Fraise Sauvage

So its been a while since my last post! LIfe moves and changes so fast sometimes.

Right now, cause thats the only time there is right, is about being in India and consulting at a chocolate company called Bliss Chocolates.

What can i say about it!!! Its an amazing experience so far. I have been here 3 weeks and it does feel like longer, but not in a bad way, in a life is full and stimulating way. I do feel super happy to have been offered this job and that i decided to come. I really wasn’t sure, but with some gentle and not so gentle encouragement from my friends i decided to leap!

So here i am….

The company! Bliss Chocolates: the finest chocolates in India from what i understand so far! there isn’t much of a chocolate culture here yet and from what i gather people dont necessarily grasp the idea of paying for quality chocolates. Its certainly a niche market. I learned to today that we are really only catering to 5% of the population… which in fact is a shitload given the population of india.

The Vision of the company is to produce chocolates of the finest quality and standard and open gourmet chocolate lounges all over india. Cool. Glad to be a part of that!

The Staff: Beautiful Beautiful gorgeous souls. I really enjoy them all, they are receptive and open to the experience and learning new things and enhancing their skills. I hope i do them justice! I feel a lot of responsibility in doing well for them. So happy to have met them all.

The Chocolates: We are currently in the process of inventing a new range of chocolates that are innovative and delicious, focusing of course on flavour and design. This week I launched 4 new flavours at the 1st Birthday Party of one of the lounges. Salted Caramel, Masala Chai, Popping Candy and Vanilla MIlkshake. So far a great response. I even got to wear one of those stupid tall hats ha ha. photo to come! This week is about inventing chocolates that are inspired by Indian Desserts. First one Badam Milk which is this absolutely delicious drink made from almonds and spices. So good! Let’s see what the chocolate loving folk in India think hey!

What else…

India: Bangalore! apparently the Melbourne of India, not quite sure about that, but its quite a great place. People are very nice and friendly and the food is soooo ACE!!! i have eaten a lot of different things and I did get the old sick belly, so I have given myself 2 days off. I cant wait to try more things. My faves so far: Paani Puri (probably what made me sick), Masala Dosa, Paneer Butter Masala, Paratha, Badam Milk, Jalebi, Chai of course, so many things.

Meditation: ahhhh the land of magic and spirituality…. most people i have met are very spiritual regardless of what religion that falls under, people have faith, acceptance and live love… I am enjoying that.

Patience: The lesson! Dont forget to breathe and things take a long time here. Patience and Acceptance are key! and when I am in doubt ill read this to remind myself!

So anyway until next time…. to be continued for sure!

I had the loveliest time this weekend. I drove from Melbourne on Saturday to Whitfield in the King Valley Victoria to teach a chocolates and dessert class at the Pizzini WInery. Not only do the Pizzini family make superb wines, they are incredibly friendly, hard working, inspiring and just lovely! I was happy to spend the day there. Actually I didnt want to leave. Fred is Italian and has red hair just like me, well strawberry blonde…

Katrina runs the cooking school and I was invited to present a chocolate and dessert class there, showcasing Kennedy & Wilson Chocolates. This was our second attempt, as the first one was flooded out. That was an experience in itself. I have never been in a flood before, lucky for me. It was definitely scary and although it was scary it was pretty incredible to see it. I really feel for the people who were affected. Here are some photos.

So for the class, we were focusing on playing with chocolate of course. The idea was to learn as many techniques with chocolate as we could in 4 hours, that were simple and could be easily replicated at home.

We made, Salted Caramel Truffles, Tempered chocolate, made a Chocolate Mousse with a flourless chocolate cake and made some cute chocolate garnishes to finish off our plated dessert. Here are a few snapshots of the class…

Thanks to everyone who came a long and made the day lovely. How nice to spend a Sunday afternoon playing with chocolate…

I forgot to publish this post…oops

Could it be anymore appropriate to find the Salon Du Chocolat in Paris the city of love! I mean what a way to end the trip. At this years Salon du Chocolat Professionel they hosted the World Chocolate Masters. I spent at least 8 hours a day watching, looking, learning from these guys and gals who had worked there ass off for the past year or more to prepare for this competition.

I imagine there can’t be a better title to recieve in the chocolate world besides THE WORLD CHOCOLATE MASTER, it is world renowned and a total honour to be rewarded for years of hard work, training and serious skill!

The next Salon Du Chocolat Professionel and The World Chocolate Masters is in 2011 and I hopefully am going!!! If you want more information: www.worldchocolatemasters.com

Autumn is here and its so nice seeing the colours of the leaves changing. How amazing is that! I live in the Yarra Valley and its so pretty!!! Ahh!!!

So why am i writing. I have been feeling a little low lately and its not so fun. BUT seriously how good is cooking to sort you right out!!! I have been cooking my little heart out. I live in this cute little house that has a lot of fruit trees and I have been growing my own vegetables. Nothing like getting your hands dirty. I have a lush crop of coriander, leeks, rhubarb, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, beetroot, broadbeans, basil, parsley, chervil, sorrel, purple sage, lemon thyme, thyme, rosemary, ruby chard, swiss chard, pumpkin, potatoes, asian greens, rocket, cos lettuce, mignonette, and I think maybe that’s it. Wow I didn’t realise there was so much. Its so comforting walking out your door, picking your food for dinner. I haven’t needed to buy veg from the supermarket for ages. YES!!! I think I have actually saved money… NICE!

There is the happiest Cumquat tree and it has an abundance of fruit. I am one not to waste food, so I have been trying to work out what can be done with them. You can eat them raw but be prepared for the tartness. I can handle it for a bit but then ooh its too much. Em my partner and I have been on a Cumquat mission. So far we have preserved them, pickled them, brandied them, made marmalade and given them away. The marmalade is delicous. I used a recipe from Stephanie Alexanders Cooks Companion. If you are like me and have an abundance of Cumquats here is the recipe.

Cumquat Marmalade

2kg cumquats

White Sugar

Remove stems and slice cumquats, taking out pips and keeping them. Put the pips all together and tie in muslin cloth or a hankie (clean one). Put fruit into a bowl and just cover in cold water and leave overnight.

The following day, measure the fruit and soaking water into cups, remember how many cups. Cook the fruit in the soaking water until soft and add 1 cup of sugar for every cup of fruit and liquid measured earlier. Boil briskly until the marmalade reached setting point. (you can check this by putting a plate in the freezer and getting it really cold, place a bit of the marmalade on plate, let cool. Run finger through the middle and if it stays apart it is ready, if it joins back together it needs a bit more cooking). Allow to cool and a skin starts to form on top. Stir gently to distrubute fruit. Remove pips and bottle in hot sterilised jars, put lids on whilst hot.

Its a really simple recipe but really yum. I think next time I am planning on making cumquat and rhubarb marmalade/jam. I think they would work very nicely together with a bit of vanilla. mmm…

My next food challenge is to work out what to do with all the grapefruits I have inherited from moving in to this house. Its a bit of a shame that I don’t really like grapefruit. However, I am thinking of grapefruit cordial. I think I would even like that.

Ok so its that time again, well just about! I have just finished producing this years Easter Eggs. Em and I worked 30 hours in two days, getting them made, wrapped and packed ready to go. So this year we made 800!!! This is great. I am really happy to return home from overseas and have such a successful Easter. I hope everyone loves them and the plan next year is to make them from chocolate I have conched myself!

I currently use an Organic and Fair trade chocolate from Raphunzel. Unfortunately there is not much variety available here in Australia in the way of bulk organic chocolate, so Raphunzel is the winner, because its the only one. Its a really good product luckily. I blend the different couvertures to achieve the flavour i want. The milk is around 50% and the dark 63%. I really wanted the milk to be on the darker side.. I am not a fan of overly sweet chocolate. But have been known to much out on white very occassionaly.

You can buy Fraise Sauvage Easter products from:

The Green Grocer -  St Georges Rd, North Fitzroy

Plump Organics - Yarraville

Organic Wholefoods - Smith St Collingwood and Lygon St, East Brunswick

Organics by La Mana Fresh - Sydney Rd, Brunswick

The Radical Grocery Store - Sydney Rd Brunswick (VEGAN)

The Vegetable Connection - Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Eastfields - Croydon

Health Food Thyme - Croydon North

Also from the Green Grocer you can buy chocolate bars exclusively made for them by Fraise Sauvage:

Flavours are:

White Chocolate with toasted sesame and murray river sea salt

Coffee infused Milk Chocolate

Dark Chocolate with crystalised lemon and ginger.

I have to have a bit of a shout out to all my helpers who totally saved my ass this year with production: Simone, Tiff, my Mum and of course my darling Em! And not to mention team Kennedy & Wilson Chocolates!!!

I hope the chocolates go down a treat for chocolate holiday!

'My Obsession' by Oriol Balaguer

The best temperatre to get the full flavour and depth of chocolate is at around 22 degrees celcius. Try it!

Deb from Sir Hans Sloane's Autumn Leaves

“sorry I am a little tardy” is how my new friend Emily told me i should start this post, so I have decided to take her advice and CATCH UP!

The past few months has been spent in the land of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Not such a bad life it think. This is what has been going on.

April 09,

Landed in Barcelona on a cold and rainy day rugged up an ready for a chocolate adventure with chocolatier Oriol Balaguer. Waited two months for my Maltese passport to be ready to give me the all clear to start working. Being over 30 and an Australian citizen just wasnt enough to get me in the door, I needed to wait patiently for my key to working in Europe!

In the meantime I traveled, prepared, ate a lot of chocolates some really good and some well not so good, and I took a lot of photos.

Barcelona, was all about La Mona De Pascua, at this time. The chocolatiers of Barcelona and Catalunya’s most profitable and creative time of year!

Then to Malta to meet my long lost family and taste possibly the best strawberries I have ever had the pleasure of eating! Mgarr strawberries, one of the many reasons to visit Malta.

Next to England, to Brighton via London to see my friends and sample some English chocs. Hmmm… (on my next trip to London in September, my opinion of British chocs changed from hmmm…. to mmmmm)

May 09

Back to Barca for a night and then to Belgium, the land of chocolate, beer and fries and a hell of a lot more! Brugges, the Venice of the North has around about 45 chocolate shops for a population of close to 11000 thats like 1 chocolate shop for every 244 people. Such a pretty place full of tourists and average chocolate! There was a stand out chocolate place called The chocolate Line. Here you can actually snort chocolate! I had the pleasure of trying it and it was definately an experience. Funny, tasty, strange etc. It was designed for the Rolling Stones as a bit of a joke and when The Stones mentioned it in an article in a famous magazine, The chocolate line got quite a lot of requests, so they had invented a winner! At The Chocolate Line I tried one of my favourite chocolates of this trip. Fried Onion! Sounds weirdo but the sweetness of the fried onion against the chocolate was a serious flavour sensation! Milk chocolate coating, delicious!

A quick side trip to Luxembourg to again visit my friends via Brussels and Pierre Marcolini! These chocolates were great!. Super small but so tasty and balanced and thought about! I took them as a gift to my friends and we ate them together, cutting each one in to three as not to miss a flavour. I love good friends who love eating chocolate as much as me!

June 09

Start my training at Oriol Balaguer. Headaches for 3 weeks as I try my hardest to understand what instructions my new work buddies were giving me. But in love with my new moulding technique and sampling the fresh out of the mould bombones… Does it get much better than, making and then eating a chocolate at the perfect eating temperature? (p.s 22 degrees celcius). My first day in chocolate and I got to help build a chocolate sculpture for a 12 year old girls birthday. ACE!

July 09

More chocolate and more chocolate and more chocolate and yes I can speak and understand some Spanish! I was starting to really love my training after the initial language barrier and general new person in the kitchen working for free stuff started to wear off. Time to really absorb all the new discoveries.

Aug 09

My last month training at Oriols, in pastry, for the quietest period I have ever spent in a kitchen for 14 years. My work colleagues and I decided to spend our days teaching each other things we didn’t know and invent new cakes after we finished the little work we had. I was happy to hear that September picked up for them and they are now too busy!

Sept 09

London calling and a stage with Damian Allsop Chocolates. Damian makes water based ganaches once you taste them you will never look a another chocolate in the same way. Seriously the best training I have ever had the pleasure of receiving! A pastry and chocolate genius! What I learnt there has changed me as a pastry chef forever. A team of three, who all deserve a mention. Damain, Anna and Christian make, what I think are the best chocs from what I have tasted in England.

Then for 3 days at Sir Hans Sloane Chocolates in Surrey by Bill McCarrick. A chocolate company who conches their own chocolate. (a refining process in the production of chocolate).

Oct 09

Well thats now and my next stop is Paris and the Salon du Chocolat Professionel and the World Chocolate Masters. Then Australia (straya to some) to put to use all I have learned and PASS IT ON!

I just discovered this food blog that I really like. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon it, but however it happened I am glad that I did. It’s an inspiring account of life as a pastry chef/chef, that is really to the point, honest and at times really raw.

It has given me an opportunity to think about how my blog could be better, more interesting, informative and interactive. (didn’t intentionally choose all words starting with I) My blog needs work! Now!

Any Ideas?

p.s this is the food blog I really like a lot! http://eggbeater.typepad.com/

© terri mercieca 2009

I have been training at Oriol Balaguer’s for two months now. The last couple of weeks I had the opportunity to design and make my own La Mona de Pascua (Easter Egg). This was the best. I have to admit it was a lot harder than it look and the design I had in my mind was not exactly how it came out in the end. I think it came out better than the original design, so I am happy about that.

So here are some photos of how it came together:

The beginning - in bits

When you have the design in your mind you need to work out the pieces and what you will need to make it a reality. Its good to make a list so you can be sure you have it all, it wouldn’t be fun to get to the crucial stage of assembly and be missing something. Also this part is really important to have everything made well. the correct thickness, the colour you want, the sizes, for cutting pieces a good pattern.  When you have all the pieces, then its time to assemble:

assembly of the egg

For the next bit when you have it all together you need to paint. This makes it look amazing.  Be careful at this stage because if there are any marks on the egg, they will come out when painted and be very obvious. Make sure to remove them.

Before painting

So this is what it looked like in the end. I am happy with it for my first piece. I am looking forward to the next one.

The finished piece - called 'escapando'

On my way to Barcelona, I stopped over in Singapore. I wanted to see my friend, eat at the amazing hawker centres and check out the chocolate scene. I wasn’t sure how much of a scene there would be in Singapore due to the intense humidity and heat. I was happy to see the heat wasn’t getting in the way of people producing some very fine chocolates.

I had arranged to visit a chocolaterie/patisserie called Canelé which is run by Executive Pastry Chef Pang Kok Keong. I spent 2 hours there being shown around the kitchen and production facility by the Sous Chef Raymond Yew. He was so informative and really open with his knowledge and expertise. What I really liked was the attention to detail of each stage of production for each particular item. Thus, ensuring the consistency of each product made and it was evident in the display cabinet. It made it hard to choose what delicious treat you would indulge on for the day. I am glad I do not live close.

Easter is not a big tradition in Singapore. This doesn’t stop the team at Canelé from producing some very innovative, fun and stylish eggs. The range consists of a very cute rabbit, an egg with a cracked egg on top, an egg with coloured icing buttons and more. See below:

The chocolate selection was extensive, offering some very interesting flavours. Example Tomato!!! I tried it and it was interesting, not my favourite chocolate ever but still good. My favourite chocolate of Canelé’s was the passionfruit. The texture, the flavour, the look, Yum!. Also the black sesame was delicious. All the chocolates are little squares but can be distinguished by the markings on the top. Check them out below:

So I feel very appreciative of Pang and his crew for inviting me to spend time with them and see how good they are at making fine chocolates and pastries. Next stop was Laurent Cafe and Chocolate Bar. Just across from Canelé is another chocolate establishment. It is very different to the style of Canelé, and the chocolate form this shop were fantastic. I was very lucky that I saved them for when I was hiding out in my room in the hostel on my first night in Barcelona. I mean there is nothing like a secret chocolate stash! The yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) one was the best. The texture of these chocolates were sensational, melt in the mouth make you satisfied with one piece. I highly recommend going there.

Also their Easter Range was delightful to see too. Very beautifully designed and displayed. I love that Easter is a time when chocolatiers around the world bring out their best and try to create unique and artistic eggs.

Later that day I am off to see The Chocolate Research Facility. This is a new concept of chocolate. This company uses Belgium chocolate to create their own tastes and boasts a range of 100 different flavoured chocolate bars each with its own individual package design. I tried the black sesame, which to my surprise when I opened it was a white chocolate bar with a black sesame filling. I wasn’t disappointed at all and neither were my new found friends at the hostel. The other was macadamia and you just really can’t go too far wrong with macadamias. I liked the concept, however i can’t quite help feeling it was a bit cold. Not as much atmosphere as I would have liked. I think this place has a lot going for it and I may have been put off by the workman drilling away and building things around me. I am open for another try, maybe on the way home for another stopover…