Quay Po Cooks: cholcolate ganache

Showing posts with label cholcolate ganache. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pictures speak a thousand words - Part 2

Tart Class Day 2 – 26^th June 2011

It's Sunday, the second day of our pastry class at the Academy of Pastry Arts in Malaysia. I must admit it was difficult to roll out of bed so early on a Sunday morning, especially as I received no sympathy from my Quay Lo, who simply rolled over with a snort. Once I got myself into gear, and still fresh from the experience of yesterday, I felt the growing excitement of another day of exploring the secrets of pastries, delicate creams, and exotic aromas.
As it turned out I was the first to arrive at the academy and made an eye opening cup of tea in the student lounge. By the time we had fully assembled I saw that our small group had trimmed down to five from seven the day before. No matter, I thought, as it would mean more direct coaching from the Chef. After our focus yesterday on savories, today we are to learn Sweet Pastry, as in Ganache moelleuse, Almond cream, Lemon cream and Meringue Italienne. My sweet tooth was utterly engaged.

After Chef Lejuene showed us how to make the doughs and the various creams, we all headed back to our stations to do our own. Let me show you the tarts that I baked and took home. Don’t blink your eyes!

Linzer dough raspberry strawberry jam tart

Linzer dough raspberry strawberry jam tart - close up

Lemon cream peach tart

Lemon cream peach tart - close up

Almond cream fruit tart with orange slice, pineapple and strawberries

Lemon cream mix fruits tart with kiwi and peach

Tartlettes - chocolate cream and lemon cream with peaches

Are you more keen to find out what we did on the second day of the class now?
I will let my pictures speak to you.

Chef showing us how to make the sweet pastry, once done the dough goes straight to the fridge

Preparing the ganache moelleuse

Preparing the raspberry and strawberry jam filling

Preparing the lemon cream filling

Preparing the fruits need skill too

The lemon cream fruit tart taking shape

Tarts of the day

A group photo for the album

Quay Po and Chef Lejuene

For those who are interested in a career in pastry, or simply engage more fully in pastry making at home, here are some points to ponder:

1) You might want to evaluate all options. Most important, you want to find the right school.

2) Find out about the instructors who conduct the courses, find out about their qualifications and whether their style of teaching will inspire you.

3) Check out the school by attending a class or two to find out if you like the set up, the potential classmates you might be working with, their curriculum and how many hours of hands on time you have.

4) You might also want to know what kind of certification you will receive.

Those are just my two cents. Honestly, after attending the two days tart class with Chef Lejuene, I am thinking about attending a part time course myself. Hopefully, my Quay Lo is reading this post and make this my 15th wedding anniversary gift this coming December! HINT! HINT!

I promise to share all the recipes with you all once I get to make those tarts on my own but I want to create some new flavors. Have a wonderful week!

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.