Olive Internship - Day 11

Today was short but insanely busy. As soon as I entered the kitchen, Chef Girish got Keya and I started on Macarons.
We had to make four batches. When we were testing the castor sugar and water syrup to make sure it was ready to whip into the egg whites, we brought it to a ‘Soft Boil’ state (where the bubbles that form are relatively small), and kept a glass of iced water ready.
I took a spoonful of the sugar syrup, and after placing it in the iced water tried to roll a ball with it. If it held, it was ready and vice versa.

We mixed each batch with different colours, and Chef Girish piped them onto a large silicon mat placed over a baking sheet.

Next, I had to make four different types of ganache. I had to chop two portions of white chocolate, one of milk, and one of dark chocolate.

I started with a Vanilla Bean Ganache using the white chocolate. All I had to do was boil cream with glucose and the vanilla beans, pour it over the white chocolate, stir it until all had melted, strain it to make sure it has a silky texture, wrap it, and place it in the fridge.

I then went on to make an Olive Oil Ganache. I first boiled cream with glucose, and poured it over the second portion of chopped white chocolate. Once I had stirred and strained it, I mixed in 30g olive oil, wrapped it and left it to cool. The process was slightly different in this one in comparison to the vanilla bean ganache.

Next, I made a Mocha Ganache. I first boiled cream and glucose, then in the pan I added a double shot of espresso and let that boil. After that I poured it over the milk chocolate, stirred it, strained it, wrapped it, and left it to cool.

Finally, I made the Dark Chocolate and Sesame Ganache. I boiled the cream and glucose together as per usual, and poured it over the dark chocolate. This one was similar to the Olive Oil ganache, as once I had strained the dark chocolate, I added 30g sesame oil and stirred some more. Then I wrapped it, and set it aside with the three other bowls of ganache.

I was all done with my work, and could go for lunch. Keya and I walked down to Monkey Bar again, and I had sticky pork ribs with BBQ sauce and ‘Devils Fries’ (fries tossed in chilli, galangal, herbs, etc) with a peach iced tea.

The Devils Fries were particularly good; they were not greasy at all, and were packed full of flavour especially from the galangal which is a type of ginger root. They were so crisp on the outside and so soft within; I was really, pleasantly, surprised!

After lunch I headed home.