VIP WORKSHOP WITH ADRIANO ZUMBO

For Anonymous who asked for macaron tips

TIPS
Use eggs that are at room temperature. Add 2-3 drops of lemon juice to help stabilize the meringue. When adding the sugar, add it in small portions. Do not add it all in together. When beating the eggs, beat it until stiff peaks form. This mean when you hold your beater upside down, the peak should remain upstanding and stiff. When mixing the meringue and almond meal together use a spatula. When mixing it, fold it gently this way the air bubbles within the meringue wont break up. After piping it, leave it out so the skin can form (20 minutes for french meringue macarons) (30 minutes for Italian meringue macarons). When it finished cooking, leave it to cool on the kitchen bench so it can stabilize. Then peel them off the baking paper.

Yesterday I made chocolate souffle. I was really nervous about it because I know it is really difficult to make. But when i look at the recipe, it doesn't look so hard. And it actually isn't! Didn't take much photos because I didn't have much time to. I was so mesmerized when it was in the oven. I spend the entire 12 minutes beside the oven watching it slowly rise up. I wanted to record it and put it on fast forward but my phone is really bad. Anyways, here is the pic of my chocolate souffle. It was really bitter because i used 70% cocoa dark chocolate and there wasn't much sugar. I know i haven't been cooking/blogging lately. To make up for this, i will be cooking much more since it is the holidays!

Yesterday i was at kelvin's house for strike. So i decided to cook stuff for the boys. 7 AM waking up in the morning. Gotta go to Cabra to buy some ingredients. Went to the butcher shop to buy 5 pieces of chicken breast. Went to seafood shop to buy 9 pieces of sea scallops. Then went to woolies to buy all the other ingredients like spinach, thyme, almond meal, white balsamic vinegar, etc. Then met up with Harley to go to the station. Was going to take the 9:08 train but we missed it. Next train came at 9:30. Was abit early so i decided to call Kelvin. I asked him if he had eggs and he said he didn't have any. WTF NO EGGS IN A HOUSEHOLD? WTF IS THIS? So we went back to woolies to buy some eggs. Went back to station and found out we missed that 9:30 train. Sigh. Eventually we ended up getting to lidcombe station where we god a lift from Kelvins mum. she dropped us off at the house and she went to work. When i got in i started to prepare the ingredients. Took about 2 hours to finish making the dish because the others were playing games. Lazy shits. Hahaha oh wells, more experience for me. Heres what it looked like after plating up.

Chicken roulade with spinache, dried tomatoes and pancetta with pan roasted sea scallop in a capsicum-thyme sauce



After making the dish i got started on the macarons. This time the guys helped to make it. Had heaps of fun making it but Jandy had to go home. We made 30+ small macarons and a GIANT macaron. The small ones weighed 14-15g's and the large one weighed 228g. Here are some photos.

A while ago, my aunty bought this tarte aux fruits de la passion from 'Adriano Zumbo's' Store. It is basically like a passion fruit tart just with a fancy french name. I tasted it and it was F***ing delicious. So i tried to make a tart that was like it. I made the 'pate sucree' which was basically the pastry. It has a crumbly texture that is kind of like a biscuit. I had to blind bake the pastry in the tins for 20 minutes then add the passion fruit filling. After all that was done, i made some passion fruit jelly to put over the filling. I was wondering how to make the fade effect like how Adriano Zumbo does but i'm not sure. I was kind of surprised with the outcome of it. The pastry was nice and crumbly and the filling tasted almost similar to that of Adriano Zumbo's. Next time when i try to make this again, i want to try to make the cool fade effect. Compare Adriano's to mine.
Adriano Zumbo's tarte aux fruits de la passion

Yoooo! Raymond here. This blog isn't gonna be like any other blog. It is going to be about FOOD! Well because when i grow up, i want to be pastry chef. And when i have a dream, i try my best to make it come true! So yeah if u dont have anything good to say. Then kindly leave please. But for those of you who do actually enjoy my blog. Thank you (: Oh and dont forget to comment

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