Eat More Bread (and pastries)

Possible new workstation

2009-11-15T01:51:00.006+08:00

I don't know if this is good news or otherwise but my workstation will be moved soon cause the western banquet kitchen guys will be taking over the kitchen. Currently I have been allocated the cold room which is being used by the gardemanger occassionally for their lunch service buffet spread preperation and antipasto platters. Anyway, the room is under-utilised at the moment.

The room lacks a FUNCTIONING freezer, stoves and ovens. The pros would be a built in sink, a whiteboard (everybody loves a whiteboard), a couple of desk chillers, a 4-door chiller, a 2-door tower chiller,and an enclosed room (so I can monitor who's stealing my cookies). I will probably lose access to the walk-in freezer and chiller so I will definitely have to minimise the storage space and stop hording stuff!

Having gas stoves in an enclosed room spells risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and a dead pastry cook. I think induction stoves like this one would function well in the room. If they ever get me this, I swear I will work my socks off! Honestly! Mind you this is a cheapskate company...so...dream on Andre...

Anyway, my approach would be greatly influenced by minimalism (I'm such a fanboy of it at the moment). Whatever happens I'll definitely save some space for possible future Macbook. >.<

New work glasses

2009-11-15T00:17:00.003+08:00

Ohh yea....black gravestone with a black coffin underneath it. Totally digging it.

That's right.... I mean business.

VPR 20LV with Carl Zeiss lenses. My frameless Lindberg will be undergoing some lense changes before heading home for safekeeping.

2009-11-15T00:01:00.002+08:00

Pomegranate arils. The juice from these are slightly sour compared to Boiron's Grenade pomegranate's sweet juice.

Black and white. Added some frozen chocolate powder on the gelato.

Fruits in Cold Storage

2009-11-13T17:32:00.009+08:00

Various foreign produce.

Japanese fruits section.

Chookies

2009-11-13T13:11:00.001+08:00

I did it all for da chookies.

Truffles

2009-11-13T12:34:00.000+08:00

Gotta love 'em.

Guanaja Traditional Truffles

2009-11-13T00:49:00.003+08:00

Truffledilio.

I am totally knackered. But it's still a long way from burning out. Hopefully I will be able to find some energy boost tomorrow.

Looking forward to my new pair of work glasses tomorrow.

Bluefoot mushroom

2009-11-12T16:57:00.001+08:00

I was like a kid in a candy store!

2009-11-11T22:16:00.006+08:00

It's raining pears and lots of other goodies in Cold Storage! They are so cheap too! I got my hands on some Boscs, d'Anjous and Fujis. I'm so going to snap some pics of the fruit stands tomorrow. Wanted to get some conference and seckel pears too but I am sure they will stock them tomorrow. Spotted some crazyly cheap kumquats too. There were some really nice looking Isreali pomegranates, fuyu persimmons, Medjool dates, rose apples, Alphonso mangoes..etc.... It's a candy store!

I was replenishing the savarin syrup on Tuesday. We give them a final dunk in the syrup before warming them up prior to serving. We use Extra Dry Single Prosecco by Umberto Bortolotti from the Valdobbiadene region.

The second pic shows how much grappa is used per pot of syrup. Lots! Will snap some pics of the grappa bottles soon.

Monday Shenanigans

2009-11-09T23:26:00.011+08:00

I love my new chopping mat.

There were some not so good looking raspberries so I turned them into jam.

Spongebob Squarepants

This is our version of the traditional savarins. The dough is very similar to brioche or any other enriched doughs. Only difference is we use pastry flour instead of bread flour. It gives a softer crumb. The traditional method involves spooning warm syrup over freshly baked savarins but I dunk them instead to get bigger savarin sponges! Our syrup consists of citrus peels, vanilla pods, Prosecco, and grappa (shudders...this thing is potent!).

I managed to squeeze in some playtime tonight during dinner service. Made some pâte brisée tart shells and filled them up with salted caramel and soft ganache. I prepared some stuff to play around with the tart mainly grapefruit segments, grapefruit reduction, Mozafati date paste, and toasted pistachios. Grapefruits go quite well with toasted pistachios surprisingly.

Some diner was celebrating his birthday or something so I thought why not send this one out. I sprinkled some cacao nibs on the tart to provide some chocolatey power boost. Served it with vanilla ice-cream.

These are the base crumbs from the savarins earlier. I dried them up in the warmer till crispy. The taste reminds me so much of the 'dogbone' biscuits I had as a kid.

Supper time!

Aroma Diffuser

2009-11-08T21:46:00.002+08:00

I could so use this to provide extra oomphh to the desserts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU68h2YBcsU

Fugashi

2009-11-08T19:46:00.000+08:00

Found a good site to start reading about the fugashis.

http://cookpad.com/recipe/476796

It's weird though after translating the page with Babelfish.

Day off again! They arrive pretty quickly these days

2009-11-08T19:04:00.008+08:00

Went to watch some rugby 7 at the Singapore Cricket Club early in the afternoon. The testosterone level there was way through the roof! Took a snap of the grass tennis court too. I have never played on real grass before, only astro turfs.

Headed to the city and stumbled upon the MUJI store in the new ION Orchard shopping mall. I totally adore their minimalist concept.

A couple of things that got me spending. A cheap tapestry shirt that I got from Uniqlo, a polypropylene chopping board for work (have been wanting this for a while) and a fugashi candy bar from MUJI.

I didn't want to get the fugashi bar but I was so engrossed and amused by the texture so I bought a packet to try them out.

I like the texture very much! I have no idea how they produce them. The English ingredient list prints brown sugar, flour, high gluten flour, and baking powder. The only give away is one side of the bar is lighter than the rest so they must have been baked in something. The inner part feels like styrofoam and lacks taste. The sweet part comes dominantly from the outer brown sugar coating of some sort. I really want to know how to make these at the moment. Fugashi!!!

In chronological order...

2009-11-05T23:31:00.006+08:00

Tiramisus and zabagliones during lunch service ready to go.

The candy project from the other night. Heart was pounding when I was digging for candy.

Holy pumpkin! That's a candy alright! Syrupy vodka oozing out after crushing it. I showed the candy to the pastry chef upstairs and she was like 'Duh.....that's old Spanish skool stuff'. I was like 'Oh.....' But she gave me a couple of pointers to make the layer more even. Something which involves turning the candy around after a day like how Ferran Adria does his. The pastry chef has 30+ years of experience under her belt. I was still an eager cell when she first started working with pastries.

It was crunch time during dinner service.

I left a tray of ground green apple skins in the warmer last night. They came out looking and tasting like Swedish knackerbrods but with intense tartness of the apples.

I like fibrous crackers. We usually get a whole bunch of them from IKEA when we visit Queenway Shopping Centre for our tennis gear.

When that's not possible, we get Wasa knackerbrod crackers from the supermarket downstairs. They are good but not as 'rye-ey' as the ones from IKEA. I still remember when I used to bring them to my previous workplace. My colleague was wondering why I was chewing on a piece of cardboard.... Duh!!!

Time flies when you are having fun

2009-11-04T23:32:00.004+08:00

I was trying to make isomalt cocoon last night. It was quite tedious. I wouldn't eat it as a decor. I tried encapsulating oil in them but they leak easily. Gonna have to work on that.

I saw some guys wrapping candies with isomalt on youtube so I thought I would try it with some chunky pistachio soils. It's very humid here, probably above 80%, so the capsules didn't last very long.

I really have no clue on this one yet. It's a dollop of vodka sugar syrup resting on a bed of cornstarch. The deal was I just had to dust more cornstarch over it to cover and wait patiently for a day. I am being kiasu so I am going to wait a little longer.

This will be tomorrow's highlight for sure...even if it fails.

Granny Smith

I had to make caramelised green apple cubes tonight so I thought I would play around with the offcuts. I made some leather, jelly, gel and powder. Did a sorbet mix as well. I like the colour of L2O's granny smith apple gum which is bright green, almost luminous. I wonder how they achieve that without colouring. Their apple jelly is the same colour though. Hhmmmm.....

Woohoo!

2009-11-03T17:13:00.002+08:00

I like the bottle alot... with the red seal and all. The mustard has wonderful aroma too!

Panna cotta with "strawberries" v1.4

Vanilla panna cottas, frozen strawberry foam, strawberry granita, dehydrated strawberries, Bella Ridge Estate Kyoho 2004 grated jelly (Kappa), strawberry leaves.

The supplier of the wine is Rubicon Reserves Wines. They had a function in the hotel so it was really cool that we used their wine for their desserts. It's so fruity. Complements the strawberries really well.

I am thinking...

2009-11-03T02:54:00.004+08:00

I love my new iphone camera. It's rad!

Ya-ya papaya.

Agar overdosed orange pulp. That's what I get for using "agaration". Fail!

Usual tuiles and apple chips.

This is the last surviving commercialised sorbet in the walk-in freezer left over from the previous chef. I'm always fascinated by the ingredient list, that's right....learn from the pros.

Anyway, the boss of the manufacturer must be turning in his/her grave cause our walk-in freezer only goes down to -15 degrees max.......on a good day.

Crazy Isomalt caramelised on me! I thought it wasn't possible to caramelise Isomalt but I guess the impurities in the contaminated pot (and my lack of attention) managed to change its fate. I will use the oven next time. Anyway, this shell is too thick for my liking. Am going to try getting thin shells with it again tomorrow using another crazy method which involves making Isomalt cocoons.

This would be my last resort.

http://www.starchefs.com/events/studio/lo_mejor_de_la_gastronomia/techiques_demo_page/torreblanca/nov19-Torreblanca-candy.mov

Who would have thought of the cornstarch/sugar syrup combo??? Mind shattering!!!

All hail the Spanish pastry gods.

Another thing that caught my attention today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_evaporator

We used to use a simplified version of the rotary evaporator to distill essential orange oils in Perfume Chemistry back in the good ol' days. We got a whole two drops of oil from a big bunch of orange peels but I tell you...those droplets spell orange! Just imagine the possibilities of it being used in the kitchen!

The madness isn't over just yet.

2009-10-29T16:04:00.010+08:00

I took a peep at what the pastry girls upstairs were doing. Nice featherings on the cheesecakes.

Kyoho jelly for the panna cotta dessert. It looks so much like pomelo sacs.

Plating frozen desserts for 60 people with plenty of help feels alright.

Today my workstation was a mess. I was panicking with the untried banana soufflé recipe which was meant for a function later in the day. And just like every pastry cook in the world, I clean up my own dung.

But the mess was worth it I guess cause the soufflés came out ok. I ended up using instinct with the amount off whites to fold in in the end. And of course, the right pinky to batter to palate method.

I recalled seeing some chocolate souffle on one of my books so I added some flour and cocoa powder to the banana soufflé batter. Wallah! Now we have banana chocolate soufflé

This is the experimental pear dessert the chef suggested. Frothy pistachio anglaise, Moscato d'Asti poached pear ring, pistachio soil and crushed meringue in the ring, coconut granita, frozen pistachio and chocolate powder.

Cantaloupe

2009-10-27T17:08:00.002+08:00

Just a couple of rockmelon & lime sorbet sitting on shortcake, warm & frothy coconut anglaise, basil sugar, meringued basil. I think it only took 5 minutes to brainstorm this dessert up yesterday and within 24 hours, we were already pushing them out. to think of it, it's a total inverted version of the melon soup! I like how the rockmelon tames the coconut's richness but still allowing to surface at the end. The froth helps reduce the heaviness too. I intended to compress some rockmelon cubes but the machine's down.

What's left from my orange project. Planning to pulverise them into powder.

Things are looking good

2009-10-26T23:20:00.006+08:00

Our usual lattes in Spinelli. I got a nice flower bud while Don got an alien zygote from outer space.

Basil sugar in the making. I used the fan draft on the conventional oven to dry them up.

Ongoing Clockwork Orange project.

Frozen pistachio powder,part of the garnish, for tomorrow's special dinner. It's not quite ice-cream and not sorbet either. One thing's for sure, it melts fast! I froze the spoon used to scoop it out from the beaker so there wouldn't be any thermal shock. Next time, I will freeze the container as well and scoop it in the walk-in freezer.

Supper time.

Chinese white pear.

2009-10-26T17:13:00.002+08:00

They were serving this in the staff canteen today so I grabbed one. Tried poaching some a couple of months ago and they just turned to mush. Best eaten fresh and chilled. I like pepper on my fruits. Salt comes close second. The spots where the pepper lands tend to taste sweeter than otherwise. Sweetspots...... Not too much pepper though, otherwise I would be diving into my water mug.

Rockmelon lime sorbet. It's actually orange in colour but the mobile cam didn't manage to pick it up.

Day off

2009-10-25T22:24:00.003+08:00

Pump room was serving no frills hokey pokey ice-creams for their brunch dessert.

>
I had always thought about getting the soundtrack. After watching the movie for the second time, I just HAD to get it. Really sick bass grooves.

I enjoy working on Saturdays

2009-10-25T01:57:00.003+08:00

My first meal of the day....at 11pm. I just microwaved some leftover chocolate mousse from service and had it with some Maldon salty caramel sauce. Delish!

I drizzled some of the caramel sauce on some leftover lychee sorbet and they taste really good. That will be something to think about. Lychee cream with burnt orange curd tart, raspberry granita and warm caramel or something like that would be nice.

It's now or never. My little Clockwork Orange project.

Freaky friday

2009-10-23T17:18:00.003+08:00

Our Cacao Barry Dutch processed cocoa powder. The taste is really intense and the colour is superb.

Inspiration doesn't stop. I see raspberries, persimmon, cream and rags.

Now that's what I call a proper burger! LOL!

Hanky pankying around with hokey pokeys while chanting hocus pocus

2009-10-22T22:55:00.004+08:00

Greenish brown kiwi sorbet. Seemed like I had overblended the puree so the colour of the seeds took over. Will use the paddle beater instead of the blender next time.

Hokey pokeys using honey, sugar and soda.

The only way to compare my hokey pokey would be to get a bar of the current hokey pokey champion in Singapore.

Unwrapping of Crunch-eh!