Fourth Menu: Chicken

For the fourth kitchen class which was the last class, our main item is chicken and as usual, cooking method was chosen with a choice of sauce, a few vegetable and a type of starch, aromatised with a few suitable herbs.

Our class was replaced by Chef Amir and he evaluated each of our dish.

My creation dish would be Chicken Stuffing With Spinach Risotto, Ratatouille Accompanied With Roasted Gravy.

My creation dish

Chef said that my food is lack of colour and it's not glowy and shiny enough which made my dish to look dull and no 'soul'. My sauce was too thick. However, he said that my presentation was quite okay and taste was there.

Creation dishes by my groupmates

In this kitchen class, I can see more different presentations from the rest and some of them are improving very well. I still think that I need to improve and be consistent in seasoning.

Third Menu: Lamb

For the third kitchen class, our menu were to cook lamb as the main course with a choice of sauce, a few suitable vegetables and a starch to go with it.

Therefore, my main course would be Roasted Lamb With Glazed Carrots, Celery, Zuchini and Mushroom, Served With Fruited Couscous Accompanied By Lamb Juice.

My creation

Chef said that my presentation was good. However, I still need to focus on the seasoning of the lamb. I needed to season more on the lamb as the taste was not that strong. The fruited couscous has to portioned loosely as it looked like rice cake instead of couscous. It should not be tightenly moulded as it did not look presentable.

These are the dishes prepared by my groupmates

From their dish, I was able to learn the matching of food with some sauces and vegetables that could go well with the lamb. I never knew that lamb went quite well with yogurt sauce until I tasted one of the dishes.

Next Post: Cooking of Chicken

Second Menu: Duck

For the second kitchen class, our menu were to cook duck and as usual with our own choices of vegetables, sauce and starch.

Therefore, for my dish would be Roasted Duck With braised Cabbage And Glazed Carrots Served With Pilaf Rice And Gastrique Sauce.

My food presentation

Portioning is still the one criteria that I have not mastered well, especially the pilaf rice. The duck breast was a little too dry as it was over-cooked. The carrot has not enough glazing and the sauce was not enough as well as they had been absorbed into the meat. From the food presentation, there was not enough colour which made the plate to look a little dull in colour. I was suggested to add chopped parsley into my pilaf rice for a better combination of colour.

End products by the other groupmates

He commented that none of us had the nicest colour for our cabbage. The way to maintain the colour of the cabbage is to cut them into julienne, saute with butter and white wine with a little bit of salt, cover with aluminium foil and cook in the oven.

Next Post: Cooking of Lamb

First Menu: Fish

For my first class, the main course that we were asked to prepare was fish. We were given a few methods of cooking which we thought we could make a better product; poaching, stuffing, pan-frying and braising.

In each cooking, we were required to choose a suitable sauce with 3 types of vegetable given and a starch which was potato, either turn, duchess or lyonnaise. Herbs and spices were given for a better aroma and to reduce the fish smell.

I had chosen Pan-Fried Fish With Glazed Carrots and Cherry Tomatoes With Turned Potatoes accompanied With Hollandaise Sauce.

This is my end product

Since it was first time, therefore the chef had commented a lot on my dish. For sure the portion needs trimming for a smaller and nicer portion. Fine dining food presentation is all about small portion for every item on the plate.

I need to concentrate on my cutting of carrot when comes to glazing it. It should be turned carrot and not julienne carrot. Same goes to my turned potatoes, whereby I have to glaze them more with butter.

The Hollandaise sauce was okay, he said. The savory taste was enough to go with the fish. However, I need to focus more on my seasoning for the fish.

These are some of the products prepared by my groupmates

From their own creation of dishes, they used different sauces (white wine sauce, mostly) and vegetables. I could see the different types of food presentation and this helps to increase my creativity.

Next Post: Cooking of Duck

Ice Breaker

This food blog is one of the requirements for Kitchen Portfolio for term 4 in my second-year degree. All food products will be posted and updated every now and then. My other members' food productions will also be shared here. Hope this will do a good help.