Chef’s Diary

Je suppose que nous avons tous travaillé l’artichaut (camus, poivrade, violet de provence, romanesco, macau et blancs d’espagne) à un moment donné…..soit tout simplement à la vapeur, soit “tourné” pour cuisiner le fond de l’artichaut.

Si vous avez tourné un artichaut, vous savez qu’il y a beaucoup de perte. Si vous ne l’avez pas encore fait, peut-être une série de photos vous montrant ce que l’on fait vous intéresseraient ? J’ai profité de la préparation de qqs recettes de Tom Aikens pour prendre qqs photos de la préparation d’un artichaut.

Enfin bon, il ne reste pas grande chose….mais c’est quand même bon au final !!!

Our trip to London this weekend (I’ll write about it in another post) started with a visit to the Chelsea restaurant “Tom Aikens” to talk with the man himself,….well, erm….Tom Aikens of course !!

Without going into the details (coming soon in another post), this prompted us all (3 of us bought one in the end) to buy the Tom Aikens “Cooking” cook book….a lovely book, an interesting intro from Tom, nicely organised with a few pertinent comments on certain products all the way through.

Anyway, being back in Paris, being back at school and given that it was Monday I had the morning to myself….so what to do ??? Prepare for my exam on Wednesday, prepare for my cookery class later in the day, go to the gym….or spend a short while in the kitchen trying out some of Tom’s recipies for veg ?

As it happened, there were some artichokes, a butternut squash and 2 parsnips loitering in the fridge which needed to be used up before they started “turning”.

So, after a quick nose around Tom’s book I came up with the following combination….

3 veg and 3 different ways of preparing them….roasted (squash), mash / purée (parsnip) and sautéed / braised (artichoke).

Overall result ?

Squash was good, artichoke would have been good (but for the “chemical” stock), parsnip….well, it was curiously “bitter”…even before adding in the cumin, lemon and thyme. I guess that this was an example of good idea, bad product.

Après nos activités culinaires de ce w/end, il nous restait 6 blancs d’oeuf dans un verre au frigo. Souvent ces verres restent pendant 1 semaine avant de partir à la poubelle….quelle horreur, je sais, mais c’est vrai.

Alors, afin de ne pas gacher des bons oeufs BIO, et pour continuer le “travail” (parce que, quand même, qqchose qui fait autant de plaisir n’est pas vraiment du boulot !!) de créativité, je me suis lancé dans une tarte méringuée….un rappel des méringues que je mangeais quand j’étais môme…..c’est à dire, une méringue croustillante à l’extérieur, et moelleuse et légère au coeur….bloody marvellous !!

Et ci-dessous le résultat,

Méringue - 5 blancs d’oeuf, 100g sucre, zeste d’un citron (rapé), zeste de citron (cannelé - à cuire dans un sirop et puis caraméliser au four pendant qqs minutes - pour dresser le dessus de la méringue)

Le Fruit - 8 prunes rouges, coupées en 2 et cuites dans du jus d’orange, cannelle et vin rouge (ce jus de cuisson est à réduire avant d’ajouter du safran au dernier moment)

La Base - pâte sablée (pâte brisée avec plein de sucre !!!). Je n’avais jamais travaillé la pâte sablée avant, et donc je l’ai trouvée bcp moins sablonneuse que je n’attendais.

Cuisson - la pâte est foncée et mise en cuisson à 180°C pendant 15mins, puis le fruit y est ajouté (avec un peu de la réduction du jus de cuisson….sans safran) et le tout complèté par les oeufs montés en neige (avec le zeste de citron rapé).

Juste au moment où j’avais commencé à me sentir assez loin de mon côté créatif, j’ai profité d’un peu plus de temps libre ce weekend de Paques pour m’amuser en cuisine et au marché.

Je voulais préparer un plat qui me permettait de profiter du fond de veau (classique - pieds de veau, garniture aromatique, cognac et porto) que j’ai confectionné il y a qqs semaines, tout en utilisant des légumes de printemps….n’oubliant pas un clin d’oeil aux Isles Britanniques !

Donc, après une séance de lecture (nourrit par une tasse de thé de chez “Tetley’s” !) de qqs livres de cuisine (Ducasse, Ramsay et le magazine Thuriès), j’ai décidé de me baser sur du veau (escalope, du noix dans le cuissot) avec une farce mousseline (fois de volaille, brunoise de carottes, échalotes et poivrons) et de préparer un récipient en pâte filo pour présenter une purée de petits pois à la menthe (le clin d’oeil !) avec 2 aspèrges - vertes et blanches….tous les 2 françaises. J’ai completé le plat avec 3 pommes de terres fondantes (cuites au four dans le fond de veau).

Pour le résultat,

Au final, j’étais content avec le plat….seul bémol étant le veau qui était trop sec…je n’avais jamais travaillé l’escalope de veau et je l’avais préparé la veille (en suivant le conseil d’un livre de cuisine, sans adapter ce conseil en tenant compte de mon instinct à moi…toujours une erreur !). Par contre, j’étais content avec le croustillant, et la purée de petit pois était bon (un peu lourd, peut-être….à alléger, mais sans perdre la densité du saveur).

Quite some time since my last post, and since there’s been a few difficult moments, burns, cuts and even managed to stab myself (purely by accident, I might add) ! So, in today’s post I will cover

So, organic food and sustainable fish first of all. For a few months now, I’ve known that what is important to me is the produce, the producer and the quality of the product. Whether it’s because I have some catching up to do, or simply because, like Terry Laybourne, in my opinion it all starts with quality products regardless of the final dish being prepared. As I’ve already said elsewhere on this blog, it’s not only quality, but also the link with “local” produce is important to me….creating the link with the people and identity of a particular region.

I’ve been reading about the seasonality of fruit and veg in France, as well as checking up on what is available in my home region of Northumberland. In addition, at school we’ve been looking at fish, beef, veal (strangely not very available in England, at least not in Northumberland), lamb, offal, veg & fruit. This reading has been backed up by being able to work with good quality fruit, veg, meat and fish at La Fontaine - seeing how the quality is measured by the chefs. There’s a hell of a lot to learn and discover, a journey which is just beginning and should never end - especially when you consider only one particular food source, fish for example, and you touch upon the huge depth of information / variety that exists just in the UK and France….even in France Sea Bass has several different names (Bar or Loup de Mer) depending upon where it is fished, with different breeding periods between Channel / Atlantic / Mediterranean bass.

On the topic of fish, and particularly sustainable fish, I’ve been reading a fair bit these last few weeks (partly in preparation for our meeting with the London chef Tom Aikens who champions this topic). It’s such an enormous topic that it’s all a bit much at times - I’m trying, at the same time, to get to know fish, their names in English & French, seasonality, their availability / vulnerability, adult size (and thus the minimum size they should be when buying them), their cost, the different techniques for catching them and so on….so loads to take in. But fascinating.

With regards to organic food, I’ve been checking out the different shops in Paris which deal with organic fruit and veg - Naturalia, CanalBio (specific to the 19ème arrondissement), Nouveaux Robinsons, La Vie Claire. They’re all more expensive than our local greengrocer and Monoprix, though Nouveaux Robinson seems to be by far the best value - generally not being much more expensive than what we currently buy (unlike La Vie Claire which is outrageously expensive). I still don’t know why BIO is more expensive - maybe because the crops are less “controlled” and thus yield is not always optimal and thus the producer charges more to compensate ? Anyway, as with many things at the moment, I am at the beginning of understanding what BIO is about.

At the end of next week is our trip to London. Really looking forward to getting my French collegues’ reactions to what’s going on in London. I’ll be taking photos and film of the visit so you’ll be able to see what we got up to in a week or so’s time.

I’ll sign off with a short note about my sagging confidence at the moment. I’m not feeling creative, I want to be tested in a kitchen working a service at the hot plate (to prove to myself that I can do it - I know that I can do “cold starters” for 100, but cooking the main courses ain’t the same thing !). Went out to eat last night with my wife at the Ziggothèque in the 13ème in Paris - an opportunity to talk with the chef who is someone that I would like to work for. It was a really good evening - good food prepared by a chef who tries to get good products, who goes to Rungis (Paris’ main market) 2 or 3 times per week, who makes his own stocks and who was available to chat for quite some time. We’ll see what comes of it. I also boosted my confidence by spending today preparing the meal for tomorrow lunchtime when a friend comes to eat. I’ll post the photos in a few days when the final meal is available.

OK, I’ll sign off. I’m meant to be writing more, but shorter, posts…..so this isn’t a very good start….sorry !….and Happy Easter to you all.

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