Day 54: Whip It Up!

I woke up late today! How did I not hear the alarm go off? Up until today, I've heard it go off every morning, sometimes even hearing it twice or more because hit the snooze button.

When I get to school, everyone is already in the kitchen. I find out that today, we are to make mushroom soup and a chocolate mousse dessert. I've made both these dishes in our first three weeks in kitchen. Seems like a long time ago and now I'm charged with finding out if I can remember how it's all done. We get to look at our recipe bible (personal recipe books), so it's not as bad as it sounds.

Making mushroom soup isn't very hard at all. My mise en place for this dish is minced onions, thyme, minced garlic, and sliced mushrooms. I get my soup pot and put some oil in it and get it hot. The onions go in and I season with salt and pepper, then add in the minced garlic. After I deglaze the pan with white wine, I saute the mushrooms and add water ~ just enough to cover them and then some. I leave the pot to simmer and clean my work area. When the mushrooms have cooked out developing it's flavour in the soup, I put the immersion blender through it to make it smooth. The pot is back to the stove over medium heat and I add cream. Once I've got the right texture and the soup is heated through, I test it to make sure that it's seasoned properly, adding a pinch or two of salt and pepper.

I'm ready to plate and have a few garnishes to top the soup off. I've cut some chives on an angle, red pepper that has been small diced and cut on an angle and slices of mushroom that have been cut on the round of the mushroom top.

After Chef has tasted and critiqued my soup, I take a little break and relax a bit before we start on our next dish ~ a chocolate mousse dessert.

It's time to whip it up! To make the chocolate mousse dessert, I need to make a sponge cake (aka. Genoise cake). This requires a good arm using a wire whip. If I should make it a career, I will look like a tennis player. My whip arm will look larger than my other arm.

First off I get my mise en place for the chocolate mousse and sponge cake. I want to make sure I have everything and that I don't forget anything. The last two weeks in the kitchen, every dish that we make will be marked by Chef.

To make the sponge cake, I need whip sugar and eggs until they are light in colour and airy in texture. When I've done this, I can stir in sifted flour alternating with melted butter and vanilla. It's important to not over stir the batter. The sponge cake needs air ~ the air that was created from whipping it until light in colour and airy in texture. My cake pan is lined with parchment paper and rim buttered. The batter is poured in and put into the oven. I take it out when it's perfectly baked and cool it on the baking rack after I've removed it from the pan and peeled the parchment off the bottom of the cake.

My arm is now ready to take on some egg whites. It's important when whipping egg whites that your bowl is dry and that no water gets into the egg whites. If this happens, your egg whites will not become stiff. I've done it properly and my egg whites are stiff.

Next I need to whip together cream and sugar. The two get whipped until it resembles whip cream.

With my chocolate and butter that has melted over a bain marie (hot water bath), I mix it into my egg whites, and then mix in the whip cream. Once it's all incorporated, I pour it into a pipping bag and put it in the refrigerator.

I'm ready to start building my chocolate mousse dessert. I slice off about a quarter inch from the bottom of the sponge cake. I get my ring mold and cut a round. I get a strip of acetate and dip it in chocolate on one side and carefully (as best I can) insert it into the ring mold, chocolate side on the inside. I set this in the refrigerator for the chocolate to harden and while waiting, I clean my work area.

The chocolate has set and I pipe in the chocolate mousse, cover and label, and it's back into the refrigerator for tomorrow to finish off plating.

Chef wants us to take our left over chocolate mousse and sponge cake home tonight. I have no problem with that. I like this and when I get home, I make a dessert for my neighbour. Here's what I came up with. I hope they enjoyed it.