19 July 2012

This morning was my practical exam. I went an hour over time, although, to be honest, I was expecting to. Writing out my 'order of work' last night, I realised I had probably been a little ambitious with my menu. Actually, it really is a wonder I managed to limit myself to a mere three courses (if you're going to stuff yourself, you may as well REALLY stuff yourself, n'est pas?)  

We drew lots for bread yesterday and I got white yeast focaccia - one of the hardest breads to make but also one of my favourite breads to eat. So the trade-off for all the time spent kneading, resting, knocking back and shaping the dough is that I am now at home with a delicious focaccia, some farmhouse cheese and a glass of 'study wine' - a little concoction of mine made by diluting dessert wine with water ... don't judge me. 

The first thing I made was a three-tiered almond meringue with strawberries and cream.  It is essentially Eton mess in cake form (Yes! - Ed), with almonds. I grossly underestimated the time it takes to blanch, peel, chop and toast a handful of almonds ... 20 minutes, not 6-7 as I had expected. Popping almonds out of their skin is a highly entertaining task - some of them explode out of their brown jackets like rockets, and I must admit, I am not certain of the whereabouts of half a dozen of them (I suspect I shall find one in my hair later). The cake went pretty well, although slicing it was a bit messy. Luckily my old friend, icing sugar, was there to hide the imperfections. 

The salmon, hollandaise and samphire were all very well behaved - they all cooked without incident, in fact, I don't actually remember boiling the samphire (I think I was in a daze for about 15 minutes towards the end ... perhaps there is an almond lodged in my brain?). 

The real test of today was my stuffed courgette flowers. For this 'simple' starter I had to make basil pesto, goats cheese stuffing, batter (which had to rest for at least an hour), tomato sauce AND individually pick all the thorns and stamens from the flowers (Ouch). I spent over an hour on just this dish! To make matter worse, just as the end was near we discovered that the deep fryer didn't work. I thought I was going to vomit. A helpful teacher eventually located another one but 15 minutes had passed and my salmon was getting cold (just breathe). There was nothing to do but press on, so I fried the flowers, plated them on a bed of the tomato sauce, watched in horror as they all fell over, made a second plate, watched with resigned dismay as they fell over again, and called time. I left the room while the examiners tasted my food so I have no idea how I went, but I am hoping they are fond of lukewarm salmon and crumbly meringue cakes. (This examiner got to eat the leftovers and has awarded an F, for frickin delicious - Ed). 

This photo was taken as I ran out of the kitchen so the examiners could come in!

Tomorrow (from 8.30am!) I have three written exams so I am now off to study*. 

*Who am I kidding? I am going to have a snack, a brief nap and some more study wine ... and then I may open a book or two. Is there anyone who can attack 'food costing' revision sober? My new mantra - If I can't eat it, I don't care.