Quenelle demo

In my desperate attempt to master the quenelling technique, I have sent one of my loyal guards 500 miles away to KL to secretly capture an LG demo in a shop which prohibit photography or anything in that nature. A risky but fruitful ordeal. Enjoy....

Chocolate scrolls

This is my first attempt using a bench scrapper instead of the usual utility knife. Slowly getting the hang of it.

Tart shells

Hand made pâte sucrée fluted shells.

I really dislike the pre-packaged tart shells that we get. It feels embarassing pushing those things out onto the table. They are pretentious. You might say they are good for feeding the masses. But hey, people aren't dumb eaters these days. They can sense a factory made shell when they see one and they won't lay their fingers on it. So it's back to square one.

Arrrggggghhhh!!!! (battle cry)

Religieuse project

I got so high from doing this. To break it down. It's made up of two chocolate profiteroles. The filling is chocolate custard. The bottom profiterole is glazed with dark chocolate glaze while the smaller one on the top is glazed with caramel. Chocolate buttercream is piped using a tiny rosette tube all around the gap between the two. Chocolate soil is sprinkled on them and a chocolate shaving is placed on the peak. Texture wise, it covers quite the spectrum. taste wise, it's oozing and crackly goodness.

Profiterole younglings after being dipped in caramel.

I enrobed a Sacher cake wiih ganache and decorated it for the photoshoot tomorrow but I discovered much later that it had been canceled.

Leftover caramel was used to make a couple of caramel cages.

Bumped into this by accident

They come in biodegradeble plastic bags. My respect to the bakery which produce these beauties. It's not pure rye, more like siegle but the taste is awesome. I am a sucker for rye. It goes so well with a large of butter.

Religieuse wannabes

Lots of chocolate puffed chouxs for my religieuse project. I will probably fill it up with chocolate custard and glaze them with chocolate for the bottom puff and caramel for the top. These things have more options for bursting flavours compared to macarons.

A tray of pistachio soil/crumble that I am going to use for decorations. These things are so moorish on their own. It's one of the best things that I have learnt from my stint in Pontini. I am going to make a chocolate version soon probably using extra brute cocoa powder. They are going to blow some heads off. KaaPow!

Harris Suntec Branch Closing Down Sale

Clarissa tipped me off about the closing down sale. She seems to know where all the discounted books are in Singapore! I got huge 50% discounts for two of the books and an ample 25% on the last one.

Just a quick review on these. The Taste of France is all about authentic provencial styles across France. Just when I thought I knew most of the french traditional items, this book came up with lots of things that I haven't even heard of till now.

Mellissa's produce book is an excellent guide to current popular fruits and vegetables circulating in the market these days. It's always good to study and know your principal ingredients thoroughly because they are, afterall, the core of all creations on the dining table. Being in Singapore, we rely on specialist suppliers for all our ingredients. We always assume that we are getting Grade A quality items and tend to take things for granted.

I have been eyeing on Creole for a long time since I saw it on the shelf at the bookstore near my place but it wasn't cheap. Creole cuisine suits Singapore really well since it uses lots of tropical produce which are in abundance here. It distinguishes itself from the local cuisine since they are made using European techniques.

Knowledge is Power.