Carried Away on the Beak of a Swan

How a Baker Proposes Marriage-

Today, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a special treat for you. Today, you get an in-depth look into how I proposed to my girlfriend, Bailey Libby. So as always, let's start with our Mise En Place:

For this you are gonna need the following...






A happy couple...

(A photo from a couple years ago, I guess happy is relative.)










...and a ring!









Now obviously, this part is all very easy. Ring + Happy Couple = Proposal/Engagement. In my world, though, things are never so easy. I almost find it a game to get my lovely girlfriend, now fiancee, to cry with happiness, and in front of as many people as possible. So I decided to add another factor: her mother's annual New Year's Eve 3-course dinner. This was easy enough, a simple "would you mind if I made a platter for dessert?" is all it took. Who would pass up dessert from a Baking and Pastry graduate from the CIA? Now the gears were in motion. The next step it to make a WOW Piece.

~~~

The Wow Piece

For this you are gonna need the following:






A heat table and light
Scissors
Pulled, colored, cooked sugar
A silpat











A sterno














A sugar blowing pump













A cold air blower













and a demo from a chef who knows what they're doing. Thanks to Chef Cavotti for her help on this part of my project.










Now there's really no action shots, because I only had two hands, and that was still one less than I would have liked for this project, but the process is basically as follows:

1. Put ball of hot sugar on pipe.
2. Blow in a little air.
3. From the top of the orb, pull a neck and head.
4. Inflate the body and shape how you would like it.
5. Remove pipe from the ass of the swan.
6. Turn the hole in the backside of the swan into a tail.
7. Make a beak. Put that on.
8. Make wings. Put those on.

Here are a couple I did:
































Now, you can only imagine from this picture what I might be up to at this point. Diamond engagement ring, beak of a swan, etc. etc. etc....

Now there's are two steps I forgot to mention and they are as follows:

9. Pack insanely carefully.
10. Pray.

Here's why:

-If it's too moist, they'll sag and be worthless.
-If it's bumped, they'll break.
-If you go over a pot hole, they'll break.
-If you look at them too long, they'll freakin' break.








And I have to carry this 200 miles in a car with my girlfriend for 4 hours and have it get there in one piece without letting her know what's inside?

God, help me.







~~~

The Actual Edibles:

For the actual dessert, I kept with the swans and decided to make Pâté à Choux Swans filled with Diplomat Cream.

First, the choux.

For this you are gonna need the following:





Milk - 4 oz.
Water - 4 oz.
Salt - small pinch
Butter, cut in pieces - 4 oz.
Bread flour - 4 oz.
Eggs - 8 oz





Boil the milk, water, salt, and butter. Once it's boiling, add the flour and cook until it forms into a mass and leaves a film on the bottom of the pan. Transfer it into a mixer and add the eggs gradually, making sure it's completely incorporated it each time. Keep adding eggs until the consistency of it makes it slowly slide down the paddle.





Prepare two piping bags and a set of sheet pans.













For the bodies, pipe straight down, then pull it back releasing as you go to bring to a point.












For the neck/heads, start at the bottom of the neck, then make an "S", and then, like the bodies, make a small circle and draw it out.











Then bake at 375-400 F until a dark golden brown and all parts of the shell are dry. The heads will take far less time than the bodies.









Next, the pastry cream.

For this you are gonna need the following:




A Sauce Pot With...

Milk - 15 oz
Butter - 1.5 oz
Sugar - 2 oz
Salt - 1 pinch
Vanilla Bean - 1 ea, scraped








And a bowl with...

Eggs - 3 ea.
Milk - 1 oz
Sugar - 2 oz
Corn Starch - 1.5 oz






In the bowl, mix the sugar and the con starch together, whisk to combine. Add the eggs, whisk again. Then finally, add the milk, and whisk one last time.

In the sauce pot, bring all ingredients to a boil.

Once boiled, slowly stream the hot liquid from the pot into the bowl to temper, whisking quickly and continuously. Once at least half has been poured into the blow, pour all of it back into the pot and bring to a boil, whisking continuously. Cook over low-medium heat until the starchy taste has been cooked out. Then pour onto a sheet pan wrapped in plastic wrap, and place plastic wrap on top, pushing out all air pockets. It should look like this:
















Now the last steps are as follows:

1. Cut the bodies of the swans, first horizontally, then taking the top half, cut vertically.
2. Whip heavy cream.
3. Combine equal amounts of the whipped cream and the pastry cream. This is diplomat cream.
4. Pipe cream into the bodies of the swans.
5. Apply wings and heads/necks where anatomically appropriate.
6. Dust with powder sugar and serve.

Here area couple of pictures to help you understand:
































Now, we have our edible piece done, we have our WOW piece down, and we have the entire project's Mise En Place set up. Now onto the execution.

~~~

Kneel and Deliver:

1. Assemble a platter with the sugar swan in the middle and the choux swans surrounding it.
2. Place the ring on the beak of the sugar swan.
3. Present to the soon to be engaged girlfriend.
4. ...if I have to tell you the rest, well, then it wouldn't be your engagement, it'd be mine.




Eat Up and Enjoy,
~Chef Küthi and Sous Chef Bailey

Cooking Up A College Final Paper

10 Page Term Paper -

For this you are going to need the following:



















Your notes
Your most recent draft
A red pen
Your laptop
A folder




















Snacks
Water
Pictures of loved one to not go insane
An alarm clock



Your setup may look a little something like this:




















~~~

The Process:

Start by opening your notes and your book and spend several hours putting fingers to keys until you've written enough to make you want to crawl out of your skin.

Then go for a walk.

Then come back, sit down, and do it again. Repeat as needed until you have the minimum amount of pages needed for the project.

Print out these pages, take your red pen, and apply ink to paper liberally.

Repeat the writing and inking stages liberally until you're happy.

Now that the paper is done, and two days have passed, remember that you haven't showered or cleaned your room... you might want to do that now.

~~~
The Final Product:

Now, I know I don't have any action shots of myself writing the paper, but I don't really think there's much action there to behold.

But I must start by giving you a little bit of background. What you may be thinking is: "Why the heck do I wanna read some college essay you wrote, this blog is about food, not some stuffy literary mumbo-jumbo!" And I agree with you, the idea seems a bit off, but I assure you, it's something you'll be interested in.

Our professor proposed to us that we are to read a book of our choice, and in reading it, focus on the culinary aspects of that book. You may not think that food plays much of a role in literature, but it really does. For my paper, I took the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and delved into ever scrap of food that it had to offer. What I found is that you can take each occurrence and relate it to Marx's ideas of "haves" and "have nots".

Here's a bite off my plate and you'll get a taste for what I have to offer:

"Up to this point, Alice has yet to encounter any being other than White Rabbit, and even then has no chance for true interaction with this character. What we have yet to see is how others deal with their own wealth and how they deal with Alice taking from them. In the following scene, Alice meets a mouse, and from this interaction, the mouse introduces her to a group of other animals. She spends some time with these animals, hearing their stories and enjoying their company. In explaining what a “caucus-race” is to Alice, the group has a race. After the race, they elect Alice to give out prizes. She shares with each of them a comfit (a British term for a candy coated nut or fruit) from a box she had in her dress. In this scene, Alice represents the Tous-Bourgeoisie and the large gathering of animals would be the Proletariat. This can easily be distinguished by the fact that Alice, again without effort or thought, can produce food, which I proposed is interpreted as wealth. The animals, on the other hand, had no food with them and readily await and accept the small offering she has for each of them. Now, the Proletariat hold a caucus-race and expect Alice, the government, to be ready and willing to supply them with a reward for their efforts. For those who may not know, a caucus race is the process by which a political party elects a candidate for a major political office. In the United States government, this could be seen in our primary elections and national conventions for presidency."

I know, this seems like some heavy stuff, but I suggest you tackle this meal when you have an empty stomach, open mind, and maybe 20 minutes to spare.

Here's a picture of the final product:



















(By clicking on this photo, you'll be directed to my paper, I encourage you to feast upon my dish.)


Eat Up and Enjoy,
~Chef Küthi