Pouding Chaud Au Sauce Chocolat, Chocolate Sauce, Fruits Grilles Avec Sabayon Au Cointreau

Chef's Fruit Sabayon, Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding

My Mum's coming to visit this Friday, which is exciting, but it is also a school day - yikes! Rather than miss any lesson we pay so dearly for, I switched my classes to the first half of the week, which meant working with different classmates and possibly different chefs.

The planets must have been aligned in my favor, for we had Chef Keith for demo, which made my day; I've been really disappointed to have him for just 1 class this term. Then again, no amount of face time will ever be enough, will it? 

Chef Keith & His Toys

For today we made some easy chocolate puddings and grilled fruits sabayon. I know I always say that but trust me, it usually is a lot easier than than you think, so long as you pay attention in class and not just stare at your darling Chef Keith the entire time like I was. 

Good thing the class was easy to follow, or I would've been totally lost...in his blue eyes...

Grilling The Fruits & Pouring The Sabayon

Sliced fruits were macerated in a gallon of kirsch (really just 10g but who's counting??) before being arranged on a plate, sprinkled with icing sugar and blasted with the fire power of a handheld blowtorch till the sugar caramelised and colored the fruits. Next up the sabayon.

Sounds French and fancy? It probably is. Only with most things French, it's about a few basic ingredients, a bit of skill and a whole lot of love. Egg yolk and sugar are whipped over a bain marie till light and fluffy before being poured over the fruits and blasted on again.

Sabayon is traditionally grilled under a salamander, but a blowtorch works just as fine and twice as fast, and is the preferred choice of many in the industry these days.

Making Cocoa Sugar & Bubbled Glass

This being a rather quick class, Chef Keith also showed us some tricks to making decorative sugar work. He made it look so easy that I decided to put aside my disdain for sugar (St Honore was a painful class) and give it a go today.

Cocoa On Cocoa On Cocoa

For the chocolate pudding we mixed butter, eggs, sugar and flour, your basic cupcake recipe, essentially. For some self saucing magic, just bake the pud for half the time and you will have an uncooked centre that when cut into, flows into a lovely pudding at the bottom of the cake.

As the uncooked center contains raw flour which may not be all that good for you, we baked the cake through and made some chocolate sauce to serve alongside the pud.

Fruit Sabayon & Pud With Some Bubbled Glass

The pud was dense and slightly springy. Drizzled with chocolate sauce it was a very satisfying desert, so good that for once I made it without adding any booze (rum would have been my choice in the matter). If you do want to make self saucing pudding like you know it, place some good quality chocolate pieces in the centre of the mix before baking it through.

Chef Keith In Sugar - Can He Be Any Sweeter?

Plated Grilled Fruits & Brochette

As usual I macerated my fruits in way too much kirsch, which had me all red-faced after tasting it. They did go well with the light and sweet sayabon. Putting the fruits on a skewer, or brochette in French, makes them easier to handle as well.

I like working with plated desserts, the change is welcoming after weeks baking heavy duty cakes, and I get to try out various ideas on the plate. I think I did pretty well today, you think?

Chocolate Eruption

Golden Orange & Almond Sponge Pudding, Creme Anglaise, Tulip Paste Garnish

Chef's Spiral

Employing a different method of cookery, we steamed some orange and almond puddings today. Once again, a straightforward operation: mix everything in a bowl, pour into moulds, steam, spoon, eat.

Work Of Art

Tulips are delicate biscuits that add crunch to the pudding. The trick is to work them into your desired forms as soon as they come out of the oven, when they are still soft and malleable.

Had A Little "Accident"

Stupid leaky pen. Thought I was gonna die from ink poisoning.

The pud may be a tad bare, but was once adorned with a tower of glistening sugar zests upon its shiny dome and elaborate tulip biscuits spiralling its sides as they reached for the skies.

Then I got hungry and dived in before taking its pretty picture. Doh! Now it joins the likes of Pompeii and Atlantis, where visions of its glorious past can be only seen by those of bold imagination.

Luckily for me, Erica (a really talented Korean classmate) had the sense to take a picture of her pudding before eating it, and she took the picture with my camera.

So before you cry foul at the injustice of being robbed of a proper picture, here is a glimpse of her masterpiece.

A cool perk of studying in a culinary school is the abundance of good food at low low prices. Cuisine students cook up a storm each day as part of their curriculum, most of which are usually sold cheap in the school canteen.

Tonight, I feast on duck confit and pumpkin salad. Scrumptious!

Capsaicin From Erica

Just when I was feeling homesick and longing for Mum's super spicy chilli, Erica comes to the rescue with an insanely volcanic sauce, Capsaicin. Made with the spicy component of chilli peppers, a few drops was enough to burn my mouth and bring me to my knees. Kickass!

Big Boots To Fill

Pear Bourdaloue, Baked Rhubarb, French Style Rice Pudding

Chef's Pear Bourdaloue

Just when I think nothing can top last week's Poached Pear Tarts, we made another French classic today, the Pear Bourdaloue, a deceptively simple tart which, dare I say it, was just as good it's drunkard counterpart, if not better. 

Warm, Moist, Delish!

It all comes down to personal preference. Though a fan of custardy Creme Patisserie, the Pear Bourdaloue, filled solely and generously with almond cream, swung my vote instantly. Topped with sliced poached pears, it all goes into the oven to be baked at the same time. Like I said, deceptively simple.

The result is the most heavenly treat - so long as you do not over bake the tart - as the almond cream melts into an almost lava-like consistency. Luscious, sweet and fragrant, all things I love about almond cream is only heightened in its warm and molten state. The pears with their funky grainy texture and mild sweetness play the perfect foil to the rich paste and crisp shell. 

Chef's Rice Pudding

Oh yes, I haven't forgotten about the rice pudding. As easy to make as porridge, the key to really good pudding is to be generous with the cream and butter. And Lots of them. I know some people cannot stand the taste of the humble pud (Simon thinks rice as dessert just ain't right), but for me, any chance to have a main dish staple, i.e. rice, as dessert deserves applause and greedy devour. 

My Pear Bourdaloue

Rice & Rhubarb

In addition to the cream and butter (small wonder the French are such happy people, as I've always said, fat is flavor and your friend) we also added cinnamon and vanilla beans to the pud, and served it with some easy-peasy baked rhubarb: rhubarb, cinnamon, brown sugar, baked low and slow.

A Pear Feast

Good On Its Own

A week later, the tart stayed as good as the day it came out of the oven. The pastry shell may have lost some of its crisp factor, but warmed up in the oven, eaten on its own or with some vanilla ice-cream, it's the tart that keeps on giving.