. I am not that chef. All my vol au vents were ill-formed and lop-sided ... they looked like a posse of drunk friends wobbling home after a big session at the pub (I think I heard one of them burp). Happily, there is such a thing as icing sugar. I am convinced that icing sugar was invented conceal baking mishaps. Take a deformed vol au vent, fill with cream and fruit, put on the wonky little lid, stare at it in horror, sprinkle generously with icing sugar and Poof! Magically your dodgy dessert is a baking triumph (and it didn't taste half bad either).

Baking tragedy....

... Baking triumph!

With my left over puff pastry I made a Pissaladiere (A french 'pizza' covered with anchovies and olives) which I think will go very nicely with a glass of wine later. I also made some chocolate truffles with praline. A warm kitchen is not an ideal environment for rolling handmade chocolates - I think there was more melted chocolate on my hands and my apron than on my plate. Finally I cooked some more green beans (I had to redeem myself after yesterday's effort) and some scallops, which were seared in a hot pan and served simply on a bed of beurre blanc. Delicious - and destined for The Editor to make up for that flabby pork belly I made him eat yesterday.

Today we learned to cook: Mexican cerviche, Roulade of smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill, Rosette of smoked salmon with sweet cucumber salad, Smoked Irish salmon with potato wafers and horseradish cream, Timbales of smoked salmon with cucumber and fennel, Pork en croute with duxelle stuffing and Bramley apple sauce, Lentils du Puy, Salad of green beans with feta and pine nuts, Coffee ice cream with Irish coffee sauce, Cappuccino ice cream, Chocolate ice cream in chocolate cases with rum flavoured cream, Chocolate coffee and vanilla parfait with hot chocolate sauce, Brown bread ice cream, Iced chocolate oranges, Summer bombe with fresh strawberry coulis, and Ice cream bombe with butterscotch sauce.

After school, nine of my classmates and I went fishing. I have never been fishing before and I had no idea what to expect. We got into the boat and headed out of the harbour to our first stop which was about 100 metres from the shore. The water was still, the friendly fisherman showed us how to cast our lines and within a few minutes we were all fishing like pros. The first few times I bought up my line there was nothing but the feathered lure. The third and fourth time there were FOUR fish! I didn't know you could catch more that one fish at a time! This was fabulous! Then we went further out to sea ... I caught more fish but I was starting to get a bit queazy - the waves were getting bigger and the boat was starting to feel like an amusement park ride. Then further out again ... 'Ok, I am really not feeling great guys, why have we stopped in the middle of a swell?' The fourth stop ... Blurgh. I discretely threw up over the side of the boat. And then I felt great! The fifth stop we filleted all the fish (there must have been at least a hundred mackerel and a dozen pollock). Finally, after 3.5 hours at sea, we returned to the pier and I carried my catch up the road to our cottage and straight into the oven. Fresh mackerel with coriander pesto and boiled potatoes - yummy.