Greetings from Bouveret !
Yes, I have arrived in Switzerland. I've been here for more than two weeks now, and classes have been ongoing and life has not stopped. Baking, however, has. Momentarily. Because although I have enrolled in a culinary arts program (of the higher diploma sort), I have yet to attend a pastry class. That will probably be during the next semester.
What have I been up to then ? Well I have been going for classes and eating my weight in cheese and potatoes. Hopefully I don't go home as a more rotund version of myself but the the cheese here is cheap and readily available and wonderful and... Oh who am I kidding, I miss my bananas.
I've been trying really, really hard to save up some cash for winter clothing of which I have none. I have recently acquired a pair of Ugg boots which burned a hole in my pocket but are absolutely necessary otherwise I am going to have ice blocks attached to my legs during winter. The rest of my cash has been squirreled out little by little, for my weekly supply of bananas and some chocolate spread for my morning eats. Oh, and figs. Dried figs. And of course soap and softener for my clothes, since I'm being independent and washing my own clothes and all.
People keep taking my bananas. Even after I put them in my room, on my table. They are MY bananas, goddammit.
Anyhoo, I miss home. I miss my mum and my dad and my sister so badly that I'm just walking around with a big hole in my heart. I miss my bed and my dog and my oven. I'm aching to bake some brownies or chocolate cake or cheesecake - which, oddly enough, is missing around these parts given the abundance of cheese around.
I even miss Taylor's, my old university. I miss the crappy parking and the lecturers and the system they have there. The pace of life here is slow. While it is a good thing - I've never slept so well in my life before - I guess I'm just a city girl at heart. I long for the business of the roads and the malls and the myriad of things to do in the metropolis that is Kuala Lumpur. Bouveret is a wonderful place for a holiday, but I cannot for the life of me fathom wanting to stay here for the rest of my city-loving life.
Or maybe I'm just pining. Or being homesick, whatever. Life, and classes, must go on. In the meantime, I shall enjoy the cheese and make some good food and astound everyone with my culinary prowess, or more like the lack thereof.
Classes here would be very Harry Potter-esque, what with having to walk to other buildings for lessons and going to halls for meals and having dorm rooms and all except for the fact that I spend most of the time wrapped up like a burrito in my room and times in between running my legs off at the gym. It's the only way that I can push out all the homesickness, because no matter where in the world I go, I can still run. And hell, I will run. The bed is a good thing because it's nice and comfy and my dorm room is sadly lacking of a couch. There is a stiffish chair that is meant for desk work but I have manipulated the furniture so my desk work becomes bedwork. Takes skill, I tell you.
We are to make a portfolio - a magazine of sorts of the dishes we cooked this term. We have to find our own recipes and plan the menu according to the theme given each week. Last week, I was put in charge of crab cakes with red pepper butter sauce. I needed to make a sketch for the portfolio to prove that I could plan for a fine dining dish and then serve the dish according to my sketch.
Here is the aforementioned sketch:
Please ignore the cartoony vibe. My laptop charger is kaput and I am left with an ipad, albeit a free one, to figure out how it is that people make masterpieces on this touch screen thingy.
Here, just so you can admire my handiwork, is the real deal:
It's simple really.
For the crab cakes:
750g crab meat
750g mashed potatoes
100g chopped red bell peppers
A big handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 eggs
Juice of one lemon
Just mix everything together in a really big bowl. It should be moist enough to hold together when you press it into a patty. This entire recipe should make 16 patties of 100g each. Unless of course, you make them really small. Place them on a tray, wrap with clingfilm and chill it overnight.
To coat the crab cakes:
Panko breadcrumbs
3 eggs
Flour
Place the flour in a shallow plate, beat the eggs and place in another shallow plate. Pour the breadcrumbs into a third shallow plate. Dip a crab cake into the flour, then into the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Gently, gently press the crumbs into the cakes so they stick. Chill the coated cakes for half an hour, or till ready to fry.
Shallow fry in a an inch of oil until crisp and cooked through.
For the mango salsa:
Two large, ripe mangoes, diced
One large shallot, diced
A handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Juice of one lime
Salt and sugar to taste
Just mix everything together. Add sugar only if your mangoes are really tart. You want it to be slightly tart though, to balance the sauce out later.
For the red pepper butter sauce:
3 red bell peppers
1 cup of white wine
2 shallots, diced
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup cold butter, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Rub the peppers with a little oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 200C for half an hour, or until black and blistered. Remove from the oven and place in a heatproof bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm so they steam. Leave for fifteen minutes, then peel of the skins and remove the seeds. You might want to do this is a bowl of water - it's okay if they're submerged and soaked. Drain the skinned and seeded peppers, then blend them to a smooth purée in a food processor.
In a medium saucepan, sauté the shallots in a little oil until translucent. Pour in the white wine and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer until reduced to nearly a teaspoon is left in the pan - you want it really concentrated. Pour in the cream and bring to the boil yet again. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then take the pan off the heat. Off the heat, whisk in the butter, one cube at a time, until the sauce becomes thick and silky, like a mayonnaise, almost. Whisk hard and off the heat, otherwise it'll split. If the butter refuses to melt into the sauce, put the pan back on the smallest heat possible, just till it amalgamated. When all the butter has been mixed in, strain out the shallots. Put the pan back on the heat (SMALL) and whisk in the puréed bell peppers. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the crab cakes with the sauce and the salsa, and probably a salad. You'll want to feel virtuous after all that butter and cream. But it is good, I tell you. I should know - I practically ate the sauce by the spoonful. You know, a cook has to taste.
.
.
.
We (we being my classmates - they seem nice !) made some other dishes as well.
There was chicken and waffles (!) with some sweet potato purée:
And a trio of sliders of pulled pork, pastrami, mini burgers:
Caribbean prawns in a coconut rum sauce:
Ribs with baked beans and loaded potato:
A deconstructed Waldorf salad:
And the holiest of holies, cheesecake. Oh. I found the cheesecake.
And the theme was North American cuisine, just for the record.
No comments:
Post a Comment