making of noodles....

My university held an asian food festival the other day and i got to taste and experience different foods from asia:)
The most exciting experience i had at that festival was when i got to watch someone make noodles from scratch!!!to say it was awesome is and understatement!!!!!people have really been blessed with skill and talent!!!!do watch this video and tell me what you think:)

NOTE: THIS IS A HOME MADE VIDEO FROM MY PHONE SO PLEASE IGNORE MY TALKING IN THE BACKGROUND:)

The Real deal part two....

The kitchen experience took an interesting turn this past monday. Unlike the first kitchen experience where were working as the whole group this time each station(that is each person and their partner) was allocated a table that they would be serving....:)Like the first kitchen experience we were each given equal ingredients to prepare. This time we were serving Salad Nicoise as a starter, for the main course we served Roast chicken with pilaf rice and tomato provencale and for dessert we served choux pastry with chocolate sauce:):):)

 The best part about it is that we actually get to try waht we make...my chef lecturer always tells us,"how can you serve something yet you dont know how it tastes?"

I think it very true because you could have put too much af an ingredient in the food...:)even though we follow a standard recipe its always good to taste...

So once the food was ready and the restaurant was almost open, each station got ready to start plating( putting food on the plate) for the table they had been assigned....

It happens in a sequence, the commis (waiter) comes in from the restaurant and fires the order,so he/she tells the abouyeur(person who receives the orders for the restaurant on that day). for example if its a starter the commis will come into the kitchen and tell the abouyeur. "Chef Fire two starter table six." so the abouyeur then shouts the order to the chefs at the station that is doing plating for table six and they have to respond and say "chef coming right up,or chef two minutes"basically they have to respond to the abouyeur so that he/she can know that they have heard his order.

Once plating is done,the chefs at that station bring the food to the front of the kitchen for the commis to pick up and go and serve...

One thing i forgot to mention is that once all the food is prepared it is all put in a central place for each station to go and pick from when it comes to plating....

My station got to serve two tables:):):) woop woop!!!it was a very exciting experience!!!!it can also be confusing if the aboeyeur and the commis are not synchronized....also if it is a busy day and there are many orders one has to be very fast,but once you get the hang of it will all flow nicely....

Now for the most exciting part, pics of what we made:)

Salad nicoise

Roast chicken with pilaf rice and tomato provencale


and for dessert....Choux pastry served with chocolate sauce

A New easy Recipe to try out...

One of my faithfull bloggers suggested to me that i should be including recipes of the things i make in my blog so that yall can try them out. I thought it was a brilliant idea so here is the first of the recipes....i want to start you off with the easy ones then as the days gi i will progress to the more complicated....
Do feel free to give me feedback on the outcome of what you make!!!

AUMONIERE DE CREPE, COULIS DE FRAMBOISE( pancake filled with chantilly cream)
Pancakes

ingredients
250grams flour(all purpose flour)
40grams sugar
20ml cooking oil
500ml milk
3eggs
40grams melted butter
a pinch of salt
half a teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
make a well in the middle and add in the eggs and abit of milk.
mix with a whisk slowly incorporating the dry ingredients into the liquid.
gradually add in the milk and mix until the mixture is well combined.
lastly add the melted butter and vanilla essence.
strain and rest for a while in the chiller.
after ten minutes,start cooking.the Pancakes should be thin and not thick....so try make them as thin as possible.

Chantilly cream

ingredients
80 grams icing sugar
400 ml of whipping cream
can of peaches

Method
put the cream in a mixing bowl
beat well over an ice bath avd stop beating when the cream has thickened.
sprinkle in the icing sugar halfway through the mixing.
Once the craem is done,cut the peaches into slices and mix it with the whipped cream.
put in the chiller


Once the pancakes are cooked and they have cooled you can now put a spoonful of the chantilly cream in the middle and wrap the pancake around it....think of it as making an envelope around the cream....

so this is the outcome of the recipe.....well this one is served in a fancy style...lol!!!

The Real Deal...

Last week i finally got a chance to know what it feels like to work in a real kitchen that was producing food for real paying customers who expected value for their money! the pressure to make a starter and a main course in three and a half hours is quite exciting....we were expecting 42 guests that day so we had to work fast and efficiently. if there is one thing i am grateful to my mum for is helping me master the art of multitasking while in the kitchen....in kitchen language its called dovetailing:)
On the menu for that day, we had a starter of a mozarella cheese and tomato salad served with croutons and eggs mimosa then for the main course had saute chicken served with french beans,jardiniere of carrot and pommes cocotte,tomato coulis.as an accompaniment for the chicken we made a mushroom sauce.
To start with we did a mise en place where we cut up all the ingredients we would need for the starters and the main course. It is much easier because we are twelve students so each cuts up their own vegetables and chicken and at the end we combine everything.
Because of the large number of guests we were expecting, we were divided into groups and each group was assigned a part of the meal to do, Mine was putting together the salad. Others were doing the chicken,the pomme coccotte,and the french beans with the jardiniere carrots.
Once we were all done we plated the food factory style and then sent it out to the restaurant.Here are afew pictures to tantalize your taste buds:)

For starters.....SALADE DE TOMATE ET MOZARELLA

For the main course......POULET SAUTE BEAULIEU POMMES COCOTTE

For Dessert.....CREPE TOPPED WITH CHANTILY CREAM AND STRAWBERRY SAUCE

Far too long......

i have jus realised that its been almost two months since i updated my blog....tsk tsk.....my adoring fans must be disappointed...nya,nix,eric,norman,rabera....this is for all of you:)
There is so much to upload i dont even know where to start!!!! i think il start with what i found most exciting....tarts!!!

TARTS

well for tarts there is the basic shortcrust pastry...one you have mastered that you can make all sorts of tarts,chocolate tarts,banana and chocolate tarts,apple tarts...the list is endless!!!!
so the procedure to make the short crust pastry is as follows:
ingredients: flour,salt,sugar,butter,egg yolk,water
method: sieve flour and combine it with all the dry ingredients. next rub butter into the flour using your finger tips (this is to prevent the butter from melting)until it becomes like bread crumbs. next make a well in the center,put in the water and the egg yolk. bring the dough together into a ball.DO NOT KNEAD!!keep chill for about ten minutes
while the dough is resting you can make the filling for your tart...thats up to you....you could take cooking chocolate and melt it with butter and milk and use that as your filling:) or you could take green apples,cut them into cubes and cook them with sugar and water and cinnamon until they become soft then use that as a filling for your tart...
to cook the short crust pastry, you need to blind bake it. this means that you need to poke holes on the dough once you have put it in the tart baking tray then put dried rice or beans on the dough to prevent it from rising...if you dont understand i hope the pictures help:)

Peach sponge cream cake....

I really dont know if the title of my log makes sense but once you see the pictures it will definitely make lots of sense......:) this is the amazing cake we made in pastry class....sigh.....wat i wouldnt give for a piece of this cake right now!!!!!

We started by first making a basic sponge cake. Once it had cooled, it was then cut into two.(as shown in the picture above)

Once we had halved the cake,syrup from the peaches was poured on the sponse cake to moisten it.

Cream was then used to layer the top of the cake.Diced peaches were then added as a fiiling for the cake as well as to give it taste n flavour.

Once this had been completed,the other layer of cake was placed on top some more syrup from the peach was added to moisten the cake.Cream was then spread on top and on the sides of the cake.

Crushed sponge cake was then stuck to the side of the cake so as to give it a beautiful finish.

 Once this was done the top was then decorated with some more cream and voila!!!!the beautiful end product:)

Dont you just feel like having a slice of this cake......

A taste of home away from home....

To say that i have had an awesome week and weekend(food wise) would be an understatement!!!!!!it all began on friday night when my friend and i decided to experiment with my newly purchased multi purpose cooker!!!(whoever invented that gadget totally rocks!!!!)

We decided to try our own version of spaghetti....we boiled the pasta then fried some tomatoes and sausages with abit of spice and put the spaghetti back in and mixed it all together....the end result is one of the above pictures..:) i must admit it was one delectable meal!!!!!!much better than the rice and chicken that i keep eating!!!

The next day was even much better because we got to cook one of our traditional meals called ugali.It is made from maize that has been finely ground into flour.....we had it with spinach and fried beef.The picture of the end result is also among the pictures above. Though as an aspiring chef i am trying to be open minded and try all the foods that i can from the different cultures represented here, i had jus really missed something that was from home.....

To crown off the week my friend and i made some pilau. This is another of our traditional foods that is rice seasoned with different spices such as cloves, garlic, vegetables such as potatoes n carrots can also be added.Meat is also usually added but since we did not have any we improvised it with sausages:)

To add some flavour  to the rice we made a side salad called kachumbari...its made from onions, tomatoes and avocado....Now this weeks meals are what i call a taste of home away from home!!!!!

Mashed Potatoes......

 Today was my first food cooking lesson!!!!it was simple but interesting dish.......potatoes:)

I got to learn how to make lyonaisse potatoes,potato a l'anglaise and my favorite mashed poatoes!!!yum yum:)

So i have done a little research and have found certain things that can help you get the perfect mashed potatoes:)

How you get to your desired mashed potatoes is going to depend on four simple factors:

• What type of potato you are using?
• How you cook them?
• How you mash them?
• What you add to them?

How you cook the potatoes

Always start your potatoes in cold water with salt added to it. How much water? Just enough to cover the potatoes. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a knife. How long it takes depends on how many potatoes you are cooking.
When done, drain them immediately! Do not rinse, just drain and put them back in the pot and return the pot to the stove on low heat. This will make a huge difference because the low heat will allow some of the excess water to evaporate leaving you with less water and more potato resulting in more flavor.

How to mash the potatoes

How you mash your potatoes will greatly effect the texture and style. There are several tools and methods all having different results. For example, the most common masher is the Wire Masher. With it you can create either a smooth or textured mashed potato depending on how much you work.
If you are looking for fluffy, airy potatoes, try an electric mixer. Often used in restaurants to stretch how far a potato can go, the mixer whips air into the potato giving them more volume and staying power.

What to add
Most people put milk or cream to give it a creamy flavour.....there are the fun extras that can be added such as cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and whatever else you may like in your mashed potato recipe.

All in a days work.....

Today i had two very interesting classes....butchery and pastry. The most exciting part  about the butchery class was the dressing and the thrussing of the duck!!!!For starters i did not know that a duck's meat is red!!!!I thought that it would have white meat like that of a chicken.....i also discovered that it is very tasty especially if its is made as a confit....Confit is a french word that means preserving. Confit of duck is a delicacy that should be tasted by all!!!!!
The pastry class was also as interesting where i got to learn how to make a butter cake and creme anglaise to go with it!!!!talk about a fun filled yet very knowledge filled day!!!!!!At the top two ways in which you can serve the butter cake!!!

the journey continues.....

here is a continuation of my journey in the kitchen.....the next step after learning how to set up a kitchen is learning how to cut up different vegetables.Here are some pictures of the vegies thats were cut up

history of different foods

In the spirit of sticking to what my blog is about,i will start off with the history of different foods....i hope to post a history of a different food everyday!!!Today i will start with cake because that is what im craving as i write this post!!!!The most common cakes especially back home in kenya are blackforest and chocolate fudge cake.I dont know if its just me but we like sticking to what we know and don't experiment that much.On one of my siblings birthdays i got the chance to taste an ice cream cake....it was DIVINE!!!!!!
The idea of ice cream and cake evolved from Renaissance-era where people had desserts composed of cream and biscuits. These were called trifles. These fancy desserts were enjoyed by middle class and wealthy people. The difference? Freezing technique. Victorians prided themselves on fancy ice cream "bombes" (ice cream molded into special shapes). A survey of old cookbooks confirms biscuits (Savoy, sponge) were sometimes used to line the mold that held the ice cream. Voila! Ice cream cake!!!(www.ehow.com)
So the next time your out to buy cake,why dont you try and have a slice of ice cream cake....i am sure u will love it as much as i did!!!!i hope the picture i have uploaded will inspire you to go out and get a slice.....:)

amazing pastries...

Today i saw the most amazing cakes i had ever seen......there was such a wide variety to choose from...it got me wondering...who ever thought about making an ice cream cake or making a puzzle cake????can i also come up with my own creation of a cake or at least a recipe of sorts....