Author: gemmacooks

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Emulsions

Week 2, sessions 3 & 4

I’ve made my first ever mayonnaise today. Tasted not like jar mayonnaise at all but it didn’t split and adding lots of lemon juice made it quite tasty.

The next session was soft boiled eggs. I can’t say I learnt anything from this session in terms of eggs (I can boil eggs) but I did turn my mayo into a really good dressing for a salad and I learnt that this is a daughter sauce (the mayo being the mother). The offspring was made by adding water and wholegrain mustard to the mayo.

The salad made for this session was a BLT salad with focaccia croutons, streaky bacon, roasted cherry tomatoes, the daughter sauce dressing and a soft boiled egg.

The combination of making mayo by hand, mayo by machine and the salad meant 2 hours of cooking. To then present a salad after this long in the kitchen is quite amusing! I think I can do this in 25 minutes next time! 🤞

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Poached Eggs

Week 2, session 2

I usually make poached eggs in a shallow pan so that I can make lots at once so I’ve never tried the swirl technique. It’s notoriously difficult so I was dreading it.

Whilst they didn’t have the teardrop shape and one of them had enveloped a pocket of water, overall I think it went really well. It took a bit more patience than my usual technique but I think the results are slightly better so I will be doing this again. I’ll try the iced water, reheat technique.

I served these for dinner with homemade sourdough toast, smashed avocado and a heritage tomato salad. Brunch for dinner is an all time fave so felt glad to have a reason to make this!

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Omlette

Week 2, session 1

This week is eggs week – all the different ways of cooking them and making emulsions with them.

The first session was just a classic omlette. This was actually more difficult that it sounds. The perfect colour, texture and baveuse is tough.

When I told my colleagues about this, my colleague Nora, who is French, told me that baveuse means drooling which makes complete sense even if this makes it a little gross.

Although I didn’t really nail any aspect of this it was the most tasty omlette I’ve ever had, made especially delicious by the ‘drool’. I’ll keep practising these for sure!

Attempt 1 (too much colour)
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Moules et frites

Need I say more? An oldy but a goody! These were cooked with shallot, garlic, white wine and cherry tomatoes.

These mussels are from Fish Tale in Streatham who also sell packaging free lentils and pulses and other deli items. I love this shop!

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Kohlrabi, cucumber, radish and avocado salad with herby halloumi croutons

Not a very punchy title but a tasty and punchy salad!

Also not a Leith’s activity but why not share something so healthy and moorish!

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Sugar Free BBQ Ribs

This is not a Leith’s session but I thought I would share this any way as a contribution to Diabetes Week.

My partner is a type 1 diabetic so I created a sugar free bbq sauce to do justice to slow baked Gloucestershire Old Spot rack of ribs. I used blackberries and a brown sugar substitute called Sukrin Gold for sweetness and glaze.

As I’m usually a non-meat-eater, I am particular about where meat comes from and how it is raised. My local butcher – Duggard and Daughters, does such a fabulous job of sourcing great quality meat!

I served these with carb free sides – a slight variation on Ottolenghi’s grilled sweetcorn slaw and a heritage tomato and cucumber salad. All so delicious!

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Stir Fry

Session 2, week 1

I have just spent the last 2 hours making stir fry. My usual quick Monday night go to has been transformed into, quite frankly, time consuming precision. Was it worth it? Yes! This stir fry not only tasted delicious but looked so pretty!

I need to practice the ‘rolling chop’ so that this won’t always take me 2 hours but I will definitely do this again, soon. Will also post the sauce recipe because really yum!

What else have I learnt? That 150g of cooked brown rice only needs to weigh 75g at the beginning. I have so much spare cooked rice!

Mise en place
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White Stock

Week 1, session 1

I spent Sunday making white stock. Before yesterday, I didn’t know what this is but it involves raw bones and painstaking care and attention to produce a tasty stock with clarity (which is the key).

I think overall it went really well and will practice this technique to make brown stock, fish stock, and veg stock. It’s a really good recipe. Maybe I can add a recipes page to my blog!?!? Next step!

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Julie and Julia

I watched Julie and Julia (2009) last night and am now over optimistic about the possibilities. However, trying to dial it down a notch, have a little more confidence in the fact that I can actually do this! https://g.co/kgs/1reG7B

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Flatbreads

Day 0, Week 0

After dreaming about a career in food for years, I’ve taken the first step towards this by doing a professional qualification at Leith’s. I’ll be using this blog to track my progress and all the steps in between.

I’m not sure how this will progress but I’m hoping to learn how to cook, write and photograph food so thought that publishing a blog would be a good step towards this.

Today, (Day 0) I published this blog and a photograph of my first online taster session – flatbreads which I think were a huge success. I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I’m feeling excited and confident about Day 1.

Flatbreads online tutorial
Chicken shawarma