This week I started my new set of Labs for the P4 program that I am currently enrolled it. I am taking a plated dessert class and the first day was very intense and all of information at once. Also we began production right away. We were partnered up and we told to discuss a fruit soup that we would have to make that day for production on the following day. My partner and I decided on using pineapple to make our soup. Like all soups we had to start with a stock so we first roasted all the skin of the pineapple, the core and some of the meat with brown sugar in the oven. After the pineapple was nice and golden brown we placed it in a pot and deglazed the pan with some banana liquor. We then add water and placed the pot on the stove until the fruit was tender. To help increase the flavor we let the stock base sit overnight in the fridge. The next day we reduced the pineapple liquid. And placed all the liquid and meat of the pineapple in a vitaprep to get out as much flavor as possible. And we served out soup hot because the flavor was more intense. Also we made fried coconut pasrty cream. The pastry cream has a higher cornstarch content so that it will be able to be fried. Also with frying the pastry cream the cornstarch flavor goes away.
On Friday the theme for my plated dessert class was Mexico. My chef said he was expecting earthy flavors and alot of spice. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a dessert so like any good pastry chef I started to look all over the internet to try and get inspired. I kept looking at the list of ingredients we had to work with and kept hopping from one site to another. And thinking of what my chef has wanted something earthy and smoky. I know that chocolate and chipotle are an amazing combination because I made ice cream in one of my other classes and I wanted to try and work that idea into my dessert. That is where the cake idea developed from. Now I had to think of the ice for our dish. One group was doing smoked ice cream and i really wanted to do something smoked so my brain started turing when I looked at the list of fruit we would be able to work with and poof! Grilled Banana Ice cream was created. I am very proud of this dish because I put alot of thought into it and like out chef said am trying to challenge myself. I have never smoked anything so I figured this was the best opportunity to try it out. We ended up grilling the bananas over the stove but it still added a nice smoky flavor to the ice cream. Along with those components we made a fresh fruit salsa which we incorperated dehydrated strawberries, this makes the person eating the salsa have to chew it longer allowing the person to taste the food more. Our chef really loved our dish. I was excited and it made my day!
