Terry Selection Perfection!

TGIF, G3

It's 4PM in the afternoon and here I am in Friday's Makati for my R&R friday blog day. Instead of the usual venti white chocolate mocha non fat no whip 2 pumps extra hot, im now having: 

Yes, Unlimited Classic Mojito. 

Well, anyway, last November 22, Tuesday, we had an alternative learning program (ALP) at Terry's Bistro, Terry's Selection at Pasong Tamo. Don't get me wrong, i eat out A LOT, but  for a party of 6, this is quite an expensive lunch. We ordered about 18 items off their wonderful menu and our bill totaled P11,896! But i gotta say, money well spent! 

Around the World! = 5lbs heavier!

November 18, 2011, Friday

France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia.. the list goes on!

Around the World, one dish at a time!

For some mundane, shallow and purely selfish reason, i always find myself complaining/ tweeting about my fear of becoming a fat chef. Trust me. I don't want to move from a size small chef's jacket to a size medium, but! a very (not-so) wise friend of mine (probably fed up from all the whinings) finally told me: You can't be a mechanic without getting oil under your nails or can't be a certified gym instructor and not have muscles. It just goes with the trade. And having said those, i threw all worries to the wind and just, eat cook. 

So what's new?

Chef RJ and his awesome transparent lectures

11.11.11

November 18, 2011, Friday
CBTL, Ultimate Mocha


While everyone's either getting married or proposing, or opening up their stores or wishing very hard, this legendary 11.11.11 for Oceana marks the end of another batch and the beginning of a new chapter for Wave 11. (*Sniff*)

Baking part 3!

November 2, 2011, Wednesday
QUICHE, PIE, TARTS.

For the third leg of our baking lessons, i know i've been going on nonstop about how fast time flies but i'll say it again. It went by so fast, it's only a matter of time before the year ends again. Despite my reluctant acceptance of my baking weakness, i can confidently say now that i am slowly learning how to bake. I've learned that with baking, one needs accuracy in measurements and trust in the chemistry of all ingredients to form to really come up with that perfect batch of cookies.

At first, we were taught how to manually whip dough mixtures but for this curriculum of pie and tart making, it seems we need to move on to using our handy dandy KitchenAid mixer!

What's Cookin!

October 28, 2011, Friday
CBTL Residence, Makati

It's been a helluva whirlwinduva ride the past 2-3 weeks. I wake up everyday on autopilot, it's like i can't feel the days go by anymore. NOT GOOD. Gone are the days when i wake up giddy with excitement to go to school. NOW? It's like:

"say what? is it monday 4:30AM already?" cue twilight zone jingle. 

The lectures and recipes and cooking styles remain very much interesting but gaaaaah i can't seem to grasp the idea of really early mornings and i can't really say no to late nights. can i #firstworldproblems?

Chef RJ!

October 10-13, 2011

Monday-Thursday

Oh how fast time flies. I recently twitted about it being impossibly fast and painstakingly slow at the same time. Is it even possible?

It feels only yesterday when i'm just starting this culinary journey but in fact, it's been roughly 3months. I resigned from my 5year banking job last July 9, 2011 and started with school August 15 and now we're this close to doing practicum. 

We've recently finished our 2nd Baking class and now, we move on with a more advanced culinary experience under the tutelage of *drumrolls!* Chef RJ Ungco!

canapes c/o Wave12 (Dwight, Paul and Ronald)

Baking part 2!

Day 21. Baking
October 3, 5, 7. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Ugh. My old enemy, we meet again. I'm not sure if i've said it before, but i'll say it again. baking. hates. me. I gotta say though, part 2 of our baking turned our pretty okay.

For baking part 2, we tackled bread making. Here, we kneaded dough, waited for it to ferment, rise, degas, etc. BREADS! - where too much of everything is bad bad bad.

picture taken from myfrenchlife.org

Yemmy!

Day 20. Sauteeing Protein.
September 29 and 30. Thursday and Friday.

Now, since we've already covered all the basics of a typical main or complete course (i.e., sauce, vegetable, starch, sauteeing, protein), Chef started teaching (pushing) us to make a complete plated meal.

Pressure pressure pressure cause now we have to do everything from scratch! Good thing i came across this site which came very handy in plating, percentage of each portion, how plenty one must place on a plate and the positioning of it ( think of a standard analogue clock, 12NN, 1PM, 2PM.. clockwise positioning.)

Trussing!

Day 19. Chicken.
September 28, 2011. CCA Katipunan.

Call me maarte, i dont care, but i don't really like trussing raw chicken. What's to like? Pasty skin? check. random parts with feathers? check. blood here and there? check. neck longer than the normal that you need to chop it yourself? check.

 what's to like? i like it only if it's cooked and i'm betting majority of the world agrees with this.

Vegetables part2!

Day 18. Vegetables

September 26, 2011. Monday


Another vegetable day. Too bad i picked vegetable strudel, not my most favorite. Well, mainly because our recipe required cauliflower (yuck!) and celery (Triple quadruple yuck!), so i wasn't really enthusiastic about it. I looked up the internet how a strudel normal looks like, and google said..

 when in reality, Mark and I got this:

Katipunan #2

Day 17. Vegetables

CCA Katipunan

September 22, 2011. Thursday

So this is Day 2 of our Katipunan temporary migration, and we covered vegetables. Unfortunately we did not get much lecture from chef, we were only given our recipes and we just went ahead and cooked them. 

I got assigned with making Braised Red Cabbage. 

Katipunan. #1

Day 16. Assessment.

CCA Katipunan.

September 21, 2011, Wednesday
I got so used to coming to school via the quicker MOA route that i allotted the same time in leaving for KATIPUNAN. I seemed to have overlooked the longer AranetaAve-QAve-Circle-Commonwealth-CPeffinGarcia-AuroraBlvd Route and it took me 20minutes longer than the usual. Almost got late because i had to went out of my way to buy a cup of regular coffee to start the day!

SQUATTERS, that we are. We were supposed to skip classes to make way again for an event in school but we all insisted to still push through with it so as not to lose momentum and the only way for this to happen is if we reserve a lab in our Katipunan campus and hold classes there ergo, the shift in venue.

Don't get me wrong i love my school, but the Katipunan Campus is much much different than the Oceana Campus..

Pasta and friends!

Day 15. Pasta and friends.
September 19 & 20.

For pasta, we made fresh dough using olive oil, flour, eggs, salt and water. It went okay, far better than the one i made ages ago using old school method ( that is, rolling pin kneading.) We used pasta maker:

Rice!

Day 14. Rice! September 15, 2011

If there's one thing about me and food, it's how i don't like to eat rice and how i feel after, if ever i eat some. It's like sugar rush and hyper mode, and energizer bunny all into one.

But i enjoy cooking them; especially Risotto. One of our classmates made the risotto for class but for some weird reason, it tasted like soap after! We all had a good laugh after it, so that's the reason why i failed to take a picture of it.

All Things Potatoes #2

Day 13. 

Yet another set of potato dishes. This entry's supposed to be posted last week, September 13, Tuesday, and i remember taking home an entry loaf pan of freshly baked potato gratin, until of course, the unfortunate, unexpected thingy happened which caused me sleepless nights, anxiety and stress for the rest of the week, not to mention around 30k. But all's well now and that should be more than enough. 

Woosahh. =) 

All Things Potatoes! #1

DAY 12: STARCH. 

Finally it's back to school time! The past 4 days went rather slowly, we all got pleeenntttyyyy of rest and come Sunday night, most of my classmates were already getting antsy pantsy, giddy with excitement to come to school. We got Chef Annali back and everyone's so kulit the whole morning, teasing, laughing and catching up, we probably just missed each other. 

STARCHES. We made all sorts of potato dishes. And apparently, we're off to do more tomorrow. *FART*

Some of these dishes are quite simple to make, heck a kindergarten student can even make these with his eyes closed. But then again, basics, basics, basics. 

Baking!

time: 5:01 Pm
place: Dad's "office"

Have i mentioned how i seriously hate baking?

Well, not that i hate baked goods, trust me I love them! It's just that baking or making any form of desserts for that matter, seems to have a serious all out war against me!

To explain myself further, exhibit A. Failed attempt of a tiramisu made last 2009:

MOA event!

time: 12:21
place: MOA

DAY 9. Assessment.

We had our 2nd assessment for this day to mark the end of our FASTRAK-1 or the SOUPS, STOCKS and SAUCES part of the course. I got hollandaise and mornay cheese sauce so of course, i had to make bechamel first.

I started the day with my usual McDonald's arabica coffee and not a worry in mind. But when we got to school, there were already several other students ( higher batch, apprarently) getting ready to use our kitchen. Turns out, we ( CCA-Oceana) has 2 events for that day that requires early preparation and naturally, manpower to pull it off. We are wave 13, and in the end, Wave 11, 12 and 13, all 3 batches, had to join forces and help out.

Its the most tiring day and most funnest ever! The first event used up our function room for a Coffee Seminar for an HRM school. We all helped in making their food and plating them as well.

But the most exciting part is the muslim event that we (CCA) sponsored which served muslim inspired dishes like roti with hummus and mutabal and bacalao with pomelo salad for starters, lamb burger, beef rendang sushi (picture below), tuna potstickers and chicken satay for the main dish and fruit shooters and durian creme brulee for desserts.

 beef rendang sushi and lamb burger served on a large tile

Cuisinier Brasserie!

time: 09:59PM
place: home

TUESDAY. Timog. Cuisinier Brasserie


Hurrah! Since today is still a national holiday, our class scheduled an ALP or an alternative learning program instead of having our usual classroom lecture / labs.

Chef Annali's friend and fellow [former] instructor from CCA owns the restaurant, The Cuisinier Brasserie, located along Timog which offers French-Mediterranean cuisine.

Espagnole!

time: 4:11AM

place: room

DAY 8. Aug 26. SAUCES: Espagnole

HELL'S KITCHEN SEASON1! I have been watching and downloading nonstop and i decided to start again with Season1! Chef Gordon Ramsey is one scary scary person!

So for today's lecture, we are all officially sick in class. I stopped drinking my daily coffee since it's making my throat worse. I switched instead to drinking twinning's apple & cinnamon tea and it's doing wonders. 

Sauce for today? Espagnole.