Today At Leiths

Today at Leiths we had had dem in the morning by Heli. This was about stocks and soups. We learned of the importance of making a good stock, and how I has a knock on effect on the rest of the food you use it in. We were taught the differences between a white stock and a brown stock, a white stock being a lighter stock with not too much flavour and is perfect for soups. A brown stock it when you caramalise everything first, and has a very punchy powerful flavour which would greatly complement a braised meat. Heli sent around a shop bought stock of both, and then one she had made earlier, both of the shop bought ones tasted salty yet lacking in the flavour of the meats, whereas in hears you got a really powerful taste, which was lovely. Heli also made 3 soups, the first one was a vichyssoise soup (leek and potato) which was just amazing, I have never tasted a leek and potato soup so good! The reason for this was the sweetness she brought out of the onions and leeks, she did this by sweating them very gently and using a cartouche, very delicious! Then there was the Pea and Ham soup, for this she used a pressure cooker for the yellow split peas and ham hock, which took 45 mins, she then puréed the pleads and shredded the ham into the soup which was also delicious! The final soup she made was soup au pistou which was basically an old Mediterranean peasant broth with lots of veg, beans and pasta in, with a pesto top! This was also good, but you are limited with flavour with a broth!
This afternoon we made egg mayonnaise. We made the mayonnaise by hand (1 yolk to (150ml light oil) which took a little while, we then seasoned it with lemon, white wine vinegar, English mustard powder, white pepper and salt, I thought it tasted good, but I have made mayonnaise many times before, just not by hand! We then got some boiled eggs we had made earlier and napped them with the mayonnaise and dusted some paprika and parsley dust over the top! I have to say I did slightly struggle with this nappeing thing! Not as easy as it looks, then my parsley dust kept blowing away, which was interesting, so Lara on my table kindly gave me some of hers! After this we got on to making omlettes . First we had to prove our pan by putting in a handful of salt and a glug of oil and heat until smoking. We then created our egg mixture by mixing together 2 eggs, seasoning with salt and white pepper then mixing in a tablespoon of water which lightens the mixture! Then we cleaned out our pans put in a thumbnail size of butter and slowly heated, then added the egg and slowly cooked - moving the mixture in from the sides - until the omlette was baveuse and it was pale and fluffy, with the texture being tender, then we were supposed to fold it into thirds but I didn't realize this and just folded it in half, Michael said apart from that and slightly better presentation it was good so that is fantabadosie!
This evening I made a spinach gratin using the cartouche technique which tasted wonderful! Then I made another omlette but with six eggs and in a big pan! The pan was supposed to be non-stick, but it wasn't! Any way, in the end it was still an omlette which was pale and fluffy with a baveuse centre, it just took some hearty negotiating to get it onto the plate! But I managed it and it tasted good, so I think a good day in all! I will give myself a mental pat on the back!