Agnes b. Christmas Cooking Class - (Hong Kong)

 Thanks to fellow blogger Saii  夯天人 for a referral to join this Agnes b. cooking event,  where Agnes b’s residing French Chef Christophe will teach us some of his kitchen secrets.  We also get to play around with the food preparation and plating.  This was held at the kitchen facilities at Corner Kitchen in Sheung Wan this day.  Some of the dishes below are the Christmas special dishes that can be found on the December X’Mas menus in the Agnes b. restaurants soon.

Kitchen Set Up -
At Corner Kitchen







Agnes b.  Chef Christophe from Poitou,  France -
You can tell from the way he cooks liberally with butter,  where his heart lies…  No Olive oil was used on most cooking recipes.








Some of the ingredients today..

 

 

Paimpol Coco Beans (pre-soaked overnight) being Cooked in Water and Chicken Stock -
With a mirepoix base

 

Duck Foie Gras -
Cooked from Frozen deliberately,  fried Poele style.  Before they become pan-roasted in the  oven for about 8 minutes to finish off cooking.






Time to dress up the Salads, 
and make some Paimpol Coco Beans puree for dishing..

 

My Final Dished Plate of Pan Roasted Duck Foie Gras with Mango Salsa,  Edible Flowers, Coco Beans,  Grilled Butter Squash,  with some Black Truffle -
How did you like my presentation? 

 

 

The Cooking participants -  Blogger Saii suddenly noticed me Taking Snap Shots.
UFO 発見しましたか！  Saii’s blog can be found at She.com website at :
http://prochats.she.com/saii-lee/?ref=prochats.home   Please follow him there..

Mussels Juice being Cooked and turned into a Reduction Sauce -
The mussels and shells are not eaten due to the prolonged cooking of the mussels deliberately to extract the most mussel jus flavours.

 

Turbot Fish -
Chef explained how there are many fake flat fishes being passed off as Turbot these days,  but if you touch across the skin of a real French Turbot – you can feel their ‘nipply’ skins.  I volunteered to tried this out and can say it was indeed very true,  real turbot skin reminds me Lego.

Black Squid Ink pasta interlaced with Normal wheat pasta for Wrapping the Fish Parcel -
Boston Lobster tail meat and claw on Turbot fish,  with black truffle shavings!  Drizzling of Olive oil and seasoning. 

 

Duo Pastas wrapped Turbot Fish with Lobster and Black Truffle,  topped with Caviar & Chives -
Looks lovely !

Inside -

 

Preparing for Dessert – Blackberries, Blueberries, Red Currants, Raspberries and Strawberries

 

Frying up Some Spices such as Sichuan Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Star Anise
Before inserting into a muslin bag for infusing with the macerated berries..

 

 

Berries to be cooked with 2 types of Cassis Liqueurs -

Chef’s secret to Macerating the Berries -
White Balsamic Vinegar..

 

Low Heat is applied to speed up the Maceration process -
With a sprinkling of sugar.

 

Chocolate Cups ready for action -

Playing with Gold and Silver Dusting for decoration - 
Fun !

 

 

The inside of my Chocolate Dome -
With macerated berries, syrup, sponge and edible flower.

 

Finished Product with Decorations,  we all had our own way to do this !
The best one was obviously by the Chef himself..








Agnes b. Le Pain Grille restaurants will be serving their X’Mas dishes during December -
We discovered that a lot of dishes took a long time to prepare from scratch,  and our cooking session went over-time by more than 1 hour and ended up taking us around 3 hours plus to finish!   French Chef Christophe has expectation with his created dishes and once again,  thanks for a wonderful event and invitation….

 

 

 

Food:  ♕♕♕♕ 1/2  to ♕♕♕♕♕

Address 1: 銅鑼灣開平道1號Cubus 15樓
15/F, Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay
Ph: 2577 2718

Address 2: 中環港景街1號國際金融中心商場二期3樓
Shop 3093 & 3096-3097, La Loggia, Podium Level 3, IFC Mall, Central
Ph: 2805 0798

Address 3:  九龍塘達之路80號又一城UG層33號舖
Shop 33, UG, Festival Walk, 80 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong
Ph: 2265 7680