First up, caramel & walnut tart, so simple & so good.

Next up, apricot tart which was ok(I am not an apricot fan!)

Then he made a strawberry tart, it looked beautiful & tasted great. What I liked was that he used strawberry glaze to finish the tart, that means even before you take a bite of the tart, the aroma of strawberry is upon you.

After the strawberry tart, a raspberry tart. Very nice….

Last for the demo was a fruit tart, Chef did two versions. The elaborate one above, then the more rustic one that we had to make for our practical.

Above is the fruit tart I made during the practical session packed away in my school lunchbox. It didn’t last long when I got home, I polished it off quite quickly. The trinity of fruit, pastry cream & sweet pastry was too hard to resist…..

Later on during the week, we looked at puff pastry. Making puff pastry by hand is “fun”, ok not really. After we made the puff, we made palmiers.

After palmiers we made paille, which are like puff pastry sandwich with jam filling. Very nice, the raspberry seed jam the school buys is amazing.

Chef showed us how to make vol au vent’s, pretty old school.

He also showed us how to make apple tart tartin the long way, in this method, the apples are pre-cooked in the caramel before baking.

We also made some apple turnovers (chausson aux pommes), they were lovely too good to share with anyone… lol!

At the same time during cuisine we also started looking at doughs.

We started with short pastry(pate brisee), chef demonstrated quiche lorraine & wild mushroom quiche both made with pate brisee. For practicals we did the quiche lorraine(bacon & gruyere cheese), though I wish we did the wild mushroom one instead.

Next up was puff pastry, during practical we made puff pastry. We used the puff pastry to make the dish above(chef’s plate), the dish is poached egg with cream leeks, sauteed bell peppers & albufera sauce. Chef showed us a really foolproof way of making soft poached eggs, all that is required is lightly simmering water & some vinegar.

We also learnt how to make omelets, the one one above is filled with candied onions.

To end the week, we did a roast chicken & vegetables jardinieres(french for veg cut like a stick).

That was week 3, 7 more to go…

Week 2 pastry started with us looking at a lemon pound cake & genoise almond sponge cake(pain de genes). We baked the pain de genes during our practical session. The cake is niiiiiiice but very sweet. We also got to play with marzipan, we had to do a rose flower & some leaves. It was quite difficult, the marzipan can’t be too cool, too warm, too thick, too thin…. you have to find that right balance & then after that you have to make it look beatiful.

During the demonstrations, the chef works with lots of ease, giving you the impression the task looks easy. During the practical, reality of the tasks sets in, then you realise you still have alot to learn & practise……

Next demo, we looked at sweet short pastry(pate sucree) and then various apple tarts. During the practical we made pate sucree then used it to make a tarte aux pommes(classic french apple tart).

In class you can watch the chef from three perspectives, watch him directly, the large mirror above his work surface, or the video screens. The translator also doubles up as video operator. The video captures amazing close-up views from the three cameras(which can rotatate and zoom) installed around the class.

Cuisine week 2 we looked at stocks, chef demonstrated a white chicken stock, brown stock & a fish fumet(stock). We also looked at sauce thickening methods.

We got to cook a cheese souffle, whiting fillets with bercy sauce(pictured above). For the fish we had to prepare & fillet our own fish from scratch, it was not that hard. Having a super sharp filleting knife really helps.

Chef also demonstrated poached chicken with supreme sauce( french khao mun gai or hainan chicken rice), pasta dough preparation & spinach stuffed cannelloni with tomato sauce.

To end the cuisine week, we baked a pissalidiere, which is kinda like a pizza made from a rich yeast dough topped with onions sweated in olive oil, anchovies, tomatoes, capers & olives.

That was week 2, we started to get used to the school routine, 18 hours in class & 18 hours in the kitchen.

Another addition to my food book collection….

I have not experienced Le Bernadin in New York, however this book literally gave a peek into the world of Le Bernadin and I loved it. This book was really magnetic, read it in two days. I stole every free moment in my day to read on.

It was great reading about the team behind the scenes that makes the restaurant great,

The next few posts are in retrospect, they are all about my journey through basic cuisine & basic pastry at Le Cordon Bleu Dusit from October 12 – December 24 2009.

Week 1 Basic Cuisine & Basic Pastry

We started of with orientation, it was a pretty short 2hr session with information about the school, rules etc. We were then given our uniforms, recipe folders, knife kit & a large food container. All this items were pretty bulky, carrying everything back on the BTS back to my place was pretty arduous.

The knife kit if I remember correctly has about 40 items in it. Most heavily used for cuisine are the chef knife, paring knife & spoon. For pastry the little plastic scraper is handy for doing a lot of things and also really essential is my thermometer.

The general format of the classes was that the chef demonstrated about 3 recipes in every demonstration session, then we would cooked one of the recipes in our practical kitchen session. The recipe folders we were given at orientation only contained the recipe ingredients, that meant during the demonstration session we had to take notes on the recipe methods. Initially I thought keeping up with the chef would be a problem, but since everything the chef said in english had to be translated into thai, this bought me time to write my notes.

On day one of cuisine the Chef demonstrated how to cook a rustic vegetable soup. The soup was almost bland vegetable soup, but it had some bacon when rescued it from blandness. Bacon makes anything taste good, I swear by that…

Also on day one, the chef talked to us about our knives, how to peel & wash vegetables, then how to cut them the French way. It amazing the French have a name for every possible style of cutting vegetables.

This was my effort for the rustic vegetable soup.

Next cuisine demonstration we looked at three more soups. Dubarry cream which is a cauliflower soup thickened with cream, watercress soup & a crab bisque. We cooked the crab bisque during the practical session, yummo. To make the bisque we had to cut the crab to little bits using a cleaver, then sweat it with aromatics, flambe with cognac, add more flavouring & seasoning, to finish we had to blend the whole thing together(yes, the crabs shells too) then sieve. It was worth the effort.

During the demonstration sessions we also learnt alot of cooking french, pretty handy I think. With just a few words you can describe a whole recipe.

To end the first week, we looked at the ubiquitous French onion soup, Marseille style fish soup & a consomme with vegetable brunoise. We cooked the consomme during the practical. Cutting the 2mm brunoise was fun(not), never cut vegetables that small. They all had to look uniform. I did mine slowly to ensure even sizing.

Day one of pastry we looked at and then baked sable biscuits. They tasted amazing. The trinity of butter, sugar & flour is good for you, yet bad for you. Figure that one out….

Second day for pastry we baked a fruit cake & madeleines. Madeleines, I am in love with them.

Last for pastry on week one, we looked at financiers & gateau basque(butter cake with pastry cream filling). We baked the gateau basque during the practical. Chef thought I put too much icing sugar on my cake….. oh well. Sugar is good for you sometimes.

That was my first week at Le Cordon Bleu Dusit…..

I am at Le Cordon Bleu Dusit…….. Class started about 3 weeks ago, it has been hectic but fun. I will be blogging more about culinary school soon.

I went in and bought myself one to take home. It costed 29baht(about 90 US cents).

The pie is in the usual McDonalds pie box….

Unboxed, revealing crispy deep fried goodness…

The pie revealed…..

The close up….

Ok let us talk about what it tasted like, I actually liked it alot. The pastry was crispy & slightly sweet, the filling is broccoli, mushrooms & some sort of mornay sauce. The flavour of the broccoli is pared back, it does not dominate. Their is also a hint of coconut, I don’t know what it is from but it is pleasant……..

McDonalds should put this pie on the menu globally, broccoli is good for you………. what do you think?

Pork belly with sweet potato puree & apple sauce

The pork belly was slow roasted and was delightfully succulent. The lean & fatty bits of the pork, marry well. The crackling on top of the belly was a revelation, I could eat pork crackling all day, it is “good” for you. This is a sinful comfort dish.

The pork was served with a sweet potato puree & apple sauce, they both traditionally pair well with pork. Also on the plate was some broccoli florets with sesame seeds.

Yep, I know you spotted those two stray pieces of cartilage at the bottom of the belly. I would like to think the butcher left them there for me to enjoy. Seriously, I love cartilage.

Whilst eating the pork, my friend & I got to talking about sous-vide cooking, pork belly would great cooked en sous-vide. I will get around to trying this out sometime. In fact Thomas Keller’s sous-vide book Under Pressure is probably the next cook book I will buy.

Chermoula Tilapia with citrus scented rice & cream sauce

My friend had tilapia, I didn’t get to taste it. I was too busy with my pork. Sorry guys……. It looks good though.

Chocolate fondant with orange, sesame & poppy tuiles

I loved this choc fondant, I wished I could have had more. This had to be most height-challenged(short!) choc fondant I have ever had. The top was already open, revealing the molten chocolate. Into the molten chocolate were two orange, sesame & poppy tuiles.

Chef make it taller & bigger next time……. thanks.

Anthony Bourdain is chef at large of Bistro Les Halles, and host of “No Reservations” which is a food & travel show.

Thomas Keller is chef owner of the Thomas Keller restaurant group, his best known restaurants are the French Laundry & Per Se

Ferran Adria is chef owner of El bulli, he has also developed high quality fast food concept restaurant Fast Good.

Grant Achatz & Nick Kokonas is chef co-owner at Alinea. Nick Kokonas is a co-owner of Alinea.

Eric Ripert & Michael Laskonis chefs at New York’s Le Bernadin

Yet another Flavor Bible inspired recipe, brownies are really really easy to make. The only contentious issue is the final texture desired, I like mine soft & squidgy. That means I don’t bake them as long as others would.

This brownies go great with coffee. Enjoy!

To make this brownies you will need;

• 150 grams dark chocolate.
• 125 grams unsalted butter.
• 100 grams all-purpose flour.
• 100 grams macadamia nuts, roughly chopped.
• 25 grams cocoa.
• 3 large eggs.
• 100 grams sugar.
• 60 mls brandy.

Then just a few simple steps;

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.
• Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Melt both the dark chocolate & butter in a bowl over simmering water(a bain marie). When melted stir in the brandy.
• Sift together the flour & cocoa into another bowl
• In another bowl add 100 grams of sugar & 3 large eggs, beat it hard with a balloon whisk until pale.
• Stir eggs sugar mixture into the melted chocolate.
• Fold the flour & cocoa into melted chocolate.
• Fold in the chopped macadamia nuts into the brownie mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray.
• Baking for 30 minutes.
• At the end of the 30 minutes, the brownie will be soft & look under done in the centre. Thats alright, it will firm up as it cools down.
• When you ready to serve, slice into rectangles using a knife that has been dipped in hot water. This will help you cut cleanly.
• Dust with icing sugar & enjoy.

Mutura sausages are hardly pretty. This one was a recent afternoon takeout from Buffet Park located in Hurlingham, Nairobi.

This mutura from Buffet Park, just popped in my mouth exciting all my five senses. It looks pretty ordinary yet it is extraordinary. I don’t know why it is so good, but it is.

The casing had snap, not your usual tough chewy mutura casing. Inside was finely chopped goat meat & tripe(i think?). A good sausage can’t be lean, this one had a healthy dose fatty goat meat. Fat is flavour! Curiously, it is not apparent if any goat blood was included as is the case with other mutura.

Along with the mutura was sliced tomato, sliced onion & chopped chilli, this condiments just brought this dish all together. The flavour combination of sweet sour tomatoes, slightly pungent onions & the heat of the chilli met the flavour of the savoury mutura perfectly.

Is there a better mutura than this one, if you know where I can find some. Please do share.

I came across this recipe on David Lebovitz’s website, his blog is amazing & I have been lurking there for ages. Cooking something for the first time following a recipe can be nerve wracking but kudos to David for a really easy to follow recipe with pictures.

I made this ice cream by hand, because that was the only option I had, I don’t have an ice cream machine at home “yet”. Because I can’t seem find a non-industrial one in Nairobi, don’t know why. I would love to get a pacojet, I fell in love with the pacojet when I saw one in action in Sydney last year.

The recipe for the salted butter caramel ice cream is adapted from here, also available is tips on how to make ice cream without ice maker.

• 500 mls whole milk, divided in two. One part left chilled in a bowl in the fridge.
• 300 grams sugar
• 60 grams salted butter
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 250 ml heavy cream
• 5 large egg yolks
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

First thing up was gathering up all my ingredients, all the dairy was from Brookside. They make some really great butter & cream. I used some fine sea salt. I was a bit worried about the salt I used, in the recipe there is an explicit caveat placed on the salt to use. I didn’t have maldon or fleur de sel, but some stock standard looking sea salt, fine off-white sea salt.

Everything in place, it was time to caramelise the sugar. Dumped all the sugar into a saucepan over medium heat, it took a while to get the sugar melting. Once the sugar started melted everything moved quickly. The recipe stated that the caramel is to be cooked until it started smoking, I had never taken a caramel to this point, so I cooked the caramel until I saw what I thought was smoke. It looked like light water vapour.

With caramelisation done, I took the saucepan off the heat then stirred in the butter & salt, then the cream. Some caramel seized, but this was no cause for panic unlike when I did the Pineapple Chop, then I didn’t know I could melt away the seized caramel over low heat, which I did this time. After working away the seized caramel, I stirred in 250mls of the milk.

Moved on to whisk the 5 yolks in a bowl, poured in some of the caramel while still whisking. Poured the egg yolks back into the caramel, stirring constantly. Cooked over low heat until the custard thickens, to be on the safe side I used a thermometer & stopped cooking once custard was at 77 degrees celsius. With custards don’t go over 82 degrees celsius unless you want an eggy tasting custard.

Once custard was done, strained it into the bowl with the other 250 mls of chilled milk. Kept stirring until custard had cooled down. Covered the bowl with cling film loosely, making sure the cling film touched the top of the custard, this prevents a skin from forming. chilled it overnight in the fridge.

To make the ice cream, poured the chilled custard on to a large shallow dish. Placed it in the freezer. Then at 40 minute intervals, took out the dish and gave the custard a good stir to break up large ice particles. After the third stir poured almost frozen custard into a one litre container, covered & placed it in the freezer overnight.

This is the result, beautiful caramel flavoured ice cream. That I had for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Making ice cream at home without a machine is not impossible, it may take a while long but it is worth it.

What is there not to love about this buttery & chocolaty pastry, when warm & served with coffee it is pure bliss. That said, if you keep buying this stuff all the time you will left broke & overweight but on the flip-side your baker’s bank stash will be ample. So it was for purely economic reasons that I had to figure out how to make this pastry for myself. I trawled the interwebs & my cookbooks for ideas, and adapted the recipe below from all the info I got. In the end, I saved some money, learnt that making a laminated dough is tedious work and satiated my sweet tooth.

“Quick” Recipe for Petit Pain au Chocolat

• 250 grams all purpose flour.
• 115 mls water.
• 125 grams unsalted butter.
• 25 grams caster sugar.
• 80 grams chocolate bar.
• 5 grams salt.
• 5 grams(1tsp) instant yeast.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt & yeast.
2. Add water to the dry ingredients, combine well to form a dough.
3. Cover the bowl & let in rise/ferment overnight in the fridge.
4. Next day, knock down the dough. Form into a ball.
5. Dust working surface with a little flour. Roll out four flaps, creating an envelope.
6. Flatten the cold butter by bashing it with a rolling pin, form the butter into a flat square.
7. Place the butter in the centre of dough envelope, close the flaps over the butter.
8. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to seal the flaps together.
9. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle.
10. Fold the dough into thirds as if you are folding a letter. This is the first turn, cover the dough with plastic wrap & refrigerate for one hour.
11. After an hour, roll out the dough into a long rectangle then fold into thirds as if you are folding an letter. This is your second turn. Roll out the dough again into another long rectangle, fold into thirds like a letter and complete the third turn. Refrigerate the dough for another hour.
12. After an hour, roll out the dough into long rectangle, turn the dough 90 degrees so that the long edge is parallel to you.
13. Cut 6 cm strips of the dough, you should yield about 11 strips.
14. Break chocolate bar into 11 small pieces.
15. Place chocolate piece at the bottom of each strip. Roll the strips tightly, place on baking tray seam side down.
16. Brush with egg wash, made from one beaten egg & a pinch of salt.
17. Proof in oven with pilot light on for 90 minutes.
18. Take out the pain au chocolat from oven, preheat oven for 10 minutes at 220 degree celsius.
19. After the 10 minutes, place baking tray in oven & bake the pain au chocolat for 15 minutes.
20. Take them out from oven & cool on wire rack for about 15 minutes.
21. Enjoy!!!!

I love the citrusy fragrance lemon thyme imparts on to your fingers when you gently squeeze its leaves. I have not cooked with lemon thyme until now in Nairobi because the veggie store where I do most of my herb shopping does not stock it, recently in serendiptious circumstances I found myself foraging through the herb section at the supermarket looking for the other thyme. My last encounter with the herb in Nairobi was at Mediterraneo, the roast duck dish I ate then had a fresh herb garnish that included lemon thyme. I seriously thought of swiping the herbs & taking them home with me, the only thing that stopped me is that waitperson was always hovering around. He was doing his job too well. Back to the supermarket, I found lemon thyme & bought a bunch pronto.

The preparations of lemon thyme were inspired by flavour ideas I got from Karen Page & Andrew Dornenbug’s Flavor Bible, which is a favourite cookbook of mine because It has no recipes, only just a massive reference guide on flavour combinations. The other great thing about this book, you work with the ingredients you have and the techniques you want. In a conventional cookbook you have to work according to the recipe.

I decided to do a lemon thyme risotto with lemon thyme roasted carrots & lemon thyme roasted chicken. I wanted to do quick & hearty meal, with all cooking done simultaneously. It took about 15 minutes to prep, and 30 minutes to cook.

About the flavours, lemon thyme with the carrots really popped for me, also did the lemon thyme with the chicken. The rice was beautifully scented by the herb. Even though the herb was similar was the same across the risotto, chicken & carrots, the lemon thyme brought different flavour nuances to each item.

In my plain (kenyan)english, this one ingredient obsession meal tasted really really great.

The recipes are below. Give it a go & tell me how it goes….

Lemon Thyme Roasted Carrots

• 2 carrots, diced.
• 4 lemon thyme sprigs
• Olive oil
• Salt & white pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Heat the olive oil in a hot saute pan.
3. Add the carrots & lemon thyme sprigs, saute for about 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt & pepper.
5. Transfer to oven and roast for 15 minutes.
6. Once cooked set aside.

Lemon Thyme Risotto

This recipe serves 4.

• 200 grams carnolli rice (arborio is alright too).
• 1 litre chicken stock or vegetable stock.
• 1 onion, chopped.
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped.
• 2 tbsp lemon thyme leaves only.
• 25 grams parmesan cheese, grated.
• Olive oil.
• Salt & white pepper.

1. You will need two sauce pans. Bring the stock to a boil in one of the saucepans, the reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
2. In the other sauce pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat then add the chopped onion & chopped garlic. Sweat them until they are soft.
3. Season with salt & pepper.
4. Add the rice and cook until the rice is slightly toasted.
5. Add a ladle of stock and cook by stirring frequently. When all the stock is arbsorbed add another ladle & continue stirring, repeat this until the rice is al dente, this will take about 15 – 20 minutes.
6. Stir in the roasted carrots & thyme leaves.
7. Check seasoning, add salt & pepper if needed.
8. To finish the risotto, turn off the heat. Add 4 tbsps of olive oil while stirring vigorously, then add the parmesan cheese & give risotto a few stirs.
9. Cover the saucepan & set risotto aside to rest for about 5 minutes.

Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken Thigh

• 4 Chicken thighs.
• 2 tbsp lemon thyme leaves only.
• Olive oil.
• Salt & white pepper.

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (you can cook the chicken simultaneously with the carrots
2. De-bone the chicken thighs & trim of any excess fat.
3. Lay the thighs skin side down, sprinkle the lemon thyme leaves into the centre of each fillet then season them with salt & pepper.
4. Roll the thigh fillets into cylinder form, then secure using kitchen twine. Season the skin side with salt & pepper.
5. Heat the olive oil in hot saute pan, sear the chicken thighs until they are golden brown.
6. On a roasting tray, make a bed with the remaining lemon thyme sprigs. Transfer the chicken on to it. You can also lay some lemon thyme sprigs on top of the chicken.
7. Roast in oven for about 20 minutes.
8. When done, take it out from oven & set it aside to rest for 5 minutes.

Assembly

1. Slice the chicken thigh fillets into 2.5 cm(1 inch) pieces.
2. Spoon the risotto on to your plate.
3. Add chicken slices on top of the risotto, drizzle a little olive oil on top of chicken.
4. Garnish with lemon thyme leaves.

As Gordon Ramsay would say, “Lemon thyme risotto with lemon thyme roasted carrots & lemon thyme roasted chicken, DONE!”

Nairobi’s weather has been pretty chilly lately. That said, this is me speaking relatively, all my northern hemisphere readers would probably think Nairobi’s current weather is quite pleasant. One really chilly night I need a piping hot soup to stave off the cold. Recently, Susan Kamau on her NTV show “Lets Cook” did an onion soup with cheesy croutons. I looked up lots of recipes for inspiration and came up with the one below.

This soup was great, everyone at my place loved it, it hit the right spot. You should try it.

• 600 grams spanish onions, thinly sliced.
• 1.5 litres of brown chicken stock or vegetable stock.
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour.
• 1 bay leaf.
• 4 sprigs thyme.
• 1 star anise.
• 8 sprigs parsley.
• 20 mls vegetable oil.
• Grated cheese. I used Kiwi cheddar.
• Sliced bread croutons. I used walnut rye bread that I baked.

1. Using kitchen twine, tie the bay leaf, thyme, star anise & parsley together to form a bouquet garni, then set it aside.
2. In a large saucepan, sweat the onions in the vegetable oil. Cook the onions slowly for about 30 minutes until they are caramelised.
3. Add the flour to the caramelised onions, cook the flour for about 4 minutes.
4. Add the stock & bouquet garni, bring it to a boil. Then simmer for 45 minutes.

Assembly

1. Add cheese to bread croutons, melt under a grill.
2. Serve the soup into bowl, top it with two cheese croutons.

I cannot say no to a lovely, creamy, wobbly panna cotta. I made some for my brother & I, the flavour inspiration was a cup of coffee. In this panna cotta is instant coffee, cream, milk, vanilla extract & sugar. The lime syrup idea was from the Flavor Bible, according to the book coffee & lime go well together. Since I was serving the panna cotta the lime  syrup, I did not sweeten it alot. My brother totally loved this dessert, I did too.

The recipe below makes two small portions, you can scale it proportionally to suit the number of panna cotta portions  you would like. You could also substitute the instant coffee for a shot of espresso.

Coffee Panna Cotta

• 150 mls milk, full fat is best.
• 150 mls cream, chilled.
• 3 tsps caster sugar.
• 1 tsp granulated gelatin.
• 1 tsp instant coffee. I used Dormans, love their coffee.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.

1. In a small bowl combine the gelatin & a little water(about 4tbsp / 60mls). This is to let the gelatin granules bloom.
2. In small saucepan, combine the coffee, sugar, vanilla extract & milk. Heat the milk to a rolling simmer, stir to make sure that coffee & sugar are dissolved. Pour the milk into a bowl.
3. Add the bloomed gelatin to the warm milk in the bowl. Stir to dissolve the gelatin into the milk. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until milk is about room temperature.
4. Stir in chilled cream.
5. Pour into molds, and put into the fridge to set. This takes about 4 hours, I usually just leave it overnight in the fridge.

Lime Syrup

• 2 limes
• 200 grams sugar
• 200 mls water

1. Grate the zest from the limes, set the zest aside
2. Combine the sugar & water in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, then simmer for a minute. Take the syrup off the heat.
3. Add the zest & the juice of the two limes.
4. Set the syrup aside to cool.

Putting it together

1. Unmold the panna cotta on to a plate. If you having difficulty unmolding, dip the mold with the panna cotta into hot water for about 10 seconds.
2. Drizzle the lime syrup on to the panna cotta… Done!